NET 2023 Presenters:
Ned Bates (repeat presenter)
Ned Bates has a BA in Literature and Anthropology and an MFA in Creative Writing. He is a retired public school teacher and writer. He has made a life’s study of the places where objective and imaginative worlds meet, and is especially fascinated by the collision of modern and ancient worlds and the resulting plurality and syncretism of world-views. He is a heathen who seeks to balance reconstruction, pragmatism, and poetry. He has presented at East Coast Thing, Trothmoot, and The Polytheist Leadership Conference. Some of his essays are available at his blog, the Heretical Heathen: http://hereticalheathen.blogspot.com.
Annie Cúglas (repeat presenter)
Annie is a history professor at Ocean County College and recently finished their PhD at Trinity College Dublin on the Norse in Middle Irish dynastic literature. They are the goði of the Kindred of Mann and the author of “The Knock” and “Heathen Dublin”.
Patricia Lafayllve (repeat presenter)
Patricia Lafayllve is the author of Freyja, Lady, Vanadis: An Introduction to the Goddess and A Practical Heathen’s Guide to Asatru. She has been practicing a reconstructed version of seidhr for close to twenty years, and has worked in the private and public spheres as a service to her community. She is a proud member of Two Ravens Kindred and currently serves as High Steward in The Troth.
Jai Mohan
Jai Mohan is a composer, lyricist, theatre person, maker of knickknacks, and general art person. He lives in Brooklyn, New York with his roommate and two cats.
Ristandi (repeat presenter)
Ristandi has been active in Heathen/Pagan/Occult communities around the country for over 34 years. He holds a Ph.D. in Folklore and Mythology from UCLA, with a focus on vernacular religion, magic, and other otherworldly matters. He has been a member of the Rune-Gild since 1993, and currently serves as a member of its standing High Rede. His academic work has been published in a number of scholarly journals and anthologies, and his more esoteric work in Runa Magazine Symbel_, and several publications from Gilded Books. Over the years, he’s presented repeatedly at the Starwood Festival, the Feast of Aegir, Rites of Spring, and East Coast Thing (since 2011). This will be his second time presenting at NET.
Perris Savagetusk
Perris Savagetusk has spent her entire life in pursuit of religious training. A dual seminarian, she is currently a Master’s of Divinity and is taking time to enjoy her current path towards her Doctorate of Divinity. She has been a practicing heathen since 2014.
Stacey Lynne Stewart (repeat presenter)
Stacey is a Heathen artist who has been advancing the expression of Urglaawe traditions by providing imagery to Pennsylvania Dutch myths as well as form to the Urglaawe runes. She has been pagan since 1985 and trained in Traditional Witchcraft for over twenty years. Her interpretations feature both traditional motifs, representing where we are from, and modern interpretations of the art of past to assist the Urglaawe community in embracing the visions of the future of this living tradition. A bisexual polyamorous geek, Stacey tries to make information and participation available and accessible to all.
Eirik Westcoat
Eirik has PhD with a dissertation on kraftaskalds: poets in Icelandic folktales who do magic through improvised poetry. Eirik’s other interests include mythology, runes, and esotericism. He also writes creative poetry with a blog as “The Skaldic Eagle” and several books of heathen poetry in print.
Past Presenters:
Steve Ausband (repeat presenter)
Stephen Ausband is a founding member of Gollinkambi Kindred, which is located in southwest Virginia. He is a BJCP Mead judge with 38 years mead making experience and owner of Atheling Meadworks. He grew up in Virginia where his father, a professor of English, read bed time stories to him in Old and Middle English and taught him about Norse, Greek and Roman mythology at a young age. He has always had an interest in travel, language, culture and comparative religion.
Audrey Baker
Audrey Baker AKA Phoenix Morgan (Gollinkambi Kindred) is a writer and artist from Blacksburg, Virginia. She has been studying literature and writing for 14 years, and heathen for half as long.
Jen Bath
Jen Bath is a nurse with 24 years experience at a Level 1 trauma center in southwestern VA as the Clinical Nurse Specialist. She is passionate about educating others about bleeding control, as death due to hemorrhage is the #1 cause of death due to trauma.
Denise Bowen (repeat presenter)
Denise Bowen has been involved in the Northeast Asatru community since 1997. She brought the first ve to the ECT in 2004. She has been the chair of the Ve committee for the Thing since its official inception in 2015.
Sarah Castrovinci
Sarah Castrovinci is a practiced fiber artist with skills in crochet, knitting, spinning, and cross stitch. She started on her journey as a young girl scout. Today she makes quirky amigurumi art as A Stitch in Time Designs while somehow making sure she makes cool things for herself.
Ryan Chapman
Ryan Chapman has been an avid underground metal fan for the better part of 20 years. Starting with big bands such as Metallica to Slayer, Ryan has since dove down the rabbit hole of the vast warrens of underground metal. For the better part of four years, he has been the sole author and content creator for his metal blog, “The Dreaming Metal Muse”. He has currently garnered 7k views and 6k unique readers. He has developed friendships and booked shows with many figures in the underground metal world. Ryan has also been a practicing heathen for about 10 years and is a member of the New Hampshire-based tribe, Úlfar aff Jera Þjóð.
Gregory Darwin
Gregory has a BA in Classics and Celtic Studies from the University of Toronto, and is pursuing a PhD in Celtic Languages and Literatures at Harvard University. He has taught courses in the Irish language and in the study of folklore at Harvard, and has led community Irish language classes and discussion circles in Toronto and Boston. His main academic interests include the Irish language and Irish-language literature, folklore, legends of the supernatural, magic, witchcraft beliefs, folk medicine and healing, and Gaelic-Norse cultural exchange. He is a heathen, and a member of the Troth.
Janine Marie Gorham
Janine Marie Gorham has been a practicing Polytheist for twenty years and a practicing Heathen for the past eight. She always found discussions around gender both insightful and enlightening. She is a practiced facilitator. She has lead many workshops in Maine and at regional conferences, and presently she is the President of the Maine Pagan Clergy Association.
Dave Iverson (repeat presenter)
Dave Iverson lives in Massachusetts with his wife Lynn (of Eir’s Garden), son Tor, daughter Lilac, and two German Shepherd Dogs, Freki & Freya. He has been a high school English Language Arts instructor for over a decade and a feature columnist for Merrimack Valley Magazine for seven years. He holds a BA in English and a M.Ed. in English curriculum and instruction, both from University of Massachusetts, Lowell, and a MA in English (literature concentration) from Southern New Hampshire University. He’s in Sigma Tau Delta, the International English Honor Society, and is a member of Raven Kindred North.
Stephanie (Conrod) Janicedottir
Stephanie (Conrod) Janicedottir is a long-time New England native who discovered the Norse Gods as a teenager when a relative gave her a copy of Padraic Colum’s The Children of Odin. Going to UMass in the early 90s, she joined the UMass Pagan Students Organization and met the founding members of Raven Kindred. She professed to Asatru in 1993 and joined Raven Kindred shortly after that. Following graduation in 1997 and a short-lived marriage Stephanie went “into the woods” and pursued a solitary (hippie heathen) practice. After the birth of her second child in 2003, Stephanie met Mike and Cat Burke-Smith and the following year became a founding member of the Ulfar aff Jera Theod. She has been active in the local NEHC for over two decades.
Burt Johns
Burt Johns was born/raised in a traditional Pennsylvania Dutch household without a Christian affiliation. He has been the Gothi of Mannaheim Kindred since its inception (2002). Under his leadership, Mannaheim and its volunteers average 40 events per each year to include liturgical services, craft days, speakers/teachers, “pub moots”, “community service days”, and team building events (camping).
Austin “Auz” Lawrence (repeat presenter)
Auz is one of the Stewards of Raven’s Knoll. Raven’s Knoll is a campground in Ontario, Canada that serves the Pagan and Heathen communities. Raven’s Knoll hosts Canada’s first permanent Vé for the worship of our gods. Auz, along with Erik Lacharity, is one of the founders of the annual Hail and Horn Gathering. Auz has a Master’s degree in Anthropology, which has led to a full time career working for Public Safety Canada alongside the “hobby” of running Raven’s Knoll with his wife, Maryanne Pearce. Austin is an oathed goði associated with the American Vinland Association, since 2008. He is also a regular member of the Troth. Auz is interested in medieval martial arts, but is currently training in the Filipino martial arts with Siling Labuyo Arnis.
Rev. Caryn MacLuan (repeat presenter)
Rev. Caryn MacLuan is a retired Coast Guard Chief Warrant Officer who has been a pagan/heathen/magic practitioner for over 40 years. She is a leader and 2nd level priest in Ár nDraíocht Féin (ADF) and has been a leader in CedarLight Grove for 16 years. She also is a member of Gladsheim Kindred and the Troth. She holds a graduate certificate in herbal studies, teaches hands on healing and workshops on various Indo-European studies.
Kat McDermott
Kat has been attending the Thing since 2013 and has been Heathen since 2008. She started on the pagan path back in 1999, which inspired her to get her degree in History, with a concentration in Medieval Studies. Kat began her career in event management back in 2007 while working at the American Museum of Natural History in New York and has used these skills both in the non-profit and corporate worlds, and has been supporting the Team that runs the Thing since 2018. She currently is the Events Coordinator for Breyer Model Horses, managing up to four events a year, including the flagship event, BreyerFest, which hosts more than 15,000 guests annually.
Jäyce McKee-Spinks
Jäyce has been spinning since they were introduced to it, and fell in love with it in 2012. They are the keeper of the Frigga ve, where they can often be seen spinning. Jäyce is also the lead vocalist and bassist of the band Nornir Call.
Ash McKernan
Ash McKernan is a licensed psychotherapist (MFT), ecotherapist, bard, life-long explorer of wyrd, and author of the upcoming book, Wyrdcraft: Healing Self and Nature Through the Mysteries of the Fates (Llewellyn, Jan 2023). Ash loves to spend time at the crossroads where psyche, nature, magic, and healing intersect. You can visit his website at www.wyrdwildweb.com.
Paul Mercurio (repeat presenter)
Paul Mercurio is a queer inclusive Heathen who thinks the Odin Oracle deck is a really good idea and is shocked no one has already done it. He has served as the Troth’s NYC Area Steward for 7 years and is part of the North River Kindred in Brooklyn. As a devotee of both Tyr and Zisa, he is deeply concerned about fairness, integrity, community building and disassembling systems of injustice.
James Moore-Hodur
James Moore-Hodur is a practiced fiber artist with skills in knitting and some hand spinning. He is currently learning to crochet. He started his fiber journey on his own and is self taught through various online and offline instruction. Today, he makes various knitted projects from hats to blankets.
Erika Palmer
Erika Palmer is a NYC based Heathen who often rewrites the lore so it’s more toddler friendly. She is a member of North River Kindred and has been veiling for ten years.
Jósúa Hróðgeir Rood (repeat presenter)
Josh Rood is an officially offered PhD candidate at University of Iceland with an MA in Old Norse Religion. His expertise is on religious continuity and change in southern Scandinavia prior to and during the Viking Age. He has given lectures and seminars on ritual practice in heathen Scandinavia, and on modern day Asatru. He is also the executive editor of Odroerir: The Heathen Journal. He has written articles for CNN, performed interviews for radio, television, web media, and academic research. He’s been an active member of the Northeast Heathen Community for 14 years, a member of the ECT Planning Committee for the past 8 years, and he has run blóts both in Iceland and here in the United States.
Andris Rūtiņš
Andris is an artist and teacher active in Latvian Church Dievturi (Keepers of God) in the U.S. and Latvia over three decades. Latvian reconstructionst Pagans organized in 1925 to revive and popularize the spiritual legacy received from their ancestors to complement the recently standardized language and the newly founded Latvian nation-state. Dievturi believed that Christianity had been imposed on Latvia and its neighbors Estonia and Lithuania as a tool of foreign conquest beginning with the Northern Crusades in the 13th century. They proposed a Latvian indigenous religion based on folklore and historical chronicles. They have continued to develop that vision.
Robert L. Schreiwer
Robert L. Schreiwer is a founder of the Heathen denomination of Urglaawe, Ziewer (godsman) of Distelfink Sippschaft, a trained practitioner of the Pennsylvania German healing tradition of Braucherei. Through the Pennsylvania German Heathen Alliance for the Urglaawe, he has been conducting a project to gather oral lore from all regions of Deitsch (Pennsylvania German) settlement. He was an Instructor of Pennsylvania German at Kutztown University in 2008-2009, and he is currently working on other language advancement projects. He is the current Steer (President and CEO) for the Troth, the Program Coordinator of The Troth’s In-Reach Heathen Prison Services program, and the Troth Steward for Eastern Pennsylvania.
Becky Sheehan
Becky Sheehan has been a heathen since an eye-opening workshop experience in 2011 and a member of the Northeast Heathen community since that August. She is a seidkona in the Hrafnar tradition and has begun teaching the spa and seid skills. She is an active member of The Troth and is the Trothmoot Coordinator, having run and assisted the past three Moots both in person and virtually. Her approach to being a heathen in community is very pragmatic while also having a strong devotional practice.
Ann “Gróa” Sheffield (repeat presenter)
Ann Sheffield (“Gróa”) has been a practicing Heathen for 25 years. Author of two books, Frey, God of the World and Long Branches: Runes of the Younger Futhark, Gróa has taught at multiple Heathen and Pagan venues including ConVocation, Trothmoot, and Sirius Rising. She also presents her academic work at conferences such as the Leeds International Medieval Congress and has taught Anglo-Saxon and Viking-Age history at the collegiate level. Gróa holds an MA in Medieval and Renaissance Literary Studies and a PhD in Analytical Chemistry.
Mike Smith (repeat presenter)
Mike Smith has been an open, public member of the Ásatrú and heathen community for over 30 years. Once a member of Raven Kindred North in the mid- 1990’s, he left to be the founder of Athelingúlf Fellowship, which upon moving to New Hampshire in 2007, evolved into the Úlfar aff Jera Þjóð. Over the years, he has written many articles, participated in various Pagan Pride Days, and is a regular presenter in the NorthEast at major gatherings since 1999.
Ethan Stark
Ethan Stark is an administrator of and the Public Relations Officer for Heathens Against Hate, where he has advocated for better understanding about Heathenry through interviews, communication with national organizations such as the SPLC, and has written and lectured on Heathen extremism. He has been a member of the Troth for over 6 years and where he has been recently ordained as Clergy. Additionally, he is the co-host of NYC Heathens, as well as co-founder and goði of the North River Kindred (New York, NY); where he has facilitated educational lore-chats and has led public and private rituals while representing Heathenry for the Greater New York Area.
Jay Stratton
Jay Stratton is a long-time heathen and retired foreign language teacher, as well as an amateur farmer. His book Pomona’s Lost Children (dedicated to Idunna) is a memoir and cookbook detailing the history and botanical and heathen lore of a dozen old-fashioned fruits like quince, elderberry, medlar, gooseberry, etc. He grew up in the Swedish area of western New York and much of the lore and many of the recipes in this book have a heavy Scandinavian influence.
Jesseca Trainham
Artist / illustrator Jesseca Trainham has been creating sacred imagery for Heathens since 2005. An autistic introvert, she grapples with finding meaningful ways to contribute to Heathenry and to society; Art is proving the most suitable outlet for this impulse. She prioritizes deepening communication and growth through empathy and self-honesty.