Recently, I have increased the amount of cultus I give to Aphrodite — both on account of personal need and a commitment I made to honor certain deities more this year.
Aphrodite is an interesting goddess. As we all know, she presides over sexuality (a subject that I'm not altogether comfortable with); honoring her requires thinking about subjects that some may consider taboo.
When I pray to Aphrodite, I offer her lotus incense and read one of the prayers from Sappho — “Prayer to My Lady of Paphos” or “You Know the Place” in Mary Barnard's translation — and think about the Cyprian Queen for a short while. Using lyric poems adds an intimate feel to the worship that the Homeric hymns sometimes lack.
1 responses:
Ginette Paris, the post-Jungian "polytheistic psychologist," devoted a chunk of her book Pagan Meditations to Aphrodite. You have made me want to re-read it.
I recall her once saying in a lecture that an appealing display window in a shoe store could manifest Aphrodite.
As much as I admire Sappho and wish that her collected works could be found in a buried villa somewhere, it is important that we be conscious of the gods' appearances in the here-and-now, as well as in the back-then.
We don't have to worry about Aphrodite Pandemos not manifesting!
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