Orphic Hymn to Venus: Empower Your Venusian Prayers & Magic -

The ‘laughter loving queen’ Venus, known in traditional astrology as the Lesser Benefic, would be a great place for many people to start building relationships with planetary spirits or beginning a devotional practice. The Renaissance magician-physician Marsilio Ficino advised as a general rule for people “to increase the influence of the Sun, of Jupiter, or of Venus.” Invocations, prayers, and offerings to a planetary spirit can help you attune to and come into rhythm with that planet. There are many ways to pray to or invoke a planetary spirit, including simply speaking from the heart, but a natural place to start is one of the most common and accessible prayers to Venus: The Orphic Hymn to Venus.

The Orphic Hymn to Venus

The Orphic Hymns are a collection of Hellenistic religious poems that were involved in the practices of Orphism, a mystery religion centered around the mythical figure Orpheus. The infamous magician Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa wrote that “nothing is more effective in natural magic” than the hymns of Orpheus.

The Orphic Hymn to Venus exemplifies one approach to planetary prayer, which is to regale the spirit with praise, listing many noble qualities, powers, accomplishments, and superlatives associated with that spirit.

The Orphic Hymn to Venus (actually Aphrodite in the Romanized Orphic tradition) is famously long, so buckle in!

Heavenly, illustrious, laughter-loving queen,
sea-born, night-loving, of an awful mien;
Crafty, from whom necessity first came,
producing, nightly, all-connecting dame:
‘Tis thine the world with harmony to join,
for all things spring from thee, O power divine.
The triple Fates are ruled by thy decree,
and all productions yield alike to thee:
Whate’er the heavens, encircling all contain,
earth fruit-producing, and the stormy main,
Thy sway confesses, and obeys thy nod,
awful attendant of the brumal God:
Goddess of marriage, charming to the sight,
mother of Loves, whom banquetings delight;
Source of persuasion, secret, favoring queen,
illustrious born, apparent and unseen:
Spousal, lupercal, and to men inclined,
prolific, most-desired, life-giving, kind:
Great sceptre-bearer of the Gods, ’tis thine,
mortals in necessary bands to join;
And every tribe of savage monsters dire
in magic chains to bind, thro’ mad desire.
Come, Cyprus-born, and to my prayer incline,
whether exalted in the heav’ns you shine,
Or pleased in Syria’s temple to preside,
or o’er the Egyptian plains thy car to guide,
Fashioned of gold; and near its sacred flood,
fertile and famed to fix thy blest abode;
Or if rejoicing in the azure shores,
near where the sea with foaming billows roars,
The circling choirs of mortals, thy delight,
or beauteous nymphs, with eyes cerulean bright,
Pleased by the dusty banks renowned of old,
to drive thy rapid, two-yoked car of gold;
Or if in Cyprus with thy mother fair,
where married females praise thee ev’ry year,
And beauteous virgins in the chorus join,
Adonis pure to sing and thee divine;
Come, all-attractive to my prayer inclined,
for thee, I call, with holy, reverent mind.
—Orphic Hymn to Aphrodite, tr. Thomas Taylor

The Orphic Hymn to Venus can be recited on Fridays, the day of Venus, particularly during the planetary hours of Venus. We recommend lighting a candle and burning incense with any prayer or invocation. Aromatic and sweet smelling incenses such as rose are good choices for Venus, and you could use traditional materials such as aloeswood (lignum aloes), musk, or frankincense. You could light a single candle or if you were performing a more involved ritual or petition you might use seven (the number associated with Venus).

If the aesthetics of 18th century poetic verse do not appeal to you, then be aware that other more modern translations of the Orphic Hymns exist, such as in the Orphic Hymns Grimoire by Sara Mastros.

The Hygromanteia Prayer to Venus

Another prayer to Venus comes from the Hygromanteia, also known as the Magical Treatise of Solomon, a group of Byzantine-era grimoires focused on astrological and planetary magic. The Hygromanteia prayer to Venus is somewhat more commanding than the Orphic Hymn to Venus, and you may wish to use it when you have more experience invoking and petitioning Venus. This prayer, like the Orphic Hymn, lists some of the qualities and powers of the spirit. In contrast, though, the Hygromanteia prayer appeals to the spirit by a list of names associated with Venus. Different versions appear in the text, one of which is as follows:

In the name of the most supreme God, in His most desirable name, I conjure you, most harmonious, most beautiful and most fair lady Venus, who lies in valor and in the might of love, who tortures the human flesh from within. O Venus, who rules over passion and distributes love, most comely Venus, who leads every yearning in the hearts of men and women and moves the entrails of people; O lady, crowned with the wreath of love, I beseech thee for your power, in order to torture the people I want and make them fall under my feet. I conjure you, Venus, by God, who created you and placed you in the heaven. I conjure you by the seal that is in your heart, by your wreath, by your heaven, and in your following names: Montoaran, Maugoran, Ktioel, Pyrgeton, Lioikon, Ikarizi, Iakor, Ladokon, Parinos, Phrektiouz, Phaloumpol, Kraipophon, Alleopon, Estoge, Iaseph, Zaglytai, Krigenos, Ooulan. In your above names, do not disobey me, but grant your grace and your virtue in the work I am going to attempt.
—Hygromanteia, MS Harleianus 5596, tr. Ioannis Marathakis

The Heptameron Conjuration of Venus

Another somewhat more involved prayer can be adapted from the Heptameron, a grimoire of spirit invocation attributed to Peter de Abano. A translation of the Heptameron by Joseph H. Peterson is available at Esoteric Archives. The Heptameron takes a very different approach than the Orphic Hymns or the Hygromanteia prayers. Rather than appealing to Venus herself, this invocation approaches the spirit by appealing to other spirits in the same cosmic hierarchy. The Heptameron also involves facing and calling upon spirits of the different directions. You can think of this type of prayer as locating yourself within the Great Chain of Being so as to best position yourself to appeal to a particular spirit.

This particular invocation invokes the planetary archangel of Venus, known as Anael. The Heptameron planetary invocations are prefaced by invocations of angels of the relevant level of heaven in the four directions. An abbreviated ritual for appealing to the angels of Venus could go as follows:

[Facing East:] Setchiel. Chedusitaniel. Corat. Tamael. Tenaciel.
[Facing West:] Turiel. Coniel. Rabiel. Kadiel. Maltiel. Huphaltiel.
[Facing North:] Peniel. Pemael. Penat. Raphael. Raniel. Doremiel.
[Facing South:] Porna. Sachiel. Chermiel. Samael. Santaniel. Famiel.
[Facing West:] I Conjure and Confirm upon you, ye strong Angels, holy and powerful; in the name On, Hey, Heya, Ia, Ie, Adonay, Saday, and in the name Saday, who created fourfooted beasts, and creeping things, and man in the sixth day, and gave to Adam power over all creatures; wherefore blessed be the name of the creator in his place: and by the name of the Angels serving in the third host, before Dagiel, a great Angel, and a strong and powerful prince; and by the name of the Star which is Venus, and by his Seal which is holy, and by all the names aforesaid, I Conjure upon thee, Anael, who art chief ruler the sixth day, that thou labour for me, and [speak your own petition or request here].
—Heptameron, XXIII. Considerations for Friday, tr. Joseph H. Peterson

Note that the Heptameron is a highly complex grimoire and the above prayer is a simplified adaptation of a much more extensive rite of conjuration. You may wish to further research the text before delving into this prayer.

Picatrix Prayer to Venus

A more extensive prayer to Venus can be found in the premiere grimoire of astrological magic, the Picatrix or Ghayat al Hakim. This prayer can be used on its own, but was originally intended as part of a more extensive rite of petition involving complex suffumigations and other ritual trappings. The full version of the Picatrix prayer involves all three approaches we have seen so far: listing epithets and qualities, appealing to different names of the spirit, and appealing to associated spirits in the relevant cosmic hierarchy. A partial selection of the Picatrix prayers to Venus that shows some of the similarities and differences to the other prayers follows:

May God bless you, O Venus, you who are queen and fortune, and are cold and moist, equitable in your effects and complexion, pure and lovely and sweetly scented, beautiful and ornate. You are the lady of adornment, of gold and silver; you delight in love, joy, ornaments and jests, elegance, songs and music that are sung or played on strings, written music and song played on organs, games and comforts, rest and love. In your effects you remain equal. You take delight in wine, rest, joy, lying with women, for in all of these your natural effects consist. I invoke you by all your names: that is, in Arabic, Zohara; in Latin, Venus, in Persian, Anyhyt; in Roman, Aflludita; in Greek, Admenita; in Indian, Sarca. In conjure you by the Lord God, the lord of the highest firmament, and by the obedience you offer to God, and by the power and lordship He has over you, that you listen to my prayer, and consider my petition, which is [speak your own petition or request here]. And I conjure you by Beyteyl, who is that angel whom God has set beside you to complete all your powers and effects.
…
I beseech you by your names, and by the sublime and exalted name of God, who created you and moves you in your heaven, that you may listen to my prayer and petition.
—Picatrix, tr. John Michael Greer & Christopher Warnock, Book III, Chapter 7

For the full version of the Picatrix prayer to Venus, consult the full version of the Picatrix, available from Christopher Warnock.

Writing Your Own Prayer to Venus

The above prayers from the Orphic Hymns, the Hygromanteia, and the Heptameron are excellent general-purpose texts for coming into relationship with Venus. If you intend to pray to or petition Venus for a very specific purpose, such as making an astrological talisman with a particular intention or keyword, you may wish to write your own prayer.

As we saw above, there are generally three main approaches to praying to a particular spirit that are exemplified in the prayers listed above. These are:

Listing noble qualities, powers, or deeds of the spirit;
Calling upon the spirit by their various different names and epithets;
Situating oneself in the relevant cosmic hierarchy by invoking or appealing to other spirits associated with or ruled by the spirit.

Prayers in astrological and planetary magic can serve as double duty for a request or petition: that is, one can appeal to what the spirit does effectively and downplaying what is not in line with the spirit’s influences. As Agrippa writes:

“[C]omposing [prayers] for attracting the virtue of any star or god…is accomplished by praising, extolling, amplifying, and adorning that which the star typically brings about and influences, while suppressing and rejecting that which the star typically destroys and impedes. Pray and implore for that which the star typically destroys and impedes; reprimand and detest that which one desires to destroy and impede.”
—Three Books of Occult Philosophy, Book I, Chapter 71, tr. Eric Purdue

A good place to start with this is primary sources about the spirit. The Orphic Hymn to Venus and Picatrix prayer to Venus each have some great epithets, names, and descriptions of Venus. The Hygromanteia and Heptameron likewise have associated names, spirits, and effects of Venus. Agrippa also lists a number of epithets and descriptions of Venus that you may wish to draw upon:

Venus is called the lady, nourishing, beautiful, starry, glittering, pretty, gentle, very powerful, fertile lady of love and beauty, original parent of the races of the world and men, who in the first beginning of things united the two different sexes in love, and with the eternal offspring of men and species of animals propagate daily, the queen of all delights, lady of joy, lady of the friendly, female friend, merciful and receiving good, always perpetually beneficent to the mortal, mother of sweet affection, granting chance mercy, safeguarder of the human species, allowing no moment of time pass empty of beneficence nor idle, promising all of her virtues, humbling the high to the low, strengthening the weak, the noble to the mean, rectifying and equalizing all. She is also called Aphrodite because, in all sees, she is found in every mind. She is named Lucifera, as it were, a bringer of the light of the Sun, or leading us to the light. She is called Hesperus when she follows the Sun, and she is called Phosphorus, by uniting everything however difficult.
—Three Books of Occult Philosophy, Book II, Chapter 59, tr. Eric Purdue

Research into the mythology of Venus/Aphrodite and the epithets of Venus/Aphrodite can also help provide perspectives from which to approach the planetary spirit. Although the Hellenistic god and the planetary spirit are not identical, it can help provide an inroad into the aspect of the spirit you wish to invoke.

Other Resources

Other resource posts in this series:
Diana Rose Harper‘s primer on planetary prayers is an excellent general place to start for beginners.
Christopher Warnock’s book The Celestial Way provides a more extensive resource for planetary devotion.
Venus altar, ritual, and offering suggestions by Kaitlin Coppock of Sphere + Sundry.

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