5 cards to help you rise from the foam and remember who you are
I recently wrote a post about the power of working with Aphrodite, Venus, or other Love Goddesses when you’re working in corporate or high stress environments.
I wanted to expand on this with some practical magic, and share a quick and easy Tarot spread anyone can do.
There’s a particular shade of gray that corporate life tends toward. The gray of fluorescent lighting and long hours starting at a screen, of language scrubbed clean of anything that might startle or delight, of your inner world slowly going quiet because no one’s asking about it anyway.
After enough time in that gray, you start to forget you’re a creature who needs color. Who needs wildness. Who needs beauty and play and luxuries and LIFE.
This spread is for that emergence: for when you’re ready to rise from whatever burned you out and remember that joy isn’t something you earn after a long haul with suffering — it’s your birthright, babe!
I call it the Lover of Smiles spread, after one of Aphrodite’s most beautiful epithets (and also my favorite): Philommeides. The Lover of Smiles. So much joy. Laughter. Delight.
If you want to go deeper on why a Love Goddess is one of the most powerful allies for career transformation and burnout recovery, I wrote a whole post about it: Aphrodite for Work: Why the Goddess of Love Is Your Secret Weapon Against Corporate Burnout
Why Aphrodite for Burnout?
When I created my very first altar to Aphrodite back in 2013, I was an absolute, Bonafide mess. Failed high school sweetheart marriage, total identity crisis while facing a career pivot, and living on edge thousands of miles from home in a 400-square-foot apartment. I had a kick in my step about giving Goddess work a whirl, so I thrifted a table, painted it hot pink, filled a bowl with sand and seashells, added fresh roses, and just journaled to Aphrodite for hours.
I went to her wanting help with love. In a way, I just wanted to know I wasn’t crazy for being dissatisfied with my life. Afterall, my high school sweetheart was a good person. My job was stable. My home was cute. My life was moving forward in all the “right” ways. But I was so deeply unhappy.
She taught me that my creativity was part of what made me valuable. She taught me to carve out time for my passions. She helped me experience joy and pleasure without that weird misty fog of guilt I’d carried my whole life.
Years later, I knelt in the ruins of her temple in Cyprus, pregnant with my second child, asking her not to let me lose myself to work again. Because after my first child, I’d given my best hours and energy to my job, convinced that financial security was love. My home was heavy with stress instead of joy.
So I prayed to the Lover of Smiles. I asked her to help me remember that joy isn’t selfish. I reflected on the person I was at 19, desperate for a voice to tell me – a DIVINE voice – that I was worthy of my dreams. That pleasure isn’t optional. That connection is the point of all of this.
She answered, many times over. And this spread comes from that prayer.
The Spread: Lover of Smiles
For emerging with joy after burnout.
The Shape
Arrange your five cards in a shape that feels right to you. I recommend the shape above, where the first card represents rising from the seafoam.
The Positions
Card 1: The Foam. Who are you now?
Aphrodite was born from sea foam off the coast of Cyprus. She emerged fully formed from the waters, and stepped on to the shore where flowers sprung from her footsteps. This card answers the question: with all you’ve learned, experienced, and seen flowing within you, what version of you is now bubbling to the surface? Not who you were before burnout, not who you’re “supposed” to be, or the wounds you carry. Who are you now, in this moment, with everything that’s shaped you?
Journal prompt: What have the hard parts taught you that you didn’t know before?
Card 2: On Your Feet. Who do you imagine becoming?
This card is your vision. What do you see when you imagine yourself joyful and smiling? As you pull this card, focus on the feeling of being really alive and joyous. Celebrating it. Who is the version of you that has emerged fully from this?
Journal prompt: Describe a single day in the life of your most joyful future self. What does she do? How does she feel? What makes her laugh?
Card 3: Sticks & Stones. What’s the first obstacle?
Aphrodite is more than a Goddess of Love. She’s also a harbinger of war. That’s fitting, since her origins trace back to war Goddesses of the Near East. I like to imagine that the connection between Love and War in myth has a lot to do about know when it’s time to fight: we willingly fight when we have something to protect, or something to fight FOR. This card reveals the first obstacle in your path to fully embodying your most joyous outcome. Just the first one. Name it so you can face it, and get ready for battle.
Journal prompt: Is this obstacle external or internal? What would it look like to meet it with both fierceness and grace?
Card 4: Aphrodite Pandemos. Earthly joy bringing you back into your body
Aphrodite has two expressions. Pandemos is earthly, embodied, and sensory. All the pleasures of the physical world, from hedonism to healthy relationships with body image, sex, music, art, and imaginary play. This card shows the kinds of joy and pleasure the Goddess wishes for you to begin prioritizing in your everyday life. You can opt for some urgency to this card too by specifying that you want to understand what you need (comfort, beauty, rest, play, sensuality, social outings, a vacation) right now. And if it’s been filed under the “I don’t have time for that” category of your life, all the more reason to take it seriously!
Journal prompt: What pleasure have you been denying yourself? What would it feel like to stop?
Card 5: Aphrodite Urania. Celestial expansion
Urania is celestial, intellectual, cosmic love. This is Aphrodite’s second aspect, and it’s a loving energy that many of us feel during spiritual breakthroughs, where we feel deeply connected to something bigger than ourselves. This card reveals where the Goddess sees you expanding your spiritual and creative power, in service to your best self and your community. This is the love that fuels purpose.
Journal prompt: What creative or spiritual gift do you have that the world needs? How might your emergence serve others?
How to Use This Spread
Before you pull:
Light a candle if you have one. Roses or rose-scented anything is perfect but not required. If you’re working with Aphrodite directly, you might call her in by name or use one of her titles. I often like chanting “Aphrodite, Lover of Smiles, speak through these cards” while shuffling.
I talk about my full process for channeling Aphrodite with Tarot in this video:
As you pull:
Let the cards jump if they want to. Aphrodite readings tend to be more fluid than rigid. I place less emphasis on the shuffle and allow her energy to influence which cards appear.
After you pull:
If you’re just getting used to reading Tarot, I **highly recommend** that you journal on what you see before you look up meanings of each card. What do you feel when you look at the images? Do any symbols, colors, or moods stand out to you? What’s YOUR impression? Compare with your guidebook after you’ve done this. While I absolutely recommend this for all beginners, I think it’s a helpful exercise when reading with Aphrodite. She communicates through beauty, aesthetics, and intuition, so sitting with the cards and letting their artwork speak to you directly can give you a lot of insight before you reach for the guidebook.
Quick lil Note on Joy and Guilt
TMI, but for most of my life, I struggled with guilt accompanying any pleasure. Sexual pleasure was the biggest culprit but not the only one. Like, laughing freely when I found something funny – even with friends – was hard. Anything that felt pure and fun came with this weird fog… like being serious or “above” indulgences in these things made me more mature, serious, or maybe just stead.
And when I did let go and enjoy things… the guilt would come crush me later. I’d cringe at myself. Drift into an expanse of over-self-awareness that isn’t good for anyone.
Working with Aphrodite over the last 13 years has been a slow, powerful experience of learning that I could feel joy with no strings attached.
Then, when I was recovering from a traumatic event at work, this was seriously put to the test. Maternity discrimination absolutely crushed my self worth. If I didn’t have a self-love practice built up (thank you Aphrodite), it would’ve taken me much longer to recover. (It still took a year. This isn’t overnight wizardry, here.)
Aphrodite is an inspiring figure from so many angles. Fertility, beauty, pleasure, love — aren’t these the whole point of creative energy?
So stand up, my seafoam friend. Walk the shore. You deserve an expressive life.
Go Deeper
If this spread resonates and you want to explore working with goddess archetypes for your career and ambition, I created Goddesses for Work. It’s a 40-page guide to getting started with goddess spirituality for ambitious folks who want to bring all that spiritual growth into their professional lives.
And if you want support building a spiritual practice that grounds your work, finding a goddess ally for your specific transition, or navigating burnout recovery with someone in your corner, that’s what Pocket Witch is for.
Share Your Pull
If you use this spread, I’d love to see it!! Tag me @the.work.witch on Threads or drop a comment below with what came up for you.
What did The Foam reveal? Where is Urania calling you to expand?
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