Many of us are drawn the beautiful grecian goddess of love, lust and desire are called to learn how to worship Aphrodite. She sings to us from the sea and her siren call asks us to honour her, to seek her out, to revel in her energy.
But how do we do this?
Where do we start?
I have put together this guide to help you!
Follow these five steps and you will build a magical connection with the Goddess of Love!
Step 1: Make space for her.
The first step in how to worship Aphrodite is dedicating a little space to her in your home and calling her in.
Create a shrine in her honour and fill it with her beloved things – perfumes, seashells, a bowl of water, fresh flowers – and begin to spend time there every day.
Tend your little shrine, keep it tidy, refresh the water and burn incense or spray perfume for Aphrodite and pray to her – ask her to come into your life, to teach you about her, to guide you in her ways. Something like this:
Aphrodite, golden goddess of Love,
I answer your call.
I invite you into my life
Open the ways to know you
Lead me to the right teachers
The right lessons, the right words
To deepen our connection
I am here and I am ready.
Why do we do this first – why not lead with copious amounts of research?
Usually people say to go and obsessively research any goddess or god before reaching out to them: however I believe it’s better to open a line of personal connection and communion by directly asking the Goddess to show you the best way.
Tell her you are hearing her, you are interested, and ask her to point the way.
Research is amazing and fabulous but it can totally trap us in our head, creating a narrative about what we should see and feel and experience and blocking an intuitive, organic connection. It can also paralyse us into indecision – what should we do first? What if I get it wrong?
There is something so special and innocent about opening up space to receive Aphrodite in the way she wants to be seen by you.
Besides, if Aphrodite is calling us to come follow her, surely it’s only polite to reply?
Step 2: Time to nerd out.
After you have started opening up your connection, now’s your chance to fully nerd out and learn everything you can.
Go and study her stories, gaze at her art, and learn her names: find out who she really was beyond the sex-kitten glaze our modern world has placed on her.
(Hint – she’s the badass primal goddess of EVERYTHING.)
Learn how the ancients worshipped her, and peek at how other modern practitioners do it. Learn her ancient poems and invocations and speak them at her shrine.
Go read books and find out what she’s into. Read books other practitioners have written about her (There is a recommended reading list at the end of this article) or join my Aphrodite Temple to deep dive into her many faces.
Do I have to do exactly what the ancient Greeks did?
So when researching the worship of Aphrodite you might come across something called Hellenisim or Hellenic Reconstructionism. This is a spiritual path devoted to remembering and reawakening the ancient religions of Greece and Rome and reconstructing them in the present day – worshipping the gods exactly as (or very closely to how) they were worshipped millenia ago.
It’s very cool! And if that’s your thing there are epic communities on reddit devoted to this to help you learn how to workshop Aphrodite the same way the ancients did (or as close as we can manage).
However to worship Aphrodite you do not HAVE to commit to being a hellenic reconstructionist. It’s not a must.
Gods change and evolve with the times, and Aphrodite will not be offended if you reach her in a non-historical way… but it’s still a good shout to rely on the accumulated wisdom of all those ancients to help you make a good impression. For example, in the ancient times she wasn’t super keen on animal sacrifices (unless it was a dove) and she REALLY didn’t like pigs to be sacrificed to her as she thought they were gross, so I wouldn’t offer her a bacon sandwich.
Step 3: Apply your nerding to your practice
You already have a regular offering (your incense and water) and prayer schedule to honour Aphrodite – now you have done a bunch of research it’s time to play and expand your practice!
Try ceremonies and rituals you have learned.
Start celebrating her on her sacred days. Write prayers honouring her sacred names. Travel to holy places she would like (from ancient temples in the Mediterranean, to pilgrimages to the ocean, to the perfume hall in the department store and the rose garden in the park) and leave her prayers and offerings.
Write her poems and love letters.
Feed her pigeons (which are just grey doves).
Refine your shrine and offerings to better suit her tastes and desires.
Play! Try stuff out! Investigate! See what happens!
Step 4 : Learn to embody her values and essence.
To truly know how to worship Aphrodite work with a her, we need to bring her energy and magic into every part of our life and that means living with her values at the heart of our lives.
The way of Aphrodite is VERY different to what we are taught in the modern world.
She asks her followers to live open to beauty and treat it as sacred: to honour and delight in our sexuality and heal our sexual shame: to see this world as a living garden of the divine and be awake to it’s magic, joy and delight: to be able to deeply receive and enjoy pleasure.
It really is a revolutionary act to learn to live in the light of Aphrodite as our modern world tends to discredit the sparkling joyful arts of Aphrodite in favour of things like profit, functionality, and sexual control.
But this is where worshipping aphrodite transforms from something you DO to something you ARE: it’s the difference between reading books and lighting candles for her to embodying your path as a devotee of the best goddess ever (in my humble opinion).
My course The Venus Working teaches many of these foundational Aphrodite-living skills if you want a boost in that area.
Do I have to have sex with randos to honour Aphrodite?
There is a misconception that since the ancient priestesses of Aphrodite were all sacred prostitutes, us modern-day devotees of Aphrodite have to be very sexually open and promiscuous too in our quest to learn how to worship Aphrodite.
In actual fact, all the stuff about the sacred priestess prostitutes of Aphrodite was a myth and a misunderstanding that’s been poked and prodded by horny old white guys for centuries.
Ancient Greece had a far looser distinction between the sacred and the profane than we do now. Priesthood kind of bled into the community – people would take on a role for a year, a season or a week – and the Gods were how they framed their world.
Since Aphrodite was the patron goddess of sex workers, all sex workers would have been associated with Aphrodite, just like healers would have been associated with Apollo or blacksmiths with Hephaestus. There were likely some very savvy prostitutes who marketed themselves as “one night with the Goddess” while prowling around the temples of Corinth for sailors to solicit…
… but Aphrodite’s “official” priestesses were in not required to have sex with others as part of their service.
Our modern sacred-sex movement has really romanticised these imaginary priestesses and have created it’s own myths about the healing sexual practices of the priestess based on what they wish was true. There were temple-adjacent brothels in ancient Greece but far from being holy womb temples of deep intimacy and initiation, they were filled with enslaved women and children.
Ancient Greek culture was HELLA misogynist and was built on slave labour. Eurgh.
Working with Aphrodite will ask you to heal your hangups and fears about sex, but she isn’t going to ask you to perform any sexual acts you don’t want to: in fact, quite the opposite. She’s going to get you to double down on your sexual sovereignty.
It’s a reflection of our puritan culture that to be a sex-positive woman means you have to be a whore.
Aphrodite devotees come in all flavours – some of us (like me) are monogamous, some are polyamourous: some are delightfully slutty and some are happily celibate by choice: and we represent the whole kaleidoscope of sexual orientation (as does Aphrodite – she is the goddess who blesses and celebrates same-sex relationships and transgender folks.).
But no, being a devotee of Aphrodite isn’t going to ask you to put out, and even though Aphrodite is probably going to make you heal your sexuality you don’t have to make it your whole personality. There is more to Aphrodite than just sex.
Step 5 : Follow your Desire
As the mistress of so many things other than just love, there are so many facets of her divinity to dive into. She’s so complex and all-encompassing that it’s going to impossible to study and honour every art that she presides over.
So follow your interest! Go deeper into whatever facet of Aphrodite sparks your inspiration.
Really turned on by her connection to perfume? Go down that rabbit hole.
Fascinated by her connection to the stars? Go investigate the Venus planetary cycles!
Entranced by her rituals of bathing and renewal? Go play!
Obsessed by her energy as a mother goddess? Focus on that!
Feel a calling to create art in her honour? Do it!
There isn’t one correct way to worship Aphrodite, or a set path that a devotee has to take. There is so much to enjoy, connect with, heal with and embrace with Aphrodite, so follow your heart, your interests and obsessions and let her mould you into what she wants you to be.
***
Above all – if you carry Aphrodite in your heart, you are doing a great job.
It’s easy to think more is expected of us than it is – we have Instagram showing us the highlight reel of everyone’s spiritual practice, making it look like everyone is going all in at every possible moment except us – running elaborate rituals each friday night, celebrating every full moon and Venus transit, and having an epically aesthetic daily practice that looks good (rather than yours, which is you in a onesie blearily sitting at your shrine at 7am slathering on your moisturiser for the day.)
The main thing you need to do as a devotee of Aphrodite is LOVE HER. That’s it.
That could be as simple as noticing her in the swallows and swans, roses and ranunculuses and thanking her for this beautiful world we live in.
Devotion is simple.
It’s the art of love.
Did you find this guide helpful?
I hope this guide has helped you on your journey to learn how to worship Aphrodite. Let me know in the comments below!
Want more resources?
Get my free Call of Aphrodite guidebook!
Books to explore:
Aphrodite’s Priestess by Laurelei Black
Venus and Aphrodite by Bettany Hughes
Pagan Portals – Aphrodite: Encountering the Goddess of Love & Beauty & Initiation by Irisanya Moon
Aphrodite’s Magic – Celebrate and Heal your Sexuality by Jane Meredith
Want to learn more?:
Or join our online Temple of Aphrodite Membership for monthly deep-dives into the arts, history and magic of Aphrodite!
