Blessing of the Ancient Mine – Alsgruvan 2024

A hazelnut biscuit embraced by nougat chocolate mousse filled with ganache and a refreshing curd of freshly squeezed oranges gave this incredible mysterious and ancient mine my healing, my love and my deepest respect.

At Mälby, in the heart of Södermanland in Sweden, lies Alsgruvan. From 1876 to 1878, eight hundred eighty-six tonnes of copper, of nickel, of earth, that fed the fires of war. Metal destined for cannons. Men dug by hand, with sweat and powder, breathing the dust of the earth. Their hands bled from the drills. Their lungs filled with rock particles. They worked in darkness. They gave their lives. Yet their names remain unnamed in history books. 

But before the drills, before the explosions, this place was alive. The stone itself held spirit. Deep in the diabas, black and hard volcanic rock, rising through cracks in the world's crust, lived ancient energies. Iron, copper, and nickel carried upward like gifts from the underworld. These were not merely minerals, they were the bones of the mountain, crystallizing over millions of years, singing their own slow songs in the dark.

There were beings here before us. Spirits of the rock who watched the earth shift. The ones who waited in the darkness, patient beyond comprehension. They witnessed the birth of this stone and they witness its awakening again.

All beings that had to give way to the new. The miners who broke the rock with hand and hammer. The spirits who held space in the silence. The stones themselves, fractured and waiting. An open room, large and powerful. Water dripping from the walls. Cool breaths keeping time standing still.

My heart in the middle of everything, pulsating and laughing on this day. Feeling deep gratitude and joy to be in this enchanting place, to rest my body and soul.

This is my offering: sweetness instead of steel. Healing instead of harm. A blessing for those who worked with their hands. For the souls who fell when the metal became weapon. For the mountain itself, wounded and waiting. For the spirits who guarded this place before we came. And for the energy that slept in the stone, now waking to receive kindness instead of force.

May this creation of mine, be medicine for all who remember, all who forgot, and all who have yet to heal.

A blessing, my love and deep respect to everyone, who at some point in time, has worked with their power and their life. 

With gratitude, Yvonne