Sedian Heritage Foundation

A major thank you to Wheat and Sky's Hrafna for stepping up and helping to make shfusa.org look better! Check it out and give her page a follow to support a heathen artist. https://t.me/wheatandsky_crafts

I want to sincerely thank Pagan Revivalism for taking the time to put this video together and for presenting my work thoughtfully and fairly. This book was written with the hope that it can help give people a solid foundation to build upon when exploring a traditional Germanic worldview, the sources, and how these ideas have been understood and practiced historically. I’m grateful for the opportunity to share why it was written and what I hoped it might contribute. If you’d like to learn more about the book or check out our cultural art, you can find it here: https://blackhillsheathenry.com And for those interested in supporting the Sedian Heritage Foundation - a (pending) nonprofit involved with heritage preservation, community building, and cultural literacy you can find us here: https://shfusa.org Thank you again to Pagan Revivalism for the time and effort that went into this.

The Sedian Heritage Foundation's first official Jól celebration is complete. While the weather was bitterly cold and snowing, we were fortunate to have space inside a garage to set up our Vé. As we continue to grow and build toward the future, we look forward to many opportunities to provide a place for families to come together to honor our heritage. We also look forward to Sumarmál and are planning a larger Midsummer event in July. We will keep everyone updated on the progress. Strength Through Tradition - The Sedian Heritage Foundation

I wanna take a moment to praise the amazing work of @thewitchmother I wanted something beautiful & unique to give my wife this Yule. My wife is amazing so, Kay and Jared just won’t cut it. Several folks recommended Mary Anna to me so I decided to reach out. Even though she was swamped with tons of other projects she agreed to take on my commission. She took my vague and confused “ideas” and turned them into something truly beautiful & meaningful. What she produced you can see here: a simple, delicate, elegant necklace that perfectly fits my wife’s personal style. The chain & pendant are gold and the beads are gorgeous amber. The pendant features the Yggdrasil from the Överhogdal Tapestry on the front and on the back is a custom inscription that reads, “For my eyrarúna.” (Eyrarúna: wife; one who knows your runes). I am beyond happy with Mary Anna’s work. My wife loves her new necklace. Very thankful that I was able to gift her something so beautiful and unique. Cannot recommend The Witch Mother enough.

We often hear talk of success, but how is success truly measured? Successful movements share a few core characteristics. At their heart, every movement needs careful planning, a clear purpose, and a roadmap to bring that purpose to life. A movement becomes successful when it defines and achieves specific goals within a reasonable timeframe. These goals typically include: Clearly defined objectives and the ability to achieve them efficiently - Success begins with a vision that is turned into action. With a vision, a clear roadmap, and the necessary means to carry it out, any movement can thrive. Enduring impact and long-lasting change - True legitimacy comes from a movement’s ability to reshape society in a lasting way. Growth and active participation - A movement thrives when people join in and contribute, creating a sense of shared purpose. Recognition and acceptance, both socially and officially - Gaining legitimacy in the eyes of both the people and the government strengthens a movement’s influence. A deep cultural and psychological shift - Real change happens when a movement transforms the way people see the world and what they value most. By focusing on these aspects, any movement can build a lasting foundation that not only achieves its goals but also inspires future generations. Battle of the Teutoburg Forest - Furor Teutonicus" by Paja Jovanović (1889)

The Sedian Heritage Foundation exists to safeguard ancestral wisdom, preserve sacred tradition, and restore the folkways of the pre-Christian Germanic peoples. With community support, we will establish a cultural center to offer cultural literacy and practical application to our ancestral tradition and worldview. By doing so we hope to strengthen community, and carry our ancestral ways forward. shfusa.org (nonprofit status pending)

Our flag just came in!

At some point, “I’m looking for an opportunity” has to evolve into “I created one.” Opportunity isn’t only found, it’s built, and the real turning point is when you stop searching for it and become the source of it.

Shame Culture - A Revival of Morals To our ancestors, shame and dishonor were among the worst labels a person could receive. This persisted until more recent times, when shame culture came to be viewed as “regressive,” and often even as wrong for judging the behavior of others. This is where we have failed as a culture. A functioning society requires consequences that are social, not only legal. Law can punish crimes, but it cannot protect trust, loyalty, or integrity. When dishonorable behavior carries no loss of reputation or standing, apathy takes root and moral responsibility weakens across the whole community. Dishonorable behavior is not theoretical. It appears in slander, stealing from one’s own people, breaking one’s word, exploiting trust, and abandoning responsibility. These acts weaken the bonds a culture depends on. This is especially visible online, where anonymity shields people from consequences. Slander, false accusations, and character attacks are treated as entertainment or political tools because reputational cost has been removed. In earlier cultures, damaging another person’s name without cause was itself dishonorable. Today it is routine. When people can destroy reputations without risking their own, social trust becomes impossible. This is why shame culture must be restored, not as cruelty, but as accountability. A culture must be able to say plainly that some actions cost a person their standing until they make things right. Shame should be tied to behavior, proportional, grounded in shared standards, and applied consistently. This principle is not new. Tacitus records that among the Germanic peoples: “To throw away one’s shield is the supreme disgrace, and the man who has thus dishonoured himself is debarred from attendance at sacrifice or assembly. Many such survivors from the battlefield have ended their shame by hanging themselves.” — Germania A culture that holds people accountable must also allow a path back. Atonement should require owning the wrongdoing, making restitution where possible, and proving change through conduct over time. But it is not unlimited. Betrayal of one’s people, deliberate corruption, and repeated violations of trust can place a person beyond reconciliation. In such cases, permanent loss of standing is not cruelty, but protection. Without this boundary, standards collapse into empty words. If we want a better culture, we must demand better behavior. Standards are what make something worth defending. Without them, nothing lasting can endure. Art- Hagen kills Siegfried by Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld, 1847

Cultural literacy means understanding how a people thought, spoke, and made sense of the world, not just collecting facts about them. This is necessary when you’re reading pre-modern sources. Myths, laws, poetry, and rituals weren’t composed for outsiders or modern readers. They were made for people who already shared the same worldview and didn’t need everything explained. When the flow of knowledge and practice gets disrupted, what I call the breaking of Tradition, we do not just lose customs. We lose the context that makes the sources readable. High poetry and skaldic verse depend on shared understanding. Kennings assume you know the stories. Passages assume you understand the social world behind them, honor, oaths, kinship, gift-giving, sacred space, and what fate even means in that society. When that shared background disappears, people start treating the sources like open-ended symbols and start filling the gaps with modern ideas. That’s where bad theology comes from. This is exactly what happens in some modern Asatru circles and adjacent spaces. Perennialism, universalism, and New Age thinking get imported first, and then people read the Germanic sources through that lens. The myths get treated like they’re really about one truth behind all religions. The gods get reduced to archetypes or “aspects of the self.” Distinct beings get flattened into vague spiritual energy. Fate gets turned into manifestation or “the universe” steering outcomes. That isn’t coming from the corpus. It’s coming from the reader. The Germanic corpus is large enough to recover a coherent ancient worldview, but only if you read it with cultural literacy and discernment. Date, genre, and the degree of later framing matter, so you do not treat every source as equal. As you become more culturally literate, you get better at telling the difference. You start recognizing what fits the internal logic of the tradition and what is being imported into it, and you can spot what is actually rooted in the sources versus modern spirituality wearing Germanic names.

The Tree of Life in Germanic Mythology At the heart of our mythology lies an epic tale that spans time itself. It begins with creation, builds toward a climactic destruction, and ends with a glimmer of renewal. This is the tale of the Germanic people, past, present, and future, a story that continues to grow with each generation. Central to every mythology is its cosmology, the account of how the universe came to be. For a mythology to exist, it must take place somewhere. The lands where the gods roamed, the homes of men and giants, and the realms of the dead are all parts of this greater cosmic structure. These are best understood when viewed in the context of the grand epic. In the earliest times, creation arose from the interaction of natural elements. Ice from the northern realm of Niflheim met the heat from the southern land known as Surts sökk-dalir, or Surt’s Sunkendales. Between them lay the air of Ginnungagap, which would later become Mímisbrunnr, and within the melting ice was found a creative substance known as Aurr. Aurr, a milky material, sustained the primeval cow Auðumbla as she licked the ice. From her milk, she gave life to Ymir, the first being, who in turn created new life. From the sweat beneath his arm came a man and woman, and from his legs a monstrous offspring was born, destined to become the enemy of the gods. This early land is named in the poem Hrafnagaldr Óðins as Jörmungrund, the “great ground,” home of the first beings. The Völuspá tells of the gods playing tafl games and building hof and hörg (temples and altars), which can be understood as sacred centers of divine order. The vast land is divided into three regions, each corresponding to one of the primordial wells. To the north lies Hvergelmir, the source of all waters and the heart of Niflheim. In the middle stands Mímisbrunnr, where Ginnungagap once was. To the south lies Urð-Hel, the realm of Urðarbrunnr, closest to Surts Sunkendales and described as a warm region where swans swim. Each well is accompanied by a root of Yggdrasil, the great World Tree. The Norns water these roots daily with a milky white liquid from Urðarbrunnr, replenishing them as the serpent Niðhogg gnaws from below. When the sons of Borr slew the primordial giant Ymir, they fashioned his body into Miðgarðr. His skull became the dome of the heavens, set upon a great mill that turns the sky, its inner surface filled with stars. Miðgarðr, the realm of men, was lifted from the sea and set as an island within it, bordered by mountains separating it from the lands of giants. The gods then built their own home and named it Ásgarðr, most famously the site of Valhöll, the hall of the slain, where the chosen warriors dwell with Óðinn until Ragnarök. Like other ancient religions, the gods were seen as dwelling in the heavens, above the world of men. Thus, the cosmos forms a three-tiered structure: heaven, earth, and the underworld. It is symbolized by a tree that unites them all. Beyond poetic descriptions, archaeological finds also reflect this vision. The Överhogdal tapestry depicts a world tree with a clear three-layered structure and a rooster perched at its top. This image, supported by poetic, skaldic, and later prose sources, suggests that the ancient Germanic cosmology consisted not of “nine worlds,” but rather nine realms existing within three separated realms. This is why we chose the Yggdrasil as the symbol of the Sedian belief. It represents our cosmology and the story of our people. Our ancestors followed Að Förnum Siðr, “the Ancient Way,” and through this symbol we honor them.

The Sedian Heritage Foundation seal is our statement of identity and purpose. The ox-blood red represents the people, the living strength of the Foundation and the community that carries tradition forward through loyalty, responsibility, and shared identity. At the center is the Sedian Tree, a recreation of an ancient Yggdrasil depiction, chosen to keep our work grounded in continuity and to serve as a foundation for what we are building. The gold represents the gods, the sacred sources of order, culture, and meaning within our Tradition. Framed by our motto, Strength Through Tradition, the seal represents a commitment to preserve and strengthen inherited heritage, form lasting community, and build a culture that endures.

I'm very excited to say that after the Heathen Perspectives episode featuring a panel of Heathen women, I had a little bit more to say on the matter. I wrote a little article covering some of my extra observations and points, so if you're interested in that, you can find it HERE Cheers! H

Preparing a bacon wrapped pork loin for dinner with friends and family tomorrow. I made a garlic butter with a handful of seasonings into a paste and rubbed it on the pork loin. Covered it in peppered bacon, put the rest of the seasoned garlic butter and added some German beer. Will slow cook this for a few hours tomorrow. Then I will make a cream based beer sauce using the rest of the beer.

The Sedian tenets are core beliefs derived from our lore. They are the foundation of our religious ideology and the base on which our culture, traditions, and laws are built. Through them we can explain our place in the world and our moral compass. Sedian (SED-I-an) or Sedish (SED-I-sh) "The Custom", from Forn Sed "Ancient Customs", a term used to represent the ancient worldview of our Pan-Germanic polytheist ancestors as it is theologically reconstructed and celebrated today. Sedian theology is best expressed by the motto, "Our Ancestral Tradition." This religious philosophy sets the standards for acceptance into our clans and tribes, outlines our belief system and practices, and defines our code of conduct. It is designed to guide us towards a thriving future, drawing on the valuable lessons passed down through our ancestral teachings. The Sedian/Sedish Tenets were first developed out of a necessity to codify our views which would separate us from those who would deconstruct and denigrate our ancestral Tradition. The purpose was to clearly list our beliefs in a manner that represented the Traditional worldview of our folk, while providing a blueprint for creating communities based upon shared ideology and ancestry. The tenets allow us to focus on the concepts which bring us together and provide a theological framework to all that we do.