VIDEOS

Art Videos, Rune Drum Videos, Other Videos

**Handy listing of videos made about or by Imelda Almqvist**

I never go away empty-hearted from your art/story presentations Imelda. Some part of me is always changed forever!

-Shelly Iona

Videos about Imelda's work

GODS OF PORTALS, LIFE TRANSITIONS AND LIMINAL SPACES

Presentation by Imelda Almqvist at "Threshold", the annual conference of The Gatekeeper Trust, in Pewsey, UK, November 2016

Liminal places are where ancient gods await and human beings are touched by the Divine. What is the function of such places in the landscape and how can we open sacred space intentionally to facilitate healing, rites of passage and to breathe new life into the teachings of the ancient mystery schools?

Imelda talks about work done with groups in Andalucia, Spain, New Mexico (USA) and women receiving their own profoundly personlized Rites of Passage from Spirit on her sacred art program in London!

When we step into the Unknown, The Great Silence (also the place where we hear The music of the Spheres!), The Heart of Creation, the gods and goddesses await. In our great Cosmic Dance with them - the Dance of Joyful Creation - Divinity meets us halfway....

THE TIME TRAVELLERS: A SHAMANIC TOOLKIT FOR BULLYING

LA-based film maker Hannah Beadman made a wonderful film called THE TIME TRAVELLERS in 2014 where we see young people on camera receiving a toolkit and strategies for dealing with and resolving bullying from their own spirit allies.

"This film is a gem. The young people on camera show great courage, using shamanism to receive a workable toolkit for bullying - an all too common, harmful experience for our children and teenagers. Hannah Beadman brings an exquisite sense of beauty and atmosphere to filming this important material. Imelda Almqvist's pioneering work shows a viable way of working with our youth, that can be easily incorporated into schools and family systems."

- Sandra Ingerman, MA, author of 10 books including 'Soul Retrieval: Mending the Fragmented Self'.

Please Note! For the films Imelda herself made about The Time Travellers and Magic of a Child Shaman in the Forest, please visit:

THE TIME TRAVELLERS

Art videos made by Imelda

THE PEOPLE OF ONE FIRE

Utiseta ("Sitting Out") at ancient sites (often on grave mounds!) is an Old Norse tradition used to receive information. It is a form of active or intentional dreaming. The text in this video was received while sitting out at Släbro Petroglyph site near Nyköping in Sweden.

It tells the story of Early Tribes, children of the elements, who are our ancestors and prepared the world for human habitation. These different tribes all made a unique contribution, ranging from features in the landscape to animals and soul qualities - but ultimately they were One.

While working on this video I stumbled across an astonishing article by Richard Thornton, who makes a jaw-dropping connection between his own Creek-Uchee cultural heritage and Bronze Age Scandinavia. He compares the Släbro petroglyphs to symbols appearing on Boulder Six of the Track Rock Gap Petroglyphs in Georgia and even to ancient Mayan glyphs!

I invite you to read his article in full:

READ ARTICLE

For pandemic reasons some countries have now made the wearing of masks in public spaces mandatory.

By means of this video I invite you to move beyond opinions about "masks either saving lives or being harmful to our respiratory system". Instead I urge you to get creative and embark on an adventure, meeting new (often unexpected) expressions of Self and Soul.

If masks are here to stay for now, we might as well explore their uses, gifts and capacity for both artistic expression (and even deceit)!

See also my recent series of art photographs, exploring Lockdown themes and Rune Activism:

ART PHOTOGRAPHS AND RUNE ACTIVISM

Imelda Almqvist, Sweden, July 2020

THE BONE MOTHER

Sleeping in my house in the Forest, I asked to dream with my ancestors.

They came and gifted me a profound encounter with The Bone Mother!

I invite you to walk and dream with The Bone Mother too

(And please check out my upcoming Sacred Art Retreat dedicated to her:

THE WILD HUNT AND THE BONE MOTHER

Angrboða - Mother of Wolves

A 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.

Whenever I am interviewed I try to make the point that shadow work should be on the school curriculum: if we are to create a vital healthy collective reality we need to unravel our web of projections (the unwanted things in ourselves we project onto others) and we also need to do A LOT OF Ancestral Healing Work!

THE FRISIAN RUNES

The rune row most commonly used by rune magicians is the Elder Futhark, but other rune rows exist, such as the Younger Futhark, the Futhorc or Anglo-Frisian Runes (and others).

As a rune magician born in The Netherlands I responded to a strong call from the spirits of the runes to make it a spiritual practice to do daily work with the Frisian Runes, presented in this video. As a three-year-old I spoke a rich West Frisian dialect until our family moved to another region!

I hope that this video encourages other people to work with rune rows such as this one, especially if such rune rows might reflect ancestral lineage, your place/land of origin or the place where the bones of your ancestors are buried.

THE UNIVERSAL VEIL

Mushrooms are mysterious: neither plant nor animal, they are both medicine and poison, and they have otherworldly properties. They are said to grow in the Underworld and have a close relationship with Death and the Dead.

This art video explores how mushrooms can dissolve the boundaries between Life and Death, everyday reality and Other Worlds and reveal the ultimate connectedness of All That Is.

I live in Sweden for part of the year and I adore going on mushroom hunts. I disappear for hours on end! The only 'fly in the ointment' is that Mushroom Season coincides with Hunting Season. I have been forced to approach deer hunters and ask whether I was risking my life by sharing the Forest with them (they told me go home and stay indoors!)

UTISETA AT UPPSA KULLE

Utiseta ("Sitting Out") is a key spiritual practice in the Northern Tradition for communicating with ancestors, deities and spirits. The most powerful place for sitting out is a grave mound where a V?lva, King or ancestor is buried.

This video is about Uppsa Kulle, an Iron Age grave mound in Södermanland, Sweden where I often sit out and also take my students.

I invite you to learn about Ingjald illråde or Ingjaldr hinn illráði (Ingold Illruler or the Illadvised) who was a legendary Swedish king of the House of Ynglings, son and successor of King Anund, and the father and predecessor of King Olof Trätälja. In childhood Ingjald was made to eat a roasted wolf's heart to "toughen up"...

WARNING TREES ABOUT LOGGING

Summer 2018 loggers came to the forest behind our house in Sweden. It was the summer of arctic fires and forest fires. Before making this video I had written some blogs and articles about logging and trees and in response some people asked for guidance on communicating with trees in general but also specifically to prepare trees for logging. That is the subject of this video.

One creation myth from Early Scandinavia tells us the first human beings were created from (drift) wood. In pagan Scandinavia, some trees were considered "wardens"and understood to guard a home from bad luck. This warden was usually a very old tree. Families had such
great respect for this tree that they would often adopt a surname related to the name of that tree. My own surname is Almqvist and it means "branch of an elm tree"!

This video presents information about ancient Northern European ancestor cults involving trees as well as tree facts. It also offers five minutes of shamanic drumming (plus instructions) encouraging people to communicate with trees. It is an impassioned plea for human beings to warn trees and forests before any logging occurs!

YMIR AND ORION: FIRST ANCESTOR, FIRST SHAMAN

During a sunset walk in the snow, one afternoon in Sweden, the star constellation Orion appearing gave me a powerful vision that involved the primordial giant of Norse mythology: frost giant Ymir.

Ymir was the First Ancestor and First Shaman. The gods dismembered him and created the world from his body parts.

Therefore Ymir was the first person to die and he became the Lord of the Dead.

The word root of the name Ymir means "twins". A profound mystery involving twins resides in both the night sky and world mythology...

THE BIRDS OF PALAMEDES

The Language of Birds is called The Green Language in Alchemy. Some call it The Language of Unsaying. The grammar of this language is symbolism. Long before human beings discovered writing, birds wrote their mysterious messages in our skies Eventually this became the ancient art of Augury: divination interpreting the movements of birds. The Old French word augure also means sorcery or enchantment

Cadmus was credited with introducing the letters of the Hebrew of Phoenician alphabet in Greece. Others say that the god Hermes (or Mercury) invited the alphabet by watching cranes fly.Palamedes invented four letters, inspired by flying cranes to complete the Greek Alphabet. In alchemy five birds play a special role because they represent key stages of the alchemical process and this is really the process of soul making.... Today we "tweet" on Twitter but do we realise that the Language of Birds used to be perceived as divine speech: utterances of the gods?!

THE RESURRECTION BONE

Many spiritual traditions call the human body a Temple. It has taken me 50 years o this planet to fully comprehend the truth of this teaching! The Tzeltal Maya people take this concept a few steps further. They believe that the human bodies and the bodies of animals they hunted have a so called Resurrection Bone. This bone is part of the pelvis and it often the last bone to survive when a body is unearthed long after burial. Tribal hunters believed that that from residual essence here a person will be reborn after death. This is why they often carved the sacrum of animals they hunted. Ritual care for this bone ensured success in the hunt and carry favor with the gods. They also believed that the human body has loci (places) of transfomative power. This means that we can access the cosmos, powerful gods, ancestors and other worlds using portals in our own body. Watch this video to find out more about this profoundly intriguing cosmology! ART VIDEO

Link to the wonderful article by Brian Stross that inspired this art video: THE MESOAMERICAN SACRUM BONE: DOORWAY TO THE OTHERWORLD

ARTICLE

SWAN MAIDEN'S SONG

In a dream I had in Sweden summer 2017 I was shown the soul journey of a Swan Maiden and her infant son after she died in childbirth. I was mystified and did some research. This took me to the town of Vedbaeck in Denmark, just north of Copenhagen. In 1975 a Mesolithic era cemetery was discovered here. The body of a young woman (aged about 18) was found with the body of a premature baby boy. It is presumed that she and her son died in childbirth. The baby was cradled in a whooper swan wing and he had a flint knife by his side. His mother had grave goods with her, such as ornaments made from shells and the teeth of animals such as bear, deer, elk and boar. Both bodies had been sprinkled with red ochre. It is believed that the swan’s wing indicates an ancient belief in swans as soul conductors or psycho pomps, accompanying people on their transition to the otherworld. I was touched to my very soul because I realised that my dream had showed me the continuation of their consciousness after death, for these two souls. It also led to delving and dreaming into the significance of swans in Early Europe and this art video shows some of my discoveries.

THE WILD HUNT OF FRAU HOLLE

This art video explores the role of a very ancient Northern European goddess, called Frau Holle, in her role as soul conductor for children. There are many reports of her roaming the land and night sky accompanied by the spirits of dead children. This phenomenon is called The Wild Hunt. In Middle Dutch the name of the Milky Way was Vroneldenstraet: the street or highway of Frau Holle. She is also known as the Hyllemoer or Elder Mother and closely associated with the spirit of the Elder Tree. As a new religion called Christianity took over, Frau Holle became feared, even demonized. Her crucial role: patrolling the liminal zone between Life and Death was no longer understood. Her deep compassion for life, especially young life, was no longer felt. Frau Holle deserves to return to our collective consciousness and take her rightful place as one of the most ancient goddesses of Old Europe!

THE POISON MOTHER

In the year 2016 a mysterious female figure visited me in a dream - it was The Poison Mother, an ancient Mistress of Transmutation.

It took me a year and a day to fully absorb and "unwrap" her message: to be a crucible for the mutation of poisons in our world. This film maps my journey of discovery and shares her invitation with others!

Please note that this body of work is the focus of the first stand-alone sacred art retreat I am offering in London:

Becoming a Crucible - Working With The Poison Mother, 2 - 5 July 2018

The prerequisite is having attended the 2-day Introduction to Making Sacred Art Workshop

WINTER SLEEP

This short art video is about the Dreaming of a Mother Bear. On another level it is about dissolving separation between humans - animals, self - other, ancestors - future generations, inner world - outside world and so forth. In the final reckoning this short film is my living will as it communicates my wishes for my own death and beyond.

It is set in Sweden, in the location where I will be teaching my courses in Norse Shamanism from Summer 2019!

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THE WOMAN AND HER SNAKE

This art film explores the ancient, ancestral and archetypal yet mysterious figure of The Woman and Her Snake.

She lives Outside Time and is a Mistress of Creation and Manifestation.

We meet her in many forms all around us, in dreams, world mythology and legends about shape shifting women and snakes.

Menglöð and the Nine Maidens of Lyfjaberg 2017

The ancient text Fjölsvinsmal in the Poetic Edda tells us that there is a Mountain of Healing or Medicine Mountain in Norse Shamanism where a mysterious goddess resides, surrounded by Nine Maidens or Disir (female ancestral spirits).

Climbing this mountain can bring healing miracles, no matter how ill or "dis-eased" a person is.

In 2016 the Nine Maidens of Lyfjaberg called me to undertake an apprenticeship with them. This art film describes some of my sacred journey and pilgrimage up the Mountain. I hope this will inspire others to climb Lyfjaberg in search of healing, wholeness and holiness.

With special gratitude to Ulrika Jäger for reminding and teaching me about the Maidens of Lyfjaberg!

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Shamanic teacher, painter and author in the UK and the world

MOTHER NIGHT, REINDEER MOTHER

A Divine Animal Mother came to me in Sweden during the Winter Solstice period of 2016. She touched my soul and cracked me wide open. I embarked on a journey that required me to release many beliefs I previously held about Divinity. Then I discovered that the indigenous peoples of Siberia know this Reindeer Mother very well!

If I you are drawn to watching this film I hope that you will embark on your own journeys to The Reindeer Mother (perhaps in a Birch Bark Boat)....

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BOW WOMAN AND ALDER MAN

This art film explores shamanism, gender crossing and the cosmic dance of sacred feminine and sacred masculine through the lens of two Sami deities: Bow Woman (or Juoksakkha) and Alder Man (Leibolmai).

Shamans are explorers of the psyche and they have always crossed social, spiritual and gender boundaries.

With a debt of gratitude to Raven Kaldera's enlightening on-line article

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ART VIDEOS YOU CAN WATCH HERE

SPIRIT CHILDREN

SPIRIT CHILDREN is a small film made by shamanic practitioner Imelda Almqvist about her work with Spirit Children (the spirits of dead children), shown in the form of paintings set to Medieval church music from Armenia performed by the Sharakan Early Music Ensemble. Track 22 - Our es mayr im. (This is of my most favourite CD's of all time - I often play it for clients after performing Soul Retrieval!)

We think of the souls of people who die, stillborn babies or even through miscarriages as "completely gone" or in a place where we cannot contact them (assuming we believe their soul is eternal and they live on in some way or form).

In my work with the spirits of dead children (they chose me for this work, not the other way around!) I discovered that there can be immense healing in a final dialogue (Why did you go? Is there a message to be passed?) and image that is a gift from Spirit. Often the soul of the child wants to be painted in an otherworld location, perhaps swimming with dolphins or playing with animal spirits etc Giving such an image (painting) a place in the home allows the child to still have a place in the family home. See also:

SPIRIT CHILDREN

SEAL MOTHER OF SOULS

Art & Shamanism short film inspired by a powerful dream I had in California, October 2015

In the early 19th century In the early19th century the native Chumash and Tongya people were forced to leave the Channel Islands off the coast of California. They were taken to Spanish missions and pueblos on the mainland. One teenage girl ran back to look for her baby and the ship left without her. She lived alone on San Nicholas Island for 18 years, when she is 'rescued'. Her name was Juana Maria.

She appeared to me in a dream and showed me images of her life in those 18 years of profound solitude. She appeared as a Seal Woman (in Europe we would say "Selkie") who became a great shaman and the Seal Mother of Souls over time. She developed an intimate relationship with the Moon, the stars, the seals and the whales passing on their epic migration journeys.

My small film does not claim to portray 'the truth' about Juana Maria's 18 years alone on San Nicholas Island. We will never know for sure. (When she was 'rescued' after 18 years she had no language in common with the people who welcomed her to the mainland). What I do know is that a powerful Seal Woman and Shaman invites us to dream with her, her seals and her spirit child.

SEVEN DESERT MAIDENS

As an Apprentice of the Waning Moon, I needed to walk into the Desert to find the wide open spaces within myself. This film shows how that journey unfolded after Six Maidens appeared in a dream and told me to go looking for the mysterious Seventh Maiden. As the external journey unfolds through extraordinary landscapes the inner journey of soul making occurs at the sane time. Along the way there are encounters with Kokopelli (Fertility Deity and the Spirit of Music) and The Man In The Moon.

This film explores he essence of creativity and keys to creative flow. It also explores how dreams offer a window on greater truths and mystery.

The photographs used in this film were taken in California and Nevada (in particular Death Valley and Joshua Tree). The photographs of rock art are from La Cieneguilla, Petroglyph Site, just outside Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA. The images of the 1677 AD Solar Eclipse are from the Chumash Painted Cave just North of Santa Barbara in Californi

SEDNA - THE INUIT SEA KEEPER AND GLOBAL WARMING

Sedna is the Sea Keeper and Mother of All Sea Animals, an Inuit goddess venerated (and feared) by all Inuit tribes. When human beings transgress, violate animals or break taboos, Sedna cooks up fierce storms and withholds game. The result is Death, Darkness and Starvation. A Shaman then needs to undertake a dangerous journey to the bottom of the Sea to comb out Sedna's hair (to free the entangled animals) and to appease her until she releases all animals.

Western culture has lost both shamans and the awareness that to live in harmony with all sentient beings, we need to communicate closely with gods, goddesses, spirits and other inhabitants of all worlds, seen and unseen.This short film sees Sedna setting out to investigate what is shaking her watery world, what humans are doing to the Earth and all animals, especially whales.

I invite you to watch the film to find out what happens!

RAVEN MAN AND KILLER WHALE WOMAN - Artist's Residency on Vancouver Island, 2015

I had a recurrent dream about being in a place "where the forest meets the sea" and painting in nature, surrounded by trees. In the dream there were whales in the sea and there were strong native traditions and arts on the land. Sony Baron and David Crumpton made the dream reality by inviting me to Vancouver Island. I found myself in the landscape of my dreams, in my "soul scape" you could say, painting in the rain forest, with hummingbirds fluttering around me.

It was my plan to have no preconceived ideas but practice "deep listening", opening my heart and all my senses to the Spirits of Place and the stories embedded in this ancient land. Even before I left London (where I live and work as a shamanic practitioner, teacher and artist), Raven Man and Killer Whale Woman started appearing in my dreams. Raven Man was always waiting for someone on a beach. Once I realised he was waiting for Killer Whale Woman, this film took shape...

GNOSIS OF THE EARTH

Gnosis of the Earth is a Rock Art Seminar in southern Andalucia, Spain, where geomancy, shamanism and sacred art all meet in one place. This course was visioned and created by Imelda Almqvist in partnership with Karmit Evenzur who is a long term resident of Andalucia. On this course we connect with the Spirits of Place and ceremonial experiences ancient peoples had on this land. Hunting magic and fertility rites inspired ceremonies that kept the land, animal and human population healthy and in sacred balance. In this seminar we "taste Dragon's Blood" to be initiated into The Green Language or Language of Birds. The Laguna de la Janda is a powerful liminal place, where two oceans and two continents meet and where migrating birds rest on their journeys north and south. We visit caves, the womb of Mother Earth and make our own rock art. Soul Flight occurs. This powerful seminar defies expression in words - it can only be experienced! Welcome to the old Laguna de la Janda - we hope you will join us one day! - Karmit Evenzur is a wellknown geomancer based in Spain and Imelda Almqvist is a teacher of sacred art and shamanism based in London, UK.

MY INUIT ANCESTORS: A Reflection On Spiritual Heritage

This short film is an exploration through paintings and drawings of her own dreams, Inuit Myths and traditions. At times we need to dream in black and white to see more clearly or to see in the Dark!

In this film White Bear appears and he is really a shaman in disguise, roaming the universe. He takes the artist to a place where Time freezes along with the Ocean when The Great Darkness comes and many magical events unfold. The boundary between dreams and reality dissolves. There are encounters with animals, wind spirits, snow spirits and beings from other realms.

It is my hope that this film will urge people to honour and preserve the wisdom and culture of the Inuit and that people will start dreaming on their own spiritual lineage. I was born in the Netherlands (maiden name: Imelda Berendsen) where I never felt at home. My adult life has been a great journey exploring where my spiritual home is. The place my soul calls home is in The Far North: Greenland!

WHERE THE FOREST MEETS THE SEA

I had a recurrent dream about being in a place "where the forest meets the sea" and painting in nature, surrounded by trees. In the dream there were whales in the sea and there were strong native traditions and arts on the land. Sony Baron and David Crumpton made the dream reality by inviting me to Vancouver Island.

I worked from a place of deep listening so many stories came to attention and told themselves. Some of those stories and myths formed the material for this film.

However, there was a follow-on story: exactly a year later our family was guided to buy a house in Sweden. You guessed it: it is situated in a place where the ancient forest meets The Baltic Sea! I have a forest studio there and am also starting a school there called TRUE NORTH where I will be teaching courses in Norse Shamanism in the future,

TRUE NORTH

FIRE BIRD

This is the third and last film made after an artist's residency on Vancouver Island in 2015.

Shape Shifting is ancient art practised in all shamanic cultures. The process of shape shifting is at the very heart of Creation. All that is, shape shifts and transforms, moving through the great cycles of Birth, Death and Rebirth.

This short film tells the story of Fire Bird. She embodies the gift of a unique day on Earth, the marriage of opposites, the sacred marriage of Life and Death. She is the Spirit of Celebration and Rebirth.

With huge gratitude to Sony Baron and David Crumpton for making the dream come true!

This video shows paintings by Imelda Almqvist set to music by Anja Lechner (cello) and Vassili Tsabropoulos (piano). The composer is Gurdieff and the the name of the song is Chant from a Holy Book. This is one of most beautiful CD's I know and many of my friends and clients have ended up buying their own copy!

This is the first video I ever made after discovering Moviemaker on my computer. (The second one was SPIRIT CHILDREN). It is paintings set to music - but people have told me that they enjoyed it.

Over time my creations became a little more accomplished (some of them appear above this one!)

And if you like the paintings, please remember that I teach courses in

MAKING SACRED ART

WHAT IS SHAMANISM, SOUL RETRIEVAL AND SACRED ART?

Produced by Conscious Evolution Media in 2014

Sharon Ballantine interviews Imelda Almqvist

Please note! Due to a power cut in the Denver Area this interview was cut short!