Ronayne
is Master of the San Francisco Hov where Hafskjold Stav is taught every
Sunday as a 3-hour ongoing class. He also teaches 3-4 times a year in the
form of weekend workshops on the various aspects of Stav, i.e. runes as
oracles, martial arts, health and healing practices,
meditations and chanting,
etc.
Ronayne was deeply
engrossed in the study of eastern mysticism when, to his surprise, his
eastern masters urged him to make several pilgrimages to Europe to search
out any remaining vestiges of pre-Christian spiritual traditions that are
still being handed down. Ronayne was excited at the prospect of iscovering
an authentic pre-Christian system of spiritual development.
He is German, Dutch
and Slavic by ancestry and his family kept many of the spiritual traditions
of these places when they came to the New World. His family painted Hex
signs for good fortune, made "Kitchen Witches" every October, and his great-grandmother
was a well-known witch with extra-ordinary healing powers. She would chant
in an unrecognizable language as she would perform her "magic" on the patient.
With this strong motivation
he set off to discover his roots. His search took him to Ukraine, Poland,
Italy, France, and the U.K. Though he found many incredible masters along
the way, none seemed to possess the full system as it was practiced before
the Industrial age. Many of the systems that survived lost their wholeness
and were now focused solely on the healing aspect or the martial aspect.
In the Ukraine he lived
and studied with a master who could raise people from the dead with his
shamanism abilities. He also met and studied with a female shaman who had
extra-ordinary psychic development, healing powers, and knowledge of the
healing and spiritual power of sexuality.
In Kiev he met a man
from Odessa who was the inheritor of a quasi-shamanism brand of Kossak
fighting art. It was very impressive both technically and spiritually but
he was looking for something more. While meeting with the High Druids in
Brittany (Celtic part of France) it was prophesied that he would meet the
man that was to be his teacher of European spirituality within the next
two weeks.
This prediction turned
out to be true as Ronayne subsequently met Ivar Hafskjold and began to
study Ivar's family system of Stav. Ronayne studied with Ivar for 5 years,
traveling between his home in Australia and the U.K. 1-2 times per year.
At the end of this period Ivar conferred upon him the honor of Master of
Hafskjold Stav and he became the inheritor of the Jarl (priest/teacher)
Class aspect of this tradition. Ronayne continues to further refine his
knowledge and skills with Ivar during the summer training course held each
year in the UK.
