s a child, the 12th-century German mystic Hildegard of Bingen (1098–1179) was enclosed at the monastery Disibodenberg. The site of her confinement, a hill about an hour by car from Frankfurt am Main, is today lush with vegetation and filled with birdsong. Perhaps it was like this back when she received her (“unknown language”) comprised of 1012 nouns including names for flora (184), flying creatures such as birds, the bat, and the gryphon (63), and, her word for “eyeball” that holds an apple (), or more precisely, half an apple (), at its core. Most poignantly, she offers two meanings for : “land, one’s own” and “basement.” For our enclosed mystic, the basement is her land, and from it she builds a world where even God is erased and renamed .
