Asatru Folk Assembly - 10⧸26⧸22 Victory Never Sleeps, Episode 16 - Courage

00:00:00.000 Transcription by CastingWords

00:00:30.000 Thank you.

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00:02:30.000 We'll be right back.

00:03:00.000 Hello, everybody.

00:03:18.640 Hope you guys are having a good night.

00:03:20.220 um decided to play around with some different topics for upcoming uh upcoming editions of

00:03:31.000 victory never sleeps and one thing we're going to be doing and kind of splicing in to mix it up a

00:03:36.820 little bit with our um shows focused on the gods are going to be some shows focused on our virtues

00:03:43.560 and uh tonight's virtue that we're discussing is courage and uh we there's no one better in

00:03:53.640 the ask true folk assembly to speak to us on courage than our special guest this evening

00:03:59.240 go the rob stam welcome rob we're glad you could join us tonight glad to be here

00:04:03.880 um so one thing is kind of a little bit of inside baseball

00:04:15.560 afa is not a democracy and even in leadership circles we don't we don't vote on things but

00:04:22.360 i did put it out there and i put it out there to schedule each of our uh our virtue um

00:04:28.840 interviews to see which member of afa leadership

00:04:33.880 The rest of AFA leadership thinks most exemplifies these virtues. And overwhelmingly, Rob was the guy that our folks thought best exemplified courage.

00:04:46.740 so uh that's high praise um

00:04:52.180 i'll let you know rob was the guy i had in mind before i even asked the question

00:04:57.960 so i certainly concur with that and uh yeah we're we're excited to have him on

00:05:04.840 we've got a couple of questions to start off uh first question is from steven define courage

00:05:12.500 within the AFA and the importance for each member to instill this virtue within themselves.

00:05:22.180 So, when asked to define something, it becomes very,

00:05:32.420 you know, almost immediately apparent to try to give examples of courage. That's not really a

00:05:39.220 definition per se um courage certainly in an afa context is not so much an absence of fearing things

00:05:53.620 but it's not letting fear dictate your actions or it's consciously overcoming fear to do right

00:06:01.060 action and that's part of uh the odenshoff um odenshoff motto to do right and fear no one

00:06:09.620 so doing right and fearing no one is the essence of what courage within the afa

00:06:16.340 means and i think talking about the importance to instill that in our folk is going to uh come

00:06:21.700 through the rest of the evening's discussions rob how would you define uh courage specifically in an

00:06:27.700 in an ausituse sense? Well, you know, there's several different kinds of courage. And

00:06:34.900 I was talking to my brother, who's a combat Marine, and he told, I asked him, I said,

00:06:41.640 you know, were you scared? Of course I was scared. I'm not crazy, but I still did my job.

00:06:48.220 And to me, that's courageous. Of course, you're going to be afraid. You're going to be worried.

00:06:52.640 You're going to be scared, but doing it anyway, overcoming that fear and doing what's right.

00:06:59.240 Absolutely.

00:07:00.800 Courage isn't always the easy route.

00:07:04.920 You know, the praise comes afterwards if it comes.

00:07:08.560 But in the moment, it's hard.

00:07:14.700 It's hard to overcome fear.

00:07:16.260 It's hard to overcome our own minds to do what's right.

00:07:19.780 But, you know, courage is doing that.

00:07:22.640 Well, you know, so to more answer the question as far as the importance of each member of

00:07:30.820 the AFA instilling the virtue of courage, there's a reason that it's at the top of our

00:07:37.960 list in the way we're ordering these virtues.

00:07:42.380 Courage is a foundation that adds context and value to all of our other virtues.

00:07:50.760 courage in a way takes idea and puts it into action it's very easy to have high-minded ideals

00:08:00.920 about many things but courage is putting that to the test when there's consequence

00:08:07.960 if there's no consequence or if there's no risk then standing behind something that isn't you

00:08:14.440 know it may be good but it isn't necessarily courageous courage comes when there is risk

00:08:20.120 when there is fear to overcome, yet you stand up to it and overcome it. And it's really the key

00:08:27.320 to all of the values that we hold so very dear in Ausatru. And it's something that,

00:08:35.080 to be very honest, and we'll talk about it a little bit more this evening, but

00:08:40.760 I've mentioned this a few times, and our founder Steve McNallan diagnosed our people as having a

00:08:46.040 soul sickness and i think that's very true um one of the biggest consequences of the sickness in 0.96

00:08:55.720 our folks soul is that so many of of our folk especially the younger generations of our folk

00:09:04.840 severely lack courage and i don't say that to be disparaging i say that so we know where we're at

00:09:11.240 And we know how things that we can work on and things that we build, because I want all of us to to help each other be strong and overcome.

00:09:20.160 And courage is an area to where a lot of our folk are really suffering right now.

00:09:25.820 I've got a couple of other questions lined up. Tony, the king of cheese, asks, Matt, Rob, how are you two doing tonight?

00:09:35.700 How are you doing, Rob? I'm doing pretty good. Just getting over a little bit of a cold.

00:09:42.700 Usually post-national events, I get a little bit of a chest cold, but it doesn't last long, so

00:09:47.940 happy that's over with. Doing pretty good, and I'm here, so it's a good Wednesday night.

00:09:57.160 Well, Tony, I give you the same answer every Wednesday. I'm doing what I love. I'm talking

00:10:03.560 to some of my favorite people. I enjoyed talking to you guys and I look forward to this all week.

00:10:07.300 So I'm doing great. I'm doing even greater. I suppose something to throw out. I don't want it

00:10:13.440 to derail our courage conversation, but we are currently in the offering stage to try to acquire

00:10:20.900 the property for Sigurheim. So I'm extra excited about that this evening. I'm trying to think of

00:10:30.080 order of these next two questions that kind of came in simultaneous and i think they cover some

00:10:37.280 of the same ground and since nick threw it up there i'll take a pause pause for the cause for

00:10:41.520 a second uh he threw up the link to the sigerheim fundraiser we need you guys help um sigerheim is

00:10:49.600 going to be quite an investment but it's fulfilling the dream of generations um it's a place that many

00:10:56.560 of us are going to build the future. And we'd really appreciate any and all donations you guys

00:11:02.240 can pony up to help make that happen. It's going to make a big difference. I calculated on some

00:11:10.760 numbers and if every member of the AFA were to donate $41, we would have the down payment on

00:11:21.980 Sigurheim in hand. So it's just putting it a little bit into perspective there. So

00:11:28.140 if you guys can, fantastic. Way to do that's on the link that Nick just sent. Another way to

00:11:34.920 donate to the AFA or to get your questions to the top of the line is to go ahead and join our

00:11:41.260 Entropy channel and interact with us there. You can make donations and you can participate in

00:11:47.200 that super chat function. Would love to see you guys do that. All your donations are very much

00:11:53.440 appreciated. So these next two questions overlap a little bit, but I'm going to ask them both,

00:12:00.360 and maybe you can put a little different spin on the second one, Rob. This one's from Cliff.

00:12:08.600 Hail Gauthier Stamm. You are famous in Ausitru for your courage when sticking with the Ausitru

00:12:15.180 Folk Assembly and your sincerely held religious beliefs after you were doxed and then terminated

00:12:20.620 from your job as a police officer with the Virginia Division of Capitol Police because

00:12:25.740 of that doxing. For those that are not familiar with this history, can you share what happened

00:12:31.340 that led to the doxing in terms of the protest calling on Governor Ralph Northam to resign,

00:12:40.620 antifa digging into your background through social media posts images used pages liked

00:12:47.740 tattoos etc and what role your affiliation with the afa played in that doxing also can you share

00:12:55.500 what role the doxing had in your suspension and eventual termination as a police officer

00:13:00.860 and how much of a role each of these things included in that doxing played in the division's

00:13:08.540 decision uh sure pretty long story so side side note for anybody listening this came through

00:13:19.180 email so he has this on his end if he needs to refer to it because that was a very unwieldy

00:13:24.060 long question for me to just ask outright okay uh so i was a sergeant um with the capital police

00:13:34.460 virginia division of capital police which is a state police agency and uh part of our job is to

00:13:41.820 guard the governor the governor's mansion uh rounding grounds and uh well governor northam

00:13:49.180 had got himself in a little bit of trouble uh a picture of him in college either wearing a clan

00:13:55.500 outfit or wearing blackface to a halloween party he won't we're not sure which one was him but anyway

00:14:01.180 Of course, there was an uproar over that. So that brought national news media down to the capital of Virginia. It brought daily protests with BLM and Antifa and other folks, too.

00:14:19.100 uh so you know as a sergeant um i i always wanted to lead from the front so i was right there in

00:14:26.180 front of the governor's mansion with my guys um i'm not i'm not i was never the kind that would

00:14:31.480 sit in my office and radio orders i was i was right there um and i have a tattoo on my neck

00:14:39.460 which uh there it is it's an anchor now but uh about 15 years ago it was a gibber rune which

00:14:47.240 is an Armin and Rune. And I had got that covered up because, I mean, you know, if you don't really

00:14:55.860 know the Armin and Futhort, you can misinterpret the meaning of that tattoo. And I didn't want to

00:15:01.180 go through that. So I said, you know what, I'm just going to get an anchor over it. I was in

00:15:04.440 the Navy, whatever. And that served me fine for a long time. But the state, they required me to

00:15:12.480 a band-aid over it um while i was on duty so i had a big old band-aid on my neck and you could

00:15:18.720 see a little bit of ink poking out but antifa saw that and they figured well he's hiding something

00:15:25.760 so they dug in uh and you know i mean i had my name plate on so it's not like it was hard to

00:15:31.200 figure out my name and you know my name and whatnot was public public information anyway

00:15:36.960 uh so they started digging into my my my uh i don't want to say past i guess uh they just

00:15:44.340 started investigating me and um you know i've never uh really been worried about anything

00:15:52.900 because i i never thought well you know i'm not doing anything wrong so i i don't need to have

00:15:57.360 my facebook locked up like fort knox um you know uh i wasn't i think i had some kind of privacy

00:16:05.860 settings but nothing major and they they got in there and they got a hold of uh it's kind of funny

00:16:10.900 actually one of their pictures that made me the big bad evil uh super nazi was a picture of me

00:16:16.020 planting flowers with a with a two-year-old uh but you could see the rune tattoo on my neck um

00:16:23.860 so that was one of the pictures they used in my docs was look he's got a rune on his neck

00:16:29.220 he's a nazi look at him plant flowers with that toddler oh yeah um but i had pictures of you know

00:16:38.340 i had the afa banner on on the facebook profile picture um i a south africa relief fund page and

00:16:47.220 i had donated to help whites in south africa and uh of course that was evidence of me being

00:16:54.180 a white supremacist as well. So donating so some folks can have something to eat, you know,

00:17:02.220 in the camps over in Africa, that makes me a bad person, I guess, in their eyes.

00:17:10.640 You know, other than that, I mean, you know, there were some pictures of me lifting weights

00:17:15.720 in my garage. And, you know, I had a flag that currently German nationalists use. It's not

00:17:23.600 it's not a banned flag in Germany. It was actually designed in the, in the mid forties

00:17:30.920 after the Nazi era. But I like that flag because it's the, you know, the Nordic cross and the

00:17:38.800 German flag colors. And that of course was evidence that I'm evil as well. And I'm kind

00:17:45.300 of embarrassed of it now because it was so goofy, but I had one of those blue line Punisher flags

00:17:50.840 in there and they said look he's a he's one of those guys you know uh likes the punisher and he's

00:17:56.600 a cop i'm embarrassed of it now because it's goofy but uh that was used um and yes my my membership

00:18:04.200 in the afa was used in my docs pretty heavily um what's funny though is the news media and

00:18:12.680 unfortunately because they were already there for ralph uh they got a hold of it and it went national

00:18:17.880 and international um but the news media used these two guys uh years and years and years ago

00:18:25.080 in richmond that were caught plotting to quote unquote firebomb a black baptist church and they

00:18:31.720 were also true um they they've never been members of the afa um in fact i remember having a 0.88

00:18:39.720 conversation with some with a leader later on so yeah i know who they are they're crazy we didn't

00:18:45.160 didn't want anything to do with them uh so that's kind of funny uh that they they use these two

00:18:50.660 losers uh that got caught doing that in richmond and they always tie that to ossitru because the

00:18:55.620 media can't tell the difference between ossitru and ossitru folk assembly now a lot of times when 0.90

00:19:02.660 we want to cultivate that because we're such a great gold standard but unfortunately it can work

00:19:08.020 other way occasionally as well um but anyway so a lot of people don't realize this but there are

00:19:16.740 activist journalists that work directly with antifa so antifa wrote this uh article up

00:19:24.740 and they put it on their twitter page and whatnot and then their uh their ally in

00:19:31.540 i want to say washington post but i don't want to be 100 because i don't i don't remember

00:19:36.580 perfect and it was a national news media organization so they call the my my agency

00:19:43.860 and say well would you like to comment um and of course that starts the chain right there

00:19:50.660 um i was brought in and they they confronted me with everything and i said well this is ridiculous

00:19:56.820 that's the you know a federally recognized religion and church i can get the paperwork

00:20:02.100 for you. And, you know, this should be over. And like that, I'll be back out on the street.

00:20:07.340 And, you know, chiefs of police are politicians. Of course, she says, no, no, don't want to hear

00:20:14.280 anything more. You're on suspension. It was actually a little embarrassing because they

00:20:21.240 told me to drive up to headquarters and park in front. And I mean, they took my, my, my belt,

00:20:26.160 my gun, my badge. And, you know, I had to walk out in front of the building with my badge gone

00:20:31.340 and my gun gone and um but but i was on suspension and uh excuse me so they they performed an

00:20:43.440 investigation and i had to come in for questioning um i think i was suspended for and it was with

00:20:50.700 pay uh but i was suspended i think four or five months uh where they crawled up my my rear end

00:20:57.100 with a magnifying glass and looked at my entire career and remember I was a sergeant and I had

00:21:03.780 quite a few years so you know nobody's perfect for 10 years but so meanwhile the national news

00:21:13.480 media is running with it you know I had him show up on my lawn which was funny I guess it wasn't

00:21:23.560 funny at the time but it is now I just thought about turning the sprinklers on um but uh when

00:21:31.000 it came time for the suspension uh you know I talked to I talked to an attorney and uh he

00:21:38.520 advised me to quit said you're not going to beat this uh you gotta you just gotta quit and that'll

00:21:43.380 you know if you resign it'll save you from having that on your record um and I wasn't going to

00:21:50.820 resign because I didn't do anything wrong. Being a member of a church, donating to help

00:21:58.840 hungry people eat in South Africa, having a tattoo of a rune from 15 years ago, and

00:22:08.280 having a goofy Punisher flag and a German flag in my garage. Again, and it's not a flag

00:22:14.920 that's illegal in Germany, and anybody who knows about Germany knows that everything

00:22:18.340 is illegal in germany um you know i wasn't going to quit uh i said you know what they

00:22:24.820 they can fire me and then we'll go from there legally um so that's what i did um

00:22:33.940 i i did get fired um many months later and i took it to the state arbitration court which is with

00:22:42.820 state employees um before a a impartial judge who will uh hear it out and then make a determination

00:22:51.700 on whether the firing was legal or not and um interestingly the judge came to the conclusion

00:22:58.420 that yes the the police department did discriminate against me uh but because they are a public law

00:23:06.740 enforcement agency and they have a vested interest in public perception they're allowed to

00:23:15.220 which was pretty amazing to me that that conclusion could be come to that if you're

00:23:21.460 a member of a law enforcement agency your constitutional rights don't matter anymore

00:23:27.220 that was that was a hard lesson to learn

00:23:28.980 um after which i contacted another attorney and then a second one and they said yeah you have a

00:23:40.280 great case uh but i'm going to charge you all the cash up front and you have to pay for every

00:23:45.320 scrap of paper every deposition so we're talking you know thirty thousand dollars just to get

00:23:52.180 started on justice. Um, and that's no guarantee of a good outcome and it's years down the road.

00:24:00.100 So, uh, I didn't have that. I mean, I, I had, I cashed out my, my pension, but, uh, you know,

00:24:06.460 I wasn't going to spend that on, on, on a maybe. So that's kind of where that happened. Um,

00:24:13.000 but I will say that, uh, I'm glad it did. Um, I didn't, I took risks with my, my social media

00:24:21.360 and whatnot because I wasn't doing anything wrong. And, you know, it was a quote unquote

00:24:31.440 risk, but, you know, it's unfortunate that it is a risk. But at the end of the day, I'm glad it

00:24:36.620 happened because it led me to where I am now. That's how I look at it now. Weird works and it

00:24:43.740 works how it should. And it worked to get me where I am today. It was painful at the time.

00:24:50.280 It was hard at the time, but I stood up for what I believed in. I didn't let the state spook me into submission or, you know, talk me into doing something dishonorable.

00:25:02.540 I kept to my guns and, you know, I'm in a happy place now. I'm very happy to not be working in law enforcement anymore.

00:25:11.020 I'm, you know, I'm in my early 40s and I, you know, I'm gray in the mustache and whatnot.

00:25:15.500 I don't think I would be if it weren't for that or working in law enforcement for all those years.

00:25:19.740 So. Well, I. I appreciate. That. It says a lot, like like I said earlier, to stand up for something when there's consequence.

00:25:40.920 So many people are scared and back down when there's not an actual consequence or there's not an actual threat.

00:25:49.740 And it's really telling of your character that when consequence did occur, that you stuck by your convictions and by our gods and by the AFA through all of that.

00:26:03.160 That meant a lot to us then. It means a lot to us now.

00:26:08.420 And I think it's the standout reason that your peers think that you are the guy in the AFA that exemplifies courage to the highest degree.

00:26:23.540 As a side note, I want to ask for $41 from each member of the AFA to get that down payment in.

00:26:32.420 Steve Mundy went ahead and put 43 in the kitty. I appreciate that. Thank you so much.

00:26:39.300 Cliff also had a follow-up to that question, Rob. As a follow-up, would you do anything

00:26:46.140 differently based on that experience? And what advice can you give those who are concerned that

00:26:51.820 they might be mistreated by family, friends, community, employer, or government resulting

00:26:57.500 from their ask true folk assembly membership um i don't think i'd do anything different um

00:27:07.020 like i said uh you know i i don't view it as a bad thing uh it sucked at the time but uh

00:27:16.700 you know it led me to where i am so i don't i don't view it as a bad thing anymore i view

00:27:21.660 it as a necessary thing i had to go through yet where i am so i don't think i would change that um

00:27:31.100 you know i yeah no i wouldn't change anything as far as that goes um

00:27:38.540 to the well i would have saved more money beforehand i i will say that but

00:27:44.140 But. And as far as advice to others, I'm going to look, most people are at very low risk of getting dogs.

00:27:55.240 They really are. You know, I was in the in the front of the governor's mansion with national news media and I wasn't, you know, you know, I had a tattoo on my neck and, you know, I was I was.

00:28:11.740 Um, you know, if I had no tattoos and, you know, I had the, the flat top haircut and, uh, and the, the Oakleys like every other, you know, badge wearing guy there to, I probably wouldn't have even been noticed.

00:28:27.160 Um, you know, so the biggest piece of advice I can be is to give you is, you know, stay out of the, you know, don't get into the hyper political stuff online.

00:28:41.500 it's just it's gonna catch it um you know and if you're just a member of your church

00:28:48.140 then you shouldn't have anything to worry about um you know and if you're not out being super

00:28:53.900 visible you're gonna be fine and like i said most people 99 people don't have much risk because

00:29:00.780 they're not you know in those kind of high profile positions you know i was arresting antifa the day

00:29:06.940 before um that's going to get their attention um you know most folks just don't have to worry about

00:29:13.900 that so as long as you're you know holding true to our principles and our and our virtues and

00:29:21.980 you're just you know living also true authentically you don't really have much to worry about

00:29:27.660 all right well we got a couple few more questions here uh kapla asks rob can you explain and this

00:29:39.180 is the the one that i was going to say it's it's kind of covered by your earlier ones but you may

00:29:42.860 have uh something to add on this rob can you explain what happened to you that you were

00:29:49.020 voted to be the embodiment of courage by leadership

00:29:52.140 um yeah like i said uh earlier i think it's i stuck to my principles

00:29:59.180 um you know i didn't get let the state bully me or you know i i could have easily have

00:30:07.420 repudiated the church and said oh i had no idea and it was you know

00:30:15.980 you know i i was just joining a pagan organization because i love the trees

00:30:20.540 you know any any number of things like that and uh i might have gotten away with with that but i

00:30:25.740 didn't because that was bs um you know i'm very proud also true and i have been for a long time

00:30:32.540 and i believe in the gods and i believe my ancestors smile on me and i did what was right

00:30:37.420 no matter what and uh if my peers recognize me for that then that's good and i hope i can be

00:30:45.260 a good uh example for courage you know not only that but while you were going through this

00:30:57.340 um you stepped up to be a folk builder and were an exemplary folk builder

00:31:05.180 and then you stepped up to be a priest of our gods and uh that says a lot when things were

00:31:12.780 rough for you rather than running away from it or denouncing and denying it you embraced it

00:31:19.900 even more and devoted yourself in a huge way towards our church and our gods and it is it

00:31:26.860 is much much appreciated by myself by your peers and by our members that know

00:31:36.620 yeah it's my pleasure definitely this is my life's calling

00:31:43.620 Well, a lot of people's lives are made better

00:31:46.380 by you embracing that calling.

00:31:49.820 Joe asks, what accomplishments in the face of fear

00:31:53.680 are you both most proud of?

00:31:56.860 A boast.

00:31:59.940 So Rob, what accomplishments in the face of fear

00:32:03.400 are you most proud of?

00:32:07.060 Not a couple.

00:32:08.060 So, one is what I just said, you know, when I was going through a rough time, rather than, you know, stick my head in the ground, I stepped up and became a bigger part of the church.

00:32:24.100 I'm pretty proud of that.

00:32:26.080 I love the AFA and that I can make it better and do, you know, work for it.

00:32:32.620 You know, that's amazing.

00:32:33.900 It's an amazing opportunity.

00:32:35.120 and that I did that at a time when, uh, you know, others would not have, I'm pretty proud of that.

00:32:42.940 Um, I think that's probably the biggest one. I mean, I've got some other little examples of

00:32:50.100 courage. I, you know, uh, I was in the Navy, I was a submariner and, you know, the first time

00:32:55.980 you go down, it's a little spooky, but you know, you swallow your, uh, your fear and you, you know,

00:33:01.820 you trust that the water's not going to come pouring uh but uh yeah uh i think i already

00:33:09.340 spoke my my greatest boast there you know thinking thinking uh of myself you know any

00:33:19.980 things that i've done that have overcome uh overcome fear i suppose there's a couple of them

00:33:26.380 and these these aren't some huge uh metal worthy acts of courage but there are things about myself

00:33:33.980 i'm a little bit proud of uh one of them was

00:33:43.020 it's not just one moment but it's uh it's something that i am proud of um

00:33:49.340 um I became the else here you go through the astro folk assembly at a very interesting time

00:33:58.400 in the afa's history and I suppose in the history of the western world um just the way things have

00:34:05.120 gone there was a lot of fear around that time of being straightforward about our beliefs and about

00:34:16.760 the ethnic nature of our faith about our position on um homosexuality and transgenderism and other

00:34:26.920 mental illnesses and really owning that and standing by it and there was a there's a big 0.78

00:34:33.160 fear to say that out loud um their winks and and nods and hoping hoping it'd be all right but

00:34:43.000 there was a very big reluctance and fear at the time of saying that up front and out loud

00:34:49.240 um one of the most important things because i advocated this position when i was the folk

00:34:55.240 builder coordinator as soon as i became uh the alzharia gothi one of the big things i wanted to do

00:35:01.800 was the infamous white babies posts and not having it in front of me i think that it

00:35:07.240 went something like in the afa we're extremely proud of our feminine ladies our masculine men

00:35:16.520 and our beautiful white babies and that's the thing that started the whole declaration 127

00:35:23.480 and it threw down the gauntlet to really

00:35:26.200 polarize those of us who believe in also true the way that we do and the other folks that

00:35:37.420 have a progressive social agenda and claim to follow our gods um

00:35:45.000 but it was scary because there's a reason people didn't want to do that before is you know that's

00:35:50.620 that shook a lot of things up and uh and it did we lost members over it we had members for the

00:35:56.620 wrong reason and so it was good those people parted ways but you know at that time one wrong move and

00:36:03.900 there was a very real fear that everything had come crashing down and it uh was meaningful to

00:36:09.900 me we lost some members but we gained members two to one compared to the members that that stepped

00:36:15.260 way and it's been uh kind of a defining moment in a lot of the progress that we've made and that

00:36:23.020 means a lot to me and i and i'm very committed to doing the right thing as the ulcerogothia

00:36:28.700 not just the easy thing and that's uh that can be very difficult sometimes but it's something that i

00:36:37.580 very much meditate on and focus on because it's so very important to me um

00:36:42.700 Um, another one, just on a more, I don't know, more fun, personal note, another two, I guess.

00:36:49.340 Um, some of you guys may have heard some of this, but I was, you know, a nerdy,

00:36:56.460 not in great shape, nobody in high school and, and, and just out of high school. And I'd never

00:37:03.840 been in a fight. I'd never really been, I've never really expressed myself in a lot of

00:37:12.120 manly ways at that point. You know, as a child of the eighties, all my role models were these

00:37:18.260 larger than life, you know, pro wrestlers and action superstars. And I would be a fan of that

00:37:26.400 and like to think of myself in that context. But then I looked at my real life and like, no,

00:37:32.420 you're a loser and you don't do anything. So it was important to me. And I took up a challenge 0.99

00:37:38.480 for Thursday night at the fights in Anchorage, a local, um, you know, amateur boxing deal. And I,

00:37:45.440 I got challenged by a morning show. My friend of mine was a producer of a morning show up there

00:37:49.220 and called me up out of the blue at, I don't know, five in the morning. I was asleep, woke me up out

00:37:55.880 of a sleep and I'm on the radio in front of all of the town. And they challenged me to this boxing

00:37:59.500 match and I'd never been in a fight. I'd never boxed. I didn't know what I was doing, but I said,

00:38:03.720 yep, I took him up on it and I, and I went through with it and it was a setup because it was this

00:38:10.220 radio show and it was, you know, one of those fun morning shows. So at weigh-ins, there was some

00:38:15.440 other guy that, you know, was completely inexperienced just like me and we weighed in.

00:38:19.740 It was going to be a pretty reasonable exchange, but then day of that guy is sick and the guy

00:38:26.800 they replaced him with was this tatted up Samoan gangster looking dude that looked like he'd been

00:38:34.700 fighting his whole life. And the bouncer Chip Green was the guy's name. And he, that man beat

00:38:43.660 me so bad. Oh my goodness. I'm trying to remember it now. He claims that I got some good hits in

00:38:52.620 on him after this fact. I think that's because he was being nice. I spent a lot of time on the mat

00:39:00.700 and a lot of time getting hit in the face, but I'm really proud of myself because I'd never been

00:39:07.360 hit in the face before. And that was my first time getting hit in the face by this 300 plus

00:39:11.380 pound Samoan dude. And I kept getting back up. Like I was not, I was not effective, but I kept 1.00

00:39:17.900 getting back up and I went the distance and it wrecked me pretty good, but that I was proud of

00:39:23.640 myself on that. And the other thing following up on this again, in the same vein, um, I wanted to

00:39:31.860 express that Marshall side of myself a little bit more. And I, I decided to find the roughest bar 0.54

00:39:38.740 in town and jump in there and try to be a bouncer there and see what happened and, uh, learned so

00:39:45.340 much about myself. It was one of the best decisions I ever made. Ended up running security

00:39:49.740 there for a couple of years. And so I was proud of myself. I stepped up on that too,

00:39:54.300 just on a personal note. In the meantime, we've got Sarah threw $3 at us. Sarah, 1.00

00:40:03.300 thank you so much for that. Gauthier Stamm, in terms of courage, who would you say inspires you?

00:40:16.220 that that's a tough one um there's a lot of uh examples of courage in our church um i was going

00:40:25.500 to say that the statement that matt was speaking of was incredibly courageous a lot of people

00:40:32.380 because it's so intuitive people don't really think about how much going out and putting it

00:40:38.940 all out there that really was that was a very courageous statement making that statement

00:40:43.980 And I think the AFA is better for it and where we're at now because of it.

00:40:50.980 So Matt is an example there.

00:40:54.860 My fellow, Goethe Trent East, he went through a very similar situation as I did just a few months afterwards.

00:41:02.520 And he, you know, was quite a bit younger than me and he comported himself in much the same manner.

00:41:08.520 um so that's a colleague that i respect and admire his courage as well

00:41:14.280 outside of that uh you know my my biggest hero ever growing up was my opa

00:41:22.040 um and he will probably always be my biggest hero and model of courage till the

00:41:27.200 well i'm i'm an opa myself so

00:41:29.920 you know just as kind of a side note there I think it's certainly worth mentioning Trent

00:41:40.100 in that same deal when I asked all the leaders who the most courageous person was Trent came

00:41:44.180 in second on that as far as folks admiration and and rightly so

00:41:49.600 So Trent and one of his buddies ran into some doxing trouble and their concern, at least

00:42:09.460 as it was expressed when they called me, and these are two young men just starting out

00:42:15.600 their lives, just trying to start out their careers, just starting out things.

00:42:18.580 their concern in the moment of they're under fire they wanted to make sure they didn't make me and

00:42:25.700 the afa look bad the fact that that thought would occur to them when they were going through such

00:42:33.940 a stress personally that speaks volumes of their character and uh it it's not the end of why we

00:42:46.980 respect uh trent so much but it's a uh it's certainly a a good starting point for a lot of

00:42:53.140 folks um but yeah a solid guy uh don don ricardo threw us ten dollars thank you don we appreciate

00:43:01.860 it very much uh landon has a question why does it seem like everybody that follows

00:43:08.580 out so true is being persecuted for religious beliefs when this country was founded on a mix

00:43:14.260 of all religions what do you say to that rob

00:43:19.620 well i i say it's a symptom of society as it is now um as matt said uh as coined by

00:43:28.660 our founder even mcnalen our people have a soul sickness um you know and it's not because it's uh

00:43:38.500 a Christian reaction. It really isn't. It's a communist reaction, because young people,

00:43:48.060 and especially of our folk, and I think our racial, not as our AFA folk, but, you know,

00:43:56.120 white kids are lost. They're growing up largely without parents or maybe without a father.

00:44:04.740 um the school system has failed them and they're being inundated with social messaging on all their

00:44:13.620 social media all their tv shows uh their music and they adopt these poisonous ideologies and

00:44:22.620 when something doesn't conform to that ideology they want to destroy it i mean for crying out

00:44:32.060 loud, Candace Owens was called a white supremacist. That's how ridiculous it has gotten that a 0.96

00:44:37.820 black woman who happens to be a conservative, a normie conservative, is called a white supremacist. 0.98

00:44:45.260 So folks like us who love our own people and love our culture that, you know, and love everything

00:44:51.580 that we've done over the past couple of thousand years, we're not embarrassed of it. We celebrate

00:44:58.300 our gods, we celebrate our ancestors. Well, that runs very counter to this poisonous ideology. So

00:45:04.520 you know, that's why, why it may be in the crosshairs from time to time.

00:45:10.780 You know, everything Rob said, absolutely. The progressive left in this country,

00:45:20.080 as you can see, you mentioned the persecution of religions in juxtaposition to the religious

00:45:28.020 tolerance that characterized the foundation of our nation but the progressive left has done

00:45:33.860 and continues to do everything in their power to reimagine our history i guess is the term the kids

00:45:40.580 are using these days um they don't have any thought to preserving the intent of the founders

00:45:49.540 of our country or the the values that defined america for a very long time that's part of what

00:45:55.540 they mean by progressive is by moving beyond all of those things that were valuable to our ancestors 0.75

00:46:03.300 and replacing it with the mental illness that they all suffer from and i think some of that 0.56

00:46:10.820 legitimately is misery loves company and they're miserable people but to answer your question a 0.63

00:46:16.740 little bit better um why does it seem like everybody that follows australia is being persecuted

00:46:25.540 I think because of fear is why it seems like that,

00:46:30.460 because quite frankly, the vast majority of people

00:46:33.940 who practice house and true are not being persecuted.

00:46:36.940 They're not suffering consequence.

00:46:38.720 They're not being excluded from work

00:46:42.100 or excluded from their family.

00:46:43.700 Some people have problems

00:46:45.040 and some people absolutely are being persecuted.

00:46:47.220 But I think that when that fear floats around

00:46:50.980 in our community and when everyone repeats it,

00:46:55.280 a game of telephone it exaggerates it to a degree that that holds us back because we don't look at

00:47:03.120 it in a sober way we react to it in a fear reaction um and we've seen that a lot uh you

00:47:10.960 know with the growing pains of the afa there's a number of people that you know talked a really

00:47:16.160 good game about who they were and what they were about but they didn't get doxed nothing happened

00:47:22.960 to them, just the thought that maybe somebody would look at them crossways, they ran for the

00:47:28.360 hills and they're still hiding as far as I know. We saw that with the folks that we were really

00:47:34.700 relying on to run Thorshoff. Now, fortunately, great people like Rob have stepped up from quite

00:47:42.020 a distance and saved the day and Thorshoff is functioning amazingly well. But there were people

00:47:48.060 that asked me to get off there profusely and the second it became real and they got one

00:47:55.420 rather than stand with the gods rather than stand with thor they they ran and hid um

00:48:02.860 that's unfortunate we saw the same thing happen at balder's off um

00:48:09.020 it's one thing kind of a point i wanted to make is part of that soul sickness i think it's very

00:48:14.700 very easy for our people to post viking memes with a guy in chain mail and a bloody axe and

00:48:24.140 post something about courage and slaying your enemies and whatever um these are often the

00:48:33.100 same people that are very afraid of um relatively small social consequences

00:48:42.220 and this isn't a strike at them but it's a challenge for all of us to look at our virtues

00:48:48.940 through the lens of 2022 and not through a pretend viking lens that we're not we're not

00:48:57.460 experiencing you know we have guys that hey if you need need to battle a dragon i'll be right

00:49:04.240 there with you to slay the dragon cool how about instead you just show up and put your face in a

00:49:10.760 picture and celebrate a religious observance at a hop. Whoa, hey, now, I don't want to be in

00:49:16.340 pictures. But next time you see a dragon, you let me know and I'll be there. And as funny as that

00:49:23.160 may sound. Unfortunately, that's how a lot of our people conceive stuff. It's one of the reasons that

00:49:29.060 the reenactment clothing thing is something I've tried so hard to stay away from. When we

00:49:40.420 lock our virtues in a in a time frame that we're so far removed from

00:49:48.500 we don't make those associations with real life and real actions and our real families

00:49:55.060 um and yeah so exhibiting your virtues in real life is much harder

00:50:00.820 than uh than it is to just talk about them it's much

00:50:03.460 i ever everybody wants to be a gangster until it's time to do gangster stuff

00:50:12.580 um next question by the way 30 okay just as a side note i guess from nick by the way 36 beautiful

00:50:20.660 white babies uh as of the beginning of this month and at least two or three more since then just

00:50:27.220 that i know of offhand that's babies born to afa members so we're doing good in regards to those 0.96

00:50:35.140 i don't think it was because of my statement per se but since the white babies post

00:50:39.940 had a whole lot a whole lot of kids born into the astro folk assembly and now we're certainly

00:50:45.380 blessed to see that um antonio i think about asking this question before but

00:50:54.900 But what is your thoughts on the trough?

00:51:01.100 Rob, do you have thoughts on the trough?

00:51:06.740 I don't have a whole lot.

00:51:08.780 I don't have a lot of experience with the modern trough.

00:51:11.740 I understand it's, from what I hear, it's gone way downhill from a low starting point to begin with.

00:51:21.140 I think in the old, old times when it was first coming out, they put some decent literature out, Dr. Flowers and whatnot, but I saw a little bit of footage from their online moot or whatever that they do.

00:51:36.940 And it was it was just I mean, it was a comedy of errors.

00:51:40.380 So I don't I mean, I don't really bother with them because they're just not in my my circle.

00:51:45.780 They're not in my world.

00:51:48.080 No, I really don't have a lot of thoughts on them, to be honest.

00:51:51.140 Um, you know, I think they're really interesting, and I'll give you kind of a breakdown on my thoughts, because I think, I think it's a fascinating, just, I guess, organizational study.

00:52:08.340 Um, so they were, until their inception, Alcetru as a faith was inherently folkish.

00:52:19.740 There was no, no question of that.

00:52:22.320 There was no suggestion that Alcetru was anything other than that.

00:52:26.980 Um, when the original, uh, AFA, the Alcetru Free Assembly disbanded in the late 1980s, 0.76

00:52:34.860 uh the austral alliance maintained a folkish position and the ring of trough the ring of

00:52:42.680 trough was founded um by edrid thorson and it originally was fairly folkish it was more

00:52:51.000 esoterically inclined than the alliance was but it started out fairly conservative

00:52:58.800 and very quickly um because they had uh they had democracy and they had voting

00:53:06.480 very quickly uh their founder he was removed and anyone who was

00:53:12.880 you know right of center was was removed and over the the decade of the 1990s you watched

00:53:22.260 them degenerate more and more into far left issues. And, and there was, there was, there

00:53:33.820 was a balance. You had people there that were, you know, it was 90% about Alcatru and 10% about

00:53:44.840 lefty issues. And then, you know, as the decade progressed, and it got to 2000, it was,

00:53:53.600 you know, 60% out of true and 40% progressive issues. And as you've watched, or as Rob was

00:54:02.580 mentioning, somebody sent me some stills of their online truth moot that they did.

00:54:09.080 um in one aspect it's it's funny it's a freak show literally

00:54:16.800 but in another way it's very sad because it's not just that these people are 0.99

00:54:26.480 gross they are but they just reek of mental illness um every one of them needing to specify 0.99

00:54:38.100 what their pronouns are, all of them sickly and obese, 50% or more gender confused. It was shocking 1.00

00:54:52.100 mental illness. And that comes with now, if you go to their website or you are involved with

00:54:58.280 anything they do in any way it's a hundred percent lefty issues and zero percent also true

00:55:07.240 and i don't think that's an exaggeration remember many of their high read are not

00:55:12.840 also true or certainly that's not their first religion that may be one of the many that they

00:55:18.920 claim to practice um it's really a a strange place but something else to be said about it

00:55:29.320 that used to be the afa's biggest competition in the 90s and as the 2000s were dawning and in my

00:55:36.360 time being involved with the austral folk assembly the trough has basically disappeared they've

00:55:40.760 become a complete and total irrelevancy even when you compare them to other lefty groups that

00:55:47.480 claim to worship our gods. The troth is kind of in the back of that pack now and has become 0.99

00:55:56.740 completely irrelevant because they no longer are about anything. As an anecdote, when I joined the

00:56:02.900 AFA, it's not like I was seriously considering joining the troth, but looking at the organizations

00:56:08.600 that were big back then, the AFA, the Austro Alliance, the Odinic Rite, and the troth,

00:56:13.500 um i've always been very proud that the afa talked about what we were about the things we stood for

00:56:23.180 the things that we loved the future we wanted to see when you went to the trial and this was you

00:56:29.460 know in the early 2000s when you went to the the trough's website there were pages after pages of

00:56:36.200 the things that they don't like and don't stand for and will not tolerate and you didn't really

00:56:44.040 find out a lot of stuff they they supported you just found out they don't support racism

00:56:50.120 and they don't support white supremacy and they don't support ableism and they don't support

00:56:54.920 this and they don't support that and they will not tolerate um gender bias and and all these

00:57:01.800 extreme lefty positions but they didn't get around to saying anything that they do love

00:57:07.400 or that they want or that they like or that they they celebrate um and i think that's really

00:57:13.640 telling but uh no the truth as it is now is is very very unwell people the few people that are

00:57:21.240 still part of that group and uh yeah it's a very very unhealthy place to be and it's

00:57:27.800 literally written all over their faces

00:57:35.560 so bob says i know the afa is against race mixing which i have no problem with

00:57:42.200 i wanted to ask if it is wrong if we have been friends with non-whites

00:57:47.560 and if we sometimes meet with old friends who are not all white you can be friends with whoever you

00:57:55.960 want to be friends with um there's no religious imperative not to have friends of all sorts of

00:58:02.920 different backgrounds and i i think that that a great many afa members probably have friends

00:58:10.360 of different ethnicities certainly living in the united states and the communities that we're in

00:58:15.480 they're very ethnically diverse and the afa has never had a position that we need to be unfriendly

00:58:22.040 or hostile to other groups of people that's that's simply not uh not one of our religious values

00:58:29.320 matter of fact being a good neighbor and treating other other people in a friendly manner until

00:58:34.280 there's some reason not to is something we pride ourselves on what are your thoughts rob

00:58:40.840 same uh i mean uh one of my good friends in college uh was from india and her family owned

00:58:48.920 an indian restaurant so i got to eat lots of delicious indian food for nothing um you know

00:58:56.280 there's nothing that says you can't be friends with someone that's that's not white um you know

00:59:02.600 we are not a hate group we don't hate people so um yeah enough said absolutely all right well

00:59:15.960 So we're about an hour in. That is all the questions we have so far. So guys, if you want some more questions answered, please go ahead and get them out there. It's a good time to remind folks that if you guys want to do any donating or any super chatting, Entropy is where to go, and Nick can throw you up a link.

00:59:38.340 Also, I'll send out a plug for, I know a lot of you guys are excited to get Frasehoff.

00:59:43.540 I am very excited to get Frasehoff.

00:59:46.420 First step in getting Frasehoff is paying off Njortzhoff, and we're well on our way

00:59:51.540 to that.

00:59:52.920 I think we're 39% paid off on that.

00:59:56.200 Just as another thing, I ran math.

00:59:58.360 If every member of the AFA donated $160, we would pay off Njortzhoff immediately.

01:00:04.940 And I say that just so folks know, Njort's Hoff is the most expensive Hoff that we've purchased so far.

01:00:11.140 Some of that has to do with just property values in Florida, but we're doing a really good job on paying that off.

01:00:19.260 The quicker we do that, the quicker we will get a Hoff for Frayer.

01:00:23.100 And the Hoff for Frayer, in case you guys, anybody's new to the program or hasn't heard, is going to be in Ohio.

01:00:29.440 So we're very excited to have that for all our Pennsylvania and Ohio folks.

01:00:34.120 Ohio has been just an epicenter of AFA activity in that area. It has grown so much over the past couple of years. It is doing amazing things, and pretty soon we will have a Hoff there, and those folks really deserve it, and I think that'll bring a lot of honor to Frayer.

01:00:58.320 So, Rob, if you could speak to our members about the importance of courage or what do you see

01:01:17.280 as examples of courage that you would like to see more of in our membership?

01:01:23.680 sure well one thing we kind of touched a little bit on there's different kinds of courage and

01:01:30.400 there's physical courage and then there's mental courage and you know they're not always the same

01:01:36.320 thing a lot of folks are are definitely ready to get into a fist fight in the bar with to protect

01:01:41.760 their buddy um you know or or out in the streets to to you know protect their their business or

01:01:50.000 what or their home uh but when it comes to pictures or using your real name you know people

01:01:57.200 aren't as great different kind of courage and what i'd really like to see is people more willing to

01:02:07.840 put themselves out there and and live an authentic life um being pictures using their real name um

01:02:16.480 And knowing that, you know, if you're, if you're doing right, you have nothing to fear. But that little bit of courage is an example to others. There might be someone who's sitting in their home right now and they're afraid to join because they fear that, like we said, that there might be some kind of unforeseen consequence.

01:02:38.960 But if they see a group of people in pictures out there going to moots, people, you know, using their real name online, you know, that might inspire them.

01:02:52.220 Just little tiny acts of courage inspire bigger acts.

01:02:56.900 It might inspire someone to come home to their gods.

01:02:59.900 big acts of courage that are flashy get the show, but it's the small acts of courage every day

01:03:09.240 that build something. I think that's really important that you mentioned that.

01:03:17.720 That's the same with so many of our values. I've always said that in terms of a victory. Everybody

01:03:23.140 thinks of victory with a big V, like it's the one big sweeping victory that changes everything in

01:03:28.840 world but more often than not it is the culmination of so many small victories that build that

01:03:37.000 staircase towards towards goals that we have and the same with courage courage isn't a one and done

01:03:44.200 courage is a lifestyle choice courage is a hard characteristic to instill within yourself so many

01:03:53.720 people ask about daily practice um one thing that i do and i mentioned that in daily practice

01:04:00.760 and i say this i'm not going to promise you that every single day i do it that that would be

01:04:04.840 dishonest um but when i do and as often as i can i like to go before my altar and i talk about

01:04:15.160 things that i reaffirm one of the things that i make a point of reaffirming

01:04:19.720 is vowing to act courageously and do the right thing even when it's difficult because it takes

01:04:28.320 a constant reminder to break that habit it's so easy to go along and get along it's very hard

01:04:33.660 to do the right thing sometimes always works out better in the end but in the moment it's

01:04:41.100 really difficult so those small small acts of courage do make a huge difference

01:04:47.120 uh we all sudden we got a bunch more questions piling up appreciate that guys

01:04:52.600 cliff asks uh where'd you get that fine bow tie uh the evil empire amazon

01:05:01.240 so question did you tie it or is it pre-tied no this one's pre-tied

01:05:08.680 cliff's gotta call me out ah that's not from cliff i asked that one on the pre-tied

01:05:14.680 Oh, okay. Matt's got to call me out.

01:05:17.380 I'll say, I'll say, courage is not always doing the easy thing. It's doing the right thing, Rob.

01:05:22.640 Got to ask the hard questions.

01:05:27.660 Daniel asks, Rob, can you touch on membership support during that difficult time?

01:05:36.160 Absolutely. It was incredible.

01:05:38.880 um while i was on suspension uh there was um a thara in the south and i went uh which of course

01:05:48.460 that was used against me too uh you know and people said look at him he's going to their

01:05:54.680 event it's like well of course i'm a member you know um but i mean the the support from

01:06:01.600 the membership was incredible um yes people wanted to come up and talk to me and pat me

01:06:08.480 the back and offer their support um it was it was incredible and it was heartwarming

01:06:14.800 and it really made me know that i was in the right place um and not just from membership

01:06:20.960 from leadership as well i mean the day that i got suspended um i talked to matt on the phone

01:06:27.680 um you know and i was just a regular old member at that time so i mean anybody can talk to matt

01:06:33.440 you know um and the outpouring of support from both membership and leadership uh was

01:06:42.240 very important to carrying me through the day and getting through a difficult situation absolutely

01:06:49.520 um but in the afa we we take care of each other

01:06:56.000 side note i don't see all the side chat nick is kind enough to sort through and sift through and

01:07:03.040 find the questions and put them up in my special question box i got but shannon i did see your

01:07:08.240 comment and thank you that uh i can't think of a better compliment um yeah i just i did see that

01:07:18.720 thank you and you mentioned that you're moving out of ohio where are you moving to we may have

01:07:22.960 plans for a hoff in uh in that area too depending brandy asks i would like to ask the great men on

01:07:31.680 the screen how we can help build courage in our young men and women if it hasn't been asked i

01:07:38.000 showed up late to the party shame on you um rob what are your thoughts on how we can uh build

01:07:45.200 courage in our young men and women well our younger folks learn by watching the the adult

01:07:52.240 the older folks um be that shining example of courage um and teach the children from a young age

01:08:00.480 to always stand up for what's right in your beliefs and convictions and never back down

01:08:06.480 you know it starts young and we've got so many children in the afa that we're going to have

01:08:15.040 a great couple of generations of also true adults that haven't taught these values from childhood

01:08:22.880 um i think that's the biggest thing is starting start young and be an example to others you know

01:08:29.520 i think that's a good time to uh to plug that it you know just so happens

01:08:37.360 gothi stam is the dean of the astro academy which is our afa homeschooling program

01:08:43.680 um everything he just said we're having we we're having and we have had this amazing

01:08:50.800 baby boom within the astro folk assembly and uh we're we're building and rob is doing such

01:08:58.800 a good job at taking the lead on it this program to help educate our kids and to help raise them to be

01:09:09.040 proud and strong and courageous and uh well-rooted in their faith and in

01:09:16.480 valuable teachings and not the uh indoctrination that the the public school system is currently

01:09:23.280 engaged in um and i think that that's a huge key folks as far as my ideas on things that we can do

01:09:32.960 to help encourage our young men and our young women um everybody wants to know some hocus pocus

01:09:42.880 that's going to fix everything but the answer to so many of the questions that we get asked

01:09:48.240 on this program is to live nobly to live also true in your daily life and it helps people who

01:09:57.440 are outside that are considering joining join it helps people that don't understand our faith

01:10:05.520 learn to understand it and to appreciate it and very importantly it strengthens your fellows

01:10:13.520 not just the kids because absolutely the kids see what the adults do and you can you can talk at

01:10:22.080 them all day long but them seeing and observing you living the right way to live makes a deep

01:10:28.560 impact on them but it also does that to the other adults you surround yourself with um

01:10:34.320 um when you act with dignity and with courage it strengthens other people so it does a couple

01:10:43.380 of things and I think this is healthy and it may not sound like it initially but it shames cowards

01:10:50.460 when you act courageously people who want to take the easy way out and want to do something cowardly

01:10:57.000 are shamed into seeing themselves through a reflection of you and stepping up

01:11:04.320 and we all need that we all need examples to compare ourselves to and to try to emulate or

01:11:09.680 to try to outdo when we we're surrounded by courageous people it's so much easier for us

01:11:16.320 to step up and be courageous we can all do that for each other um and i think that that seeing

01:11:24.080 those examples is the key to young men and women as they come up to grow into courageous people

01:11:30.480 um and i i think that's the plan and it's a plan over you know a generation but it's it's working

01:11:37.720 and it's the plan um shay asks what gods top the list when it comes to courage and why

01:11:46.800 what say you rob oh well i'm you know the first thing that comes to mind the obvious is

01:11:54.840 tear, to courageously put his hand in the wolf's mouth to protect his folk and the cosmos.

01:12:07.560 You know, that's the biggest shining example that comes immediately to mind.

01:12:13.300 But all the gods, at some point or another, there's examples of courage, but that's the

01:12:17.960 big example I can show you.

01:12:19.260 yeah i think that's the answer um our gods are the noblest and the best of us so i think they

01:12:33.000 are all exemplars of courage um certainly you know thor battling the giants and the things

01:12:41.880 that he does are examples of courage but i think the ultimate example of courage in our gods is

01:12:48.120 tier, like Rob said. I think that is the defining characteristic, or certainly one of the defining

01:12:57.740 characteristics that shows tier's godliness. Can one go to an AFA event to get an idea of what

01:13:11.580 it's like before becoming an afa member absolutely um so it's important if you want to do that that

01:13:21.820 you reach out to your local folk builder or the folk builder who's you know hosting the event that

01:13:27.160 you want to attend um we just like to have a conversation and know who's coming to our events

01:13:34.040 we've got families and and we want to make sure that you know people who present a danger are not

01:13:40.840 attending. But yeah, reach out to one of your local folk builder, and they'd be happy to get

01:13:46.900 you set up, let you know anything that you may need to know before you show up. And we always

01:13:51.500 love to have people who are interested show up and see what we're about. We don't want anybody

01:13:56.620 feeling like they got tricked into being part of this. We want people to be happy and confident in

01:14:02.220 their decision to join the AFA. So absolutely. And we would love to have you come out to something

01:14:06.900 and and see what you think um what would you suggest for beginning the practice

01:14:17.140 rob what are what are your suggestions for a complete beginner to start practicing

01:14:25.060 i would pick up one of the you know stephen mcnalen's book is certainly a great place to start

01:14:31.940 that'll give you a very good uh broad overview and give you some some tips somewhere to start

01:14:38.020 but i think uh and it's been said before the the easiest thing for someone brand new the easiest

01:14:44.900 transition is to just start talking to your ancestors um set up an ancestor altar and speak

01:14:51.140 with your ancestors because that is something that's very real to you and intangible and

01:14:57.380 and it's something you have a close connection with.

01:15:02.680 So ancestor veneration in our religion

01:15:05.360 is one of the easiest things

01:15:07.020 for someone brand spanking new to get started with.

01:15:11.400 Absolutely.

01:15:15.720 Don says,

01:15:17.100 Tear, the bravest fettering the chaos wolf

01:15:20.680 is one of my favorite stories about courage from the lore.

01:15:24.340 What would be one of your favorite stories

01:15:26.360 courage from the lore rob what's your favorite story of courage from the lore you can't take

01:15:31.160 the tier one ah because i already said it uh ah let's see um

01:15:41.960 i've got one but it's it's from a saga well it's from the

01:15:45.400 and actually my daughter, her middle name is named after this lady. Her name is Guthrun,

01:15:58.600 and she was a loyal wife, a loyal mother, a loyal woman, and she got a raw deal

01:16:07.080 because of some magical happenings and whatnot, and

01:16:11.720 And she walked into the ocean rather than be disloyal.

01:16:20.180 And she stayed true to her heart.

01:16:24.180 And she survived it, but she did walk into the ocean rather than compromise her value.

01:16:30.120 And that, to me, is a shining example of courage.

01:16:34.600 And I'm paraphrasing because it's been a while since I've read it.

01:16:37.320 um so my story is gonna also be not from from high uh etic lore my my favorite example of courage

01:16:54.760 and this is a different kind of courage in in a way is the example of uh of king radbot

01:17:02.440 and this meant a lot to me when when i and he became he was one of the heroes that i first

01:17:08.660 became aware of and it meant a lot to me when i first started in aussitrew um he was at a point

01:17:16.340 intellectually to where he could accept that perhaps the the christian god was the only

01:17:23.960 all-powerful god of the universe and that that must be the way things are and he saw the the

01:17:31.340 power and the might of the missionaries and the christian armies and he was he was about ready

01:17:38.940 to get baptized and uh and go through that and then he asked at the last minute he said you know

01:17:46.220 what okay but where are my ancestors and he was told that his ancestors were burning in hell

01:17:54.220 and so if you can imagine for a moment if your mindset is already to the point where you believe

01:18:05.400 that that's real that the christian heaven exists and the christian hell especially as presented

01:18:14.360 in the medieval times exists to where it is an eternity of torture

01:18:21.220 when he heard that his ancestors every last one of them was burning in hell 0.86

01:18:29.640 he stepped out of the baptismal font and said you know i i'd rather i'd rather burn in hell 1.00

01:18:37.620 with my ancestors than be in heaven with a parcel of beggars at that moment when those 0.98

01:18:44.560 consequences were very real to him. He chose hellfire over the easy path that took him away 0.95

01:18:56.340 from his kin and away from his ancestors. And that's always meant so much to me and still does

01:19:01.160 to this day. That's a good one. Antonio, in the AFA, what?

01:19:14.560 I'm going to try to decipher the question as best I can. In the AFA, what takes on for a relationship with boyfriend, girlfriend, or husband, wife to be perfect? I don't think I heard anyone ask that. Sorry if the question seems confusing.

01:19:33.580 No, that's okay.

01:19:34.340 No problem at all.

01:19:35.040 We appreciate you being here and asking the question.

01:19:38.360 We'll take a swing at it.

01:19:40.060 And if there's a nuance that we missed or there's more you want to it, just go ahead

01:19:44.080 and ask a follow-up and we'll be happy to get to that too.

01:19:48.340 Rob, what do you got for that question?

01:19:51.580 I don't think any relationship is perfect.

01:19:55.960 You know, that's just not how humanity works.

01:19:58.700 but I think a good relationship you know both people share the same faith I think that's really

01:20:07.980 big you know it's it's a lot it takes away a lot of stress from a relationship if you share the

01:20:16.100 same faith and beliefs and worldview especially when you have start having children and there's

01:20:23.020 no question of well are we going to raise the kids this way or that way it's well we're going

01:20:27.360 to raise the kids the way we both are. Um, so I think sharing a faith is a big, a big part of that,

01:20:34.400 uh, to having a good marriage and a good relationship, um, and takes a lot of stress

01:20:39.220 out and just being compatible with each other. Uh, you know, a lot of young, and I don't mean

01:20:44.980 to bag on young people because I was young once. I remember how it was. I didn't think, you know,

01:20:50.080 Hey, this person shares the same values I do. I said, Hey, that person looks hot, you know,

01:20:54.700 or listens to the same kind of music I do. 0.99

01:20:57.580 I mean, looking back at it, it's like, wow, that was dumb. 0.97

01:21:01.980 You know, the same kind of values and have a lot in common. 0.96

01:21:08.300 You enjoy the same activities.

01:21:10.320 All that goes really, really well.

01:21:12.140 And, you know, just make sure you have the same values

01:21:15.040 and some of the same outlook and hobbies and whatnot.

01:21:20.940 You'll be all right.

01:21:24.700 you know i i think that that rob it the nail on the head the most important thing that

01:21:32.920 first i agree there's no such thing as perfection i think that there's things we can do to always

01:21:41.420 trend closer and closer to perfection and we certainly should endeavor to do that

01:21:46.660 the most important thing is that we are united by our core values

01:21:53.040 You know, like Rob said, I was young, too. I've been in relationships that didn't work out before. And, you know, my wife is awesome, so that has a lot to do with it.

01:22:07.200 But I think one of the reasons that this has worked out so well is that those core values are shared and also true is shared.

01:22:17.080 that gives a very solid foundation. And it's the most important thing because it's all

01:22:27.080 encompassing on who you are and what you believe. Other things are superficial and change, but

01:22:34.200 especially when you have children, like Rob said, that comes into, you know, your priorities in life

01:22:41.720 get dramatically altered and all of a sudden, you know, things about the future and things about

01:22:46.720 how you want to raise another human being become much more important than tasting music or, you

01:22:53.880 know, looks or whatever. And I'm not saying go out and find an ausiturus that's ugly or something,

01:23:00.560 you know, find somebody that you're attracted to, but building around important things and

01:23:08.780 important values is the key. And it allows for, and I've said this a number of times in this

01:23:14.720 program. It allows for you to build a syncretic, holistic life to where all of the pieces of your

01:23:21.600 life work together instead of pulling different directions. I think that's the best chance to

01:23:28.520 move towards perfection in your relationship. How does the AFA celebrate Halloween? And is

01:23:38.880 there's some Norse-Germanic celebration in October, unless I'm mistaken, Halloween is of

01:23:44.120 Irish origin. So the answer to your question is Winter Nights.

01:23:51.780 We believe that Winter Nights is the Norse or Germanic reflection of the same Halloween that

01:24:01.100 you're referring to in Irish tradition. The concept being that at this time of year,

01:24:07.360 the veil between our worlds is the thinnest and it's a time of spooky magic happening and it's

01:24:14.640 also a time of better communion with our ancestors that's why at winter nights the afa holds uh

01:24:22.320 disabloat our dc or bloat at winter nights is intended at this you know thinnest veil time

01:24:28.880 of the year for us to interact with our dc or our female ancestors that look on from from beyond

01:24:36.320 um that's kind of the the spiritual root of it and that's what's very important uh winter nights is

01:24:47.040 the uh it's so i mentioned this last time it is the occasion that we celebrate the afa's you know

01:24:57.040 second national event that we started we were 11 years into our national celebration of winter

01:25:01.760 nights here a couple of weeks ago, and I had the honor of attending that in Ohio. But yeah,

01:25:07.320 winter nights is our celebration for, you know, what most folks would consider Halloween. And

01:25:13.000 that being said, we also have fun Halloween stuff. That all comes from our paganism and

01:25:19.620 our ancestors. So we'll carve pumpkins and dress up and get candy and do all the fun Halloween

01:25:25.060 things that everybody loves. But we also take that time to build stronger connections with

01:25:30.360 our ancestors and uh and to renew those bonds and it's the time of the year that some people

01:25:36.760 experience the most most magical most metaphysical happenings in their life because we're very

01:25:42.680 sensitive to that at this time of the year um don asks gothi stam where do you get

01:25:51.800 where do you get your tract uh comments with so many fellow germans in the afa

01:25:58.120 and celebrating that culture my surname ricardo is actually from the german reichhardt keller

01:26:08.760 ancestry as well um yeah truck or troxen um my i'm kind of a dick to do it um one pair of leader

01:26:22.760 lederhosen i've had for i think 15 20 years and i don't remember where i got it um i have a pair

01:26:31.240 of bund hosen which are just they just go just below the knee um they're a little bit longer

01:26:37.560 and i have a pair of lederhosen that i got from a low a company in pennsylvania they make great

01:26:43.880 stuff it's called ernst lick um they make some awesome stuff and you can get custom work done

01:26:51.560 um and uh you know they've got a variety of styles and whatnot and um i i've gotten some of my hats

01:27:02.600 uh from them and also german import house which i believe is german import specialty.com um

01:27:10.680 Um, Mike Malillo is the folk builder in Ohio knows exactly.

01:27:15.680 He was, he was telling me about them as well.

01:27:17.920 Uh, they have some really cool stuff.

01:27:19.760 Um, and then like I bought, uh, I bought my daughter's, uh, dirndl from Germany and I

01:27:26.340 don't remember the name of the company to be honest.

01:27:33.280 Um, Brandy says the AFA celebrates many modern and ancient heroes for our days of remembrance,

01:27:39.540 which of their stories is your favorite rob let's start with you oh well uh as the gross

01:27:47.100 meister of the von liszt society uh you know that that's got to be at the very tippity top

01:27:53.100 of the old list um you know i follow meister von liszt's uh philosophies and and arminism

01:28:00.960 and armin and runes um so uh you know he's got to be at the top of the list but a very close

01:28:08.440 Second is Hermann, the Battle of Tudorberg Forest, Hermann, because he stayed true to

01:28:17.400 his folk. He gave up a great life of luxury. I mean, to be a Roman general, you know, he

01:28:25.200 gave up a lot of luxury to fight for his people. And if it weren't for him, I do think the

01:28:31.940 Romans would have gone into Germany. So we owe him a lot. 0.71

01:28:38.440 um i already mentioned um certainly one of mine with king radbod

01:28:46.480 another hero that i think is is worth mentioning um is alexander rudd mills

01:28:56.740 and i think he gets far too little credit or fame for being

01:29:04.520 the first figure I can think of that practiced what we would call modern Ausitru.

01:29:15.280 There are a number of starts to that. Meister von List practiced, you know, a pagan German

01:29:23.940 spirituality. I don't think it was developed as close to what Ausitru is as it would later become.

01:29:34.520 um but alexander rudd mills practiced something that i think folks in the afa in a lot of ways

01:29:41.080 would very much recognize as as a modern practice of aussitrew now still at that time there was

01:29:48.680 very evident the overlap between christianity and aussitrew and you know the first struggles

01:29:54.600 with that and putting that in its place um but at a time where you know he was the only person

01:30:03.800 doing it certainly the only person in his part of the world in australia that was was doing this

01:30:10.200 he was able to attract a sizable following he was able to stand strong in his faith

01:30:16.040 when the second world war made that very difficult for him in his country he uh

01:30:21.560 ended up getting getting arrested and detained about that because the other practitioners of

01:30:27.480 of the proto you know proto also true faiths were were in uh in the axis nations so he was

01:30:36.920 detained for that um he pushed through and he really set a lot of foundations that

01:30:43.960 put this into motion that we all practice today and he did it without any any temptation to uh

01:30:51.880 to larp or to try to you know pretend he was somebody he wasn't he was a barrister

01:30:58.440 in australia in the the early 1900s to mid 1900s and he dressed accordingly he would you know he

01:31:06.520 wore a suit and a tie and he got together well-dressed other other of his folk in australia

01:31:13.960 and they got crowds and they regularly worshipped our gods and that was such an important and

01:31:20.120 impactful thing and i think far too few people know about that today

01:31:28.200 um nick wants me to remind folks that next month in oklahoma we're going to have the afa's

01:31:34.440 national feast of the iron heart uh einherjar celebration um he's posting up the dates on

01:31:41.000 there if you are interested in attending that that would be fantastic we would love to see you guys

01:31:47.240 there um so get your tickets now and i'd look forward to seeing you guys next month if you're

01:31:53.320 able to make it uh cliff asks can you talk about the difference between courageous femininity

01:32:01.880 versus the pop shield maiden phenomenon

01:32:05.480 No, Nick had a note at the bottom. I'm sorry. I mean, it wasn't for public reading, I guess.

01:32:19.640 Oh,

01:32:26.440 tell us your thoughts, Rob. Well, um,

01:32:30.200 Um, I mean, from a purely archaeological standpoint, the whole shield maiden thing isn't really supported.

01:32:42.040 You know, but I mean, if you read some of the sagas, you know, women were right there on the battlefield, you know, encouraging the men.

01:32:53.340 And in the saga, I think it was Saga of the Greenlanders, one woman, when the men were faltering, got in front of them and, you know, spooked the natives away.

01:33:08.420 There is courage in femininity.

01:33:12.300 And honestly, these days, I think for women to be feminine is courageous in modern society.

01:33:18.520 that alone is an act of courage, in my opinion, because all the popular culture is telling them

01:33:25.500 to do otherwise. It's courageous to be authentic and something that I've seen in almost every

01:33:42.040 incarnation of it. Um, whenever I have seen a woman that pretends to be a shield maiden 1.00

01:33:50.640 or talks about how much of a Valkyrie and a shield maiden and whatever she wants to say that she is,

01:33:57.640 I noticed some of us at first, it can become very off-putting,

01:34:05.000 but on further examination and getting to know some of those ladies, 0.97

01:34:09.300 it is a, and 100% of the time, this is what I've seen. It is a mask to hide inherent brokenness 1.00

01:34:20.320 and inherent weakness. The people, the women that I've known that have pretended so hard to

01:34:26.540 be shield maidens are the weakest people. And I don't mean that insultingly. I mean that in a,

01:34:33.460 in a pitiful way. They're people that are very, very broken inside. And this is a persona they

01:34:41.700 can take on to distract themselves from inadequacies that they feel. And I think that

01:34:48.460 facing those things and overcoming inadequacies is much, much more courageous than pretending

01:34:56.660 to be somebody that you aren't. Rob mentioned that being feminine in today's world is courageous,

01:35:04.020 because the people out there in society so often now want to

01:35:10.500 completely twist and distort the image of our women to make them something they're not.

01:35:16.740 It's as if the only way they can have value is by pretending to be men, and that couldn't be 0.93

01:35:22.420 further from the truth. Our women that live femininity and embrace their femininity, 0.94

01:35:28.500 embrace their roles as wives and as mothers and as grandmothers those women are very courageous

01:35:37.140 the ability to tell truth to men to encourage them to act right and to do the right things

01:35:44.580 when maybe they would falter is historically one of the best ways that women have exhibited courage

01:35:52.260 is by holding their men to account to make sure their men acted honorably and acted courageously

01:35:57.860 rather than, you know, shirking their responsibilities. Women encouraging that

01:36:05.740 and instilling that in our young men, it means everything. And it's so very important.

01:36:13.220 It will be a great day when our women stop with this shield maiden nonsense

01:36:17.320 and can get, be truly proud of who they are and their inherent value. And I want to see them have 0.87

01:36:26.600 that and the more women in the afa that i've i've watched develop that and hold their heads high as

01:36:32.440 beautiful women uh it's really special to see and i look forward to seeing more of that

01:36:44.840 so green leader asks what are some of the states under consideration for hoffs after phrase off

01:36:51.080 um so first and foremost sigerheim is going to be in tennessee and sigerheim is going to be the home

01:36:58.920 of tears hoff so that's the next one coming up after phrase hoff after that we really have to

01:37:06.180 see it depends on what time that is and how that develops we need you know we need members in those

01:37:14.160 areas or within driving area of wherever strategically we want to put those subsequent

01:37:19.180 hoffs we also need gothar to officiate ceremonies and lead those hoffs and it's going to depend

01:37:26.540 where those people you know where those people show themselves if you would have asked me this

01:37:31.660 question you know a few years ago njords hoff there was a very real possibility of it being in

01:37:39.980 um in texas or in so when we're considering njords hoff florida was there texas was there

01:37:49.100 And Washington, coastal Washington was there, and we really considered all of those places.

01:37:55.100 And fortunately, it turned out that we got it in Florida, and I think that was the best place for it.

01:38:01.100 When we get to Braggieshof, which is going to be the one after Tiershof, 1.00

01:38:07.100 we'll just have to see where that where that shapes up and where we have gothar that are going to be located to make that work.

01:38:17.060 just geographically if we weren't considering gothar it would be very nice to have a hoff

01:38:24.020 in texas it'd be very nice to have a hoff in the pacific northwest

01:38:28.420 um it'd be nice to have a hoff maybe further up the east coast in massachusetts but

01:38:36.580 those those places aren't ready right now it's always because i'm from alaska it's always been

01:38:41.780 kind of a dream of mine to have uhlershof be in alaska but we'll see if we're there by the time

01:38:47.380 we come to it we're pretty much starting from scratch up there unfortunately so that's kind of

01:38:53.700 the broad strokes of where we're at with that right now um

01:39:02.500 so getting uh getting back to the question i asked earlier from shannon uh you're in luck if you're

01:39:08.900 you're thinking of moving to North Carolina, then you'd be moving right next to Thorshoff.

01:39:13.080 And you also said you're considering Tennessee. If you go to Tennessee, Thorshoff will be there

01:39:17.440 shortly. So it sounds like you've got a lot of good options on your plate. Sierra asks,

01:39:24.880 uh loving the stash gross meister

01:39:30.400 a lot of people are fans of uh rob's impressive mustache

01:39:39.140 why is it called winter nights during this time of the year rob do you have the answer to that

01:39:47.320 question. I'll take a stab at it. Well, in our homelands, it's already cold. It's the beginning

01:39:58.100 of winter. You know, it's the end of harvest and the beginning of winter. And ancestrally,

01:40:04.960 our folk only had two seasons, summer and winter. That was it. So really, this winter

01:40:13.840 nights is the beginning of the winter season. Yeah, so Rob's absolutely right. It's an ancient,

01:40:24.520 it's an old Norse word, something our ancestors have celebrated since great antiquity. It's

01:40:33.340 taken different forms in different places over the years, but what Rob said is correct. It marks

01:40:39.600 the beginning of the winter season um just as kind of a point of interest from my own life

01:40:46.640 uh i grew up in alaska i mentioned that i grew up in anchorage and if you draw

01:40:51.280 you know draw it over across the map it becomes a very similar um

01:40:59.040 it's parallel to uh to scandinavia in a lot of ways and seasons hit similarly and i always

01:41:04.880 remember growing up that was the halloween was kind of the marker of when snow was going to stay

01:41:10.080 on the ground and we had we had that snow cover as a kid you could always look forward to that

01:41:14.800 by halloween we had snow that was going to stay throughout the winter so yeah it marks the

01:41:20.240 beginning of the winter season and that's why it's called winter nights and it was typically

01:41:23.440 like a three night period i believe at the very beginning of winter um

01:41:29.120 should other varieties of white participate celtic pagan practice has less source material making it

01:41:38.880 less practical which is why i would settle for german tradition what are your thoughts rob

01:41:46.880 well i've got some uh please come on home um really you know it's all arian right um and more

01:41:57.840 more very specifically northern europeans are very very similar in culture and in religion

01:42:05.200 and celtic is part of that northern european uh area as a slavic um and we're more similar

01:42:14.160 than we aren't um and ours is you know the germanic is better attested um but any any

01:42:20.480 area and we're you know any area is is more than welcome to join the afa and worship the gods um

01:42:26.560 that's that doesn't stop you from you know honoring your celtic deities at home or or you

01:42:34.480 know even i mean really when it comes down to brass tacks they're the same deities by a different name

01:42:41.040 right it's the arian spirituality so you're not doing a disservice to your celtic ancestry by

01:42:48.080 worshiping them under the germanic name that's that's you know that's the easy answer to that

01:42:54.560 question what rob said no i've said it before on here and i'll continue to say it we're pan-aryan

01:43:03.920 um we have that common root spirituality the the names and some of the specific

01:43:12.160 ways that different tribes of our ancestors related to our gods formed a little bit differently

01:43:19.920 but uh no that's absolutely the way to go and i think your point on celtic

01:43:27.440 lack of source material is is important i think we have a working we have something here that works

01:43:35.440 there's something here that works that speaks to our soul we've actually in a very real way

01:43:41.600 made those connections again with our gods strengthen those connections through we're

01:43:47.520 We're about to come up on 28 years of the Astru Folk Assembly.

01:43:51.840 This is where Aryan people that want to worship our gods should be.

01:43:56.500 We'd love to welcome our Celtic brothers and sisters, as well as others of our race that want to come back to our gods.

01:44:04.540 And I really do think that joining the AFA is their best bet for that, to get that experience.

01:44:11.160 Unfortunately, Hellenic faith in a modern sense and Celtic traditions have been particularly degenerate in their modern form, and I think some of that is the childish reaction to Christianity. 0.76

01:44:32.120 I think some of it is misfits that think that's another word for other, so they don't fit in because of how pagan they are, when I think sometimes that speaks to a deeper defect going on within them personally. 0.57

01:44:49.480 So I think that, especially traditional-minded people, if you want to reconnect with the gods, the AFA is a wonderful place to do that. 0.82

01:44:57.560 Steve asks, how do you want your members to move forward with courage and use this virtue to

01:45:07.000 continue building and paving the way for the AFA? Rob, go ahead and go first on that one.

01:45:14.820 I think we touched on that earlier is just live an authentic, also true life. Live it,

01:45:22.040 live your truth and live it uh out in the open don't be don't hide uh be proudly in pictures

01:45:30.100 um you know proudly use your name um just live a real also true life and that that is

01:45:38.780 how you be courageous is just be authentic

01:45:41.420 easy yeah exactly we want that's the thing the courage that we're asking for isn't big

01:45:54.120 showy courage it's that everyday courage of being proud of who you are being proud of us

01:46:02.100 being proud of our gods and being proud of the afa um the more of our people that are good

01:46:10.820 people with good families who do good things and are publicly afa members that builds our

01:46:19.700 reputation amongst everyone it makes it that much easier for our children and for our children's

01:46:27.000 children to be proud afa members when folks hide they look like they're doing something wrong

01:46:36.880 because they're acting like they're doing something wrong. We're not. We're doing something

01:46:41.460 right. And standing together, putting your face and your name out there and saying, hey, I'm a

01:46:47.440 proud member of the AFA. That's what we want. That's what we need. And that's to a large extent

01:46:55.020 why we've moved forward. The advances in the AFA have been, there's a lot of factors and I would

01:47:04.400 never discount how big of an impact our God's blessing us has been. Certainly that's the

01:47:09.680 biggest factor. But on our end, having pictures of wonderful people doing wonderful things

01:47:18.020 is what's bringing our folk home. They see that it's real and that it goes on in the real world

01:47:23.600 with people who they can see look like great people that are smiling, that are happy,

01:47:28.540 that are engaged in something spiritual so living proud of who you are and your beliefs is what we

01:47:36.660 want from our people and it's not necessarily it's not just what we want from our members it's what

01:47:42.260 we want for we don't want you to have to always look over your shoulder wondering if somebody's

01:47:48.340 going to discover your your secret religion no we want you to be proud and to hold your head high

01:47:54.780 and to feel confident with who you are and what you believe.

01:47:58.720 And we're here for you.

01:47:59.960 And we're here for each other.

01:48:04.120 Looks like we lost Rob.

01:48:07.740 Let's see if he pops back on.

01:48:09.580 I hope he did not disappear.

01:48:13.040 Let's give him just a second.

01:48:20.440 All right.

01:48:21.460 So while we're waiting on Rob, I guess,

01:48:23.700 We've got a question. Do you guys believe in ghosts and anything else paranormal? Yes, absolutely. Anything else paranormal, you'd have to be more specific. But as far as ghosts are concerned, absolutely.

01:48:38.540 Now, I think there's a lot of kookiness and nonsense when people talk about ghosts sometimes, but I think there's a lot of very real things as well.

01:48:50.400 Certainly, if we believe that our ancestors live on after death, then there's something there.

01:48:56.820 Now, how we perceive that may be different.

01:48:58.860 um there's a lot of people that have a special gift to where they can see that whereas some of

01:49:06.260 the rest of us maybe can't where they are aware of that and they have that second sight that some

01:49:11.680 of us don't possess um a lot of people who say that are are nut jobs a lot of people who say that

01:49:20.400 some of which i've met are absolutely correct and uh you can really tell the difference sometimes

01:49:27.400 when you get to know some of these people but yes uh we certainly believe in in ghosts and

01:49:33.400 the austral folk assembly um what do you say to that rob we got a question do you guys believe

01:49:40.280 in ghosts or anything else paranormal 100 um without getting too far in the weeds i've

01:49:47.720 experienced it personally and i totally believe in it so there you have it um

01:49:57.400 I don't understand this question. Maybe you can help me with it, Rob. Why can't you mention this V2K or me? I do understand it does have to come from government because it is real.

01:50:22.880 I truly don't know what that question's about. Do you understand the question, Rob?

01:50:28.560 I do not, no. I'm really sorry. I'm not sure what you're referring to.

01:50:35.160 If you could help me, I'm happy to answer your question. I don't speak that, though.

01:50:44.440 Sierra says, what do you guys remember about the feelings when you achieved Gothar status within the AFA?

01:50:52.880 Matt, specifically, as I was here, you're Goethe, and Rob as Goethe.

01:50:57.620 Rob, tell us about your feelings when you achieved your ordination.

01:51:02.780 Hard to put into words. One thing that happens to me personally,

01:51:11.960 it doesn't happen every ritual, but it does happen at rituals. Some would describe,

01:51:19.160 If you understand the awakening of the kundalini, it's like a shot of energy up your spine and up your crown. 0.92

01:51:28.040 I felt that absolutely.

01:51:32.760 And immense pride.

01:51:36.020 Immense pride that I had achieved that.

01:51:40.100 And I mean, it was I was trying not to shed tears up there that I was so happy and so proud of that.

01:51:48.100 Um, because it means so much, um, to be able to do that for the church and to be instilled

01:51:57.000 with that, that responsibility, uh, it's, it's, uh, it's hard to put into words.

01:52:06.180 Yeah, I, uh, so I'm, a couple of few things.

01:52:14.640 I know you asked specifically about when I became Alsheria Goethe, but I'd also like to mention when I got ordained as a Goethe.

01:52:25.180 And I got ordained as a Goethe in 2012 at Midsummer in the Sierras, and it was at Camp Norga in Alta, California.

01:52:35.620 and uh i remember that because it was at the culmination of i had to do an ordination bloat

01:52:48.000 and i did uh i did a bloat to thor and i felt it was a good bloat i i gave it my best

01:52:58.960 it exhausted me in a way that I had never been exhausted before. I had to go take a nap

01:53:07.460 afterwards. It literally took all of the energy out of me. And I think that

01:53:15.480 when you talk about some of these things, it sounds fluffy and I don't want it to sound that

01:53:24.300 and it's one of the reasons we're reluctant to talk in this language so often is because

01:53:29.740 lunatics have kind of employs in the well but

01:53:35.740 so the latin word for priest is is pontifex is is the the the bridge bridging

01:53:43.900 mankind to the gods and that's very much it's very apt description you are connect as a gofi

01:53:56.780 it's your job if you if you do it right and you know lightning doesn't always strike this is

01:54:02.300 sometimes you have an amazing bloat and sometimes it's all right but when you're when everything's

01:54:10.860 on. And when you're talking and the gods are listening, you're transmitting very literally

01:54:19.560 energy from us through you to the gods, from the gods through you to the rest of us. And

01:54:32.600 if you do that right, it's a very, very powerful thing. And it has a physical effect. And I

01:54:38.700 felt it so much that day um it was a very very special day and i'll always remember that um

01:54:48.060 when i became all's harrier gofi that was that was more of a process

01:54:52.780 so i became all's harrier gofi at midsummer of 2016.

01:55:00.220 and on the day itself um there's a lot going on it was it was bittersweet it was a day where

01:55:08.700 um steve was was stepping down and stepping aside and i was stepping forward and uh it's a lot of

01:55:15.980 feelings there a lot of it was a it was a real significant transition but like i said it was

01:55:24.060 bittersweet um sad to see that change but also overjoyed that i was able to be put into that

01:55:36.380 position um it was trying to think of the words to put to the emotion of it it was um passing

01:55:50.540 through a threshold it was okay now what do i do i what does matt's administration look like and

01:56:00.140 And at that point, I was able to try to set a tone for what my leadership of the AFA would

01:56:13.960 look like, of things that I wanted to emphasize then in the future and of kind of where I

01:56:21.260 wanted this all to go.

01:56:23.060 And so it was really special that way.

01:56:25.140 And I remember a couple of things from that weekend.

01:56:30.140 it was

01:56:33.660 so it was my first event at odin's off and

01:56:43.140 i remember sitting at the the head of the tables that we had set up and the way it's positioned

01:56:53.500 where i was sitting you could look down the length of the hall and out these beautiful wooden

01:56:59.600 double doors that we have uh that go out into out into the world and it was at sunset you know just

01:57:07.760 around it wasn't quite sunset but the sun was going down to where it's got that just really

01:57:14.860 pretty light on all of the all of the greenery and all of the trees and all the things outside

01:57:20.540 and i could sit there at the head of this table and i looked down the entire length of of this

01:57:26.400 off and i saw all my folks sitting there at at the table eating and laughing and celebrating together

01:57:37.280 and i looked through the length of all of all of our people and then out into the world out

01:57:43.120 out into this beautiful green shining world that was so bright outside because the lights were

01:57:51.120 dimmed inside i think lights were off inside because we still had enough ambient light to see

01:57:56.720 but it was it was this homey thing inside and then you looked out into the brightness of the world

01:58:03.840 and that was profound to me looking from that perspective at the head of this table out in

01:58:09.680 the world out into our future um and i and i remember that that really stuck with me from that

01:58:15.440 weekend um but the feelings on that were a little bit different as i've also said on the show i

01:58:21.920 i kind of started doing alls harry gothy stuff just after um

01:58:30.400 just after ostara of that year and you know it took those those three months there

01:58:38.480 of transition time but i i had the time so it wasn't such an immediate thing i had the time to

01:58:47.600 ease into ease into that role and ease into that position at least behind the scenes there

01:58:52.480 so those are my thoughts on that um we're down to the last three questions just about two hours in

01:59:03.120 if you guys have any more questions we would be very happy to answer them for you

01:59:07.680 and if you don't we'll finish up with these three uh amanda what do you think happens to our

01:59:15.520 christian ancestors when they pass since they are our folk do they go to hellheim or do they go to

01:59:22.400 the christian heaven while pursuing also true may connect me to my ancestors far in the past i'm

01:59:29.680 concerned that i may lose a connection with my immediate ancestors in the afterlife what do you

01:59:35.920 you have to say on this, Rob? I don't believe that Yahweh is powerful enough to separate you

01:59:44.960 from your blood. I believe that even our Christian ancestors, they're in for a little surprise

01:59:54.760 when they die. I have no doubts in my mind whatsoever that the people that I've loved

02:00:04.620 in this lifetime that are no longer with me i will see again um i i don't believe that

02:00:12.220 the folk soul is separatable by a foreign god and i think our blood is stronger i do believe that

02:00:20.620 we have a thousand and more years depending on what part of europe you're from um of christian

02:00:28.620 ancestry and those those people don't just suddenly stop caring about their blood and i

02:00:35.100 think they're they were surprised when they passed and they saw their other ancestors in hellheim

02:00:40.940 but i i think it was still a happy homecoming and i think that's what will happen is that we will

02:00:47.660 not be separated from our christian ancestors there's no way uh yeah i've got to follow along

02:00:54.300 with that um i believe in the the validity of you know a lot of other racial spiritualities as

02:01:02.940 relates to those races of people but the claim by the christian god at least as expressed in uh in

02:01:13.500 their bible that you know he has say over all of these things and and is universal for everything

02:01:20.540 I don't think that's true. Things either are true or they aren't.

02:01:26.860 I think in the afterlife, we will have a lot of these things clarified.

02:01:33.940 And I think a lot of us will learn many different things.

02:01:38.720 But I truly believe that our Christian ancestors will have a lot of things spiritually and metaphysically to sort out. 1.00

02:01:49.560 absolutely i believe that they'll go with the rest of our ancestors to hellheim um

02:01:56.520 and be part of that great ancestral homecoming i believe that we will see them and connect

02:02:02.600 with them on the other side um it's easy to ask that question from a from an afterlife

02:02:09.800 standpoint in that sense but when you think about it you break it down um

02:02:14.760 um we interact with our ancestors through practicing house and true all the time we invite

02:02:22.220 our ancestors into our bloats every bloat i do i invite the ancestors to be there and to share with

02:02:28.100 us at dc bloat we call upon our female ancestors and almost every single one of us calls upon a

02:02:36.240 christian dc to uh to speak to and to commune with because that's been the default position of

02:02:43.940 of our people for so long. Um, but those ancestors hear us and they interact with us

02:02:52.840 through Ausatru and they even, you know, appear to us and become manifest there to us during an

02:03:01.720 Ausatru ritual. And that's not the, the magic of, of the Christ God that's, that's ours.

02:03:08.340 um most of the ancestral veneration that we do in today's practice of alsatru is towards

02:03:17.100 folk that were christians towards our our fathers mothers grandfathers grandmothers

02:03:24.580 great grandfathers great grandmothers like rob said for most of europe for a thousand years or

02:03:31.000 um we have a very strong connection with those ancestors and they exist whether whether they

02:03:39.620 believe in our afterlife or not is is irrelevant it's true and it exists and they're they're part

02:03:46.400 of that whether they embrace it or don't embrace it is is not the point of relevance and i don't

02:03:52.920 think that uh the the god of the bible gets to just pick up and snatch people out of you know

02:03:59.240 their different indigenous um afterlifes to to make up his his heaven i don't think it works that way

02:04:07.480 and if you go back far enough the jewish people didn't think it worked that way either

02:04:18.200 the more you you learn about their spiritual tradition the

02:04:24.360 the change from Judaism to Christianity was really profound change in just the understanding

02:04:32.640 of that God. And initially, you know, early, early, what you would call Judaism to, you know,

02:04:41.660 late, I guess, first century Judaism is very, very different. Originally, Yahweh was one of

02:04:50.000 many ethnic gods of the Jewish or the Semitic peoples. And that changed over time, too. So I

02:04:57.600 think that there's the truth in there is that that God doesn't get to determine where my ancestors

02:05:03.700 go or don't go. They go back to our ancestors and our people. And I believe very strongly I've come

02:05:10.280 to such a better connection and have such a better relationship with my ancestors from practicing

02:05:18.280 else a true than i ever had when i was a christian and i feel that's the case for you know everyone

02:05:24.040 who i've ever talked to about this with so i wouldn't let that worry you i think that if you

02:05:29.320 fully embrace it and reach out to your ancestors and ritual really special things will happen for

02:05:35.240 you and for them um i thought we had more questions than we did because one of them got

02:05:42.840 mixed up but we do have a few more coming in i say mixed up there's only uh nick's got to split the

02:05:48.440 questions if they're too long in the question box so sometimes i see them as two questions

02:05:53.240 so if i if i mess up reading your question sometimes that's why or at least that's what

02:05:57.000 i'm gonna blame it on um any suggestions for an ounce of true halloween rob what are your

02:06:04.440 suggestions for an ounce true halloween uh well i mean my my religious practice for this time of

02:06:11.800 of year takes place at winter nights um as far as you know secular halloween goes i mean it's

02:06:19.160 probably my favorite secular holiday um i love scary movies um

02:06:24.760 i don't know it's a little irreverent i guess maybe i what you know i'm going as father maron

02:06:34.620 and my daughters are going with little demons yeah you know i think that's funny from the

02:06:41.280 Exorcist, if you're not familiar, who Father Maren was, pea soup, spinning head. Yeah, I love

02:06:48.580 scary movies and taking the kids out. You know, we always do a theme, you know, when my oldest

02:06:57.520 daughter was little, you know, she was Elsa and I was Sven from Frozen. You know, we always do

02:07:03.800 like a little family theme, which is kind of cool and fun. So yeah, I get my religious stuff done

02:07:10.600 winter nights and then when secular halloween comes around it's it's just fun yeah what rob

02:07:17.560 said um religiously we celebrate and observe winter nights uh do fun halloween stuff there's

02:07:24.840 absolutely nothing wrong with doing fun halloween stuff uh go out there get candy if you do uh we

02:07:32.920 insist upon the dad tax um a portion of that candy goes to the father that's just understood

02:07:39.960 need to enforce that um age-old custom it is and who are we to argue with that um

02:07:48.440 yeah look at just thinking back on it not that you guys necessarily care about this or not

02:07:54.040 that was always the coolest thing that we ever did at school was our school had the

02:07:58.920 the halloween carnival and man that was so much fun we would go there we look forward to that

02:08:04.280 every halloween and you go there and the whole elementary school each of the different classrooms

02:08:08.440 had different little games and stuff where you got these little prizes and the best thing the

02:08:14.680 big win was the cakewalk because everybody would bake all these cakes and have them in there but

02:08:19.080 very few of the kids wanted to to do the cakewalk so you basically you played this musical chairs

02:08:24.440 and you get cakes you could be a you know second grader and go home with three full cakes if you

02:08:31.000 played your cards right from the cakewalk so that was that was where the big loop was but uh yeah

02:08:36.840 know Halloween can be really fun and it's a neat time it was a really special time I remember with

02:08:41.960 my dad because my dad would take me out trick-or-treating and at that time man I miss this

02:08:50.280 because you hardly ever see this anymore at that time in our neighborhood in any neighborhood from

02:08:57.000 sundown till about eight at night nine at night it was just thick with kids and families and people

02:09:03.800 out trick-or-treating and it was it was a really special thing for the community you got to know

02:09:08.600 your neighbors a little bit i have very very fond memories of halloween growing up so i hope that

02:09:14.680 our children get to experience some of that i know it's a little bit different world today and

02:09:17.960 there's a lot of indoor you know trunk or treat different things but uh go out and have fun that's

02:09:23.560 what we're intending to do with uh with my daughter and i hope you guys do the same but

02:09:29.160 remember the dad tax. It's a thing. Sierra says, how do you incorporate Oustru into your daily

02:09:37.720 life with your children, Rob? Well, we pray. I'm a big believer in prayer. We have an ancestor

02:09:49.820 altar right right by the door and I can talk to the ancestors regularly you know my my decor is

02:10:01.100 also true you know there's the ulners and and runes and family crests and cuckoo clocks and

02:10:09.100 all kinds of cultural stuff but you know it's it's just so ingrained into our lives we don't

02:10:17.420 even really think about it um you know my my daughter will talk about the god not abstract

02:10:25.820 but just like like any child would like as matter of fact it's not an abstract it's not a

02:10:32.860 you know i think this is how it is it's not the gods are there you know um which is awesome uh

02:10:39.900 she's grown up in the faith um you know uh really it's just simple things like uh blessing the meal

02:10:48.860 uh before we eat and talking to our ancestors daily um my girls really like coming to my altar

02:10:56.380 and uh you know i've got my youngest she's only two and a half so i mean you know she likes ringing

02:11:01.980 the bell she likes uh you know beating the drum but my my oldest she really likes lighting the

02:11:08.060 incense and saying the prayers and being reverent she's really come into that lately and that i'm

02:11:15.340 i couldn't be prouder um so yeah it's just normal everyday stuff really

02:11:21.740 you don't even think about it anymore it just happens

02:11:26.940 absolutely um okay another question uh

02:11:31.020 uh I recently had a concern that I brought up with go through Lane my mother was adopted her

02:11:39.600 adopted father was adopted I was worried that the most influential people in my life would

02:11:45.960 be separated from me I've assumed that's that's uh in the afterlife we're talking about um do

02:11:55.800 thoughts about that rob yeah i mean this is i believe this may have come up before um but i

02:12:05.160 you know you can with an open heart reach out to your ancestors and you don't have to even have a

02:12:12.280 name for them just reach out and they'll find you um spiritually they know who you are you may not

02:12:19.000 have know their name and you may not have a picture of them but they know who you are

02:12:24.280 and they will uh if you reach out to them they will you know back um and you can have a

02:12:32.040 relationship with them that way um you know you can always if you do a dna test or whatnot and

02:12:40.120 you see where you're you're you're the countries from europe that you're you hail from you can look

02:12:46.040 up some very general ancestors and the neat thing about genetics is is it's not uh a funnel i mean

02:12:52.360 it it waves in and out so like they say you know everybody's related to charlemagne right that's

02:12:59.080 what they mean is that because it was long enough ago and you know charlemagne was prolific many of

02:13:06.520 us can claim descent from charlemagne so you can look up old uh you know personage from your

02:13:14.040 ancestral country and chances are you're related to them so you can pay honor to them that way but

02:13:20.680 in general i would just open your heart and and pray and your your answer direct ancestors will

02:13:26.920 find so you know i think there's there's what rob said and then i i also have to think

02:13:35.720 there's nothing there's nothing suggesting that the only people you can interact with

02:13:41.960 on the other side of the veil are your direct kinfolk um

02:13:47.000 you know it's one of those we'll know when we get there but there's no reason to think that

02:13:54.200 at that point you can't interact with other people in your life who've meant a lot to you

02:14:02.840 our conversation earlier about believing in ghosts and if we believe that when you approach

02:14:08.760 the altar and speak to your ancestors that they hear you certainly we toast heroes and

02:14:14.360 friends of ours that have departed at uh sample we believe that they hear us so if they can hear us

02:14:22.200 then certainly you know it would make sense to believe that perhaps they can interact on the

02:14:27.400 other side of the veil as well um it uh it's said that uh certainly in the halls of the gods that

02:14:36.520 that people of of different uh you know from different families interact with one another

02:14:41.320 um so i i see no reason to believe that's any kind of a hard no in those interactions now perhaps if

02:14:48.640 they were of a completely different race i'm not sure the people that raised you if they were they

02:14:53.740 were africans or they were chinese or something and that may be very different case but assuming

02:14:59.000 that there are other other aryan peoples there may very well be ways to interact with them in a very

02:15:04.760 real way when you're on the other side of the veil that's one of those things that will be great to

02:15:08.620 find out when we get there. All right. Birds or cats? We must settle this once and for

02:15:18.360 all. For food or for pets is the question I have. Well, I have chickens and I have cats

02:15:27.600 and I love my chickens, but not as much as I love my cats. But I'll eat the chickens

02:15:35.580 and i won't eat the cats i think it depends on the on the cuisine um on which lends itself better

02:15:43.260 um if we're talking about pets if the choice of birds or cats i got to go with cats

02:15:49.740 um i also feel bad for pet birds i hope this doesn't offend anybody in the audience

02:15:54.860 but it would be really unfortunate to be a bird and not fly so if you're a pet bird and you don't

02:16:01.180 get to actually go out and fly around i feel really bad for that um i would eat that bird

02:16:06.620 just so they didn't have to go through a life without flying oh what's your favorite scary movie

02:16:15.820 uh rob what's your favorite scary movie oh that's a hard one there's so many good uh

02:16:21.420 Oh, man. Now, my brain is turning to mush right now. I can see the movie playing in my head.

02:16:36.400 You know, it's not a traditional scary movie. It's arthouse, and it's pretty cool. It's very

02:16:42.500 gory it's called uh the green inferno uh i enjoyed that um let's see uh you know one of my favorite

02:16:52.180 ones from a kid and it sounds silly and watching it now it is kind of hokey but i always liked

02:16:57.140 children of the corn um the little guy with the with the hat just you know when you when you were

02:17:03.460 young kids scared the the creeps out of you um and the shoot it it's you know it's it's

02:17:12.340 escaping my mind i don't know for whatever reason but the one with ed and lorraine uh

02:17:18.420 there's a house that's haunted uh with the the uh they come to to get it out uh

02:17:26.900 it's big family that lives there i i'll you know what i'll think of it as soon as the podcast is

02:17:31.380 So mine, I don't want to endorse this because I don't think that slasher movies are particularly good or noble or whatever.

02:17:45.400 But Texas Chainsaw Massacre, the original one, really, really creeped me out.

02:17:53.200 And it would still creep me out today if I sat and watched it for a number of reasons.

02:17:57.660 but one of it is just the it wasn't supernatural it wasn't hard to to conceptualize it could

02:18:08.700 technically happen um and it was filmed in grainy old 1970s style filming which just made the whole

02:18:18.940 atmosphere that much more creepy and uh leatherface himself is just terrifying with his

02:18:25.740 creepy moans and wails and stuff um give you a bonus not proud of this one

02:18:35.420 as a small child i was terrified of fraggle rock

02:18:43.100 i'm deadly serious everything about that show creeped me out i remember hiding behind

02:18:49.180 our coffee table when they'd go into like up into the world or whatever and there's the giants

02:18:56.780 i would i would literally hide from those giants behind the coffee table that show creeped me out

02:19:01.340 so bad i vividly remember being terrified of that oh okay so second bonus also something

02:19:09.180 that used to terrify me not necessarily relevant unsolved mysteries was absolutely terrifying and

02:19:18.140 they did a halloween episode when i was a kid but because all of the things on there were real they

02:19:25.420 were things from the news it was very authoritative it was you know newsworthy stuff but then they did

02:19:32.620 you know some paranormal ones too they'd splice in there sometimes and as a kid you don't quite

02:19:37.180 understand how to separate the wheat from chaff on it um and uh yeah they did one and there was

02:19:44.860 it was about werewolf sightings or something and as a kid because again this is a real news program

02:19:53.740 it was terrifying and i remember that to this day also on that show they did one on bigfoot

02:20:00.060 and they did it right before i was supposed to go on a cub scout camp out and they did this bigfoot

02:20:05.420 show and like really got it in my head and the next day i was supposed to go camping in the woods

02:20:10.860 and that also uh creeped me out and stuck with me um that music alone was good to send shivers

02:20:18.940 down your spine absolutely robert stack is awesome just his voice and his whole presentation of that

02:20:25.500 show is amazing um what would you say to the christian identity people who claim

02:20:32.540 jesus was white whites are the real jews etc so it's an interesting question and i think there's

02:20:42.620 a nuance to it i have no idea what i would say to those people because that belief is so absolutely

02:20:51.980 on the face of it absurd and ridiculous but if it's a sincerely held belief by those people i

02:20:58.140 truly not sure exactly how i'd approach it or what i would say um

02:21:05.500 it just is so obviously not true and it is sad to me because it reeks of such desperation um

02:21:17.180 to co-opt and i don't think it's done mean-spiritedly i think um so i mean there's there's

02:21:24.380 shades of this a little bit in alexander red mills who i spoke of earlier his works and there

02:21:30.300 was a time when we don't our people didn't know anything else but christianity to where they

02:21:38.380 would try to marry the two things and make things fit and i think christian identity tries to do that

02:21:47.420 in some kind of an unhealthy way to uh reform a square peg to fit a round hole but

02:21:56.140 it's really sad and and desperate to me that they would take another race of people's gods

02:22:05.020 and try to pretend that we were the same just because reasons it's such a leap and it it

02:22:15.820 willfully is defying any kind of common sense in such a big way i'm not sure the best way to

02:22:25.980 have that conversation with somebody who was in the throes of a sincere belief with that

02:22:30.620 do you have thoughts on that rob uh pretty much the same uh honestly i think if they need to

02:22:38.540 arianize the familiar so they don't want to step out of their comfort zone that their their family

02:22:47.740 you know that that they grew up with the faith that they grew up with so rather than staying 0.55

02:22:52.500 true to the actual semitic roots of the faith they have to change it to to make it somehow

02:23:00.080 ethnic and somehow you know fit in with their worldview and um i don't think it really works

02:23:07.060 Um, and I, again, you know, like you said, you don't want to defend some, if that's their

02:23:13.460 real, sincerely held belief, it's hard to really talk about that in a meaningful way.

02:23:18.480 I don't know either, honestly. 0.99

02:23:20.700 Um, in the words of Gen Z, it's a coat. 1.00

02:23:28.840 Agreed. 1.00

02:23:29.800 Um, Cliff says, so we're talking about courage.

02:23:33.180 can each of you share a moment in your life in which you wish you were more courageous

02:23:38.600 or that you regret you were not courageous

02:23:42.120 do you have any off the top of your head rob yeah and it's

02:23:50.620 there's a few and and i guess one i'll speak about because it is something that haunts me to

02:23:59.020 this day and i've never really shared it with anyone but uh when i was a teen i was like i was

02:24:06.540 just 18 and um my uh my opa that i've spoken about before um he was passing away and

02:24:17.340 i don't i didn't handle that as well as i should instead of confronting i mean i said my goodbyes

02:24:22.380 and whatnot but i didn't stick around i immediately joined the military and left

02:24:27.100 and i think i could have handled that a lot better and i could have been more courageous

02:24:32.140 about that instead of facing my feelings and and being there uh i i i left and i i regret that

02:24:41.900 greatly i wish i had the courage to to face that better i appreciate you sharing that i

02:24:50.540 I, it's going to sound silly, but I remember it because it stuck out to me so much, because

02:24:59.680 it happened when I was a kid.

02:25:02.360 I can't remember how old I was, but I was at Camp Gorsuch, this Boy Scout camp in Alaska,

02:25:10.320 and there was this repelling, I don't know, repelling thing we were all doing.

02:25:20.540 and uh i mean it was this it was a really large rock thing it wasn't like a cliff or something

02:25:29.260 huge it was like a really big rock it was like i don't know 40 foot high or something nothing

02:25:36.460 you know shocking but i was terrified and i couldn't do it and a bunch of the other kids did

02:25:43.580 it and my dad was there and i was so embarrassed that i was too scared to go down that and it's

02:25:51.020 silly because i know better like but i i regret that and feel bad about that to this day

02:26:01.260 um on a side note but kind of partially an interesting story that just came to mind

02:26:06.780 with something that rob said um when my grandfather passed uh my my uncle and i had a troubled

02:26:16.380 relationship he was he was a very severe alcoholic and we just had a lot of things that

02:26:22.540 we struggled with when i was in high school um but my grandfather when he passed

02:26:30.220 my uncle would disparagingly say that i was cowardly that i didn't go and look at his

02:26:36.380 at his dead body after he passed and that wasn't the case that was never something that was offered

02:26:42.620 to me i didn't do that consciously but what i did make sure to do is when my uncle passed i i made

02:26:49.660 very sure that i went there and did a viewing of the body and stood with him and viewed as he went

02:26:57.740 into the the crematorium so not that that's either here or there it's just an interesting thing i

02:27:04.220 thought of when uh something came up that i thought of on it because it was you know referred

02:27:09.420 to i guess irreverently afterwards but not intentionally so as taking the dead body challenge

02:27:16.300 is uh you know being willing to go be there when that was something like that was

02:27:20.780 that was the first and first and only um dead person that i've ever seen

02:27:27.180 Shay asks, what costume will y'all wear this Halloween?

02:27:36.640 Rob, you got a costume picked out?

02:27:38.960 Yeah, I already spoke of it.

02:27:42.300 From The Exorcist, I'll be Father Marin.

02:27:45.020 My children are being little demons.

02:27:49.080 I will not wear a costume because I don't have a clever creative idea for a costume.

02:27:53.660 and uh i don't i don't think that my two-year-old daughter will care too much whether i'm in costume

02:28:01.040 but i do plan on uh consuming as much halloween candy as i can can find from her uh from her her

02:28:10.760 uh winnings i guess so uh but we are going to go around and do a bunch of different

02:28:16.860 trunk or treat things and hopefully we can go around our neighborhood if enough people are doing

02:28:20.540 it um otto says rob what boat were you on and what profession i was a nuke em on the uss sturgeon

02:28:33.180 uh i was on the san francisco and i was a sonar tech

02:28:41.420 um we need a cakewalk at a national event please yes we absolutely need cakewalks at

02:28:50.060 national events let's do this anybody listen to this let's make that happen because that's awesome

02:28:56.460 um josh says what do either of you gentlemen do uh do personal things to connect with ancestors

02:29:05.020 this time of year any personal or family traditions

02:29:08.460 rob do you have any of those that you want to share with folks um i mean uh just attending

02:29:21.520 the dis year blow um at winter night become a big one we haven't missed a winter nights in years

02:29:27.540 and don't plan on it um you know i like to tell stories uh to my kids of my grandparents um to

02:29:37.440 keep their memory alive? Pretty easy stuff. Yeah. Stuff at home I'm trying to think of in a family

02:29:52.760 way. I mean, I always show my daughter pictures of our ancestors. And, you know, if she shows

02:30:03.940 interest in one or points at one, I tell her who it was and what I know of them and any stories

02:30:10.360 about them if I know them. Like Rob said, I've been fortunate enough, we had our 11th Winter

02:30:17.880 Nights this year. I've been to every one of those Winter Nights in the eastern part of the country

02:30:22.880 there, the AFA National Winter Nights. That's always a big thing in my personal life. Winter

02:30:29.780 nights is where I met my wife, Mandy. And so I do that. And it's in as far as interacting with

02:30:36.540 ancestors, I always call on my, my grandmother, my mother's mother, Marianne Davis at the DC

02:30:45.100 or bloat. And I've had really, really profound experiences with that at winter nights. And so

02:30:52.620 that's kind of, it's kind of the stuff I do other stuff. It's starting that time of year that we,

02:30:59.200 you know, the hospitality is really focused on. And I hosted dinner at my house every month. So

02:31:04.240 it's not like it's, you know, only during the quote unquote holidays that I do it. But I have

02:31:10.000 my grandmother, the same grandmother I just spoke about, I have her picture hanging up in my kitchen

02:31:14.560 so that, you know, we can look to her while we're preparing those meals for people. Because at this

02:31:20.180 time of year, you know, around Christmas and Thanksgiving time growing up, that was such a

02:31:27.260 big thing for her to host that at her house and to, to show hospitality to all of our family.

02:31:35.460 Um, all right. Can you please list all the noble virtues in addition to courage?

02:31:43.260 I really love this conversation. Living nobler lives is the antidote to despair. Absolutely.

02:31:51.860 courage truth honor fidelity discipline hospitality self-reliance industriousness

02:32:03.140 perseverance and victory

02:32:08.020 and we're going to do shows like this about each of those uh each of those topics and i'm i'm

02:32:15.140 glad that you see the value in trying to live more noble lives and i hope all our full

02:32:23.140 become inspired by that and uh through doing that inspire each other to uh to be a little

02:32:30.420 bit better tomorrow than we are today um pie season is upon us favorite pie rob what's your

02:32:38.420 your favorite pie oh um well i mean i like i mean i'm gonna be honest my favorite's kind

02:32:46.900 of basic i like apple pie and i like key lime i like cherry i like grasshopper and i like blueberry

02:33:03.380 um blueberry pie filling though is kind of gross like I like cherry pie filling pie

02:33:10.080 blueberry I like a lot better if it's made from from real blueberries

02:33:14.300 uh how do you explain also true to friends and maybe try to suggest why they should convert

02:33:24.500 to convert also. What do you think on that? How would you explain how it's true to friends

02:33:34.500 and in a way that would suggest for them to convert, Rob?

02:33:39.280 Well, it's kind of hard. All my friends are true. But that hasn't always been the case.

02:33:46.740 um and you know i have i have actually i i had a kind of friend at work who

02:33:53.540 you know he was kind of familiar he was into black metal and he knew who you know burzum was

02:33:59.560 and whatnot so he kind of you know he'd heard it of it before but you know when i when i tried to

02:34:06.540 talk to him about it give him my card and i was like no i don't believe in anything

02:34:10.960 so it's like you know all right well i'm not gonna it's not worth my time um but you know

02:34:18.240 like i said the problem is now is all my friends are off the truth so i don't have to convert them

02:34:23.200 but you know once upon a time i mean the big selling point is your blood this is your birthright

02:34:30.320 this is what you were born to um it's everything good about us why wouldn't you want to be part of

02:34:38.320 that you know absolutely rob and i suffer from a similar problem that way

02:34:45.920 pretty much all of my friends are are also true and our afa members um

02:34:57.120 talking about uh you know how we would explain it to them that's presupposing i guess in my mind

02:35:07.120 that they've inquired about it. And hopefully the first initial step to that is they see what an

02:35:13.700 impact it's had on your life, because you're living nobly, you're finding success, you're

02:35:19.120 being victorious in your life. Your world is better because you're also true. So hopefully

02:35:24.920 they're inquiring in that regard, or they've at least noticed that. And I think that's a good

02:35:29.680 place to start i think ancestor worship is also a great place to start to start likely most people

02:35:39.200 no matter whether they are uh also true or not have tried to speak to their their ancestors in

02:35:46.640 a prayerful moment that's very common to the human condition and we embrace that and celebrate that

02:35:52.400 connecting that to the blood like rob said to where this is where you belong this is what's

02:35:57.600 built for your soul. And then some of it is, is inviting them to like, Hey, how about you come

02:36:06.060 check it out? You know, see what you think. Some of it is that invitation and that opening to the

02:36:11.460 door to where they don't need to go in one second from complete unfamiliarity with Ausatru to

02:36:18.720 zealous Ausatru practitioner. That doesn't have to be a one-step process, but giving them the

02:36:25.200 opportunity to see it in practice and to see the effect it has on other people. Something I think

02:36:31.920 is a really powerful selling point is when people go to these things and they see how seriously the

02:36:38.900 rest of us take it. They see our reactions and that in a way makes it real for them or at least

02:36:45.400 opens a door for it to become real to them. Does the AFA accept white people who know they have

02:36:52.960 some non-white ancestors. So here's the thing, and I know that we have purists out there that

02:37:01.020 may in their personal life take a different stance than this. The AFA standard is and always has been

02:37:07.860 and always will be if people look white and they present themselves as white and they don't tell us 0.91

02:37:15.000 any different and they don't look different, then that's good enough. There's any number of people

02:37:21.660 that are not 100 percent uh some of that unfortunately is just the case um but the

02:37:29.100 biggest things that come to that are the the group impact and the group disruption

02:37:35.500 if elizabeth warren who's 100 white came there and tells everybody you know that she's 0.95

02:37:41.100 a cherokee princess we can't have that that disrupts the group and it takes what is us 1.00

02:37:48.140 and make something other and we don't want that in our religious practice 0.92

02:37:53.100 um if somebody goes there and does have some different ancestry and goes around talking about

02:37:59.340 you know whatever that other is that other is not us and it creates division and dissension

02:38:05.500 and it takes it from homogeneous to not homogeneous so the group disruption is unacceptable 0.53

02:38:13.980 um but yeah we don't dig around in everybody's ancestry if if you look white and we recognize

02:38:20.940 you as us then you're us and i know it's not as scientific as some people like but it's real it's

02:38:28.620 how our ancestors identified us it's how everyone identifies us is you check it out give them the

02:38:36.140 smell test you know no that looks like us that's us may not be the the the perfect answer people

02:38:44.540 want but it's the real answer um what is your favorite horror book and author rob

02:38:55.180 um you know i really haven't read a whole lot of horror books um i read some stephen king on

02:39:03.340 when i was in the navy when i was on deployment uh just because they were plentiful

02:39:07.500 and available um so that's mainly what i read um i really it horror is a genre as far as books goes

02:39:15.340 um hasn't really been something i've really been into like i said uh stephen king is really

02:39:20.620 the extent of that and it's it was available in a lot of it you know i've

02:39:27.980 I don't read a lot of fiction. I don't read any fiction now, and I didn't used to read a lot of

02:39:35.540 fiction. Can't think of any specifically horror stuff I've read, except for I've read some short

02:39:40.200 stories by H.P. Lovecraft. And I came about that because of his association with Robert E. Howard,

02:39:46.800 and I was a big Robert E. Howard fan. So a couple of Lovecraft's things, I'd have to say, but again,

02:39:52.620 that wasn't my genre, and it wasn't really something that I've ever paid much attention

02:39:57.760 to. Can you explain the importance of the Einherjar and how the AFA ties them into Veterans

02:40:05.640 Day? Rob, take a shot. Well, the Einherjar are the slain warriors that are chosen to

02:40:16.440 go to Valhalla. Of course, Frey gets the first pick to go to Folkvanger, but the Einherjar 0.94

02:40:25.980 are those slain warriors that are in my and this is a little bit of you know personal belief here

02:40:34.060 i don't think that the soldier that is crouching and pissing himself and gets killed by a mortar

02:40:40.380 is going to valhalla i also don't think the old the old master warrior um that is so good that

02:40:49.900 he lives to old age and dies as an old man but he was the absolute pinnacle of warrior-ness

02:40:57.980 you know and i think he can be of use in valhalla so again that's a little bit of personal belief

02:41:03.340 there um but they are the the slain you know according to the lore they're the slain warriors

02:41:09.580 that go to valhalla and feast and it's it's an ascension it's it's uh and i i don't remember

02:41:17.500 who said this that the blood of the warrior is more precious than the prayers of the bias

02:41:22.300 uh it's kind of uh that in that vein it's like a fast track ticket to ascend into

02:41:30.540 uh you know the realm of the gods um demigod if you will um and they're

02:41:37.420 important because they they train and fight uh in the last battle at ragnarok

02:41:41.900 So I think this is really important that we, you know, that we get this question on the show.

02:41:50.280 We talk about courage.

02:41:55.120 There's not a great amount of attestation in lore.

02:41:59.880 And yes, it talks about them in terms of battlefield slain.

02:42:06.120 But like Rob said, there's distinction there.

02:42:08.960 It's hard to believe that, you know, somebody who isn't in the heat of something courageous

02:42:15.620 but happens to die in some kind of a war zone gets a ticket there, but the greatest warrior

02:42:22.580 ever in the history of warriors that makes it to old age doesn't get to go.

02:42:26.920 I don't think it works like that.

02:42:28.820 And I also don't presume that, you know, only slain warriors get to go there.

02:42:33.700 I'm not going to tell the Allfather who he can invite to his table.

02:42:37.480 but in the lore they're the the the warriors that are chosen to uh to sit and to eat at the at the

02:42:45.620 all father's table and to commune with odin in a very special way and with their fellow warriors

02:42:49.860 in a very special way and to battle the forces of chaos alongside our gods um rob's right it's

02:42:56.840 about ascension and the ascension specifically in that instance is ascension through courage

02:43:03.100 And I think warriors, especially in that day where everything was very personal, really exemplify the ability to overcome and master oneself in the moment of conflict.

02:43:21.100 And that ascension is, you know, a shortcut or a quick path to ascension and becoming more than you are and that being recognized by our gods.

02:43:31.260 and it's it's no mystical secret it was put on Veterans Day by the early practitioners at

02:43:41.060 Ausatru in the last century for a reason as a special time for people in Ausatru to celebrate

02:43:47.660 our veterans not claiming that those are the only people that are Einherjar or every veteran

02:43:53.460 becomes an Einherjar but that special thematic moment for us to honor our veterans is special

02:44:01.100 and is honoring that service and people's willingness to overcome fear or hardship

02:44:11.280 to put themselves in literal danger and their life at risk for cause, for king, for country,

02:44:20.420 for the man next to them. Their ability to do that is something that we in Auschwitz

02:44:25.800 who certainly want to celebrate. And so that's why we do that. Do you think werewolves or vampires 0.96

02:44:32.780 could be real? At least I've heard of two places in Serbia where they say a vampire is buried.

02:44:40.220 What do you think, Rob? I don't know, maybe. I mean, there's examples in the sagas of folks

02:44:49.740 turning into wolves um you know metaphysically does the ophidnar turn into a wolf on the battlefield

02:44:58.940 you know i mean these are uh long interesting questions you know uh what what's the navel

02:45:05.340 gazing questions but uh i i don't know maybe i'm sure there's a lot out there that

02:45:12.140 isn't explained and that we don't know so i i guess it could be possible

02:45:19.740 And I feel like it would be wrong to say a hard no. I mean, certainly in the common conception of those things, it's fanciful. And I think that if there is any truth to any of that, it's probably not in our current understanding of those phenomenon.

02:45:44.440 on. As Rob mentioned, the shape shifting into some animal form is spoken about in our lore

02:45:52.720 in a number of different ways. I don't know, there's probably not those things out there,

02:46:01.680 but I like to hold out, you know, that bit of wonderment that perhaps there is. And it would

02:46:09.240 be really interesting. And I hope that there are things out there that defy common understanding.

02:46:17.120 We certainly believe that in the case of other metaphysical things. So perhaps there's something

02:46:23.500 to some of that. Again, I'm not out there trying to tell you those things are real or it's a thing,

02:46:29.380 but I like to hold my mind open to the possibilities.

02:46:32.680 along the lines of building courage do y'all have any games or activities that may instill

02:46:40.580 these acts through play or practice gambling could be one maybe and rock climbing another

02:46:47.300 do you have any thoughts on that rob i mean there's physical courage there's plenty of games

02:46:53.760 uh that one can engage in in in building that up but rock climbing was absolutely mentioned um

02:47:01.580 You know, it's with pool noodles, but our little kids had a sword battle at winter nights.

02:47:09.100 I mean, you know, I mean, to a kid, maybe getting whacked in the head with a pool noodle

02:47:13.620 is scary.

02:47:14.880 So that builds courage.

02:47:20.140 You know, as adults, there's very effective things you can do, like you said.

02:47:25.640 Do some, find something that you're afraid of.

02:47:28.280 If you're afraid of heights, rock climbing, absolutely.

02:47:31.580 a way to build courage if you're afraid of i don't remember what it's called but some people are

02:47:37.100 afraid of uh deep water uh well find uh you know there's a famous swimming hole in texas that you

02:47:44.300 it's really deep i can't remember the name of it but i mean there's plenty of deep water

02:47:48.700 go swim in it do something that you are afraid of and overcome that fear and boom

02:47:53.900 you've cultivated courage absolutely there's a lot of things that you know

02:47:58.620 know, people are too scared because their kids are too fragile today to do. But there's a lot

02:48:06.220 of things to instill courage, but more than just courage to instill self-confidence in kids. And

02:48:13.060 I think that martial arts is a way to do that. I think that boxing is a way to do that. There's a

02:48:21.020 of stuff that kids can do that puts them at at a risk of of getting a boo-boo that

02:48:30.220 can build that courage you don't want to put them in a spot where they're going to be

02:48:33.260 damaged in a permanent or a severe way but just to learn that you know falling down is not gonna

02:48:40.220 not gonna kill you and uh facing your fears sometimes they're not as scary as maybe you

02:48:47.820 perceive them to be so i think stuff like that absolutely does um but yeah i think anything

02:48:54.300 marshall like that does where there's you know some contact and some risk of discomfort uh i

02:49:01.660 think that builds courage and it builds character all around um how would you explain aussitry to

02:49:07.820 your family that is either catholic or southern baptist that you're not going to be sent to hell

02:49:13.100 because you have a different religion and don't practice black magic what are your thoughts rob

02:49:19.740 um well my family is catholic um so i've got a little bit of experience luckily my parents

02:49:27.740 are very open-minded and have and have accepted it without any real fuss um i joke my my parents

02:49:35.660 send us yule cards and because they don't know where to get yule cards they'll buy a christmas

02:49:41.180 card in the white christmas out and write in yule um and you know i i treasure that when i get that

02:49:48.380 in the mail um you know and i think one of the biggest selling points was um with my parents is

02:49:56.940 you know this is ancestral this is what our our ancestors did do you really believe that

02:50:01.980 our ancestors are burning in hell for eternity you know um this is you know this is our history

02:50:09.100 and and a big selling point was the ancestor veneration well mom i pray to grandma i pray

02:50:15.180 to grandpa uh how is that evil you know um that that's that really was a big selling point well

02:50:23.980 if i pray to my grandparents you're saying that's evil you know no that can't be evil so that that

02:50:29.660 was the big and honestly with european catholicism there's a lot of paganism built into it uh which

02:50:37.500 they don't want to acknowledge but i mean every time you light a candle uh in the church i mean

02:50:44.060 we do that that was ours before it was ever a christian thing so you know and i i pointed out

02:50:51.180 to my parents interestingly i said all the things you love about the catholic faith are not christian

02:50:57.340 you should just come over you know hasn't worked yet but i i'm i'm thinking as if i can get them

02:51:03.340 at some point in time but um you know that's how i do it so it's a it's an interesting question and

02:51:14.220 i think the answer depends on how seriously those people take their faith um and this is you know

02:51:23.740 there's a double-edged sword to this too uh the super zealous christian that

02:51:33.500 no you are in fact going to burn in hell because you do not bow before jesus

02:51:40.140 though that is the most fundamentally opposed to my value system a part of me certainly respects

02:51:46.220 their zeal and their sincere faith what's hard to respect but much easier to deal with

02:51:51.980 is someone who says they're Christian, but doesn't really matter. It's not really that

02:51:58.820 big of a deal. It's okay if you want to be pagan and I'm Christian and we can all get along.

02:52:04.700 That's not authentic Christianity. And they're not being true to their value system. And they 0.73

02:52:11.300 lack the courage to jump ship from that to something that they really believe in. And

02:52:17.080 that's hard to respect, but it's much easier on dealing with in a family context and getting them

02:52:24.520 to either accept you or to hopefully to come over to our belief and our values.

02:52:33.600 I'd say in either case, your best bet is always to be dignified, have nobility and to win.

02:52:41.260 The most attractive, and I don't just mean in a romantic sense, but in that certainly, but just with people liking you or family agreeing with you or swaying opinion is be a winner.

02:52:57.860 people are seduced by winning. If you are successful, if you have victory and success

02:53:06.600 in your life, if you have your stuff squared away, even on a subconscious level, it pulls

02:53:15.140 those people towards you. And it takes a lot of wind out of their sails about naysaying your faith

02:53:20.900 and how silly this is or bad this is or whatever they want to say. It's hard to say that.

02:53:27.860 When you've got a good family, when you've got a good marriage, when you've got good children, when you've got a good job, when your life is fulfilled, when you look good, when you're doing well, you can't argue with success.

02:53:42.060 It just is. And I think that's beneficial in all those scenarios.

02:53:50.980 Lou asks, have either of you read on the genealogy of morals by Nietzsche?

02:53:57.860 That was the first book I've ever read that opened my eyes to European noble values, including Courage and How, and How Judeo-Christianity Undermined Them.

02:54:12.800 Have you ever read that, Rob?

02:54:14.720 It's probably been 20 years, but yes.

02:54:21.240 And, you know, it is absolutely mustache goals.

02:54:25.840 uh the the last nietzsche uh work that i i listened to uh an audio book uh thus spoke

02:54:35.280 zarathustra um yes i've read most of nietzsche stuff but it may have been a very long time

02:54:47.200 i have not read that book um but i'll have to check it out i have not read a lot of nietzsche's

02:54:53.280 stuff but uh i'll definitely give that a a look um so that's the last question of tonight we've

02:55:02.880 been about three hours with you guys uh thank you so much for being here tonight and for all

02:55:09.040 your wonderful questions and uh to our special guest and my friend to go through rob stanum

02:55:15.040 thank you so much for being here it's been a pleasure to talk with you tonight and uh you

02:55:19.360 know once more for the record you are a man that your entire church looks to as the exemplar of

02:55:26.000 courage so congratulations on that and it is well deserved

02:55:38.000 all right guys uh join us the same time next week as i talk with uh witness fawn harrell about thor

02:55:46.160 And until then, hail the gods, hail the folk, hail the AFA, and remember victory never sleeps.

02:56:16.160 We'll be right back.

02:56:46.160 Thank you.

02:57:16.160 Thank you.

02:57:46.160 Thank you.

02:58:16.160 Thank you.

02:58:46.160 Thank you.

Asatru Folk Assembly - October 27, 2022

10⧸26⧸22 Victory Never Sleeps, Episode 16 - Courage

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