00:03:52.700you start off every week with this, and we really appreciate it. Also, Gilbert donated $150
00:04:02.000to Beautify Thorshoff. That is much appreciated, so thank you for that.
00:04:13.220That said, a little housekeeping on it. Where are we at with our thermo for the payoff of
00:04:21.220phrase off. That's awesome. We are 32.4% paid off as of today. It means we have
00:04:30.620didn't run the math. I believe we have just over $84,514 that we owe remaining. So we are making
00:04:45.060awesome progress on that. We're sitting right at about $113 per member. We'd pay it off today.
00:04:53.060You guys have been generous and we appreciate you. And that rolls into our theme for the evening
00:05:02.320because of y'all's generosity and all of the great people that we have who are
00:05:09.760helping us collectively move our faith forward and establish ever more temples to our gods here
00:05:19.220in Midgard, we were able to dedicate our fifth half this last Saturday. That's in
00:05:27.820roughly 10 years and three months going from zero hoffs to five hoffs and it is tremendous
00:05:40.000um i could not have imagined a better dedication or a more wonderful uh phrase hoff it was an
00:05:51.300awesome experience thank you to all of you who are listening who joined us we're there this weekend
00:05:55.900Thank you to everybody who donated that helped facilitate making that happen to everyone who's come out and helped the Ericsons and a crew of, you know, a variety of different dedicated people have been out there every single weekend since we got this off months ago to make it ready for dedication this last Saturday.
00:06:18.520And what a tremendous, tremendous event it was.
00:06:23.700I am certain that Frayer is pleased with the gift that we've given him.
00:08:27.560the garden was in like peak productivity phase you know that's when you're like getting rained
00:08:33.900on by tomatoes and peppers and all of that um still days there was more daylight than there
00:08:41.640was dark so you know i could cut the lawn and the afternoon after work it didn't rely on just
00:08:48.340the weekends at that point but that was all about to be changing real quick um right there at the
00:08:54.840end of August. So, um, you know, we, we kind of leapfrogged over all of the fall season here
00:09:01.160because we, like Alshir Gauthier, Matt mentioned, we're there almost every weekend. There were only,
00:09:07.780um, a few days where we were not personally at the Hoff for both Saturday and Sunday.
00:09:15.460One of those was when we went to Gettysburg, um, Gettysburg State Park in Pennsylvania for our,
00:09:23.960our annual feast of the einherjar bloat which will be we will be continuing um we will also
00:09:30.440of course have an einherjar bloat at phrasehof but um we're going to continue going to gettysburg
00:09:35.400every november it just might not be on the same weekend that we did but that's a
00:09:42.200about an eight hour drive for us one way so we got up at like 4 30 in the morning drove
00:09:48.680to gettysburg met up with everyone um you know did some of the sightseeing uh had a a bloat to
00:09:56.120the iron here you are in the the wheat field which was a particularly bloody spot in in that area
00:10:01.800although there's there's plenty of those to choose from um and that place is very very weighty you
00:10:08.680know we we picked that place because of the the number of men on men of our folk who who fell
00:10:16.520they're fighting for their states on both sides um and then we went out to dinner which took longer
00:10:23.320than expected there's a whole funny anecdote about that if you're not in the know ask somebody who
00:10:27.800was there um and then we drove the eight hours back to sleep like four hours and then go to
00:10:34.920freeshoff the next day on sunday because we needed to to get things done that was a particularly long
00:10:40.840weekend that kind of just kind of just like highlights to me you know
00:10:49.400yeah we were we were all in we were there all all the time um it's gonna be it's gonna feel
00:10:53.960strange not being there so much honestly like two out of seven days of every week i you know joked
00:11:00.360with the kids that was our home away from home they originally they were scared to like go into
00:11:05.640new rooms there or to be on one of the floors by themselves if they couldn't like physically see
00:11:10.840Katie or I took about a month and a half,
00:11:14.460but that changed to where they were just running around like they own the
00:11:17.200place. So, yeah, there was, there was a lot that went into it.
00:11:22.660I don't want to steal too much away from, you know,
00:11:26.760the rest of the conversation and questions that'll come in, but
00:11:29.320that place matters a great deal to us. And I, I hope that Freya is proud.
00:11:35.200You know, I think he is. The showing of folk there this past Saturday, I think at least partially speaks to that.
00:11:44.500But we will really know by, you know, how bountiful or not bountiful our district, that Hoff and the Ossachew Folk Assembly are in the, you know, in the years to come.
00:12:02.720So, Nick, if you throw the group picture up for us, it was tremendously well attended.
00:12:15.760I don't know how many were finally showed up, we had 146 registered, as always, some people who
00:12:24.000registered, you know, can't make it for a variety of reasons, usually some last minute people end
00:12:29.200up showing up but you know this group picture is a very healthy picture so many people there and
00:12:36.560this is you know probably 15 people had left by the time we remembered we should take a group
00:12:43.680picture so uh you know that's that's one of the the problems and it's an awesome problem to have
00:12:49.920by the time we realize you know man we should really get a group picture you know it's it's
00:12:54.960always an afterthought because we're there you know doing something really special um
00:13:03.600but one of the things i wanted us to i don't know tell people or communicate with folks
00:13:11.200folks that weren't there i think a lot of people may wonder
00:13:16.320i mean i think i think it's self-explanatory what a what a dedication is but i think they may
00:13:22.000wonder you know what exactly that might look like and what exactly that means in a in an
00:13:29.360house of true context um so i suppose a couple of preliminary things when taking possession of a new
00:13:47.120space, be it someone's home, or moving into an apartment, or
00:13:54.080whatever that might be. There is a process that our folk do
00:13:59.360that's, you know, typical that in its most generic form is
00:14:03.520called the land taking. Traditionally, that's done by a
00:14:11.680cleansing flame being brought to along the uh perimeter of the property
00:14:22.160oftentimes if it's done in a house or an apartment it's you know paraded through the rooms
00:14:29.280and we are claiming that land or that space for the new occupants and the new um you know
00:14:40.400new owners or new tenants of that space and we're making our presence and our impression
00:14:50.480felt by the spiritual inhabitants of the area
00:14:56.640often we refer to those as the land veteer or whatever other unseen spirits might occupy a place
00:15:04.080And we are also inviting good spirits in. We're inviting the Aesir into a place. We're inviting our Alfar and Deesir and spirits that follow us into a place.
00:15:24.740And we're staking a claim that this space belongs to us, or in the case of this Hoff, that this space belongs to Freyer specifically, to the Aesir generally, and to the Ausitru Folkesson.
00:15:40.480Nick, if you could throw the group outdoor picture up.
00:15:49.160Let's just give you guys a little idea, this is by no means exhaustive of the crowd, but
00:15:53.300we all gathered outside and it was nice and chilly like it's supposed to be in wintertime,
00:16:00.520We gathered together there and we went around the edges of the property, claiming this land
00:16:10.460in the name of the house true folk assembly in the name of the ice here and then the name of
00:16:15.900engby frayer and it was a testament to how many faithful were there that we you know at the and
00:16:28.780i told people we could kind of bunch up because it's hard to hear in the back but it was funny
00:16:33.500that like the hailing of things made a made an echo because it took a while for it to
00:16:40.520get to the end of the line. And so that was that was cool. We went around, you know, the
00:16:47.420the corners of the property staking claim and then we went and we did the same thing
00:16:53.940for the building. If you could post the picture, there we go, you anticipated what I wanted.
00:16:58.860went around the building um sprinkling it with blessed mead and making the same claim and
00:17:07.180proclaiming that this would now be phrase off we also while doing the land taking invited
00:17:19.100i suppose slash challenged the spirits there to
00:17:23.740To bear witness to us, to know us as people, to hear our words, to witness our deeds, and, you know, to judge our worthiness while we're in the area.
00:17:36.800That's something at any of our existent Hoffs I always mention during bloat is that, you know, those spirits have known us for a time.
00:34:36.700uh judging by it being spelled with the k i assume this is the same gentleman who gave me
00:34:44.940a ride to and from the airport so i appreciate that too thank you um and steve bought us 10
00:34:51.660coffees that's a 50 donation so thank you for that steve um so uh
00:35:06.700it, it's worth, I don't know, worth taking a moment to note. Cliff mentioned a little bit
00:35:15.960about Sveinbjorn and his, his veneration there. A couple of things. First, you know,
00:35:27.100he mentioned that it wasn't maintained well with folks that came after him in the organization
00:35:32.020that he founded uh australia started out as a you know noble and good aussitru organization that
00:35:44.180was foundational in bringing back the worship of our gods and that was maintained by um
00:35:50.420Um, Sveinbjorn's immediate, uh, successor, um, I'll say your Goethe, uh, Jormundur Inge Hansen,
00:35:59.520but due to some of the rot and things that take place in a lot of, unfortunately, early, early
00:36:10.280stage, um, groups to reintroduce Ausatru, that wasn't maintained and through
00:36:19.900voting and committee and whatever else the spirituality left that um that organization
00:36:27.060and was replaced by leftist woke politics and such which is very sad and so you know some of
00:36:36.960you may note that some of our modern heroes aren't uh or weren't part of the astro folk assembly
00:36:43.140We have heroes. Elsie was, she had her own group called the Odinus Fellowship, the two founders of the Odinic Right, Stubba and Hoskold, John Ewell and John Gibbs Bailey.
00:37:00.460Well, I reversed the order when I gave you the real names, but yeah.
00:37:09.260Founded the Odenic Rite and was feignborn with the Austrofelioth.
00:37:14.860And one of the reasons for that is something that I was talking to some folks last week about it and someone at dedication about it a little bit.
00:37:22.880there was a time during the reawakening of our faith where the all father
00:37:32.700awoke uh they he awakened the soul in several people and he you know
00:37:44.820gave them the charge to do this, to make this happen. And it was wise to disperse at that time
00:37:55.600to see what was going to make it, see what seeds planted were going to take root.
00:38:01.800And so there was a number of people that, you know, gave it their best effort.
00:38:06.840There was a time there of proving to see what way of doing this worked, to see what was going to
00:38:14.780stand the test of time and carry the mantle of Ousitru into the future.
00:38:20.660And, you know, over time, as we mentioned, in the 90s, the Ousitru of Feligeth fell to
00:38:27.300degeneration and the forces of chaos. And so we want to, you know, take the good of that
00:38:39.060and be good stewards of the accomplishments and the heroes that set that forth.
00:38:44.780The Odenic right was doing great things, and then they weren't. That organization has fallen and dispersed, and the good thing that Stubb and Hoskold founded has gone to nothing, so we wanted to be good stewards of that tradition and of those heroes as we move this forward.
00:39:10.200You know, Elsie's Odinus Fellowship didn't last past her lifetime, but we wanted to, again, take that legacy and add it to the collective legacy of Ossetru as we move forward.
00:39:25.580And so it's very important that we do that with our modern heroes.
00:39:28.120I should also mention Alexander Rudd Mills and what he put in motion due to various events and things in his lifetime, despite his best efforts, it did not live him.
00:39:39.200But we want to harness that legacy and preserve it and cherish it and move it forward under under our tent.
00:39:48.700And that's part of our responsibility as those that, you know, were the ones that were the last men standing in the in that struggle to see what this would look like going forward.
00:40:01.960And that's the legacy that we move forward and that we carry on and that we safeguard as we continue to grow and to evolve the Astro Folk Assembly as the church of the Isir in Midgard who won that time of struggle and the time of testing.
00:40:23.800So something else that was a special feature of the dedication.
00:58:56.800life is now life is good and we shouldn't hesitate to live it um you know we don't like planning is
00:59:08.140good but living to plan is not good you know being prepared is good but don't don't miss the
00:59:17.060moment you want to make sure that you that you seize opportunity that that you savor the moment
00:59:23.060And that the things that are beautiful in life, the things that are pleasurable in life, the things that are satisfying in life, those shouldn't be rejected.
00:59:36.200It doesn't do you any good to starve yourself of the things that make you feel alive.
00:59:47.860It's sort of like what we were talking about with the group photo, right?
00:59:50.500So the best thing for the group photo would have been for me to, like, have a slot on the schedule for the group photo or to interrupt everyone's moment right after the dedication, right?
01:00:02.840And to basically ruin that moment and get everybody together for the group photo when we had the most people there.
01:05:43.140So, and we will see, Witten Erickson, if you are up to the merchandising challenge that comes with it, because that can be a little bit trickier.
01:06:00.440Where was I going? Oh, I was going to say this is a good time to mention both of these questions were emailed to us.
01:06:06.360It's a question and answer driven program in large part.
01:06:09.340If you have questions that you want answered, you can send them to us at any time at vns at runestone.org.
01:06:19.040And we'd be happy to get to them the very next program that we get to.
01:06:36.340cliff would you like to take the first stab at this sure so i don't really rectify it at all
01:06:44.980um i don't discount the origin myths of of other ethnic religions it's just not important to me
01:06:53.980um that doesn't mean that they're wrong and that i'm right or that um that they're right and i'm
01:06:59.600wrong um i know and i'm only really interested in where my people came from um you know in terms of
01:07:12.200of other pantheons of um you know little g gods or or other entities out there i don't discount
01:07:19.180their existence um you know the the aesir and and the vanir are two families of gods that join
01:07:27.340together um and there is an entire out guard out there that they know exists it's not really
01:07:35.000important um what's out there that's the other but i don't you know i don't feel like i need to
01:07:42.920justify asa true cosmology to to someone of any other faith um and and nor do i expect them to
01:07:51.400justify their cosmology to me different peoples all come from different contexts and understandings
01:08:00.060of the world so and also true you see a lot of references to mountains and ice and forests and
01:08:08.300things that our ancestors were familiar with because that's how they understood the world
01:08:15.260and they're describing a truth in the terms that they know how to use other peoples have different
01:08:24.380origins and are made of the stuff of where they come from and the materials that their gods had
01:08:31.740to work with i suppose yeah i think we get um first i appreciate the question i understand
01:08:41.500And I understand the logical, like, struggle or impetus to try to make stuff all match
01:08:53.980up because I think, I mean, that makes sense because we have a certain amount of shared
01:09:04.420existence with other um with all the other creatures that occupy the earth with us and i
01:09:13.620guess you know in that sense the universe but that's not the point of the war
01:09:21.380and i think we also get a little bit confused naturally because our point of reference
01:09:28.180are books by the abrahamists that are at you know at the price of death you accept
01:09:38.100are the literal writings of their god um that's not the way that myth is in the rest of human
01:09:47.280existence that's a particular abrahamic um understanding of of their particular mythos
01:09:54.000So, we're not telling you that, you know, in the beginning there was a big giant, and then the giant got chopped up into pieces, and like, when I'm on the plane, I'm literally like, whoo, I'm flying through Amir's brains.
01:10:15.900and i don't mean to make i don't mean to make light of the question but we often don't
01:10:21.020think logically to that next step our ancestors had brains as large as us too you know they built
01:10:29.340homes out of wood and ships out of wood they didn't literally think that the timber of their
01:10:35.260ship was somehow a hair from a giant. They weren't stupid people. These are poetic ways of expressing0.99
01:10:46.540truth. And the truth wasn't meant objectively in the term of science. It was meant subjectively
01:10:56.140in the term of our creation our race our gods our existence so it wasn't a scientific textbook
01:11:08.060but truths are told in our origin story that are essential to how creation came about and how
01:11:19.740we came about as as a race as a unique biological order of existence in midgard
01:11:32.140you're not you don't have to believe in like the giant worlds of musful hame and and niflheim
01:11:41.900you need to understand that you know there was there was cold and there was heat there was a primal
01:11:46.940polarity of opposites and through their intermixing a quickening happened and order
01:11:56.660and consciousness emerged in a long process there were primal forces that were immensely powerful
01:12:05.500that were without will and consciousness and order from that came beings of order and of
01:12:16.140consciousness that shaped the chaos of early existence and brought that chaos into order
01:12:25.320those are our isere those same forces of order that found a chaotic and wild
01:12:33.200primordial existence made it beautiful and ordered and structured with with laws of nature
01:12:42.540and how things work and a system and a functioning that worked they then found existent things
01:12:52.440exemplified by you know the the logs the driftwood that were asker and embla and they imbued those
01:13:02.400things with the gifts of sentience and of of soul and of life and vigor and they made those things
01:13:13.920us and over the course and the the expanse of time the gods taught us lessons and helped us
01:13:25.040go from something very primal and brutish to something noble to kings to the amazing race
01:13:33.440that our folk are that conquered the world that brought order to the far reaches of midgard that
01:13:41.280built civilization and they did that through their instruction and their being with us
01:13:46.560Thus, Heimdottler brought the knowledge of things to our people to ennoble them and progressively through the generations to make them the amazing Aryan race that we're all part of.
01:14:03.180Those things are true and they're taught by our origin lore and our understanding of creation myth.
01:14:12.240I don't pretend to be an expert on other groups of people's creation myths. I'm sure many of them have truths that are relevant and important to those folks. And I'm sure some of them are silly and not. And I'm sure there's probably a lot in between.
01:14:32.100but that's how i reconcile those things um i don't think they're fighting for a scientific
01:14:41.140truth i don't think that's the way that other that other faiths do things i think it is
01:14:48.640particularly the way that the jews the christians and the muslims do things
01:14:54.280so i do think they have to reconcile those truths did you know that um african and asian elephants
01:15:04.860honor their dead when they're migrating they will recognize ancestral bones and they have
01:15:13.900like a specific kind of ritual that they do they they approach these bones silently and like
01:15:50.420of of lineage and ancestry there and i would go so far as to say that they're that they're doing
01:15:55.760something spiritual when they do that whether it's religion or not it's hard to say but the
01:16:01.760reason i mentioned it is because what those elephants are doing is real like it is it's it's
01:16:09.340primarily real it's not contaminated by anyone trying to teach them anything from the outside
01:16:15.700and i don't need to justify ossitrut to those elephants and they don't need to justify their
01:16:23.380ancestors bones to me and i think it's kind of the same thing like what what they're doing is real
01:16:28.980and and what i'm doing is real and that that doesn't present a conflict in and of itself
01:16:34.980no it doesn't um it doesn't and it certainly doesn't have to and it's not something that
01:16:41.300i ever see attested to or that didn't seem to be such a conflict in world literature
01:16:53.780except for when we read writings of christians interacting with other with other groups of
01:17:01.460people you don't see that in ancient literature that's pre-christian about you know you don't
01:17:08.380typically see that certainly between other races of people like having that existential struggle
01:17:16.240like I have to be right or you can be right no we can be us and you can be you and that's fine both
01:17:24.120of those things can be right for us individually because it wasn't a battle of scientific truth
01:17:29.720it was a battle of moral truths of who we are and who they are and those doesn't have to be that
01:17:39.000overlap it's not a astrophysics debate that's not like we can learn scientific truths from some of
01:17:46.600the lore but that's not the the focus of it or the the purpose behind it yeah you see a little
01:17:54.440bit of that in um you know in in old testament judaism where where the israelites are specifically
01:18:02.760against other gods that they recognize as real but they simply want to destroy the worship of
01:18:10.120um and sometimes the people that are worshiping them as well and you know to be completely
01:18:16.760balanced about it tribal genocide was certainly germane to warfare um in in the bronze age
01:18:23.960that's that's how it worked um and then i guess in the roman empire you see that but it's more
01:18:29.160of a political tool the subservience of a pantheon of conquered people to the roman pantheon is
01:18:37.960not so much a spiritual truth for them but a like a political recognition of conquered and conqueror
01:18:47.800that because we conquered you our gods must be greater and so you owe jupiter the proper due
01:18:56.520yeah but it's still even in that form and even in old testament judaism it doesn't pretend these
01:19:02.920other gods don't exist and don't have power and don't do stuff it's saying my gods are better0.94
01:19:09.160than your gods not my gods are the gods and your gods don't exist you're you're silly it's no i'm0.94
01:19:18.440marching under the banner of my gods you're marching under the banner of your gods i win0.94
01:19:23.800therefore my gods are better or are stronger clearly they've you know imbued you know they've
01:19:30.840given me victory over the the might of your gods but inherently in that it acknowledges
01:19:36.520your gods exist and they have powers and those powers were not as you know as mighty as as the
01:19:41.560powers of mars and that makes sense that's a much more authentic to humanity's existence position
01:19:50.120then you know there are no such thing as you know the only god is jehovah that's not a
01:19:56.280it's a very very recent understanding of that concept by a very select group of people um
01:20:03.320I was on the wrong thing over here because something came up in the chat. Oh, just as a as a reflection on the chat. Primal Mike Kindred says, for years, I considered myself a traditionalist and wanted my practices to be ancestrally authentic.
01:20:22.540The more I watch VNS, the more I realize authentic meant piety to me. I prefer piety now. I hope
01:20:29.980that makes sense. It makes a lot of sense. And I think it's where many of us start. And I don't
01:20:35.900think it's a wrong place to start. So our founder, Steve McDowell, we had a little history
01:20:42.180presentation that we're very blessed that he was there for. And in the early days when he was
01:20:49.220founding the viking brotherhood which for folks that don't know is the predecessor
01:20:53.300organization one of the predecessor incarnations of the astro folk assembly and
01:21:01.940he didn't know what to do he didn't know what this is supposed to look like
01:21:04.820as we were talking about there were this there was this group of men and women that were
01:21:09.380given this dump of inspiration by the gods of
01:21:17.760there is not this thing that is the worship of the iser in midgard there needs to be
01:21:27.520that people are waking up bring them home what do you do with that what does that look like
01:21:34.160and it takes a lot of different forms and i think that a kind of a starting point is
01:21:38.000okay well let's make it look exactly like it did when it stopped being a thing what did this look
01:21:45.600where do we leave off with this let's go back to there as our starting point
01:21:49.580and that's there is a logic to that that makes a lot of sense and i don't fault that i think we
01:21:56.240were all there i know i was there for a time and that's what you know people will chastise that
01:22:03.020phase as Viking LARP. But trying to emulate the last people you knew who did something
01:22:10.580right isn't something to be scoffed at. But not evolving it from that point kind of is.
01:22:20.100So a lot of us start there and you want to be authentic and authentic a lot means recreating
01:22:24.760something that other people did the exactly the way they did it as best we can. But then
01:22:31.360you think like well what made what they were doing often it wasn't because they were emulating
01:22:36.640somebody who'd come before them it was because they were being themselves in the most authentic
01:22:43.360and true way of being you know ninth century vikings they weren't pretending they were cavemen
01:22:52.400or bronze age you know celts or whatever or funnel beaker people they were being
01:22:59.360themselves in the time that they lived and worshiping their gods with the piety they had
01:23:06.920with the material culture and social culture that they had at the time and so you know i rebuff the
01:23:16.100any accusation that the austral folk assembly is not authentically also true no we are absolutely
01:23:21.900authentic because we don't have any pretense that we are something we're not or that we live in a
01:23:27.860time that we don't our gods are eternal they've been with us since the beginning and they will
01:23:32.780be with our descendants until the end of time until the end of you know existence and beyond
01:23:38.440so our our faith should reflect who we are and should develop and grow and evolve and be relevant
01:23:48.720to the people that live whenever that might be and i just thought that was a cool comment there
01:27:31.080And I think there's a certain, we should have a certain amount of grace and understanding
01:27:39.000that we grant some folks of, you know, everybody starts somewhere.
01:27:44.900And I think a lot of us who've done this for a long time recognize similar things that
01:27:50.600we maybe assumptions that we may have started with that we've learned you know we've learned
01:27:59.160how it really is or how it ought to be over time and over experience and there's some people that
01:28:05.920you know haven't had the opportunity to have that yet and I welcome and invite those people to come
01:28:10.760and you know experience how it's true with us and grow with us I still have my tunic up in my closet
01:28:17.040upstairs i did this dreadful thing for a while a tunic and a tie i called it trying to fuse the
01:28:22.960two things didn't really work too well but i gave it a go you know there's some cool tunics i'm not
01:28:28.640anti tunic it's funny because like uh dressing like a viking doesn't mean dressing like a priest
01:28:39.440and i think sometimes that's odd i think some kind of viking age inspired liturgical
01:28:47.660garment isn't inappropriate at all as a matter of fact there's a number of really cool ones
01:28:53.260steve had a really really cool one that's in the slideshow that i like a lot and i wouldn't
01:28:58.180find that off-putting at all um in a in a religious context for a gothi or an ulterior
01:29:05.380gothi to wear and uh yarmendra ingi he had a really nice one that i wish had a picture of on hand
01:29:14.020um he was very excited he designed the um the clerical outfit that uh their gothar wear
01:29:26.260um but he had a real special one made for him that was that was cool looking and i'd like to
01:29:32.900go ahead and find find the picture that I think Chris Savage has that picture somewhere but I
01:29:37.220thought that was really cool too. So yeah, there's a little different there. Um, he also at the same
01:29:44.020time though dressed really snazzy. Yeah, pictures of him as like a clothing model. Yeah, he was
01:29:51.460known for or he is known for being a sharp dressed gentleman. He is he is still this side of the
01:29:59.620veil but he's a very old man and largely he's lives a less public life than he once lived
01:30:05.780um but yeah absolutely um so the next question is an interesting one and it led to a couple
01:30:15.140side questions earlier on in the evening um is there an outsider equivalent of proverbs 31
01:30:22.340that explains how women ought to act the have them all gives a lot of advice to men
01:30:28.100along with general advice for all people but it's limited for women in specific
01:30:36.580cliff let's say you i don't know if there i mean there probably are but i can't think off the top
01:30:42.900of my head of specific like verses or chapters from uh an edda or saga that would be equivalent to
01:30:52.900that song but i i think that the um the idea of the noble lady of fruer frau is there throughout
01:31:03.460all of it that um the if if you read them as a whole there's a concept of noble ladyship if you
01:31:14.220will that is there like i said throughout um you know the fact that um
01:31:22.540that the women were the frith weavers that there should be an element of of self-reliance to them
01:31:31.660um that um the the women in in the sagas um are generally courageous um and they have a very
01:31:43.100very strong sense of honor in particular when it comes to their families um i think those are things
01:31:51.380that um that are important to to womanhood in asitru although um you know this is one where
01:32:01.300i wish githia katie were here she would probably have um some some interesting things to add to the
01:32:05.920conversation yeah um so again some of this
01:32:14.880comes from the difference in also true to uh to christianity or to judaism with um with proverbs
01:32:26.680there and it's not a this is not a better or worse it just is it is very handy to have things
01:32:38.840like proverbs proverbs is cool i when i was a christian i think proverbs was one of the
01:32:45.240coolest books of the bible because it does lay out like useful stuff in a way it's similar to
01:32:52.280the have them all because it's again a book of like here's these little chunks of these little
01:32:58.280nuggets of applicable wisdom to different circumstances but that's irregular in the
01:33:04.280lore that we have and it would be awesome if our ancestors gave us more material like that
01:33:10.280or if you know perhaps over time we produced more material like that um what we do have
01:33:17.240so much more of our faith isn't a sit down and read faith it was a taught faith
01:33:28.280the written language came very late to our ancestors specifically to the norsemen who wrote
01:33:35.160down our lore so a lot of our religion was taught verbally it was an oral tradition that was
01:33:43.800disseminated amongst the people spoken in the courts of of kings and jarls um and
01:33:51.480shared generally generationally by the gothar
01:33:57.640the best place for modern people to look for written examples of expectation of
01:34:04.920also true ladies is and i saw over in the chat that witten uh witten facet mentioned
01:34:13.800I mentioned Beowulf and Queen Wilthio, she embodied a lot of that and is an exemplar of female behavior. But the best work on that that I've seen is The Lady with the Mead Cup.
01:34:30.840That is a very good book. I would encourage everyone to read that. It leans heavily on Beowulf along with a couple of other examples, but if you read our sagas and you read our lore, you pick up on themes of things that are thought good for our women and noble and things worthy of emulation and things that were negative.
01:34:59.700It defines femininity in a very, the Ostav and Merkstav fashion.
01:35:06.400They're a very light side, the best of what women can do,
01:35:11.100and then the worst of what treacherous or evil women can do.
01:35:17.040And you mentioned the Havemol, it cautions men against bad workings of women a lot.
01:35:27.080and i think that's valid caution for you know men to heed but our lord talks a lot about the virtues
01:35:35.960of of a noble woman and their bearing and how they ought to be in ways that they strengthen
01:35:43.880and reinforce custom reinforce um admonishing and urging men to write action um urging men
01:35:55.400to do their duty and not shrink from their duty and i think those things again those things are
01:36:01.240in many places in our lore you find snippets of them in the sagas often very particularly you
01:36:07.720find them in the story of beowulf and also um one of our heroes uh one of our two i believe heroines
01:36:20.600uh queen sigra there she exemplifies a woman's dignity and stalwartness for the faith
01:36:31.160and for you know doing the right thing and i think her story is informative
01:36:35.560on two virtues of womanhood within ausentrum
01:36:40.760there he is fun fact queen sigra was in the running for consideration for phrase half half hero
01:36:49.720um but i went in the direction i did to uh not stack too many uh feminine shrines into the uh
01:37:02.040the ds that is actually one of the things that edged her out because we were going to be
01:37:08.520specifically including the the shrine to freya and to uh to to go there so
01:37:13.960so i i noticed a heresy in the chat it is a it is a half joking one but i really want to
01:37:25.640there's somebody saying they prefer the animated version of beowulf
01:37:30.520don't do that it misses the point and the meat of the actual story and it infuses a bunch of
01:37:38.520pieces to the story that aren't there it really does fundamentally change the story
01:37:45.560and i think it's very important to read and be familiar with the the actual text um
01:37:54.600so yeah i would strongly advise against the animated beowulf as it really changes the
01:38:01.480meaning of the story and kind of to go on that cliff do you have a
01:38:07.080best translation or a preferred translation of beowulf i really don't to be honest um
01:38:16.360i don't remember which translation it was that i first read when it was assigned to me in high
01:38:20.600school um since then i've read a few others and i don't i don't have a favorite um
01:38:27.560i don't i'm not familiar at all with the animated beowulf so i guess good on me if it's yeah good
01:38:39.160i they take a lot of liberties with the story and make it about stuff it's not about
01:38:46.200they you know make it about misdeeds of beowulf coming back to haunt him and they add a whole
01:38:53.480sexual element that's not there and they they use the original story as a very loose
01:39:01.300backdrop to tell an entirely different morality tale that's not you know that's not the story
01:39:08.060there are a lot of different beowulf movies and a lot of reinterpretations of beowulf out there
01:39:15.020some better than others but almost all of them fall short and don't include the whole story
01:39:20.280they tend to focus on the first half almost always it's always about Beowulf and Grendel
01:39:25.300which is the name of one of those movies that's actually okay but it doesn't really
01:39:29.340it still misses the point of a lot of it I think yeah so the Seamus Heaney version is the one I'm
01:39:36.940most familiar with but I you know I don't have any big position on that being you know a better
01:39:44.920or worse translation than others that's the one i'm probably most familiar with but i you know any
01:39:52.360actual attempt at a real translation you know i think is probably going to get you close but that's
01:39:58.440it's the best i have on a on a translation recommendation
01:40:03.720yeah that's one of the the newer ones that that i've read um but there's
01:40:08.360you can think of the beowulf there's there's a lot of translations too so if you're gonna
01:40:13.400watch a movie and get far afield get the like christopher lambert version that's like
01:40:22.040sci-fi future craziness um is that the one where he falls to the earth in a millimeter-shaped
01:40:29.720spaceship man i don't that's probably a different one i haven't seen that in a long time um
01:40:39.560yeah i haven't seen that in quite a while and it's not good uh
01:40:45.560if i may ask what is the relationship between the afa and raven folk united
01:40:50.520i saw ron mcman with them so ravenfolk united is the result of a skinhead coup attempt
01:41:03.640by traitorous people within the afa they had intended to take over the afa
01:41:09.640and do afa stuff but skinhead style and it was unsuccessful so they broke off
01:41:18.920and tried to take as many members as they could with them through uh lies and and uh treachery
01:41:27.800and probably you know a lot of well-meaning people who were were tricked in that i don't
01:41:34.920i don't know the ratio there but they are absolutely enemies of the astro folk assembly
01:41:41.240and antithetical to to who we are as people i say that their leadership again there's probably
01:41:47.320well-meaning members that don't know any better and i understand that they uh so ron mcvan is a
01:41:55.160is a an honorary afa member um i think that he is you know on uh an elderly gentleman at this
01:42:05.560point who has been out of you know active public participation announced a true for a pretty long
01:42:11.560time and i think he's probably very happy to you know say hi and be in a picture with whoever
01:42:18.040wants to come by and you know say hi to him i think he's very easy to use as a uh like a
01:42:30.280propaganda football to like look here's us with a picture with ron he clearly supports what we're
01:42:35.400doing i think he is a well-meaning older man that's just not really paying attention to a lot of
01:42:43.240how alstra true has developed over the last you know 30 years i think he's just happy to
01:42:49.720to have fellowship with people who come and extend a hand of friendship and want to
01:42:55.320do stuff with him and i think you know i would not ever want to try to take advantage of that
01:43:10.160I can't really claim their intentions on it,
01:43:14.220but I worry that that gets done with them sometimes.
01:43:19.080Cliff, do you have anything to add on that?
01:43:25.180A lot of the leadership that you mentioned
01:43:27.480And were oath folk builders of the Ossetree Folk Assembly, were ordained clergy of the Ossetree Folk Assembly, or had already failed in those capacities.
01:43:42.080So, you know, frankly, for me, Craven Folk United is a collection of failed leaders.
01:43:54.120They either had failed already and then latched on to this as a way to to lift themselves up in a way that they were not able to be successful for real.
01:44:08.280um or um who straight up while currently in an oath hold to our alishir gothi and the austral folk
01:44:19.280assembly um we're we're treacherous we're we're we're straight up traitors there's no other way
01:44:27.920to say it i don't like to throw around the term oath breaker but that's what happened in the most
01:44:33.180visceral way it wasn't just failing in oaths it was outright betrayal of oaths and um
01:44:42.620there's a place of need hogs belly for some of them yeah it's you know it's one of those things
01:44:49.760and they'll tell you a very different story but it was done in such an artificial and treacherous
01:44:57.260way it was absolutely a a coup attempt that they had planned for some time and it you know hit a
01:45:05.740lot of us like a ton of bricks certainly me personally it was you know just such a such
01:45:12.300a shady thing to do but i think there was a culture clash in the afa for some time um
01:45:18.300I had tried very hard to evolve the practice of Alcetru in a noble way, in an upstanding
01:45:30.940and a pious way, and there was a lot of resistance from, specifically from the skinhead community
01:45:38.400who wanted to, and I'm trying to, I'm trying to be fair, because the people who ask the
01:45:45.980question um have a legitimate thing and it'd be easy just to say mean things about people who i
01:45:52.260really dislike but um i think there was a thing like people didn't want to dress nicely they
01:45:57.540didn't they thought the afa was getting too churchy and they wanted to and i don't think
01:46:03.440that i'm being incorrect in this they wanted to basically have you know a skinhead kegger
01:46:10.080that was i guess viking themed um and i think a lot of them were torn between two worlds like
01:46:20.880they wanted to do this and do this right and they saw the success the afa was having and they wanted
01:46:25.860to be a part of that success but they were very very used to and had come up in this skinhead
01:46:31.680culture that was their comfort zone and i think there was a constant battle between them
01:46:39.380becoming more and ennobling themselves or them sinking back into what was comfortable and
01:46:46.100you know they ultimately chose to sink back into what was comfortable but try to
01:46:51.060you know emulate or make their own version of what was successful and can't really have the
01:46:58.520one without the other and I don't think it's worked out very well um but yeah they it's sad
01:47:06.460but unfortunately it did help for us to evolve without the impediment of people that were stuck
01:47:15.100in a you know a churlish and degenerate state of being that they were unable or unwilling to
01:47:23.980pull up from and try to be better than there's a certain irony in the world view that they were
01:47:30.940claiming to espouse and what they actually wanted to um you know what you had was people who
01:47:39.900at least claimed national socialism but were demanding a vote in things you had the way that
01:47:48.300they set up their organization after the fact is sort of this like college of co-equals it
01:47:55.420it to me strikes as like you haven't read the source materials for what you're claiming to
01:48:00.940for the philosophy that you're claiming whether that philosophy is right or wrong
01:48:06.260is a material they clearly haven't read it and don't understand it um there's just no
01:48:12.100no recognition or or respect for the the furor principle and what they were doing there and also
01:48:19.060So, you know, like, like Asher Gauthier, Matt referred to, it may seem easy for us to just
01:48:25.320bad mouth, you know, people who, you know, don't have a box on the screen here to defend
01:50:57.040we accomplish phrase Hoff cool now what's next so what's next in the lineup of AFA I guess
01:51:08.160campaigns or efforts or things that we're working towards is going to be tiers Hoff
01:51:15.760one of the cool things about each Hoff that we get is we learn things each time
01:51:22.320we learn and develop you know a system of how this works what works well what we would do
01:51:29.960differently what that looks like and I think we saw that at phrase off a lot um you know they
01:51:36.420were doing a food pantry before dedication which was awesome for two months so they're already on
01:51:42.520you know a certain amount of good footing with the community there's you know how this works
01:51:48.400what we do, how we set it up, how we do a dedication, how we do all those things, which is
01:51:53.680awesome. All of that will serve us well as we do progressively more Hoffs. So Tears Hoff is going to
01:52:02.560be our sixth Hoff and that Hoff will be on the Sigurheim property in Jackson County, Tennessee.
01:52:10.800there it will be a really unique experience for us because for the first time instead of
01:52:20.960instead of purchasing an existent property and repurposing it
01:52:25.620this will be built from the ground up as a hoff to lord tier and that's a very very special and
01:52:37.240very weighty opportunity to do something very intentional and to do something very ambitious.
01:52:49.240So we got a number of plans in the works. I'm working with people now to try to find folks that
01:52:54.920have the necessary skills and professional abilities to help make the vision into something
01:53:05.080that's that's real and that's tangible um a couple of rando things that i wanted to say up about it
01:53:18.360it would be we're at a point with afa membership to where we have a wide array of skill sets
01:53:27.000amongst our members both in terms of you know hobby skill sets but also in terms of
01:53:34.440people who are professionally in a number of trades that are very relevant to what we're trying to do
01:53:40.120so one thing to know about tiershof is at that complex there will be
01:53:46.520tiershof and there will also be the afa's great hall now tiershof is by itself going to be
01:53:56.120the vey the worship space for lord tier so it's not going to have the same facilities as far as
01:54:04.040dining and cooking and bathrooms and you know showers and multi-purpose area and whatever else
01:54:10.600that's coming when the hall is built so the hof is itself going to just be the worship space
01:54:17.560for tier which you know is has its advantages but it also has you know some rethinking on
01:54:26.800how we're doing things other thing to be said about it hopefully and this is my plan
01:54:32.120and I'll keep you guys informed as plans develop I would like for AFA members to be able to
01:54:41.080put in and do as much of the construction as we can. Now, I'm
01:54:47.080not that guy. I don't have much construction skills. I'm happy
01:54:49.880to, to help and to do what I can, but I'm relying on finding
01:54:55.080our membership who have the relevant skills and getting them
01:54:59.880engaged in making this happen. But I also want backup plans in
01:55:05.080place to where we can engage outside professionals to do
01:55:09.480things, you know, whatever degree of things we might need
01:55:13.260assistance, or we might need done for us that way. So planning
01:55:18.000very much with that in mind. Again, as we get closer, there's
01:55:25.020going to be more of the vision that I want to articulate about
01:55:29.580it. But one thing I did want to mention, and this is as good,
01:55:35.880good a time as any, as I want to talk a little bit about the
01:55:41.760rune for tears off, which is kinas, or count. And it's it's
01:55:51.480interesting, because it always has like two possible meanings
01:55:55.980when you want to read about the room. The one that people tend
01:56:03.780to gravitate towards and i did too for the most of my time being in alsatur is the torch
01:56:12.500but there's like one attested reference to it being a torch in uh the rune poem linguistically
01:56:21.140and you know traditionally the most prevalent meaning of it is like an like a festering
01:56:30.020ulcerated wound like a burning ulcered wound and that always seemed kind of gross
01:56:37.700and the uh the torch seemed way cooler and more inspirational
01:56:42.020now the meaning of inspiration is the same but one thing that
01:56:50.980has been revealed to me or i've come to understand
01:56:54.900is the idea of kinas as literally a burning fire within that ulcerates a burning
01:57:07.040inferno of inspiration that has to be expressed that has to be acted upon or else it will
01:57:17.380literally burned from the inside out and ulcerate um the literal fire in the belly to accomplish
01:57:27.860to do to manifest i think that's really important and it's something that i realized profoundly that
01:57:36.660that's the most visceral way that our gods speak to me and bless me with their inspiration
01:57:49.420is with these, you know, burning needs to do certain things in certain ways or to express
01:58:02.840certain things or to accomplish certain things that drive towards accomplishment and towards
01:58:09.040victory. And the, the vision of what that victory looks like is something that I truly believe is
01:58:15.640an inspirational gift and directive from the Aesir that I'm very grateful for. And it's special to me
01:58:25.680in this process leading up to the construction and dedication of Tiershoff.
01:58:34.360So got some ideas that I think are very important for it that I'm going to put forth in the coming,
01:58:42.940you know, months, I suppose. That's another thing about Tiershoff that I think people should
01:58:51.000gear up for. I think that the payoff of Frazehoff is going to come faster than other people realize,
01:58:59.020which also means that the groundbreaking of Tiershoff is also going to come faster than
01:59:03.340some folks might expect. So I'm working with folks now. There are plans to put in place to
01:59:09.860make happen. And as that takes shape, I'll tell you guys a little bit more. I'm right. There's
01:59:14.680going to be an article in the upcoming RuneStone that I apologize, guys, coming out a little bit
01:59:18.920late this month because the folks behind it were taking time to be at the dedication during
01:59:25.540normally when it's published. So it's running a little bit late this month, but that will be
01:59:30.120getting out to you in the next couple of days. And that'll have a little bit more information
01:59:34.300about where we're at. Yeah, our producer Nick also produces that runestone and he is currently
01:59:41.400diseased. So, but work's getting put in. We're going to make that happen. But I just want to
01:59:47.220share that we have a minute okay so question did come up um it's a rather open-ended question but
01:59:59.200i'm curious about hymenia cliff you have thoughts about hymenia sure so for anyone who's not
02:00:08.900familiar with hymenia it is it's part of our soul um it is the part of our soul that is
02:00:16.020our our luck or the personification of luck as a sort of guardian spirit um
02:00:26.200we can inherit hymenia um we can share hymenia and um i think that especially in the asa true
02:00:37.020folk assembly we do share um a group hominia as far as the you know the the luck that we are
02:00:45.920building up it's um it's sort of partial it's partially inherited because where you come from
02:00:53.460and what your ancestors have done before um that is transferred to you but also um it's something
02:01:00.780that you can build up it's something that you can fortify and um and it's something that you can just
02:01:07.340inexplicably be blessed with too um and you know that's perhaps the inherited part that part is
02:01:15.640harder to understand in some cases i think there may you know maybe situations where you just don't
02:01:21.660understand why somebody seems to have such good luck um and it's probably something that their
02:01:28.280ancestors have done for them if it doesn't appear like there's anything in their life that
02:01:32.200that makes that make sense but it is also you know it is very much something that you can
02:01:38.840intentionally build up through through right action through devotion to the acer through
02:01:46.600physical fitness and mental fitness you can increase your chances of being successful
02:01:51.760in any scenario by simply being better prepared um you know it's um
02:01:59.920you know the the person who is on a boat that sinks um you know some people might say that the
02:02:08.620you know the person who's able to swim back to shore was was luckier but they weren't lucky by
02:02:12.620accident they were lucky because they were a better swimmer so um that's that's my understanding of
02:02:23.420herminia it is um it's something to be careful with i think that you know our our law speaker
02:02:32.940has emphasized this a number of times we need to be careful about casually sharing our luck with
02:02:38.540others our harmony with others and in our modern culture there's definitely sort of this casualness
02:02:44.380about you know saying things like good luck or oh that's my lucky day um and those sort of things
02:02:52.380are are difficult to train out of our daily speech um you know much like saying weird in
02:02:59.260um an impious way is difficult to train out of your speech or just trying to teach yourself to
02:03:04.380not cuss if you happen to be a cusser you you have to really pay attention to your words but i think
02:03:12.060words are really important they can make things manifest in the world deeds can make things more
02:03:19.900manifest but words do matter and especially when talking about something magical or spiritual like
02:03:28.460um you don't want to be casual with it
02:03:34.380Yeah, so in a, specifically in our modern context, Hymenia differs from luck in the sense that it's a shared thing.
02:04:00.500so when i welcome people to the astro folk assembly i mentioned that they are joining
02:04:08.020in the afa's hymenia their luck is added to our luck and ideally the one is strengthened by the
02:04:17.820other you know and vice versa cliff mentioned that your hymenia is shared by your family and
02:04:27.500And I think in the most common usage, there is a familial luck that you are a custodian or an inheritor of that you pass on to future generations or that you share with them in the sense of, you know, you, your wife, your parents, your children, perhaps your grandparents.
02:04:48.940if they're living you guys all have a certain amount of shared responsibility for that luck
02:04:54.840and then it goes you know into the future hopefully stronger than when you got it
02:05:01.240um but luck in our common parlance in 2025 is thought of as like a like a random happenstance
02:05:17.160but it's not it's a built up I guess one of the best one of the better ways that I've thought of
02:05:27.340to express it is a built up momentum towards something if you have built poor luck and you
02:05:35.660have a poor hymenia, then you are nudged towards bad fortune or towards failure, all things being
02:05:48.980equal. If you have a good hymenia, you are nudged or set on a momentum towards success with the
02:05:59.380endeavors you engage in and more likely to find success in the in your endeavors if you have a
02:06:06.580powerful hymenia it's like a it's like a force there's something about you in the role that
02:06:12.360you're on that you know it can seem unstoppable or it can seem you know a foregone conclusion that
02:06:18.760you're going to accomplish all you set out to do and we see stories about that in our lore and in
02:06:25.780history all the time of people that seem to have an overwhelming power about them that shifts the
02:06:32.380course of events and this was thought to be a virtue by our ancestors and certainly it is
02:06:38.880there are certain people that victory just follows because they are
02:06:43.120their hymenia is their luck is overwhelming and is mighty and when that's shared by a group of
02:06:51.100people that's that's hymenia and you're a steward of it i mean your your hymenia is built through
02:06:57.900a consistent or an inherited amount of right action and doing the right things and building
02:07:05.040a momentum through victory and through accomplishment and through reputation and
02:07:09.540through consistency of character and consistency of deed and through effort and if you do a lot
02:07:15.960of those things, you will find that you have a momentum towards success. And if you inherit
02:07:24.960poor hymenia, if your parents are not good people, if you come from a line of people that have not
02:07:35.160been honorable or not been successful or have been losers, then it's like you're fighting a
02:07:40.500headwind to accomplish things in life. But take heart on that, because if you are, you have a
02:07:47.020particular opportunity for heroism and success. It is truly heroic to be able to overcome
02:07:56.240poor Hymenia, to take yourself from the negative and end up creating something in the positive.
02:08:04.020that is a that is a heroic effort and that's why it's you know that's one reason why viscerally
02:08:11.440we see such a nobility in the underdog story is because they're fighting a headwind and still
02:08:20.880able to overcome and that's that's a special thing and it's a special opportunity
02:08:26.040um so we've got a new hoff they've got mottos yeah does phrasehoff have a motto to work by
02:08:38.380certainly it does cliff what is phrasehoff's motto and why so phrasehoff motto is by our good names
02:08:48.120and uh that is derived from the kindred oath of the keystone true folk i um followed the lead of
02:08:59.540thor's hof where the uh the thor's hof motto comes from the the iron guard kindred that
02:09:07.220preceded that hof and in a lot of ways was the the seed for that hof and um in the in the keystone
02:09:16.160true folk oath um the wording isn't exactly the same but after we've said the various things
02:09:24.320in the oath we would state by my own good name by my family name by my gods and by my descendants i
02:09:31.760so swear it and so by our good names is a collective a collectivization of that concept and
02:09:40.800And that is that for those of us who are involved in running and helping to dedicate Frasehoff
02:09:50.740and for everyone who will attend there, we are practicing Ossetru openly
02:09:58.180and we are willing to stake our names on it,
02:10:00.760that our reputations are the reputations of Frasehoff
02:10:05.640and that our reputations will reflect, reflect rather, on, on Freyer. And I think that's
02:10:13.540important. You know, we, we talk about practicing Asatru openly. We talk about, um, you know,
02:10:23.700and some of this stuff we don't talk about as much anymore, but maybe we should, you know,
02:10:26.840wearing your hammer on the outside of your shirt and, um, you know, being Asatru all the time,
02:10:34.580not just on the third Saturday of a month when when you're at bloat at a hof and
02:10:41.540and that's what that motto is is is meant to encompass that
02:10:47.340that we're willing to stake our own reputation side
02:10:59.860I mean, as if the others aren't, but I think that's a really, I don't know, poignant or
02:11:06.840important one. And I think it goes, it's really weird that it pairs with our last question so well.
02:11:20.340Final question of the night. Is there an AFA community in Texas?
02:11:29.860No, but there are many AFA members in Texas, so Texas is a conundrum.
02:11:38.980We have several members in Texas, it's a big state, but we have, I'm going to pull up the
02:11:45.040member map here, we have a, like, we have groups, we have members spread out through
02:11:58.940a lot of the state. The very far, like El Paso, West Texas, relatively few. A lot of our, most of
02:12:09.280our Texas members would be in eastern Texas, in the eastern half of the state. Some are in the
02:12:13.800middle, but like if you drew a line down the center, most of them are in the eastern half of
02:12:17.720the state. We've got a relatively good-sized group, and it's not more than relative. We've
02:12:24.560a good size group in the Dallas Fort Worth area we've got another little grouping in the Austin
02:12:30.160area and we've got another grouping around you know within driving distance of the Houston area
02:12:38.880we would love to have a healthy community in Texas
02:12:46.960and that would be wonderful to have we've wanted that for a while Texas is a tough nut to crack
02:12:54.560But I think there's a lot of potential there. It's where our founder's from, and I think a lot can be built and grown there. But what we need is stable membership, and we need leadership in Texas.
02:13:07.420We need a folk builder to volunteer to build something in Texas and to host things consistently, to invite people to show up at the things they host, and to put in the momentum to build a community there over time.
02:13:25.380And I'm very confident that if we had somebody who was willing to do those things and work with the rest of AFA leadership to make Texas shine, there is a lot of potential to be had there.
02:13:40.600We have had flaky people in Texas, unfortunately.
02:13:43.420one of our ex-clergy men that has since become part of the Ravensfolk United ilk
02:23:40.120We can do stuff to where we're there every day of the 12 days of Yule.
02:23:43.880We can do those kind of things if we live close.
02:23:46.780When people have to drive hours to get to the Hoffs,
02:23:50.200then we do the best we can or we do stuff once a month.
02:23:53.340But the closer we get in proximity, the more we can really spend time and occupy and do things at the Hoffs in the way that we'd like to.
02:24:04.260And so I would encourage everyone to build up the local community around the Hoffs and be able to do things there.
02:24:10.520That's being able to do that's going to really elevate our practice.
02:24:15.300uh the dedication but there are multiple homes for sale right in the neighborhood of phrase hall
02:24:23.960um we don't know about the building right next door but it looks like if you made an offer
02:24:29.040you probably would get a good deal on it there's a building there that needs some love but there
02:24:33.740are also um several homes for sale on the same road and the road right around the corner that
02:24:39.760have their you know for sale signs out right now so check it out if you're interested in moving
02:24:46.300near phrasehoff um katie and i are only an hour and 15 minutes away we really like where we are
02:24:52.000so we're probably not going to do that ourselves right yet um although it is tempting but we
02:24:57.920we are an hour and 15 minutes for us we're willing to do that every weekend obviously
02:25:04.340um so you know that's the sort of good opportunity it's such a good opportunity i know it sounds like
02:25:12.540a big deal i think people be happy if they do it we've got some people out here that are moving
02:25:19.340closer and closer we've got one afa family uh that lives in brownsville with uh with odenshoff
02:25:25.860and we're getting more that want to do that even if it's just a handful there's stuff that can
02:25:31.660happen if you do it. I did it. So that is true. And that is worthy of recognition and celebration.
02:25:41.620It has taken longer to get us moved to Sigerheim than we had planned. It seems like such an easy
02:25:51.820thing to do for, you know, maybe it is for younger people or people who are a little bit less
02:25:57.040embedded where they're at or don't have a family or whatever, it has taken me and my family longer
02:26:03.760than I had planned. We're trying the best we can, and I would love to see us out there, you know,
02:26:09.720in the first couple of months of next year. We're excited. We're making the effort that we can.
02:26:14.720But when I said, hey, guys, I want our people to move to Jackson County, Tennessee, so we can make
02:26:21.340this thing happen. I think that was three years ago. Our producer, Nick, he, he jumped on it
02:26:31.420immediately. Sold the place he had, he packed up and he moved out there. And that he is the first
02:26:38.740pioneer at Sigurheim. And something really beautiful and amazing is going to be built
02:26:46.040around that pioneering effort and he's going to go down in history celebrated for that that's
02:26:52.440an important thing and we really appreciate it so people do it people do it people are fixing to do
02:26:58.360it you should do it make it happen but here's the thing you're going to have more and more options
02:27:04.280the more hops we get and when people ask because because people have asked us about cigarette like
02:27:11.640is it going to be a brain drain like you're going to do this thing and you're getting everybody
02:27:15.080excited about the capital will all the you know all the go far all the luminaries move there
02:27:22.520realistically no be cool but realistically different people for a variety of different
02:27:28.520reasons are more or less mobile but the answer really is both we're going to try to put hoffs
02:27:35.480closer to all of you and at the same time we want all of you to move closer and closer to the hoffs
02:27:42.200we have and if we're doing those things together it's going to make a certain amount of equilibrium
02:27:48.360to where our hoffs and our people are getting closer and closer together we can really accelerate
02:27:53.880this that we're doing so i would encourage you guys all to do that cliff are there going to be
02:27:59.800more clothing items in the store hats shirts hoodies etc short answer is yes longer answer
02:28:08.200is it depends so one of the things that i really want to avoid with the store is ever having items
02:28:14.680go out of stock again um easier said than done um but that's my intention something short of a
02:28:21.000promise but um what i want to have is some stability so i want to make sure that we always
02:28:27.720have the pins for each of the hoffs in the afa and that we always have the flags available
02:28:33.160I want to make sure that we always have the books by founder McNallan available, and I want to have at least one shirt for the Ossetru Folk Assembly and each of the Hoffs available.
02:28:47.960those are my priorities for the rest of this year um other things like hoodies and hats
02:28:57.180maybe if we're successful in the next year with just getting baseline stuff introduced in a stable
02:29:06.160and um and and you know in a cost-effective way it has to at least break even has to make sense
02:29:14.640more than that it has to make sense there you go it's funny ideally it has to make dollars um so
02:29:23.260here's the if you are listening to this and you produce those kind of clothing items hats shirts
02:29:35.760hoodies etc contact us let us know um we'd love to do business with our people
02:29:44.160even if you're just watching the show casually we'd love to do business with fans of the show
02:29:50.160over you know chinese or whatever else the situation might call for um but the money's
02:29:57.360got to line up and we've gotten to a point where production of these kind of things for
02:30:02.880you know small small batch stuff is prohibitively expensive those costs have really risen
02:30:10.240so if we have anybody in-house that does you know t-shirt screen printing or other things that way
02:30:16.480we'd be you know we'd be happy to do business with some of our people if we can make the
02:30:20.160money work out right you know we're not looking to get rich off of these things but we also can't
02:30:24.800really take a loss on them so um and i say that we'd be happy to get rich off that thing but
02:30:32.240that's not our primary mission so if you're somebody who does that kind of stuff we'd be
02:30:36.400happy to work with you if it works out right so please do keep that in mind um sadly y'all are
02:30:41.760probably going to see a little bit of an increase in the shipping prices that's just something
02:30:47.360those prices are too low right now sadly and i both
02:30:54.880are not big spenders on stuff it hurts us to charge lots of shipping we don't want to do that
02:31:06.400postal industry though has done that and amazon's figured out a way around it because they've got
02:31:10.800their own fleet of shipping planes and vehicles and stuff in case you haven't noticed we do not
02:31:19.360have the infrastructure that amazon has um so yeah shipping is grossly expensive um we're always
02:31:28.880looking for the best way to do it the best way we can find to do it is offensive and how much it
02:31:35.200costs doing the best we can but shipping's gross and i don't know how to fix it that's kind of a
02:31:41.120usps thing and not something that we really have access to and i say that as soon as i say it well
02:31:46.960have you guys looked into ups or fedex we have we can't find a better option right now if you know
02:31:53.600the secret to unlocking the shipping code let cliff know we're happy to think about it but we're doing
02:31:58.800best we can to figure it out shipping costs i promise it's not shipping and handling we're not
02:32:04.000like making money off the shipping it's just shipping yeah i mean for reference not including
02:32:10.720the envelope i can't ship this pin for less than eight dollars which is ridiculous but um
02:32:21.520yeah that that's a cost we have to cover so i don't want to scare anyone just know that we're
02:32:26.720not trying to take advantage of it no we're we're doing the best we can and so seriously
02:32:31.040crowdsourcing a lot of this stuff. And so you guys know, I'll be crowdsourcing things as far
02:32:36.040as Tiershoff construction goes. We're trying to figure out ways to utilize the reach that we have
02:32:41.340in our membership to help get these things accomplished. If you know the secret to small
02:32:46.440business shipping in something that's reasonable, please share that knowledge with us. We'd very
02:32:53.400much appreciate it. If you've got the skills to make shirts and hats and merchandise, love to do
02:32:59.420business with you let us know we'll you know if we can make it work we'd be happy to um but that
02:33:05.020is where that's at the other question uh the final one that's in the current queue are creatures like
02:33:12.940the yule cat in some way related to ausitru cliff do you have anything to share about the yule cat's
02:33:20.760relationship to ausitru if any so first the yule cat is just awesome um the yule cat for anyone
02:33:28.100who is not familiar is this giant monster cat from Icelandic lore that will eat children who
02:33:39.920haven't prepared their winter clothes before Christmas Eve. I don't know if it's related
02:33:48.980to Asatru specifically. It originated in the Middle Ages or earlier, you know, among farmers.
02:33:55.900so where exactly and when exactly it comes from is is unclear um you know i i looked a little bit
02:34:04.220of stuff up about it when i saw the question pop up because i was excited to talk about it but um
02:34:09.500it was first written down in the uh the the 19th century um and you know this is it's a it's an old
02:34:21.740a much older piece of folklore it's sort of like you know the the grimm's fairy tale stuff they
02:34:26.780wrote that stuff down hundreds maybe thousands of years after those stories were first told
02:34:32.540um is it specifically also true i guess no but i tend to take the position not tend to it's
02:34:41.500the position i take that all of these folklore kind of things the grimm's fairy tales the
02:34:49.020different scandinavian folklores english folklores um you know for example the white stag in anglo
02:34:57.580saxon kingship that doesn't occur anywhere in the uh the the asatru lore but we we took that from
02:35:06.540the the english lore because of the association of yngwie freyer with kingship um and the antler
02:35:16.620the heart antler and kind of synthesize those into the the phrase hall flag but i i take that
02:35:22.940the position that all of those folklores are true in that they are part of our people's understanding
02:35:31.660of the world around them going back to prehistory so you know the the old cat is just another form
02:35:42.860of like the boogeyman or the the the trolls in in norway the you know there's there's like troll
02:35:52.620hags that will like steal your baby and switch it with their baby because they find their troll
02:35:56.860baby really annoying and then the mother has to do a specific thing like basically the mom has0.96
02:36:03.340to beat up the troll baby until it cries so that the troll mom feels bad and comes back and switches
02:36:08.780the babies back um justifying some sorts of social behaviors i guess but i think that a lot of these
02:36:17.500folk wars have roots if not in um in our ancestors religious beliefs but in their world view
02:36:26.060um you know sleeping beauty is connected to um to brunhild and um
02:36:34.780um and you know snow white is basically the same story just told a different way
02:36:39.980so there's a lot of this stuff all in our our collective memory and the yule cat that comes
02:36:48.580and eats the kids who haven't knitted their sweaters yet hasn't processed the wool yet
02:36:53.960is just it's a really fun one because it's this giant monster cat that's going to eat you
02:36:58.900um and i guess in iceland they didn't have a whole lot of predatory animals that were going
02:37:03.160come get you i don't know if they have wolves there or not um i don't think there weren't really
02:37:07.800many things out there so a big cat was like as scary as it got what's that you got birds birds
02:37:16.360sure well they're yes there used to be very large birds that could eat people so um but yeah i mean
02:37:24.920related the the question was in some way related to ossitrus so my answer is a firm yes on that
02:37:30.520because it's part of our folks collective memory um but is it you know is it attested in the lore
02:37:36.520or something like that not that i know of a bunch of those stuff are european white white people
02:37:41.480stuff and that's kind of the thing the fun christmas stuff is european white people stuff
02:37:46.920yeah it's not so much that all of it is firmly an ausa true religious practice a lot of it's just
02:37:53.880fun folk customs around this the season sometimes they're serious and reinforce you know hey
02:38:00.440hey, you need to have your stuff in order by a certain time in winter or else you're going to freeze to death.
02:38:06.200Get your stuff done or we're going to stick the cat on you.
02:38:09.380Like there's there's things, but a lot of them are just fun.
02:38:14.340But you know what? None of them have to do with a desert manger and, you know, a questionable origin child getting born in it.
02:38:25.280um there's very little that's fun and awesome about european christmas traditions that have
02:38:30.800anything to do with judea or the bible or you know the christ child um so yeah it's it's not jesus
02:38:40.960stuff i'll say that it's also um you know our our dutch brethren i have uh have chocolatey peat
02:38:48.640if the kids don't behave well they may wake up the next day and not have a bike
02:38:53.560um there's the Krampus tradition and other just fun like if you don't do stuff right bad
02:39:03.300like Santa's enforcer is always a fun element of you know some of the old European
02:39:10.660yuletide traditions of cool you've got a nice jolly person that although I'll say
02:39:18.880fat american coca-cola santa is awesome european santa claus is creepy i want to find the picture
02:39:28.800and i have it somewhere there's a picture of my uh my mom and my uncle their early childhood years
02:39:36.800my uncle was born in 1950 my mom mom was born in 1948 my grandfather was stationed in berlin