drive and the power of passion, Aphrodite can turn a woman into
a vessel of procreation—if she does not practice birth control.
Unlike a woman under the influence of Demeter, who has sex
because she wants a baby, an Aphrodite-influenced woman has a
baby because of her desire for a man or her desire for the sexual or
the romantic experience. Aphrodite whispers not to use birth control
because it would detract from the passion of the moment or would
make the first act of intercourse premeditated. To heed the goddess
increases the risk of an unwanted pregnancy.
Coinciding with the procreative instinct, some women feel Aph-
rodite’s influence most intensely at the time of ovulation, fourteen
days before menstruation—when sex is most likely to lead to preg-
nancy. This is when they are more sexually responsive and have
erotic dreams, when they most miss having sex if they are without
sexual partners.
CREATIVITY
Aphrodite is a tremendous force for change. Through her flow
attraction, union, fertilization, incubation, and birth of new life.
When this process happens on a purely physical plane between a
man and a woman, a baby is conceived. And the sequence is the
same in all other creative processes as well: attraction, union, fertil-
ization, incubation, a new creation. The creative product can be as
abstract as an inspired union of two ideas that eventually gives birth
to new theory.
Creative work comes out of an intense and passionate involve-
ment—almost as if with a lover, as one (the artist) interacts with the
“other” to bring something new into being. This “other” may be a
painting, a dance form, a musical composition, a sculpture, a poem
or a manuscript, a new theory or invention, that for a time is all-ab-
sorbing and fascinating. Creativity is also a “sensual” process for
many people; it is an in-the-moment sensory experience involving
touch, sound, imagery, movement, and sometimes even smell and
taste. An artist engrossed in a creative process, like a lover, often
finds that all her senses are heightened and that she receives percep-
tual impressions through many channels. As she works on a visual
image, verbal phrase, or dance movement, multiple sense im-
Aphrodite: Goddess of Love and Beauty, Creative Woman and Lover