Aureole [From Latin aurum, gold]
1) A disc encircling the head, or light/radiance surrounding,
the body of a sacred person in Christian art. Charles du Fresne [1610-88] said
that nuns have white aureoles, martyrs red, and doctors green.
2) Caused by the same process as Corona 2A). Usually white, but can also be
a blue-edged brown ring. Thick atmospheric haze produces a bright central
region around the Sun diffusing towards the edges.
Corona [Latin, a crown]
1) A circular chandelier of one or more hoops hanging from a
ceiling, especially in a church or castle [Image 3] . The chains are
reminiscent of a rayed Sun, the candles points on a crown. Image 1 is the Aten
[the Sun Disc as worshipped in a revolutionary religion by Akhenaton,
r.1364-1347 BC] from the Golden Throne of Tutankhamun, his younger brother.
Image 2 is from Botticelli's "Madonna of the Magnificat" [c.1482]. Until 1649
in England the Coronation of a monarch [in the Crowning itself] was held to
symbolise the Divine Right of Kings.
2) The radiant outer atmosphere of the Sun, clearly visible during a total
solar eclipse [Image 6]. Distinguished from the halo by having a red outer
section. It is heated to 1.8 million degrees Farenheit.
2A) A circle around the Sun or Moon, similar to a rainbow, caused by light
being refracted by atmospheric moisture. According to the Anglo-Saxon
Chronicle, on 30 August 806 AD, "a marvellous ring appeared around the Sun",
caused by the gauzy veil formed by cirro-stratus clouds [Image 4].
3) A windowed circular space in Gothic architecture. The most
famous is the 13th century Corona Chapel in Canterbury Cathedral. The Corona
enshrined the crown of the skull of Archbishop Thomas Becket struck off by his
murderers in 1170. His body was housed in a fabulous shrine [erected in 1220]
in the Trinity Chapel. In 1538 both reliquaries were destroyed on the orders
of Henry VIII.
Halo [From Greek "halos", a round threshing floor]
1) See Nimbus 2) below.
2) A luminous ring around the Moon or Sun caused by light
being refracted by atmospheric ice crystals. A coloured circle resembling the
solar disc is known as a "parhelion". The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle describes a
particularly fine example of parhelia seen on 7 June 1103 AD:-
"there appeared four intersecting halos around the Sun, white
in colour,....looking as if they had been painted."
3) The roughly spherical star cloud around the centre of a spiral galaxy
such as the Milky Way,
Nimbus [Latin, a cloud]
In Christian art the three types are:-
1) The vesica piscis [aka mandorla], which, I said in Web of
Mystery was "an elliptical frame usually enclosing Christ in Glory or the
Virgin Mary" in early Medieval art. Meaning "fish bladder", the name and shape
symbolise the Greek acronym ICHTHUS - Iesous CHristos, THeou Uious Soter -
Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour.
2) A disc of light around the head of a holy person. Square halos signify
the individual was living when painted.
3) Radiating like the Sun or a star. See "Sol Invictus".
Decoration on a nimbus varies with status. Christ has a cross
[Image 5], the result reminding me of a Celtic Cross, and Plato's Royal City.
[In 306 AD Emperor Constantine claimed to have seen the Holy Cross on the Sun
before the Battle of Miluvian Bridge. This symbol led him to victory and,
ultimately, his conversion to Christianity.] The Virgin Mary has a circle of
stars. Angels, saints and martyrs have rayed circlets, the last two have their
names round the halo. Interestingly, in Hindu iconography, Shiva, God of
Creation & Destruction [and "Lord of the Dance"], and Sita, wife of the
divine warrior Rama, are depicted in rings of flames [Image 7], possibly
symbolising the solar corona.
"Sol Invictus" [Latin, "the unconquerable Sun"]
The rayed Sun is an ancient symbol of glory. One of the most
recent examples was the red emblem on the former flag of Japan, as the Land of
the Rising Sun. The flag now bears just a red circle, like the Egyptian solar
disc, which, due to it's use on gods' heads, was probably the origin of the
Christian halo.
The spiked crown has symbolised the rayed Sun for
thousands of years. Probably originating as the royal Macedonian "sunburst"
[see Chapter Twelve
of my Device Book], it adorned the Colossus of Rhodes [Chares of Lindus, c.280
BC], a representation of the Greek Sun God Helios, who bore, it's said,
Alexander the Great's features. [The Statue of Liberty [1870-85] was inspired
by the Colossus, while the crown also has echoes in the "sunburst" of the
Chrysler Building [1926-30].] Roman emperors, such as Gallienus [216-68 AD]
wore it, and, probably, as a corruption of this imperial fashion, the Crown of
Thorns, and the spiked wheel upon which St Catherine of Alexandria was to be
martyred [4th century AD; she is depicted as a princess holding the wheel] The
golden laurel wreath may've been a variant of the rayed Sun.
In ancient
art Celtic and Philistine warriors are depicted wearing headdresses of
stiffened feathers [or leather], which bear a striking similarity to Mayan and
Aztec ones. The Native American type is a more elaborate version. Carl Jung
equated the "feather crown" with the rayed Sun.
