The Voice of Kwan Yin

Gracious Goddess of Mercy

I now have a three foot high statue of Kwan Yin that is a hundred years old. It is composed of a type of white porcelain called Blanc de Chine. This particular image of the Goddess Kwan Yin is sitting on a lotus throne with a very large lotus leaf wrapped around her back. It was after first bringing this statue of Kwan Yin home that I learned a great lesson about winter, not the physical season, but the internal winter that one can carry within during every season.

There are ocean waves surrounding the base of the lotus throne of the Kwan Yin who has come to live with me, in which are situated a dragon, and three human figures. One is the young boy, Shan Ts'ia whose name means Virtuous Talent. He became the acolyte of Kwan Yin when she was the earthly princess Miao Shan. There is a girl in front of him, whose name is Lung Nu, or Dragon Maiden, the granddaughter of the Dragon King of the Eastern Sea. She had originally been sent to offer a gift to Miao Shan and was so entranced by the virtue and loveliness of the princess that she had vowed to dedicate her own life to the achievement of Bodhisattvahood.

The Dragon that is often shown with Kwan Yin is the third son of the Dragon King of the Eastern Sea. He was rescued from certain death by the compassion and power of Kwan Yin. The dragon is an ancient symbol for high spirituality, wisdom, strength, and divine powers of transformation. In his right claw he holds a lustrous jewel known as the Night Brilliance Pearl, by whose light the princess Miao Shan could read sacred books to her heart's content no matter now dark the night.

To the right of the Dragon is a smaller image of Kwan Yin herself, standing on a lotus amongst the ocean waves smiling at the Dragon. In one hand she holds a small vase which holds healing water, known as the Water of Life. With this water, devotees and all living things are blessed with physical and spiritual peace. In Chinese porcelain figures, a smaller figure of the Bodhisattva was sometimes included on the right hand side of the composition to symbolize right action. To me this smaller Kwan Yin is a symbol of the latent Kwan Yin energies that reside within every human being. Often times great teachers of the past have said that everything is a part of everything else, and that means that She is a part of us. We all have within us Her jewel of Bodhisattvahood.

Each of these figures, though much smaller than the larger Kwan Yin who sits above them on Her lotus throne, is exquisitely detailed. As She sits and smiles quietly, Her face is so serenely beautiful that whenever I look at her I return to my center. Kwan Yin is one of the three aspects of the Goddess I was ordained to by Lady Olivia Robertson, co-founder of the Fellowship of Isis, years ago at Isis Oasis. During the ordination ceremony for the Fellowship of Isis the person being ordained dedicates themselves to a deity or deities honoring a threefold path of wisdom, beauty and compassion. My threefold path of priestesshood is dedicated to Isis for Wisdom, Hathor for Beauty and Kwan Yin for Compassion.

This statue came into my life in a very unusual way. I had dreams for several nights in a row of a beautiful image of Kwan Yin. I knew it was an image in my dream, but somehow it was also alive and it was unhappy, distressed, crying. I would wake up every time I had this dream and just lie in bed for a while, wondering what it all meant. It seemed a real reversal of circumstances that the Goddess who is known as She Who Hears the Cries of the World should in turn be crying out to me. After three nights of having this recurring dream, I finally decided to see if I could find the physical location of the image for I had become convinced that She was somewhere nearby.

There are several antique malls in a small community near my house, which seemed like a good place to start. After parking the car one mid-morning, I reached out in prayer and just let my intuition be my guide. One antique mall in particular pulled very strongly. I entered and slowly walked up an aisle following the psychic pull, glancing at the many items displayed around. About halfway down the aisle there was a section that had many Oriental items. Stepping inside the booth, I examined the items in the glass cases carefully. There wasn't anything that resembled the image of my dream. But as I walked out of the booth that same cry came into my mind. After taking a few steps away I had to turn around and come back.

When looking around again, I saw a large white porcelain figure stuck far back in a dusty corner between two of the large display cases. I could only see about a fifth of the image, which seemed to be turned to the side, with it's face hidden away. Kneeling down on the carpet on both knees I reached back and gently tried to turn the statue a bit so I could see it's face. It was very heavy and there was only just enough room to reach in and turn it around a little bit. My breath caught in my throat for a moment. Here was the beautiful image of my dream. It was very startling and all a bit surreal. But there She was, undeniably solid and a physical reality.

She was also very expensive, but I could see that She had recently been marked down a good bit from the original asking price. It is very uncharacteristic of me to ever ask a sales clerk to call the dealer to see if I could get a better price, generally I lack the 'chutzpah' to do something like that. But I was all fired up that day.

It seems the dealer to whom the statue belonged, had owned this particular statue for nearly two years and hadn't been able to sell it, was sick of having it and wanted to unload Her to anyone who made a semi-reasonable offer. The statue had been placed tucked away in that corner until the dealer could decide what to do with Her. Because of all this, I was able to get a good chunk more off of the current asking price. She was still a bit expensive for my budget, but I wrote a check for part, paid cash for part and put the rest on my credit card - call it creative financing.

Before the sales clerk wrapped her up and carried her to the back seat of my car, he gently wiped off her face. "I really like Kwan Yin," he said, “look, She's smiling!” At that moment the light struck her face just so, and illuminated the gentle smile that had lain hidden beneath all the dust.

I brought her home and spent over two hours cleaning her up very carefully so as not to break any of the delicate fingertips and dragon claws, etc., using Q-tips for the most part. She had been allowed to get very, very dirty. As I carefully washed away what looked to be years of dust and grime, some of the water dripped down her robes and ran down into the ocean waves at the base of the statue, and was lit up by afternoon sunlight that came in through the windows.

I was reminded of some passages from Buddhist literature which state that when light at the highest level descends, it becomes likened unto cool water, and like bright sunlight on water, it is so radiant that it would be blinding to look at directly. But when this spiritual light becomes more and more diffused as it descends towards the more earthly types of consciousness it converts into a fluid state which is extremely soothing, and is then sometimes compared to the cool rays of the moon in sacred literature. This imagery reminds me of the High Priestess card of the Tarot. The lunar silvery water gives great comfort and sustenance to anyone who seeks and obtains it. Once any individual is soothed and cooled by this sacred 'water of light' they can begin to let go of the more earthly concerns and become conscious on a higher level. This spiritual light brings illumination and thus wisdom, while the cooling watery state of this spiritual level of being promotes compassion, which eases personal pain and places one's mind into a serene, regenerative condition. These are of course very feeble attempts on my part to describe an internal spiritual alchemical process.

Metaphysically, Kwan Yin is closely connected with both light and water. As Light She is the pristine source of all creativity in the cosmos, She is the source of a hidden power in every human being to produce a result that is harmonious and productive. As Kwan Yin is connected with light, She is also connected to the ocean, which always brings my mind to Binah, the Sephiroth of the Qabalah which is likened to the sea and the Bright and Dark Mother. Rooted in Boundless Space, this primordial center includes the origins of all that comes into existence through material form. And it is here that the Great Mother of us all resides as Kwan Yin - as limitless compassion which will endure for eternity. She is the origin, the roar of the inner sea that beckons to every seeker, every pilgrim, every devotee throughout time. Here She is known as the Daughter of the Voice in the Hebrew tradition. She is that which when sought within the innermost sanctuary of our being bestows a merciful response to every heart that cries to Her.

Every human being has within themselves the potential to generate a seed of enlightenment. This statement is the central assumption behind the compassionate teachings of many great teachers and masters. A drop of water is suggestive of an ocean, it contains the ocean within it, just as the ocean contains the drop of water. A flashing spark of sunlight in a drop of water rolling down a statue of Kwan Yin can be seen as the physical expression of an ocean of light, for the macrocosm exists within the microcosm. Herein lies the hidden strength of the compassion of Kwan Yin, and the wisdom of Her actions. What may seem insignificant, weak or ineffectual from the standpoint of the individual, when it is genuinely offered on behalf of another living being joins with the universal love of the Great Mother. She generates within us a recognition of the connection between the pain of one human being and the sorrow of all humanity throughout the ages. Her energies bring a recognition of that which is greater than oneself.

It was while bathing this statue and thinking about all of this that a vestige of an old hurt rose from the depth of my own inner ocean. My previous husband, who had died in 1981, had drowned while scuba diving off the coast of Monterey. I live near the ocean now, on a hillside with an ocean view from my backyard. This has been a blessing in many ways, but sometimes even though I have worked long and hard on my healing, thoughts, reminders of how my former lost love passed away, and memories of scattering his ashes on the seacoast come back to haunt me. The ocean has been a source of great joy and it has also been a personal signpost of great personal loss. But this day, after washing the statue of Kwan Yin, I went out into my backyard and stared at the play of color in sky and water just three blocks away. I made my peace with the sea by committing whatever images and memories of that sad time that lived inside me into the care of Kwan Yin.

Now this statue of Kwan Yin sits on a highboy maple dresser, with a beautiful celadon green velvet and gold brocade tasseled table runner as an altar cloth. She is flanked by two blossom shaped crystal candlestick holders, which look like lotus blossoms rising from a cascade of water, and She faces windows that look out over the ocean. And She just glows. She is here in the computer room where I do so much priestess work by teaching and writing. For some reason I was called upon to 'rescue' this image of Kwan Yin, and I have to say that this particular Goddess has done the same for me on many levels.

A plant that is often corresponded to Kwan Yin is Bamboo. It is an emblem of longevity due to its durability - it’s ability to withstand hard weather and to remain evergreen. Bamboo, along with the Pine and the Plum tree, are known as the “Three Friends of Winter” since they all can endure cold weather. Together they symbolize strength, purity and uprightness, and the three main religions of China - Buddhism, Daoism and Confucianism. Bamboo leaves are said to droop because the heart of a bamboo plant is said to be empty of all false pride, thus it is filled with the virtue of modesty. When the wind blows the bamboo is said to ‘bend in laughter’ in the face of adversity. Kwan Yin as the Goddess of Mercy is often shown holding a bamboo shoot or twig.

Another plant undeniably closely associated with Kwan Yin is the lotus. It is called Lian, and in Chinese art it is a flower of the summer and the seventh month, therefore a symbol of light. It is a symbol of truth and purity because its blossoms emerge pure and beautiful out of muddy waters, it’s many seeds also make it a symbol of fertility. What is somewhat lesser known is that the lotus is also called the Rose of the Sea in Buddhist literature - which is also a title of the Goddess Kwan Yin. It was the imagery of this aspect of the lotus which helped me to view the mystical symbolism of the lotus in a new way. Not only does the lotus rise unsullied from the ‘mud of the mundane world’ but it can also rise triumphant and pure above the inner seas of our unshed tears.