Angel of Blessed Silence
Starting with the traditional images of Christ, who is God incarnate, the Orthodox faith delights in revealing and uncovering spiritual realities that are present but unrecognized, or perhaps unnamed, in ordinary human experience. Prayerful silent stillness is one such reality; in this icon, holy silence (in Greek, hesychia) is accorded the form of an angel.
As this icon is relatively common in both Russia and Greece, it is fair to ask, is this angel merely a metaphor for holy silence? The Prosopon School would say that the task of iconography is to find the correct symbolic form of God’s presence; finding an adequate symbol includes but goes beyond linear reasoning about God in that it proposes the contemplation of God’s presence. The symbolism of an icon can in this way reacquaint us with the light of Christ within us.
The eight-pointed star in the halo with the Greek letters o ωή indicates that this is not an ordinary angel, but an “uncreated” angel acting as a veil and preparatory place, standing at the gate of the transition of our faith, the turning point, from a discursive state into a more mystical state. Here, in silence, is the place of beginnings, of virginal quiet. It is also a place of tension, the gathering of silence before the energetical movement into the action of true prayer. In the moment before any great activity, when all the preparation, meditation, and practice have been completed, there is an inhalation, a poverty. This is hesychia—the reunification of the heart with the nous in total stillness. A hesychast keeps his mind on Heaven and his heart on earth, silent in himself, yet filled with theology.
A sphere banded with multiple colors rests in the angel’s hands, which are crossed in the silence of open receptivity. The sphere holds the Logos Emmanuel, whose hands are raised in blessing. As seen earlier, the sphere represents sacred space, and the colored bands of the mandorla are the indescribable Divinity proceeding out of mystical space, becoming more and more visible. The now-active seed of the Logos opens within the believer the moment of silence, shedding all thought, preparing the way for the penetration of the Spirit of God in the heart of the believer.