Charge of the Dark God Poster, 8.5" x 11"

A genuine liturgical text. Hatton's Charge belongs to the living tradition of Pagan charges descending from Doreen Valiente's Charge of the Goddess, giving the dark half of the divine its own spoken voice.

Standard 8.5" x 11" format. The letter-size print drops into any common frame, a ritual binder, or a Book of Shadows sleeve without trimming.

Priced for the working witch. At just over a dollar, it is easy to frame one for the altar wall and keep a second in the ritual binder.

• Text: Charge of the Dark God, by Christopher Hatton
• Dimensions: 8.5" x 11"
• Format: printed poster
• SKU: EPDAR

The charge is one of modern witchcraft's defining liturgical forms: a first-person address in the voice of deity, delivered in ritual, most famously in Doreen Valiente's Charge of the Goddess, the single most recited text in contemporary Paganism. The tradition grew counterparts, including the Charge of the God, and Christopher Hatton's Charge of the Dark God extends it into the underworld: the Lord of shadow, death, and the resting half of the wheel, whose season balances the bright god's growing one.

Honoring the dark god is not gloom for its own sake. In Wiccan and broader Pagan theology, the underworld lord presides over endings that make beginnings possible, the harvest's cutting, winter's rest, grief given its due, and the seed's quiet dark before spring. Keeping his charge visible, on the altar wall or in the ritual binder for Samhain and the waning year, keeps the whole wheel in the practice rather than only its sunlit half.

1. Frame it for the altar wall or ritual room, where the text is at hand for the rites that call on it.
2. Read the charge aloud in ritual, traditionally in the season of the waning year, at Samhain, or in rites of ending, grief, and release.
3. Keep an unframed copy in the ritual binder or Book of Shadows for circle work away from home.
4. Pair it with dark moon and underworld workings, letting the text open or close the rite.

Liturgy lives by being spoken. The poster's job is simply to keep the words where your voice can find them.

• Dark Moon Anointing Oil, 4 Dram: the working oil for the same shadowed turn of the cycle the charge gives voice to.
• Black Chime Candles, Set of 20: single-night candles for the rites of release and underworld devotion where the charge is read.
• Crescent Moon with Stones Wall Hanging, 14.5" x 6": a lunar companion piece for the same altar wall.
• Utterly Wicked by Dorothy Morrison: a frank guide to the craft's shadowed side for the shelf beneath the frame.
• White Sage Smudge Sticks, Set of 6: cleanse the ritual space before the rites where the charge is spoken.

What is the Charge of the Dark God?

A modern Pagan liturgical text by Christopher Hatton, written as the underworld counterpart to the Charge of the Goddess. It speaks in the voice of the Lord of the Underworld, addressing death, rest, endings, and the promise of return, themes the brighter charges leave in shadow.

Is the full text printed on the poster?

Yes, the poster presents the charge itself at 8.5" x 11", legible at reading distance for ritual use and framing alike.

When is it traditionally read?

The waning year is its season: Samhain foremost, along with dark moon rites, rites of grief and release, and any working that honors the god's underworld aspect. Many practitioners read the Goddess charge and a god charge in the same rite for balance.

Is "Dark God" something sinister?

No. In Pagan theology the dark god is the deity of the year's resting half: harvest, winter, death as part of the cycle, and the rest before renewal. The charge honors endings as sacred, which is the opposite of sinister; it is honest.

Will it fit a standard frame?

Yes, 8.5" x 11" is standard letter size, so document frames, certificate frames, and binder sleeves all fit it without trimming.