About

Valarie Budayr is an impassioned teacher and curious student as well as an award-winning author, publisher, and composer.

Valarie also is a certified Sound Therapy Practitioner and works with traditional non-tempered instruments.

With over 31 years of teaching experience, Valarie invites her students, and clients into immersive explorations of the self. She believes that each person is capable of their own healing. Her mission is to share the beauty and wonder of the world, inspiring and empowering people into their best and fullest selves.

Valarie’s work has been featured on Sounds True: The Shamanic Path Facebook Community, Healing Wise: Shamanic Outreach Work with Children with Imelda Almqvist, as well as The Goddess Now Project. You can access the links to these appearances on her Media Page.

Born in the US, Valarie has her feet firmly planted on two continents. Her ancestral and family home is on the island of Gotland, Sweden where she grew up both playing with and living with runes.

Embracing the Tietäjä (one who knows) culture of Northern Karelia as well as carrying a stave in the Seidr traditions of Scandinavia, much of what she teaches and shares is based on song, sound, soul, story, and the natural world.

A Message from Valarie

Hello and Warm Welcome to You ~

My life has been a colorful palate of learning, experience, overcoming, exploring, and flourishing. A life-long learner, I have lived in six countries, hold three degrees, and am fluent in six languages. I am a mom, businesswoman, educator, author, publisher, and healing practitioner. My deepest passions have always been based on the authenticity of family, music, sound, story, teaching, and the natural world.

I am proud to be of an age where I wear my wisdom and grace like a badge of honor. As the proud mother of three brilliant adult children, I now find that my life’s path is being drawn towards a more spiritual and healing direction, and one that is gently and lovingly energized by Wonder.

WONDER:

noun

noun: wonder

a feeling of surprise mingled with admiration, caused by something beautiful, unexpected, unfamiliar, or inexplicable. An awareness of Wonder is a common thread that runs through all of us. But our natural-born gift of Wonder gets lost, stifled, muffled, shoved aside by every struggle and challenge of this journey we call LIFE. love of Wonder is not new for me; it has been woven into my DNA from the very beginning. The island of Gotland, Sweden, where my family comes from, is known as The Land of Myth, Magic, and Legend. The memories of playing for hours among the lush greens and rocky beaches of this island are among my fondest ones. When I was not soaking up the culture and lore of Sweden, my childhood was spent in nature among the ferns and forests of Oregon.

An awareness of Wonder is a common thread that runs through all of us. But our natural-born gift of Wonder gets lost, stifled, muffled, shoved aside by every struggle and challenge of this journey we call LIFE. The love of Wonder is not new for me; it has been woven into my DNA from the very beginning. The island of Gotland, Sweden, where my family comes from, is known as The Land of Myth, Magic, and Legend. The memories of playing for hours among the lush greens and rocky beaches of this island are among my fondest ones. When I was not soaking up the culture and lore of Gotland and Sweden, my childhood was spent in nature among the fern and forests of Oregon on the Columbia River.

The gifts, pearls of wisdom, and passions that have been woven into my life for over five decades is now inspiring a path as a practitioner of indigenous Northern European earth-based traditions. Embracing the Tietäjä (one who knows) culture of Northern Karelia as well as carrying a stave in the Seidr traditions of Scandinavia, much of what I teach and share is based on song, sound, soul, story, and the natural world. I am passionate about practicing and teaching the ancestral wisdom teachings I have been raised with and have actively embraced over the course of my life.

As a practitioner and illuminator of Wonder, I use the following in my Wonder Toolkit:

Wonder Toolkit

Myth, Magic, Legend, and how we interconnect at the crossroads of nature, and landscape.
Many lush and captivating traditional instruments from around the globe and some from the magical makings of imaginative instrument makers and Sound Shamans such as Vainamoinen.
The Wisdom of the Elders. Many elders come to share insights through dreams, plants, stones, and sound.
Rituals, Ceremonies, and Intuitive meditations open the doorways of connection and communication with the world(s) we live in and pass through.
Crafts and Handmade moments of interaction with our self and the creative universe bringing home the idea that Life is Made, not bought.
Our created life is always the reflection of our inner being. As we heal, transform, and create anew, we unfold a life of beauty and meaning.

My goal is to use my vast wonder toolbox to help you, and others like you, rediscover Wonder and a sense and return to wholeness. To help embrace life’s greatest gifts by raising awareness, slowing down, becoming still, and opening heart and mind to new possibilities. These gentle moments can also help shift our perspectives on what we hold dear, what we need to let go of, what we are thankful for, and what matters most.

Along with our singular paths of wonder, and healing, the most important part of this path is community. To our community, I offer:

A wide range of meditations both sound and guided.
Group led journeys as well as formative education in Seidr and Karelian/Kalevala Shamanic traditions.

I am so glad you are here!

Blessed Teachers Past and Present

I am greatly blessed and honored to stand on the shoulders of these great teachers:

Currently:

As of October 2020, I am in Advanced studies with Imelda Almqvist’s Seiðmaðr & Seiðkona 3-year program in Sweden

Completed Studies and Accreditations:

Woom Center Sound Therapy Practitioner Program NYC

Elian Zach, David Shemesh, Alexandre Tannous, Mitch Nur,

Frame Drum: Marla Leigh Goldstein

Sacred Voice: Chloe Goodchild

Tuning Forks: Jarrod Byrne Mayer, Eileen McKusik

Oud: Said Salem, Hamza el Din

Piano and composition: Harold Gray, Mary Kogen, Florence Abel, Richard Fuller, Robert Bonham, Tomas Svaboda

Core Shamanism: Hank Wesselman

Norse and Northern European Shamanic Practitioner Training: Imelda Almqvist, Evelyn Rysdyk

Karelian Rune Singing: Jussi Huovinen

Sacred Feminine: Mirabai Starr, Evelyn Rysdyk, Jean Shinoda Bolen

I am so thankful for all the wisdom they have imparted!

Sound Therapy

I’ve designed this site to reflect the elements of life I love: nature, sound, written word, creativity – all of which evoke different feelings in both the mind and body. These elements are woven together to allow me to craft immersive experiences that can expand the everyday perception of the world around you.

Using my background as a musician and sound practitioner, I have developed modalities that aid in nurturing major life shifts and conflict. These tools can help you take those scary leaps of faith in discovering who you are by realizing that anything is possible. What’s exciting is that the sky’s the limit – the opportunities endless.

You are bright, bold, and beautiful – it just takes making that first step. That’s a step that we can take together. Check the upcoming schedule to see when I’ll be teaching next, hosting a community gathering, or have an exciting adventure for you to join on.

Let’s heal and expand together – you are not alone.

Audrey Press:

At Audrey Press, we connect families and children to nature, wonder, and the magic of being through books.

Since 2010 we’ve created books for children, parents, families, and schools that inspire. Using beauty as our first ingredient, we plant the seeds of adventure, imagination, exploration, learning, and discovery. Our vision is of a world filled with inspired reading based on the compelling truth that curiosity and discovery are two of our greatest life skills. We are dedicated to creating beautiful books that inspire children, families, schools, and communities to experience, discover, and create a lifelong love of reading and exploring. www.audreypress.com

Jump into a Book:

Jump into a Book is a site about the love of children’s books and how we can incorporate them into our everyday lives through play, crafting, cooking, movies, games, traveling, and author visits. A few times a week we post extension activities to go with our selected reads. Here we celebrate the joy of bringing our books alive and experiencing them first hand. When one has lived inside the pages of a book, the memories created to become part of one’s childhood, family, and school life. The Jump Into a Book website was retired in 2020 and all of the wonder, magic, stories, activities, and magic have been skillfully woven into the new ebook, The ABCs of Bookjumping: The Best of Jump Into a Book. Available on Amazon!

Multicultural Children’s Book Day:

Audrey Press founder Valarie Budayr and Mia Wenjen from Pragmatic Mom, teamed up to create a much needed national event. On the last Friday of January, Jump into a Book and Pragmatic Mom celebrate diversity in children’s books via their event Multicultural Children’s Book Day.

Multicultural Children’s Book Day (MCBD) is an online and offline celebration that attracts thousands of supporters, educators, parents, caregivers, book reviewers, and quality authors and publishers who join forces to shine the spotlight on diversity in children and YA literature.

Celebrated annually on the last Friday in January, this global non-profit offers a plethora of free resources, teaching tools, booklists, downloads, and a year-around initiative to get multicultural and diverse books into the hands of young readers.

To date, we have donated over 8,000 books to underserved kids, classrooms, and organizations, and that number continues to climb. Learn more about Multicultural Children’s Book Day HERE.