The Adornment of the Spiritual Marriage

Preface. Do not expect from me, dear friends and ac-
quaintances, a learned introduction to the blessed Jan
van Ruysbroeck’s most famous writing. Let me rather
tell you how this translation came about. In this way,
you will also learn much about him and his work,
but in a form that better corresponds to my nature and
knowledge. » You have all likely had a childhood
friend from whom fate one day separated you, who
then remained lost for years, until he suddenly
reappeared and from then on played a major
role in your life. » My relationship to the blessed Jan
van Ruysbroeck, called the Admirable original: "der Wunderbare"; Ruysbroeck is traditionally known by the Latin title Doctor Admirabilis due to the profound nature of his mystical writings, on account
of the high flight of his vision original: "Schauens"; refers to the act of mystical contemplation or "beholding" God, took a similar shape.
It was in the year 1891, when I was twenty-three
years old, that I first heard of him, and "The Adornment
of the Spiritual Marriage" in the translation of the then
still young Maeterlinck Maurice Maeterlinck (1862–1949) was a Belgian Symbolist author who published a French translation of Ruysbroeck in 1891, helping to spark a modern revival of interest in the mystic fell into my hands. I read
it often, but understood little of the content.
And yet I always felt strengthened and comforted
when I laid the book aside, which is why I
reached for it again and again. » I was, moreover, not
at all surprised or ashamed that I understood little of
Ruysbroeck’s teaching, for Maeterlinck had prepared
me in his preface for something entirely sublime and
at the same time entirely wild original: "Tolles"; here suggesting something extraordinary or even maddeningly intense. Ruysbroeck was said to be a
drunken eagle, soaring above snow-covered mountain peaks.
He combined the ignorance of a child with the
knowledge original: "Wissenschaft"; in this context, it refers to a deep, spiritual wisdom or experiential certainty rather than academic study of a person who had risen from the dead.
He also wrote like a child, but at the same time, pages that