[aras-image:5Fa.224,a,10,,,Figure 40 Earthly and Heavenly Paradises.]

In his essay "Svayamatrnna: Janua Coeli" A.K. Coomaraswamy, citing Vedic sources, writes that what we see in the dome of the sky is not a celestial orb nor a heavenly body; it is, rather, the sun door through which we see the golden light of the world beyond. He uses a painting from the "Earthly and Heavenly Paradise" of Heironymous Bosch,¹⁹ which shows a vortex, sweeping the souls of the blessed into the light beyond. The halos in paintings and sculptures of saints and blessed figures may be picturing the light which they radiate as well as showing the light of the worlds from which they come.