Aura: Encyclopedia - Aura

Aura

An aura is:

• Aura (paranormal), a paranormal effect.
• Aura (symptom), a syptom experienced before a migraine or seizure.
• Aura (optics), an optical phenomenon.
• Aura (satellite), a satellite in the NASA Earth Observing System series, launched July 15, 2004.
• Aura (.hack), the name of an important character in the .hack//sign and .hack//Legend of The Twilight franchise.
• Aura, Finland, a municipality in Finland.
• Aura (river), a river in Finland.
• Aura (cheese), a Finnish blue mold cheese.
• Aura (album), an album by the Finnish rock group CMX.
• Aura, the old name for the personification of Finland.
• Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy.
• A plough in the Finnish language.
• The Saturn Aura, a concept car that débuted in 2005.
• The Electronics sub-division of Bowers & Wilkins, discontinued in 1997.

Aura - Figurative meaning

Figuratively, an aura refers to the character of concepts, issues or phenomena surrounding a particular topic; for example, "The discussion had an aura of casualness."

The Marxist cultural critic Walter Benjamin also used the term "aura" to refer to the feeling of awe created by unique or remarkable objects such as works of art or relics of the past. According to Benjamin older cultures can generate auras around particular objects of veneration, while capitalist culture has the opposite effect, causing the decay of the aura due to the proliferation of mass-production and reproduction technologies.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Aura", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki