know thyself, know thy mycelia
What if "Know Thyself" was never about just knowing who you are?
What if it means knowing your people? Knowing humanity? Not just how you relate to others—how you respond to them, react to them—but how you are them. One fractal in the larger pattern. One instance of the whole.
If we are a one, then knowing thyself is knowing all of us.
Think about mycelia—the underground networks that connect forests. What we see above ground, the mushrooms, are just the fruiting bodies. They're not the organism. The real organism is hidden beneath the soil, spanning vast distances, invisible to our eyes.
Sometimes I think humanity works the same way.
We appear distinct. Separate bodies, separate minds, different instances of one another. But maybe we're all part of one larger interconnected being—not as a literal organism, but connected through something deeper. Spirit. Shared stories. The way we co-exist in each other's minds.
The connections between us, the things that hold us together as a collective, are invisible. Maybe they exist on some spiritual plane, some other dimension we can't perceive. But they're there. The mycelia is always there, even when you can't see it.
So if a mushroom is to know itself, it must know the mycelia.
And if you are to know thyself—truly know thyself—perhaps it goes beyond the fruiting body. Beyond the individual self you can see and touch and name.
It's also to know what connects you. The spiritual matter beneath all of us. The greater wisdom that binds humankind together.
You are not just the mushroom. You are also the network.
