Visions of Sister Hadewijch

...I, surpassing myself, reached up to him. He had been assigned to me, so that he should be my protection and my companion on all my paths. And the angel said: "Human nature The angel addresses Hadewijch not by her name, but as "Human Nature," emphasizing the universal lesson of the vision., understand and recognize what this tree is." And I understood; and he showed me that it is the true symbol of ourselves. The decayed root was our frail bodily nature, and the firm heartwood heartwood: the dense, inner part of a tree trunk, which provides structural support was our eternal soul, and the lovely flower was the beautiful form of man, which, when its hour strikes, perishes so quickly.

Then he led me further to a tree that was quite low and had beautiful, proud leaves, speckled with all kinds of colors, which offered a joyful sight. And above all the beautiful leaves hung withered leaves, which covered all the beautiful leaves. And immediately the angel spoke: "Chosen and longing soul, you who have been raised from the depth to such height, from dark errors to such clarity, from the poorest to the richest, understand what this is." And he showed it to me, and I understood. It was Humility, which, full of wise reverence and full of insight into God's greatness and into its own smallness, covers the ornament of its virtues; for it feels and recognizes how the devotion of its body is always deficient, and it does not know how to remedy this. This is pure Humility.

Then he led me to a tall tree, which stood