THE SACRED MARRIAGE OF BEAR AND WOMAN

Sacred Art post #5

BEAR ME

Where was the bear born?

Where was the beast made?

By the moon,

with the day,

on the shoulders of the Plough

Then lowered on silver chains,

let down on golden cords.

(Finnish myth: SOURCE)

The Swedish word for Bear is Björn and the Finnish word for Bear is Karhu. (Those two neighbouring languages or are not related , nor are they mutually comprehensible). A reader reminded me recently of my promise to run a post dedicated to bears!

BEAR SKULL - A VERY PRECIOUS GIFT FROM A FRIEND!

(I still can’t believe I managed to fly from the USA to London with a bear skull without anyone opening my suitcase. I did wrap an invisibility cloak around it!)

My Dutch maiden name, Berendsen, means “son” (child) of a bear, or of a person named for a bear. My married name, Almqvist, means branch of an elm tree. When I was studying Mandarin Chinese I created a kanji (character) to write my surname (so I could sign my essays), combining the glyphs for bear, child, tree and branch. Bears make many guest appearances in my artwork, especially grizzly bears and polar bears.

I used to make art videos. You can find them all on my YouTube Channel and they all took many months to create, every image was painstakingly crafted! In 2019 I made an art video dedicated to Northern Bear Tales. This video explains a mystery involving our Deep Ancestors: it was believed that once upon a time, a sacred marriage occurred between a Bear and a Woman. SEE VIDEO

Hibernation in a snow mound at minus 20 degrees Celsius, selfie

The most ancient myths of most Northern peoples tell of the marriage of the Bear and the Primordial Mother of all human beings. This relationship was later reflected in the rite Karhun vakat or Karhun peijaiset, meaning the feast held after a successful bear hunt. At this feast the bear was re-united with its family through a symbolic wedding. SOURCE

The core drama at the heart of ancient bear cults is gruesome (to modern sensibilities and my heart) because an actual bear was hunted and killed in the process. Often a cub was captured and raised in the village. After its ceremonial death, the skull of this bear was carried in a procession to a pine tree and fixed high up, joining other bear skulls. People then sang a chant in the form of a dialogue between the (sacrificed) bear and the Primordial Mother of the Bear who was called Hongotar.

In this chant the bear expresses regret at its fate. Next the bones of the bear were buried under a pine tree. The skull of the bear was a sacred object, holding the essence of Bear. To destroy it was taboo. It was also strictly forbidden to remove any bear skulls from the tree. The fundamental belief underlying this ritual was to allow the spirit of the bear to return to earth (as in: incarnate in a new bear body) to be killed again (never for sport, but to keep the tribe alive).

BEAR DISMEMBERED ME - NOW I DISMEMBER BEAR

Tapio, also called Metsähine, or Hiisi, is the Finnish god of the forest and ruler of all animals. He is often perceived as a personification of the Spirit of the Forest. Hunters depend on his goodwill and cooperation for their livelihood.

TAPIO’S PEOPLE, THE TITLE IS A REFERENCE FROM THE KALEVALA

Tapio’s wife is Mielikki. Her name is derived from an old Finnish word, mielu, which means luck. She is also known as Metsänemä or Mother of the Forest. Brown bears were the most sacred animals in Finland. Mielikki likes taking the shape of a bear.

Mielikki is said to have created the bear (the brown bear, not the polar bear as depicted in my painting a bit further down). She is the Forest Healer who heals the paws of animals who have escaped traps. She rescues chicks that have fallen from their nests.

While painting her I was taken back to earlier times, the most recent Ice Age in Fennoscandia. I saw a vision of an earlier manifestation, where she was a goddess of the land under Northern Skies and the Aurora Borealis, long before the first trees (and they would have been birch trees) grew on this land and ultimately dense forests appeared. When the Ice Cap stretched this far south, the ancestors of polar bears would have walked and stalked this land. They are Ice Age beings, they offer us Ice Age teachings and memories.

To me Tapio and Mielikki are powerful deities that I meet on my deep hikes in the Forest. I sing to them and make offerings to them in the Forest.

MIELIKKI

The painting below was based on a dream I had after reading about women in a different era suckling motherless animals (to give them a chance at life), as the Ainu of Japan still do today with bear cubs. The All life is sacred to the Great Forest Mother. She imposes no hierarchy on life forms. She is sometimes called the Lady of Wild Beasts as well. The goddess Artemis is another manifestation of this Divine presence or cosmic force. (Google Artemis Brauronia, this post is already too long!)

THE GREAT FOREST MOTHER

At our Forest House in Sweden I have many dreams about bears, specifically about one male bear that I am married to and have children (bear cubs) with (in a parallel world or dreamtime dimension). Earlier this year I made a series of 12 gel prints. A story unfolded, largely due to “visual accidents” occurring on the gel plates! Below is the final picture:

For me this work is not simply about “playing around with myths, fairy tales and stories”. In previous essays I have written about connecting to my Mythical Self. I feel very strongly that I am in a sacred marriage with the land (specifically here in Sweden but also in other (arctic) locations, such as Greenland). This brings responsibilities, even for land I do not own. I pick litter, I check in with the spirits of place, I warn the spirits of the land what human beings are planning to do (hunting season, logging, building runways etc.) As a Forest Witch I try to act as a guardian of and spoke-person for land.

The Old Norse anatomy of soul acknowledges that a human soul has different parts (or areas enabling different actions and choices, if you prefer). One such part, the Hugr, refers to our cognitive function but also to using will power to shape-shift. Over the years many of my students and clients have told me that I visit them, in their dreams, in the form of a large (white or brown) bear!

WHEN I CARRY BEAR, (Often Bear carries me but sometimes I carry Bear)

I try (but sometimes fail) to get out at least one essay a week (sometimes two), 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

Shapeshifting into a Bear - Augmented Selfie, still taken from a reel.

Can you see me?!

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/