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45-819: Waiotapu ( Māori for " sacred waters ") is an active geothermal area at the southern end of the Okataina Volcanic Centre , just north of the Reporoa caldera , in New Zealand 's Taupo Volcanic Zone . It is 27 kilometres south of Rotorua . Due to dramatic geothermal conditions beneath the earth, the area has many hot springs noted for their colourful appearance, in addition to the Lady Knox Geyser , Champagne Pool , Artist's Palette , Primrose Terrace and boiling mud pools . These can mostly be viewed through access by foot, and in addition to

90-572: A Goddess and a Horned God , thereby being generally dualistic . In traditional Wicca, as expressed in the writings of Gerald Gardner and Doreen Valiente , the emphasis is on the theme of divine gender polarity, and the God and Goddess are regarded as equal and opposite divine cosmic forces. In some newer forms of Wicca, such as feminist or Dianic Wicca , the Goddess is given primacy or even exclusivity. In some forms of traditional witchcraft that share

135-488: A deity . What is or is not divine may be loosely defined, as it is used by different belief systems . Under monotheism and polytheism this is clearly delineated. However, in pantheism and animism this becomes synonymous with concepts of sacredness and transcendence . The root of the word divinity is the Latin divus meaning of or belonging to a God ( deus ). The word entered English from Medieval Latin in

180-956: A god-sent wind saved them from Mongol invasion. Prayers or propitiations are often offered to specific gods to garner favorable interventions in particular enterprises: e.g. safe journeys, success in war, or a season of bountiful crops. Many faiths around the world—from Japanese Shinto and Chinese traditional religion, to certain African practices and the faiths derived from those in the Caribbean, to Native American beliefs—hold that ancestral or household deities offer daily protection and blessings . In monotheistic religions, divine intervention may take very direct forms: miracles , visions , or intercessions by blessed figures. Transcendent force or power may also operate through more subtle and indirect paths. Monotheistic faiths generally support some version of divine providence , which acknowledges that

225-469: A belief in the divine potential of humanity; Smith taught a form of divinization where mortal men and women can become like god through salvation and exaltation . Lorenzo Snow succinctly summarized this using a couplet , which is often repeated within the LDS Church: "As man now is, God once was: As God now is, man may be." Wiccan views of divinity are generally theistic , and revolve around

270-642: A central element in the creations accounts of almost every culture with mythological, cosmological , and theological myths. In this way, many groups characterize water as "living water", or the "water of life". This means that it gives life and is the fundamental element from which life arises. Each religious or cultural group that feature waters as sacred substances tends to favor certain categorizations of some waters more than others, usually those that are most accessible to them and that best integrate into their rituals. While all rivers in Hinduism are sacred,

315-496: A deceased person is cleansed by the Ganges, it will help liberate their soul , or expedite the number of lives they need to achieve this. In the traditional funerary ceremony, a dead person is placed upon a funeral pyre until the body becomes cremated , then the ashes are sent upon the river. Many Hindus go to great lengths to purify themselves one last time before death. When this is not possible, family members will actually mail

360-488: A direct connection to the watery underworld and underground water obtained through a cave as an even better connection to spirits and deities. Cenotes are very important to the Mayas. The famous Sacred Cenote at Chichen Itza proves to be important with the many findings of artifacts and skeletal remains. Sacrifices were common at this site among the ancient Maya. Different people were sacrificed and findings show that most of

405-534: A paid and curated experience, naturally forming hot springs appear around the area. The geothermal area covers 18 square kilometres. Prior to European occupation the area was the homeland of the Ngāti Whaoa tribe who descended from those on the Arawa waka (canoe). The area has a long history as a tourist attraction. While the area has been protected as a scenic reserve since 1931, a tourist operation occupies part of

450-528: A very illustrative account of his personal visit to the Ganges in which he described seeing both animal and human corpses floating down the river or sometimes embedded in heaps of garbage. People continued to bathe, and children to play in very murky waters; the color in some parts completely changed from toxic sewage and runoff . As the Ganges River remains interwoven into daily existence, Hindus are vulnerable to urban contamination. Lake Titicaca

495-416: Is an equivalent cohort of malefic supernatural beings and powers, such as demons , devils , afreet , etc., which are not conventionally referred to as divine; demonic is often used instead. Polytheistic and animistic systems of belief make no such distinction; gods and other beings of transcendent power often have complex, ignoble, or even incomprehensible motivations for their acts. Note that while

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540-515: Is closely associated with storms and thunder throughout much of the Old Testament . He is said to speak in thunder, and thunder is seen as a token of his anger. This power was then extended to prophets like Moses and Samuel , who caused thunderous storms to rain down on their enemies. Divinity always carries connotations of goodness , beauty , beneficence, justice , and other positive, pro-social attributes. In monotheistic faiths there

585-652: Is in accordance with the will of God. The doctrine of the divine right of kings was introduced as late as the 17th century, proposing that kings rule by divine decree; Japanese Emperors ruled by divine mandate until the inception of the Japanese constitution after World War II . Less politically, most faiths have any number of people that are believed to have been touched by divine forces: saints , prophets , heroes , oracles , martyrs , and enlightened beings, among others. Saint Francis of Assisi , in Catholicism,

630-445: Is said to have received instruction directly from God and it is believed that he grants plenary indulgence to all who confess their sins and visit his chapel on the appropriate day. In Greek mythology, Achilles ' mother bathed him in the river Styx to give him immortality, and Hercules —as the son of Zeus —inherited near-godly powers. In religious Taoism , Laozi is venerated as a saint with his own powers. Various individuals in

675-494: Is said to purify the soul of negative karma , corporeal sins , and even impurities from previous lives . At sunrise along the Ganges, pilgrims descend the ghat steps to drink of the waters, bathe themselves in the waters and perform ablutions where they submerge their entire bodies. These practitioners desire to imbibe and surround themselves with the Ganges’s waters so that they can be purified. Hindu conceptualizations of

720-754: Is this: Colossians 2:9 The word "divine" in the New Testament is the Greek word θείας ( theias ), and is the adjective form of "divinity". Biblical examples from the King James Bible are below: The most prominent conception of divine entities in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) is the Godhead , a divine council of three distinct beings: Elohim ( the Father ), Jehovah (

765-572: Is widely known as being a sacred place for the Inca people. The Inca Empire origins lie in Lake Titicaca. Ancient Incan myths describe the Incas as being blessed by the sun because the sun first emerged from Lake Titicaca. Since then, the sun organizes social order and the movement of the sun organizes rituals and gatherings. The first emergence of people in the time of the sun emergence is said to be

810-625: The Ganges River (Ganga) is particularly revered. In the Vedic myths , the goddess Ganga descended upon the earth to purify and prepare the dead. The Ganges in India is seen as the physical embodiment of this goddess. Since the river waters are as both inherently pure themselves and having major purificatory qualities, people come to bathe in them, drink from them, leave offerings for them, and give their physical remains to them. The Ganges

855-583: The Vimose comb . These depositions are typically interpreted as gifts to gods , aiming to either give thanks for, or receive, positive outcomes such as good harvests, success in water or safe passage across the body of water. Bog bodies found in Germanic areas, such as the Grauballe Man , have often been interpreted as sacrifices, however alternative, but not mutually exclusive, proposals include that

900-458: The elite in their caste system. The origin of the elite was and continues to be contested among the people on the Island of Lake Titicaca. Thus, creating competition to become part of the elite rank. In recent times, the pollution of Lake Titicaca has built up and caused an increase of green algae . The people of Lake Titicaca Special Projects continuously are creating ways to bring awareness to

945-401: The 14th century. Divinity as a quality has two distinct usages: Overlap occurs between these usages because deities or godly entities are often identical with or identified by the powers and forces that are credited to them—in many cases, a deity is merely a power or force personified—and these powers and forces may then be extended or granted to mortal individuals. For instance, Jehovah

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990-577: The Black Mesa to transport their mining minerals. In May 2002 the Navajo and Hopi people from northeastern Arizona joined their people in St. Louis Missouri to fight against Peabody Energy and its shareholders. In January 2002 Peabody proposed and was granted the right to use thirty-two percent more Navajo Aquifer (Naquifer) water than they had already been using. The significant increase in water pumped out of

1035-652: The Buddhist faith, beginning with Siddhartha , are considered to be enlightened, and in religious forms of Buddhism they are credited with divine powers. Christ in the Bible is said to be God's Son and is said to have performed divine miracles. In general, mortals with divine qualities are carefully distinguished from the deity or deities in their religion's main pantheon . Even the Christian faith, which generally holds Christ to be identical to God, distinguishes between God

1080-647: The Father and Christ the begotten Son. There are, however, certain esoteric and mystical schools of thought, present in many faiths— Sufis in Islam, Gnostics in Christianity, Advaitan Hindus, Zen Buddhists , as well as several non-specific perspectives developed in new age philosophy—which hold that all humans are in essence divine, or unified with the Divine in a non-trivial way. Such divinity, in these faiths, would express itself naturally if it were not obscured by

1125-461: The Naquifer, dramatically affected the drinkability of the water from the springs and wells connected to the Naquifer. Before the significant increase of pumping, the water was clean enough to drink without any kind of purification. Another result of the pumping is the noticeable drop in the water levels of the springs and wells. The drop in water levels was almost immediately recognized after Peabody

1170-421: The Navajo and Hopi people. In respect for the water, these people carryout religious and ceremonial tributes to the water of the Black Mesa. These waters have organized their people around the Black Mesa and resulted in the reliance of the waters for all aspects of their lives. With the emergence of Peabody Energy came threats to the preservation of their sacred water. Peabody Energy pumps water out from underneath

1215-659: The Son , or Jesus ), and the Holy Spirit . Joseph Smith described a nontrinitarian Godhead, with God the Father and Jesus Christ each having individual physical bodies, and the Holy Spirit as a distinct personage with a spirit body . Smith also introduced the existence of a Heavenly Mother in the King Follett Discourse , but very little is acknowledged or known beyond her existence. Mormons hold

1260-418: The ashes to a priest so that he can perform the ceremony of entering the waters. Manu , the mythic law giver, gave directives and prohibitions regarding the river: “impure objects like urine, feces, spit; or anything which has these elements, blood, or poison should not be cast into the water”. Few or none of his directives hold forth along most places down the Ganges today. Journalist Joshua Hammer wrote

1305-466: The conventional workings of the world; from the subtle redressing of minor personal wrongs to such large-scale havoc as the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah or the biblical Great Flood . Other faiths are even more subtle: the doctrine of karma shared by Buddhism and Hinduism is a divine law similar to divine retribution but without the connotation of punishment: our acts, good or bad, intentional or unintentional, reflect back on us as part of

1350-510: The divinity of the faith has a profound but unknowable plan always unfolding in the world. Unforeseeable, overwhelming, or seemingly unjust events are often thrown on 'the will of the Divine', in deferences like the Muslim inshallah ('as God wills it') and Christian ' God works in mysterious ways '. Often such faiths hold out the possibility of divine retribution as well, where the divinity will unexpectedly bring evil -doers to justice through

1395-402: The human realm. As previously noted, divinities are closely related to the transcendent force(s) or power(s) credited to them, so much so that in some cases the powers or forces may themselves be invoked independently. This leads to the second usage of the word divine (and less common usage of divinity ): to refer to the operation of transcendent power in the world. In its most direct form,

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1440-477: The importance of a clean lake for their society. The ancient Maya people valued social order and their society flourished because of the structure of their order. The ancient Maya strived and focused their actions on pleasing their many gods. Essentially, the Maya believed that the world consisted of three layers: the watery underworld , the middle earthly realm, and the sky realm. The Maya viewed bodies of water as

1485-499: The natural working of the universe . Philosophical Taoism also proposes a transcendent operant principle—transliterated in English as tao or dao , meaning 'the way'—which is neither an entity nor a being per se, but reflects the natural ongoing process of the world. Modern western mysticism and new age philosophy often use the term 'the Divine' as a noun in this latter sense: a non-specific principle or being that gives rise to

1530-401: The operation of transcendent power implies some form of divine intervention . For monotheistic and polytheistic faiths this usually implies the direct action of one god or another on the course of human events. In Greek legend , for instance, it was Poseidon (god of the sea) who raised the storms that blew Odysseus 's craft off course on his return journey, and Japanese tradition holds that

1575-530: The people were men and children. Like any archeological site, looting is a problem in preserving and studying the cenote at Chichen Itza. The Navajo and Hopi people have long embraced the water underneath and around the Black Mesa area as sacred to their people. The people have long lived around and became dependent on springs and wells of the Black Mesa. These waters are the only source of drinking water, water for livestock, and water for agriculture for

1620-595: The person was executed as a punishment, that it was a form of normal burial or that they were placed there after death to stop them from coming back as a harmful being such as a draug . It is also important to note that human depositions are notably rare in comparison to other finds. Many lakes and rivers have names that are linked to beings such as gods, including Tyesmere ( Tīw 's mere) in England and Tissø ( Týr 's or god 's lake) in Denmark . The latter body of water

1665-665: The reserve under a concession. It operates under the name "Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland". The business was bought in 2012 by Te Arawa Group Holdings, a local Maori tribal business, from the Sewell/Leinhardt family, who had run it for 30 years. New Zealand State Highway 38 begins at Waiotapu and runs south-east through Kaingaroa Forest to Murupara . 38°21′34″S 176°22′11″E  /  38.35944°S 176.36972°E  / -38.35944; 176.36972 Sacred waters Ubiquitous and perpetual fixations with water occur across religious traditions. It tends to be

1710-565: The sacred are fluid and renewable. Purity and pollution exist upon a continuum where most entities, including people, can become sacred and then become stagnated and full of sin once again. Performing these rituals is also an act to become closer to the Hindu deities , and ultimately the Divine . The Ganges is one of the most highly favored sites for funerary rituals in India. It is presumed that if

1755-621: The social and physical worlds we live in; it needs to be brought to the fore through appropriate spiritual practices . In the New Testament the Greek word θεῖον ( theion ) in the Douay Version , is translated as "divinity". Examples are below: The word translated as either "deity", "Godhead", or "divinity" in the Greek New Testament is also the Greek word θεότητος ( theotētos ), and the one verse that contains it

1800-457: The terms demon and demonic are used in monotheistic faiths as antonyms to divine , they are in fact derived from the Greek word daimón (δαίμων), which itself translates as divinity . There are three distinct usages of divinity and divine in religious discourse : In monotheistic faiths, the word divinity is often used to refer to the singular God central to that faith. Often

1845-464: The third usage, extensions of divinity and divine power are credited to living, mortal individuals. Political leaders are known to have claimed actual divinity in certain early societies—the ancient Egyptian Pharaohs being the premier case—taking a role as objects of worship and being credited with superhuman status and powers. More commonly, and more pertinent to recent history, leaders merely claim some form of divine mandate , suggesting that their rule

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1890-556: The word takes the definite article and is capitalized— "the Divinity" —as though it were a proper name or definitive honorific. Divine —capitalized—may be used as an adjective to refer to the manifestations of such a Divinity or its powers: e.g. "basking in the Divine presence..." The terms divinity and divine —uncapitalized, and lacking the definite article—are sometimes used to denote 'god(s) or certain other beings and entities which fall short of absolute Godhood but lie outside

1935-474: The world, and acts as the source or wellspring of life . In these latter cases, the faiths do not promote deference, as happens in monotheisms; rather each suggests a path of action that will bring the practitioner into conformance with the divine law: ahimsa —'no harm'—for Buddhist and Hindu faiths; de or te —'virtuous action'—in Taoism; and any of numerous practices of peace and love in new age thinking. In

1980-641: Was granted permission to pump out more water. This had caused disruption in the ceremonial and cultural lives of the Navajo and Hopi people as well as disruption to their farming. Watery places have been considered holy in Germanic cultures since the Nordic Bronze Age and used for diverse religious purposes, such as depositions of items such as the Dejbjerg wagon , the Gundestrup cauldron and

2025-533: Was the site of a religious centre during the Viking Age . After the establishment of Christianity, many religious practices involving wetlands were made illegal but some others were incorporated and adapted into the new religion, such as the use of holy wells and the conception of water as a liminal place where supernatural beings could be encountered. Divinity Divinity or the divine are things that are either related to, devoted to, or proceeding from

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