Hildur Sif When Rupert Sheldrake was a young boy visiting his family’s farm near the river Trent, he noticed a row of willow trees with rusty wire hanging from their trunks. To his absolute astonishment, his uncle explained that this had once been a normal fence made of dead willow stakes, but the stakes had somehow come alive, sprouted, and transformed into living trees. Sheldrake forgot about this mundane miracle for decades. Yet, as he later built a career as a biologist studying the mysteries of regeneration, that childhood memory crystallized into a profound realization about our universe. For the last three hundred years, orthodox science has demanded we treat nature as a dead, mechanical system. But what if it isn’t? What if the entire cosmos is alive?
It certainly used to be seen that way. For the vast majority of human history, our ancestors instinctively knew they were living within a breathing, sacred entity. The Latin root for nature, natura, literally translates to “birth”. Ancient cultures across the globe revered Mother Earth as the source of all life and the ultimate receiver of the dead.
But this animistic worldview was brutally dismantled by two massive historical shifts. First came the Protestant Reformation, which effectively stripped the physical world of its spiritual power. Reformers smashed stained-glass windows, defiled holy wells, and swiftly replaced deep symbolic and spiritual values with monetary ones. Second came the Scientific Revolution. Thinkers began championing the technological conquest of nature, while René Descartes took it a step further by arguing that the universe, and all the animals within it, were simply soulless mechanical automata. The rational soul was suddenly confined to a tiny region of the human brain, and Mother Nature was reduced to inanimate matter blindly obeying mathematical equations. We became the lords of creation, isolated in a dead machine.
Here is the great irony of our time: the very scientific framework that built this mechanistic worldview is now tearing it down. The rigid, clockwork determinism of Newtonian physics has entirely dissolved. Modern physics has reintroduced chaos, spontaneity, and indeterminism into the natural world. We now know that perfectly predictable systems are incredibly rare, and that the hard, inert atoms of the past are actually dynamic structures of vibratory energy. Furthermore, cosmologists openly admit that up to 99 percent of our universe consists of elusive “dark matter,” proving the cosmos is infinitely more mysterious than a predictable machine.
In the realm of biology, the machine metaphor fails spectacularly. Machines do not grow, they do not develop spontaneously, and they certainly do not regenerate their own damaged parts. If you cut a flatworm into pieces, each fragment can regenerate into an entire, fully functioning organism. To explain the deep mysteries of biological development and instinct, Sheldrake suggests that self-organizing systems are shaped by invisible “morphic fields”. Instead of being governed by transcendent, eternal mathematical laws that exist outside of space and time, nature is guided by evolving habits. The more a specific pattern of development is repeated—whether it’s the crystallization of a newly synthesized chemical or the instinctual nest-building of a mud wasp—the more habitual and probable it becomes for future generations. The laws of nature aren’t fixed; they are memories building upon themselves.
This brings us to a radical shift in perspective. If the cosmos is an evolving organism rather than a machine running out of steam, our place within it changes completely. This organic philosophy is beautifully captured in the Gaia hypothesis, championed by James Lovelock, which views the Earth’s atmosphere, oceans, and geology as a single, self-regulating living system. If the Earth is alive, she is far more like a Great Mother than a misty ball of inanimate rock spinning pointlessly in space.
Nature operates in nested hierarchies, or “holarchies.” Subatomic particles exist within atoms, atoms within molecules, cells within organs, organisms within societies, and ecosystems within Gaia herself. At each level, the whole is far greater than the sum of its parts, unified by morphic fields that provide structural organization and carry the inherent memory of nature.
But let’s push this even further. If planets, solar systems, and galaxies are living entities organized by immense fields, could they possess consciousness? If so, that mind would be inconceivably larger in scope than human intelligence. In their fascinating dialogue The Physics of Angels, Matthew Fox and Rupert Sheldrake explore how traditional theology perfectly aligns with modern evolutionary cosmology. Throughout history, mystics like St. Thomas Aquinas and Dionysius the Areopagite suggested that superhuman intelligences—angels—govern these cosmic levels.
Aquinas asserted that the entire corporeal world is governed by God through the angels, fitting seamlessly with the idea that the evolutionary process is guided by creative intelligences. He noted that angels operate intuitively rather than through clunky human reasoning. Remarkably, Aquinas deduced centuries ago that an angel moves from place to place without any time elapsing—an observation that perfectly mirrors Albert Einstein’s physics of photons. Photons, the quanta of light, have no mass and do not age as they travel at the speed of light; similarly, angels are massless, timeless messengers interacting with the physical world. Dionysius the Areopagite emphasized that angelic hierarchies are “bright and spotless mirrors” that receive the primal radiance of God and pass it down through the cosmos. In this sense, angels act as cosmic interconnectors, much like the physical fields that coordinate the universe today.
The twelfth-century mystic Hildegard of Bingen offered an incredibly visionary take on this cosmic drama. She envisioned the creation of angels from the primal fire of God, a metaphor strikingly similar to the modern Big Bang theory. Hildegard recognized that light and darkness are intertwined polarities; the creation of light necessarily involved the separation of darkness. According to her, Lucifer’s fall was the result of arrogant solipsism—a refusal to praise his origins, which plunged him into an abyss of darkness resembling the cosmological terror of a black hole,.
Yet Hildegard offers a profoundly elevating view of humanity’s role in this unfolding story. She claimed that God created humans to be the “tenth chorus” of angels, effectively replacing the fallen angels to bring the universe to fulfillment. Because we possess the capacity for constant creativity and daily moral choice, our holy works literally astound the heavenly hosts. We are a unique intersection of spirit and flesh, tasked with carrying the splendor forward into an evolving universe.
To avert ecological and spiritual catastrophe today, moderate environmental reforms simply won’t cut it. We must undergo a fundamental shift from our bleak, mechanistic worldview to a new animism. The modern era banished angels to a place of ridicule, leaving us stranded in a cage-like, industrial world bereft of awe and joy. By recognizing the Earth as a living, breathing organism and acknowledging the presence of cosmic intelligences, we can finally rebuild our severed relationship with the natural world. We must consciously recognize the inherent sacredness of specific places, shifting our mindset from being mere tourists to becoming pilgrims on our own planet. By recovering our capacity for praise and participating in the evolving habits of the universe, we embrace our true destiny alongside the angels, co-creating a living, vibrant cosmos.
References: Sheldrake, Rupert. “The Rebirth of Nature,” excerpt noting the author’s childhood memory of willow stakes coming to life. Sheldrake, Rupert. “The Rebirth of Nature,” excerpt connecting regenerative growth of willows to the broader scientific career and memory inherent in nature. Sheldrake, Rupert. “The Rebirth of Nature,” excerpt explaining the Latin root of the word nature (natura) meaning birth. Sheldrake, Rupert. “The Rebirth of Nature,” excerpt describing Mother Earth as the sacred source of life and receiver of the dead. Sheldrake, Rupert. “The Rebirth of Nature,” excerpt detailing how the Protestant Reformation stripped the physical world of spiritual power by smashing windows and defiling wells. Sheldrake, Rupert. “The Rebirth of Nature,” excerpt outlining René Descartes’s view of the universe and animals as mechanical automata devoid of souls. Sheldrake, Rupert. “The Rebirth of Nature,” excerpt discussing the dissolution of Newtonian determinism and the introduction of indeterminism in physics. Sheldrake, Rupert. “The Rebirth of Nature,” excerpt on the replacement of inert atoms with dynamic structures of vibratory activity and chaos theory. Sheldrake, Rupert. “The Rebirth of Nature,” excerpt explaining the mystery of dark matter and how it proves the cosmos is not a predictable machine. Sheldrake, Rupert. “The Rebirth of Nature,” excerpt demonstrating how machines fail to explain biological regeneration, using the flatworm example. Sheldrake, Rupert. “The Rebirth of Nature,” excerpt introducing the hypothesis of formative causation and evolving habits over eternal mathematical laws. Sheldrake, Rupert. “The Rebirth of Nature,” excerpt defining morphic resonance as the transfer of information and memory through space and time. Sheldrake, Rupert. “The Rebirth of Nature,” excerpt arguing the Earth is far more like a Great Mother than a misty ball of inanimate rock. Sheldrake, Rupert. “The Rebirth of Nature,” excerpt on the Gaia hypothesis and the Earth as a self-regulating living system. Sheldrake, Rupert. “The Rebirth of Nature,” excerpt explaining nested hierarchies or “holarchies” where wholes contain parts that are themselves wholes. Fox, Matthew & Sheldrake, Rupert. “The Physics of Angels,” excerpt detailing how morphic fields at each level of organization carry the inherent memory of nature. Fox, Matthew & Sheldrake, Rupert. “The Physics of Angels,” excerpt speculating on the superhuman scope of consciousness within a galaxy or solar system. Fox, Matthew & Sheldrake, Rupert. “The Physics of Angels,” excerpt discussing Aquinas’s assertion that the corporeal world is governed by God through angels. Fox, Matthew & Sheldrake, Rupert. “The Physics of Angels,” excerpt highlighting Aquinas’s view that angels understand immediately through intuition rather than human reasoning. Fox, Matthew & Sheldrake, Rupert. “The Physics of Angels,” excerpt comparing the timeless, massless movement of angels to Einstein’s physics of photons. Fox, Matthew & Sheldrake, Rupert. “The Physics of Angels,” excerpt referencing Dionysius’s concept of angelic hierarchies as bright and spotless mirrors receiving God’s radiance. Fox, Matthew & Sheldrake, Rupert. “The Physics of Angels,” excerpt comparing Hildegard of Bingen’s vision of the primal fire to the Big Bang. Fox, Matthew & Sheldrake, Rupert. “The Physics of Angels,” excerpt recounting Lucifer’s fall due to pride and his refusal to comprehend the source of his light. Fox, Matthew & Sheldrake, Rupert. “The Physics of Angels,” excerpt connecting the darkness of fallen angels to the cosmological concept of black holes. Fox, Matthew & Sheldrake, Rupert. “The Physics of Angels,” excerpt introducing Hildegard’s claim that humanity was created as the “tenth chorus” to complete the angels’ praise. Fox, Matthew & Sheldrake, Rupert. “The Physics of Angels,” excerpt praising the unique experiment of humanity being a combination of both spirit and corporeal body. Sheldrake, Rupert. “The Rebirth of Nature,” excerpt advocating for a shift from being mere tourists to becoming pilgrims to resacralize the earth.
Plain Text Reference and Excerpt List
- The historical reverence for Mother Nature: The earth was traditionally sacred, seen as both the source of life and the receiver of the dead; as the Greek poet Aeschylus wrote, she brings all things to birth, rears them, and receives them back into her womb. (Rupert Sheldrake, The Rebirth of Nature)
- The Reformation’s desecration of nature: The Protestant Reformation actively stripped the physical world of its spiritual power. During this period, stained-glass windows were smashed, holy wells were defiled, and images of angels and the Holy Mother were broken and burned. (Rupert Sheldrake, The Rebirth of Nature)
- Descartes and the mechanistic worldview: René Descartes established a framework where all of nature was viewed as inanimate, dead, and soulless. The human body was reduced to a mechanical automaton, with the rational soul confined to a small region of the brain. (Rupert Sheldrake, The Rebirth of Nature)
- The failure of the machine metaphor in biology: Machines do not grow, spontaneously develop, or regenerate their own damaged parts. By contrast, if a flatworm is cut into pieces, each piece develops into an entire flatworm, and cuttings from a willow tree can grow into completely new trees. (Rupert Sheldrake, The Rebirth of Nature)
- Formative causation and morphic resonance: Self-organizing systems—including crystals, molecules, cells, tissues, and organisms—are organized by invisible “morphic fields”. Nature is guided by evolving habits, meaning that the more a specific pattern of development is repeated, the more probable it becomes for future generations. (Rupert Sheldrake, The Rebirth of Nature)
- Nested hierarchies (Holarchies): Nature operates in nested levels of wholes containing parts that are themselves wholes. For example, subatomic particles exist within atoms, atoms within molecules, cells within organs, and planets within solar systems and galaxies. (Rupert Sheldrake, The Rebirth of Nature)
- The Gaia hypothesis: Pioneered by James Lovelock, the Gaia hypothesis views the Earth as a single, self-regulating living system. Gaia is described as stern and tough, maintaining a comfortable world for those who obey the rules, but ruthless to those who transgress. (Rupert Sheldrake, The Rebirth of Nature)
- Angels governing the cosmos: St. Thomas Aquinas taught that the entire corporeal world is governed by God through the mediation of angels. (Matthew Fox & Rupert Sheldrake, The Physics of Angels)
- The physics of angels and photons: Aquinas deduced that an angel moves from one place to another without any time elapsing in between. This directly parallels Albert Einstein’s relativity theory regarding photons, because from the perspective of light traveling at the speed of light, no time elapses and the photon does not age. (Matthew Fox & Rupert Sheldrake, The Physics of Angels)
- Hildegard of Bingen and the Big Bang: Hildegard wrote that God created an invisible illumination of light that clings to the angels. This vision of creation springing from a primal fire strongly parallels the modern cosmological theory of the Big Bang, where all things come into being from an inconceivable heat. (Matthew Fox & Rupert Sheldrake, The Physics of Angels)
- Lucifer’s fall and black holes: Hildegard envisioned that when the angels fell, they became black like extinguished coals and plummeted into an abyss of gloomy perdition devoid of light. This cosmological darkness resembles modern physics’ description of black holes—regions with a gravitational pull so strong that no light can escape. (Matthew Fox & Rupert Sheldrake, The Physics of Angels)
- Humanity as the tenth chorus: God elevated humans to take the place and honor of the lost angels, making humanity the “tenth chorus”. Furthermore, the angels lift their voices to God to intone a new song honoring the good works of humankind. (Matthew Fox & Rupert Sheldrake, The Physics of Angels)
