Feathers from the Flame

Spiritual discovery, emotional healing, and the nature of consciousness surface through Laura's past-life regression into Hildegard of Bingen's complex twelfth century world.

Through the contemporaneous therapeutic sessions of the protagonist Laura as she is hypnotized into the person of Clothilde, the mystical, visionary world of Hildegard of Bingen is cleverly revealed by the author. (Dr Eileen Guenther, Professor Emerita of Church Music at Wesley Theological Seminary).

A past life regression lands Laura in her twelfth-century self, Clothilde, where she uncovers a complicated woman within a rigid society. After leaving home to live with her future fiancé's family, Clothilde accompanies her mother-inlaw to Disibodenberg, a monastery where she first hears stunningly beautiful music and then meets its composer, Hildegard of Bingen. In current time, Laura discovers that Hildegard did indeed exist inside the convent with her work reaching far beyond its walls. Hildegard composed music, healed the sick, traveled to preach, corresponded with kings and popes throughout Europe (including Frederick Barbarossa, Henry II, and Eleanor of Aquitaine), and founded two convents.

Both Hildegard and Clothilde exhibit enormous strength in a cloistered era. Clothilde loses a fiancé in the Second Crusade, falls in love with a Jew but must marry a churlish bully, and manages a manor the size of a small town. Hildegard herself supervises the construction of her Rupertsberg convent at Bingen and then another at Eibingen while constantly writing, composing, and healing. Clothilde connects with Hildegard during regular journeys to nearby Bingen where she helps in Hildegard's hospice and copies Hildegard's copious correspondence. Clothilde simultaneously hides a secret that propels her to fiercely protect her family, a secret that leads Laura to the root of her own greatest fear. Fans of Outlander, Pillars of the Earth, Frozen River, and the Brother Cadfael series will welcome this stimulating story.