VEGETAL SYMBOLS AND THE SEMIOTICS OF NATURE IN ELIADE’S THOUGHT

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.

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Abstract

The paper examines conceptualization of plants, trees, and the natural world as fundamental mediators between the sacred and the profane in Eliade's work, which are integral to the construction of cultural semiotics and mythic imagination.Mircea Eliade's extensive contributions to the phenomenology of religion and cultural semiotics encompass a sustained inquiry into the symbolic dimensions of nature, particularly vegetal imagery.Segal (2001) outlines theoretical approaches to myth, positioning Eliade's phenomenological approach within a broader comparative discourse.It is highly agreed upon that Eliade's view remains central to myth theory (Segal, 2001).By situating Eliade's thought within broader mythological and philosophical traditions, the paper elucidates how vegetal symbolism articulates the cyclical logic of life, death, and rebirth central to religious cosmologies.The paper further interrogates the epistemological and metaphysical implications of Eliade's approach, arguing that his treatment of natural symbolism constitutes not merely an interpretive motif but a profound theory of meaning-making rooted in sacred ontology.Through a close reading of his discussions of the cosmic tree, the symbolism of regeneration, and hierophanies within the natural environment, the study explores how Eliade positions vegetal life as a site of revelation and renewal.Nature, in Eliade's framework, emerges as a cosmic manuscript, a living, symbolic text authored by divine agency, wherein plants and trees function as semiotic nodes that render metaphysical realities perceptible to human consciousness.Methodologically, the analysis employs conceptual metaphor theory to uncover the cognitive and semiotic mechanisms through which Eliade transforms natural forms into vehicles of transcendence, thereby bridging phenomenological philosophy, conceptual metaphor analysis, and mythopoetic approaches.