Asatru Folk Assembly - 11⧸16⧸22 Victory Never Sleeps, Episode 19 - Baldr

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 Welcome to another exciting edition of Victory Never Sleeps.

00:03:19.940 and uh you may notice i am on the screen by myself for the moment we await um

00:03:35.060 witness fawn joining us uh i am i am in uh in conversation with him on the back end right now

00:03:44.000 so hopefully he can he can join us and speak about balder this evening

00:03:54.560 i suppose to start off i'll give him a few minutes to get here before we actually start

00:04:00.240 the discussion of balder proper and we can do a little bit of housekeeping stuff at first

00:04:14.160 All right, cool. I sent him a message. Hopefully he will be joining us. Anyways, I had the

00:04:20.000 privilege of attending Feast of the Einherjar in Oklahoma this last weekend. I actually

00:04:27.540 headed out for that not too long after last week's broadcast, and what a fantastic event.

00:04:34.940 um folk builders melissa mills nathan erlinson and ashley mcstocker did an amazing job of hosting

00:04:44.900 that event it was it was spectacular we were at a beautiful camp great people there powerful

00:04:51.160 powerful rituals and a great chance to meet some folks that haven't gotten to uh gotten to meet

00:04:58.700 before and reconnect with some people that i haven't seen in a while so it was a it was a great

00:05:03.100 weekend, and I appreciate all the effort that went into putting on that event. He says he'll

00:05:07.700 be here in just a minute, so Svahn will, in fact, join us. What else? What else is news for folks?

00:05:19.840 We're one more week into it, into the purchasing Sigerheim process. We are at the cusp of something

00:05:29.400 really great here you guys have been extremely generous thus far as of today we've raised

00:05:37.160 15.2 percent of the down payment amount we were targeting which is great you guys have

00:05:44.600 been awesome and we're continuing to move forward on that those of you who are curious about our

00:05:52.200 progress on Frazehoff. We are, so there's a couple of steps I mentioned in order to get Frazehoff,

00:06:01.500 and I wanted to clear something up beforehand. I heard that there is some confusion or some

00:06:08.200 questioning on whether Sigurheim is going to take away from the effort to get Frazehoff,

00:06:15.900 and it's not. The way that we've budgeted for this and planned for this, they're running

00:06:20.260 completely separate our hoffs are going to continue in the same order with the same emphasis that

00:06:25.460 we've always put on them uh with phrase hoff coming in its time when it's you know regularly

00:06:31.060 scheduled to and then in it will be at sigerheim but tiers hoff is running completely under

00:06:37.620 independent of sigerheim and that'll happen when it's regularly scheduled to in our rotation of

00:06:42.660 hoffs so uh sigerheim is being funded in a completely different way by completely different

00:06:49.300 section of our our budget from that so the two things are in no way in conflict um but yeah so

00:06:56.740 you guys know where we're coming from on phrasehoff first step to get phrasehoff is we need to pay off

00:07:01.220 njordshoff we are 40.2 percent paid on on the value of njordshoff which is fantastic

00:07:10.020 we've got to pay off the rest of that before we can consider phrasehoff and uh

00:07:14.980 uh, yeah, that's, uh, that's going really well. The other, one of the other benchmarks is raising

00:07:21.440 our overall AFA revenue. And it looks like we need to raise that by just about 15% at this point

00:07:27.680 to get to where it makes sense for us to get phrase off. So we are well on our way.

00:07:32.940 Um, $25 from Michael, uh, test message, new to entropy, hail Balder, uh, hail to

00:07:44.940 you, Michael. Thank you so much for your donation. We really do appreciate that.

00:07:52.660 So great. I'm going to answer some of these questions I'm getting until we get Svon on here.

00:07:58.560 Keep in mind, guys, join me on Entropy if you would like to participate in Super Chat,

00:08:04.780 or if you just want to throw us a few dollars here and there. We always appreciate those,

00:08:09.060 and they go towards accomplishing the things I just spoke about. Got a question from Shea.

00:08:14.420 good evening i'll share your go if you flavor uh what was your favorite part of your visit to

00:08:18.820 oklahoma for the feast of the iron yard we loved having you out and look forward to next year well

00:08:23.140 i look forward to next year also also it was fantastic to meet you guys um man what was my

00:08:31.540 favorite part um truly i think my favorite part was getting to meet folks like yourself that i

00:08:39.140 haven't met before uh i both in three new folk builders down there for those of you who may not

00:08:46.660 know um thomas isaac gleason uh justin day and gentleman who asked the question shay mccurdy

00:08:56.020 known all you guys online for a little while now but it was great to actually get to meet

00:08:59.620 you guys and talk to you a little bit and i think that was my favorite part was getting to meet folks

00:09:04.340 that i hadn't met before and and make those friendships um one of our new apprentice folk

00:09:12.260 builders ali clausen asks can you speak a little bit about the photos from einher yard bloat so

00:09:19.620 powerful um yes and i i hesitate on some of those because it i don't want to cheapen it um those of

00:09:34.180 you who may have seen those bloat pictures may notice a blue light phenomenon thing that occurs

00:09:43.220 in several of them and it's very very similar certainly in shape color and behavior as

00:09:53.220 a similar thing that we experience very often in photos from bloats at odenshof and i don't want

00:10:01.060 to jump to conclusions or put more behind it than there is but it appears on many many people's

00:10:08.260 cameras in different ways different places in different times and i think it definitely shows

00:10:15.220 that something's going on and that the bloats are are being well received and are effective

00:10:20.260 and again i don't know about cameras i don't know if there's some kind of anomaly out there that

00:10:26.180 accounts for that, but I think they're extremely impressive to say the least.

00:10:33.140 And those of you who haven't seen those pictures may want to check those out on our various media.

00:10:38.820 Here he is. Witten Svahn has decided to join us this evening. Thank you. I appreciate that.

00:10:46.420 Welcome Svahn. How are you doing? I'm doing well. I'm doing well.

00:10:50.500 um running a little late from work to say the least it happens it's not too bad

00:10:59.940 so this week we are gonna talk about balder um with these first uh these first episodes on our

00:11:12.100 No idea what that was in the background. Svahn's got a train going through his house or something.

00:11:22.980 Excuse me, that's the jets flying over.

00:11:26.980 Apparently Svahn is coming to us from an airfield.

00:11:33.300 Anyways, as I was saying, these first gods, we're fortunate enough to be well in the way of building

00:11:39.620 very good relationships with them with our hoffs um and that's a really special thing that we get

00:11:47.380 uh like i said with these first four and that we'll be building with the rest of them as time

00:11:53.700 time progresses one of the

00:12:01.620 one of the special things one of the the fortuitous things i think about uh

00:12:06.580 about balder and his hof is the way that light plays into that hof the way that he's lit the

00:12:15.300 way that svan conducted the just how the lighting fits into his mural and the really special light

00:12:24.260 effect of that place after sundown because of its very beautiful stained glass windows on the side

00:12:30.420 the light emanating from from that building from that hoff is really beautiful and the idea of

00:12:37.300 of shining of brightness of nobility shining for the world to see is such a such a powerful part

00:12:44.660 of of balder and i think it's really exemplified well at his hoff i've got a got a comment from

00:12:53.060 tyler along with 15 thank you so much tyler we appreciate it good evening hope you all are doing

00:12:58.740 well excited about the conversation on balder tonight hail well hail to you and hail to the

00:13:03.620 folks that are being generous this evening we really appreciate it it's fun what would you

00:13:07.540 like to where would you like to start telling people a little bit about balder and uh you know

00:13:14.500 starting that ball rolling on conversing about him uh first and foremost i think the mystery of

00:13:22.180 boulders is in i think our lore and the lore that we have that survives um is what makes the most

00:13:33.860 mysterious kind of misplaced ideas behind boulder i think that we have a combination between um

00:13:42.500 snorty's very uh christ-like depictions where he was trying to paint him in a certain light and

00:13:49.220 And then we have Saxo Grammaticus's depiction of him in a very, you know, dark kind of warrior-esque style.

00:14:03.300 So you have these two combinations that are going on.

00:14:09.500 And they seem to be really, really playing out.

00:14:13.320 But they draw some sort of kind of a blank between the two.

00:14:18.080 And what we end up having is we have this kind of misinformation of whether or not he's this peaceful and gentle and soft god.

00:14:28.080 god and then we have another in which you know clearly he's warlike and fighting hod against

00:14:35.360 you know blinding hod with his own hands to to gain the love of of nana and um and that

00:14:44.600 or or the fight between them in which um you know it takes great magic to defeat him

00:14:51.220 so there's a lot going on there that i think that that's why a lot of people come at it with

00:14:57.400 with great confusion and we should look at one the name of balder and his his meaning the meaning

00:15:07.020 of his name and also to the uh correlation of of movement when we talk about um uh the way gods

00:15:17.700 move about in cosmology so i think that that's very important i think that's one of the aspects

00:15:25.700 that we should really focus in on is looking at the way the gods move in the stories do tell us

00:15:32.020 a great amount of things um one of them mainly being

00:15:37.620 that we talk about the stasis of death that the gods can

00:15:41.780 have a doom that they meet out the doom of men and they have issues these issues are you know

00:15:48.980 um these issues are a point of their being that the fact that they can move forward the fact that

00:16:00.660 they can um they're they're posed to a doom and that doom uh drives them forward it gives it

00:16:13.160 gives the gods purpose it gives the gods and our relationship with them purpose i think it's more

00:16:18.240 purposeful than even the the uh later myths um the stories snorties saxos stories written down

00:16:26.400 i think they alludes to it even greater than what we could possibly even imagine um people

00:16:33.360 have a tendency to wonder like why would you even honor a god that that's in a chthonic state of

00:16:41.660 underworld. And I think that's all the more important that we do. So I'd like to make a

00:16:48.220 couple of notes here, because I think you bring up a point, and it's something that I've commonly

00:16:52.360 heard. One of our, well, a couple of times I've heard this said, you know, why make a temple to

00:17:01.640 a to a dead god and there's two ways to go about the question um we've mentioned this before on

00:17:12.040 here but i believe that our myths take place in mythic time and i believe in the cycles of our

00:17:19.720 of our faith in our myth cycle itself all of the all of the elements of our myths have occurred

00:17:28.680 are occurring and will occur and i understand that you know with the very temporal existence

00:17:34.520 that that we all live it's hard to relate to that and i think that's one of the reasons that

00:17:40.200 our myths are portrayed in a in a chronological sequence but i think that mythic time and the

00:17:45.320 time of the gods functions differently than the time of man so i think that you know whereas

00:17:52.520 Because Baldr is alive, Baldr is in Helheim, and Baldr is resurrected are all true and are all simultaneous.

00:18:03.140 And if that's too much for people to bite off, let's assume for a second that we are currently positing that Baldr is in the realm of Hella right now.

00:18:11.900 if that is the case why would that make him any less of a god any less living any less

00:18:23.460 capable of participating in that gift cycle because the gift cycle is the basis of our

00:18:28.840 worship in general and if we believe that that applies to our ancestors and certainly we do

00:18:35.080 this time of year, you know, many of us do desabloat and alpha bloat to our female and our

00:18:41.880 male ancestors. We believe that they look on from beyond the veil and we believe that they can give

00:18:46.600 us blessings and interact with us in the world that we're in. Certainly that same rule would

00:18:54.500 apply to a God who is in that state as well, would it not? And so I think that the question

00:19:01.120 is kind of moot, but it's interesting to think on. If our ancestors hear us and reciprocate to us

00:19:06.920 in a state of death that we know is a thing, then certainly if that's where Balder finds himself

00:19:13.280 right now, which is an if, then certainly he can still participate in that gift cycle with us.

00:19:19.920 But as I said earlier, I think our gods and the series of myths all exist simultaneously in that

00:19:27.960 mythic time to tell us about those gods. But either way, I think it's important to acknowledge

00:19:34.360 up front, though, that Balder exists in a state where he can hear our prayers and our offerings

00:19:43.140 and our hails and where he can gift us with his blessing, with his favor, with his inspiration.

00:19:50.420 And certainly we've seen that our folk have been very blessed since we have established a temple

00:19:56.180 to him. Got a couple of questions lining up. Feel free to ask any questions you guys want

00:20:04.920 tonight. Absolutely about Balder, but also about anything you might like. A couple of questions

00:20:11.320 coming up from Monk. What are the responsibilities of the priesthood in the AFA? Responsibilities

00:20:19.260 are many. Svahn, go ahead and tell him a little bit about those and I will fill any extra holes

00:20:27.020 or add anything to it that I might need to on the other end. Well, first and foremost, I think all

00:20:33.120 Goth are poised to uphold duties and those duties could range from multiple things. If there is a 0.97

00:20:46.100 Hoff involved around one or many of the Godar, then they are to maintain that Hoff and to 0.92

00:20:56.260 allocate scheduling and in doing so, maintaining service and giving gifts. But also too, that,

00:21:04.640 of course, involves deeply interconnecting with the people around the Hoff, whether it's multiple

00:21:10.400 kindreds individuals families and then from that that duty kind of begins to segue out into um

00:21:20.000 upholding thresholds whether it's baby naming ceremonies um whether it's uh you know name

00:21:28.160 fastenings and coming of age uh weddings and of course funerals um so i would say that that would

00:21:36.320 be a good framework to understand that the gothar are there and there are some gothar that are not

00:21:41.200 connected to temples yet but um are connected to great communities so they're still doing these

00:21:49.040 things they're just doing them from from a place where there might have um you know multiple

00:21:55.280 destinations not a preset hallowed space and so uh here's the jets again um the uh

00:22:04.720 The other thing is counseling and providing advice or even rectifying issues can sometimes be a place, I think, where Gothar are involved in which – and this is – we're speaking predominantly from experience.

00:22:26.700 we're not postulizing what what gothar do what gothar have been doing this whole time i think

00:22:33.660 uh the afa has you know a long track record of of uh go these witnessing oaths go these um

00:22:45.020 mediating disputes between folk to keep frith trying to find a point of um consolidation

00:22:52.300 between both sides, whether it's an argument or, or, um, perhaps a slight or a perceived slight

00:22:58.280 or, or whatever it may be. Um, I've also, you know, just, uh, counseling for families after

00:23:04.600 death, um, you know, and trying to, um, you know, preside over the, the, uh, I guess the physical

00:23:15.340 remains of a person who is also true, but perhaps their family isn't. I mean, these are all really

00:23:20.700 big issues that the gothar have been tackling as they've become more and more um solidified in

00:23:29.420 in the australia folk assembly and i think as we become more complex we've uh you know conducting

00:23:36.420 ceremonies on grassroot levels also kind of even folk building in our own right so there's a lot

00:23:42.980 of stuff i think that the gothar are doing um to answer that question in in regards to our uh

00:23:49.780 our duties so i think uh svan covered a lot of it uh there's a couple of things i'd like to add

00:24:00.580 a gothi in the afa is a spiritual leader and a spiritual leader of our church and that

00:24:06.340 requires different things at different times in the most fundamental way

00:24:10.820 the Arians have always viewed our priesthood. It's been exemplified in Latin as the pontifex

00:24:23.040 or the bridge facilitator, the bridge creator, serving as that bridge between the folk and the

00:24:33.180 gods and between the gods and the folk. And that comes in a lot of different forms. Certainly,

00:24:38.900 that's there in a ritual sense, when we perform ceremonies, when we do bloats,

00:24:45.460 when we preside over namings, over weddings, over funerals, and things that way. But making

00:24:52.500 that connection between our people and our gods and vice versa is essential. And we need to

00:25:00.560 represent the folk in the best way we can before our gods and represent our gods before the folk

00:25:07.100 the best way we can. Outside of those rituals and certainly tending to the temples and things that

00:25:12.820 way, there's a lot of things that I don't think folk realize that our Gothar do. Counseling is

00:25:20.420 the thing I would say I do most as a Gothi. Counseling occurs so much more often than I

00:25:31.400 think people understand. And our Gothar are there to take calls and to counsel members who are

00:25:36.040 struggling with things in their life or who need need someone to listen or just need someone to

00:25:41.160 talk to uh they do that 24 7 and uh at a lot of a lot of cost to their own personal time and their

00:25:51.180 own uh i don't know their own comfort because it's very difficult but it's something that we

00:25:56.220 love to do because we love our folk and it's something we certainly signed up for

00:25:59.740 but the counseling is huge we spend a great deal of time doing that also our gothar are in charge

00:26:07.400 of running their district in in the afa and managing the folk builders underneath them

00:26:15.320 managing projects and things that go on in that district and all the behind the scenes work making

00:26:21.580 sure stuff goes in make sure the social media things work right making sure you know all our

00:26:27.640 are all our tech things on the back end work as well so there's really a lot that goes into it

00:26:33.960 one thing i think is very special about our gothar is because we've had so many different gothar

00:26:41.880 in so many different walks of life with so much different experiences because we work as a team

00:26:47.880 we have uh we have a really deep well of experience to draw from and so that allows us to to help

00:26:59.280 people in a in a different way to be able to to bring more experience and uh more knowledge

00:27:06.280 to dealing with folks and it's uh it's extremely important and i'm very honored we're able to do

00:27:12.620 that uh 77 with a whole bunch of cues asks how many people draw a salary from afa funds

00:27:21.580 just me right now i would love to get to a point where all of our gothar are able to uh

00:27:29.020 make a living being a gothi and take care of their family with that being their primary vocation

00:27:33.660 i'd love to see that uh so far i'm the only one who does i get a salary right now i get a thousand

00:27:40.380 dollars a month um ali asks thorshoff was supposed to be in minnesota you said north

00:27:50.140 carolina fits thor better does minnesota fit the idea and character of balder better than

00:27:56.460 any other idea or place that was considered that's hard to it's hard to answer because

00:28:06.460 i think that any answer i give is going to be colored by the fact that that's where the hoff

00:28:13.180 ends up so i think that you know any my mind is going to make that fit to where the answer is yes

00:28:22.060 um i don't know if that's the case or not um i don't know a reason that that's not the case

00:28:30.460 i don't think that that's necessarily the god that everyone in minnesota would have chosen

00:28:36.220 But what I have heard is how proud those people are that that is the God of their temple and how much that has brought them closer together and how much since establishing that Hoff they identify with and worship and have such a heightened relationship with Balder and how big of a blessing that's been in their life.

00:28:58.720 But I think that's the only real honest way to answer that question.

00:29:02.560 The next question I want Svan to take a swing at first. Thok refuses to weep for Balder. Do you ascribe to the idea that Thok was Loki in the form of a giantess? Svan.

00:29:32.560 i cannot hear you spawn i hope everyone else can

00:29:44.060 i'm sorry yeah i was doing that because of the jets i was didn't want the noise to um

00:29:50.040 go into into that but i do i do um correlate the two because of the rise in

00:29:59.760 in the presence of maliciousness as begins to metastasize in the kinslayer that is loki um

00:30:09.620 you know it's it's reference to that thok will will will cry waterless tears um when you know

00:30:16.540 it is seeked that uh if all were to weep for him uh and this again established earlier you know in

00:30:24.980 in balder's dream uh kind of correlates to the shape-shifting and the establishment that this is

00:30:31.060 already going to take place without understanding the precedence of who's asking in which in this

00:30:38.500 case uh hell is asking for all to weep and it's it it's not specified though so the the question does

00:30:48.340 you know bear to ask is this is this loki but there are there hints to it in balder's drama

00:30:56.340 and it it alludes to the ongoing secession of of malicious acts that are taking place and continue

00:31:04.340 to take place even after leading up of course to the the lokasana itself and uh the capture of loki

00:31:11.300 and the binding of of loki um so i i do ascribe to the idea that that uh thulk is loki in in uh

00:31:22.500 you know troll witch form if you will

00:31:27.700 it it just it follows in line with it all it does and i've never really had cause to question that

00:31:34.740 that's certainly always been uh been my belief and and remain so and i'm not sure

00:31:40.500 not sure what the what the reason to draw that into question would be um katla asks

00:31:50.580 matt watched your video with t james i find it funny that atheists will ask what you

00:31:57.700 what can get you to stop believing in the gods but don't give a line that would get them to believe

00:32:04.420 i asked one atheist writer once after a talk he gave if anything could make him believe in a god

00:32:10.420 and he said no nothing have you ever had an atheist who actually gave a specific proof

00:32:17.620 that would make them believe um i haven't and i think that there's a couple of a couple of elements

00:32:26.420 to that i think that um well i think that atheism is

00:32:43.220 i think it's easy to say it is a religion unto itself but i think perhaps that perverts the

00:32:48.180 word of religion a little bit it is certainly a zealous ideology in and of itself

00:32:56.420 and it's not that they are neutral on the subject um that's you know agnosticism atheism they are

00:33:05.060 firmly committed in anti-belief um and i think that's an entrenched position i think most of the

00:33:12.260 time because you have to look at um anyone whose entire uh persona or whose main thrust in their

00:33:24.980 life is to oppose something or to be be against something and why they're so committed to that

00:33:32.980 and what motivates them for an atheist they are so committed to that ideology that's their bread

00:33:41.860 and butter what would they do if they admitted to a position that that would cause them to

00:33:48.100 to change their very strongly held belief in atheism that's uh the gentleman you mentioned

00:33:54.340 That's his whole claim to fame. And I think he is so tied to that that he wouldn't give an answer to that.

00:33:59.800 I think he and I say that I'm sure there are circumstances in life that would dramatically change his opinion.

00:34:06.680 But I don't think he's going to posit that. The other thing is there's a.

00:34:13.760 An arrogance amongst atheists, by and large, certainly this doesn't speak to every atheist,

00:34:20.980 but they wouldn't even consider that because they think any of us who are faithful 0.93

00:34:25.940 are are just silly we're just silly people it you know nothing could convince them that you know

00:34:31.780 our silly beliefs make any sense and uh that's unfortunate but i do think that if we're honest 0.99

00:34:38.020 that's the position many atheists come from and the other thing um is there 0.88

00:34:45.860 if anything really happened in their life that was proof of divinity

00:34:55.540 they would codify it and relabel it as another phenomenon and take all of the divinity out of it

00:35:05.540 and i think that's the nature of science they consider everything religious or metaphysical

00:35:10.580 only up until the point that you can scientifically quantify it and label it.

00:35:16.440 Many of the things we know to be true today, our ancestors would absolutely have referred to as magic.

00:35:22.520 They didn't stop becoming magical.

00:35:24.980 We just got words to explain how some of that magic worked.

00:35:29.440 And I think they would do the same thing.

00:35:31.140 If a god appeared before them, they would talk about a extraterrestrial entity, an interdimensional entity.

00:35:39.600 They would make some science word that makes them not a god linguistically, and then they would be able to wrap their head around it.

00:35:47.280 But yeah, I don't really think that's an honest or fair exchange ever, because I don't think that they approach it as if theists and atheists are intellectually equal. 0.52

00:36:01.520 I hope that I hope that answers the question or at least touches at it.

00:36:06.600 um antonio rodriguez i have look up on another ausitrue group named dakota prairie ausitrue

00:36:17.720 what are your thoughts on this group um i believe this is i'm pretty certain that that is a group

00:36:26.720 that is made up of people that uh were disloyal to the afa and wanted to start their own thing

00:36:35.680 Um, my thoughts are that those people are, uh, in many ways, dysfunctional, and, uh,

00:36:49.520 a concept that we talk on here about from time to time is forward-facing versus backward-facing

00:36:58.160 house of truth.

00:36:59.900 And I don't know if that, that makes sense to everybody or when they, when they hear

00:37:04.800 it probably means different things to different folks but the afa is very much trying to

00:37:15.600 practice also true to the best of our ability in the time in which we live and to build institutions

00:37:23.840 that will last into the future and inform the religious and moral foundations of our children

00:37:29.840 and of our grandchildren and evolve also true into the future with our folk just as it was done uh 0.95

00:37:36.640 in in ancient times it kept up with the needs of the people uh people who practice backward

00:37:43.600 facing aussitru are folks that in large part are intimidated or scared of this to develop

00:37:49.920 as a serious religion on the scale of world religions they are much more comfortable it may

00:37:56.480 sound like they're they're looking for viking age ausitry they're not they're working for 1980s

00:38:02.240 period ausitry where it's guys in their backyard with camp chairs yelling really loud and and

00:38:10.080 everybody doing their own thing without rules or without structure our gods are gods of order

00:38:15.680 and always gods of building not gods of tearing down and i think that what we're trying to do

00:38:21.120 in the afa and those of us who are forward-facing is the noble thing to do i think backward-facing

00:38:27.680 house of truth is very often motivated out of a fear of a fear of success a fear of change

00:38:34.240 a fear of living up to a standard um and there's a lot there's a lot of that it's scary to do

00:38:45.040 something that's uncomfortable it's scary to get outside of your own limitations it's scary to grow

00:38:50.880 it's scary to reach for things and to to try to achieve it's much easier to settle

00:38:56.880 for the things that you have and make excuses about why you may not have more

00:39:02.480 and i think that the prairie house true folks are are the folks that have chosen the latter

00:39:06.560 path and not the former on that and again that doesn't that's not meant to speak to

00:39:11.280 every person who may be involved with that i'm sure there's many people who might be involved in

00:39:15.200 that uh that were never once part of the afa and those folks if they want something better i would

00:39:20.880 encourage them to join the afa but i think the folks that that started that and that are running

00:39:26.720 the show over there are uh people that broke uh broke oaths and broke troth with the afa and

00:39:32.320 aren't trying to move us in a very positive direction

00:39:34.720 um nick asks could the story of the gods throwing weapons at balder knowing him to be invulnerable

00:39:47.520 and then hodd shooting the mistletoe arrow regardless of loki's influence and scheming

00:39:53.360 in the matter also speak a little on being foolhardy and under concerned with consequences

00:40:00.560 What are your thoughts on that, Svon?

00:40:04.040 Yes, I think one of the big things that starts to correlate throughout Baldur's drama and the subsequent events that follow do have cultural ties.

00:40:18.560 ties i think that um when when the poets are speaking these stories they're also trying to

00:40:27.280 tie in a a motif that would be understood by the audience and so yes i think that the overall idea

00:40:34.560 is that the the the foolhardiness um is more or less a a lesson to be learned um because many

00:40:43.280 people could argue all the way down the line as to uh many things that aren't said in the stories

00:40:49.920 uh you know if if odin's eye is in the well then why didn't he see this coming uh if he did see

00:40:55.760 it coming you know did he allow it to happen um you know if the gods you know why didn't he stop

00:41:01.520 the gods when the gods were throwing things or it's again it's an understanding of one i think

00:41:07.760 a correlation of the story speaking to the audience garnering an emotion and definitely

00:41:13.840 teaching a lesson and that lesson of course is is that even after the assemblance of of

00:41:23.120 of oaths from all things uh in protecting balder the the overall uh gathering in the

00:41:32.240 fred stead and having fun at this moment i think was and is a deny a dynamic kind of um

00:41:39.600 scene to be set in order to really drive home what's about to happen and i i think that any

00:41:47.680 good storyteller any good poet um and as these you know these compiled prose were originally from

00:41:56.320 stories i think they hold all of these essences even as they're you know written out in very

00:42:03.760 very formatted um poetic sense so yes i think that it's to paint a deep picture of what is

00:42:12.080 about to happen and that the gods have taken a certain sense of resolve um in in the in the

00:42:21.600 oaths and in in the security of things and so it the lesson could then be that you know uh

00:42:31.840 treachery can seep doom and the way that it is meted out even towards the gods can be uh deeply

00:42:42.240 in you know intricate and it's all emphasized in the full-hearted nature the gods are

00:42:50.480 laughing and joking and even baldur's kind of laughing and joking at this moment this i think

00:42:56.000 is deep theatrics of the of the story to really drive home the it's a lull before the punctured

00:43:05.200 death and um so you could read into it and say you know all the things that aren't there but

00:43:11.840 what is there is the lesson and the lesson is of course that you know as as the gods have kind of

00:43:18.640 held um a a fluctuating trough with an outsider that's been allowed into the into the inner guard

00:43:28.880 of the gods as this you know always is repeated especially like with fenris coming into the halls

00:43:35.680 of the gods there's a lesson to be learned about tribalism there's a lesson to be learned about

00:43:39.920 divinity there's a lesson to be learned about the saint sanctity of an inner guard that could be

00:43:47.840 brought to a point of no return and i think that that's what's really being laid out is that

00:43:54.240 this full-heartedness is the point it's a threshold that the gods can't turn back from now

00:44:01.200 and yet they still think that they can and that makes the tragedy even all the more palpable

00:44:09.040 um got a few more questions lining up but uh spawn i think this is a good time can you

00:44:14.800 And I believe Nick has the graphic, if you could throw up the graphic, Nick, of Baldur's mural.

00:44:24.560 And Svahn, could you explain a couple of things, I think, what you wanted to portray and how you portrayed it in the mural,

00:44:35.120 and also anything about your experience while doing the mural?

00:44:41.400 Yeah, absolutely.

00:44:44.800 So, first, I think it's important that people understand the time is limited when things

00:44:51.640 are going on, especially with travel.

00:44:53.760 I do work, I have my own job, my own business, and so to take time off to do this, it does

00:45:02.700 require me clearing space and making time to move and to go up there, so when time is

00:45:11.180 of the essence there's only there's certain things i i try to focus on and then everything else kind

00:45:15.980 of becomes peripheral to the the point um and in in the case with baldur's off um you know

00:45:28.060 i don't fully understand the space i'm working in until i get there i kind of understood what

00:45:33.820 was going to happen um but you know if you see in the graphic there's there's three lights at the

00:45:39.260 bottom that that uh line there is a i think is is at the six and a half seven foot mark maybe eight

00:45:48.060 um and so everything is done on a ladder so uh just to even reach the bottom at his feet i was

00:45:56.940 you know off the ground and so it became a um you know a a task to try to figure out

00:46:06.700 how to move and focus and of course having the length in the center the zenith i decided the

00:46:12.860 best thing to do would be to start at the top at the smallest amount of movement and work my way

00:46:18.540 down and then once i got to the bottom it would be a matter of traversing back and forth so even to

00:46:24.220 just do minor things or to allow paint to dry in one area and not let the ladder damage anything

00:46:29.980 i've already made i would i would move to another side so constantly moving back and forth to just

00:46:35.500 allow areas to dry really formatted a lot of what i was doing but the first thing that

00:46:43.340 really happened at um baldershoff was when i went up to the zenith i was just playing around i i i

00:46:51.500 don't expect um anything that i i kind of start to sketch and draw to really strike home but what

00:46:59.420 ended up happening was is balder's face balder's head um it i i was drawing the image and the

00:47:10.700 image stuck immediately uh i couldn't believe it i actually slid down the ladder and kind of moved

00:47:16.060 the ladder out of the way and backed away just to see the proportions because i was thinking

00:47:19.660 at any minute in any variant level of where i was at this was going to be wrong and i'd have

00:47:24.140 to erase things and it and it wasn't that struck me uh really powerfully that just kind of like as if

00:47:32.060 the image was absolutely what it needed to be what it wanted to be and i was simply a conduit

00:47:40.620 at the moment and it kind of struck me and again it it became even more apparent when i was working

00:47:51.420 on nana because i ended up having to do uh the image of nana numerous times but with balder from

00:48:01.580 everything it was instantaneous it was a strike the light was perfect everything the proportions

00:48:07.980 were perfect the sketch was perfect and i i had to stop i was like i i have to do this right away so

00:48:13.260 everything pretty much from the neck up was done almost in one simultaneous swoop

00:48:21.020 and that's what i wanted but i didn't expect that at all i was not and so when it when it got there

00:48:28.620 everything else fell into place positioning the understanding of of the hand on on the hilt i

00:48:36.140 i there was uh originally ideas that i was playing with of taking an aldean position or having the

00:48:43.100 arms kind of akimbo but i didn't want to um go too far into a like a christ-like pose and so

00:48:52.380 i really began to feel about the name balder you know being rooted in the concept of being bold

00:48:58.540 courageous and strong and ready and so the hand on the hilt became uh uh an idea and that started to

00:49:07.900 turn the the body positioning it started to present the idea of having a full figure

00:49:15.420 fully exposed and and to incorporate colors that would you know uh bring a great importance and so

00:49:23.420 So everything fell into line after Baldur's face.

00:49:28.620 I'm a barber by trade.

00:49:32.620 So one of the other things that really kind of struck was hair and beard and face placement.

00:49:43.080 um the alzheimer and i were talking about positioning of eyes where where we wanted

00:49:53.000 we wanted everything to be forward and upwards and especially since everything is moving upwards

00:49:57.960 the aesthetic of the building uh the light everything is going up so uh again producing a

00:50:04.680 uh face with the chin placed above the adam's apple for me was a difficult a task i hadn't really

00:50:13.160 um tackled a lot of times it's much easier to show a a masculine figure with the chin down and

00:50:19.800 preparing for something or moving forward but the idea of looking up and it just i guess proportions

00:50:25.800 and understanding the aesthetics of of the way uh hair and eyes and i that very that helped me

00:50:34.760 out a lot and it seemed i'm trying to logicize that that's the reason why it all worked out

00:50:39.240 perfectly but in one swoop of that pencil everything became immediate and then it was

00:50:45.400 just a matter of you know uh attaching a string and and making the son and rod behind his head

00:50:52.200 and once i got all of that kind of dark penciled in i left it until the painting and just worked

00:50:57.960 on everything else and so yeah the the timing uh the use of color the wanting to use uh the the

00:51:08.520 the sky blue in correlation to the color of the hof the wanting to use two wolves as that is the

00:51:14.520 the kin of the hof um but also wanting to use their position of being relaxed and being um

00:51:22.200 not aggressive but more subdued and to be subdued in a way that it would represent 0.95

00:51:29.780 almost like a wild nature being uh calmed or in control by the forces of courage the forces of

00:51:40.360 devotion piety strength and so that's what i i ended up kind of playing with especially uh if

00:51:48.560 look at nana's horn it's written in the folk food dark on uh on there um you know devotion strength

00:51:54.720 and and piety um it there's so there's a deeper message there that i was trying to play with as

00:52:02.160 well uh again also too in in our religious culture the givyas uh have a great importance and

00:52:10.560 significance in holding horns uh all arian mythos of the idea of of the feminine giving over the

00:52:18.320 goblet giving over the horn giving over the the cauldron to the warrior to the hero to the god

00:52:25.920 of deserving might uh was all being played there that's why um you know the imageries were chosen

00:52:34.880 and and of course at the same time having uh nana having one hand on the wolf as a sign of of that

00:52:44.160 That devotion, piety, faith will ultimately guide the ferocious nature, the drive, the will to victory is tempered by, or I guess would be, yeah, tempered.

00:53:00.760 tempered is a good word tempered by um the feelings of understanding the gods trying to

00:53:06.360 to become one with them trying to understand their place our place and our places together

00:53:11.480 through devotion prayer and um uh acts of of giving and so you know along with that just

00:53:24.120 after that was basically i tried to figure out where balder was where nana was going to be 0.81

00:53:29.960 i she had shifted on both sides and again working with the triangle shape that was very difficult

00:53:38.000 and then of course wolves um i mean i i admittedly i i critique myself on my drawing of of animals and

00:53:47.020 and things and and especially fur and trying to get that medium with paint as i'm not you know

00:53:53.840 traditionally a painter um all that stuff was very very frustrating but it it all didn't matter

00:54:00.400 because that the first part was made and it was done so it was like you can do this the rest of

00:54:05.600 it you can do and so i just you know kept pushing through until finally at the end when we got

00:54:10.400 everything settled um i started to build in the landscape and uh normally i do landscape first

00:54:16.480 and then build everything so that was an interesting thing of it there's also uh one

00:54:20.160 thing that i that came about during the drawing that i thought was very interesting uh the brooch

00:54:25.520 on um nana's neck is a heart with a sowillo rune or a seagrune in the center so it looks like a

00:54:35.360 broken heart and the um the idea of nana dying of a broken heart to be with her husband uh was

00:54:46.000 played out there but i i had no intention of that that evolved entirely on its own um

00:54:53.520 as as i was you know drawing this it was it was as if it needed to be there it wanted to be there

00:55:00.080 and i was just told this is what's gonna this imagery needs to be here and it's it's important

00:55:07.360 and um so i i i was quite amazed at some of the things that were kind of popping into my head

00:55:14.480 as i was going um with with no real correlation as to exactly what i was going to be doing

00:55:21.040 and it was all because of that timetable three days you got three to four days or three and a

00:55:26.560 half days to do this and it just all kind of poured out and all the while working on an elevated ladder

00:55:35.120 so it was it was really one of my favorite experiences

00:55:40.800 you know i've i've said this time and again and those of you who have been in the presence of

00:55:48.640 these murals but uh our gods very much work with and work through spawn when he creates these

00:55:56.900 things and that's to take nothing away from the amazing artist that spawn is but you know the

00:56:03.020 question was asked earlier about our gothar being you know what they do him being that bridge in

00:56:08.400 And bringing that God to life on the canvas or drywall, as it may be, it really is a profoundly magical act.

00:56:22.320 I love the mural, and my favorite part of it is that, is that shining face and head of Balder looking upwards.

00:56:30.380 it's a constant inspiration for us to always look up hold our heads high be our best selves

00:56:39.260 and look towards moving forward and moving up um king of cheese what aspects do you think

00:56:46.900 balder embodies i understand understand the gods are people and not totem poles and thus it is

00:56:53.060 difficult, if not impossible to distill, but think of it as a

00:56:57.620 mental exercise. Aspects as in hope, light, etc. Svon, what do

00:57:03.780 you what aspects do you think that Balder most embodies?

00:57:10.220 The folk soul. In a way, I've always correlated Balder as

00:57:19.140 being of course the son of the god of consciousness of the consciousness of the folk

00:57:27.140 and so that would then of course align to the birth of the soul of the folk

00:57:33.140 and and that correlation of inspiration giving body and that and that the folk soul is bright

00:57:40.500 the folk soul is courageous the folk soul is noble the the folk soul is bold and so balder and and

00:57:50.660 uh holder or hodd um kind of i think give a portrait of the understanding that there is a

00:57:59.540 the bright side the the that which we strive for and then that which is behind us that which is in

00:58:05.940 the deep recesses of us so i think one the the polarization of the two have a deep representation

00:58:12.420 towards um the folk soul and what they both represent whether it's blindness or rage or uh

00:58:20.420 anger as you know correlations to to battle and then of course brightness complete sight and uh

00:58:28.500 of light and and and of the future but when we talk about balder and the folks will becoming 0.81

00:58:34.820 chthonic and traveling into the third and and lowest world um kind of presiding in the stasis

00:58:43.720 of death uh as i believe helgard is true truly a representative of the the processes of death

00:58:52.260 the calamities in which you know mankind faces um whether it's illness and disease and things

00:58:58.280 like that or whether it's the the natural cycle of things that place becomes a stasis point

00:59:03.920 for the folk soul to return from it's not it's not an ending point at all and so again kind of

00:59:12.580 leaning towards why pray uh to Baldur's because we know that that that part of death is a

00:59:21.420 transitional point that we can return and that we our folk soul our blood and our people our ideals

00:59:31.000 uh like like him can and well return so i i think that as a as a an intellectual exercise as you

00:59:41.980 said is um is to look at balder and hod firstly as the light and the dark side of the folk soul

00:59:49.440 springing forth from the the god of consciousness and also the one who has deep connections to

00:59:56.160 being as the godhead of time through Mimerswell and how he moves where he moves in the stories

01:00:05.180 is very important where the gods find themselves the positions they're in and how they are spoken

01:00:11.340 of returning to show the folk that even in the dark deep recesses we can and will return and I

01:00:19.540 believe that balder and hod come back more unified as uh as they have uh kind of conjoined their

01:00:27.540 powers together to be more complete and i think that that's because the process of our uh our

01:00:34.500 evolution of of uh enlightenment involves us facing that that dark side and and and melding

01:00:44.020 it together within ourselves and bringing forth and the only way that we can really do that is

01:00:48.260 through devotion and through piety through self-awareness and self um reflection self uh

01:00:55.060 critique and uh being and i think that that's where nana uh represents that as well in her

01:01:01.620 devotion and her piety and her um giving that the gift cycle to balder in order to power him for the

01:01:11.540 return yeah um as far as things that balder exemplifies or or shows to us so much to me

01:01:22.340 is the nobility and the brightness the shining nature of of balder um he is he is literally the

01:01:31.540 embodiment of the word arian which implies nobility that that shines that projects um

01:01:39.140 Um, so that, and then I suppose the, uh, the aspect of, of hope for conquering over our foes for returning from death for a new golden age.

01:01:50.540 I think that that eternal hope for, for victory in the future is certainly, um, an inspiration of Balder, but, but that brightness, the shining nobility, uh, embodies Balder's essence to me in the most profound way.

01:02:05.420 um katla asks so many who have died talk about going to the light balder is talked about being

01:02:13.340 a light do you think people may be seeing his light when they cross over what do you think swan

01:02:22.700 i uh i i've often really tried to ponder the processes of death and uh placement uh yes if if

01:02:33.900 if hellguard is a transitional state of death and in the stories represents a lot of the breaking

01:02:40.540 down uh when we talk about um the processes of dying going through uh nipa's cave in in the the

01:02:49.260 hillock uh in the north and downwards and into the chthonic realm of a time that or a place that is

01:02:56.460 beyond time where time doesn't even really truly move um this this process of passing through again

01:03:06.540 is a is a reconnection as we die our our soul becomes part of the folk soul so seeing a light

01:03:15.500 um or understanding that that that light that that emergence between the individual

01:03:21.500 layered soul as it peels itself apart and and it stands before it's you know the the individual's

01:03:28.300 ancestors and gains admittance through the passage of death into the realm in which balder resides

01:03:37.260 i think is a mythic story of connection between the individual soul and the folk soul and so yes

01:03:47.820 in a way i i do believe that the light that we're we're referencing to uh is part of the dominion

01:03:56.300 and power that um that balder has just as much as we we could look at it in in other ways like

01:04:04.060 to to give an example would be like when understanding say the fervor of of poetic or

01:04:10.700 music uh when there's a sudden gust of inspiration that's beyond even the comprehension of the

01:04:16.540 performer or the audience uh when we talk about battle um confusion and in the midst of battle

01:04:25.020 we're not understanding things and there's this kind of static state where everything time slows

01:04:30.380 down we we can clearly associate these kind of feelings and um situations with odin so likewise

01:04:39.660 we then could apply that to the dominion or understanding the dominion of the other gods

01:04:45.580 and i think in this case death and the return of the soul to the folk soul to the the the overall

01:04:51.900 collection in in in that light would then be balder's dominion so if we could correlate

01:04:59.980 one to the other i think it becomes pretty easy to see um yeah that's my take on that you know um

01:05:09.820 Um, this is the first time I've ever really thought about that, but, you know, the, the idea of Baldur's light being that light at the end of the tunnel, that light on the other side, uh, when people have near death experiences, uh, I'm not going to say it is, but that would, that would certainly be beautiful if it was and paints a beautiful picture.

01:05:31.480 What I do think is true in either case is it's of the same substance that balder shines with that light. I think that light of holiness, that light of shining glory that our gods embody and project and manifest is the same stuff of the light that folks see when they pass and when they're going back to their ancestors or perhaps even when they're ascending.

01:05:59.580 I think that heavenly light is what Balder emits.

01:06:05.000 I don't think he is the only source of that, but he is so full of it and so overcome with it that he literally exudes it.

01:06:16.920 And I think that holy light is what is seen beyond the grave and is what Balder perhaps most embodies and projects.

01:06:26.300 yeah when we when we talk about uh death in the sense of uh the stories you know there's this

01:06:34.780 process that goes on uh that is described the traveling on hell's road going through nipa's

01:06:41.580 cave passing by garm these are uh of course deeply pan-arian uh you know structures that happen

01:06:51.580 in stories in which we do have a threshold that we have to pass through and that threshold

01:06:56.220 in the process that begins and ends with admittance of course people who um you know are not admitted

01:07:04.700 to cross the bridge are then uh you know given to tread low and in the shaded banks of and to

01:07:13.260 cross girl and and um sleeve and get to naustrand and and they're left there only to return as uh

01:07:20.780 some sort of transformed um processes because they've been denied by their ancestors to be

01:07:28.060 admitted into the process of the returns that can come from that the ascension that can come from

01:07:34.380 that so we have that light as like a beacon through the process of death which i think in

01:07:43.580 in the stories is is uh is told in the story of us walking of traveling of the idea of us having

01:07:51.980 uh like our ancestors having the the shoes that uh are to be worn you know upon being burned or

01:08:00.060 buried so that the trek you know the symbology of that culturally is to show that the the process

01:08:06.620 of death has an end point and i think that that that balder does represent that beacon

01:08:13.340 at the end of that process that we have to go through

01:08:19.980 um what do you believe is the greatest lesson we can learn from balder you have thoughts on that's

01:08:29.580 fun well the the the greatest lessons um i think ultimately tragedy

01:08:44.380 how it's perceived as being tragic sometimes is not always um

01:08:54.140 the end all of it, that there is a, that nothing is linear, that everything is cyclical and moves

01:09:02.820 around and through in processes. And I think Balder represents that nothing is completely

01:09:11.040 in a state of tragedy, that the loss is never fully there, that loss sometimes

01:09:21.100 garners or produces the steps necessary in order for ascension and so i think that's the greatest

01:09:28.280 lesson to be learned um and i think that's the message that the gods are trying to teach us

01:09:33.260 in that story as we as if we do look at the stories as um happening has has happened and

01:09:41.540 will happen um then we begin to see the perennial truth of the stories and then it guides us to an

01:09:48.360 understanding that that we can see things in deep tragedy at the moment and we can see the folly of

01:09:55.060 our actions we can see the folly of of whether it's uh admittance of an outside force and

01:10:01.060 taking into trust and then and then it turning malicious and turning against the gods this is

01:10:06.560 clearly a lesson but ultimately balder returning from the deepest point of tragedy i think is the

01:10:16.520 greatest lesson that we we can learn and it's not necessarily a point of like oblivious hope

01:10:23.160 as it is an understanding that processes um happen that i think that the gods themselves

01:10:30.160 see both the good and the bad or at least the perception of good and bad but also understand

01:10:36.320 the forces of positive projection and negative retraction and how these waves um can affect the

01:10:45.440 future and how they can establish the stage for more ebbs and flows of joy and tragedy. It's a deep

01:10:54.500 and ever reminding tale of the fact that we are connected to the ebb and flow of Orla or the ebb

01:11:03.080 flow of weird and that we must bear that in mind at all times yeah i think uh i think the lesson

01:11:15.880 of uh let's just switch sorry my daughter turned my light off as a as a parting gift as she ran

01:11:24.760 out of the room a second ago so i had to have mandy come correct it um yeah i think the the

01:11:29.960 lesson of balder is is that hope and like swan said not just uh not just a a vain hope but an

01:11:37.640 assurance that things come around pendulum swing and if we stay true and if we shine with that

01:11:48.520 nobility that golden age will return and will return again and again and again um the idea of

01:11:56.600 and i've tried to explain this before too it's very easy for us to see things in two dimensions

01:12:01.960 and see a cyclical relation to things but cycles build upon one another and what i think is more

01:12:08.440 true than the cyclical nature is the spiral of elevation or if we do poorly of degeneration

01:12:17.560 but though things do run in us in in cycles

01:12:21.000 if we continue acting right and being noble we spiral upward all of those cycles build upon each

01:12:30.260 other towards something greater and something better as opposed to to descending and into

01:12:35.520 something worse or something something less uh monk asks would the afa be interested in having

01:12:43.500 a blessing of the bikes this spring there are people in the nncoc would like to know

01:12:51.100 so far there is no blessing of the bikes that are not christian related um sure i don't know

01:12:58.300 very much about that i'm not sure what that acronym stands for uh i'm not very familiar

01:13:05.580 with motorcycle culture i do not ride a motorcycle but um yeah i think the idea of of doing or being

01:13:12.380 part of a blessing of the bikes would be kind of a cool thing to do. I'd have to know a little bit

01:13:16.980 more specifics about exactly what that looks like. What is Nana holding in the painting, Svon?

01:13:26.700 A horn. A white, gray, and tan horn. And to be honest, the inspiration from it is at the

01:13:38.820 off, there is a horn there. So I try to replicate the colors. I try to replicate the texture.

01:13:44.540 And then I added some golden elements. And I wanted to convey some message of what the horn

01:13:50.800 represents, which I believe is the receptacle that receives the devotion, the piety, and the

01:13:57.420 strength of the folk from the middle, from the middle world, from the middle plane, as we give

01:14:06.780 our devotion strength and piety towards balder at midsummer and we we pour ourselves out it is

01:14:16.560 being received in the horn that nana carries and then she bestows it upon balder who then

01:14:23.280 replenishes himself and it whether this could be read as um again if we're talking about a mental

01:14:29.520 exercise of the cycle of devotion or the cycle of replenishing the folk soul as this happens

01:14:39.920 quite a bit. The Nornir, they wash the root at the base of Yggdrasil with the waters from

01:14:49.420 the well. This too is kind of a watering of the folk soul.

01:14:54.080 And Lawrence, I apologize. We have a monetized question over on the side that should have

01:14:58.620 technically come before this one. We will shuffle you in right now with 10 Canadian dollars. We

01:15:04.560 really appreciate you, Lawrence. You're on here just about every week donating and asking questions.

01:15:10.900 Evening, gents, and bless your hearts. A newbie question, not Balder-related. Do we know who wrote

01:15:17.160 or compiled the prose and poetic eddas? I thought I saw somewhere there was Judeo-Christian

01:15:24.140 influence in these works, but I can't remember where, and I hope it's not the case. I don't

01:15:29.520 trust anything. Svan, go ahead and take first crack at this. Yeah, it's to be understood that

01:15:37.640 think of it like a scattering. The poetics that were in Iceland were either written down,

01:15:47.760 memorized, or, well, predominantly written down by that time, but in smatterings, there was also,

01:15:53.440 So it was a collection that was brought in and which Snorri began to look at them and formulate them into cleaner prose and under the desire to keep Icelandic poetic traditions alive.

01:16:13.440 So he's not the creator of the stories as he is the formulaic component that brings it all together.

01:16:27.880 Now, there is clear influences. I would say there is a smattering certainly of Christianity, but there's also a great smattering of Hellenic ideals that are also brought in.

01:16:41.980 um you could see it in the humanizing of the gods in the beginning and and and the motivations for

01:16:47.900 that could be uh multiple and people have speculated for multiple reasons that perhaps

01:16:53.580 he was trying to uh downplay this as not being necessarily a point of worship to the gods

01:17:00.460 because he had maybe a church influence or a political influence that was kind of over his

01:17:05.900 shoulder so he was placing this as a safety net so that it wouldn't be uh ultimately shut shut

01:17:13.820 down or canceled in that sense um but you can see too that writers of that time really did lean

01:17:22.700 heavily on the classics they the iliad and the odyssey and just connections to um whether it's

01:17:31.020 the um the um connections to troy connections to rome connections to greece uh whether it's in

01:17:39.500 format and things like that you could definitely see a lot more of that than i think you you you

01:17:44.540 see the smatterings of christianity in in involving balder though you you definitely get

01:17:51.020 this uh christian aspect of his correlation to balder uh with kind of a christ-like figure

01:17:59.980 um whereas you know the name denotes boldness strength uh and and and living courageously and

01:18:09.100 forthright and moving forward and and not really necessarily being a pacifist or any of that nature

01:18:14.300 the name doesn't even denote it so you know it's it's a matter of reading it into the stories that

01:18:21.580 were compiled and formulated and understanding that there may be parts that were placed in to

01:18:28.060 create congruity there's also huge um skips and uh kind of like where there's basic concepts that

01:18:39.180 are written down in one story are lost in another or not glossed over or not fixed or or not even

01:18:46.860 uh compounded upon whether it's um the correlation of say uh the necessity of a god having family

01:18:53.100 or having a father and a mother or an origin or or things of that nature there's familial ties

01:18:59.500 that are emphasized heavily but then kind of loosely let go on other gods and so i think

01:19:06.680 you find that there is during the compiling a an attempt to make it flow very much like

01:19:16.060 a Hellenistic poem and has a lot of influence from that. And then I think Christianity is

01:19:24.640 secondary to that. So the good news is Hellenicism is an Arian branch. So there is a kind of, 1.00

01:19:32.040 I think there's a lot more, an Arian aspect that we try to write off as, oh, you know,

01:19:38.820 the uh this might not be very nordic this might not be very um you know uh late viking period or

01:19:47.540 you know using the word viking during the time it's kind of funny but uh because it was well

01:19:51.380 after that period to begin with but certainly there was some influences i think more so with

01:19:57.380 an attempt to make a hellenistic style great and grand connective story that was pulled together

01:20:05.620 from multiple sources all over iceland at the time well after the conversion um and so yes you

01:20:15.220 you you have to understand it is uh has some influences i think it has some missteps i think

01:20:22.100 it has some some uh things that are not there there's the blatant and obviously two um core

01:20:30.100 correlative uh beings in the story whether it's like uh whether it's the son of rinda

01:20:37.540 valley or the son of loki valley and it's just not expounded upon because the poetics

01:20:44.420 don't allow it to be explained it's it's just left there in understanding that the poetic meter had to

01:20:51.540 be spoken so perhaps our ancestors even at that time maybe knew uh or understood the differences

01:20:58.740 but by by our time it's it's leaves a lot of speculation as to those correlations

01:21:07.060 um you know it's a very complex question um

01:21:12.820 so first as fauna said it's not

01:21:18.500 it's not like snorri sat down and decided to make up all these things it was a compilation of oral

01:21:24.180 tradition and perhaps written tradition that was was available to him to codify to put down

01:21:30.420 to make work in the right meter and uh and i think that was was the major effort i think it

01:21:38.340 would be dishonest to suggest that there's no possibility that any christian themes or or

01:21:44.580 anything had any overlap but i think what's very important to take note of is how european

01:21:51.060 christianity differed from middle eastern christianity and the extent to which not that

01:21:58.180 our lore was christianized but that christianity was uh germanicized and uh paganized and you see

01:22:08.900 that throughout all of the cool things about the catholic church um all the things we don't like

01:22:14.580 about the catholic church are are the authentically christian elements and all the things that are

01:22:19.460 awesome are are the european pagan elements um i think that you can you can see some christian

01:22:30.580 correlation with balder but it's very hard to tell what of that is trying to make balder christ-like

01:22:36.980 and what of what is trying to make christ balder like um and i think there's there's a lot of that

01:22:44.340 interplay back and forth throughout all of the culture for hundreds and hundreds of years in

01:22:50.500 europe christianity itself even most of the themes found within the bible certainly within

01:22:59.060 new testament scriptures and stories about jesus are very much borrowed or very very heavily

01:23:04.580 influenced from other other pagan traditions often arian traditions that found their way

01:23:10.820 in so i'm fairly unconcerned about any any christianity sneaking into to our lore i think

01:23:19.540 our culture at the time that was written down was very strong and i think that the bigger

01:23:25.460 influence has been the way that our lore has affected uh medieval christianity that

01:23:31.460 plays out even today in some elements of the catholic church

01:23:34.500 i i wanted to bring up one point i was here ago the um woodside wanderer made a point said

01:23:42.340 mistletoe is parasitic to oak and i wanted to to talk about that for a minute i think that

01:23:47.540 i and i've heard this quite a bit and i wanted to um lay something out there on the table for

01:23:53.300 people to ponder about i don't think our ancestors knew uh that it was a parasitic nature i think

01:24:00.500 that what they saw was that they viewed the mistletoe as being a polaric power in juxtaposition

01:24:08.740 to the oak much like um the oak uh symbolizing strength symbolizing power connection to vitality

01:24:18.900 and to life the long lastingness of it and inside the the bows of the oak tree live the the slight

01:24:27.540 and slender green mistletoe and so that correlation between the hard the unmoving the strong the

01:24:35.140 deep rooted and ever long living oak and then this this uh soft inner plant is kind of being

01:24:42.820 seen as like the soul of the oak and even though the oak dies in winter with the leaves um you know

01:24:50.180 falling and and breaking off yet still through the branches or the the the dead tree of winter

01:24:57.620 you see the the um the soul you see the the true heart of the oak and it is this soft but very

01:25:08.340 powerful plant um and so i think a lot of the mystique and power of the mistletoe in in relation

01:25:16.020 to the oak uh or to any tree in reality uh i think uh was not lost on our ancestors and they

01:25:21.780 they correlated that again to the idea of balder being much like just as much the folk soul or the

01:25:28.260 soul of the people as also to being the soul of the gods when the body or when when the winter

01:25:34.260 time comes when the darkness when the cold comes there is the the the evergreen and soft and ever

01:25:41.380 light um and the white berries of the mistletoe that reside there and are are when when life

01:25:49.220 returns again is is obfuscated until death comes so i really wanted to point that out i think that's

01:25:57.060 that's a good point and i've heard a lot of people talk about it i really wanted to

01:26:01.620 share that that thought that i had on that um i have a question from sarah i apologize if this

01:26:08.660 has been talked about already could you speak of nana and the lessons the folk can learn from her

01:26:14.900 story uh sfon did touch on that earlier but i think he may have some more he wants to say can

01:26:20.020 you uh speak on that sfon uh yes i i really do uh in my personal belief and uh ever uh

01:26:31.460 I've been Auschwitz for many, many years. I've always associated the dominion of Nana, 0.96

01:26:40.480 or at least perhaps the dominion in which she sits and emanates that power. That power that

01:26:46.460 she emanates is devotion. That power that she emanates is piety. And the idea of the

01:26:53.420 the placing of oneself in a position of helping to bring forth, I think, overall the power that

01:27:08.800 we give in devotion and piety to the gods. She represents an Aryan framework of the maiden who

01:27:20.520 bears forth the horn the maiden who bears forth a power that is um designated to a masculine power 0.76

01:27:30.600 and that power projects power into the world whether it's light whether it's will whether

01:27:35.960 it's action this constantly is is uh being reinforced in almost all arian myths that there's

01:27:42.760 this moment of of the risk that the receiving of uh or the bestowment of power from a feminine

01:27:50.520 force to a masculine force and that masculine force then takes power into the world or projects

01:27:56.440 it into the the multi worlds or uh even into fate itself so i think she represents that and i think

01:28:05.800 she represents ultimately what we are trying to achieve i think what what we find ourselves

01:28:10.920 sometimes battling with is at the inception of the new reconstruction or reemergence of

01:28:17.080 also true is that a lot of folks are starting to show those signs of that they're moving away from

01:28:23.340 a posturing sense of will into the world they have created space for us our predecessors have

01:28:29.940 created space and we continue to create space but now we start to really inner reflect on

01:28:36.320 what it, the deeper points of that, what that replenishes, what that brings forth.

01:28:42.860 And that can't just be always projection. It has to be about

01:28:46.680 being willing to receive and to give devotion and piety. So I think she represents that.

01:28:55.160 Before we continue on, I forgot to mention, I believe this is week two, maybe week three,

01:29:07.820 that we are also broadcasting on VK and on Odyssey. We're also, we have been doing this

01:29:18.520 for a little bit. We're broadcasting live on Twitter right now as well. So if you know people

01:29:24.020 that that use those those things perhaps instead of this please let them know they can get it there

01:29:29.780 also uh for anybody on here that ever misses one of these or wants to listen to replays in

01:29:36.020 a different format i know that this does get released every friday as a podcast on

01:29:43.300 spotify so make sure you check those out or you can have you know friends of yours

01:29:49.060 or anybody else you think would like to like to listen to these check that out on there

01:29:54.020 I have a question. What are the AFA's position on our God's representations in art? And I think that Svon can give a really good answer to this. He's, I forget what we called him, but we came up with a little name for it, too. He's kind of our art guy that directs our devotional artwork in the AFA.

01:30:17.460 Okay. From where I'm sitting, a couple of thoughts on it. We certainly want our gods

01:30:27.900 to always be portrayed in a respectful and a reverent way.

01:30:35.540 Art is so subjective that undoubtedly people are going to

01:30:39.060 compose in a medium and in a way that uh that speaks to their soul and speaks from their soul

01:30:49.060 i think that's a good thing to do what is a convention in afa art that that we want to do

01:30:54.580 is represent our gods with that 12 spoke sun and rod behind their head as a as it in a golden

01:31:02.800 fashion as a halo representing their divinity. That's an important feature. Again, having our

01:31:10.340 gods look like our people is a really important feature. They're white gods representing 1.00

01:31:18.960 white folks back to our origins. That's extremely important. You'll notice that in the murals and 0.68

01:31:26.600 very often our gods are portrayed in a, certainly a Scandinavian and often in a Viking way. And

01:31:34.040 that's one of the, you know, though I talk about dressing nice to ritual, and I talk about the

01:31:39.920 modernization of many things, you know, I get it. Most of our stories come from a period in history,

01:31:47.680 and that's often ways that we conceive of kind of a high period of how we conceive of our gods.

01:31:55.160 But I don't think it's inappropriate for them to be represented in attire of a different age or a different time that's relevant to our people.

01:32:07.320 And I don't think that's heretical or bad.

01:32:09.640 I think because the stories draw images from the time that the stories were spoken and certainly codified, that naturally makes us, you know, makes us have that picture in our head is the easiest to come to, to envision our gods.

01:32:26.940 But I don't think that it's it's wrong to portray them a different way.

01:32:31.840 The other thing that certainly an AFA official things I want to do is to base our gods.

01:32:40.360 I'm trying to think the best way to say this that makes the most sense.

01:32:45.300 But Svan has pioneered what these gods look like.

01:32:50.260 um from here on out the odin that's in odin's hof is the odin that's going to appear in afa art

01:32:58.620 in different settings doing different things maybe wearing different clothes but that

01:33:02.900 that look that those facial features that uh appearance is how the all father has appeared

01:33:09.980 to the astro folk assembly through spawn same with thor or uh or or a balder or njord at this point

01:33:18.860 So those core characteristics, as far as hair color and facial structure and things that way, I want to see continued in our artwork, because I think that that vision is is a part of the connection that we're building with our gods.

01:33:34.600 What do you have to say on the topic of of our position on the gods representations in art?

01:33:40.420 It's fun.

01:33:41.860 First, first off, when you when you speak on it, it kind of definitely hits me like a ton of bricks.

01:33:47.440 It's this kind of weight of wanting to make sure that it's done in a way that, I mean, to have these Godsteads being talked about as representations of the folk through, I can't explain it.

01:34:11.780 It's extremely a heavy and not a bad feeling, but just the gravity of it just hits me really, really hard.

01:34:21.180 I think that, you know, when we talk about the gods in representation, whether they're in symbolic form or whether they're in a form that reflects our people.

01:34:35.240 and i think that all people uh all over the world do this um you know it'd be very strange to see

01:34:42.660 a shinto representation of the divinities that they they prescribe to as being not

01:34:49.120 japanese uh so i mean that's that's clear uh but yes like what you said in a different time

01:34:56.660 i think it would be completely um applicable and i think even our our ancestors did it at

01:35:02.900 time when they were drawing the gods when they when they showed pictures of of um of odin uh

01:35:10.420 carrying like you know a gross measure style sword or a single-edged kind of uh falchion style sword

01:35:19.220 that was more popular at the time the clothing was more uh of the immediate time and so it could be

01:35:24.900 argued well why did we do modern dress or modern clothing or something of that nature but i think

01:35:30.900 that ultimately they drew the gods then not just in modern dress but in royal modern dress because

01:35:39.780 of the the audience that they were speaking to that when the audience saw the royal clothes the

01:35:46.100 the outstanding clothes the clothes that weren't worn every day though that those that even weren't

01:35:53.540 even available to many of the people who believed in the gods that imagery showed a sense of hierarchy

01:35:59.300 a sense of of of of being a high on the the strata of the world and so for us i think the

01:36:10.260 representation of of the way that the time period late nordic and and uh i would say like i kind of

01:36:17.540 pulled from about 800 900 with the anglo-saxons and a little bit with the late nordic period in

01:36:24.580 in the year 1000 to to the 1100s trying to find things that would work there but also not make

01:36:32.660 them so period detailed that um that it would it would make it so timely but it's the feeling that

01:36:40.340 we get i think that the deep motivation right now in our art and in our religion is a reconnection

01:36:48.820 state. Many of us are coming from a great divide or we're coming from a place in which we are

01:36:55.380 deeply, before we can move forward, we must reconnect. And so the feeling that we, when we

01:37:01.580 represent the gods in clothing of an elder time is a subconscious attempt to represent the nobility

01:37:12.000 of the gods, but in the motion of us reconnecting to them so that we can move forward. So perhaps

01:37:18.340 there is an age and a day long after we tread um hell road and we our children our great-grandchildren

01:37:28.500 our great great-grandchildren perhaps you know they will represent the gods in a different way

01:37:35.220 or in a way that's more uh showing that they have reconnected healed brought together and are moving

01:37:43.860 forward together with the gods in uh from within and so i think that like the representation of

01:37:51.540 the gods in that sense is good devotion is of course a key component people that you know draw

01:37:57.460 the the gods whether it's for money or doing things like in comic books and in stories or

01:38:02.420 in uh cover art for for kids books i i think that we can see a certain sense of use in the idea of

01:38:09.700 of um that it it keeps like the gods are in the peripheral of some people who don't know

01:38:19.060 that they're there um but beyond that i mean it can be detrimental or i think

01:38:24.020 too sometimes very antagonistic the way they portrayed the gods uh you know with good reason

01:38:29.180 and especially in popular culture whether it's video games or or comic books and the biggest

01:38:34.640 thing i would say there is not to not to gripe on it too much we understand that there are people

01:38:38.840 that are antagonistic towards anything that fulfills a spiritual need of the folk of us as

01:38:46.360 a people so they're going to be antagonistic that's just let that go and understand that

01:38:52.080 the best art is the art that comes from devotion that comes from belief that comes from piety

01:38:58.200 that's the that's the art you should want to create for yourself that's the art you should

01:39:03.260 want to share with others and that's the art that we should support from others and then you know

01:39:10.860 that that was really what i was trying to convey i think ultimately on a material level when it

01:39:17.660 came to this the presence of the art was to represent the art from a point of devotion

01:39:22.860 in hopes that the folk could see the gods being there as a godstead accepting seeing them being

01:39:30.940 inspired by it and i don't think that that that that bridge is ever crossed when people are doing

01:39:36.940 it in popular culture things like that um can you speak to the significance of the sonnenrad

01:39:47.180 within the afa svan yeah we've hit on this uh a couple times and hey uh you know if you haven't

01:39:57.180 seen any go back and definitely watch those those are good too but we covered here as well

01:40:01.740 the sun and rod um as a symbol of dynamic power the power uh that is uh moving uh that that the

01:40:12.140 gods are a moving uh collection of forces that are driving towards something that there is there

01:40:21.900 There is a meeting out of purpose based on fate, based on doom, based on the ideas of cycle.

01:40:31.740 If there is a dawn, there has to be a dusk.

01:40:33.800 And so the symbol of the sun and rod as a moving emblem is important, I think, to show the correlation of the divine powers being deeply interconnected to a lot of the moving forces of the universe.

01:40:48.200 whether it's the primordial forces that created the universe that the gods shaped, whether it's, you know, the sparks of Muspelheim or the ancient matter that bubbled up from the wells of Nivelheim and Helgard and the rivers that flow and all these things.

01:41:03.020 this symbol represents their dynamic connection to it as as all things are aligned in us in cycles

01:41:10.460 by them um as as they take ascendancy in heaven um but also to symbolically to see

01:41:18.520 the the sun and rod is not just a circle it's not just a sense of light it's a sense of again

01:41:25.560 polaric movement all things moving around an axis and that symbol in and of itself has become

01:41:32.320 I think what we see as a sign of the divinity of the gods and their power, their might that exudes from them, the positions in which they take in the universe and the positions oftentimes that we bestow upon them culturally are both one and the same and equally as powerful.

01:41:53.440 And they represent themselves in that symbol emanating from their head, from the crown.

01:42:02.320 Yes, that's kind of the most evolved version of that symbol and the 12 spoke and its solar

01:42:14.500 connotations are important to us, to our ritual year, to the number of gods.

01:42:20.380 All of that correlates and is very important, but in its most basic sense, any version of

01:42:29.600 son and rod is used artistically in the afa as a halo gold around gods and red around mortals

01:42:38.960 to show holiness so it's it's a holy symbol and we use it specifically to denote holiness if

01:42:47.040 you're to see it on you know afa buildings or things that way would denote something holy about

01:42:54.320 them uh travis wants to share a comment and not a question not a question but wanted to express the

01:43:02.800 fact that our folk and our ways are true my folk builder of colorado has been here for me as a new

01:43:09.280 member more than family or close friend that's great to hear um your folk builder uh nick salo

01:43:17.040 is doing an amazing job so far and i say that i have no idea if that's the right way to pronounce

01:43:22.160 your name nick i apologize um but yeah he's doing an amazing job in colorado so far he's helping out

01:43:28.400 an area that hasn't had a lot of representation in the past and i've heard nothing but great things

01:43:33.760 and just so happens he is the next guy with a question uh nick says what lessons can we take

01:43:41.840 from frigga overlooking mistletoe when she took oaths from everything that could harm balder

01:43:47.200 Svon what are your thoughts on that again I think that that is what I lent to when I was talking

01:43:56.800 about the soul of the oak or the the the slightness that the meekness of the of that which

01:44:04.300 lives within the great bows of the oak tree is that oftentimes I think we overlook

01:44:12.160 um even the small vestige of of that which can spark or you ignite the cycle

01:44:22.140 and so it was quite fitting that we haven't you know a soft evergreen um

01:44:29.040 bow or tree that that becomes the catalyst that begins the cycle that starts the the woe of the

01:44:38.600 gods but then in essence creates the uh the salvation of the gods in a sense because remember

01:44:46.720 balder being placed in a in a stasis point between uh you know the heavenly the earthly and

01:44:55.340 the chthonic realms of of timelessness he's placed there to return so i think that

01:45:02.700 the lesson of Fricka's writing off is an understanding that even the smallest of

01:45:14.200 things can be the catalyst that begins a cycle. And that ultimately that the inevitability of

01:45:21.080 those cycles, that ebb and flow as the waves move in, the waves well move out, is an understanding

01:45:26.560 that even if it's the slightest, tiniest thing that starts that catalyst, that ultimately could

01:45:32.220 lead to being something that aids, that helps with the surviving the process. There's a great

01:45:40.320 lesson to be learned in that. So, you know, take note to the details. Take note that, you know,

01:45:50.420 all things should be covered. But ultimately, I think the story has to predecess itself that

01:45:57.640 something so slight, not a thorn, not a, not a arrow, not a, a blade or metal, but this

01:46:04.460 tiny little thing is the only thing that's left to begin the catalystic change that will bring

01:46:11.260 about great woe, but also ultimately a great boon over time. I mean, I think there's an obvious

01:46:26.180 don't overlook anything. Even tiny things can develop into threats. I think it is a message

01:46:34.800 of vigilance, but I think it's also a story element that has to exist to convey that story

01:46:42.640 and to teach us that truth. Do you think Forseti inherited the best characteristics of both of his

01:46:49.780 parents, and that made him well qualified to be the god of justice. What are your thoughts, Svon?

01:46:58.180 That's amazing that you brought that up, but we were just having a discussion about that, and

01:47:02.600 yes, I think that one of the idea of nobility, especially in relation to the inner guard,

01:47:14.120 when we talk about looking and reflecting in, the boldness, the courage, and the nobility

01:47:19.680 of balder mixed with the devotion and the piety and the strength and the power of faith in nana

01:47:26.880 manifest them in themselves in the sense of setting thews setting laws setting points in

01:47:35.520 which we have to maintain a sense of of rightness a sense of structural and societal um stability

01:47:45.840 uh and that that we see that in for set these guidance um of course you know when we talk about

01:47:52.880 uh his story amongst the phrygians and his correlation of of him helping create the

01:47:58.000 phrygians tribal laws um that i think is is an aspect uh that that expounds even beyond just the

01:48:04.640 phrygians to all of us in an understanding that yes um it's a perfect example of our caretaking

01:48:11.840 of that which is within we don't necessarily have to project law to that which is with

01:48:16.640 outside of us oftentimes we can enact a different type of justice uh uh and actions actions that are

01:48:24.640 swift and i i think that we see that in tear and i think people get confused with that a lot when

01:48:29.840 we see tear as being like our our actions being just are we acting swiftly are we acting cleanly

01:48:38.800 Are we acting nobly and righteous for ourselves, whereas Forsethi represents an inner form of justice with a deep sense of care and mediation with a desire to make peace within the friv of the inner guard.

01:48:56.080 So, yeah, I think it's extremely poignant that that's all correlated in the stories or in the thrones upon which we see the gods sit and the dominion of power from their thrones.

01:49:13.620 All right.

01:49:17.480 Yeah, I think that's a very interesting correlation, and I'm glad that you guys brought it up.

01:49:22.460 uh certainly i think that's important uh we have another question balder's story is one of death

01:49:30.240 and rebirth after ragnarok could it also be connected with reincarnation do we as asatuar

01:49:36.760 reincarnate i think that's a really interesting thing to bring up um certainly to a degree what i

01:49:46.040 think is more relevant to our form of reincarnation with the balder story is odin's placing of dropner

01:49:58.520 on his pyre and whispering into to the corpse of his son a secret that passes into the realm of

01:50:07.560 death and then comes back to to inform or to be fertile again in the golden age and i think that

01:50:16.840 that is much more similar to our reincarnation i've never been one that believes in the one for

01:50:23.400 one reincarnation pattern i think that in a certain case i don't think that's an impossible thing

01:50:30.520 i think that perhaps some heroes or somebody that there is is some important spiritual mission for

01:50:37.240 can be be reincarnated as perhaps an avatar or something like that i don't think that's out of

01:50:44.680 the question but i think in general and i think that math bears this out when you see the difference

01:50:51.560 in population today versus our ancient ancestors that a one-for-one you know bob dies and then

01:50:59.960 gets resurrected as his grandson bob iii i don't think that's a complete picture and i think

01:51:06.840 some of it has to do with the the logic of

01:51:13.160 believing in our ancestors existing beyond the veil because you don't really exist two places

01:51:20.600 at once at the same thing if we believe that they're dead residing in the halls of the ancestors

01:51:25.560 or perhaps even ascending to being with the gods then they don't really occupy two spaces at once

01:51:33.000 if we believe we're you know this would have us believe that grandson bob the third

01:51:40.040 is bob the first but is also at the altar worshiping bob the first and it's just a very

01:51:46.920 very complex thing what i think is a truth about our soul and how that works is that there's many

01:51:53.400 different soul components certainly pieces of the soul absolutely reincarnate into our bloodline

01:52:00.920 um pieces of our luck pieces of hymenia certainly pieces of ancestral memory

01:52:10.120 those things can absolutely re-manifest in the bloodlines of our family and i don't think

01:52:15.080 there's nothing to it but i think especially by naming naming children after ancestors or after

01:52:22.120 heroes a piece of them lives on through that child a piece of them manifests within that

01:52:29.560 child's soul and can bring them some of their luck or some of their favorable attributes

01:52:34.760 but i don't think that it means the whole personality the whole soul complex one for

01:52:41.240 one reincarnates down the line again i i don't venture to tell our gods what they can and cannot

01:52:47.720 do but i don't that is not my understanding of how reincarnation works in uh in our faith

01:52:56.920 But I know it's very nuanced, and so many things in Ausatru are. There's not a lot of quick,

01:53:01.960 easy answers. The answers all have gradation to them. What are your thoughts on this subject, Svang?

01:53:11.640 Well, it's much like what you said. The layering of the soul, the components of the soul,

01:53:17.880 what exactly comes back um you know that that could be a truly wonderful

01:53:25.160 theosophical debates about that um i think that it's important to understand that there's a

01:53:29.720 desperation that some people have to to create yggdrasil as some sort of a a central axis mundi

01:53:36.840 but they're losing i think a great point of what i think our ancestors especially the nordic

01:53:41.960 ancestors and why they chose a uh an ash tree specifically um is that looking at a nexus of

01:53:49.480 power understanding that the the the symbology of a root and a well in in all three levels

01:53:56.440 is very very important because from all three wells there is an emanation and a reception

01:54:03.240 of that realm and there is a descending down from that realm and there is also an extracting

01:54:10.120 up from that realm through the roots so when we understand that we can see great movement

01:54:18.040 happening between the heavenly realms the material realms and the dark cathodic realms and we see

01:54:25.240 that which happens in heaven descends down into time and into the material and then that which

01:54:30.120 happens in the material descends down through memory and through the past and into the primordial

01:54:36.120 And all of that is at the same time slowly being brought back up to the core nexus of that divine power and dripping and disseminating back down again in that cycle.

01:54:48.840 So if we can see the pathway as being cyclical, yes, but the components and to what degree, that is one to be greatly pondered upon, I think.

01:54:59.660 we know that we believe in ascension, that we believe that there is an ability to be ascended

01:55:04.720 by the gods through fame, through deed, through nobility, through right action, whether it's to

01:55:10.000 be plucked up directly from the middle by the Valfather, to be chosen, or whether it's ascendancy

01:55:17.200 even in older age or even post-mortem to be brought up and ascended and to be placed into

01:55:24.800 gimli hall uh to be amongst the gods or to be alfar and dsir and not be mortals again but to

01:55:33.280 preside over mortals and so understanding that the real point of the nexus of power is yggdrasil

01:55:42.240 and whether or not pieces are being brought back up or being produced anew from that nexus of power

01:55:48.480 placed in the well and disseminating into the material in the form of soul soul power that

01:55:55.360 extends the life of the folk i think there's a combination of newness and of from from that power

01:56:02.320 and there's a combination of oldness from the folk soul that is also kind of correlating uh in

01:56:09.200 in the present moment in the material plane as we produce more children and those that those

01:56:15.360 droplets from that uh entering into the well the droplets are the souls are the power that

01:56:23.760 have a combination of both new life and old from their bloodlines of the past

01:56:32.640 okay we have a complex question here um have you heard of stefan he sees loki as an evil one like

01:56:42.160 the saturn black cube abrahamic religion uh loki tricking hoder to kill balder was like our folk

01:56:50.320 being manipulated to murder each other to pass on christianity what do you think our ancestral gods 0.99

01:56:56.800 care about us like a parent would a child whereas the jealous murderous maniac schizophrenic quacko 0.99

01:57:04.640 keko demon yahweh god of calamity and mischief he wants us destroyed and enslaved 0.96

01:57:13.120 so what are your thoughts fond do you know who he is referring to the stefan person

01:57:19.600 uh i am not familiar no i i i am i am not familiar with with uh stefan uh perhaps if there was

01:57:28.560 a last name i i don't know um i think that the the lesson first and foremost is yes that there is a

01:57:36.000 that Loki does represent a great amount of things that are a warning. When we see

01:57:43.900 the seeds of maliciousness being sowed within, being applicated, they're always kind of covered

01:57:51.660 with a sense of gifts and a sense of goodness. But we clearly know, be careful of those who give

01:57:58.000 many gifts because they're indebting you perhaps to a price that you're not really understanding

01:58:02.900 what you're uh you know supposed to pay and um you know so we see this warning of loki uh in

01:58:12.660 many different ways and he's represented culturally at the time in in a very specific way he is seen

01:58:18.740 as not being of orderly fashion he's he's he's a force that can move between boundaries and that's

01:58:26.980 clearly seen as being connected to like primordial chaotic forces forces that aren't stable forces

01:58:36.700 that aren't um built on order aren't built on the everlasting they're they ebb they flow they move

01:58:45.000 they change and so these warnings i think um are taking place for the audience to catch that to

01:58:51.740 see that to understand that um and as far as in correlation with perhaps uh saturn or the black

01:59:01.900 cube or uh in relation to perhaps like the canaanite slash you know eventually evolving into

01:59:09.180 the the judaic uh yahweh uh the correlation there i i don't really have on there in a lot of ways um

01:59:18.220 I think it's important that we see our faith and our stories as the lessons and the points that we should see them in their framework for ourselves because those stories speak to us.

01:59:32.480 Perhaps if we could see correlation in other people's things or perhaps in the way they manifest in this world through, you know, oftentimes I correlate fanaticism of certain ideologies that happen in this world.

01:59:49.000 I correlate that oftentimes to the venom of Fenris' mouth as it's boiling out of the Black Lake.

01:59:56.700 So I can see where you're going with a connection point and comparative sense. And I'm not going to say that your connective points or the way you're bringing these things. That's, again, the power of our stories is the perennial truth.

02:00:14.520 So if the perennial truth is leading you to an understanding of that there is some sort of kind of correlation, I would say, you know, perhaps you are right or perhaps you are at least gleaning into an area where we should consider.

02:00:29.520 I think all things in the pursuit of wisdom is to be considered. But we should also try to look at our religion and our stories and our truths within the framework of our people first and foremost.

02:00:49.100 And so I oftentimes look at Loki as clearly is as he is and that it wasn't always seen as just some kind of coy trickster that we should – oh, we should just – that's actually the warning.

02:01:05.620 The warning is don't take what is going to become or what can manifest as just being some coy trickster that we should just, oh, you know, kind of play it off.

02:01:17.520 So consider first within our framework, and then all correlative connections to things outside of our framework. I don't think that they lack merit. I think instead what we should do is try to find the perennial truth in those connectivities.

02:01:38.640 Otherwise, we end up spiraling out, fragmenting out and leading down rabbit holes and pathways that ultimately force us to engage foreign ideas with foreign ideas.

02:01:53.240 And we shouldn't do that. We should find connectivity, but always bring it back within the inner guard of our framework of understanding.

02:02:00.200 all of the things that spawn said but yes loki is bad and uh yes loki's

02:02:12.280 trickery and what's important to take note of about loki and his way of doing things

02:02:21.720 is that it is subtle is that it is tricky and it does come in disguised as a friend or disguised

02:02:28.580 as a joke um and then ends in in tragedy uh as opposed to an opponent that comes to you face to

02:02:38.020 face and stares you down and man for man you you guys settle something loki's opposition is always

02:02:44.980 done in a slimy shady way and uh you know certainly that has commonality with with people

02:02:52.900 who behave that way as well and and i think that you know that is a similarity in character and

02:03:00.180 not necessarily a literary representation but it is very interesting to note um

02:03:08.740 hans asks i know we don't take the eddies literally like people do with the bible

02:03:13.940 but does that still apply to the have them all i think the same things apply to the have them all

02:03:19.940 um the lessons from the eddas and the truth of the eddas we do take as a as a truth the literal

02:03:29.220 descriptions of a of an illustrative story we don't take each of those facts as being

02:03:34.820 being literal truth but they are a metaphysical truth the have them all doesn't put those things

02:03:44.020 in specific time and place it puts out a list of proverbial advice that is true and rings true

02:03:52.740 and so i think that you know i don't see that there would be a literal versus not literal

02:03:58.580 interpretation issue of the have them all if we accept that the edit speak truth the have them all

02:04:03.380 advice is applicable to you know throughout time and space in one way or another i think that

02:04:09.540 perhaps when he describes the um the spells i suppose that's something that could be taken

02:04:17.380 literally or symbolically but certainly all of all of the advice portions of the have them all

02:04:22.820 are very straightforward and i don't think they they require uh you know a literal story or a

02:04:30.820 context that way other than you know advice to travelers um but no i think those things are can

02:04:37.620 be applied forever and applied to almost any circumstance in a very very easy and very

02:04:43.780 straightforward way and those things are all true points those things are all valid and true things 1.00

02:04:49.940 if you mean literally like in the the you know don't trust the council of women

02:04:55.060 obviously use some common sense it doesn't mean that women can't give you good advice but it does

02:04:59.540 mean that you need to season that advice with understanding where it came from and understanding

02:05:04.660 volatility of women depending on the circumstance i think these truths were all adult enough to be

02:05:11.460 able to to read into them and to see the truth in them and they're they're extremely valuable

02:05:16.820 to have them all is one of the most easily accessible and most valuable you know for

02:05:22.820 practical use items within our eddas and i think it's one of the reasons that that it's so beloved

02:05:29.300 by Ossetruar since the very beginning. Shay asks, is there any disrespect towards Balder

02:05:37.240 in using mistletoe in the known traditions during the upcoming holidays? Do you have

02:05:43.860 thoughts on that, Svon? Yes, absolutely. I mean, the argument between whether our Celtic

02:05:50.060 cousins brought the honoring of mistletoe, we can clearly see mistletoe seems to be deeply

02:05:55.560 connected on the anglo-saxon side of things so i would state that there is a heavy case that

02:06:05.000 a cultural tradition of showing friv showing friendship uh to mistletoe through uh handshakes

02:06:15.880 uh when when people come through a threshold the handshake at the door uh between men folk the hug

02:06:21.880 between menfolk the the the the kiss upon the forehead the kiss upon the cheek the the sign of

02:06:27.640 affection i think is a cultural thing that has survived uh perfect example that say didn't

02:06:34.600 survive is cobblers taking pieces of the of the leather shoe and whatever's left over the scraps

02:06:41.400 from the edges to be kind of sacrificed to vidar in essence a kind of a testament to his eventual

02:06:48.520 completion of his oath in which he will avenge his father that didn't really survive it was

02:06:54.360 culturally poignant at the time but i think as truly beautiful as that mistletoe and this kind of

02:07:00.120 folk cultural uh tradition that's not stated in the adis it's clearly there's no mention of it is

02:07:09.720 is important to keep around so i do this as well i i um during uh the lighting of the yule log um

02:07:19.160 whether it's at home or at the hof uh there's mistletoe that's gathered and uh i have a kind

02:07:24.520 of an interesting family tradition involving gathering of mistletoe but um the idea is is to

02:07:31.400 to disseminate it amongst the folk and to show kindness and frid to the folk that pass through

02:07:39.880 the threshold before it. And at the end of Yule, I sacrifice it to the boon fire that I light

02:07:46.800 from the flame that I've kept from the Yule log throughout Yule. So I think that's a great

02:07:52.680 tradition, I think it exemplifies a great point is that the blame is not on the mistletoe. It's

02:08:02.160 not necessarily even blamed on hod or hodur. It's blamed on the maliciousness or the transference 0.90

02:08:09.920 of the one who is malicious and the one who is chaotic, the one who is the kinslayer. And so

02:08:16.880 there is a sense of forgiveness in the deed of showing frith before it i think it's important

02:08:26.380 i like it um you know as it gets closer to the holidays or to uh the yule tide we will ask

02:08:35.320 swan some more about his yule traditions i need to figure out where we get the the pig's heads 0.60

02:08:41.000 uh-oh now i've done it now i've done it hold on you offended the pig head 0.73

02:08:48.040 i spoke the pig head out loud and calamity ensued you get this re-straightened out guys 0.96

02:08:56.460 i think we're back straight so rob's got a got a question for you swan

02:09:04.020 Svan opinion on Balder and his resurrection as a representation of the path to ascension

02:09:11.460 and his correlation with other solar deities and their roles as guides on the hero's path

02:09:17.940 yes uh definitely a representation you get a one word answer yes no the the the uh the ascension

02:09:32.620 correlation, I think, too, has Pan-Arianism all over it. Wherever we look at, we see the

02:09:40.880 ascension of the light warrior, the soul or the ascension of the brand. It survives in ancient

02:09:51.700 names from Germanic origins, like Albert, meaning all bright, or Herbert, meaning the bright warrior.

02:09:58.700 There's all of these deep connections to the ascension of the light warrior, and that light, that idea of expounding from a place of darkness is, again, a clear and poignant perennial truth that absolutely can be applied.

02:10:21.260 The question I think that is placed upon us is the definition of where that darkness comes from. Is it external? Is it internal? Is it from outside? Is it from the betrayer's hand or is it from the brother, the dark brother? Is the dark brother the darkness within ourselves?

02:10:41.160 considering where the light is being quelled and finding that source i think is most important

02:10:48.720 to leading towards it expounding beyond what is trying to quell it and i think that's one of the

02:10:55.560 great mysteries of the story in a warrior aspect is understanding the source of the darkness that

02:11:00.820 quells our light identifying it admitting it appearing it and then then expounding beyond it

02:11:09.520 once we face it, we can move beyond. So King of Cheese asks, Matt Svon, I nearly forgot to ask,

02:11:22.600 how are you both doing tonight? I'm sure I know your answer, Matt, but it's a good thing.

02:11:28.460 Svon, how are you doing? I'm doing well. There was complications, obviously, with sound and,

02:11:36.120 And, you know, planes flying overhead and logistic things like that.

02:11:40.520 But you know what?

02:11:41.160 We don't let those stop us.

02:11:43.620 We don't let them get in our way.

02:11:45.440 We just recorrect, recalibrate, keep moving forward.

02:11:49.320 So I think it's ignoble to wallow in the steps that keep us down.

02:11:55.540 So, you know, you're right.

02:11:57.420 I'm doing great, like I say, every week.

02:12:01.340 Things going good. 0.72

02:12:02.400 I'm now deep in thought about where to get the pig's head for the Yule celebration so that my child and I can eat the pig face.

02:12:11.840 That's a spawn tradition that I keep meaning to do, but I don't get on it early enough.

02:12:16.660 So, yeah, he'll tell us more about that as the Yule Tide gets closer.

02:12:23.160 I'm doing great and I appreciate you asking, Tony. That's kind of you. I hope you're doing well as well.

02:12:28.120 uh travis is the folk uh this is for you svan is the folkish futhark written

02:12:35.980 in something we can study like other runes

02:12:39.060 uh i mean the folk futhark is is written out in well there it is so but to understand

02:12:48.720 that you have to remember that the folk futhark is not a futhark unto itself it is a culmination

02:12:56.400 of all the other futharks so the best way and that's the reason why we did that was to spurn

02:13:02.320 people who are deeply interested to look at the folk futhark and then go back and look at the

02:13:08.320 different futharks that we pulled from maybe why we pulled from it uh and and encourage study but

02:13:15.360 it you in order to understand the folk futhark you must understand all the futharks and that's

02:13:22.400 i'm saying that in a tongue-in-cheek but also not in a way uh it's to spurn interest

02:13:29.040 um it was not an attempt to create something new it was more or less a spark of inspiration

02:13:36.560 to convey messages in the murals and to give a commonality of reading since you you might talk

02:13:44.480 to a lot of people that write in runic um whether we're talking about an old norse or in modern

02:13:49.760 german or modern english or um you know even in slavic i see a lot of slavic rune work now

02:13:56.240 uh being written where there's like a cyrillic runic that uh has taken place in some some art

02:14:02.320 forms um so i kind of wanted for us to have the same thing to transfer some ideas and and to

02:14:10.640 unify our ability to get those ideas but they're based off of the anglo-phrygian

02:14:17.040 the elder Futhark, the younger Futhark, the Armanin. So all of those, yeah, look into them.

02:14:23.800 That's where you're going to find, you know, the deeper intrinsic meanings of them.

02:14:33.760 So you guys know, it looks like we've got two questions left. So if you guys got questions,

02:14:41.380 go ahead and put them up there. And if not, we'll, you know, we've already been going over

02:14:45.520 two hours so we'll sign off after these two but yeah if you guys have questions you want to answer

02:14:49.840 be happy to get to those uh a user on odyssey robert pile asks i usually use wings uh usually

02:14:58.880 on the helmets to show that a person is a celestial being or favored by the gods does

02:15:05.040 anybody in the afa also do this or is the sun and rad only i'm very aware of the tradition of doing

02:15:12.640 that and i think that's really cool as far as i know artists in the afa i can't think of anyone

02:15:18.560 specifically who does that with their art but it certainly wouldn't surprise me uh sfan do you know

02:15:25.840 uh i mean i i immediately think back to like some of the stuff in the in the uh early 80s

02:15:34.000 you know some of the artwork then definitely and i think was in the same in the same vein

02:15:39.200 of what you're you're saying about the the uh understanding or the expansiveness of divinity

02:15:44.880 and so yes i think that's a great point that we should bring up and and and bear about is that

02:15:49.920 the what the ring wings represented some people now will try to scoff because i think we're

02:15:54.800 we're filled with we're overly abundant with cynics in the modern day and at people that are

02:16:00.400 contrarians people that try to tear things down people that see something going up and they just

02:16:05.920 kind of throw their their you know venom at it just because it's not them or so i don't know 0.95

02:16:12.560 what the source is but you know so when we see these wings and we're like oh god oh it's

02:16:18.320 vagnerian and no what is the deep symbolic meaning behind that is yes the expansion the elevated

02:16:25.920 the elevated power and so i would say the wings and the sun and rod have the same meaning and that

02:16:33.600 um it was briefly i think we were talking about that when we were talking about artistic

02:16:39.600 representations in the early 80s and how we wanted to kind of demonstrate a next step so i think that

02:16:45.920 was the ultimate reason why i think me and elsewhere ago they didn't really fully commit

02:16:50.880 to that idea um there were some other reasons too of course the idea of wearing helms in general

02:16:56.480 and it um the first mural was thor and and one emphasis that i really wanted to show was the

02:17:02.720 wind blown and wild hair that is that is spoken of the red hair that is wild and windy

02:17:09.600 and so that would kind of be hard to convey under the capsulation of a helmet so it just kind of

02:17:16.800 ended up in that evolution not not happening and that the sun and rod would then be the same

02:17:23.200 meaning but it's our time now as as we represent it that way i don't know if you have any thoughts

02:17:30.400 on that possibly uh no i think that that both are are really you know appropriate and uh artistically

02:17:39.920 beautiful ways of doing it i think that one of the things that comes in especially when we consider

02:17:45.440 um our modern heroes in a day and an age where uh all of the heroes celebrated were warriors

02:17:54.000 and thus you know and in a time where warriors were commonly wearing a helmet

02:18:00.320 the wings work on there the wings just attached to the side of somebody's head without a helmet

02:18:04.960 would look odd i don't know how terrible that would be i think it would take some getting used

02:18:09.600 to i think artistically you can put any head in front of a sun and rod halo and it looks right

02:18:17.360 it works there it fits i think if you did that with wings and they weren't attached to a helmet

02:18:22.960 it wouldn't uh wouldn't have the same effect um not that you couldn't do it like i said but i

02:18:28.320 think it would take some getting used to but yeah it's the it's the same concept and and

02:18:32.480 that's cool that you do that i'd love to see some of your work um so tony asks what are the

02:18:41.360 use and history of rosary beads and aussitrew i've seen them used by catholics so you can

02:18:47.280 understand my confusion when i see asitura use them but i am dearly curious so what i think

02:18:55.920 you're seeing as rosary beads are are mala beads and i think they were incorporated from

02:19:04.080 hindu tradition which which is an arian an arian offshoot faith um i know that a lot of folks

02:19:12.080 in their esoteric practice have used mala beads for the same reasons that hindus use them to count

02:19:21.040 during galder sessions to also count during any kind of mantra work they're doing

02:19:26.400 and so i know a number of people use those we have a friend of the afa that usually

02:19:32.080 will will make a mala bead um necklace for uh auction at afa events and those are very beautiful

02:19:43.080 with uh runic beads on them but yeah i think that's what you're referring to uh history of

02:19:49.820 those the mala has been used since i think like the fourth century as far as in vedic or hindu

02:19:56.820 practice i'm not sure how long folks have been using them in ostrich circles but i think since

02:20:04.580 pretty early on because there is a a tendency to seek inspiration from um eastern arian

02:20:13.860 traditions that lasted longer and and developed some more modern techniques in their spirituality

02:20:21.060 that's my knowledge of them Svon do you have anything to add on the the use of of beads and

02:20:28.060 ostrich well I think what you said about galder and and also too about the randomness I think that

02:20:34.320 um as the beads uh because each of the beads has a generally has a rune symbol on it and there

02:20:40.340 could be varied runes because some people prefer maybe a rotation of a certain amount from a

02:20:46.220 Futhark, like whether it's the Elder or the Younger or the Angulophrygian. Now we're talking

02:20:52.000 about different numbers, whether it's 24 or 16 or 32 or 18. And the idea that how many times they

02:21:02.100 might be cycled, but one of the things is the randomness of it. Oftentimes I've seen in usage

02:21:08.520 while being counted and doing Galder that perhaps losing count or losing sight of which rune you may

02:21:15.240 have started on but the randomness of the stopping point may have some significance as well in which

02:21:20.820 they'll look down and see the symbol and the symbol has a phonetic value but it also has a

02:21:25.460 deep intrinsic philosophical and religious value and they'll look at that as perhaps either a point

02:21:31.760 to meditate on focus on or some even believe that it might have some correlation to the events of

02:21:38.360 the life that they are either experiencing right now or perhaps uh the the fate and the debt in

02:21:44.000 which they are walking into in the world, like I would say fate, but debt or the coming of their

02:21:51.120 time in the future, that these symbols might glean some help. It really depends, I think,

02:21:56.220 on the people. It's different amongst a lot of folks. I don't even really have a lot of

02:22:01.920 experience with them, but I see them and I've seen them used and I've asked and it was told

02:22:07.220 to me very much in that vein of the sense that the randomness of what might come about

02:22:13.180 has significance while also helping keep pace while doing mantra or galder i've used them i have

02:22:21.500 a set that was gifted to me and i i've used them for for galder work and for mantra work and and

02:22:27.840 found that to be useful because you can just thumb them with your finger and keep track that way

02:22:32.560 without having to focus on the count which again helps free up your mind in that galder and in that

02:22:38.860 mantra mantra and galder are the tools that help me meditate those things allow my mind to

02:22:47.580 disconnect and be in that meditative place where if i don't do those things it's very hard for me

02:22:52.860 to silence all the all the random business and thoughts that come into my mind so i think it's

02:22:59.100 it's a powerful tool um finn asks i'm wondering your opinion on this svan does the afa believe

02:23:06.220 in the claims that odin is santa claus and do you have an opinion on the christians who say

02:23:12.860 santa is saint nicholas a greek bishop or do you think santa could be a mix of the two what are your

02:23:19.340 thoughts on santa claus and our folk um yeah uh well so we you know we have the the um uh the

02:23:32.060 deep connection of course sent santa niklaus or saint nick and uh i guess i believe he was this

02:23:39.860 a syrian living in greece i'm not super familiar with the story of the christian saint however um

02:23:50.300 there's always been a spirit of yule and and so there's some i think some correlations there seems

02:24:00.560 to be folk correlations that don't i think glean towards um odin being uh that that spirit or well

02:24:12.560 first and foremost i i want to preface that we're not trying to find a singular spirit but that

02:24:18.560 there are some things that i seem to point towards a folk belief of a an angle nook white or hearth

02:24:26.960 spirit or or an alpha or a lad or a or a kind of um uh the the premise of a spirit that is

02:24:36.720 uh um connected to the hearth connected to the the house connected to the home and so part of

02:24:42.880 me says a lot of these traditions that i read about seem to correlate towards a house spirit

02:24:48.880 but yet at the same time there is also heavy correlations especially amongst the anglo-saxons

02:24:54.800 and and the nords with uh like the naming of of odin as being the yule father but um

02:25:02.880 you know the the connections of to him specifically around say gift giving or being

02:25:10.480 uh of one uh amongst the children uh doesn't i don't see a lot of that i see that more there's

02:25:17.120 more warrior s connections to the yule father uh at the time of yule in which odin is seen

02:25:23.600 deeply connected to the warrior class of the anglo-saxons he's venerated at this time i think

02:25:28.240 he was also venerated at this time because it was seen as yule was the end of the wild hunt

02:25:33.600 um that the wild hunt wound down at that point and that uh that uh after his ride he was taking

02:25:41.280 ascendancy back into his throne so i believe that our ancestors were looking at that this

02:25:45.600 was a time to celebrate his returning and settling down and i think that has a deep connection to the

02:25:52.400 word you'll the the the the turning or the return um but as far as uh gift giving uh placing um

02:26:03.840 gifts into the stockings this goes throughout all of european cultures and it oftentimes seems to be

02:26:11.280 always correlated to a huswite or a hoodlfolk or a lanvetier or um like i said i like an inglenook

02:26:21.280 spirit uh because again the connection to the charcoal um the idea of the goat or a means in

02:26:27.760 which they they carry the packages um i know a lot of people because of the yulbach make deep

02:26:33.920 connections to thor being um like the yul father or and then there's some debate between odin and

02:26:40.800 and and thor but again uh there's more connection definitely towards odin as being the old father

02:26:47.600 because it's literally said that he is the yule father but uh as far as when we see like in modern

02:26:54.080 day iceland when we talk about the yule lads and these the the evolution of most spirits in post

02:27:02.320 nordic christian times the gods are not made into um sprites and spirits and wearing you know red

02:27:12.160 caps and and kind of fun things the gods were oftentimes made bad or mortal or you know you

02:27:19.600 you hemorrhaged and all those things and that what was kind of left for the kids in a lot of ways

02:27:25.120 remained because even that to a degree was off limits from the church or from the parents or

02:27:31.440 or or things like that so i really find that um the yule lad father christmas as he as he's referred

02:27:38.640 to in england or or you know and um a lot of the correlations of that and a lot of the traditions

02:27:44.000 surrounding that uh i mean there could even be an argument when we talk about uh connections

02:27:49.120 to owen and yule we could also talk about the connections between fray and yule again with

02:27:55.680 the pig's head and the othing on the boar's head uh or the fact that that might also be correlated

02:28:01.600 to a tradition of the wild hunt that a wild hunt of owen going out is symbolic of also the

02:28:08.320 noble lords going out and hunting a boar in the winter time to bring it back slaughter it eat it

02:28:15.280 and take oaths upon its head um there's a lot of correlations there but i i'm i'm of the mindset

02:28:22.960 that i i and in my house we always we always celebrate the yule elf um the jolly old elf

02:28:29.440 um and as far as like connections to christianity i mean when you look at saint nicholas you know

02:28:36.160 uh iconography of him in greece at the time it's there in name alone i think after that it

02:28:44.560 completely shifts into the colorization that is deeply germanic the color red the color white the

02:28:51.440 color green these are all correlated to mistletoe and to holly leaves and the protection of the

02:28:56.880 holly leaf um and i know christianity has tried to correlate it to the story of painting red upon

02:29:02.240 the doors in exodus and um i think that those those have really very little tangible connections um

02:29:11.120 so when we see uh european uh santa claus or father christmas or or the yule elf you know

02:29:19.520 and then of course when we talk about the americanization of um santa claus or um saint

02:29:25.760 nicholas or old old saint nick and um and we see him you know changed in iconography amongst the

02:29:33.520 americans um i don't know i think that's it's a really interesting i love the con the the topic

02:29:39.840 of yule but especially in aussitry right now there's so many different various groups that

02:29:46.080 have different things that they emphasize on you'll see a lot of people who have german ancestry

02:29:50.560 really emphasizing on krampus um i grew up in iceland so grilla was a thing and i i really

02:29:59.600 don't particularly like that that the idea of this um i feel like it might have been a uh

02:30:07.360 i don't know some sort of maliciousness of i think that a lot of christianity brought to 0.55

02:30:11.600 to in into iceland about this this witch this troll witch eating the children they always kind

02:30:18.400 of like soured the the joyous occasion of what i think yule really meant to our ancestors

02:30:26.080 about the returning of the light and the understanding that this was going to be the

02:30:29.680 darkest time of the year and that the light must be kept and cultivated amongst the folk

02:30:34.080 so that it can return again another perennial truth within the story of balder um so i always

02:30:41.680 in my house correlate the yule elf as coming and uh upon lighting the yule log and being placed

02:30:50.000 into the fireplace he then travels and and brings gifts from the ancestors so we have two gift

02:30:56.880 giving cycles at our house we have the ancestral gift giving and then we have the gift exchange

02:31:03.440 amongst kin amongst the sib or the sifa amongst us so uh the ancestors get their gifts are given

02:31:11.200 out first and and we bring the pictures down and we talk about them and and tell the children about

02:31:17.360 where these gifts came from and which ancestor they were brought by the yule elf you know he

02:31:22.960 brings them there and his gifts are usually in the stockings that's his gift uh and exchange and we

02:31:28.880 have the kids you know place out porridge or cookies or things of that nature and that that

02:31:35.360 teaches them a gift cycle and then the gift exchange after the ancestor gifts generally one

02:31:42.640 gift is uh you know given to each and every other person in the in the family so we have this gift

02:31:49.120 exchange and we always caveat the idea that the ul elf is against miserly behavior and you know

02:31:55.360 it could extend to uh being bad throughout the year but one of the big things in our house is

02:32:01.840 that the gift giving cycle of going out and not thinking about the gifts you're going to get but

02:32:07.120 thinking about the gifts you're going to give to your brother to your sister to your mother to your

02:32:10.400 father or whoever's going to be present is the most important thing that that the yule elf really

02:32:16.400 focuses on and if you are miserly if you are covered at covetous then you get you know blocks

02:32:22.720 of wood burnt wood in your stockings or charcoal if you will again another thing that kind of

02:32:29.680 correlates to um uh the spirit of yule time being a an englenook alf um but it's different everywhere

02:32:42.320 yeah i think there's there's no simple answer that this god equals santa claus i think that

02:32:50.400 santa claus equaling saint nicholas is ridiculous and kind of silly there's no

02:32:57.840 correlation there i think linguistically with the name certainly but i think that's 0.88

02:33:02.080 the only thing that shows any similarity santa is absolutely a pagan germanic european

02:33:11.920 thing and has nothing to do with christianity but i think you know a lot of times

02:33:20.240 those kind of folk customs depending on when and where take on different forms much like

02:33:25.200 the leader of the wild hunt sometimes it's odin sometimes it's theodoric the goth sometimes it's

02:33:32.800 um you know other germanic leaders it's depends on on the the day and the age of the story and

02:33:41.200 the location on who they personify those things certainly one of the names of odin is is the yule

02:33:46.960 father and we celebrate that and i think that if i have to go with one of our gods most associated

02:33:53.360 with yule it would be him but uh you know spawn mentioned that some folks see a lot of thor

02:34:00.080 elements it's interesting to see just how santa's uh portrayed i have a picture of the 1950s when my

02:34:07.440 my mother and my uncle were over there with my grandparents as little children

02:34:12.240 and they were there with you know their version of father christmas and that santa was

02:34:17.040 creepy looking skinny and terrifying with crazy eyes and you know I again growing up over here 0.63

02:34:26.540 I've I'm always think of the the big fat jolly you know drunken rosy cheek Santa with the you 0.93

02:34:34.220 know with the big white beard and that's you know that looks looks right to me and I think that's

02:34:40.320 probably looked very different throughout the depth and breadth and scope of our folk as as

02:34:46.120 they've migrated, but that idea of giving and a spirit that personifies that giving, especially

02:34:52.700 for the children around Yule, is absolutely our pagan thing. And certainly, you know, that's one

02:35:00.880 of the things I appreciate about Jehovah's Witnesses is they don't celebrate Christmas for

02:35:05.180 that amongst many other reasons. It's very obviously a pagan celebration.

02:35:10.100 Shay asks, how does Balder make his way out of Helheim? Svan, have you pondered that? Do you

02:35:19.700 have thoughts on that? Well, it doesn't specifically say, and I would, when we talk

02:35:28.840 about, for instance, in the Volaspau, when the Volva, the Vala, she's talking about the rising, 0.74

02:35:37.140 like the the dead the the foul um and they're riding upon nail far the the the the denied ones

02:35:46.800 the ones that are of nastron uh you know they're riding up the rivers from underneath and uh and

02:35:55.900 in the story you know it it talks about them coming out and then it makes reference to the

02:36:00.480 east and to the jotuns and in jotunheim and how this correlation of the rising tide from underneath

02:36:06.320 is coming to jotenheim and then from jotenheim there is a clear understanding that the that

02:36:12.960 they're coming from the east into the realm of heaven from the middle realm so there's the

02:36:17.680 under realm to the middle and then the middle to the upper and and uh all the while the gods are

02:36:22.960 preparing but then the focus of the war happens and then it is just simply said that you know after

02:36:29.200 the the after it settles um and the gods return they return to either wall they return to the

02:36:38.360 plane in which the gods have created their guard in heaven which is generally seen as above the

02:36:45.500 actual like level of heaven heaven is uh if you would will if you would will it to to see is a

02:36:51.980 like yggdrasil at the well and then the nexus of power through the roots spreads to the middle

02:36:57.800 world into the lower world um they are above even the well and they descend down to it well they

02:37:04.920 don't ever talk about uh that in the in the poem they just say that the gods return and find the

02:37:11.780 golden um pieces and the runes uh on either vault where the gods um had once built their glory and

02:37:22.840 then they again attain them and take up the rods take up the pieces remember the elder gods and

02:37:29.880 then begin again so it's not necessarily specified but again when we talk about movement of the gods

02:37:36.160 when we see about like for instance the striker in all arian um mythos is the uh the striker does

02:37:45.040 not descend into the chthonic level he seems to always battle death in the middle or he he rides

02:37:51.740 around the edge we see balder is going to the depths and then again polarizing back to the top

02:37:57.320 again um you know that movement could be we could speculate it uh a reverse trek it could be a a

02:38:06.620 an ascendance through the root which is that nexus pulling back up um into heaven or it could be

02:38:14.800 simply seen as just the same way that that which from the chthonic world come up to the middle and

02:38:20.380 then come up to the the height it's not very much specified um in any particular way or a

02:38:26.400 mode of vehicle like for instance with the with the the forgotten dead and the foul dead coming

02:38:31.180 upon nail farra the nail faring boat uh that's mentioned as a specific vehicle whereas the

02:38:38.080 jotuns go by foot and they're um they're you know all amassed behind um uh hrimnir and his and his

02:38:46.740 uh, his shield coming from the East. So it's not, it's not specified, uh, that I don't know.

02:38:53.960 You know, my thoughts on that are it's a time of great cataclysm and the rules of order and

02:39:00.640 the natural order is broken. Uh, you know, the prophecies of that time, natural order goes by

02:39:07.840 the wayside and brothers fight amongst each other. And there's the fimble winter and the,

02:39:14.220 know the laws of seasons don't apply and i think that probably is true of of all of the ordered

02:39:20.060 processes you know the the dead rise and uh and and ride on the on the toenail ship um

02:39:31.100 you know if those dead are no longer held in the place of the dead and they they can travel willy

02:39:37.420 nilly to do these things then perhaps those bonds that prevent fall balder from just getting up and

02:39:43.500 walking back to asgard are also uh also sundered it's a time where all of the rules break down

02:39:50.220 where order literally breaks down under chaos and balder re-emerges and brings with him that order

02:39:59.100 in the reordering of things so i think that you know i think that these are all poetic ways to

02:40:06.060 tell a story um but i think the key there is those normal rules don't apply at that point

02:40:13.180 the order that that separates the realms and separates the rules that we understand breaks down

02:40:19.900 and uh you know all kind of things that keep things in place and delineate the space

02:40:26.140 in our uh understanding the cosmos is is no longer those are no longer rules um

02:40:34.540 what is the best way to approach a family member from a mormon upbringing who is interested in

02:40:40.540 coming home i'm curious fawn's uh thoughts on this but i want to throw out there first

02:40:50.700 one of the situations we find ourselves in that makes this an easier conversation

02:40:57.340 is that the mormonism of 2022 is not the mormonism that people my age grew up with

02:41:05.900 um i don't know how old the person in question is but if they're a long time mormon they will have

02:41:12.220 seen you know traditional values that were a very very strong pillar of that faith erode over time

02:41:21.900 and degenerate they will have seen the chaotic forces of cultural marxism and liberal degeneracy

02:41:32.220 overtake the fundamental tenets of of their faith if those things i think that we find oftentimes

02:41:39.980 that if those traditional values that are our values as arian people are upheld the the higher

02:41:49.340 mythology can change back and forth but when those fundamentals are challenged that's a much harder

02:41:55.740 sell so i think they're already primed to look for something that meets their needs in a way that

02:42:01.900 that mormonism no longer does we see this throughout the world with christianity

02:42:06.860 so i think that primes them and puts them in a in a good spot for that conversation

02:42:11.900 um as far as that goes the mormons are very involved in ancestor veneration and i don't

02:42:21.580 think that they would necessarily refer to it that way but their respect for the ancestry

02:42:27.500 and they're posthumously baptizing people and doing things as though their ancestors still

02:42:34.060 are alive and well in a different part of existence i think that is a good transition to get them to

02:42:40.540 worship their ancestors in a more honest house true context and i think that leads back to our

02:42:46.940 gods i think that leads back to our core values and i think that the more you speak to them of

02:42:53.980 our commonality of worldview between us and the the better generations of mormonism

02:43:02.460 the easier it will be to open their minds to our gods and our and the the finer points of our faith

02:43:09.900 do you have ideas on this spot yeah i what you just said about the context points i think are

02:43:15.900 clear as day and and that's really good because that's an easy spot they do do their ancestor

02:43:21.740 veneration i think that one thing to consider if you are talking to someone it does not even have

02:43:27.180 to be mormon but particularly monotheistic and this kind of also brings us back to the original

02:43:33.020 questions in the beginning about atheism one of the problems that i think uh christians have

02:43:39.660 within themselves and then also in trying to understand us is that uh their god has become so

02:43:48.060 uh obscure that in a lot of ways culturally they're left either feeling a great sense of abandonment

02:43:55.900 or like even with a george washington spoke of like a great providence distancing clock

02:44:01.420 maker mindset because he couldn't explain why things were happening as they were happening

02:44:07.340 and so on and so forth uh based off of precepts that were set in the religion so if these things

02:44:12.220 are happening and it doesn't seem like they should be then god just must be distant and then

02:44:18.940 it it starts to lead down this process of some people feeling completely abandoned and then

02:44:26.300 other people kind of going through the cultural motions of christianity and then there's other

02:44:31.420 folks who are they they become angry and bittered and because of the obscurity of their divine

02:44:37.500 concepts, they become atheistic or at least agnostic, and then eventually drift into the

02:44:44.480 obscurity leading to venom and an outright, well, if it can't be proven, and a lot of that comes

02:44:51.140 from them kind of feeling fooled into believing in such an obscure concept. One of the things that

02:44:57.860 i would definitely um advise you to uh to address is that we do the opposite that our gods are not

02:45:07.200 obscure and they're not obscure for a reason because they're connected to us like literally

02:45:13.720 through our souls and through our through our folk and through our people but they also represent us

02:45:18.620 culturally linguistically they have all the things that speak to us on subconscious conscious levels

02:45:24.560 So we are the opposite of obscurity. We don't seek to make our gods universal and kind of like shells that can be sold to people that are not us and might not understand it.

02:45:39.120 We don't want and have no interest in doing that. So really get them to, one, understand how the divinity of Yahweh as a concept amongst the Judaic people and the shifting into the Greek philosophy and then eventually into the Roman church.

02:45:59.160 And yes, there's a lot of good things structurally and societally wise that exemplified in European Christianity, but divinity itself became very obscure.

02:46:09.080 And I think that that's led a chain of events towards all kinds of fracturing and disillusionment.

02:46:16.180 And we should, one thing that our faith really offers is the opposite of that disillusionment, the opposite of that obscurity, that opposite of just kind of philosophical whimsicalness that never tangibly associates itself unless I want to condemn someone or forgive someone.

02:46:34.480 Or, you know, taking parts of the Bible and kind of utilizing a solidified spiritual divinity for a moment at a time, but not necessarily throughout all of time and moments.

02:46:48.860 And so that's one thing I would say I have always had, both in my self-reflection of going from Christianity when I was very young to becoming Ausatru and also talking to other people, especially some Mormons.

02:47:04.380 I've met quite a few Mormons coming back home, coming to the faith of the Ausa.

02:47:11.340 And the points that I was hearing ago they talked about are great.

02:47:16.140 Those are clear as day steps. But one of the big ones that they're going to have is one fear of being damned by this obscure divinity in, you know, an underworld, whether, you know, they call it Sheol or Gehenna and how that's kind of trans morphed over time to Hades and then eventually to hell.

02:47:37.720 you know utilizing the words from the germanic sense you know that damnation and that stuff is

02:47:44.560 one big opponent that you're gonna have opponent you're gonna have to face and then the other is

02:47:48.060 of course is them getting over the hurdle of understanding that our divinity is the opposite

02:47:52.280 of obscurity that we take pleasure in in um associating and affiliating with our gods because

02:47:58.900 it builds our relationship with them they'll write it off as idolatry but they do it themselves in

02:48:05.140 many different forms, whether it's through objects or imagery or saints or whatever you have, and

02:48:11.080 they can do the mental gymnastics all they want. At the end of the day, you can point this out and

02:48:17.240 say, well, that's why we do this. That's why we take relish in it because our evolution of our

02:48:22.160 gods and the way we perceive them is all part in the celebration of them. So what are your thoughts

02:48:29.560 on an Ausatru credit union by and for the AFA? As I understand it, only seven individuals are

02:48:35.560 needed to start a credit union. I think that folk are people in general, folk with traditional

02:48:45.260 mindsets, folks that are not associated with the degeneracy we see around us, starting their own

02:48:52.400 lending institutions is a great idea. As far as the AFA, I know that there's a lot of regulation

02:48:57.780 when it comes to banking in that industry, and I think it's best left to people that want to

02:49:02.640 make that their career, make that their life, is to run a credit union. I would love to have

02:49:08.360 that happen. And if that's AFA members that do that, that would be a great place for us to

02:49:13.100 look for lending and banking in the future. But I don't think that's a project the Astro

02:49:18.100 Folk Assembly wants to take on and is part of our core functionality. I've got another question

02:49:27.640 from robert i'm new to the afa is the teachings of ron mcvan okay to follow or studying stephen

02:49:35.480 flower's room books okay first i appreciate you asking the reverence of asking and checking and

02:49:41.800 making sure is is really important i've seen some of the side chat um it depends what you're doing

02:49:50.680 those things for and this is more of a nuanced answer than i mean it to be ron mcvan is fantastic

02:49:57.800 he is a great guy he is a important figure in the uh the resurgence of alsatru he's an amazing

02:50:06.280 artist and with not just his visual arts and his drawings but also with his poetry um

02:50:14.280 mr mcvan has contributed a tremendous amount to the the development culturally

02:50:19.800 avows to true and i think reading his books is is really cool really inspirational really important

02:50:25.160 and they're full of interesting takes on history and just amazing tidbits of things i can't vouch

02:50:32.280 that everything everything in there is going to theologically align with the finer points of

02:50:38.040 the afa in 2022 but i think in broad strokes the things that ron mcman writes are are fantastic and

02:50:45.880 I would absolutely encourage you to read those books. On finer points of theology, if something

02:50:51.980 sounds different or askew from what you've heard, I would encourage you to ask an AFA Goethe just to

02:50:57.800 check in and see, because again, many of Ron's things were written 30 years or more ago, and

02:51:06.140 the understanding of the faith has evolved since then. As far as Dr. Flowers and his

02:51:13.240 rune material, as far as scholastics, absolutely. As far as concepts of the runes, absolutely.

02:51:22.260 As far as his personal philosophy or points on religion, no, I think I'd take those with a grain

02:51:28.560 of salt and I would check in on those. But as far as his understanding of runes, Dr. Flowers is the

02:51:35.920 foremost rune master in the history of the world bar none and i think that he deserves that i think

02:51:44.000 his education on it is vast and he spent his entire adult life gaining a better understanding

02:51:53.100 of the runes um so i don't think you can get better as far as a source for runic information

02:51:58.940 than Dr. Flowers. What thoughts do you have on the books of Ron McVehan or, for that matter,

02:52:08.820 the rune teachings of Dr. Flowers? Sivan? You covered a lot in the overall encapsulation of

02:52:16.380 it, so I just hit some fine details from my perspective. One, the artwork, yes, again,

02:52:22.520 and that's what I was alluding to about earlier artwork with wings and some of the grandiose

02:52:27.540 symbology that I think uh inspired a lot of us in the early 90s and the late 80s uh I was I came to

02:52:35.400 Austria in the early 90s and a lot of people in the late 80s were you know just a lot of that stuff

02:52:39.800 was um very inspirational in a time before the internet and so I think it's cool as a historical

02:52:45.860 point and it's just great artwork I think one of the other things that's kind of um good to remind

02:52:51.360 us is the concepts of uh like the culture of the teutons heavily influence influencing that time

02:52:58.160 uh and those and and like the creed of iron and things like that these the concepts of

02:53:07.040 uh loyalty friv and uh maintaining um loyalty friv keeping oaths and um meeting out

02:53:15.920 a certain sense of holding yourself to to these i think that that's really cool stuff that's worth

02:53:22.840 looking into i do uh some of the fatalism i would say you know again renegotiating oh this is

02:53:30.300 something that you know doesn't get enough love even today so getting into too much fatalism can

02:53:37.800 be kind of um not good i guess or i would be weary um but there is a good sense of the idea

02:53:46.240 of upholding what is right what is wrong and all of that the other thing as far as uh dr flowers

02:53:52.280 goes um runic stuff yeah he's got i mean he has access to information that other runemasters in

02:54:00.620 history have never had um his devotion to the subject is uh i think anybody throwing any sort

02:54:07.080 venom atom is misplaced in the sense that again we're full of cynics that that see a a great

02:54:15.400 precipice of things and they they try to pick it apart they try to tear it down and there are

02:54:20.360 other great you know uh rune um runesters rune rune studiers uh you know uh again i i not often

02:54:30.760 into uh nigel pennic a lot of times about certain things um but one other thing i wanted to point

02:54:37.240 out is if you if you get a chance to find tier t-y-r tier volume one the first essay that is

02:54:46.440 done in there is done by um dr flowers and it is about uh the structuring of i think uh

02:54:55.400 duemezillion structuring, Aryan structuring, religious concepts, and what makes a people

02:55:03.240 in a four post sense. And I think it's a great read. I highly recommend that. If you're looking

02:55:10.440 for something from him that's not strictly runic, but does glean some great stuff about what makes

02:55:15.980 a people a people, their ethnicity, what they produce, the languages that they speak. He covers

02:55:21.860 a lot of that. And I find that to be a gleaming little star in his huge lexicon of work that

02:55:28.640 really inspired me to look at where Alcatru is as a folkish religion.

02:55:36.400 All right, guys. Well, thank you very much for that tonight. That was our last question of the

02:55:42.260 evening. I appreciate your participation and your great questions as always. And thank you so much,

02:55:48.020 Fawn for joining us. You're getting a huge following amongst our listeners. People really

02:55:54.480 look forward to your programs and they get a lot out of them. Thank you so much. Thank you so much

02:55:59.480 for having me. All right, guys. Well, until next time, hail the gods, hail the folk, hail the AFA,

02:56:05.980 and remember, victory never sleeps.

02:56:18.020 Thank you.

02:56:48.020 Thank you.

02:57:18.020 Thank you.

02:57:48.020 Thank you.

02:58:18.020 Thank you.

02:58:48.020 Transcription by CastingWords

02:59:18.020 Thank you.

Asatru Folk Assembly - November 17, 2022

11⧸16⧸22 Victory Never Sleeps, Episode 19 - Baldr

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