Abstract

A plant is a biological subject whose self-realization transforms mostly invisible inorganic matter and energy (CO2 and light plus water) into organic matter – flesh – which in turn nourishes other subjects and therefore enables terrestrial ecosystems to exist. Plants are able to perceive, to communicate and have the inner experience of being a self. Plants are the prime metamorphic agents of the biosphere, mediating the potential for life of the anorganic world with fully blossoming aliveness. Plants are expressive of their embodied metamorphosis and therefore lend themselves as “primordial metaphors” to an experience of reality as shared and transformational in most cultures of human history.