Asatru Folk Assembly - 12⧸31⧸25 Victory Never Sleeps, Ep 182 - Welcoming in the New Year

00:00:00.000 Transcription by CastingWords

00:00:30.000 Thank you.

00:01:00.000 Transcription by CastingWords

00:01:30.000 Thank you.

00:02:00.000 We'll be right back.

00:02:30.000 Thank you.

00:03:00.000 hey good evening everybody welcome to victory never sleeps this is our 12th night of yuletide

00:03:13.020 edition victory never sleeps on new year's eve and right now we've got witten trent east

00:03:20.580 folk builder jordan wardrobe and folk builder chris savage on live with us also got my kids

00:03:27.060 playing in the background so we're just all at a new year's eve party together don't mind any

00:03:32.260 noise it's it's gonna be a a fun night i hope um i want to thank um some people right off the bat

00:03:41.860 uh nick in ohio donated ten dollars each to phrasehoff sigerheim and the awesome true academy

00:03:50.580 and GW Farnsworth donated $30 to Frazehoff and $20 to Victory Never Sleeps.

00:03:59.600 Thank you very much for that, guys.

00:04:01.480 It's much appreciated.

00:04:04.200 So where do we want to get started tonight?

00:04:06.460 Go with you, Trent.

00:04:07.280 Witten, Trent.

00:04:11.340 Do you want to start with your candle lighting thing?

00:04:16.400 No, not yet. 0.51

00:04:17.020 We're going to wait for Githya Katie to be home for that.

00:04:19.960 um so something that we're going to do tonight everyone is um usually my family we we do the

00:04:26.280 the the yule log candle lighting um and we always do that after sunset on each of the nights of yule

00:04:33.960 and um this is around the time that we usually do that we kind of get the things late around

00:04:39.720 here by the time i'm done work and they're all settled in um we do that around 9 or 9 30 p.m so

00:04:46.040 So we went to supper tonight, and Githya Katie's taking her mom home from that.

00:04:53.760 And sometime shortly after she gets home, she'll be coming from that lighted area by the fish tank behind me.

00:05:00.880 There is no way for her to sneak past us.

00:05:03.880 We will do that, and we'll share with you how our family does the candle lighting for the 12 nights of Yule.

00:05:10.960 It's kind of a blend of Whitten's Fawn's and Founder McNallan's version.

00:05:18.160 We basically do both. 0.78

00:05:20.060 We do the days, the gods and goddesses and land whites that Whitten's Fawn laid out,

00:05:28.740 and we do the virtues that Founder McNallan laid out.

00:05:32.800 So that's something we'll be sharing with you in a little bit.

00:05:34.840 um so for now i'm going to just quick talk about some key things that we've accomplished

00:05:45.580 in the the aussage folk assembly um this year with your help this is stuff that we all

00:05:51.680 accomplished together um so in 2025 we have fed 1762 families at our food pantries across the

00:06:04.080 five hoffs um phrase off put a little little drop on top of that towards the end of the year but

00:06:09.520 mostly it was our our four previous hoffs who who punched that number um we have 56

00:06:17.520 asatru academy students in k through seven which is awesome we have raised eight thousand five

00:06:26.720 hundred and three dollars for folk services to help members and and families in the asatru folk

00:06:32.880 assembly when they've needed some kind of help. We have raised $2,280 for the Afrikaners in South

00:06:45.300 Africa. And we have had 150,499 views on YouTube. And Nick, is that for Victory Never Sleeps or is

00:07:00.020 that for all of our our things up there the shorts and like the older videos and all that stuff

00:07:05.560 that is for everything the all year all we got all encompassing cool that's a lot of people

00:07:13.500 watching this and you know it's not just me and nick hitting refresh so thank you for that um

00:07:20.420 those are pretty good things then also uh two two other really important things that we did this

00:07:25.680 year we paid off new order himself in full we owe nobody but new order himself anything for that

00:07:36.020 half right now that belongs to the folk that belongs to the australia folk assembly and of

00:07:42.820 course just at the beginning of this month we dedicated phrasehoff and are what approximately

00:07:49.120 one third of the way through through paying that off do you have that number right now nick or can

00:07:53.280 you get it quickly i know you can one approximately one third that is right on the money excellent

00:08:02.760 so that's that's a really good spot for us to be in to be closing out 2025 and to be you know

00:08:11.320 marching towards further victories in in 2026 um it's it's been a pretty exciting year and i think

00:08:19.000 we're we're going to see a lot more of that uh in in the in the near future um or i don't have

00:08:26.680 all the details that i'll share go the matt would have about it but there's a lot of a lot of cool

00:08:31.320 plans for for tears off at sigerheim um and there's it's it's it's not literally true but it feels

00:08:39.560 like there's like new details and and ideas kind of percolating out uh almost every day um so

00:08:48.120 so good stuff good stuff um why don't we jump into a question so we've got one from the shaton

00:08:57.480 forests uh it is hello all it was nice to catch the yule episode live for um i know this data

00:09:07.800 may take some digging i know this may take some digging in the data may or may not be readily

00:09:11.960 available thank you in advance for any work done here is the question different religions and

00:09:18.120 non-believers historically have had different fertility rates catholics used to have a

00:09:23.320 reputation for large families mormons and amish as well what is the total fertility rate per woman

00:09:30.920 within the austral folk assembly thank you for your time uh joanne and johann and miranda um

00:09:38.600 Um, so I do not have that number readily available.

00:09:41.720 That is, uh, built into the question.

00:09:44.340 And I thank you for, you know, giving us the out on that.

00:09:47.680 I don't know the fertility rate per woman in the AFA.

00:09:52.980 Um, I do know that we've had quite a few, uh, baby namings at our, at our house throughout

00:09:59.100 the year.

00:10:00.040 Um, and that we have, uh, quite a few young fathers right here on screen with us right

00:10:07.300 now um and their lovely wives are probably somewhere you know doing doing work or or

00:10:14.500 getting the the kiddos uh tucked in and all that um so that they can be here with us tonight um

00:10:24.020 let me hold on i can pulse um i can pull a number here there's something i can check i can tell you

00:10:29.860 how many baby names we have done this year maybe a minute to look that up so i just want to throw

00:10:35.380 in here one problem i'm sorry to autism about this but one problem i can think of with doing this

00:10:44.340 at our size and the reforging of ossature right now is that we have a lot of people who come to

00:10:50.740 us from all ages right and it's kind of like if some um elderly woman in her 80s comes home to

00:11:01.800 the afa after living her whole life not ositru throwing her into a calculation of like

00:11:11.400 babies per woman is kind of incorrect to do because she didn't spend her breeding years

00:11:18.720 it sounds very clinical but you know what i mean she didn't spend her fertility window

00:11:22.780 ositru so it's kind of like how would things have been different had she grown up

00:11:29.100 also true and she lived her her her breeding years also true um furthermore

00:11:36.860 as uh someone who is into fertility rates and the like and studying that kind of stuff

00:11:44.940 it's a lot very much focused on society right like if you drop a single catholic family in

00:11:52.360 a very non-catholic environment their fertility goes down if you drop that same catholic family

00:11:57.980 into a catholic society their fertility goes up right i i don't think we can actually have like

00:12:05.400 a demographic population that could make a statistical sample of like this is what

00:12:10.500 also true fertility rates look like with any certainty right now i know that's kind of a

00:12:16.820 non-answer but it's better than high you know like what is the fertility rate it's high you know

00:12:24.220 Well, I think so. That's a pretty good point, Chris, because there are people are coming into Asatru at different stages in their lives. And also, I think a lot of people in my generation, at least, I'm 46. I'm one of the very the youngest of the Gen Xers, basically. And I didn't meet my wife until pretty late in my life.

00:12:47.840 um a lot of that was because in my younger years I was stupid and didn't have priorities that had 0.89

00:12:56.140 anything to do with family um and then once I found Ossetru and was you know more serious about 0.93

00:13:03.760 wanting to you know have a a good family life I was really committed to finding an Ossetru wife

00:13:10.540 So, like, I picked this real narrow path that I was going to try to go down. 1.00

00:13:16.900 And I was real fortunate to meet Katie and, you know, that she allowed me to court her and that we were able to build a family.

00:13:25.560 But, you know, because we met each other and started our family late in our lives, she was 30 and I was 36 when we first started dating.

00:13:36.380 We have two children.

00:13:37.600 Now, if we had met 10 years prior to that, like if we were, you know, brought up in the AFA or if we had lived in, you know, a Bronze Age village or something like that, we probably would have got started quite a bit earlier.

00:13:52.900 And that, too, would be four and a half or nine or whatever it might be.

00:13:59.760 And there's no regrets there, of course.

00:14:02.000 You know, and perhaps the gods will bless us with another child still.

00:14:07.600 But that's something that happens.

00:14:13.720 I also, I have that number that I was looking up.

00:14:16.740 It was six officially recorded Osso Vatney's baby namings in the Osso True Folk Assembly.

00:14:24.860 Now, keep in mind, this is not the same as how many babies were born to Osso True Folk Assembly families in 2025.

00:14:33.420 I have that number.

00:14:35.460 You have that one?

00:14:36.220 oh yeah we keep track of that in the room oh yeah i know that with the baby blankets we track that i

00:14:40.980 just don't know where to look for it so what is that number nick that number is 25 and 25 okay

00:14:46.940 so that's there's some there's some cool stuff we can talk about in regards to those the difference

00:14:51.740 in those two numbers um so five of our or so six of our six of our families it was yeah six six of

00:15:00.700 families came to our gothar um for a baby naming right and had that done by a gothi or agithia

00:15:08.300 often at one of our hosts but not necessarily um another 19 um either you know didn't have

00:15:16.460 a baby naming or had that done in like you know a private family ceremony or something like that

00:15:22.060 i want to make sure that all of our parents out there know that when you have a baby we would love

00:15:27.100 to be part of that moment in your life and please do come to our gothar or contact your folk builder

00:15:34.460 and and let us know that you want that to happen um we will work with you on the timing of that

00:15:41.260 um you know a lot of times it'll make sense for that to be done at at one of our hofs but

00:15:46.300 depending on where you're located or depending on um you know other logistical things we can arrange

00:15:53.260 for one of our gothar to you know to meet you and to to take care of that in a way that's that's

00:15:59.900 best for you and your family and especially for your little one um but that's a that's a pretty

00:16:05.740 good number um you know in the australia folk assembly we have uh approximately 700 750 members

00:16:13.500 right now so 25 uh over 750 is is is not too shabby um and isn't really you know isn't

00:16:24.460 reflective of the of the range of our population in the afa as far as you know where people are

00:16:30.620 in their life stages and and all that so that's pretty cool so just so people as the father of

00:16:37.340 one of those uh six receivers of the outside of vatni um we call it a baby naming in english

00:16:46.060 you you get to choose your kid's name you don't alter ego the mat does not choose your child's

00:16:52.140 name for them it naming is in the sense of like i am pronoun introducing this child named x told

00:17:00.540 to me by the family to the gods the ancestors and the folk right just just for clarity here

00:17:07.340 That's an important detail. Yes. I don't want people thinking that, you know, you're going to come to the Gothi and the Gothi will be choosing your child's name for you.

00:17:17.320 I guess in certain situations, the Gothi may coach you on making wise decisions, naming your child.

00:17:23.720 But that's a good question. That is ultimately up to you.

00:17:27.480 If the name is bad enough, can the ceremony be refused?

00:17:33.620 I think the answer to that is yes.

00:17:37.340 So without going into any further details, I am a creative enough person to imagine a scenario where that could happen. 0.86

00:17:46.400 and Al-Shir-Gothi-Mat would have the final call on that, 0.65

00:17:49.180 but yeah, I can imagine names that we simply would not allow.

00:17:56.360 We would not bless the child with water

00:17:59.220 and introduce them to the folk in one of our holy temples

00:18:02.040 with an obscene or heretical name, I do not think.

00:18:08.120 If Al-Shir-Gothi-Mat disagrees, I'm sure he will correct me later, 0.89

00:18:11.160 but I think I'm confident in that assessment.

00:18:13.500 we have sierra chapman joining us hello sierra hi everybody can you hear me okay

00:18:21.140 yeah certainly can we were just talking about women's fertility rates in the australia

00:18:26.620 well i got a question about it and now so so we found uh that we had six baby namings and and 25

00:18:36.540 um baby blankets distributed this year so that gives us some kind of an idea and we

00:18:41.540 talked about how people come to this in different stages of their life so that has an impact on it

00:18:46.780 as well but is there anything as a mother that you would like to add to that conversation

00:18:51.200 i just the healthy babies thing works man i every time they say it if i'm not ready to have a kid

00:18:58.080 my hand goes away real quick because i ended up with erica when i was not planning on having erica

00:19:03.280 and all those healthy babies but it's it's definitely been awesome i know like just at

00:19:09.720 Odinsoff alone we have one woman specifically who she was struggling with infertility issues and

00:19:15.160 when she came home and started participating in ritual with us she's up to kid number three or

00:19:21.480 four now and I mean you know there's there's people who might not believe or whatnot but she

00:19:27.580 believes and I truly believe that her coming home to the gods and you know participating in the gift

00:19:32.300 cycle and putting out those offerings and putting out her good energy into the world definitely did

00:19:36.700 have a big part in it because she struggled for a while and now she's got four three three or four

00:19:43.400 beautiful beautiful boys and I mean that's something right there she has all boys so

00:19:49.120 that's awesome so for for people that aren't familiar and without revealing the parts that

00:19:56.080 are that are secret can you elaborate on the healthy babies thing for someone who might not

00:20:01.420 know what you're talking about? Yeah. So during ritual, the women separate from the men and we

00:20:07.160 do our womanly magic to bless the horn for the folks that are going to be partaking in ritual

00:20:13.420 that day. And every time when we're done with our blessings, we always end it with and healthy

00:20:18.540 babies. And depending on which Hoff you go to, the way they do it might be a little bit different,

00:20:23.600 but at Odense Hoff, we keep what we're doing as do every other Hoff quiet. But at the very end,

00:20:29.620 we make sure to stay in healthy babies at a decent enough volume that the men can hear it and know

00:20:33.420 that we're ready. So it's a very nice way that we end the blessing of the Medes before we give it

00:20:38.720 to the folk to partake in. Yeah. And from the man's point of view, that's the only part that

00:20:45.700 we hear typically. Sometimes in certain environments, we can maybe overhear a little

00:20:50.340 bit more. We're not eavesdropping, but sometimes y'all are awful close or something like that.

00:20:55.180 um but uh that part we always hear that's for sure and um it's too soon to tell but we want

00:21:02.920 to kind of foster a fertility culture like that at Frayshoff too for obvious reasons and at the

00:21:08.900 the dedication to uh Frayshoff um Githya Katie made a point to let the folk know that they are

00:21:17.280 welcome to come up to the idol of Freyr in the the upper deist there you know and and if someone

00:21:26.440 is looking for fertility to you know to feel free to to reach out and touch Lord Freyr the way that

00:21:32.700 our ancestors would have that that that idol was there for for reasons and we shouldn't be shy about

00:21:38.920 that I have definitely made it a like blanket statement that I'm not visiting Freyr's Hoff

00:21:44.720 or partaking in the Healthy Babies Mitchell at Frey's Hoth until I am ready to have a child.

00:21:49.320 Because that Hoth just already oozes so much fertility and forbearance that I'm very cautiously optimistic.

00:21:57.160 I hope so. We don't have any data yet. 0.99

00:21:59.060 We'll have to see how this year goes and how the years following it go.

00:22:02.420 But yeah, I'm cautiously optimistic about that.

00:22:08.520 I mean, after all, Frey is the fertility god, right?

00:22:12.740 So something's broken if we don't have that.

00:22:16.540 And in a very serious way, if we don't, we're going to take a close look at things and try to figure out what.

00:22:21.540 Because if we're not seeing blessings for the whole Austro-Folk assembly from Freyer,

00:22:26.960 that'll end up being on me and Githy-Akadi.

00:22:28.880 We'll have to figure out what we're doing wrong and fix it.

00:22:32.040 So Witten, Trent, or Jordan, do you guys have any thoughts on this stuff before we move on?

00:22:39.540 actually it's kind of funny you mentioned that because uh me and jaden also were having

00:22:48.140 fertility issues before we made a pretty substantial uh lifestyle change when we

00:22:53.180 moved from ontario to new brunswick and uh shortly after we moved out here made some

00:22:59.700 lifestyle changes as well as started getting a little more serious in our practice and starting

00:23:05.560 to actually have kind of a rhythm in the way we did things we ended up conceiving both of our boys

00:23:11.260 within 13 months of each other not entirely planned but we were definitely happy to have them both

00:23:18.000 and then uh just recently when we were finally committing to making the substantial drive to

00:23:24.980 the dedication of praise off we uh we found out pretty much immediately after dedicating

00:23:30.020 the uh the funds to like booking the hotels and everything and getting

00:23:34.340 our passport's in line and we found out that my wife is actually pregnant with our third child

00:23:38.900 so we didn't even make it to the dedication of fray's hoth before uh

00:23:43.300 fray gave us a bit of a gift so there's definitely something to be said for it

00:23:50.020 that's that's an awesome blessing i i wish it had been the day after i could put it in my

00:23:55.540 spreadsheet then take credit for it or give prayer the credit for it um but that is fantastic uh

00:24:02.740 congratulations again jordan that's that's super awesome and uh you'll be on that you'll be on the

00:24:08.980 list of uh of austin vatney's for 2026 i hope well that's the plan i mean it's i think my

00:24:16.100 wife said that we're looking at like middle to end of july so all right gives you just enough

00:24:21.780 time to get to uh better niter and uh that phrase off later on in the year you'll be a decent age

00:24:27.620 to travel yeah three months there so that's you guys touch on the subjects that we have

00:24:34.500 a baby tracker and we track how many babies are born each year in the afa

00:24:40.180 yeah nick already gave us the number 25. right so that's the number to beat for this year

00:24:47.060 then that's awesome that almost leads into our next question unless you have something else you

00:24:50.740 want to want to pitch in on this one trent uh yeah something funny i wanted to see you mentioned

00:24:56.660 And you and Katie kind of had your kids later in life.

00:25:00.380 I know also Eric Goffey had his daughter later in life.

00:25:03.020 But the cool thing about it is I had my son at a, you know, kind of more normal time in life.

00:25:09.400 And so our kids are all around the same age-ish.

00:25:12.160 So it worked out pretty well for me.

00:25:15.520 My son gets to have friends in the AFA close-ish to his age because of that.

00:25:20.520 So thanks.

00:25:21.680 um oh yeah the other thing i was going to say about the fertility rate and a story with it i

00:25:28.180 guess uh we had some infertility issues i guess is the right term for it uh a couple of years ago

00:25:35.180 and then we had a bunch of people thankfully kind of praying for us and helping us out and stuff uh

00:25:42.660 githya young did a float to frig for us uh witten facet did some kind of witten facet thing for us

00:25:50.600 and we found out uh that she was pregnant and this one was going to work out right after getting

00:25:58.980 back from sigur bloat at sigur haim 2024 where the ulcerogothy couldn't make it so

00:26:04.720 githya erickson and i had to kind of fill in for him and it was really cool to

00:26:10.460 get to do the main bloat at that event uh you know it sucked that matt wasn't there but it was

00:26:17.360 cool getting to do that and then you know driving home uh after we got home we found out she was

00:26:26.060 pregnant and yeah a bit of a ramble but uh yeah this stuff it there's meaning in this stuff you

00:26:33.780 know um some people say there's no coincidences uh with things like this I tend to agree so

00:26:40.520 you know like Jordan mentioned his lifestyle change and then being blessed with two boys

00:26:46.300 back-to-back. I think there's definitely something there. Awesome. All right. Well,

00:26:58.080 the next question we have is from Tyler, and it is, hey there, question for the show tonight.

00:27:06.360 What are some realistic goals and accomplishments you'd like to see the AFA hit in 2026? What are

00:27:13.320 some practical things that members and friends of the afa can do to help accomplish them thanks

00:27:19.240 so i'll work my way backwards friends of the afa become members of the afa

00:27:25.240 we appreciate your friendship but if you look like the people up on this screen and you even

00:27:33.160 believe in believing in the ace here even if you you know are an analytical kind of person and

00:27:39.640 aren't 100% sure about spirituality or religion, I invite you to try it. A lot of times that

00:27:48.340 doesn't actually click in your life until you have a devotional practice. Sometimes you got

00:27:54.740 to put some effort into it. So friends of the AFA, become members of the AFA. That's the number

00:28:02.120 one thing that I would suggest for you all. And if you're not eligible for AFA membership for

00:28:07.180 whatever reason we're still glad to have you as friends you know you see one of these fundraisers

00:28:11.700 for folk services or for one of our hoffs we appreciate you pitching in and helping in any

00:28:16.760 way you can there um members of the afa uh so a couple of things show up in person if you are

00:28:26.100 anywhere remotely near a folk builder or an event host or if you're fortunate enough to be you know

00:28:32.840 within a two or three hour radius of any of our Hoffs or of Sigurheim.

00:28:39.340 Again, sometimes you have to put the effort in to get the benefit of something.

00:28:43.680 Show up in person.

00:28:44.960 We want to see you every single month, twice a month, really.

00:28:48.480 We have work days and bloat days at every one of the Hoffs.

00:28:51.820 Some of them probably have more activities than just two a month.

00:28:56.260 But at a minimum, I think there's two things at every Hoff every month

00:28:59.440 that you can participate in.

00:29:01.440 um go to those talk to your folk builders about what's going on near you if there's nothing going

00:29:07.980 on near you then talk to your folk builder um about hosting an event where you are um my

00:29:15.500 my kindred keystone true folk literally was founded out of that kind of necessity i found

00:29:20.640 myself in a donut hole where i had to drive not that far i was pretty fortunate but i had to drive

00:29:26.180 like 90 minutes, 90 whole minutes, north, east, south, or west to get to some kind of

00:29:31.880 Ossetru event. And the quality of them was variable. And so I felt like I needed to do

00:29:38.160 something closer to home. And, you know, my folk builder, Pat Hall at the time, helped me do that.

00:29:47.320 I wasn't a folk builder yet. I was just some AFA guy with some time on his hands. And,

00:29:52.840 you know you raise that banner and people will show up they might not the first time

00:29:56.880 but they will you might be surprised too there might be beaten down the door the first time too

00:30:01.340 uh but participate in in whatever way it is that you can that's really important um

00:30:08.420 now realistic goals and accomplishments that i'd like to see the afa hit in 2026

00:30:16.660 So I think that it is realistic that we can pay off Frazehoff in 2026.

00:30:23.400 As we mentioned at the top of the show, we're already a third of the way there.

00:30:29.000 And, you know, that ties right in with starting work on Tearshoff.

00:30:35.780 I know Al Shurgothi Matt very much wants to see some kind of ground broken at Sigerheim for Tearshoff in 2026.

00:30:44.300 um that might be setting some cinder blocks out and and marking where the foundation perimeter

00:30:52.420 is going to be but i i can pretty much guarantee something is going to happen on site there this

00:30:57.620 year um maybe a lot more than that but at a minimum i think getting some basic like

00:31:04.840 more than just like snow stakes in the ground um or um what do they call them

00:31:12.520 surveying stakes in the ground where, you know, where it's going to be putting something that's

00:31:17.460 a little bit more permanent in the beginning of a structure there, I think is a realistic goal in

00:31:22.360 2026. I also think that it is, I think it's realistic that we could ordain another Gothi

00:31:38.380 or githia or two that depends on a lot of things out of my control but i think that that is something

00:31:45.740 that would be a that would be auspicious that would help us fulfill our declaration of purpose

00:31:51.660 um so you know we've we've got people that are working to those goals and um you know i would

00:31:58.380 i would be disappointed if zero uh accomplished that for all of 2026 i think we'll get at least

00:32:04.060 one or two. I'd like to see a lot more folk builders. I don't know how many people out there

00:32:11.600 know, but I've taken over our role of folk builder coordinator. And I really would like to see a lot

00:32:17.820 of the areas where we know we have clusters of members. I'm looking at you, Texas. I want to see

00:32:23.620 folk builders in these areas. New Jersey and the Philadelphia area is another one. I used to be

00:32:29.860 the guy there, but I moved west partly because it was too crowded for me there, really more like

00:32:35.260 too crowded to raise my kids there. But also, you know, I was becoming committed to where

00:32:41.400 Frashoff was going to be. I'd lost the argument about it being in Eastern Pennsylvania. So I

00:32:46.040 moved west to help make that happen where it needed to be. But that's an area we could use

00:32:53.820 folk builders. And there's a lot of other places that we could use folk builders,

00:32:58.660 including the places where we have no where we have no members it works kind of one or two ways

00:33:03.620 we either have clusters of people that are getting together but that aren't doing much

00:33:14.100 more beyond that and that's a good start i'm not criticizing that but we could really use

00:33:17.800 a leader there to help drive things to the next level to um you know to turn it into a bloat

00:33:23.660 group and, um, you know, move it forward from there. Um, or we have clusters of people where

00:33:30.000 people aren't getting together. And that's super frustrating because, you know, I'm pretty sure the

00:33:36.320 reason people join the Ossetru Folk Assembly is to meet other Ossetruer and to practice Ossetru.

00:33:44.640 And when we know that there are people like half an hour, 20 minutes away from each other,

00:33:50.900 and they aren't communicating with each other um that's not something that is you know we're not

00:33:59.980 getting the job done basically so we need your help there you know meet up with your with people

00:34:06.040 that that at least could be your friends even if they're not going to be your your your friends

00:34:10.400 they're gonna they're gonna be people that are part of your religious congregation you can still

00:34:15.020 learn from each other even if you're you know not into the same things outside of religion

00:34:20.580 um and i think that uh yeah a folk builder in every state that's probably not going to happen

00:34:28.860 in 2026 but that's something that i think everyone who's been folk builder coordinators

00:34:34.260 wanted to see i'd like to see uh i'd like to see sweden more active again we still have members

00:34:40.300 there and um we we struggle to get you guys together up there in sweden um so throw us a

00:34:46.680 own. You know, we, we want to see you practicing Asatru in real life. Um, we know, we know that

00:34:52.600 it's going to be good for you. We want you to be happier and more healthy. That's why, that's why

00:34:56.860 we beat this drum. We're not, we're not, we're not judging. We're wanting you to, we want you

00:35:01.040 to enjoy what we have here in America when we get together at our Hoffs or when the kindreds get

00:35:06.340 together. Um, and I think that, um, I think that we could probably see a 10% increase in membership

00:35:16.280 If everybody who really gives a damn about Asatru and who also gives a damn about the people that they love in their lives was willing to put those two things together, then we could easily bring in new people to Asatru and, you know, help share with them what we know is going to be good for them.

00:35:39.160 whether that's your your father or your mother or your brothers and sisters or you know your your

00:35:45.400 best friend from school or your work buddy or or whatever there are people that you know every

00:35:52.120 single person watching this or on the show we're speaking right now um we all know somebody that

00:35:58.200 we should have talked to about awesome truth but for one reason or another we haven't done it yet

00:36:03.000 it's inconvenient. We're chicken shit about it, whatever. You know, those are, those are real 0.96

00:36:10.380 things. And we just got to punch through that and talk to these people about it. And, you know,

00:36:15.280 as long as we're respectful, I think those things will go pretty well. We might not get the end

00:36:18.900 result that we want where they're tagging along to the Hoff the next month, but at least they'll

00:36:23.700 know it's an option for them. I talk about the people who've never heard the word Ossetru before, 0.98

00:36:29.440 right? Well, we have direct control about that for every single person in our lives that we know.

00:36:35.560 We can make sure they've heard the word also true at least. So I think that bringing more

00:36:41.740 people home is a realistic goal. So that's my wish list, if you will. I think it's actually

00:36:51.100 fairly conservative. I think those are all doable things. But the question did say realistic,

00:36:56.000 So I tried to keep it at that.

00:36:59.320 Whitten East, what do you think?

00:37:01.400 And I know I got to go first, so I took a whole bunch of easy things.

00:37:04.860 But what else can you think of?

00:37:07.000 You did take all the easy things, all the stuff.

00:37:10.800 Anytime I've been on the show recently, I got to host.

00:37:14.220 So I get to, like, take all the easy questions.

00:37:16.340 But I deferred to your seniority this time.

00:37:20.380 It's nice to be the host, I'm telling you.

00:37:23.360 Let me see.

00:37:25.160 Yeah, all the stuff you said.

00:37:34.600 I don't have anything to add to it, but I can say the last thing you were talking about, about, you know, there are people in our lives that need to hear the word also true that haven't heard it.

00:37:44.820 that's part of why it's so important where your hammer outside of your shirt

00:37:47.980 and something else as big is, you know,

00:37:51.720 if you're requesting time off work for, uh,

00:37:55.640 an event at phrase Hoff or Njord's Hoff or wherever for a national event,

00:38:00.380 uh, don't come up with some lame excuse like, Oh,

00:38:05.700 it's a family reunion or whatever. Say it's a church event,

00:38:09.060 church retreat. And, uh, you know,

00:38:11.680 You don't have to go into great detail on what we'll be doing, I guess.

00:38:17.120 But if they ask, oh, what church are you, say, I'm with the Austro Folk Assembly, you know, just be open and honest.

00:38:24.600 And I live smack dab in the Bible belt.

00:38:28.880 And every time I've been super honest about being in the AFA, nobody has cared at all.

00:38:36.660 I've gotten a couple like, well, you know, I hope Jesus forgives you or whatever.

00:38:41.360 but they've meant well. So it's, you know, uh, you know,

00:38:46.700 I mean, he better, he started it. Yeah. Right. Yeah.

00:38:50.960 Be bold and have some courage, uh, with your faith.

00:38:57.980 Uh, yeah, I really can't think of other like practical things,

00:39:03.380 members and friends of the AFA can do to help accomplish goals. And then,

00:39:06.960 you know it sounds crass but you know donate show up to stuff donate auction items

00:39:15.760 uh share our stuff on social media share the link to this right now if you haven't already

00:39:22.320 to various social medias the ones that allow it anyhow uh yeah that's all i got on that one

00:39:28.080 because cliff took all the good answers cool well i thought of a couple more while you were talking

00:39:33.040 but we'll see if anyone else grabs them while uh while uh we hear from chris on the topic what do

00:39:38.800 you think chris there's a couple projects you're involved in that i can think of those for uh i

00:39:45.920 have a lot of projects i'm involved in ericsson sir um um uh the three achievable goals that i

00:39:55.120 add off the top of my head were uh get membership number back above 1000 um another 25 kids not

00:40:04.960 not from my wife but as a church you know not from my wife she'll be mad um and not not necessarily

00:40:15.300 every every state having its own folk builder per se but every state being handled by a folk

00:40:21.860 builder right like the the guys in indiana can take a chunk of illinois for example right like

00:40:30.100 i would like there to be nowhere in the u.s that people can say oh i can't go because it's too far

00:40:38.340 right like some of these states out west no offense but like don't necessarily need their

00:40:46.260 own folk builder if the state can be divvied up i think that's a little that's a step before

00:40:52.100 getting a folk builder in every state so it's it's even more doable you know

00:41:00.420 yeah similarly new england is basically one state yeah as well i know um it's not really like that

00:41:08.500 but um you can fit the whole thing in montana so um you know um not that we won't accept folk

00:41:16.260 builders in massachusetts connecticut rhode island etc having for the multiple full sorry

00:41:21.300 go on sorry no that was the end of the welcome period having multiple folk builders in the same

00:41:27.220 state is actually a good thing like the the indiana guys go the rock uh folk builders jacob

00:41:33.540 bretledge and uh aiden mcmillan they can do a lot by being able to share the load cooperate

00:41:41.780 work together to do things more than just i'm the guy in this state doing something once a month

00:41:49.220 you know um so even if there is a folk builder in your state already or you know basically handling

00:41:57.220 your state right you should still you know if you want to be a folk builder sign up and help

00:42:03.940 that other folk builder or go the org with you um like with the the i don't know how ontario is

00:42:12.860 divided up but the part of ontario that has all the people jordan here is our canadian folk builder

00:42:18.660 currently but i up until he came along i was the person who would talk to the ontarioans i still

00:42:25.040 will right like we we have a lot to do so having a lot of people helps even if they do theoretically

00:42:33.280 like step on each other's toes because they don't they work together and you're sure you and me both

00:42:39.520 are closer to the ontario folk than uh than jordan is um he's way up there and there's nowhere we

00:42:47.520 don't need a folk builder if you look at that map and we see a bunch of them we have plenty of stuff

00:42:52.240 for you to do so don't worry about that sierra knows it she does a lot of it i will give you

00:43:00.960 guys stuff to do trust me doesn't matter where you're at you could have somebody next door who's

00:43:05.280 a folk builder and i'll still give you stuff to do it's okay sharing is caring and sierra has lots

00:43:10.560 to share um since we're talking to you sierra what do you think what are some some goals for

00:43:19.360 odenshoff district or for anything else that you're involved in um for for 2026 uh just like

00:43:26.700 just like chris i'm also involved in a lot we've got we've got our team of people who do lots of

00:43:32.580 things we wear many hats um and as crazy as it sounds all of my goals will inevitably end up

00:43:39.100 creating more work for me but it'll benefit the afa in the long run and i what i would like to

00:43:44.660 see as a whole is I would like to see more of our membership participating in the gift cycle,

00:43:52.440 whether that is actually coming to Hoff events or even just speaking with folk builders who

00:43:57.820 reach out to them. One thing that I do that is kind of like my little baby per se is I host

00:44:05.280 proxy moots. So I'll talk to states that have a high concentration of membership and attempt to 0.95

00:44:10.660 get things done there. But it kind of becomes a double-edged sword because I'm trying, but I'm

00:44:17.320 not getting responses. So members just kind of being a little bit more proactive. They say they

00:44:24.660 want to take a part of this and be a part of the gift cycle, but we can only open the door so much

00:44:29.600 before they have to open it the rest of the way. So I'd like to see membership definitely utilizing

00:44:36.560 what we have out there for them and i would like to see um more folk builders as everybody has said

00:44:42.560 because we can just never have too many i'll take on all the apprentices as many as as many as i can

00:44:48.240 fit in my little schedule here i'll take them on but um also just as the afa as a whole one of the

00:44:54.720 things that we do for each off is we do food pantries and something that we struggle with in

00:45:00.320 pretty much every single Hoth except for maybe Baldur's Hoth is we struggle with getting food

00:45:06.620 and I have for months on end called for like Thor's Hoth for example I've called every single

00:45:15.440 store just about and that's not an exaggeration within like if Witten Young lives down here and

00:45:22.640 the Hoth is up here and he takes potentially this route or potentially that route I've called every

00:45:27.120 store within a two-hour radius along that route up to the Hof and for the same for the Hof steward

00:45:31.940 trying to secure food and it's become it's become really hard it's hard to find people who are

00:45:42.240 willing to give food because there's such a food shortage in the U.S. right now and everybody is

00:45:46.980 struggling so finding consistent and stable food sources so we can continue to give back to the

00:45:55.700 communities is something that I really want to see the AFA secure this year for all of our Hoffs.

00:46:01.520 It's not just about like the image of looking like we're doing good by giving to these people.

00:46:07.320 I love to use Odin's Hoff as an example because we've been there for so long.

00:46:11.640 We have been, we live on a, we live, feels like we live there. We sit on a divide of two different

00:46:19.640 counties we have yuba sutter and then we've got butte county and most of the food distribution

00:46:26.760 centers up there are only um they are food banks not food pantries meaning they have to follow a

00:46:32.760 certain set of rules so joe schmo can come get food but his neighbor bob smith can't because he's

00:46:39.160 on the other side of the county line and it's caused a lot of uh heartache and strife up there

00:46:44.440 because these people need food but because they're in the wrong zip code they can't so we became a

00:46:48.280 food pantry and we can give food to anybody it doesn't matter where you live where you're from

00:46:54.040 you know your income any of that if you need food just show up and because we've been able to do

00:46:59.080 that and we've been able to consistently give food to the community the community has in turn

00:47:03.160 recognized us and our good deeds and what we do and our name has become a staple in the community

00:47:09.160 i'm on the community facebook page and there's people talk like we are we are a point of interest

00:47:14.120 in that town basically somebody the other day was posting about how there was some workers outside

00:47:18.840 cutting down power lines and they said yeah they're right across the street from odenthal

00:47:22.280 and everybody knew where that was instead of calling us the grange hall like they've done

00:47:25.560 for so many years and they will reach out to us and contact us if there's something happening in

00:47:31.400 the area like uh we have a neighbor who noticed that there was some transients who were perusing

00:47:37.240 the property and they actually reached out to me they said hey just so you know there was somebody 0.91

00:47:42.200 on your property i've turned my camera to face the hof i'll let you know if i see anything and

00:47:47.160 i went over there to check on the hof to make sure everything was okay and this man is a christian

00:47:50.440 and he has no he wouldn't qualify for membership but because we've done such good in that

00:47:56.760 neighborhood and we have integrated ourselves really well the community looks out for us now

00:48:01.240 it's not just a pr thing it's about creating a good name for the gods and the communities that

00:48:05.400 they're in and without food we can't really do that we've reached out and gotten small donations

00:48:12.440 in the form of gift cards from different suppliers that only works so much and you can only do it so

00:48:17.880 often so definitely trying to secure a stable food source for each one of the hosts is something

00:48:24.040 i'm committed to hopefully succeeding in and uh it's it's definitely proven difficult but i have

00:48:30.680 have a strong feeling that we'll be able to do it this year. Sierra, real quick, do you want to

00:48:36.420 talk about the time when Odenshof was like the only distributor of food in the township? I don't

00:48:43.520 know the precise area, but. Yeah, Brownsville, Challenge Brownsville. We were during the height

00:48:49.460 of COVID. Everybody had kind of shut down. The churches weren't gathering anymore because

00:48:56.100 California said, you can't come outside. You can't leave your house. You need to stay six

00:49:01.000 feet away from people. And at that time, before COVID had hit, we were actually having people

00:49:06.360 come inside the Hof to get their food, picking out their bags and all of that. And when everything

00:49:12.120 shut down, it just kind of came to a screeching halt. But us at Odin's Hof, we weren't going to

00:49:17.820 let that happen. We continued our services like normal. I mean, we're outside and however you

00:49:26.080 feel about COVID is however you feel about COVID. That's not what we're here to talk about, but we

00:49:29.660 weren't going to let it stop us. And so we found distributions. We purchased food out of our own

00:49:36.140 pocket. We did whatever we needed to do to make sure that there was still food there. And that

00:49:40.740 was actually at the time that we had also decided to become a food pantry. So that way, these people

00:49:45.080 who, during the height of COVID, who lost their jobs, the funding wasn't really coming in yet,

00:49:49.200 which is crazy because California loves to throw money at people. People were just stuck. So we

00:49:54.380 decided to become a food pantry at that point. And we were the only ones out there consistently

00:49:58.240 giving food. We turned it to a drive-through food pantry and it's stayed that way ever since. And

00:50:03.340 it's been, it's been great. Um, I've been taking part in the food pantry for a really long time.

00:50:07.840 My, my, um, what's the word I'm looking for here? Like my ability to participate in it has dwindled

00:50:15.720 over the years. Um, as my children have gotten older and as the life has changed, but now life

00:50:21.160 in a much better spot, I'll be a part of it a lot more. But for a while there, like, the community

00:50:28.460 watched my son grow up. My son was a very small baby when I first started. And he got the nickname

00:50:33.760 Smiley from the community. And when I'd be handing out food, when I didn't bring him, they'd go like,

00:50:38.380 oh, we're Smiley, you know. And the community just learns us as a person. And the fact that we were

00:50:43.580 able to be that one stable source for them throughout all these years, no matter if it was

00:50:47.400 covid no matter if it's raining or even snowing we're always out there to make sure that we give

00:50:52.000 food for them and that's not something that most places out there can say i i meant is this when

00:50:58.440 the gas i don't know if it's a gas station i don't mean to be rude but when the gas station

00:51:03.240 yeah that that time that specific time is where i'm at sorry no it's okay because it happened

00:51:09.620 during covid too um so that was that was before i was actually a member of odenshoff but

00:51:15.840 uh it's a very sad common story uh out here in california there was a fire that came through

00:51:22.820 and it burnt down the golden eagle market which was the only food source they did have in town yes

00:51:27.560 um they burnt down completely they weren't really sure if they were going to be able to rebuild and

00:51:33.880 when they did rebuild it took them quite a while and during that time yes we were still handing

00:51:37.800 out food but i believe we were a food bank at that point so we had some restrictions

00:51:45.840 uh with that you guys though i am gonna hop off i gotta go grab my baby uh because trent's got his

00:51:53.280 baby on the screen it's only fair so i'm gonna go pick her up from grandma's and i will be back on

00:51:57.280 later tonight all right we'll see you then sierra thank you for being here all right well i'm gonna

00:52:08.640 jump in again and list off the extra things that i i thought of while while people were talking um

00:52:18.080 it really is kind of nice being the the host you get to do all these extra things and

00:52:22.160 it feels like cheating um so uh people one of the parts of the question was

00:52:28.880 um what are practical things that members can do get on hoftholler uh i think that's something that

00:52:37.360 everyone who's in the Austria folk assembly should be participating in it's I think what gets you

00:52:43.600 full participation in the gift cycle with the gods um as we establish more and more

00:52:49.140 Hoffs that gift cycle accelerates and um uh you know I don't think there's like a vestment time

00:52:57.660 or anything like that but I do think that the more you participate in it that the more benefit

00:53:01.720 you're going to get out of that uh if you're not sure what Hofftaller is talk to your folk builder

00:53:06.040 but the short version is it is percentage-based giving to your church, the Asatru Folk Assembly.

00:53:13.120 It works a lot better than subscriptions or piecemeal donations,

00:53:18.540 so talk to your folk builder about it, and they can help you figure out a way to do it.

00:53:24.500 Another thing that, you know, I know that this is an achievable goal

00:53:29.040 because I've seen the back office conversations on it.

00:53:32.920 um additional grade levels in the ossaroo academy we happen to have as our our show's producer the

00:53:40.360 comptroller of the ossaroo academy with us can you tell us more about those additional grade levels

00:53:45.480 nick well when we first started the academy we pledged to just obviously start with kindergarten

00:53:55.240 and we pledged that every year we would add an additional grade so that those kids that started

00:54:01.640 with us could continue on all the way through and graduate from high school with the academy

00:54:09.560 now we are we we're in the middle of our fourth year and each year we have been able to add more

00:54:17.960 than just that one grade so in theoretically we should be in we should be k through i think third

00:54:26.120 right now we're k through seventh and so we've been able to thankfully add more grades open it

00:54:36.120 up more for our children hopefully some people's kids when we started the academy they were already

00:54:42.040 a little older than what materials we had we're catching up people we're catching up

00:54:47.800 and i i do reckon i will guarantee because we have to we will have eighth grade next

00:54:54.600 to start in august or september technically we start the day after labor day but i guarantee

00:55:01.640 that but i have i have a strong suspicion it'll be uh it'll be more than that uh it has been so

00:55:09.400 far every year um we've gathered up the materials and uh had them ready for everybody so um yeah

00:55:18.600 And we're still – if you're interested in home school

00:55:22.720 and you've got K through seventh right now,

00:55:25.320 we can enroll all throughout the whole year.

00:55:29.100 So you can feel free for that.

00:55:30.960 But if your kid's in eighth grade or going into eighth grade

00:55:34.540 or maybe right around that, keep that in mind.

00:55:39.900 And we will definitely have many announcements before enrollment

00:55:46.360 or I guess the official school year starts in September.

00:55:51.580 We'll have many announcements before that

00:55:52.940 about what we're exactly enrolling,

00:55:54.480 but it will be bigger and better than this year

00:55:59.140 and continue on that way.

00:56:01.320 We are right on the brink of high school, y'all.

00:56:06.720 Yeah, I was going to say K through eight,

00:56:09.040 that is all of primary school officially.

00:56:11.700 That's exciting for the 26th to 27th school year.

00:56:14.660 so um that's that's a lot of work you guys have put so much effort into getting the academy

00:56:21.140 together and you know making it something that our parents and their children can participate

00:56:27.140 in it's you know both of them need to be engaged for it to work properly and um i'm really

00:56:32.900 appreciative to to you and to gothi stan and to get you all and to get you and mcnalen and others

00:56:39.140 who really i i can't count how much time you put into it and probably you all can either but it's

00:56:44.660 it's well worth it. And we're both appreciative and proud of all of that effort.

00:56:51.700 Then one other thing that maybe Chris can talk about a little bit more, and I don't have any

00:56:58.340 specific information about, but I think that it is quite realistic that in 2026, we will discover

00:57:06.340 and recognize new austro heroes that are deserving of days of remembrance um i know we can't announce

00:57:15.140 any right now even if we're we're looking into them but i guess quick question chris are does

00:57:21.380 usher go them out have you looking into anybody right now is that is there like a a list that

00:57:27.460 you're working through um how's that going so no um i do have a fella on the back burner for actually

00:57:39.940 uh writing up and sending to the gozar for um i made a big list of uh i wanted to go through

00:57:51.300 through every historically attested Germanic individual on Wikipedia's list of

00:57:59.700 Goths and Anglo-Saxons and Frisians and Herubians and all this.

00:58:07.620 That sounds like a long list.

00:58:08.960 Yeah, I wanted the list to be done.

00:58:10.600 So like in a decade, someone's like, oh, gee, Willikers, Chris, did you think about?

00:58:14.500 No, I looked at him, bro.

00:58:16.000 I got it done.

00:58:17.000 um but i do have a guy who i was going to get on in 2026 certainly um

00:58:26.640 the i am also doing some stuff with uh for whit and brandy facet regarding getting some

00:58:38.320 better education about a few of our heroes put together uh recorded on youtube and the like

00:58:46.780 um stay tuned for that um i also do have a massive list of uh interesting people outside

00:58:56.960 of the germanic sphere or if that ever becomes of of interest to anyone you know but

00:59:03.600 nothing serious there um i think getting better education about our current heroes

00:59:10.600 would obviously if there are people that we should recognize they should be recognized but

00:59:16.760 But I don't think we should also – I think we also should, you know, care about educating our folk better on our current heroes as well.

00:59:25.640 And getting that firmed up isn't the right word for it, but, you know, like making people aware of some of these people, you know.

00:59:36.880 Well, great thing you'll be on VNS in just a couple weeks to talk about two of those heroes.

00:59:42.420 Yeah, yeah, two of our heroes.

00:59:44.100 and a few other interesting things 0.95

00:59:47.340 that the Alcerigothi wants in that episode

00:59:49.600 but two of our heroes, yes 0.98

00:59:51.020 that will be

00:59:52.260 accidental teasers then, cool

00:59:54.580 the 14th, I believe

00:59:56.400 yes sir, Rainbows

01:00:01.360 in the Dark is the

01:00:03.040 title of that that Alcerigothi

01:00:05.180 gave, so

01:00:06.580 yeah, the

01:00:08.540 some Galderbrook stuff and

01:00:11.100 some stuff on

01:00:12.460 our heroes,

01:00:15.260 Klausen and Odenskarl.

01:00:19.380 Nice.

01:00:20.120 Rainbows in the dark.

01:00:21.200 I'm going to take that obvious segue

01:00:23.260 into one of the questions

01:00:25.560 we have on our list here.

01:00:27.340 This is from Tudor8040.

01:00:29.680 Question.

01:00:30.900 Are gays not allowed to join at all,

01:00:33.100 even if they aren't blatant about it? 1.00

01:00:37.080 Correct. 1.00

01:00:38.940 The Ossetra Folk Assembly is for 0.72

01:00:41.080 white heterosexual persons um the secrecy of that i mean could we be tricked sure if somebody lies 0.84

01:00:50.680 to us about it and they're not blatant then we might not know but um that would be them

01:01:00.120 you know being being dishonest with us and and with themselves really um they i don't know why

01:01:07.800 someone would do that but no the ostrich folk assembly is for white heterosexual persons only

01:01:15.320 i think we've been clear about that for years and um it's right there on our membership application

01:01:21.560 you have to check the box that says i am a white header i'm a heterosexual white person

01:01:27.080 who is not in an interracial relationship so there it is no rainbows in the dark at least not that way

01:01:37.800 um here's githya katie she is back so she's gonna let me know when we're ready to do our uh yule

01:01:46.120 candle and yule log lighting and and she will uh let us know and we'll start that um before we do

01:01:55.400 that though we have another question um does anyone have any new year's day traditions uh

01:02:02.360 let's go to jordan on that one to start uh we did before we moved from ontario but it wasn't

01:02:13.020 really to do with new year's my uh my wife's cousin and grandmother were born on the 31st

01:02:20.680 and the first so we would typically end up doing is we would just go out for like a new year's

01:02:25.060 breakfast type deal to kind of celebrate new year's and both birthdays but as far as like

01:02:31.980 specific new year's day traditions we don't currently have any but i'm sure as my sons

01:02:37.640 grow up we'll probably find a couple along the way do you have something you want to say whitney

01:02:45.420 i i have a new year's tradition i can talk about a little bit uh yeah mine is uh pretty

01:02:54.740 simple and we didn't start it until we were

01:02:56.980 also true

01:02:57.640 but

01:02:59.260 as the

01:03:02.240 Gothi of the house and also

01:03:04.620 the only actual Gothi in the house

01:03:06.800 what we

01:03:08.580 what I will do for our

01:03:10.320 household is go before the 1.00

01:03:12.440 Nornir and pull three

01:03:14.440 runes to kind of give us an idea

01:03:16.720 of how the next year will be

01:03:18.180 and

01:03:20.120 incidentally

01:03:22.360 you know I guess the runes are up to interpretation

01:03:24.580 to a certain extent but every year i've done it um i can look back at that those runes for that year

01:03:32.400 you know a year from then from pulling them and i can say yeah that makes sense uh so yeah i do

01:03:39.200 that every new year's eve or 12th night of yule typically we did on the ninth night of yule this

01:03:45.360 year because uh truth is the virtue for the ninth night and that felt like a neat thing to do but

01:03:51.260 Typically, we do that on New Year's Eve.

01:03:54.860 I'm going to jump in real quick, not about New Year's traditions,

01:03:58.300 but I see that Githya Alt has given us some updated information

01:04:03.160 regarding the conversation we were having about the Ossetree Academy grade levels.

01:04:08.380 And she let us know about seven minutes ago.

01:04:11.440 Sorry to take so long to get to this.

01:04:13.340 By the end of January, the Academy will be K through 12,

01:04:17.540 and you can enroll any time.

01:04:19.440 And also, Githya Alt mentioned that we have a religious study program available for parents who cannot homeschool.

01:04:27.340 So if your child goes to a public school or a private school, but you want to, you know, expose them to Ossetru education and, you know, probably have to, you know, re-educate them on some things that they might be bringing home with them from those institutions, that is a good place to do it.

01:04:45.160 So all grade levels, no Asatrua University yet, maybe one day,

01:04:50.880 but Asatrua Academy covers K through 12 starting in two hours.

01:04:57.240 So that's awesome.

01:05:00.520 End of January.

01:05:02.240 End of January.

01:05:02.940 End of January.

01:05:04.160 Okay, end of January.

01:05:05.420 So in 30 days.

01:05:08.200 And two hours.

01:05:09.720 And two hours, yeah.

01:05:10.980 But that's awesome.

01:05:11.960 thank you for sharing that with you all and uh i will uh let chris talk about his tradition i think

01:05:18.520 that's where we were at right yeah so we uh what my wife and i started doing because at the time

01:05:25.800 our family was just myself and her we we hadn't had a little lulu yet and so we would do we would

01:05:34.360 talk about each of the virtues and the the topics from founder mcdalen's 12 days of yule videos and

01:05:45.000 then we do we would do a bloat every night and then the first came along the first uh year we

01:05:50.520 started doing this and it felt kind of awkward not doing something about the start of the year

01:05:56.520 and you know there's there's nine noble virtues and the tenth of them is victory

01:06:00.280 right so we did a uh kind of victory bloat on that on that day at first day of the year so

01:06:08.000 awesome um

01:06:18.200 we have a a tradition where we will normally um we'll have a bonfire and we'll

01:06:28.040 kind of refresh ourselves for the new year on on new year's day on that last day of yule before

01:06:35.480 before sundown um we will um we'll do like the pork and kraut thing i'm the only one who really

01:06:45.060 likes the kraut so we try to keep the preparation of the sauerkraut to to a minimum so that it

01:06:51.080 doesn't waste but i was always raised that you have pork and sauerkraut for good luck

01:06:55.940 in in the new year so that's something that we that we tried to do anyway that i tried to do

01:07:01.400 and i want to thank gilbert for donating 150 to the beautify thorshof fund that is

01:07:18.440 awesome gilbert uh your generosity is famous thank you so much

01:07:25.400 so what kind of questions do people have tonight

01:07:46.380 uh we have one about what gods should we hail for the coming of the new year

01:07:50.680 uh and i would say the icier uh and also the varnier so there you go uh the yule bloat

01:08:00.340 that i've typically done and this was after asking the else here go through his recommendation is

01:08:06.060 just a bloat to the icier in general um and not necessarily asking them for gifts in return but

01:08:15.440 just giving thanks to them for the blessings of that year.

01:08:22.140 What do you think, Witten Erikson?

01:08:27.480 So we normally, specifically when we light our candle, and like everyone will see in

01:08:36.220 just a few minutes here when we do that, we light the candle to Freya and Freya on

01:08:42.440 Twelfth Night.

01:08:45.440 And for fertility and growth in the new year, I know that a lot of people, I think, including founder McNallan, also will honor Odin specifically on Twelfth Night and on New Year's Day for wisdom and knowledge going into the new year.

01:09:07.700 odin is known as the the yule father so i think that's that's a very appropriate thing to do and

01:09:15.680 i did see in the comments someone mentioning that our our rune era is the shares the same root as

01:09:23.260 the uh the the english word year and um that turning over is you know is very much related

01:09:33.000 It is a new era and it looks like we have a party

01:09:37.680 joining us from Carolina.

01:09:40.240 Welcome Witten Young and will you let us know

01:09:43.820 who all you got there and what's going on there tonight?

01:09:47.160 Yeah, this is our annual 12th night celebration

01:09:50.700 in South Carolina.

01:09:51.740 I'm joined by folk builder, Tyler Bethea,

01:09:55.200 Goethe Bodie Mayo, my wife, Githya Heather Young,

01:09:58.920 and a few of our kinsmen from the Carolinas in Georgia.

01:10:03.000 Nick, I believe that our our guests here have found a good way to get us past that 10 people

01:10:14.520 on the screen at one time limit. Hello. We're only going to be on for a sec, guys. We're

01:10:25.260 kind of wrapping this up. But I want to wish everybody a victorious and triumphant 2026.

01:10:33.000 afa's accomplished so much in the past 30 years but 2025 has been a kind of a watershed year for

01:10:39.560 us i can't wait to see what we can accomplish together in 2026 yeah hail victory victory

01:10:46.520 hail the afa thanks for popping in it's good to see you thanks for having us guys love you all

01:10:52.600 all right so here in erickson land we're gonna get some things set up for our yule candle lighting

01:11:04.900 uh witten trent can you run with things for a few minutes while we do that

01:11:08.340 yeah absolutely you okay with me moving on to questions i don't know if there oh there's a

01:11:14.180 couple in line yeah yeah do some questions and be wordy about them all right do my best okay

01:11:22.440 Okay. AFA New York. Cool username. What does it take to become an apprentice folk builder? With a username like that, I think you are a perfect candidate, probably, for being an apprentice folk builder.

01:11:36.940 uh don't quote me on that but reach out to witten erickson if well you're in his district

01:11:45.580 anyway but he's also the folk builder coordinator and he will get you uh squared away with that

01:11:52.940 his email is probably c erickson at runestone.org uh nick can quote me on that if i'm wrong or

01:12:03.160 correct me let's see yes okay there you go i wasn't sure his wife's you know githia katie's

01:12:12.920 name is uh katie with a c so i wasn't sure cliff was around first they did her funny

01:12:19.540 hers is cm dot erickson they did it funny i'm not gonna remember that just out of spite in fact

01:12:28.000 um here's a fun one uh woodcutter mpc wait i i was gonna say i can ramble about this for a bit

01:12:36.340 if you want me to sure sure all right um so as was said the first thing you have to do is you

01:12:42.180 have to talk to witten erickson about it um upper leadership likes to see initiative when it comes

01:12:48.580 to asking throwing your hat in the ring um as far as what the job actually entails um

01:13:00.820 there's a few things um you have to run a monthly moot right this is made in advance um

01:13:08.660 a month in advance is generally how it's set up i got my 12 month or 12 moots for the year

01:13:17.860 squared away and on the calendar a few days ago wow it feels a lot longer than that but um

01:13:25.380 so you have to host a monthly moot which is a gathering for religious observance and uh

01:13:32.980 camaraderie between co-religionists do you want me to stop talking with erickson or keep going

01:13:39.220 no keep going i'm just making sure that the camera is at a good angle

01:13:43.540 and you have to let everyone who can I believe the official distances is within a three-hour drive

01:13:57.880 is that everyone in your state yeah that depends on the state but everyone who could be expected

01:14:06.520 make you know a three-hour drive you send out a text or an email or a call the flyer goes up on

01:14:14.120 me we and on our website calendar calendars because it goes up on the the master calendar

01:14:20.600 on runestone.org and then also on the hoff district calendar that that all happens nick go on sir oh

01:14:28.920 uh yeah i was gonna make fun of you a little so bear with me uh if you're on me we uh uh you will

01:14:36.520 And you're friends with folk builders on the whole other top half of the

01:14:42.120 continent. And you're on the bottom half.

01:14:44.260 A Michigan folk builder will blow up you and your wife's phones at the same 0.98

01:14:47.500 time, 0.99

01:14:47.780 because he invites everybody on his friends list to all 12 moots that he

01:14:51.740 planned out in advance, which I'm thinking is a good job.

01:14:55.060 But if you, if, if you can make the drive to Michigan from Dixie,

01:14:59.580 you can come to my moot. Do not worry.

01:15:02.200 I'm not going to do that, but thank you.

01:15:04.380 um and then you host the moot and if you've been to one you can you you see

01:15:12.900 how they work right and if you are not certain about how to run one then your

01:15:19.560 mentor and everyone else will happily explain how to do this the other thing

01:15:25.320 we do is check in texts so if you're a member for over a month you will

01:15:30.420 certainly get a check-in text or call or email so we are given a list of people

01:15:37.380 in the AFA and we contact them and see how they're doing check in with them

01:15:43.980 talk to them let them vent let them brag about the good things in their life be

01:15:50.160 a shoulder for them to cry on it's not just people in your district you would

01:15:54.920 be given people from all over the country my first round of check-in texts

01:16:00.020 to get in contact with a guy in Russia who did not speak English so um there's

01:16:08.220 just kind of generic church office work I guess you could call it because we're

01:16:14.000 so spread out across the US and world as the and world Canadian on my left that a

01:16:26.200 lot of that is digital a lot of that is on the internet you don't have to be

01:16:30.200 super tech savvy to be a folk builder it helps but if you can work an email and a

01:16:39.280 smartphone well enough to text people you can be a folk builder the other

01:16:46.360 thing is that you are a public face for the AFA literally your face and name go

01:16:54.140 up on the website at least one um your face and name your real name and your face and your afa

01:17:02.940 email go up on your hoff district website and if you become a go the or join the witten or the

01:17:09.180 altar go the then you your name goes up on runestone.org um right i'm gonna jump in now

01:17:16.300 chris thank you for that so basically you need to give a about your folk and your gods

01:17:22.060 and be willing to put your name and your time on the line for them um that is the short version of

01:17:30.860 what it takes to be a folk builder and yeah if you want to be one contact me or contact your

01:17:36.940 uh district gothar i'm here hi um and um i'll go through the requirements for you

01:17:45.340 and some of that may vary depending on where you are um chris has got all the stuff chris said

01:17:50.940 um but i promise i will i will keep you on the phone for like two hours right jordan

01:17:55.820 um before i will uh you know let you proceed with becoming a an apprentice folk builder because i

01:18:02.860 want people to go in with eyes wide open i want them to know what the job is um but we're gonna

01:18:07.820 get started on our um our our yule log and and you'll candle lighting here and if you're curious

01:18:15.340 the reason that we call it the yule log here in our household is because um a tradition that we

01:18:23.340 have and i guess this is a sort of a follow-up to the new year's day tradition is our yule tree from

01:18:29.340 last year is is represented here for for continuity we have uh cut the the base of our our yule tree

01:18:38.620 from last year and we we keep it up in the the china cabinet all year um so that some of our

01:18:46.460 our yule tide uh from that year is is with us through the year and when we have that fire that

01:18:54.060 i talked about tomorrow um we will burn last year's yule log in that need fire and when we take down

01:19:03.180 our yule tree um i'll trim it and and cut it down and it will take its place up on the uh the the

01:19:13.660 cabinet um for for that same purpose to be a there as a reminder for us of all the the blessings of

01:19:22.300 yuletide and you know even if we didn't make yule oaths any of the things that we reflected on and

01:19:28.140 the things that we want to accomplish for that year and then um it's a it's a symbol of continuity

01:19:35.660 uh it's it's part of that year or room um for us so that's why we call this candle array the

01:19:44.140 the yule log because we keep the last year's yule tree um cutting there as our our family

01:19:52.460 yule log there we don't have a proper fireplace to to have a fire with the yule log like that so we

01:19:59.660 keep it in with the candles until we burn it outside of our fire pit there so there is that

01:20:07.180 and then in our home uh githya katie is really the one who is in charge of and leads us through

01:20:17.420 um lighting our candles so i will allow her to begin 1.00

01:20:27.100 honestly most of the time buttercup she had the audacity our white dog being

01:20:33.260 living here to be in her space okay um

01:20:39.580 the kids do most of the work because you know they are here and so they should so on the first

01:20:46.540 night of Yole, who do we light our candle to?

01:20:49.540 We're gonna light the first one. 0.96

01:20:53.540 Yep. Go ahead.

01:21:00.540 Hail Frigga! Hail to Deesir! 1.00

01:21:04.540 I'm gonna light the first one, okay?

01:21:08.540 Who do we light the candle to?

01:21:10.540 On the second hand, Suna.

01:21:12.540 Suna, good job.

01:21:17.540 Hail Tudor! 0.99

01:21:18.540 Hail Suna! 0.92

01:21:20.540 On the third hand, I do Tudor.

01:21:23.540 Nice listen.

01:21:27.540 Yeah, sorry.

01:21:29.540 You two all want to speak about it, okay?

01:21:34.540 He's very proud of his later skills this year.

01:21:37.540 Hail nurses!

01:21:38.540 On the fourth night of Yule, who do we light a candle to?

01:21:44.420 Matt, Mandy.

01:21:45.780 Who's Mandy? 0.85

01:21:47.520 The one who helps move the moon.

01:21:49.440 The one who helps move the moon, she says.

01:21:54.300 Hail, Mandy, the moon!

01:21:55.820 Hail, Mandy, the moon!

01:21:58.840 On the fifth night of Yule, the ancestors.

01:22:03.480 You've got to say it loud.

01:22:04.520 They've got to hear you all the way over there.

01:22:08.540 On the sixth night of Yule, good job, Tyr. She couldn't remember Tyr for a little bit.

01:22:25.080 That one gave her some trouble. Where's that, Alice?

01:22:30.260 On the seventh night of Yule, on the eighth night of Yule, on the eighth night of Yule.

01:22:52.060 Yeah, there you go.

01:22:57.060 I messed that one up.

01:23:03.060 Hail Alden!

01:23:05.060 Hail Alden!

01:23:07.060 On the ninth night of you.

01:23:10.060 Who do we let our candle to? 1.00

01:23:12.060 Wooler. 0.99

01:23:13.060 Wooler.

01:23:14.060 Wooler.

01:23:15.060 Good job.

01:23:16.060 Hail Ulrich!

01:23:18.060 Hail Ulrich!

01:23:20.060 Hail Ulrich!

01:23:22.060 Hail Ulrich!

01:23:24.060 On the 10th night of y'all,

01:23:26.060 who do we light the candle to?

01:23:28.060 The friend of May.

01:23:30.060 The hammer

01:23:32.060 that strikes

01:23:34.060 the entrance.

01:23:36.060 Yeah!

01:23:38.060 Oh, I want

01:23:40.060 the other one.

01:23:42.060 You can write the last one, okay?

01:23:44.060 On the 11th night of Yule, it's the Lamb of Tear.

01:24:04.240 It's the Lamb of Tear!

01:24:06.080 Hail the Lamb of Tear!

01:24:08.380 And on the 12th night of Yule, who do you think we're going to light this last candle to, Alice?

01:24:14.060 the same one you could say the whole time we're gonna we're going to light this last candle to

01:24:31.180 frayer what do you guys know about frayer you said freya right but it's right you got

01:24:44.860 frayer excellent okay i misunderstood she said prayer so boy who knows everything about frayer

01:24:51.580 tell us something i don't want to i get embarrassed talking when people are watching

01:24:57.580 fair enough all right that's fine i know people are watching someone who embarrassed

01:25:04.460 would you like that would you like daddy to tell us some stuff about prayer but i do know but i

01:25:09.260 get embarrassed talking it's okay i understand so do i it takes practice especially yes for the rest

01:25:16.060 time people could watch that's true that's true he's a smart kid

01:25:20.780 Well, I'll tell you some stuff about Freyr, then. How about that?

01:25:26.600 So, Freyr is one of the highest ranking and most powerful of the Vanir, and of the Aesir, since they're together now.

01:25:42.520 Freyr is the son of Nyurður and the brother of Freyr.

01:25:48.300 He brings the gentle rains that will bring rain to bring the harvest in.

01:25:59.160 Not the thunderstorms like Thor brings.

01:26:01.900 He brings the gentle ones that don't knock down your wheat, that don't knock down your corn,

01:26:06.160 that just water them nicely and calmly.

01:26:10.080 He fell in love with a beautiful Yodin named Gervin.

01:26:15.380 And he traded away his sword to Scarnier, who he had asked to run the errand of asking her to meet him, really to be his love.

01:26:37.000 and the price

01:26:39.240 that was demanded by Skirnir

01:26:41.320 for that was his magic sword

01:26:43.480 which was a really awesome

01:26:45.260 magic sword that can fight all by itself

01:26:47.580 like in the air

01:26:49.900 floating there

01:26:50.980 didn't need him to be holding it

01:26:52.520 it's a really powerful sword

01:26:53.960 not one to be given away lightly

01:26:55.820 and he agreed to that

01:26:58.800 because he was so

01:27:00.140 entranced by the beauty

01:27:02.580 of the Oden Maiden that he saw

01:27:04.620 which he saw by

01:27:06.540 sneaking up to

01:27:09.100 the Lidskamp, Odin's

01:27:11.320 high seat in

01:27:12.360 Asgard. So

01:27:15.440 Skirnir went and

01:27:19.180 sent

01:27:21.580 some nice and not so

01:27:23.360 nice things to Gurd, who

01:27:25.220 eventually did agree to

01:27:26.960 meet with Freyr

01:27:29.360 and fortunately for him and I guess

01:27:31.260 the rest of us,

01:27:32.560 she liked what she saw in that

01:27:35.180 meeting, and they are

01:27:36.980 our husband and wife.

01:27:40.540 He's also

01:27:41.320 the

01:27:42.480 possessor of Golan

01:27:45.160 Bursti, the golden boar

01:27:47.240 made by the 1.00

01:27:48.360 dwarves. 1.00

01:27:50.660 Also is the possessor of

01:27:53.420 Skidblade Nier, the

01:27:54.820 magical ship that you can fold up.

01:27:57.720 Well, he can fold up, I can do it.

01:27:59.920 And it would

01:28:01.220 fit in his pocket, and it can

01:28:02.860 It can sail in the sea and in the sky, so he can go anywhere with that thing.

01:28:08.740 That's pretty amazing and magical.

01:28:11.120 He's the Lord of Alfheim, which makes him the King of the Elves.

01:28:17.780 He is a big deal, and something that I was reminded about reading about him recently

01:28:23.040 that isn't talked about as much, but in the Hymnsgrimla, which is the history of the Norse kings,

01:28:27.960 He was named after the Aesir-Vanir War, along with his father Njordr, as one of the two priests for the Aesir that would make the sacrifices for the Aesir after that war was settled.

01:28:43.860 So that's a big deal too.

01:28:45.660 when Núrd and Frey and Freyja came to Asgard to be joined with the Aesir,

01:28:52.880 they were given specific jobs by Odin,

01:28:55.860 all of which were involved with being priests and priestesses for the Aesir.

01:29:01.280 That is, I think, really important and makes him one of,

01:29:06.840 I mean, it's tough to say, one of the most important of our gods.

01:29:10.260 They're all important in their own ways,

01:29:12.400 but we're fortunate that we know so much about Freyja.

01:29:15.660 And I think that's really awesome.

01:29:19.040 And so, Miss Alice, will you light the candle, too?

01:29:23.560 Try your voice, please.

01:29:41.640 A little tricky.

01:29:42.620 Make sure you let all the way off of it before you try a second time.

01:29:54.620 Take it out. Take it out.

01:29:57.620 Okay, let go.

01:29:59.620 Can I turn it down?

01:30:01.620 Sure, but here.

01:30:03.620 I don't actually know because I don't want you to hold your arms over the candles.

01:30:06.620 Yeah, also any candle will work, but you gotta, if you can't get it, we're gonna have to try again.

01:30:11.620 okay you'll have to let mommy do it you're pressing like the button all the way down

01:30:18.660 okay let mommy do it please she really wanted to like

01:30:29.460 you want to put the candle it's really hard oh he couldn't do it last year either

01:30:35.380 he's only been able to do it this year and there's trouble with that stuff too yeah

01:30:41.620 Good job.

01:30:42.660 What do you say?

01:30:46.180 Hail prayer!

01:30:47.320 Hail prayer!

01:30:49.320 Good job.

01:30:50.380 And then on the last day of Yule, we also remember the virtue of wisdom.

01:30:58.320 And Daddy is going to tell us about wisdom.

01:31:00.700 Yeah, I will.

01:31:02.660 So I'm going to read from Founder McNallan's The Twelve Days of Yule about wisdom.

01:31:09.080 What is wisdom?

01:31:10.000 perhaps it can be summed up in the word understanding. It takes only a little

01:31:15.840 wisdom to understand superficial things, while understanding the subtle pattern

01:31:20.760 and flow of events requires much more. Wisdom can come in a flash of inspired

01:31:25.720 initiation, but for most of us, most of the time, it is the product of gradually

01:31:31.660 processing information and experience and casting golden truths from that

01:31:36.880 refined ore. However you define it, wisdom is very important. Without it, we are impotent,

01:31:44.940 but with it, we can enact our wills in the world. So I have a question for Owen. Yes?

01:31:53.280 What is the difference between wisdom and knowledge?

01:31:58.340 Knowledge is learning, kind of, and wisdom is what you already know.

01:32:06.880 Memory is what you already know.

01:32:09.960 That was a very good answer.

01:32:11.600 That was a good answer.

01:32:12.420 Wisdom is using your knowledge.

01:32:16.360 It's applying that knowledge.

01:32:21.320 Because you can know a lot of stuff and not be wise.

01:32:25.760 You can have all kinds of facts and figures and names and dates, but still make bad decisions, right?

01:32:33.620 Or you can have half as much of that information, but if you use that information to make good decisions, then you're acting fairly wise.

01:32:47.740 Do you have anything to add?

01:32:50.440 Okay.

01:32:53.440 Well, thank you, family, for sharing that with everybody.

01:32:59.080 All right.

01:33:00.380 That's pretty much exactly what it looks like when we do it on our own.

01:33:03.620 Except for Owen is usually a little more willing to speak out loud.

01:33:08.000 Yeah, the shyness factor is real.

01:33:10.740 That's the sort of thing that has to be practiced and learned.

01:33:16.480 All right.

01:33:17.500 So I hope that was helpful for people, or I hope that gave some insight.

01:33:23.680 There's more than one way to do that, right?

01:33:26.320 um you know they're um in in founder mcnallan's 12 days of yule there are uh different gods and

01:33:34.980 goddesses and some heroes um and some some concepts that are that are there um for for

01:33:41.940 honoring through the the the 12 days of yule um so we've kind of as i mentioned towards the

01:33:47.880 beginning of the show kind of fused together what founder mcnallan um had established and

01:33:53.060 what uh what witness fawn has has shared with everyone to take those virtues and the the gods

01:34:00.980 and goddesses that are that we named um into into what we do there and um later tonight i don't know

01:34:08.500 if we'll do this on camera or not it depends on um how late the kids are up and all that but also

01:34:13.760 something that we do is there's a a little nest in the yule tree uh it's like a like a burlap cloth

01:34:21.400 that Katie kind of sewed into like looking like a little blanket and the children each night will

01:34:28.020 leave a gift. Usually it's like from their leftover Halloween candy stash because they

01:34:33.760 haven't burned through all that yet or something else like that. They leave a gift for the Yule

01:34:39.820 White, the Yule Vatir, which is a spirit that we honor through Yuletide. And the Yule White will

01:34:49.580 take those snacks usually they are and in exchange will will bring the kids gifts or on I think it's

01:34:59.980 fifth night right Katie fifth night is ancestors the the Yule White actually brings brings gifts

01:35:07.020 that are from our ancestors to us and and that is a really kind of special thing that we do too

01:35:14.160 And then the kids are also super excited because we do not share our family gifts until daylight on the 12th day of Yule.

01:35:23.700 So they are waiting for New Year's Day because that's when the big pile of presents from mom and dad is finally under the tree.

01:35:31.500 So they get things from the Yule White and from the ancestors all through Yuletide.

01:35:36.160 but the uh the the the mother and father load as it were um is is not until the uh the very end of

01:35:46.520 yuletide at the very beginning of the year and so that's what we do and um i'm happy to have been

01:35:51.800 able to share that with you um let's see if we have any questions or any comments or anything

01:36:02.860 like that that um that we can move into from that all right we covered what does it take to be a

01:36:10.660 folk builder all right so the next question and this is a fun one we can talk about this either

01:36:16.800 super short or very long is there a difference between ositru and setianism so um

01:36:25.840 setianism this is a s-e-d-i-a-n-i-s-m as i understand it

01:36:33.920 is the noriana society's tradition and it it basically means

01:36:43.280 the way of the way the way that they apply it i've always

01:36:49.680 found a little confusing but it's been a while since i've read about it um

01:36:53.480 witten trent or jordan or chris are either of you familiar with setianism and do you have any

01:37:00.420 thoughts on the differences between it and also true do you want to go first uh

01:37:09.960 witten east you outrank me even though i could say stuff so uh i'm sure you can say stuff yeah i

01:37:16.840 i guess i'll go real quick uh it'll kind of just be reiterating a lot of what the all's

01:37:21.660 Teregothi says, uh, yeah, Setianism is, I think I'm saying that right. I assume it's right. I 0.93

01:37:27.580 don't care too much though, uh, is yeah, an invention of the Narnia society, uh, which I

01:37:34.560 was involved in at one point many years ago. Uh, and it's, they're constantly trying to

01:37:43.660 reconstruct Alcetru, but they don't want to call it Alcetru because when they think Alcetru,

01:37:50.040 They think Alcitru Folk Assembly, which to their credit is how it should be, but they want it to be as accurate or whatever they see as accurate to how our Alcitru ancestors practiced.

01:38:07.020 So we tend, in the AFA, we tend to say we are reviving or reforging Alcitru, the faith of our ancestors.

01:38:14.800 They are reconstructing.

01:38:16.720 uh so if there is a an icelandic calendar an anglo-saxon calendar or whatever that says

01:38:25.460 yule has to be practiced on january 2nd that is what they're going to do and if you don't do that

01:38:30.260 you are not part of their uh their pagan version of the uh av club or the chess club in high school

01:38:39.440 um that's pretty much it really they're trying to reconstruct it to the point of

01:38:47.360 silliness a little bit uh like the al-shera gothi says they're treating it like a science

01:38:52.200 project rather than a religion uh what were you going to say chris oh um yeah so uh the sedian

01:39:00.980 and setianism um in the old norse period they didn't have uh medieval scandinavians just kind

01:39:12.600 of treated asatru as a given until christianity came along because this is just the way things

01:39:19.460 were it didn't really need a name it's like calling someone who believes in gravity a

01:39:24.640 gravityist it's like why would you not believe in gravity right um and so when

01:39:31.880 Christianity came along as a term to refer to the old ways they would use

01:39:36.280 this term forward and see them which means like all the customs either just

01:39:42.860 means custom way of doing things it's actually cognate with the old English

01:39:48.340 see do if that word was still used today be pronounced side right um no use no

01:39:55.520 relationship to like the right side the wrong side I mean it's like the norway

01:40:02.380 society's constructed religion um I think part of where where we have to we

01:40:14.500 really say there's a big difference is that our religion is a living religion it's a car that

01:40:22.080 leaves the garage and goes out and drives to the store and on road trips and to moots and national

01:40:29.880 events and stuff rather than just kind of sitting in the garage and being toyed with and tinkered

01:40:34.780 every now and then um and you can even kind of see that in the name that like asa true like true to

01:40:41.960 the Aesir like that's a name that has meaningful content as opposed to just like custom ism the

01:40:48.380 way of doing things right like I don't think anyone on this screen grew up in a community

01:40:56.800 where well that's just how things are done around here boy referred to worshiping Odin and Thor

01:41:03.080 right like i just i certainly didn't i don't know about you guys but um i think the the

01:41:12.440 constructed tinkering with is also important to emphasize here in that like our religion is in

01:41:20.900 progress it's not one that we could necessarily like update except by the lived reality of doing

01:41:28.120 things differently i know the norwayna society like released a book they call it an edda but

01:41:34.740 it's not poetry it was more like uh just an encyclopedia but they decided to like update

01:41:41.760 it and change a bunch of things in it which i guess is just kind of an odd thing to do if you

01:41:47.600 also believe that this is like the complete reconstructed holy text that your ancestors used

01:41:53.580 to use which i don't think we even treat like the poetic edda like that in like a formal sense

01:42:01.000 in the way that like muslims use the quran for example i can't really speak much to the inner

01:42:07.300 workings of uh how the norwayna society goes about deciding what is and is not

01:42:13.080 but um i've heard that they use like a democratic process with like voting or something but i think

01:42:23.580 I think the question of can you vote on what is and is not religion is another big difference there.

01:42:30.340 Chris, did you touch on the relationship between the word Setian and for and save?

01:42:36.520 I believe I did.

01:42:38.000 Because it always struck me as strange and honestly kind of contrived because the word Setian is made up.

01:42:46.200 Like the Setian tradition means like the tradition-y tradition.

01:42:52.100 Yeah, yeah.

01:42:52.800 and and that is to me and you know i don't mean this to be disrespectful to anyone who's 0.87

01:42:59.000 interested in the noriana society or anything like that but it seems like contrived bullshit 0.52

01:43:03.240 to me like it's just unnecessarily um pseudo intellectual and you know i i suppose even 0.60

01:43:14.240 though i gave the preamble that probably will be insulting to some people who are involved in that

01:43:18.040 i just that's how i see it and i'll be honest about that like just the the word sedian rubs me

01:43:24.600 the wrong way because it is so clearly contrived and like you were saying about you know the the

01:43:31.880 ositru etta and the odinist etta there's two and like i don't know that they needed to be like i

01:43:38.920 i appreciate retellings of the etas like the the children of odin by padrick column or um there's

01:43:46.040 a lot of retellings of the edit some of them are movies and that stuff's okay with me but you know

01:43:52.760 the rewriting of them i don't know that it just i don't like it if you couldn't tell

01:44:03.400 while we're talking about this i i held my tongue um when we were doing the aware linda book but uh

01:44:09.880 the the version of their text that i read cites the oera linda book a lot for some

01:44:18.520 interesting let's call it claims um which i guess is is

01:44:26.220 i don't want to be mean so i won't i won't say it um but it i have heard your honest thought

01:44:35.680 you may as well just put it out there i have heard people uh get so this is just fun because

01:44:45.200 it's sedianism right well it's it's a pseudo norsey kind of word right but um i have heard

01:44:54.640 people complain about uh the worship of set which is sedianism while extolling the virtues of said

01:45:05.200 setianism in the same sentence so they're talking about how like setianism is evil

01:45:09.520 people should instead do setianism it's like really need to enunciate those plosives there bud

01:45:16.800 sorry i do think another big issue at play is yes we're using the names of the icr and names of the

01:45:27.920 gods that of the old norse yes we're reading the lore that we have of the pros and poetic edda

01:45:36.480 and all that from that period because that's what we have that was written down

01:45:40.640 but we are practicing or we are we are we are doing a religion focused around our our gods

01:45:49.280 the same gods that have existed for 10 000 20 000 years the existence of our people

01:45:57.920 I promise you, 10,000 years ago, they were not doing what the Vikings in 800 were doing. 0.78

01:46:07.260 They weren't doing it 9,000 years ago or 8,000.

01:46:10.480 They weren't doing it in 500 what they were doing in 800.

01:46:15.440 Our religion fits.

01:46:18.920 It's a continuous thing to think that we're doing it like they were doing it in 800.

01:46:25.500 and that's the way, that's like the religion, that's not it.

01:46:33.040 We are doing Alcetru in 2025,

01:46:37.040 and we will be doing probably slightly different Alcetru in 2026,

01:46:43.120 and so on and so forth.

01:46:45.380 This is a forward-facing thing.

01:46:48.160 It's the existence of our people, not of a slice of history mixed with your made-up interpretations of 800 AD.

01:47:03.240 something i think that um a lot of quote heathens and this probably includes a lot of

01:47:12.840 setians with a d is that there's this idea out there that heathenry or or also true

01:47:23.800 is orthopraxic that what you do matters more than why you do it that if you do the ritual the right

01:47:32.520 way what you're thinking while you do it is unimportant and that's wrong that's not that's

01:47:41.620 not religion um now for some things orthopraxy is important having traditions and having um

01:47:51.040 rituals that have commonality and continuity through time is important but

01:48:01.960 it's not the main thing.

01:48:03.840 Al-Shir Gauthier, Matt, and I will talk about

01:48:06.440 things related to the statement of ethics

01:48:08.860 or things related to the Declaration of Purpose.

01:48:12.060 And when we're talking about them,

01:48:15.920 the thing that we're trying to drive at

01:48:18.580 as far as like crystallizing an idea

01:48:20.820 is that it needs to be true in all times.

01:48:26.760 Like for it to be an actual Asatru religious belief,

01:48:30.260 it needs to have been true 10 000 years ago it needs to be true today and it needs to be true

01:48:37.620 in 10 000 years when we're colonizing alpha centauri the way founder mcnallan envisions

01:48:43.620 and that makes it a religious belief um we we got hit with a lot of requests during covid

01:48:50.820 about people wanting us to write um religious exemptions for vaccination for them and

01:48:57.700 And to a lot of people's disappointment and frustration, I'm sure we would not issue such letters because as a matter of religion, the Aussie True Folk Assembly is not inherently against vaccines.

01:49:11.740 We're also totally fine with people not wanting to take a government mandated injection and don't require people to be vaccinated or anything.

01:49:21.220 But for us to actually take a religious position that, no, we are against the COVID vaccine would have required us to start, you know, kicking out people who did take the vaccine, like, because they're, you know, committing some egregious sin.

01:49:36.880 um and it would require some kind of like foundation that that just wasn't there

01:49:43.580 like literally in the conversations amongst the way and in the gothar at the time um

01:49:48.720 you know we we we talked about the hypothetical like if there was some kind of

01:49:54.580 super vaccine that would cure all white people of all cancers forever would the afa be against it 0.88

01:50:01.560 no, we would think that's a very fantastic scientific discovery. 0.98

01:50:08.100 And so that's the thing about orthodoxy and orthopraxy, to bring it back around.

01:50:17.120 The Asatru Folk Assembly does have orthodoxy and what we believe and why we believe it does matter.

01:50:24.840 And that's what we're trying to do with forward-looking Asatru is to be true to the Aesir.

01:50:30.080 And when we look back to the past, whether it's archaeology or our lore or linguistics or genetic discoveries or any other piece of data that we might be able to get about the past and about how our ancestors practiced their Asitru, we can use that to inform our troth to the Aesir today.

01:50:51.380 But we're not limited by that or defined by that.

01:50:55.720 Their orthopraxy doesn't have to be our orthopraxy.

01:50:58.500 But the orthodoxy, if we're doing this right, should be close.

01:51:03.800 I mean, we can't discern every internal thought and belief that they had because the tradition was broken for time.

01:51:11.680 But that's what we're trying to do.

01:51:15.220 We're trying to, like, actually worship the Aesir and believe in them for real and to apply that in the real world.

01:51:22.700 rather than overly be concerned with how ancient people might have done that.

01:51:30.920 What ancient people did does matter, but we just aren't going to be shackled by that.

01:51:35.980 Otherwise, we'd be having internal feuds about when the harvest bloat should be

01:51:41.220 because the seasons aren't exactly the same everywhere. 0.87

01:51:45.220 And so in Australia, they must obviously have to have a different religion

01:51:49.760 because their harvest is a different time than ours.

01:51:52.700 And that just doesn't make any sense.

01:51:55.180 Yeah, I think it's that we're focused on internal principles 0.80

01:51:58.520 that mediate the relationship of white people with the gods

01:52:02.620 rather than trying to make this, like, academic construct

01:52:07.240 that is arbitrarily correct to some specific degree

01:52:12.020 and then, like, presenting it for display.

01:52:15.880 And, like, that's why I've seen people get kind of upset

01:52:18.540 that our goal are don't make more broad sweeping statements about this that and the other thing and

01:52:25.100 it's you know if if we as a church make broad sweeping statements or firm commandments

01:52:32.220 flippantly and that's wrong then that like hurts people you know like like let's just go back to

01:52:41.260 the two holy books kind of thing if you make a book and demand that people do things in it

01:52:48.540 and then it turns out that actually the gods say yeah no there's things in there that get

01:52:52.380 you in big trouble your organization has led people into spiritual problems you know like

01:53:01.260 we don't want that to happen so we can't we can't take this flippantly you know

01:53:07.340 So there you go, Asatru and Setianism are pretty darn different. They're not the same. 0.85

01:53:23.660 I know we haven't really talked much about specific

01:53:28.700 we say there's 12 ice here they say there's 13 kind of differences i don't think that's really

01:53:36.620 necessarily the point like i have looked at some of their stuff and ignoring the fact that it changes

01:53:43.400 um it does come down to kind of nitty-gritty things which aren't really the point i don't

01:53:51.000 think that's really where the the rubber meets the road of that disagreement i don't think it's

01:53:56.700 about like monotheism versus polytheism kind of levels of in-your-face theological disagreement

01:54:04.300 yeah i think uh those distinctions like a a itemized list of like how many gods

01:54:16.700 in each category that would be the way that they would define the differences between

01:54:22.080 Gnostic and Setianism whereas what we're talking about is matters of of religious belief and

01:54:29.160 approach to the gods yeah like I know they're at one time they were really they were really uh

01:54:36.780 they had a very low opinion of magic to the point where I would see the claim like about

01:54:43.040 anytime you see Odin doing magic in the Eddas it's actually Loki like pretending to be Odin

01:54:50.120 right and loki won the mute of inspiration yeah i i don't let's not think too much on this i don't

01:54:57.620 yeah but you you get the point here and it's like i'm not going to say that we as a church are like

01:55:03.660 demanding that everyone perform rune magic as like a rule or something but i don't think we also

01:55:11.780 like would require people like we don't require people to do rune magic we also don't punish them

01:55:18.640 for not doing it it's kind of a minor distinction that belies a greater attitude difference right

01:55:28.080 or i i suppose if you went through an itemized list of differences you could probably find some

01:55:34.880 some different like big ones but not to the level of like what's the difference between

01:55:39.320 you know asatru and judaism well there's there's plenty of theological differences

01:55:45.840 big ones i i don't think it's like that in this case though

01:55:49.320 so fun fact uh jordan is in atlantic time which means he is seven minutes from 2026

01:56:01.020 we will uh make sure to to recognize that as the as a couple more minutes tick away

01:56:07.920 but but that's exciting jordan will be the first person that i know to uh that i've actually met

01:56:14.240 in person to to enter a new year before me it's like time travel it's pretty cool

01:56:19.760 yeah being an hour ahead of most my family over in ontario and pretty much all my friends in the

01:56:26.740 states by at least an hour it's almost like time traveling well tell me this future boy

01:56:32.060 who's president of the united states in 2026 pretty sure it's still trump

01:56:37.300 that was a back to the future reference

01:56:40.920 well yeah I know but I mean

01:56:43.160 it's going to be Trump

01:56:44.980 he ain't changing that

01:56:47.440 the actor

01:56:50.040 he's been in movies so yeah

01:56:54.760 alright so what do we got next here

01:57:02.160 I think we can fit a question in before we make

01:57:04.260 Jordan count down in front of all of us

01:57:06.120 so ron boardman in new hampshire quality fella he asks uh new year's resolutions are often seen

01:57:18.520 as quaint or cringe today do you recommend folk making them um recommend no um i don't discourage

01:57:29.900 people from making them either um the the new year's resolution comes from our ancestors tradition

01:57:37.100 of a yule oath so um it's very much tied in to this whole yuletide season the christians and

01:57:45.900 the post-christian secularists have forgotten that this whole thing is connected that you know

01:57:52.240 the the happy holidays thing like that those holidays are actually intrinsically linked to

01:57:58.860 each other. It's one holiday that, you know, that's a holy tide. And because they've chopped

01:58:06.020 it up and compartmentalized it, they have forgotten the connection between honoring the

01:58:11.060 new year and putting up the Yule tree. But I don't think that it's not something that should

01:58:17.580 be done lightly, right? If we're serious about oaths, which we all should be, then making a Yule

01:58:22.880 oath is something that should be seen through. So if you make a New Year's resolution that you're

01:58:32.240 going to go to the gym every day and you're going to increase how much you can lift and you're going

01:58:38.820 to drop a certain percentage of body fat, you need to do it. And you need to not be one of those guys

01:58:44.580 that goes to the gym for the first couple of weeks in January and then disappears. If you make

01:58:51.020 new year's resolution that you're going to get a better job or you're going to finally fix that

01:58:55.980 leaky sink or you know whatever it is there's all the kind of stereotypical i'm going to improve

01:59:02.060 myself i'm going to finish a project kind of of resolutions that can be made um make sure that

01:59:10.380 you see it through and treat it as a legitimate oath that you are that you're making and make

01:59:18.140 you know as we as a as a gothi i would advise anyone thinking of making any oath always make

01:59:23.100 it something that's that's actually achievable um that doesn't mean not to make oaths that are

01:59:29.820 substantial but you know don't set yourself up to fail don't don't oath to be the first

01:59:36.300 ossature on the moon if you're not already in like the astronaut program you know um

01:59:43.180 Um, but I wouldn't, I wouldn't, again, yeah, an oath, I wouldn't recommend that people just

01:59:49.840 generally make an oath at Yuletide for the heck of it. Um, they should be serious. Um, that said,

01:59:58.240 it is a time for making oaths. So if there are things that you should be changing in your life

02:00:05.680 and that you're serious about doing, or if they have unfinished business around the house or in

02:00:11.600 your professional life or in your relationships um even if you don't make an oath about that thing

02:00:17.500 it's a you're supposed to be reflecting on this stuff at this time of year what about last year

02:00:22.840 did you not get right what can you do next year to be a better version of yourself a better husband

02:00:30.780 a better employee a better employer um a better father any of those things and more a better

02:00:38.740 what can you do to improve yourself which will improve the world around you which will

02:00:49.000 hopefully make your ancestors proud make your children proud

02:00:53.080 yeah I don't know they are seen as quaint or cringe today I guess probably because people 0.99

02:00:59.660 don't keep them that's the thing are people part of the soul sickness is that are our people suck

02:01:05.200 at keeping oaths right now um pardon the way i said that but that's how it is and

02:01:11.060 yeah we need to be better about that so why is your oaths yes uh casual ones just because

02:01:19.620 you're supposed to know and according to my clock we are now less than two minutes

02:01:28.660 to 12 a.m atlantic time so i'm gonna turn the floor over to jordan

02:01:33.460 there we go uh we have a minute and 10 seconds apparently i brought a countdown up so i can keep

02:01:44.060 an eye on it nice well while we're waiting for that minute to pass i'm going to make sure to

02:01:52.260 recognize that uh steve bought us a coffee for for five dollars um and it says happy new year

02:02:01.020 hail the gods happy new year to you too steve hail the gods

02:02:04.740 you know you think that a minute's real quick until you're sitting there watching a countdown

02:02:16.300 and then it is so slow i know i still have the seconds display set on my

02:02:21.940 on my my pc screen and i don't so i was gonna ride it out a little bit but

02:02:27.200 Jordan make sure as soon as it hits the first thing you say is rabbit rabbit oh yeah I guess

02:02:35.000 I do have to do that and nine eight seven six five four three two one happy new year

02:02:51.220 happy canadian new year officially in the future that's right future boy

02:02:59.620 all right well that was exciting wasn't it every time i love when clocks do things

02:03:08.020 all right so sierra is back that's awesome and hello one of my favorite people

02:03:13.460 tyler sagert hello how's it going good glad you will to everybody happy new year

02:03:21.980 glad you'll and happy new year to you too so what is going on with you in your life tell us about

02:03:29.420 tyler world oh man it's been uh an immensely blessed year uh welcomed my third child into

02:03:37.820 the world december 7th first boy so i've been busy explains why i got on late my mind's been

02:03:44.700 scrambled i've been out of work and schedules and days are things that i haven't uh adhered to in a

02:03:51.420 while it's just been wrangling two toddler girls around the house for the past almost month so

02:03:58.300 i i noticed that you guys were on and i was like oh i should have got on sooner but better late

02:04:02.780 than ever so i just thought it would be a good time to spend uh new year's with the folk so happy

02:04:09.580 to be here we're glad to have you glad to have you um so we got another question here um what

02:04:26.060 do we think of the ermine folk uh this one has come up before and i was very candid about it

02:04:33.340 um and and how shirgothi matt was even even more candid about it we don't think highly of them um

02:04:43.980 because uh they're not trustworthy people um

02:04:49.420 Um, long story short, they, uh, in particular, their, uh, their, their president, Michael,

02:04:59.360 um, Saginario attempted to overthrow Alshir Gauthier Matt using parliamentary procedures

02:05:10.440 because of completely ridiculous claims that the AFA was smuggling money for the cartels

02:05:18.400 and embezzling money you know the question was all where does the money go where does the money go

02:05:23.700 and here we are with five Hoffs established I think we know where the money goes um

02:05:29.680 and it was you know your typical modern ostrich scenario of empire building where people join

02:05:38.180 with a more successful and more prestigious organization in order to poach members and

02:05:45.160 ride coattails and ride the reputation of the greater, more legitimate organization, basically

02:05:53.700 to, you know, to ride founder McNallan's success and the Ossetree Folk Assembly's success into

02:06:01.760 something that they could capitalize on. So untrustworthy people. As far as I know,

02:06:10.820 things aren't going well for them and i'm not upset about that does anybody else have thoughts

02:06:16.140 about ermine folk it was before my time so i don't really have any foot in the game but typically

02:06:28.580 anybody who tries to usurp an organization is not really a good person or a good organization to be

02:06:33.200 a part of so uh it's happened to us more than once it's a a repeating meme but that is what

02:06:41.500 happens when you are the success that people are trying to capitalize on

02:06:47.140 i don't have much care for domestic terrorists that's about all i care about figure

02:06:54.180 uh when i was still in some of the nornist society group chats on telegram uh mike

02:07:06.420 saginario was also in them and he would go on this this had this outburst and kind of go on a

02:07:14.580 rant once every couple weeks about how like uh the thing with the afa being tied to the cartels

02:07:19.660 and how all of its clergy are federal agents.

02:07:24.240 If that's the case, I'm owed quite a few years of back pay,

02:07:27.600 as is Witten Erickson. 0.79

02:07:29.700 So, no, but they look ridiculous to us, of course, 0.90

02:07:37.400 especially someone like Witten Erickson who saw them come in 0.92

02:07:40.160 and then also saw them leave. 0.88

02:07:43.500 But it's comforting to know that they look schizophrenic

02:07:47.600 to even people with no knowledge of the situation.

02:07:53.660 Yeah, you know, I think I should add just so that people know,

02:07:57.960 I know them, or I knew them personally.

02:08:03.180 Githya Eriks and I have slept over at their home.

02:08:08.920 I went to many of their events and, you know,

02:08:13.940 utilized their their camping facilities and and donated to them and you know purchased things

02:08:20.940 from them both on their store and in auctions there so i don't say this stuff casually it's not

02:08:27.200 like you know some abstract thing um for me these were these were personal friends of mine

02:08:33.920 our third date was at one of their yule events a couple of many years ago now but

02:08:38.640 we were you know friends with them after a fashion yeah absolutely and so it's not a it's

02:08:45.480 not a casual thing um they they really did betray me they betrayed asher goethe matt they

02:08:52.840 betrayed folk builder pat hall um and a lot of other people who who put a great deal of trust in

02:08:59.200 them so there are a few a few broken sumble oaths that that linger as well

02:09:06.040 i think a big thing that sets us apart from other groups in as much as it's even a meaningful

02:09:18.080 statement to compare us to other groups because we're so far ahead of everyone else in heathen

02:09:23.780 spaces is that at the end of the day we're trying to raise people up and make them better and to a

02:09:31.800 certain point i mean that means that we want to make this something that we tell like you tell

02:09:38.900 your grandma about and she's like oh goody that sounds so nice i can tell you it's making you a

02:09:44.360 bigger person because it actually like is it's not weird and abnormal and strange and dangerous

02:09:50.740 and edgy and all these other things that internet types flock to

02:09:56.420 you are kind of like the afa's own dick van dyke chris you've got the the voices it's uh it's it's

02:10:07.200 hilarious when you do them thank you for always making me making me laugh when you you do your 0.92

02:10:13.260 characters it's great i'm glad i could be of service me too um i think that you hit on something

02:10:21.400 important though too and um you know this is going to sound chauvinist in i think the best way but

02:10:31.960 sometimes the austral folk assembly is approached by groups um about like forming an alliance like

02:10:38.200 hey we should team up and really do this also true thing the right way and we say no um there

02:10:46.520 There have been attempts to do this stuff in the past.

02:10:50.040 The International Asatru Odinist Alliance is probably the most noteworthy,

02:10:55.640 which was really a nominal alliance between the Asatru Folk Assembly,

02:11:03.360 the Asatru Alliance, and the Odinic Right.

02:11:06.520 Githya may know a lot about it firsthand and can talk about it when she's on later,

02:11:10.340 but it really was kind of a non-starter.

02:11:13.480 But the thing that I wanted to really talk about in this is that when other almost always smaller and poorly established groups approach us, like, you know, the most successful kindred in Mississippi or, you know, the Confederation of Independent Disunited Heathen Tribesmen or, you know, other groups that

02:11:43.480 um that i think maybe they probably have good intentions like i don't i don't i don't

02:11:50.260 besmirch their attempt to be in truth with the gods and their attempt at doing it at the

02:11:57.980 grassroots level level and starting it from the ground up that's that's a that's a reasonable

02:12:02.820 thing to do um the problem is is that we're we can't deal on equal terms with them because

02:12:09.220 they're not our equals um these groups don't have the succession of leadership that goes back to

02:12:19.220 stephen mcnallan literally being the herald of odin and you know being the one of our

02:12:28.580 our modern also true founders who was able to successfully establish an also true church

02:12:35.460 a lot of others attempted to to do this thing but it it faltered or failed for one reason or another

02:12:42.020 sometimes their fault sometimes not um but founder mcnalen is the one who

02:12:48.820 was successful in that that's why we call him founder mcnalen right um and we now have dedicated

02:12:56.180 five temples to the aesir and you know even the asa true fellowship in iceland with its state

02:13:01.940 funding has not been able to finish building half of a temple we also have more gothar than they do

02:13:09.420 yeah i counted yeah and and and i think that's because we actually

02:13:15.880 because we actually believe in in in asitru and i think that you know other other groups that want

02:13:25.000 to, you know, be as successful as the AFA that like, you know, that, that are maybe

02:13:31.620 tempted to take a page from, um, you know, from the Ehrman folk book, they, they should

02:13:38.300 instead just join us and do it sincerely.

02:13:41.080 And, you know, have your kindred join the Ossetree folk assembly and, you know, have

02:13:47.120 all your members join the Ossetree folk assembly and you as their, their chief or

02:13:52.180 or however your group styles things become an apprentice folk builder and you know depending on

02:13:59.940 your experience and you know the the establishment of your group we can talk about more beyond that

02:14:08.220 but you know just just do it the right way join the successful team rather than trying to

02:14:13.420 to attack it because when people do anything i think that works against the afa when they try

02:14:20.800 to tear us down or when they try to, you know, fragment us, they are literally working against

02:14:27.560 the declaration of purpose that founder McNallan put in writing so many years ago. They are working

02:14:34.260 against the practice, promotion, and dissemination of the religion of Asatru. They are making it take 0.98

02:14:39.720 longer for Lord Tyr to have a Hoth. And it's wrong. It's, you know, I don't think that they,

02:14:49.920 some people don't mean it that way other people do um but in all cases it's it's just not it's

02:14:58.060 not appropriate for them to try to approach the asa true folk assembly as an equal um

02:15:03.600 you know there's there's no other church in the world there's no other group in the world that

02:15:11.420 practice is also true with the, with the blessings that the Aesir have bestowed on us.

02:15:19.480 Those temples are really the, the blessings of the Aesir visibly manifest. There are others,

02:15:27.920 but those five temples, there's no argument against that. There's no, ah, but we published

02:15:33.860 some book or, you know, we have a campground or, you know, my buddy has, you know, a very nice

02:15:42.540 backyard vey. Those are, those are good things that people should do, but they, they don't hold

02:15:49.680 a candle to Odin's Hof, let alone Odin's Hof, Thor's Hof, Baldur's Hof, Nord's Hof, and Frey's Hof.

02:15:56.560 So, and those, those, those temples are going to keep being established

02:16:02.480 Um, so yeah, I think people, for, for a time in Austro history, it wasn't self-evident

02:16:12.560 that the Austro Folk Assembly was the church of the Aesir in Midgar.

02:16:16.320 That time did exist, but it's been at least a decade and a half since that was even a

02:16:22.520 question.

02:16:23.200 And it's about time that, uh, that other groups and people that are doing things independently,

02:16:29.760 um catch up and and help us to be even more successful than we can you know um unless you

02:16:37.160 have previously proven yourself to be an oath breaker or a traitor we want you here with the

02:16:42.760 Austria folk assembly and there's a good chance that a lot of the stuff that you're doing we can

02:16:47.540 help you do better and that you doing that can help the Austria folk assembly and help our folk

02:16:53.100 come together and grow even stronger and i i want to just i'm going somewhere with this i want to

02:16:59.900 just add to something i said about the astrofellige the number of the astrofellige does not appear to

02:17:04.820 have a seminary program from what i can tell you basically get voted in and accepted as a priest

02:17:11.840 in a democratic fashion this is how it also works in the lutheran church in iceland

02:17:16.020 they don't subject subject you don't have to take a postgraduate degree program to be a priest in

02:17:25.000 their church like you do in the majority of churches christian churches in the u.s the

02:17:33.040 majority of jewish churches the majority of muslim churches and in the austral folk assembly 0.93

02:17:39.240 if you want to be a goli you have to go through a seminary program where you either know the stuff 0.99

02:17:44.760 or i don't know if we formally kick people out if they're not good enough but you know what i 1.00

02:17:49.540 mean here like you get you get to be a go the after demonstrating you have basically after

02:17:54.580 sometimes you have to earn a degree to be a go the effectively um and the reason for that is

02:18:05.080 because we're building things we are building things and it's it's very you can tear things

02:18:11.400 down and break them very quickly, but building things as a rule takes a long period of time and

02:18:16.120 a lot of work, and it goes very slowly, at least in comparison to how quickly you can break something.

02:18:23.840 So when Witten Erickson says at the end of this, like, you know, we are inviting anyone listening

02:18:32.160 to come help us build this, that's an actual offer. Please come help us build this. Myself and

02:18:40.320 Sierra have a lot of things that we do everyone on this this video call has a lot of things that

02:18:46.440 we do and many hands make light work the more help the better we're not trying to be snobby

02:18:56.580 or you know lord over people when we say like we're the ones moving this forward it's actually

02:19:03.320 a cry for help in a certain sense help us move it forward but unironically please do we're trying

02:19:09.780 to build things we want people to come help us build them so they last so they don't break in

02:19:16.020 5 10 20 years yeah there's certainly a lot more we could be doing um even just with the stuff we

02:19:24.840 want to do now let alone with like an influx of you know creativity and new ideas on things that

02:19:30.880 we haven't thought of yet um and we want both of those things

02:19:39.780 this is the power of the afa by the way this is the baby that i wasn't expecting and all the

02:19:46.540 healthy baby rituals we did ended up with this beautiful girl just a little just a little call

02:19:51.540 back to earlier hail the gods hail the god thank you this is erica you say hi hi sweetie

02:20:01.120 you're a sweet girl and magic is real it is it is not for everyone to mess around with necessarily

02:20:09.320 but it does touch everyone's lives so it's it's part of nature if you will we think of it as

02:20:17.340 supernatural but it's not um it's not apart from us like it's part of the same world that we are

02:20:23.140 um i was gonna say it's nothing special but that's not the right way to put it is definitely

02:20:28.320 special but uh it's as special as you are it's as special as um

02:20:35.880 you know a field of wildflowers is it's it's part of the real world which is why

02:20:42.900 i say that it's it's natural as opposed to supernatural um just if you don't know what

02:20:49.340 you're doing with it then then don't mess around with it just like any other tool

02:20:52.120 regarding the the ermine folk stuff um would you either of you sirs on my left uh would there

02:21:02.260 would you say there's any doctrinal theological things there or was it more of a disloyalty

02:21:10.820 matter at the end of the day

02:21:14.820 well it's been a full decade since i've had any meaningful contacts so i couldn't speak

02:21:20.420 on the current state of any religious beliefs um but i mean other than style which would be

02:21:31.780 more orthopraxy. I don't think that there was actually any difference in core religious belief

02:21:37.620 to the best of my knowledge. At the time that I knew them, there was a legitimate belief in

02:21:43.940 the Aesir and Vanir as distinct living deities with will and agency in the world.

02:21:51.060 There was solid agreement on folkism, and as far as I know, the parameters of folkism, if you will.

02:22:02.740 you know different there were some differences in practices and and and style but no i don't

02:22:08.340 think there was any actual religious difference i mean they styled themselves as odinists but

02:22:13.780 a lot of folks do um i think founder mcnellen did or at least before he had the word asatru

02:22:22.260 he was his his thing was that odin is his god i don't know if he used the word odinist but

02:22:26.740 might have if he had heard it or thought of it.

02:22:29.720 Yeah, I think you could probably find some time

02:22:32.620 where he uses Odinist in a manner that implies he is one.

02:22:36.940 But there was not a theological break,

02:22:40.400 which I think is what your question was.

02:22:42.420 It was a matter of treachery and betrayal. 0.98

02:22:50.440 I feel like in Ossetru's history, 0.68

02:22:53.200 that's where a lot of these breaks and fractures have really come sorry what a lot of these breaks

02:23:01.040 and fractures have really come down to like even universalist heathenry or whatever you want to

02:23:07.220 call it kind of amounts to just a betrayal of dr stephen flowers in a certain sense

02:23:12.380 but that one is approaching a little more theological but that's you get the point

02:23:20.260 all right so next question which i'm going to put out to the panel uh are there practices

02:23:33.940 you think people over emphasize or ones that get overlooked uh start with whit and trent and then

02:23:40.980 we'll go in box order as far as practices that people over emphasize um

02:23:50.260 Not necessarily. I think some people, when they first get into Alistair, they want to do bloat every single day. That's not necessarily bad or wrong-minded.

02:24:05.460 ones that get overlooked though I think

02:24:08.840 are a little more important

02:24:09.820 venerating your

02:24:12.780 ancestors 0.98

02:24:13.340 we have a whole round of Sumble dedicated

02:24:16.760 to honoring our ancestors

02:24:19.160 but I think a lot of times

02:24:21.060 that's the only time someone

02:24:23.100 does venerate their ancestors

02:24:25.080 you know

02:24:25.580 and that's something I think

02:24:29.040 we can do more and

02:24:30.020 it might have been you

02:24:32.780 that said it's a good

02:24:35.180 gateway for people getting into alsatru is to kind of look at your ancestors first because

02:24:40.280 while i think all of us here surely know that god's real at first you may not i didn't i was

02:24:46.540 an atheist before this but i knew my ancestors were real you know like i knew my granny right um

02:24:53.440 and even when you you're past that point of not being sure whether the icer are real

02:25:01.060 you still, you should still continue to venerate your ancestors and honor them and say their full

02:25:07.080 names and leave them offerings and teach your kids or your, you know, kind of retell their

02:25:16.880 stories to your kids or your family or whatever. So that's the one thing I would say gets overlooked.

02:25:25.180 It's a really important one. I'm glad that you mentioned it. Just a little

02:25:30.780 sort of anecdote um well i guess too yeah i i did say that and the reason i say it is because it's

02:25:37.860 it's easy and i don't mean easy and then like in like the lazy sense i knew that it works

02:25:43.180 you know um if you build a devotion to your ancestors a lot of other stuff just kind of

02:25:49.980 ends up flowing from that on its own so that the work that you put into that devotion pays

02:25:56.640 pays dividends that you you know that you don't anticipate especially like i i was atheist like

02:26:03.180 like you were witten trent for a long time i like that's why i say that if people believe in

02:26:09.440 believing into the gods they should join the afa because that's where i was i wasn't like convinced

02:26:14.180 on the supernatural nature of divinity kind of stuff like i wasn't 100 on are the gods really

02:26:22.420 really real but i wanted them to be you know and so a good way to do that is to to practice that

02:26:29.060 ancestor uh devotion and on the flip side of that um when i have the the sad duty of doing a crisis

02:26:36.740 of faith intervention which is what um amongst our gothar we call it when we're talking to someone

02:26:41.540 who wants to leave the afa and we we talk to them and have like a spiritual counseling session to

02:26:47.620 make sure they're really really sure and of course our jobs as priests is to talk them out of that

02:26:52.420 to advise them on why that's a bad idea, why that's unhealthy for them, you know, and not

02:27:00.640 force them into anything. We can't do that, but to try to help them see, you know, in whatever

02:27:06.840 way makes sense to them that this is worth it, that this is good for them. Even if they're

02:27:13.240 completely closed off to that, you know, they're going to be an atheist or they're going to go

02:27:17.580 back to being Christian because they feel too guilty or whatever it is. You know, I ask them 0.91

02:27:23.740 for themselves to do themselves the favor of maintaining that devotion to their ancestors,

02:27:29.280 because even if they reject Asitru, they can still accept their ancestors. And I do that

02:27:36.580 for two reasons, because your ancestors deserve it just in and of itself. You know, even if you

02:27:43.400 take the atheist position your ancestors deserve to be remembered by you you owe them so much and

02:27:50.000 you know i'm trying to plant that little seed that that initial devotion that i was talking

02:27:54.240 about on the front end maybe could blossom again later for them if they keep that devotion going

02:27:59.380 that maybe even if i wasn't able to convince them maybe their great granddad will in a few years you

02:28:04.920 know chris you're up i was actually thinking about ancestor worship as one that i don't want

02:28:17.420 to say we don't make a big enough deal about it but i feel like we could be a little a little

02:28:22.940 tighter a little more clear on like just as an example like what are my obligations

02:28:30.700 to my ancestors in a formal sense like we we often talk about what we owe the gods what we

02:28:38.100 should do for the gods what we need to do for the gods but with the ancestors it's a lot more

02:28:43.380 free form which is i mean is good it's like everyone's ancestors are their own

02:28:48.500 right but i do feel it would be helpful if people find themselves in the situation of like

02:28:55.800 you know i don't know if the gods are real but i know my ancestors are real

02:29:00.440 i don't know about this you know god's stuff but i i feel my my my dead kin continue on after death

02:29:08.440 i know that for certain i feel like we could do a better job of telling people for whom this

02:29:15.700 doesn't come naturally okay you you have this feeling that your ancestors are still with you

02:29:23.100 what now in a kind of more formal i don't know i'm not saying to the level of like oh yeah every

02:29:29.860 friday hold an ancestor's bloat but you know how does ancestor worship work what what do you do

02:29:39.500 with it you know um i don't think that there are practices that people overemphasize per se

02:29:47.840 um because to a degree it's like it's a religion you know you're supposed to do the stuff i feel

02:29:58.780 like it's hard to overemphasize some things that are like like bloat is a pretty core part of how

02:30:04.540 we worship the gods i wouldn't want to say it's overemphasized because we're supposed to emphasize

02:30:09.860 it um i don't think that there's anything that we do that's like kind of ancillary i mean we talk

02:30:19.920 about runes a lot but that's that's like a kind of it's not so much a practice but it is um more

02:30:28.960 kind of metaphysical almost in a way but it's not like we require people to do it so i don't know if

02:30:34.340 that counts as overemphasized i certainly wouldn't want us to talk about it less you know

02:30:39.020 i can't think of anything that i would say oh yeah we should talk about this less right now or so

02:30:45.740 i wouldn't think of the question as what we should do or what the afa should do

02:30:52.380 over over emphasizes but what do people who call themselves also true over emphasize

02:31:00.700 within the afa or within heathenry in general

02:31:06.620 answer the question i don't know

02:31:09.020 um it's late and i gotta think now

02:31:14.540 tell you what think a minute and i'm going to answer some of those questions that that you put

02:31:21.020 out while you while you think about that the the question of what do we owe our ancestors i think

02:31:27.900 is a really good one and this is not a complete or perfect answer but i do have some some answers

02:31:34.980 on that number one remembering them and saying their names telling their stories making sure

02:31:43.620 that they are not forgotten by by their descendants your own descendants um by our folk at large

02:31:51.940 that's really important that doesn't have to happen just in sumble um you know having a properly

02:31:59.460 documented family tree with photos and anecdotes and all that kind of stuff, war stories if they

02:32:08.220 served, recipes if grandma was a cook, all that kind of stuff I think is really important

02:32:15.740 to keeping their memory alive. And it really is a family treasure if you can do that,

02:32:22.340 because part of the job of remembering them and keeping them remembered is making sure the next

02:32:28.640 generation and remember them so i think in my in in this generation of asatru a lot of us probably

02:32:36.160 have like noriana society kind of work to do on that right we have to reconstruct a lot of this

02:32:41.400 stuff it might have been lost by our parents and grandparents who didn't care about it in the way

02:32:45.440 that we do not that they didn't love their ancestors but that they didn't realize how valuable

02:32:50.280 this stuff was going to be to us right and if we can get as much of that together and be able to

02:32:58.160 pass it on we we save that effort from our children and and literally give them a treasure

02:33:05.600 and then they can springboard off of that if if they can start from that point what are they

02:33:11.840 going to maybe be able to discover with faster ai better dna records additional archaeology that

02:33:21.640 we just don't have access to whatever it might be i mean the only direction they can go is in the

02:33:26.880 direction of improvement, even if it's scrap by scrap, right? So I think that's a really important

02:33:32.460 thing. The other one is to honor their names. And by that, I mean, we need to live a life

02:33:43.480 that they would be proud of. And I think the best test for that is living a life that we think our

02:33:49.800 children are going to be proud to tell our stories. I heard someone talk about it as being an ancestor

02:33:55.660 in training one time like that's that's the standard for me like like not that it's all in

02:34:03.480 my head like oh how are going to people remember me I'm thinking about how I'm going to be toasted

02:34:06.940 in sundal or something like that all the time but it matters a great deal to me that when I'm

02:34:15.280 remembered whatever I'm remembered for that it's going to be something that my children and my

02:34:21.340 grandchildren are proud to share that story whatever the details are in the same way that

02:34:27.080 we might talk about you know our ancestors who who fought in the great war or the war between

02:34:33.420 the states or the revolutionary war or whatever else they they might have done that you know are

02:34:40.880 are great deeds and the small things too remembering that someone was a machinist or a farmer or

02:34:47.880 remembering that they struggled with alcoholism and beat it.

02:34:52.740 Those are, those are things too,

02:34:54.620 because the more of that that we know and the more of that we can share with

02:35:00.880 our children and with our brothers and sisters and cousins and all,

02:35:03.680 but the direct line of children I think is really where the focus needs to be

02:35:07.100 and what we give to them. The more, I mean,

02:35:11.700 they are what they are without us, but I think that, you know,

02:35:17.100 we help to fulfill the Havamal about them.

02:35:22.680 We help to fulfill them being remembered

02:35:26.760 and making their life worth remembering.

02:35:31.220 I think that has a metaphysical and real influence

02:35:36.080 on what happens to their soul parts in the afterlife.

02:35:42.800 I think that it's not so much that they die if we forget them, it's that they're stronger as we remember them, if that makes sense.

02:35:54.100 And then another thing as far as like the, something that people overemphasize, I think, and it's not so much that they overemphasize it, I think that they just put it out of order, is runework.

02:36:05.640 I don't think we should talk about runes less, but I think that people need to be patient with when they're going to be capable of dealing with the runes in a meditative and responsible way.

02:36:22.800 I think that learning the lore should come before trying to do divination with the runes.

02:36:32.060 i think that um before someone is trying to divine things with the runes they should be

02:36:41.320 able to as the havamal says be able to mark them and read them like those basic properties of them

02:36:49.520 need to be understood before you can really go deeper into them like they're not just letters

02:36:54.960 but they are letters like that's a very base level thing and if you can't understand that

02:37:01.680 part of it how do you expect to go deeper into them um and then i think with a proper maturity

02:37:10.720 and i know this because i originally approached them without this maturity

02:37:13.880 um then you're not going to go to the runes and try to divine them with like beggy kind of

02:37:21.740 questions because i think that's the thing that people misuse them with that's the part where if

02:37:26.040 they front load runic divination early what they end up doing is you know using them like a magic

02:37:35.360 eight ball they're not that you know they need to be treated with a lot more respect and a lot

02:37:41.820 more meditation and a lot more thoughtfulness so it's not that like people should learn the runes

02:37:49.660 havamal says so right um but i think that they need to be learned

02:37:56.300 in context because i think something we need to remember is you know for for the person hearing

02:38:02.620 the havamal in an oral tradition they already knew all the etta stories about the gods that

02:38:09.980 was assumed knowledge we need to have that knowledge to put things in context so that's

02:38:15.900 that's really important i think just not being so eager to be a magician or a diviner

02:38:27.340 and back to you hopefully you had some time to think now yeah so three things i uh

02:38:33.340 i thought up were in that line of being a magician this like overly magical magic with

02:38:40.860 like a k sense where they focus more on kind of people this is this is within a broad like the

02:38:49.020 broad you know pagan heathen spheres i'm not necessarily criticizing anyone in the afa to be

02:38:54.220 clear here right but i see a lot of people in like pagan spheres be very ritual very magic with a k

02:39:03.580 oriented where it's like you know i've seen people like talk about doing like a banishing ritual

02:39:10.700 after a prayer to thor and it's like are you trying to kick thor out you know like like whether

02:39:16.840 they recognize it as that or not it's like but he's a god like if you want if you don't want him

02:39:23.160 in your house why did you why did you pray you know treating it like summoning a demon in the

02:39:28.200 craft or something as opposed to like religion where you are kneeling before a higher power

02:39:35.420 and frankly hoping that they find you worthy of their attention to a degree like i'm not saying

02:39:40.600 being slavish or something here but like if we're talking about a god surely they're not

02:39:47.280 going to be too upset if your summoning circle wasn't a perfect circle or something like that

02:39:51.640 right like it seems a little it seems a little silly um it's kind of like the other direction

02:39:59.160 of viking larp where people like try to dress up as vikings or whatever as if like you have to

02:40:06.980 to dress like someone who worships thor to worship thor instead of just being someone

02:40:14.440 who worships thor um that's not to say that aesthetics aren't important or anything but i

02:40:22.300 think people should think about like what are you trying to say with your aesthetics

02:40:26.620 because we don't live in medieval scandinavia um going back to the

02:40:34.420 the ancestors thing real quick here i apologize this is kind of rambly um

02:40:39.700 one thing i see people often have a hang up with with ancestor worship is like well what if i have

02:40:47.140 an ancestor who is bad right and i mean i'm not a goethe but i would at a certain level i think

02:40:54.880 unless that ancestor committed you know the oath-breaking cowardice sexual deviancy

02:41:03.980 got kicked into Nistrand kind of caveat isn't talking about their failings something we should

02:41:11.460 do in the sense of like yeah be better than that I wouldn't have a problem with my children

02:41:17.940 talking to their kids about my failings as like a warning be better than this here's a lesson I

02:41:24.900 learned from him or here's a lesson he admitted that he learned to me learn his learn the lesson

02:41:31.660 from him you know in a certain sense it's like what's the point in having ancestors if

02:41:37.580 if we don't if we have to keep learning the same lessons every generation right yeah so you don't

02:41:44.400 get to pick your ancestors i think everyone has a bad ancestor whether you know their name or not

02:41:49.160 they're probably there in that tree somewhere along the line and i think even the ones that are

02:41:56.180 um you know doomed to an astronaut i think you at least have to recognize because you don't exist

02:42:03.300 without them like like it or not they're a part of you and i mean maybe that means you don't honor

02:42:10.980 them you don't glorify them but but their existence is is so crucial like in sumble when someone says

02:42:19.300 hail the ancestors the bad ones are in that group they're definitely a subset of the ancestors right

02:42:25.380 the bad ancestors the good ancestors the ugly ancestors the beautiful ancestors they're all in

02:42:30.900 the ancestors so um it's i think it's important to acknowledge all of our ancestors because

02:42:42.180 i mean they're they're our direct link to the gods if you break any link in that chain

02:42:45.780 then then it's broken right um so tyler what about you practices that you think people

02:42:57.080 overemphasize or practices that get overlooked certainly so i think something especially in

02:43:06.420 like broader heathenry that people overemphasize is the anticipation of what you guys were kind

02:43:14.120 alluding to which is you know magic and stuff like that which is very cool and like you should

02:43:20.120 never lose that you know that quest to find something greater but i think a lot of people

02:43:26.440 undervalue the importance of what we do especially in the aussitrew folk assembly which is

02:43:32.680 the more exoteric aspect of just gathering with your folk building a kin fence creating bonds

02:43:40.280 with people um you know people don't see that as flashy but for me i look at it at its roots and

02:43:47.180 it's like the most magical thing you can do is understand that you're connected to these people

02:43:53.360 and and build frith with them and relationships you know having a community where i can call ron

02:44:00.940 you know if i'm stuck in the snow at two in the morning like there's nothing more magical and

02:44:06.520 spiritual than that is like knowing that you're going to these places to share meals with these

02:44:12.200 people that are going to have your back. And, you know, it's not as flashy as, you know, seeing

02:44:18.120 like when we've seen magic together, Cliff, I remember my first free faxy with you where the

02:44:23.880 rainbow came right to where the flags were. And there's a lot of serendipitous stuff that I've

02:44:29.280 seen. So I've seen both sides, but I think a lot of people undervalue how important it is

02:44:34.720 to just gather with your folk share meals build bonds and that's what it's really all about and

02:44:41.540 i think it's so underappreciated um you know because i i have some members where it's like

02:44:47.540 um they're like oh well i wish you know what would be like this or you know they should do it this

02:44:55.480 way and i wish there was a little more spectacle and it's like you got to focus on the fundamentals

02:45:01.440 of you know building a kin fence and being with your folk and and that's magic within itself and

02:45:07.280 sharing these memories and watching our kids run around together is one of the most magical

02:45:12.220 things that we could experience as as uh people of our folk so that's that's kind of what i i try to

02:45:20.200 emphasize to people is how special the exoteric folk aspect of of our practice is because

02:45:27.400 you know if you go back historically a majority of our folk like chris had had mentioned it was

02:45:35.840 just this was the default so not everyone was a religious scholar you know it was the full customs

02:45:42.440 it was the traditions that kept everything alive and lifeblood flowing and those are those simple

02:45:49.780 things such as gathering you know hailing your ancestors together you know and it and it's all

02:45:57.160 encompassing and just being together as a folk and i think that's something that's underappreciated

02:46:03.120 because it's almost taken as a given which is is a good thing it means that we're getting to a

02:46:08.560 position where people are like all right the basics are getting boring but they can't you know

02:46:13.160 you can't put the cart before the horse and you got to remember that those basics and fundamentals

02:46:17.840 are what make what we do so important and so fulfilling so that's what that's what i would say

02:46:24.800 yeah i think the uh the the exoteric is foundational um in order to have a healthy

02:46:31.920 spiritual life there has to be the exoteric um that you know you can you can build esotericism

02:46:41.040 on top of a healthy exoteric spiritual life and that's a good thing to do but if you have

02:46:46.560 only esoteric practices if you're like you know a smelly tower wizard that's not a healthy way

02:46:56.000 to be you need to have the the community you need to have the vitality that the exotericism

02:47:06.080 brings i think um that that's how i look at it is that the the basic practices and they may be

02:47:12.720 basic but they're fun they're they're so important you can't skip them um and you can have more but

02:47:18.160 you don't necessarily have to i think for for most people they'll realize that exotericism is enough

02:47:26.880 and then others that want more can can do that but it but it's got to have that foundation

02:47:33.840 remember people a truly is not a substitute for a bath and deodorant no no it's not no it's not

02:47:42.880 um and and if you're in a community you will find that out because people will tell you so

02:47:48.480 um so i want to make sure that we uh we we welcome githya sheila mcdallon and our founder

02:47:56.080 steve mcnallan welcome to our our new year's eve uh victory number sleep special

02:48:05.360 happy new year everybody we're glad to be here yes indeed very much yeah we've been hearing about

02:48:11.120 you know coming up in conversations but we knew we just had to kind of step in and

02:48:16.720 sometimes add stories add clarifications uh just what you were saying about the exoteric

02:48:22.800 there was a time when that's all that was expected of a leader who was going to be a godi um we had

02:48:30.240 that where we had a couple who probably never even met another afa member until they came to an event

02:48:37.520 you know it was not part of the program was to be involved and build community it was just enough to

02:48:44.480 learn how to do bloat and do some research and know sagas and the gods you know and uh that was

02:48:50.560 way back in the mid 2000s i can think back to 2007 um i believe it was and uh yeah we had a fellow

02:49:00.480 who maybe lasted a year i don't know but you know there was no structure like we have now our

02:49:07.280 go there program is so well defined um it has history to it it is continuing to get refined

02:49:15.600 and is just near perfect so far as I can see for right now.

02:49:20.900 And there's certainly lots of checks and balances

02:49:22.620 and everything that happens, so much support.

02:49:25.280 But there was a time when just we were glad to get a go-thee.

02:49:29.360 It could be somebody who led a kindred, you know,

02:49:31.900 and they kind of came in as a go-thee too.

02:49:34.800 But, no, this is where we are now.

02:49:37.420 This is where we were meant to be.

02:49:39.100 What do you want to say about that?

02:49:40.580 Anything or do you want to talk on any other topic that they've mentioned?

02:49:44.120 Oh, I don't know. I might be saying all sorts of things, honey. You don't know.

02:49:48.440 I agree with what you're saying. Absolutely. We started off with not the same kind of boundaries

02:49:56.980 that we have now, obviously. But it was the beginning. I mean, you always have to start

02:50:02.160 somewhere. And you refine that over time. And I think that that has been done very effectively.

02:50:08.200 And I'm certainly happy to see it and certainly happy to have had something to do with the

02:50:13.700 beginning of all of this so i want to thank all of you guys and gals who are here for that matter

02:50:19.280 uh for being here uh in both the long term and in the you know span of the evening uh great stuff

02:50:27.860 great stuff to see what you're doing great stuff to to see your dedication uh and uh here i am just

02:50:35.300 to let you know that awesome we're glad to have you and and speaking of beginnings i have a

02:50:41.560 question. It's like a, it's a follow-up to a comment I made earlier before you joined. So

02:50:46.760 founder McNallan, before you knew the word Asatru, what did you call what you did? Did you

02:50:53.340 call yourself an Odinist or something else? Well, I think it's a very beginning. I just called it 1.00

02:51:00.520 Norse paganism. I didn't, I didn't know any, any other terms for it. That would have been in my

02:51:07.440 very earliest days, you know, like that day in Wichita Falls in my dorm room where I read

02:51:15.360 The Viking by Edison Marshall. And by the time I closed that book, I knew this is for me. And I've

02:51:23.600 never changed my mind on that. But there really wasn't a name that I had to put on it for a while.

02:51:29.120 I'm sure that it went from, you know, Norse paganism to the more refined terms, you know,

02:51:38.200 almost the layout of them as it's developed over the years. The important thing when you're in the

02:51:47.920 kind of situation I was in is not to sit back and say, oh, well, should I do it like this? Or,

02:51:54.200 Oh, should I do it like that?

02:51:55.620 You got to grab it and continue the mission.

02:51:58.640 That's what it's about.

02:52:00.920 Awesome.

02:52:01.680 I did my best with nothing, with nothing.

02:52:05.780 You just summarized a whole half an hour of what we were talking about in relation to

02:52:10.480 setianism and you crystallized it so well.

02:52:14.080 And I'm glad that you agreed with what we were saying and put it much more succinctly.

02:52:19.840 I'm impressed with everything I've heard here tonight.

02:52:22.400 And we've been listening for how long?

02:52:24.200 good hour yeah so something like that and uh and no uh i'm really proud to see what y'all have

02:52:30.840 accomplished and uh and to see the the direction you're going and the fact that you're going to be

02:52:36.680 going farther um that's yeah works for me well done well a lot of us have had the good fortune

02:52:45.720 of being able to spend time around people who've who've helped us to to get to where we are so

02:52:51.320 thank you for that um got a couple of questions here these are these are from nick and i'm going

02:52:58.200 to combine them into one because they all kind of relate together and and anyone can anyone can kind

02:53:03.720 of jump in to to answer them um so triple play here what lessons did this year teach you what

02:53:12.760 kind of year has this been spiritually and is there anything from this year that you're intentionally

02:53:19.560 leaving behind anybody want to take that one or those three yeah sure uh as far as what kind of

02:53:30.120 year has it been spiritually uh that's kind of the only one that applies to me i think i don't know

02:53:36.760 that i learned any specific like profound lessons um but yeah uh you know we got phrase off that's

02:53:46.520 huge um yours off we've had it since 2022 and it took three years to pay off uh

02:53:53.960 orther goes ever as she shall so you know i'm not complaining but it was really nice to finally

02:53:59.880 not have to be the hof goathy of the newest hof that matt's always looking at going hey did you

02:54:04.280 get this done yet turns out he still does that even when you're not the newest off anyway but uh

02:54:09.000 that's that was pretty big um oh i i became a father that was a spiritual

02:54:16.680 thing for me for sure it's although like cliches you hear about how being a parent

02:54:22.120 changes you're all true i hate acknowledging when cliches are true but those all are um

02:54:28.920 it really was a a blessing and is uh i say that even you know when earlier today my son was in

02:54:38.520 like a fussy phase because he's teething and it kind of sucked but i was still thinking like this

02:54:43.560 is you know this is still great uh yeah i guess that and phrasehoff really uh just kind of have

02:54:51.320 really made me appreciate being here with you all and uh and everything we've accomplished and we've

02:54:57.640 still got so much work to do we're we really are just at kind of the tip of the iceberg right now

02:55:02.040 believe it or not so it's made me appreciate everything we've done but more than anything

02:55:07.080 it's made me look forward to the future so awesome i'm gonna i'm gonna just chime in real quick and

02:55:16.040 i learned from this year that devotion matters and matters um

02:55:22.920 for for me and and forget the academy um

02:55:28.760 having a hoff to to care for and to to have our folk gather has has been something we've

02:55:35.800 been wanting for a long time and there were different times where it was maybe going to

02:55:41.320 happen and then didn't in different scenarios that you know in the moment there were feelings about

02:55:48.520 and you know until you know you don't know and i know that sounds dumb that's like one of those

02:55:56.680 cliches kothi trent was just talking about until you know you don't know obviously right but

02:56:01.280 where we've ended up through all of that is better than what we could have imagined better

02:56:09.620 for thing better than things that we were either um either lovingly jealous about but still jealous

02:56:18.080 or um you know just just annoyed or or upset about things that didn't go the way that

02:56:27.480 We wanted them to in that moment, you know, and and sticking with it and, you know, seeing the plan through and and supporting our folk and supporting the other Hoffs, our Hoffs, there are Hoffs.

02:56:46.040 They're not other Hoffs, but, you know, the farther away Hoffs has brought blessings into our lives. 0.65

02:56:54.260 And I hope into the lives of our folk that, you know, that really can't be measured.

02:57:00.680 So, I mean, gosh.

02:57:05.360 And then what am I going to leave intentionally behind this year?

02:57:10.480 I think just for this one year, planning for the future.

02:57:16.040 I think that the moment up here at Frazehoff is going to be really important for about the next year, just being present in the moment, taking it as it comes, and then worrying about next year, next year, because for a long time, we've been thinking ahead for so long, you know, now we get to think about now, and that's really exciting.

02:57:41.220 I'll go next.

02:57:42.240 um uh what lessons did this year teach me uh it taught me that i'm going to piggyback off

02:57:50.820 cliff a little bit that how important devotion is um it's been a great year for me there's been

02:57:58.100 so many blessings i can't even count them um but just perseverance devotion and what those

02:58:05.860 you know adhering to those beliefs give you back um and then uh kind of ties into the second one so

02:58:12.900 what kind of year if i had spiritually um it's been insane so phrase hoff going into ohio is

02:58:20.280 is very close to home i'm from ohio originally i don't live there currently but it's very cool

02:58:26.240 and surreal to see a hoff to one of our gods going into my home state and it's a beautiful thing

02:58:34.460 and a little more selfishly.

02:58:38.160 I prayed a lot at the tail end of last year when I got this new job

02:58:44.600 and after I got it to Njord for good fortune.

02:58:50.220 And I've been nothing but blessed by getting that job and then succeeding in it.

02:58:54.580 And I also did a lot of ritual or prayer to, you know, wish for a healthy baby

02:59:01.000 and a boy if they so may.

02:59:03.920 And both of those wishes were granted. So spiritually, it's been an outstanding year for me. Seeing my young daughters participate in our daily blessing of the meal and also in Sumble by knowing to hail gods, even though they're three and two years old, is just something spiritually that I can't even explain.

02:59:33.920 And to see them resonate with their blood memory in a way that is genuine and not forced is just such a cool thing to bear witness to.

02:59:44.320 And I'm so excited to see the kind of Vasa Truar they continue to grow up to be.

02:59:49.380 And it's just been great in that way. 0.95

02:59:52.980 And if there's anything I'm leaving intentionally behind is the fear of more children.

03:00:00.760 I always thought going from two to three was going to be tough.

03:00:03.920 You just figure it out. We adapt. It's all good. Have more, have more white babies. We love them. They'll, they'll treat you well. There's no difference between two or three. They're, they're all going to make you laugh. They're going to make you upset sometimes, but you're going to get through it and there's nothing more worth it. Um, they're, they're blessings. So it's been a great year for the AFA and for me personally. So cheers to 2026 and I'm excited to continue to build with you all.

03:00:33.600 and and see where we go so all right two minute warning to midnight on the east coast so i am

03:00:43.040 going to go get something because i'm obnoxious and we'll be right back um if anyone wants to

03:00:51.200 answer those questions while i do that feel free but i will interrupt you just so that you know

03:00:55.440 i'll be right back awesome i can be quick i can't well yeah me being quick is is an oxymoronic

03:01:03.680 statement but compare comparatively to chris uh it's true so um i i learned a lot spiritually

03:01:10.400 this year i think especially just like as a person um my growth as a person within the faith

03:01:17.200 has become exponential um for those of you who have been around for a while you know that my

03:01:22.160 my goal has always been to be a Githya and so the opportunity came up this year for me to apply to

03:01:28.020 be in the Gothar program and I actually instead requested to have a meeting to discuss what they

03:01:33.980 want to see from me before I apply to become a Githya and that I think was a really big like

03:01:38.860 step for me spiritually because normally I'd be chomping at the bit to try and get this done and

03:01:44.100 like yes let me go let me do it but instead I took the time to realize like you know I'm I'm not ready

03:01:49.520 right now but i want to be ready and what do you need from me to show that i am ready and so that

03:01:55.220 was kind of a really big thing for me to look back and reflect on that i was able to realize that

03:02:01.140 within myself um but and i have a daughter who wants me to look at things and that's definitely

03:02:08.620 something i'm very grateful to for this year to have two beautiful children that i get to raise

03:02:12.700 in this faith and they'll never know a world without ositru is amazing and cliff has a pan

03:02:17.500 I wasn't looking at the screen.

03:02:21.220 I look back and Cliff's just standing there with a pot.

03:02:23.340 And I'm going to remove my headphones and stop talking for now

03:02:26.680 because I don't want to blast it in the air.

03:02:31.960 It's almost time.

03:02:33.000 I don't know.

03:02:33.380 I was raised that you're supposed to make a whole lot of noise

03:02:35.540 when the clock strikes 12.

03:02:39.420 Any second now, yeah.

03:02:43.160 Who's got the countdown?

03:02:44.160 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

03:02:50.000 Happy New Year!

03:02:55.760 Happy New Year! 1.00

03:03:04.660 My wife would throw me out in the snow if I started banging on a pot and pan right now. 0.54

03:03:10.580 That's what we did with my dad as kids.

03:03:13.100 we'd go outside we'd run around we'd make all the noise and then we weren't the only ones other

03:03:18.300 people in the neighborhood would run out sometimes we had the store-bought ones the little clickers

03:03:22.140 that would spin around you wave them like that um you're lucky i'm not wearing a party hat and have

03:03:28.460 like one of those streamer things um all of that stuff which is which is not directly related to

03:03:36.460 the uh the chasing out of of spirits on on mother's night that that we do that's a different

03:03:43.500 different practice that we have but i i think they have the same origins but yeah make an

03:03:48.640 annoying obnoxious amount of noise at midnight on new year's is is something my dad taught me if

03:03:55.220 if we did it exactly the way that he taught me we would go outside we'd run around and we keep

03:03:59.600 doing it for like 10 or 15 minutes until somebody told you to shut up so fireworks i'm very glad

03:04:07.840 i'm very glad that i preemptively said you had pots and pans because all i can think of is the

03:04:11.760 people listening to this podcast later not knowing what's coming for them and all of a sudden cliffs

03:04:16.400 in here with pots and pans banging all right so now that i got that out of my system um

03:04:29.600 yeah so i wish i wish jordan was still here because now we've joined him in the future

03:04:34.320 at least uh chris tyler and i have how is the past feeling mcnallans and sierra

03:04:41.840 it's it's a little spooky i feel like i'm being left behind it happens all the time

03:04:46.320 i so i work and most of my company is on the east coast so everybody's posting happy new

03:04:52.080 years and i'm still sitting here in the background like it's only nine o'clock you guys like calm

03:04:56.960 down it happens all the time yeah but like for us on the east coast it's like oh i gotta send a

03:05:03.680 check-in text to someone in california it's like how are you doing man he's like at work

03:05:08.800 yeah that's a problem i have and so just as a preemptive like message to every afa member

03:05:15.140 that's watching if you get a text message from me at an ungodly hour please do not feel compelled

03:05:20.420 to respond i forget about time zones all the time i will message you at nine o'clock my time because

03:05:26.320 that's appropriate not realizing it's midnight your time so you're waking people up sierra i do

03:05:32.740 i had somebody chew my head off one time for it and i felt really bad and i was like it was just

03:05:37.260 a text message it was one ding i'm really sorry but yes i mean people could set their notification

03:05:44.420 settings and customize them and only have like their emergency contacts able to wake them up

03:05:50.400 while they're sleeping but who does that maybe i was an emergency contact maybe they thought it

03:05:55.660 an emergency who knows maybe i'm just that special i mean i guess that could be pretty upsetting they

03:06:00.620 they think that there's an actual emergency and you're not calling about that you're just

03:06:05.260 reminding them that vns is every wednesday and they already knew that uh some shots being fired

03:06:16.620 shots fired shots fired yeah i mean that's just another day in tennessee around here

03:06:22.940 i think i hear four or five of them a night you you've got some east coaster thinking that it's

03:06:28.380 midnight there they're making a lot of noise you know all right so i've got a got another question

03:06:34.460 from nick here um how do we face an uncertain future with courage instead of fear anyone can

03:06:42.220 have that one yeah i think um the easiest way to answer that is that we are the result of winners

03:06:52.060 since the beginning of time and that to believe otherwise is not adhering to your prestige

03:07:01.020 um our our people have have conquered and faced everything the world has ever thrown at it

03:07:08.100 and to think that we can't we can't do the same is just not listening to history we are all the

03:07:16.160 results of winners that are here today and we will face whatever comes our way and we will succeed

03:07:22.760 that's the beauty of our people and that's why we're here to protect it well said well said

03:07:31.000 has the best toast at sumbo having to follow that is is rough tyler

03:07:40.400 but sierra wanted to right well i'm like the icebreaker i give like the middle answer so

03:07:52.320 that way it kind of breaks the ice after following something so profound right so

03:07:56.000 everybody else doesn't feel as nervous about speaking but um

03:08:03.600 i just had a brain fart what was the question leave

03:08:06.320 how do we face an uncertain future with courage instead of fear so i um i recently actually went

03:08:15.980 through a situation where i was very uncertain about what the future was going to hold and

03:08:20.860 uh move moving into my own house out of my parents house and it's something that i've

03:08:26.280 let hold me back for about five years now and eventually i just um i had to think about

03:08:36.320 yes this could happen but also what if like what if it doesn't what if this is going to be the

03:08:44.400 best thing that has ever happened to me and i am somebody who is like disgustingly optimistic

03:08:50.620 i will find the good in every situation as annoying as it is and so just realizing that you

03:08:58.540 have that there's always going to be those well what if something goes wrong and weighing the

03:09:03.860 pros and cons and realizing that the good will always outweigh the bad you just have to be

03:09:10.160 willing to make that sacrifice within yourself to accept it and now like i've got i've got my

03:09:15.100 awesome little house i don't live with my parents anymore i can't commit to the afa 110 and not walk

03:09:21.480 on eggshells about who's around me and it was one of the best things i did but i let it hold me back

03:09:26.380 for five years because i was worried about what it is and we're also proud of you sierra seriously

03:09:36.540 thank you very proud good job yeah so good job sierra um

03:09:45.340 as uh my answer to this it kind of loops into the answers to the other

03:09:50.060 prior questions here about uh lessons learned and what kind of year this has been spiritually

03:09:59.180 not only did i enter fatherhood but also we got our first house as well as well

03:10:05.980 you want to talk about exoteric versus esoteric there's got to be some kind of spiritual gains

03:10:12.620 to changing a diaper i don't if you haven't done it you don't know what i'm talking about

03:10:18.300 you should change that um and the way we faced uncertainty and the way we're going to do it

03:10:27.260 continuing forward is for one with courage because you have to face the future whether

03:10:32.300 you like it or not it's it's coming for you you get to decide when where the battlefield etc

03:10:38.860 but i'll make i'll make that into a better quote at some point i apologize

03:10:42.700 but uh planning is also very important i feel like i feel like figuring out what you actually

03:10:52.420 want from the future and slaying laying down the groundwork for making it a reality is important

03:11:00.400 i feel like that's a very important thing for when you're facing uncertainty i'm a man who

03:11:06.000 worries easily and the best way to alleviate worry is to have a plan because you can always

03:11:15.380 change a plan later if it starts to go a little astray but if you have nothing then you got

03:11:21.820 nothing on your side so yeah i like um your bit about planning but then also being able to adapt

03:11:35.400 I think flexibility is important. And that's the thing about uncertainty. You know, an uncertain future, you need to be flexible, right? Something else I would say, too, is you mentioned exoteric and esoteric. As far as like an exoteric way to face an uncertain future with courage instead of fear is you just take it one day at a time.

03:11:58.940 I can be courageous today, right?

03:12:00.860 And then you just get to go home at the end of the day, go to bed, and then reset and be courageous tomorrow and the next day and the next day, et cetera.

03:12:09.460 And then for the esoteric, I would just copy and paste what Tyler said about our ancestors have conquered everything. 0.50

03:12:17.260 You know, they chased Suna West across the European landscape and into North America.

03:12:24.920 We can do that. 0.96

03:12:25.660 that we can take whatever's coming in 2026.

03:12:35.660 I have a thought or two on that, if I may put it in.

03:12:38.460 Of course.

03:12:43.060 We face incredible challenges.

03:12:46.560 I mean, there's the obvious ones that we have faced for years.

03:12:49.960 You know, the left wing, the people that hate us, and so forth.

03:12:55.560 so forth and so forth. Now we're going to have to put intelligence from a machine on top of all of

03:13:04.980 that. We've got other things that can go wrong. We are basically facing a degenerate society

03:13:12.380 that is opposed to us and everything we believe. So bring it on. We can be stronger than they.

03:13:23.160 we can be wiser than they we will never surrender we will always fight we will always try to be

03:13:34.520 more than we are to be bigger than we are and we're going to be pretty darn hard to beat

03:13:41.480 i really believe that we will face those challenges uh we will learn the things that

03:13:48.820 We have to learn, and we will just, as I say, continue the mission.

03:13:53.680 Charlie Mike, this is it.

03:13:56.800 I'm absolutely confident that people like I'm addressing right now can do almost anything.

03:14:05.560 You guys are amazing.

03:14:07.840 You guys are highly intelligent.

03:14:09.580 I am so proud to have somehow spawned your presence here.

03:14:14.060 and was just as who was the general who was surrounded by all the enemies

03:14:23.560 and his second in command come up and said, what do we do?

03:14:28.620 What do we do?

03:14:29.700 And the response, he was pretty obviously a confederate, said, fight them. 0.97

03:14:36.060 And that's true. 0.89

03:14:37.100 We fight them.

03:14:38.340 We fight them.

03:14:39.420 We fight them bravely.

03:14:40.800 We fight them intelligently.

03:14:42.180 We find them from a high status as men and women of honor and determination.

03:14:52.560 People who, as I have said before, we got all those ancestors back up the line.

03:14:57.980 You know, put them in on this. 1.00

03:14:59.620 Let's kick a little ass. 1.00

03:15:04.600 Now I'd like to add my few thoughts. 1.00

03:15:06.900 So I think we are so fortunate.

03:15:10.600 All of us need to realize that being part of our larger church, whether you're near a temple of the gods, doesn't matter.

03:15:18.640 You've got people who care for you and will check in on you.

03:15:22.780 And millions of people don't have that.

03:15:25.100 so we as ourselves as our afa folk have so much going for us because we have that that strength

03:15:35.520 that connection of the larger family that is there to help nurture us and keep us

03:15:40.580 positive come together you know there's there's rarely a rough word when we're together we we

03:15:47.280 truly celebrate who we are and so many people have no community at all so we must always remember

03:15:54.400 that we are the ones who have it, but we're building it. Everybody has the opportunity

03:15:58.100 to contribute to that community. You can do more. You can take part in more MeWe chats,

03:16:05.480 meetings, whatever, meet up with other people, host an event. And that's what we can do as

03:16:11.180 AFA folk is continue building our church and drawing, calling more people in. I mean,

03:16:18.840 we all, the ladies do that. We call the folk home and Matt talks about calling the folk home

03:16:23.700 and bringing them home that is entirely what we're trying to do and that is where so many of

03:16:29.540 our limitations are we cannot people can't hear us so you know we send it out spiritually the best

03:16:36.260 we can because so often our voice is not heard but as as we're trying to build up strength inner

03:16:42.420 strength and connection with our ancestors so are we reaching out to others who by connecting with

03:16:48.020 us we'll reconnect with ancestors we'll connect with our holy powers um our holy is there and

03:16:54.900 with each other with who are strong and committed and basically on the same page with the same goals

03:17:01.700 we all want our people to continue forever and all of you with your children having more children

03:17:10.020 that is fearlessness that is that is going forth and because everybody else said we're

03:17:17.620 not going to have kids we can't how could we have kids in this world and look at you guys all all

03:17:22.260 four of you here um are having babies i've had babies in the last couple of years all every one 0.68

03:17:28.500 of you and that just shows who we are quakers can keep up with us the the mormons can keep up with

03:17:35.700 us because we're doing such a good job because that that is strength and that is living um

03:17:41.540 optimistically with joy in our hearts is bringing forth our children and sharing that with all of

03:17:48.280 our other families. So anyway, we, we are, we are that enclave, that wonderful place where people

03:17:53.740 can go and feel strength and feel protected. And that's what I love about people coming to the

03:17:59.100 Hoff. It is a place of comfort and protection. It is an in and Garth and the evil stuff doesn't

03:18:06.320 get to us when we're at our Hoffs. It just cannot make any kind of inroads into the strength we

03:18:11.380 have as a folk and that's for the largest what was that i said i'd like to add on to that when

03:18:18.860 you're talking about calling the folk home one of my favorite examples is at odin's hof i'd say

03:18:24.840 almost every event typically we like to as women call the folk home and we say that

03:18:30.660 whatever you'd like to call it um but we had really started doing it within this last year

03:18:37.420 more heavily. And we actually had a member who had left a while ago for various personal reasons.

03:18:46.220 They were reaching out to me and they were telling me, you know, I just I feel like something is

03:18:51.340 telling me I need to come back. I feel like something is pulling me back. You know, can I

03:18:54.900 come back? And we said, absolutely. You know, please, please come back. We would love to have

03:18:58.460 you. And she came to the event. And at that event, we had done our bloat and we end our bloats with

03:19:05.180 us women around the ritual circle facing outwards saying the folk come home chat and the member

03:19:11.640 came up to me afterwards and she pulled me aside and she said what I felt while you guys were doing

03:19:16.740 that chant is what I felt when I felt like I was being pulled back home and that was one of the

03:19:23.000 best things that I could have ever like had somebody tell me it was like it was more

03:19:27.420 solidification as if I needed it right but more solidification that what we do works what we do

03:19:33.680 is real and that it reaches folk far and wide so it might seem a little silly that bloat's supposed

03:19:40.000 to be over and all of us girls are saying no hold on we're gonna go you know yell at you to bring

03:19:44.320 the folk home for a second but it works and they feel it and it draws them back in

03:19:50.400 yeah i'd like to just say one more on that too when i think back to all the years that we've been

03:19:55.120 doing this i still have my rolodex with you know hundreds of names and that was even there at the

03:20:01.520 end in 2015 and i just want those people to know that all of you are welcome to check us out again

03:20:09.760 go to runestone.org go to each of our hoff websites visit us go through our calendar

03:20:17.120 take a look at what we have read our newsletters that are hundreds of pages long every month

03:20:22.720 and nobody else has that talk about the hoffs nobody else has anything like our

03:20:27.200 our runestone journal or runestone newsletters uh we want people to find their way back home

03:20:34.640 you know maybe this is your first time maybe you've done it a couple of times before

03:20:38.800 come back this time and we want you to feel so at home you never want to leave

03:20:43.920 and that goes to just about everybody there are very few people who would ever be denied coming

03:20:48.720 back um literally very very few people if you left in a bit of a huff you know what we can work that

03:20:56.000 we'd love to have you come back i'm sure we can discuss it but times have changed we're all in a

03:21:01.520 different place and in fact we need to remember that all those bad things that have happened in

03:21:06.480 our past we learn from and that's one thing i don't i don't think any of us want to live in 0.94

03:21:12.000 a world that is so soft and easy that it's an ai world and everything comes to us the way

03:21:17.600 we'd like we dream it to be you know that's not healthy we've got to have those challenges and 1.00

03:21:23.200 we we get that we're at the tip of the spear the afa always has been it's got those challenges that

03:21:28.240 come our way and we've always known it and it's a good place to be there's momentum the afa trihorns

03:21:35.520 is is spinning it keeps us going we are forward moving and you can't stop that so again people

03:21:42.640 who are interested who hear this reach out to any of the folk builders reach out to any of

03:21:47.680 our godar we'd love to talk with you give you a phone call and uh talk about coming back because

03:21:54.880 we certainly have a place for everybody and uh we have more than we ever dreamed of having

03:22:01.200 back in the old days so if you were around 15 20 years ago come check us out

03:22:10.720 man i'm almost in that category now how about that um 0.98

03:22:17.680 So I want to amend something that I said earlier because I'm an idiot. 0.87

03:22:22.300 And when I counted the number of Ossovatnes, I had Excel scrolled down. 0.72

03:22:31.480 There were 11, not six.

03:22:34.580 Five of them were just up in my scroll bar.

03:22:39.440 So that's awesome.

03:22:41.780 I'm glad to be wrong about that.

03:22:43.280 And it gave me a chance to talk more.

03:22:44.860 So I love that too.

03:22:45.860 um next question that we have is from uh chamovie i have a bouldershoff patch i keep on my shrine

03:22:58.120 as a simple representation of boulder is this appropriate even though i am not from

03:23:04.980 bouldershoff district gosh i wish we had a bouldershoff representative here to accost this

03:23:12.060 person um but of course that's a fine thing to do um i mean there are many things that we can have

03:23:22.700 um on our our personal altars on our personal shrines that could represent

03:23:28.220 a god or a goddess or an ancestor to us i think the the baldershoff patch is

03:23:34.700 a perfectly legitimate one um you know that is the coat of arms of an existing temple to balder

03:23:44.520 in midgard that is a it sounds maybe a little bit strange to say it contemporarily like this

03:23:51.780 but that is an actual relic of a temple of balder in a hundred years it may make more sense for

03:23:59.040 someone to use that word for it but um yeah that is absolutely appropriate and also on the topic of

03:24:07.900 not being from the bouldershoff district that is still your bouldershoff that is the bouldershoff

03:24:17.460 that is the temple of balder in midgard and that temple is there for you as much as it is

03:24:26.900 for me or Witten Trent or Githya Sheila that temple is there for all of our folk who want to

03:24:34.300 go and and worship Boulder and um I'm not sure you don't mention this in your question and I'm

03:24:40.280 not sure from your screen name who you are but if you've never been to Boulder's Hoff I strongly

03:24:44.840 encourage it um you know it sounds like you have a devotion to Boulder um make that journey to

03:24:52.780 to Baldershof and you know if you've never been there before bring your patch with you and have

03:24:58.860 it blessed by Gauthier Erlinson or by by Witten Fassett while you're there um I guarantee you

03:25:05.740 they'd be they'd be delighted to to get a request like that um and yeah it's that's

03:25:12.700 that's a wonderful thing and I'm glad that you do that I'd like to say something um

03:25:19.420 um the idea of symbolism and what we have on our altars um if it means something to you it has

03:25:28.120 relevance and it works you don't need to have a patch is fine a picture would be fine a feather

03:25:34.660 might be something you have but you know it's what it's meaning what it represents in your life and

03:25:39.720 what your spiritual life and what its focus is um it kind of goes back to something you were saying

03:25:45.960 a long time ago tonight and that was what do people tend to overdo or you know kind of emphasize

03:25:51.560 and i would say things like statuary some people have money and they just collect statues

03:25:57.640 you don't need a statue to honor the gods you can have a candle you can have you know your hammer

03:26:02.440 or something else um you know a little bit of amber for freya if you want but i will tell you

03:26:08.920 about something that stayed with me my whole life back in the time when we we did everything with

03:26:14.360 snail mail. And Elsie Christensen was in jail at that point. We took all of her mail that was

03:26:21.960 coming from prisoners. And so I was dealing with all of that. I will never forget the fellow who

03:26:28.000 wrote to me from his prison yard. And he said, you know, we get together and we're not allowed

03:26:33.360 to have any kind of fire, anything else. But you know what we did? We got together and we found

03:26:38.120 some pine needles and we made them into basically a wreath and we would sit around that and we would

03:26:47.120 imagine it igniting into a flame and that is where we focused our energy was imagining the flame that

03:26:54.580 came from that basically the sun wheel that they built out of just a little bit of whatever they

03:27:00.220 had and to me that's always represented that's all that's necessary you know if it's in your heart

03:27:05.500 if you see something it helps trigger it that's great but it doesn't take anything dramatic or

03:27:11.500 ostentatious even though that can be beautiful things that are handmade paintings whatever but

03:27:16.700 it's not necessary it still comes down to everybody here who's listening has the ability to honor the

03:27:23.100 gods in their own way in their own home in a way that feels really right to them you know a candle

03:27:29.020 a flower a picture it's fine but even so it's in your heart that is what we give that is what we

03:27:36.220 give to the gods is our dedication our love and our commitment yeah

03:27:51.900 i will say earlier we were talking about like what's over like what's overplayed that we want

03:27:58.300 to see like less of essentially um and it's not really super common within our circles but

03:28:03.580 something i see happen a lot is that people decide to use not their name they decide to use

03:28:11.740 some sort of pagan name they make up and one it gets really confusing and two it gets really hard

03:28:17.340 to take people seriously when we've got seven people named you know sven bjorn thorson like it's

03:28:24.220 it makes it really hard and that's something that i think i i'd like to see like less of and then

03:28:30.220 also like on the whole not quite also true but people who are also to adjacent the ones who like

03:28:38.860 to worship chaos like that that also is something that needs to stop it's very rampant in a lot of

03:28:43.580 groups but that's what separates them from being also true versus you know not because they can't

03:28:50.140 give that up and then they wonder why their life is in shambles but when she was talking about

03:28:54.860 things she wanted to see stop that was something i thought of too the the fake names and the chaos

03:28:59.500 worship yeah chaos worship is not also true that definitely should not be entertained or emphasized

03:29:13.260 in any way um so we've got a question in q uh if there's one virtue one is capitalized capital o

03:29:26.140 capital n capital e one virtue that you want us to mark the new year with

03:29:31.580 the virtue to carry us through 2026 what would you choose

03:29:37.540 well i am going to choose perseverance because um for most of my life uh the world's been kind

03:29:52.260 of a messed up place and i'm being kind to the world by saying it that way um and i think what

03:30:00.100 our folk need is perseverance among many other things all the virtues obviously but perseverance

03:30:05.420 is one that is

03:30:07.800 it's a bridge to enacting all the other

03:30:13.340 virtues when times are hard

03:30:14.800 you need to be able to get through

03:30:17.800 through bad times

03:30:21.440 you need to be able to

03:30:22.820 realize that there

03:30:25.200 can and will be more

03:30:27.660 you need to be able to

03:30:29.440 to not despair

03:30:32.940 basically

03:30:33.760 I know

03:30:35.660 Al-Sher Gauthier Matt

03:30:37.840 cares a lot about this I assume everybody else

03:30:39.960 here cares about it a lot too but I directly

03:30:41.860 know that he does one of the things that

03:30:43.940 is the

03:30:44.620 not one of the thing

03:30:47.900 that is the leading

03:30:49.960 cause of death among

03:30:51.700 members of the Austro Folk Assembly is

03:30:53.720 suicide and

03:30:55.720 you know

03:30:57.700 with respect to the people

03:30:59.720 that have done that that is

03:31:01.800 a failure of perseverance

03:31:03.220 um it's a bad decision in a weak moment sure um i do have sympathy for people that make that decision

03:31:12.960 um but i don't understand it and i don't forgive it um

03:31:18.460 they've got to just you know

03:31:22.740 gotta just be strong i don't mean to make it sound like you know

03:31:30.480 got got to be a viking but got to just be stronger than that like that is just not an okay thing to

03:31:35.880 do it is it is not the right thing there's no you know for as much as i want to be sympathetic to

03:31:43.580 people that that have loved ones that did that it is a it is a failure it is letting down the people

03:31:50.140 around you it's letting down your ancestors like we were talking about the things that are proper

03:31:54.700 to do for devotion to your ancestors destroying their legacy is is not it um i've always said

03:32:05.100 it's a permanent solution to a temporary problem yeah permanent solution to a temporary problem

03:32:11.180 you know you you lost the girl you lost your job you feel worthless all those things are really

03:32:16.460 awful but um they're either not worth it or they're not true you know um yeah so perseverance

03:32:26.140 that's my answer can i add one uh sure githya katie is here and she wants to add one so we're

03:32:31.600 gonna allow that so because i'll get in trouble if i don't hi my answer though strictly not one

03:32:37.300 of our virtues but i think it is a virtue is piety i think all of our folk need to

03:32:44.940 most of our folk

03:32:48.080 I think are pious but I think we

03:32:49.960 need to practice piety

03:32:52.160 in a much more serious way

03:32:53.720 but if I have to choose one of our

03:32:55.600 virtues

03:32:56.960 probably just loyalty

03:33:00.180 is always a good one

03:33:01.300 and that is all goodbye

03:33:02.740 gosh I love her

03:33:06.040 isn't she great

03:33:06.800 love you Katie

03:33:07.920 Sierra loves you too

03:33:10.040 well you also

03:33:11.460 did you get that

03:33:14.340 all right pretty much anytime anybody says anything nice about me my answer is you just ask him

03:33:21.460 that is one of several reasons that i do that so much whenever i feel like i need to make

03:33:26.500 you uncomfortable i am going to just flirt with you in front of people so it works exactly all

03:33:34.260 right so and it's not because i'm a creep that's just unrelated um so witten trent what do you

03:33:42.980 think uh i would share githia erickson's answer of uh loyalty or fidelity whichever you prefer i guess

03:33:51.860 uh that's something that our folk really seem to struggle with because everything's so atomized

03:33:58.500 nowadays and social media rots people's brains a little bit especially our folk for whatever reason

03:34:04.740 uh and that kind of lack of understanding or uh treating loyalty like a serious thing

03:34:13.400 is i i i assume it's just part of the soul sickness i'm not a

03:34:19.940 soul doctor but uh i would say it's part of that and um yeah you should want to be

03:34:29.320 loyal to your folk. You should want to be loyal to the Church of the Aesir. That's kind of why we

03:34:36.100 take a hard stance on things like being in both the AFA and the Norma Society, or both the AFA

03:34:43.460 and the Odenic Rite. Why would you not want to be in one, and spoiler alert, the correct answer, 0.92

03:34:52.320 if you have to pick, is always the AFA, but why would you not want to be in just whichever one

03:34:56.940 you think is correct and you know be all for that uh yeah i've got a lot of other thoughts

03:35:07.880 on fidelity and loyalty and its importance i don't know how to say them without using expletives at

03:35:13.660 the moment but loyalty is important it's something our ancestors knew was important and they held it

03:35:22.100 in extremely high regard.

03:35:23.740 That's why oaths are important

03:35:25.640 and the bonds of family

03:35:27.440 and kindred, et cetera, et cetera.

03:35:30.460 So, yeah, fidelity.

03:35:33.280 Nice.

03:35:33.860 I have a bone to pick with your answer, though.

03:35:36.080 Just one detail. 1.00

03:35:38.700 You are a gothy, 1.00

03:35:40.360 so that means you are a soul doctor. 1.00

03:35:44.180 Okay.

03:35:49.660 Chris, what is your virtue?

03:35:50.900 Dang it.

03:35:52.100 has been on something that's been on my mind since we started talking earlier tonight

03:35:56.900 and a problem that we do have is people making oaths that are not well founded and they they're

03:36:03.780 not really um analyzed enough in advance before taking an oath you know even when you do a

03:36:11.940 marriage oath at times things need to be broken they need to be dissolved and sometimes oaths

03:36:18.660 are never planned that way when they're between individuals or kindred members or whatever

03:36:23.360 and it causes a major breach and we've seen this over and over and over when people make an oath

03:36:29.380 and it's a lifetime oath i mean we make oaths obviously when we're when we go there and we

03:36:35.120 we do willingly we do it with total commitment and loyalty and fidelity but i i worry when i

03:36:42.040 hear the people are making oaths and that's why we're very careful at assemble to not let people

03:36:46.780 make oaths but in between groups it happens all the time and we've lost people good people over

03:36:55.180 various factions with that they're part of or a group or a kindred and there's so much

03:37:02.540 inner stuff that goes on it just tends to kind of unravel and so to everybody please

03:37:08.380 be aware when you're making an oath to another person or to a group you know what does it mean

03:37:14.540 if it doesn't work out in six months or a year are you prepared to see to deal with the outcome

03:37:20.620 of that of losing friends or or stepping away from some responsibility um yeah there are all

03:37:27.740 kinds of votes but be very cautious when you make any oath that you're truly committing to

03:37:35.260 for sure and i think it's also important to remember that oaths are are two ways every time

03:37:41.740 um you know even even in a hierarchical oath the you know there's an an old oath holder and an

03:37:48.940 oath keeper right and the the oath holder has to be responsible and and just in the the expectation

03:37:58.700 of the oath um you know the marriage oath i think is a good example because no marriage is perfect

03:38:07.180 right almost every marriage falls short of the actual words spoken at that oath in some way at

03:38:14.700 some time and what keeping that oath means is seeing it through anyway not like ah we've met

03:38:24.620 a technical difficulty the entire thing is cancelled because it's no longer completely pure

03:38:29.900 um that's just not how things work in the real world um another thought that i have is uh

03:38:37.420 and it's interesting is it's sort of just an anecdote about how

03:38:42.460 our folks sometimes view oaths wrongly just as far as how they prioritize

03:38:48.380 the nature of an oath and where loyalties need to lie as a result of an oath so

03:38:55.660 So, in the Ostafolk Assembly, we have had kindreds come to us and ask our gothar to witness or oversee their kindred oath.

03:39:07.960 Like, their oath matters so much to them that they want it sanctified by a gothi when they take it.

03:39:15.220 They're very serious about it. 0.94

03:39:17.080 they they come to us and you know the details of the oath and the particular right that they take

03:39:25.100 may vary but but they've come to the afa to basically put a seal of approval on their oath

03:39:30.880 to make this oath higher than other oaths they want a gothi of the austral folk assembly to

03:39:36.640 witness that oath and then time goes by and one of the kindred buddies says ah screw the afa

03:39:45.940 we have to all leave the afa and then because they're bound by this oath they think that like

03:39:53.000 they all have to move as a herd which is it's so upside down because they came to the afa

03:40:00.680 to see this oath whole and make it sacred and so then the person who's saying oh we got to go leave

03:40:08.160 the afa is the one breaking the oath but there's this group think that because one of their guys

03:40:14.820 is having a moment of weakness or you know is just making a bad decision like they completely

03:40:22.940 disregard the way that they took the oath and the fact that they they needed an afa gothi

03:40:29.260 to make that oath sacred and are you know willing to like break with the afa because of usually some 0.85

03:40:37.340 kind of stupid little petty personal dispute somebody's grumpy about something and so you 0.99

03:40:44.740 know usually when someone talks to them about it they realize how dumb it is when when they talk 0.99

03:40:49.660 it out like oh yeah how can we possibly be correct in you know ditching the afa when you know we

03:40:57.440 required an afa gothi to be present in order to even take the oath in the first place um but that

03:41:04.700 of stuff happens and that's that's where you know thinking the oath through and what it means really

03:41:09.820 matters and and being fair to the other party in the oath like not not immediately declaring the

03:41:17.100 other party an oath breaker when something less than the perfect outcome of the oath happens

03:41:25.580 like you know if somebody is purely hypothetical somebody owes that they're going to deliver or

03:41:31.340 something to you by a certain date at a certain time and it shows up 10 minutes late oath breaker

03:41:37.340 it's like maybe there's a little bit maybe there's a little bit of play that could be allowed

03:41:42.060 there maybe as a a fair oath holder you allow for the 10 minutes because they've delivered this you

03:41:49.020 know majestic piece of art or something and the 10 minutes is trivial um and i think where a lot

03:41:58.220 of oaths go wrong is where people get into that following the letter of the oath rather than the

03:42:05.020 spirit of the oath like yes the letter of the oath matters a great deal and and should not be

03:42:09.900 discounted but as a participant in the oath one can choose to be generous and gracious in the oath

03:42:19.500 like that power exists in there like you don't you don't have to be draconian about it

03:42:26.460 it so i think um i think that would help a lot of people keep their oaths if they weren't so

03:42:34.640 hard line about the little details in it and looked at what the whole oath is supposed to mean

03:42:42.140 in the long term like you can you can slip up and still keep your oath as long as you get back up

03:42:48.580 and continue at it you know i think that's an important part too though if you are given

03:42:54.620 leniency in that oath that you took and you're given you know you're giving time off or whatever

03:43:03.020 the situation is at some point in time you're either a going to be expected to get back on

03:43:11.100 that horse or you need to get back on that horse oh yeah right recognizing the gift when it's

03:43:18.460 giving to you absolutely

03:43:26.940 can i go for yes please do you're on your one virtue right yeah that's see but that's what

03:43:34.940 makes it hard because i love i've got 18 of them up here in front of me i have a board

03:43:43.340 of virtues in front of me that i keep above my workspace i've got the noble

03:43:47.020 and then the feminine and masculine that is a whit and brandy thing and it's hard because

03:43:52.300 there's so many good but i would say that one that i personally try to instill within myself

03:43:59.100 on a day-to-day basis and kind of carries me throughout the years is hospitality i think that

03:44:06.540 one of the key components to being a good folk builder and maybe it's because i'm feminine so

03:44:13.500 like homemaking is kind of my my thing right um i'm in the kitchen at the hof that's my place

03:44:19.420 that's what i do i love it there that's hospitality is what brings the folk in being open and warm and

03:44:28.860 just happy right like making people feel comfortable being around you is the first

03:44:34.140 step to bringing them home and i can't tell you how many times we've had new people who

03:44:39.260 show up to the half or show up to a moot and they're very shy and timid and i always joke

03:44:44.220 that one of my superpowers is pulling people out of their shells nobody can be shy around me because

03:44:48.220 i'll break you of it in like five minutes i'll talk at you until you talk to me and i think

03:44:54.620 hospitality is one of the biggest things that we need one of the biggest things that we need in

03:44:58.620 order to help uh get get over their um nervousness sorry the feedback kind of throws me for a loop

03:45:07.020 uh get over their nervousness and so hospitality is one that i definitely myself try to bring in

03:45:12.780 and i think that anybody who is in the afa that wants to bring more folk in should definitely do

03:45:17.180 hospitality um or self-reliance self-reliance is a really big one as like a singular person

03:45:23.340 but i'm thinking of the asa as a whole so singular person afa as whole one for each

03:45:37.020 all right um githia sheila and and and founder steve did you guys want to name uh a virtue each

03:45:47.180 i know you talked about oaths but i'm pretty sure that was a following off of uh somebody else's

03:45:52.780 uh virtue right yes um i will say similarly i think perseverance is so important and for me

03:46:03.340 um when people tend to kind of go into a negative spin kind of a downward spiral

03:46:10.220 um and they're kind of losing that focus of what i can do next and it's stay with it stay with it

03:46:16.300 long enough but to remember their blessings and that's what i would count your blessings that's

03:46:21.100 what my my little mantras is um just know that there are people who are far worse off you know

03:46:27.420 what that's kind of stuff that parents used to drum into kids to make them you know feel bad

03:46:33.100 But the point is, that is true. And that for every one of us, that the day may seem horrible. And there are some things that people go through that are just devastating. But on the other hand, when it's just kind of routinely stuff, that's just piling up, and it doesn't change. But think, you know, you've got the house, you've got a roof over your head, you've got a meal, you know, what you need, you've got people who will be there to talk to you.

03:47:00.140 if you need anything you know you can reach out to any of us as i said before so we all have things

03:47:05.300 we have connections with ancestors we have memories thank goodness we've got thought and

03:47:09.800 memory who can moon in um you know those are gifts and we need to see them as precious and

03:47:16.940 blessings in our lives and keep that that's what we fill ourselves with when we get feeling kind

03:47:21.800 of down that and i agree with sierra on hospitality i mean i'm big on hospitality and i

03:47:28.640 i i get feel very hurt if somehow somebody does not want to come back to the hof because

03:47:34.480 we both and other people there we go out of our way to make people feel really comfortable you

03:47:40.440 have come home this is a reunion you know that's i i will tell people that this is your home you

03:47:46.000 are you are here and you're you're welcome to be here um so hospitality is one of my big ones do

03:47:52.140 you have anything, sir? Yeah, pretty much. I look at it, and I see, in my opinion, that loyalty

03:48:03.920 and perseverance are actually very much related. You always run the mission. You always

03:48:13.800 do that which you conceive to be right, and that which you have said you would do.

03:48:19.600 you always carry through

03:48:22.480 and I think all those things

03:48:24.160 really

03:48:25.940 they kind of come together like this

03:48:28.060 it has a lot to do

03:48:32.500 with never surrendering

03:48:33.480 never turning your back

03:48:35.580 and

03:48:37.680 that's

03:48:38.660 I'm hard headed about that

03:48:40.620 yeah

03:48:42.880 so

03:48:44.400 it's about all I got to say I guess

03:48:47.060 Sheila's hospitality

03:48:49.540 is actually what made me want to become a folk builder like the first time i stepped foot into

03:48:54.600 the hof because i you know everybody who's been around long enough has heard my story i came from

03:48:58.720 not a gray area and as soon as i walked into the hof and spoke to sheila it just felt like

03:49:03.840 everything i had been through just melted away i felt like for lack of a better term safe i felt

03:49:11.380 calm and safe and at ease like i didn't have to be on edge for the first two hours i was hiding

03:49:16.500 off in the corner because it was weird being around strange being around all these people and

03:49:20.020 steve pulled me out of there and was like no you're gonna come talk to me little lady now he

03:49:24.900 can't get me to stop talking to him but he doesn't realize the monster he created but sheila was the

03:49:32.000 literal embodiment of hospitality and that feeling of just being home made me want to have any person

03:49:39.520 that came to that door have that same feeling and so like i mean everybody knows how much i love

03:49:44.280 Sheila I always talk about how much I love Sheila but Sheila is not just my role model but she is

03:49:49.280 the reason why I stayed and why I put as much effort into this as I do because she is the

03:49:55.420 literal embodiment of hospitality she is the living folk mother thank you thank you well we're

03:50:04.740 another place where we do our hospitality is at our food pantries uh Steve and I both go out he

03:50:11.180 does he's the first one out there going car to car to car welcoming people asking how they're

03:50:18.060 doing you know in the rain soaked yeah so two months in a row where it's been drenching rain

03:50:23.880 but he's out there anyway and just chatting them up and making them feel good about being there

03:50:29.680 and i did the same thing well i have to talk i'm irish

03:50:32.960 so anyway but that's part that's part of our hospitality thing too is uh you know obviously

03:50:43.200 we don't invite people in to bloat but we do invite them to take our food and to take of our

03:50:48.920 our well-being and our hopes for good times for them and it's they love it people come back because

03:50:56.000 they know they may be alone all month long have nobody to talk to but they can certainly come out

03:51:01.360 on our sunday food pantry and feel that they matter to someone that that people recognize

03:51:08.980 them for their their being there for their um their kindness you know they're they're good

03:51:16.080 people and um most people just really just kind of blossom under that environment and people need

03:51:23.140 that and so it's like opening the door for people we really go out of our ways just as it's what we

03:51:30.120 do you know we we help people when we're in the post office or a store or something like that

03:51:35.140 which is so rare and say good morning hello you know and we all need to be doing that even though

03:51:40.900 it may not come back in a way that they'd be part of our church but it's good for them and they

03:51:46.340 spread it elsewhere and it's it's i've got something to add to that actually yeah um this

03:51:52.040 this last time standing out in the rain talking with people i we found several people who it

03:51:59.240 either were sympathetic to our beliefs or who felt that we were getting a dirty deal from others

03:52:05.300 and some who who thought well yeah we want to talk to you about this you know and i don't know if

03:52:11.120 anything will come of it but this was i've never seen a wave like that in the past okay to be

03:52:18.040 honest okay you heard more of that oh yeah well yeah different circumstances yeah absolutely

03:52:24.220 you know something we did for because we had our toy giveaway as well and i had a piece of paper

03:52:30.660 for them to fill out of contact information but i also asked on there would you like to know more

03:52:36.380 about the else about odenshoff and um i think it was seven out of 15 checked yes now i know one was

03:52:44.040 a lady who's obviously probably would not meet our qualifications but everybody else you know

03:52:51.700 i definitely will be sending information out just to remind them this is what you need to

03:52:57.220 do go to our website and that was kind of neat i've not done that before

03:53:03.860 that's awesome i really like

03:53:09.380 you know just being like greeting people and holding the door um i think that's something

03:53:14.020 that every ossature needs to do just in general in general go the speed limit especially in

03:53:21.060 residential areas wave to all the strangers that you see um say hello when you pass them

03:53:28.180 in the street or on the bus or in the mall or in the shopping center wherever it is just be

03:53:36.420 be a sociable person because that all that'll do is open doors um it's super important to

03:53:43.620 behave that way around our halls because we we want to be and have a particular need to be good

03:53:49.620 neighbors right um but also do that you know at around your homes and stuff too um sometimes katie

03:53:57.660 picks on me um because i'm that guy who like when we're on a walk i say hi to the strangers that

03:54:06.340 we're walking by and you know i i wave to people when we pass them in the car like you know like

03:54:13.760 i still think i'm in a jeep and i think they're in a jeep you know like wave to everybody in a jeep

03:54:17.880 um but i mean i think it's uh it's the white thing to do you know it's and and there's a

03:54:27.340 there's a second part of it too like it's acknowledging that you see them which has a

03:54:32.840 double meaning to it part of it is hello also it's like i do see you here so don't do anything

03:54:39.120 stupid you know um i think that our our culture in general has lost that um

03:54:50.560 so yeah i like that 0.99

03:54:57.680 um i would have gone with perseverance or loyalty myself um but i feel like i'll put on i'll put in

03:55:08.560 honor there we do not have enough hello sir yeah we're going to interrupt you for just a minute

03:55:16.740 there chris we have got al shirgothi matt with us uh driving home from some swanky party or

03:55:23.660 something like that how's it going sir going fantastic i don't know how swanky it is this

03:55:29.720 is the best camera shot you got and i'm not going to look at you because i'm i am driving but i've

03:55:35.200 got it in a little handy holder, and I just wanted, at first, I'm excited that the episode

03:55:40.120 looks like it is working out really well, we've got amazing people on the screen with

03:55:44.560 me, I appreciate you gentlemen hosting on short notice, you know, Brandy would have

03:55:50.620 loved to be here, she was looking forward to it, but unfortunately illness struck, but

03:55:55.420 yeah, I was at a 12th night party, and I just wanted to pop in, and I guess first, kind

03:56:01.880 to say what an amazing, amazing year 2025 has been for the Austria Wolf Assembly, and

03:56:11.380 I'm sure I'm covering ground everybody else has said, but I just, you know, I'm very thankful

03:56:15.480 that we've had the year that we've had, and that we've been able to share that, share

03:56:23.220 that year together, and participate in some of the stuff, so I'm getting pretty big feedback,

03:56:29.660 I don't know if you are, but, yeah, I appreciate you guys.

03:56:33.280 I appreciate all of the amazing audience on BNS and all our AFA family for all of the great things we've been able to do together over this last year.

03:56:44.340 And, yeah, just wanted to express that and tell everybody that I'm very excited to hit the ground running in 2026 and that we've got really great things ahead.

03:56:55.700 But it's, I don't know, it warms my heart to come on and see you guys still, you know, four hours in with such an active group of luminaries on the camera.

03:57:06.040 So keep up the good work, guys.

03:57:07.220 Y'all are awesome.

03:57:08.540 I'll be around, but I don't know how much longer I'm going to have signal where I'm at.

03:57:12.000 So, yeah, just wanted to say hi and wish everybody a fantastic start to 2026.

03:57:21.540 Awesome.

03:57:22.060 Thank you.

03:57:25.700 all right so chris you had a a virtue to share with us before you were gonna be out for the

03:57:33.580 night yes uh lovely little lulu one of the one of those 11 house of otanies has pushed my bedtime

03:57:40.960 and wake-up time far earlier than it used to be um i'm gonna go with the honor i feel like

03:57:49.680 recognizing the value recognizing things that matter is something that is often not done in

03:57:58.680 modernity and i feel like it often leads to why people don't persevere and why they are disloyal

03:58:04.740 because they don't either through uh low character or ignorance they don't they don't realize what's

03:58:11.800 important in life family faith folk these these are things that are important more people need to

03:58:19.420 to recognize that they need to recognize it in other people but with that i am going to have to

03:58:26.920 head off for the night it was good joining you uh east coasters at least and to entering the

03:58:34.740 new year so hail the gods hail the folk and hail victory everyone hail thanks for being here chris

03:58:42.240 and yeah you're right we got to recognize the honor in other people that's super important

03:58:46.340 all right i think i was i think i was the last one maybe yeah it was popping in and out hopefully

03:58:57.080 she'll be back um but right now you are next up uh i'm gonna go with courage i think 2025

03:59:05.580 was a great year for our people um you know social media opened up a lot i don't know how

03:59:13.340 into the internet everyone is but talking points advocating for people have become a little more

03:59:19.940 mainstream than they've been in the past couple years but I think courage is important because

03:59:25.160 I think it's part of the soul sickness is getting stuck in that victim mentality

03:59:30.760 and I think that's something that we should avoid it's easy to you know blame everybody else for

03:59:38.160 our problems instead of actively trying to fix them and building for the future so having the

03:59:43.940 courage to you know to join the afa having the courage to abandon abrahamism you know because

03:59:53.280 it's not conducive with the spirit of our folk having the courage to be asatru in your everyday

04:00:00.280 life and not hide behind you know you know to sierra's point fake names and stuff it's time

04:00:07.500 to be courageous. It's time to be openly supportive and advocate for our people

04:00:14.700 and to not be ashamed and hide behind anonymity. It's our time to be courageous

04:00:22.440 and capitalize on the pendulum swinging to where it's a little more mainstream to

04:00:29.700 advocate for our people. And I think that courage is important to carry us through that

04:00:35.020 because we're not eternal victims that's never what our people have been our people have been

04:00:41.180 victors and have passed all the trials that the world has thrown at us so that courage is

04:00:47.560 important for us to carry through and not wallow in you know solace and being upset about where we

04:00:55.040 are today it's about having the courage to you know put some weight on your back and carry our

04:01:01.840 people into the future um and that's why i think that we should focus on for 2026 i mean 2025 was

04:01:08.400 a great year for our people but we need to capitalize on it we need to be strong we need

04:01:12.960 to be brave and and we need to carry our people forward so the courage is my 2026 virtue that i'm

04:01:20.480 i'm hoping to see um have some great success so

04:01:24.480 awesome thanks tyler and uh it's less than two minutes to midnight in the central time zone

04:01:35.820 which is where our producer nick rice is located at um so nick fill some time and then count us

04:01:43.240 down yeah absolutely i figured i've been on the show a couple times but i'm not often on it on

04:01:50.600 camera unless i'm actually the official guest i'm the uh the ghost in the machine the voice behind

04:01:55.380 the veil so i since i'm the looks like sarah's been having uh technical difficulties all night

04:02:02.660 off and on so i'm the only central representative we've got so i've got so i decided i would uh

04:02:10.440 hop on here i had to get i'm on my phone and i'm on my computer doing the vns thing i will choose

04:02:16.540 as a virtue because i asked the question so i'm going to answer it too industriousness um we've

04:02:22.780 had a lot of work that we've put in for or that our folk and that our wonderful founder has been

04:02:29.580 putting in for the last what 40 50 years it feels like long time you've been working at it and you

04:02:37.340 gave us a lot of ground and a lot of uh a good foundation and we've got still a lot more work

04:02:43.100 to put in so that involves industriousness and working hard and getting it done um i don't have

04:02:49.740 a okay my clock just hit 000 so it is happy new year i didn't have a fancy schmancy timer

04:02:58.620 i just saw 000 on the clock so daytontime.com yeah yeah yeah i could have i guess i could have

04:03:06.780 have just used uh go to the east's and looked at when it said one zero zero but your tv in the

04:03:13.940 background is uh flashing the time when it moves around yeah i can't see right now but it'll bounce

04:03:20.660 off a wall and bounce and bounce i'm sure and oh there it's down the bottom again yeah so it is

04:03:27.100 happy new year uh we don't have any fancy banging and pots and pans traditions growing up as a kid

04:03:33.200 me and my our family we played like uh rummy until we maybe made it till midnight half the

04:03:40.880 time we didn't even we weren't always a big you have to stay up till midnight and now i'm old and

04:03:47.440 this is the only y'all vns oh my goodness keeps me up way past my bedtime i was telling my co-workers

04:03:56.140 the other day yes about tonight or today actually i was telling him i had to go he's like you got

04:04:01.900 new year's he plans i'm like hosting a church or producing my church's podcast and he's like

04:04:09.740 you do that every week and i'm like yeah you ever run notice stuff like i'm dragging on thursday

04:04:15.420 mornings because not not few and far between of these put me way past my bedtime but um you got

04:04:27.820 me. Hi. You've seen my face

04:04:29.460 for, like, I don't know, like the fourth or fifth time

04:04:31.800 I've been on the show, but I'm

04:04:33.920 leaving now.

04:04:36.100 I'll be behind the scenes.

04:04:38.460 Happy New Year, Nick.

04:04:40.240 Thank y'all. Happy New Year.

04:04:43.640 Happy New Year.

04:04:50.480 So I'm going to invite

04:04:51.740 people to submit some

04:04:53.740 more questions.

04:04:56.300 I don't know if our goal

04:04:57.800 is to make it to midnight Pacific Pacific time. 0.58

04:05:01.420 I'm going to leave that up to the McNallans.

04:05:05.520 Sheila's face said, heck no.

04:05:09.000 But, well, you know what? 0.91

04:05:11.460 We've got Githya Alt back now.

04:05:14.800 Githya Alt, will you introduce yourself

04:05:17.120 and tell us how your year was

04:05:20.180 and anything else that you want to share?

04:05:22.800 okay um i'm githia sarah alt uh my year has been pretty great uh i was ordained at fairfaxi up at

04:05:35.360 bouldershoff this year and it was an incredibly meaningful experience and everything that has

04:05:44.640 played out since then has been life-changing for me it has it has um i am so honored to take my

04:05:55.760 place among our many other gothar and um i strive daily to be worthy of it um so i my year all in

04:06:09.440 has been pretty good. Baldershof is thriving. Our leadership has grown more tight-knit, and

04:06:19.080 our Hof is amazing and is constantly improving. I am involved in the Ausatru Academy,

04:06:30.940 which is something I'm incredibly proud of, and I talk about a lot because it has come so far from

04:06:38.220 just being a concept of something that we wanted to what it has grown in today.

04:06:44.860 We are currently offering kindergarten through seventh grade. We recently came across a curriculum

04:06:52.560 that we really like that follows the Waldorf that we use. And by the end of January, we will have

04:06:59.960 up to 12th grade. And I'm incredibly proud of that. We expanded it because we understand that

04:07:07.560 um not everyone can homeschool not everyone can can is able to do that or at least isn't able to

04:07:16.160 do it yet so we wanted to bring an also true program that parents could use to integrate

04:07:23.720 into their own traditions so they could all learn together and grow an also true together

04:07:29.380 and we're very proud of that too and i really feel that every single parent in the afa should

04:07:35.140 be a part of our religious studies program, whether they homeschool or not.

04:07:41.740 Other than that, I am just, I am happy with the way life is moving forward. I am looking forward

04:07:48.240 to 2026, which just happened for me three minutes ago. And the future is incredibly bright for the

04:07:58.600 AFA, and I am thankful and grateful to be a part of it. And that is me.

04:08:09.540 Awesome. Thank you so much. So I've got a couple more questions that came in,

04:08:14.900 so I'm going to pitch them to whoever wants to answer them.

04:08:20.940 What's the biggest misconception about Asatru that you want corrected?

04:08:28.600 Go ahead, Tyler.

04:08:31.140 Oh, man.

04:08:32.600 The biggest misconception about ostrich that I want corrected is that morality came from Abrahamism.

04:08:40.000 Oh, man.

04:08:42.120 Our people were moral way before Abrahamism. 0.97

04:08:50.440 Marriage was between a man and a woman.

04:08:52.660 you know bad things happening between people where i'm trying not to get too graphic but

04:09:01.260 you know what i mean like our the what the framework of people that believe is like christian

04:09:06.440 morals comes from our people way before that even came to europe um so that's the biggest

04:09:14.280 misconception because you know people view paganism as a way to get back at their parents

04:09:21.120 to be edgy and it's like a license for degeneracy and it couldn't be farther from the truth um our

04:09:28.480 faith is is very moral and those morals came from our people and that's one of the most annoying

04:09:35.520 things i see out there is that they view it also true as a license for degeneracy and it's

04:09:40.800 couldn't be further from the truth i'll go next i the misconception that i want corrected about

04:09:55.600 also true is that we are hateful because like we're not just because i want the preservation

04:10:02.800 of my race doesn't mean that i hate your race like i want you to find your ethnic religion

04:10:09.200 i want you to embrace your traditions i want you to embrace your heritage

04:10:13.440 we can all live like i use california for an example because it's a place that's very

04:10:21.600 integrated right and i know so many um african americans that want to shop at black owned

04:10:28.800 businesses they want to live in black owned communities and that's okay for them but when

04:10:34.720 it comes to us it's not okay and it's love for my race does not mean hate for another and i think

04:10:40.640 the moment that people start realizing that is the moment that ossaroo will stop getting a bad rap

04:10:46.160 because right now it feels like it's simply just because we're white i've got no problem with

04:10:50.560 anybody else i just want to be left to my own devices for me and my folk and my family and i

04:10:55.280 want us to survive and thrive just like i want you to survive and thrive within your own categories

04:11:00.000 100 sierra everybody should be folkish everybody in the world should be folkish

04:11:08.120 um you know we're not the only ones who were religiously colonized it happened to a lot of

04:11:15.680 other people i think we were first but it proceeded after that and um i think that

04:11:23.340 relations between different peoples would be a lot more honest and organic if we were all true

04:11:31.100 to those roots like you were talking about. Does anyone else have any misconceptions about

04:11:37.240 Asatru that they want corrected? What about the founder? Does the founder have anything he wants

04:11:48.060 Yes. As a matter of fact, matter of fact, he does. But again, like I said, I'm Irish. I have to talk. So I think what was said in the last couple of minutes is very, very, very important.

04:12:04.860 I also think it's important for people to realize that we don't live in the past.

04:12:10.840 We don't operate in the past.

04:12:13.400 We don't stay home and sharpen our swords.

04:12:17.200 We do other things.

04:12:19.800 But basically, this is a modern thing.

04:12:24.600 It's not just ancient.

04:12:25.860 It has ancient roots.

04:12:27.280 It has ancient implications.

04:12:29.480 It has ancient thoughts in many ways.

04:12:32.520 but hell's bells I've been a space travel enthusiast all my life you know when I was a kid

04:12:40.740 I wanted to be the first person to go to the moon and I still I still read tons of science

04:12:46.720 fiction when I think if I had time which I don't and you know we we are modern people we are

04:12:53.500 technical people we are we are industrious people we are well learned people in many different

04:13:01.720 things. We don't live in the past. For us, that which is within us is eternal. It is, has roots

04:13:09.520 in the past, but it is still here today, still active today. And, you know, I would like to think

04:13:15.780 that, that, you know, a thousand years from now, Asatrua are colonizing around Alpha Centauri or

04:13:22.080 something. You know, we are the folk. We are our folk. We are folk with pride and we are explorers.

04:13:31.200 We are overcomers. We are doers. We are those who overcome and become more than we are.

04:13:41.460 I'll shut up now.

04:13:42.760 Okay. So I'm going to add a couple of things because it doesn't come up as often as it used

04:13:47.800 to, maybe five or 10 years ago, a little bit more, but people always talk about us as being

04:13:52.040 basically a warrior cult and that we are a cult. Robert Taylor used to say cult is something that

04:13:59.200 is so inward looking, but we're not, you know, we've always been willing to deal with society

04:14:04.880 on the outside and we can maintain ourselves with our communities outside, whether it's school or

04:14:12.180 work or family, you know, and that's who we are. But the other thing, so we're basically all about

04:14:17.860 warriors and men, you know, carrying swords and all. And of course, anti-women, misogynists,

04:14:23.940 everybody that there's no place for women in our church that we're just expected to have babies,

04:14:28.140 right stay home and have babies that's okay but not everybody does that and we certainly

04:14:33.820 acknowledge women have a right to choose a career to work alongside you know with their husbands or

04:14:38.900 do the work and let their husbands stay home we allow total freedom we never dictate to someone

04:14:44.520 what their lifestyle should be and women definitely have an important role as leaders but also all

04:14:53.100 ladies have important roles in altitude that the men just don't have and it's due to our nature

04:14:58.740 our feminal nature and the fact that we have women's mysteries of which um sarah knows and

04:15:05.500 sierra knows we all know and brandy is so good about reminding us of that and so it's a wonderful

04:15:12.060 place for ladies to find a place of respect and of worth and ability to make change in the world

04:15:21.360 come to the AFA because we've got a lot going on

04:15:24.800 and we can use you all.

04:15:31.340 Awesome.

04:15:32.100 I've got one too.

04:15:34.280 It's not exactly a misconception about Asatru

04:15:37.300 that I want corrected,

04:15:38.200 but it's more of a broader understanding of Asatru

04:15:41.680 that I'd like to recognize.

04:15:45.280 I want to keep the Yule in Yuletide.

04:15:48.100 I would really like for the broader world, especially our folk, but everyone else too, to recognize that the gift giving and that the Yule tree and that all the winter elf stuff and the feasting and the Yule log and all that stuff that goes with the winter solstice holiday.

04:16:18.100 that that's asa true that that comes from our people because it's shocking to me sometimes

04:16:24.860 like i'm so steeped in in asa true now that i forget that people don't know that and

04:16:30.820 shame on me i was watching fox news the other day and um they were talking about like christmas

04:16:38.680 stuff right and it was from such an ignorant point of view and you know i can't always blame

04:16:46.840 someone for what they don't know because they don't know it it's you know like like that innocent 0.71

04:16:52.620 kind of pure ignorance that yeah there should be some more intellectual curiosity but they they

04:16:58.340 straight up just don't know any better but it was like i've known this for so long that it it becomes

04:17:07.020 frustrating when when i'm reminded that that people don't you know that they think that that stuff has

04:17:13.620 something to do with the birth of a baby in a desert manger in the levant which you know may

04:17:21.360 or may not happen that's not really into my business but it doesn't have anything to do

04:17:24.320 with that tree there behind me you know and and the same thing with with easter ostera i i would

04:17:32.320 very like very much like for um you know the recognition of the eggs and the rabbits and the

04:17:39.320 grass all those fertility symbols the flowers to to be recognized with their with their proper

04:17:46.720 origins um you know and in some ways that that that applies to our also true folk as well you

04:17:53.420 know calling astra easter is still kind of taboo even though that is straight up our word that's

04:18:01.080 not like the the jehovah's witnesses get it right when they call it resurrection day you know for

04:18:06.480 their faith um easter the word isn't even related to the holiday they're celebrating so um yeah

04:18:15.740 it's not it's not a misconception about asatru i mean i guess if there is a misconception it's that

04:18:21.340 it's not real that it's not ancient that it is you know made up rather than people not seeing

04:18:28.120 that it's been all around them and all part of our culture this whole time

04:18:31.500 get the altar do you have any misconceptions about us sorry i was about to know she's muted

04:18:44.160 she was trying to talk sorry i was just going to say public relations you talk about um people

04:18:51.100 being on newscasts for instance brought into and talking about christmas or oscar or something like

04:18:57.160 that. And in fact, that's the kind of stuff Steve used to do in the very earliest days back in the

04:19:01.920 90s. He was constantly being interviewed by newspapers and people would come around and

04:19:06.560 ask him about Ewell. There's, you know, made the front page, you know, for Kennewick Man and Ewell

04:19:12.120 and all those things. But we don't, we're not doing that kind of stuff. And I encourage our

04:19:17.020 leaders, but also, you know, others who are interested, reach out to our leaders, go to your

04:19:21.860 local um uh tv show you know a tv program in your town and see if they wouldn't like to interview

04:19:29.780 you at yule about what we do and it's it's possible of course that we still of course have the else

04:19:35.540 true focus assembly label to us which it can be very limiting but if you can get around that and

04:19:41.140 say it's also true it's australia and by the way runestone.org which is what i would always say

04:19:46.900 but there are a lot of opportunities for us to get the word out we're just really not reaching

04:19:52.420 out in that way we're doing x very well and things like that but i hadn't thought about

04:19:56.660 the idea of news programs because they do like local things what's going on locally for the

04:20:03.540 holiday traditions i mean certainly hanukkah gets a lot of attention in just about any community

04:20:08.340 right in kwanzaa to a certain extent not so much as it used to but we deserve uh just as

04:20:16.260 prominent a role in the holidays all over our holiday this one because it is goes back to

04:20:21.760 everybody's roots who's from Europe so yeah just again public 2026 let this be a good year for

04:20:30.280 public relations and try to get the word out about who we are and what we're about so there

04:20:34.740 is not the myth and the misconceptions about what we really are about

04:20:39.680 Find some new avenues, maybe, right?

04:20:44.680 Yeah.

04:20:53.680 So, Githia, what grinds your gears about what people don't understand about Asichu?

04:20:59.680 um that

04:21:04.800 that they think it's a bunch of drunken men around a fire yelling about woton and

04:21:15.980 see you in valhalla those are the things that drive me nuts that they this is so family oriented

04:21:25.120 it. And it has been through the whole line of our ancestors. I wish people would see that part of it,

04:21:32.900 that we are, we're a family. And whether you have children or whether you're married or in a

04:21:38.520 relationship, you are all welcome. It is all of us together worshiping our gods. And I wish people

04:21:45.940 would see that more than the stereotypical drunk men with horns around a fire and and that is my

04:21:55.940 biggest thing i would say awesome so i have a question for founder mcnally um you reminded me

04:22:11.380 of something that i have always well not always but that i've wondered about lately um from from

04:22:18.740 reading the spear and hearing some of your more recent talks um and um you know comparing that

04:22:25.700 with with things that we've spoken about before and things that i've read that you've written

04:22:29.140 before so i understand that you have long perhaps always been like a space travel and like stellar

04:22:37.860 colonization enthusiast right you want to see also true in alpha centauri um but i also i

04:22:45.940 also understand that you have um some serious reservations about artificial intelligence

04:22:51.540 and how do you balance the the colonization of star systems and ai like with those concerns like

04:23:02.020 Like, how do you get that kind of space travel without AI, and how do you see that playing out?

04:23:09.580 And I know it's sort of an imaginary scenario.

04:23:12.140 You're not the AI computer scientist that's going to do all this stuff, but, like, where's your head at on that kind of thing?

04:23:19.980 Well, if AI were used solely as collections of, for example, scientific data, not sticking its nose into our lives, what we do, where we want to be, where we want to go, what do we think about politics, X, Y, and Z.

04:23:41.960 If it were just a matter of collecting scientific data, for example, of putting together combinations of information that would help us to, for example, come up with faster than light travel or so-called warp drive, if you will, that would be one thing.

04:24:02.980 But AGI, if you let that stuff go, frankly, we're screwed, in my opinion.

04:24:09.360 I believe in freedom. I believe in the freedom of our minds, of our actions, and certainly of

04:24:18.220 our future. And for me, that doesn't include some damn robot giving me, you know, building the world 0.96

04:24:27.200 for me that I have to fit into. Humanity comes first. We control it. It's not to control us. 0.98

04:24:37.800 If it wants to do some good calculations that will help me build space drive, awesome.

04:24:45.480 If it wants to tell me what to think about X, Y, or Z, if it wants to limit me in any way, well, kind of put a little bit of TNT on it, baby.

04:24:58.360 That's the way I feel about it.

04:24:59.920 I see space travel as another step in the expansion of our people.

04:25:11.640 And there are problems with that.

04:25:14.160 Everything from, okay, how will that change us, for example?

04:25:17.740 I mean, in many respects, physically and otherwise,

04:25:20.100 just like AI may, in fact, change us in various ways that we do not want to happen

04:25:25.360 and will not allow to happen.

04:25:29.920 But I think we will probably take our environment with us.

04:25:34.660 I don't think we're going to do things that would mutate us vastly over time.

04:25:43.000 But I just believe in exploration.

04:25:46.520 Vikings, another obvious example, exploration, go places, do things, become more than you are by doing things that you have not done before.

04:25:58.240 That's kind of the way I see it. We are the space exploring race.

04:26:06.240 I mean, everything from the V-2 on upwards.

04:26:12.240 You know, I believe, was it Fawn Brown or one of those early guys who someone asked him how the V-2 rocket succeeded?

04:26:23.240 Did it work?

04:26:24.960 Did it work?

04:26:25.680 Was it that fly to success?

04:26:28.040 And he said, yes, the only problem was that it landed on the wrong planet.

04:26:32.580 And, you know, I get that.

04:26:34.900 I get that.

04:26:35.680 We are explorers.

04:26:37.200 But always, always, always, always, we must remember who we are.

04:26:43.640 I don't want our race to transmorph into some other kind of a thing.

04:26:49.900 I want us to be in the image of our ancestors and with the ambitions and the drive and the way of

04:26:58.780 our ancestors. That's us. I don't want to see us, you know, become something else. We only need to

04:27:06.980 become, become with a capital B, become more than we are in our, but keeping it within our paradigms.

04:27:17.060 I kind of went on about that

04:27:19.420 I hope that makes some sense

04:27:20.540 I think you did well

04:27:22.060 I was curious about that

04:27:25.580 because I've always thought like okay

04:27:26.980 if we're going to be able to get to another star

04:27:29.200 we're going to need some kind of AI

04:27:30.740 and I think it's the kind you're talking about

04:27:32.360 like the Star Trek ship computer basically

04:27:34.540 like we need something like that

04:27:37.420 but not

04:27:38.940 not a societal micromanager

04:27:41.320 basically right

04:27:42.160 it's time to start pulling grenade pins

04:27:45.500 if they try that stuff

04:27:46.700 oh no i didn't say that he didn't say that we know nothing we know nothing

04:27:53.060 okay all right well we got another question um this is uh this could be a very simple question

04:28:02.580 or a really complicated one i guess depending on who answers it and and and what they want

04:28:09.280 share about it um what is the best offering you've ever given that could mean so many things i uh

04:28:25.120 i definitely would say like i've gone through a pretty big transformation just like of myself in

04:28:32.400 general in the past year and a half um and one of the things that i like to think of when i do it

04:28:40.320 is the uh have them all quote you know i give myself to myself and so that's very simple so

04:28:47.840 that's not i know that's not the whole quote but that's those of us in leadership we shorthand it

04:28:52.560 to that when we're speaking about it to each other um the myself to myself quote and like i essentially

04:28:58.960 gave up who I used to be as an offering to become a new person, to leave all of who I was behind

04:29:04.760 to grow into who I want to become. Short and simple. That makes sense. Yeah.

04:29:15.600 Awesome. Githya, Sarah, what about you?

04:29:17.640 i really like what sierra said i'm i'm trying to think of a an another example

04:29:32.760 of an offering um

04:29:41.000 i guess in a way my loyalty to the afa

04:29:44.280 is is an offering in a way um considering the way it was given years ago when there

04:30:01.240 were some issues and i could have walked away and i didn't so in a way i think i would consider that

04:30:09.400 offering? I don't know, Cliff, what do you think?

04:30:14.080 I think so. I think devotion is

04:30:18.160 an offering that consistently choosing to

04:30:22.400 stay on

04:30:26.220 task. I think that is. I mean,

04:30:30.120 devotion is one of the best

04:30:33.740 things that we can give. I tell people in person

04:30:37.620 at at phrase hoff and when you know when i need to give a folk builder a pep talk that

04:30:42.620 every minute that you put into this every every drop of sweat um i think i might have mentioned

04:30:51.440 this on um the the odens hoff call i was on recently that every everything that you do

04:30:58.040 that brings our folk into circle at bloat at a hoff or at another gathering at a state park or

04:31:07.540 wherever, that that's in that fire when that offering's made, that that's in the smoke that's

04:31:13.180 going up to the Aesir, the time, the money, the effort, the emotional stress, the late nights,

04:31:23.740 early mornings, like every little bit that helped make that happen is part of it. And, you know,

04:31:28.720 devotion is the one word summary, I think, that would apply to that. And I think that

04:31:33.740 that the decisions that you made absolutely beat that definition in a very, very solid way.

04:31:46.300 I'm going to go more mundane for my answer. We were talking about oaths earlier, and I think

04:31:54.360 this might be more of an older school Asatru thing to do. I don't know if people still do it

04:31:58.700 these days um but i have owned horns that have had bad oaths over them not by me by um former members

04:32:10.380 of my kindred or um or just you know people that i thought i knew that i didn't know very well

04:32:19.420 that i probably shouldn't have been allowing to make an oath over that horn um and one of

04:32:25.420 the hardest things to do is to burn a horn that you love for the right reasons because um you know

04:32:34.860 sometimes you can't take those things out of the horn right and if there's too many broken

04:32:41.260 oaths over it if there's too much um too much bad weird in the horn then then sometimes you

04:32:53.180 got to push that reset right right and you know burning a horn is a symbolic way to do that it

04:32:59.340 doesn't change a broken oath or anything like that but it does provide an outlet for representing a

04:33:06.140 break from that tradition and and moving to something new um and i guess it doesn't quite

04:33:12.940 qualify as like an offering um i think it does oh it definitely does you do not want to give up a

04:33:19.340 horn who wants to they have you know for the good things that happen with that horn you're having to

04:33:25.500 destroy it for the one or two bad things so that is a huge sacrifice yeah it's a thing

04:33:32.380 we haven't done that have you ever done that no i don't think so i remember we were given a horn once

04:33:39.420 that was not that had came came with bad energy unfortunately and i don't know if steve remembers

04:33:46.540 it was given to us it was given to us by another i was a true leader of of what note back um probably

04:33:54.940 2000 and something and i don't remember what happened to that horn but it never felt it never

04:34:00.620 felt good you know we should have definitely done something immediately with it so people think

04:34:06.460 about that you know if you receive something and you just get the feeling that the energy is bad

04:34:12.060 about it you know burying it or burning it another thing we do is we always have all these little

04:34:17.420 pieces of rune runes on papers around here and it's always you have to burn so the idea is burning

04:34:24.380 anything that is of a runic nature and not letting it just you know you don't just throw it away and

04:34:31.580 so we have so many little piles of this and that that we have not yet burned but that's just

04:34:38.060 something we do because it seems wrong to just throw it in the garbage if it was meant to be a

04:34:44.460 rune runic symbol so it's kind of a silly thing in a way because sometimes it is just a piece of

04:34:50.060 paper but i can't can't just throw it away you know it's gotta be anyway but once you put that

04:34:56.060 meaning into it it's not just a piece of paper anymore it's true it is not for whatever reason

04:35:01.820 it was made it was made for a purpose and so you just do not toss it away yeah it's like treating

04:35:07.900 the flag with respect you don't throw a tattered american flag in the garbage you bury it or you

04:35:14.220 burn it or you put it into one of those deposit boxes where someone does the respectful thing for

04:35:18.620 you um right right we we're actually doing something like that at at phrasehof um at the

04:35:27.180 the Freya altar, and at the Freya and Gerda shrines, we have the beautiful little like

04:35:34.720 jewelry boxes that Gilbert carved for us. And we're using those to store any small notes

04:35:45.300 or offerings that people leave up there. And we're not set up for an outside ritual fire

04:35:52.340 just yet. We will be by May Day because we got to have a Maypole at Freya's off, right?

04:35:56.060 but right until then we have these small boxes that we're keeping anything like it and so

04:36:02.300 um some of the kids wrote notes the dedication those are all folded up and in those boxes um

04:36:09.200 anything that people put up there that's non-perishable we're not putting grapes or

04:36:15.600 chocolate milk or something in there um but anything that's non-perishable is going to go

04:36:21.960 in there and um we will be properly sending them to the gods um when we have that outdoor ritual

04:36:33.040 space established i think i said that we're going to do it at fray faxing because that makes sense

04:36:37.640 um we'll just we'll just keep them every fray faxing and do that then um but yeah it's it's

04:36:45.220 important to treat those things with respect and um yeah i didn't want to burn that horn but

04:36:51.060 it was broken as they say yeah well good for you for following through when you knew it was the

04:37:00.240 right thing yeah you would have hesitated githya katie's done the same as you have uh githya

04:37:07.120 sheila she's she's received gifts that gave her a really strong bad vibe as it were and that might

04:37:14.560 sound like some hippie crap but it's real um yeah you can you can feel the energy in something at

04:37:20.180 least some people can not everyone necessarily can but when you do pick up on something like 0.97

04:37:24.480 that if there's a gift that's given with with bad intentions um it could be just that it has like a

04:37:32.700 chaotic past in history and that you don't want to be part of that or it could be that somebody

04:37:37.460 maybe has done something intentional and either way um you want to protect yourself from it so

04:37:44.000 there's there's been a few times where githya katie's had to destroy gifts part either by

04:37:50.300 burying or burning or um or or even sometimes by like desecrating them if there's you know

04:37:59.620 the belief of a particularly bad action um even being disrespectful to it can can be a good thing

04:38:08.560 in a way if you're if your aim is to like break from it you know and it's not and there's never

04:38:14.720 been anything good like in the horn example there's a lot of good in there so it's kind of

04:38:19.580 a mourning thing but if it's like if it's something that you believe is just not good for you

04:38:26.360 you want to just push it away basically um githya katie could speak a lot more on that and i don't

04:38:33.740 want to share overly personal details out of out of turn but um but yeah that's that stuff is real

04:38:41.660 you know this comes to mind something for sierra to think about with me we really need to have a 0.98

04:38:48.460 some kind of receptacle or a little burner at our goddess pole so we can do offerings to the 0.60

04:38:56.060 goddesses because we don't while we have you know we take meat out whatever we have no place to

04:39:00.880 actually put something that is burnable in there we've got it the main ritual site but that would

04:39:05.540 be something for 2026 to come up with with something portable we bring out for that and

04:39:11.680 it has its purpose because i could see us having boxes obviously odin frig you know we've got that

04:39:18.240 connection but um you know on the the ancestors table we could even have particular have boxes

04:39:25.480 to the various goddesses that we generally don't don't acknowledge and somebody could put in

04:39:32.280 offerings and we could then take it out to the goddess circle and do it or we can bury of course

04:39:37.640 we've we've done that before where we actually did with a trial and very little notes in there

04:39:42.520 as well but uh yeah we haven't really used our goddess circle effectively yet to a certain extent

04:39:49.720 but not completely.

04:39:52.080 Sierra?

04:39:54.140 Oh, I was just saying, I was like writing it down.

04:39:56.620 We'll talk about it on Friday during leadership meeting.

04:39:59.340 There we go.

04:40:02.820 For everyone watching, this is one of the great things about having multiple Hoffs.

04:40:07.520 The more of them that we have, the more that we can learn from each other. 0.96

04:40:13.540 It's kind of like the experiment among the states, right?

04:40:16.360 Like the more of them that there are and the more that they have some kind of success or even a failure, the better off the rest can be.

04:40:25.840 You know, like if we mess something up bad at Frazehoff, I promise you that they're not going to do it at Baldershoff and they're not going to do it at Odenshoff.

04:40:33.880 And vice versa, when they do something awesome at Odenshoff, we're all going to borrow or steal that idea and, you know, and replicate it and adapt it.

04:40:42.240 of course it'll probably take on a local touch but it'll it'll spread if it's good and if it's

04:40:49.920 bad it won't everything we do amazing just full stop yeah we're working on lighting and that's

04:40:58.620 one thing that you that katie achieved at phrasehoff was um during the dedication was the

04:41:05.660 beautiful ambient lighting of candles everywhere and i know she said i spent a lot of money on them

04:41:11.680 but it was so effective. And then you also had the burner in there that was a propane, propane

04:41:17.960 torch thing, but it wasn't just a little flicker. There was a real powerful movement of flame in

04:41:24.660 that huge hall, which it needed something very minor, you know, a nice big candle wouldn't have

04:41:29.000 done it. It was there. It was making noise. It was kind of clicking in the background, doing

04:41:33.080 whatever. And it kept us aware that there was always this, this energy right there that we

04:41:39.420 We were focused around, especially during the Summel.

04:41:41.940 I mean, I was really aware of your flame during the Summel.

04:41:45.140 It was beautiful, but, and I had to ask you, how is it made?

04:41:48.500 What, how did you even get this here?

04:41:50.920 Because everybody, the other Hoffs, they have the little alcohol burners, which we don't even have.

04:41:56.240 We do candles, and now we're starting to do, we did the little fairy lights this year, put them in jars,

04:42:03.200 and they were perfect for a table so we could actually turn big overhead um fluorescent lights

04:42:10.080 off during yule which nobody likes but it's what we have for picture taking whatever and um yeah

04:42:17.200 we're refining our lighting very much based on what we're seeing at other hafs we're eventually

04:42:22.560 going to get some chandeliers we need that and that might come sooner sooner rather than later

04:42:27.280 we've got some ideas but um it is something about um giving the right ambience within our

04:42:35.280 our hoffs for ritual that really does contribute to everybody's sense of focus

04:42:42.400 on the nature of why we're there and uh it's hard to do when you've got fluorescent lights so

04:42:47.760 just want to say thank you we loved being at phrase off it was was a huge highlight definitely

04:42:54.400 a highlight of the whole year is being there with you and it was so perfect because you and and katie

04:42:59.840 who've been around forever you know kind of on the sidelines going to other hops and here was yours

04:43:05.520 and you did it so well the two of you it was phenomenal it was just perfect it was meant to be

04:43:11.440 that's what i love about the afa is that when things happen and you maybe you've struggled for

04:43:16.400 a while you didn't get the job and all of a sudden something comes together and all of a sudden it

04:43:20.320 was meant to be the gods did it you know the norns and the the gods get together they kind

04:43:25.280 of worked it out and you're going to meander around but you're going to get there and you

04:43:28.640 got the most beautiful hof within an hour or so of your home and it couldn't have been more perfect

04:43:36.080 and wonderful place for your children they were charming and um the kids loved it it was just

04:43:42.800 phenomenal it was such a wonderful weekend very intense it was one big day but boy going around

04:43:50.080 in the snow and doing the um land taking oh my goodness and all the chanting we did of the rooms

04:43:57.520 over and over and over just amazing and yeah i'm a talker and i i had so many good conversations

04:44:06.640 i mean it was just it was just overwhelming uh it was it was great you know you got a great crew

04:44:13.680 out there and uh and we had just a butt kick time yeah it was wonderful i appreciate you saying that

04:44:22.480 i hope you can come back again and we can show you the woods because there's there's more land

04:44:26.480 there than we actually actually walked around we did the you know the the indian guard there's a

04:44:32.160 little bit of guard out there in the woods where it's a little bit more wild and um it's not

04:44:37.440 not excuse me it's not much but it's nice that we have it um and yeah the lighting thing i i have

04:44:45.240 plans about that because it's not perfect um the the chandelier lights for example they have they

04:44:52.140 still have like those bright white bulbs in them we didn't replace them because there's so many of

04:44:56.640 them i think i need 80 to do it correctly because there's there's like 10 in each one of those

04:45:02.860 things so to replace them with the soft light ones that's a lot of light bulbs so um fortunately

04:45:12.500 we don't keep them on during bloat or during stumble because the candles and the uh the

04:45:18.800 central folk flame um keep it you know keep it well lit and um you know and the the shininess

04:45:28.260 of the the gold leaf there's a lot there but uh but we we took the uh so the the folk flame in

04:45:35.900 the middle that actually is a cue that we took from Baldershof um because the the little alcohol

04:45:41.300 burner things is something that had started I think Witten's Fawn did that first at Thorshof

04:45:46.900 if I'm wrong about that and I'm misallocating credit I apologize but I think that's where

04:45:52.060 that started. And then, um, I know that Baldur's Hoff had, um, worked with, uh, with a propane

04:46:00.420 one. And I was talking to Al-Shergothi Matt about, these are the nerdy conversations that 0.70

04:46:07.860 he and I have sometimes about like, if we forget about everything that we've done, what's the ideal

04:46:13.780 form of a Hoff? And one of the things we were talking about is sort of the redundancy of having

04:46:20.560 the altar up underneath the mural and then also having another altar in the middle of the sanctuary

04:46:29.260 that the folk process around in a circle and where you know in practical terms the gothi puts

04:46:37.440 his gothic instruments like sometimes there might be a book there there might be a sprig there there

04:46:43.980 might be a bully there there's things that the gothi needs sometimes as instruments of a right

04:46:49.960 that are you know suited to putting on a you know an altar or a table and having them all the way up

04:46:58.680 in the deus under the mural is not practical so there needs to be something in the middle

04:47:04.120 of that circle in the sanctuary but also wanting to bring back the the central hearth feel of

04:47:12.760 you know an ancient asa true temple and you know those conversations and things that we

04:47:22.600 observed at baldur's hof kind of resulted in us finding that peace which you know for for anyone

04:47:29.240 else who's running a hof out there the the secret is um bar height porch torch a bar height torch

04:47:39.640 um flame like those outdoor heaters it's made for just putting on your back porch and drinking wine 0.57

04:47:44.920 at so that's all that is it's a propane that you're supposed to have on you know entertain

04:47:53.240 a lady back there um and you know katie prettied it up with the uh with the green tablecloth and

04:48:02.520 the yule decorations and all of that and we've actually improved it since that little wind guard

04:48:07.480 thing we the ring we removed that because it flickered a little bit too much for our liking

04:48:13.480 so now it comes up into this nice cone it still makes some noise and it still flickers and shakes

04:48:17.960 but it doesn't um it doesn't make as much of the noise because it was it was kind of like blowing

04:48:23.320 around and i think that the the wind guard messed with some of the yeah there was there were some

04:48:28.280 airflow issues or something going on um so that that wind guard is trash we just removed it um

04:48:36.120 but it's uh yeah that's that's the hack just a a back porch uh bar height outdoor

04:48:46.280 fireplace thing so i'm glad to go out my goddess circle you know same thing

04:48:53.560 something like that i should post that in our hof gothar chat so that everyone knows exactly what 0.79

04:49:00.520 what we did. That way anyone else who needs one can do it too.

04:49:09.500 Well, we got a couple more questions in here. Let's get one out onto the floor.

04:49:20.400 All right. So I've got one here and I want to answer this one first because

04:49:26.880 it's an easy answer for me the question is what is the best outdoor place that you've done ritual

04:49:34.960 um so so as an ordained gothi this is a maybe a different answer than

04:49:43.600 you know a lot of other ossature might have a lot for a lot of them it's going to be the

04:49:47.180 best place where they stood in circle but for me without a doubt it is that outdoor circle at

04:49:51.580 and it's because there's an energy there that's already there when I was walking the circle

04:50:01.680 before the balder bloat and you know getting a feel for it and going through things in my head

04:50:08.760 getting myself in the right headspace I was super nervous about that bloat and I've I've done many

04:50:16.580 bloats um as a gothi and but you guys were there i've never done a bloat you two were in circle

04:50:25.380 before and that is a big deal um so that the energy in in that place because of the bloats that have

04:50:37.540 been done there by both of you by alshir gothi matt by gothi thorgrun and others um it's it's

04:50:48.260 palpable the place it's a charged up place you know when when we when we can make a place sacred

04:50:59.140 I think by, by, by repetition, by practice. And that, that circle, the amount of effort that's

04:51:08.860 put into it, the amount of devotion, the, the 10 years now of continuous, it, it was obvious.

04:51:18.620 It was much more powerful than any place that I've, I've done a bloat, like in a state park

04:51:28.480 anything and there have been some beautiful places

04:51:30.500 like you know where there's a waterfall or

04:51:32.540 something along a hiking trail like

04:51:34.340 places that

04:51:35.680 that have a

04:51:38.560 real strong claim to like the best place

04:51:40.600 I've ever held

04:51:42.480 a bloat you know or

04:51:44.180 you know the

04:51:45.820 the fire pit at Camp

04:51:48.420 Natimus I have so many good memories about

04:51:50.540 that place

04:51:51.260 but that place had a

04:51:54.560 had an off energy too because

04:51:56.620 we weren't the only ones using it there was

04:51:58.480 you know there was some funny stuff going on when we weren't there um but that that circle

04:52:06.320 at odenshoff the it made it easy the

04:52:11.780 speaking to balder from that space i feel like my voice was amplified that it's not elsewhere

04:52:21.580 and i think that that's true in our in our hoffs in general but that circle in particular

04:52:28.100 um you know that black sun brickwork that that place is special and uh

04:52:36.020 yeah pretty awesome pretty awesome in in the in the most theological sense of the word awesome

04:52:43.860 true it is yeah and the neat thing is it was never used uh religiously spiritually in any

04:52:53.060 other way that we know of even though the place had been a church um by previous owners it would

04:53:00.040 never have been outdoors so that area was totally ready for us to sanctify and to continue building

04:53:06.540 what i've done my my winter nights floats out there i think are really powerful and everybody

04:53:14.560 takes rooms at the end and i just feel like the connection with the mothers are always incredibly

04:53:19.440 strong and people come away just getting answers you know they walk away and they know exactly

04:53:25.620 what they asked and what the outcome is that they should be uh following from from that and um

04:53:34.840 yeah those are my favorite favorite ones just like katie with her her fall ones mine too my october

04:53:42.140 floats are my very favorite because i do feel it's really easy to connect with the mothers there

04:53:49.440 Yeah. Odinsoff would be very high on my list of special places, obviously. Duh. But there

04:54:01.760 were also a number of places in Germany that were outstanding, to put it mildly.

04:54:06.320 Oh, I haven't heard about that. Oh, when we went over for our trip to Germany.

04:54:12.000 Yeah, yeah. Not when I was serving Uncle Sam over there, waiting for the Russians to come 0.95

04:54:18.080 through the folding gap yeah which they never did thank goodness um you guys did some powerful 0.61

04:54:23.600 nighttime rituals over there yeah yeah we did yeah we did a number of number of test ones uh

04:54:31.680 there were certain places there that when you walk into the room it's like moving through

04:54:39.760 and uh you know that that sort of thing was extremely powerful extremely powerful

04:54:52.560 yeah i am i also i'm gonna say odin's off to jump on the train but i had a really auspicious

04:55:01.520 uh situation happened there actually i was pretty new to osatra at the time and uh so

04:55:11.040 like even more auspicious my family has been going camping at a specific campground since i was about

04:55:15.280 13 years old and once i joined the afa i found out that they were literally seven minutes apart from

04:55:22.160 each other so i've always been near the hawk without realizing i was near the hawk and my

04:55:27.520 family went up to go camping and probably about 2021 right around the first time i joined um and

04:55:34.000 so i drove up later and it was a really beautiful sunny day and i just had a really good feeling so

04:55:40.080 i was like you know i'm gonna stop by the hof and i'm gonna do a blow to odin i'm very new i don't

04:55:44.880 know how to do blow i'm just by myself doing my own thing and i'm being loud and proud about it

04:55:51.520 because i'm a loud and proud person and i like i'm getting jitters i'm feeling it's a great it's a

04:55:59.660 great feeling and then i i conclude i conclude with my bloat and i go to walk out of the circle

04:56:06.120 and as i'm walking out of the circle somebody is walking into the hof to come into the circle

04:56:12.020 and it was one of our other members who lives in the same town as me he didn't know i was going to

04:56:17.740 be up there i didn't know he was going to be up there we both just happened to come at the same

04:56:21.720 time and he was coming up to do a bloat to odin by himself with a friend he had from texas as well

04:56:26.220 and so it was like it was a really kind of fun little like auspicious thing it was like i

04:56:32.100 finished mine okay your turn you can go now but um that was a really awesome experience to have

04:56:38.420 i was very embarrassed because i had never uh i had never um done bloat before and here i am being

04:56:45.480 loud and thinking of by myself and there's a member and his girlfriend standing outside but

04:56:49.740 it was a lot of fun so

04:56:51.460 both we don't have people just drop in and go to especially because people know that

04:57:01.840 our ritual circle is very sacred so people do not just wander in idly and use it um but that was

04:57:10.880 really neat that the two that were there for the same reason as basically just members there to

04:57:16.000 honor honor the hof and oven in our ritual space neat i love that that story that was right yeah

04:57:23.520 it's like even more interesting is that this member he lives near me but he's hardly home

04:57:29.580 because he's always getting sent places due to his job so the fact that he had happened to be

04:57:34.280 home that weekend decided to come up there just kind of all meshed together really well so yeah

04:57:38.900 was back nice memory sheila yeah i remember how about sarah have you talked about yours special

04:57:49.060 ritual i have um unfortunately i have boulders off is the only half that i've been to

04:57:56.420 and there have been many special bloats there but the bloat all that stands out to me the most is

04:58:05.380 from fall fest 2019 and that was my first national event and my first time experiencing

04:58:13.220 matt's odin's bullet um i had no idea what to expect and it was it blew me away with the energy

04:58:23.140 in it the it was a calm fall night there was no wind but as we entered the circle and and as

04:58:32.900 things were going on the wind picked up and the the tiki torches were just blowing in this wind

04:58:39.300 that suddenly came up and it was i i did not have words after it and i actually went back to

04:58:47.460 our cabin up there and just sat for a while and tried to process everything i experienced

04:58:54.100 during the bloat and it was just it was incredible and and i'm thankful for that experience because

04:59:01.780 that kept me coming back because i wanted to experience more of that

04:59:12.580 so my favorite bloat like not to since we're talking about cool bloats not to like go off

04:59:18.900 topic or anything but um my favorite bloat was actually let's see i had erica in 2024 so 2023

04:59:28.580 uh desir bloat that sheila had was giving us i had just found out that i was pregnant with erica

04:59:35.700 because i didn't know for a while that i was pregnant with her and when i did find out

04:59:40.180 it was a really emotional time and so desir bloat came and we're doing the bloat to you know

04:59:49.220 we're doing the blow and we're saying the name of the mother that we want to honor and i'm talking

04:59:54.180 about my grandma and as sheila is going through the bloat and i'm saying my grandma's name i feel

05:00:01.540 her wrap me in an embrace and i catch a whiff of her god-awful cheap avon perfume and i feel erica

05:00:10.100 kick for the first time and it was it just brought me to tears like i was around that fire crying for

05:00:18.020 a good solid few minutes trying to regain my composure she was still trying to go and i'm

05:00:22.820 I'm trying to stifle silent cries and it was, it was rough, but it was one of my favorite bloats

05:00:27.980 because my, uh, one of the things that I do with my children is their middle names are their

05:00:33.520 grandparents' names. And so like, I try to do an ancestor who has passed on, but like for my son,

05:00:39.500 I couldn't not give him my grandpa's name. My grandpa is still living, but he is, he's my

05:00:45.780 grandpa. You know what, what little girl does not love her grandpa. Right. So that's all I gotta say

05:00:50.420 about that so my son has his name my daughter it was already decided well before i even knew that 0.94

05:00:58.920 i was pregnant with her that when i had a daughter her middle name was going to be lois may after my

05:01:02.460 grandma lois i was very close with her she passed away when i was really young but after she passed

05:01:08.180 i had this

05:01:09.220 oh my goodness whoa that's yeah well i noticed there was something about thor stories

05:01:31.180 yeah my favorite thor story was when i um was at an environmental egg camp

05:01:40.860 as a sign back sorry oh finish your story so i would i would tell yeah so i would tell people

05:01:49.440 that grandma lois like grandma lois wants me to tell you that she loves you grandma lois says

05:01:54.160 this grandma lois says that or i'd be talking on a walkie-talkie and they'd be like who are you

05:01:57.920 talking to her? I'd say, I'm talking to my grandma Lois. So Erica, it was just already a given that

05:02:03.160 her middle name was going to be Lois May. And so for all that to happen at the same time during

05:02:08.280 this bloat was just a really emotional and overpowering moment that I had. And it brought

05:02:14.180 me to a lot of tears. I love Sheila's bloats. Sheila does lots of great bloats, but there is

05:02:19.180 nothing like her DCR bloats. I've heard that Githya Cades are pretty great, and I'm sure they

05:02:24.260 are i've never got the pleasure of experiencing one but sheila's are pretty good oh thank you

05:02:30.020 thank you yeah good yeah well i was just gonna say when it comes to um thor stories

05:02:37.780 uh seeing somebody act out thor um real quick i just want to say five four three two one

05:02:49.460 happy new year mountain time oh

05:02:57.700 oh no it's not it's mountain time right no yeah so all the time

05:03:02.340 people yes all those folks in montana cool and colorado rocky mountains okay well anyway

05:03:10.980 my favorite thor story is one thing that got me this direction is that um i was at a um

05:03:17.700 environmental ed camp and um there was a teacher there and there was another teacher and his name

05:03:25.060 was steve mcdallant and steve being you know into the viking stuff which i've never ever known about

05:03:33.940 he came i think you had your helm with you your helmet yeah his uh kirby wise helmet and his

05:03:42.100 blue cloak that everybody has seen in pictures and the whole thing and he he did the whole

05:03:46.500 thor story thor thor dressing up as freya and the whole thing in front of the fire with all these

05:03:52.020 kids these seventh graders and the high schoolers and it just kind of blew me away at so that i will

05:03:58.980 always remember that because it was life-changing for me opened up my whole world to norse mythology

05:04:05.780 which i've never really been acquainted with before and here we are here we are afa people

05:04:10.980 blame it on the thor story i don't know what to say it was it was a wonderful night yeah

05:04:16.740 influencing children at a very young age oh he did some wonderful things i have to tell you though

05:04:22.020 when it comes to ritual you know we can say that ritual well our ritual is focused generally on our

05:04:28.340 our ancestors and in the ice here but steve also did a beautiful ritual for the kids who are out

05:04:35.700 there at this place called point rays and point rays is right where the epicenter of the 1906

05:04:42.180 california earthquake was and the place is very powerful it also is a place where sir francis

05:04:48.420 drake in the 1500s supposedly brought his ship into the bay there called tamales bay or drake's

05:04:55.300 bay actually drake's day and um did repairs on his ship so um special place it is very special very

05:05:03.620 powerful and that's what we always felt from the moment we were there um very unique for california

05:05:09.780 and gorgeous gorgeous area but um one thing that steve did was develop this thing that he called

05:05:16.260 the order of drake's drum and it was based on sir francis drake coming back in spirit and talking

05:05:24.980 to the young people particularly these high school counselors and so what we did was develop a thing

05:05:31.540 where we would wake them up early in the morning and blindfold them and all the other little

05:05:37.980 seventh graders would fall along behind and we'd take them blindfolded up to the campfire area

05:05:42.500 where there was a fire and the whole thing. And Steve actually took them through this beautiful

05:05:46.800 ritual of connecting to the place. And I actually did hand calligraphy for every one of those kids.

05:05:53.360 I did it in, you know, standard calligraphy signed by Sir Francis Drake and they all got it rolled

05:06:01.200 up as a little scroll and they got a gift it would be a little bottle of water from the coast or

05:06:06.640 sand dollar or something and steve just did this beautiful ritual with these children to connect

05:06:13.600 them to this place um and say whenever and so it is actually said in the certificate that when you

05:06:21.200 hear when you hear the the call what was it drake's drum drake's done when you hear drake's drum

05:06:27.120 that is your call to come and help protect this place because it was an environmental

05:06:32.320 ed camp we went there teaching science and ecology and all that kind of stuff

05:06:36.480 it was very powerful years later in fact not that long ago we steve and i heard from a student we

05:06:44.000 both had who was actually she was a i think she'd been through the seventh grade but she became a

05:06:48.880 high school counselor and she said that when she we reconnected she was living over in reno over

05:06:56.400 in nevada and found each other on facebook and and we had a phone call and she said you know

05:07:02.560 and all the travels i did afterwards i moved to anchorage to be with my dad i moved here there

05:07:07.920 there got married had kids she said but right now i'm in my bathroom and i can look up on that shelf

05:07:13.680 and i see that same bottle of water that you gave me when we were at pointe rays i've carried it

05:07:20.080 with me all along it means that much to me so that just shows the power of conveying a spiritual

05:07:26.800 nature a love of of life a love of the world we live in lots of ways of connecting one would say

05:07:35.040 to the lanve tear as well which is probably what we were doing as well at that place and we go back

05:07:40.480 every at least once a year to the same spot we still walk the hike do the hikes all those things

05:07:46.240 because it was so important to us at that point it really was a new beginning set me on this this

05:07:52.800 course this this path we're on and you know talk about sacrifices there have been a lot of sacrifices

05:07:59.120 made the whole time and i've been doing it now for well over 30 years almost 35 years

05:08:05.280 i i don't regret when hardly any of it sure there are little things but i'm so glad i had this

05:08:11.680 opportunity and that i'm here tonight to talk with people and say

05:08:18.880 this is home this is where you should be this is this speaks to us it's where our ancestors are

05:08:24.080 it's where our gods listen to us and hear you and wonderful things can happen when we put our minds

05:08:32.640 hearts and souls to it and just know that we're such fortunate people to live in this time

05:08:39.600 this is such a rare opportunity in this crazy world and we are here and we are the same ones

05:08:46.640 and we can help bring um one can say good tidings but also balance and and normalcy to people's

05:08:54.960 lives because of what we believe and how we do it i agree with that completely we we are fortunate

05:09:01.920 you know we could moan about this this time that we were born into i say hell no hell no

05:09:08.960 we are blessed we are blessed we are honored we are honored to be here to fight this battle yeah

05:09:18.080 yeah we are i think we're in an age of heroes i think there are going to be sagas

05:09:22.480 that our descendants have about this time i don't know exactly what they'll look like but

05:09:28.240 if we're lucky we get some mentions you know um

05:09:32.000 We have a question for Githiasara. Githiasara, can you please tell us the recipe for the

05:09:42.560 Wisconsin fish boil so perhaps others can enjoy it for Thoroblo?

05:09:49.200 That is something my husband perfected with the LC Fest that we used to have in Wisconsin.

05:09:57.000 It is a Wisconsin tradition. It is an amazing dish. You have this big, huge pot that is filled with water and lots of salt, and then you put in red potatoes, carrots, and those tiny onions, and then it's a white fish.

05:10:21.560 It's like a haddock or cod or something really solid as a white fish.

05:10:26.720 And that all gets boiled together.

05:10:29.400 It all gets dumped out.

05:10:31.160 And then it's served just like that with lots of butter poured over it and rye bread.

05:10:40.600 And it is an amazing thing.

05:10:43.600 A lot of the fire departments in Wisconsin use this as a fundraiser.

05:10:48.540 Um, there are resorts and, um, campgrounds who feature this because when you do it on an open fire and at the end, all the, as everything is boiling, all the salt and, um, the fats from the fish come up to the top and it boils over and it makes the flames go up and it's a very big production kind of thing.

05:11:15.400 it's it's it's pretty cool and it's delicious and as somebody's had it a few times as somebody

05:11:23.320 who's had it a few times and has also watched y'all cook it put a bunch of butter in as much

05:11:30.120 as you think you need and then quadruple that and maybe double that all the butter i don't know

05:11:39.160 buy the store and then maybe go to the next store i've had the privilege of having this as well it

05:11:50.120 is absolutely amazing really good so the only spice in it basically is the salt do you put

05:11:57.000 pepper in or anything else there's no salt nope it's just the salt and it's it doesn't taste salty

05:12:03.480 because all that stuff is is boiled up and stuff and well it depends if you you have we always use

05:12:10.600 um carry gold for our butter because my oh yeah oh my gosh it's so yellow all the better there is

05:12:16.940 is carry gold so we use that and it is an amazing dish is all of you would be proud

05:12:24.760 is the fish dried salted fish that you put in or is it fresh it is a fresh fish okay well let's do

05:12:32.900 that i'm all for it yes i wanted to take a quick second to shout out uh afa member adam he just

05:12:40.520 messaged me letting me know he sees me on vns and he's tuned in right now so hi adam and happy new

05:12:46.040 year i think he's a boulder top adam okay that'll work nice okay cool it's nice that people are

05:12:55.000 still hanging in there with us how much longer are we going to do this guys we are continuing

05:13:00.460 to get questions so we will see we're only 50 minutes to to new year's west coast so we we

05:13:06.780 might make it okay maybe we might i'll i'll hold the fort down if we need to guys don't think no

05:13:12.620 one is obligated to stay but um the next question we got here is from heathenhammer

05:13:19.980 uh 2344 uh do you remember your first asa true bloat steve

05:13:28.620 let me think

05:13:30.460 well the one that's pictures are there in berkeley where you're wearing the tunic

05:13:38.020 it's it's possible i had done private ones before then but of course my the first one that i ever did

05:13:46.300 in officially slash formally however you want to call that would be uh the of all of all crazy

05:13:56.500 places uh and i i would not do it again but on that occasion i did it in a in a park in berkeley

05:14:04.860 california yeah yeah we have lots of pictures of that one too that's me i've come across even more

05:14:12.800 recently so you don't want to go do it again uh i have not been in berkeley in many years and

05:14:21.840 the last time I got there I was in a fight I was uh I was walking off of the the campus

05:14:29.320 with some friends it was in an area of business and it was the day uh what am I trying to think

05:14:36.680 of it was the day it was oh the end I think it was I think it was yeah the something something

05:14:43.960 something it wasn't the end of the Vietnam War it was uh yeah it was right after some major event in

05:14:50.520 in vietnam and uh and i was i was walking down the telegraph avenue and here's these two guys

05:14:59.880 holding a huge banner and they're dressed in black and it's you know they're all going on and

05:15:05.640 on and on about uh war crimes war crimes american war crimes blah blah blah blah and i was very

05:15:10.940 controlled i was very nice very polite i just said and so uh where were you in vietnam and of

05:15:19.460 he was about 15 years 16 years old or something yeah and he says well i was not in vietnam but

05:15:25.940 i stand in solidarity that left-wing word that's solidarity for the blah blah and and i i turned

05:15:32.020 around and i walked away and i got about 10 feet and i heard him saying it's people like that

05:15:38.980 who blah blah and the next thing i know i'm chasing him down the street trying to hit him again

05:15:44.580 it was a great day i do want to say something about the berkeley hills though

05:15:51.520 um there's been a lot of rituals out there by various people but we went out a few years ago

05:15:57.540 a couple years ago to be with our friends the sutherlands who lived right at the edge of one

05:16:03.340 of the big parks there called brianas park or brianas brianas state park something it's not

05:16:08.320 State Park. But the neat thing is that Brody Sutherland, who a lot of people know, especially

05:16:14.880 if you're out here in this Odenshof district, he actually worked on what is a large

05:16:21.060 labyrinth that was put there. And so they had to kind of, I don't think it was actually building

05:16:28.020 up, but kind of resetting the stones and all that. And that he and another guy or two actually

05:16:34.620 volunteered to go in and do the rebuilding of this labyrinth which and this is before

05:16:39.820 also true before anything and that was kind of a cool thing to hear that because it's a very famous

05:16:45.100 spot and he took up that on personally as something to do to kind of make a spiritual

05:16:52.680 center for people labyrinths are really interesting i'm not sure to what extent

05:16:59.520 they're really not used in the northern countries so much but um i did actually powerpoint many

05:17:06.560 years ago but on labyrinths um they're beautiful you know and and they they're good for healing

05:17:16.080 rites and such things as that a good meditation just walking around around around um anyway

05:17:22.160 that's a different topic but anyway well uh cliff had to step away for a moment

05:17:28.880 um and get the alt had decided to go to bed for the night so good night and cliff will be back

05:17:34.880 in a moment so in the meantime we have a couple of uh questions as well and i think one that will

05:17:41.920 get steve going on a tangent until chris gets back or until whit and erickson gets back is how

05:17:48.560 How do you view fate versus free will?

05:17:51.880 Oh, oops.

05:17:52.580 Sorry, Cliff.

05:17:53.920 You're doing fine.

05:17:54.880 Keep going.

05:17:56.100 Fate versus free will?

05:17:57.540 I needed a coffee.

05:18:00.260 Oh, somebody once said you get the fate you make.

05:18:04.380 And I think that ultimately the accumulation of the things that you do,

05:18:13.060 You know, the sum total of your life, your capabilities, your orientation, your intentions.

05:18:22.920 I think that your fate is pretty much determined by those particular things.

05:18:29.800 And some of them may be very obvious things or they may be very subtle things that, in fact, you're not even aware of.

05:18:38.780 That's kind of my take on it.

05:18:40.520 I think in a way

05:18:43.380 you get the faith that you make

05:18:45.660 if you

05:18:47.980 do certain things that

05:18:53.260 pull that down

05:18:55.280 dishonorable things

05:18:57.720 for one thing or another

05:18:58.760 then you're setting yourself up for

05:19:01.240 failure

05:19:01.980 but

05:19:02.780 I think we

05:19:06.220 take all of that that is within us

05:19:09.440 We fight our battles. And if we win, if our vital force, whatever you want to call it, is substantial enough, you're going to kick ass. Otherwise, you might get your ass kicked. 0.99

05:19:29.740 yeah i tend to go back to to the traditional of the gods and the norns being there at the well 0.99

05:19:39.420 and meeting every day to to determine the lives of of us human folk um i really think that there are

05:19:49.100 these patterns that are set in place for us do you have opportunities to change yes i think that's

05:19:54.460 where free will gives us that that little divergence we can go this way this way we

05:19:59.420 sometimes choose that and um and that can make a difference you know does it lead us back where we

05:20:05.100 should be i'm not really sure but i do know that um i think that it's our our roots are not made

05:20:12.460 necessarily easy for us i think there are a lot of challenges that we need to deal with in life

05:20:17.260 that may be even predetermined and we need to work our way through them and again part of that is the

05:20:22.860 growth and determination and strength we have to make what we what we have and make it better and

05:20:30.700 get through it and survive the experience and again grow through it so but that's kind of where

05:20:40.700 i am well yeah and yeah i i think think things can happen to to interfere with you know from

05:20:49.100 the outside to some extent so to a considerable extent good grief you know bam you you're in a

05:20:54.940 truck wreck or something whatever you know yes uh but uh roll the dice baby and god is where we are

05:21:01.180 that's the whole thing i always say you know people may say i'm just like i get that but had

05:21:07.340 you not done that and then this and this and this you wouldn't be here today and you are here today

05:21:11.580 for a reason right we say that when people come together at our at our house and sometimes it's

05:21:18.780 it's not as great a group as we expected,

05:21:21.700 but we say, you know what, you're here

05:21:23.760 and you're meant to be here, and this is good.

05:21:26.260 And they know that.

05:21:27.420 They know that they're acknowledged

05:21:28.660 for having a particular place in that day,

05:21:31.720 that place and time in the workings of what we all do,

05:21:37.240 our folk.

05:21:38.440 I think that Dr. Jung had some interesting things

05:21:44.140 to say on that.

05:21:45.140 And I believe that synchronicity can be a major factor.

05:21:53.540 My life has literally been saved by synchronicities a couple of times.

05:22:01.800 And you can call that luck, but I don't think that Jung would really agree with that.

05:22:07.700 I think that he could take a little more make your fate thing.

05:22:13.140 I don't know.

05:22:13.880 i don't know piece the hell out of me i really like because i like i have my own you know upg

05:22:20.280 on this but when it kind of interweaves with the uh with weird in a sense for me so like i think of

05:22:27.480 it as we have free will to a certain extent right the nornier are are weaving our web right and when

05:22:34.760 i view it because i'm a very visual person so when i view it in my head i view it like a spider web

05:22:39.000 right we have all these different paths that we can take but at the end of the day we have that

05:22:43.560 one focal point of where we are going to end up or where we need to go and we can't change

05:22:48.280 that but we have multiple choices up to how we can get there and eventually

05:22:52.840 a spider web comes together at the center point so you can start here this is your birth what

05:22:58.760 choices are you going to make to go through your web until you get there and uh so i that's that's

05:23:06.120 always the approach that i've taken on it and i think that it's uh it is a we have our fate

05:23:13.560 but you have the options you can take to get there.

05:23:16.300 Like one of the things that,

05:23:19.300 and I might be going on a bit of a tangent because it's late,

05:23:22.140 but like when people do rune poles for the year, right?

05:23:26.220 Like I'm going to do my rune pole for the year.

05:23:27.980 These are going to be the runes that guide me throughout the year, right? 1.00

05:23:31.720 That may be the path that the Nornir have for you. 1.00

05:23:34.720 And you might hit those points along the way, 1.00

05:23:37.840 but unless you take the steps to achieve that on your own,

05:23:41.740 it's not guaranteed that you're going to get it you can pull a burcano rune right and think that

05:23:48.180 it means family and that you're going to have you know you can interpret it however you want

05:23:52.420 i'm going to have the family i've always wished for i'm going to have um you know a new baby or

05:23:58.080 i'm going to have great things happen with my family and the nornir will set it all out in

05:24:02.800 front of you and go here is your opportunity here is like for me here is a husband right

05:24:07.600 like here's a man so this is what should happen sorry uh gotcha here here is a husband right

05:24:17.120 go do what you need to do but then it's up to me to foster that relationship and take care of it

05:24:23.680 and nurture it to allow it to grow to that point i could just go no i don't want it i'm gonna go

05:24:29.420 somewhere else that they they put it in front of me it was up to me to take that and do what i

05:24:36.140 needed to do in order to make it grow and thrive yeah that makes sense i can see that i'm glad that

05:24:42.720 makes sense because i felt like i went on a little bit of a circle oh no no i mean no yeah well you

05:24:49.480 you explained it very thoroughly i'll talk in circles till it makes sense or people get confused

05:24:54.800 and just smile and nod right yeah i think it worked i think it worked um yeah the concept

05:25:02.460 later like predestination is uh i think it's one that people struggle with because in the

05:25:09.180 lore it tells us that we have a thread that's been woven for us and you know that we we can't change

05:25:18.540 the time of our death um but i wonder if sometimes it's more like a ribbon

05:25:23.980 you know the thread has some width to it so that we can navigate around inside of it um

05:25:29.820 But without breaking free of what the Norns did determine.

05:25:37.980 And in a way, and I don't mean this in an impious way, I'm not sure that it matters.

05:25:44.100 Because in our lives, I don't think that, like, if we can't tell the difference, like, if we don't know if there's free will or predestination,

05:25:53.880 then we need to assume there's free will and own our actions and take right action at all times

05:26:03.540 and if that was all laid out for us in advance then so be it if it wasn't then we we had better

05:26:09.820 make the right calls right yeah good point yeah yeah that's true so i want to ask a question right

05:26:18.220 total full circle how see our brain works i was watching disney movies with my daughter

05:26:25.040 and we were watching hercules and hercules was one of my favorite movies as a kid like i've

05:26:30.320 always had an infatuation with gods whether it be um you know the greek gods the norse gods what

05:26:35.960 have you and as we're watching we're getting to the point where hercules is diving into the water

05:26:42.260 to save meg and the three witches are there and they're trying to cut his cord and i kind of was

05:26:49.200 sitting there looking at it and i was like it almost reminds me of three nornir watching him

05:26:54.020 from their well and i'm wondering if anybody's ever like watched it and kind of had that same

05:26:59.160 like huh this seems really familiar and i know there'd be some overlaps between you know greek

05:27:06.580 mythology and and norse mythos kind of do have some overlaps but i've never noticed just how

05:27:12.420 just how apparent it was they were literally sitting in a sitting over a wall watching him

05:27:17.940 with three of them they had his string and they were attempting to cut it but because he was of

05:27:22.680 the gods they couldn't determine they couldn't cut his fate i'm just curious has anybody else

05:27:27.200 ever watched it or noticed that or made that connection or am i just searching for things

05:27:31.220 that aren't there no it's there are you talking about the disney hercules yeah okay um yeah that

05:27:38.820 was like one of the last good movies that disney made um where they were still actually drawing

05:27:43.960 cartoons but um the the greek fates i mean we we don't like to syncretize right but it's so obvious

05:27:55.260 it's like of course odin is wotan right we don't we're not being synchronic when we say that it's

05:28:00.960 just so apparent and so obvious that to say otherwise would be would be foolish um the the

05:28:09.360 greek fates the the moirai they call them i don't know if i'm pronouncing that correctly um but they

05:28:17.120 they serve the same function in greek cosmology as the the norns do in norse cosmology and i think

05:28:25.280 that's i think they go back um to you know some of our ancestors most most ancient understanding

05:28:35.600 of the divine a lot like igdrazil the world tree exists everywhere like if that's not just a fourth

05:28:42.880 thing that exists everywhere our people have ever gone and actually even beyond that like

05:28:49.120 other peoples know about the world tree so um that's built right in there and i also

05:28:56.560 want to just add on to that sierra i i shakespeare's three weird sisters are the same

05:29:04.400 it's like he spells it with a y the weird sisters are the norms the three weird witches they

05:29:14.000 They, they are, that Shakespeare is as far from us as he was from like the pagan Anglo-Saxons.

05:29:23.240 He's like smack in the middle there. 0.85

05:29:25.340 So in Elizabethan times, they're still remembering their, their ostrich roots in a way that, in

05:29:33.100 a way that we don't like, it's still fresh for them.

05:29:35.980 They haven't forgotten the Norns.

05:29:38.260 those weird witches are like all the commoners the people that would see the um the the plays

05:29:46.740 they they knew exactly who those were we had go with the erlinson but he popped away and i was

05:29:54.260 gonna make a joke about him being a day late in the dollar short we were just talking about

05:29:58.180 needing a ball just turn his camera off for a moment i think

05:30:02.900 and i gotta step away for just one more minute i don't know if you could hear in the background

05:30:09.140 probably one of my dogs is guarding food from the other one so i gotta just go and separate

05:30:13.860 and they're gonna keep barking that's okay me and sheila and steve can talk for hours

05:30:25.300 even if they're muted let's see i can i can read lips what are they saying

05:30:30.020 okay there we go can you hear us there we're there we're not neither

05:30:36.580 you did not do it anyway here we go so it's really important though because we don't really

05:30:42.660 think of the well we know that the nornir are not goddesses um so a big question that

05:30:49.060 was put to matt was is it okay to honor the nornir and indeed they are truly holy beings

05:30:55.540 spiritual beings and so people who want to honor the nornier and in symbol can do so because we do

05:31:01.540 have uh one person who is it bob stanley i think who does i think yeah yeah bob bob always on you

05:31:10.260 know and and yes they they have woven the threads for us along with the gods so that's that's very

05:31:18.740 important to recognize them and um for their regality that they have over all of us here in

05:31:26.240 mingarth so i thought that was important we just have not really known where they fit but they are

05:31:32.340 to be respected and honored but just they're not goddesses as i've grown in my also true like

05:31:39.700 just journey in general and learned more the nornier have definitely been something that i've

05:31:44.220 been drawn towards a lot more lately,

05:31:46.720 just the idea of our fate being woven,

05:31:50.120 and what does that mean?

05:31:51.120 And again, the free will, how much choice

05:31:53.180 do we actually have over this?

05:31:54.560 And it's something that I've been doing a lot

05:31:56.980 of introspecting on lately, for sure.

05:32:09.120 Sheila, you muted and then unmuted.

05:32:11.340 I was going to say, in the Greek,

05:32:13.600 I'm double checking if this is true in, in, in Norse cosmology,

05:32:18.860 but in the Greek, the, the fates are the daughters of night Nix.

05:32:28.260 So that's where they come from there.

05:32:30.220 So that's a clue as to where they fit in.

05:32:32.540 And also in, I know for a fact, without looking it up,

05:32:35.860 that in both the Norse and the Greek,

05:32:37.960 the gods must follow their mandates.

05:32:41.200 It's not something that can be overridden.

05:32:46.780 Odin and Zeus don't have the capability

05:32:49.440 of denying the measure of a man's life, for example.

05:32:58.740 Excuse me for a moment.

05:33:00.420 Go ahead.

05:33:01.700 All right.

05:33:02.500 He didn't get to stay here.

05:33:05.080 Gauthier Erlinson, hello.

05:33:08.120 Happy New Year.

05:33:09.800 to save men. And the three witches 0.72

05:33:11.840 are there. And they're trying to

05:33:13.960 cut his cord.

05:33:16.440 And I was sitting there looking at it, and I was

05:33:17.960 like, it almost reminds me of

05:33:19.080 I do believe

05:33:23.460 every time I unmute Goethe Arlinson,

05:33:25.920 he's playing a post-dated

05:33:27.940 YouTube that's behind the scenes.

05:33:30.380 That might be it.

05:33:31.400 I don't know

05:33:33.640 what he's doing. Do you realize

05:33:35.700 you're on the show, sir?

05:33:36.740 just how

05:33:40.020 just how apparent it was

05:33:42.500 they were literally sitting

05:33:43.480 watching it

05:33:45.560 I don't know

05:33:56.300 we'll figure that out

05:33:59.260 that's okay

05:33:59.920 for everyone watching

05:34:04.520 sometimes what we'll do is we'll have

05:34:06.240 youtube in one browser window and the steamyard app in another browser window so we can look at

05:34:12.080 the chat and um look at at steamyard i know we can see the the comments in steamyard too but

05:34:18.720 sometimes if we want to post as ourselves um it makes more sense to have both open and oh was that

05:34:25.200 go the erlinson that was i thought it was me and that's why i jumped out i was like why am i hearing

05:34:29.680 myself

05:34:38.240 he's just still doing it i'm gonna leave him muted until he lets us know he wants

05:34:44.720 we just look at him yeah i'm i'm chatting with him on the side to sort out the technical

05:34:49.680 difficulties we'll get there pretty quick i think um all's well all's well

05:35:00.080 i'd like to say something regarding weird i know there was a question about weird

05:35:06.080 and it's so easy for us to use that w-e-i-r-d but matt harrell terry govi has made it clear we need

05:35:15.520 to be using weird in its in its real form and to not just be arbitrarily saying things are weird

05:35:22.560 um because because our thing is the wyrd and so um for our folks who might be listening to this

05:35:30.560 later just think on that um that the weird word weird w-e-r-d is related to wyrd so we must be

05:35:39.040 very careful on how it's used i don't know if you want to say something that clifford i did

05:35:43.520 not explain it the best way but how do you explain weird right so i was actually really

05:35:50.320 proud sierra self-corrected earlier today when she had said weird and then shifted to strange

05:35:55.840 because she meant it in the mundane kind of colloquial way um it's something that we try to

05:36:02.960 to do in our household too it's strange or it's odd unless it's actually weird um

05:36:09.600 you know which does happen it's not a word that we can't say but we should say it with intent i

05:36:14.080 I know our law speaker wants us all to speak with intent and to, you know, to use the word correctly when we mean it.

05:36:22.380 I think the same thing applies to cussing.

05:36:24.080 It's not that cussing is forbidden, but you should mean it, not just to do it casually.

05:36:29.280 Um, but weird, I look at as being the, kind of the, the layers of Orlog or, um, the, the chapters of our story that come before us.

05:36:48.220 each one of them builds up so um we're we're born into a family line and we're born into

05:36:58.460 a race and a culture and these things right and you don't get to choose a lot of that you are born

05:37:07.220 when and where and in the context that you are um so that's all the chapters of your story that

05:37:15.940 were written before you had any control of the pen and then you you assume authorship when

05:37:27.540 when you when you begin to live you are now the custodian of the story that your ancestors have

05:37:33.620 given to you and that you're going to pass on to your descendants and weird is sort of that concept

05:37:40.100 in collective and the way i put it is a maybe a bit simplistic because there's more to it than that

05:37:44.900 um your hymenia is is tied up into it there are um spiritual trajectories i guess you could say

05:37:56.400 as far as how things are meant to play out and the possibilities that you have before you

05:38:03.220 based on the stage that was set for you before you had any agency but once you take control

05:38:10.160 of that agency you're responsible for maintaining it and delivering it to the future in the best

05:38:17.360 possible condition that you can that's how i look at it also if i could right now i would like to

05:38:32.480 share my favorite thor story um because we were jumping around a little bit back then and there

05:38:36.960 There was a couple of questions that were directed at people on the panel that we wanted to get in, especially the one for Githya Alt.

05:38:46.340 We knew it was getting late there and wanted to see if, you know, the fish boil question was important.

05:38:51.860 It needed to be answered.

05:38:52.820 But my favorite story of Thor is the story where he and Loki visit the family of Thealfi and Raskva.

05:39:13.840 and I'm not going to retell the whole story here

05:39:17.600 but what I like about the story is that

05:39:20.000 it shows Thor in a different light

05:39:23.060 than we see in most of the stories we have about Thor

05:39:26.520 we get to see

05:39:29.340 the aspect of Thor where Thor is quick to anger

05:39:33.140 and where Thor has a

05:39:35.620 innate need for vengeance

05:39:39.320 and to right a wrong

05:39:40.940 But then we also see that Thor is capable of pausing his hand when the time is right.

05:39:46.120 When Thor is standing over Thealfi and about to strike down this boy for breaking his goat's legs and causing Thor damage.

05:39:55.880 I mean, I don't know what it means in the metaphysical realm to have your chariot goat's leg lamed and what impact that might have had on, you know, the order of the nine worlds for as long as it took for that to heal.

05:40:11.800 but it shows thor in a moment of mercy that we don't see very often it shows that um you know

05:40:20.140 even under that you know stern rough exterior which is necessary almost all of the time right

05:40:29.160 in the aspect that thor plays as the protector of midgard and asgard like that is very vital

05:40:34.680 and necessary to his function among the aesir um but it but it shows um a judgment it shows the

05:40:43.720 ability to to not always strike against something that has wronged you especially when what has

05:40:50.920 wronged you is is lesser than you and you know is almost pitiable um you know like if a dog bites

05:40:58.360 you the right reaction is not necessarily to kick it right so uh that's that's the story that i like

05:41:06.520 about thor because it shows that the complexity of our gods is something that that is real and

05:41:15.640 you know that we that we definitely can learn from

05:41:17.960 we were talking about this on uh vns pre-game that we had a few weeks ago actually because um

05:41:30.760 correct me if i'm wrong but thor uh one of his kennings or and i could be using that wrong

05:41:38.760 is a friend of man right like that's they call him thor he's the friend of men

05:41:44.200 And again, correct me if I'm wrong, but we were talking about this on the VNS pregame because it was like, you know, Thor is this almighty, powerful God.

05:41:55.620 But also, like, you know, in a lot of the stories, it's shown that he's quick to anger, but he also does have that reservation and knows when it is when it is the right time to kind of hold it back and take that softer approach when he's interacting with us.

05:42:11.980 sorry my daughter is asking for up um you know he knows when to take that softer approach when

05:42:18.520 he's interacting with us mortals um again for lack of a better term and i think that that's

05:42:24.700 definitely something that people don't always think about is that specifically that story that

05:42:30.320 you're referencing that story that you're referencing is actually one of my son's favorites

05:42:33.880 um he has we have a book uh that my cousin uh ben jarvis bought no no it wasn't ben it was

05:42:44.160 folkville to ron boardman ron bought it for my son and we read it to him almost every night

05:42:49.240 and that is his favorite story

05:42:50.960 sorry i have a two-year-old trying to show pizza in my face we have a family tradition of getting 1.00

05:43:00.740 pizza and fireworks on new year's and so i got pizza and she's trying to force feed me 1.00

05:43:06.980 one bite out of every piece of this pizza box so

05:43:16.340 sheila you're muted oh i have to mute i don't even see we're done mute

05:43:22.580 i think we're muting you when you're not talking because there is a little bit of feedback

05:43:25.860 okay perhaps he's been doing it anyway it's producing

05:43:41.300 kind of a good segue into thor bloat and what people will be doing for thor bloat this year

05:43:46.740 like clifford what will you be doing a phrase at phrase phrase off for thor blood this year

05:43:55.860 well we're probably going to be keeping it simple um the biggest thing that i want us to do is you

05:44:03.620 know to just a lot of this year is about building up that phrase off culture um so um i want to

05:44:11.780 really encourage everyone to you know bring the strangest or most interesting family dish that

05:44:21.300 they can um that's not completely traditional to like icelandic thora bloat but i think that for

05:44:30.740 for building up what um what we want to be a vibrant vibrant phrasehof culture everybody

05:44:37.380 bringing a little piece of themselves to it is is going to be really important then of course

05:44:43.300 we're going to have thor bloat there um and um we'll we'll have that feast i think that

05:44:51.220 that's the you know the big hallmark tradition of thor bloat that everyone kind of gets excited

05:44:57.460 about is you know you know do you have a sheep's head with the actual cheek or something like that

05:45:03.140 we're probably not going to have that um but um but going for you know share a a strange family dish

05:45:13.300 that, you know, is either meant to impress or shock the rest of the folk, you know?

05:45:21.820 Okay.

05:45:24.100 So I'm in charge of cooking at Odinsoff,

05:45:28.560 and I have been really toying with the idea of bringing some,

05:45:32.440 I'm going to butcher it, but Sirstrumming, just to have it.

05:45:38.860 the uh it is it's like a pickle fermented it's a fermented canned fish i would say

05:45:50.940 it is very stinky it's very gross but it's uh it's a fun little um it's a fun little thing to do

05:46:01.740 That would be more of a one-chip challenge type nastiness.

05:46:07.760 There are other Scandinavian and maybe Icelandic foods that you can coax your West Coast folk into that maybe you haven't had yet.

05:46:22.980 um at um many times at balder's hof for fika there's a pickled fish that's actually really

05:46:30.980 good that we have on rye crackers that would probably be a step in that strange direction

05:46:38.660 that um you know your palettes aren't quite accustomed to well we're you know at odinthoff we

05:46:48.100 we don't really do a potluck style because we have so many people that trying to depend on

05:46:52.260 on a potluck really doesn't work out too well so we purchase all of the meals um ourselves and then

05:46:58.580 we prepare them so i tend to play it safe and just make things that i know majority of people will

05:47:04.700 eat but i want to have brains for dessert monkey brains yeah some monkey brains for dessert and

05:47:15.040 straining for dinner yeah yep no i think for adorable this year i'm going to try to um

05:47:24.880 try to price some things out and see what we can do see how big the event's gonna be because i

05:47:29.440 think it'd be nice to do something a little bit more traditional but it's it's hard when you've

05:47:33.920 got um i mean we not not to brag but kind of to brag we have the largest attendance out of all

05:47:41.200 the hops for most of our events so it's it's not like i'm cooking for you know 10 people i'm

05:47:47.520 cooking for 40 50 60 plus each time i have a i have a suggestion for you if you're trying to work

05:47:54.720 like a thor themed dish in and maybe the uh the palette of the folk isn't as adventurous

05:48:02.160 is like rotten shark and all of that um katie has a recipe for a very very good um

05:48:09.760 goat cheese bread. So they're, they're basically rolls with like, I don't know if it's thyme or

05:48:18.820 a different herb and the goat cheese is melted into the middle of it. It's really good. Also

05:48:24.900 the dessert goat cheese rolls with like the goat cheese and cranberry or walnut or something are

05:48:31.460 really good. And because it's goat cheese, you've got that connection to Asa Thor. You know, again,

05:48:37.620 not like the traditional icelandic kind of spread but um it's a thing that you could do the downside

05:48:44.420 is goat cheese is usually kind of expensive i love goat cheese and i like i put goat cheese on

05:48:50.580 everything i put it on my steak i put it on my pork chops like i will cook i'll cook little

05:48:55.380 medallion steaks and put a slice of goat cheese on top and boil it it is the best thing that i

05:49:01.540 ever and so i wanted to do goat cheese definitely this time um but yeah it's it's uh

05:49:08.180 definitely not a cheap feat because i thought about doing something with goats specifically

05:49:13.060 for dinner but it's not cheap so there you go start raising goats and you can have your goat

05:49:22.260 jeez you're you got it on can we keep them at your house absolutely mow my lawn

05:49:35.300 all right i think that a go the erlinson can hear us now uh so that's that's a plus so uh go the

05:49:41.700 erlinson is there are there any specific plans for thor bloated boulders off that you could share

05:49:45.940 with us something that you guys are trying that's new or a tradition that you have that's long-standing

05:49:50.660 so typically at balikov we would do a um on set of the longer days um for

05:50:03.540 driving away the uh jotuns uh the cold the darkness and whatnot uh me personally

05:50:14.380 Unfortunately, I have to work.

05:50:17.680 That's my Saturday to work, which I have to do one a month, unfortunately.

05:50:22.960 So I will not be there, which I am always there when needed.

05:50:34.300 Every event at Baldur's Huff.

05:50:36.580 However, if this weekend falls the way it does, unfortunately, I will not be there.

05:50:44.380 And typically, we have a ritual at Baldur's Hof that does represent very well the darkness coming into the light, Thor beating back the frost giants and whatnot.

05:51:05.680 But, sorry, I will not be at Ballershop for that event.

05:51:15.700 This is my weekend to work so that I can support my family and the Ossetro Folk Assembly.

05:51:22.520 You got to do what you got to do as a husband and a father, right?

05:51:26.940 I appreciate that.

05:51:28.380 and if anybody's asking about the black eye that's because my five and six-year-old boys

05:51:36.740 were fighting zombies a couple days ago and lo and behold i got to be the zombie

05:51:44.940 i just texted you asking about your black eye

05:51:49.060 i mean i wasn't going to ask i figured there was a reasonable explanation but

05:51:56.500 you got ahead of that one good job and yeah as as as a dad you gotta you gotta play the foil

05:52:04.140 every time right hey hey they're boys and they're growing up to be boys

05:52:10.100 i become the target of my son's attacks all the time

05:52:19.580 it's not fun because he likes to play assassins he he recently uh learned about assassin's creed

05:52:28.180 watching my brother play and so now i get sneak attacks all the time so we had to upgrade to uh

05:52:33.740 foam foam swords foam daggers because the plastic one in my back one too many times was yeah

05:52:38.440 assassin's creed is more up my my alley um absolutely that's gonna be the one um

05:52:47.380 I got a question from our backlog that I want to pitch to you, Gauthier.

05:52:54.160 Can you tell us the biggest misconception about Ossetru that you would like corrected?

05:53:02.920 Absolutely.

05:53:04.180 The biggest misconception about Ossetru is that it is racist.

05:53:07.900 in the fact, well, not in the fact, but in the ideal that it is hated towards any other race

05:53:21.480 or ethnic practice, whatnot. The biggest, that is the biggest question that I get confronted with,

05:53:31.980 whether it be at work or socially or whatnot is that asa true in its true form the way we practice

05:53:41.500 it here in the asa true folk assembly um is racist no we are not racist we

05:53:52.860 appreciate and want to propagate our race

05:53:56.620 um every other race we encourage to do the same and that's what's important each race

05:54:06.640 pre-christian has its origins in some reality okay northern europeans it's not any different

05:54:19.700 However, other races around the world, their indigenous practices and beliefs is celebrated and propagated throughout our culture these days, since everybody's connected to one another.

05:54:39.060 However, the problem arises for us, as being ethnic Europeans, that it's a racist practice.

05:54:53.720 And it's not. It's not.

05:54:56.220 We are race-orientated, because that's important.

05:55:01.260 We are not race degenerate, I guess you could put it, because everything brings, everyone brings something to the table, right?

05:55:15.740 And what's important in Ossetru and the practice is that we focus on our race and our indigenous origins and keeping that alive.

05:55:30.300 Because once you forget, it's gone.

05:55:34.680 If you don't pass it down to multiple generations over and over again, you're going to lose it.

05:55:46.240 And it's not so different from the term, you don't use it, you lose it.

05:55:51.360 And it's important that each practice, each religion, each race, explore and practice their indigenous beliefs with their indigenous gods and their indigenous deities, whatever that may be.

05:56:14.540 But Asatru definitely is something that needs to be recognized as significant because over the millennia, it's been put to us that it's not.

05:56:36.480 Well, times are changing.

05:56:44.540 I like the term that you use there, race degenerates, you know, and I think the way that you meant that in that context is the people that are so focused on it that, like, that they don't see the forest through the trees in a way, whereas what we're focused on is that we love our people and that are, you know, that, as Founder McNally says, the existence of our people is not negotiable, right?

05:57:12.020 Like, we matter, we're going to be here, and we're going to thrive, because we owe that to our children, right? 0.76

05:57:21.040 Like, they deserve to look like my grandpa and my great-grandpa, or your grandpa and your great-grandpa, that kind of thing.

05:57:32.200 It's important.

05:57:33.840 It's important.

05:57:36.440 No race should be disregarded as not being important.

05:57:42.020 What we are doing here, the importance of what we are doing here is for our race.

05:57:49.780 And that's okay.

05:57:52.340 That needs to be okay.

05:57:54.400 Because it's okay for everyone else.

05:58:00.820 Awesome.

05:58:01.560 So just a heads up, we are five minutes from Pacific Coast midnight.

05:58:09.540 I've got my noisemakers.

05:58:11.000 We're going to.

05:58:11.240 oh okay some empty cans that'll work as long as they make noise right

05:58:15.800 for a second i thought you had like legit you know the you know like the popper things like

05:58:23.340 oh yeah i thought you had like they were gonna explode with the year it's been i should have

05:58:31.620 got something to celebrate like that but nope not this year i have sorry no fireworks in the

05:58:37.140 apartment? Not that kind of day. I got very lucky. I moved into what they call an apartment home. So

05:58:44.880 I actually have a house. I've got a backyard. I've got a front yard. Got all sorts of room.

05:58:51.340 It's amazing. I couldn't have asked for a better place. It just fell into my lap in the most

05:58:55.960 auspicious of ways. And it was actually well outside of my price range, but they just happened

05:59:02.580 to be doing a uh like flash sale to get people to move in which you know is never a good sign

05:59:09.700 but they took four grand off the total lease bringing it down to well within my price range

05:59:14.740 and so i was able to uh move in and it's uh it is three minutes from my mom's work and my mom

05:59:24.260 works at the school so we were able to get my son into the school that she works at

05:59:28.580 So he is able to go to school there, which is really nice.

05:59:31.740 It's a school I went to as a child.

05:59:33.600 And I am, like, right smack in the middle of all the major highways.

05:59:39.960 Like, I'm not next to them, but I'm close enough to where I can get to the Hoff within an hour,

05:59:46.420 which is about where my drive was before.

05:59:48.800 And I'm not too far from the airport, so I can still pick folk up.

05:59:52.900 Like, I just, I got placed in a really good area.

05:59:57.140 And I've been through a lot this year,

05:59:58.940 but I'm very happy for the way this year is ending

06:00:01.220 and coming out.

06:00:02.600 And I'm very excited to see what this new year brings.

06:00:05.240 You sound and you look happy, Sierra.

06:00:08.380 And it's pretty awesome.

06:00:10.500 Also, that's a smart thing that your real estate people did

06:00:13.700 because nobody wants to move into a building that's vacant.

06:00:16.880 And any cash flow is better than zero.

06:00:19.720 So they have the right idea there.

06:00:21.740 Get something moving and then...

06:00:23.740 well it's actually it actually um my sister has some friends who live in these apartment homes

06:00:30.840 and so i couldn't understand why they were doing you know such a such a great sale because

06:00:36.660 it's not a bad area you know you get your own washer and dryer and unit and all sorts of

06:00:42.100 appliances plus great amenities i was like why is it so cheap well it turns out that there was a

06:00:47.280 giant mold problem that they were getting sued for so they were bouncing out as quick as they could

06:00:53.040 so they went and sold a bunch of units at super cheap and the new property management company

06:00:58.240 had to honor all those contracts that's a super cheap rate so right and also had to fix the mold

06:01:04.560 problem right and also had to fix the mold problem i had i got a contract from the new company

06:01:09.700 for what they would charge and they're already charged like they're losing almost a thousand

06:01:14.860 dollars a month with me in here after all the concessions that the prior people did

06:01:18.260 so i know they're not happy about it but i'm happy about it

06:01:22.700 i'm happy about it make sure to be planning ahead then when your lease is up expect to be

06:01:28.620 presented with a new one and ready to move or oh i'm i've already planned where my whole family

06:01:35.740 is moving to the east coast next year supposedly so i'm already planning and pre-planning because

06:01:41.720 i want to stay at odin sauce but in case i can't i've been looking trying to figure out

06:01:47.840 How I can pinpoint myself between Frey's Hoff, Thor's Hoff, and Yord's Hoff, like right there. 0.99

06:01:54.380 As much as I would love to poach you, I'm not going to do that to Githia McNall. 0.88

06:01:57.700 That would be an injustice. 0.99

06:02:02.120 Awesome. 0.98

06:02:03.240 She's coming to Baldur's Hoff anyway.

06:02:06.960 World Clock says you've got 40 seconds left.

06:02:09.940 I was trying to pull it up, and it's telling me I have two days.

06:02:13.640 No, you do not have two days.

06:02:15.240 That's wrong.

06:02:17.840 We got two days to get here.

06:02:20.420 Two days to get there.

06:02:21.860 I will hurry my butt up to get there.

06:02:25.720 Oh.

06:02:26.400 That's funny.

06:02:27.220 Do you want me to count it for you or does someone else have a clock?

06:02:30.300 Give me a 10 second and I'll count it down.

06:02:33.960 All right.

06:02:36.320 I hear the fireworks going already.

06:02:38.160 10 seconds.

06:02:39.600 nine eight seven six five five four three two one happy new year

06:02:54.880 i would do the pot and pan thing again but everyone else in the house is asleep please don't 0.98

06:03:00.000 my wife would legit that one this noise maker was brought to you by c4 the official energy drink of

06:03:06.240 the ossature folk assembly okay just like coffee i think we should go back to that

06:03:14.960 we got higher standards than that sierra hey hey i got these as a gift a yule gift from my boss

06:03:23.200 so a case of them but if they are sponsorship inquiries bns at runestone.org

06:03:30.640 yeah please all of us go to the gym we will oh i get it now sponsorship inquiries i got you

06:03:37.600 it took me a second to catch up there we all go to the gym if you want to sponsor us we will

06:03:43.520 shill your pre-workout so you're gonna have the uh you know the

06:03:51.520 gymnasium or something like that buck up mother bucker yeah bucked up is a really good one i do

06:04:00.240 like bucked up once i work through the rest of my c4 pre-workout i'm switching to bucked up

06:04:05.440 with a b everyone with the b but

06:04:12.320 there goes goeth he's showing off his muscles yep

06:04:15.600 we made it to midnight you guys they are show off worthy so have at it that's true um we got i think

06:04:22.160 we have another question that's not answered unless this was already asked um from heathenhammer

06:04:26.880 2344 do you plan on writing any more books founder mcnalen

06:04:34.080 yes yes i think i think people have probably many people have probably heard about it

06:04:41.440 uh it will be a rather long book uh which it keeps getting longer i mean i could have

06:04:46.400 it was a short book it was a short book and now i i but i keep thinking of stuff to put in it

06:04:51.680 so you know it's bit by piece i'll be getting a little assistance along the line and the topic is

06:04:57.780 the three cauldrons yeah and their their utilization yeah so that's close yeah it's

06:05:04.900 really close chris savage has offered to help yeah yeah yeah i'd like to hook up with him like

06:05:11.940 tomorrow or whenever and and because he's he's going to help me out pulling it together but it

06:05:18.220 just gets keeps getting longer and longer but i i honestly feel that i could could have it finished

06:05:23.960 within a matter of days and it's not going to be six months or anything like that you know another

06:05:31.300 one that steve did years ago and was not widely um promoted because it was seen a little bit

06:05:37.560 too edgy at the time but it was called resistance begins in the soul and he did that one around

06:05:44.020 2000 was it maybe something like that and it's a really good one for today so i would like to see

06:05:50.040 that one basically republished but updated uh did have a lot of factual stuff that was going on

06:05:56.180 things like immigration issues in california and all but um it's it's a very timely and the word

06:06:02.060 is great you know it's all about soul sickness and and loss of self-hatred self-hatred and all

06:06:08.040 that kind of stuff yeah so that would be a good one let me know i want that in the store if it

06:06:12.560 it's republished hey yes can we get some folks in minnesota

06:06:18.400 so folks admitted oh

06:06:23.040 i think he has a delay so i think he's answering back because i've noticed he's responded late to

06:06:33.700 a couple things okay i just wanted to say before we like end the show and get off um not to get

06:06:41.960 all sappy but it was really nice

06:06:43.900 to end my year and start my year with you guys

06:06:45.980 the AFA is quite literally

06:06:48.080 my whole life outside of work

06:06:50.200 and my children I don't do

06:06:51.940 anything else and

06:06:53.640 these four here are

06:06:55.860 some of my favorite people within the AFA

06:06:57.600 and I couldn't think of a better way to spend my evening

06:06:59.560 so I just wanted to thank you guys for letting me be on

06:07:02.000 and talk with you guys and hang out

06:07:04.180 it has been great and

06:07:05.600 I'm about to get hit with a brush by a toddler

06:07:08.040 I'm trying to

06:07:09.460 preemptively prepare for that

06:07:12.160 but yeah i just there she waited till my guard was down i just wanted to say thank you guys and

06:07:17.520 it was great to talk to the folk as well and answer the questions that they had so you say

06:07:22.800 that's all that you do there's your life is pretty full sierra sierra we love you you're amazing

06:07:29.920 yeah for those who can't tell i've been working the whole time we've been streaming this at the

06:07:34.800 same time because like that's how much you guys all mean to me is i didn't want to miss out on

06:07:38.320 this but also i had to work so i've been multitasking at the same time and again i wouldn't

06:07:44.960 have it any other way all the sacrifices i make for the folk are because i love the folk and i

06:07:49.920 love the afa and i love everything that we do that we stand for the afa quite literally saved my life

06:07:55.920 and i everything i do is to thank them for that so to any employers watching this broadcast this

06:08:03.120 is not the same sierra that works for you correct however he's getting paid over time

06:08:11.680 no she's absolutely correct you know and sierra you're amazing um you do so much for the afa

06:08:19.280 for your district and all of that um and it doesn't get said enough how much you've grown

06:08:28.000 and come along in the last you know year alone has been by leaps and bounds and uh everything

06:08:37.920 you do is greatly appreciated um we couldn't do this without you sierra i couldn't don't leave me

06:08:47.120 i know this is the problem i like i'm and not to toot my own horn but i'm wanted everywhere

06:08:54.960 everywhere wants a sierra and sierra can't be everywhere we warned you about that before we

06:09:01.280 started about a year ago i warned you about that you can get to that if you are a yes person this

06:09:08.640 is what was going to happen it's a good problem to have and i'm very honored to be in that position

06:09:15.920 so because sierra you're amazing we're going to sign off we've got to go to bed guys

06:09:21.280 good night everybody and that is that is the show everyone uh we're gonna let everyone get to sleep

06:09:32.880 um so i want to thank everyone for watching and i want to hail victory remember victory never sleeps

06:09:42.000 Hail victory

06:09:43.860 Good night

06:10:12.000 Thank you.

06:10:42.000 Thank you.

06:11:12.000 Thank you.

06:11:42.000 We'll be right back.

06:12:12.000 Thank you.

06:12:42.000 We'll be right back.

Asatru Folk Assembly - January 01, 2026

12⧸31⧸25 Victory Never Sleeps, Ep 182 - Welcoming in the New Year

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