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My name is Christer Ellingsen. I am a man, a father and a priest of the old gods. My roots run deeply into the soil of the good land of the far north. The soil in which the bones of my forebears rest, and in which my own bones once shall rest, when mother calls me home.

As all children are, i was born with a memory and knowledge of the divine. Religion was not a central issue in our family. My mother is an agnostic of sorts and my father was a self proclaimed atheist. As i grew to know him and later on "learned the words" i understood that he really was a animist. But as a child I feel I was very much left to my own devices when it came to religion, which i see today was one of the greatest gifts my parents gave me.

At school i learned a bit more about Jehohva and the three heads of the christian god. These where the first teachings putting into words the subject of divinity for me. A subject that was a natural part of me, i thus became a christian. Not the variety of christian that feel compelled to talk about his religion to anybody that are willing or not to listen, or a church goer but a christian. it was not until i , at the age of 14, was undergoing the teachings leading up to my christian confirmation i understood that the god of the jews and his son the phropet of the christian religion where not my gods.

This realization made me start the search for my gods and my religious community. A travel usually start at your own doorstep so different christian creeds and societies where explored at first, followed by Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism to some extent shinto and any other religion i came across. At the end of this active search i came to the conclusion that there where no societies for me, and that i to the extent of my capabilities had to be my own priest.

Shamanism came along and grabbed me by the hair in -94. My father had shown me the beauty and immananent life of nature from i was old enough for him to carry me into the woods and up into the mountains. And the connection to nature and the life force and divinity i found there was a part of my spiritual life from an early age. The practice of shamanism just furthered that, and made the spirits i knew inhabited the natural world take more solid shape and form, and divine beings came forth.

I can honestly not say when i became a pagan, but the practice of shamanism was certainly a important catalyst. When man experiences the life force of nature take shape and form in spirits and divine beings, he feels compeled to worship, at least i did.

In the late -80s I found out that i have what people call healing hands, and upon starting to use them in a structured manner found that i have so called psychic abilities. At the time i was a law student, and felt that was my professional future. But these new found abilities made me wonder. There was a strong feeling of the presencene and will of the divine in it. And even if it felt like a hard choice at the time, i choose the path of the healer instead of that of the lawyer. And by february -93 i was a full time healer with a office at a complementary medicine focused center in Trondheim, one of the very first in that region.

Working with intuitive healing as my primary technique i added to my competence with studies in subjects as, Aromatherapy, Shiatsu, Connective Tissue Massage, Herbal medicine, Bach Flower Remedies and so on. I also had the good fortune of being connected with other therapists such as a Psychiatrist and a good number of different kinds of complementary medicine therapists, and as shamanism came along, some very fascinating practitioners from indignous people across the americas and the north of scandinavia.

As my practice evolved, divination and counseling became a important part of my everyday work. I started working with the germanic runes in -89, and as my understanding of my own psychic abilities grew and i studied other divinatory tools and languages of power such as the Tarot, I Ching and The Kabalah this part of my practice became more and more important.

I started to teach early, in hindsight maybe to early, but the goddess where with me and my first workshop in meditation and healing in -94 was probably one of the best i have ever done. I most certainly worked a lot with it before hand and learned the value of being properly prepared. After that workshops and working with groups in different ways became important to me and i had a growing notion of teaching and sharing being a important part of my purpose in this life. It has most certainly become exactly that over the years, and subjects of shamanic nature as well as other kinds of work to help others realize the balance and divinity of themselves has been cores of my life and purpose all these years and still are. Even if i quit the pure professional side of my practice after some 12 years.

The role of the priest of the old gods, and axis mundi in my own world has become more end more evident over the years. The dilemma of doing my work without ending up as a missionary and at the same time supporting myself and my now 10 years old daughter financially was what in the end made me decide to earn my money from other kinds of work, and switched gears in my "magic practice" These last 7 years have been filled with magic work and networking, but not on a professional basis anymore. I do still do workshops and such but it does not in anyway support me financially anymore, and to me it has the added value that i can now choose the people i work with solely on the basis of my own preferences and what i feel i should do, instead of always having to the watch the economy of it.

And through all of this runs the pillars of shamanism and a pagans sense of being in the flow of energy and living the life of a priest and servant of the Goddess and the Horned one.

Hail unto the old ones.