How to Create a Dark Goddess Altar

As the year begins to wane into the autumn season, this time is synonymous with the reign of the Dark Goddess and Crone Goddess.

The latter half of the year from August to October (in the Northern Hemisphere), these are the harvest festivals when crops are harvested.

Honouring the Dark Goddess is best at this time, Her presence felt more and more as the sun begins to rise later, set sooner in the day and the nights become longer.

Creating an altar to celebrate the harvest season is ideal at this time of year; items such as corn, gourds, pumpkins, wheat, leaves and acorns can be placed on the altar.

At this time of year, creating an altar for the Dark Goddess can be part of your yearly practice to honour Her growing presence.

To create a Dark Goddess altar can also be done anytime of year if you’ve chosen to honour the Dark Goddess or a particular dark goddess in your witchcraft or spiritual practice.

Who are Dark Goddesses?

There are dark goddesses in different pantheons and cultures that each are similar, yet unique in their own way.

A Dark Goddess can be viewed as a Crone goddess, but often is more complicated than that.

Dark Goddesses can help us deal with tragedy, difficult times in our lives, work with shadow work themes, understand what death means and symbolizes and can bring healing.

Here are some dark goddesses that can be worked with during the autumn season and if you feel drawn and called to work with a dark goddess, this can be extended to all year around:

Hekate
Baba Yaga
The Morrigan
Kali
Morana (Mara, Morena)
Lilith
Persephone
Cerridwen

These dark goddesses can be worked with, if you are confident yet humble enough to face them.

Dark Goddesses often don’t like practitioners to call on them whenever they are requested to do something – they won’t work with everyone who asks them.

Dark Goddesses often require a practitioner to prove themselves, to show who they really are, that they are “worthy” of their time and attention.

Dark goddesses take time to get to know them, but sometimes a dark goddess will make herself known to a practitioner and will not leave until they are recognized and heard.

Many practitioners will find the Dark Goddess during times of stress, turmoil or even when they hit “rock bottom.”

The call of the Dark Goddess can be sudden and powerful or it can be a persistent feeling that you can’t shake; that you can’t stop thinking about Her and that signs and synchronicities become more and more apparent and common in connection to the Dark Goddess.

The Dark Goddess can be worked with in spell work, meditation and even tarot to get advice, counsel and wisdom.

The Dark Goddess Tarot Spread can be done to work with these 7 different dark goddesses to get their insight and perspective.

To know more about how to work with goddesses in tarot readings, read Working with Deities, Archetypes and Mythological Figures in Tarot Readings.

How to Create a Dark Goddess Altar

A Dark Goddess altar can be personalized any way that you connect with the Dark Goddess or a particular dark goddess anytime of the year.

Here are a few ideas that are an excerpt from Working with the Dark Moon and Dark Goddess e-book:

goddess statue(s) or imagery
herbs/plants connected with a goddess (caution should be made when placing plants and herbs on altars that may be in reach of people, pets and children, especially if toxic to people and/or pets)
crystals associated with a dark goddess
symbolism connected with a dark goddess (e.g. Hekate’s wheel, Cerridwen’s cauldron, Baba Yaga’s mortar and pestle, etc.)
incense created in honour of a specific dark goddess
oils created in honour of a specific dark goddess
candles created in honour of a specific dark goddess (black and/or red candles are the most common colours for the dark goddess)
animal statues or imagery associated with a dark goddess
colours associated with a goddess (used for candles, altar cloth, etc.) The colours black and red are commonly associated with dark goddesses, as well as dark green and dark blue.
animal bones, skulls or hide* (this represents death and loss, but for some people this may not align with personal values. This can also represent an animal that is associate with a particular dark goddess.)

*For many practitioners, the use of animal bone or hide is collected from ethical sources. Use of bones or hide on any altar or practice is a personal choice and not at all necessary to any practice.

These are just a few ideas on how to create a dark goddess altar which can be set up in the early autumn or anytime of year if you feel called upon to work with the Dark Goddess as part of your witchcraft / goddess spirituality.

A Dark Goddess altar can be dedicated to a particular dark goddess such as Hekate or The Morrigan or it can be created for the overall essence of the Dark Goddess in all her forms.

The Dark Goddess & The Dark Moon

While the Dark Goddess is commonly associated with the autumn season from Lammas until Samhain, the Dark Goddess can be honoured every month at the waning moon to dark moon (the moon phase 3 days before the new moon.)

So, no matter what time of year it is, you can still work with the dark goddess every month during the waning moon and dark moon phases.

To know more about what kind of magick is done during the dark moon, check out Dark Moon Magick and Spells.

The Dark Goddess is often associated with witchcraft, death, old age, sickness and healing which She can be worked with in these areas of your spiritual practice.

The Dark Goddess is also often see as a protector and can be called upon when you need physical or spiritual protection.

She can also be vengeful and can help to hex, jinx or curse enemies, but if your slate isn’t clean and you have any part in your own karma coming to you, the Dark Goddess will also turn her vengeance back on you.

Dark Goddesses aren’t called upon for minor slights and problems that can be easily walked away from or forgotten -if someone wronged you and you want the Dark Goddess to “teach them a lesson”, carefully ask yourself if you will eventually “get over it” and if the injustice is great enough to warrant it.

To know more about the Dark Goddess and dark moon, get your copy of Working with the Dark Goddess and Dark Moon e-book.

For tarot spreads and the Dark Goddess, be sure to get the Dark Goddess Tarot Spreads e-book.