Heading North

Heading North while the geese fly south. Very typical Scandinavian.

I will be performing in Fargo area with the band Krauka from Denmark. I have been looking forward to meeting them for nearly two years. They play yearly at the Viking festival in Gudvangen, Norway, where my maternal line traces to the top of Nedberg Mountain. I had the pleasure to be there last May and my mother and aunts have just returned from visiting the Undredals and many other relations. Krauka - Festival

We will also be playing with Mandan-Hidatsa storyteller and musician, Keith Bear, who I had the pleasure of meeting this Summer at the Bush Fellows Reception. His performance is elegant and deep. I couldn't be more excited! Keith Bear

I will be performing in Minneapolis with Krauka at the Cedar Cultural Center on October 8th!
With me will be Huldu - Drew Miller and David Stenshoel from Boiled in Lead. A not-to-be-missed celebration of the Scandinavian Tap Root! - BIL

Lightening Across the Plains

Sept. 24 through 27 - I am headed out again! I travel south to the Gaea Retreat Center, a place I have done ritual in the past. I was there in 2000 and 2001 with the collaboration "Daughters of Gaia" with Michelle Mays and Gina Citoli.
What a time.
This time I am heading down in a caravan with Volkshof Kindred to attend the first annual gathering, Lightening Across the Plains! I was invited to attend by Mark Stinton whose Jouten's Bane Kindred is sponsoring the big gathering. This is a gathering of people throughout the lower Midwest who are actively pursuing the culture, religion and spiritual traditions of their Indo-European ancestors. Through sharing our research, our unique perspectives, and our own family histories, we are creating a living opus of our ancestral folkways here in the United States, in the Midwest! It's a very exciting opportunity for me as a staff carrier to share work with Rod Landreth, Spaeman for Jouten's Bane and others who may be there doing deep spiritual work.

It's also an opportunity to sing the songs of my family, my Hamingja, my folkway. There will be many children to entertain and I am looking forward to teaching kulokk and other fun vocalizations.

Mange takk til Jouten's Bane for hosting such an important event!

See some of you there!!
Kari

The Capri Theater

Thursday September 17th I will be singing and staving at the Capri Theater with Wendy Rule. The theater is in North Minneapolis. Through it's long life it has been everything from a Vaudeville theater to a porn theater to a regular movie theater. Now it is transformed again.

The theater has been gutted, re-wired and painted, and now spiritually cleansed by neighbors and friends who hope to see North Minneapolis flourish even as the theater will flourish.
North Minneapolis has had a rough time with crime and violence. But it too is in a renaissance.

It is my deep prayer that the art and beauty created in the Capri will seep into the entire community. That the prosperity of the place will increase and the neighbors and community members of all of North Minneapolis will be blessed four fold. May our songs on Thursday ring through the North Quarter of our great city of Minneapolis!

Midwest Shamanic Gathering

As a staff carrier, I have been called to travel quite a lot. 2009 has been especially busy with trips to Chicago, Norway, New York, and all around the Midwest. In the old tradition of staff carrier, the Volva (old Norse) was not attached to a specific community in which she would live and work. Rather, she had several communities that she would visit in a circuit throughout the year. Sometimes she would travel quite far to do her work and to meet with colleagues in order to learn more, sharpen her skills etc.

This suites me well as I am not inclined to join groups such as churches, seeker communities, or political, intentional communities. I enjoy coming into a community as an outside perspective, detached from the politics and intricacies of the group. I can bring a fresh perspective to view the wyrd of the group dynamic, make recommendations and do readings or healings for the group and individuals in the group. I can strengthen the work of the resident spiritual leader of the group with some new tools learned abroad or by simply providing a colleague to learn from and to teach to (no better way to learn than to teach).

But to say I don't have a community of my own is not true. I was home most of August and neighbors stopped by to say hello, tell me how much they missed me this Summer, and ask about my adventures. I know that my six block radius is affected by me, absent or present, working and playing and talking and gardening...they miss me when I am gone.

So I am off again to the Midwest Shamanic Gathering to contribute to and learn from a dynamic and intentional community of spiritual workers. Then I will bring it back home to my six block radius where living spiritually affects everyone around me.

I am truly blessed!
K