Germany

Caritas sitting in a mandala, is robed and bejeweled. She holds her book of knowledge and compassion.
Scivias@1165, Rupertsberg
 

 

Hildegard of Bingen was a visionary Rhineland abbess, mystic, healer, and composer. She told Herstory in art, music, morality plays, opera, writing, theology and herbs. Creation is feminine for St. Hildegard. Sitting in her abbey, she receives her wake-up vision and tells her faithful secretary Volmar about it.
Scivias, c.1165, Rupertsberg
 

 

Matronae Triple Goddesses are Celtic Rhineland mothers from the 1st century. They sit holding seeds of creation in their wombs. The center Matronae is the young maiden with her flowing hair, the mother is on the right and the crone sits on the left.
Clay, 2nd Century CE, Bonn, Germany
 

   

Red Winged Sophia
is the paradox of opposites, masculine/ feminine, left/right, linear/intuitive. Standing on the serpent of earth wisdom under a wise gray masculine head, Sophia holds the Christ lamb spirit of new birth over her heart from which a scroll manifests.
Liber Divinorum Operum,Rheinland, c.1220/30, Lucca Biblioteca Statale, Italia
 

 

Unsere Schwarze Frau, Altotting in Bavaria is a miracle worker healer. Her golden shrine is covered with healing offerings, crutches and stories.
Gnadenkapella,Altottning, Germnay

 

Reinheim Sheela-na-gig is from a torque necklace found in Germany in the grave of a powerful Celtic princess.The Celts lived from the British Isles to Anatolia.
Reinheim Germany grave, gold, 1st CE

 

Sophia Battling the Anti-Christ is the animal instinct of brute self survival which must be tempered with wisdom, discipline and courage throughout life.
Scivias, c. 1165, Rupertsberg

 

Cosmic Wheel Creatrix The Cosmic Wheel is the great creative force of "Love appearing in a human form, full of exquisite beauty, marvelous in its mysterious gifts", in the words of Hildegard of Bingen, a visionary Rhineland abbess. The human figure in the center is the mystic center of the cosmos, the world axis tree of life, contained within the womb of the Creatrix. Each of us experiences the cosmos from our own center. The cosmos is surrounded by luminous fire on the outside and by black fire on the inside and by watery air that moistens all the other circles with dampness. Heads of animals breathe on the human figure and stand for the powers of virtue. Seven planets, and sixteen major stars fill the circles of air. Hildegardıs pantheistic vision shows each of us encircled by the arms of the mystery of the Great Goddess / God.
Source: Painting, Scivias, Hildegard of Bingen, c. 1165CE, Rupertsberg

 

 

Sophia Wisdom/Mother Church
holds her flock in her wings of the spirit. She is crowned and wears a net skirt. She stands in a mandorla of cosmic energy under the sun, moon and stars.
Scivias, c. 1165, Rupertsberg, Otto Muller Verlag, Salzburg
 

Venus of Willendorf
is over 30,000 years old and the most well known paleolithic Venus. She is small but mighty. On her head is a seven circle labyrinth.
Paleolithic stone, Kunsthistorische Museum, Vienna

 

Woman Clothed with the Sun radiates energy from her womb mandala. She is from a medieval Spanish manuscript.
Beatus Manuscript, c. 1000 CE San Isidoro De Leon, Spain

 

 

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The Germany banners were created for an exhibition at The FrauenMuseum in Wiesbaden, Germany, September 10-October 15, 1998 in honor of Hildegard of Bingen's 900th Birthday.

 

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