Courses and training programs
Choose how far you want to go
All courses and training programs at Yggdrasil Shamanic School are online courses with personal follow-up from me. They build on each other, from the free online course to the teacher trainings, and you decide for yourself how far you want to go.
Here you will find the whole overview: what each course contains, how long it takes, what it costs and what is required to begin. The free online course is the first step for everyone. There you get to know me, the school and how the teaching works, before you choose the way forward.
Teaching and personal follow-up by Pål-Esben Wanvig, founder of Yggdrasil Shamanic School. All courses and training programs are so far in Norwegian. The English version of the free online course will be ready in November or December 2026, and I plan to teach the introductory course and the basic training live for the first English group in 2027. Everything begins with the free online course, and admission to the other courses opens after it.
Common to all courses
How the teaching works
Online courses at your own pace
Video lessons, audio files, guided meditations and rituals, assignments and practical exercises on the course platform, which you go through when it suits you, on your phone, tablet or computer. The manuals and presentations come with them as PDFs.
Personal follow-up on video
In all courses and training programs after the free online course, personal follow-up conversations with me on Zoom are included. There we go through what you have been working on, and you get answers to what you are wondering about. How many are included is stated with each course.
Initiations from the teacher
Already in the introductory course you are energetically initiated by me, so that the methods you learn work with full power from the first day, without months of practice. New initiations follow module by module through the training programs.
Access for at least a year
You have access to the online courses for at least a year, and to the basic training’s courses for at least a year after you have completed the training. You can go back and repeat as often as you like.
The overview · steps 01 and 02
First steps
Everyone begins with the free online course. The introductory course that follows is the way into the basic training: it is included in it, and it can also be taken on its own, without prior knowledge.
Step 01 · Free online course
Nature’s Path to Freedom and Self-Realization
Fourteen video lessons on what shamanism really is, what it is not, and on how Yggdrasil Shamanic School is built up.
In this short online course I tell the story of my own path from skeptical engineer to teacher of primordial shamanism, about the Path of the Heart, rituals and rune magic, and about what the training programs contain. You watch the lessons when it suits you; the English version will be ready in November or December 2026, as many times as you like.
The course is the first step for everyone. You must have gone through it before you can apply for admission to the basic training, and it is the best way to find out whether this path is for you.
Step 02 · Introductory course
Awaken Your Inner Primordial Shaman
An introduction to deep primordial shamanic healing and nature’s healing rhythms
Five online courses that lay the first stones of the foundation, with two personal follow-up conversations.
The course is the way into the primordial shamanic development process and Module 0 of the basic training. You learn forest bathing and nature’s healing rhythms, a primordial shamanic method for spontaneous healing of the musculoskeletal system, and forgiveness from the depths of the heart with the 4 Shamanic Heart Guides. You meet the nine divine guardians and the nine sacred trees, you are initiated into your Personal Shamanic Othala, and you are introduced to the power animal Hummingbird and the soul’s epic journey.
After registration you receive an email from me with suggested times for an introductory conversation on Zoom, where the initiation is carried out, so that the methods work with full power from the first day.
The five online courses
- An introduction to deep primordial shamanic healing and nature’s healing rhythms (Module 0)
- Forgiveness from the depths of your heart with the 4 Shamanic Heart Guides
- Trauma and addiction: holistic understanding and healing
- The soul’s incredible journey through life, death and incarnations
- A shamanic journey to the power animal Hummingbird
The overview · steps 03 to 05
The training programs
The basic training is the way in. From there the path continues to the senior shaman training and to the path to Unity, each step after the previous one is completed.
Step 03 · Training program
Yggdrasil Shamanic School Basic Training
Sixteen online courses over six to eight months, with twelve personal follow-up conversations: the primordial shamanic development process for real.
The basic training is for you who are ready to meet yourself at depth. It is built up pedagogically and structured, with more than 200 hours of video teaching, PDF versions of all manuals and presentations, and regular conversations with me on Zoom, where we go through what you have been working on and you get help to integrate what you learn. The introductory course Awaken Your Inner Primordial Shaman is included.
Most students take six to eight months and set aside seven to ten hours a week, but you go at your own pace, at home, and can combine the training with work and family life. Admission is by application and a no-obligation conversation on Zoom, and you must have gone through the free online course first.
The nine modules
- Primordial shamanic wisdom, healing with runes and power animals
- Primordial shamanic rituals and power spots
- Structural magic with the runes
- Primordial shamanic astral journeys, soul hunting and vision quest
- Primordial shamanic guides and power animals
- The personal primordial shamanic medicine bag
- The path to your personal primordial shamanic power and magic
- Initiation into your personal primordial shamanic astral temple
- A constructive approach to primordial fear and negative energies
Step 04 · Training program
Senior Shaman Training
Six to eight months into the deeper layers of the shaman’s reality, for those who have completed the basic training.
Here you step into the deeper layers of our spiritual anatomy and the structure of the light body. You work with advanced rune magic, with healing and understanding of deep-seated karma, karmic cycles and fields, and you learn shamanic clairvoyance, precognition, chakra reading and primordial shamanic energetic acupuncture and meridian teaching. The initiation rituals here are for advanced shamans.
The training is laid out like the basic training: online courses at your own pace, with twelve personal follow-up conversations. If you have completed the basic training and feel that you want to go further, you apply for admission.
Step 05 · Advanced program
The Primordial Shamanic Path to Unity and Spiritual Enlightenment
Eighteen months after the senior shaman training, with twenty-four personal follow-up conversations, toward a living experience of Unity.
This is the advanced program for those who seek lasting transformation and a living experience of spiritual enlightenment: a path toward inner unity, awakening and freedom from all that binds consciousness to time and space. Here we also meet in person, at retreats in Norway where the deepest rituals are carried out.
The goal is not a theory of Unity, but an experience you live with, with one foot in everyday life and one in your true nature. I say more about what the path involves on the page about the school.
The overview · steps 06 to 09
The teacher trainings
The teacher trainings are by invitation, for those who have completed the path to Unity. Four stages build on each other, from the first degree to senior tradition bearer, and carry the school’s living tradition forward.
Teacher training, first degree
Qualifies you to teach the entire basic training, with all its modules. You deepen your understanding of what it means to be a spiritual teacher, of group psychology and how to build healthy and harmonious groups, of planning and conducting seminars and running your own seminar business, of rites of passage and Yggdrasil’s death rituals, and of the initiation rituals tied to each module of the basic training. The training concludes with a thesis and an examination.
Teacher training, second degree
Qualifies you to teach the entire senior shaman training, with all its modules.
Junior tradition bearer
For those who want to go deeper into primordial shamanic wisdom at an advanced level. You learn powerful and advanced magic, are prepared to carry Yggdrasil’s living tradition forward, and are trained to teach and guide teachers of the first and second degree.
Senior tradition bearer
The most advanced training in the school’s tradition, for those who are ready to carry the entire tradition forward in its purest and most living form. As a senior tradition bearer you are both guardian and creator: you learn to develop the tradition in harmony with the time you live in, and to guide others on the path toward Unity.
Choosing your way
Where do I begin?
Everyone begins with the free online course. From there, there are three ways forward, and all three lead to the same place: the basic training.
Do you want to get to know me and the school first?
Take the free online course (in English from November or December 2026). Fourteen lessons, two and a half hours, no obligations. There you hear what I stand for and how the training programs are built up.
Do you want to try the teaching with follow-up?
Take Awaken Your Inner Primordial Shaman: five online courses and two conversations, no prior knowledge needed. The course is Module 0 of the basic training, so you begin where the training begins.
Are you ready for the whole foundation?
Apply for admission to the basic training, which includes the introductory course. We have a no-obligation conversation on Zoom first, and find out together whether the time is right.
If you are unsure, get in touch with me. We can have a conversation on Zoom and find out together what suits you right now.
Student testimonials
From those who have walked the path
On the testimonials page you will find interviews and feedback from students on my courses and training programs. Here are two of them.
“Pål-Esben achieves the masterful feat of bringing together all the loose threads I’ve always sought answers to, and organizes everything systematically to make it comprehensible.”
From the testimonials page
Kirsten had spent years on personal development and read widely about alternative medicine, brain research, therapy and spirituality. In the teaching she found a place where the threads came together, and a teacher she describes as inspiring and passionate about his work.
Kirsten
Chief financial officer · Testimonial on the testimonials page
“That marked the beginning of an incredible journey, a journey that has brought me to a life I truly love and one that, hand on my heart, I never would have been able to create without your help.”
From the basic training page
Ylva was burnt out and broken, worn down to being unrecognizable to herself and those she loves, when she found Pål-Esben. The journey that began there has brought her to a life she truly loves.
Ylva Linnestad
Testimonial on the basic training page
These are two of many. On the testimonials page you will find more feedback and interviews with students on my courses and training programs.
Practical
Good to know
Your first step
How far you go is up to you.
The first step is free and takes two and a half hours. The rest of the path you walk at your own pace, with personal follow-up all the way.