Aphrodite is pissed. Enraged. Irate. Furious. Incensed. Indignant. Livid. Appalled. Disgusted. Riled up. She is doing the Divine equivalent of flipping tables and burning shit. She is MAD.
If you are in the US, I’m sure you know why. If you aren’t – Two weeks ago on Friday June 24th, our farce of a Supreme Court, whose conservative-majority members make a mockery of the word “justice,” voted to overturn Roe v. Wade, the case that set legal precedent for abortion rights in the US. In the majority opinion, Injustice* Alito cited the court’s “respect for and preservation of all prenatal life” – cementing that an embryo somehow has more rights than any fully-fledged human who could possibly become pregnant. Injustice Thomas wrote that the Supreme Court should also reconsider the cases that established rights to contraceptive use, same-sex marriage, and consensual acts between same-sex couples. On that Friday, the conservatives cheered as if they had not just ripped away the liberty of so many Americans. As if they had not condemned so many to forced birth, unsafe illegal medical procedures, and even death.
REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS ARE HUMAN RIGHTS. Without exception. In all cases, for all people.
It is an attack on bodily autonomy. It is a statement that the lives of people who can give birth (not just women, but people of all genders and identities) don’t matter as much as an undeveloped clump of cells, or truthfully, as much as the lives of those who seek to control us. It is a declaration that we cannot be trusted to choose what is right for our own bodies. It is an assault on our human right to pleasure. It is a proclamation of the downfall of the Separation of Church and State. It is an onslaught against love and basic dignity. AND WE WILL NOT STAND FOR IT.
What the myths get wrong about Aphrodite’s anger is that it never springs from petty jealousy or vanity. It is when love and life, dignity and respect, acceptance and liberty are threatened that She shows Her wrath. She will not tolerate affronts to love, in any and all of its forms. Love for our fellow human beings. Essential rights of personhood. Freedom from tyranny and oppression.
Aphrodite is unrestrained and fierce. Compassionate, yes, but strong and unwavering when action is needed. The time to play nice has long since passed.
The incredibly ironic thing is that the people who make these transgressions against love – those who take away rights while screaming about freedom, who are trying to make fascism patriotic, who would rather make it legal to carry a firearm in public than have a person choose not to be pregnant – those people ostensibly follow a prophet whose primary teaching was… love.
How twisted and perverted it has become.
So, let’s give them the hell they so desperately fear. Show them that they cannot take our power from us. We will continue to give voices to the voiceless. To speak out against oppression and misogyny. To fight against prejudice and hate. To lift each other up and stand together against the darkness.
And we will teach them what love truly is.
May your power shine brightly. May your love be a beacon of hope. May you be blessed with ferocity and compassion.
*To my readers outside the US, the judges that sit on our Supreme Court are typically called Justices and addressed as such. I see no justice here, and they don’t deserve the title.
Priestess of Aphrodite 