VALBORGSMÄSSOAFTON -WALPURGISNIGHT - WITCHES'S NIGHT

An invitation to light a candle for the witches who were burned at the stake!

Please note that Valborgsmässoafton is tomorrow! I have learned that it is better to send out essays, with an actionable element, one day early to allow my readers some preparation time for participating or celebrating, if they so choose!

I follow an informal system of rotation for my essays. I am not capable of writing exclusively about one subject or maintaining a “brand”. Instead I try to make sure that there is something here for all subscribers, at regular intervals. The next essay will probably be another instalment about the Sámi People and Sámi spirituality (and the one after that about lessons learned in China and Vietnam).

This is one piece in a much larger essay series on Old Norse Traditions and Scandinavian Spirituality. It has gone through several rounds of rewrites, over a period of about eight years. The first version was written for my publisher’s website in 2017. Here is just one example of another essay in the same essay cycle (spanning a calendar year): ÅRSGÅNG: EN WALK FOR THE YEAR TO COME"!

Valborgsmässoafton is more commonly known as Valborg or Walpurgis Night, which is the English translation for Walpurgisnacht (the Dutch and German name for the night of April 30th). In Germanic folklore this night is also known as the Hexennacht (or Heksennacht in Dutch, my native tongue) which literally means Witches’ Night.

It was believed that on this night witches met at the Hexentanzplatz, (a particular location for a Witches’s Dance), and then flew as one to Mount Brocken, the highest peak in the Harz Mountains in Germany. There they were said to dine and commune (and dance) with the Devil. Legend has it that evil spirits and ghosts (represented by cold weather, snow and darkness) meet up with the witches and demons, to cavort around a fire and commune with the Devil.

It is all made to sound very sinister and of course this is Fear (capital F!) speaking! The witch trials, and centuries of having Christianity as our dominant religion, has instilled deep-seated fear in the hearts (and ancestral fields) of us Europeans. See my recent post about ANCESTRAL AND INTERGENERATIONAL HEALING.

Photograph of the Hexentanzplatz or Place of the Witches’ Dance by Wiebe Hansen (2016), reproduced with permission.

The first mention in English translation occurred in the 19th century. Local variants of this festival are still observed in the Netherlands, Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Lithuania, Latvia, Finland and Estonia. Though I am Dutch, (but married to a Swede), my own personal experiences of Valborg stem from Sweden. Bonfires are lit to “fence off” and stop the witches from going to Mount Brocken.

Saint Valborg (Walpurgis) was born around the year 710 CE and died in 779 CE. According to legend, she was an English princess who was called to (what today is) Germany by Bonifatius, the Arch Bishop of Mainz. Her role was to be a missionary and to assist with “the converting of heathens” to the Christian faith. In later life she became the Abbess of the Convent of Heidenheim.

In her memory, a cult developed in the Medieval period, where warding off witchcraft and evil powers was of great importance. To protect themselves from witches and witchcraft, people in Germany started making bonfires (really a Celtic tradition in origin as Beltane is one of the great Celtic Fire Festivals).

I strongly suspect that there is an even more sinister aspect to this: actually re-enacting the burning of witches. On both sides of the Baltic Sea, in Sweden and Finland (as well on the islands between those countries) there is a tradition of children dressing up as an Easter Witch (Påsk Häxa in Finland Swedish and Påsk Kärring in mainstream Swedish) and knocking on doors to collect sweets. People also make life-size witches (dolls or effigies) out of straw and clothing (see the picture at the top of this essay). Those “witches” are then burned in bonfires on Valborg.

In Denmark this same tradition is observed by building bonfires on Saint John’s Eve (essentially the Christian festival imposed on the far more ancient pagan festival of Midsummer’s Eve). There it has become a Midsummer celebration!

In modern Sweden there are many local variations of the Valborg festivities. The general idea is to welcome the spring weather and “drive out evil spirits”. Central to them all is the lighting of bonfires. People gather around the fire, sing songs and consume alarming amounts of alcohol (in good Scandinavian fashion!) People often dance around and put many sausages on barbecues as well.

At this time of year, generally, the snows have melted and it is (hopefully) warm enough to have barbecues (Sweden has many public sites set up for barbecues, in national parks, on deserted islands in the Stockholm archipelago etc.)

However, in the year of writing my original essay (2017) I had just returned from a “White Easter” in Sweden and the weather forecast for Central Sweden the following week was even more snow! (People were not so sure whether Spring 2017 had actually arrived yet).

I cannot help but feel that most people, celebrating Valborg in Sweden, spare no thought at all for the witches that died in the witch trials. This does not feel right to me. Personally speaking I will be lighting a candle for those witches tomorrow, and honour the way they preserved ancient wisdom and healing techniques at great personal cost. As a small contribution to healing the large collective (ancestral) witch wound.

And (only) if you feel so inclined – I invite you to join me and do the same thing. Please let me know in the comments!

I try (but sometimes fail) to get out at least one essay a week (sometimes more), due to travel, international teaching commitments and family care responsibilities (our family lives with Alzheimer’s and I have written several posts about that). 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! All artwork and photographs in my Substack essays are my own, unless explicitly credited to another person or source!

Imelda Almqvist, Forest Witch

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 currently has a handbook for rune magicians (about the runes of the Elder Futhark) in production (it will be published by Moon Books in 2026) and the book after that will be about Inuit culture and mythology. 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/