Is there anything more pressing than the continued emergence of the Divine Feminine? It offers a counterbalance to an out-of-control toxic masculinity in our culture today.

Would we be so involved in matricide, the killing of Mother Earth, if we were less hostile to Earth, matter, mother (mater)?  

In this opening module, Matthew will explain how we’re all called to redefine masculinity. To move from masculinity as patriarchy, control, and power over to a more partnership relationship with self, body, others (male and female), and Earth herself. 

In many ways, Hildegard leads the way in incorporating both feminine and healthy masculine dimensions into her ways of seeing and working in the world. 

In this module, you’ll discover:

• How honoring both Father Sky and Mother Earth is part of Hilegard’s journey — and yours
• Why we’re called to develop the Sacred Masculine with us — and in our institutions and professions — whatever our gender
• How to develop your feminine and masculine sides to be a more balanced and energized person
• Ways to recognize the toxic masculine (patriarchy) and develop the healthy masculine — whatever your gender
• How honoring the archetypes of Father Sky and Mother Earth assist our process of cultivating a deeper commitment to saving Mother Earth
• A Divine Feminine and Sacred Masculine guided practice

You may already know that Hildegard was raised in a Celtic monastery named after a seventh-century Celtic monk, St. Disibod, whom she greatly admired.

The Celts settled all along the Rhine, and the spirituality of the Rhineland mystics is deeply Celtic. 

This class will include a pre-recorded presentation by Celtic scholar and practitioner John Philip Newell, whose new book, Sacred Earth, Sacred Soul: Celtic Wisdom for Reawakening What Our Souls Know and Healing the World, offers a profound and workable summary of Celtic consciousness.  Newell was “warden,” or abbot, of the Iona community for many years.

Newell’s study puts meat on the bones of the Celtic tradition. He’ll focus on Pelagius (whom history has wrongly berated), John Scotus Eriugena — and St. Brigid of Kildare, an archetype of the strong feminine.

As you’ll discover, Hildegard carries in her work many of the characteristics and teachings of these great Celtic figures. 

In this module, you’ll:

• Listen in on Matthew’s fascinating dialogue with John via video
• Learn about the often-forgotten, often-maligned tradition of Celtic spirituality that grounded Hildegard
• Discover an alternative to St. Augustine’s human-centered and original sin-centered religious worldview in favor of a more cosmic consciousness
• Recognize the many dimensions of Hildegard’s life and work — and teachings that are grounded in Celtic consciousness and practice
• Move through a guided spiritual practice in the Celtic tradition

The 4 Paths of Creation Spirituality name the deep inner and outer journey that’s both mystical and prophetic.

Starting in this session, Matthew will lead you to explore these four paths of creation in light of Hildegard’s teachings in back-to-back classes.  

As Matthew will explain, the first two paths of creation, Via Positiva and Via Negativa, refer to the inner in-depth journey of mysticism.  

You’ll discover how Mary Oliver’s poem “At the River Clarion,” one of many poems on the Via Positiva, truly captures the experience of the Cosmic Christ and what it teaches us.

Mary Oliver was a praise poet and a keen observer of nature who wrote about the disciplines “prayer” and “devotion” — and continues to invite us into them.  She and Hildegard express similar perspectives in their many praise poems to nature and the Earth.

Hildegard is regularly calling for “joy,” “celebration,” and “passion” and is a keen observer of the beauty in nature. 

Matthew will encourage you to analyze Hildegard’s teachings about emptying and silence-making, letting go, and how to handle suffering and grief.

In this module, Matthew will guide you to:

• Explore the similar ideas Mary Oliver and Hildegard expressed in their poetry
• Develop your own capacity for savoring and appreciating beauty
• Cultivate deeper awe, wonder, and gratitude
• Reflect on concepts like emptying, silence, letting go, suffering, and grief through the lens of Via Negativa and Hildegard
• Develop your aptitude for letting go, letting it be, and grieving
• Participate in a guided practice based on the Via Positiva to help heal grief

This week, you’ll learn about the two remaining paths of creation — the Via Creativa and the Via Transformativa, which describe the path of creativity and of taking your wisdom into the world — your outer journey of prophetic work and service.

Hildegard explains this as “working God’s work with God” or “co-creating.” You’ll also explore in greater depth Hildegard’s teachings about evil.

As you’ll discover, the seven main chakras represent your own inner doors of strength or, if they remain underdeveloped, of weakness — whereby evil or shadow energy enters your being if you allow it. Matthew will also explain how the entrance of the shadow or misdirected chakra corresponds to the seven capital sins.

You’ll also discover how focusing on the seven main chakras on the one hand and the corresponding seven capital sins on the other helps you name your inner powers — and employ them in your struggle with evil.

In this module, you’ll discover:

• The concept of Via Creativa, or co-creating with God  
• How the competing concepts of virtues (energies, habits) and vices (wrestling with evil) reveal the meaning of true strength
• The importance of art as meditation, also known as the way of the prophets
• A deeper dive into the concepts of Via Transformativa, eco-justice, eco-spirituality, and the battle with patriarchy
• Ways to develop your capacity for co-creating with Spirit and your inner self
• How to bring the 7 chakras alive in us — to stand up to the 7 capital sins, or shadow energies, that come at us from all sides as well as from within
• Practices for developing the co-creator within

In this session, Matthew will welcome Sister Joan, a Benedictine prioress of Hildegard’s tradition whose community is alive and well in Erie, Pennsylvania. 

Sister Joan lectures and writes extensively and authored the forward to Matthew’s most recent book on Hildegard, Hildegard of Bingen: A Saint for Our Times. 

Her most recent book is The Monastic Heart, which brings forth her and Hildegard’s Benedictine lineage with over 50 meditations on dimensions that lineage addresses such as Silence and Beauty, Community and Solitude, Bells (on remembering), Manual Labor and the Purpose of Work, and Perseverance and Peacemaking. 

Sister Joan will lead the class and address such questions as: What does Hildegard bring to today’s spiritual crises? And how does Hildegard speak to us today?  

Following her talk, Sister Joan will interact with Matthew, before opening the floor to student Q&A.

In this module, you’ll be prompted to explore questions including:

• What elements are there in the 1500+ years of the Benedictine tradition that speak deeply to us today — and that we can use in our everyday lives?
• How did these practices play out in Hildegard’s life and teachings — and how can they play out in our own?
• In what ways did Hildegard resist patriarchy in her day?
• Which lessons from Hildegard’s ahead-of-her-time philosophies can you apply to your own life?
• Plus, Sister Joan will lead you in a practice in the spirit of Hildegard

When Matthew and British scientist Rupert Sheldrake sat down together to dialogue on angels and their role in the cosmos in their book The Physics of Angels, they chose to interact around three major teachers of angels — Denis the Areopagite, Thomas Aquinas, and Hildegard of Bingen.  

This week, you’ll discover Hildegard’s profound and practical teachings about angels.  

Much of what Hildegard teaches resonates with the teachings of Lorna Byrne of Ireland, present-day teacher and encounterer of angels. For instance, Hildegard believed that angels don’t have wings like birds, but are more “like flames hovering in the power of God… their nature is a glowing burning.”  

Here are a few examples of Hildegard’s angel teachings:

• Angels admire human work and workers
• Angels are eager to help humans at this time, but because humans are not asking them for help, there are many unemployed angels in the world today  
• You can make contact with angels through intuition and creative work

Matthew will also guide you to explore more of the shamanism of Hildegard’s Wild Woman teachings that emanate from her and from Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés.

In this module, you’ll also discover:

• How modern-day angels are alive and well — and how a live cosmology is displacing a mechanical view of the Universe
• The ways angels play an important role in evolutionary history and in our own creativity as our muses
• How you can use creative work, insight, and intuition to call on angels for assistance
• The ways Hildegard’s shamanic roots contributed to her work, and how they can contribute to your work today
• What you can learn from Thomas Berry’s observation that if the human species is to survive in this time of climate change and more, we need fewer priests and fewer professors — and more shamans
• A guided practice to invoke the angels