The Völva Stav Guild is an educational and cultural healing cooperative of 6 women who are dedicated to the principals and methodologies of Völva Stav and who practice and use them daily in our personal and professional lives.
Our Mission
Restoring Northern European root cultural traditions and providing opportunities for communities to heal and move from race to culture in ourselves, our families, and our communities.
Guild Koner:
Translates literally to wives to the Guild and refers to the six founders below.
Kari Tauring
Völva Kari Tauring is a professional Nordic folk musician, cultural educator, and spiritual leader living in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA. Growing up in a Norwegian-centric family, Kari spent most summers with sisters and cousins on their grandmother's farm in Wisconsin where she was encouraged to seek spiritual guidance from nature.
Kari began a life long study of her pre-christian Nordic roots in 1988 when an English professor introduced her to the runes, Eddas, Sagas, and academic works on pre-Christian (Heathen) Nordic people. In 2003 she integrated runes, mythology, Norwegian folk music and dance, and the use of staff and stick (stav and tein) in rune chant and journey as a spiritual practice called Völva Stav. She began teaching her methodology in 2006, published a rune book in 2007, an accompanying iPhone app and Völva Stav Manual in 2010.
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Kari travels widely to teach, perform, and guide others seeking a deeper connection to Northern European heritage. Healing trauma within the öorlog of family and culture of origin is key to the methods of Völva Stav.
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For more information or to contact Kari please go to www.karitauring.com
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Völva Bethany has lived a life of personal and professional service to families, children and
elders. She has been a lifelong student of natural arts for healing mind, body, and soul,
including gardening, herbs, flower essences, energy work, indigenous and folk healing
traditions and ceremony. Bethany dove deeply into family and ancestor healing and cultural
practice in 2010. Studying with the originator of the Völva Stav method, Kari Tauring. Bethany
was initiated into teaching Völva Stav in 2014 and began teaching classes in Wisconsin. She
a founding member of the Völva Stav Guild, a cultural healing cooperative, Nordic Womens*
Retreats and Völva Stav Wisconsin.
Bethany is an Elder, working with the Norse Goddesses, plant spirits, flower essences, accessible gardening, SoulCollage® and exploring folkways and cultural healing practices. She is learning more about living with C-PTSD, healing trauma, and moving it out of the body.
In sessions, classes and ceremony, she is grounded, emphatic and sensitive. As practicing Völva, she connects to her ancestral culture and wise-woman healing traditions including using songs and charms as away to connect to the energy of the Goddesses, the land, seasons and the plants.
To work with Bethany or for teaching inquiries or class information contact her at
beetreeflowers4all@gmail.com
Rachel Knudson
Völva Rachel Knudson has been a “kin keeper” of her family and their stories since being bitten with the genealogy bug at a young age. She owns her family’s sesquicentennial farm and cherishes the four-generation connection her family has in Southern Minnesota while striving to honor the pre-European-settler legacy of the land.
She has a passion for numerous healing modalities and women’s health care, having served hundreds of families as a midwife at home and birth center.
Rachel is grateful for the Volva Stav community and the healing tools she learns on this path.
Völva Elzbieta is a crafter, singer, and paleo-pharmacology researcher, proving out the folk medicine of amber.
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Her Lithuanian roots are expressed in all she does. She carries the staff for her family and the guild with the strength and conviction of a Valkyerie.
Völva Donyelle is an artist, poet and healer of from Minneapolis, MN. A lifelong student of African diasporic culture, she has been practicing culture as a means for self-reflection and healing with the Cultural Wellness Center since 2006.
In 2016 while looking for tools to work with her European ancestry, she was introduced to the Völva Stav tradition and began her apprenticeship with the Völva Stav Guild in 2017.
A healer and spiritualist, she practices and studies from home working medicinal and magical herbs cultivated in her garden.
Donyelle's fiber, sculptural, healing and literary arts are guided by a deeply held belief in “Living Ancestors” and their wisdom and power to guide the healing the öorlog of the individual, community, and the land. Donyelle lives and works on the northside of Minneapolis, Mn
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For more information or to contact Donyelle please go to www.sisterd.com
Amanda Lonsdorf
Völva Amanda Lonsdorf--Supporting and fostering community and individual growth is a key part of Amanda's work as a Volva. Her gifts are helping people to reconnect and express their inner world and soul parts using the tools of guided self reflection, vocalization, artistic expression, meditation, cognitive behavioral techniques, connection to nature, family, and ancestors. She creates and fosters healthy and inclusive spaces and communities to explore these healing tools and teaches how to re-connect to web of the world.
Amanda lives in the Chippewa Valley of Wisconsin (USA), and works for a non-profit to support individuals dealing with substance use, and mental health issues. She holds leadership roles in the local Unitarian Universalist Congregation, organizes a local pagan group, and leads seasonal, earth-centered rituals and services. A student of Volva Stav since 2014, she is a member of the Volva Stav Guild and co-leader of Volva Stav Wisconsin learning community.