“What greater praise can I give you than to call you green? Green, rooted in light, shining like the sun that pours riches on the wheeling earth; incomprehensible green, divinely mysterious green, comforting arms of divine green protecting us in their powerful circle.” – Hildegard of Bingen

It was unexpectedly warm this February morning. I opened the patio door and felt the first fresh feeling of Spring drift in. I love the feeling of the weather warming up, combined with the smell of sweet air mixed with deep earth. Everything feels bright again, shimmering with all the possibilities of new growth. This reminds me of my beloved Hildegard of Bingen who actually has a name for this kind of energy, she calls it Virditas, which translates to greening. It’s a unique term she invented to describe the vital potential energy of the earth. To me it feels like the vibrancy of Mother Earth, the true meaning of feminine. The soul of the feminine is green, alive, lush, resplendent. And if there were ever a time that called for the deep healing powers of the feminine, that time is now.

Virditas describes the underlying power that “makes all things grow, expand, and celebrate.” – Matthew Fox. It’s that surge of Springtime, of new life that’s felt as the weather gets warmer and trees begin to bud. Everything that was frozen underground is beginning to stir again. It’s time for Mother Earth to reenergize, for that true feminine energy that nurtures all towards transformation and growth to burst forth. This quality of the feminine has its own unique power that is purposeful in its own right.

In our lives, Virditas celebrates being in touch with that deep creative energy and harnessing it to create more wholeness. It is that deep, unlimited power that can work miracles, that can make everything blossom. There’s been enough faking it, enough copying others or playing down all of our talents. Greening reminds us it’s time to embrace all that we are. Being the truth of who we are is a healing balm that mends others as well as ourselves. We are in desperate need of Virditas. It opens our lives to something larger than than the petty wants and desires that leave us looking for more. It’s time to green our soul.

This is what the feminines’ job is, not woman’s job, but the true nature of the feminine that is present in us all. The compassion, healing, accepting, feeling level that brings life back to the soul, the family, the community, and the world. The tragedy lies in killing off everything in us that has worth that can’t be monetized. The job for the feminine in all of us is to create for the joy of it, love for it’s own sake, not for personal gain or gratification. We aren’t just living to accumulate, spend, or be consumed by materialism every second of our life. There needs to be room for mystery. We are also living to grow deeper and more connected to the unseen world, to spread happiness and hopefulness to others for no other reason than the pleasure of it. The juices flow, life blossoms in mysterious and unexpected ways and we begin to live within the greater rhythm of what it means to be alive. That’s greening.

The surprise of warmth after the winter reminds me of all of this. The inevitable turn of the wheel of the year, when the power of the sun comes back, when everything comes alive and blooms in the most beautiful and abundant ways. This is the blessing of the feminine. A blessing we all need, especially in times of greatest darkness and intolerable cruelty, we need reminding of the tremendous life force we are surrounded by all the time.

Here’s to the season of greening your own soul.

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