The Visions of Hadewijch
Hadewijch's Visions: Sections I–VI complete; project translation of the entire Visioenen is shipped. See sibling Strofische Gedichten work for the lyric corpus. Hadewijch of Antwerp/Brabant (c. 1200-1270), the Beguine leader and mystical poet whose corpus (Visioenen, Brieven, Strofische Gedichten, Mengeldichten) is foundational to Middle Dutch mystical literature. Hadewijch wrote at least a generation before Marguerite Porete, who took up her terms (minne, orewoet, the verre nighe / Far-Near) and a generation before Mechthild of Magdeburg. Her Visions are fourteen apocalyptic-allegorical mystical experiences preserved in three medieval manuscripts (Ghent UB 941, Brussels KBR 2877-78, Brussels KBR 2879-80). Sections I–VI cover the COMPLETE Visioenen (Visions 1–14 plus the Lijst der volmaakten): Vision 1 (the Garden of Virtues allegory on the octave of Pentecost), Visions 2–4 (Pentecost / Easter / the Two Kingdoms), Visions 5–7 (Assumption / Epiphany / the bridegroom-communion vision on Pentecost), Visions 8–10 (the Mountain and Five Ways / Reason and her Three Maidens on Mary's Nativity / the City of the Bride on Saint John the Evangelist's day), and Visions 11–12 (the Phoenix and Two Eagles on Christmas Night, with the famous I am a free human being and also a part pure free-will passage / the Wheel of the Beloved and the Bride with Twelve Virtues on Three Kings' Day, closing with Job 4:12 porro dictum est), and Visions 13–14 plus the Lijst der volmaakten (Vision 13 on the Sunday before Pentecost: the Six-Winged Face and the Three Voices of Love — denial-of-love-from-humility (highest voice), works of the highest trust of Reason (clearest voice), rumor of the highest infidelity (sweetest voice) — with the numerology of the 107 perfected souls and Mary's closing address; Vision 14 the Explanation of the Throne with the Tabor-transfiguration echo and the threefold rapture-state; and the named List of the Perfected including the strongly-dated reference to master Robert — Robert le Bougre, the Dominican inquisitor active 1233–1244, who killed a beguine for her rightful love). Source: Jozef Van Mierlo critical edition of the Middle Dutch (Leuven 1924-25); modern English translations (Hart 1980, Davies 1990) remain in copyright. *The project translation of the Visioenen is now COMPLETE.*
Source context· Greco-Christian stream · Greco-Latin cultural age
- Stream
- Greco-Christian
- Cultural age
- Greco-Latin (4th post-Atlantean cultural age)
- Composed
- c. 1240 CE
- 1Section I — Vision 1 — the Garden of Virtues allegory
The first of Hadewijch's fourteen Visioenen. The Garden of Virtues allegory, in which the soul is led through a garden of personified virtues — translated from Jozef Van Mierlo's 1924-25 critical edition of the Middle Dutch. The opening of the visionary corpus that establishes Hadewijch's allegorical-mystical idiom.
4,376 words - 2Section II — Visions 2-4 — Pentecost, Easter, the two kingdoms
Vision 2 (Whitsunday): the Holy Ghost given completely, the gift of tongues in seventy-two languages. Vision 3 (Easter): the face of the Holy Ghost and the commission — Hadewijch shall live what Love is until she dies and is Love. Vision 4 (Saint James's Mass): the great apocalyptic two kingdoms vision, with the burning angel sounding seven thunder-strokes; the two kingdoms are Hadewijch's manhood and Christ's.
2,495 words - 3Section III — Visions 5-7 — three heavens; the supreme throne; the bridegroom-communion
Vision 5 (Assumption): the three uppermost heavens, which John the Evangelist saw only in likenesses, revealed as the three Persons of the Trinity. Vision 6 (Epiphany, at age nineteen): the supreme throne, all faces in his face, the fruition-breast of his nature. Vision 7 (Pentecost): Hadewijch's most famous — the bridegroom-communion vision in which Christ gives her his body from the ciborium and his blood from the chalice.
3,200 words - 4Section IV — Visions 8-10 — the five-way mountain; Reason as Queen
Vision 8: the high broad mountain with five ascending ways; the kimpe (spiritual champion) who could not climb the fifth because he loved Love too much with the intellect. Vision 9 (Nativity of Mary): the Queen in a robe of one thousand eyes, with Holy Fear, Discretion, Wisdom as her maidens — revealed as the Reason of Hadewijch's soul, who becomes subject to her. Vision 10: the Bridegroom-meeting at the final feast.
3,489 words - 5Section V — Visions 11-12 — the over-deep wheel; the free human being
Vision 11 (Christmas Night): the over-deep wheel enclosing all things in its darkness; the phoenix that devours the eagle of Hadewijch and the eagle of Augustine, named as the oneness in which the Trinity dwells, where we both are lost. Contains the doctrinal precursor to Porete's annihilated soul: 'I am a free human being and also a part pure, and I may with my will freely desire, and as high will as I will.' Vision 12: continuation of the doctrinal apex.
4,864 words - 6Section VI — Visions 13-14 + the Lijst der volmaakten
The closing visions and the Lijst der volmaakten — Hadewijch's list of the one hundred and seven perfected souls 'adorned like Love,' whom she saw each with her own seraph. The list is one of the most remarkable documents in medieval mystical literature: a Beguine's own census of the saints she counted as kin in the Minne-tradition.
8,611 words
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