Hildegard's Viriditas — Greening Power
Hildegard of Bingen's central mystical concept: viriditas, the greening or moistening power that permeates all living things as a manifestation of divine creativity. It is not metaphorical greenness but the actual vitality that makes things grow, heal, and flourish. When a person or institution loses viriditas, they become dry, brittle, spiritually dead. Hex 42 (Increase) is wind over thunder — the arousing movement amplified and distributed. The hexagram describes the ruler who decreases himself to increase the people, and it insists that the time of increase does not last and must be used. Hildegard would agree: viriditas is not a permanent state but a gift that must be cultivated and can be squandered. Both describe a generative force that flows downward from its source and requires active participation to sustain.