How to Appease Your House Spirit for Halloween

You’ve heard it haven’t you? The sigh under your bed just as you lie down. The scratching on the window that stirs you from sleep?

Come closer to the computer. Lower your voice and look over your shoulder.

You know those bumps in the night? Those creaks on the stairs when you’re in bed with the dog and no one else is home? Those misplaced keys and glasses, or randomly spilled milk on the counter? The flash in the shadows that looks like cat eyes, but you don’t have a cat? Something brushes against your foot when you step down onto the rug to get a drink of water in the middle of the night. Something tugs at your sweater when you sit down to watch the television.

You wonder for a moment, then shake it off to dreams that linger, or spicy food before bed, or dust in your eyes, or maybe the wind.

But that’s not it, and you secretly know that there’s more to life and to your home than what you see.

You have a house spirit, and he or she wants your attention.

You can choose to ignore the signs, but they seldom stop. In fact, they get louder, stronger, and more persistent.

So, what can you do?

The house spirit, like a neglected friend, wants a little communication, a little whimsy, a little sacrifice.

Of course, there are traditional ways: leaving out a small offering of milk, meade, or vodka (depending on your ancestry), singing folksongs, keeping a clean kitchen, leaving a special broom beside the hearth, sharing books for All Hallow’s Read. But be forewarned, modern house spirits can be more demanding.

Lucky for you, the kind folks at the Night Garden have provided you with a way to do all three!

They have created the October Challenge to encourage you to create Art inspired by a house spirit. This can be a drawing, a doll, a story, a poem, a recipe, a blanket, any creative response that you can imagine! (Need more ideas, see this blog entry.)

And the sacrifice? Well, you can definitely submit Art without making any donation, but perhaps you can spare a little money to help the Bengals? This special breed is often adopted by overzealous owners, then given up when they realize that you get a lot of cat and quite a bit of tiger-attitude in these darlings. Have I mentioned that house spirits LOVE Bengals? They do.

Complete details about the challenge are here: http://www.thenightgarden.net/?q=node/114

To recap, participate in the Night Garden challenge and you:

1. VERY LIKELY APPEASE YOUR HOUSE SPIRIT

2.) Become a part of an online community of awesome artists

3.) Get published online, on thenightgarden.net site,  alongside professional writers and artists like Christopher Lincoln and Nathalie Boisard-Beudin! That’s some mighty fine company.

4.) Help Bengals: a breed of cat formed by the cross of a domestic feline and an Asian Leopard Cat. These cats are often adopted by overzealous owners, then given up when they realize that you get a lot of cat and quite a bit of tiger-attitude in these darlings.

5.) Maybe get published in a limited edition hardcover version of a new comic about a house spirit! That’s right, some lucky submissions will be included in a special section at the end of Sticks and Bones: Home Is Where the Hearth Is (due out Summer 2012)

6.) Have a chance to win a cameo inside the comic!

6.) Have a chance to win a signed, limited edition poster of the Night Garden Challenge created by Madeline and me!

No one really needs a reason to make Art, but those are some pretty great reasons. Only a few days left!

On October 31st, when the veil between the worlds thins and entities seeking to make contact have more power than before, do you want your house spirits to be happy or discontent?

"The Spirit of the Secrets Closet" by Christopher Lincoln for the October Night Garden Challenge

 

Accordions and Bengals

Some time last year,  I learned about The Night Garden Project and was immediately taken with it because it’s all about collaboration and the crossroads of ideas. It seems to have begun with gnomes and a rooftop garden (You can read about the origin here).

Photo by Megan Granholm

This Spring, the folks over at the Night Garden have decided to host an Inspiration Series, an opportunity for creative folks to get inspired by a particular artist’s work and raise money for the Great Lakes Bengal Rescue (GLBR) in the process.

The first artist to be highlighted/inspirational in the series is Jason Webley. Off stage, Jason is soft-spoken, genuine, and thoughtful. On stage and armed with his accordion, he’s like a musical pirate shaman creating worlds and breaking down preconceptions with his incredible sound. Truly.

From The Night Garden Website:

Every couple of months we will feature a new guest artist under the Inspiration tab in the sidebar (that will appear March 1, when we post our first guest’s contribution). Each guest artist will contribute a piece of art, and you’ll be invited to respond with original art of your own: anything, in any medium, whatever the guest artist’s piece brings out in you. Give it form, then show it to us! Write stuff. Photograph stuff. Draw stuff. Cook stuff. Make a bracelet. Knit some socks. Put on a puppet show. Listen to what the piece says to you, then say something back.

Entries for the first round in the series will be accepted beginning March 1, 2011 through April 30, 2011. More information can be found on The Night Garden website. Check it out, get inspired, donate!

There will be a new artist announced every few months, including a few you may know well (and personally).

😉

I leave you with this…