Kuan Yin and Mael Duin Part One

I was loaned a book on Kuan Yin by a friend of mine. The author listed the 33 aspects of this Goddess. I immediately saw parallels with Mael Duin's journey through the Celtic underworld and the 33 islands that make up that plane.

What I propose to do over the course of the next few posts is to show the correlations between these two sets of mythology. I also hope to bring to light how to use these aspects of Kuan Yin to help learn and incorporate the lessons of Mael Duin's Underworld journey in daily life and spirituality.

I also made another discovery in researching these correlations, that being the list of 33 can be broken down into 11 sets of three aspects and islands. Each of these triplets holds an aspect from each of the Three Cauldrons from Celtic Spirituality. I hope to give a list of these later on.

At any rate, here is the first of the 11 triplets of correspondences.

• The first of Kuan Yin's aspects is Power. Mael Duin's first stop on his journey is an island inhabited by enormous ants. Ants are a perfect symbol for power, power in numbers as well as personal power. The ant can lift over 40 times it's own weight and when you get great numbers of them working toward the same goal they can do amazing things.

• Kuan Yin also has Clarification as one of her aspects. Clarification is reflected in the second island Mael Duin visits on his journey. The island's only inhabitants are Great Birds. One of the best ways to get clarification is to get a better perspective on a situation. The birds on this island fly to greater heights than any birds any of the crew have ever seen. Imagine the truly amazing perspective you could get if you could pull back to “a great height” to see your problems. Imagine the clarification that could bring.

• Kuan Yin's third aspect is Harmony. Part of harmony is having the power to do damage but choosing not to use it. This is shown on the third island which Mael Duin visits. There are great, meaning giant, horses here with claws sharp enough to flay a man alive. These creatures though, secure in their strength and living in harmony choose to let the sailors pass through their lands unscathed.

I hope you have enjoyed this first installment. If you liked it leave a comment and I will continue to post them every couple of days until we are through the list.

Love and Light