I perceive Winter as a Mother!
My favourite part of the festive season is going back to foundational principles and asking myself: what is my relationship to both light and darkness? What does the return of light mean in my life? The Sámi people in Arctic Scandinavia and Finland have a story about a Reindeer Mother (some say Reindeer Goddess) who carries the Sun in her antlers and returns the Sun at the Winter Solstice. The Sun herself is viewed as a deity as well, called Beaivi.
Many people identify as “light workers” but I consider myself a “darkness worker”: I do my deepest dreaming during the dark time of year. I do my best work in darkness, wearing my invisibility cloak. As a shamanic practitioner I am often plunging into the deepest and darkest recesses in people’s minds, bodies and family field to unravel intergenerational imprints and find the cause of current maladies or diseases (or dysfunctional behavioural patterns). As a mother of three I try to be an advocate for children. I spent years doing spiritual toolkit work with groups of children. I keep educating myself about all the challenges young people face in our world, especially children from disadvantaged backgrounds, or who live in areas of armed conflict, who face incredible adversity.
My work often leads me into dark places indeed, sometimes including the world of organised crime, murders and paedophile rings. That is what I mean by darkness worker, being willing to step into these places energetically, and sometimes physically as well. Then stepping back out and educating others, hammering on safeguarding issues, training other practitioners in shamanic work with children and ancestral healing work with adults.
For me December 21st is the Night of the Ancestral Mothers: Modranigt or Mōdraniht. This was an Anglo Saxon celebration which opened the new year. For ancient people, whose lives were not ruled by screens, apps or smart watches, the true new year occurred when the light returns, and the days start getting longer.
In the past intense preparation occurred, such as cleaning the house and making sure all animals were well looked after. In Scandinavia Modraniht was viewed as quite a dangerous night, a night when trolls and gnomes drew closer to human settlements and checked on what human beings were up to. If they were not pleased they would make their presence felt and sabotage things! Women put their spinning wheels away and cleared their distaffs, knowing that Frau Holle would visit and check everything was ready for Yule.
I am often alone in the forest in Sweden that day. If I'm lucky there's snow! I perform a ceremony for the ancestral mothers by a large ancestral cairn I have built on our land, on the forest edge. I honour all mothers, including animal mothers, plant and tree mothers and spiritual ancestors and teachers. I call out names, leave food offerings, ask for protection and guidance for my own children and ask for blessings for all the children of our world.
Q: What book have you most loved as a Yuletide read?
We have a forest house in Sweden and we always spend Christmas there. To my mind, (speaking as a writer and illustrator of picture books for children), winter is the season of “Tomtar and Trolls”. In modern culture tomtar (plural of tomte) are depicted as small gnomes wearing red outfits including a pointed hat (called tomteluva in Swedish). However, historically speaking they represented guardian spirits watching over the homestead or farm.
The word tomte is derived from the Swedish word tomt (plot or piece of land) and it refers to the guardian of this land, and by extension any homestead, farm or barn on it. The tomte was believed to live in the barn, the hay loft or sometimes under a homestead. It's important to maintain a good working relationship with tomtar: keep a tidy farm, provide excellent care for the animals and leave out food offerings. If people didn't do this, it was commonly understood that accidents would occur, the farm would fall into disarray or disrepair, key items would go missing, cattle would fall ill etc. As such they are similar to the “house gods” known and venerated in other locations.
Our own tomte receives homemade Christmas porridge and a glass of whisky on Julafton (Christmas Eve). This isn't shop-bought porridge, or any old porridge. It's prepared from scratch and served with butter. I also sprinkle cinnamon on top! This is called julgröt (Christmas porridge), also known as tomtegröt (porridge for tomte) in Swedish.
Swedish children are told the tomtar make their Christmas presents (julklappar in Swedish) in their workshops in the forest and deliver them on Christmas Eve. On my Substack I wrote the following Swedish glossary for the festive season:
- Tomt = a plot of land.
- Tomte (single tense) = a gnome.
- Tomten (definite article is glued to the back of the word) = The tomte.
- Tomtar (plural) = two or more of them.
- Tomtarna (the tomtar, plural + definite article glued to the back of the word).
- Jultomte = the Christmas Tomte (Santa Claus or Father Christmas).
- Tomteluva = a red and floppy Christmas hat (often with white trim).
- Tomtefar and Tomtemor (Father Tomte and Mother Tomte, used in the sense of Father Christmas and Mother Christmas, for instance warning the children who is about to pay a house visit!)
- Tomtenisse or Tomtekarl = other versions of the word/concept Tomte.
Q: Which of your own books would you most recommend either to give someone else as a present or for a gift for oneself?
Last week my sacred art students and I made ourselves a bear costume and Danced the Bear, inspired by the ancient Brauronia Festival in Greece, at the temple of Artemis. There young girls dressed up as bears and then danced, as part of a rite of passage or initiation ceremony. This dance is known as the Arkteia or the Dance of the Bears (arktos means bear in ancient Greek and our word Arctic is derived from that).
I appreciate that not everyone has the resources to spend a week going on a sacred art retreat but my book explains the underlying principles for all courses I teach (and indeed the way I myself work in a spirit-led way). Every chapter closes with a chapter exercise. Anyone who works through those will have a small art portfolio by the time they reach the final page! This book also addresses issues such as dissolving creative blocks and building alternative art communities, which are not governed by the principles of competition and exclusion (ruling much of the mainstream – hyper masculine - world of Fine Art). Many people have found it an immense relief to be introduced to (and given permission and encouragement to) develop ways of working that honour their soul and their spiritual beliefs.
Q: What are your next books?
My next book is about the runes, Portals, Patterns and Pathways - A Handbook for Rune Magicians, Star Gazers and Myth Makers. It will be published by Collective Ink on 26 May 2026. I'm currently working on a book about Inuit deities and mythology.
Here are Imelda Almqvist's social media handles:
- 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/
You can find Imelda Almqvist's author page at Moon Books, an Imprint of Collective Ink: https://www.collectiveinkbooks.com/moon-books/authors/imelda-almqvist
You can also view Sacred Art: A Hollow Bone for Spirit on Amazon.
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