Psyche: 6 Easy Ways to Connect With the Goddess of the Soul
Who is the Greek Goddess Psyche?
Psyche is the ancient Greek goddess of the soul.
Her name meaning ‘soul’ or ‘breath of life’.
In mythology, she is depicted as the wife of the god of love Eros.
There’s no known worship of Psyche in antiquity.
Psyche begins appearing in Greek art as early as the 4th century BCE.
Psyche was depicted in Greco-Roman art as a beautiful woman with butterfly wings. Often alongside her husband Eros.
Why Worship Psyche?
The modern experience of the goddess Psyche is very much tied to the mind, self-care and the unconscious.
Psyche is the gentle guide through a dark night of the soul. She is the soothing light of metamorphosis.
Pray to her for help with mental-health issues, life transitions and for strength in uncertain times.
Is Psyche Reaching Out to Me?
Ignore ShitTok. (Seriously, it’s frying your brain).
You don’t have to be ‘called’ or receive signs from a deity to worship them.
Wanting to connect with Psyche is enough of a reason to do so.
The ancient Greeks weren’t ‘called’ by their deities.
They worshipped whoever they needed or wanted to!
Cultural Context Matters
The best way to grow fulfilling relationships with the gods is to venerate them within their own cultural context.
Honouring the gods of ancient cultures means acknowledging that they knew best about how to honour and petition the gods.
It also increases your chances of success in building a long-term relationship with her.
A big part of embracing the Greek cultural context when connecting with Psyche is to not impose your past religious beliefs onto her worship.
Here are some things to be aware of when connecting to Psyche and other Greek gods:
The myths aren’t literal.
The gods welcome everyone regardless of gender, sexuality or ethnicity.
The gods don’t get angry.
The gods don’t have ‘beef’ with one another.
How to Worship Psyche
This post is going to give you the tools to begin and maintain a relationship with the goddess Psyche, rooted in ancient Greek culture.
Psyche Summary
Home: Mount Olympos
Husband: Eros
Offspring: Hedone
Symbols: Butterfly
Crystals (UPG): Rose quartz
Plants (UPG): Lavender, lilac
Traditional Offerings: Barley, frankincense, honey, milk, olive oil, votive offerings, water
Non-Traditional Offerings: Flowers, lavender incense
Epithets: Breath of Life, Butterfly-Winged, Wife of Eros
1. Learn About Psyche’s Myths
The first step in connecting to Psyche is to read her myths.
In case you scrolled right past my painstakingly written section on religious baggage (lol). I’m going to repeat myself here.
Don’t take the myths literally. The myths are stories that reveal insights into the nature of the gods in a metaphorical way.
You can worship Aphrodite and Psyche together because polytheism is cool like that.
Psyche: The OG Disney Princess
The only myth about Psyche comes from the Roman novel The Golden Ass by Apuleius (2nd century CE).
Apuleius spins a great yarn.
Psyche was born to mortal parents and was so beautiful that the local man started worshipping her over Aphrodite.
Aphrodite is super unhappy about this. She asks her son Eros to have Psyche fall in love with someone awful.
Things don’t quite go to plan.
Eros ends up pricking himself on his own arrows of lurve and falls in love with Psyche.
After some light murder and lengthy trials, the story ends like all good stories should.
With apotheosis and a wedding on Mount Olympos.
It’s a fantastic fairytale myth and I’ll link a couple of retellings in the resources section below.
There and then he ordered that Psyche be detained and brought up to heaven through Mercury’s agency. He gave her a cup of ambrosia, and said: ‘Take this, Psyche, and become immortal. Cupid will never part from your embrace; this marriage of yours shall be eternal.
The Golden Ass by Apuleius
Psyche in Gnostic Texts
The Nag Hammadi Gnostic text On the Origin of the World briefly mentions Eros and Psyche.
And the first soul (psyche) loved Eros, who was with her, and poured her blood upon him and upon the earth. And out of that blood the rose first sprouted up, out of the earth, out of the thorn bush, to be a source of joy for the light that was to appear in the bush.
Psyche Mythology Resources
2. How to Create an Altar to Psyche
The best way to feel the long-term presence of Psyche in your life is by setting up a dedicated altar and creating kharis through regular offerings.
Psyche Altar Ideas
Framed image or statue of Psyche
Offering bowl
Incense burner
Pink, blue or purple candles
Pink or purple flowers
Butterfly imagery
Rose quartz
My own altar is pretty minimalist. If you prefer something more maximalist that’s absolutely fine.
Just remember, you have to move the 20,000 knickknacks on your altar every time you want to dust it.
And I do mean weekly!
3. How to Pray to Psyche
Psyche is considered an ouranic deity.
Meaning she’s associated with Mount Olympos and the sky.
Ancient Greek prayer to the ouranic deities is performed with hands held wide and up towards the sky.
According to classical scholar Walter Burkert ancient Greek prayer followed a distinct formula:
‘Hear me!’
The name of the deity with their appropriate epithets.
‘Whatever name it pleases you to be called’ repeated afterwards.
Naming the place from which the god would come.
Explaining what previous offerings the person has made to the deity.
A short request for aid.
A vow made.
I’ve loosely used this prayer format to create the prayer below.
A Prayer to Psyche
To pray to Psyche, stand with palms up and arms raised. Then say your prayer.
Hear me, Psyche! Breath of Life, Butterfly-Winged Goddess, Wife of Eros.
Or whatever name it most pleases you to be called. Come from your place on Mount Olympos. I have created an altar for you and I would like to feel your presence in my life, may this offering of incense please you.
British poet John Keats (1795-1821) wrote a beautiful ode to Psyche which could be utilised as a prayer.
Ode To Psyche
O Goddess! hear these tuneless numbers, wrung
By sweet enforcement and remembrance dear,
And pardon that thy secrets should be sung
Even into thine own soft-conched ear:
Surely I dreamt to-day, or did I see
The winged Psyche with awaken'd eyes?
I wander'd in a forest thoughtlessly,
And, on the sudden, fainting with surprise,
Saw two fair creatures, couched side by side
In deepest grass, beneath the whisp'ring roof
Of leaves and trembled blossoms, where there ran
A brooklet, scarce espied:
Mid hush'd, cool-rooted flowers, fragrant-eyed,
Blue, silver-white, and budded Tyrian,
They lay calm-breathing, on the bedded grass;
Their arms embraced, and their pinions too;
Their lips touch'd not, but had not bade adieu,
As if disjoined by soft-handed slumber,
And ready still past kisses to outnumber
At tender eye-dawn of aurorean love:
The winged boy I knew;
But who wast thou, O happy, happy dove?
His Psyche true!
O latest born and loveliest vision far
Of all Olympus' faded hierarchy!
Fairer than Phoebe's sapphire-region'd star,
Or Vesper, amorous glow-worm of the sky;
Fairer than these, though temple thou hast none,
Nor altar heap'd with flowers;
Nor virgin-choir to make delicious moan
Upon the midnight hours;
No voice, no lute, no pipe, no incense sweet
From chain-swung censer teeming;
No shrine, no grove, no oracle, no heat
Of pale-mouth'd prophet dreaming.
O brightest! though too late for antique vows,
Too, too late for the fond believing lyre,
When holy were the haunted forest boughs,
Holy the air, the water, and the fire;
Yet even in these days so far retir'd
From happy pieties, thy lucent fans,
Fluttering among the faint Olympians,
I see, and sing, by my own eyes inspir'd.
So let me be thy choir, and make a moan
Upon the midnight hours;
Thy voice, thy lute, thy pipe, thy incense sweet
From swinged censer teeming;
Thy shrine, thy grove, thy oracle, thy heat
Of pale-mouth'd prophet dreaming.
Yes, I will be thy priest, and build a fane
In some untrodden region of my mind,
Where branched thoughts, new grown with pleasant pain,
Instead of pines shall murmur in the wind:
Far, far around shall those dark-cluster'd trees
Fledge the wild-ridged mountains steep by steep;
And there by zephyrs, streams, and birds, and bees,
The moss-lain Dryads shall be lull'd to sleep;
And in the midst of this wide quietness
A rosy sanctuary will I dress
With the wreath'd trellis of a working brain,
With buds, and bells, and stars without a name,
With all the gardener Fancy e'er could feign,
Who breeding flowers, will never breed the same:
And there shall be for thee all soft delight
That shadowy thought can win,
A bright torch, and a casement ope at night,
To let the warm Love in!
4. How to Give Offerings to Psyche
To single most effective way to build a relationship with Psyche is to give her regular offerings.
The ancient Greeks created kharis or ‘reciprocity’ between humanity and the gods through offerings.
Traditional Offerings
Frankincense incense
Grains
Honey
Milk
Olive oil
Wine
Always wash your hands before giving an offering. Hesiod says in his Work and Days (circa 700 BCE):
Do not pour libations of sparkling wine to Zeus and other immortals at dawn with unwashed hands. They do not hear your prayers, but spit them back.
Nothing bad will happen if you forget to do this. It’s just basic politeness and good hygiene.
After washing your hands, say a prayer, pour out a libation, light your incense or place the offering in the bowl.
Then spend a few minutes in quiet contemplation.
You may experience warm and pleasant feelings or you may not feel anything.
You don’t need to check that your offering was accepted through divination.
Just peacefully accept that Psyche heard you.
How Do You Dispose of Offerings?
Leave offerings out for an hour or two before disposing of them.
Libations can be poured directly onto the ground outside.
Libations can be poured down the sink.
Food offerings can be composted.
Try to avoid leaving food offerings outside as it can attract pests and harm wildlife.
How Often Should You Give Offerings?
The answer is as often as you want to.
The more important a deity is to you the more frequently you’ll probably want to give offerings.
You can give offerings daily, weekly or monthly.
5. How to Communicate With Psyche
We can communicate with the gods in several ways.
Historically, these would have been through:
Prayer
Offerings
Divination
Omens (signs)
Theurgy
We can utilise what the ancients did for (hopefully) successful results.
Divination
Divination was super popular in ancient Greece. It included anything from bird omens, to divination by entrails (yikes). Mercifully, for my vegan heart, we have things like tarot and oracle decks.
To connect with Psyche through divination simply make an offering, and ask your question in the form of a prayer.
Sometimes the messages don’t make sense and I usually assume I haven’t genuinely received guidance in those situations.
Signs or Omens
Not everything is a sign.
The first day I started writing this article about Psyche, I went into the kitchen to make some lunch and I saw my first butterfly of 2024.
It’s still winter in England (I’m writing this at the start of February). While a rather beautiful coincidence… it wasn’t a sign.
Just nature doing its thing.
Signs are reasonably uncommon and they tend to leap out at you as significant within the moment.
How to Ask Psyche For a Sign
I would only ask for a sign for a very important reason. Here’s how:
Make an offering to Psyche.
Say your prayer and ask for a sign.
Ask her to send the sign within a week and ask that it be obvious to you.
If you don’t receive one, don’t sweat it.
Theourgia
Communicating with Psyche through meditation overlaps with ancient theurgy practices.
Theourgia or ‘theurgy’ is a form of divine magic that involves the ritual invocation of the gods with the aim of achieving henosis or union with the divine.
Unfortunately, we don’t know too much about theurgy so modern books on the subject are modern reconstructions.
I recommend the book The Practical Art of Divine Magic (2015) by Patrick Dunn.
You can also connect with Psyche through meditation.
Make her an offering and ask her to be with you through prayer.
6. Devotional Acts to Connect With Psyche
Don’t gte me wrong, tradition is important.
But it can also be fun to create devotional rituals that honour the gods in a more modern context.
Below you’ll find a few suggested devotionals to the goddess Psyche.
Journalling
Psyche’s name relates to the word for our own ‘psyche’ which is the totality of our conscious and unconscious mind.
Therefore, self-development of all kinds can act as a devotional offering to her.
Journalling is a wonderful way to connect with your own psyche in offering to the goddess.
Try dedicating daily journalling to Psyche as an offering.
This video by Therapy in a Nutshell discusses the mental health benefits of journalling.
Lavender Sacred Bath
Lavender is renowned for its soothing and calming properties.
Having a bath using diluted lavender essential oil can be a form of devotional ritual to Psyche.
Make an offering of lavender incense before you bathe.
Tell Psyche you dedicate this soothing bath to her.
Pray For Help With Anxiety
Pray to Psyche for help with anxiety.
While myths aren’t to be taken as literal stories.
Psyche’s myth points us towards a deity who can help us to feel braver in times of upheaval and trial.
It goes without saying. But please make sure you’re seeking the correct medical help as needed!
Create a Festival to Psyche
Psyche doesn’t have any festivals dedicated to her because she wasn’t worshipped in antiquity.
But you can create one for her!
Choose any day of the year to celebrate a modern festival to Psyche.
Make offerings, say prayers, plan devotional activities and eat a feast in her honour.
More About the Greek Gods
Be sure to check out my other blog posts focused on the Greek gods. You can find them below.