VEGETAL SYMBOLS AND THE SEMIOTICS OF NATURE IN ELIADE’S THOUGHT
Research Journal of Agricultural Science December 19, 2025 Marius Robert Lungu, Andreea Dragoescu-Petrica, Alexandra Ibric et al.
Vegetal imagery—plants and trees—serves as a fundamental bridge between the sacred and the profane in Mircea Eliade's phenomenology of religion, according to this theoretical paper. Eliade's work positions natural symbolism not as a mere interpretive motif but as a profound theory of meaning-making rooted in sacred ontology. Through close reading of his discussions of the cosmic tree, regeneration symbolism, and hierophanies in nature, the paper argues that Eliade treats vegetal life as a site of revelation and renewal. Nature emerges as a cosmic manuscript, a living symbolic text authored by divine agency, where plants function as semiotic nodes rendering metaphysical realities perceptible to human consciousness. The analysis employs conceptual metaphor theory to uncover the cognitive and semiotic mechanisms transforming natural forms into vehicles of transcendence.