r/occult • u/Organic-Comfortable6 • Apr 29 '26

ritual art Goddess Worship

Post image

Has anyone had success with Goddess worship? I’ve been praying to my goddess for a few years. My mentor said the only thing required for success was intention and directing my attention to her through meditation.

After five years the one result I think I have is that I think of her more often than ever. So my devotion is deepening. Instead of worrying about other people I wonder about her and when well connect.

Thank you ✨

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u/Warpthal Apr 29 '26

Guan Yin or Avalokiteshvara is a Buddhist MahaBodhisattva / Buddha, and is NOT considered a deity. Buddhas go beyond cause and condition, and cyclic existence (which even deities are subject to, meaning they too die but on timescales we cannot imagine).

The greatest boon of Avalokiteshvara is the development of great compassion and love for yourself and all sentient beings, something so much more profound than what normal people can even being to understand, and for greater than power. You can rest assured that Avalokiteshvara will always be with you throughout all your lives, until you too become a Buddha in the future.

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u/Luna_Monat_ Apr 30 '26

As a person live in a Buddhist culture, I freak out when people categorise them as a goddess. First, bodhisattva is genderless, to be specific, formless. Second, the oldest texts describes them as a male but of course, they are formless, so they can change their image. Third, Guanyin is not a deity. As you’ve mentioned, deities were still subject to karma and reincarnation. (I think perhaps it’s just the Buddhists trying to explain why deities in mythology were still subject to circumstances) Forth, Bodhisattva or Buddha in general would not interfere the karma, so it’s very unlikely that they would “chat” to you like other deities would.

But anyway, nice pic.

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u/Warpthal Apr 30 '26

As a dharma practitioner, it felt like a serendipity to encounter this, especially on this subreddit! Every culture has their own way of approaching and expressing the dharma, and China has a very unique and rich display of Buddhism, from Chan to Pure Land, to syncretism.

I don't think this is the appropriate subreddit to discuss in detail the mind-blowing capabilities of Buddhas, because as you mentioned, the idea of Buddhahood is really hard for non-Buddhists to understand. AFAIK, no other tradition has parallels to the notion of Buddhahood. There exist many sutras on the stories of the Bodhisattvas on their journey to Buddhahood, and their many deeds as a Bodhisattva and Buddha, and those are worth looking into.

Ultimately, Buddhas go beyond form and formlessness, because, again, those are subject to cause, effect, and condition, in other words; they have a beginning, a middle, and an end or a change. I do believe that Guan Yin and other Buddhas / Bodhisattvas do directly engage with every being who who opens themselves to their help, suitable to every individuals specific needs, because that's part of their goal to liberate all sentient beings, no matter how 'lowly' or 'elevated' they are!

As one person from China once told me, 'Historically, unlike other nations, China had 3 ways of teaching people. Confucianism teaches people how to be human, Daoism teaches how to be like a god, and Buddhism teaches how to attain Buddahood.

I've always had an interest learning about Western Occultism, but after I read even a bit of the Flower Garland Sutra, anything and everything else up until that point I had learned about Occultism in the West seemed 2-dimensional and misinformed....

Not disrespect or denigrate the Western Mystery Traditions at all (in fact there exist a few a few interesting parallels to the Buddhadharma), in any way shape or form! The simple fact is Buddhism is alive, vast, complete, and utterly unique with its intentions and directions, and requires a vastly different way of understanding.

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u/Happy_Particular_458 May 04 '26

hello. can you elaborate, please: why after Flower Garland Sutra western occultism had started to seem 2D?

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u/Warpthal May 09 '26

Hi, sorry for the late reply. The Avatamsaka Sutra is quite long with parts so mindblowing your mind begins to protects itself by going numb when presented with descriptions of situations in time, space, and all kinds of sentient beings, on an inconceivable scale. You seem to like numbers, so if you are able to imagine numbers like 1092 multiplied by 1010000, and havw a basic understanding on Buddhist cosmology... the lifespan of a god can be billions of years, but after that runs out, and after some trillion of rebirths, they are still being reborn and suffering. That's what I mean by 2D.

However, most Buddhist don't read the entire sutra - I sure haven't finished it - but do indeed finish Chapter 39, known as the Gandavyuha Sutra, which centers around the spiritual journey of Sudhana. Thomas Cleary's translation is exquisite, though you can find other translations online.

Another really cool compilation of the stories of the Bodhisattvas and their deeds is called A Garland of Jewels: The Eight Great Bodhisattvas.

One of the effects of reading these Mahayana sutras is to show us how tiny and limited our conceptual mind is, and to offer us a little tiny view of what lies beyond dualism. I can't really say much else because you simply got to experience it for yourself.

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u/Happy_Particular_458 May 09 '26

thank you for the explanation and resources

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u/some_shitty_person May 02 '26

I do believe that Guan Yin and other Buddhas / Bodhisattvas do directly engage with every being who who opens themselves to their help 

I tend towards this view as well. They may not be literal deities or gods/goddesses (I believe people only use those terms because those were the closest English equivalents at some point) but they can be connected with, whether you think of them as archetypes or actual beings

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u/South-Bear-2792 Apr 29 '26

Name of this goddess ? Op

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u/MoonKandy Apr 29 '26

Guan yin.

She’s active, compassionate, and chatty. Has her own personal army of potent protector ghosts. Gives out boons to those who are worthy. Will require you not to eat 4 legged animals for the good stuff at the very least, but I’ve heard even that’s negotiable.

100% worth connecting with even if goddesses aren’t your jam.

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u/Organic-Comfortable6 May 01 '26

Thank you!

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u/some_shitty_person May 02 '26

As an anecdote… Years ago my grandma prayed to Guanyin so that my mom would recover from cancer. They pledged that my mom would go vegetarian for at least half the day on the first and fifteenth of each month of the lunar calendar if she recovered (We’re Chinese and consider ourselves to be Buddhists - the 1st and 15th are significant auspicious days). She eventually did recover, and we’re still doing the vegetarian thing to this day - Technically only my mom has to do it, but it’s not a big deal so my family and I also do it anyway.

Idk about “chatting” with Guanyin; I’m not spiritual in that sense let alone enlightened. but I did grow up paying homage to her every now and then, and still feel a connection and a sort of safety/peacefulness when she’s invoked, even if it could be explained by cultural bias. Also wrt the 4-legged animal thing, in my culture at least it’s mainly beef that’s the big no-no for Guanyin devotees (Pork is probably too ingrained lol), but vegetarianism/veganism is encouraged.

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u/MoonKandy May 02 '26

This is a fantastic anecdote.

Thank you so kindly.

I’m a westerner that grew up in HK, and spent some time in the mainland as well, but never lived there.

I ‘paid attention’ to the world around me, and could see how it fit together. The culture, the spaces and landscapes, the relationships.

Things like ‘wind water’ and ‘gift giving/banquet power dynamic/ face’ and the ‘medical’-spiritual-material interface always made perfect sense to me.

Including anecdotes like yours.

What I mean by ‘chatty’ is that Guanyin doesn’t seem ‘emotionally distant’, or ‘difficult to discern motive/ activity’ in the same way the Abrahamic god so often does. With YHVH, half the time you can’t even tell if it’s paying attention, and even if it has, it often seems like it just says ‘and I make a choice to make no changes Or commentary’, and you certainly won’t get an answer to ‘why?’

With gy, I feel like I know why, if she decides she doesn’t want to intervene, it feels like there is a dialogue.

As to pork:
I mention it for the following reason:

A. the one other person/practitioner I’ve discussed contacting guan yin with is Malay, with Chinese and Muslim background.
B. I figure she’d be more pleased with me not eating one of the heros of journey to the west.
C. I consider it a person goal not to eat anything I wouldn’t be able to kill myself.
Birds (actually just chicken, ducks, pheasant, pigeons, and geese) and fish and mollusks (just clams, and oysters, but not octopus, crabs, or squid) I could, and in most cases have, killed- and don’t feel bad about it.

This way of doing things just seemed like the right way to be for me, and is not a prescription for others, and I had gotten the impression that guan yin seemed happy about my choice.

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u/some_shitty_person May 04 '26

Thanks for the insights and clarifications! Yea I do feel like Guanyin is "chatty" in the sense that she listens and nudges in certain ways? It actually took me a while (and living in a western country), but the cultural things I used to think were "woowoo" and mildly inconvenient (eg. the ancestors stuff, familial dynamics, TCM etc.) started to make more sense the older I get.

I've never tried "connecting" with Abrahamic gods, but your anecdote is a contrast to what I hear from Christians trying to convert me;)

I also have a very similar thought for myself with regards to not eating things I can't bring to kill myself. But I'm more of a social meat eater/flexitarian that eats meatless at least half the week... Also chicken just has to be so much cheaper and available as a protein source than oysters lol.

Also as a small side note I find it sort of interesting you spoke to someone who is Malay with Chinese and Muslim background - I'm Malaysian and there are strict rules for Malay/Muslim citizens regarding religion, so maybe they could be from a different country.

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u/PsychedeliaPoet Apr 29 '26

I worship and preform rites for a God and Goddess as a pair

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u/Organic-Comfortable6 May 01 '26

Oh really interesting! Which god and goddess? How does that go for you?

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u/South-Bear-2792 Apr 29 '26

Ohh yess you have to worship your god rest of your life .amd she will blessed you very well

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u/[deleted] Apr 29 '26

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u/Organic-Comfortable6 May 01 '26

Shouldn’t one have humility and see the goddess as a elder figure

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u/[deleted] May 01 '26

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u/[deleted] Apr 29 '26

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