Meet the author is a series of articles intended to introduce you to our wonderful authors. Learn about the books they’ve written, the spiritual pathways they’ve traversed and some fun little tidbits… introducing Imelda Almqvist!

Tell us about yourself….

At heart, I am a bear wearing a human coat! I am happiest in the Far North (especially places where polar bears roam). I was born in the Netherlands, but Sweden and Greenland are the places my soul calls home today.  

My most sacred possessions are a swan bone flute, a star constellation cloak for ceremonial work and a bear skull. I love playing my cello in the forest and my swan bone flutes on the shores of the Baltic Sea. I work closely with the Bone Mother, and one of my more unusual spiritual practices is taking my animal skulls for walks in the Forest. I have a Forest School in Sweden, in a remote place where the Forest Meets the Sea.

I have taught on most continents (but I am still waiting for invitations from Australia and Antarctica!) I have performed ceremonies with groups under the Dark Sky in Chaco Canyon (New Mexico), under the Northern Lights in Greenland and on grave mounds in Sweden. My groups have spent time sketching rock art in caves in Spain, and they have been sent on pilgrimages in locations all over the world.

I call myself a Forest Witch and a daughter of Baba Yaga (The Pregnant Hag in all her manifestations). I sketch and scribble compulsively. I write both a dream diary and an art journal. My favourite season is winter. As a human bear, I build time for hibernation into my schedule. My favourite activity is running with a herd of deer in the snow, under the aurora borealis.

In the everyday world, I aman international teacher of Sacred Art and Seiðr/Old Norse Traditions (the ancestral wisdom teachings of Northern Europe). As a teacher, I combine a focus on historical accuracy with encouraging my students to build a personal relationship with spirits, deities and elementals. I appear in a TV program, titled Ice Age Shaman, made for the Smithsonian Museum, in the series Mystic Britain, talking about Mesolithic arctic deer shamanism. I am currently working on a book about Inuit cosmology, spirits and deities. I am collaborating with Arctic peoples on educating the world about the profound wisdom teachings and vulnerability of Arctic peoples and the ecology of the Arctic.

What books have you written?

So far, I have written five non-fiction books (all published by Moon Books), five picture books for children and one art book:

1. Natural Born Shamans: A Spiritual Toolkit for Life (Using shamanism creatively with young people of all ages) in 2016
2. Sacred Art: A Hollow Bone for Spirit (Where Art Meets Shamanism) in 2019
3. Medicine of the Imagination – Dwelling in Possibility (an impassioned plea for fearless imagination) in 2020
4. North Sea Water In My Veins (The Pre-Christian spirituality of the Low Countries) was published in June 2022.
5. Portals, Patterns and Pathways (a Handbook for Rune Magicians, Star Gazers and Myth Makers) comes out in May 2026.

My art book is titled “The Secret Garden of the Bone Mother: From Dismemberment to Rebirth in 20 Paintings”, featuring original artwork.

The Green Bear is my series of picture books for children, aged 3 – 8 years. The stories and colourful artwork, set in Scandinavia (and inspired by my own forest house), invite children to explore enchanting parallel worlds and to keep their sense of magic alive as they grow up.

How would you describe your spiritual pathway?

In just one word: as spirit-led. I don’t have a career or career plan. I live my life in service to spirit, and I am constantly surprised by what I am asked to do. Looking back on it all, every move makes sense, but none of it was planned in a conventional way.

My art is about making the spirit world visible and accessible to others. As a teacher, my work is about offering ancestral and indigenous wisdom teachings (from Northern Europe) in a format which merges historical accuracy with spiritual tools, facilitating personal revelation. I am passionate about bringing ancient knowledge into the modern world, in practical and meaningful ways. My books build on that same theme: they are a distilled version of what I teach (and what I have learned from my otherworld teachers and students along the way).

What tips do you have for folk beginning their spiritual journey?

• You can’t read too many books, especially “Moon books” (meaning books by Moon Books Authors)!
• Be aware that committing properly to any Path or Tradition (after plenty of exploration) brings both discipline and discomfort. This is essential because if we are too eclectic, we can become like butterflies, forever flying from flower to flower. Eclecticism can become an excuse for non-committal behaviour and not accessing the taproot of what calls us and nourishes us deeply.
• Look for a teacher who really “knows their stuff” but gives you the space for spreading your own wings and who encourages you to find your own unique calling and direction.
• Personally speaking, I would not choose a teacher who works from translations. So, for Old Norse material (or Seiðr), find a teacher who speaks at least one modern Scandinavian language and can read Old Norse (but remember, I am a foreign language freak!)

The two warnings I myself would have appreciated receiving are:

1. You are not necessarily going to be “safe” or “accepted for who you are” in spiritual circles. Sadly, power games and struggles for dominance, in-fighting and inflicting reputational damage on others are rife in the world of (so-called) “spiritual people”. Have the courage to walk away and strike out on your own when circumstances require this (this is a major initiation). Build your own community and communicate clear rules of engagement. Please don’t ever give up on spirit and your spirit allies!

• Don’t be naïve, stay clear of gurus or people accumulating a large (social media-based) following, for financial and publicity reasons. A good teacher is like a parent: they paint themselves out of the picture and (eventually) set you free, but remain in the background as a mentor and source of support when needed.

Hone your capacity for critical thinking and constantly check in with your intuition: don’t get caught up in “group think” or “the herd mind” against your better instincts. Our society currently promotes a “psychopathic growth mind set”, and hosting platforms are actively talking teachers into a “sales funnel mind set”. Beware and resist! Listen to your Inner Teacher and Inner Healer! (I provide exercises for doing this in my third book: Medicine of the Imagination).

As a teacher and ex-student, I have learned the hard way that the most uncomfortable yet most important thing about learning is unlearning what serves no more.

What is something quirky about yourself?

My students overseas recently suggested that I find myself a “Hag Shack” on another (their) continent, so I could spend more time there and they could drop in on me. This set something in motion because now I am always looking for possible “hag shacks, wherever I find myself, (and I like turning my “finds” into reels on Instagram). In a Substack post, I linked the term Hag Shack (or Hag Shed) to “What She Sheds”, what we (older women) need to drop or release, to step into our power as a Hag (or Crone, Elder, Wise Woman, according to preference).

This phrase has caught on because other women (in their late 50s) are now telling me that they also need a Hag Shack and sharing their pictures with me. I’d quite like this to become a movement for empowerment (of older women, wearing their invisibility cloaks with pride, on their secret spiritual missions in our world!) We badly need to overturn the (super-ageist) conceptualisation of Old Age in Western Society.

In my art journal, I wrote down the must-have features of my shack or shed:

• A bear flap, so bears (and my own cubs) can come and go!
• A glass roof (so I can dream under the stars).
• Sea spray creating tiny salt crystals on my windows, little prisms casting rainbows everywhere…
• A small beach where I could find hag stones and driftwood to carve animals from.

It needs to be a place where the Sea washes my footsteps away, so I can reinvent myself every day!

What Deity(ies) would you love to have dinner with?

Norse goddess Skaði! She lives in the Far North, where wolves howl and where it snows nine months of the year.

Two other ladies I would love to have dinner with are the Germanic Frau (or Mother) Holle and of course, the Slavic Baba Yaga.

I can’t say I ever have dinner with them, but I do work closely with all three of them. They all live in the liminal zone between Life and Death, and they make great allies for psycho pomp work (helping the souls of deceased people cross over). I recently created a circular outdoor altar, consisting of animal skulls on tree stumps, to honour Baba Yaga. I would sit out (Old Norse: utiseta) there at twilight, as a spiritual practice. I did this in August as the Midnight Sun lost its grip on the North and (to my delight) the stars returned.

What magical items would you take with you if you had to live on an island for a year?

My swan bone flutes and a bag crammed full of art journals and art materials!

Of course, I would also bring my runes and lots of (Moon) books to read. Weather allowing, I’d wear my furry bear suit.

When can I go, please? And could we make it an island in the High Arctic, please?!

Where can people find you?

The best place to follow me is Substack. I aim to send out two essays a week (on the same, rather broad, variety of topics as my books cover, including shamanic perspectives on contemporary cultural phenomena such as AI, spiritual narcissism, intergenerational healing work, organ donation, etc.) People can receive these pieces directly in their inbox, for free, by simply subscribing. I also have a website, and I maintain a social media presence on both Facebook and Instagram.

Substack: https://imeldaalmqvist.substack.com/

Website: http://www.shaman-healer-painter.co.uk/

YouTube Channel: youtube.com/user/imeldaalmqvist

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/imelda.almqvist/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/almqvistimelda/

Imelda Almqvist is an international teacher of Sacred Art and Seidr/Old Norse Traditions (the ancestral wisdom teachings of Northern Europe). She has published three books: Natural Born Shamans: A Spiritual Toolkit for Life (Using shamanism creatively with young people of all ages) in 2016, Sacred Art: A Hollow Bone for Spirit (Where Art Meets Shamanism) in 2019 and Medicine of the Imagination – Dwelling in possibility (an impassioned plea for fearless imagination) in 2020. She has presented her work on both The Shift Network and Sounds True. She appears in a TV program, titled Ice Age Shaman, made for the Smithsonian Museum, in the series Mystic Britain, talking about Neolithic arctic deer shamanism. Her fourth book, about the pre-Christian spirituality of The Netherlands and Low Countries, has just gone into production. She has already started her fifth book: about the runes of the Futhark/Uthark. In response to the 2020 pandemic she has opened an on-line school, called Pregnant Hag Teachings, to make more of her classes available on-line.

For more details: https://www.collectiveinkbooks.com/moon-books/authors/imelda-almqvist