Why I Practice Völva Stav: Finding an Unbroken Gift from My Northern and Eastern-European Roots

I’ve spent most of my adult life disentangling gifts that came wrapped in whiteness. Every European-sourced tradition I touched required a kind of cultural amnesia that felt like a betrayal to my ancestors and to myself.

But then I found Völva Stav.

Völva Stav is a practice that comes from the northern and eastern European traditions—the same lands my ancestors called home. It’s a form of seership, of pattern reading, that works with the staff as a tool for divination and spiritual connection.

What drew me to it wasn’t just the practice itself, but the way it felt like coming home to something I’d always known but had forgotten. The first time I held a stav staff, it was like greeting an old friend.

The stav isn’t just a piece of wood—it’s a bridge between worlds. It helps us access the wisdom of our ancestors, the patterns that move through our lineages, the guidance that’s always been there if we know how to listen.

In my practice, I use the stav to help people connect with their own ancestral wisdom. It’s not about telling fortunes or predicting the future. It’s about helping people remember who they are, where they come from, and what gifts they carry in their blood and bones.

What I love most about Völva Stav is that it’s not about appropriating someone else’s culture. It’s about reclaiming what’s mine, what’s been passed down through my lineage, what’s been waiting for me to remember.

Every time I work with the stav, I feel my ancestors close. I feel their approval, their guidance, their love. It’s like they’re saying, “Yes, this is the way. This is how we’ve always done it.”

For those of us with European ancestry, especially those of us who have been disconnected from our traditions by colonization and assimilation, practices like Völva Stav can be a way back to ourselves, to our people, to the wisdom that’s been waiting for us all along.

What ancestral practices are calling to you? What traditions are you being drawn to explore?