For the village in Azerbaijan, see Orand

Orand

Orand is a village and municipality in the Lerik Rayon of Azerbaijan. It has a population of 1,378....

.

Orant is a type of gesture during prayer

Prayer

Prayer is a form of religious practice that seeks to activate a volitional rapport to a deity through deliberate practice. Prayer may be either individual or communal and take place in public or in private. It may involve the use of words or song. When language is used, prayer may take the form of...

 in which the hands are raised, set apart, and the palms

Hand

A hand is a prehensile, multi-fingered extremity located at the end of an arm or forelimb of primates such as humans, chimpanzees, monkeys, and lemurs...

 face outward. It was once common in early Christianity

Christianity

Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...

, and can frequently be seen in early Christian art. For example, orant gestures are depicted in Roman catacombs as vault frescos that date to the 4th century C.E.

In modern times, it is most common in Pentecostal and charismatic

Charismatic movement

The term charismatic movement is used in varying senses to describe 20th century developments in various Christian denominations. It describes an ongoing international, cross-denominational/non-denominational Christian movement in which individual, historically mainstream congregations adopt...

 churches. The gesture is also seen in Orthodox and Catholic

Catholic

The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...

 worship, esoteric sects, and in certain forms of exorcism

Exorcism

Exorcism is the religious practice of evicting demons or other spiritual entities from a person or place which they are believed to have possessed...

 ritual. It is commonly used in small group renewal weekend settings such as Cursillo

Cursillo

Cursillos in Christianity is a ministry of the Roman Catholic Church...

. It is common in some charismatic churches during praiseful singing as well.

In more radical thought, the orant gesture is seen as a way of surrendering to the powers that be and submitting to the intrinsic patterns of the universe. As a component of cosmic religion, orant is almost a form of meditation, and a symbol of conscious change. In looking up with arms spread open, an orant practitioner would theoretically feel the chaos of the universe, and yet remain in perfect solace.