Earth Elixir

AURA~THE RAINBOW AROUND OUR BODY

The aura is a protective energy field that emanates around us and connects to the chakras. That is why the aura is sometimes called the eighth chakra. This shifting shield of light is as unique as we are. The aura can change size, shape and colour depending on mood, sound, frequencies, environment, and reflects physical, mental and spiritual health.

The word aura originated from the Latin word aurea which means golden. It represents a symbol of transcendental divinity, holiness and has a long history of being depicted in art, particularly around religious figures.

Earlier depictions of the aura were known as the halo or corona. The corona is the halo around the sun, and its rays of light represented Gods like the Greek Sun God Apollo.

Ancient Egyptians wore headdresses to show this corona in the physical material sense. This is where the crown symbol has come from, designated for royalty. The crown which symbolizes figureheads or god-like humans is the halo aura power symbol of divine nature, and means transcendence from ordinary existence.

In religious paintings of the aura, called aureole, early depictions painted rays of white light or had rainbow shadings. The colour gold, or blue indicating celestial glory coloured auras during the Renaissance. The Italian version called the Mandorla, meaning almond-shaped. The almond aura shape also indicates the in between middle shape of the Vesica piscis symbol, that happens when two circles overlap. It depicts the Virgin Mary and Christ and the last judgment. The painted auras had multi-layers of colours encased around the person. Rare occasions showed 7 doves, indicating the 7 gifts of the Holy Ghost, in 7 coloured layers.

A square halo around the head in art indicated an earth element and usually distinguished the living from the saints. A triangle halo represented the trinity, used to represent God the father as well as the son and the Holy Ghost which is the feminine mother. A cruciform nimbus is three rays of light that form a nimbus halo, which is a cross within a circle referring to the redemption through the cross of Christ. Hexagonal nimbus represented the persons having allegorical virtues. The circular halo is the most popular, which reflects the circle of sun rays.

All halo shapes express exalted states of divinity, holiness and transcendental power.

The rainbow and auras are more common in Eastern art than in Western art. In Eastern art it is not mandatory that spiritual beings have an aura, and everyone had an aura. In the Sacred Art of Tibet the aura and people are inseparable, and the outermost layer usually has the 7 colours of the rainbow.

The first known photograph of the aura is from the 1890′s by electrical engineer and pioneer inventor Nikola Tesla. Tesla used a device that attached to the body that was able to photograph the bio-electric energy field around the body and fingertips.

Soviet studies of documenting energy fields around living things date back to 1939, when Semyon Kirlian, an electrician, who was working at a hospital in Krasnodar discovered that the energy flowing between the physiotherapy machine he had repaired and the patients skin could be photographed. He fixed his hand to a photographic plate with an electrode and pulled the switch. He burned his hand but managed to capture on film the aura energy imprint around his hand. Along with the help of his wife Valentina, he developed Kirlian photography devices to capture this mysterious energy field. Kirlian photography has 14 Soviet patents and based on directing a high frequency electrical field that oscillates 75000-200 000 times a second, which then captures the bio-plasma field that surrounds our body and puts it on photography paper. There were now patterns and correlations of auric energy captured through this electric body photography.

This photography showed that when a part of a healthy leaf ripped, the energy imprint remained intact. This may explain the reason behind phantom pain that so many amputees feel. The energy imprint is still there.

Auras are for protection and communication. The size depends on personal vitality. Just like the rainbow in the sky, the rainbow around our body is a mysterious natural phenomenon, and one that we can tune into, if we are only conscious of it.

Activities that promote a healthy aura are meditation, a healthy diet, yoga, chakra clearing, visualization, ‘fluffing’ and scanning the aura, and achieving moderation in all activities.

Although auras have every colour of the rainbow, Kirlian aura photography acts as a biofeedback mechanism with colours and symbols acting as guidance and feedback for us, like a reflection in the mirror.

Bibliography: The Rainbow Book, edited by F. Lanier Graham, Vintage Books, 1975 Viktor Adamenko, Human Control of the Bioelectric Field, March 1973, A.R.E. journal Alexander David-Neal, Magic and Mystery in Tibet, Dover Press, 1971 Martin Ebon, Psychic Discoveries by the Russians, Signet books, 1971 Sheila Ostrander and Lynn schroeder, Psychic Discoveries behind the Iron curtain, Prentice-hall, New York Bantam 1970 Stanley Krippner and Daniel Rubin, Galaxies of Life: Human Aura in Acupuncture and Kirlian Photography, Gordon and Breach, 1973 Kirlian Aura: Photographing the Galaxies of Life, Doubleday, 1974 Lowell Ponte, A Personal defense of Parapsychology, Popular Psychology 1973 C.W. Leadbeater, Man invisible and Invisible, Quest Books, 1969 Kilner, The Human Aura, University Books, 1965 The Aura, Samuel Weiser 1973 Lama Govinda, Foundations of Tibetan Mysticism, 1960