Angels-HALO (NIMBUS; AUREOLE)

The halo (from a Greek term for the threshing floor where oxen
moved around in a continuous circle) is a standard part of traditional
religious iconography and was often drawn around the heads of religious
figures such as Jesus, saints, and angels. Although contemporary
artists tend to draw halos as thin circles of light that float over the
subject’s head like the brim of some sort of invisible hat, they were traditionally
drawn as disks of gold (meant to imply a sphere of light radiating
in every direction from the figure’s head) against which the face
was sketched. Halos symbolize holiness, innocence, and, sometimes,
spiritual power (e.g., Satan was sometimes drawn with a halo of power
in Byzantine art).
Halos have universal appeal and are found in the religious iconography
of traditions as diverse as Buddhism, Hinduism, and the classical
religions of the ancient Mediterranean. In Western religions, the
halo seems to have originally been a representation of the solar disk,
and hence of the Divinity’s association with the celestial realms.Halos did not become part of the standard
iconography of Christianity until the fourth
century A.D., after which angels were frequently
drawn with halos. In addition to the standard
yellow-gold halo, halos are often depicted containing
crosses, as well as with rays of light emanating
from the subject’s head.
Some contemporary writers in the occult/
metaphysical tradition speculate that the halo
is either the mental body or part of the astral
body, a nonphysical “body” that surrounds the
physical body. Individuals gifted with psychic
sight are supposedly able to see this normally
invisible “aura.” It is even suggested that people
who are “particularly holy” have noticeably
luminous mental bodies, and the halos we see
in art are, according to this school of thought,
attempts to represent this experience.