“O noblissima viriditas”
(O very noble greenery)
February marks an important month in several estoteric traditions. Among Christians it represents the presentation of Jesus to the Temple, forty days after his birth, and marks the official end of the Christmas Season in the liturgical year. Christ as the “light of the world” is brought forth in fulfillment in obligations of Mosaic Law. This holy day is also known as the Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, wherein a lamb or dove – important Christian and later alchemical symbols – are offered at the Temple as part of the purification ritual offerings.
In ancient Rome this same time of year would also be associated with ritual purification in preparation for the coming of Spring. Statues would be cleaned, offerings made, and here the rituals of purification would be performed to ensure health, good crops, and fertility. The god who oversaw the rite was Februus (purification or purging), from which we get the name of the month of February.
In Celtic lands Imbolc, celebrated on the 1st day of February is the feast day of Brigid or Brigit, the Celtic goddess of health, fertility, poetry, prophecy, learning, hearth fire and smithcraft. Brigid features in many Irish myths and legends. She was said to have been a daughter of The Daghda, the wife of Bres, the mother of Ruadan and stories often tell of her having two sisters.
Brigid means exalted, high, or bright and with this fiery power is the goddess of learning, fertility, and the forge – all which require some form of ‘light’ or ‘fire’. Of course she shares many aspects with the “Marian” myths and the “Black Virgin” in France, and the Egyptian goddesses Cybele and Isis, in which the two are united. Importantly for us, we also see this expressed over the West Portal of Notre Dame where Cybele Philosophy or Alchemy is presented with the open and closed books, and the ladder of initiation.
There is a similarity between many of these images, including the Virgin of Candelaria who sits with a child in her right hand and is holding a (green) candle in her left. Many of these images of the Black Virgin show her seated on the”Wisdom Seat” (Sophia) – a small backless chair of Roman origin – and looking straight ahead. This is identical to the famous statue of Isis holding the infant Horus. On many of these Black Virgins her robes were originally the colors of the Great Work: White, Red, and Blue (Black). Claims have been made stating that one or more of these statues to have been crafted by Luke the Evangelist.. Luke is the patron saint of physicians, glassmakes, as well as artists as he is attributed with painting the first icon of Mary. His name also means – light or light bringer and his symbol is the winged bull the protective guardian of and life giving force of nature and spring – the month of April in particular. These statues attributed to Luke are said to have originated in the Near East. – often from centers of initiation and also have particular rituals associated with them.
The greening of nature that occurs in springtime has a critical role in alchemy and natural magic, and Christian mysticism at a time when these were inseparable during the High Middle Ages. We find this expressed by Hildegard von Bingen in the term “Viriditas”. Viriditas is the creative power of life, or ‘God’s greening power.” which “gives life to all things and inspires and revives our spiritual lives.” Her poem called Viriditas proclaims:
I am the one whose praise echoes on high.
I adorn all the earth.
I am the breeze that nurtures all things green.
I encourage blossoms to flourish with ripening fruits.
I am led by the spirit to feed the purest streams.
I am the rain coming from the dew that causes the grasses to laugh with the joy of life.
I call forth tears. I am the yearning for good.
Good people, Most royal greening verdancy, Rooted in the sun,
You shine with radiant light, in this circle of earthly existence.
You shine so finely, it surpasses understanding.
God hugs you. You are encircled by the arms of the mystery of God.
Amen.
Hildegard stated that God was the source of viriditas and that we all have it within us.
“There is a power that has been since all eternity, and that force and potentiality is green!” she wrote on a wax plate in German and only later was it translated into Latin. Hildegard names this greening force “das Grün,” the greening. The greening is a metaphor for Spring but includes all of life, in all forms and expressions, “Be it greenness or seed, blossom or beauty – it could not be creation without it.”
For Hildegard, “The earth is at the same time mother…She is mother of all that is natural, mother of all that is human. She is the mother of all, for contained in her are the seeds of all.” This is an expression of the Marian theology in which Mary is Queen of Heaven, and Queen of Earth, but also as Adam is the pure earth of the first being, so is Mary the pure earth of Christ. The pure earth has profound Saturnian concepts here, and in it we also see the Secret Fire of the alchemists as mentioned by Fulcanelli, and even Jean Dubuis. Remember, ‘the secret is in the salt’ and it is with the Salt that we capture the ‘dew’ of the Philosopher’s during the Spring, and from the purity of the Salts after calcination the quality of our plant stone is realized.
Hildegard writes, “Viriditas is the natural driving force toward healing and wholeness, the vital power that sustains all life’s greenness” and this life force is a “living and fiery essence … that glows in the beauty of the fields … I shine in the water, I burn in the sun, and the moon, and the stars. Mine is that mysterious force of the invisible wind…. I am the breath of all the living.”
This power of life and our relation to it as expressed in the doctrine of action and results (karma) is elaborated in detail in the teaching of Tibetan Buddhism, but also in the classical mythologies of ‘The Great Flood” and warnings or so-called prophecies of “The Great Tribulation” of which the ‘trial of fire’ is the dominant theme. The alchemical meanings of these two ‘world ending events’ should be clear. Hildegard writes, “[When] the greening power of the virtues faded away, and all justice entered upon a period of decline. As a result, the greening power of life on Earth was reduced in every seed because the upper region of the air was altered in a way contrary to its first destiny. Summer now became subject to a contradictory chill while winter often experienced a paradoxical warmth. There occurred on Earth times of drought and dampness… As a result, many people asserted that the Last Day was near at hand.”
To avoid this destiny, it was imperative that the faithful exercise their fee will, their inner capacity for growth, “If… we give up the green vitality of [our] virtues and surrender to the drought of our indolence, so that we do not have the sap of life and the greening power of good deeds, then the power of our very soul will begin to fade and dry up.” She further states, “Our thinking affects our greening power… The soul is the green life-force of the flesh… When we humans work in accord with the strivings of our soul, all our deeds turn out well.”
Hildegard’s use of the word viriditas has been translated as freshness, vitality, fertility, fecundity, fruitfulness, and growth.
“O most honored greening force, you who roots are in the Sun, you who lights up… You are enfolded in the weaving of divine mysteries. You redden like the dawn and you burn: flame of the Sun.” Here the power of the first principal of life, or prana, in our solar system comes to us from the sun, and has five unique qualities giving rise to the Four Elements and the space in which they exist. There is also the Green Lion, the Secret Fire, from which the Red Lion, or the Philosopher’s Stone is achieved – Green before Red, the two are one and not two.
“April is the month that embodies viriditas, green power and fragrance… Man receives the green strength that nature also brings, but only if he stands firm in faith in God.” This firmness of faith is both in Theory and Practice, or Ora et Labora (Prayer and Work) of the alchemists. April is also the preferred time to start breathing practices or pranayama as well as alchemical work.
“We cannot live in a world interpreted for us by others. An interpreted world is not a hope. Part of the terror is to take back our listening, to use our own voice, to see our own light.” Here we also have hints of the power of voice, of song, of sacred recitation, all of which require the power of breath.
“The soul is the greening life force of the flesh, for the body grows and prospers through her, just as the earth becomes fruitful when it is moistened. The soul humidifies the body so it does not dry out, just like the rain which soaks into the earth.” Here we see an indication of the powers of this force of life within our physical body, the rotation and evolution of our inner energies, our ‘breath of life” rooted in our heart and blood in alchemical practice, and by extension our bones and marrow, the seeds of Saturn.
Finally, “Humanity, take a good look at yourself. Inside, you’ve have heaven and earth, and all of creation. You are a world – everything is hidden in you” and “”Everything that is in heaven, on earth, and under the earth is penetrated with the connectedness, penetrated with relatedness.” This final line is the basis of all esoteric practice. In Buddhism it is often poorly translated as “Emptiness” but Emptiness does not refer to a void, but rather the interconnected and ever changing (and changeable) nature of all that is. This is seen on a very practical level and is essential (i.e., ‘the essence’ or ‘beingness’) if we are to understand and utilize the Doctrine of Correspondence or symbolic connections from which we experience the “Green Language” as well as operative magic and alchemy.
To better understand this “greening power” of the Secret Fire we encourage (or as the word means literally, to ‘put your heart into’) the following practice. On Friday, Saturday, and Sunday mornings during the first hour of the day, or if possible, the planetary hour of Venus, perform your meditations before an image of the Black Virgin with a lit green candle. Hildegard’s poem above is a suitable prayer and invocation. Breath deep and experience the greening within yourself, a greening that gives rise to the Reddening of the Philosopher’s Stone.
