THE TEACHINGS OF BJARKA: Birch Tree – Healer – “Allmother” – Love Magic Counsellor

This is the third webinar offered by Imelda Almqvist, in partnership with (and hosted by) Christian Thurow! Our exciting (and extremely well-attended) first two tele-seminars introduced how the runes of the Elder Futhark can be used to make sigils and even ‘runic vaccines’ in pandemic times. We also explored how ancient Norse magical ingredients can be used in this work. In this new class we will dive even deeper into the matters of spiritual protection and sigil-making.

Many people master the runes only on a very basic level: they absorb the meaning most commonly attributed to the 24 runes of the Elder Futhark and perhaps do an occasional rune reading for someone. Only true Rune Magicians step through the cosmic portal each rune presents! In this class I wish to demonstrate how we find many dimensions of meaning and cosmic wisdom, “behind” (or deep inside) every rune.

Bjarka is the Rune of the Birch Tree and also the Rune of the (Cosmic) Mother, all mothers of all species. This seminar will explore how there were non-human mothers on Earth long before human mothers evolved. We will draw strength and inspiration from our relationship with them.

In magical work Bjarka/Birch is associated with feminine power. It was traditionally used in healing ceremonies for women and girls.

In some places in Fennoscandia, (the geographical peninsula comprising the Scandinavian and Kola Peninsulas, mainland Finland, and Karelia), the birch tree was perceived as the world tree and she had a male counterpart in the Oak Tree. Both trees exist as runes – in this seminar we will take one step outside the Elder Futhark to widen our range of symbols, our vocabulary for magical workings and sigils, with an additional rune.

One interesting fact this is that linguists connect the Russian word for birch tree to a verb (“birch” > beryoza = «берёза») –and that verb means to keep safe! (Source Olga Stanton)

This third seminar in the Covid-19 Lockdown period explores how we can use spiritual methods to stay safe and protect those we love, how to reach out to others more vulnerable than ourselves. We learn how to feed and nourish desirable outcomes while starving negative thinking and reducing negative manifestations (but please note: positive and negative always depend on the perspective of the viewer, they are not black and white!)

This seminar will provide a deep exploration of accessing the sacred feminine within ourselves – which means that by extension and necessity we also need to harness the sacred masculine deep within ourselves (no matter what our gender identification or sexual orientation is)!

We will dance with new possibilities at the Heart of Creation and learn how to co-create healthy reality in partnership with powers greater than ourselves!

And yes we will also dip (briefly) into the subject of Old Norse Love Magic!

Join Christian and me on April 30^th at 8 pm (London UK Time), 3 pm (New York/US East Coast Time)!

About Imelda
Imelda Almqvist is an international teacher of shamanism and sacred art. So far she has published two books:Natural Born Shamans: A Spiritual Toolkit for Life (Using shamanism creatively with young people of all ages) in 2016 and Sacred Art: A Hollow Bone for Spirit (Where Art Meets Shamanism) in 2019. 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 third book: Medicine of the Imagination - Dwelling in possibility (an impassioned plea for fearless imagination) will be published by Moon Books on 30 October 2020. She is currently working on her fourth book, about the pre-Christian spirituality of The Netherlands.

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

Informative blog on the topic of the runes of the Elder Futhark and how rune magicians in Scandinavia work with them: http://www.shaman-healer-painter.co.uk/post.cfm?p=1178