"Everything that is in the heavens, on earth, and under the earth is penetrated with connectedness, penetrated with relatedness."
- Hildegard of Bingen
Hildegard of Bingen was a 12th century Benedictine abbess, physician, composer, writer, mystic and visionary; and in Germany she is considered to be the founder of scientific natural history. Hildegard of Bingen’s scientific writings do not necessarily stand up to modern scientific scrutiny, but many of her herbal remedies have proven effective, and without modern scientific thinking to back her up, she made many correlations that have proven to be fundamentally accurate. Her scientific and medicinal ideas sprang from working in her monastery’s herbal garden to create remedies for her patients in the monastery’s infirmary. Along with her musical compositions and prophetic theological writings, Hildegard of Bingen wrote botanical and medicinal texts.
Hildegard’s scientific works are not at all prophetic, as were her other writings. She herself described Physica as a purely practical text, but her ideas about botany and medicine were closely linked to her theological concepts. In her vision, animals, rocks, plants and people are all connected and part of a whole, created and ordered by God. She read widely from the monastery’s library, particularly the Greek philosophers, and she was a keen observer. Many consider her a genius.
Nine hundred years later, we know that she was right in many ways. Systems science shows us how the earth’s systems work together, and how humans fit into the complex overlapping, intertwining patterns and cycles of our planet’s dynamic workings.
But Hildegard couldn’t have been more right when it comes to what goes on under the earth.
Studies of fungal networks in forests have proven that what goes on under the earth is much more complex, fascinating and vital than was previously understood. Without the underground connections of fungal mycelia - the vegetative, stringy, rootlike fungal filaments that entwine themselves in tree and plant roots - old growth forests would not exist. Mycelial networks work to exchange information, nutrients, carbon dioxide and oxygen among all the trees and plants in forests, with old growth, or “mother trees” in charge of what information gets communicated. These networks are referred to as the Wood Wide Web because mycelial threads work similarly to the way the internet works. The oak tree in your yard is very likely communicating with the rose bush by your fence via mycelia. The above ground mushrooms which we all recognize, are only the visible part of the organism - but some mycelial networks can extend for hundreds and hundreds of acres under the earth.
It is thought that one mycelial network in the Blue Mountains of eastern Oregon is the largest organism on Earth. It is a humongous fungus.
“This 2,400-acre (9.7 km2) site in eastern Oregon had a contiguous growth of mycelium before logging roads cut through it. Estimated at 1,665 football fields in size and 2,200 years old, this one fungus has killed the forest above it several times over, and in so doing has built deeper soil layers that allow the growth of ever-larger stands of trees. Mushroom-forming forest fungi are unique in that their mycelial mats can achieve such massive proportions."
- Paul Stamets, Mycelium Running
There are many other enormous underground fungal networks being revealed as further research is conducted, and what was once thought to be rare, is now known to be not only common, but essential to forests. Trees and plants provide the fungi with carbohydrates, and the fungi supply nutrients, transmit information, and assist with water absorption.
Every day we are reminded of the importance of trees, and as we learn more about the importance of fungi to the health of global forests, we understand how very connected all forms of life truly are.
Hildegard of Bingen may not have been a scientist in the modern sense, but she knew the importance of trees.
"…Invisible life that sustains ALL,
I awaken to life everything
in every waft of air.
The air is life,
greening and blossoming.
The waters flow with life…
The earth has a scaffold of stones and
trees. In the same way is a person formed:
flesh is the earth,
the bones are the trees and stones."
— Hildegard of Bingen, Meditations