Aphrodite's Trove is a travel altar box and starter altar kit filled with handmade offerings that lets you bring the oceanic beauty and love, both gentle and warlike, of the goddess Aphrodite with you wherever you go. Each altar kit is perfectly portable and delightfully discreet, making it a perfect fit for witches on the go, those still in the broom closet, and pagans looking for a starter kit for a new altar.
Our tin is emblazoned with a rose gold design created by one of your local trickster spirits working with Lady Aphrodite. The design features symbology associated with Aphrodite. The center has a heart with a crown above it and a clam shell below it. In the upper corners are roses while the bottom corners feature waves. All of this is framed by rose thorns, as a reminder that even the most beautiful rose has thorns.
Included in the altar are:
- Aphrodite Temple Wall tile: This polymer clay altar tile depicts Aphrodite handing the arrows of love to Eros. It's highlighted with gold with gold veins on either side of the depiction, reminiscent of the cracks that would be found in an ancient temple wall
- Venus de Milo: This polymer clay bust depicts the head of Aphrodite from one of her most famous depictions, the Venus de Milo sculpture
- Lady of Seafoam tile: This polymer clay altar tile depicts Aphrodite as a Siren, reclining backwards showing her fish-tail and surrounded by waves. She's highlighted here by a soft shade of seafoam.
- Birth of Venus shell tile: This polymer clay altar tile is made with blushing pink highlighted with pearlescent white and shaped like a scallop shell with a small glass pearl nestled inside. In Botticelli's Birth of Venus, Aphrodite arises from a scallop shell, rising beautiful and fully formed like a pearl. This altar tile embodies the birth of Aphrodite with a pearl rising out of the scallop shell, much like Botticelli's Venus. This theme is carried through in the color of the tile: rosy pink, like the sun just being born into day as it creeps over the horizon and dyes both the sky and sea pink.
- 1 of our self-love tea lights, in the soft shade of cosmetics and scented with rose, citrus, and sea breeze. This scent can be found in both our Aphrodite's Ambrosia and Siren's Song candles.
- 1 rose quartz heart: Aphrodite is said to dislike cold, stony hearts and is known to soften them. The rose quartz heart is made of cold stone, but softened with the tender, gentle pink of rose quartz that blossoms both self-love and love for others.
- 1 Babylonia areolata sea snail shell: Known as the Babylon shell, this sea snail's shell here represents both an oceanic home and Aphrodite's roots. A snail's shell is a home it carries with it always, much like love can make a space feel like home wherever you are. This shell, named for Babylon, calls in an ancient predecessor of Aphrodite: Mesopotamian Inanna/Ishtar, local to the same area as Babylon, who gave many of her qualities to the later Aphrodite.
- 1 large bottle of rose petals: Red roses are the sacred flowers of Aphrodite, said to have formed when she shed tears over the body of Adonis, her consort
- 1 small bottle of Scotch Broom flowers: Scotch broom has historically been used in love divination. This hearty plant spreads far and wide and is difficult to remove, even with effort: much like love itself. These bright, cheery blooms call in the endurance and cheer of true, deep love. These blossoms were sustainably foraged by your local trickster spirits in the PNW.
- 1 sand dollar: This genuine miniature sand dollar is included as an offering to oceanic Aphrodite. Sand dollars are known as mermaid coins; Aphrodite has long been associated with the Sirens and mermaid spirits local to her Mediterranean worship.
- 1 set of Aphrodite prayer beads: These prayer beads see a blue-and-white starfish at one end, for Aphrodite's primordial oceanic associations. The primordial stars themselves call to mind the ancient era where Oceanus, who gave life to Aphrodite, once lived, while the starfish itself brings forth the oceanic quality of the Titanic aspect of her. On the other end is a silver wing for the doves sacred to Aphrodite, who pull her chariot, bringing in her heavenly aspect as Ourania, the Goddess for All people. Between these are 5 beads, a number sacred to Aphrodite, with gold chain between: a metal and color long associated with the Lady. Two glass pearls for self-love frame a gold-plated heart in the center. When Love is in the center, it brings harmony to what surrounds it, much like Aphrodite herself. Glass pearls call in self-love as glass is made from sand, the same gritty irritant that gives birth to the beauty of the natural pearl.
Each tin is 3.5inx2.5inx0.8in.
If you'd like an additional way to work with your altar, select the Combo Pack variant below. This comes with one of our Aphrodite's Trove travel altars and one of our illustrated Aphrodite Prayer cards. Each prayer card features a full color illustration, handmade by your local tricksters and unique to our shop, on the front. The back features a prayer crafted by your local tricksters in Aphrodite's honor. Each prayer card measures 4 x 2.75 inches.
