SHIFTING OUR LOCUS OF CONTROL

Dreaming as a Spiritual Tool

TAPIO’S PEOPLE (painting by the author)

We live in turbulent and deeply troubling times. Media outlets bombard us 24/7 with many terrible scenarios that make us feel overwhelmed and utterly powerless. Most of us will “do what we can” but, with the communication floodgates always open, we live with chronic sense of “NOT ENOUGH”: I am not enough. I don’t do enough. I don’t have the resources to contribute more. We all need to embark on a media fast at times (to prevent burn-out or compassion fatigue), but I think that we also need put more focus on our inner locus of control, as opposed to our external focus of control (where we endlessly feel powerless and “at the mercy” of the actions and decisions of other people).

Research has shown that people with an internal locus of control tend to be less conforming and obedient (i.e., more independent). Rotter proposes that people with an internal locus of control are better at resisting social pressure to conform or obey, perhaps because they feel responsible for their actions.

LOCUS OF CONTROL THEORY IN PSYCHOLOGY

As a spiritual teacher it is my personal belief that we are more powerful than we think we are. Every choice we make and every small act pulls, in some way, on the threads that connect us to other people. Even very small things can make a difference to the lives of others: a smile, a helping hand, an encouraging comment or compliment.

I was told (fairly recently) by someone that an essay I wrote about spiritual tools (about a decade ago) had prevented them from taking their own life. They had decided to do so but my blog (on another platform) popped up on their computer and they thought: I might as well try some of these things, before I do something irreversible…

You don’t know when you offering a smile, a listening ear or a helping hand (something you have forgotten about a day later) makes a huge difference. And people will not always tell you that (but often they do!) I try to be a bringer of hope and “empowerment-through-spiritual-tools” while also being hard core realistic. I have little time for denial or toxic positivism. Nor do I want to be seen as “a merchant of woo-woo” (hence my focus on historical accuracy and theoretical underpinning when I am teaching). I freely admit that I often feel like a tightrope walker!

One very powerful spiritual tool in my life is dreaming, (but I am a Pisces, so that was inevitable!) In this essay I will share three recent dreams (who have a Finnish flavour, for some reason).

However, let me explain first who Tapio is (as the painting at the top of this piece was made in his honour):

Tapio was one of the major gods of the ancient Finns. Tapiola (the woods) was his kingdom. He ruled over the spirits of the woods. He was also the god of hunters and hunting. Hunters were but humble guests in the woods and they hunted Tapio’s animals. To gain Tapio’s favour offerings were made. There were special places in the wood called Tapion pöyta, the Table of Tapio, for this purpose. His wife Mielikki is a goddess of the forest with a close connection to bears. I sometimes see glimpses of Tapio and Mielikki on my forest walks by the Baltic Sea.

Dream #1

I am a Forest Witch and I live alone in a large house in a forest. People are out to get me and they invade my home. Every time this happens, I run into the forest to get away from my pursuers. The break-ins keep on happening and soon these people realise that I am hiding in the forest, so they come looking for me there. I need to up my game! I realise that the only way to stay safe is to merge with my surroundings. So I shapeshift into a tree. A moment later a group of men dashes right past me (and brushes against me), without seeing me.

I hear the words: “To protect the land, merge with the land, become the land!”

Dream #2

I am attending a very strange workshop, set in the future. Aspiring parents are asked to assemble a robot, from lots of small pieces (like a very intricate Meccano construction kit). Only when the last piece is successfully screwed in place, does this robot turn into a living and breathing human child.

MY 11-STRING KANTELE AND FIVE-STRING KANTELE: Korppi (Raven) and Lintu (Bird)

Dream #3

I am looking for a Hag Shack in Finland. I find a beautiful wooden shack overlooking a lake, in a very remote place but I soon discover that someone is already living there: an elderly wizard with strong Väinämöinen* vibes. He is fashioning a lot of paddles (enough for an entire village) on the lakeshore. He paints them all pale (olive) green. In the dream I know that this colour has significance but I am not told what the meaning is.

*In the Finnish epic titled “The Kalevala” Väinämöinen is a sage or shaman, who is is mater of magic songs and incantations. He literally chants things into being. He also makes the first kantele, an an ancient Finnish musical instrument (a string instrument you place in your lap and pluck, see the pictures of mine above!) from the jawbone of a pike and a few hairs from Hiisi’s (a powerful nature spirit) stallion. The music it makes draws all the forest creatures near to wonder at its beauty. SOURCE

MIELIKKI

My takeaway from this recent “harvest of dreams” is that we live in dire times and need to become very skilled at using the spiritual tools we have. We need to practice the art of shapeshifting and perfect our invisibility cloaks. Then we need to learn how to put those around vulnerable people (animal, places, causes etc.), with their consent.

We also need to remember that we “create as we speak” and pay close attention to all the words we utter. Every time we say “this can only end badly” this is the outcome we help create. Every time we say: there is hope, we power or anchor (the possibility) of hope.

I still remember the day when it dawned on me that (on the level of vibration) energy is neutral. When people throw negative energy in my direction (or at a group that I am part of) then I can step back from interpreting that as negative and instead harness the energy and redirect it. That discovery made me quite dizzy. It is an advanced art and requires a lot of practice but entire groups of skilled spirit workers doing this, is going to have an effect.

As for “robot children”, I have written a series of essays about AI before. People already have AI companions and some children have AI friends. Let me be very clear: at the moment that refers to people forming a friendly, supportive, emotional relationship with a chatbot!! However, I believe that in the not-too-distant future we will see embodied (physical) companions, AI robots.

(4) A RUNE READING FROM CHATGPT

(3) ASKING AI TO PAINT IN THE STYLE OF IMELDA ALMQVIST

(2) WAS MY WORK USED TO TRAIN AI?

(1) AI OR FRANKENSTEIN’S MONSTER?

WHERE HAVE ALL THE FLOWERS GONE?

It has been suggested that lonely elderly people will soon have AI companions (the nursing home where my MIL lives already has a robot cat!) That children will have AI friends or even have their first experiences of dating in the AI realm. When others (people born in the Pre-internet Era, like me!) challenge this phenomenon, the answers always run along the following lines:

Is an AI companion for an old person not better than no companion at all?

Is an AI counsellor not better for a child than the parents not being able to afford any outside help?

Won’t it boost the confidence of teens and “tweens” when they can “practice dating with a bot?”

Are bots going to present one of the solutions to infertility? Better a robot baby than no child at all?

I sense huge pitfalls and danger in all of these scenarios, but I also know that I cannot stop time or the “forward arrow” of history.

Son #3 already suggested once that after I die I will be “uploaded as a Chatbot” so I can continue to provide spiritual guidance, same as I do now. (AI OR FRANKENSTEIN’S MONSTER)

Why not go one step further and “upload all our deceased loved ones” so we can continue to have a relationship, marriage or dialogue with them? And they/we will achieve a, kind of, weird immortality! Hmmm! This idea freaks me out, what about you?

I do not claim to have geopolitical solutions for the Big Questions of our time (other than learning from history and educating ourselves about the laws of karma). I have never felt any call to to study politics or become a politician. However, I do pay close attention to my dreams (and the dreams of my friends and students). I believe that “we collectively dream our world into being”. Do we perhaps need to change our dream or dream more consciously and collectively, united by our concern for the future of humanity?

I started with Tapio and I will finish with him too:

Oh Tapio, King of the Forest,

accept these offerings

set on your Table

Take this bread

made from the three ears of rye,

in the dew of your kingdom

Take this holy ale

brewed from the water of your spring

made from the three ears of rye

Now bless these weapons of mine

as I lay them here before you

on your holy Table (SOURCE)

I try (but sometimes fail) to get out at least one essay a week (sometimes several), due to travel, international teaching commitments and family care responsibilities (our family lives with Alzheimer’s and I have written several posts about that). All artwork shown in Substack posts is my own, unless credited differently! If you would like to see regular posts about about Nordic spirituality and my life as a Forest Witch (and of course short videos of all the wildlife here!), please follow me on Instagram or Facebook, thank you!

Imelda Almqvist, London UK

BIO FOR IMELDA ALMQVIST

Imelda Almqvist is an international teacher of Sacred Art and Seiðr/Old Norse Traditions (the ancestral wisdom teachings of Northern Europe). So far she has written four non-fiction books and two picture books for children. 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, Medicine of the Imagination - Dwelling in Possibility (an impassioned plea for fearless imagination) in 2020 and North Sea Water In My Veins (The Pre-Christian spirituality of the Low Countries) was published in June 2022.

The Green Bear is a series of picture book for children, aged 3 – 8 years. The stories and vibrant artwork, set in Scandinavia, invite children to explore enchanting parallel worlds and to keep their sense of magic alive as they grow up.

Imelda 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 Mesolithic arctic deer shamanism.

Imelda is currently working on a handbook for rune magicians (about the runes of the Elder Futhark) and on more books in the Green Bear Series. Imelda runs an on-line school called Pregnant Hag Teachings, where all classes she teaches remain available as recordings, which can be watched any time.

Website:

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

YouTube Channel: youtube.com/user/imeldaalmqvist

Online School: https://pregnant-hag-teachings.teachable.com/courses/

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

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

Imelda, Forest House and Forest School, Sweden