Your Own Life Is The Greatest Piece of Art You Will Ever Make!
My book, Natural Born Shamans: A Spiritual Toolkit For Life - Using shamanism creatively with young people of all ages will be published on August 26th this year. Copies can be pre-ordered on amazon just now and you are likely to receive your copy in July already! Just press the link to check it out! The Foreword is by Sandra Ingerman!
"What a gift Imelda Almqvist's work is for our global community! Rarely have I met someone with such a spiritual and creative force. Imelda brings a freshness into her shamanic teaching and sacred art courses. Her Time Traveller's workshops with children are so needed and are unsurpassed in their power and healing. Imelda is a brilliant shamanic teacher with so much to offer."
- Sandra Ingerman, author of "Soul Retrieval" and "Medicine for the Earth"
This week I got talking to my 11 year old son Brendan about "what I most need to teach". He said: "Teach ancient long-forgotten things through shamanism, Mum!"
My name is Imelda Almqvist. I am a painter and shamanic teacher. I am also the proud mother of three teenagers. My book about shamanic work with children and teenagers (Natural Born Shamans: A Spiritual Toolkit For Life) will be published by Moon Books in September 2016.
For many years I proudly defined myself by the words "shamanic practitioner". I offered one-to-one shamanic healing sessions and saw a very large number of clients. I combined this with teaching courses "in the place where Art Meets Shamanism" all over the world. Over time a shift occurred within myself. I began the question the sole focus on "healing" somewhat and it started to dawn on me that all those years of healing work had prepared me for an even more unique and specialist calling: teaching people how to joyfully create healthy reality. When people are in creative flow and passionately engaged with Life, healing occurs naturally. It is an innate force in all of us, you could call this our birth right.
Though I have witnessed many miracles occur in my years of shamanic practice, the time has come to take a leap of faith by moving from one-to-one work to putting most of my focus on offering life-changing courses and groups where people heal through engaging with Mystery and Divinity. And on my own artwork, of course! Please visit my art website to see my paintings!
In shamanism we work outside time. Outside time the esoteric teachings of previous civilizations and mystery schools remain available to us. We can use shamanic techniques to access those. Profound balancing, healing and even miracles occur when people learn to dance with the gods and goddesses of Creation. When they take their true place as joyful Co-Creators of the Living Breathing Sacred Benevolent Universe we all live in, nothing is impossible.
Etymologically speaking the words "healing, healthy, whole and holy" are all related, they come from the same root stem. To heal therefore means "returning to sacred wholeness". Our most holy task is to become whole and to take responsibility for all we attract and create, from that places of wholeness.
Today (writing this in March 2016) I wish to share the amazing knowledge I have gathered as a shamanic practitioner. I offer a 2 year shamanic practitioner training and my first Circle graduates in December this year. The next group starts in March 2017. My intention is to create a listing here so people trained by me personally will take referrals through this website.
Below this text you will find some videos. I hope it gives you a taste of what shamanism is what healing forces and delicious dreaming creativity can unlock. Enjoy!
Short film where you can see and hear me speak about my work: Barbera Grammeniate interviews Imelda Almqvist about shamanism, soul retrieval and sacred art:
And here is a film LA-based film maker Hannah Beadman made about my shamanic group for young people called The Time Travellers (in 2015)
This film is a live interview with Sharon Ballantine on her US-based TV Show for Conscious Evolution Media on Wednesday 22/1/2014.
Education & Training
I have had the good fortune of training with some of the most amazing teachers in the world. I did the SHAMANIC PRACTITIONER TRAINING with Simon Buxton/ The Sacred Trust here in the UK. I have trained in COMPASSIONATE DE-POSSESSION WORK and THE TIBETAN RITES OF CHOD with Betsy Bergstrom . I have completed the Arte Triptych Melissae Training with Naomi Lewis and Kate Shela. In October 2013 I completed the TWO YEAR SHAMANIC TEACHER TRAINING PROGRAM with Sandra Ingerman in Santa Fe (New Mexico, USA). I have also done some training with Chetna Lawless and Ruth Aber. When it comes to Seidr (Fornsejd) Anna Karin Kjellin has been an amazing mentor and co-teacher for me! Karmit Evenzur has taught me a lot about geomancy and working with the deep dreaming of the land. My younger self I did Art (Psycho) Therapy training here in the UK. I went to Art School in Amsterdam, Holland, where I did a degree in Fine Art & Art History and got my teaching qualification. I am a Dutch citizen based in London, UK.
A few definitions of key words before you explore other pages on this website:
Most clients who come to see me ask this question! Basically a shaman is someone who walks between worlds on behalf of their community to bring healing and guidance from spirit allies into our 'everyday world'. Here are some definitions of a shaman:
The word 'shaman' is a Siberian word from the Tungus language. In indigenous societies certain individuals are called to this path and they undergo rigorous training and initiations before working for the community as a shaman. In Western society we honour those people and their path by calling ourselves 'shamanic practitioners' instead, to mark the fact that we trained with Western teachers - but we perform the same tasks in the community (of communication with Spirit, ceremonies, healing and divination). Other words for this work do exist, such as seer (word used in Medieval Europe), curandero/a (Spanish), seidhkona (female, Norse), Angakok (Inuit term), Tang-ki (Chinese) and P'aqo (Andean word) - and that is a small selection.
ANGAKOK SHAMAN MOTHER
A related point I would like to make here is that absolutely all existing cultures had pre-dating shamanic cultures, wherever you go in the world. Leaving aside the issue of 'the right word' for this, shamanism (& working with Spirit) is and has always been a worldwide phenomenon. It is NOT something that indigenous people introduced in Europe and the USA. However, it IS something that other cultures did not lose and we did as Europe entered the age of (so called) 'Enlightenment', rationalism and a heavy focus on a scientific worldview that excludes all 'non scientific' (and non linear) ways of gathering information. Right now the need for new spiritual models of thinking and holistic healing modalities is great indeed in our society (just going on the volume of emails I personally receive every day!)
Shamanism is the world's oldest spiritual practice. It is not a religion. It is all about contacting the spirit world for guidance and healing. It has been said that it is the oldest technique for problem-solving known to mankind.
Spirit is the original life force, the creative force. Shamanism teaches that everything has spirit: trees and rocks and stories as well as human beings, animals and other life forms.
