Source: http://www.mother-god.com/mother-god-blog.html

On Using a Statue of Kuan Yin

Annalinde Matichei wrote the following as part of a discussion on worshiping the Daughter in the form of Kuan Yin: This is an interesting question. I have a statue of Thousand Hand Kuan Yin as my main Altar-piece. Do I "worship Kuan Yin"? What would that mean? I do not see her according to Buddhist doctrine - though I do believe that she refused Deity until all being was saved "even to the last blade of grass" - which is just another way of putting the Daughter's Taking on of Fate that we celebrate at Luciad (the Feast of Lights). I certainly do not believe she was the daughter of a king who was murdered and freed the souls from hell as some legends state, but I do believe she is the Daughter of the One Queen of the Universe, who descended into Hell, died and was reborn and freed the souls from Hell. I would not especially refer to Her as Kuan Yin, but I would not be averse to calling Her that either. This is not like modern Pagans who say "I'm working with Bast this week" - I do not believe that deities from different traditions are separate entities, like the people we meet on the street. They are simply different ways of seeing the same Universal Truth - and of course I believe that a lot of patriarchal accretions are highly misleading. And having said that, is there something different about seeing the Daughter through this statue rather than, say, a Marian one? I think there is. It has a special quality of contemplative purity. She is in perfect repose, while her "thousand" arms (actually 24 on this statue, but figuratively a thousand) so clearly and beautifully represent her all-saving omnipotence. They also help us to be free from the "humanism" of the Christian perspective, in which everyone is a "historical figure" and of the pagan perspective (which I have never inclined to, but is in fact just a natural outcropping of modern individualism) that "Deities" are individuals, pretty much like people. So this statue represents Dea - and in particular the Daughter - under a very particular aspect, stressing certain of Her Divine qualities, because as humans we can't see them all at once. To me in particular it represents repose, purity and Unacting Action ("Earth moves, but Heaven is still"). As for names, I am not inclined to give personal names to Dea. The Scriptures once mention the name Inanna (which is just a universal Name of the daughter) but other than that She is never referred to by a name in the whole narrative. To me using the Name Quan Yin would tend to localize and historicize the statue (even though I love the name!). This is not a statue from some part of Telluria of some particular figure in some particular tradition. This is a universal statue of Dea in Her Daughter form, in perfect repose and perfect compassion.