How it all began
In 1998, on the occasion of the nine-hundredth birthday of Hildegard von Bingen, many documents of her times were exhibited in the cathedral of Mainz. These also included the famous Major Code from the Hessian State Library in Wiesbaden, a manuscript of close to twelve kilogrammes that was written shortly after Hildegard’s death in order to capture the entire treasure of her knowledge. This manuscript also contains the so-called litterae ignotae, symbols that have thus far not been decoded and that appear in the middle of a chapter without any obvious link to the remaining text. The old manuscript lay in a cabinet and was opened on this page. One of the many visitors to the exhibition showed particular interest in these “unknown letters”. As an artist she had an unmistakable instinct for symbols – and these had a very special radiation. She also began to sketch the symbols, one by one. Later she gave a copy of these sketches to Heidemarie, a friend of hers that dealt with alternative healing methods.
On one afternoon in December 1999 four women got together to exchange experiences and to inform each other of the latest developments in the field of spiritual healing methods: Heidemarie, a healer and Reiki teacher, a sound therapist, a yoga instructor and a kinesiologist. And, indeed, there was something entirely new: Heidemarie had brought a copy of the “secret letters”; twenty-five symbols on a simple white sheet of paper with the only addition:
“Secret code / litterae ignotae (literally “unknown letters”)
Major Code Hildegard von Bingen 1180/90
Wiesbaden, Hessian State Library, Hs 2”
She had added a meaning to each symbol, which she had intuitively received in meditation. For example, next to the symbol for t the word “kidney”was written. Ingrid, who as a kinesiologist was aware of the connection between muscles, meridians and organs, suggested testing the psoas, a large muscle in the pelvis, in order to verify this interpretation. This is done by exercising light pressure on one leg in an outward and downward direction, while holding the straightened leg up. Heidemarie, who suspected a weakness of her kidneys, spontaneously agreed to act as a test person.
Indeed, the leg could not withstand the pressure, the muscle was too weak. Then the same test was repeated while Heidemarie was looking at the symbol that was to be verified. Now the muscle could fulfil its function, the leg could be held in the straightened position. It was unbelievable!
The women verified this result repeatedly in order to be absolutely certain of its correctness. Eventually Heidemarie looked at the symbol for about one minute. In the next test the muscle, and thus also the leg, could withstand the pressure without Heidemarie continuing to look at the symbol. Everyone was very impressed. They foresaw that they had received a great treasure and for Ingrid there were no doubts at all as to the effectiveness of the symbols. She would go out of her way to find out more about the secret behind these symbols.
And this is how the symbols came to me. Ingrid and I had maintained an intensive and regular exchange of experience for quite some time already. This had always been very fruitful and important because we had both had our own practices with clients for some time. We both had experience in working with symbols. I had also looked into the work of Hildegard and in particular into her knowledge of the healing properties of gemstones, had held talks and had offered seminars on this topic. We had both felt the special power of the mountain Disibodenberg where Hildegard had spent forty-one years of her life. So it was obvious that we had a keen interest in the effect of these symbols. And thus we commenced our journey into the discovery of these symbols in January 2000 and jointly continued this work for two years. During our meeting in January 2000 the symbols of Hildegard von Bingen were our main topic. On the basis of the kinesiological muscle test, our wonderful “tool”, it was possible to verify the effect easily and reliably. The results of our first experiments were so impressive that we both had the desire to continue this work. We decided to meet regularly at shorter intervals and to work intensively on decoding the symbols.
We soon made contact with the Hessian State Library in Wies-baden in order to find out more about the origin of the symbols. The deputy director of the library sent us a copy of the original1 (see image) together with the following information: “These ‘symbols’ are the so-called litterae ignotae (literally: unknown letters) from the Major Code of Hildegard von Bingen (Manuscript 2). This manuscript was developed between approximately 1180 and 1190, that is after Hildegard had died in the abbey of Rupertsberg. It is a vita that was written with the intention of augmenting her fame and of preserving her knowledge. The Major Code contains all three theologian main manuscripts (no scientific manuscripts), her correspondence and her musical work. The symbols simply appear in the middle of a chapter without any connection to the surrounding text. There is also a lingua ignota (literally: unknown language), also symbol text, which could not yet be decoded.”
Whether this secret code comes from Hildegard cannot be answered in the affirmative with any degree of certainty. But there are also no arguments against this and after all that I have learnt about and through the symbols thus far, I assume that Hildegard von Bingen is indeed the author of these symbols. During our work with the litterae ignotae we encountered numerous parallels with Hildegard’s description of unhealthy ways of living and the further we progressed with the decoding, the more obvious these parallels became. In the meantime we have no doubts whatsoever that with these symbols Hildegard has passed on to us an effective means of achieving psychological and probably also physical health and that the decoding of these secret symbols will succeed at the right point in time. In our times the so-called “vibrational medicine” is gaining in importance and finds its expression in numerous practices, such as homeopathy, Bach flower therapy, bio-resonance, colour therapy, radionics, Sanjeevini healing vibrations and many more. Hildegard was familiar with healing through “vibrations”, as her gemstone medicine proves or as can be seen from her comment on the “green power” of a plant that unfolds healing powers if you merely touch it or look at it.
But what led her to record the litterae ignotae? Were these her visions or were there other sources? What did Hildegard want to achieve, how did she use the “symbols”? Thus far, I was not able to find an answer to these questions. Speculations and assumptions exist, but in the end this still remains a mystery.
We were by all means convinced that there was more to the letter symbols than just the inventive spirit of Hildegard von Bingen that “may seem extraordinary, playful and perhaps a bit insignificant … and that manifested itself in rather strange forms”.2 Of course we were also faced with questions and doubts: How should we proceed with the decoding? Were we able to do this and did we have the calling to do this? But the project just would not let us go. In our uncertainty, but also out of curiosity, we decided to turn to a medium – Gisela Keul with her unquestionable integrity. The fact that Hildegard was also a visionary, confirmed this decision of ours. The text that we then received surprised us with its depth and intensity. Passages from this text will be quoted in the next chapters, other parts, that may contribute to a deeper understanding, are contained in the annex. For our project we received the following messages:
“Traude, you are now challenged to assume this responsibility without being given the opportunity to take a single step backward and to hide behind a barrier.”
“This also applies to you, Ingrid. We have tried for a long time already to get the two of you on this journey. If you take on this task of decoding, you will become the peak of the iceberg. Much more information will follow.”
And in response to the question, “May we do this, is it a task?”, we received the following answer:
“Yes, the time in the past served the purpose of moving your bodies into a state of vibration that will now allow you to open yourselves without reservation for this information, so that you can make this information available for the transformation of these times and for the development of humankind. Is this not what you have been desiring for quite some time? Now you have received a task in addition to your daily tasks.”
Indeed, for quite some time we had been hoping for effective and simple