SCHOOL OF SACRED ART & SHAMANISM

General Introduction

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

This house is set in vildmark (literally "the wild", in our case pristine ancient forest) stretching for miles in all directions, (my students are going get completely and deliciously lost so I will be standing on a big rock drumming them home!) and situated a brief walk from a lake called Sibbofjärden. 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 her, the boat that is, Otter's Ransom, honouring the Norse sagas!

For any shamanic teacher having access to land where students can work completely undisturbed for days on end is a priority concern. Sweden operates a law called Allemansrätten (freely translated as The Public Right of Access), giving people the right to walk and even camp on land everywhere. (There are some rules regarding private dwellings and grazing animals etc.)

In the immediate surroundings there are many Bronze Age sites: grave mounds, rune stones, ship burial sites and standing stones etc. Uppsa Kulle is right on the doorstep (see the picture in the header above on the far right!)

A one week introduction course to Seidr/Fornsed 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 Norse Shamanism, allowing people to work in all areas of shamanic practice within an indigenous Northern European tradition. In other words: a professional training in all aspects of working as a seiðmaðr or seiðkona.   

This 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 1-5 October 2018. A course description is available!

 Why offer a 2 year program in Norse Shamanism

My colleague Anna Kjellin and I already teach a one week introduction course in Fornsed once a year, at Anna's beautiful farmhouse in Skane.

In May 2016  the students who did that course made a strong request for a 2 year  in-depth practitioner training in Seidr and Norse Shamanism, allowing people to work in all areas of shamanic practice within an indigenous Northern European tradition. In other words: a professional training in all aspects of working as a seiðmadr or seiðkona.

 Up to now I have been teaching shamanic practitioner programs in London offering predominantly material from core shamanism while Norse shamanism has been a personal path and practice for me since the Norse Gods called me when I was 19 years old.

The request from the Fornsed students brought on a period of serious contemplation at my end. As a shamanic teacher I am well aware of the great need for people to have access to quality training in indigenous European wisdom traditions. 

Early peoples have always traveled and we know how far the Vikings traveled. Today there are many people all over the world who have a percentage of Norse blood and Scandinavian ancestry. Going on the volume of emails I receive, many of those people now hear the voices of their ancestors (in their dreams, in their blood) and wish to learn about The Northern Tradition.