The paradox of fungi: Transcendence is just beneath our feet
Giuliana Furci talks with Elizabeth about mycelia... and we hit the Telluride Mushroom Festival!
Mycelium is profound. The way it links and connects trees through the forest allowing them to share nutrients and even communicate is something science has only begun to understand in recent decades.
In the 1990s, forest ecologist Suzanne Simard made the groundbreaking discovery that trees are not just individuals competing for resources, but part of vast, cooperative underground networks. What she found challenged an entire worldview of competition in nature.
And then, along comes Merlin Sheldrake, a mushroom hunter, forest wanderer, and friend of Wonderstruck® guest Giuliana Furci. Together, Giuliana and Merlin alongside their colleague César Rodríguez-Garavito co-founded the Fauna Flora Funga Initiative to ensure fungi are finally recognized in conservation, law, and global ecological policy.
What fascinates me is how mycelium is both real and literal and works as a symbol. It makes me think of the theologians and philosophers I studied at Harvard Divinity.
Tillich calls God the Ground of Being. Heidegger reminds us that truth hides… until it breaks through. And eco-theology names it more plainly still: spirit showing up in the soil. And to me, well, this totally speaks mushrooms.
I love paradox. And I love the idea that transcendence isn’t always some far-off beyond in the heavens. It’s imminent and woven into the hidden networks that hold life together.
The mycelium beneath our feet is more than biology. It’s a sign of the transcendent depth that connects us all. And here’s the revelation: connection itself is the way beyond.
We already know this, and it plays out in our lives every day.
Community is transcendent. Division is not.
Transcendence is an ascent that is also a descent into what already holds us. The beyond hums beneath us, in the hidden weave of being. Maybe I am just poetic but it feels so resonant! I hope you enjoy our newsletter and the new episode with Giuliana Furci! And see below for some pics from our trip to the Telluride Mushroom Festival where we bumped into Paul Stamets…
— Elizabeth
Fungi are everywhere. Under our feet, in our food, in our medicines. Yet they remain one of the most overlooked kin-doms of life. In this episode of Wonderstruck, we speak to Chilean mycologist Giuliana Furci, a self-taught champion for fungi and founder of the first NGO in the world dedicated to fungal conservation, the Fungi Foundation. She reveals how mushrooms shape ecosystems, inspire culture, and hold ancient knowledge. From sacred candlelit ceremonies to songs created in a cloud forest, her stories will change how you see the world. Give it a watch or listen!
Telluride Mushroom Festival was a wonderful event filled with contagious enthusiasm and profound reverence for the natural world and the mushrooms that thrive in it. The Wonderstruck team, Travis Reece and Eliana Eleftheriou, experienced the wisdom of the mycelial network through the interconnectivity with people they met for the first time, from which the beauty of humanity was seen.
Can’t get enough of the fungi kin-dom? Giuliana, Merlin, and Toby Kiers made a short film with National Geographic, Flora, Fauna, Funga— It is a visually stunning journey into the hidden life of fungi. It’s eye-opening, reminding us that what lies beneath the forest floor may hold the deepest truths about connection. Enjoy!
