Quan-Yin is our beloved Ochun as she is known in China. Notice that she is dressed in yellow. She holds a baby in her arms, being the protectoress of childbirth and mothers just as Ochun is in our afro-cuban tradition. Quan-yin is the same energy as our Ochun, her name is different, because of cultural and linguistic differences. After all, Asia is a long way from Africa, especially China. All of this points to the Universality of our religion. There is nothing new under the sun. All is related, even the different dieties of the different cultures of many lands. For this reason, the attitude of afro-cuban practices is one of tolerance. It is perfectly alright to practice afro-cuban religion and at the same time to go to church every sunday. It is alright to be Muslim or Buddhist or Jewish or Hindu and still practice afro-cuban religion. The Orishas are not seen as gods, they are the servants of God, who is called in our tradition - Olodumare. We call God Olodumare, but at the same time do not see anything wrong with calling God Allah, or Jehovah or Vishnu. Our Orishas are there to help you in your daily life, with your problems of health, with work problems, with problems dealing with your enemies. Just as the Orishas are the servants of Olodumare, so are we, as priests and priestesses, the servants of the Orisha and of Olodumare.
Lakshmi is the Hindu goddess of wealth and beauty. We had to include her in our discussion of encarnations of Ochun. She is the wife of Vishnu and accompanies him on every encarnation into the world. She rides with him on the great Garuda eagle. Her daughter is Kama, the goddess of love. She, like Ochun, is the giver of all the good things of life. Many Hindus give sacrifices, offerings and mantras to her to insure her blessings. Is that so different from what we do for our beautiful Ochun?
The Orishas are there to help you, as we mentioned earlier. They do not discrimminate and don't care whether you are black or white or yellow or red. Anyone that tries to tell you that the Orishas are for only people with black skin or people that are Hispanic is not telling the truth. Our Orishas are not racist, and we beg to disagree with anyone that states otherwise. We sincerely invoke the blessings of Ochun on all readers of these words and hope that you will come to love and respect our wonderous goddess as much as we do. May She fill your lives with love and give you money enough to enjoy the time you have to pass on earth in this encarnation! OCHUN MORI-YEYEO.
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