Introduction to Lövjeri: The Healing Arts of Our Foremothers

Days infused with Nordic wisdom. In Sweden, in person.

Welcome to a place where the old and the new meet; where you yourself become part of the story.

Lövjeri is a journey back to the roots.

Lövjeri is more than a word — it is a collective memory, a heritage of healing knowledge carried by our foremothers through generations. During this course, you are invited to discover and experience a powerful branch of Nordic shamanism — the magic of Nordic tradition and a practical path toward healing and self-knowledge.

We gather in Finnskogen, a place where the whispers of history meet the raw power of nature. Through a guided visual journey, we open gateways to the past and to what lies beyond ordinary sight.

Meet the Nordic goddess Freya and her nine helpers at Lyfjaberg through guided meditation. Together they form a primal force of feminine creation and healing. Through drum journeying and inner guidance, you will have the opportunity to meet them within your own soul landscape — an experience that may open doors to new insight and personal growth.

In the Footsteps of Our Foremothers

Day 1

Introduction to Lövjeri — lecture

Guided meditation at Lyfjaberg with drum
Create your own troll pouch / bundle (trollknyte) (leather, fabric?)
Ceremony to empower and charge your troll pouch / bundle

Day 2

Nature-Based Experience

Nature guiding:

In the footsteps of the tradition bearer Kaisa Vilhuinen (Tietäjä)
Herbal walk
Harvesting plants under guidance for your own tincture
Preparing a healing salve using pre-made herbal oil
For those who have booked the sauna the following day:
Making a sauna whisk (basturuska / vihta) under guidance

Day 3

Group sauna ritual (opening)
Short individual treatment
Group sauna ritual (closing)
Approximately three hours including a break
A discount can be arranged based on the listed prices for those who book all three days.

For inquiries and further information on costs, dates and lodging, please email: mythandstories@gmail.com

Your Host - Tradition Bearer Ulrika Jäger (in her own words)

As an ethnologist, my interests have focused especially on gender, folklore, and folk medicine, and these themes run throughout my work. The idea of how we can move between past, present, and future is always present in what I do. I want to preserve stories and ancient knowledge and explore how they can be translated into something meaningful and useful today.

Nature and culture have been a guiding thread throughout my entire life. I have always combined caring professions with work and studies in cultural heritage. Through ethnological perspectives, people’s relationships to and uses of, for example, plants over time become visible — what is known as ethnomedicine. The Nordic healing women — the herbalists, seeresses, and wise women — need to be brought forward and made visible under their proper names and titles: Lövjerska. Tietäjä. Their shared strength lies in the balance between theoretical knowledge and magical practice, expressed through charms, spoken formulas, and songs. It is precisely in this union of theory and magic that we encounter lövjeri, something for which one could once be prosecuted in Sweden.

I am trained as a nursing assistant and herbal educator, and I hold a Bachelor of Arts degree in ethnology. I am also a certified forest guide specializing in the nature and culture of Finnskogen, and I have completed a number of alternative trainings, including tactile massage therapy, reflexology, and ceremonial facilitation.

As a child, I accompanied my great-grandmother on her walks, and parts of my worldview were shaped by the secret places she brought me to. Flowers and plants came alive, and the dollhouse on the lawn made time disappear. Some years ago, while clearing out the attic of my childhood home, I encountered a miniature world of a little lövjerska. There I found notes about herbs, books with recipes for skincare and salves, bookmarks, and stories of fairies and trolls.

I have sought both adventure and answers around the world, and this journey has led me to realize that I must dig where I stand. Roots and origins tell us much about who we are, and there is deep wisdom in that. My courses and my work are grounded primarily in our intangible cultural heritage.

My roots are in Värmland, and in the northern parts of the county, in Finnskogen, everything I have worked toward and studied throughout my life is present: nature, culture, and magic. When I began researching my family history, I encountered a Forest Finnish lineage. In the summer of 2020, I deepened my knowledge of Finnskogen through a summer course at Karlstad University, “The Forest Finns and Finnskogen: Culture, History, and Future.” In 2021, I trained as a forest guide with a focus on Finnskogen’s nature and culture at Klarälvdalen Folk High School.

I have worked as a sub-project manager in a project in Finnskogen, where we explored cultural plants, Forest Finnish food traditions, and stories of everyday life in order to breathe life back into hiking trails and paths. In the spring of 2023, I moved to Finnskogen as my permanent home.