IMELDA ALMQVIST'S FOREST SCHOOL

Seiðmaðr & Seiðkona advanced program in Sweden 

 (1 hour south of Stockholm)

A new Cohort starts this program on 1 September 2023 but modules have been organised on a rotational basis for greater flexibility.

Email me for a full syllabus. I am also visioning future stand-alone forest witch courses in this location! Imelda

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Shamanic teacher, painter and author in the UK and the world

Shamanic teacher, painter and author in the UK and the world

Shamanic teacher, painter and author in the UK and the world

 

 

WELCOME TO MY FOREST SCHOOL IN SWEDEN!

My first cohort has just graduated! What was originally visioned as a 2-year program became, courtesy of the Covid-19 Pandemic, a 4-year program with two years' worth of deepening webinars. Their final verdict is that the program is "epic and life-changing" but I am making some changes based on our experiences and feedback received.

Module #1 of the NEW Sweden Program: The Vitki or Rune Magician, will run from 3 - 8 September 2023. One deepening module, The Nine Wave Maidens, will run from 3 - 8 September 2023, as requested by the first cohort. There currently are 3 places left (open to anyone who has completed the 5-day Seidr Introduction Course). 

A full course description for the entire new program is now available on request and registration is open! A separate description for The Wave Maidens is available too!

 ONLINE SEIDR COURSES!

I have used the Pandemic period to offer a variety of Seidr classes online. Those classes have all been recorded and remain available!

ONLINE SEIDR CLASSES

In April 2022 I even taught the entire Seidr Introduction Course online and those recordings remain available as well.  Please note that there are no recordings for the High Seat Ceremony and the Hall of the Rune Magicians night (as both contain confidential information)! My plan is to organise a catch-up session once enough students have completed this course online to make that viable.

ONLINE SEIDR INTRODUCTION COURSE

 

WOW!
Working deeper with the runes - each one revealing more and more about itself and how each is linked with another
The Norns in their whirling well of water stepping forward with their knowledge
My mind was blown with Imelda's story of the runes- it just hit me in heart deep within me it made so much sense like a coming home. I was truly wowed by it
My favourite moment? Too many to mention
Working alone, in pairs, in ceremony a deeply immersive experience diving deep into this well of knowledge
Don't hesitate jump into that well! 
-Lyn Hill, UK

TESTIMONIALS RECEIVED FOR SEIDR CLASSES


Not for the faint of soul. This program has an intensity that starts as a gentle trickle and ends as a tsunami of love wisdom passion and a spiritual awakening unlike anything else I have experienced. A combination of “theory” and experiential adventure, group discussion and individual exploration. Imelda brings her life and love of the Northern Way into every drop of content. Hail aesir och asynjur.   
- Kelly Wyrd, Canada

From the moment we entered the sacred forest and land at True North in Sweden, we were called into our ancestral Norse heritage. The two-year seidr program has expansively grown my skill sets and knowledge of this ancient Northern European tradition. This is a course of living knowledge and unfolding, a way of life, as we embrace the subject matter deeply. Imelda brings a deep knowledge of the topic from her own scholarship and research but more importantly from her own experiences of actively living the knowledge for the past 20+ years. I highly recommend this course if you have an interest and calling to Seidr and Northern traditions.

-Valarie Budayr, US

 

 

 

SCHOOL OF SACRED ART & SHAMANISM

General Introduction

Since I was about 14 years old I have dreamed of living in Scandinavia, in a place where the Forest meets the Sea; where you catch glimpses of trolls and elves going about their business. A place where rare wild flowers (and mushrooms) grow and the language of plants remains a native tongue. In 2016 my dream house turned out to exist and called us to Sweden. 

The Forest House and my Forest School are situated in the deep forest, away from other houses. The forest stretches for miles in all directions and Sibbofjärden is a short walk away. (Technically speaking this is not a lake, but a fjord, because it is connected by a small canal to the open sea, and the Stockholm archipelago with its 3000 islands). My husband owns a small boat for explore this watery Eden. We have called our boat Otter's Ransom, honouring the Norse sagas!

For any serious shamanic teacher access to land where students can work completely undisturbed is a priority concern. Sweden operates a law called Allemansrätten (freely translated as The Public Right of Access or Right to Roam), giving people the right to walk and even camp on land everywhere. (There are some rules regarding private dwellings and grazing animals etc., which I always explain when I open a class).

There are many Bronze Age sites in the immediate surroundings: grave mounds, rune stones, ship burial sites and standing stones, and so forth. Uppsa Kulle is right on the doorstep (see the two pictures in the header just above, middle + far right!)

A one-week SeidrNorse Shamanism Introduction Course has been offered once a year since 2014.  In May 2016 the people who participated in that course made a strong request for a 2-year practitioner training in Seidr and Northern Tradition studies, allowing people to work (with competence and confidence) in all areas of shamanic practice, within an indigenous Northern European tradition. In other words: a professional training in all aspects of working as seiðmaðr or seiðkona.   

This course and project (this dream, this passion!) is my response to that request!

Please note that I will next teach the Seidr/Fornsed Introduction course in London 27 April - 1 May 2020. A course description is available!

  2023 Start!

PROFESSIONAL TRAINING IN BECOMING A Seiðmadr or Seiðkona

This professional training, in Seiðr and Old Norse Traditions, was originally visioned as a 2-year program, which in reality became a 4-year program for the first cohort, due to the Covid-19 Pandemic. My students felt that this was a good thing, because it gave people plenty of integration time and we also packed in 2 years' worth of webinars, covering deepening material.

The overall consensus, from my first cohort of students, was that the program is “epic and life-changing” (great to hear!) but I am still making some changes/improvements!

For future courses I will operate 4 tiers:

Foundation Level (Open to people who have completed the Seidr Introduction course and demonstrated their ability to work with the runes)
Deepening & Broadening Modules (Open to returning graduates as well as people who have completed the Introduction Course)
Intermediate Level (Open to people who have completed both Foundation Level modules)
The Advanced Tier (For people who have completed modules #1, #2, #4, #5 & #6)

Here is a list of all modules:

#1 The Vitki or Rune Magician

#2 The Norns and Changing the Weave 

#3 The Norse Anatomy of Soul  

#4 The Nine Maidens of Lyfjaberg (Healing work Old Norse Tradition style)

#5 The Wild Hunt and the Norse Psycho Pomps 

#6 Ancestral Healing Work (the Old Norse way, working with the fylgja, kinfylgja and          the Norse conceptualisation of Kinship

#7 Likfassna (Advanced psycho pomp work and Norse Cosmology spirit release work

#8 The Nine Wave Maidens 

 

 

International Teacher, Author, Painter and Forest Witch in Europe and Globally

 

Here are some videos made for my current students, introducing the Runes, Rune Stones, Scandinavian Petroglyphs and Sitting Out on a Grave Mound (Utiseta) - hope you find them both educational and enjoyable! Imelda

 

 

 

 

 


Shamanic teacher, painter and author in the UK and the world

 

 CULTURAL HERITAGE ON OUR DOORSTEP!

Bronze Age sites

In OUR immediate surroundings there are many Bronze Age sites. grave mounds, rune stones, ship burial sites and standing stones positively "litter the landscape"!

The King's Grave Mound of Uppsa Kulle is right on the doorstep, just outside Tystberga! There are many rune stones in the vicinity as well.

 Petroglyphs
Släbro Hälristningar

These carvings are quite different in appearance from many other petroglyphs found in Sweden. Some are shaped like cups (indents) where it is believed offerings were made to the spirits and gods. They were discovered relatively recently (in 1984). Another hypothesis is that they might represent star constellations - this resonates with guidance I myself have received, sitting out there!

 Area of outstanding natural beauty

My Forest School is "Where The Wild Things Are"! 

The local wildlife is abundant. You will encounter deer daily and also moose, badgers, wild boar etc. Sea eagles are often spotted flying overhead. 

My first cohort did not only encounter a wolf and a lynx but one student even met three juvenile (grizzly) bears right behind our house!

 

 

 

 


 

 

Shamanic teacher, painter and author in the UK and the world

 What is Seiðr?

Seidr is a set of ancient Norse magical practices. Traditionally speaking those include the following ,methods and paths:

-   Seidr used for Divination & Changing the Weave

-   The Thirst for Knowledge & Wisdom Competitions

-   Making power objects, sacred art and other forms of magical crafting

-   "Blot and Blod" (Offerings and Blood) 

Ceremony, ritual, offerings, Wheel of the Year

-   Galder - magical songs, incantations and spells

-   Uteseita: sitting out (not unlike Native American concept of a vision quest)

-   Shapeshifting and Berserking

Shamanic teacher, painter and author in the UK and the world