In response to an article I posted here to mark Valborgsmässoafton or Walpurgisnight, on April 30th, one Danish reader sent me a Midsummer Song from Denmark. Thank you Ea Himmelbjerg! With Ea’s permission I have made this song the topic of an article here.

A few practical notes first:

Below is the Midsummer Song (in full) in Danish but I have added (my own) translation into English, below every verse.

Please note that Johannes is the Danish version of the English name John and often abbreviated to Hans (so Saint Hans is actually St John!)

The relevant passage, (from our perspective, on the topic of witches), appears in verse #3. I have marked it in enlarged bold print so it is easy to spot, if you want to scroll fast through the original (probably incomprehensible) lyrics in Danish.

There is a VIDEO VERSION by Erling Jan Sørensen. Click on the link to watch it.

Midsommervise

1. Vi elsker vort land,
når den signede jul
tænder stjernen i træet med glans i hvert øje, BY
når om våren hver fugl
over mark, under strand
lader stemmen til hilsende triller sig bøje:
vi synger din lov over vej, over gade,
vi kranser dit navn, når vor høst er i lade;
//: men den skønneste krans
bli’r dog din, sankte Hans!
den er bunden af sommerens hjerter så varme, så glade. ://

We love our country, when the blessed Christmas lights (up) the star in the tree with shine in every eye, TOWN

When in Spring every bird, over land and beach, lets its voice tremble in greeting

We sing your praise over the road, over the street

We garland your name, when our harvest is in the barn

But the most beautiful wreath, is still yours, Saint Hans

Bound (crafted) from the hearts of summer

so warm, so happy.

2. Vi elsker vort land,
men ved midsommer mest,
når hver sky over marken velsignelsen sender,
når af blomster er flest,
og når kvæget i spand
giver rigeligst gave til flittige hænder;
når ikke vi pløjer og harver og tromler,
når koen sin middag i kløveren gumler:
//: da går ungdom til dans
på dit bud, sankte Hans!
ret som føllet og lammet, der frit over engen sig tumler. ://

We love our country, but most so at Midsummer

when every cloud over the fields sends a blessing

when the number of flowers proliferates

and when the cattle in the yard

delivers the gift of abundance to industrious hands

When we do not plough and harrow and roller

when the cow chews her meal in clover

Then the youths go dancing

at your command, Saint Hans (St John).

Just like the foal and the lamb tumble (bounce) carefree in the meadow

3. Vi elsker vort land,
og med sværdet i hånd
skal hver udenvælts fjende beredte os kende!
men mod ufredens ånd
over mark, under strand
vil vi bålet på fædrenes gravhøje tænde:
hver by har sin heks og hvert sogn sine trolde,
dem vil vi fra livet med glædesblus holde;
//: vi vil fred her til lands,
sankte Hans, sankte Hans!
den kan vindes, hvor hjerterne aldrig bli’r tvivlende kolde! ://

We love our country

And with the sword in hand

every foreign enemy had better prepare to know us!

But against the spirit of discord

over land and beach

We will kindle the fire on the burial mounds of our fathers

Every town has its own witch and every parish has its trolls

Those we want “out of life” with a blast of joy

We want peace here in our land

Saint Hans, Saint Hans!

It can be won where hearts never grow suspiciously cold

This song, Holger Drachmann’s version, is from one of the greatest success stories in the Royal Theatre: “Once Upon A Time”. There is the original melody (by P.E. Lange-Muller) and also a newer (jazzed-up) melody by Shu-bi-dua.

Many people might well think of this as a piece of “living folklore”. After all, these ideas remain deeply rooted in the Scandinavian folk mind. However, from my perspective, an entire nation belting out the words:

We will kindly the fire on the burial mounds of our fathers

Every town has its own witch and every parish has its trolls

Those we want “out of life” with a blast of joy

We want peace here in our land

… every year again, is nothing short of disturbing. Chanting or singing is a very potent way of activating or empowering something (such as a mindset or an old belief). At best “out of life” or “from life” could mean “at a safe distance from my own life” (or perhaps “well away from community life”), but it could also mean something more sinister.

Ea tells me that the feast day of St Hans (St John), June 23rd is also the national bonfire night in Denmark. People still make a witch effigy and burn it/her on the fire! This keeps the dehumanisation and demonisation of witches alive in a very graphic way. It keeps the image, of a witch being burnt at a stake, bubbling away in people’s minds (even if it festers mostly in the unconscious regions of the human mind).

PS from Ea Himmelbjerg:

Your translation from the 3rd, 'Those we want “out of life” with a blast of joy', misses something. 'Glædesblus' are bonfires. So it means,'we will keep them away by burning them', which is what Sct. hans is all about Bonfires everywhere. Even writing it is difficult, but that is what is means. I don't call myself a witch, but I am aware that had I lived then, I would have been called one and most likely killed. Also the joylly singing of killing other people is frightening to me. It reminds me of how the nazis had Jewish musicians playing Wagner at concentration camps. Lack of empathy, awareness and sense of decency.

In many previous articles I have written about the fact that the (so called) Witch Wound is still very much alive in the minds of many people (especially women, but men too). It contributes to many ordinary people not talking openly about their activities or interests (because of “the people in their village finding out”). Until today you can lose friends, or the goodwill of your neighbours (in smaller villages or rural areas), by “coming out” about witchcraft. People in big cities have the protective “cloak of greater anonymity”, which doubles as a Cloak of Invisibility. In the cities people carry less (historical, originating in a previous lifetime) fear of local people rocking up with their pitchforks and a mob mentality.

The phrase “Kill the witch!” still goes strong in Western culture (in our day it often refers to a relentless and biased campaign to persecute opponents or dissenting voices). Outside Western culture, thousands of vulnerable people are still harmed or even murdered every year, because people equate “being different”(in any way) with witchcraft and “wicked pursuits”.

For all of those reasons I find this song (and the notion of an entire nation belting out this song once a year) highly unfortunate (to put it mildly) but it is obviously not in my power to do anything about that.

THE FACE OF THE WITCH APPEARS ON A RUNE STONE, selfie by the author

As always I invite you to share your own stories and experiences in the comment section.

Is anything like this happening in your country (of birth or residence)?

Is the Witch Wound still active within you or someone you love?

Thank you again for the topic suggestion, Ea Himmelbjerg!

I try to send out two essays a week, but this sometimes fails due to travel, international teaching commitments and family care responsibilities (our family lives with Alzheimer’s and I have written several posts about that). If you would like to see regular posts about about Nordic spirituality and my life as a Forest Witch (and of course short videos of all the wildlife here!), please follow me on Instagram or Facebook, thank you!

As my audience here grows daily I need to add the following statement: ©I own the copyright to all my own words and images, as they appear here on Substack (or anywhere else). You can only reproduce this material (full or in part) elsewhere, if you give me full credit as the author and or artist. Most of you already knew this! Thank you!

Imelda Almqvist, Forest House and Forest School, Sweden

BIO FOR IMELDA ALMQVIST

Imelda Almqvist is an international teacher of Sacred Art and Seiðr/Old Norse Traditions (the ancestral wisdom teachings of Northern Europe). So far she has written four non-fiction books and two picture books for children. Natural Born Shamans: A Spiritual Toolkit for Life (Using shamanism creatively with young people of all ages) in 2016, Sacred Art: A Hollow Bone for Spirit (Where Art Meets Shamanism) in 2019, Medicine of the Imagination - Dwelling in Possibility (an impassioned plea for fearless imagination) in 2020 and North Sea Water In My Veins (The Pre-Christian spirituality of the Low Countries) was published in June 2022. Her latest book: Portals, Patterns and Pathways: A Handbook for Rune Magicians, Star Gazers and Myth Makers will be published (in the UK on May 26th and about a month later in the US).

The Green Bear is a series of picture book for children, aged 3 – 8 years. The stories and vibrant artwork, set in Scandinavia, invite children to explore enchanting parallel worlds and to keep their sense of magic alive as they grow up.

Imelda appears in a TV program, titled Ice Age Shaman, made for the Smithsonian Museum, in the series Mystic Britain, talking about Mesolithic arctic deer shamanism.

Imelda’s eagerly awaited book about the runes (the title is Portals, Patterns and Pathways, a Handbook for Rune Magicians, Star Gazers and Myth Makers) will be published by Collective Ink on 26 May 2026). She is currently working on a book about Inuit deities and mythology.

Imelda prefers being contacted by email. She only rarely checks (or responds) to DM’s on social media platforms.

Please note that Imelda’s on-line school called Pregnant Hag Teachings went off-line on 3 September 2025, due to a quadruple raise in fees imposed by the hosting platform. PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT AND FULL EXPLANATION

Website:

http://www.shaman-healer-painter.co.uk/

YouTube Channel: youtube.com/user/imeldaalmqvist

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/imelda.almqvist/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/almqvistimelda/

Dancing around a maypole decorated with foliage, pickled herring, boiled new potatoes with soured cream and chives, making wreaths, dreaming with flowers under your pillow, strawberry cake, schnapps and specific songs that accompany them…

Yes, we are rapidly approaching the shortest night of the year, here in Scandinavia. The astronomical summer solstice will occur on Sunday 21 June, at 10.24 Central European Time.

As always I am sending out this article one day early, so if people want to follow some of the suggestions, they there some time left to prepare and organise that! Tomorrow is a Big Day in Sweden, almost on a par with Julafton (Christmas Eve) I would say. It is a public holiday and people here engage in many traditions. (Please note that I am sending out another article on Saturday about a darker side to these celebration, connected to witch hunts).

It is often assumed that this celebration has pre-Christian origins, but this is uncertain because we have no evidence for this. Any relevant writing from before the Early Medieval Period has not been preserved (if it existed).

In the Christian church, the birthday of John the Baptist has been celebrated on June 24th, since about the year 300 CE. This feast day made it to Scandinavia around the year 1000 (when the Nordic Region became Christianized).

The word “midsummer” originally referred to a period starting one month later, around July 20-22. In the Icelandic sources this period is connected to the practice of Blót (offering ceremonies). The oral tradition (or folk mouth) eventually moved the word “midsummer” from late July to the birthday of John the Baptist. I am guessing this was because the temperatures in July, here in Scandinavia, are generally higher in July. (This year, 2026, we had night frost up to the last week of May!)

Here in Sweden people form a circle and dance around the Maypole, while singing all the traditional songs. VIDEO

It is believed that the Maypole (Maibaum in German) was introduced in Sweden from Germany around the 14th century. The word “May” in that word does not refer to the month of May. It is derived from the old verb maja, which means to cover or decorate with foliage and flowers. (I associate Rune EOH or Eihwaz with the Maypole, because it represents the axis mundi - world axis or spine - made manifest, visible!)

Wearing a blomsterkrans (wreath) in your hair is a bit of a “must” for children and women!

MY “BLOMSTERKRANS” IN 2025 (It was more foliage than flowers!)

A liberal supply of alcohol is deeply wired into these customs. In the year 1999 we once hosted a Midsummer Party in London (UK). I had just discovered that I was pregnant with our first son. From that determinedly sober perspective I was aghast at the amount of alcohol people were knocking back.

Here in Sweden these celebrations (and same thing happens on New Year’s Eve and Walpurgisnight or Valborgsmassoafton) tend to spin out of control, so the police are out in full force. The morning after Valborgsmässoafton 2026, the Stockholm Police ran an update (on their social media page) about exactly how many teenagers had been arrested (for disorderly conduct) and how many parents had been called out of bed to collect their offspring from a police station… As Midsommarafton is also the weekend that the school year ends and many families start their summer holidays, it i one of most traffic-accident-prone weekends of the year too.

Midsummer Eve is always celebrated on a Friday, no matter what the astronomical date for the summer solstice is. The celebrations happen outdoors, so there is a lot of talk about the weather, in the run-up to the Big Day. And yes, it often rains…

Many fun activities are organised on Midsummer Eve, such as “sack races” and a “lucky dip” or raffle.

In the countryside Midsummer Eve (or Midsummer Night) was seen as one of the most magical nights of the year. Otherworld beings were out and about and eager to attend the celebrations as well. The Veil between the worlds thins and supernatural occurrences are common.

It was believed that healing herbs were extra powerful this night, to it was a good time to harvest them. People also made posies from midsummer flowers, to retain (a bit of) the spirit of Midsommar during the rest of the year. I guess also to remind themselves that even an eight-month-winter does not last forever?)

Those posies, or small bouquets, could be added to the bath water on Christmas Eve, to help people stay healthy and vibrant. They were also used as a universal medicine when animals became sick. Generally speaking plants picked on Midsummer Eve are believed to have healing properties.

Rural people also made a Midsommarkvast (essentially a Midsummer Besom) from birch tree twigs, which were used in the steaming hot sauna. They could also be used to sweep clean (or energetically cleanse/purify) the house. It was used for the duration of the summer.

MY BESOM! A gift from a Canadian student (but NOT a “Midsommarkvast”!)

Another magical ingredient was the Midsummer dew. The idea was to walk barefoot in the dew, to stay strong and healthy during the year to come. The dew was also collected to cure diseases, and for brewing beer and making bread rise (because it carries wild yeast cells from the surrounding vegetation!)

Continuing with the theme of water (Rune LAGU or Laguz!) people would also visit certain wells and drink the water to gain strength and maintain good health.

There is a lot of folklore about the gift of sight and foretelling the future, on this day. The same goes for all major feast days. People would attempt to “see” who was going to get married in the year to come, who was going to die and what the harvest (Rune JARA or Jera) was going to be like.

I have written about “årsgång“ before. Midsummer Eve is another good time to perform such an omen walk. More information and a full set of instructions can be found in a previous post (just adapt them to summer season): ARSGANG. (A concept I also relate to Rune JARA or Jera, because the name of this rune refers to both the harvest and a one year cycle!)

Another option was sitting out in silence by a jordfaststen (a large rock that is firmly embedded in the earth and impossible to move without specialist equipment). The general idea is not unlike what some Native American peoples call a “vision quest”: the idea is to receive either a vision or an auditory message from spirit.

People believed that it was possible to see the funeral procession pass, of a person destined to die in the year to come, or even to hear the grass grow (like Norse god Heimdallr!) as an indication of a good harvest.

PICKING NINE FLOWERS

Unsurprisingly forms of love divination are the most popular of all: the most famous one was to pick seven or nine different types of flowers and put them under your pillow, so you would dream of the person you will marry in the future. Odd numbers carried a magic of their own, so it was important not to pick an even number of flowers. Those flowers also need to be picked in total silence. Break the silence and you break the magic!

Other magical ingredients or actions (which could be added) was performing everyday actions in the nude, or in reverse, our counter-clockwise, or while observing yourself in a mirror.

Some prescriptions suggest that, to really do things properly, you need to climb (or jump across!) over as many fences as the number of flowers you pick. (Stay safe please!)

Yet another popular divination method was to eat something extremely salty (such as salted herring) and to make (so called) drömgröt or drömpannkakor (dream porridge or dream pancakes) from water, flour and an overdose of salt. After doing that you go to bed, without drinking anything. Your future lover or spouse would then reveal themselves in a dream and offer you some kind of drink. And the type of drink he or she offers offers even more divination because it will tell you whether your life together will be rich or poor!

If that doesn’t speak to you, go could go out and look into a (so called) midsommarkälla (midsummer spring, a spring connected to scrying and divination work on sacred days). Ideally the face of your future spouse (rather than your own mirror image) will look at back at you from the surface of the water…

Springs were generally good places to visit anyway, on any day full of Big Magic, to enhance your fertility, if you so wish.

Oh and before I forget: Midsummer is also a great time to go treasure hunting because on this day enchanted treasures will magically rise from the ground and become visible to human eyes. But remember to do this in total silence, or else the treasure will disappear back into the Earth and never be seen again.

Tree frog, photograph by Stephan Berendsen

The European tree frog is one of the most remarkable frogs found in the Netherlands. With its bright green color, large adhesive toe pads, and excellent climbing skills, it feels right at home among reeds, shrubs, and low vegetation. Although it grows to only a few centimeters in length, it easily catches the eye when basking in the sun. However, these tiny acrobats are not easy to find. Their excellent camouflage and secretive nature allow them to blend perfectly into their surroundings, making every sighting a special experience. -Stephan Berendsen

Last but not least, you must sing a song about small frogs on Midsummer Eve!

WATCH VIDEO

Små Grodorna

Små grodorna,
små grodorna
är lustiga att se.
Små grodorna,
små grodorna
är lustiga att se.

Ej öron, ej öron,
ej svansar hava de.
Ej öron, ej öron,
ej svansar hava de.

Koack, ack, ack
Koack, ack, ack
Koack, ack, ack, ack, aa.
Koack, ack, ack
Koack, ack, ack
Koack, ack, ack, ack, aa.

Small frogs 2x// are funny to look at. Repeat twice

No ears, no ears// no tails have they. Repeat twice.

Quo-ack ack ack… etc. (Replace all words in the song with “quack”!)

English speakers might be surprised to hear that frogs say “quack” in Swedish, because in English that is reserved for ducks. Frogs say “ribbit ribbit!” in English, but in Dutch frogs also say “kwak”. Maybe there are local animal dialects? : )

Please note that the website of Nordiska Museet (The Nordic Museum) in Stockholm was the source for most of this information: SOURCE. Another fabulous source of information (for those of you who can read Swedish) is ISOF: Institutet för språk och folkminnen (The Institute for language and folklore/traditional beliefs). LINK

I try to send out two essays a week, but this sometimes fails due to travel, international teaching commitments and family care responsibilities (our family lives with Alzheimer’s and I have written several posts about that). If you would like to see regular posts about about Nordic spirituality and my life as a Forest Witch (and of course short videos of all the wildlife here!), please follow me on Instagram or Facebook, thank you! (And please check out my upcoming book about the runes, see the picture below).

As my audience here grows daily I need to add the following statement: ©I own the copyright to all my own words and images, as they appear here on Substack (or anywhere else). You can only reproduce this material (full or in part) elsewhere, if you give me full credit as the author and or artist. Most of you already knew this! Thank you!

Imelda Almqvist, Forest House and Forest School, Sweden

BIO FOR IMELDA ALMQVIST

Imelda Almqvist is an international teacher of Sacred Art and Seiðr/Old Norse Traditions (the ancestral wisdom teachings of Northern Europe). So far she has written four non-fiction books and two picture books for children. Natural Born Shamans: A Spiritual Toolkit for Life (Using shamanism creatively with young people of all ages) in 2016, Sacred Art: A Hollow Bone for Spirit (Where Art Meets Shamanism) in 2019, Medicine of the Imagination - Dwelling in Possibility (an impassioned plea for fearless imagination) in 2020 and North Sea Water In My Veins (The Pre-Christian spirituality of the Low Countries) was published in June 2022. Her latest book: Portals, Patterns and Pathways: A Handbook for Rune Magicians, Star Gazers and Myth Makers was published (in the UK on May 26th and just came out in the US and Canada).

The Green Bear is a series of picture book for children, aged 3 – 8 years. The stories and vibrant artwork, set in Scandinavia, invite children to explore enchanting parallel worlds and to keep their sense of magic alive as they grow up.

Imelda appears in a TV program, titled Ice Age Shaman, made for the Smithsonian Museum, in the series Mystic Britain, talking about Mesolithic arctic deer shamanism.

Imelda’s eagerly awaited book about the runes (the title is Portals, Patterns and Pathways, a Handbook for Rune Magicians, Star Gazers and Myth Makers) will be published by Collective Ink on 26 May 2026). She is currently working on a book about Inuit deities and mythology.

Imelda prefers being contacted by email. She only rarely checks (or responds) to DM’s on social media platforms.

Please note that Imelda’s on-line school called Pregnant Hag Teachings went off-line on 3 September 2025, due to a quadruple raise in fees imposed by the hosting platform. PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT AND FULL EXPLANATION

Website:

http://www.shaman-healer-painter.co.uk/

YouTube Channel: youtube.com/user/imeldaalmqvist

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/imelda.almqvist/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/almqvistimelda/

LONG-EARED OWLS, THE NETHERLANDS, photograph by Stephan Berendsen

“Out on you Owls! Nothing but songs of death”.

Words spoken by King Richard in Richard III (Act 4, Scene 4), Shakepeare

I often write about challenging subjects here but I try to balance this with other posts highlighting something beautiful, inspiring or someone with a unique body of work. Today’s article blends mysticism and local folklore with wildlife photography!

In countries all over Europe we find many myths and folk beliefs involving birds, including owls. Birds have a huge advantage over human beings: they have wings and they can fly.

Owls are commonly viewed as omens or harbingers of death, in folklore and ancestral superstitions from all over the world. Across the Atlantic Ocean, some Native American peoples believed that the Great Horned Owl was the most feared owl of all.

The Muscogree (formerly Creek) people and the Chicksaw people believed that witches or sorcerers could transform into into owls and fly around at night, causing mischief. Owls could also be spirits of the dead roaming around at night.

The Cherokee people feared owls because of their association with malevolent and supernatural powers (and events). In their language the world for “witch” is the same as the word for Great Horned Owl. This onomatopoeic word is WAHUHI, it expresses the hooting sound made by this owl.

For the Choctaw People, the call of each owl species had a distinct meaning:

The Great Horned Owl: sudden death.

The Screech Owl: foretells the death of a child.

Barred Owl: foreshadows the death of a relative. SOURCE

Then again, other peoples believed that owls were indeed spirits but not malevolent. They were just messengers, delivering messages between the Land of the Dead and the Land of the Living.

In the English language we have a popular saying: “Don’t shoot the messenger!” which I think is relevant here. The bringer of any omen (or tidings) is hardly responsible for the news it carries. The messenger didn’t cause the events but keeps us informed or warned us of things to come.

People would sometimes attempt to kill an owl before it made a sound (for instance by throwing boiling water at it). But, obviously, killing an innocent animal is hardly going to save the life of a human being, when it is their time to go. In my home tradition that outcome is carved by the Norns or Powers of Fate, not by the local owl community. (I have already promised to write in more detail about that, especially in the context of assisted dying, in the future).

Here in Sweden it was believed that the behaviour of Owls could predict the weather. There are no famous or “named” owls in Old Norse mythology but their flight paths and calls could be interpreted as a form of divination work. This practice is known as augury.

Ugglor i riggen eller på annat ställe på skutan bådar storm och olycka. Hinner man skjuta ugglan, slipper man undan olyckor och farligheter.

Owls in the rigging, or anywhere else on a ship, forebodes both storms and an accidents. If you manage to shoot the owl, you escape the accidents and dangerous situations. [My own translation]

Upptecknat av Lars Österman, Östergötland (ULMA 20852, s. 1). SOURCE

In the Swedish province of Östergötland, there is a small “mountain” (not an alp, but more of a rocky wooded hill by the standards of the rest of the world) which stands guard over the Eastern shore of Lake Vättern, the second largest lake here in Sweden. The local people report that a mysterious goddess lives on this mountain. Not a world famous goddess from Norse mythology but a local goddess. Her name is Omma or Drottning Omma: (Queen) Omma.

Her name gives us a clue to her true nature. Etymologically speaking he word “omma” goes back to an older word: either ama or åmme, which means smoke, steam or mist. Even today local people will say “det åmmar” when the mist creeps in across the big lake and thickens as it climbs up the mountainside. In those magical moments it looks like the mountain is exhaling or “breathing out” and a goddess then appears in the shape created by the wisps of mist. This goddess is either (or both) a personification of the mist and the indwelling spirit of the mountain. When she appears, the landscape looks different to human eyes. We briefly see glimpses of other (parallel) words. SOURCE

Omma is often described as a hybrid: half human being and half “berguv” (literally mountain owl but it’s called an eagle owl in English). She has night vision and guards the rocky shore and cliffs. She is the soul of the mountain and we need her consent to spend time on this mountain. Local people have always respected her and made offerings to her.

Genom Drottning Omma ser vi hur den gamla nordiska tron egentligen fungerade. Den var inte en enhetlig dogm, utan ett nätverk av lokala makter som var lika unika som de platser de bebodde. Att erkänna Omma är att erkänna den levande själen i det lokala landskapet, en röst som fortfarande hörs när dimman åmmar över Hjässan.

(What we know about) Drottning Omma shows us how the Old Norse faith functioned in reality [in everyday life]. It was not a unified “doctrine” but more like a network of local powers, which resembled (and represented) the places they dwelled in. To acknowledge Omma was to acknowledge the living soul in the local landscape. Her voice which is still heard, even today, when the mist rolls in over Hjässan [the highest point on the mountain]. My own translation. SOURCE

I think that these words contain a beautiful ancestral wisdom teaching and I reproduced them in Swedish just to amplify them!

Of course I then decided that I needed pictures of owls for this piece and immediately thought of my youngest brother, Stephan!

Stephan Berendsen is a teacher of physics by day and a passionate nature (or wildlife) photographer in his free time. I always enjoy seeing his photographs (my own are paltry amateur snapshots by comparison!) and I thought my subscribers might also enjoy seeing a small selection of his work. I have put his own captions and explanations in cursive script.

THE LONG-EARED OWL, NETHERLANDS

The Long-eared Owl is the second most common owl species in the Netherlands. During winter, these mysterious birds display remarkable behavior: they gather at communal roosting sites, known as winter roosts. Sometimes as many as thirty Long-eared Owls can be found together in a single tree. As spring approaches, they disperse once again. Pairs are formed, and old nests built by crows or magpies are given a second life as nurseries for the next generation.

After about three weeks, the young owls leave the nest. Not yet fully capable of flight, they climb among the branches and rest on safe perches in the tree. This stage offers wonderful opportunities for observation and photography, often resulting in charming and memorable images.

LONG-EARED OWLS, THE NETHERLANDS

And last but not least (as a bonus), some shots of some very different animals on another continent (Africa):

Above: Hyena cub

Below: an entire family of spotted hyenas in Kruger Park in South Africa. Hyenas live in clans. The females rule! The cubs below are different ages (from different batches) and possibly belong to different mothers. The adult hyena is the nanny. The cub with the dark fur is the baby of the family.

All photographs were taken with a telephoto lens and from a respectful distance, ensuring that the birds were not disturbed. Symmetry is a powerful compositional element in nature photography that can make images more visually appealing.

The photographs below of zebras and White-fronted Bee-eaters are fine examples of this. Both images were taken in 2026 in South Africa, where the natural symmetry of the animals creates a strong and harmonious composition

ZEBRAS IN SOUTH AFRICA

WHITE-FRONTED BEE EATERS IN SOUTH AFRICA

I will continue to write about challenging (even controversial) topics but every once in a while I will also post about Forest Witch Magic or something beautiful, for balance. Loyal readers have also requested that I write more about the topics of Fairy Runes and the Sami people. I will try to deliver those things as and when my time budget allows.

Is there any interesting folklore about owls in your own location, or in family stories? Please let me know in the comments and thank you!

Would you like to see more of Stephan’s photographs in future articles? (I am sure that can be arranged).

And do you think we could dispatch Stephan to Östergötland and ask him to capture a glimpse of Queen Omma?!

You will find Stephan’s Bio and profile picture below just below this article.

I try to send out two essays a week, but this sometimes fails due to travel, international teaching commitments and family care responsibilities (our family lives with Alzheimer’s and I have written several posts about that). If you would like to see regular posts about about Nordic spirituality and my life as a Forest Witch (and of course short videos of all the wildlife here!), please follow me on Instagram or Facebook, thank you! (And please check out my upcoming book about the runes, see the picture below).

As my audience here grows daily I need to add the following statement: ©I own the copyright to all my own words and images, as they appear here on Substack (or anywhere else). You can only reproduce this material (full or in part) elsewhere, if you give me full credit as the author and or artist. Most of you already knew this! Thank you!

Imelda, Forest House and Forest School, Sweden

My name is Stephan Berendsen. I am married and have two children. As a physics teacher at a secondary school in the city of Den Helder, in the Netherlands, I spend my working days studying and teaching the world of inanimate nature. In contrast, my greatest passion is nature photography.

In my free time, I enjoy heading outdoors with my camera to capture the beauty of the natural world. Birds and other wildlife are my favourite subjects, but I also enjoy photographing landscapes. Although most of my photographs are taken close to home, I love combining travel with my passion for photography. Exploring new places and capturing their unique wildlife and scenery is always a rewarding and inspiring experience.

You can check out more of Stephan’s photographs here:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/188520366@N05/

https://www.instagram.com/stephan4636/

https://www.facebook.com/stephan.berendsen.3

PAINTING FOR THE ART VIDEO: SWAN MAIDEN’S SONG by the author

First of all I would like to thank all the kind readers of have sent me pictures of the arrival of my new book. Some of you have even made your own “unboxing videos” and one of you sent me picture of her cat reading my book (which has since become a video series titled The Cat Rune Magician!) It feels like “a month of birthdays” here and I cannot expressed how deeply touched this global explosion of creativity makes me feel. One by one I am putting the people who did this “in the sunshine” ,with one gratitude post a day on social media. The generosity and creativity involved definitely encourages me to never stop writing (and to never become a total recluse, only a part time hermit!)

I also want to extend a special thank you to Shamans Directory. I have been one of their ambassadors since their inception and they recently hosted a “Meet A Real Rune Magician” presentation (the title was chosen by them, not me!) attended by 95 people (and some of you were there, I recognised some names and faces). Their mission vision is: One Fire. Many Traditions. Gathered in respect to offer our wisdom and medicine to the world.” After five years of offering countless educational yet FREE events, they are now planning to create a new online platform, designed to serve their growing global community for years to come. If you appreciate their offerings you can support them here: LINK. Following them on social media platforms helps too!

Now onto today’s topic! In December 2024 I posted an article here about ASSISTED DYING. Today I am going to look into some finer points and downstream consequences, which require careful consideration. This is a huge topic, so I have divided the material into several essays.

Assisted dying revisited

The UK is currently taking its baby steps on the path to introducing assisted dying, after an assisted dying bill was passed in the House of Commons, in November 2024. Understandably there have been a lot of arguments made, both for and against. However, earlier this year the bill did not make it through the House of Lords, so for the time being this process has stalled.

Let me first clarify that, in my previous piece, I wrote that I was in favour of the assisted dying option, but only for people who have literally and medically started their final journey (meaning that they are actively dying and this process cannot be reversed). This was based on having watched both my parents die (in the Netherlands, but with adequate pain relief, so neither received assisted dying!) I still (and always will) advocate for the option of assisted dying (as an alternative to slowly suffocating, choking on one’s own saliva, or dying in a level of pain that even morphine cannot alleviate adequately).

However, what has become much clearer (in the interval since my previous article) is that, based on events in other countries (most prominently Canada and the Netherlands) it appears to be impossible to introduce assisted dying, without placing the most vulnerable people in society on an incredibly slippery (and irreversible) slope.

Upon further investigation it also becomes clear that the moment that assisted dying is introduced (and made legal) the scope of eligibility soon starts to widen alarmingly. First the threshold of terminal illness (and people who have a prognosis of less than one month to live) is breached because people with other conditions then also demand access to this option. But reality shows that things escalate from there.

MY WHITE MOTHER, painting by the author

Assisted dying for people with eating disorders

In the Netherlands (my country of birth) a 33-year old woman called Esther Beukema, who was diagnosed with anorexia nervosa at age 18, was administered assisted dying (in her childhood bedroom, with her parents and brother present). She had attempted suicide many times and had actively campaigned for ten years to be allowed to make the choice to die. ARTICLE

Paediatric euthanasia

The Netherlands was the first country to allow assisted dying for children, this procedure is called paediatric euthanasia. It was first permitted only for adults, then for new born babies in situations when a dying patient (a baby!) is suffering, and palliative treatments are ineffective. And now it is also permitted for children. Initially paediatric euthanasia remained technically illegal, but it was understood by all that it could be performed with a minimal risk of prosecution under accepted criteria (tacit consent).

The Netherlands was the first country in the world to officially legalise euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide, in 2002. Historically, euthanasia was first permitted in adults and children with an intellectual capacity of 12 years and older, then in infants and now it is also legal for children aged between 1–12 years. That initial approval reflected the beliefs of the Royal Dutch Medical Association (KNMG) that a doctor’s duty to preserve life sometimes conflicts with their duty to relieve suffering. In such cases, the doctor is free to choose which duty to honour. The KNMG recognised that euthanasia should always be a last resort to be used only after all other approaches to the relief of suffering had failed.

The Dutch approach to legalisation has been complex. It included public discussion, litigation, legislation, regulation and ongoing revaluation. Through this process, the Dutch ended up with a regulatory approach that is different from other countries because Euthanasia remains technically illegal. In reality this means that each case of euthanasia must be reported to regional oversight committees. Those committees then report their evaluations to a public prosecutor who has the discretion to decide whether to bring criminal charges against the doctor if his/her actions were judged by the committee as not showing due care for the patient, or not. SOURCE

As we will see in a future article, those safeguards make the situation very different from Canada!

Neonatal Euthanasia

Euthanasia was initially approved only for intellectually competent adults and children over the age of 12 years. Around 1995, two cases galvanised a national debate in The Netherlands about whether to legalise neonatal euthanasia. One baby had trisomy 13 (a severe genetic disorder, only 10% of babies make it through their first year) and the other baby had a severe myelomeningocele (a severe form of spina bifida). In both cases, doctors and parents decided to give the babies lethal injections. The physicians were prosecuted and then acquitted on the grounds that they had acted ‘according to scientifically and medically reasonable judgements, and in line with ethical norms’. This has since led to other cases of neonatal euthanasia. SOURCE

THE THINGS I WILL TAKE TO MY GRAVE, painting by the author

Now back to the UK for a moment: the Conservative MP Kit Malthouse, who was a cheerleader for the bill and sits on the committee, made a dramatic point of order after a majority voted down an amendment to protect people with Down Syndrome by 13 to 8. SOURCE

Here we need to note that Trisomy 13 is not organised under the heading Down Syndrome. The three types of Down Syndrome are Trisomy 21 (the most common form), Mosaic Down Syndrome (the rarest form) and Translocation Down Syndrome.

It might also be worth mentioning that the most fatal trisomy is Trisomy 16. This is the most common chromosomal abnormality which usually leads to miscarriage within the first 11 weeks of gestation. It is universally incompatible with life and, unlike other Trisomy forms, it cannot actually proceed to a life birth.

I observe that people with Down Syndrome are having a hard time, in the current climate. At the time of writing there is a huge media storm surrounding two influencers, with over four millions followers (a couple, who had an abortion after a prenatal diagnosis of Trisomy 21) but I am not going to profile them here on my small platform. By now the issue has largely narrowed down to the fact that the male half of this couple (a famous YouTuber) spoke derogatively about people with Down Syndrome, because (most, but certainly not all) people acknowledged that medically and legally speaking they were offered the option of termination (and used it). (And they also elected to share that personal decision with millions of other people, so they chose to expose themselves to the full spectrum of opinions held by others).

It is a medical fact that half of people with Down Syndrome are born with a heart defect. But research has shown that more than 40% of paediatric transplant centres often consider intellectual disabilities a cause for concern when evaluating for organ transplants, because of assumptions that patients with disabilities may not be able to care for themselves and also because of “preconceived notions about their quality of life,” says Michelle Sagan, communications director for the National Down Syndrome Society (NDSS). “Their life is seen as not as important.” Another study found that adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities are less than half as likely to receive a kidney transplant as adults without IDD. People who object to this call this mindset ableism (discrimination or social prejudice against people with disabilities). SOURCE

As the current media storm illustrates: people with Down Syndrome are also affected “at the other end of the human life span” by prenatal terminations. Medical professionals generally assume that a diagnosis of Down’s means the couple or woman will opt for abortion. I have even heard stories about parents out and about with a child with Down’s being asked (by strangers): “Wasn’t that picked up at the scan?” I have no words for how horrible and rude that is…

I did a a bit of research

In Iceland there are almost no children with Down Syndrome. Not because the condition does not appear in pregnancies, but because all those pregnancies are terminated. The national statistic is just shy of 100%. Only two or three children with Down Syndrome are born there every year. Denmark is not running far behind, with a termination rate of 98%. In Norway it is 90%, in the Netherlands 85% and in Finland it is 70%. The figure for Sweden has not been published in the public domain (but is likely to be on a par with Norway). In Southern Europe the average figure is 72% and in Eastern Europe it is 38%.

Statistics released by NHS England reveal that 87.26% of all babies prenatally diagnosed with Down’s syndrome in England and the Crown Dependencies had their lives ended by abortion in 2021. SOURCE

DISMEMBERMENT, painting by the author

There is a backlash to this practice unfolding on social media, driven by parents of children with Down Syndrome, practicing Christians and Pro Life Activists and probably also some people looking for clicks and traffic).

Nicola Enoch, Chief Executive of Down Syndrome UK (DSUK) has pointed out that: …in so many ways across society, the lives of those with Down Syndrome are too often misunderstood and devalued. This [also] makes people with Down Syndrome especially vulnerable to coercion and pressure under assisted suicide laws.

Rachael Ross of the National Down Syndrome Policy Group (NDSPG) added: “Many people with Down syndrome and other disabilities are now outliving their parents or guardians. The consequence of this is that they can be highly dependent upon the state and healthcare organizations. Getting this Bill right to ensure that those with Down Syndrome are properly protected could not be more important. As it stands, the Leadbeater Bill does not adequately protect those with Down syndrome. They’re particularly at risk.”

I (Imelda) freely admit that I had not thought through any of these dimensions and ramifications, when I wrote my first article on this topic. Naively, I automatically assumed that people with a learning disability could not make life-and-death choices without a guardian or advocate by their side. On further reflection I now think that vulnerable people in society will definitely be more at risk than people who are better resourced and properly supported. And that is never acceptable, on any level.

My parents, who died 13 years apart, did not receive euthanasia (as we prefer to call assisted dying in the Netherlands) but both did receive adequate palliative care. Their deaths were peaceful. There was a strong sense of completion and proper transition, in the room. They were surrounded by loved ones and tended by kind and compassionate nurses. And even IF the pain relief that they received shortened their lives by a few hours (or even one day) I have no regrets. They were no longer in any state that allowed quality of life and both had said their goodbyes to loved ones. I would never impose preventable suffering on a person in extremis. Nor do I believe that doing so constitutes what we call “a good death” in my profession.

I my next article (on this specific topic) I will delve into what is happening with MAID (Medical Assistance in Dying) in Canada. Covering at all in one article is too overwhelming (both for me and for my readers). Also, Substack does operate a word count for articles!

Once both pieces are online, I can write more from a spiritual or shamanic perspective and even an Old Norse (the Norns and Powers of Fate) perspective , if people would like me to. Please let me know in the comment section if you are interested in that!

What I will say today to close this article (and this is a message on repeat) is that a skilled practitioner can use shamanic tools to speak to the higher/timeless self or soul of a person who cannot communicate in everyday reality (due to impairments such as disability, being unconscious, being non-verbal or even being an unborn or new born infant). They can give a voice to those who cannot speak for themselves. This means that those individuals can still express a preference or soul need, and have a voice in the decision-making about their own life (or death). And that can take an immense burden off the shoulders of loved ones. I wish more people knew about this.

I try (but sometimes fail) to get out at least one essay a week (sometimes more), due to travel, international teaching commitments and family care responsibilities (our family lives with Alzheimer’s and I have written several posts about that). If you would like to see regular posts about about Nordic spirituality and my life as a Forest Witch (and of course short videos of all the wildlife here!), please follow me on Instagram or Facebook, thank you!

Imelda Almqvist, Forest House and Forest School, Sweden

BORING BIO FOR IMELDA ALMQVIST

Imelda Almqvist is an international teacher of Sacred Art and Seiðr/Old Norse Traditions (the ancestral wisdom teachings of Northern Europe). So far she has written four non-fiction books and two picture books for children. Natural Born Shamans: A Spiritual Toolkit for Life (Using shamanism creatively with young people of all ages) in 2016, Sacred Art: A Hollow Bone for Spirit (Where Art Meets Shamanism) in 2019, Medicine of the Imagination - Dwelling in Possibility (an impassioned plea for fearless imagination) in 2020 and North Sea Water In My Veins (The Pre-Christian spirituality of the Low Countries) was published in June 2022.

The Green Bear is a series of picture book for children, aged 3 – 8 years. The stories and vibrant artwork, set in Scandinavia, invite children to explore enchanting parallel worlds and to keep their sense of magic alive as they grow up.

Imelda has presented her work on both The Shift Network and Sounds True. She appears in a TV program, titled Ice Age Shaman, made for the Smithsonian Museum, in the series Mystic Britain, talking about Mesolithic arctic deer shamanism.

Imelda currently has a handbook for rune magicians (about the runes of the Elder Futhark) in production (it will be published by Moon Books in 2026) and the book after that will be about Inuit culture and mythology. Imelda runs an on-line school called Pregnant Hag Teachings, where all classes she teaches remain available as recordings, which can be watched any time.

Website:

http://www.shaman-healer-painter.co.uk/

YouTube Channel: youtube.com/user/imeldaalmqvist

Online School: https://pregnant-hag-teachings.teachable.com/courses/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/imelda.almqvist/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/almqvistimelda/

THE GUARDIAN OF INNOCENCE, pen-and-ink drawing by the author

About a year ago I was listening to a podcast where someone made a stray comment (while working her way up to answering the question she was actually asked). Annoyingly I could remember neither her name nor the name of the podcast or host, but I remembered that she had worked in LA as well as London (beauty pageants, glamour modelling, and reality TV work). When a casual observation “thrown out” by someone sets an exploration in motion, I generally (compulsively) makes notes, but I do not always have pen and paper at hand because I often listen to podcasts while tidying or cleaning the kitchen.

When I cannot dredge something up from my memory, I have a trick: I set my brain the task of locating the item while I sleep! It works 90% of the time (but not always). In this case it did produce a result: the name Leilani Dowding floated up but my memory did not produce a link for the podcast she appeared on.

Paraphrasing from memory (and I hope I do her words justice), this is (in essence) what she said:

“I find the current obsession, in Western Society, with pre-teen and early teen girls very suspect. They are under age and have not fully developed the bodies of mature women. Why have we made them our icons of female beauty? It drives fully developed women into a lifetime of dieting and eating disorders (because super skinny with elongated limbs is not a natural look for most fully grown women). I have always suspected that this cultural perception is not only the male gaze at work, but that there is a close link here to paedophilia! Just think of the all prominent or famous men who have been linked to child sexual abuse.”

BOOM! I don’t know how that lands with you but that hit me pretty hard.

For years now (largely for professional reasons) I have made it my business to “track” (as in: research and keep myself informed) about how paedophile networks operate and groom their victims. Here I refer you to a previous article titled GROUP 764 because I don’t want to repeat all that heinous material here.

Today I want to explore whether this actress (who has certainly seen the dark side of the movies, modelling and acting industry) has a point.

Let’s first examine whether the connection between skinny or even (pre)pubescent stands the test of time and is self-evident.

Well, NO! I have a degree in Art History and I am well aware that ideas of beauty are far from fixed. They vary greatly between cultures, locations and even in the same locations across time. What does remain unchanged is that human beings have always felt a desire for beauty (both to gaze upon it and to beautify ourselves). People have often gone as far as harming themselves (and others) in the pursuit of (unrealistic or unhealthy) beauty ideals. Think of foot-binding in China or high-society women in the 18th and 19th century using face paints which contained lead (!) to achieve pale, “porcelain” skin (but ending up with lead poisoning instead). In the 19th century people also ingested arsenic to create a “clear pale complexion” (but achieving organ damage and cancer instead).

FERAL GODDESS: THE MOTHER OF ANIMALS, pen-and-ink drawing by the author

In Ancient Greece (500 - 300 BC) the ideal woman was plump and full-bodied, with pale skin. However, there was also a disturbing idea, at that time, that women’s bodies were ‘disfigured’ versions of men’s bodies. In this time period, men faced a much higher standard of beauty and perfection than women. SOURCE

In the Italian Renaissance (c. 1400 - 1700) the ideal woman had an ample bosom, rounded stomach and full hips and it was considered the wife’s duty to reflect her husband’s status, both in behaviour and outward appearance.

In Victorian England (c. 1837- 1901) beautiful women were desirably plump, full-figured but with a cinched-waist. This was the era of super-tight whalebone corsets, you may remember?

However, by the “Roaring Twenties” (c. 1920’s) female beauty meant a flat chest, a downplayed waist, a short bob hairstyle and a boyish figure. In other words: the androgynous look was in vogue. Women wore bras that flattened their chest (like sports bras today, I guess) and wore clothing that gave them a curve-free look. They also dropped the long connection between feminine beauty and long hair. Think “flappers”! (The term “pixie haircut had not yet been invented). SOURCE

In the 1950’s beauty was all about “the hourglass figure” (think Hollywood). In the 1960’s the look du jour was willowy, thin, long legs and the adolescent “look”. In the 1980’s supermodels were expected to “svelte yet curvy” at the same time, tall and toned. (Here the work-out and exercise obsession starts!) In the 1990’s the desired look is “waifs and strays”, painfully thin, “heroine chic”. And in the postmodern period (c. from 2000 up to now, our time) we obsess about achieving a flat stomach, “healthy skinny but not skeletal”, large breasts and a “thigh gap”. And yes, in real life it is either a big bosom or a “thigh gap”, so it has become increasingly acceptable for women to resort to cosmetic surgery to create a look we don’t really find “in the wild”. We now also have Instagram filters that can change our looks (a less costly and less permanent option!)

I often think back to my art history classes and the “Rubenesque” beauty standard: voluptuous and curvaceous female forms; abundant rolls of lush flesh rippling on canvas, by the Dutch painter Peter Paul Rubens (1577 - 1640).

FERAL GODDESS: AGEING WOMEN, pen-and-ink drawing by the author

I think we have now established that “skinny” and (pre)pubescent does not automatically equate “beauty” in the eyes of all beholders that ever lived. There are also sub-surface story lines here around “displaying wealth and material privilege”, which I am leaving out of this essay, to stay true to the real topic of today’s inquiry.

I think we do need to ask what happened between the 1920s and the 1990s. The 1920s were wedged between (and heavily influenced) two world wars. There was a rebellion against Victorian ideas and morals. The 1930’s saw the Great Depression. But something else was happening too: the movie industry (as we know it today) had begun in the mid 1880s. Hollywood became a major movie-making hub between 1910 - 1911 (and remains that today). The earliest films were in black-and-white, soundless and under a minute in duration. By the 1950’s the film industry was in competition with the medium of television and as we all know, eventually we have full colour movies on demand (Netflix), telephones, affordable mass photography, the internet and now AI. What all of these phenomena have in common is both screens and global access to images, bring stories and any kind of information (correct or misleading!) to a large audience.

Along with all this also came a rise in mass communication. My mother grew up in one village and died in another village. What mattered to her was her personal (local) reputation and key events in the village. She never shifted to a “big city mindset”, let alone a “global 24/7 communication mindset”. In my life that changed when I moved to Amsterdam at age 18 to become an art student. (My mother and I never quite “lived in the same world” again, after that).

Before the internet, paedophile rings did exist but they operated through physical networks, clandestine meetings, underground publications and even coded personal advertisements in newspapers. In the 1970s and 1980’s there was an organisation called PIE (Paedophile Information Exchange) which actively connected abusers and campaigned for the normalisation of paedophilia. Abusers (then as now) sought access to children through positions of trust (in schools, churches, sports, residential homes etc.)

The internet has brought us many fabulous things and options (such as working from home and teaching online!) but it was (and is) also a godsend for paedophiles (and criminals of any description). They make good use of both the regular internet and the Dark Web. Not only that, obviously they also make excellent use of AI in all sorts of terrifying ways (as, again, do all types of criminals).

Now back to the original point, made by someone with lived experience of TV, modelling work and Hollywood. The year of writing this piece (2026) has seen the disclosure of (a very limited number of) what we now call the “Epstein Files”. The little we have contains extremely disturbing evidence of large-scale and systemic sexual abuse, against a backdrop of global trafficking and exploitation of women and girls.

THE FOREST CELLIST, painting by the author

Sadly I do not believe that Epstein is the only one of that “ilk”. He was found out but here will be many more people like him, and there will also be people who continue his work, behind even greater walls of secrecy and deceit. Not only that, what the recent disclosure also seems to expose is an enormous reluctance of people in the relevant positions-of-power in society to take the appropriate actions to punish and prevent more of the same. I “read” this situation as that many of these officials have been implicated and involved in one way or another. The fortified walls of secrecy and self-preservation (and several deep moats) remain. (And it clearly was a strategy Epstein actively followed: recruiting influential or well-placed people and then orchestrate incriminating evidence on them ASAP, so he could manipulate or blackmail them).

The disclosures so far have been harrowing (but remember that this was a limited edition and heavily curated, or redacted, release). I shudder to think what the undisclosed material contains. The victims who have (bravely and at enormous personal risk) come forward publicly have not received justice or even a proper investigation. They appear to live in fear of fatal “accidents” under mysterious circumstances, which is dreadful and very alarming.

I think that we all know that human trafficking and large-scale organised sexual crimes exist but many of us are still flattened and disillusioned by sheer scale and psychopathy behind this. Also think of Gisele Pelicot’s life story and the “Motherless” network in the Netherlands. Not to mention the long-term cover-up and disclosures of CSA (child sexual abuse) by priests and their churches (and so on and so forth). There is a collective mood of feeling disillusioned (even battered by bad news) and losing our faith in humanity.

Can we trust anyone? Do good people truly exist?

Just like our concept of “female beauty” has changed throughout history, so has our societal perception of paedophilia as deviant. In Ancient Greece sexual relationships between adult men and adolescent boys were normalised and perceived as a form of “mentoring”.

The female beauty ideal for “slightly older” women in 2026 is (apparently) “soft-sculpted”: so called “glass skin” and regular “prejuvenation” maintenance. The dream is to look perpetually 35, sporting a “slim-thick” or hour-glass figure with curvy hips but a small waist, also known as “1990s thinness blended with 2020s curves”. MORE INFO

Is it a coincidence that our current beauty ideal for women aligns with the fantasy of (many) older men to bed skinny and young (under age) women with flawless peachy skin?

This is something Western society views as deviant and punishes (theoretically, that is, in reality prosecution is woefully rare).

I suspect NOT! I sense that Leilani hit the bull’s eye. And, assuming for a moment that she did, isn’t horrible how many of us women (due to early conditioning, societal pressures and unrealistic-looking Influencers) are actually trying to fit into a cookie cutter that will never fit or flatter us (it will only cut into our flesh, to make us “smaller” and “more pleasing” but leave us scarred)?

BABA YAGA (art selfie by the author)

When will we collectively wake up to this insight and reject an ideal that is demonstrably unrealistic and damaging (think of the current global surge in eating disorders, in ever younger children consuming the cultural “super skinny” message)? Whale-bone corsets were bad but cosmetic surgery surely is worse?

Not just that, but there is yet another side to this coin, which is the sexualisation of young children (especially young girls). As a mother of three sons I have never had to shop for girls’ clothing and they have bought their own clothes for years now. However, I remember, years ago, walking past the girls’ clothing to get to the boys’ section and there were thongs for sale, for girls under age ten! I was horrified!

Things have only got more extreme since: young children are glued to their screens and take (often unsound and unsubstantiated) advice from Influencers (rather than true experts). Sexy clothing and beauty products are actively marketed to very young girls. And sorry to be so blunt, but where does the line go between sexualising and “pornifying” children?

To my mind both things are wrong and masterminded by adults. Of course a child will pick up anything exciting and try all possibilities and permutations. Of course a young girl wants to fit in and do (or wear) what other girls do. To my mind this phenomenon is a spectacular failure in parental (and societal) supervision and thinking through all consequences of things that look “fun”, “exciting” or innocent in the moment. Children also have an innate tendency to copy the adults around them. So we have thongs, crop tops, spray on jeans and lipstick for 8-year olds etc. (which for me invokes “Lolita vibes”).

Let girls experiment with friends (and have pyjama parties) behind closed door by all means, but it is wise to allow them out in public dolled up like girls twice their age? We all know about “the male gaze” and we also know that paedophilia and CSA are wide-spread. Why expose your child to predatorial attention?

And if I am missing something, if there is something I am failing to see properly, educate me in the comment section but provide good arguments or convincing examples please!

Side note: I am writing this as someone who never used make-up until she was a 20 year old art student in Amsterdam. One day a close friend decided to give me a beauty tutorial (which was an introduction to pale blue eyeliner, one lip contour pencil and a thin coat of transparent lip balm). Even today I only use make-up when I need to appear on camera or on screen. I don’t like “muck” on my face…

What if we collectively become more protective of children (and Guardians of Innocence) again? What if we (chose to) put some of the resources currently invested in a beauty industry, which does not deliver what is promises (not for ordinary people, on an ordinary budget, with ordinary priorities), into the investigation and prosecution of human trafficking for the purposes of large scale sexual offences?

Easier said than done (and these may well be the ramblings of a “naive idealist”), but I will offer this as food for thought, to close today’s essay.

As always I look forward to reading about your experiences and thoughts in the comment section! And if you are interested in the Viking Era, please check out my upcoming handbook for rune magicians. It came out on May 26th in the UK and it came out in the US yesterday. And thank you!

I try to send out two essays a week, but this sometimes fails due to travel, international teaching commitments and family care responsibilities (our family lives with Alzheimer’s and I have written several posts about that). If you would like to see regular posts about about Nordic spirituality and my life as a Forest Witch (and of course short videos of all the wildlife here!), please follow me on Instagram or Facebook, thank you! (And please check out my upcoming book about the runes, see the picture below).

As my audience here grows daily I need to add the following statement: ©I own the copyright to all my own words and images, as they appear here on Substack (or anywhere else). You can only reproduce this material (full or in part) elsewhere, if you give me full credit as the author and or artist. Most of you already knew this! Thank you!

Imelda Almqvist, Forest House and Forest School, Sweden

BIO FOR IMELDA ALMQVIST

Imelda Almqvist is an international teacher of Sacred Art and Seiðr/Old Norse Traditions (the ancestral wisdom teachings of Northern Europe). So far she has written four non-fiction books and two picture books for children. Natural Born Shamans: A Spiritual Toolkit for Life (Using shamanism creatively with young people of all ages) in 2016, Sacred Art: A Hollow Bone for Spirit (Where Art Meets Shamanism) in 2019, Medicine of the Imagination - Dwelling in Possibility (an impassioned plea for fearless imagination) in 2020 and North Sea Water In My Veins (The Pre-Christian spirituality of the Low Countries) was published in June 2022. Her latest book: Portals, Patterns and Pathways: A Handbook for Rune Magicians, Star Gazers and Myth Makers was published (in the UK on May 26th and just came out in the US and Canada).

The Green Bear is a series of picture book for children, aged 3 – 8 years. The stories and vibrant artwork, set in Scandinavia, invite children to explore enchanting parallel worlds and to keep their sense of magic alive as they grow up.

Imelda appears in a TV program, titled Ice Age Shaman, made for the Smithsonian Museum, in the series Mystic Britain, talking about Mesolithic arctic deer shamanism.

Imelda’s eagerly awaited book about the runes (the title is Portals, Patterns and Pathways, a Handbook for Rune Magicians, Star Gazers and Myth Makers) will be published by Collective Ink on 26 May 2026). She is currently working on a book about Inuit deities and mythology.

Imelda prefers being contacted by email. She only rarely checks (or responds) to DM’s on social media platforms.

Please note that Imelda’s on-line school called Pregnant Hag Teachings went off-line on 3 September 2025, due to a quadruple raise in fees imposed by the hosting platform. PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT AND FULL EXPLANATION

Website:

http://www.shaman-healer-painter.co.uk/

YouTube Channel: youtube.com/user/imeldaalmqvist

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/imelda.almqvist/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/almqvistimelda/

Today is the first of June, which marks the beginning of Summer here in Sweden. Scandinavian summers are brief and intense, and even sweeter for the (what can amount to) 8-month winters. And of course in the Southern Hemisphere (unless you are in the tropics) it is Winter right now. Isn’t it remarkable how both Summer and Winter always exist at the same time? That is a lesson in the true nature of polarity right there!

In our family we always recite the following poem in Swedish (My own translation appears below the original poem, under the picture of the Swedish flag). This is a tradition from my (Swedish) husband’s childhood:

Hundra sommardagar

Var glad min själ åt vad du har

nu har du hundra sommardar

och detta är den första.

När solens lopp sin ände tar

då har du nittionio kvar

och någon blir den största.

Giv noga akt på var du står

i morgon blir med ens i går

det går så fort att vandra.

Lägg märke till att vad du får

är hundra sommardar per år

i morgon är den andra.

-Kajenn (pseudonym for Caj Lundgren)

A hundred summer days

Be happy dear soul at what you have

You will now have a hundred summer days

And today is the first one

When the sun completes her journey

You have will 99 summer days left

And one of them will be the biggest one

Pay close attention to where you stand

Before you know it, today has become yesterday

Time passes quickly while you wander

Pay attention to what you receive

Which is only a hundred summer days per year

And tomorrow is the second one...

*

Treasure your summer days!

And if you are in the Southern Hemisphere: please treasure your winter days as well. They are precious too! (Winter is my favourite season, which most people find hard to believe).

I try to send out two essays a week, but this sometimes fails due to travel, international teaching commitments and family care responsibilities (our family lives with Alzheimer’s and I have written several posts about that). If you would like to see regular posts about about Nordic spirituality and my life as a Forest Witch (and of course short videos of all the wildlife here!), please follow me on Instagram or Facebook, thank you!

As my audience here grows daily I need to add the following statement: ©I own the copyright to all my own words and images, as they appear here on Substack (or anywhere else). You can only reproduce this material (full or in part) elsewhere, if you give me full credit as the author and or artist. Most of you already knew this! Thank you!

Imelda Almqvist, Forest House and Forest School, Sweden

BIO FOR IMELDA ALMQVIST

Imelda Almqvist is an international teacher of Sacred Art and Seiðr/Old Norse Traditions (the ancestral wisdom teachings of Northern Europe). So far she has written four non-fiction books and two picture books for children. Natural Born Shamans: A Spiritual Toolkit for Life (Using shamanism creatively with young people of all ages) in 2016, Sacred Art: A Hollow Bone for Spirit (Where Art Meets Shamanism) in 2019, Medicine of the Imagination - Dwelling in Possibility (an impassioned plea for fearless imagination) in 2020 and North Sea Water In My Veins (The Pre-Christian spirituality of the Low Countries) was published in June 2022. Her latest book: Portals, Patterns and Pathways: A Handbook for Rune Magicians, Star Gazers and Myth Makers was published (in the UK on May 26th and will come out about a month later in the US).

The Green Bear is a series of picture book for children, aged 3 – 8 years. The stories and vibrant artwork, set in Scandinavia, invite children to explore enchanting parallel worlds and to keep their sense of magic alive as they grow up.

Imelda appears in a TV program, titled Ice Age Shaman, made for the Smithsonian Museum, in the series Mystic Britain, talking about Mesolithic arctic deer shamanism.

Imelda’s eagerly awaited book about the runes (the title is Portals, Patterns and Pathways, a Handbook for Rune Magicians, Star Gazers and Myth Makers) was published by Collective Ink on 26 May 2026). She is currently working on a book about Inuit deities and mythology.

Imelda prefers being contacted by email. She only rarely checks (or responds) to DM’s on social media platforms.

Please note that Imelda’s on-line school called Pregnant Hag Teachings went off-line on 3 September 2025, due to a quadruple raise in fees imposed by the hosting platform. PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT AND FULL EXPLANATION

Website:

http://www.shaman-healer-painter.co.uk/

YouTube Channel: youtube.com/user/imeldaalmqvist

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/imelda.almqvist/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/almqvistimelda/

Imelda

This article explores the following question:

Can spiritual tools be used to solve a real life mystery (or crime)?

I address this question in my newly published handbook for rune magicians, but only briefly. So here is the longer version of the same exploration!

Some of you will remember that earlier this year (in February and March 2026) I wrote a series of essays about a “shamanic detective work”, for lack of a better word, regarding two notorious aviation disasters. If you remember that project, please scroll down and continue reading below the picture, where the main body of text continues.

If you are a new arrival, or if you were busy and missed that series of articles, below is a brief summary plus the relevant links.

I felt nudged by spirit to do a major piece of shamanic work while flying from London, UK to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia. Scroo This related to two notorious aviation disasters which both happened in 2014: Flight MH 17 (shot down over Eastern Ukraine by pro-Russian separatists while flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur) and Flight MH 370, flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, which disappeared and was never found (other than one “flaperon” - a piece of the right wing - which washed ashore on an Island in the Indian Ocean called Reunion and some other debris was found on the shores of Eastern African countries LINK):

#1 IN-FLIGHT SHAMANIC WORK ON THE CROSSROADS OF TWO AVIATION DISASTERS

#2 INFLIGHT SHAMANIC WORK, Preface: Basic Principles

#3 SHAMANIC DETECTIVE WORK: Flight MH 17 (In-flight shamanic work as close as possible to Ukraine airspace)

#4 SHAMANIC DETECTIVE WORK: Flight MH 370 and a Chinese Goddess of the Sea

#5 A HOUSE WITHOUT A ROOF (And a Ceremony on the Beach)

#6 THE CRADLE OF CIVILIZATION: Flying over Iraq and Iran

I believe that the runes can indeed be used to solve crimes, or long-standing mysteries. Our group focused on one famous mystery (the disappearance of two Dutch young women in Panama in 2014. Most people are inclined to believe this involved a crime, but their case remains unsolved, and shrouded in contradictions, until today).

VIDEO ABOUT THE CASE CONCERNED

This webinar was very interesting and rewarding to teach. All my (fairly advanced) students worked in different ways, and they often contributed a different set of core meanings to a given rune, in comparison to what I had originally taught them. This is OK (even expected) because working with the runes is ultimately about forming a personal relationship with the indwelling spirits of all 24 runes (speaking of the Elder Futhark, in this case). And just as is the case with human beings: no two relationships are exactly the same. What I teach people is only a starting point, not doctrine or any kind of “bird cage”.

FORENSIC RUNES?

I carefully made note of all information, even tiny snippets, hunches and where in the story the participants reported feeling strong surges of emotion. A pattern of intersecting circles, resembling a complex Venn diagram, started to appear on my notepad. A reasonably consistent picture emerged of what (might well have) happened. No idea floated by my students went completely against what (both on-the-scene and “armchair” or internet) investigators had discovered (and none of them had heard about this case before, so they arrived with an open mind).

Certain themes repeated or echoed with dogged persistence and some people’s contributions added further details or possibilities. By “more” I mean: in addition to the theories discussed extensively in the public domain.

It did not seem to matter exactly which significations these rune magicians attributed to runes, what did matter was that the runes spoke quite clearly through them, and through the images participants associated with them. (In my book I speak of every rune being a portal, that is what the word “portals” in the book title refers to). I came away from that session with some sense of closure. I felt that I had a better idea of what had (most likely) played out.

It felt like the situation (or more precisely the entire constellations of events, the energy signatures which remain active until today) had spoken to us across time and continents.

Please do not hear me wrong! I would never claim that one rune magician working alone can fully solve every complex crime or mystery on the planet! I am just saying that the skilful use of runes, by an experienced group of people, can offer an additional lens of perception, another way of interpreting patterns and clusters, rearranging information in a meaningful way. They can add energetic snippets of information (clues).

I would also love to involve people who do shamanic work with and on the land: geomancers. Land holds memories and trauma, but doesn’t express that in the same way as a human being does. However, a specialist can find energetic disturbances and receive information, even when forensically speaking there is no trace evidence left of the crime/accident/incident (things a formal forensic team can collect).

Then I would like an horary astrologer on board too. Horary astrology (as the name suggests, “related to the hour”, as in mapping an exact moment in time and space), asks questions about one very specific moment in a specific location. What was the position of various celestial bodies at that time? What were the key planetary influences? Are there any squares, conjunctions or other significant events I (or celestial movements) happening in that exact moment. The underlying idea is not that celestial movements make things happen on Earth but that they offer a mirror (following the principle of As Above, So Below).

So imagine a specialist team which consists of a rune magician, an horary astrologer, a tarot reader, an I Ching practitioner (and please tell me in the comment section which other specialists you’d want on this Dream Team!)

Of course the police will not entertain this suggestion (after all they have varied, but mostly disappointing, experiences with “psychics”) - please read my essay about BASIC PRINCIPLES in shamanic or psychic work, for more about the considerations involved in all this.

All I am saying is that it is possible to do this work and weigh probabilities, identify patterns and allow non-human voices to speak.

By means of a PS added after pressing “Send”: The big questions in a crime/disappearance or other mystery can generally be "chopped up" into a series (or sequence, timeline) of smaller questions - and the runes can answer those very well. So it is also about asking the right questions and asking the right questions in the right order.

Ideally my Dream Team would be given a generous time budget and individual participants would focus on highly specific aspects of a mystery or investigation.

Let me repeat: I am not speaking here of clairvoyant evidence along the lines of “exact dates, places, names of offenders and where bodies might be buried”. The spirits speak to us in metaphors, echoes and emotions. I am talking about identifying patterns, themes, oddities and inconsistencies, clusters of significance and lingering strong emotions. Fear is a very strong emotion and it often transcends Time because a person freezes when acute trauma occurs and Time “kind of stops” in the psycho-spiritual realm. Those “pauses” or “frozen moments” linger, both in ancestral fields of people/families and in layers of land.

My own group of rune magicians tuned into the emotions that still linger in the energetic field surrounding the case of two Dutch girls who disappeared in Panama in 2014 (because there has been no resolution). This can cast light on questions such as: was a missing person still alive on this point of the timeline, or not? Were they on the move and lost in the jungle, or being kept captive somewhere? Was there a third party/bad actor involved or not? If so, what were their intentions, and how did the victims respond to that in terms of their actions and emotions.

The runes will quickly show whether you are dealing with an accident, deliberate disappearance, or a crime. Obviously I am not claiming that we will ever “put the police force or forensic teams out of a job”. However, I would love to see a bit more cooperation, the police gathering a wider range of clues and information. (I do not expect to be granted that wish!)

Please let me know, in the comments, if you find the approach I described interesting! I am planning to write a few more articles about the Runes in the near future, do people welcome that?

If you are currently reading my new book and it leaves you with a question, please share it in the comment section here and who knows, it might just inspire a new article (that has been known to happen on my account!)

Imelda Almqvist, Forest House and Forest School, Sweden

BIO FOR IMELDA ALMQVIST

Imelda Almqvist is an international teacher of Sacred Art and Seiðr/Old Norse Traditions (the ancestral wisdom teachings of Northern Europe). So far she has written four non-fiction books and two picture books for children. Natural Born Shamans: A Spiritual Toolkit for Life (Using shamanism creatively with young people of all ages) in 2016, Sacred Art: A Hollow Bone for Spirit (Where Art Meets Shamanism) in 2019, Medicine of the Imagination - Dwelling in Possibility (an impassioned plea for fearless imagination) in 2020 and North Sea Water In My Veins (The Pre-Christian spirituality of the Low Countries) was published in June 2022. Her latest book: Portals, Patterns and Pathways: A Handbook for Rune Magicians, Star Gazers and Myth Makers was published (in the UK on May 26th and will come out about a month later in the US).

The Green Bear is a series of picture book for children, aged 3 – 8 years. The stories and vibrant artwork, set in Scandinavia, invite children to explore enchanting parallel worlds and to keep their sense of magic alive as they grow up.

Imelda appears in a TV program, titled Ice Age Shaman, made for the Smithsonian Museum, in the series Mystic Britain, talking about Mesolithic arctic deer shamanism.

Imelda is currently working on a book about Inuit deities and mythology.

Imelda prefers being contacted by email. She only rarely checks (or responds) to DM’s on social media platforms.

Please note that Imelda’s on-line school called Pregnant Hag Teachings went off-line on 3 September 2025, due to a quadruple raise in fees imposed by the hosting platform. PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT AND FULL EXPLANATION

Website:

http://www.shaman-healer-painter.co.uk/

YouTube Channel: youtube.com/user/imeldaalmqvist

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/imelda.almqvist/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/almqvistimelda/

Today started with an email from my publisher, reminding me that today is the official day of publication for my fifth non-fiction book! Due a small admin glitch, the review copies arrived in London a bit late, when I was already teaching in Sweden. So my two youngest sons kindly made the unboxing video together (shown at the top of this piece). In the words of our middle son: “Here is the book, and you can see my Mum, she is on the cover!” The cover was based on selfie that I took with a tripod in 2025. So yes indeed, that is your 58-year old witchy Mum on the cover, Elliott!”

I have been on Substack for nearly three years now and my account remains FREE. I don’t even have a paid tier. If you have received some “soul food”, taken away useful information or felt “seen” when I wrote about some tricky or shadowy matter, here is a polite request: (only if) you have the book on order, would you please post a picture of it when it arrives? Two of my readers already did this and seeing these pictures (on Facebook) made my day (because they were the first copy arriving at destination, in two different countries!) Alternatively, you could share the link for this article around.

I would also LOVE to hear how far my books are travelling. Would you kindly tell me in the comments where my book(s) are headed right now (your location)? This is a Big Day in my life, so I thank you in advance for indulging me a little. I also promise that from tomorrow things will go “back to normal”, which means that I will continue to send out two thoughtful essays a week on a wide variety of subjects.

Writing a book is such a long journey: it starts with a seed concept (in terms of the Runes that would be ING or Ingwaz). Reading and research (in an ever increasing number of languages, in my case). Blocking out regular slots of time to actually write the book. (To me Rune REID or Raido represents time - more literally rides, wagons, wheels and journeys).

In truth, writing is the easy part. It is followed by editing (which is far less fun). This stage of the process is represented by Rune NAUD or Nauthiz in its more positive sense: self-discipline and imposing restriction on oneself (more literally and commonly, this Rune refers to need and necessity).

Next the book is submitted to your (or a) publisher. A book contract is a wonderful thing but now an editor takes over (more of Rune NAUD!) Your amazing manuscript (your precious book baby) is returned to you with blocks of highlighted text (fluorescent yellow) flashing at you, and your editor’s comments in the margins. Some editors are kinder than others, but their work is essential: they make your book better (and they also pull you up on biases, gaps and unfortunate wordings). You realise that you may have made some very dodgy spelling mistakes or other oversights. Arguably more so, if you do not write in your first language or mother tongue (and I don’t):

Defiant or deviant?

Accept or except?

Adverse or averse?

Malicious or malignant?

Which and witch?

The last one is a little joke, this is not a common typo!

When my sons were doing their (so called) A Levels or high school exams and choosing a university (college in American English) I would often ask them: Which university (do you prefer)? The answer was always “Witch University!” Here we could mention Rune HAGAL or Hagalaz. It is the rune of sudden cataclysmic change, but for Nordic tradition rune magicians it is also the Rune of Witches!

Not infrequently authors go even one step further and employ beta readers or “sensitivity readers” (who comb your manuscript for cultural inaccuracies, (inadvertent) unfortunate portrayals, stereotypes etc.)

After months of this you reach the point where you cannot bear to read your own words any more!! You are on your knees, praying that your editor is done tormenting you. (This stage is a bit like child birth without pain relief. There is a point where you - only very briefly - change your mind about having a baby… Perhaps it was all a mistake? - But the only way out is through!!) And though there is no specific rune for childbirth, I would put the sacred art of midwifery under the auspices of Rune BJARKA or Berkana. Literally her name means Birch (in old Norse) but I also see her as the apothecary and healer; the rune of rites of passage for women and girls. But of course Rune ING is in that picture too!

Once you submit the final version of your MS, with all changes made and/or approved, the publisher takes over, and the book enters the production phase. You cannot make changes any longer. The relief is MASSIVE! If you are an extremely foolish person (like me), you might just spend two hours sketching or typing out a plan for your next book on this day… Any sane person takes a spa break (or seriously contemplates a career change). The rune for his is UR or Uruz by the way: a container for chaos, where everything exists in potential but nothing has (yet) taken form, but very soon will. A blank canvas, in a sense.

The production phase can (roughly) take anywhere between 10 and 15 months. The turn-around was faster with my first book (Natural Born Shamans: A Spiritual Toolkit for Life, in 2016).

One day you receive an email: “A date for publication has been set!”

Over that considerable stretch of time, other emails follow:

Your book has gone to the printer!

Your book is now in the warehouse!

Your e-book is ready (so yes, you can read this book on your Kindle!)

In the case of this particular book I also got an email from the design team. I was told that authors are not allowed to design their own cover, but of course I had a strong mental picture of what I wanted. So I had played around with a graphic design app and sent some mock-ups to the editor-in-chief. Long story short, the design team agreed to make a professional version of one prototype I had submitted. Then there was an afternoon spent reviving my old phone to retrieve the one key picture they required. I was forced to format it through a pixel app to ensure it met the standards of the design team. - When I first left Art School I worked as an illustrator and graphic designer for a year, I am still grateful for the basic skills I picked up.

I would pick Rune KEN or Kenaz to represent this stage: creativity and technology. And the book being forged before bursting forth or erupting into the world, like the pine torch that Rune KEN represents. And yes, hopefully spreading some light and clarity on some obscure matters along the way.

In the time it took for this book to go from a computer file to a 3D object I have, in fact, already written (the draft version) of my next book (about Inuit deities and cosmology). Rune REID or Raido again: things that come full circle and things on repeat. But that is a story for another day!

Of course I hope that some of you will give this book a good home. I will be posting a few more articles about the runes (here and in other places) to help launch the book. You can order a copy from http://bookshop.org or ask your local bookstore to order it for you (if you don’t want to support the online “greedy giants like Amazon).

Oh and PLEASE leave a review on Amazon. Readers (who are not also writers) have no idea how vital reviews are. They literally make or break a book, because most people read the reviews before they order. I know that many people feel a review involves writing an laborious “essay”. Not true: you can write a review in just two words: “Want more!” “Highly Recommended!” or “Must read!” So please, PRETTY PLEASE?! And thank you!

I try to send out two essays a week, but this sometimes fails due to travel, international teaching commitments and family care responsibilities (our family lives with Alzheimer’s and I have written several posts about that). If you would like to see regular posts about about Nordic spirituality and my life as a Forest Witch (and of course short videos of all the wildlife here!), please follow me on Instagram or Facebook, thank you!

As my audience here grows daily I need to add the following statement: ©I own the copyright to all my own words and images, as they appear here on Substack (or anywhere else). You can only reproduce this material (full or in part) elsewhere, if you give me full credit as the author and or artist. Most of you already knew this! Thank you!

Imelda Almqvist, Forest House and Forest School, Sweden

BIO FOR IMELDA ALMQVIST

Imelda Almqvist is an international teacher of Sacred Art and Seiðr/Old Norse Traditions (the ancestral wisdom teachings of Northern Europe). So far she has written four non-fiction books and two picture books for children. Natural Born Shamans: A Spiritual Toolkit for Life (Using shamanism creatively with young people of all ages) in 2016, Sacred Art: A Hollow Bone for Spirit (Where Art Meets Shamanism) in 2019, Medicine of the Imagination - Dwelling in Possibility (an impassioned plea for fearless imagination) in 2020 and North Sea Water In My Veins (The Pre-Christian spirituality of the Low Countries) was published in June 2022. Her latest book: Portals, Patterns and Pathways: A Handbook for Rune Magicians, Star Gazers and Myth Makers was published (in the UK on May 26th and will come out about a month later in the US).

The Green Bear is a series of picture book for children, aged 3 – 8 years. The stories and vibrant artwork, set in Scandinavia, invite children to explore enchanting parallel worlds and to keep their sense of magic alive as they grow up.

Imelda appears in a TV program, titled Ice Age Shaman, made for the Smithsonian Museum, in the series Mystic Britain, talking about Mesolithic arctic deer shamanism.

Imelda’s eagerly awaited book about the runes (the title is Portals, Patterns and Pathways, a Handbook for Rune Magicians, Star Gazers and Myth Makers) will be published by Collective Ink on 26 May 2026). She is currently working on a book about Inuit deities and mythology.

Imelda prefers being contacted by email. She only rarely checks (or responds) to DM’s on social media platforms.

Please note that Imelda’s on-line school called Pregnant Hag Teachings went off-line on 3 September 2025, due to a quadruple raise in fees imposed by the hosting platform. PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT AND FULL EXPLANATION

Website:

http://www.shaman-healer-painter.co.uk/

YouTube Channel: youtube.com/user/imeldaalmqvist

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/imelda.almqvist/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/almqvistimelda/

BEAR AND I, painting by the author

Qivittoq: Inuit word for (the spirit of an) Arctic Hermit who lives a precarious live alone on the ice edge.

Quick note: in response to some questions received from readers: tomorrow’s event with Shaman’s Directory (RUNE MYTH AND MAGIC: Meet a True Rune Magician! 8 am PDT// 11 am EDT // 5pm CET) is FREE and a recording will be uploaded on their YouTube channel. I will share that link in a future post here, as soon as I receive it. So yes, you can catch up in your own time!

In the pre-Christian past, a Greenlandic man could be banished or outlawed after committing a crime. That meant living a precarious life alone in the mountains (and ultimately death). People hiking or traveling long distances in the wilderness risked meeting such a (hungry and feral) “arctic hermit”. However, the Inuit believed that even death would not resolve this situation because the soul or spirit of the Qivittoq would linger as a ghost. Historically speaking, (before Christianisation), deceased people were buried in the wilderness. Until today, it is not uncommon to stumble across a pile of human bones under some rocks. The cold and dry climate will preserve those bones well. Some Greenlanders will never venture into the wilderness alone for fear of encountering a Qivittoq. MORE INFORMATION

Just for context: Greenland opened its first prison in 2019.

For some reason my mind starts pondering gnarly issues as soon I go “free range” (meaning when my attention is not focused on a singular specific task). I think about the strangest topics at London bus stops, or in the waiting room of my dentist.

I am writing the draft version of this essay on the day that, here in the UK, an 18-year old man called Axel Rudakubana was sentenced for at least 52 years, for the murder of three young girls (aged 6, 7 and 9), and the attempted murder of 10 more people, at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport (26 km north of Liverpool), in July 2025. (He was only days shy of his 18th birthday when he committed the mass attack, with a knife, in July 2026. It is believed that the timing was not random because he knew he would still qualify for sentencing as a minor in juvenile court). After his arrest he gloated to the police that “I am so glad those children are dead!” READ MORE

I have heard quite a few people from the UK (mostly on podcasts) say that “the death sentence isn’t good enough” for someone who plans a mass murder (especially of innocent young children) in cold blood. However, that is not a realistic outcome to hope for, because in the UK the death penalty was abolished in 1965.

I already described in a previous article, THINGS I HAVE BEEN WRONG ABOUT, how I have changed my mind about quite a few things since I was an idealistic (activist) teenager. For most of my life I would have said, without much thought, that I am against the death penalty. As a spiritual teacher (I guess, but tell me in the comments please!) most people would expect me to speak up for the dignity of all human lives under every possible circumstance, however severely compromised. And I still lean that way, but the matter no longer seems quite so black-and-white to me (is this something to do with seeing more shades of grey when your silver hairs appear?)

Here are the main arguments commonly provided against the death penalty:

• Every human life is valuable, even the lives of those who take the lives of others (outside a military or otherwise sanctioned-by-society context).

• Innocent people will inevitably be killed due to flaws and errors in the justice system.

• Retribution is immoral because it is just a sanctioned form of vengeance.

And here are the main arguments for the death penalty:

• By taking another person’s life you (ought to) forfeit the right to your own life.

• (And a closely related belief is that) severe punishment would act as the “ultimate deterrent” for would-be murderers. (And it is true that crime rates are lower in countries with stringent law enforcement. I personally experienced this in Singapore recently).

• The very small (but it has been known to happen) risk of executing the wrong person is balanced by the benefit to society of dealing with serious offenders in a “the road of no return” kind of way. (In Rudakubana’s case there is no grain of doubt, there were many eye witnesses, now traumatized for life).

• A life sentence is a HUGE burden on the tax payer. Why would ordinary citizens pay “for the keep” of killers?

It always surprises me how the role and responsibilities of the executioner are never mentioned in those lists. Re-introducing the death penalty would involve a human being stepping into the role of the executioner on our behalf (meaning on behalf of the population of the UK), doing the dirty work so we don’t get blood on our hands. Shouldn’t that be a point for consideration too? Are there any individuals alive with a special calling for this work? (My best guess is that yes, such people exist).

There are other murky and confusing aspects. Here in the UK almost no criminal serves their entire sentence. Murderers who are incapable of feeling remorse (psychopaths) often kill again and make even more victims the moment they are released from prison. (This issue is far more complex than I can summarize it here because there are parole boards and assessments by psychiatrists involved). And most prisoners play this game (and become excellent actors along the way).

Nevertheless, in the UK we hear far too often about criminals being released (shockingly) early (from the “regular public point of view”) and immediately raping, murdering (or molesting children) again. Those are entirely preventable crimes, how can loved ones be expected to live with that? Does the burden of those consequences ever fall (at least in part) on the people who decided to release them back into society?

I have already described my fall from “the ivory tower of teenage idealism” in THINGS I HAVE BEEN WRONG ABOUT. To answer this question (of what I actually think about the death penalty, at age 59) I decided to look for guidance in a completely different place (from the usual sets of arguments in Western society).

I am currently writing a book about Inuit deities, cosmology and traditions. As part of the research for this book, I came across the following information (from a journal article):

Inuit elders (interviewed in the 1990s) were greatly concerned with the social problems of modern Inuit society, notably among the adolescents. They felt the need for a new synthesis of Inuit and Western culture. The elders were not so much interested in punishment as in the correction and integration of individuals into society. Each human being was considered to be potentially valuable to society. But when a person proved unable or unwilling to reconsider his or her position and accept the guidance of Elders, camp leaders or kinsmen, he/she could be dealt with harshly. He or she might even be killed. In extreme cases, close kinsmen often had to accept the responsibility for getting rid of the unmanageable relative and took care of the killing. The motive of such a killing was the wish to protect the survival of the community and to prevent further killings. QAUJIMAJATUQANGIT

POLAR BEAR HUNT, from the art video MY INUIT ANCESTORS

In other words, such executions were performed reluctantly; not from any violent impulse whatsoever, but with love and a profound desire to protect the community (as in the entire group or larger collective) and loved ones from repeats and serious harm.

I had already copied and pasted this segment into a draft folder here on Substack when I started listening to a podcast interviewing the “existential risk researcher” (I had no idea that such a job even existed!) Luke Kemp. Kemp was talking about the Bronze Age in Europe and tribes in Neolithic societies making the shift from being hunter-gatherers to forming settlements (which involved domesticating animals; grains and a plough; and storing surplus supplies, such as grain, in dedicated storage structures). This way of life immediately poses new vulnerabilities (as well as advantages), because such settlements can be raided and looted by outsiders. (Our Viking ancestors had ancestors too!)

He goes on to talk about the ways that men (as a rule) seek status in more settled Stone Age tribes or communities. Status could be obtained two ways:

1. By providing value to the group (being a great hunter and provider, a brilliant midwife or herbalist, or a wise elder/shaman etc.)

2. By dominating others by means of force

(I invite you to pause for a moment and think of some contemporary examples of these phenomena, not a difficult task!) He explains how phenomena like these require (so called) counter-dominance strategies, to take overly dominant people down a few pegs. The mildest form of this is ridicule and the most extreme form is “in-group executions”.

Do you see where we are going?

It is often said that the Inuit used “stone age technology” well into the 20th century (which is debatable, in fact, but that discussion falls outside the scope of this article). Their ancestors had arrived at similar strategies, for group cohesion and group survival, as these early societies in Europe, described by Kemp.

THE BEAR CAVE IN MY SOUL, from the art video MY INUIT ANCESTORS

In this context we need to remember that law enforcement and prisons (as we know them today) did not yet exist in those days (and they did not yet exist in the Viking Age either, so the Old Norse people had their own forms of “lawspeaking”, public assemblies, meting out justice and making human sacrifices). Violence was an integral part of life in the Viking Age. We also need to bear in mind that those Inuit Elders (quoted above) were interviewed in the 1990s (not in the year 3000 BCE or in the year 850 CE).

Let me add that when an angakok (Inuit shaman) was discovered to engage in harmful (“evil”) workings, (s)he could be killed in a similar fashion, because the breach of trust between them and their community was perceived as irreparable.

Am I naive enough to advocate for a collective return to the Stone Age? NO!

But is there an ancestral wisdom teaching in both these accounts? MAYBE…

I do believe in the inherent dignity and value of human lives. In secular society we are already tinkering with that “at the book ends of a human life”. The UK had voted to introduce Assisted Dying (but this bill did not make it through the House of Lords recently, so it won’t take effect). Our government has also just made abortions legal up to birth (remember my article about AFTER-BIRTH ABORTION? It has arrived in the UK and been sneaked (snuck?) through Parliament recently, tagged onto some another bill. But that too is a topic for another day).

I also have some concerns about the cost of housing and feeding (and providing medical care) for the worst offenders, sometimes for half a century or more, if we stay with Rudakubana’s case). Is rehabilitation even a tentative possibility for Rudakubana?

Then again, are there possibly citizens and causes who are more deserving of that money (or is that false equivalence)?

Axel Rudakubana is younger than my own three sons. I would like to believe that this young man could be rehabilitated but so far he has shown no remorse whatsoever in prison. He has even attacked a prison officer at Belmarsh High Security Prison (by pouring boiling water over him). Thankfully the prison officer survived and he returned to work after receiving hospital treatment. - Will innocent people lose their lives while heroic attempts are made to rehabilitate Rudakubana?

Our geopolitical world is highly unstable. New wars have been started in the year 2026 (in addition to the ones which were already raging). We are inching closer and closer to World War III. Young people in their mid 20s (in the US military) are already dying in in Iran. In Europe there is now talk about forced conscription in several countries. As a mother of three sons in their 20s, I find the notion of keeping (mass) murderers alive while innocent young people are expected to die overseas for their country counter-intuitive and disturbing.

I will never campaign for the return of the death penalty. But the idea is no longer is as abhorrent to me as it was in my idealistic period. That realisation is shocking, even to me! Then again, I am convinced I had previous lifetimes in the Arctic because I see flashes of that in dreams and shamanic work.

SEDNA, from an ART VIDEO: MY INUIT ANCESTORS

Do you hold strong views on this topic? If so, what is your reasoning?

As always I look forward to reading your comments and different perspectives from my own. It is always a good thing to interrogate our biases, so go ahead - but keep it polite and provide solid arguments please. Thank you!

I try (but sometimes fail) to get out at least one essay a week (sometimes more), due to travel, international teaching commitments and family care responsibilities (our family lives with Alzheimer’s and I have written several posts about that). If you would like to see regular posts about about Nordic spirituality and my life as a Forest Witch (and of course short videos of all the wildlife here!), please follow me on Instagram or Facebook, thank you!

As my audience here grows daily I need to add the following statement: ©I own the copyright to all my own words and images, as they appear here on Substack (or anywhere else). You can only reproduce this material (full or in part) elsewhere, if you give me full credit as the author and or artist. Most of you already knew this! Thank you!

Imelda Almqvist, Forest House and Forest School, Sweden

The author hiking a small part of the Arctic Trail in Greenland

BIO FOR IMELDA ALMQVIST

Imelda Almqvist is an international teacher of Sacred Art and Seiðr/Old Norse Traditions (the ancestral wisdom teachings of Northern Europe). So far she has written four non-fiction books and two picture books for children. Natural Born Shamans: A Spiritual Toolkit for Life (Using shamanism creatively with young people of all ages) in 2016, Sacred Art: A Hollow Bone for Spirit (Where Art Meets Shamanism) in 2019, Medicine of the Imagination - Dwelling in Possibility (an impassioned plea for fearless imagination) in 2020 and North Sea Water In My Veins (The Pre-Christian spirituality of the Low Countries) was published in June 2022.

The Green Bear is a series of picture book for children, aged 3 – 8 years. The stories and vibrant artwork, set in Scandinavia, invite children to explore enchanting parallel worlds and to keep their sense of magic alive as they grow up.

Imelda appears in a TV program, titled Ice Age Shaman, made for the Smithsonian Museum, in the series Mystic Britain, talking about Mesolithic arctic deer shamanism.

Imelda’s eagerly awaited book about the runes (the title is Portals, Patterns and Pathways, a Handbook for Rune Magicians, Star Gazers and Myth Makers) will be published by Collective Ink on 26 May 2026). She is currently working on a book about Inuit deities and mythology.

Imelda prefers being contacted by email. She only rarely checks (or responds) to DM’s on social media platforms.

Please note that Imelda’s on-line school called Pregnant Hag Teachings went off-line on 3 September 2025, due to a quadruple raise in fees imposed by the hosting platform. PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT AND FULL EXPLANATION

Website:

http://www.shaman-healer-painter.co.uk/

YouTube Channel: youtube.com/user/imeldaalmqvist

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/imelda.almqvist/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/almqvistimelda/

YI: A POETIC DESCRIPTION OF A PREGNANCY, painting from 2005 (on large canvas) by the author

Quick note on a different topic: for those of you who might be curious to “meet” the person behind the articles I write here, there is a FREE live on-line event hosted by Shaman’s Directory, where I give a basic introduction to working with the runes! I hope to see some of you there:

Saturday 23 May at 8am PDT / 11am EDT / 4pm BST

(lasting approximately 90 minutes).

Meeting ID: 391 375 8693, passcode: 08164761:

RUNE MYTH AND MAGIC: Meet a True Rune Magician

Now onto today’s topic! Yi, also known as Nuoso or Lolo, is a Tibeto-Burman language spoken in Southern China, near Tibet. The Yi script is probably a thousand years old. It was used traditionally by priests and practitioners of various forms of magic. The characters generally represent syllables and number in their thousands. (This is peculiar, as the language only contains a very limited number of syllables!)

The passage, which inspired the painting shown above, describes the growth of a child in the womb of a pregnant mother. Reading it always makes me think of tiny foetuses having tails and looking like a dinosaur or lizard in the early days! This text never fails to bring tears to my eyes.

1. In ancient times there were differences between man and animal

2. January likes the autumn rain.

3. February likes the leaves of the grasses

4. March likes the frog.

5. April is the four-legged snake.

6. May is the house lizard.

7. June assumes the form of man.

8. July has mother’s transformation.

9. August unites mother’s spirit.

10. September is in the mother’s bosom

I have always been fascinated by the concept of recapitulation. In biology there is a concept called the Theory of Recapitulation. It is often expressed in the following phrase:

“Ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny.”

This refers to the historical hypothesis that as an animal embryo develops (from a fertilized egg to hatching or to birth) it moves through stages which resemble (or represent) stages in the evolution of that animal’s “deep” (long ago) ancestors.

Anatomical drawing of an embryo by Europeana on Unsplash

As is often the case in science, this theory was discredited for some time and then parts of it were reintroduced (or became acceptable again).

In terms of the poetic description shared above, the current (scientific) perspective is that, in the early stages of development, a human foetus has certain folds or creases, which resemble those found in a fish embryo. However, as they develop, all resemblance to fish evaporates. (In fish those folds develop in to gills, in humans they turn into the glands and structures of our ears and neck).

What looks like a “tail”, in an early embryo, is in reality the developing coccyx (or “tail bone”), a very human feature. In a similar fashion the (so called) “yolk sack” is not a source of nourishment (as is the case in a bird egg) but it is the source of the first blood cells an embryo generates.

In other words: the Poetic Description of a Pregnancy tells us that our ancestors understood this concept, even though they did not have modern microscopes (or telescopes).

On a spiritual level there are other forms of recapitulation I often ponder (which are impossible to prove for biologists or geneticists!)

Photo by AKSHAY MP on Unsplash

One such idea, (found in traditional Inuit cosmology), is that the ancestors literally live on in us. Here I don’t just mean that I have my grandmother’s hair, my father’s blue eyes and another close relative’s hands or feet, but that our body parts literally form physical homes where ancestors reside (a kind of reincarnation, but not the way we commonly view it, as in a sovereign new body). The Inuit perceive these ancestors as tiny, thumb-size, human figures residing in different locations in our body.

Talking of incarnation, another idea (which has always intrigued me) is the belief that on its way to Earth (from the spirit world or astral realms) an incarnating soul visits all planets in our solar system (which act as portals on the way to corporeal existence and help shape the organs in our body). Not only that, but when dying, a soul moves through these planetary portals again (in reverse order) to return to the world of spirit. This concept might explain why, in medical astrology, the planets are linked to specific body parts. (For instance Saturn is linked to our skeletal system, including teeth and skin).

Photograph by Point Normal on Unsplash

As we are now entertaining very esoteric ideas, I also have theory of my own, and that is that key events in our current life offer a kind of recapitulation of previous lifetimes on Earth (so yes, this idea builds on a more literal belief in reincarnation). It may well exist as a “proper theory”, I am not entirely sure. What I do know is that as a young child I had incredibly strong mental pictures and “mind movies” (I am inclined to use the word “memories”) of lives in other locations and periods in history.

As child I never counted sheep, to fall asleep. Instead I counted trees. I would imagine that the walls of my bedroom became a forest, full of trees, animals and fly agaric mushrooms. Then I would step into that forest and engage in soul travel all night, and often I would end up doing psycho pomp work. On my astral travels I would sometimes visit an old woman in her cottage and she would mentor me and teach me spiritual methods. I always feel extremely emotional when I read about the taiga (boreal forest covering much of Siberia), or see photographs or documentaries made there. I believe that, in another incarnation on Earth, I was a forest witch and recluse, speaking Russian, and practicing Slavic forms of witchcraft.

My happiest “dream glimpses” were of a life in Northern (as in Arctic) Norway, where I would stand in a flowery summer meadow, with snow-capped mountains behind me and look out over the sea and mountainous islands. I now believe that, in this repeat dream, I was looking out over the Lofoten (literally “the Lynx Foot”!) Islands, from a high elevation on the mainland. That was a very happy life and I have been homesick for that place (and actively searched for it) ever since. (I am going there this summer, by the way! Who knows, I may write a piece about that in the future).

When I decided to teach myself Swedish, in 1989, when I met my (now) husband, I managed to do so using an old “Teach Yourself Swedish” library book (from the university library in Amsterdam). The Swedish was outdated (even archaic). I set aside one hour a day for my studies and after three weeks I could speak, read and understand Swedish (and I still do!) Normally speaking it would take much longer than 20 hours to become fluent in foreign language… but I was born homesick for Scandinavia.

As a six or seven years old, every time I looked in a mirror: “the wrong face” was looking back at me. I had blue eyes, instead of the brown eyes I expected to see. My hair was medium to dark blond, but I was expecting it to be black. In the early 1970s I kept a box under my bed with survival supplies. Somebody had given me a miniature cooker as a birthday present (with miniature pans and tiny fire lighters). That went straight in the box, along with emergency food supplies, clothing, warm socks etc.

MY YOUNGER SELF

Of course my mother soon discovered this box and asked why on earth I did this. I still remember explaining to her that we could be lifted from our beds absolutely any time, and that we desperately needed supplies for the horrible place that the soldiers would take us to (a concentration camp). In other words: I still retained vivid memories from a life during WWII and I was “prepping” for a possible repeat. “They” (the Nazis) were not going catch me unawares this time!

Of course my mother explained that the Nazis were nearly 30 years in the past (at that point) and she made me unpack the box. No more prepping! Go and play like a “normal child”. (That was a refrain, I was often told to behave like a normal child).

I am offering these memories here “for whatever they are worth”. I am not trying to convince anyone, but having these “vivid movies” running in my mind as a child means I was connecting to “something”. Our family could not afford foreign holidays, so I had certainly not seen these places in reality, and I had not even yet crossed the Dutch border (for a daytrip into either Germany or Belgium). My father was very anti-TV so what we children were allowed to watch was extremely limited (and the TV had to be switched off the minute he came home).

Some people might argue that I was “tuning into memories held in the collective ancestral field” and that is a possibility, so they might well have a point. Other people might say that I was tuning into parallel lives (as Time is ultimately a cosmic illusion). Again, that could be true but it would also mean that WW II is still happening right now, but out of view.

My family of origin had complete clarity though: I had a hyperactive imagination and “lived in a fantasy world”!

And who knows, perhaps they have always been right about that, but then how did I master a foreign language in just 20 hours? And just for the record: I learn fast (and find it easy to commit very large amounts of information to my long-term memory) but the process of learning many other foreign languages has taken me WAY longer than 20 hours!

Was I learning or was I remembering?

To sum things up: in my own life I observe a cycle of personal, (as in either from a previous incarnation, or ancestral) experiences repeating in a different location and activating themes, affecting and directing the course of my life in very real ways. It often feels like I needed to recapitulate those things first and then digest and integrate them (quite possibly even heal them) to reach my full potential (or full level of awareness) in this life. And that process is still happenings.

See THE CHANGELING, where I unravel one such leitmotiv.

Photograph by Zyanya Citlalli on Unsplash

I am a Pisces and in terms of Astrology this could be a Piscean feature: as the 12th and final sign of the Zodiac, Pisces is sometimes described as the culmination of the 11 previous signs (meaning that Pisces encompasses the entire Zodiac). There is supposed to be sense of completion (or an old cycle ending and a new cycle starting) at Pisces. This example goes beyond recapitulation because it speaks of culmination.

But maybe culmination is driven by recapitulation?

A quick note on image credits: Some of the photographs in this article are from UNSPLASH, which is an online platform and community for freely usable, high-quality images contributed by photographers worldwide. I use my own photographs and artwork 99% of the time but for the missing 1% of highly specific images I always dash to Unsplash (and it never disappoints!) Check it out but please use the site responsibly and make sure to credit the photographers who took the images (and made them available free of charge). Please do not take pictures and pass them off as your own - I have talked about plagiarism in previous articles! (And NO, I do not receive an affiliate fee for recommending their website, just in case some of you are wondering!)

As always I invite you to share your own stories and experiences, on this topic, in the comment section!

I try to send out two essays a week, but this sometimes fails due to travel, international teaching commitments and family care responsibilities (our family lives with Alzheimer’s and I have written several posts about that). If you would like to see regular posts about about Nordic spirituality and my life as a Forest Witch (and of course short videos of all the wildlife here!), please follow me on Instagram or Facebook, thank you!

Of course I am thrilled if some of you order my new book (picture below). Date of publication is Tuesday 26 May (next week!) I just wanted to point out that you can order it from http://bookshop.org or ask your local bookstore to order it for you (if you don’t want to support the online greedy giants like Amazon).

As my audience here grows daily I need to add the following statement: ©I own the copyright to all my own words and images, as they appear here on Substack (or anywhere else). You can only reproduce this material (full or in part) elsewhere, if you give me full credit as the author and or artist. Most of you already knew this! Thank you!

Imelda Almqvist, London, UK

BIO FOR IMELDA ALMQVIST

Imelda Almqvist is an international teacher of Sacred Art and Seiðr/Old Norse Traditions (the ancestral wisdom teachings of Northern Europe). So far she has written four non-fiction books and two picture books for children. Natural Born Shamans: A Spiritual Toolkit for Life (Using shamanism creatively with young people of all ages) in 2016, Sacred Art: A Hollow Bone for Spirit (Where Art Meets Shamanism) in 2019, Medicine of the Imagination - Dwelling in Possibility (an impassioned plea for fearless imagination) in 2020 and North Sea Water In My Veins (The Pre-Christian spirituality of the Low Countries) was published in June 2022. Her latest book: Portals, Patterns and Pathways: A Handbook for Rune Magicians, Star Gazers and Myth Makers will be published (in the UK on May 26th and about a month later in the US).

The Green Bear is a series of picture book for children, aged 3 – 8 years. The stories and vibrant artwork, set in Scandinavia, invite children to explore enchanting parallel worlds and to keep their sense of magic alive as they grow up.

Imelda appears in a TV program, titled Ice Age Shaman, made for the Smithsonian Museum, in the series Mystic Britain, talking about Mesolithic arctic deer shamanism.

Imelda’s eagerly awaited book about the runes (the title is Portals, Patterns and Pathways, a Handbook for Rune Magicians, Star Gazers and Myth Makers) will be published by Collective Ink on 26 May 2026). She is currently working on a book about Inuit deities and mythology.

Imelda prefers being contacted by email. She only rarely checks (or responds) to DM’s on social media platforms.

Please note that Imelda’s on-line school called Pregnant Hag Teachings went off-line on 3 September 2025, due to a quadruple raise in fees imposed by the hosting platform. PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT AND FULL EXPLANATION

Website:

http://www.shaman-healer-painter.co.uk/

YouTube Channel: youtube.com/user/imeldaalmqvist

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/imelda.almqvist/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/almqvistimelda/

The original version of this article was published on Patheos by Through The Grapevine. LINK It was inspired and informed by the book: “Whispers In The Church” (Swedish Witch Hunt 1672) by Charlene Hanson Jordan.

There is a mythical place in Scandinavia called Blåkulla (Blue Hill or Blue Mountain). Witches are said to fly there and attend so called “witches’ sabbaths”, where they have sexual intercourse with the Devil. This place does not exist as a feature in the physical landscape, though possible locations have been put forward. One such place is the island of Blå Jungfrun (Blue Maiden) in the Baltic Sea.

In his book Revisioning the Earth, the author and researcher Paul Devereux speaks of “spirit roads” and the flight paths of witches that crisscross Europe (not unlike the migration paths of birds!) Ever since reading his book I try to tune into the flight paths of witches, wherever I find myself. Are they seasonal, like the migration paths of birds? Where do they cross and diverge? Where is the most intense traffic?

Today Sweden is often portrayed (in the media other countries) as a rather idyllic country full of sexually liberated women and tall handsome men (descendants of the Vikings). A high standard of living is taken for granted. Women get a year of paid maternity leave and even men enjoy a generous period of (paid) paternity leave. However, people from other countries do not always realise that the taxes are sky high (to pay for it all) and that the government regulates life very heavily (meaning that many people run “on the same hamster wheel”). In the UK there is more deprivation, but also more scope to lead an eccentric life, according to personal choices and values. (Thirty years ago my husband and I decided to raise our children in the UK, not Sweden, to have a much larger palette of family freedom, in terms of life choices and child-rearing options).

Author’s note: in the decade since I first wrote this piece, there has been a rise in the rate of violent crime in Sweden, especially in fatal shootings.

To many people it may come as surprise that “squeaky clean and progressive Sweden” has a shadow just as large as that of any country. We only need to look back to the 20th century where the Sámi (the indigenous people of Sápmi in the North) were treated appallingly. The Sámi lost access to ancestral land, where they had herded reindeer and followed the migration paths of their reindeer for centuries. Their children were (forcibly) sent to boarding schools further south and indoctrinated in the dominant languages (Swedish and Norwegian). Young people were actively discouraged from learning and speaking their own indigenous languages and from following their ancestral traditions. Please see my article from a year ago: MEET A TRADITIONAL SAMI HEALER AND ARTIST!

17th century Sweden, like many European countries, saw witch hunts and witch trials. Not just that: those witches (if they now were witches, which is often questionable, based on accounts we have!) stood accused of taking children with them to Blåkulla and children were the main accusers in some of these witch trials. This means that women were put to death based on allegations by very young children. The children themselves were not punished for “flying to Blåkulla“. The mass hysteria (or social contagion) was not questioned or curbed by either their parents or the community leaders concerned. In this article I will attempt to answer the following questions:

• What exactly happened here?

• How could this happen?

• Could something like this happen again if we do not learn the lessons this dark period brought us?! (In other words: can we stop history repeating itself?)

One theory that has been put forward is that ergot poisoning affected entire rural communities. Ergot of rye is a fungus caused by weather conditions. It can occur when a rainy spring follows a cold winter. It is considered one of the causes of the mass hallucinations in Salem. It may have been a factor in Sweden as well. Herbalists and Wise Women have known about ergot since ancient times. It was used as an aid in childbirth (to hastens he delivery) and also to induce abortions. Midwives used it to stop bleeding after birth. Today LSD is made from the same ergot fungus that (possibly) caused the mass hysteria in Salem.

In Sweden the witchcraft period started in Älvdalen, near Mora, on Lake Siljan, in the year 1668. Outlandish tales told by children about being taken to Blåkulla (so called Blåkullafjärder or Blåkulla Journeys), to feast with the Devil, sparked off this dark chapter in Swedish history. The mass hysteria spread like an infectious disease. In a (small) place called Torsåker, 71 people (most of them old women, making up more than 10% of the population at that time!) were burned after first being decapitated. The location of these executions is called Häxberget (Witch Mountain) even today. The charge of traveling to Blåkulla was not primarily concerned with sorcery or casting spells; it was about flying through the air and feasting with the Devil.

Children claimed that they had travelled there on the back of a cow, horse or person. This happened any time of the day or night. The accused did impossible things (speaking from the everyday reality point of view) such as zipping through walls and chimneys. (Apparently) they even took off from church pews during mass without being missed by their relatives!) There was a lot of talk about horns and flying ointment too.

At Blåkulla people feasted and celebrated like they did at a farmer’s wedding; they ate, drank, danced and had sex. The Devil crouched under the table and laughed so hard that the entire room shook. The fires of hell flamed up through a hole in the floor, through which suffering souls could be glimpsed. Everything was done “upside down” in this place. The conceiving of children (allegedly) happened “back to back”.

Some children claimed that they had also seen angels at Vitkulla (a White Mountain reportedly situated next to Blue Mountain or Blåkulla). Those angels were said to knock the food out of children’s hands, crying “tears as large as pears” while begging children to confess so the witches might be rooted out.

This heinous period is sometimes referred to as The Big Noise. About 300 people were executed in all, including Malin Matsdotter who was the last person be burned alive at Hötorget in Stockholm.

Accusations were made against judges and pastors as well but those were simply swept aside and ignored. Are we surprised? Those judges and priests, after all, were authority figures, the people who ran the trials and sentenced the accused.

Professionally speaking I am acutely aware of the ancestral terror that the witch trials still provoke. In many shamanic healing sessions with clients I have come across ancestors who were Wise Women (or Wise Men) in previous lifetimes, and who had to go into hiding or pretend to live a mainstream Christian (and of course heterosexual) life just to stay alive. We don’t often talk about this – we think it is “long in the past” and “over and done with” but actually this fear lives on and continues to take new forms in our culture. It also shapes our attitudes and fears (mostly unconsciously).

As someone who used to run spiritual toolkit programs for children, I felt compelled to read up on this period, face this cultural Shadow, and formulate a response. I have already explained in previous articles here that what is not healed and put to rest in any larger human “constellation” or ancestral field will erupt again sooner or later. This is why we speak of “history repeating itself”: it means that something seeks healing. This is also why we speak of things that “run in families”.

However, in an attempt to understand what may have happened here, let’s cycle back even further in time. Before the year CE 1000, Scandinavia was pagan (or heathen, if you prefer). People followed earth-based spiritual traditions and venerated the old Norse gods and goddesses (Odin, Thor, Freyja, Frigg and others). The Old Norse people also had a very sophisticated system for understanding the workings of the human soul (soul craft).

They knew of nine worlds arranged around the world tree, Yggdrasil, as a cosmic axis or spine. Swedish people, often living in or near a forest, had a great deal of respect for elves, land wights, trolls, nature spirits and other inhabitants of parallel worlds. They lived in a respectful partnership with all these beings. The belief in such beings and in other realms runs deep in Scandinavian ancestral blood.

There were two main forms of magic in those days: one was Seiðr (a Norse oracular and prophetic form of magic, more “veiled” and cryptic, and mostly practiced by women). The other was Galdr and Rune Magic (a more “masculine” magic used to fix events or impose one’s will on outcomes). The last form was seen as more “honourable” and mostly practiced by men.

The “Foreigner from Overseas” known as The Devil had no place in this cosmology. People certainly made a distinction between white magic (for healing and greater good) and black magic (making unpleasant things happen to people). The Norse gods were neither “perfect or good in any absolute sense” nor “completely bad”. They were fierce and hot-tempered characters, awe-inspiring cosmic forces to be reckoned with.

In Viking times people’s lives evolved around Clan and Kin and making honourable choices. Bad choices could risk the survival of the whole community, in a harsh climate with no social security and long distances between settlements. See my previous post: GOING TO ODIN. However, as Europe gradually adopted Christianity, the Nordic countries (Iceland and Finland included) came under pressure to adopt this new faith too. Satan (meaning a Christian personification of “Evil”) arrived on the scene. Ancient pagan festivals were overlaid with a Christian veneer. Even herbs with pagan names acquired the names of saints!

By the 17th century, Sweden had been Christianised for about half a millennium. It was initially Catholic (which is lavish and baroque and accommodates Heathen touches more easily) but then became Protestant and austere. (Today the Swedish state religion is Lutheran). At the time of the witch trials, attending church was obligatory and people needed a travel pass (from their priest) to even leave their village! In remote locations there were even entire streets or “villages consisting of small guest houses” built, to accommodate all the churchgoers, travelling a long distance.

Add to all this that young children naturally operate in “the magical zone”. They still see into other worlds and do not always make a clear distinction between everyday reality, dreams and other realms. A huge amount of pre-Christian traditions and knowledge had been “pushed underground” and demonized. The Wise Women and Men were the Keepers of the Old Ways, but even their ways of working were “corrupted” (or enhanced, depending on your viewpoint!) by Christianity. (The Lord’s Prayer is used in incredibly many magical spells from this period!) In those days villages had no doctors. When people had accidents, fell ill, gave birth or died, the Wise Ones were called in. And because they were so closely connected to the powers shaping birth and death, they were feared.

FOREST WITCH SELFIE

Now, any culture that suppresses a huge amount of old traditions is going carry a lot of shadow material. What then happens is that “whatever we cannot own, we project onto others” and make them carry this material on our behalf. So Wise Men and Women carried the role of doctor/midwife/healer/psychotherapist/death walker but inevitably they also shouldered all the shadow projections in their communities. It is not hard to understand how this amounted to a “time bomb ticking”, in oppressively protestant narrow-minded rural communities. For a more complete explanation of the dynamics involved, please read THE SCAPEGOAT.

The following question then arises: why did so many children of “good Christian families” accuse old women (who had quite possibly delivered them safely into the world!) of witchcraft and abductions?

As a teacher of Seiðr and Old Norse Traditions, I offer the following observations in response:

• Magic, in and of itself, is nothing “scary”: it is the ability to marry power to intention, by using willpower, imagination and determination. Professional practitioners of magic also know how to align themselves with other worlds and (safely) call in powers larger than themselves.

• I would argue that people who “do not believe in magic” still unconsciously use forms of “black magic”, such as sending others harmful thoughts, cursing them by saying horrible things about them (gossip and reputational damage, in our time we call it “cancel culture”) and thus throwing huge energetic obstacles in their way. The time has come for all of us to own this fact and reflect on our own part in this widespread cultural phenomenon!

• The Devil is a Christian concept, not an ancient Heathen character.

• All young children have an innate talent for magic and this is their (our!) birth right. Children are magical beings until the dominant culture stamps this particular mode of perceiving reality out of them. When we listen to young children, we often need to make distinctions between the realms they are talking about. In parallel worlds we can indeed zip through chimneys and leave our body behind (on a church pew or anywhere!) while our soul embarks on great adventures.

• Young children often carry unresolved ancestral material in a larger energetic family (or community) field. In a distorted way they may be giving voice to old stories and old beliefs that belong to earlier peoples living on the land where they grow up. They will also voice aloud what parents and role models think silently. Children (and the same thing goes for pets) will often shoulder and express the dis-ease and dysfunctions in families or communities.

• Because the authority figures in Christianity (never Christ himself!) actively used fear as a social tool to control community life, the adults concerned were ill-quipped to handle the material these children gave voice to, as it triggered all their own fears and unresolved issues.

• It is the sacred task of responsible adults anywhere to listen with discernment and make children aware of the rules (around “good and bad”, “honourable and dishonourable actions and choices”) which apply in all worlds.

Theoretically speaking the parents and the community leaders concerned could have said to those children:

“Many things can happen in our dreams and imagination – as indeed they do in fairy-tales and legends! However, we need to be extremely careful because we accuse someone of witchcraft that person could die a horrible death because of our words!!”

To my mind, the fact that common sense did not keep things in check, so the hysteria was allowed to escalate, is far more shocking than the tales the children told. It indicates collective trauma, ancestral soul loss. And that is something we need to heal, to disentangle future generations from repeats of these events. (If we don’t do this, we essentially participate in orchestrating a repeat in the future).

Those children grew up and became adults themselves. They carried the memories and “stain” of these accusations and events. Yet, I repeat: the adults held the spiritual responsibility here, not the children. When I do ancestral healing work, I often see how future generations are affected by the fact that their ancestors “had blood on their hands” and played their part in the deaths of innocent people. On a larger level this will continue to erupt in new forms and seek healing until the issue is addressed, amends are made and souls find peace and release (this is what we mean by “rest in peace”).

My conclusion therefore is that it is our responsibility to teach children how to access other worlds and magical powers safely. This is not so different from teaching them about safely crossing the road. By divorcing both ourselves and our children from our spiritual heritage, we lose a lot of personal power (as well as our roots) and we store up frightening experiences for the future (when things inevitably start bleeding through).

We would do well to organise group healing ceremonies on land all over Europe. To make amends and put these issues and souls to rest for once and for all. To honour those who died and clear their names. Outside Time this will unburden them and allow their soul to continue their greater cosmic journey.

We still see these, extremely human (spiritually unaware), responses to events today. (But now we also have the internet and 24/7 reporting, amplifying things on a scale never seen before). Sadly, social contagion, mass hysteria and scapegoating have “not gone out of fashion”. They are a feature of human life and human beings being “herd animals”.

At the time of writing we don’t teach our children how to do shadow work, at home or in school. We don’t educate them about ancestral burdens either. We completely fail to provide safe spaces for spiritual exploration and safe Rites of Passage for our young people. So what happens? They initiate themselves, by actively seeking extremely risky experiences. Or they seek validation and a strong sense of community, by joining gangs or identity groups.

It also reminds us that terrorists (in today’s world) are generallty not “the Devil incarnate”. They are misguided human beings who carry a lot of ancestral pain on behalf of their communities and the traumatized dead, who still linger on their ancestral land. Terrorists most commonly do not see themselves as terrorists, but as “fighters for a good cause”. The same goes for most historical figures we now consider evil: they thought they were “on the right side of history”, a sobering thought...

The children in these Swedish witch trials remain connected to our “Inner Child”.

Any war is a war of projections.

“Good people can be induced, seduced, and initiated into behaving in evil ways.

-Philip Zimbardo

The Stanford Prison Experiment, led by psychologist Philip Zimbardo in 1971, explored how people behave when given power or placed in powerless roles. College students were randomly assigned as guards or prisoners in a simulated prison. The guards quickly became abusive, and the prisoners showed signs of distress, leading the study to end early. It revealed how easily ordinary people can conform to social roles and how situations can strongly shape behaviour. SOURCE

So we cannot dismiss this matter, the role children played in witch trials, by concluding that a batch of especially “evil” children was born in Torsåker in the 17th century. We need to dig deeper and fearlessly look in the mirror.

On a contemporary level it means, as pointed out by Laura Durban in a recent article here, that we are the daughters and sons of people hunted witches, as much as of the witches who died in the witch hunts. Just as we are the ancestors of violent tribes in the Neolithic era who raided and attacked (abducting, raping their women) and obliterated more peaceful tribes. Not a comfortable thought, I know!!

Once again, I thank Charlene Hanson Jordan for writing this thought-provoking book. It provided a lot of the factual material for this article. Consider ordering your own copy, if you are interested in this material: “Whispers In The Church” (Swedish Witch Hunt 1672) by Charlene Hanson Jordan.

I try to send out two essays a week, but this sometimes fails due to travel, international teaching commitments and family care responsibilities (our family lives with Alzheimer’s and I have written several posts about that). If you would like to see regular posts about about Nordic spirituality and my life as a Forest Witch (and of course short videos of all the wildlife here!), please follow me on Instagram or Facebook, thank you!

As my audience here grows daily I need to add the following statement: ©I own the copyright to all my own words and images, as they appear here on Substack (or anywhere else). You can only reproduce this material (full or in part) elsewhere, if you give me full credit as the author and or artist. Most of you already knew this! Thank you!

Imelda Almqvist, Forest House and Forest School, Sweden

BIO FOR IMELDA ALMQVIST

Imelda Almqvist is an international teacher of Sacred Art and Seiðr/Old Norse Traditions (the ancestral wisdom teachings of Northern Europe). So far she has written four non-fiction books and two picture books for children. Natural Born Shamans: A Spiritual Toolkit for Life (Using shamanism creatively with young people of all ages) in 2016, Sacred Art: A Hollow Bone for Spirit (Where Art Meets Shamanism) in 2019, Medicine of the Imagination - Dwelling in Possibility (an impassioned plea for fearless imagination) in 2020 and North Sea Water In My Veins (The Pre-Christian spirituality of the Low Countries) was published in June 2022. My latest non-fiction book: PORTALS, PATTERNS AND PATHWAYS (A Handbook for Rune Magicians, Star Gazers and Myth Makers) will be published on May 26th!

The Green Bear is a series of picture book for children, aged 3 – 8 years. The stories and vibrant artwork, set in Scandinavia, invite children to explore enchanting parallel worlds and to keep their sense of magic alive as they grow up.

Imelda appears in a TV program, titled Ice Age Shaman, made for the Smithsonian Museum, in the series Mystic Britain, talking about Mesolithic arctic deer shamanism.

Imelda’s eagerly awaited book about the runes (the title is Portals, Patterns and Pathways, a Handbook for Rune Magicians, Star Gazers and Myth Makers) will be published by Collective Ink on 26 May 2026). She is currently working on a book about Inuit deities and mythology.

Imelda prefers being contacted by email. She only rarely checks (or responds) to DM’s on social media platforms.

Please note that Imelda’s on-line school called Pregnant Hag Teachings went off-line on 3 September 2025, due to a quadruple raise in fees imposed by the hosting platform. PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT AND FULL EXPLANATION

Website:

http://www.shaman-healer-painter.co.uk/

YouTube Channel: youtube.com/user/imeldaalmqvist

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/imelda.almqvist/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/almqvistimelda/

ODIN, painting by the author (up on the wall of my Forest School!)

Today’s article follows on from a piece I posted a few weeks ago, because one reader asked me to share my perspective on SUICIDE. One response received in the comment section (which I am not going to reproduce here, but you can read it below the relevant post) made me realise that I had left out an old, ancestral Northern European yet (perhaps) key perspective. Today I am going to present that perspective for reasons of balancing.

The Old Norse people (this is one specific period I teach, the Viking Age) used to believe that ultimately only the Norns (or the Powers of Fate, personified by three women) could decide when a human life starts and ends. In that worldview believing anything else is “grandiosity” or “delusion” on behalf of human beings.

However, let me pad out the background a little before we return to the Norns. The Vikings lived by a Code of Honour. The worst thing that could happen to someone was to lose their honour. Dishonourable acts had very serious consequences for an individual (such as being outlawed and leading a precarious life on the run, in a very harsh climate, unable to ever return to their community). For the time they had left on earth, they existed outside the protection of the law and anyone could kill them without consequences. However, their choices also had huge consequences for their kith and kin. Not only did their relatives live in shame (or the shadow cast by dishonourable acts) but the family “luck” or fortune was impacted as well, meaning even future generations grappled with this “shadow of dishonour and ill-fortune”, cast over their lives.

For the reasons explained above, the Vikings did not fear death too much (after all Warriors were secure in the knowledge and promise that Odin would receive them at Valhalla, where they would join his legion of Einherjar, elite warriors, who will eventually fight at Ragnarök). One of their greatest fears was not dying a heroic death, as in a death suitable for a warrior of their standing.

The Old Norse people had the concept of a “straw death”. Instead of modern mattresses, they slept on straw pallets. So a “straw death” meant dying the death of an ordinary (insignificant) person in their own bed. And that meant going to Helheim (the more humble, but perfectly welcoming, realm of Norse goddess of death, Hel, not to be confused with the Christian concept of Hell!) after death, not the far more desirable and glorious Valhalla.

ON THE NIGHT OF THE FOGGY OWL MOON, THE VOLVA CALLS HER OWL (painting by the author)

This sometimes created situations where warriors had to make a tough choice. There are accounts where a Viking would “throw themselves on their own sword” (in battle). This was done to escape a more ignominious fate (such as being taken prisoner and living in slavedom imposed by the enemy).

In Njal’s saga, Njal finds himself trapped in a house fire, in his own home. The fire is blazing all around him. The flames are consuming everything and approaching Njal fast. Njal then actually receives an offer to escape from a man called Flosi, one of the “architects of the fire”, but Njal refuses. Njal was not going to abandon his home and his sons.

Njal is too old to fight anyway (in case Flosi and his other enemies decide to betray him, despite their promise of safety). And even if he did manage to escape unharmed, he would die shamefully of old age (the dreaded “straw death”).

TENDING THE ANCESTRAL SKJULLS, pen-and-ink drawing by the author

In Gautrek’s Saga we find a similar approach to both honour and death. This saga describes a “Family Cliff” as the location where family members throw themselves off the edge to reach the Afterlife. This desperate move was called “going to Odin”.

This concept, translated into “going to God”, does not work in contemporary culture because we are generally taught that “Only God gives Life and only God takes Life” (even if we are not practicing Christians but Christianity remains a dominant influence on our culture, and a deeply-rooted filter of perception in Western culture).

Flosi had allowed the women and children to leave the house. So, if Njal had accepted his offer, of escape from a burning house, this would have placed him on the same level as vulnerable women and children. At this time in history that was a shameful prospect and Njal never entertained it. (Remember, we are talking about the Viking Age here! Powerful female warriors definitely existed but this did not included the womenfolk in Njal’s house - and then there were the children requiring safety and care).

Shame was a huge shaping force in Viking society, but it presents itself in a different way in Gautrek’s saga, in the actions of the family patriarch Skinflint. One member of this family, called Snorta, returns home after a long absence and discovered that her father, Skinflint, was giving away all his possessions to various family members. This gave Snorta a sense of foreboding.

It transpired that a king had visited the family (in those days there were many local kings, not one king for a large unified country as is the case today) and Skinflint was at his wits’ end in the aftermath of this (very taxing) royal visit. The family was left with depleted food stores and shortfalls in all other resources too. In other words they were “reduced to poverty” after the unwanted visit. Skinflint had decided to take his wife along with him to Valhalla, and his personal slave as well.

Side note: the Swedish language still has a word for the phenomenon described here: våldgästa. It means visiting by means of using violence or force, so forcing your company on someone and making them provide for you. (I guess the closest word in English is gate-crashing, but that usually involves a party and only one night of mayhem!)

Back to Gautrek’s Saga: Snorta and her siblings then accompany their parents to the Family Cliff and watch as Skinflint, their mother, and also their father’s slave go “merry and bright, on their way to Odin”.

Skinflint was perfectly aware that his decision meant three mouths less to feed. Skinflint even views his actions as a favour to the slave (the word “murder” would not have crossed his mind). He claimed that it was “the least I can do” to reward the slave’s heroic efforts in resisting the king’s entry into the house. Of course we also need to acknowledge that this drastic solution (kind of) “worked”, in the sense that both Njal and Skinflint (and other characters in the household) were immortalised in the famous Hero Sagas that we still read today.

As promised, we will now return to the Norns or female Powers of Fate, said to be more powerful even than the Norse gods because they also carve the fate of same gods!

Did Njal and Skinflint kill themselves? Yes, technically speaking they did (because they both had other options). But the stories also make it very clear that this was the only honourable course of action left to them. After all, the Norns had carved this fate for them and put them into these impossible situations! And they dutifully acted as heroic men were supposed to act…

If we follow this (Old Norse) belief to its logical conclusion, people can only successfully end their lives if the Norns have (in the Old Norse wording) "carved that fate for them". If the Norns hadn’t decided this, it would not have happened because it would not have been their time to die.

We can take that even one step further and say: if the Norns have not carved death for a person, their suicide attempt will fail. It is not (yet) their time to die. The Vikings often “went berserk” and took immense risks in battle, because they reasoned that “if the Norns haven’t carved it (this outcome, my death), I am not going to die today!” (Maybe not, but they could still have ended up with a serious injury or disability without modern medical care, and a straw death looming).

In advanced Seiðr classes I take my students through this worldview. It generally turns our core sense of individualism, agency and even narcissism ("I create my own reality, I manifest by using the Law of Attraction") completely upside down. In plain English: this perspective can make modern people (momentarily) feel quite disorientated.

But there may be comfort in this perspective as well.

MIMISBRUNNR (Mimir’s Well), mixed media sketch by the author

It also flips the “shame angle” upside down. In Western culture we often see suicide as “the failure to make a better choice”, “the failure to seek adequate help” or a betrayal of loved ones, “how could you do this to the people who love you?”. In the Old Norse way of thinking, suicide by one’s own sword (or the Family Cliff, a house fire or some other heroic means) is the honourable way to go. If we subscribe to this belief (and I know that most of us don’t!) our nearest and dearest would take pride in our choice and even bask in the glory of this. “They did the honourable thing!”

In contemporary society the closest scenario (to this conceptualisation) that I can think of is of people who lose their lives in an attempt to save another person’s life. They die in a house fire or they drown in the sea (or sometimes they are shot by a terrorist while shielding someone else). But they saved another human being’s life and that makes them heroes. They are profiled as such in newspapers (and on social media) and their loved ones derive a degree of comfort from that. “They didn’t die in vain, they died a hero’s death”. After all, another person is alive because of their sacrifice! (And we would never refer to their actions as suicide).

LOOSING HALF OF MYSELF, pen-and-ink drawing by the author

Dying “a straw death” would have cast dishonour on the (larger) family, not only our modern small “nuclear family” but the entire kinship community. To preserve honour (and with it the hamingja or store of good family fortune), a Viking man would go to great lengths and often act on higher priorities than sheer self-preservation.

I just wanted to add this perspective, as a follow-up article, to the piece I wrote earlier. Did you find this interesting, or a very alien way of reasoning? It might (just) have meaning for someone in my audience (and if so, do leave me a comment please).

Oh and just to be very clear: I am NOT promoting that we all go and live by Old Norse values or that we actively start “glorifying” suicide. As a teacher of this material I am just offering an alternative way of looking at a tragic (yet common) situation, in the spirit of looking at the issue from all possible angles (as I often do in my articles). No more and no less.

As always I look forward to reading about your experiences and thoughts in the comment section! And if you are interested in the Viking Era, please check out my upcoming handbook for rune magicians, out on May 26th in the UK and about a month later in the US and Canada etc., thank you!

I try to send out two essays a week, but this sometimes fails due to travel, international teaching commitments and family care responsibilities (our family lives with Alzheimer’s and I have written several posts about that). If you would like to see regular posts about about Nordic spirituality and my life as a Forest Witch (and of course short videos of all the wildlife here!), please follow me on Instagram or Facebook, thank you! (And please check out my upcoming book about the runes, see the picture below).

As my audience here grows daily I need to add the following statement: ©I own the copyright to all my own words and images, as they appear here on Substack (or anywhere else). You can only reproduce this material (full or in part) elsewhere, if you give me full credit as the author and or artist. Most of you already knew this! Thank you!

Imelda Almqvist, Forest House and Forest School, Sweden

BIO FOR IMELDA ALMQVIST

Imelda Almqvist is an international teacher of Sacred Art and Seiðr/Old Norse Traditions (the ancestral wisdom teachings of Northern Europe). So far she has written four non-fiction books and two picture books for children. Natural Born Shamans: A Spiritual Toolkit for Life (Using shamanism creatively with young people of all ages) in 2016, Sacred Art: A Hollow Bone for Spirit (Where Art Meets Shamanism) in 2019, Medicine of the Imagination - Dwelling in Possibility (an impassioned plea for fearless imagination) in 2020 and North Sea Water In My Veins (The Pre-Christian spirituality of the Low Countries) was published in June 2022. Her latest book: Portals, Patterns and Pathways: A Handbook for Rune Magicians, Star Gazers and Myth Makers will be published (in the UK on May 26th and about a month later in the US).

The Green Bear is a series of picture book for children, aged 3 – 8 years. The stories and vibrant artwork, set in Scandinavia, invite children to explore enchanting parallel worlds and to keep their sense of magic alive as they grow up.

Imelda appears in a TV program, titled Ice Age Shaman, made for the Smithsonian Museum, in the series Mystic Britain, talking about Mesolithic arctic deer shamanism.

Imelda’s eagerly awaited book about the runes (the title is Portals, Patterns and Pathways, a Handbook for Rune Magicians, Star Gazers and Myth Makers) will be published by Collective Ink on 26 May 2026). She is currently working on a book about Inuit deities and mythology.

Imelda prefers being contacted by email. She only rarely checks (or responds) to DM’s on social media platforms.

Please note that Imelda’s on-line school called Pregnant Hag Teachings went off-line on 3 September 2025, due to a quadruple raise in fees imposed by the hosting platform. PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT AND FULL EXPLANATION

Website:

http://www.shaman-healer-painter.co.uk/

YouTube Channel: youtube.com/user/imeldaalmqvist

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/imelda.almqvist/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/almqvistimelda/

REINDEER CALF, picture credit: Kristin O Karlsen, UNSPLASH

In Northern Sámi the name for the month May is Miessemánnu, literally “the month of the reindeer calves”, because it brings calving season and newborn calves taking their first steps on spindly legs.

I love words for months and seasons which are both pragmatic and poetic!

In the list of Sámi months (please note that there are small variations between different Sámi languages and regions!) below, February is listed as Guovvamánnu, a word of unknown origin, referring to the second month of the Gregorian year. I did a bit of research and found the following reference in Swedish:

Februari har även ett annat namn på sydsamiska: Gierhken garres, dvs. den månad då järven är hård på renarna. ­

February also has another name in the South Sami language: Gierhken garres, that is to say “the month that the wolverine is hard on the reindeer”.

Here is the complete list:

1. January - Ođđajagemánnu - The New Year Month

2. February - Guovvamánnu Unknown

3. March - Njukčamánnu -the Swan Month

4. April - Cuoŋománnu - the Snow Crust Month

5. May - Miessemánnu - theReindeer Calf Month

6. June - Geassemánnu - the Summer Month

7. July - Suiodnemánnu - the Hay Month

8. August - Borgemánnu - the Molt Month

9. September - Čakčamánnu - Fall MonthOctober

10. Golggotmánnu - Rut Month

11. November - Skábmamánnu - the Dark Period Month

12. December - Juovlamánnu - the Yule Month

Further south, here in (east coast) central Sweden, the month of May has a unique quality, because the land is so verdant and luminous (because of the returning Midnight Sun). There was heavy snowfall in our area as recently as on April 4th and we still woke up to a “white world” this morning (due to night frost!) Our living room is currently acting as “a greenhouse” for baby plants, but the pockets of snow on the Forest Edge have finally disappeared!

THE SECRET GARDEN OF THE BONE MOTHER?

Title of a painting by the author:

In London the forsythia blossomed fully two months ago but here in Sweden it is in full bloom right now. We also have daffodils and tulips (my husband planted some bulbs a year ago).

The deer does are pregnant and a little slower, a bit less agile. Two cranes visited this morning. They didn’t seem to have chicks with them but it is early days for hatching. Also, I didn’t have the binoculars on me, so I live in hope!

I am writing this draft on May 8th and the sun rose at 4.32 a.m. this morning. She, Sunna, will set at 9:00 p.m. Soon the stars will disappear until August, as the days grow longer and longer until there is no more night and we say goodbye to the star-spangled goddess Nótt for some time.

The word for this month in most Western European languages is May (with variations in spelling) and named for the Roman goddess of growth: Maia. Her is name is believed to be related to the Latin word maior (larger or greater) and may well originate from the PIE (Proto Indo European) word magya: “She who is great”).

In Swedish it is maj and in Dutch Mei.

In Finnish the May month is called Toukokuu, literally “The Sowing Moon/Month”.

In Ukrainian and Belarussian the word “traven” is derived from a Slavic word for grass.

In Czech May is “květen” and it was made up by revivalists in the 19th century (because the Czech language came close to extinction at that time). [Not to be confused with Ukrainian Kviten (квітень), which is the Ukrainian word for April!]

In Karelian oraskuu is the “sprouting month”.

In Old Hungarian May was called Pünkösd hava, the Month of Pentecost. I found one reference to it being called “The Month of Promise” before Christianisation (and the Gregorian Calendar), but I could not find any supporting evidence for that. In modern Hungarian May is called Május. SOURCE

In Basque it is maiatza, which means “big” and refers to growth (the time of sap rising).

Map by Jakub Marian

If we leave Europe for a moment, we discover that in Japanese May is Satsuki, meaning “rice planting month”.

In Vietnamese it is “tháng năm”. Tháng means five, plus a number: Month Five.

In a similar fashion, in Chinese it is 五月 (wǔ yuè): Five Month (Fifth Month, literally “Five Moon”, if you read the kanji or glyphs).

In Hindu it is वैशाख or Vaishakh.

In modern Greenlandic it is Maaji (derived from the Danish word for May, maj). The older original name is preserved in Inuktitut: Nurraliuti is the name for May in the Nunavik region in Arctic Canada. “It refers to the time of year when caribou start having their babies or calves.” (Think back to the Sami term I opened this article with: Miessemánnu is “the month of the reindeer calves”).

In the Baffin region, May is melting season and it’s called “Tupiqtuut,” which means “we are finally able to put our tents up in that month. Here is the reason: Because if you’re still trying to make snow houses, the ceilings can fall down. So everybody’s telling each other ‘it’s time to put your tent up”! SOURCE (And just for comparison: in Nunavik, February is Avunniti, which (sadly) has to do with the observation that bearded seals in the region often have miscarriages).

Photograph by Gerrit Stam on UNSPLASH

In Igbo (the language of a large ethnic group in Nigeria, Africa) May is Ọnwa Agwụ (ah-GWOO, month of the Agwụ deity. Agwu Nsi is the patron of divination, herbal medicine and creativity). SOURCE Agwu is a capricious being, who straddles moral opposites. He provides support but also seeds confusion…

Nigeria is in Western Africa and obviously has a very different climate from Europe. However, what got my attention is the trickster element:

Agwu bestows wealth, good fortune, and fertility upon individuals. Agwu is also attributed with causing sickness, infertility, misfortunes, and misbehaviour among humans. He is perceived as a deity who can be capricious to the extreme, encompassing both benevolent and malevolent aspects. It has been asserted that Agwu has the power to positively influence individuals by elevating their status in society, symbolized by the ability to "blow hot and cold" for people. Conversely, Agwu is also known to afflict individuals with madness, sickness, or setbacks in life, diminishing their standing at the grassroots level. Described as "muo nkpasa" or the spirit of confusion, Agwu is seen as a deity that selectively chooses devotees, granting them the knowledge of medicinal herbs, particularly in the context of fortune-telling. SOURCE

After this tour across several continents, let’s close today’s article in English! There are beautiful words and phrases for this month in the English language:

• May’s Awakening

• The May Blossom

• The Sweet Month of May

• The Month of Merriment

IN FRONT OF OUR FOREST HOUSE, photograph by the author

I will give the final word to Shakespeare today:

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?

Thou art more lovely and more temperate:

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,

And summer’s lease hath all too short a date;

Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,

And often is his gold complexion dimm’d;

And every fair from fair sometime declines,

By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm’d;

But thy eternal summer shall not fade,

Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st;

Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade,

When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st:

So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,

So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

-William Shakespeare SOURCE

OUR BIRD CHERRY TREE THIS MORNING

I try to send out two essays a week, but this sometimes fails due to travel, international teaching commitments and family care responsibilities (our family lives with Alzheimer’s and I have written several posts about that). If you would like to see regular posts about about Nordic spirituality and my life as a Forest Witch (and of course short videos of all the wildlife here!), please follow me on Instagram or Facebook, thank you! (And please check out my upcoming book about the runes, see the picture below).

As my audience here grows daily I need to add the following statement: ©I own the copyright to all my own words and images, as they appear here on Substack (or anywhere else). You can only reproduce this material (full or in part) elsewhere, if you give me full credit as the author and or artist. Most of you already knew this! Thank you!

Imelda Almqvist, Forest House and Forest School, Sweden

BIO FOR IMELDA ALMQVIST

Imelda Almqvist is an international teacher of Sacred Art and Seiðr/Old Norse Traditions (the ancestral wisdom teachings of Northern Europe). So far she has written four non-fiction books and two picture books for children. Natural Born Shamans: A Spiritual Toolkit for Life (Using shamanism creatively with young people of all ages) in 2016, Sacred Art: A Hollow Bone for Spirit (Where Art Meets Shamanism) in 2019, Medicine of the Imagination - Dwelling in Possibility (an impassioned plea for fearless imagination) in 2020 and North Sea Water In My Veins (The Pre-Christian spirituality of the Low Countries) was published in June 2022. Her latest book: Portals, Patterns and Pathways: A Handbook for Rune Magicians, Star Gazers and Myth Makers will be published (in the UK on May 26th and about a month later in the US).

The Green Bear is a series of picture book for children, aged 3 – 8 years. The stories and vibrant artwork, set in Scandinavia, invite children to explore enchanting parallel worlds and to keep their sense of magic alive as they grow up.

Imelda appears in a TV program, titled Ice Age Shaman, made for the Smithsonian Museum, in the series Mystic Britain, talking about Mesolithic arctic deer shamanism.

Imelda’s eagerly awaited book about the runes (the title is Portals, Patterns and Pathways, a Handbook for Rune Magicians, Star Gazers and Myth Makers) will be published by Collective Ink on 26 May 2026). She is currently working on a book about Inuit deities and mythology.

Imelda prefers being contacted by email. She only rarely checks (or responds) to DM’s on social media platforms.

Please note that Imelda’s on-line school called Pregnant Hag Teachings went off-line on 3 September 2025, due to a quadruple raise in fees imposed by the hosting platform. PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT AND FULL EXPLANATION

Website:

http://www.shaman-healer-painter.co.uk/

YouTube Channel: youtube.com/user/imeldaalmqvist

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/imelda.almqvist/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/almqvistimelda/

When my mother-in-law moved to a nursing home for emergency reasons (the amputation of one leg due to a DVT, in 2023), we suddenly faced the mammoth task of clearing out her house (a very large flat on the top floor of an old building without a lift). She is a magpie, a compulsive collector of shiny things (I am trying not to use the word hoarding here). At the time someone said to me: clearing out a house is hard work (both physically and emotionally), but you will find some treasures along the way!

And we did! In the picture above you will see the baby shoes of my (Swedish) father-in-law. He was born in 1918 and he died in 1980. I never met him. My husband was only 14 years old when his father died. I was still “six years into the future”.

There is something very poignant, even dizzying, about holding the baby shoes of someone long deceased. Time both stops and accelerates in disorientating ways, at the same time. We can see the progression from baby shoes made of the softest leather to more sturdy shoes made for a toddler on the move. These were shoes bought (or commissioned) by loving and devoted parents. My father-in-law was a cherished child.

What happens to someone’s footprints when they die?

Do energetic footprints remain forever as energetic tracks or trails?

Do we sometimes walk in ancestral tracks without even knowing it?

It is quite a thought that these shoes were made in the year that World War I ended and that all of WW II happened since (though Sweden managed to remain neutral in both wars). In fact an entire century has passed, since my father-in-law wore these shoes.

Do you know that in the past people often hid shoes between the outer and inner wall of houses, when a house was built, for magical reasons? There is a popular Swedish TV program named for this: “Det sitter i väggarna” (Literally: It sits in the walls). Other items were deposited there as well: hair pins, axes, figurines. ARTICLE IN SWEDISH

Why?

Archaeologists refer to these items as foundation deposits or spiritual middens. It happened in locations all over Europe. We know that people also put special objects under thresholds, inside chimneys, under fireplaces or even in cavities inside stone walls etc. People were very creative in finding hiding places! These carefully hidden objects were supposed to bring good fortune. Some may have been intended as offerings to the house gods. Other times they were meant to keep “evil spirits” or negative forces at bay, well away from the sanctuary and safe space that a home should be. Essentially such objects acted as charms with magical powers.

Some people believed that this tradition “kept witches away” or, alternatively, trapped a visiting witch so she could not escape and “do harm”.

There may even have been a connection to fertility and prosperity, meaning that the household hoped to be blessed with a child or children. There is a famous nursery rhyme that hints at this:

There was an old woman who lived in a shoe.
She had so many children, she didn't know what to do.
She gave them some broth without any bread;
Then whipped them all soundly and put them to bed.

It might be the case (or folk belief) that wearing the shoes of a mother who has just given birth would promote fertility in a couple trying to conceive.

This trend was not limited to homes. Concealed shoes have also been found in or under public buildings, such as barracks, breweries, factories, inns or hotels, schools and colleges. Perhaps the most remarkable thing is that even religious buildings were not free of superstition or folk magic: concealed shoes have been found in a Benedictine monastery in Germany and in a Baptist church in England!

But why shoes, often well-worn shoes? Well, because shoes inevitably carry an impression, even some essence, of the person who wore them. They had walked on (and often worked on) the land where a new house was built. In English we call this phenomenon concealed shoes. More often than not they were children’s shoes. The reason for that may well be that shoes were a very expensive item, for much of history. So it made sense to use either completely worn-out shoes or tiny shoes (meaning child size shoes). Then again, there may also have been fertility magic involved, in some cases. A yearning for the patter of tiny feet.

Did you know that such magical (or superstitious, as you prefer) practices are on the rise in times of collective fear or uncertainty? People often resort to “the old ways” when they lose confidence in (or end up questioning) modern ways of thinking.

THE SOURCE FOR MOST OF THIS INFORMATION

Having learned all this, what are we to do with our ancestral collection of baby shoes?

Will our three boys want to inherit them one day? (In truth, I doubt this!)

Can collections stay in families if every generation adds more stuff?

What about decluttering or “Swedish death cleaning”?

For now I keep a few chosen things like this in my Ancestor Gallery, in London.

When I next walk into a charity shop and see all the “pre-loved” shoes on offer, I will look at them with different eyes…

I try to send out two essays a week, but this sometimes fails due to travel, international teaching commitments and family care responsibilities (our family lives with Alzheimer’s and I have written several posts about that). If you would like to see regular posts about about Nordic spirituality and my life as a Forest Witch (and of course short videos of all the wildlife here!), please follow me on Instagram or Facebook, thank you!

As my audience here grows daily I need to add the following statement: ©I own the copyright to all my own words and images, as they appear here on Substack (or anywhere else). You can only reproduce this material (full or in part) elsewhere, if you give me full credit as the author and or artist. Most of you already knew this! Thank you!

Imelda Almqvist, Forest House and Forest School, Sweden

BIO FOR IMELDA ALMQVIST

Imelda Almqvist is an international teacher of Sacred Art and Seiðr/Old Norse Traditions (the ancestral wisdom teachings of Northern Europe). So far she has written four non-fiction books and two picture books for children. Natural Born Shamans: A Spiritual Toolkit for Life (Using shamanism creatively with young people of all ages) in 2016, Sacred Art: A Hollow Bone for Spirit (Where Art Meets Shamanism) in 2019, Medicine of the Imagination - Dwelling in Possibility (an impassioned plea for fearless imagination) in 2020 and North Sea Water In My Veins (The Pre-Christian spirituality of the Low Countries) was published in June 2022. Her latest book: Portals, Patterns and Pathways: A Handbook for Rune Magicians, Star Gazers and Myth Makers will be published (in the UK on May 26th and about a month later in the US).

The Green Bear is a series of picture book for children, aged 3 – 8 years. The stories and vibrant artwork, set in Scandinavia, invite children to explore enchanting parallel worlds and to keep their sense of magic alive as they grow up.

Imelda appears in a TV program, titled Ice Age Shaman, made for the Smithsonian Museum, in the series Mystic Britain, talking about Mesolithic arctic deer shamanism.

Imelda’s eagerly awaited book about the runes (the title is Portals, Patterns and Pathways, a Handbook for Rune Magicians, Star Gazers and Myth Makers) will be published by Collective Ink on 26 May 2026). She is currently working on a book about Inuit deities and mythology.

Imelda prefers being contacted by email. She only rarely checks (or responds) to DM’s on social media platforms.

Please note that Imelda’s on-line school called Pregnant Hag Teachings went off-line on 3 September 2025, due to a quadruple raise in fees imposed by the hosting platform. PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT AND FULL EXPLANATION

Website:

http://www.shaman-healer-painter.co.uk/

YouTube Channel: youtube.com/user/imeldaalmqvist

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/imelda.almqvist/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/almqvistimelda/

Please note that Valborgsmässoafton or Walpurgisnight is tomorrow! After nearly three years of writing on Substack I have learned that it is better to send out articles, with an actionable element, one day early to allow my readers some preparation and planning time for participating (in some small way), if they so choose!

I follow a very informal system of rotation for my essays. I am not capable of writing exclusively about one subject or maintaining a narrow “brand”. (I am too much of a polymath for that). Instead I try to make sure that there is something here for all subscribers, at regular intervals. Yesterday one reader kindly pointed out that people might be waiting for more (magical and uplifting) Forest Witch essays (as I have covered a lot dark material recently). So just to reassure you all: from next week I will back in my beloved Forest and I will be “on it”, I promise!

Today’s article is one piece in a much larger essay series on Old Norse Traditions and Nordic Spirituality. This article has gone through several rounds of updates and rewrites, over a period of about eight years. The first version was written for my publisher’s website in 2017. Here is just one example of another essay in the same series (which spans a calendar year and grows every year as I add more pieces):

ÅRSGÅNG: A WALK FOR THE YEAR TO COME”!

Valborgsmässoafton is more commonly known as Valborg or Walpurgis Night, which is the English translation for Walpurgisnacht (the Dutch and German name for the night of April 30th). It originates from Roman Catholicism and this date marks the canonization of St Walpurga on May 1st in 1870 (meaning when she was formally declared a Saint by the Church). I observe that the Church was very “diligent” about choosing powerful dates for holy feast days and picking key locations for churches (former Pagan or Heathen sites).

In Germanic folklore this night is also known as die Hexennacht (or de Heksennacht in Dutch, my native tongue) which literally means Witches’ Night. It was believed that on this night witches met at the Hexentanzplatz, (a particular location for a Witches’s Dance), and then flew together to Mount Brocken, the highest peak in the Harz Mountains in Germany. There they were said to dine (and dance) with the Devil (and also have sexual intercourse with him).

As folklore from this region tells it: evil spirits and ghosts (represented by cold weather, snow and darkness) meet up with the witches and demons, to cavort around a fire and “commune” (euphemism) with the Devil. Let me share one unsavoury detail here (or hop to the next paragraph): transcripts of witch trials, from all over Northern and Western Europe, often state that witches reported that “the penis of the Devil was ice cold” (almost like an icicle). Of course, on a more everyday level at this time of year, Winter and cold weather lose their grip on the Northern Hemisphere.

It is all made to sound very sinister and of course this is Fear (yes, capital F) speaking! Fear was a very common strategy by the Church to keep the population on the straight and narrow, away from any “sins”. The witch trials (roughly peaking between 1560 and 1630, but in Scandinavia this phenomenon ran a full century later) plus centuries of (our European ancestors) having Christianity as their dominant religion, have all instilled a deep-seated fear in the hearts (and ancestral fields) of us Europeans (especially women). See my recent post about ANCESTRAL AND INTERGENERATIONAL HEALING.

Even in 2026 I can easily see this hesitation or discomfort when I share photographs or make reels. A cauldron is fine, runes and ravens are fine, an antlered woman is fine too but the moment I feature a ram skull, I get almost no views. People turn away because they associate horns with the Devil.

Also see my recent article:

THE SWEDISH TRADITION OF THE EASTER WITCH.

Photograph of the Hexentanzplatz or Place of the Witches’ Dance by Wiebe Hansen (2016), reproduced with permission.

The first mention of “Witches Night” in English translation occurred in the 19th century. Local variants of this festival are still observed in the Netherlands, Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Lithuania, Latvia, Finland and Estonia. Though I am Dutch, (but married to a Swede), my own personal experiences of Valborg stem from Sweden. Here bonfires are lit to “fence off” and stop witches from going to Mount Brocken.

Saint Valborg (Walpurgis) was born around the year 710 CE and died in 779 CE. According to legend, she was an English princess who was called to (what today is) Germany by Bonifatius, the Arch Bishop of Mainz. Her role was to be a missionary and to assist with “the converting of heathens” to the Christian faith. In later life she became the Abbess of the Convent of Heidenheim.

In her memory, a cult developed in the Medieval period, where warding off witchcraft and evil powers was of central importance. To protect themselves from witches and witchcraft, people in Germany started making bonfires (really a Celtic tradition in origin, as Beltane is one of the great Celtic Fire Festivals).

BUT…

I strongly suspect that there is a far more sinister aspect to this: actually re-enacting the burning of witches. On both sides of the Baltic Sea, in Sweden and Finland (as well on the islands between those countries) there is a tradition of children dressing up as an Easter Witch (Påsk Häxa in Finland Swedish and Påsk Kärring in mainstream Swedish) and knocking on doors to collect sweets. People also make life-size witches (dolls or effigies) out of straw and clothing (see the picture just below). Those “witches” are then burned in bonfires on Valborg.

THE SWEDISH TRADITION OF THE EASTER WITCH

In Denmark this same tradition is observed by building bonfires on Saint John’s Eve (essentially the Christian festival imposed on the far more ancient pagan festival of Midsummer’s Eve). There it has become a Midsummer celebration.

In modern Sweden there are many local variations of the Valborg festivities. The general idea is to welcome the spring weather and “drive out evil spirits”. Central to them all is the lighting of bonfires. People gather around the fire, sing songs and consume alarming amounts of alcohol (in good Scandinavian fashion!) People often dance around and grill many sausages on barbecues.

VIDEO OF VALBORGSMÄSSOAFTON CELEBRATIONS IN SWEDEN

At this time of year, generally (depending on how far North you are, but assuming you are not in the Arctic!), the snow has melted away and it is (hopefully) warm enough to have barbecues (Sweden has many public sites set up for barbecues, in national parks, on deserted islands in the Stockholm archipelago etc.)

However, in the year of writing my original essay (2017) I had just returned from a “White Easter” in Sweden and the weather forecast for Central Sweden the following week was even more snow! (People were not so sure whether Spring 2017 had actually arrived yet).

I cannot help but observe that most people, celebrating Valborg in Sweden, spare no thought at all for the witches who died in the witch trials. It is understandable, because several centuries have passed and most people don’t like dwelling on the more unsavoury parts of local history. But this does not sit right with me.

Personally speaking I will be lighting a candle for those witches tomorrow, to honour the ways they preserved ancient wisdom and healing techniques at great personal cost. I see this as a small contribution to healing the large collective (ancestral) witch wound (which is still very active, I know that because I have taught courses dedicated to healing the witch wound).

Oh and did you know that children played powerful role in the witch trials in Sweden (meaning that they were pointing fingers and taking the role of accusers)? I wrote a guest article in 2016, the year of the publication of my first book (Natural Born Shamans). Maybe that is a topic I should revisit and present here (or have we “overdosed on Darkness”? Let me know…

CHILDREN AND SWEDEN’S WITCH TRIALS

And (only) if you feel so inclined – I invite you to join me and light a candle too. Again, let me know in the comments if you feel called to do this!

I try to send out two essays a week, but this sometimes fails due to travel, international teaching commitments and family care responsibilities (our family lives with Alzheimer’s and I have written several posts about that). If you would like to see regular posts about about Nordic spirituality and my life as a Forest Witch (and of course short videos of all the wildlife here!), please follow me on Instagram or Facebook, thank you!

As my audience here grows daily I need to add the following statement: ©I own the copyright to all my own words and images, as they appear here on Substack (or anywhere else). You can only reproduce this material (full or in part) elsewhere, if you give me full credit as the author and or artist. Most of you already knew this! Thank you!

Imelda Almqvist, London, UK

BIO FOR IMELDA ALMQVIST

Imelda Almqvist is an international teacher of Sacred Art and Seiðr/Old Norse Traditions (the ancestral wisdom teachings of Northern Europe). So far she has written four non-fiction books and two picture books for children. Natural Born Shamans: A Spiritual Toolkit for Life (Using shamanism creatively with young people of all ages) in 2016, Sacred Art: A Hollow Bone for Spirit (Where Art Meets Shamanism) in 2019, Medicine of the Imagination - Dwelling in Possibility (an impassioned plea for fearless imagination) in 2020 and North Sea Water In My Veins (The Pre-Christian spirituality of the Low Countries) was published in June 2022. My latest non-fiction book: PORTALS, PATTERNS AND PATHWAYS (A Handbook for Rune Magicians, Star Gazers and Myth Makers) will be published on May 26th!

The Green Bear is a series of picture book for children, aged 3 – 8 years. The stories and vibrant artwork, set in Scandinavia, invite children to explore enchanting parallel worlds and to keep their sense of magic alive as they grow up.

Imelda appears in a TV program, titled Ice Age Shaman, made for the Smithsonian Museum, in the series Mystic Britain, talking about Mesolithic arctic deer shamanism.

Imelda’s eagerly awaited book about the runes (the title is Portals, Patterns and Pathways, a Handbook for Rune Magicians, Star Gazers and Myth Makers) will be published by Collective Ink on 26 May 2026). She is currently working on a book about Inuit deities and mythology.

Imelda prefers being contacted by email. She only rarely checks (or responds) to DM’s on social media platforms.

Please note that Imelda’s on-line school called Pregnant Hag Teachings went off-line on 3 September 2025, due to a quadruple raise in fees imposed by the hosting platform. PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT AND FULL EXPLANATION

Website:

http://www.shaman-healer-painter.co.uk/

YouTube Channel: youtube.com/user/imeldaalmqvist

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/imelda.almqvist/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/almqvistimelda/

I CAN BEAR IT, pen-and-ink drawing by the author

One reader has asked me to please write about suicide. I have always felt a reluctance to do because there are other people who are better qualified to do so. So I wrote a draft article, but let it sit in my Draft Folder. here on Substack, for a few weeks.

About a week ago a high profile spiritual author and public figure took his own life. Social media platforms are currently buzzing with discussions, personal testimonials and denial that his suicide is a fact (some people prefer to believe he is now in Witness Protection or that he was a Deep State victim). I will be completely transparent: I had never heard of this person (because I have always stayed clear of all things New Age) and for that reason (no personal connection) I am not going to name him either. Some of you will probably know who this was. If his work has had an impact on you or shaped your spiritual journey, feel free to share about that in the comment section. I will read about your experiences with genuine interest.

What I will say is that I have always been mystified by many commonly held beliefs, in spiritual communities, (about Ascension, “divine cosmos physics” and benevolent extra-terrestrial intelligence) and how these concepts are - seemingly - all inter-connected (because I have had students ask me questions about this in class, especially in the US). Reading some of the posts discussing his death has given me a bit of a “crash course” in topics that I don’t normally feel drawn to, but I think I now understand better where certain popular clusters of ideas may have originated. (As I said: I am open to further education or elucidation!)

In truth I didn’t really know where to start, writing about suicide. Perhaps with the disclosure that I have never (personally) experienced any death wish or suicidal frame of mind. Nor has a person very close to me ever committed suicide. My first (and closest) encounter was when I was a student at Art School in Amsterdam (40 years ago). One morning I showed up for class at 9 a.m. (as usual) and there was a very strange atmosphere. Fellow students were either hanging around and whispering to each other, or exiting the building again (rather than setting up their easels for the day). One of the teachers came over and told me that a classmate of ours (a 20 year old young man) had ended his life by hanging himself. (Amsterdam does not have many, or in my day any, dedicated campus buildings offering student accommodation as is common in the UK, so most students privately rent someone’s spare bedroom or attic).

Both pieces of information shocked me profoundly: to end your life (so young and talented, with your entire adult life still ahead of you) and to do it in such a horrible manner. Not just that, but putting a flat mate or landlord/landlady in the position of finding you, calling emergency services and dealing with the aftermath. That gruesome thought alone (of inflicting that level of trauma on someone else) would stop me - but as I already said I have never been in that frame of mind. It is a foreign country to me. I can only guess how utterly hopeless someone must feel, to do this.

BATTY, pen-and-ink drawing by the author

Professionally speaking (as a shamanic practitioner) I have been contacted by families who had just lost a loved one to suicide. Their request was always to go check on this person (their soul) in the Other World. So that is where my experience is.

Doing this work I consistently observed that there is no “punishment” for suicide in the Afterlife. The people who did this were looked after, on the Other Side, in energetic structures (somewhat) resembling a hospital on Earth, staffed by evolved (even angelic) beings. They were under close (and loving) supervision. Often they were “sleeping” a lot. They were not yet ready to “wake up to” the full consequences of what they had done and how their act was impacting others.

Quite possibly some of them genuinely believed that Death = The End and all goes “black” after that. We no longer exist - problem solved!

Some might even believe (in their state of total despair) that others are better off without them.

It can be huge shock to discover that there is a continuation of our personal consciousness after Death.

However, the story doesn’t end there. Although the scenes I visited were reassuring (as in filled with unconditional love and compassion) it was also made very clear to me that suicide does not solve anything. Other than leaving a lasting traumatic impact on loved ones and the people in closest proximity, suicide does not cancel out “karma” or wipe out the learning our soul has committed to do. In many ways it creates far more karma (here I am using the word NOT as Divine punishment, but in the sense of imbalances and trauma that will need to be healed or transmuted later, either by the person that caused them or by others, often biological descendants or people in their spiritual lineage). In other words: sooner or later a “repeat” will be orchestrated, where a soul will incarnate again, face very similar (crushing) challenges and, hopefully, work through them “on a higher octave” (without selecting the “eject button”).

That is another thought that, theoretically, would stop me. The notion of living through all these challenges another time and hopefully making the right choice next time - is exhausting. Then again, when your mind turns dark in unbearable ways, you just “want it to stop”. I get that!

On another level I also know is that this is how humans learn: through repetition.

And it is how issues seek healing: through repetition and “making noise” (repeatedly coming to attention).

In my shamanic practice have also worked with some people who were not actively suicidal, but to whom life seemed completely pointless and joyless. What I then observed was that a process of symbolic death and rebirth (relating to a mindset, key relationship or stage of life “dying”) had not been completed and they “got stuck in a tunnel” as it were. The work we did was actively letting go of their “old life” or “old self”(etc.) and ushering in a rebirth. (Completing a spiritual directive). We sometimes refer to such a period as a Dark Night of the Soul or a Night Sea Journey.

I guess the next question people want me to answer is my moral take on suicide. Do I believe that it is a human right? Do I believe it always wrong? Do I believe something in-between those two positions? So let’s (try to) unpick that.

And just to be clear: someone has asked me to write about this topic. I am not forcing my personal perspective on any other human being! I am not sitting in judgement of anyone either. Nor am I a politician or law maker, so I hold no political power. I don’t even hold citizenship to the country I live in!

CROW, pen-and-ink drawing by the author

Do I believe that suicide is a human right?

The answer to this question will always depend on a person’s religion or spiritual belief system. I am not religious in any church-going kind of way, but I do believe in higher powers, evolved beings and Divinity. I also believe that my life is a gift (from God/Goddess/Source to me) and that it is my responsibility to honour that gift (and make the most of what I was given, perform my unique “soul task” in our world). Honouring that gift, in my worldview, means sharing myself (my talents and skills) with other people. (That is one reason why I run this Substack account free of charge!)

The discussion about doctor assisted dying had activated again in the UK. A bill proposing it had gone through Parliament and received the majority vote. It then had to pass through the House of Lords where, we heard yesterday, it was rejected - meaning that it will not implemented at this time). I was reading some comments (on a public discussion forum) yesterday.

Atheists or deeply secular people (essentially) say: “I did not ask to be born and if I decide I want to die, no one should stop me! Ideally I should have medical assistance doing this in the least traumatic and messy way”.

For me that strips Life of its miraculous and mysterious, even Divine, dimension.

However, I have already written in another essay (here) that I believe in assisted dying under extremely narrow (and carefully controlled) circumstances. By this I mean that a person who is on their deathbed and has “passed the point of no return” should not be in unbearable pain, gasping for air or choking on their own saliva. I see no benefit in making a person die a truly horrible death unnecessarily, when other options exist.

I am speaking as someone who was put in charge of the morphine pump when my mother was on her deathbed, in 2022. I would never have given her an overdose - and I was instructed by palliative care nurses in the correct amounts and time intervals. Then again, if she was clearly suffering or in agony, I would not have hesitated to press a button and give her an extra dose of morphine. (This is not a public confession by the way: the dosage set by the palliative care professionals ensured my mother had a peaceful death. Only the prescribed dose was administered and the nurses had said that, only in an emergency situation at night - she had chosen to die at home and there were no medical professionals in the building at night - I was allowed to make that decision and override the system). They taught me how to do it - but I never used it. But that is the Netherlands, a country where assisted dying was legalized in 2002.

THE FOREST OF SKULLS, pen-and-ink drawing by the author

Do I believe suicide is always wrong?

I have already said that I feel this matter cannot be judged by someone who has never even got close to that state of mind. What I do believe is that people who commit suicide underestimate how it impacts their loved ones (for the rest of their lives and often well into the next few generations as well).

Suicide leaves an immense imprint on families. It creates a kind of “black hole” in the ancestral field. Not only a negative space where the person used to be, but a kind of “vortex” that can cause waves (riptides) in the lives of relatives and future generations (or even engulf them). People have told me that, much to their own surprise, they have found themselves entertaining thoughts of a “welcome death” or “easy way out” and only later realised that the day (or week) this happened marked the anniversary of a family’s members suicide.

People have also told me stories about suicide skipping a generation (and almost dropping out of family consciousness as a serious risk) but then a young person tries to commit suicide, choosing exactly the same method (or location, or reasoning, or at exactly the same age) as their uncle or grandmother (or whatever the kinship connection was).

That is often the point where a family contacts a practitioner like me (who does ancestral and intergenerational healing work) because they realise that there is a dangerous pattern running in the family and it needs unravelling or transmuting.

Do I believe something in-between those two positions?

I think that I have already answered that. What I have not addressed is a concern that (to my horror) is always left out of these discussions: the medical professionals who are expected to deliver death on demand, or door-to-door.

To whom do medical doctors and palliative care nurses answer, in the final reckoning?

Should they administer death (because politicians vote for assisted dying) even if their personal religion does not allow it, but their job demands it? (Will they be offered another job if they refuse for reasons of religion or conscientious objection?)

Should they remember the Hippocratic Oath they have sworn? Here is a small segment:

I will use those dietary regimens which will benefit my patients according to my greatest ability and judgment, and I will do no harm or injustice to them. Neither will I administer a poison to anybody when asked to do so, nor will I suggest such a course.

Or should they follow their own judgment in the moment - but that puts them in the role of “playing God”?

And isn’t that asking a lot from ordinary mortals, who have prejudices and opinions, good days and bad days, just like all of us? Would we collectively trust that? I will revisit that topic properly in a future article, for now I will direct you to an INTERVIEW WITH KATHLEEN STOCK, author of the upcoming book: Do Not Go Gentle.

This is how far got in my own reflections. I have already said in previous essays that I am open to changing my mind (or adjusting my views) when people present me with coherent and persuasive arguments. And I feel for anyone whose life has been impacted by the suicide of a family member, loved one, friend or colleague.

I try to send out two essays a week, but this sometimes fails due to travel, international teaching commitments and family care responsibilities (our family lives with Alzheimer’s and I have written several posts about that). If you would like to see regular posts about about Nordic spirituality and my life as a Forest Witch (and of course short videos of all the wildlife here!), please follow me on Instagram or Facebook, thank you!

As my audience here grows daily I need to add the following statement: ©I own the copyright to all my own words and images, as they appear here on Substack (or anywhere else). You can only reproduce this material (full or in part) elsewhere, if you give me full credit as the author and or artist. Most of you already knew this! Thank you!

Imelda Almqvist, London, UK

BIO FOR IMELDA ALMQVIST

Imelda Almqvist is an international teacher of Sacred Art and Seiðr/Old Norse Traditions (the ancestral wisdom teachings of Northern Europe). So far she has written four non-fiction books and two picture books for children. Natural Born Shamans: A Spiritual Toolkit for Life (Using shamanism creatively with young people of all ages) in 2016, Sacred Art: A Hollow Bone for Spirit (Where Art Meets Shamanism) in 2019, Medicine of the Imagination - Dwelling in Possibility (an impassioned plea for fearless imagination) in 2020 and North Sea Water In My Veins (The Pre-Christian spirituality of the Low Countries) was published in June 2022. Her latest book: Portals, Patterns and Pathways: A Handbook for Rune Magicians, Star Gazers and Myth Makers will be published (in the UK on May 26th and about a month later in the US).

The Green Bear is a series of picture book for children, aged 3 – 8 years. The stories and vibrant artwork, set in Scandinavia, invite children to explore enchanting parallel worlds and to keep their sense of magic alive as they grow up.

Imelda appears in a TV program, titled Ice Age Shaman, made for the Smithsonian Museum, in the series Mystic Britain, talking about Mesolithic arctic deer shamanism.

Imelda’s eagerly awaited book about the runes (the title is Portals, Patterns and Pathways, a Handbook for Rune Magicians, Star Gazers and Myth Makers) will be published by Collective Ink on 26 May 2026). She is currently working on a book about Inuit deities and mythology.

Imelda prefers being contacted by email. She only rarely checks (or responds) to DM’s on social media platforms.

Please note that Imelda’s on-line school called Pregnant Hag Teachings went off-line on 3 September 2025, due to a quadruple raise in fees imposed by the hosting platform. PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT AND FULL EXPLANATION

Website:

http://www.shaman-healer-painter.co.uk/

YouTube Channel: youtube.com/user/imeldaalmqvist

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/imelda.almqvist/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/almqvistimelda/

LOON AND RAVEN PAINT EACH OTHER, painting by the author

For years I used to write regular blogs on Wordpress. Occasionally I revisit and update one of these essays, and move it over here. My long-term goal is having all my writing in one place, not scattered all over the internet. Today’s article was adapted (and updated) from a piece I wrote on Wordpress in 2014.

The word ”selfish” often pops up in conversation with (admittedly mostly female) friends. We face many tough lessons when it comes to Self, because girls are conditioned and programmed to ‘put others first’, almost from birth. Speaking for myself I know that this goes back, not only to my own personal childhood, but it also involves ancestral patterns, established long before I was born.

In my family of origin, the second child (my brother), was born when I was 17 months old. My mother enjoyed telling a story from the time around his birth, when I was being pushed into the role of the “older self-effacing female child”. One day I was in a car with both my mother (driving) and my (maternal) grandmother in the passenger seat. My father was, presumably, watching the baby at home. There were no car seats for children yet. Even seatbelts did not yet exist! So I was an under-two sitting on a rear seat without any restraint. My mother drove across some bump or pothole and I was catapulted upward. My little head hit the “ceiling” (quite hard) and apparently I exclaimed: “Ouch Imelda!” (In Dutch: “Oei Imelda!”)

For the rest of her life (she died in 2022 at age 83) my mother would frequently trot out this favourite story, to me, our family and “the general public” to illustrate how I was born an “irredeemably selfish child”. The “selfishness” was there right from the beginning! She would always explain that there were three people in that car! Therefore I ought to have said: “Ouch Mummy, Grandma and Imelda!” (In Dutch: Oei Mamma, Oma en Imelda!) Obviously I was a toddler (several months shy of my second birthday) and my mother and grandma were fully grown adults (much heavier than a toddler). They would have felt the bump, but their heads would not not have hit the ceiling (quite hard). My speech was not yet fully formed either. All of that is a moot point anyway, because we are talking about a girl child only just moving out of babyhood. Yet this story was trotted out to shame me whenever I said NO to something demanded of me. (And then violence was used to make me comply).

This programming set me up for challenges, for the rest of my life. (Especially when my children were younger) I often struggled with the following question: how far do I go in denying and suppressing my own needs, feelings and priorities to be there for others? To be clear: not to be there for them (my three children are my greatest joy in life!) but in terms of all the other people making demands. (As the saying goes: “When you want something done, ask a busy Mum!”)

We women often live in holy terror of disappointing others! But somewhere along the way I started giving myself permission to disappoint and reprioritize. To stand my ground and protect my time, energy and resources.

When people die (especially when “those people are women”!) we often hear a litany of highly dubious praise:

She always put others first!

She was incapable of saying no!

She lived for her children!

She was a living saint!

Did this (fictive) woman perhaps die before her time, of an auto-immune (literally “self-attack” ) disease?

She was a good woman

(This was the theme the priest centred my mother’s entire funeral around).

UNDER MY WING, painting by the author made just after son #2 was born. For years people took our son #1 and son #2 for identical twins (see the photograph further down).

Selflessness is seen as a virtue, but is it really?!

It is oh-so-convenient for others when our default setting is to act selflessly, but there is a serious risk of LOOSING our SELF in the process. And what does that mean: loosing our self? To me it means floating in an ocean of other people’s demands and emotions like a rudderless boat, without being anchored or tethered, not being ‘at the helm’ (and not living in joy either).

This week [writing the original piece in 2014] it suddenly hit me ‘like a truck’ that I can not think of many positive words that have the word ‘self’ in them, only “SELF CARE”. For me that words carries positive connotations (only!)

However, the same thing is not true for

SELFISH, SELF-CENTERED, SELF-INVOLVED, (EGOISTIC, EGOCENTRIC), SELF-SEEKING, SELF-OBSESSED, SELF-REFERENTIAL, SELF-SILENCING, SELF-EFFACING…

I ran a word search and found one more positive term “SELF HEAL”! This is a key word in my shamanic practice: activating the innate ability to heal in clients and it is also a plant, Prunella vulgaris!)

Son #1 (on the left) and son #2 (on the right)

Technically speaking the opposite of the word selfishness is supposed to be altruism – but on reflection the polar opposite of selfish (to me) is: grounded, securely tethered to Spirit, properly present to others but able to maintain healthy (inter) personal boundaries.

We can be altruistic without being suicidally unselfish!

Based on my own experiences, I know that acting from a place of ‘out of touch with Self’ rarely pays off, because decisions or commitments don’t feel right and inevitably anger (or resentment) then enters the picture. (I learned that I will get angry with myself and that anger can spill over into my relationships with others).

Our culture sends us mixed messages when it comes to ‘Selfishness’. I had a Roman Catholic upbringing, self-sacrifice was seen as a virtue and therefore promoted at every opportunity. Martyrs looms large in Roman Catholic lore and even today I sometimes have to deal with an archetype I (have come to) call “The Inner Martyr”!

Selfishness was viewed in the Western Christian tradition as a central vice – as standing at the roots of the Seven Deadly Sins in the form of pride.

Francis Bacon carried forward this tradition when he characterized “Wisdom for a man’s self…[a]s the wisdom of rats”. (Wikipedia)

In our day, revisiting this piece in the year 2026, most psychotherapists or clinical psychologists would say that a ‘healthy sense of Self’ is at the very heart of being a vital and productive member of society.

MOON MAIDENS, painting by the author

Professionally speaking, I feel that a healthy connection to Spirit as well as a healthy sense of Self are both required for accomplishing what we came to do here on Earth. To me the Self is the psycho-spiritual vessel that allows me to be here. Just as my body is the physical vessel that allows me to actively participate in life on Earth. However, ultimately I am ‘not a body with spirit’, I am pure spirit temporarily residing in a human body (which is a huge privilege and time-limited opportunity).

Therefore, for me “Self” is the everyday construct that allows me to perceive myself as separate from others and from Creation, so I can do the maximum amount of learning, here on this beautiful planet. However, spiritually speaking, I know that part of me always yearns for unity consciousness (returning to Oneness with the Divine).

So I suppose my ultimate take on ‘Selfishness’ is that it is only through Self and separation that I learn and understand (both myself and others) - but I must still work towards relinquishing that sense of Self one day. This is the spiritual paradox, and pondering this matter takes me into a liminal yet sacred space. I think that this will take more than one life on Earth. But I also believe that it won’t take me all of Eternity to get there.

Oh and many spiritual traditions tell us that in the moment of death Ego dies, but our Spirit continues the great spiritual journey home to our Divine Origin or Creator (Source). But I would not call that unique state of mind (or consciousness) ‘selflessness’ or ‘altruism’, I would call that ‘transcending Self’.

What do YOU think?

Do you recognize a piece of yourself in the experiences that I shared, or not?

What was the programming you received from birth?

And if you are a man, do you perceive these pressures too, or different pressures?

As always I look forward to reading your comments!

I try to send out two essays a week, but this sometimes fails due to travel, international teaching commitments and family care responsibilities (our family lives with Alzheimer’s and I have written several posts about that). If you would like to see regular posts about about Nordic spirituality and my life as a Forest Witch (and of course short videos of all the wildlife here!), please follow me on Instagram or Facebook, thank you!

As my audience here grows daily I need to add the following statement: ©I own the copyright to all my own words and images, as they appear here on Substack (or anywhere else). You can only reproduce this material (full or in part) elsewhere, if you give me full credit as the author and or artist. Most of you already knew this! Thank you!

Imelda Almqvist, London, UK

BIO FOR IMELDA ALMQVIST

Imelda Almqvist is an international teacher of Sacred Art and Seiðr/Old Norse Traditions (the ancestral wisdom teachings of Northern Europe). So far she has written four non-fiction books and two picture books for children. Natural Born Shamans: A Spiritual Toolkit for Life (Using shamanism creatively with young people of all ages) in 2016, Sacred Art: A Hollow Bone for Spirit (Where Art Meets Shamanism) in 2019, Medicine of the Imagination - Dwelling in Possibility (an impassioned plea for fearless imagination) in 2020 and North Sea Water In My Veins (The Pre-Christian spirituality of the Low Countries) was published in June 2022. Her latest book: Portals, Patterns and Pathways: A Handbook for Rune Magicians, Star Gazers and Myth Makers will be published (in the UK on May 26th and about a month later in the US).

The Green Bear is a series of picture book for children, aged 3 – 8 years. The stories and vibrant artwork, set in Scandinavia, invite children to explore enchanting parallel worlds and to keep their sense of magic alive as they grow up.

Imelda appears in a TV program, titled Ice Age Shaman, made for the Smithsonian Museum, in the series Mystic Britain, talking about Mesolithic arctic deer shamanism.

Imelda’s eagerly awaited book about the runes (the title is Portals, Patterns and Pathways, a Handbook for Rune Magicians, Star Gazers and Myth Makers) will be published by Collective Ink on 26 May 2026). She is currently working on a book about Inuit deities and mythology.

Imelda prefers being contacted by email. She only rarely checks (or responds) to DM’s on social media platforms.

Please note that Imelda’s on-line school called Pregnant Hag Teachings went off-line on 3 September 2025, due to a quadruple raise in fees imposed by the hosting platform. PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT AND FULL EXPLANATION

Website:

http://www.shaman-healer-painter.co.uk/

YouTube Channel: youtube.com/user/imeldaalmqvist

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/imelda.almqvist/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/almqvistimelda/

As a rune magician, and teacher of rune magicians, people often ask me about the best way to learn the runes. My new book (which will be published on May 26th, so my author copies should arrive any day now!) provides a list of tried-and-tested suggestions, but in this article I wanted to provide a recent example of how I continue to learn about the runes myself.

Here is one trick I use: when I am reading a non-fiction book, or listening to an online lecture (and making notes for future reference), I use runes to make make notes in either a notebook or the margins (yes, I scribble all over my favourite books with a pencil, so I can retrieve all those insights and brainwaves later!)

This is a bit of an advanced art, you could say, because it only works if you are “fluent in the use of runes”, but once you master the skill, the runes can be used as a form of shorthand (also known as stenography).

Stenography is a method of rapid writing that uses symbols or abbreviations to represent words, allowing for quick and efficient transcription of spoken language.

Side note #1: does anyone still learn stenography today, or is it an obsolete skill now we have automatic AI transcripts of meetings and important conversations?

Side note #2: the most shocking thing I heard recently was that a 6 or 7-year old girl in the US had said to her (elementary school) teacher: “I don’t need to learn how to read and write! AI bots can read every text out to me!”

OUCH!! OH NO!!

Often I am glad that I had my children two decades ago. I do not envy parents and teachers the Sisyphean task of teaching the iPad and Chatbot generation old-fashioned skills in a screen-free environment…

Back to the main topic: a lot of my “rune scribbles” refer to more complex ideas, which I often express in the form of “rune axes” (a line drawn between any two runes which opens up a spectrum of stories, meanings, myths and archetypes). Also as stacked runes (pictures combining two or more runes).

In my book I say (with conviction) that no one can ever know “all there is to know about the runes” because the indwelling spirits of the runes continue to evolve through the interaction with human beings and human minds.

Now the real life example:

Earlier this week I was listening to a Podcast where Nate Hagens, the host, interviews his colleague and friend Daniel Smachtenberger on the topic of ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND THE SUPERORGANISM (their dialogue starts in the Stone Age and is well worth a listen!) At some point Smachtenberger talks, in a somewhat simplified way, about our Deep Ancestors and how they start making tools.

Let me pause here to explain that I believe that the Runes of the Elder Futhark tell the story of Creation (in 24 instalments, or 24 separate runes).

Smachtenberger says that:

> At some point in world history the plough is invented

> Now animal husbandry is required

> This means that they had domesticate a bull or buffalo and turn it into an oxen (which involves castration, a whip and force or coercive control, forcing the animal to do what you want, not what they want or would naturally do).

By comparison, he says, there were (peaceful) animistic tribes or cultures, at the same point in time, who didn’t do this, and perhaps actively chose not to do this, out of respect for the Animal Peoples, all Fellow Creatures and the Great Circle of Life. Subjugating and/or abusing an animal is not OK, spiritually speaking. (However, hunting and eating animals is acceptable, if the right taboos and rituals are observed, after all human beings needed to hunt and eat to survive).

What then happens, in his story, is that technology gave the first group a competitive advantage. This puts the second group at a disadvantage. When push comes to shove, peaceful groups will always lose when forced into situations of rivalry or weaponized inter-tribal conflict. In plain English: they will lose every battle but the first group will win every war and therefore become the dominant group (and overpower and absorb the losing group). And the dominant groups always write the history books, what we learn in school as “history”.

Then both gentlemen go on to talk about the arms race for Artificial Super Intelligence, also known as AGI, and Smachtenberger is making comparisons between key events in the Neolithic period and our time (the year 2026).

So what am I scribbling in my notebook while listening to this:

(Strikingly) there are two runes related to “bovines” in the Elder Futhark: rune UR or URUZ (which represents the wild aurochs) and rune FE or FEHU (FEOH) which represents domesticated cattle (the number of cattle you owned was once used to express your wealth) and over time that rune comes to mean fee or money. Without going too deeply into all this, Smachtenberger talking about wild buffalos and domesticated oxen (as beasts of burden) immediately got my attention. I stopped painting and started scribbling instead.

Rune FE (on the left) and Rune UR (on the right)

The rune of technology is KEN (or KENAZ, KENAU). The rune of progress (as in the cycle of evolution always moving forward, like a wheel spinning) is REID (RAIDO). Yet another rune, that sits in the same cluster, is THURS (THURISAZ) related to Norse god Thor keeping the giants at bay (self-defense, boundaries, being on guard, protecting our homes and communities).

Smachtenberger was essentially telling a story (or wisdom teaching) from the first Aett (the Norse word for family or lineage, here meaning a grouping of eight) of the Runes. He was also describing the shadow side of all runes involved very accurately. (And I am pretty sure that he is not a rune magician!) Technological progress is great - until it becomes runaway progress in a frightening direction, with potentially catastrophic outcomes (think of AI making independent decisions about nuclear missiles, or AI deciding that human beings are too useless or inconvenient and creating a human mass extinction event).

Oh and what do we commonly call such a mass extinction event in popular culture, courtesy of all the Thor movies and some Old Norse concepts having made it into public discourse?

Ragnarok (Ragnarǫkkr in Old Norse), the end of our current world or universe! (But the Poetic Edda tells us that worlds too have life spans or births and deaths, they come and go). And after Ragnarok, a new World (or Earth) rises from the sea. The Sun gives birth to a daughter, who continues her path across the heavens. The god Baldr returns from Helheim. Two human beings survive the catastrophe: Líf and Lífþrasir and populate the new world.

66. Þar kemr inn dimmi dreki fljúgandi,
naðr fránn, neðan frá Niðafjöllum;
berr sér í fjöðrum, - flýgr völl yfir, -
Niðhöggr nái. Nú mun hon sökkvask.

66. From below the dragon | dark comes forth,
Nithhogg flying | from Nithafjoll;
The bodies of men on | his wings he bears,
The serpent bright: | but now must I sink.

(I have used the translation by Henry Adams Bellows here, SOURCE)

In my system for working with the runes Ragnarok has a very specific place on the “wheel of the runes”. To find out exactly where that is, and why, I invite you to read my new book: Portals, Patterns and Pathways: A Handbook for Rune Magicians, Star Gazers and Myth Makers. And let me know whether you agree!

I try to send out two essays a week, but this sometimes fails due to travel, international teaching commitments and family care responsibilities (our family lives with Alzheimer’s and I have written several posts about that). If you would like to see regular posts about about Nordic spirituality and my life as a Forest Witch (and of course short videos of all the wildlife here!), please follow me on Instagram or Facebook, thank you!

As my audience here grows daily I need to add the following statement: ©I own the copyright to all my own words and images, as they appear here on Substack (or anywhere else). You can only reproduce this material (full or in part) elsewhere, if you give me full credit as the author and or artist. Most of you already knew this! Thank you!

Imelda Almqvist, Forest House and Forest School, Sweden

BIO FOR IMELDA ALMQVIST

Imelda Almqvist is an international teacher of Sacred Art and Seiðr/Old Norse Traditions (the ancestral wisdom teachings of Northern Europe). So far she has written four non-fiction books and two picture books for children. Natural Born Shamans: A Spiritual Toolkit for Life (Using shamanism creatively with young people of all ages) in 2016, Sacred Art: A Hollow Bone for Spirit (Where Art Meets Shamanism) in 2019, Medicine of the Imagination - Dwelling in Possibility (an impassioned plea for fearless imagination) in 2020 and North Sea Water In My Veins (The Pre-Christian spirituality of the Low Countries) was published in June 2022. Her latest book: Portals, Patterns and Pathways: A Handbook for Rune Magicians, Star Gazers and Myth Makers will be published (in the UK on May 26th and about a month later in the US).

The Green Bear is a series of picture book for children, aged 3 – 8 years. The stories and vibrant artwork, set in Scandinavia, invite children to explore enchanting parallel worlds and to keep their sense of magic alive as they grow up.

Imelda appears in a TV program, titled Ice Age Shaman, made for the Smithsonian Museum, in the series Mystic Britain, talking about Mesolithic arctic deer shamanism.

Imelda’s eagerly awaited book about the runes (the title is Portals, Patterns and Pathways, a Handbook for Rune Magicians, Star Gazers and Myth Makers) will be published by Collective Ink on 26 May 2026). She is currently working on a book about Inuit deities and mythology.

Imelda prefers being contacted by email. She only rarely checks (or responds) to DM’s on social media platforms.

Please note that Imelda’s on-line school called Pregnant Hag Teachings went off-line on 3 September 2025, due to a quadruple raise in fees imposed by the hosting platform. PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT AND FULL EXPLANATION

Website:

http://www.shaman-healer-painter.co.uk/

YouTube Channel: youtube.com/user/imeldaalmqvist

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/imelda.almqvist/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/almqvistimelda/

MY FINAL JOURNEY, painting by the author

“Gradually it was disclosed to me that the line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either -- but right through every human heart -- and through all human hearts. This line shifts. Inside us, it oscillates with the years. And even within hearts overwhelmed by evil, one small bridgehead of good is retained. And even in the best of all hearts, there remains ... an un-uprooted small corner of evil.

Since then I have come to understand the truth of all the religions of the world: They struggle with the evil inside a human being (inside every human being). It is impossible to expel evil from the world in its entirety, but it is possible to constrict it within each person.”

―Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago 1918–1956

Asked what question he would most want to know the answer to, if he returned to Earth in 500 years, Albert Einstein said, “Is the universe friendly?” Source

This question is wired deeply into our existence. We spend much of our time (semi-consciously) reassuring ourselves that life is essentially good and that there is a friendly and kind Afterlife awaiting us as well.

We feel outraged by what is happening in zones of armed conflict (and sadly the number has only increased, in the year 2026). Please see the two essays I previously wrote about war:

IS HISTORY BOUND TO REPEAT ITSELF? (An essay about War and how it shaped my immediate ancestors)

NEVER AGAIN (AN ONTOLOGICAL PROBLEM) - Essay #2 in a Series Exploring Different Dimensions of War

Of course we feel deeply (and genuinely) for the innocent people whose lives are ruined (or even terminated brutally) but I hazard the suggestion that there is something else going on here too: seeing the traumatic footage violates our innate need for a kind, caring and safe world (and ultimately the admission, of our immortal soul, to an idyllic Afterlife). And both ideas contain a seed concept of a benevolent Deity (Creator or Supreme Being Watching Over Us).

A quick scroll through Facebook shows that that there is a (flowery but very understandable) 21st century language around this: we observe the “Heavenly birthdays” of deceased loved ones. We “drop our human coat” when we die and “soon pick up a new body” (by those who assume front row privileges in the soul queue for reincarnation!) I also see many references to Ascension, which appears to involve “raising one’s vibration and consciousness to higher levels”. It refers to a collective shift in consciousness (according to some people) happening on Earth right now. Do you see any evidence of that? Please let me know in the comments.

If all (or any of) this is true, it seems clear to me that the very opposite thing is also happening: Islamic fundamentalism is spreading and by now well-established on European shores. I personally do not see any “Ascension factor” in that direction of travel for Western Society. At best I see it as two movements (really two dominant world religions) with diametrically opposed values. And one of those belief systems causes far more suffering and carnage than the other. I subscribe to neither.

I happened to be listening to an interview with the historian Dominic Sandbrook (while tidying the kitchen this morning). He says that, historically speaking (remember that this is someone who has studied history passionately for three or four decades!): “The biggest killers were idealists!” The people we (in Western culture) think of as utterly evil, saw themselves as performing good (or at least (necessary) deeds to create a better society.

TWIN SEAL SOULS, painting by the author

So here is a strange question of my own: would the world be kind if there were no human beings in it? Well, much of the animal kingdom is based on the food chain and predation, the stalking of prey and gnashing of teeth. One animal’s cub or chick is another animal’s lunch. (I have several essays-in-progress, exploring the topic of predators, in my Draft Folder!) Natural catastrophes have always happened (tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, forest fires etc.), wiping out every conceivable life form. I guess that the word “kind” has no meaning as soon as human beings leave the scene, because it is a human value and aspiration. And only human beings have the capacity to witness, reflect on events and write history. And every historian has a bias or personal perspective.

As regards the existence of an Afterlife: my entire profession evolves around that phenomenon! For those new to my Substack account: I spent years working as a shamanic practitioner in my private practice in London. I then became a shamanic teacher (and I still teach internationally) but I followed spirit guidance to return to my ancestral tradition, which is indigenous to Northern Europe. I teach courses on Old Norse spirituality and Seiðr, as well as courses in sacred art, spiritual toolkit work with children and (occasionally specialist webinars in the pre-Christian spirituality of my native Low Countries).

I could theoretically argue that everything my own (human) spiritual teachers taught me might be “fantasy” (as in not real) because although shamanic work is results-based (we track our results), it is not evidence-based. Often the result is a client feeling a great deal better (and lighter), after ancestral healing work, without me being able to deliver irrefutable proof that their ancestors committed or experienced the specific trauma we worked on (which has just been unraveled or transmuted).

However, what “clinches this particular deal” (for me) is the work I did in other worlds as a very young child. I was brought up in a devout Roman Catholic family. I didn’t even encounter the word “shamanism” until I read some anthropology books at age 25. Yet, I did psycho pomp work as a very young child. I talked to dead people and spirits all the time. At night I helped deceased souls transition. Other worlds (including the Land of the Dead) were more real, more vivid and more compelling, to me than the everyday world. No human being taught me any of this. I never told my parents about this either. It simply was my “lived reality” from an incredibly young age (five or six years old).

Which is not to say that I visualize the Afterlife as Christian Heaven! My third book, Medicine of the Imagination, provides a detailed account of how I perceive the Afterlife, based on my professional activities. It also explains where the Christian concept of Heaven fits into that. The continuation of consciousness after death is something I personally cannot question, not after 59 years of working in those realms daily and nightly. But to each their own.

So I ended up asking myself: what is my own “ultimate question”, (as in existential or ontological question)? I realize that my own question firmly relates to life on earth. It is: “Will I be cared for and lovingly, respectfully, tended to when I am no longer able to look after myself?” This also reflects my greatest fear in this life: losing the ability to look after myself and manage my own affairs. (This may reflect the fact that I never felt safe, even as an extremely young child. See my essay about The Scapegoat, but it also reflects where ageism, respect and proper care for the elderly are “at” in Western Society).

The jury is still out on this one. I know that this type of question is shared (most poignantly) by many parents of severely disabled children all over the world. Who will look after my disabled child, when I myself am no longer around, or too old/incapacitated to do it?

BLACK HENBANE: THE CHOIRS OF THE DEAD (painting inspired by a lecture by Cody Dickerson)

I am writing this piece in Sweden, where complex systems have been put in place. As far as I can tell, in Sweden disabled children (in their early 20s) often leave home and go live in a group home on an assisted living basis. Every effort is made to provide a job and meaningful life for them, if that is realistic. (Swedes among you, please set me straight on this, I know I don’t have the full picture and I know that even Swedish systems often fail!) One Swedish man with Down’s Syndrome I know personally has a job, goes on holidays in the Mediterranean and used to visit his parents at the weekends (while they were still alive). All of this is facilitated by dedicated support workers and seen as a human right. His care is funded by the high taxes people pay.

Unfortunately this is not true for most countries, even wealthy countries. Birth rates are plummeting in alarming ways while our population is ageing rapidly. The EU (and the UK post-Brexit) has one of the lowest fertility rates in the world, defined as the number of live births per woman.

The current figures are well below the (so called) replacement rate: the number needed to replace our existing population and shoulder the burdens of working and providing funding and care for those beyond working age. For that reason I often wonder who will look after “all of us” (people of my generation) as this process unfolds. Who will pay the taxes required to fund all of the care workers, even if they can be found (or recruited from other parts of the world)?

In my bleaker moments I even wonder whether assisted dying will rapidly become a more acceptable option, by necessity. (In the Netherlands and Canada it already exists. The UK has passed a bill in favour of rolling it out but it is not yet in place and there are a lot of protest votes). I have an essay-in-progress which delves into the possible realities and downstream consequences of this (based on what is playing out Canada and my home country).

Ultimately it is all a question of faith and the “luck of the draw”. Some people can save up money and privately pay for caregivers that they (or their family) selects to look after them in their own home. For most people that is not an option. A very large number of people relies on a mix of their children, kind neighbors and ultimately state provision (such as it is, an “accident of location”). Here in the UK people often speak of the “Postcode Lottery”: where you live decides the care package or services you get (or not).

It is no longer the norm that children take on the burden of personally caring for elderly parents (though many people are significantly involved in care for elderly parents). I hope that our own three children will keep a close eye when we reach old age, but I do not assume that they will look after us in their own homes.

Actually, I don’t want them to, I do not want to (ever) become the kind of burden (or dead weight) that destroys their own family life or marriage!

If I legally have access to the option, by then (which is uncertain because I am planning to live in Sweden once I retire), I might look into assisted dying options before I decline too much. I already jokingly tell our sons that: “One day Mum will walk into her beloved forest and be eaten by a bear!” They have asked me to stop telling that gruesome fairy tale. STOP MUM! NOT FUNNY!! Please note, I am only talking about my own thought process here. I am not prescribing any course of action for anyone else.

For good or for bad, Sweden accepted many decades ago that care for the elderly (and disabled) is the responsibility of the state. At least that means that Swedish people know what will happen to them, in that scenario.

Many old people feel lonely and surplus to requirements (with devastating effects on their mental health). I have done death preparation work with people (of different ages) and I have also worked with many people processing deep grief. I firmly believe that for many people old age is a sacred time of seeking (and ideally receiving) compensation (as in spiritual balancing, not money) for things they lacked in (early) life.

AFTER MY MOTHER DIED, painting by the author

People who were parentified as children and always had to be in control, sometimes end up relinquishing all control. Some people who were not heard in childhood might develop dementia (and you can’t argue with dementia - any decent caregiver knows that you can only listen and follow the reality of the affected person person). People who did not feel safe (or received inadequate care), even as an infant, sometimes end up requiring 24/7 intimate care. A lot of tender holding, washing, feeding - indeed like a new born baby. In other words it looks (to me) like there needs to be compensation for something vital that was not received earlier: fulfillment of a core human need, before the person can die peacefully.

DEATH AS THE ULTIMATE HEALER

In Western society we often speak of “quality of life”. We can be way too fast in defining whether another person has quality of life or not (as often we cannot get beyond our own age, desires, preferences and prejudices).

PLEASE NOTE that the shamanic toolbox offers an important tool for moral dilemmas posed by medical decisions: a skilled and experienced practitioner can communicate with the soul, or Higher Self, of a person and receive guidance on a person’s needs and wishes. With students I always use the example of switching off life support - consult the soul of the person concerned! Following this procedure also absolves loved ones living with the feeling that “they killed someone”.

Based on everything I witness, I believe that many people, assuming they are well cared for and that there “is no price on their head”, use old age to process things and get ready for death in their own time. Most people do this unconsciously (but the higher octave is doing this work consciously!) What looks to you or me like the indignity of being cared for like a helpless infant, may well be the exact healing people need to receive before they transition.

Grizzly bears not withstanding, if the circumstances allow it, I would like to claim my full old age, every precious minute and second of it. Even if that means dementia care. Because I believe that, if provided skillfully (and ideally lovingly, tenderly), this may be the great healing I need before I transition back into the Embrace of the Ancestors. However, governments are not known for funding things of invisible or questionable benefit, hence my deep anxiety around this.

But I prefer assisted living to assisted dying!

Those are my (unfiltered) thoughts!

What is your ultimate or existential question?

Have you formulated any answer to it?

Please tell me in the comments and thank you!

I try (but sometimes fail) to get out one essay a week, due to travel, international teaching commitments and family care responsibilities (our family lives with Alzheimer’s and I have written several posts about that). If you would like to see regular posts about about sacred art, Nordic spirituality and my life as a Forest Witch (and of course short videos of all the wildlife here!), please follow me on Instagram or Facebook, thank you!

Imelda, Forest House and Forest School, Sweden

Ancestral Mothers Dreaming - painting by the author

BIO FOR IMELDA ALMQVIST

Imelda Almqvist is an international teacher of Sacred Art and Seiðr/Old Norse Traditions (the ancestral wisdom teachings of Northern Europe). So far she has written four non-fiction books and two picture books for children. Natural Born Shamans: A Spiritual Toolkit for Life (Using shamanism creatively with young people of all ages) in 2016, Sacred Art: A Hollow Bone for Spirit (Where Art Meets Shamanism) in 2019, Medicine of the Imagination - Dwelling in Possibility (an impassioned plea for fearless imagination) in 2020 and North Sea Water In My Veins (The Pre-Christian spirituality of the Low Countries) was published in June 2022.

The Green Bear is a series of picture book for children, aged 3 – 8 years. The stories and vibrant artwork, set in Scandinavia, invite children to explore enchanting parallel worlds and to keep their sense of magic alive as they grow up.

Imelda has presented her work on both The Shift Network and Sounds True. She appears in a TV program, titled Ice Age Shaman, made for the Smithsonian Museum, in the series Mystic Britain, talking about Mesolithic arctic deer shamanism.

Imelda is currently working on a handbook for rune magicians (about the runes of the Elder Futhark) and on more books in the Green Bear Series. Imelda runs an on-line school called Pregnant Hag Teachings, where all classes she teaches remain available as recordings, which can be watched any time.

Website:                           

http://www.shaman-healer-painter.co.uk/

YouTube Channel:             youtube.com/user/imeldaalmqvist

Online School:                  https://pregnant-hag-teachings.teachable.com/courses/

Facebook:                            https://www.facebook.com/imelda.almqvist/

Instagram:                          https://www.instagram.com/almqvistimelda/

THERE IS ANOTHER SELF TRYING TO CLIMB OUT!, pen-and-ink drawing by the author

1650s, from Greek euphemismos “use of a favorable word in place of an inauspicious one, superstitious avoidance of words of ill-omen during religious ceremonies,” also of substitutions such as Eumenides for the Furies. Source

Am I the only person who feels that “something is happening to words”? Many words have been inflated, deflated or hijacked. Not only that, but there are now common English words which, in everyday usage, suddenly mean the opposite of their dictionary meaning.

For instance, I now hear people say: “I have mental health!” In the past you would have congratulated them (on achieving mental health) but that is not what this statement calls for. The opposite is true, the person is generally asking for empathy or accommodations due to mental health problems.

In reality what has happened is that, within my lifetime (I am 59) a shift has occurred. We used to call people crazy or mad. Then we collectively woke up to how rude (and disrespectful) that was and we started being more careful: he or she has a mental illness. Then even that became a little too explicit and we started saying they are currently struggling with some mental health issues. And now that is abbreviated, by some people, to “I have mental health”. (By the way these nuances are not easy to grasp for an foreign speaker of English who arrives in the country from abroad, and attends job interviews in the field of mental health care, as well will see in a moment!)

MY SHADOW SELF, pen-and-ink drawing by the author

We see the same thing when it comes to describing disabilities. Saying that a person has a mental handicap (as was the case in my childhood and this was not meant to be derogatory, but a description of an observable fact or condition) was no longer acceptable. Then it became “a mental disability”. This was watered down even more to “learning difficulties”. Let me pause here to tell a personal story:

This process of deliberate language-drift was in full swing when I moved to London (in 1991). At the time I wanted to train as an art therapist and, at that time, there were only two universities where this post-graduate course was offered. One university specialized in education and the other course focused on the field of psychiatry and mental health provision. To be accepted onto this course you needed to have a degree and work experience in both fields. I had a degree in Fine Art and Art History from Amsterdam. As a qualified teacher I also had several years of teaching experience in formal education, so I needed to cover the “mental health component”.

I found a group local to me (in North London) which was looking for a volunteer to run art activities with “people with learning difficulties”. Fresh from the Netherlands, speaking fluent high school English (!), I thought that sounded like mild point of entry. I pictured this job as working with people who had dyslexia or perhaps mild short-term memory loss. In reality I found myself working with people who had both significant mental disabilities and severe mental health issues. It was not quite what I expected, but I enjoyed the work anyway and I was accepted onto the postgraduate Art Therapy course, as part of which I ended up doing a one year placement in acute psychiatry, on an in-patient ward in central London.

Now back to where I was. The word “disability” has also become controversial since those days (the early 1990s). One is now supposed to highlight (only) positives and speak of “people who are differently able”. To me this makes sense for (reasonably) high functioning people, who are wheelchair-bound (for instance) and master the art of working around their disability in all sorts of ways. On social media you can see videos where people demonstrate the most extraordinary skills and workarounds. They are excellent educators, showing the rest of the world what disabled people are capable of. They often point out too that their live-in partner is not always “their carer” (challenging the general idea that partnering someone with disabilities makes you a 24/7 care provider for life). This is truly uplifting and educational material and a great use of social media platforms!

BUT, as I see things, there are also groups of people (who have no less innate human dignity or human rights than you or I do!) who are not “differently able” but factually unable to perform many everyday tasks. My mother-in-law, (who has advanced Alzheimer’s, lives on a secure ward in a nursing home and is a wheelchair user due to the amputation of one leg) is an example of this. She can barely perform any task independently (any longer). Is it kind or helpful to those people (like her) to tweak the word “disabled” into differently abled? Well, maybe she isn’t the perfect example due to extreme old age…

WANING MOON, pen-and-ink drawing by the author

Another example, that keeps showing up in my social media feed, is that some parents of children with Level 3 autism (referring to high support needs, and that translates into 24/7 care and supervision for life) are totally fed up with (what they perceive as) a trend of people (read Influencers, Tiktokers or YouTubers) with high functioning autism (Level 1 autism in the DSM-5), and in some cases only self-diagnosed (for whatever that is worth) making funky reels or YouTube videos about how “Autism is my superpower!” And about “How cool it is to be neuro-spicy”! (To attract views and followers and, if their account is monetized, even income).

If you have a child with Level 3 autism (some parents are campaigning for re-introducing the term profound autism), this means (on the parent-carer side) that your child may dash out into a busy road without any sense of danger. They may also experience a lot of frustration and have major outbursts of anger and aggression (things we call violence in everyday life) in class. (If they attend a mainstream school, this means that the education of 29 other children could be interrupted by a full-scale classroom evacuation, several times a week).

It may also mean that they are hitting or kicking their siblings (not to hurt them, but because they genuinely don’t know how they impact others). Their siblings still need to live with that and learn make sense of that daily reality (which most of us would consider an unacceptable reality! Being at risk of being hit and kicked everyday, is that really OK?) The list goes on.

For the parents concerned that also means lying awake at night and worrying yourself sick about who will look after your child once your die. Can you die in peace without the absolute reassurance that they will receive not only baseline adequate care but wrap-around loving care? (Because a profoundly autistic child will inevitably become an adult with Level 3 autism). Can you understand that such parents don’t appreciate the phrase: “My autism is my super power!” I CAN!

They don’t appreciate all the talk about “level-shifting” either: today I am a Level 1 but tomorrow I might be Level 2 again. Their child (or children) will never NOT be Level 3. It is not a moveable feast or fashionably fluid. I recently saw one person getting into an argument with an autism-mother on social media, last night, telling her off for using the word “profound autism” to describe her own son’s functioning. This mother was corrected (by a stranger!) and told to describe him as as Level 3 instead.

Do we strangers suddenly get to decide the terms that parents use to describe their own children. Do outsiders (who are not affected by autism) get to play the part of the political correctness police?

WHERE I GROW ANTLERS, pen-and-ink drawing by the author

Another example is that these days no one is “nervous” or “apprehensive” any more. We now all “have anxiety” and that phrase is commonly used as an abbreviation for “I have anxiety disorder”.

I managed to mis-hear that one too, years ago. Some told me that her child “has anxiety”. I nodded and thought: oh yes sure, an anxious child… It soon transpired that this child was being home-schooled because his anxiety order was considered (by his parents) too severe for him to attend a regular school. (Am I too literal-minded?)

Another term I see popping up everywhere is “safe” or “safe person”. The word “unsafe” has now been degraded to express, in many cases, mild discomfort, such as university students being introduced to an opposing viewpoint. (Try selling that shift to someone who lives in a location where armed conflict rages and they - and their loved ones - could literally die any moment!) I just searched the term “safe person”. It brought up lists of character traits of safe people and also an online guide on personal safety, “how to stay safe”, from the Police here in the UK!

The uncomfortable fact is that we can’t all be a “safe person” for all the people we interact with, all of the time! If we were to try that, our own needs would never be met! We would be unpaid therapists for colleagues, unpaid carers or taxi-drivers for our neighbours, unpaid babysitters for local families etc. This is not to say that we shouldn’t be kind and give a hand when and where help is desperately needed - of course we should!

But one fundamental fact of life is that we all have the responsibility for guarding our own primary interests. We cannot become the dedicated resource that other people plug into whenever they need to, just because we are one the very few people they perceive as “safe”. Part of human existence is maintaining healthy boundaries and being on guard. There are many people who could be trusted with one thing but not another. They may be a competent gardener or safe taxi-driver, but not an appropriate baby-sitter.

In terms of human capacity and human development, here is obviously a limit to “be kind” and “health and safety first”:

Safetyism

A cultural mindset or belief system that prioritizes safety - both physical and emotional - to an extreme degree, often at the expense of personal resilience, freedom or growth. SOURCE

I try my hardest to be a safe mother for my children and a safe practitioner for my one-on-one clients Safety is something we aim for in our families and in professional settings. We have traffic rules to promote road safety. We have a police force that (supposedly, at least) arrests people who commit crimes and gets them off the street.

Teaching groups already poses much greater challenges. Any group is only as safe as the least safe (or least self-contained, least self-aware) member of that group! I run the whole gamut of offering introduction classes (in part to filter out problems students for long-term programs), requesting references from other teachers, having students sign Rules of Engagement documents etc. But the bottom line is (and will always remain) that I will sometimes have disruptive students in my class (or students who trigger everyone else by their blissful lack of self-awareness, constantly doing or saying insensitive or tone deaf things). And those students will make other participants feel unsafe. No teacher, facilitator or instructor wants that (but again, no teacher or instructor can completely prevent that 100%).

The world is an unsafe place and has always been. In Western culture we are probably living with a higher level of safety than we have ever had, historically speaking. We also have infinitely better medical care. People no longer die from conditions that a blood transfusion, surgery or dose of antibiotics can cure. So we grow taller and live longer, in much larger numbers (but crime persists, accidents still happen and new technology always brings new risks and new types of accidents or danger too).

Now I also know that languages and words are living entities. They change and evolve, they always have and they always will. (Am I old-fashioned, is it that I am not a native speaker of English?) But by means of this essay I would still like to ask: are many common words becoming something akin to “endangered animals”? They are leaving our vocabulary (when I say “mouse” do you think of a computer mouse or a small rodent?) and we are actively devaluing stronger or more extreme words by using them constantly.

Talking of spectrums: there is an entire spectrum of scenarios between “a little uncomfortable” and factually “unsafe”.

Not only that, aren’t we deliberately creating confusion by using words that do not accurately describe concepts or situations, such as the examples I have given?

If “unsafe” no longer means unsafe, how will be express a genuine lack of safety: acutely dangerous, life-threatening, at serious risk?

Synonyms for unsafe:

Dangerous, hazardous, risky, perilous, serious, precarious, treacherous, unhealthy…

euphemism(n.)

Our word dates from the 1650s and is derived from Greek euphemismos “use of a favorable word in place of an inauspicious one, superstitious avoidance of words of ill-omen during religious ceremonies”.

All the ancients, but most of all the Athenians, were careful not to use ill-omened words; so they called the prison ‘the chamber,’ and the executioner ‘the public man,’ and the Furies (Erinyes) they called ‘Eumenides’ (’the kindly ones’) or ‘the Venerable Goddesses.’ “ [Helladius of Antinoopolis, 4 c. C.E., quoted by Photius] SOURCE

Of course the British pride themselves on the Art of Understatement. This caused problems in communication between the British and American and Canadian allies during World War II. The British used terms such as “we are getting a bit concerned” to express that there was grave danger. Across the Atlantic Ocean this was heard as “mild worry” but nothing too serious yet…

As always I look forward to hearing about your own experiences and reflections in the comment section! Sometimes a truly excellent question or comment sparks off another essay, or helps someone realise that they need professional help.

I try to send out two essays a week, but this sometimes fails due to travel, international teaching commitments and family care responsibilities (our family lives with Alzheimer’s and I have written several posts about that). If you would like to see regular posts about about Nordic spirituality and my life as a Forest Witch (and of course short videos of all the wildlife here!), please follow me on Instagram or Facebook, thank you!

As my audience here grows daily I need to add the following statement: ©I own the copyright to all my own words and images, as they appear here on Substack (or anywhere else). You can only reproduce this material (full or in part) elsewhere, if you give me full credit as the author and or artist. Most of you already knew this! Thank you!

Imelda Almqvist, Forest House and Forest School, Sweden

A dialogue between two Hags in the Woods

BIO FOR IMELDA ALMQVIST

Imelda Almqvist is an international teacher of Sacred Art and Seiðr/Old Norse Traditions (the ancestral wisdom teachings of Northern Europe). So far she has written four non-fiction books and two picture books for children. Natural Born Shamans: A Spiritual Toolkit for Life (Using shamanism creatively with young people of all ages) in 2016, Sacred Art: A Hollow Bone for Spirit (Where Art Meets Shamanism) in 2019, Medicine of the Imagination - Dwelling in Possibility (an impassioned plea for fearless imagination) in 2020 and North Sea Water In My Veins (The Pre-Christian spirituality of the Low Countries) was published in June 2022.

The Green Bear is a series of picture book for children, aged 3 – 8 years. The stories and vibrant artwork, set in Scandinavia, invite children to explore enchanting parallel worlds and to keep their sense of magic alive as they grow up.

Imelda appears in a TV program, titled Ice Age Shaman, made for the Smithsonian Museum, in the series Mystic Britain, talking about Mesolithic arctic deer shamanism.

Imelda’s eagerly awaited book about the runes (the title is Portals, Patterns and Pathways, a Handbook for Rune Magicians, Star Gazers and Myth Makers) will be published by Collective Ink on 26 May 2026). She is currently working on a book about Inuit deities and mythology.

Imelda prefers being contacted by email. She only rarely checks (or responds) to DM’s on social media platforms.

Please note that Imelda’s on-line school called Pregnant Hag Teachings went off-line on 3 September 2025, due to a quadruple raise in fees imposed by the hosting platform. PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT AND FULL EXPLANATION

Website:

http://www.shaman-healer-painter.co.uk/

YouTube Channel: youtube.com/user/imeldaalmqvist

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/imelda.almqvist/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/almqvistimelda/