The North Star Podcast: Conversations on Pagan Life and Meaning

Axenthof Thiad
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  • SPIRITUALITY

The North Star Podcast is a podcast for pagans seeking deeper meaning, thoughtful practice, and a well-lived life. Hosted by four practicing pagans, the show explores pagan philosophy, theology, and ethics through both an academic lens and real-world experience. Each episode blends scholarship with practical insight as we examine rituals, worldviews, and daily practices that help orient us toward living a good, intentional pagan life—rooted in tradition, curiosity, and lived wisdom.

Episodes

  1. 3D AGO

    Exploring the Sacred/Profane Divide- Part 1

    In this episode, we:Set the stage for heavy ideasWe point out that the sacred isn’t some intellectual hobby: as far back as we can see, humans have lived with it, and even modern secular or totalitarian regimes raid religious symbols and rituals to give their “soulless” ideologies a sense of depth and power.Define the profane without demonizing itWorking definition: the profane is the mundane, mindless, everyday – commutes, bills, day jobs, even comedy – not evil or sinful, just not sacred.You need profane time to live a human life; nobody can exist in a perpetual ritual state. Profane life is the necessary complement, not the enemy, of the sacred.Lay out Eliade’s map: secular vs religious, sacred vs profaneThe secular frame treats time and space as homogenous and interchangeable – like a Cartesian grid or a plain timeline where no moment is intrinsically different from any other.The religious frame appears when you start making qualitative distinctions: this time, place, object, person, or event is not like the others – it’s sacred. That basic move creates the sacred/profane split.Otto then subdivides the sacred into different kinds, a move later mapped onto Germanic terms (e.g. different words for “holy” or “consecrated”) by Stephen Flowers/Edred Thorsson.Introduce the numinous: mysterium tremendum et fascinansDrawing on Rudolf Otto, we describe the numinous as a non‑rational, non‑sensory feeling whose object is outside the self – an encounter with something “wholly other.”We explore the two classic poles:Tremendum – the terrifying, overwhelming, “I am less real than this” side of the sacred.Fascinans – the alluring, hypnotic, “this is impossibly beautiful and rich” side. Psychedelic experiences get used as a modern example of experiencing both at once.Push back on the idea that sacred and profane are sealed apartOtto’s image of the soul returning to an ordinary “profane and non‑religious mood” after a numinous event is questioned. The hosts argue that if nothing in your everyday life is changed, what was the point?For them, true sacred moments re-color the profane: your life becomes divided into “before” and “after,” and the ordinary world is lit differently by what you’ve experienced.Eliade’s hierophany and cosmic sacralityWe read Eliade on hierophany: a stone can become sacred without ceasing to be a stone; for those who experience it as sacred, its “immediate reality” is transmuted while it still remains itself.This leads to cosmic sacrality: the idea that the cosmos in its entirety can be hierophanic – nature itself can “show up” as sacred order, not just a backdrop of dumb matter.We riff on repeated patterns in nature (flower geometry, the world tree looking like a neuron, etc.) as everyday hints of a deeper cosmic order

    55 min

  2. FEB 17

    Quality vs Quantity: Sacred, Profane, and the Depth of Experience

    In this episode, we Introduce the “world of quantity” vs. a world of quality.Using Descartes, rationalists vs. empiricists, and the dream of a neutral “view from nowhere,” they describe a universe reduced to grids and hash‑marks—then push back with the way we actually experience life: home is not mile‑marker 195 on the highway, and Yule is not just another Tuesday in December. Ask what ‘meaning’ really means.Rather than “X means Y” as a neat code, we talk about meaning as depth—a further dimension of experience. Ravens, omens, and coincidental events are used as examples of moments that feel like more than “just migrating birds,” and we try to tease out whether meaning is constructed, discovered, or emerges in the interaction between us and the world. Dive into art, aesthetics, and the sacred.From single‑point‑perspective paintings crammed with marginal little dramas, to old cathedrals and basilicas where “there’s stuff everywhere,” to simple idols like the forked Freyr branch, we show how religious art and architecture create layered, inexhaustible spaces of meaning rather than neutral geometry. Unpack the traditionalist critique of modernity.Drawing on Kant, Schopenhauer, Evola, and Eliade, we discuss the idea that we’ve shifted from a world of quality to a world of quantity—where time is just ticks on a line and space is just coordinates—then argue that sacred times and spaces really are different and that most people behave as if that’s true. Wrestle with discernment and superstition.We outline the trap of seeing every little event as a divine communiqué, and argue for humility and self‑knowledge: learning to distinguish projected pattern‑seeking from an unexpected pattern that may genuinely matter. Soap‑bubble omens, Roman superstitions, and dreams all make an appearance. Return to Descartes and the mechanistic universe.In closing, we trace how Western thought slid from dualism into a “nothing but bodies” materialism and why that leaves so much of lived human experience out. The episode concludes with a preference for a heathen philosophy in which space, time, gods, ancestors, and art all carry qualitative depth—making the world feel more like home than like a lifeless grid.

    1h 12m

  3. JAN 18

    What is a Religion and is it Intrinsically Important to Human Life?

    In the very first episode of the North Star Podcast, the hosts tackle a deceptively simple question: what is a religion, really? They unpack the baggage around the word “religion,” explore how it differs from “spirituality,” and look at what all of this means for modern heathens and anyone trying to live inside a living tradition rather than outside of one. They draw on thinkers like Mircea Eliade, Kenneth Pargament, Descartes, Hobbes, and others, while grounding the conversation in practical questions: community vs. individuality, belief vs. practice, and why humans seem to keep reinventing religion even when they think they’ve left it behind. In this episode, we talk about:Religion vs. spiritualityA working definition of spirituality as “the search for the sacred”A working definition of religion as “the search for significance within institutions that support spirituality” (after Kenneth Pargament)Why “spiritual but not religious” often means “individual but not institutional”Are humans inherently religious?Mircea Eliade’s idea of homo religiosus—human beings as religious by natureHow explicitly non‑religious ideologies (like Marxism, fascism, communism) can function like religions in practiceCollective vs. individual: what is religion for?State cults and household cults in Rome and GreeceThe difference between salvific religions (focused on individual salvation) and state/tribal religions (focused on the well‑being of the group)Why most religions in history were not primarily about having “the right beliefs”Modern individualism and why heathenry is so fractiousHow Western individualism (Descartes, Locke, Hobbes, etc.) rewired how we see the selfWhy people who have already rejected one tradition are quick to splinter again inside new onesThe tension between “do my own thing” spirituality and group‑centered religionTakeaways for modern heathens (and other reconstructionists)Why building real collectives (kindreds, theods, groups) is essentialFocusing on shared practice instead of policing everyone’s inner beliefsThe importance of at least someone in the group striving to deepen and refine practice over time

    1h 7m

  4. JAN 18

    The North Star Podcast: A Journey into Heathenry

    In this episode of The North Star Podcast, four heathens delve into the complexities of practicing an ancient Germanic religion in modern times. They discuss their motivations, personal journeys, and the essential beliefs that guide their lives. The podcast aims to be more than an introductory course on heathenry—it's a deep exploration of beliefs that might resonate with any thoughtful listener. Through insightful conversations that leap between ancient truths and contemporary challenges, the hosts share their collective wisdom and personal insights, offering listeners a fresh perspective on how old worldviews can still apply today.

    19 min
  • 4 Episodes

About

The North Star Podcast is a podcast for pagans seeking deeper meaning, thoughtful practice, and a well-lived life. Hosted by four practicing pagans, the show explores pagan philosophy, theology, and ethics through both an academic lens and real-world experience. Each episode blends scholarship with practical insight as we examine rituals, worldviews, and daily practices that help orient us toward living a good, intentional pagan life—rooted in tradition, curiosity, and lived wisdom.

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