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 Collective Ink
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 ten 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.
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! (5 shamanic picture books for children)
I am hoping to publish my Handbook for Rune Magicians in 2025 or early 2026. The best place to follow me and see glimpses of my professional activities is Substack. where I post 2-3 essays a week (on a variety of subjects) ON THE FREE TIER! Join the dialogues! Feel free to submit topic requests!
IMELDA'S TEACHING SCHEDULE FOR 2025
UPDATE ON CLASSES AND EVENTS
I am aiming for 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).
I am currently teaching a series of webinars about the pre-Christian spirituality of the Low Countries (based on my fourth non-fiction book: North Sea Water In My Veins). I may return to teaching (Post-pandemic) Spiritual Toolkit Work With Children in 2025.
Courtesy of the Covid-19 Pandemic, strong inter-continental friendships have been forged in my classes. This delights me!
IN RESPONSE TO FAQ, BY LOCATION
My Introduction to Making Sacred Art course is now only available in my online school, Pregnant Hag Teachings, as a series of three webinars (recordings):
MAKING SACRED ART INTRODUCTION COURSE
There are two sacred art retreats scheduled for 2025:
SWAN MAIDENS AND BECOMING A SWAN BONE FLUTE FOR SPIRIT, Wisconsin USA February 14-17, 2025
DANCING THE BEAR, London UK, 1 - 5 December 2025
GREENLAND: There is not course scheduled in Greenland in 2025
SEIDR AND OLD NORSE TRADITIONS
FOREST SCHOOL IN SWEDEN:
My current cohort in Sweden is about to enter their third year of studies. The two modules running in 2025 remain open (on a one off basis) to people who have completed the Seidr Foundation Course. From 2026 they will study highly advanced work that is not open to people having completed only the foundation course.
The Seidr Foundation course is available as a series of recordings in my online school, Pregnant Hag Teachings:
Please note that I will never teach my 2-year Seidkona/ Seidmadr program in Sweden entirely on-line because the spirits of the land are such powerful co-teachers! (We cannot visit stone circles or sit out on grave mounds on Zoom!)
My courses in the US are currently hosted by Amy Wilinski in Wisconsin, have a look:
MY COURSES AT THE GOLDEN LIGHT HEALING CENTER IN WISCONSIN, USA
SEIDR FOUNDATION COURSE, February 20-23, 2025
Two advanced SEIDR modules (from my Forest School in Sweden) are scheduled to run in Wisconsin in 2025:
#2 THE VITKI AND ADVANCED RUNE STUDIES
1 - 4 May 2025
REGISTRATION PAGE FOR ALL USA COURSES
#3 THE OLD NORSE ANATOMY OF SOUL
(Late September 2025, registration is not yet open)
THIS COURSE WILL NOT RUN IN 2025
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!
My personal FB page (reached the friend limit years ago but all posts are set to "public"):
Instagram: almqvistimelda
Art Only: imeldaalmqvist
Working with Sedna in Greenland!
Playing my swan bone flute by the lake near my Forest School in Sweden!
Drumming at Anundshög, a Megalithic site with "stone ships" in Sweden!
My Rune Drum and the view from my Forest School in Sweden!