Norse mythology Loki is the shapeshifting trickster of Asgard, long cast as the villain. Jeremy Van Wert reads him differently: Loki was never the problem, he was unsupported and unintegrated. In this Campfire Story, Jeremy follows Loki from the wall of Asgard to Ragnarok and shows how his life resembles an adult with ADHD who is valued but not understood.
ᛉKey takeaways
- Jeremy says Loki was invited to every feast to solve problems, yet he was also blamed for every disaster, a pattern of being useful but not trusted.
- He reads Loki's last-minute fix for the wall as the way the ADHD brain tends to work, since urgency ignites it in a way calm does not.
- Jeremy calls Loki's shapeshifting masking, and says it can be real authenticity or an effort to fit in, but it carries a high cost in emotional energy.
- In his telling, the mistletoe moment is executive function collapsing under deep emotion, an impulsive act driven by unprocessed feelings.
- Jeremy sees Loki's wife holding the bowl as the key to the myth: someone who understands you and stays, which he calls the biggest predictor of overcoming shame.
ᛃ Moments in this one
ᚠNorse Mythology Loki: The Trickster Who Never Belonged
In this Campfire Story, therapist Jeremy Van Wert starts with a Norse god who could talk his way into any room without ever quite belonging. Loki was faster and wittier than every god in Asgard and could shapeshift into a fish, a horse, a dancing woman or nearly anything else. He was the blood brother of Odin, yet he was never considered one of the Norse gods.
Jeremy explains that Loki was a giant by blood, so he stayed on the outskirts of the other gods. Thor solved problems with strength and Odin with patience and wisdom, while Loki solved them with chaos and fast, sideways thinking. For thousands of years, he was talked about as a trickster or a villain.
ᚢHow Loki Saved Asgard's Wall, and Why He Was Never Trusted
The gods wanted a wall built around Asgard before the end of summer and promised a builder the sun, the moon and Freya if he finished. As he neared completion, they panicked. They called Loki, who had no plan, but he thought in a way nobody else did. He turned himself into a mare and led the builder's stallion far away. Without it, the builder could not finish, and months later Loki gave birth to an eight-legged horse that became Odin's own.
Jeremy points out what the myths do not say out loud: Loki was always helpful and seldom trusted. He gave the gods their treasures yet he was the first suspected when something went wrong. Jeremy calls that a particular kind of exhaustion, and says it slowly turned into deep resentment.
ᚦThe Mistletoe Moment and Ragnarok
Baldr was the most beloved god, and his mother had gotten a promise from every object not to harm him, except mistletoe, which she thought harmless. Loki learned this and, in an impulsive moment, put mistletoe in the hand of Baldr's blind brother, Hoder, and guided the throw. Baldr died instantly. Jeremy says there was no elaborate plan, only years of resentment at always being on the outside.
The gods hunted Loki down and bound him beneath a venomous snake. His wife held a bowl to catch the venom, though a drop fell on his face whenever she emptied it. At Ragnarok he broke free and led an army against Asgard, using his gifts against it. The story usually ends with the lesson not to be vengeful, which Jeremy thinks misses the point.
ᚨWas Loki the Villain? Jeremy's ADHD Reading
Jeremy's answer to whether Loki was the villain is no. He says Loki was unsupported, unintegrated and punished endlessly, and never understood why he was different. The same mind that improvised and bailed people out was the mind that was used and then blamed. After enough of that, Jeremy says, you begin to believe bad things about yourself.
He reads the shape-shifting mind as neurodivergence, not dishonesty: a mind built for lateral, associative problem solving. The wall crisis is the ADHD relationship with deadlines, a last-minute, high-pressure moment of genius that, in Jeremy's words, is a documented way the ADHD brain tends to work. Being invited everywhere and trusted nowhere, he says, is rejection sensitivity: being respected only for what you can do for others.
ᚱMasking, Burnout and the Cost of Shapeshifting
For Jeremy, becoming a fly, a mare or an old woman is masking. He says nobody can reinvent themselves quite like a person with ADHD, but the emotional energy it takes is a high cost, whether it comes from authenticity or from trying to fit in.
He sees the mistletoe moment as executive function collapsing under the weight of deep emotion, an impulsive act based on unprocessed feelings that many people with ADHD carry shame about. Ragnarok, for him, is the burnout-to-rage cycle that can sever friendships and work relationships.
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ᚲHolding the Bowl: Integration Over Exile
The hope Jeremy finds in the myth is Loki's wife, who stayed and held the bowl when nobody else would. He calls it the difference between a mind that breaks and a mind that transcends, and says the single biggest predictor of overcoming shame is someone who understands you and will be there in moments of distress.
He reads the whole myth as an argument for integration over exile: Loki was punished for his complexity, not for being one thing. For adults with ADHD, individual therapy and coaching with Jeremy is one place to start. He also mentions Light in the Mountains, a small-group psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy retreat in the Sierra Nevada, where you can be in a room with people who understand. His closing line is that your myth does not have to end in Ragnarok.
This post reflects Jeremy Van Wert's personal reading of a myth and is not medical or diagnostic advice. If you are struggling, please reach out to a licensed mental health professional.
ᚨ Questions people ask
Was Loki really a villain in Norse mythology?
Jeremy says no. In his view, Loki was never actually the problem: he was unsupported and unintegrated, then blamed for the way his mind worked.
What does Loki's shapeshifting mean in the ADHD reading?
Jeremy reads it as masking. He says it can come from real authenticity or from trying to fit in, and that the energy it takes creates a great deal of personal cost.
Why does Jeremy compare the wall story to ADHD deadlines?
Loki solved the problem at the last minute under pressure. Jeremy says this is not a character flaw, because urgency ignites the ADHD brain in a way it is not otherwise ignited.
What does it mean to hold the bowl?
In the myth, Loki's wife caught the venom so it did not fall on his face. Jeremy uses it as an image for having someone who understands you and stays with you through distress and shame.