Spirit Walks Challenge
Ten groups have come together in a challenge to welcome All Hallow’s Eve/Samhain/Halloween, the beginning of winter, for the southern hemisphere.

The participating groups are Practising the Dark Arts; Blood Red – All things vampiric; Monsters Ink; THE PHANTASMAGORICAL; Short stories – Spherical Scriptings; 1 In The Beginning – Ancient Practices; Fantasy Art; The Art of 3D; Myths, Legends, and Fairy Tales and Flash Fiction.

Background and Inspiration
All Hallow’s Eve is the day when the worlds merge, that of Spirit and flesh, where the veils are at their thinnest, and the Ancestors can freely roam between the two membranes of time and existence. We can communicate more clearly with them, communing together in dreams and shadows.
Samhain corresponds to the Wisdom Cycle of life, the Winter Deities, and thus ensures that our communing with the Ancestors is clear and well grounded.
Samhain is when the Wild Hunt emerges from Faerie to roam the winter countryside. Mortals getting in the path of the Hunt could be kidnapped and brought to the land of the dead.

How to be a part of it
Create an image and/or written work that captures the essence of an aspect of the above information.
Add your work to the group, and paste a link to ithis forum topic.
The challenge is open to the whole world, not just people in the southern hemisphere.

How it will work
Enter your work to the challenge as above.
Your hosts will judge a winning image and written work for the group.
The group winners will then be open to a public vote to pick the overall winners across all ten groups!

Entries close midnight (your time) April 28th.
Group winners will be announced April 30th, and public voting will run for a week (voting details will be provided at that time).
Prizes are yet to be confirmed by RedBubble, but don’t let that hold you back from this record breaking, group collaborative challenge!

SuliHawk, exactly as you say, transported with imigration. Anne, sorry for answering in your group, but I was passing by, LOL!

Entries representing non-European cultural beliefs that overlap with the theme, onset of winter etc as above, are completely what the Challenge is looking for too!

Thanks Damian! Though it makes it even harder for me to narrow my ideas down, LOL. What a fun idea, cheers.

In Search of Welcome

You can enter as many times as you like in the Flash Fiction Group (not sure about the others), but there will only be one winner. When entries close I’ll be asking members to vote (if there are enough entries here, the three hosts will choose finalists for the vote).

Here is another;

Far From Home

One aspect of Samhain is the Feast of the Dead or the Dumb Supper which is held on Samhain eve. It is a night to honor one’s ancestors and to celebrate their lives, for it is on this night that the veil between the living and the dead is thin, and communication is possible.

The Dumb Supper

Liam traced his hand absently behind him as he circled the table. Hesitating, he made a wide berth around his Great Granddad’s chair placed at its head. He then continued counting each place to ensure all was ready for the feast. Just then a gust of wind pushed its way through the open window, rustling the curtains and making its way around the room as if to check his work.

Oh Grandad, Liam thought, I’m old enough now to understand the importance of preparing everything properly. In answer, another, softer breeze floated in and gently tussled the young boy’s hair. See, even Grammy agrees I’ve done a right fine job. Soon the room filled with an ever increasing wind. Liam splayed out his arms as if offering an embrace. Slowly, gently, he was lifted in the air. I love you too, he softly whispered, I’m so glad you came.

Here is my first attempt and entry. I hope you enjoy it.

Death Gaze

Do you remember, as kids, when we used to say that if you looked into a mirror at midnight on Halloween you would see your death gaze staring back?

I was always too scared to try, terrified of the truth.

But here I am now, a grown woman, standing in front of a mirror on Halloween.

I’m still scared but I need to know.

I’ve not been feeling too good lately. I’m not eating or sleeping. Everything feels distant and faint. But no one listens. I’m just a hypochondriac to them, someone convinced she’s dying with the slightest sniffle.

Nervously I open my eyes. At first I’m confused but then, as the horrifying realisation hits, I begin to scream uncontrollably back at the empty room.

Do you remember, as kids, when we used to say that if you held a mirror up to the dead they’d have no reflection?

Happy Samhain

Cecile anticipated Samhain in the way most children looked towards Christmas.

The other kids at school planned their costumes – sheets for ghosts, witches and goblins, the usual clichés. Cecile liked dress ups. She liked the chocolate bars and toffee apple treats. Higher up on her agenda however was the door she’d knock on; the one that all the other kids walked past very quickly.

Mrs Mack clapped her hands. ”Gather around everyone. Stick together and always say thank you for the treats.”

She winked at Cecile, knowing the little girl would stop at one house in particular.

“It’s haunted,” Timmy said. “Don’t stop there, Cecile. I’m telling on you,” Isabelle piped up, but Cecile walked straight up the path to the door and knocked.

It swung open and a tall lady in white peered out shyly from the darkness within. Her eyes sparkled joyfully when she saw Cecile.

“Hello Mummy.”

Happy Samhain

Hi everyone. Thanks for joining in this challenge.
Posting Damian’s journal here with the results and how to vote in the overall Group Challenges.
Spirit Walks Challenge FinalistsThe ten groups involved in the Spirit Walks Challenge have decided their winning entries, and they are now open for a public vote.
Thanks to all of the members of Practising the Dark Arts; Blood Red – All things vampiric; Monsters Ink; THE PHANTASMAGORICAL; Short stories – Spherical Scriptings; 1 In The Beginning – Ancient Practices; Fantasy Art; The Art of 3D; Myths, Legends, and Fairy Tales and Flash Fiction.
The challenge attracted 105 entries, made up of 34 written works and 71 images. Not bad for 10 days!
There is AUS$20 for the overall image winner, and AUS$20 for the overall writing winner.
The writing finalists are
In The Beginning – Ancient Practices
(1) Alison Pearce with The Last Leaves of Autumn
Blood Red – All Things Vampiric
(2) Empress with To Tempt A Taste
Fantasy Art
(3) Alison Pearce with Finding the Faery
Flash Fiction
(4) Anne van Alkemade with Happy Samhain
Monsters Ink
(5) Damian with Blood Spilt
Myths, Legends, and Fairy Tales
(6) Damian with The Wild Hunt
Practising the Dark Arts
(7) Alison Pearce with Spirit Waters
Short Stories – Spherical Scriptings
(8) Miri with Schoolgirl Error
The image finalists are
In The Beginning – Ancient Practices
(1) Helene Kippert with Circle magic

Blood Red – All Things Vampiric
(2) Melanie Dooley with Black Widow

Fantasy Art
(3) F.M. Gore-Kelly with Little Witch

Monsters Ink
(4) Ravenor with Dark Invocation

Myths, Legends, and Fairy Tales
(5) Angela Barnett with Samhain Goddess : The Crone

Practising the Dark Arts
(6) Geoff Coleman with Ianus Semitas

THE PHANTASMAGORICAL
(7) colin with Samhain

The Art of 3D
(8) GoofyFoot with Remorseless Appetite

To vote, choose your favourite written work and your favourite image, and VOTE HERE. They are numbered to help you out.
You have a week to vote (until May 6th), so please take the time to look through the writing as well as the images.
Please don’t write your vote below, as it won’t count and will be removed.
You can go and have a look around the groups that participated below.
1 In The Beginning – Ancient Practices
Blood Red – All Things Vampiric
Fantasy Art
Flash Fiction
Monsters Ink
Myths, Legends, and Fairy Tales
Practising the Dark Arts
Short Stories – Spherical Scriptings
THE PHANTASMAGORICAL
The Art of 3D

Cheers Anne, the journal can be found for voting HERE

After a week of public voting, the winners of the Spirit Walks multi-group challenge are now finalised.

The writing winner is Alison Pearce with The Last Leaves of Autumn, which was the group finalist of In The Beginning – Ancient Practices

The writing runner-up is Miri with Schoolgirl Error, which was the group finalist of Short Stories – Spherical Scriptings

The image winner is Angela Barnett with Samhain Goddess : The Crone, which was the group finalist of Myths, Legends, and Fairy Tales

The image runner-up is GoofyFoot with Remorseless Appetite, which was the group finalist of The Art of 3D

Both winners, Alison Pearce and Angela Barnett, have won a $20 RedBubble voucher.
Both runner-ups, Miri and GoofyFoot, have won a copy of the In the Moment publication.

You can see all of the finalists here.

Thanks to the hosts of the ten groups that took part in this challenge, and thanks to all of the group members for participating! Hopefully we can do another multi-group challenge in the future.