Imelda Almqvist
When you meet teachers so full of knowledge, usually they are dead so you can only read their books!
When you can work with someone like Imelda in person you should grab the opportunity!
- Katharine Lucy Haworth, Shamanic Practitioner, UK
I can totally see you teaching at Harvard!
— Manca Geberl, Slovenia
Your book Sacred Art is much better than The Artist's Way. It is more scholarly. I like the exercises in both, but the text of your book was more valuable to me.
- Terry Clarbour, US
Thank you deeply for being in my life and worlds! I am the woman I am today through your fearless direction and invitations to explore, heal, and expand. You have to keep teaching!!! Your knowledge must be shared and the internet provides that vehicle especially when the world shuts down!! If teachers like you are silenced and unseen, even by a virus, we will find ourselves in the Dark Ages again!!
-Valarie Budayr, NM, US
Thank you for being such a wonderful teacher that I love crossing oceans and time zones to work with you!
- Megan Anderson, US
Your book on the spiritual traditions of the Low Countries is a wonderful contribution to cultural soul recovery, finely streaming together your poly-linguistic research and your depth of experiential work.
-Robert Moss, Way of the Dreamer, mossdreams.com
Finally, can I just say your research and scholarship is outstanding!
-Trevor Greenfield, Publisher/Editor at Moon Books, Formerly John Hunt Publishing, now Watkins Books
Hello and welcome to this website!
My name is Imelda Almqvist. I am an international teacher of Sacred Art and Seiðr/Old Norse Traditions. I am also a painter and author of eight books. In addition to non-fiction books, I write and illustrate picture books for children (The Green Bear Series). I currently teach in the UK, the US, Sweden and Greenland. Future courses are in the pipeline for arctic Scandinavia andFinland as well as the Orkney Islands.
My paintings can be found in collections all over the world. You may have seen me in a TV program called Ice Age Shaman, in the series Mystic Britain, on the Smithsonian Channel. My on-line school is called Pregnant Hag Teachings.
I am the author of:
NATURAL BORN SHAMANS: A Spiritual Toolkit for Life (Using shamanism creatively with young people of all ages), 2016
SACRED ART, A Hollow Bone for Spirit: Where Shamanism Meets Art 2019
MEDICINE OF THE IMAGINATION: Dwelling in Possibility, 2020
NORTH SEA WATER IN MY VEINS: The Pre-Christian Spirituality of the Low Countries, 2022
THE SECRET GARDEN OF THE BONE MOTHER: From Dismemberment to Rebirth in 20 Paintings
THE GREEN BEAR SERIES: The adventures of Lars and Linnea! (3 picture books)
I am currently working on two non-fictions books about the runes: a Handbook for Rune Magicians and a Rune Compendium!
UPDATE ON CLASSES AND EVENTS
I am currently walking a delicate balance between teaching in person while continuing to offer some courses on-line (for my students in other countries and on other continents).
Courtesy of the Covid-19 Pandemic, strong inter-continental friendships have been forged in my classes. This delights me!
Up to date information always appears in my newsletters! (To subscribe please press CONTACT US and drop me an email with your full name!)
Unfortunately I often run a little behind myself in terms of updating this website!
IN RESPONSE TO FAQ
From now on my Introduction to Making Sacred Art course will ONLY run on-line, as a series of three webinars:
I will never teach my 2-year program in Sweden entirely on-line because the spirits of the land are powerful co-teachers!
My colleague Susan Rossi has retired, and we will no longer offer courses in Philadelphia or at Pendle Hill together. (However, I am always open to invitations and approaches from other sponsors, anywhere in the world!)
COMING TO WISCONSIN AND NEW MEXICO!
The Seiðr Introduction Course in Wisconsin US is full for September but the same course has been scheduled for 4 - 7 April at the Golden Light Healing Retreat Center (7102 Sundew Road, Sobieski, WI 54171).
I will am also teaching a Sacred Art Retreat in Santa Fe, hosted by Valarie Budayr at the Mongata Healing Center, in October 2023:
(There is currently only one place left!)
SOME COURSES STILL AVAILABLE AS RECORDINGS:
I have a passionate interest in cultural astronomy, a field consisting of studies in the field of archeoastronomy (the astronomy of earlier cultures and civilizations) and ethnoastronomy (the astronomy of non-Western or indigenous peoples).
It has been stated that all world mythology is based on night sky observations.
In our culture we are deeply immersed in one particular conceptualization of the night sky, but actually they are many others!
This course presents what we know (based on the Eddas and other sources) about the way the Old Norse people viewed the night sky!
I am Dutch and I grew up speaking the West Frisian dialect, as a child in the Netherlands.
Once I had mastered the runes of the Elder Futhark and formed a solid working relationship with all 24 runes, I became curious about the nine additional runes found in (later) Futhorcs, presented in these classes. A significant addition to the runic toolkit!
You can watch the recordings in your own time.
My new book, North Sea Water In My Veins (About the Pre-Christian Spirituality of the Low Countries) contains a Rune Summary with the names and meanings of the Frisian Rune Row!
In this FREE mini workshop I present a toolkit and materials for navigating pandemic times.
My first book, Natural Born Shamans, was published in 2016 but it did not contain a chapter about pandemics!
In this class I run through different age groups and discuss how they are impacted by both the Pandemic, the War in Ukraine and the threat of nuclear war. I present some shamanic tools for the times we all live in.
This workshop is FREE, so no one is excluded for financial reasons. The only prerequisite for attending is a genuine desire to reach out to a child in any capacity (personal or professional)
CONNECT WITH ME!
Facebook Personal page (reached the friend limit years ago but all posts are public):
Instagram: almqvistimelda
Twitter: @ImeldaAlmqvist
https://pregnant-hag-teachings.teachable.com/courses/
"When the student is ready, the teacher appears!"
(Fortunately this process also works the other way around: "when the teacher is ready, the students appear!")
I have had the immense good fortune of training with the following shamanic teachers: Simon Buxton, Betsy Bergstrom, Chetna Lawless and Sandra Ingerman, who wrote the Foreword for my first book Natural Born Shamans! I have also learned much from powerful creative partnerships with the following people: Simon Cook in London (The Time Travellers and Blind Labyrinth Walks), Anna Kjellin in Sweden (Seidr and Fornsed), Nick Taylor in Wales (Rites of Passage Work with Teenagers), Karmit Evenzur in Spain (Geomancy and Earth Speaks), Judith Bogner (Public Speaking and Mediation), Jill Hunter (Animal Healing), Sony Baron in Victoria BC Canada, Susan Rossi in Philadelphia (Sacred Art and Crone Medicine Work), Anja Steinbauer for invitations for a shamanic teacher to speak at Philosophy for All Events (and keeping my interest in philosophy alive!), Terry Morgan in Maine USA (Astrology) and Alec Davis in Seattle (ceremonial work in the Desert at both Chaco Canyon and in Santa Fe, New Mexico), Elen Sentier, Valarie Budayr (Healing Wise, helping me set up my online school and hosting a sacred art retreat in Santa Fe recently!), Christian Thurow for taking my rune magician courses on-line during Lockdowns.