This article updates the understanding of the ideological meanings in the art of symbolism, an artistic language which is conditionally symbolic in nature. As the “linguistic” material in symbolism is a system of symbols, with an inherent semantic closure, the article analyzes the method of deep reading and worldview meanings. In connection with the manifestation in modern scientific publications of the fact of semantic inconsistency in the interpretation of the concept of “symbol” and abstraction from its constructive function, it should be emphasized that in this work the “logic of the symbol” by Aleksei Losev is positioned as a theory of symbol, where “symbol" is interpreted as a function and as an artistic method. It is from these terminological and methodological positions that the works of the Russian symbolist artist Nicholas Roerich are examined. To identify the ideological meanings in the artist’s paintings, the article uses hermeneutic logic. Taking into account the nature of the problems considered in the article, where questions about the artistic method (symbol as a function) and the scientific method (hermeneutic logic) are key, this work is of a theoretical, methodological nature