I, Ylva, was born in 1959 in Boden, Sweden, under the sign of Sagittarius, with Scorpio rising and the Moon in Leo.

I am the author of 27 books (in Swedish as of 2026) and the creator of six Tarot and symbolic decks. My working title is Creative Life Inspirer.

I have been reading Tarot for over 40 years, since 1974. In 1993, I was mentioned in Expressen as “Sweden’s Tarot Queen”, and in 2013, I was listed among the Top 11 psychics internationally. I have written approximately 26 books and created four original Tarot decks – all of which you will find under Ylva’s Books & Decks.

I was born and raised in the north of Sweden, growing up in a household with my mother, aunt, grandmother, and grandfather. What many call the supernatural, New Age, or spiritual awareness was simply part of daily life in our home.

My mother saw the little fair folk and was open to energies and spirits. My aunt read playing cards and worked with dreams and crystals. My grandmother held séances, where a French monk often came through most clearly. My earliest years were spent in the family-owned hotel before we moved into a villa in the middle of town.

In 1974, I lived in Nottingham, England, and was in Year 9 (and proudly got a 4 in English!). My friends there read Tarot and gathered for mystical meetings on the moors in the evenings. That’s where I first encountered Tarot, and my very first deck was a Rider-Waite.

From as early as I can remember, spirituality has been part of my everyday life. I studied astrology from around the age of 10, gazed into crystal balls, went on “drum journeys” in the wardrobe, watched for UFOs, laid playing cards in the Sibyl Star, and every morning I went down to our family kiosk to interpret my dreams with the dream book.

At nine o’clock, my aunt would have her first coffee and lay out her daily cards, with me asking:
“What does that card mean? Why is it there? What would happen if it were here instead?”

Because I grew up surrounded by books and magazines in our kiosk, I became a passionate reader of almost everything. This gave me a broad general knowledge and a deep interest in life itself.

My everyday life is actually not very “New Age” at all. I don’t meditate much, I don’t chase spirits, and yes, sometimes I eat cheeseburgers. I live in the real world. Energies, thoughts, philosophy, and why people do what they do have always fascinated me far more than spooky theatrics.

Magic and ritual interested me in my teens, but after experiencing real poltergeist phenomena, I realised that focused intention and the power of thought are far more powerful – and far safer.

I moved to the middle of Sweden in 1975. Later, I became involved in animal rights, ran a home full of animals, worked as a housewife selling Tupperware, ran kiosks, worked nights at hotels, trained as a nail technician, worked in elderly care, retail, and office administration, and later studied to become a Waldorf teacher, one of the most enriching experiences of my life.

In the late 1980s, I encountered Reiki and became an Independent Reiki Master & Karuna Master, first in Sweden and later in India.
In 2000, I became the first Swede in India to be trained as a Reiki & Karuna Master by William Lee Rand (reiki.org).

In 1990, I met an extraordinary woman, Vanja, who completely changed my life. Through her I met the New Zealand shaman Shiven, who taught me Totems (medicine animals), and later Oscar from Chile.

Vanja also introduced me to regression, body–mind work, and to Roger LaChance (The Unicorn Method). She was the one who helped me say: “Yes, I am psychic.”
She guided me into past lives and taught me how to read them for others. Vanja was my living spiritual guide, and her passing in 1995 is one of my greatest losses.

In the early 1990s, I studied Martinus Cosmology, which answered many of my deepest questions, even though I remain both analytical and curious rather than dogmatic.

In 1993, I ran a shop in Umeå called Crystal Wolf (Ylva means Wolfness in Latin). The interest in Tarot was so great that I was asked to hold my first courses. That’s also when I began writing my first book, Tarot Step by Step.

I co-founded the Swedish Tarot Association together with Janne Püschel, aiming to professionalize Tarot reading. This later evolved into what today lives on through The Tarot Academy.

What has shaped me most is A Course in Miracles, NLP, and real life.
I have trained with Tony Robbins, studied Neale Donald Walsch, Wayne Dyer, the Sedona Method, and manifestation systems, including Infinite Possibilities, Matrix, and Trailblazer training.

Everything now comes together in my role as a Creative Life Inspirer – helping people find their potential, alignment, love, health, and purpose.

I moved to Spain in December 2019, just before my 60th birthday. COVID changed everything – but also opened new paths.

I write daily, walk long distances, love crime series, Supernatural, and Fringe, play online poker to relax, and I am endlessly fascinated by life.
During lockdown, I wrote my first novel, The Staff of Uhr, the first of a planned nine-book series.

Tarot, runes, colors, aura work, and energy systems remain the core of my work – because they show us the energy we are in, and the energy we are creating.

Media & recognition
I have appeared on Swedish Television and been named one of Sweden’s 50 best mediums by Swedish magazines.

In 2013, I appeared on Ukrainian TV “Extra Sensia” in Kyiv and was ranked Top 11 Psychic internationally.

I, Ylva, was in 2013 one of the Top 12 psychics internationally and proudly finished in 11th place, making me the 11th-best psychic internationally.

For Season 12 of “Extra Sensia” International Psychic Challenge, 40,000 people applied. In March, I received an email asking if I wanted to take part in the selection. In July, 276 people met on a hot day to begin the challenges to become one of the 12 best psychics in the international.

After the first challenge, 30 of us remained. After the second challenge, 18 were left. After the third challenge, I was one of the 12 best psychics remaining. 

In Episode 1, I became one of the final 12 psychics. (video above)

In Episode 2, I became Psychic of the Week.

Episode 3 of Extra Sensia aired on October 20.

In Episode 4, I was eliminated and finished in 11th place. WOW! I am the 11th-best psychic internationally. That’s something ;)

Below, you can follow my adventure in Ukraine in 2013, where I lived from July to October 2013. I am in the show until Episode 4, but the others are well worth watching as well. Unfortunately, there is no translation, so your Russian or Ukrainian needs to be in shape, but you can hear the English-speaking participants in the background. And regardless, there is so much drama that it is worth watching just for that.

Episode 1 (6 October 2013)
40,000 applied; I was invited. 276 were selected for the first challenge (the box), 30 for the second challenge (the frog in the milk), and 18 for the third challenge (Juliette Binoche). Then 12 of us remained. I had the honor of meeting Juliette B. in private for a few hours, and she was the first person I ever read with my new deck, Prisma Tarot. You can see glimpses of me at the following times: 9:50, 12:17, 25:24, 25:52, 37:46, and onwards.

Episode 2 (13 October 2013)
I am introduced as one of the 12 finalists. About 23 minutes into the program, you can see me reading the energy of a photo of a child. I am completely confused. I have difficulty seeing that the child even exists, and I am asked to describe the parents. I have trouble seeing the father; he is tall and very dark, but I speak much more about the mother. I say that she is intense, that her work means a lot to her, I have trouble seeing her son in her life, that she is a workaholic, and then suddenly I realize and say, “She is psychic, that’s it, she is really psychic.” And who is the mother? Exactly, it is me. They had created a digital construct based on my DNA and that of one of the male contestants, Ingvar Le Raven. When we come down to Pascha, the host, to see who the parents are, and I see Ingvar, I immediately say that he is the father. And then you can see me start laughing when I realize that the mother is me.

Later in the program, we visit a woman who has written to the show. She hears her dead daughter calling her “mom,” and others in the family have also heard it. About 5 minutes into that segment, you can see me. My reflection and what I said was that it was not the daughter who was involved, but the woman’s father. I saw that he had abused and beaten the child’s mother and then hanged himself in the house, and that the woman’s daughter was her angel watching over her. Dilaram, who later won the program, said the same, and it turned out to be true, the father had hanged himself in the house. Benedikt also spoke about the father, but Salavat and Elina talked about evil spirits, black magic, and blood running down the walls. I was inside the house, and my psychic ability did not pick up any blood, but a deep sorrow.

About 30 minutes into the program, when the jury evaluates us, you can hear Pascha say that I was extraordinary, which is really a boost because I feel completely lost in much of what is happening. The jury and the host constantly try to break us down to see how much we can handle, how much we can endure, and whether we stay centered in our abilities in different situations. It was clear that I was the only one who was suspicious about the child photo, that it was not a real child, because I kept saying I could not connect with the child, that it felt like it did not exist, while I felt the mother very clearly the whole time.

Some images show us standing at the elimination, the women on one side and the men on the other, because that season was called Men versus Women. Some of the contestants received warnings, but no one was eliminated. Then Pascha turned to me and said I was the Psychic of the Week, and I became very happy.

Episode 3 (20 October 2013)
Around 3:43 into the program, you can see me talking about my thoughts before the balloons, the rakes, and the electric wires, and that I am already half blind, I cannot see with my left eye, and when I wear a blindfold, I cannot see with either of them. Around 31:23, you can see me in a balloon suit. There were 24 balloons; I came out with 8 left, and 1 was the minimum to go through. After the balloons, I had to walk over rakes, which I did quickly without stepping on any. Then came the electric wires. The first one went fine, but when I lifted my dress to step over the second wire, I did not lift it high enough. All of this was done blindfolded.

Around 64 minutes, you can see me using my deck, Prisma Tarot, to do a reading for Hector, a famous TV star (a chef) in Ukraine, without seeing his photo or having any idea who he was or how famous he was. He was not happy with my reading, and I could see that only those who flattered him succeeded.

Around 90 minutes, the elimination: Arra, Valentina, Elina, me, Dilaram, and Veronica on the women’s side. I was not Psychic of the Week, but I was not eliminated either, which happened in Episode 4, when I finished in the Top 11 internationally in 2013.

Episode 4 (27 October 2013)
I am in 11th place, so I am in the TOP 11. Here I read about a young woman who was murdered. I also had to choose a melon. One of them was not poisoned; the others were. They were purple inside, and I chose the wrong one after arguments with the production, who more or less forced me to choose one on the right on the top row. I also read cards for this French actress, and she was satisfied. Then I appear when they show footage from the evaluation, and then I am eliminated. In 11th place. Strangely enough, I was very satisfied, or as I answered when they asked me, “mixed emotions,” because that is exactly what it was – I was overjoyed to go home, and at the same time, I wanted to stay. But I received warm hugs from everyone.

Below you’ll find my background in Tarot, where I am more than a Tarot expert. About 90,000 hours of reading and writing, as well as individual coaching and courses.

My Tarot career began in 1974, when I first encountered Tarot in Nottingham, England, where my friends were reading It. Curious, I drew cards, had them interpreted, got both annoyed (grumpy!) and amazed at how accurate they were. When I returned home to Sweden, I went back to my regular playing cards, and that’s when I understood that Tarot was the real thing for me.

My first deck was a Rider-Waite, and I still have it to this day—though it has a funny story attached to it. When I had my shop “Crystal Wolf” in Umeå, one of the girls who worked extra sold a deck to a customer because we had run out. She thought she could sell the display copy cheaply. I was sad, but everything has a meaning. A year or so later, when I was about to hold a Tarot course, a participant complained that her deck “didn’t work.” Could it be because it had already been opened and used when she bought it? It turned out it was my Rider-Waite she had. Thankfully, she agreed to swap it—because it didn’t work for her at all.

Back to 1974 (imagine, so many years ago). I did some readings, but I wasn’t a good reader. Like most people, I laid a few cards, read the little booklet that came with the deck, had no understanding of Tarot as a system, and practiced reading “by the book” (which, unfortunately, many people do—then it takes time, and the entire system is missed). The years passed, and everything within New Age followed me. I had children—then my real life began. I had time to do what I wanted thanks to their father, who gave me the opportunity to stay at home. I ended up in gatherings with a shaman and began to learn and understand the whole elements and the Wheel of Life. One day, while I was “playing” with my Tarot deck, I suddenly understood the connection between Tarot and the elements (fire, water, earth, air, and ether). Tarot took on a completely new meaning for me. My interpretations became deeper, with more insights. I understood how work, economy, love, and the self build our reality around the soul.

Then numerology entered my life—surprising, shocking, how it could match so perfectly. I thought that the numerologist who read my chart knew me better than I knew myself. I began working with the numbers in Tarot—another leap, another truth that became even bigger. Astrology was already in my luggage; it was simply a matter of building on it.

Tarot is superior to all interpretive methods. It contains everything and fits every religion, every culture—past and present.

Toward the end of the 1990s, Tarot became a full-time devotion. I began making notes about the cards.  People came in asking about Tarot courses. I didn’t know of any, and I didn’t want to hold any myself. Nope.
“Write down my name, my phone number—if you change your mind, I want to join.”
Eventually, it became one course, then another, and another, and it has continued ever since. In the beginning, my courses were once a week for seven weeks. I traveled, for example, to another town every Tuesday for two seasons. And it’s also in that town that I set my record for readings in a single day: 94 people (and night).

The first readings I did cost $20, but I realized I needed to raise it to 300 SEK to cover taxes and fees. I published “Tarot Step by Step” in 1993, appeared on the radio and TV, and raised the price to $40. A few years passed, and I was up to $60 in 1994.

In 1995, with my friend Anna and Janne, I started the Swedish Tarot Association. Our motivation was to create an organization for everyone who loved Tarot—membership for both practitioners and readers—where you, as a reader, would take exams and prove you could interpret Tarot (I took many exams myself so I could be absolutely certain, even in debates, that I truly could). It was a fun time. 

The criteria we had for authorized Tarot readers were that, in addition to passing the exam, they had to be alcohol- and drug-free (during readings), not predict death, and keep client confidentiality. I think about 20 people became authorized. 

Now I carry my project forward not as a Tarot association but as The Tarot Academy, where only the very best Tarot readers are presented (so far only in Sweden) = Certified Tarot Masters. They have all completed the foundational training, taken exams with me, so I know I can proudly refer to them—and that they are serious.

In 2000, I created my first distance course in Tarot, back then via one email per day. Since then, it has developed, because I personally think the internet is absolutely fantastic. Now my courses are login-based, so you can complete them at your own pace. I offer several themes, and each course with web meetings stays open for one year.

In 2002, I realized (listen, read, and be amazed) that I am superb—a true Tarot expert. I was the first, as far as I know, to write an original Swedish Tarot book (not translated from English). Today, I have written 27 books, 16 of which are on Tarot. I have solid compendiums and course material, several workshops and lectures per year in Tarot, and, of course, daily consultations. That makes me a Tarot expert. No one in all of Scandinavia has written as much about Tarot—has anyone in the world produced more in this field?

Over the years I have also created the Tarot deck Crystal Wolf with a booklet, Erotica Tarot with a book—and it doesn’t stop there. In 2011, I wrote “Tarot, The Cards on the Table,” which is my absolute best Tarot book. In 2013, I released my Tarot deck, Prisma Tarot, which is sold out, and now I’m working on the next version. And in 202,5 it was time for The Rune Witch Tarot.

Over the years—and it has been many years—there have been periods when I didn’t want to read Tarot at all. But sooner or later, I pick up the deck for others again, simply because it is so incredibly interesting. Most of all, though, I burn to teach Tarot. It is a fantastic spiritual tool for personal development.

My Tarot readings are not the classic ones with tall dark men / curvy blondes (even though that happens), and not mainly about winning millions (which I have seen a few times), but more often about what exists in everyday life—how someone feels, how they can feel better by releasing patterns, how someone can fulfill their potential and create a happier life. In my view, it’s not a coincidence that someone comes for a reading—it is perfect synchronization.

I came into contact with runes when I was young in northern Sweden. At that time, Uthark was my guide, but it never quite felt right – the runes “spoke” to me, but not in that order. I had a rune set made of birch that followed me, and from time to time, I would draw a rune, mostly for fun but always with respect and a sense of wonder, because energies have always spoken to me.

Runes were not popular when I was young. Then Tarot entered my life and became my main focus, but the runes kept calling for my attention from time to time. After I had published my first Tarot books and discovered how much I loved writing, I wrote a small book about runes as an oracle book, with short texts for each rune.

In contact with a “guide,” I was instructed to tattoo runes on my body. They would come to me in different phases of my life. My first thought was that it was a fun idea. But when the first rune was tattooed on my left wrist – Uhr – I understood the power of the runes. In Sweden, it is easy to explain that runes were our first alphabet, that the word “letters” comes from “staves in a book,” and that we have runestones that tell stories from the Viking Age. But what are runes beyond that? Each rune is a symbol with knowledge engraved into it.

My first rune initiation came from a noaid (a Sami shaman). It was a magical experience, because I am rarely afraid. Too much energy was generated during that initiation, and I felt there were no boundaries between realities. Time passed, and for me, everything has meaning. I traveled to Ukraine to take part in a TV program. There, I met Raven, another contestant. We were the only ones with tattooed runes, and we found each other through the magic. We held rune initiations and communicated through runes – he speaking Ukrainian/Russian, I speaking Swedish/English. When I came home, I put together the book “Rune Magic,” where I also wrote about bindrunes. The runes stayed with me, and I connected them to Tarot, as I do with all spiritual tools.

In 2019, I moved to Spain and found a place on my land where, in my inner vision, I saw a rune garden – a labyrinth with 25 large stone slabs with a rune engraved on each one, a place to stand and feel the energy. During the summer, one of my closest friends asked if I could hold a rune course. I have learned that when I say yes spontaneously, it’s just time to go for it. The course became magical, one of my best ever. All the participants attended every meeting, did their assignments, and amazed me with their knowledge. For me, it is proof that we all have everything within us – sometimes it just takes another person or an event to awaken the memory. I am eternally grateful to all course participants who place their trust in me.

My students wanted more. I wrote down material about bindrunes that we had only touched on briefly, which became part two and later part three. From runes being my private passion and development, they have now become something I share with others, and runes have become an ever larger part of my everyday life. One evening, I felt called to open a new document – it became a book.

I had never written a novel before, only educational material. It was a challenge – could I do it? But Uhr kept calling me forward. Uhr is the one the book is about, the first rune magician. The book is partly built on information from him, partly on my imagination, but also on energy, which is what runes truly are. Each rune symbol creates an energy; it is a pattern, a process, an event. To lay runes is like reading a rebus.

Already as a child, I could read people’s energy, sometimes even see a color, but I didn't really reflect on it at the time.

My big aha-moment about the aura came in 1994, when I kept hearing about a woman who was supposed to be incredibly good at reading auras. After all that praise, I didn’t hesitate and ordered an aura reading for the equivalent of $160. When I opened the letter and saw the horrible, boring, sloppy painting and read what she had written – four A4 pages – the first page was just a generic template, then two pages about me, and the last page was an order form where I could buy more information for 440 per page. I got so angry (mostly at myself for being so easily fooled) that I said a few carefully chosen words not fit for print and ended with something like: “You damn … I can do this better than you.” My friend turned to me, smiled, and said, “The rest of us already know that – so when are you going to start?”

I am not a competitive person, but some things light a fire in me – probably because I’m a Sagittarius. I demand truth, justice, and honesty. That reading had none of it, so I said, okay, I’ll start. And I decided to do it really well. What I felt was missing most was information about the chakra energies, which are perhaps the most important part. I created a template and announced that I now do aura readings with chakra interpretation for $60. And it took off – one aura after another, and one thing led to another.

I also came across an aura photography machine, which made me furious because it was basically a scam, but it also led me to color baths, which were one of the coolest experiences ever. At a fair, I met the woman who had created them, which led to some work in Norway, even more color, and eventually another aura system that actually showed everything – chakra values, physical organ values, and the aura based on energy.

Then I returned to Tarot, but color has always gone hand in hand with it. When I worked for the Norwegian company, they asked if I could write short positive texts for each base color and for every color in combination with another color, and when I was done, it turned out there were as many color combinations as there are cards in a Tarot deck.

From there, it continued with texts about the aura, chakras, and colors – a book, several courses, and a distance course that was reworked in spring 2015 into what I consider to be the best distance course in the subject ever. I love color. In fact, I hardly own any black clothes, which I often “ban” because energetically it is completely deadening. And energy is something we all need a lot of – not just in color, but in everything from thoughts to actions, from nutrition to how we exist in the world. Personally, I love turquoise the most, the color of change, and magenta (wine red), the color of experience. But all colors except black work, even though I think black kitchens are insanely sexy.

Every color is a vibration, and the entire universe consists of vibrations. Some of them support us and give us more energy, some balance us, and some are unbalanced and drain our energy, eventually creating chaos. People sometimes talk about “energy vampires,” but really they are vibration thieves who know how to take energy from others – maybe they deserve it? :p What I mean is that you have a responsibility to keep track of your own energy, to balance and replenish it, and not blame others when you feel depleted.

Live colorfully