BLOG

SOLID GROUND

TreeStaff

MARCH 2022

Sometimes it feels as if change happens so fast, we cannot keep up. One morning we wake and everyday reality is shifting into something almost unrecognizable. Many of us might have felt this as the experience of war seeps through Europe, reaching far and wide. It is all connected and wherever we are, it affects us.

Now more than ever, it is important to keep hold of our practice and ask the Spirits to help keep us steady. To remember what is at our core and keep connecting to Power.…

Read more…

REMEMBERING RELATIONSHIP

1 Åsbacka DP Spring

FEBRUARY 2022

“You are not alone”. Many times have we said these words on courses and in circles. The Spirits are with us all the time, if we remember to reach out and open. But how do we remember? It is up to us to connect, but it is not always easy when time is tight or we feel weak, tired or stressed. Often it is hardest to ask for help when we most need it.

A good place to begin is where you are right now – right where you live. You can choose to relate to your home, your local area or wor…

Read more…

NEW DAYS, NEW WAYS

DawnJan22

IMBOLC 2022

Here we are, still in a relatively new year, with much that is unformed and unknown ahead of us. Even though we do not always know where we are going, when we stand firmly planted on the Earth, connected to the Spirits, we know we have the support to be with what comes.

Now we want to warmly welcome you to our newly renovated website. It still lives at shamanism.dk but has been updated, expanded and reorganized. The last time we made a major rebuild was 10 years ago and we are so h…

Read more…

THE DARK & THE LIGHT

AsbMoon

WINTER SOLSTICE 2021

This year, the Full Moon and Winter Solstice come very close to each other. In the darkest night, there is also light. How do we allow Dark and Light to dance together in us, and in our lives? So often Light is used to mean “good” and dark to mean “bad” but in Nature this is not true at all. Light is simply light, and dark is dark. They both have great and important qualities, and both are needed to keep the balance of Life. There are many nocturnal animals that depend on d…

Read more…

REFLECTING TIME

Wintercall

NOVEMBER 2021 -

We are in a time of transition. Here in the North we are now in the Dark Season, a place of magical stillness and peace, going slow and turning within. There is much Power here, a reflecting Power, like the Moon shining on a still pond. It can help us to look deeper and see more clearly. As we slow down and become quiet, we begin to find ourselves again.

Before going on, we make room for reflection. A pause, a breath, a stillness before beginning. In this seemingly empty spac…

Read more…

THE GIFTS OF PLANTS

nettlerich

LATE SPRING 2021 -

Where we live, in southern Sweden and Denmark, this time of year is bursting with the bounty of nature. All around, Life is wild and vital, bringing the verdant Green back into being. Trees are unfolding their leaves, opening to the Sun. Flowers and plants stretch up, with the joy of growing into fullness and receiving blessings from Rain. 

There is an old Swedish saying: if you can keep going until the Nettles come, you will survive. In older days, when a long hard Winter m…

Read more…

FOUNDATIONS OF LIFE

heatherhillfall

AUTUMN 2011 -

Sometimes life takes us by surprise. Recently I came to hear about The Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers (www.grandmotherscouncil.org) and right after got the chance to go to Göteborg to listen and learn from two of them - Sámi healer Laila Spik and Hopi elder Mona Polacca. This turned out to be a wonderful, heart-opening, and encouraging experience. They talked about their cultural traditions, about environmental changes, global warming, and the Hopi Prophecy. They talked about no…

Read more…

MAGICIANS OF CHANGE

oak1

AUTUMN 2012 -

A golden Autumn day. In the Sun’s warmth, the frost on the oak leaves melts to mist in the crisp air. Change. Life is so full of the unexpected, the things we feel to be “good” seeking balance with what we feel to be “difficult.” The main work of the shaman is that of healer, yes, but healing in a bigger sense, of being the one who dances with the rhythms of life and finds ways to restore the balance.

The shaman is the one people turn to in times of change. So the shaman must als…

Read more…

LISTEN TO THE SILENCE

foxinsnow

WINTER 2012 -

Here in Scandinavia it is the darkest time of the year, the days when the Sun begins travelling North again – Midwinter, a time of celebration! Asking my Teachers how to celebrate this Solstice, they answered not only my question but also deepened my understanding of how to live. They told me that this is the time to remember those who have gone on before me, not only my blood-line ancestors, but all those who have made my life possible today, from the smallest organism to the gre…

Read more…

THE JOY OF RESPONSIBILITY

asbacken

FEBRUARY 2013 -

Many of us recognize the importance of finding and following our own path. My own life experience has been that sometimes I find my path to be be hard and stony, sometimes smooth, sometimes inspiring, sometimes boring, and sometimes it just didn’t seem to be there at all - even though it always is.

In January, I volunteered to be Firekeeper for our International Shamanic Community (ISC). The Firekeeper takes on the responsibility of tending the spirit fire of the community for …

Read more…