Dedicating to Aphrodite

Spring Mysteries Festival is an annual event held over Easter weekend at Fort Flagler State Park on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington. I like to think of it as a cross between a church service, a murder mystery party, and a renaissance fair with the Greek gods. Over the course of a few days, Fort Flagler is transformed into Athens and a ritual drama is told. Actors and actresses who also play the role of priests and priestess play the parts of the gods and allow the gods to indwell them. Participants in the festival play the part of citizens of Athens. Some of the story is told by the actors on a stage, while some of the story is interactive and involves the festival atendees interacting with the gods. I’ve always found it to be a meaningful time when I go.


One of the high points of the festival is the shrine visits. On Friday afternoon, the gods are in their shrines and accept visits. Some of the gods have messages. Some you can just talk to and seek answers from. Some accept dedicants.


At Spring Mysteries Festival 2007 I waited outside the shrine to Aphrodite with the desire to dedicate the next year of my life to her. I wasn’t sure why I wanted embark on a dedication. I had been going through a difficult breakup and told myself that I needed to learn about love. Aphrodite seemed appropriate to guide me. So I waited to see her, spoke with her, and indicated my desire to dedicate to her. She accepted my dedication and gave me a token to remember her by. I took my token home and placed it on my bookshelf.

The token stayed on that bookshelf for a year. I don’t think I ever picked it up again, and I only looked at it a few times. Perhaps my dedication was something I just did in the thrill of the moment. Maybe it was one of those things we just do when we are feeling good about ourselves at festivals or retreats. In fact, I don’t think I thought much about Aphrodite during that year at all. It wasn’t until it was time to go to Spring Mysteries Festival 2008 that the goddess once again came into my mind.

About 2 weeks before heading to the 2008 Spring Mysteries Festival I was driving down a back road through the hills outside of Portland and I was thinking about what gods I might like to go visit in their shrines this year. I thought about who I might like to work with in the upcoming year, and the gods I had dedicated to the previous year. Aphrodite. Guilt. Man, I didn’t do anything with that did I? More guilt. I just put that token up on the shelf and went my merry way. Guilt. I wanted to learn about love this year and what how did that manifest in my life?

And then it struck me: Sister Krissy Fiction

When I had first dedicated to Aphrodite, Sister Krissy Fiction was just starting to manifest herself. Sister Krissy is a member of the Portland Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. The Sisters are a full incorporated nonprofit charitable organization. One of our primary goals is to promote safer sex education and safer sexual choices. We hand out "bliss kits" consisting of condoms, lube, and instructions at bars. We also host events and fundraisers to raise money and awareness for HIV and AIDS Organizations. We take two vows: to promulgate omniversal joy and to expiate stigmatic guilt. Increase unconditional love and decrease shame. More love! Less Shame!

What could be more appropriate for a dedicant of Aphrodite? As the Aphrodite page on Neos Alexandria so rightly puts it:

"Aphrodite gives to her worshippers the blessings of joy, passion, freedom, whimsy, and appreciation of beauty in all of its forms. She presides over all types of love - from the primal stirring of the loins to the noblest kind of patriotism and love of the gods. The bonds of friendship and family and lovers are especially sacred to her. She brings together instead of tears apart, creates as opposed to destroys."

Truly, Aphrodite was manifesting alongside me as Krissy Ficition. I may have placed her up on my shelf, but her hand had been in my life helping to form and shape Krissy. I had forgotten her. She had not forgotten me.

On Friday, March 21st, during Spring Msyteries Festival 2008 I became Sister Krissy Fiction with purpose. I walked towards Aphrodite’s shrine and I waited. Once inside I thanked her for her hand in my life over the last year and I thanked her for not forgetting me. I also asked for her blessing on my manifestations as Krissy, as well as on the work of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence.

So I remain dedicated for another year to the beautiful goddess of love who taught me that love exists whether you have forgotten it or not. Love is there even when it is neglected or unreturned. Ultimately, Aphrodite manifested through me because I found her deep inside myself and allowed her to come out.

More love!
Less shame!