Lineage

Yr Hov is organized under Kolbjorn Dharmanidhi Sarasvati Märtens. Kolbjorn is the recognized Jarl Class Stav lineage holder. His teacher is Ivar Hafskjold.

Yr Hov Ves and Godes and other Stav links.

Ivar Hafskjold

Ivar (seen here with his Eagle Owl, Arthur) was born in Norway at the end of the second world war and learned the family tradition as a young man from his Grandfather and elder uncles. He has practiced Stav all his life and began to teach it outside of the family when he returned to Europe from Japan in 1992 and settled in the UK.

Kolbjorn Dharmanidhi Sarasvati Märtens

Kolbjorn was born in Chicago in 1962, moved to New York before the age of two, and lived in New Jersey and New York until the age of 21. As a young boy he was interested in spirituality, religion and philosophy, and began studying yoga, breathing and meditation at seven years of age.

At age 13, he had a life-transforming event as he practiced breath meditation (performing a kriya) in the martial arts hall where he was a student. With eyes open, he experienced an absolute oneness with the world and a cessation of the discursive-mind-stuff so profound that his experience of the world, life and himself was permanently changed. From this experience onward he knew that he wanted to experience that ultimate state of Awareness and Unity as a moment-to-moment reality.

At sixteen, he met a teacher who would have a great impact on his spiritual search. Father Al Gorayeb was a mystic Byzantine Catholic priest who taught Kolbjorn to control his brain wave patterns and to use the states of consciousness reflected by the various brain wave frequencies to develop psychic powers such as distant viewing, psychic diagnosis of illness, contacting deceased sages, attaining photographic memory, etc. These were useful skills, but did not give the deeper realization that he was looking for.

In 1986, Kolbjorn graduated with a degree in Chiropractic and a certificate in physical therapy from Palmer Chiropractic College. That year he moved to Australia to buy a chiropractic clinic. Through a series of misfortunes, he found himself out of work, in debt, on the streets and hungry. All previous concepts of security gained from money, status, intellect and spiritual training dissolved. Kolbjorn realized that with all of his training and personal practice in spirituality, he had not yet been able to realize the ultimate state as a moment-to-moment reality.

Following the guidance of two of his spiritual elders, Cherokee Chief Grandfather Thunder Cloud and Hawaiian Kahuna Abraham, Kolbjorn began searching for an authentic, extant spiritual tradition that was rooted in his own genealogy. “Following in the spiritual footsteps of your ancestors allows you to unfold along the path of least resistance,” these practiced teachers told him. “In order to approach another spiritual tradition from a centered and relaxed place of equality, you must become thoroughly immersed in your own native tradition lest you be trapped in a ceaseless searching to fill your original spiritual void.”

Taking this advice to heart, Kolbjorn traveled through the Ukraine, Poland and France uncovering and exploring various European traditions. In Celtic Brittany he received a pivotal oracle reading from a certain head druid’s wife in which she said “you could stay and study with us but it will be very difficult, you will meet your true teacher within the week.” Within the next few days Kolbjorn was attracted to a magazine article by Ivar Hafskjold and flew to England to learn more about the Hafskjold family STAV tradition.

Because the Hafskjold family has been a warrior class family for generations there was much emphasis on the combative, physical aspect of STAV but what Kolbjorn experienced as he repeatedly traveled to England, sleeping in Ivar’s library, studying the tradition night and day, was that the practice of STAV can be used to develop incredible martial skill, however, it is first and foremost a philosophy and a practice of life as well as a tool or method for achieving this moment-to-moment experience of ultimate reality. The practice of STAV can be followed by any inspired person, male or female, young or old.

Through five years of intensive study with Ivar, Kolbjorn found his natural place in the Jarl class, embodying the Jarl class characteristics similar to Ivar’s own personal leanings and after five years time was formally recognized and adopted as the 45th generation jarl class lineage holder of the Hafskjold family. After this five-year period, Kolbjorn continued to train, bringing Ivar to Australia and the United States to teach as well as traveling to England. This additional training worked to solidify and deepen his demonstrable experience of STAV principles. As STAV is a family based tradition, appropriately applied within the household, Kolbjorn, along with the three other lineage holders, decided to pass the teachings exclusively through family lines. In his family and community Kolbjorn functions as an officiant for weddings and seasonal rituals, and provides astrological counseling and oracle readings.

Now, as the Thule of Yr Hov he instructs his family and students in Martens STAV, using the principles of Hafskjold STAV and adding his own personal flavor and experience, as directed by Ivar. With an emphasis on the healing aspects of the tradition Kolbjorn teaches Mått, Megan and dietetics as well as rune breathing and martial techniques with the typical Jarl class weapons of long stick, walking stick or cudgel and spear as well as various weapons from the other classes, including one of his personal favorites, the knife. He also instructs his students in the oral Hafskjold STAV mythology and rune casting.

Yr Hov Ves and Godes

Australia [Website]

Other Stav Links

Stav International [Website]

More information coming soon!