Princess Märtha Louise of Norway & Shaman Durek On Gender-free Love, Shamanism and the Monarchy - Gurus (2024)

Princess Märtha Louise and Shaman Durek, also known as The Princess and the Shaman, opened up in an exclusive interview with GURUS magazine about their gender-free love, Shamanism, racism, and the undeniable support from the monarchy.

As the firstborn child of King Harald V and Queen Sonja, Princess Märtha Louise, Norway’s fourth in line to the throne, is all too familiar with controversy and scrutiny. As a member of the royal family, life under the microscope is just another day in the life of the Princess. Allotting her clairvoyance abilities and choice to marry a man who openly speaks about his past relationships with men put Princess Märtha, yet again, under public speculation. But now, at 51, with her spiritual armor to guide her and the love of her life at her side, the couple is encouraged to clear up any misunderstandings about who they are and what they stand for.

Princess Märtha Louise of Norway & Shaman Durek On Gender-free Love, Shamanism and the Monarchy - Gurus (1)

Shaman Durek wearing Marcel Von Berlin

GURUS Magazine Editor-in-Chief Derek Warburton opens the interview by asking the couple to clear up misunderstandings about who they are as people, their beliefs, and how they came to this place of gender-free love and acceptance. “I’m all about love,” explains Princess Märtha. “It’s people we fall in love with. It doesn’t matter who they are and what sex they are. Love is love. For me, at least. Many people have reacted to that, wondering how I can accept him. But he loves me, and I love him, and it doesn’t matter.”

Princess Märtha had chosen a different path from her family’s traditional views for a more unconventional, alternative approach to medicine long before meeting the Shaman. This spiritual commonality motivated a mutual friend to arrange a lunch where the Shaman and the Princess could meet. Shaman Durek is a sixth-generation shaman. Stemming from a long lineage of spiritual men, the guru has built a well sought after spiritual empire with a world-renowned client list.

Shamanism, by definition, is a person who interacts with the spirit world or otherworld. The goal is to direct energies for healing. Shaman Durek interprets further that shamans examine all aspects of their clients’ lives and utilize their trained ability, understanding, and growth as a shaman to read the information that other people or traditional medicine don’t see.

Furthermore, they facilitate this information so clients can understand and find their power within themselves. “The goal is to succeed, to be happy, and to live well,” says Shaman Durek. “To feel nourished, to feel nurtured in life, to feel the understanding that I can move forward in life without fear and I can choose in this lifetime to have liberation. In that process, the Shaman’s role is to create whatever space necessary for that person to expand in all possible ways of thinking.”

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Habitually, people misconstrue Shamanism as a form of religion. There are stereotypes of indigenous practice, ayahuasca and plant medicine, exploitation, and paganism instead of a mental health aspect.

Shaman Durek shares in the interview that a shaman accesses your emotional intelligence and looks at the mental faculties of how you interact with the world and how the world connects with you.

He explains further, “We’re also looking at how your relationships, the people around you, the food you eat, and the environment in which you place yourself all affect your system on multiple levels.” “Then once we help you understand some of those experiences that you’ve had, or the ones that you’re having are the ones that are negative, is because there are certain things that are aggressive attacks upon the system that are not in alignment to you and everyone has to find their alignment,” says the Shaman.

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Princess Märtha inTadashi Shoji and Shaman Durek in Marcel Von Berlin

The Shamans’ role is to help people find their ultimate alignment for their life to move smoothly. “They don’t understand that there’s a spirit Shaman. There’s an earth Shaman. There’s a fire shaman, a water Shaman. I’m a spirit, Shaman,” says Shaman Durek. “I talk to spirits, and that’s how I was trained. But there are earth shamans who deal only with plant medicine. Water shamans you find in Indonesia submerge you with water or pray into the water and so forth. Air shamans use their voice to bring healing and energy and transformation.” The context of what the public is exposed to is limited.

In 2018, the couple publicly announced their relationship. Even though three years had passed since Princess Märtha’s divorce from Norwegian writer Ari Behn, the public’s reaction to her relationship with the Shaman was filled with fanatical ridicule and racism. Grievously, her ex-husband died by suicide in 2019, and the couple has three daughters together.

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Princess Märtha in Tadashi Shoji

On the other hand, the family, the Royals, and her children have accepted the Shaman and his fluid sexuality from the start. From the beginning, the Shaman was transparent about his past and addressed his last relationship with a man in the interview. The couple first introduced the Shaman to Princess Märtha’s children as her gay friend.

“I introduced him as my gay friend,” says Princess Märtha. “We took them to Universal Studios, and they all met him without having the pressure of us going out, and they connected, which was so beautiful,” says the Princess.

Entering a relationship with not only a woman with children but one of royal lineage, the Shaman describes his mindset. “I had to do a lot of soul searching to make sure that I wasn’t going into a relationship with her because, one, she’s a princess, and two, I wasn’t going into a relationship with her other than I’m really in love with her,” says the Shaman. “I met her children as her gay friend, but I got to build a relationship with each of them individually.”

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Shaman Durek in Marcel Von Berlin

As they settled into the couch of a friend’s home in Bel Air, there was something admirable about the couple. Standing up for their love, convictions, and who they are. Sharing the same spirituality and beliefs of love as love and refusing to be bound by societal nomenclatures. Creating a level of openness and acceptability sometimes falls short of the masses. What greater mass opinion for conduct and appropriation than that of a country whose monarchy is held to a different standard? One might be familiar with another public royal, Prince Harry, and the Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle. Their public stance against racism, equality, and the fight for love is similar to the Shaman and Princess Märtha. “I’m thrilled that my family has been very open,” says Princess Märtha.

Princess Märtha Louise of Norway & Shaman Durek On Gender-free Love, Shamanism and the Monarchy - Gurus (7)

The Shaman, on the other hand, speaks to a different experience. He shares how challenging it was for him to join a royal family. “We were in Turkey and met the mayor of Turkey. I walked in front of Märtha, and people got outraged,” says the Shaman. Contrary to what one may think, there is no rule book on how to date a royal and consistently perfect the order of things.

A defining moment of change for the Norwegian monarchy was when King Harald publicly addressed his country and renounced racism, a momentous moment that the Shaman describes as historical.

“It was such a big deal that King Harald spoke out against what was being done to me,” says the Shaman. “The racism and bringing awareness that they are not okay with it. For any person in the monarchy to be able to speak at that level is history in the making, and for the press to bury it, not talk about it and not put it out there was very disheartening to me,” he says.

“It was such a big deal that King Harald spoke out against what was being done to me,” says the Shaman. “The racism and bringing awareness that they are not okay with it. For any person in the monarchy to be able to speak at that level is history in the making, and for the press to bury it, not talk about it and not put it out there was very disheartening to me,” he says.

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Princess Märtha Wearing Tadashi Shoji

Undoubtedly, a pivotal moment for people of color. The King, a monarch, took a stance for racial justice, and the couple couldn’t have been prouder of that moment. Instead, the Shaman describes the sheer abuse of his experience and the significance of it all bringing him to tears. “I cried. I prayed, and I felt great gratitude for such a man to be able to speak so truthfully. The fact that he said it made me have even more respect and excitement for Märtha and me,” says the Shaman.

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Princess Märtha and Shaman Durek wearing Marcel Von Berlin

Changing people’s lives through music is another source of connection and community for the couple. The Shaman, who grew up enjoying techno-tronic, house, and goth music, has an international following. “Music, to me, is creation. It is the essence and the symbiosis of the frequency that every one of us carries to bring the community together,” says the Shaman.

Their happiness is rooted in their commitment to bringing people together and spreading love. Now more than ever, when people need guidance, this couple stands in their spiritual prowess as the thought leaders of the future.

The root of their happiness is embedded in their commitment to bringing people together and spreading love. Now more than ever, when people need guidance, this couple stands in their spiritual prowess as the thought leaders of the future.

” A very special thank you to Deborah and Bashar Sawaf for allowing us to film at their beautiful home.”

Editor-in-Chief / Creative Director: Derek Warburton
Photographer: Grace Fries
Hair & Make-up: Joel Sebastian
Beauty Director: Robyn Newmark
Retoucher: Lidiia Berehzna
Photo Assistant: Sunnies Wang
Jr Style Editor: Keiki Tomoyose
Style Assistant: Angela Louis
Camera: Claire Fisher
Camera Assistant: Emmanuel Akinnitire
Video: Beige Productions
Written by: Ashley Foster
Edited by:Ley Calisang
Managing Editor: Cyan Leigh Dacasin

Princess Märtha Louise of Norway & Shaman Durek On Gender-free Love, Shamanism and the Monarchy - Gurus (2024)
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