My academic studies of cultural anthropology, comparative religion, and indigenous spirituality inspired me early on to explore shamanism and animism through my own direct experience, as a participating member of spiritual communities. My path of practitioner led me to study nature-based wisdom traditions around the world, with various elders and lineage keepers. 

This path guided me also on to meet Tat Mark Elmy, who accepted me as his apprentice to become Maya Aj Q’ij. I received my sacred bundle in Guatemala in an initiation ceremony led by Maya elder, chuchq’ajaw Tat Rigoberto Itzep Chanchavac on Wajxaqib’ No’j, 16.4.2017, at the altar of Rax Amolo by Lake Atitlán. 

At my initiation ceremony, a respected Aj Q’ij and elder came to me and said: ”You are here because you have listened to your heart, and you have listened to your dreams. You walk the path of the mystic. It is the old way of our people. Do not doubt your path. Walk the path of the mystic.” These words have come to my mind many times in those moments when I have questioned my right to be a daykeeper here in the North, far away from Guatemala.

However, the cosmic Chol Q’ij nourishes us all, supporting us with regenerative flow of eternal cycles. And so does the fresh spring water of timeless wisdom traditions, opening a direct path to the source of all Life. 

I returned to Finland in September 2022 to live here permanently, to be close to my family and rooted in my ancestral lands.

On my wisdom quest I have been inspired by many teachers and mentors. It is not possible to acknowledge you all here, name by name. I send my deepest gratitude to each of you, holding full responsibility for any mistakes in the information I share through this website. 

A creative phase, a time of  wild eldering, has opened in my life. My path continues as an independent artist-researcher. And, forever, as curious mystic. 

”I would love to live

like a river flows,

carried by the surprise

of its own unfolding.”

John O’Donohue