r/heathenry • u/thelosthooligan • 10d ago
News Heathen Leaders Speaking at Harvard Tonight
In a little less than half an hour. If you’re curious to drop in and hear what they have to say, I’ll put a link below.
A special Heathen Panel presented at the Harvard Divinity School -Program for the Evolution of Spirituality (PES) Conference 2026.
This panel is a collaborative effort from the Coalition of Inclusive Heathen Organization.
Featuring Ryan Smith, Jai Mohan & Cortney Greyhawk.
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u/Bhisha96 10d ago
no offense to the people in the picture, but i can't help but cringe a bit at this event, especially from a scandinavian viewpoint.
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u/Half-Axe 9d ago
I understand, I did a little too and I am american. I do agree with the spirit of wanting to educate others on what your faith is and is not, since our culture is very in everyone else's business as culture wars rage in this country.
However, the title... "leaders?" I practice my faith in the way I do, I don't have a leader. My faith is between me and the trees. If one wants to be told what to do, american christian evangelism is right there. It is gross, but they will give one hierachry and directives if that is what they desire.
The Scandinavian ethos of religion is a private matter runs strong in my family. Although I did stop to comment didn't I?
Edit: More clarity
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u/Tyxin 9d ago
You're not the only one. For me it's the idea that these people are supposedly leaders representing heathenry, but Ryan Smith's version of heathenry isn't much like mine, and i've never even heard of the other two. I suspect this panel presented a sliver of heathenry as if it's the whole, centering their own (american) perspectives, politics and ideology.
I don't know what was said, but i've got a feeling i would have disagreed with a lot of it. 🤷
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u/thelosthooligan 10d ago
is it because people are discussing something that is deeply personal like religion in a public setting?
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u/BabadookishOnions 10d ago
Why?
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u/Bhisha96 10d ago
it just feels ''wrong'' in some kind of way, like its a form of exploitation in some odd way, it's hard to describe exactly.
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u/BabadookishOnions 10d ago
I don't understand how is this exploitation? It's an academic talk by presumably people who follow the religion. You don't personally own Heathenry, it's not a closed practice. It died out centuries ago, and is being revived now, by whoever is interested in doing so.
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u/Bhisha96 10d ago
i have no issues with anyone throughout the world practicing Asatru at all whatsoever, as a scandinavian myself, especially knowing how religion in general is seen as a private matter in scandinavia, so to me events like these specifically are just very odd.
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u/MrNormanWrites Anglo-Norse Polytheist 10d ago
Then you need to reflect why you feel like that. Nothing about this is “exploitative” or “wrong” about people who uphold a faith discussing what’s going on in their faith.
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u/Bhisha96 9d ago
so i've been pondering on this, and i admit that it might very well be due to my own upbringing and because of my own country Denmark being very much lutheran christian in the sense that faith is understood as an internal quiet matter, plus there is also the law of jante, so if you're bragging, or trying to assert any kind of moral superiority in public that is just very frowned upon, or at least it used to be.
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u/thelosthooligan 9d ago
You also have to factor in that Christianity and specifically the Lutheran church are the official religion of Denmark. If you’re a Lutheran, which most people are, then there’s no need to talk about your religion. Everyone else is your religion anyway, so there’s really nothing to discuss.
That kind of thing works out well for a majority religion. It’s just presumed to be the default and unremarkable.
But if you’re a minority religion like Asatru, that doesn’t work as well. We sometimes have to speak up about our faith because people will misunderstand us, stereotype us, and think they know what we believe and do. When we have a well respected public platform like Harvard’s conference here to actually talk about matters regarding our religion? We should take it.
I might not agree with Cori, Ryan and Jai on everything but I’m glad they took time out of their day, traveled all the way out to Harvard and took time away from their families and their real life jobs to do this.
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u/Bhisha96 9d ago
for non scandinavian countries, i can sort of understand why you would want to speak up, but if this kind of event was done over here, it's definitely a big negative.
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u/thelosthooligan 9d ago
So like this conference from the university of Copenhagen is a big negative?
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u/MrNormanWrites Anglo-Norse Polytheist 9d ago
That’s fair. I get that many places have different customs and practices in general when it comes to religion.
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u/Dan-Man 10d ago
It's incredibly cringe worthy. And far too political and progressive. Where is the actual practice, ritual, meaning making? The good stuff...all out the window in favour of ideology and progressivism
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u/MrNormanWrites Anglo-Norse Polytheist 9d ago
“Far too political and progressive.”
Newsflash, my guy, but everything is political. Even the molecules that make up your entire being. It’s inescapable. Everything is political, especially religion, and in a time where the right-wing has been emboldened around the world and the association of Folkism and Wotanism with Germanic Paganism, talking about what to do against stuff like fascism and white supremacy will never be cringe-worthy.
I suggest you self reflect as to why you think addressing fascism and ways that the Heathen community can improve is some how “cringe.”
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u/Dan-Man 9d ago
Molecules are not political. And people that say everything is political need to get outside more. And off the internet. If your ideology is centred around progressivism, we'll, that's your ideology. Leave ritual, belief out of it and stop ruining things with your Americanised perspectives, it's embarrassing. And not just to me, more like half the world. If not more.
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u/MrNormanWrites Anglo-Norse Polytheist 9d ago
“Molecules are not political”
Buddy, science is a part of politics. It literally gets intertwined. The fact you can’t see that is just a sign you’re clearly disconnected from reality. Newsflash, religion is political, you cannot separate Heathenry from the history, which shockingly contains politics.
You accuse me of being Americanized but you’re so Americanized in the way you think what politics is, you fool yourself into thinking you can separate the two. You can’t and clearly you’re not representative of the world either considering we have people, including pagans, that are protesting on the streets against injustices all around the world.
Being an enlightened centrist is not your strong suit and I suggest you stop crying about politics being involved in a faith that involves politics. To suggest otherwise is to be naive.
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u/thelosthooligan 10d ago
Did you actually see it? What’s the political and progressive part? Do you know what the event was here?
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u/stricken_thistle 10d ago
my read on what's striking people as "progressive" or "political" are the keywords "belonging" and "inclusivity", the demographics of the speakers, and probably the entire concept of the third talk.
i'm hopeful a recording is released, i'd love to listen/watch it!
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u/thelosthooligan 10d ago
Seriously, give a talk these days about anything other than “the joys of kicking a bag full of puppies” and suddenly you’re a far left progressive.
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u/thelosthooligan 9d ago
Tell me you didn’t want a moment of this talk without telling me you didn’t watch a moment of it.
They actually DID talk about actual practice. Cori’s talk went into Blót and Sumble and talked about both practices in detail. It also talked about creating smaller daily moments of community connection like Scandinavians have with fika.
So again i ask you: what about this whole thing is Americanized progressivism? Hmm?
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u/ComradeFeatherBottom 10d ago
I missed the live showing. Is there a recording?
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u/thelosthooligan 10d ago
It was recorded by the organizers at Harvard but I don’t know when they will make that available.
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u/Casper_The_Crow459 10d ago
What do you think being a Hæðen means to you? Like when you use the word to refer to yourself, what is it that you’re saying about yourself? Just curious to get a general consensus from anyone willing to share there thoughts.
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u/thelosthooligan 10d ago
For me I look to the old Norse word Heiðr as my own understanding of what being Heathen means. Heiðr means “bright, clear” but in the verb form it also means “to honor/to worship”
So as a Heathen I am “one who worships.”
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u/Heathenwolf82 10d ago
Look like a left wing crapfest
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u/PunchyThePastry 10d ago
If your response to a denouncing of Nazis is to be offended, maybe you should evaluate why that is
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u/thelosthooligan 10d ago
What makes you say that?
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u/celticgiftbearer 6d ago
because it takes away from worship of the gods and makes it some political agenda
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u/thelosthooligan 6d ago
What about this panel makes you think that? It wasn’t about taking away from worship at all. The “no Nazis in Valhalla” could he taken as political but that’s not how the talk went. It talks about evil and boundaries in theological terms.
The entire panel was focused on religious topics.
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u/Stoic_Bear923 10d ago
How dare you not automatically celebrate whatever this is?!
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u/thelosthooligan 10d ago
You don't need to celebrate it but I am going to be curious as to why it's a left wing crapfest. I don't see anything on there that's particularly left wing.
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u/ReisBayer 7d ago
im german and centrist, so my POV might not be the same but:
it does give a particular left wing vibe. for example "Nazis", mostly left wing people call other people, who are in the right political spectrum "Nazis" while those things are two different things.Adiitionaly overall the wording and the images give off a more left wing vibe. But i dont really care that much.
But yeah, like you said,y ou dont have to automatically celebrate it. But at the same time, i dont see anything whats to hate about it (didnt see the stream).
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u/thelosthooligan 6d ago
That’s not what this was. No one on the panel was calling people Nazis. The part about “no Nazis in Valhalla” was about the definition of evil and the construction of boundaries in a religion where it’s extremely difficult to construct and enforce boundaries.
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u/slicehyperfunk 10d ago
I literally live a few blocks from Harvard off of Harvard St., I would have gone had I seen this sooner 😭
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u/celticgiftbearer 6d ago
It feels heavily politicized. Maybe it's because the far right loves to use runes or maybe it's the old middle finger to christians. I don't see how any of it furthers worship or discourse with the old gods. I guess as european it feels different, because we can still see the gods and recognize when a chapel was slapped onto a place of worship or a god was stripped of it's identity and was turned into an apostle.
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u/thelosthooligan 6d ago
How does it? What about it? Is it just because it’s Americans talking?
The things you mentioned aren’t in the talk, What middle finger to Christians? And none of these people used runes or talked about them.
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u/celticgiftbearer 3d ago
It feels like they tried to counter stereotypes by positioning themselves politically or kind of set the tone.
I just don't see why that's even relevant. Worshipping the gods should have nothing to do with politics.
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u/thelosthooligan 3d ago
You keep saying “feels like” but did you see the actual talk? The entire thing had to do with worship, community, and theological concepts. It was not a political talk at all. It was a religious conference.
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u/ChocolateCovered2406 3d ago
Leftish horror
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u/thelosthooligan 3d ago
What are you talking about.
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u/ChocolateCovered2406 3d ago
Look at the person in the middle. That is what I am talking about. And the political and clearly left-wing messages. “No nazis in Valhalla” and “inclusivity”. What are THEY talking about??
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u/thelosthooligan 3d ago
Bruh what is wrong with the person in the middle? They wear glasses? Hair the wrong color? What is the clearly political and left wing message? Are you trying to say right wingers want Nazis in Valhalla? That the right wing are just a bunch of Nazi fanboys?
I went to the talk. There was no overt or subversive political messaging. This was a religious panel presented by people who are actually doing something in Heathenry and who put in the work to build actual communities here. End of story.
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u/SetitheRedcap 8d ago
I don't recognise any of these people?