Bathers, page 6, part I

On the digestive systems of plants

“Our masters declare that the sun draws the flowers out of the roots through the stem, almost timelessly and too subtly for any eye to follow. The soul, which has no nature in her ground, in that ground of love which is not yet called ‘love,’ — this soul must emerge from her nature, and then God lies in wait for her to lead her home into Himself. Whatever is borne into this essence comes almost to share that essence. When the bride has come home, God takes her and works with all the power He has in His ground, in the ground of the soul, in that inmost part where nothing is that does not work all together. The tree of the Godhead blossoms in this ground, and the Holy Ghost sprouts from its root. The flower that blossoms, delight, is the Holy Ghost. The soul, too, blossoms forth out of the Holy Ghost, who is the flower of the soul. And on that flower there shall repose the spirit of the Lord…

Jesse means a fire and a burning, and signifies the ground of divine love. Out of the ground the rod grows, which is the soul in her purest and highest.

It shoots out of this primal ground at the breaking forth of the Son from the Father. Upon the rod there opens a flower; the flower is the Holy Ghost who will rest and repose there.”

—Meister Eckhart, Sermon 61 (edited)

This passage is quoted in order to show how intimately, at the time this book was written and illustrated, the idea of the growth of the soul and being was intertwined with the understanding of growth in plants. As such, we are unable to effectively separate the questions of inner or religious growth and plant growth if we wish to see this text from the perspective of the authors.