Paintings inspired by

NORSE/NORDIC COSMOLOGY & THE RUNES

 

 

 Volva (Völva, spelled with O Caudata, or "O Hook" in Old Norse)     SOLD 

“Volva” was the official title for a woman who practiced seiðr professionally. We do not know if there were more sorts of practitioners, but we do know that the title of a fully-fledged female practitioner with a proper standing in society was called a volva. The title is derived from the word vol, meaning “wand” or “staff”.  Full article:

https://bladehoner.wordpress.com/2018/06/15/the-v%c7%ablva-as-an-oracle-in-old-norse-sources/

In the Seidr courses I teach, I introduce people to working with the Volva and we perform a (Scandinavian-style) High Seat Ceremony! The key concept is that we allow her (or a deity) to speak through us. We speak prophecy! For most of my Seidr students this is one of the highlights of the course! And to answer a related FAQ: the original Volva was  woman, but I also put men on the High Seat!

 The Norns   SOLD

This painting is heavily inspired by (and a tribute to) the magical paintings of famous  artist John Bauer!

John Albert Bauer (4 June 1882 – 20 November 1918) was a Swedish painter and illustrator. His work is concerned with landscape and mythology, but he also composed portraits. He is best known for his illustrations of early editions of Bland tomtar och troll (Among Gnomes and Trolls), an anthology of Swedish folklore and fairy tales. (My Swedish mother-in-saw recently gave me an old version of this book - a true family treasure!)

John Bauer and his young family died in a shipwreck on Lake Vättern. He was 36 years old and I often think of the paintings he did not get to make. He himself would have understood that his fate was carved by The Norns...

 

 International Teacher, Author, Painter and Forest Witch in Europe and Globally

 CRYTIC RUNES (The Secrets of the Rune Magician)    60 x 42 cm    £245

 ELK DRUMMERS (Very loosely inspired by Rune Algiz)    60 x 42 cm    £235

 

 International Teacher, Author, Painter and Forest Witch in Europe and Globally

 VIRIDIS GENII - The Collective Intelligence of Our Botanical Environment  £255

(Which is the very essence of Rune ING!)

What is ‘The Viridis Genii’ ? The Viridis Genii is the green spirit, the intelligence and life force that is both hidden and revealed. It is the animating force of the wild wood and the depths of the sea (More info)

 RUNE PERTHRA - The Watery Womb of the Mountain Mother  60 x 42 cm    £245

This is a very personal interpretation of Rune Perthra (or Perthro if you prefer). I often meet her as a Mountain Mother who is both Womb and Tomb, Cradle and Grave. 

(Please see my prayer below and feel free to use it if it speaks to you!)

In The Cave of Undoing I Rebirth Myself     60 x 42 cm    £285

This is another painting mapping the Mystery Realm of the Mountain Mother. Here my own ribcage has become a Cave, a Camber of Initiation. However, this is also a process we are engaged in COLLECTIVELY - we are birthing a whole new paradigm together and we are all  in labour, there is no doubt about it: this stage of the process hurts!! 

 

 

 

The Year in Mothers - A Prayer
Human Mother, thank you for giving birth to me
Clan Mothers, thank you for the gift of Life and Lineage
Bone Mother, teach me about falling apart with grace
Mushroom Mother, teach me about the luminosity
of decayand phosphorescence
the divinity of imperfection
Bear Mother, teach me about Hibernation and Cave Time
and being over doing
Mother Winter, teach me how Darkness cradles Light
Grandmother Goddess, show me how to tie the cosmic knot
(that holds the world together)
teach me how to grow a heart
large enough to contain the world
Pregnant Hag, lead me to the maidens
dancing on the Mountain of Healing
Mother of Witches, teach me about befriending Fire
and reaching for the stars
Mother of Nine Herbs, teach me about medicine
Ancestral Mothers, part the Veil of Illusion
and confusion
Mountain Mother, show me the true face of things
the petroglyphs of soul
'The PhD in Eternity'
Bone Mother, thank you for re-membering me
putting me back together after I fall apart

Imelda Almqvist, 1 March 2020

 

 

 RUNE MADR (or MANNAZ)   60 x 42 cm    £325

Madr is the rune of Mankind and by extension the rune of the Ancestors. I see it as a portal or gateway (you see its shape above the head of the girl, held by two family trees on either side).

Every person is a meeting and blending of two lineages, two family trees. This (admittedly) quirky painting tried to capture that. (I did not set out to do this, but it is how the painting unfolded over several weeks!) The girl is on stilts - she enjoys the Gift of Life (and possibly birthing new life) only courtesy of the Ancestors, Those Who Came Before Her!

THE MOSS MAIDEN    60 x 42 cm   £285 

 

 

 

Meilikki - A personal interpretation of the Finnish Mother of the Forest 2020 

(60 x 42 cm)  £255

Mielikki is a Goddess of the Forests and the Hunt. She is said to have created the bear (the brown bear, not polar bear as depicted here!) . She is the Forest Healer who heals the paws of animals who have escaped traps and she rescues chicks that have fallen from their nests.

Her name is derived from the old Finnish word mielu which means luck. She is also known as Metsänemä, Mother of the Forest. Brown bears were the most sacred of animals in Finland. Her husband is the forest god Tapio.

 TAPIO'S PEOPLE   60 x 42 cm    £285

Tapio's People is a phrase from the Kalavala, a 19th-century work of epic poetry compiled by Elias Lönnrot from Karelian and Finnish oral folklore and mythology, telling epic story about the Creation of the Earth, describing the controversies and retaliatory voyages between the peoples of the land of Kalevala and Pohjola and their various protagonists and antagonists.

Tapio, also called Metsähine, or Hiisi, the Finnish god of the forest and ruler of the game therein. He was a personified form of the various forest spirits important to hunters dependent on the forest for their livelihood. His wife MielikkI (shown on the left), had a strong connection to bears... 

 

 

 ANGRBODA - MOTHER OF WOLVES    60 x 42 cm    £275

In the year 2019 giantess from Old Norse cosmology started appearing in my dreams. Her name is Angrboða and she invited me to sit out in Jarnviðr or the Ironwood Forest. This art video is about the insights I was granted (through dreaming and sitting out) about the Fenris Wolf and our inner wolf - the cosmic balance between Creation and Destruction. Please watch my art video:

MOTHER OF WOLVES

 LONE WOLF - OPENER OF WAYS    60 x 42 cm     £295

I sometimes wonder where the term Lone Wolf comes from because Wolves are pack animals. For me this expression captures the need for finding the sacred (and very personal) balance between Tribe and Self, between Friends and Solitude, between social commitments and unstructured time. I shared this painting on social media and was struck by how everyone appeared to see something very different in this painting! 

I make my greatest soul journeys when I am alone in my House in the Forest in Sweden. Wolves live in the area and sometimes attack sheep...

 SEE ALSO THE RELATED PAGES WITH RECENT ARTWORK!