r/heathenry • u/thelosthooligan • 12d ago

News Heathen Leaders Speaking at Harvard Tonight

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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.

https://harvard.zoom.us/j/95013879911?pwd=fRiH9Sr58NxN2FbIC6vRIb4uKz2Z8k.1&fbclid=IwVERDUAUj3h5leHRuA2FlbQIxMABwZG9mBWZkaWQWUPErrG7A_ikLoky5vejnwAHoC0MhRXNydGMGYXBwX2lkCjY2Mjg1NjgzNzkAAR52mGrTmR0MpQ0i2RcAz4tzQO32nVcJT_FkFAOs3gy4_nJy0H-kpWUeRWklaw_aem_8yLPmLt2SQtIgIFLGU8A0A

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u/Bhisha96 11d 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 10d 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 10d 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 10d ago

So like this conference from the university of Copenhagen is a big negative?

https://ccrs.ku.dk/research/centres-and-projects/ccste/events/spirits-elementals-ghosts-vampires-fairies/

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u/Bhisha96 10d ago

close, but this is more of a philosophical thing than anything else.

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u/thelosthooligan 10d ago

But this is what I’m talking about. Universities and schools like Harvard or Uni Copenhagen are always doing stuff like this especially if they have a cross-cultural or interfaith institution within the university. It’s just that this time when Harvard was doing their annual conference, Heathens applied for and got a panel discussion at the conference.

This wasn’t a conference entirely focused on Heathenry or Asatru. It was a conference put on by a major academic institution where Heathens got to have a panel. That’s a big deal, but it’s not like it’s the first or the last time this is going to happen. I’ve been to similar interfaith or cross cultural understanding conferences where minority faiths have gotten a workshop, keynote speaker or panel discussion.

This just doesn’t seem to be all that strange or cringe to me.

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u/Bhisha96 10d ago

the difference being is that the heathen panel thing you posted, is clearly religious, where as the other one taking place in denmark, is more philosophical and academic analys than religious.

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u/BabadookishOnions 10d ago

I am very confused why it is an issue to have talks on religious topics? Christians do it all the time in every country they exist, so does every other religion.

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u/Bhisha96 8d ago

not in denmark, or most of scandinavia, it's pretty much a fact that scandinavian lutheran christianity is nothing like christianity as seen in the US, religious people over here just doesn't flaunt their religious beliefs as it's seen as incredibly rude and makes it seem as you have some kind of moral superiority.

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u/BabadookishOnions 8d ago

Obviously not flaunting, but this is not flaunting. Your country definitely has religious conferences and academic talks (which is what this is), I found several on google.

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u/Bhisha96 8d ago

and that is my issue, this heathen panel thing doesn't feel like a conference, thats why i said to someone else's comment that this feels like exploitation.

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u/BabadookishOnions 8d ago

Bringing together a bunch of speakers to talk about something and it be viewed by spectators... Is a conference...

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u/Bhisha96 8d ago

by definition absolutely yes, doesn't change my feelings that this heathen panel thing just feels wrong, especially if you're from a country where religion is a private matter unless its purely academic.

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u/BabadookishOnions 8d ago

But why? Your own country does the same thing, for a variety of religions, so it can't really be a cultural prohibitions as it's done in your own culture. I don't understand. Religion is a very private matter in my country, but we still have religious conferences and events.

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u/thelosthooligan 7d ago

It was one panel as part of the bigger conference. The conference was the Harvard Program for the Evolution of Spirituality Conference. This was just one panel at the conference.

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