What is the purpose of the Halo in religious terms?

[Bandit]

It is depicted in all old pictures about religious figures. Where did it originate and what does it represent? Van Donikan says it comes from cave drawings and such which in his mind is showing a space helmet. If you look at it in that manner it does make a bit of sense but what sense does it make otherwise?

[trumad]

1. Could be

[stellanoir]

2. LOL

enlightenment is alien to this sphere

[daa]

3. A Halo,

is a symbolic representation of the aura, or nimbus of light believed in many cultures to surround a Godly or enlightened person. It is used in art, especially Christian, Buddhist, and Hindu religious images, to depict holiness.

[izzie]

9. Yes and artist were often told how much gold they could use.

You have to recall that most people could not read in the time of those old pictures so those and churches were set up to tell stories. Like the windows. There were also no Bible a poor man could buy until the press come along.There was a lot of art is the hand written Bibles also.

[DoctorMyEyes]

4. Represents the sun?

I've read somewhere (at some time) that it represented the sun and was sort of a morphing or incorporation of sun-worshipping paganism into Christianity.

I like the space helmet theory too, though. And it doesn't sound contradictory to the sun worshipping theory either.

[trof]

7. Bingo. Ra (Egyptian Sun God) morphed into Xtian icons.

Think I got that from a recent PBS series on symbolism.

[DoctorMyEyes]

8. Oh good - so I'm not "misremembering"!

LOL! I sometimes do that when reaching back into the recesses of what I call my "mind".

I just googled up an interesting site on the history of Halos and their use in western art. I had forgotten that the Greek Sun God was named Helios. The page has a lot of pics. The Egyptian halos don't look much like space helmets - more like hovering orbs above and behind the heads.

http://www.lope.ca/halo/

[progdonkey]

5. divinity

It is to signify that the person is divine. If you have a painting of twenty people, and one of them is supposed to be St. Thomas, it's a key to knowing who's who. I think a circle is used because a circle is perfect, signifying the person's divinity/perfection. There's probably also some ancient sun-worship that filtered through the ages in the halo, since many halos look like a sun behind the person's head.

[judy]

6. I was told long time ago, that the halo

actually was supposed to represent the spiritual aura of the person.
Halos exist in Christian iconography as well as Hindu, and some Buddhist representations.

Van Daniken is a good read, and it's fun to imagine his wild theories, but I don't believe in the helmet/halo theory.

:)

[yella_dawg]

10. The pre-Christian Pagan dieties

were described as "shining ones". The motif of glowing dieties is widespread across cultures and times.

[SpiralHawk]

11. You need to get your Crown Chakra tuned up, Bandit Dude

Then you can check out your own halo in the mirror.

Hey, ya Heyyyy !

[mmonk]

12. Halos predated Christianity

and was not a part of Judaism. It has pagan roots I believe (or older religions and myths as well).