October brings with it periods of transition, limits, ancestrals and mystery. It is a month full of tradition: some celebrate religious holidays, await their sacred Samhain or All Saints Day - in the Iseum, we wait for the Liminal Night. Others are simply taken by the "spooky month" aesthetic and the party of walking around with costumes sharing tricks and treats. However, in the online world an October tradition I hold close to my heart was born: "Inktober".

"Inktober" started as a simple hashtag on Instagram that proposed artists make art every day of October, offering a general theme for each day. October grew online as a month for creativity, one where artists did their main creative works and shared them with the world. From a spiritual perspective, this is very curious, a month associated to death and liminality being what promotes creation - and the same duality being present in the Goddesses of Iseum is not a fact that fails my attention.

Well, during the pandemic, the name "Inktober" stopped being used due to problematic choices by the original creator. Many artists still held the desire to create, and even made their own lists of many different themes to inspire the community - one of my favorites is ClassicsTober, that will for sure fascinate hellenic polytheists. We also have in Portugal the challenge by the artist Andreia Pinho, with a focus on portuguese mythology.

As a Sacerdos with the function to create art of the Divine, I see a whole connection and creation of community around art in the month of October, one that the pagan community has also embraced. Inspired by the amazing challenges mentioned, I decided to create the Iseum's art challenge, not only for myself, but for everyone who seeks to share the work and create images of the Divine and Liminal.

This challenge is called "Liminal October" and has as inspiration the energy found in the Iseum. The objective is for it to happen every year, and to have only four prompts - I always thought that a prompt a day was a little overwhelming for an artist routine in a society that does not promote creation. These four theme are distributed among four weeks for those who seek to share their art online to do it during them - and if they do, use the hashtag #OutubroLiminal.

The prompts for this year are:

I tried to keep the prompts both specific (the Goddesses) and general (the concepts). This way we also have more themes to work with in the following years and don't do the whole pantheon at once. Of course we have to start with our ladies and their energies, and I am excited to see the art you do of them. I myself and particulary inspired to create.

Any form of art is valid for this challenge - drawing, painting, photography, poetry, prose, etc. You can even have completely abstract interpretations of each theme, since in art there is no limit. What matters is we create and share images of these Gods that are so mysterious. I will be sharing my art on social media and in the gallery of this space.

I hope the challenge inspires you as it did me.

Happy creativity month, and bright blessings!