In religious terms, divinity or godhead is the state of things that come from a supernatural power or deity, such as a god, supreme being, Creator-God or spirits, and are therefore regarded as sacred and holy. Such things are regarded as "divine" due to their transcendental origins, and/or because their attributes or qualities are superior or supreme relative to things of the Earth. Divine things are regarded as eternal and based in truth, while material things are regarded as ephemeral and based in illusion. Such things that may qualify as "divine" are apparitions, visions, prophecies, miracles, and in some views also the soul, or more general things like resurrection, immortality, grace, and salvation. Otherwise what is or is not divine may be loosely defined, as it is used by different belief systems.
The root of the word "divine" is literally "godly" (from the Latin deus, cf. Dyaus, closely related to Greek zeus, div in Persian and deva in Sanskrit), but the use varies significantly depending on which deity is being discussed. This article outlines the major distinctions in the conventional use of the terms.
Harris Glenn Milstead, better known by his stage name Divine (October 19, 1945 – March 7, 1988), was an American actor, singer and drag queen. Closely associated with the independent filmmaker John Waters, Divine was a character actor, usually performing female roles in cinematic and theatrical appearances, and adopted a female drag persona for his music career.
Born in Baltimore, Maryland to a conservative middle-class family, Milstead developed an early interest in drag while working as a women's hairdresser. By the mid-1960s he had embraced the city's countercultural scene and befriended Waters, who gave him the name "Divine" and the tagline of "the most beautiful woman in the world, almost." Along with his friend David Lochary, Divine joined Waters' acting troupe, the Dreamlanders, and adopted female roles for their experimental short films Roman Candles (1966), Eat Your Makeup (1968), and The Diane Linkletter Story (1969). Again in drag, he took a lead role in both of Waters' early full-length movies, Mondo Trasho (1969) and Multiple Maniacs (1970), the latter of which began to attract press attention for the group. Divine next starred in Waters' Pink Flamingos (1972), which proved a hit on the U.S. midnight movie circuit, became a cult classic, and established Divine's fame within the American counterculture.
Divine was an American R&B girl group formed in 1996 who are best known for their 1998 hit single "Lately". Group members include Kia Thornton, Nikki Bratcher and Tonia Tash. All three women were teenagers when they were recruited by Pendulum Records owner Ruben Rodriguez to form Divine who were ultimately released on his label Red Ant Entertainment.
Divine made a cover version of the George Michael song "One More Try". The group disbanded in 2000.
Kia Thornton later auditioned for the sixth season of American Idol, where she was eliminated during the Hollywood rounds.
VOX Journal is a literary journal based in Oxford, Mississippi. It was founded in fall 2004 by poet Louis E. Bourgeois, short story writer and musician Max Bishop Hipp, and poet and self-taught artist J. E. Pitts. As of this writing, it has produced three issues, in April of 2005, 2006, and 2007. VOX describes itself as an independent literary journal, an experimental literary journal, and the “new avant-garde”. The issue, produced in 2007, was the most experimental release yet and included work by "the last Surrealist", Gisele Prassinos, and a variety of prose poems and found poems. The next issue, #4, would concentrate on a variety of themes pertaining to war and its effects.
Vox Vodka is a 80 proof wheat vodka made in the Netherlands by Beam Suntory. Expert vodka reviewers have given a number of accolades to Vox. Liquor ratings aggregator, Proof66.com, places Vox in the Top 10th percentile of the best vodkas in the world.
VOX was a channel on the XM Satellite Radio service that specialized in classical music of the voice. It was available on channel 112 on XM and channel 865 on DirecTV. The program director for VOX was Robert Aubry Davis. XM Radio Canada added the channel to its lineup on April 1, 2007.
The channel was removed as part of XM's merger with Sirius Satellite Radio on November 12, 2008; Sirius did not have a classical vocal station, but Metropolitan Opera Radio was provided as a partial replacement. Robert Aubry Davis moved to the Symphony Hall channel, where he currently hosts a weekly Vox Choral program on Sunday mornings.
A rite or ritual is an established, ceremonial, usually religious, act. Rites in this sense fall into three major categories:
Within Christianity, "rite" often refers to what is also called a sacrament or to the ceremonies associated with the sacraments. In Roman Catholicism, for example, the sacrament of Anointing of the Sick is one of the three that are sometimes referred to as "the last rites", because they are administered to someone who was dying. The other two are Penance and Eucharist (administered as Viaticum in the case of a dying person). Since the Second Vatican Council, Anointing of the Sick is administered to those who are seriously ill but not necessarily in immediate danger of death.