Asatru Folk Assembly - 2⧸1⧸23 Victory Never Sleeps, Episode 30 - Industriousness

00:00:00.000 Transcription by CastingWords

00:00:30.000 Thank you.

00:01:00.000 Thank you.

00:01:30.000 Thank you.

00:02:00.000 Thank you.

00:02:30.000 Transcription by CastingWords

00:03:00.000 welcome uh once again we join you for another exciting episode of victory never sleeps

00:03:21.360 and i was talking about this in the i guess in the green room but

00:03:25.760 But my guest tonight has been on the show or fill in hosting for me several times.

00:03:34.160 But she hasn't been on with me since the very first episode, which was our highest highest viewed episode, by the way.

00:03:41.060 So it is my my pleasure to welcome Witten Brandy Callahan on as the rest of AFA leadership has decided that she best represents industriousness.

00:03:53.860 and that one was a pretty easy choice and uh i i concur wholeheartedly so welcome brandy

00:04:00.740 thanks for joining us tonight thanks and thanks for the leadership for nominating me for this

00:04:11.780 so

00:04:12.020 for folks that that don't know or that are that are unaware and i think the the group of of members

00:04:23.920 that are unaware is getting much and much smaller but for anybody else listening to this

00:04:29.000 brandy is the reason that so many things get accomplished in the astro folk assembly in the

00:04:37.160 last few years. She is the go-to for just about everybody when we need to take something from

00:04:45.100 being an idea to get it actually done and to making projects happen. And she does that better

00:04:52.280 than anybody else that's ever been in the Ask True Folk Assembly and kind of sets a really high

00:04:57.720 standard for the rest of us to try to keep up with. So we are all extremely better off for

00:05:03.480 Brandy's industriousness. Could you tell folks, I don't know, could you define industriousness for

00:05:11.560 folks that might be curious and maybe, you know, how you see industriousness in the AFA playing out

00:05:18.920 from your point of view? Sure. So industriousness is not just working yourself to the bone all the

00:05:27.520 time. Industriousness is working to better yourself, working to better your folk, working to

00:05:35.760 better your community, not just for yourself, but for your family, for your folk, and in honor of

00:05:42.740 the gods. So industrious means working as hard as you can, but always remembering to not work

00:05:53.800 yourself to the point where there's nothing left to give. So I have found out since my 20s until

00:06:02.980 now that I used to equate industriousness with working as hard as I can and going as fast as I

00:06:09.160 could. I've learned my lessons in that over the years. So being in my 40s now, I see it more as

00:06:18.680 being efficient. Work smarter, not harder. You get things done a lot better that way.

00:06:25.700 There's less mistakes. There's less things that you have to redo. You have a lot more time to plan

00:06:31.480 and take the big picture into account rather than just rushing forward as fast as you can.

00:06:40.080 But it's working for the betterment of something. It's not just working 60 hours a week so you can

00:06:48.680 and pay your bills and have a house over your head.

00:06:52.020 It's working towards a goal.

00:06:54.280 So that's what I believe industrious truly means

00:06:56.640 is working towards a goal that betters yourself

00:06:59.720 and betters your folk and honors the gods as well.

00:07:05.040 You know, I think that's an important qualifier

00:07:08.880 on industriousness, especially the kind of industriousness

00:07:12.940 that we celebrate as a virtue isn't

00:07:18.680 It's about accomplishment, not just not just work at something.

00:07:26.180 If you and you're you're one of the best at talking about this.

00:07:29.940 I think this is something you talk about frequently in terms of Hoftholler and donations.

00:07:36.600 But really and truly, it's about time management.

00:07:39.500 You are devoting time to something and efficiently devoting your time to achieve a payoff, you know, to achieve some kind of result.

00:07:48.320 that is important to you is one of the keys to industriousness. There's a lot of people that

00:07:53.600 spend a lot of time working at stuff and aren't necessarily getting a lot accomplished with all

00:08:01.040 that effort. And there's a really popular internet meme that says you're not just meant to pay bills

00:08:07.360 and die. You know, so you're not meant to just work yourself to death for somebody else to have

00:08:15.200 nothing to leave for your children. Industriousness as a virtue means that you're going to have that

00:08:20.420 goal and work towards it. And that's something that's going to be passed on to the next generation,

00:08:24.220 something that they can build upon. And I always tell everybody, you know, when you're talking

00:08:28.280 about the gift cycle, gifting your time to something that is an improvement for your folk,

00:08:34.400 an improvement for your church, something for the gods, that's a gift. And it's a gift to your

00:08:39.280 people and it's a gift to the gods. You know, absolutely. And I think that of a lot of our

00:08:47.620 virtues, it's the, say it's a challenge is really not fair because I don't think it's a difficult

00:08:55.940 thing to do, but it's important to contextualize it into, you know, how is it relevant to the

00:09:01.880 practice of Ausitru. And it's very self apparent how it's relevant to building our church in an

00:09:14.040 organizational way or to producing a product, be that, you know, a Hoff, be that the next class

00:09:23.980 of gothar be that you know whatever it is but beyond that industriousness takes ideals and

00:09:34.300 puts ideals in practice in the real world it's very easy to talk about a lot of these virtues

00:09:42.060 but without the virtue of industriousness i think it's the most clear example of our virtues that's

00:09:49.420 about um putting it to practice going out and doing alsatru is something that we like to say

00:09:56.220 um because there's a whole lot of people for a long time that have talked about alsatru

00:10:01.660 but one of the things i'm really proud of with the afa is that we do alsatru and you've you

00:10:06.140 know you are definitely one of the leaders in that charge and we're at the end of the day we're uh

00:10:12.220 And we're judged not on our, you know, intentions of things that we'd like to do, not on our plans or our thoughts, but on our actions, on how those plans, thoughts, and intentions manifest through us implementing them in the world or not.

00:10:31.960 when my day passes and the next generation comes up the next generation's not going to

00:10:39.920 care how much lore i knew or how many books i've read or how many classes i've taught they're going

00:10:45.920 to care about the quality of the godar program they're going to care about the the beauty of

00:10:53.720 baldershoff those are the things that are going to matter to them when i'm gone so i always try

00:10:58.240 to keep that in mind. It's not always about me. It's what I'm leaving behind.

00:11:05.160 Absolutely. We have some questions lining up. King of Cheese got in first today. Matt, Brandy,

00:11:12.820 good to see you both on tonight. Brandy definitely fits. How are you both doing tonight? Brandy,

00:11:19.020 how are you doing tonight? I'm doing good, Tony. And I just want to say that I'm so glad that you

00:11:24.060 are here every week. You are definitely one of my favorite people. It's always been a pleasure

00:11:28.560 talking to you and I'm really, really glad that I got to meet you this summer and I hope I get

00:11:33.740 to see you again very soon. Yeah, it's awesome to have and same with a lot of our folks in the

00:11:42.800 chat. I look at the people who are listening every week and we get a lot of people in the replays

00:11:47.300 and a lot of people over time. We get a tremendous amount of good feedback on this program and I

00:11:53.820 appreciate that a lot. I'm glad so many people are, are, you know, listening to me sit here and

00:12:00.500 talk. And I'm even more glad that a lot of folks are getting something out of it and enjoy it. I,

00:12:06.660 I'm glad for that. But we've got some, some super duper regulars on here that, you know,

00:12:13.600 I see every single week and I get to talk to and asking questions every single week.

00:12:19.540 And I really look forward to that. I think that's awesome. And I appreciate you guys.

00:12:23.820 And Tony, I'm doing great. I'm a little bit antsy because it's one of those I'm. Oh, OK.

00:12:32.520 For folks that don't know, this weekend is Charming of the Plow at Njordshoff in White Springs, Florida.

00:12:40.740 Folks that are within driving distance, you guys still got time if it's something you want to attend.

00:12:45.760 Please reach out to your folk builder. They can get you set up if you'd like to be there.

00:12:49.220 but uh it's across the country for us so i am flying out there tomorrow afternoon and

00:12:56.400 for the first time in two years i'm i'm bringing my wife and my daughter with me so

00:13:03.100 you know the the travel experience is made a bit more hectic but every time i'm at one of

00:13:08.520 these things and i don't have my family with me you know something's missing so it's going to be

00:13:12.280 really nice to get to show them off to folks that haven't met them or haven't seen them in a while

00:13:17.840 and also get to show off New York's off to to my wife and my daughter.

00:13:21.820 They haven't seen it yet. So I'm excited about that.

00:13:24.340 A little bit antsy. I'm going to be in that, you know, hurry up and wait phase until we till we board the plane tomorrow.

00:13:30.400 But thanks for asking. Next thing is from Trent Witten Brandy.

00:13:36.820 What is your trick for staying so motivated, even though even though you manage dozens of projects at a time?

00:13:44.420 i'm not happy unless i'm busy so a lot of people deal with stress in a lot of different ways

00:13:53.460 whether that's stress at home or emotional stress or mental stress stress at work stress family

00:14:00.420 i deal with stress by working to be honest as healthy or unhealthy as that is it's if i'm

00:14:09.280 productive, I feel like I am in control of something. So if, if something's going on and I,

00:14:16.940 and I know that there's nothing I can do about it, but worry rather than sitting there and worrying

00:14:23.060 or, you know, drowning myself in a bag of, you know, Cheetos or Oreos or maybe a case of beer,

00:14:31.340 I work instead. So that's what I do. I take all of that time that I could be worrying about

00:14:38.520 something and I do something else with it because there's no point in worrying about what you can't

00:14:45.980 change. What's going to happen is going to happen. So rather than drive myself crazy worrying about

00:14:51.160 what might be, I start working on something that I know will be. So that's my motivation for that.

00:14:57.380 you know, that's, that's refreshingly honest. Um, I think that a lot of the time

00:15:08.040 folk don't, don't see that or don't realize that that's what goes into stuff, but,

00:15:13.960 and this is, you know, this is more advice, I guess, than anything else, but when you find yourself

00:15:21.880 stressed about something or feeling, you know, feeling unable to accomplish something or feeling

00:15:32.920 powerless or feeling anything like that, grabbing a hold of the things that you do have control over

00:15:37.780 and doing something productive with them is tremendously therapeutic. You made kind of an

00:15:42.820 offhand comment. You don't know if it's healthy or not. I mean, that energy goes somewhere.

00:15:49.020 And so often it goes to destructive things or wasted time things to take something that's negative or that's, you know, a stressful energy and put that into accomplishment.

00:16:02.940 I mean, I think that's something everybody should should learn from and aspire to.

00:16:06.800 Not only does it get good stuff done for us, but it also is a is arguably the most healthy way to deal with deal with stress.

00:16:19.020 You know, the Havamal says there's no point in worrying about things at night.

00:16:23.020 You're just going to wake up tired with the same problems, right?

00:16:25.600 So if I can't sleep because my brain won't shut off, I just pick up a notebook and write notes for something that we're working on.

00:16:34.720 And by the time I have that, I have that feeling of accomplishment.

00:16:38.000 I have that feeling that I've completed something.

00:16:40.200 I'm in control of something.

00:16:41.280 And I find that I can sleep a lot better if I just take five, ten minutes, hash out a couple ideas and let it go.

00:16:49.020 all right um human manipulation nation asks what's the time frame for people to move to tennessee

00:17:02.540 and what is the location i was hoping to seek employment now so it will be an easy transition

00:17:09.580 well that's awesome i'm glad that you're you're motivated and you're planning uh like that

00:17:14.940 so time frame um that's actually something i want to talk with some people uh one of whom

00:17:25.020 being law speaker turnage here this weekend when i see him honestly the time frame as far as i'm

00:17:30.220 concerned is any is is now is can you be there by the end of the broadcast if you can awesome um

00:17:38.780 Um, I'm not sure what industry and I'm trying not to give the exact location until we have

00:17:48.320 somebody living on site so that people don't get, you know, needlessly stirred up until we have

00:17:54.380 somebody out there on the property and have a face. Um, it's the only reason I'm being a little

00:17:59.960 bit cautious on that. About 40 minutes outside of Cookville. So that'd be the kind of commute

00:18:15.320 you're looking for. I think that's one of your best options for employment. And about an hour

00:18:20.780 and a half if you're struggling for employment in Nashville. So I think those are your two

00:18:27.080 closest big employment, but it really depends on what line of work you're in. If you reach out to

00:18:35.880 Nick or myself on the side, we can talk to you personally about exactly where it's at if you

00:18:42.020 want to tighten in on trying to find a job. But yeah, for people, it's in that northern

00:18:47.140 northern central tennessee area to the east of nashville

00:18:54.220 um brandy uh from steve monday brandy i know this question uh can be complex but what gives

00:19:04.740 you the drive why does the afa mean so much to you that's a good question

00:19:13.120 i talk a lot about the gift cycle um i know i kind of harp on that every time i'm i'm on victory

00:19:22.520 never sleeps but i talk a lot about the gift cycle and my motivation is to do things and be

00:19:30.320 things for my gods um but also to so that my ancestors are proud of me so that my kids are

00:19:38.480 proud of me. That's my drive. I want to leave a legacy for my kids to be proud of. I want my

00:19:46.820 ancestors to be proud of what I'm doing. I want my gods to take notice and be proud of what I'm

00:19:52.260 doing. I want to help bring our full calm. And I want to help other people have the same connection

00:19:58.460 with the Aesir that I do. And that's my drive. That's my main purpose for it.

00:20:07.280 And as far as why the AFA means so much to me, it's because of what the AFA has given me. I've been in a lot of other organizations and I haven't had any of them stand by me like the AFA has stood by me through the best of my life and through the worst of my life.

00:20:29.140 there is always people there for me.

00:20:33.220 And I wouldn't be doing it justice if I in turn was not there for the AFA.

00:20:46.340 I think there's a lot of people that may feel that or may say that, but they're

00:20:53.300 there's a handful of people not that surpass you in that but that come close to equaling you

00:21:00.740 in putting that into practice and uh we're we're all so much better for it and I think that

00:21:09.040 um I'm glad that you feel that way about the AFA and I think that

00:21:15.380 it's something that until you're until you're a part of it and even when you're a part of it

00:21:21.480 unless you actively engage it fully, it's hard to realize just how much the AFA truly is a family

00:21:31.540 and it's made of people that care about you and care about each other and are there for each

00:21:36.360 other when people are having a hard time. And shoot, they're there for you when you're having

00:21:41.760 a great time. They're there for you at all those times in between too. And it's really nice to see

00:21:48.840 to hear when that happens and i mean i know people will hear it and not necessarily believe it until

00:21:55.640 it happens to them but it is something that i'm super proud of uh with our folks in the afa we

00:22:01.400 got the best people in the world um nick asks oh actually before nick my wife made an important uh

00:22:11.160 point in the chat room that uh folks that want to move to sigerheim that's fantastic but you

00:22:20.200 do got to be an afa member to do that i think that's common sense and easily understood but

00:22:26.120 you know every time i think something's common sense it turns out not to be so

00:22:30.600 it's worth saying up front um nick asks so what happens when brandy finds out you can do something

00:22:41.160 Oh, Nick.

00:22:46.600 When Brandy finds out that you are willing to help, I will find a thousand different ways for you to help.

00:22:53.020 And some of them are fun and some of them are not.

00:22:55.940 But they are all important.

00:22:57.800 And I appreciate the fact that Nick is the keeper of all the things and does all the deeds.

00:23:03.560 And I appreciate him beyond measure.

00:23:06.320 So this is kind of a, yeah, that's a thing. If you volunteer for something in the AFA and you

00:23:16.580 mess up and you show efficiency and competence at it, we will keep throwing projects at you

00:23:24.380 until you tap out um we're at a we're at a unique and a kind of a special phase in

00:23:36.220 the rebirth of ossature um

00:23:43.340 it's we're at a point where we're growing we're expanding at a very fast rate

00:23:53.300 We've got so much enthusiasm and so much excitement and so many dreams that we want to accomplish.

00:23:59.900 And we are in a time where the average person, if they put their heart and soul into it, can make such a huge difference in our faith and for those who come after us.

00:24:13.240 we're we're at a at a building phase to where we have the ability to accomplish a lot of things

00:24:23.500 we're growing but we're not yet so big to where it's hard for you know your average member to

00:24:30.920 to relatively quickly step in and be very impactful if this is something that you care

00:24:36.640 about something that you love and something that you want to put your effort towards

00:24:40.020 there are a lot of ways to to make that happen and uh this is a really special time for that so

00:24:47.880 it's just something for for people to think about it's not just about us needing workers to get

00:24:54.300 stuff done here and there we're at a time where those you know seemingly mundane things can make

00:25:00.480 a huge huge impact on our future um so yeah it's really a it's a very special time to be

00:25:07.520 part of part of the AFA. I think that most of us are very history minded. And I think that very

00:25:14.180 often we fantasize about, you know, wishing we were in different periods of time for any number

00:25:19.780 of reasons. But I fully believe that in the future, there'll be people that look back to this

00:25:25.860 and wish they were here at this time and wish they were here with us when we were doing the big

00:25:29.420 things that we're doing. And so that's kind of cool. And you never you never realize what you're

00:25:34.720 doing's history until, you know, until it's too late. Nobody realizes it in the moment and

00:25:40.560 tremendous historical opportunities right now. So we appreciate everybody who's helping us make

00:25:45.120 stuff happen. And anybody that wants to help make stuff happen, we encourage you to reach out to

00:25:50.180 your folk builder. There's tons of stuff to do all the time and we would love and appreciate the help.

00:25:55.260 Sarah asks, Githya Brandy, what would you say you are most proud of out of everything you've

00:26:04.620 put into motion and developed over the last couple of years?

00:26:14.660 The beauty of Baldur's Hof. That's what I'm most proud of. There's a lot of things that I'm proud

00:26:20.840 of and there's a lot of people that i'm proud of i've put a lot of time in developing relationships

00:26:29.000 with individuals in the afa and i'm very very very proud of who those people have become

00:26:35.640 many of them are now leadership and i'm very proud of them i'm very proud of the things that they're

00:26:41.640 doing. But personally, probably the beauty of the Hoff. It's hard to talk about it on here. And we

00:26:55.480 it's another thing that's kind of interesting about the times that we live in. And

00:27:03.160 especially when you start realizing that you're getting older, you start doing old man

00:27:09.520 recollections on things but no one would ever have any idea that you put so much work into

00:27:17.540 Baldur's Hoff because it is so beautiful and amazing and we are getting to a point where it's

00:27:24.200 old news how it got that way but uh for folks that weren't there just so you know when you look at

00:27:32.340 Baldur's Hoff and I don't know the square footage or whatever to quote values on it but it's a

00:27:39.360 big, nice building. There's two floors. It's nice. It's on a corner lot. It's a nice piece

00:27:49.740 of property. And we got it for a song. We got it for $45,000. And I haven't checked on Zillow

00:28:03.320 or whatever else to see what but i mean i can't imagine it being less than 150 000 but that seems

00:28:14.360 really really light on its value it was in such a broke down decrepit state when we got it um

00:28:25.240 it and i say this this is a this is an assumption but it appears that there was some

00:28:30.280 some folks that that enjoyed their their substances over much that were there beforehand and they got

00:28:36.200 a they got a brilliant idea they were going to turn it into a house and they got like two steps

00:28:41.480 into it decided not to and then you know figured it'd be easier to turn it into a dumping ground

00:28:47.560 and uh yeah it was it was very very rough and uh brandy and her family and uh a number of

00:28:57.000 of really, really dedicated members just poured blood, sweat, and tears into that place to make

00:29:04.540 it what it is. And it shines all the more because of it. If you guys get a chance to check out

00:29:11.040 Baldershoff in Murdoch, Minnesota, you really should. A good opportunity for you to do that

00:29:18.860 is at Freyfaxi this year when we've got our national event there. But I'm sure they'd love

00:29:25.020 have you any month that they're having an event there but i'd get to see you then and that'd be

00:29:28.700 great but if you guys can do it yeah you owe it to yourselves to check out balder soft so uh travis

00:29:37.420 travis bodish has thrown ten dollars at us on entropy anybody wants to give us tips or participate

00:29:44.700 in the super chat uh we appreciate it and you can do that through entropy um and travis gave well

00:29:51.740 no it's confusing so travis gave us eight dot yeah eight dollars and uh he says hail the afa

00:29:59.340 hail victory we appreciate you travis thank you thank you travis um cody asked brandy

00:30:07.260 how do you balance the duties of being a whitten and the sole ordained leadership of baldursoff

00:30:14.220 very carefully um no i'm joking i actually have an incredible leadership team here at

00:30:26.620 bouldersoft district um cody being one of them so because i am surrounded by competent motivated

00:30:38.080 dedicated leadership around me. It frees me up to do a lot of other things that I was doing before

00:30:49.260 and this was slipping through the cracks and I have to stop that and do this but

00:30:53.040 my leadership around me is one of the reasons that I can do the things that I do

00:30:59.100 in all honesty. The other reason that I can accomplish so much is because my family supports

00:31:07.240 when I'm doing 100%. My kids understand. My husband understands. He knows that there might

00:31:16.560 be a phone call in the middle of the night. He knows that our dinner date might be interrupted

00:31:20.960 by an emergency. They know that my Sundays are dedicated to teaching. So the support of the

00:31:29.260 leadership around me and the support of my family and also the support of the other Witten and the

00:31:36.640 other godhar that are my mental and emotional support when things are hard so i would definitely

00:31:44.460 have to say that those are the three things why why i can accomplish the things that i do even if

00:31:50.100 i'm the only ordained godhar in the district right now those around me elevate me to the point where

00:31:57.020 i can do more and be more because they can pick up a lot of the slack

00:32:00.420 it's very important at any level of uh leadership or volunteerism within the afa that your family

00:32:16.240 is supportive and helpful that makes all the difference in the world um and it's cool that

00:32:21.680 you have that and uh it's something that i certainly wish for all our people that step up

00:32:27.360 because it really makes life a lot easier

00:32:29.020 when everybody's pulling towards the same thing,

00:32:32.460 when forces are working together

00:32:33.960 instead of having to be divided.

00:32:38.800 Wynton Callahan, do you have Irish ancestry?

00:32:42.820 Always a pleasure to see you here, Hale.

00:32:48.460 I am mostly German and you can tell by my face,

00:32:52.280 mostly German.

00:32:53.740 It's an inside joke.

00:32:54.860 I'll let Matt explain that if he wants to.

00:32:56.740 but yes i do have irish ancestry i have us i have ancestry in scotland ireland the netherlands

00:33:07.940 and germany primarily german though see the the kelp comes out on this program

00:33:16.660 man you get some you get some candid shots and we always joke that brandy's looking

00:33:20.660 particularly german because whenever she looks stern and grumpy that's the that's kind of the

00:33:25.700 running running joke on that not angry i'm german when i got to get a different website picture

00:33:32.020 from her i got to tell her to look less german um so let's get some some more good ques oh we

00:33:41.940 got more questions popping up i was going to say we're running low on the questions

00:33:45.540 that's fine me and brandy have stuff to talk to you all about either way we

00:33:50.740 We next question from Travis, Witten Callahan, what brought you to Ausitru and what did the

00:33:58.660 road to Witten look like for you?

00:34:02.380 Well, I have a very supportive family that taught me a lot about the spirituality that

00:34:10.120 I'm in right now.

00:34:11.200 So Ausitru really was just a natural fit for me.

00:34:14.720 um as far as and i know i've told this story before um you know i finally found my way home

00:34:22.800 to the afa in 2018 i think it was um 2018 at the end of 2018 and i was asked if i would consider

00:34:36.120 folk building in january january of 2020 i was asked if i would be a folk builder

00:34:44.700 and I jumped on it because I wanted I wanted a way that I could be more helpful I was already

00:34:52.920 working with a folk builder Jessica Lambert and the Alshira Godhi with the start of a youth

00:34:58.760 program at that point and I was really excited to just do more and give more so I took that

00:35:06.880 opportunity and from there um decided i wanted to apply for the go there program and was accepted

00:35:16.160 and was mentored here by the alshara godi and ended up getting ordained um not long after that

00:35:24.880 i went to elsie fest and matt gave me a big hug and said here's your shirt and i was thinking it

00:35:29.520 was my folk builder shirt or my githia shirt and it didn't say githia it said witten and i was

00:35:36.480 just blown away and i said absolutely i would love to do that thank you for the opportunity

00:35:42.560 so that's kind of how that went i went from a folk builder and a very very motivated volunteer

00:35:48.400 and given it my all to being handed a witness shirt at elsie very very big surprise on that

00:35:57.360 yeah first you're wondering if it was a misprint or a typo i did i had it a couple times

00:36:06.000 And no, it was overwhelmingly self-evident that that's where you needed to be.

00:36:12.200 And we. Volunteering and leading and helping in the AFA is certainly when done right, is such a such a labor of love and of passion and of zeal for the gods and for what you're doing.

00:36:38.300 that we see that a lot people that finally find this and everything clicks and they're just

00:36:45.660 excited and motivated for what we're doing they can you know they can rise through stuff pretty

00:36:53.020 fast if they throw themselves at things and give it you know give it a hundred percent uh it's very

00:37:00.620 much just internally, when we look at our people, we want everyone to succeed. And so when we have

00:37:09.260 people that, you know, have an ambition to one day be a Gothia or a Githia, our answer is always yes,

00:37:17.300 but yes, with conditions. Sometimes those conditions are, you know, seemingly insurmountable,

00:37:24.480 but if some, but we want people to win and we want people to make it there.

00:37:29.580 So we, we have no desire to hold anybody back. We want to lift everybody up.

00:37:36.000 And like I said,

00:37:37.040 sometimes that road and that path is much harder for some people that aren't

00:37:40.900 naturally, naturally cut out for a naturally gifted for a certain project.

00:37:47.220 And others times it's a, it's an easier fit, but you know,

00:37:52.520 if people are committed and want to get somewhere we want to we want everybody to have those

00:37:56.440 opportunities and to be able to succeed and not just at afa stuff but anything they're trying to

00:38:01.480 set out to do so daniel asks i was here you're guilty how would you respond to our critics

00:38:15.320 saying we make stuff up when it comes to our spiritual practices um

00:38:25.800 of course we make stuff up and we admit it every time that we do um making stuff up

00:38:33.320 is how any progress or any anything has ever happened in our faith um if the current leadership

00:38:42.280 aren't making stuff up then they're stagnant and they're not building they're just

00:38:50.920 i don't know giving giving lip service to what people did in a bygone time as opposed to to

00:38:57.400 moving things forward um and it depends on what making stuff up is the afa is always very honest

00:39:05.400 on where we have what ideas some some ideas that we have are are new in our developments

00:39:11.240 some of them are evolutions of older ideas and some of them are best interpretation of uh

00:39:18.040 of very ancient ideas but we're always honest about those things and it's one of those things

00:39:23.160 uh last week i think i talked a lot about the significance of our ordination and the

00:39:29.000 responsibilities that that brings and one of the things that is a responsibility is to

00:39:36.120 to cultivate and grow the faith of Ausatru. And that means to innovate at times. It means to

00:39:44.520 start new traditions. It means sometimes to alter how we celebrate old traditions. And it means to,

00:39:51.240 we have a responsibility to the gods and to our folk to make Ausatru living and vibrant in the

00:39:58.600 times that we occupy. And, you know, I, I certainly hope that whoever comes after me

00:40:04.360 and whoever comes after them and whoever comes after them continues to to develop things and have

00:40:11.580 new ideas you know i talk with uh swan when we do our talks on here about our gods whenever there's

00:40:18.500 a question we don't know from you know from ancient lore we rely on the interactions that

00:40:25.000 we have with our gods in the present and it's always my hope that the the better relationship

00:40:30.560 that we build with our gods, the better we'll grow to understand them, the more we'll come to

00:40:36.120 know them, the more we'll learn about, you know, the things that they like and the things that

00:40:41.120 they don't. And in, you know, even better ways to practice Ausatru. And, you know, that should be

00:40:48.160 all of our hope. When we look at stuff, one thing that I think is really important about Ausatru is

00:40:57.040 We don't have a lot of, you know, Muhammad in the cave, getting the divine writings things.

00:41:06.160 We don't have Moses going up the mountain and getting, you know, Jehovah writing on rocks for him to go take down.

00:41:13.140 We don't have those moments in our faith where, you know, the gods sat down and said, hey, guys, quick, write this down, because this is exactly how you how you practice Ausitru.

00:41:23.480 That's just not the nature of our faith.

00:41:26.440 Our faith is built on relationships that our ancestors had with our gods.

00:41:31.160 And our faith is currently built on relationships that we have with our gods.

00:41:36.440 And that shows up a real different way.

00:41:38.700 When you look at any of the things that we take as our holy lore that we hold sacred, at one point in time, if you travel back in time a thousand years, the same critics could say, hey, Goethe, you're making stuff up.

00:41:54.680 and he'd probably say, yeah, that's what I'm supposed to do. I'm taking what I learned and

00:41:59.360 practicing it. Innovations are how we got any of the things that we had. There had to have,

00:42:05.120 for any of our lore, at one point there was, you know, a Goethe or multiple Goethe's that sat down

00:42:10.260 and say, hey, I think this is a thing. This has proven itself through the relationship we have

00:42:15.720 with the gods. I've been shown a sign or a vision and we're going to call this good and we're going

00:42:21.240 call it a thing and i think that's how any of the innovations in our faith have happened and how

00:42:25.480 they'll continue to happen and i think that's one of the big difference between

00:42:34.200 doing something and studying something you can be a tremendous fan of something

00:42:40.840 and be very studied on it but not be a practitioner of that thing i mean there's 0.88

00:42:48.040 you know it's football season there's a lot of fat dudes sitting around on their couch

00:42:52.680 that know an awful lot about football but that have never thrown a football or never played

00:42:57.720 football never been on a team never done those things there's a difference between a football

00:43:03.320 player and a fan and i think that the same is true of of a lot of people who are in the the

00:43:11.400 general orbit of our faith there's people that um are actively engaged in worshiping the gods

00:43:19.480 with regularity and building that gift cycle and then there's people that instead spend a

00:43:24.760 lot of time studying about those things and are are scholars on the way that

00:43:29.400 ancient people practiced our religion but the difference is huge um you know it's often said

00:43:36.760 this you know who's the who's the better who's the better warrior who's the better general the

00:43:45.160 guy that studied napoleon's maxims on war or napoleon conquering europe himself on horseback

00:43:52.440 with his armies because you know i guarantee you that scholar if he devotes his whole life to it

00:43:57.400 may know more about it but there's something really different between knowing how someone

00:44:02.440 else did something and getting out there in the arena and actually doing things and actually

00:44:07.860 shaping things, you know, with the practice. And so BFA is engaged in shaping Ausatruth through

00:44:16.200 practice, certainly every week, arguably every day. And, you know, hopefully that shows, hopefully

00:44:24.280 that pays off. And I really hope that we do that in a way that our gods are proud of and approve

00:44:29.520 of. And I think that they do, by and large, but we're always very hopeful that that's the case.

00:44:36.980 What are your thoughts, Brandy, about us making stuff up?

00:44:42.440 I think that people who say we make things up need to understand that we are a people who evolve

00:44:49.380 continually. We are always trying for the next advancement, reaching for the next star,

00:44:56.740 going for the next goal. We're never going to be still. We need to remember that we need to apply

00:45:03.960 as true as it is today, not how it was in the 1200s. If you do nothing but analyze what was,

00:45:13.600 you'll never see what can be. And I think that's one of the biggest differences between us and them

00:45:20.280 is we're looking towards the future we aren't just analyzing what our ancestors did in the 1200s or

00:45:31.580 or before we're trying to take what they learned and what they passed to us and apply it in a

00:45:40.380 modern world which is much different than the reconstructionist standpoint we're also building

00:45:47.500 our own culture and our own traditions and that's part of the legacy of people and of folk and of

00:45:54.300 churches is building that legacy you can't build a legacy if you don't move forward so that's my

00:46:02.380 thought yeah i think that you know and i've said this a lot of times but it's a it's a good enough

00:46:10.140 time as any to to reiterate it so much of our lore focuses on that theme of staying one step

00:46:20.300 ahead of the forces of chaos one step ahead of the devouring wolf um our holy symbols are

00:46:30.220 symbols that imply spinning and imply movement um the sun and the moon they're they're chased by

00:46:36.780 wolves and they've always got to try to stay one step ahead of those wolves because if they

00:46:41.340 if they're slipping then they get devoured our biggest our biggest foe in so much of our lore

00:46:49.900 is entropy and that force that drags you down into chaos if you don't constantly apply

00:46:57.020 pressure to move forward and to push ahead and to do um that concept is is why the program's

00:47:06.300 name victory never sleeps you can't stop and rest on what we've accomplished we've got to keep

00:47:11.100 fueling that fire with accomplishments um i certainly hope that a thousand years from now

00:47:19.740 people aren't sitting around trying to see the best way that they can emulate what brandy and

00:47:25.420 i are doing i hope that they are honoring and celebrating brandy and i and that we're worthy of

00:47:30.060 that but i hope they're building on the things that that we've you know been a part of and and

00:47:36.300 moving the ball forward it'd be very disappointing if if they didn't and it was just you know holding

00:47:42.540 stuff that we did in some kind of a museum piece that was dusty and behind glass that nobody ever

00:47:47.100 touched um it's not that's not why we're putting in all the work that we're putting in and i don't

00:47:52.540 think that's why the the ancient gothar worked as hard as they did for our gods i really hope

00:47:57.500 that they're proud of us and the things that we are doing and the stuff we are making up

00:48:03.420 i hope the i hope the next generation makes stuff up too

00:48:08.220 they will for doing something right um

00:48:13.420 uh so matt brandy what are we drinking tonight all i've got right now is water

00:48:19.260 i've got a sam adams alpine lager that claims to be brisk and smooth it's

00:48:33.420 mildly brisk and mildly smooth i am drinking hot chocolate because it's cold outside and i love

00:48:41.580 chocolate see i've got a i've got an odd relationship with the cold so growing up in

00:48:50.380 alaska and you know brandy grew up in north dakota where it's very bitter cold so she may feel this

00:48:56.940 winter when i think of winter the feeling that i get in my bones is warmth not cold because i don't

00:49:04.380 you know i didn't grow up in a cave i grew up in a house that was heated and when it was cold

00:49:10.780 outside it meant the heat was on inside and we're wearing jackets and you're wearing stuff so i'm

00:49:16.540 always over warm like my house is not cranked up i think it's at 65 right now but i'm uncomfortably

00:49:22.060 warm that's why i'm drinking cold beer um witten callahan what's your hobby and how do you relax

00:49:35.020 any favorite food please don't say wrap snacks awesome have you know wrap snacks are delicious

00:49:43.660 i don't want that to be the truth but it is they're delicious and uh heather young sent

00:49:49.420 me some not that long ago and they were still delicious the second time so yes um my hobbies

00:49:57.020 I like to do things that I can multitask with. So I'm always doing more than one thing.

00:50:06.520 So I like to do thread work. I like to do crocheting, knitting, even though I'm absolutely

00:50:14.820 terrible at knitting for some reason. And I like crocheting because I can listen to something else

00:50:22.840 or read while I'm crocheting because you just get into a rhythm and you can just go.

00:50:27.880 So I like to do that. That helps me relax. I like to do things like that.

00:50:34.180 Favorite foods other than wrap snacks.

00:50:40.360 I'm going to have to go with like lobster and crab, a good lobster and crab boil.

00:50:47.200 So I grew up with my grandmother. We didn't have, she was from the West Coast.

00:50:52.840 She was from the Seattle area originally is where she grew up and we did not have turkey

00:51:00.120 at Thanksgiving.

00:51:01.120 We did not have turkey at Christmas time or anything like that.

00:51:05.520 We have lobster and it was once a year and it was delicious and the older I get, the

00:51:10.920 better it is.

00:51:13.600 You know, growing up, we had something similar.

00:51:16.020 I was born and raised in Anchorage, and crab is expensive everywhere, and I suppose it

00:51:24.800 always was, but it was much less expensive in Alaska, and anytime around the holidays

00:51:32.860 you go up there, if they've got a really good deal going on, a really good buffet, they'll

00:51:37.660 have king crab legs, and we would go over to my grandparents' house, and my grandfather

00:51:44.400 always you know get a bunch of uh king crab and we'd have a you know big king crab feed

00:51:50.720 you know probably once or twice a year and god i'm gonna take out a loan to try to do that uh

00:51:56.720 do that now and do that where i'm at now but man that's that's good i miss that i remember

00:52:01.440 once i was working security up there i got to one of the cool things in the security industry

00:52:06.320 up there around the holidays is if you're bouncing for different uh holiday parties places because

00:52:11.600 you know there's alcohol and people get stupid so they have you on hand but usually they'll let you

00:52:15.840 you know after everybody else has eaten they'll let you go in and and uh and raid the buffet or 0.99

00:52:20.960 if you're working a concert you know the the good ones i'll say this celtic uh celtic woman

00:52:27.200 i know they like cycle through their their people or whatever but i worked one of their concerts

00:52:32.960 they were all like gluten intolerant and vegan and all kind of strange stuff but they were very

00:52:40.000 sweet they let security go and and uh eat all their green room food which was awesome and uh

00:52:45.840 huey lewis and the news huey lewis was was not a very pleasant gentleman but the news were awesome

00:52:51.120 and they let us in there to eat their green room snacks too so i appreciate that

00:52:55.760 i have no idea why i got on that but but it do um

00:53:03.840 next question is also from the king of cheese

00:53:07.280 brandy how do you balance the instinct to go all in uh even at detriment to one's own health when

00:53:17.040 it comes to work and keeping a good work ethic without being lazy i'll be honest i don't i have

00:53:25.360 to be told um but i've got a group of leadership and a group of friends that will tell me when

00:53:34.080 i'm burning the candle at both ends and i'm at risk of losing the candle um

00:53:41.120 you know i've got a lot of people that look out for me that way so if i'm working myself

00:53:46.560 too hard if i'm trying too hard if if i'm burning out they tell me my husband will tell me my kids

00:53:54.640 will tell me um nathan erlinson ashley mcstalker jason gallagher you know me and jason gallagher

00:54:02.320 yell at each other quite a bit so not literally but stop carrying that and sit down but no people

00:54:10.080 look out for me to be honest tony it's a it's a strange thing because

00:54:25.840 i don't know there's a lot that goes into it there's something

00:54:28.480 just primally beautiful and inspirational about people that put literally put it all

00:54:42.920 on the line for something they believe in. And that, I mean, that is the essence of heroism.

00:54:51.540 And, you know, I'm not. There's more to being a hero than than that, but the idea of literally putting yourself at risk for something that is truly important to you is such a special thing.

00:55:08.900 And she mentioned, Jason, we have some of our people that really, you know, they offer their bodies up on the on the altars of our gods to make this happen.

00:55:21.540 and we are so very blessed to have those kind of people with us and yeah it's our job to get a hold

00:55:27.300 of them when they're going a little bit too far and calm them down and you know sit them down

00:55:32.060 find something else to do but the thing is those folks are so inspirational by doing that and being

00:55:38.200 willing to put that much out for for this that it inspires the people that tell them to sit down to

00:55:45.320 then go pick up where they left off and try to keep you know keep carrying that until they get

00:55:49.500 back up and uh it's it's really a it's really special dynamic and it's

00:55:58.380 it's something really cool to see and i'm one of the special things in my position is i get

00:56:06.380 such a broad view of the afa and of our members and leaders over time and i get to watch people

00:56:13.340 develop and watch things happen. Watching people

00:56:17.420 develop that and express that over time of really putting themselves out there to make stuff happen.

00:56:30.480 It's an amazing thing. It helps me as a leader so much that I've got these great people working

00:56:35.920 with me but just as a just as a fan just as a as a kid that found alistar true and thought it

00:56:44.000 was the greatest thing in the world sitting back and being able to see all the work that these

00:56:48.080 people do it's just so special and it's so inspirational to me every single day um

00:56:55.600 Nick asks, what are some of the fun projects we got on the horizons coming up

00:57:06.640 out of our Baldur's Hoff team?

00:57:12.460 I see that fun in quotation marks, Nick. We've actually got a lot going on with the Baldur's

00:57:19.060 team. So as far as the Hoff goes, Nathan Erlinson and Josh in Wisconsin, they're working on the

00:57:28.560 floors in the basement. And James Alt is going to be working on the floors upstairs. And those

00:57:37.200 groups of folks got some beautiful plants coming up for these floors. I am so excited about what

00:57:42.860 they're going to be doing with these floors. This is our next big thing. I don't know how fun it's

00:57:47.360 going to be, but I know it's going to be beautiful. There's a lot of imagery that they've talked about

00:57:52.880 with me and that they have talked about with Yashira Ghodi, and I'm really, really excited to

00:57:58.240 see what these men can get accomplished, and that is going to be amazing. I'm super excited about it.

00:58:06.820 Projects that we've got going on, we've always got something going on. We have got

00:58:10.600 men's book studies and women's book studies. We've got our monthly district membership call

00:58:18.440 that we do. We've got outreach to our folk. We've got all kinds of things going on. So

00:58:25.560 if you're in Baldershop District, and even if you're not in Baldershop District, get a hold

00:58:30.380 of the folk builders in our district here, because we've got all kinds of interesting

00:58:35.520 things going on whether it be um classes or book studies or calls there's just so much going on

00:58:42.720 there's something almost every single day so definitely take a look at that yes bouldersoft.org

00:58:48.240 contact us get a hold of the folk builders there um i think every folk builder and every apprentice

00:58:54.640 folk builder in bouldersoft district has got at least one project that they're working on

00:59:00.720 so they're a very industrious and productive group of men and women so get a hold of them because

00:59:06.960 there's a lot yeah kind of shout out to my baldershoff leaders um

00:59:18.160 baldershoff leadership team is really leading the pack right now they're

00:59:23.600 they're shining at all levels they are functioning as a cohesive team

00:59:28.080 it's hard because we've got these hoff districts and i don't know um if everybody who's watching

00:59:32.480 this or listening to this is familiar with them but you know right now it's amazing we have four

00:59:40.080 hoffs and four hoff districts and it's the most amazing thing in the entire universe up to this

00:59:45.760 point but that said we have four hoffs over the surface of the globe um so that being said the

00:59:55.280 The Hoff Districts are pretty big chunks of real estate for everybody to be able to work together on.

01:00:02.040 And the Baldur's Hoff team is really doing an amazing, amazing job at that lately.

01:00:06.760 So I noticed on the side, and I really hope that people are not playing with me,

01:00:14.380 there was mention of a Cardi B barbecue chicken wing flavor of wrap snacks.

01:00:20.380 i really it sounds like something that nathan cross could have been making up but that's cruel

01:00:26.980 if you are because it sounds amazing and uh i hope that you're not teasing me like that

01:00:31.980 i don't want those snacks to be good i really don't i got them because i was going to talk

01:00:37.020 about how terrible they were and laugh at them but uh i i was defeated they are they are amazing

01:00:43.760 I wish they weren't.

01:00:48.760 Do you have a recommendation for what to read and in what order to learn about practicing

01:00:56.620 Asitru?

01:00:58.680 So I want to say this up front, and this is just an admission that's unfortunate, but

01:01:03.380 it is.

01:01:07.020 We have wanted to produce materials to help with that for a long time.

01:01:14.140 And it's one of the things that, so far, having the right people in the right spots and finding

01:01:19.000 the time to do has been a very difficult task.

01:01:24.180 And I can honestly say it's because we're so busy, you know, practicing Ausitru that

01:01:30.240 it just doesn't come out that way.

01:01:33.380 We would like to.

01:01:34.380 some projects in the works and I don't want to hype them too much because I don't have an idea

01:01:38.100 when when they'll come to fruition. And I don't want to be that guy that that promises and then

01:01:42.760 doesn't deliver. I will give you and I promise I'll actually answer your question and give you

01:01:49.800 some reading recommendations here in a second. But what I would say, absolutely, if you want to

01:01:55.760 know about practicing Ausitru, it is a lot of listening to me talk about stupid things like

01:02:02.880 wrap snacks but listening to this program we get into that a lot and it's expressed so much better

01:02:11.360 at least by me in the spoken word and in answering questions or giving explanations

01:02:17.040 than it is um being written down um the other thing that i would say is

01:02:25.760 get with afa members in your area and start actually practicing house the truth you're

01:02:31.760 going to run into people that have been doing this for a long time that are coming from very

01:02:36.400 different places that all have really really valuable insight into how they practice

01:02:44.960 ausitru and how it's done but as far as questions get a hold of our gothar these people

01:02:53.440 that's what they do that's who they are they are priests and priestesses of our gods and they are

01:02:59.920 quite literally experts on practicing house a troop and if you have any questions there's

01:03:06.160 anything you want to know specific please always feel free to reach out to me if you'd like to as

01:03:10.240 well i'd be happy to you know help you any way i could on that as far as stuff um to read

01:03:18.640 i think reading uh our founder steve mcnallen's book also true native european spirituality is

01:03:24.160 always a really good choice he's got another book that we sell on the website uh living house the

01:03:29.760 true it's a little bit dated it's a little bit of a kind of a snapshot of what uh they were doing

01:03:34.960 back in the house true free assembly days in the you know in the late 80s and uh it's but it's a

01:03:42.320 really nice perspective too it's again it's modern people in a time that you know many of us can

01:03:47.360 remember and how they actually practiced house the truth so i think that's a really valuable one

01:03:53.680 i think one that's more

01:03:58.240 that takes a little bit more work to figure out how to apply it in your daily life culture of the

01:04:03.600 teutons is awesome and i recommend it to everybody but it comes with this caveat especially when you

01:04:09.280 talk about practice um the author wilhelm groenbeck he uh he takes every principle or every point to

01:04:20.960 an extreme that i don't feel you need to take it to um there's a whole lot of very stark absolutism

01:04:29.040 in it that i think a person with discernment can dial back to something appropriate and something

01:04:34.960 feasible and you've also got to remember that it you know that is very much uh mr groenbeck

01:04:42.960 describing an ancient people and how they did things so when you're going to apply that to

01:04:47.120 a modern circumstance and again this is common sense i'm sure you know this but when you read

01:04:52.880 it read it with that in mind with the challenge of you know this being a principle that's sacred

01:04:57.520 how do we apply that principle in a modern context those are the three that i would recommend off the

01:05:04.080 top of my head for for practice um brandy what are your thoughts as far as practice i'm gonna

01:05:13.120 have to probably go with with steve's book because that's going to be the best example of what

01:05:21.200 the practice of it would be um as far as as learning what the practice of as a true would be

01:05:29.440 i highly recommend going to the hoffs you know yeah sure go they said go ahead and contact you

01:05:34.400 go there go there but also get to the hoffs because you're going to see the actual bloat

01:05:41.760 happen you're going to be part of symbol you're going to be sharing the frith um practicing as

01:05:48.400 true is also not it the studying is important so you understand but that's not the sole purpose

01:05:58.800 the sole purpose of as true is worshiping the gods so practice makes perfect and a lot of this

01:06:06.160 is going to be based on your personal relationship with those gods you need to build that cycle with

01:06:11.120 time so before worrying about getting it perfect i would definitely start with just starting that

01:06:18.320 gift cycle and start building that relationship see this isn't the answer that everybody wants

01:06:27.200 to uh wants to hear because it's it's a little bit more nuanced and more difficult but it's the

01:06:32.560 absolutely it's the the truth also true is not a um it's not a math equation it's not like there's

01:06:44.880 these certain steps in the right order you need to do to unlock communication with our gods it's not

01:06:54.160 it's not like that it doesn't it work with that level of it's not a science it's an art um

01:07:02.560 And it's very much about relationships and interactions between, you know, living and willful beings.

01:07:13.360 So you've got to approach it that way.

01:07:17.560 You know, when talking about the perfect way to do it, I don't even know if such things exist, because I think that, you know, if Brandy was at her ultimate height of perfection,

01:07:27.880 and I was at the ultimate height of mat perfection, I think that our bloats would be

01:07:33.880 very different. I think a lot of things that we would do in our practice would be different

01:07:39.140 and maybe, maybe in subtle ways, but they would certainly be different. And I think that's

01:07:46.000 as it should be. There are certain key things that you have to do to get it right, but there's

01:07:51.380 a, and this is another thing that people aren't comfortable with. There's no one right way, but

01:07:56.260 there's certainly wrong ways and there's certainly generally right ways and then there's this whole

01:08:02.340 area in between that there's an art to um like i was saying when brandy gives a bloat her bloat's

01:08:10.000 different than mine um spawns of bloats are very different than mine uh you may have heard me talk

01:08:17.540 about on her on the show before uh githya patricia hall who was a woman that was very influential on

01:08:23.800 me in Ausatru, her bloats are extremely different than mine. And all of those people, I think,

01:08:30.340 give very powerful bloats. I think all of those people are practicing Ausatru correctly, but

01:08:37.020 each of our best self, presenting our best self to the gods, each of our best selves is going to

01:08:44.980 look different. And that's part of the beauty of our faith. It does make it more complicating,

01:08:51.860 and it makes the easy answers more frustrating to get but i think it's certainly a truth that we

01:08:58.900 that we recognize so we got a um super chat donation over here from our good friend in

01:09:07.300 canada lawrence forbes thank you very much for your 10 canadian dollars we appreciate that very much

01:09:12.820 um and this is an interesting question it's kind of a cool question because i really like to

01:09:16.900 to dream on things matt when the afa has three or four times the number of members it does now

01:09:25.380 do you foresee any changes in leadership structure or administration also are there

01:09:31.380 things that might generally concern you when that day comes feel free to give your thoughts

01:09:37.780 um or feel free to give your thoughts too brandy uh great stream this evening thanks

01:09:43.780 i'm glad that you're enjoying the stream so

01:09:50.740 at the numbers that you are talking about at three times or four times our current membership

01:09:57.060 no i don't think that we would change our leadership structure

01:10:02.500 um what i think it would look like at three or four times the membership though um

01:10:08.020 Um, we were trying to run the numbers on this the other day on, you know, assuming that

01:10:16.660 we had all the money in the world, at what point is it, you know, what level of member

01:10:22.300 number do we need to justify, you know, another half or to make an additional half of a reasonable

01:10:28.940 thing to do?

01:10:30.920 And I think that we are still technically below the number of Hoffs that we would like

01:10:37.780 to have for our current member number. So I think if we had three or four times the members,

01:10:42.600 we'd certainly have three or four times the Hoffs. Now, I think that just knowing how that works,

01:10:48.740 the rate of Hoffs to members, we'd probably have a while to fill that up. I think that if

01:10:54.300 magically tomorrow our membership number quadrupled, it'd be a while before we filled

01:11:00.860 up all those Hoff spots, but it would be increasingly fast. So that's to say administratively,

01:11:07.240 we'd be broken up into much smaller Hoff districts and what I do foresee with that

01:11:14.680 eventually we're going to have so many Hoffs and so many Hoff districts we may have like

01:11:20.120 a super duper Hoff that defines a district of several smaller Hoffs maybe or several local

01:11:26.680 Hoffs and there's one that you know is like the district seat as it were of the administration

01:11:32.840 that district um i don't think that we would change any of the functions of how we work being

01:11:40.200 it all culminating in in one person of the else harrier gofi and then um a strata of ordained

01:11:48.600 people now at four or five or at three or four times the number we have now we might have

01:11:54.200 a further breakdown of like different levels of gothar that may have different levels of

01:11:59.880 responsibility with that other than that i don't think the administer the administrative structure

01:12:05.160 would change very much because even even when we get hoffs internationally

01:12:13.640 i know that comes with different things but because we're united by our faith and by our

01:12:19.800 church the astro folk assembly i wouldn't want to restrict those things internationally i would

01:12:27.800 want it to span different nations at least while that makes sense initially because i'd want those

01:12:35.400 the i want the administration of that to be about the people and about the space

01:12:41.800 and to kind of transcend regional or national borders in that sense so i think that even in

01:12:48.600 that case it still functioned very similar to what it would be now now four times the membership i

01:12:54.040 think that really does open up the opportunity of a um a half outside of the united states

01:12:59.640 and so i i see that as far as potential potential concerns

01:13:09.960 it's an interesting question because i think it's very i think for people like us i think for

01:13:18.360 traditionally minded white people in the world today we've developed a mindset to where it is

01:13:25.960 much easier for us to think about concerns at that number than about just how amazing it would be to

01:13:33.080 have four times the numbers or about all of the the fantastic things that would come with that

01:13:39.000 you know i my wife will do that sometimes when we have people coming over there'll be a comment

01:13:43.240 about oh we don't have enough chairs or uh you know some logistical thing and i'm like man what

01:13:47.640 an amazing problem to have you know so the problems are going to be we have too many people

01:13:52.760 that we care about coming over to our house to share a meal and participate in an afa event

01:13:57.800 that's that's awesome you know i one of the realities is the bigger that we get the more

01:14:04.040 attention that will draw the media likes to create and sensationalize stories that they can

01:14:11.640 can shoehorn into um a racially divisive narrative that's something they're really excited about for

01:14:18.840 you know for a while now but certainly for the past six seven years um so we'll probably get

01:14:26.520 more attention um we'll get more attention but one of the things is the more attention that we'll get

01:14:31.080 there'll be a lot more of our people that'll be aware of us and that'll come home and that'll

01:14:34.680 join what we're doing and that can help us in what we're doing so yeah i'm i could see that being

01:14:41.160 you know problematic um

01:14:48.520 as far as other concerns that way really i don't i mean getting more uncomfortable

01:14:53.640 attention from the press certainly but other than that i don't foresee problems at that level i

01:15:00.760 think that'd be fantastic i think that um a truth for you know for good or for ill if we had four

01:15:07.480 times the number of people we have now that number still be relatively small in the scheme of you

01:15:12.840 know the billions of people in the world or certainly the 300 million people in the united

01:15:18.200 states i think we could get you know exponentially bigger than four times many times over before that

01:15:25.880 number would become cumbersome in any kind of other context but again every new amount of growth

01:15:32.040 that we have sure it brings a little bit of struggle figuring it out but what an amazing

01:15:38.920 you know it's well worth i will take that struggle any day that's an amazing thing to have struggle

01:15:44.120 about so i i love thinking about that do you have any thoughts on what things would look like if

01:15:49.560 we're three or four times as big brandy yeah i don't have any concerns the future's so bright

01:15:54.440 i gotta wear shades i ain't worried kids out there gonna think you just made that up

01:16:02.040 I know, right? That's why I'm going to be a legend.

01:16:07.820 There you go. Which of the ISEER most embodies the virtue of industriousness? Because you are

01:16:18.500 the member of AFA leadership that most embodies industriousness, who do you think amongst the

01:16:23.540 ISEER would most embody the virtue of industriousness, Brandy?

01:16:27.060 Giffion. I like Giffion. I actually do my Charming of the Plow bloats to Giffion.

01:16:35.880 And part of my bloat for Charming of the Plow is I ask people to bring their tools that they use

01:16:44.560 for their jobs or their hobbies or their crafting. Bring tools that help you be industrious.

01:16:51.300 this industrious bring your pens if you're a writer bring your hammer if you're a carpenter

01:16:58.580 if you work with your hands i'll bless your hands to help you be industrious and strong

01:17:04.740 and to help pull a piece of land of your own to help create your own island of excellence and

01:17:11.860 victory so that's definitely gefium to me i think that's a good question because it you know

01:17:22.180 gets the juices flowing it makes you really think about some stuff um

01:17:37.060 i mean i think there's a good case to be made for several of them i think that

01:17:41.860 I overthink stuff, so I'm going to go ahead and pick Asa Thor,

01:17:49.340 because he's so often mentioned as being out in the East fighting giants. He's out

01:17:57.980 doing his job of protecting mankind and the gods from the forces of chaos

01:18:03.840 steadily, and it's a difficult thing to do. It's not an easy thing to do. He has to apply himself

01:18:11.300 to to battling giants and jormungandr and you know really putting in that effort and he's on

01:18:21.940 quests to do that often in enemy territory and uh yeah i think that idea of him of him having

01:18:29.220 to travel out to fight the foes of the gods so frequently is a is an is a good example of industry

01:18:36.580 amongst the ice here um cody asks baldurshoff was a pretty big news story how did you stay

01:18:46.660 the course were there any challenges that you had to overcome that one's for you brandy yeah um

01:18:59.060 I remember getting emails from someone that I worked with that sent me a link that said,

01:19:11.000 hey, you made Yahoo News. Did you see it? My mom emailed out links to all of our family going,

01:19:20.140 hey, check it out. Look at this. Look at this. Not in a bad way. It was just, I can't believe

01:19:26.260 they're making such a big deal out of Brandy's church. I mean, if you knew Brandy and the people

01:19:32.120 she goes to church with, you wouldn't understand why they're such big news. We're awesome, but

01:19:39.960 they made this out to be such a huge thing. And it wasn't. It wasn't. I guess the biggest thing

01:19:49.960 that we had to overcome. The biggest challenge that we had to face wasn't the outside, it was

01:19:59.960 inside. And when I say that, it was not letting the outside forces that were trying to scare us,

01:20:11.280 scare us. I could sit here all day long and say, no, it's not that big of a deal. I can say that

01:20:18.280 now when it first happened it was a big deal because we didn't know what was going to happen

01:20:23.880 we didn't know how big this was going to get so the biggest challenge was holding the line

01:20:31.160 and i tell everybody that and all the you know when that when we got in your top i just you know

01:20:36.800 i reminded them hold the line hold the line keep your chin up and hold the line

01:20:44.040 it's normal to be nervous it's normal to be a little bit afraid it is how you act in those

01:20:53.340 moments whether you're going to tuck tail and run or if you're just going to freeze or if you're

01:20:59.960 just going to smile and say i got it it's fine that is what makes the difference you can be

01:21:06.900 scared all day long it's what you do with that that makes the difference and remember earlier

01:21:12.420 in the podcast i said when i'm stressed out about something i work so they don't realize the big

01:21:19.620 favor they did by initially stressing me out because i was there every weekend working so

01:21:26.420 it's my thoughts

01:21:31.620 yeah i mean you were you right there in the midst of it um

01:21:34.660 from a distance one of the things that was there's a couple of things it was really cool

01:21:43.600 there's a couple kind of I don't know neat moments from all of it you're absolutely right

01:21:52.500 that the biggest problems were internal uh people having to confront their fears and it is

01:22:02.220 it's uncomfortable when reporters are hounding you or are potentially hounding you it's very

01:22:13.280 uncomfortable and especially in this day and age with the world like it is it is uncomfortable i

01:22:19.120 get that um but it's interesting we had some people that you know thought they were real

01:22:27.140 tough guys and as soon as there was the whiff of you know put up or shut up they they ran for the

01:22:34.260 hills um we had some other people that you know don't seem like they're particularly tough guys

01:22:40.740 that stood up you know stood up against you know all comers and had no fear about it and stepped

01:22:49.220 right up there and and were were examples of courage so it was interesting it put uh put some

01:22:54.900 folks to the test on you know who they really were and who they just talked about being and that was

01:22:59.460 nice to see it was disappointing in some cases it was also you know made me very very proud of

01:23:05.700 certain people so that's really cool one of the other things that was neat we are so blessed to

01:23:11.300 have law speaker turnage with us it was really cool to you know when dealing with a city government

01:23:18.980 on a zoning issue to be able to fly in our afa attorney to uh you know go in there and

01:23:26.260 look like a million bucks and represent us well that's awesome and i was so proud of that the

01:23:31.540 other thing is i think it's very easy to think and i know it was for me so this is i'm not projecting

01:23:38.980 this on anybody this is me it was scary dealing with a city government because you're like wow

01:23:45.380 you know they're the big fish and you're the small fish in the pond but then i started running the

01:23:52.340 numbers you know you were talking about what else true would look like when it's or i say this like

01:23:58.100 you're all lawrence lawrence was talking a little bit ago about the house you know how it would look

01:24:02.340 if the afa were three or four times bigger well looking at proportions we are three times bigger

01:24:08.980 than the population of murdoch so you know we were dealing with a city council of people that

01:24:16.420 you know have have very few constituents in a very small town and we've got a lot of stuff going on

01:24:21.700 we we were absolutely the big fish in that pond when we were having that uh that conversation it

01:24:26.820 was kind of a kind of a cool thing to realize that no we we've got you know legit numbers on stuff

01:24:34.500 we are numerically significant in you know we're starting to grow we're getting to where we have a

01:24:39.620 footprint in the world when you look at murdoch one of the other cool things is i pulled up an

01:24:43.940 aerial map of the town of murdoch and you can see excuse me you can see where the hoff property is

01:24:53.220 and to just know like we we physically own you know a visible like two or three percent of that

01:25:00.980 town's footprint is us and that's kind of a cool thing so we got another question i'm going to let

01:25:08.900 you take a swing at this first brandy um what does uninvoked astral projection mean i know before i

01:25:18.260 came home to the afa i was criticized in christianity when i spoke of it is this something i

01:25:24.740 should pursue? So if you're talking about an invoked astral projection as unintentional

01:25:32.480 or spontaneous, and should it's something that you can should pursue, that's entirely up to you,

01:25:39.700 but it's not something I would personally do myself. I would prefer a form of ootsetter or

01:25:47.720 something like that. But as far as uninvoked astral projection, no, that is not something I

01:25:53.840 would personally do, but you do you. Um, but I think what you're, if what you're talking about

01:26:00.700 is the unintentional or spontaneous, I'm one of those people that likes to be in control

01:26:06.960 of my thoughts, myself, what I'm doing, what I'm doing it. So that's not something I would

01:26:11.900 personally pursue. Um, I have Christianity in general does not like the thought of astral

01:26:18.480 projection for various reasons um but no i the way you're describing it no that's not something

01:26:25.920 i would pursue personally um like i said if that works for you cool it's just not something i would

01:26:32.320 be into so uh callum i did get your question on the super chat and i will get to it right after

01:26:41.680 this i should have got you first but i didn't see it in time but i i did see that come through and

01:26:45.840 will get to you as far as the question uh and i should add this this is from someone um monica is

01:26:52.320 is their screen name on here so yeah there we go um because i think that that the nuance

01:27:01.680 as far as this goes does have a male and female component to it

01:27:07.280 i have never heard i've never heard the term uninvoked astral projection so i have to make

01:27:14.240 some assumptions about what it means if it is you unintentionally astral projecting

01:27:23.920 as if perhaps when you're you know asleep or something else

01:27:32.320 i wouldn't block it out as far as pursuing it i would seek to gain control of it

01:27:38.400 um and i think that's a reasonable thing to do no matter who asks is if if you if this is

01:27:43.520 something that you are doing unintentionally in a in a meditative or in a dream state or whatever

01:27:50.320 that i think you should absolutely pursue how to reign that in and once you know how to reign that

01:27:56.880 in how to use that in in a beneficial way um if it is you receiving some kind of projection or you um

01:28:08.160 um yeah if it is you receiving messages or something working through you in a way that

01:28:18.600 was unintentional um if you were a guy I would suggest that you handle that different than if

01:28:27.720 you're a woman being a woman I think that that's something that you could if you wanted to be more

01:28:33.060 to exploring and letting that happen um but again it's so much of it is on a case-by-case basis

01:28:43.060 so i don't want to just say yeah go you know swing for the fences on it and i wish you the best

01:28:47.620 um i think it should you should be cautious with what you do and i think that if it's something

01:28:52.820 you're because you mentioned um uninvoked so i'm assuming that this is something that you find

01:28:58.580 yourself that this happens to you from time to time. If it does, I think you should reach out to

01:29:04.160 your local Gothi or Githya. And I say local, it doesn't have to be. I think you should reach out

01:29:10.540 to any of our Gothar and, you know, for somebody to kind of help you through it or help you process

01:29:16.300 with it or work with it in that way. But yeah, I wouldn't say just shut it down. If there's

01:29:21.760 something that's going on, I'd want to figure it out, put a context to it. And then, you know,

01:29:27.000 you being a woman i don't think you know i don't think there's anything wrong with you wanting to

01:29:31.240 pursue it as long as you you know as long as you're able to find that it's beneficial in some

01:29:37.720 way and put it in a context where it's it's helpful to you and not damaging to you

01:29:44.680 so column to your question and with a donation of 20 i believe i'm reading the abbreviation

01:29:51.000 correct australian dollars that's awesome thank you so much for that uh can someone in the afa

01:29:57.720 be publicly outspoken against the abrahamic religions either in a respectful or in a vulgar

01:30:03.800 and crude manner also do you think it's fair to cancel someone's membership if they happen to be

01:30:10.360 in prison they may have been in prison wrongfully or defended the folk and found themselves in

01:30:16.040 prison thanks so there's a number of things to unpack in that um

01:30:25.240 yeah uh and and we're going cross borders here too so please recognize that

01:30:36.360 i was gonna say it i don't even know if the right term is an australian citizen but

01:30:42.760 as an australian citizen you are asking an american citizen a question about can and can't

01:30:48.600 you i don't know legally what the standard is there on your ability to have freedom of speech

01:30:54.440 unfortunately one would like to think that in the western world you could speak freely on those

01:31:00.520 subjects either politely or rudely if you so choose and that that would not land you in legal

01:31:07.480 trouble i put the caveat out there the afa does not want to tell you it's okay to do anything

01:31:12.840 that is illegal but on principle as far as the afa is concerned we would prefer that you

01:31:20.600 addressed your grievances with other faith groups in respectful ways but you are uh you know you

01:31:27.880 you are certainly a free individual and you don't represent the afa in an official capacity

01:31:32.280 um yeah speak your mind about the abrahamic faiths if you so choose

01:31:36.780 that's entirely up to you again as long as that's legal in the country where you're at

01:31:41.520 um no i don't think that the afa would have consequences or repercussions with that

01:31:46.600 um like anything context is everything if you carry on the rude discussion of that in a way

01:31:53.660 that causes friction amongst our people internally then that might be something but no i you've got

01:31:59.480 freedom to speak your mind and and say the things that that you feel um as far as do i think it's

01:32:06.840 fair to cancel somebody's membership if they happen to be imprisoned so this is a this is

01:32:14.120 something that folks may not realize and i want people to understand because i've thought about

01:32:19.400 this too the afa does not accept membership from people who find us when they are incarcerated

01:32:27.720 if they are still incarcerated we wait until someone is is out and in the free world before

01:32:34.120 they can join us that's not the same as us cutting ties with somebody if we have a member that is

01:32:41.240 convicted of a crime that's not an automatic thing and it's something that we have had happened

01:32:48.280 before and there is nuance to that that depends a lot on the circumstance you mentioned that they

01:32:57.400 could have been wrongfully imprisoned or that they could be you know a political prisoner

01:33:04.280 we are very aware that that is a possibility and so i think it comes down a lot to nuance

01:33:09.560 and sometimes it comes down to the nature of the crime involved if they are convicted and we have

01:33:15.160 reason to believe that that's a legitimate conviction for something we find heinous

01:33:19.080 and unacceptable then absolutely we'll dump their membership um but if they're convicted

01:33:24.840 of something different just because they get convicted does not mean that we throw them out

01:33:29.640 and i notice there's kind of nuance in your question it's not like you asked of the afa

01:33:34.520 but i'm assuming with the membership you're applying afa membership so so folks know we

01:33:39.560 don't just kick somebody out if they get in trouble with the law we it is a discussion

01:33:45.160 that we have certainly but that's not an automatic um throw somebody out for thing um

01:33:54.840 And yeah, I think that's the entirety of the question there. Brandy, do you have anything to add on that?

01:34:03.460 I do a little bit. I'm going to give you the same advice that I gave to my children. And I don't mean that as, you know, motherly advice or that I'm trying to talk to you as if you're younger.

01:34:17.280 um it's just advice in general you can say what you want how you want when you want

01:34:24.400 don't always assume that people are going to agree with you and don't always assume that

01:34:29.660 people are going to support what you say just because you believe it um as passionately as you

01:34:35.440 do doesn't mean that somebody else will share your passion in that so while you may take a

01:34:42.940 different tone in your grievances with the Abrahamic faiths. Not everybody will share

01:34:51.460 that tone. Some of us will have a very respectful disagreement or debate, but there are a lot of

01:34:59.040 people who still will show respect as their parents or grandparents may still be part of

01:35:03.940 that faith. Respectful disagreement with something can sometimes be better than loud

01:35:16.160 shouting of grievance. So I will put that out there. I think that's solid advice. And Colm,

01:35:22.160 this isn't directed at you. This is to everybody out there, just so they know.

01:35:26.500 There is a different level of what it takes for us to kick you out of the AFA versus what it takes

01:35:33.820 for lots of AFA members to not really want to have things to do with you. You can be a jerk 1.00

01:35:39.860 and have nobody like you and still be in the AFA. So when I say the AFA, you know, is okay with 1.00

01:35:46.240 something or not, it's, you know, it's not, I'm not going to kick you out for saying mean things

01:35:51.620 about Christianity. But Brandy's point is very, very important is, you know, a lot of us still

01:36:00.760 have people we're very close to that uh may be very involved in their christian faith and

01:36:08.760 if you're not careful with the words you say you can very easily offend some people that you may

01:36:13.400 not mean to offend so um be intentional that's that's kind of something that i

01:36:23.240 apologize there's been a couple of dumb bouncer analogies tonight but that's something that you

01:36:28.360 know i when i ran some guys with security i would always tell them like if you if you want us to get

01:36:36.840 in a fight with somebody if that's what happens then okay cool i got you but what i don't want

01:36:42.360 is you to stumble into a fight that you didn't see coming that's what's going to make me upset

01:36:47.160 if you see it coming and we need to go there okay so you know you can be offensive or not

01:36:53.000 but don't accidentally offend people you don't mean to offend and that's a really important

01:36:58.040 thing if if your intent is to offend then you know that's that's a choice for you to make

01:37:03.080 but be fully aware of of your audience and i think that's sound advice for anybody and again that's

01:37:07.720 not aimed at you column your question was great and i think it's well taken that's just to folks

01:37:11.880 listening um you have a lot of freedoms but your freedoms come with an understanding that there's

01:37:18.680 consequences and you know everybody has the freedom to disagree with you and not want to

01:37:23.720 not want to be your buddy depending upon how you exercise your freedoms

01:37:28.680 uh nathan asks i'll tell you go the when did you know you wanted witten callahan on the witten

01:37:39.560 before you and i had that conversation so

01:37:43.800 So one of the cool things that used to happen often, see what happens this year again or not, depending on where we where we stay is the the hot tub, the hot tub, sample and hot tub kind of Baldershof after parties.

01:38:03.140 so the the hotel that folks were staying at that was close by had a cool hot tub and people you

01:38:09.140 know after they'd been working or whatever else to go out there and relax and pass around some

01:38:13.700 schnapps and enjoy the time in the hot tub one time uh nathan a couple of times nathan and i

01:38:19.380 were out there one time it was he and i and and he asked me that and he was a strong advocate that

01:38:24.100 like no you need to put brandy on the witten why is she not on the witten what's your problem

01:38:28.420 i wanted to put her on the witten well before that conversation and so i was trying to be

01:38:34.240 kind of coy with the conversation i think that i knew that i wanted her to get there

01:38:39.160 by it's it's hard because it's not like there was some lightning strike moment

01:38:47.500 certainly by the time she was before the time she was ordained as a githya

01:38:56.500 um i didn't know how fast that would happen but getting her there was something that i wanted to

01:39:04.240 see then um i think the moment that most solidified it but again brandy just oozes with

01:39:17.300 competence and it it is a no-brainer it would be ridiculous not to have her on the witten brandy is

01:39:23.920 top brandy is top three hardest workers in the afa um

01:39:34.220 if you go by percentage of people's capability i think brandy is solidly top three if you go by

01:39:45.960 overall getting stuff done and execution. I want to say she's top two and say I compete with her,

01:39:55.300 but that's not really true because half of the stuff I take credit for is stuff that she's

01:39:59.760 done 50% or more of the work for. So I got to say Brandy's accomplishes more than I do.

01:40:09.260 But yeah, yeah, there's no scenario. She's not top three of our getting stuff done people.

01:40:15.080 and the hardest workers in the AFA, and I think, you know, I am obliged to put my hat in the ring,

01:40:21.680 but truth be told, I think Brandy beats me on it. That said, the really solidifying moment,

01:40:32.140 one thing with being the All's Heria Goethe, and again, I wouldn't change this for anything in the

01:40:38.240 world. But it's part of when I talked about the responsibilities of ordination and the further

01:40:45.820 responsibilities of being the else harry gothy. Part of us being a theocratic autocracy. It's

01:40:55.240 really cool because Matt gets to be the king of stuff. And that's awesome. I promise you it's

01:40:59.460 the coolest thing in the world. I wouldn't trade it for anything. But it also means that

01:41:04.280 you can feel really alone and you can feel all the weight of the world on your shoulders all

01:41:11.560 the time there's never a time that i don't feel that weight there's never a time i wouldn't want

01:41:18.100 to feel that way but there are times it's heavier than others um one time and we mentioned that we

01:41:26.700 it's funny how uh it's weird law speaker literally how these conversations on here

01:41:33.620 kind of get a theme or questions harken back to other previous questions in the course of the

01:41:38.820 show it's kind of neat how that happens so we talked about baldershoff a little bit and how

01:41:44.100 the big challenge wasn't an external challenge it was an internal challenge well we built

01:41:51.140 baldershoff based on the expectation that a certain kindred and a certain leader in the afa at the

01:41:57.220 time was going to help us to make this project work because it was a lot of work we talked about

01:42:04.100 you know the state it was in and we had somebody up there and he was a he was a friend of mine

01:42:12.180 i felt like he was a friend of mine for a number of years and somebody put a lot of trust in

01:42:19.220 and we we really banking on those folks to come through for us and they were you know influential

01:42:25.460 regionally and uh literally up until the day before they were all in they would help any way

01:42:31.780 possible they were they were 100 ride or die they were on it um until all of a sudden they weren't

01:42:43.460 and i got the news that this person who was on the witten at the time and again somebody that

01:42:49.700 had been very very helpful in building things under my administration this person completely

01:42:58.100 turned their back on us and then began attacking us um and took their kindred with them and a

01:43:04.180 number of people who knew them kind of went with them and all of a sudden so much of this new hof

01:43:11.700 that we invested in there was you know this moment of kind of free fall and figuring out what the

01:43:17.380 next step is and uh it hit me really hard um and i kind of kind of went out and i went out to

01:43:28.020 there's a cool cigar bar down in carson city that i went and i you know had a cigar and had

01:43:34.340 had a couple of beers and and uh i'm so used to at that point we're in a really awesome time there's

01:43:42.980 not a whole lot of drama for us right now we've got great people we've got people focused on doing

01:43:48.340 awesome stuff that took a while to get that way at that point in the afa history there was you know

01:43:54.580 you'd have these kindreds that would defect and take people with them and there was there was a

01:43:59.300 lot of uh you know a few eggs needed to get broken to make an omelet at that point and that being

01:44:08.900 said we're at this point where a good friend of mine had had just kind of turned on me and

01:44:15.060 and in a business way you know all of a sudden we lost these people that were going to help us

01:44:19.620 remodel this building that you know now we don't know what to do with and we just invested in

01:44:24.660 and we made a promise that's the thing when we invest in one of these hops it's a promise to

01:44:28.740 our membership there but it's also literally a promise to the gods and i'd said this once more

01:44:34.820 when that person was kind of on the fence is like no we owe it to balder to make this place amazing

01:44:40.900 and now all of a sudden we're left hanging well i'm so used to having to jump in

01:44:45.220 and put out fires and plug holes and make stuff work

01:44:51.860 brandy called me and it wasn't you know an oh crap what do i do

01:44:58.180 it was hey Matt are you okay how are you doing we've got this let me tell you the steps that

01:45:07.060 I've already taken to shore everything up and make sure that we are perfectly fine

01:45:11.320 and she had about four things she had already taken care of calls she'd already made

01:45:16.500 and she was genuinely checking on me to make sure I was all right and that means the world

01:45:23.880 me it means the world to me sitting here right now um that doesn't happen all the time so that

01:45:31.640 told me volumes about her worth her character and the fact that she needs to be on my wit and

01:45:41.720 and she only proves that uh that more each and every day she's that's one of the things

01:45:48.680 for a lot of our people this is a this a weekly job this is several times a week this is a few

01:45:52.920 times a day for brandy this is you know this is as close to 24 7 as it can be i'm constantly calling

01:45:58.760 her at work and bugging her about a myriad of things because we got so many things going on in

01:46:04.440 the afa but brandy gives this 100 and uh it's much appreciated uh sarah says brandy you have

01:46:14.360 an incredibly strong connection to your ancestors could you speak on that and how you impart that

01:46:20.680 to your children and plan to impart that eventually to your grandchildren yes so i have a very very

01:46:29.480 strong ancestral connection my family is very proud of who they are where they come from

01:46:37.880 their struggles their triumphs we tell stories of our families as far back as the origin of the

01:46:47.000 family name itself because the family you know on my mom's side the family name is only seven

01:46:51.080 generations old um and there's stories from there we have books and volumes and you know oral tales

01:47:00.040 of the great adventures of our family um and we're taught that from a very young age we're

01:47:05.880 taught to be proud of our last name we are taught to be worthy of our last name and that's always

01:47:12.360 always built a very, very strong connection with all of these people that I've heard about my

01:47:17.100 entire life, both on my mom's side of the family and my dad's side of the family. They're both very

01:47:21.920 much like that. And I've done that with my children. My children never met my grandparents

01:47:30.380 who were very, very, very close to me, but they know their names. They know all of the good

01:47:38.580 stories they nor know all of the hilarious stories they know all of the scary stories

01:47:44.500 we talk about them constantly and we don't talk about them as if they're gone we talk about as if

01:47:51.220 all i have to do is pick up the phone and they can verify this story they're still here

01:47:55.780 and that is the strongest connection that i've been able to pass on to my children are the stories

01:48:04.180 that i've been taught are the stories that i've been told i mean i can i can tell you stories

01:48:08.580 about my great great great grandmother um you know and and how her family reacted when she

01:48:15.540 cut her hair off and it was hilarious and horrific all at the same time but oral tradition

01:48:23.140 is not a dead art oral tradition still lives within our people and it lives in telling the

01:48:28.340 stories of your ancestors um teaching those to your children so that your family's never forgotten

01:48:35.380 and involving them in some sort of daily practice whether it is giving a gift to the ancestors

01:48:41.860 lighting a candle lighting incense toasting an ancestor at dinner is a big deal a lot of people

01:48:48.020 overlook that as something silly it's not if it's your great grandma's birthday dang it write it on

01:48:53.300 the calendar and when you're having dinner toast your grandmother at dinner and set her a plate

01:48:57.380 it's as simple as that just write them down just because they're gone doesn't mean you can't still

01:49:02.020 celebrate the birthday or a special anniversary or something along the line invite them to dinner

01:49:07.700 literally and toast them and tell their story so yeah oral tradition keep the oral tradition

01:49:13.540 strong that's my best recommendation for passing this information on

01:49:16.980 so travis asks what would both of you say to those sitting on the fence

01:49:30.260 brandy what would you say to fence sitters i don't know how appropriate it is but the more 0.99

01:49:35.460 the longer you straddle the damn fence the more your bits are going to hurt so do yourself a 0.98

01:49:39.460 favor and get off the fence pick a side any side you know i was i was going to make a joke about 1.00

01:49:47.300 that too i think i was going to say ouch um yeah get get off life life is short you know i'm

01:49:59.300 again with my old man isms but man since i hit 40 i start reflecting on things um differently

01:50:07.060 but life is short all the time that you spend on the fence is time that you're not

01:50:14.420 you're not doing something you're not living passionately um there is you know there's

01:50:21.620 there's times and situations where neutrality on something is is a strategically sound thing to do

01:50:29.060 there's no glory in neutrality there is honor and glory and dignity in picking what you think is the

01:50:38.020 best thing and the thing that you most believe in and going at it with your whole heart and your

01:50:44.260 whole soul and giving it your all and even you know even if it turns out in the wash that you

01:50:52.420 lose or that you rethink it and you're wrong or whatever you at least have to respect the passion

01:50:59.300 of that that's something that i think is is amazing but the person that doesn't commit to

01:51:05.620 one side or the other and just kind of waits and you know goes with what's easy

01:51:12.420 there's no glory in that there's no honor in that um if you're sitting on the fence

01:51:18.180 for your sake for your kid's sake for your ancestors sake

01:51:23.620 figure out what you think is right and if it's the right thing to do like the uh like the

01:51:30.020 odenshoff flag says you know do right and fear no one if you're on the fence get off the fence

01:51:36.460 pick the side that you care about i hope that's you know i assume the question is about joining

01:51:41.660 the afa yeah join the afa that's obviously what i'm going to advocate for you to do but you know

01:51:46.760 what if you genuinely believe with your whole heart that what we are doing is wrong and heinous

01:51:52.500 and you are a thousand percent opposed to us then you know square up and do whatever you're

01:51:59.580 going to do i respect that too i don't like it i don't think it's wise but i can at least you

01:52:05.760 know respect it under the right circumstances but pick a side be be your whole self live live

01:52:12.980 boldly and i i think that's i think that's advice for anybody live boldly and do what you know to

01:52:21.220 be right um even if it's scary or even if it's uncomfortable um josh says good evening sir and

01:52:34.180 ma'am could we pick your brain or your minds for your advice and wishes for the folk to realize

01:52:41.300 our best future what does that ideal future look like to you

01:52:48.420 brandy what advice do you have for our folk to actualize and what is your ideal future look like

01:52:55.860 my ideal future is where our folk in our church are happy healthy and whole united together um

01:53:06.660 um good times and in bad where we can all put our differences aside and move forward in the

01:53:13.320 same direction and we do a good job of that now but just as you know growing and

01:53:18.940 calling full calm that we can all be happy and whole healthy um my best advice for that

01:53:27.500 is to always be the example even if you're not a member of leadership you're still an example for

01:53:34.100 the gods. You are, you are, you should still be living in a way to take their notice and to give

01:53:39.100 them honor. Um, if you act a fool, the gods take notice of that too. So I would say always 0.99

01:53:46.400 be the best that you can be for yourself. Um, improve yourself so that you can help improve

01:53:53.360 others. It's my best advice. All right. So kind of two parts, my advice for

01:54:02.160 folk to realize their best selves.

01:54:12.860 Pick something every day and be better at it.

01:54:16.900 All of us can be better at so many different things.

01:54:22.820 But what you want is for tomorrow's you to add up to more than today's you.

01:54:29.340 be better be a little bit stronger a little bit faster a little bit leaner a little bit

01:54:36.300 more swole a little bit smarter a little bit better a little bit wiser know something that

01:54:43.720 you didn't know learn a language learn anything but make that progress and for a lot of reasons

01:54:49.840 first you know I want all our people to be better than they currently are I always will want that

01:54:56.240 um but also it is so helpful for you mentally it's helpful in whatever thing that you've become

01:55:04.820 better at it is you know it should be a driving motivation of you for your children and for your

01:55:12.480 ancestors to be the very best of your line that you can be and the best example for the future

01:55:17.860 that you can be um but yeah be be the best version of you you can be and the other thing is

01:55:26.420 get on the team our people have a very toxic trait of vulcanizing into the smallest little

01:55:34.640 subgroups possible and making themselves irrelevant don't be irrelevant get on the team

01:55:42.040 work together with others who are moving you know in the general direction you're trying to go

01:55:49.160 if your standard is people have to be a hundred percent up to whatever idea you have in your head

01:55:55.480 you will always find reasons that they're not at a hundred percent shoot take 85 if you can find a

01:56:01.960 group of people that are 85 percent of where you want to go cool get behind that and push with

01:56:08.760 your whole heart and your whole strength to make that successful if our people did that and we

01:56:16.120 stood together if we stand together there is nothing that's out of our reach there's nothing

01:56:21.240 that stands in our way but there's strength in standing together uh what does my there

01:56:27.320 our ideal future look like it depends on how far out you push that um i know steve mcnallan's always

01:56:36.120 talked about you know us being able to you know as white people and as aussitrew are

01:56:45.400 to colonize the stars and escape our solar system and you know have this intergalactic

01:56:51.960 you know aussitrew planets and stuff and i think that'd be awesome um in a more digestible future

01:56:58.680 for us to continue this to where we are strong and we are a venerable institution for our folk

01:57:11.940 you know in our grandchildren's time in our great-grandchildren's time

01:57:16.520 so that this is established and it stands the test of time and it stands strong

01:57:21.960 so that you know in the coming generations there's not a question of what else are true is

01:57:28.680 and that there's not a question of that the afa is defines what else true is and is the source of

01:57:34.360 what else true is um having hoffs you know certainly in every state but having hoffs

01:57:42.200 throughout the united states and having hoffs around the world um more and more of our people

01:57:48.760 coming home and it depends how far you want to push that future out there in a perfect world

01:57:53.560 if all of the sons and daughters of Europa came home to Ausitru, that's the ideal future.

01:58:00.520 The ideal future is we could have a state that is Ausitru and that there wasn't a separation

01:58:09.480 between our people and our faith and things that way. But that's a future that's really far off.

01:58:16.600 As far as a, you know, next generation or the generation after future, having a strong

01:58:22.040 institution to where we have, you know, consistent numbers of graduating classes from the Ausatru

01:58:28.580 Academy of people that were raised in this and raising their children in this. I think that's

01:58:35.520 the real test of time. And we're starting to see the fruition of some of that. We're starting to

01:58:39.540 have some second generation AFA members. We're, you know, with babies, we're having kind of a

01:58:45.800 third generation of Ausatru come around with babies and little children being raised in our

01:58:49.880 faith. So we're getting there, but that's what I've got on it. Nick asks, or Nick Salo asks,

01:59:03.240 Salo, I'm not sure how to pronounce your last name, Nick. I apologize. He asked,

01:59:08.340 hey, you guys, when are you coming to visit Colorado? Nick, you guys are doing awesome,

01:59:14.180 awesome stuff in Colorado. I'm watching that grow. I knew there was potential there. It just

01:59:19.700 needed you guys to to fan that flame and make it happen i don't know i don't have any big colorado

01:59:27.620 plans colorado is one of those kind of out of the way places to go unless there's a big destination

01:59:33.300 thing to do so i think it depends on you know if you guys have something big that you're hosting

01:59:38.500 there um or i mean i suppose it uh nah colorado's a long way i'm thinking i've done the drive there

01:59:46.420 back when we used to have ThorFest there for a couple of years.

01:59:50.520 It's probably about a 16-hour drive, I think, for me.

01:59:54.020 So it's not like it's real convenient or right around the corner,

01:59:57.120 but I would certainly love to come see what you guys are up to.

02:00:00.100 I just don't have any immediate plans on it.

02:00:02.180 What about you, Brandy?

02:00:02.840 When are you going to go visit Colorado?

02:00:05.740 Sometime maybe next year.

02:00:07.420 We'll see what next year brings.

02:00:10.880 We'll see what 2024 brings for Brandy.

02:00:13.440 and then i'll answer that question fair enough tune in in the future for updates

02:00:20.440 um bruce asks matt and brandy is there a specific bloat that you have been a part of

02:00:28.060 that has impacted you more than all of the others

02:00:31.000 brandy is there a particular bloat you want to tell them about

02:00:36.240 yeah there's been a couple of them that i thought were really really powerful or i had a really

02:00:43.420 amazing experience. Um, the most profound for me was probably the bloat at the dedication

02:00:50.680 of Baldershof, um, because it was so emotional. Um, the leadership was literally in tears during

02:00:59.380 the dedication of Baldershof. So that was, that was just amazing and powerful and it meant a lot.

02:01:06.980 um the odin's bloat at midsummer a couple years ago not this past summer but the year before that

02:01:19.760 matt did was amazing um and i think i was i was one of the horn bearers for that bloat and

02:01:27.460 if you haven't seen matt do an odin's bloat you need to because it's going to be moving and

02:01:35.160 powerful, but to actually be part of the energetic exchange of that as either the hornbearer or

02:01:41.820 somebody that's assisting him or even handing him things. Matt literally is like a ball of

02:01:47.060 electricity when he does bloat. And you feel part of that, you know, you feel that when you're,

02:01:54.040 when you're helping with that. So that was really awesome. One of the really beautiful bloats I was

02:02:00.960 part of recently was the Feast of the Ive Harrier bloat in Oklahoma. That was a really beautiful

02:02:07.180 bloat, very symbolic, very powerful. And Nathan did a really good job with that bloat. So

02:02:12.960 see, those are my top threes.

02:02:19.640 I've got,

02:02:20.440 I've been able to be part of so many bloats and, uh, I'm really, really lucky in that.

02:02:36.180 There's a lot that have been super powerful. Um,

02:02:39.800 Brandy mentioned the, the Baldershoff dedication and that was such an emotional day. Uh,

02:02:44.880 i think that's the picture the picture that we're using to advertise this show was taken

02:02:52.440 uh that day

02:02:54.060 or at least that that uh that weekend it was it was taken that day up um it was just

02:03:04.000 you know i think that for the people there it

02:03:11.360 for the people that are so invested in us getting these hoffs and on making these hoffs amazing and

02:03:20.900 with that project they're all of our hoffs but the people who are actually you know in the fire with

02:03:29.580 it. There's a special sense of accomplishment that goes with that. And I think it's different

02:03:40.100 in each of them. They all have a different power to them. I'm trying to think. That one

02:03:48.160 was super powerful. One that was very powerful to me was the dedication of Thorshoff. And

02:03:56.060 And it was, you know, almost three years ago now.

02:04:07.200 And it was something that I had committed to.

02:04:13.280 And I mean, it was a whole bunch of extra people involved in it too.

02:04:16.180 But as far as a bloat, that really was important to me personally.

02:04:21.800 had gotten um so this was happening in 2020 we had gotten odenshoff in 2015 and when i became

02:04:31.640 os herigothi in 2016 i tried to really put my shoulder to the wheel and make stuff happen to

02:04:40.280 where we could get odenshoff paid off and then it became time to get that second hoff and i made a

02:04:46.280 commitment to do that but at that point you know being in the in the driver's seat on a project

02:04:54.120 like that i was untested and i made a commitment to do that and it was you know it's a lot it's a

02:05:02.840 lot harder there's a lot more involved in getting a hof than than one may think until you do it so

02:05:08.680 So that was such an important make or break commitment that I made because I'd gone before the gods.

02:05:18.540 I've gone before Thor and promised him a temple that I was going to make happen for him.

02:05:24.840 And I promised that to all of you guys.

02:05:28.600 But I promised that to Thor himself.

02:05:31.980 And, you know, now is the time of put up or shut up.

02:05:36.260 after a lot of struggle and a lot of you know making it happen and we finally you know that

02:05:44.740 that was mine uh odenshoff was was something that the mcnellens were so influential in doing and

02:05:50.100 making happen but thorshoff was the one that was under my watch to see if i could do that

02:05:55.700 and i could make that happen and it was it was so powerful to be at a bloat like that and to

02:06:06.260 on behalf of the AFA to give that to Thor.

02:06:11.940 And that was really special, and I've

02:06:13.340 been able to do that with Baldershof, with Njordshof,

02:06:17.120 and in a way with Odenshof, because we did a rededication.

02:06:20.940 It originally wasn't dedicated to Odin,

02:06:22.860 and I was able to do that.

02:06:24.720 But it's a really special, and it's

02:06:26.800 such a unique and different thing.

02:06:29.020 But that Thorshof one, that was my first one in my name

02:06:35.260 was able to do and uh that meant a lot um i've told you guys the most in the bloat that impacted

02:06:45.340 me the most was um winter nights 2016 um with pat hall and she did uh a de-sear bloat

02:06:59.660 and um called upon our female ancestors and

02:07:05.260 My grandma had passed in 2001, I believe.

02:07:12.100 In 2001, and we closed our eyes and we asked for our DCR to be in the circle with us.

02:07:21.080 And I called on my grandmother and invited her to be there with me.

02:07:24.280 And, you know, I close my eyes, could literally, could literally feel exactly what it was like the last time that I saw my grandma and I gave her a hug.

02:07:40.960 I mean, I could feel her old lady body just like I was giving her a hug.

02:07:47.140 And because, you know, she was shorter than me and she had old lady hair product or whatever, I could I could smell what what her hair smelled like when, you know, when I give her a hug and her head's on my chest and she's, you know, yay tall.

02:08:02.860 I.

02:08:05.600 It was the most visceral thing, and it's really silly.

02:08:08.660 i've told you guys personally on this broadcast this story probably five times i can't do it

02:08:13.860 without tearing up because it connected with me that viscerally that that connection is there

02:08:19.860 beyond telling the story um but yeah that was that impacted me and it impacted other people

02:08:27.540 there too there was a bunch of us men there that just went off into the woods there and were sobbing

02:08:34.100 like little kids because it affected us so much that was that was super powerful and i was so

02:08:40.740 lucky i was able to be there for that bloat um antonio while talking about hoffs if michigan

02:08:52.980 was having a hoff bill i always wondered a good great name for it

02:09:00.340 so we may get to a point where that's a thing right now we have a plan on how we're naming

02:09:12.640 our Hoffs as they come up and our first you know our first 12 are spoken for they're going to be

02:09:21.140 in a specific order to our gods and Nick quick on the draw had that scrolling across the bottom

02:09:29.540 there i appreciate you nick so yeah so we um we have that order if you can see it if you can't see

02:09:38.580 it oh then thor balder nyorder frayer tier braggy heimdallar vidar valley uler and forsetti um those

02:09:50.580 are going to be our first 12. so if michigan got a hof within that time it would really be you know

02:09:59.540 where it fell on that now there's no prospect right now of making a Hoff in Michigan we're

02:10:07.580 lacking some infrastructure there that we need to have first so that would have to happen

02:10:15.200 but I don't know our naming so there's a couple of things when we get a Hoff

02:10:21.020 um we have the the dedication the deity that we're dedicating it to figured out beforehand

02:10:25.820 But it's important to us that the the animal that represents that half on the flag and on the cross gabling.

02:10:35.820 It's important to us that that gets, you know, input from the local, certainly local Goethe and the local folks there that it matters to.

02:10:44.820 We want it to have that local connection. It's also important, you know, choosing the colors.

02:10:51.620 so i don't know what that would look like and that's one of those things i'd be asking my

02:10:55.300 leaders in michigan or in that area you know because if it was in michigan it would probably

02:11:00.740 strategically be close to some other states there to where we could get you know more than just one

02:11:07.300 state would be the congregation for this hoff so we'd ask the folks there you know to help decide

02:11:14.340 on an animal help design on a hammer shape for the sign and help decide for a color scheme

02:11:22.180 and i'm curious what that would be and i think there's a lot of there's so many ifs on that it

02:11:26.980 would all depend but a lot of that has to do with the people that are going to make that area

02:11:32.500 half worthy and i think they'll do a lot to define what that looks like what shape that comes in

02:11:37.940 Trent, Witt and Brandy, can you explain the importance of women in the AFA acting as frith weavers?

02:11:44.940 Sure. So the women of the SU Folk Assembly and especially the women in leadership,

02:11:54.940 one of our primary duties as women is to maintain and leave the frith between each other, the men,

02:12:04.940 our families, our children, the communities, the districts. It is something that is inherently

02:12:11.200 feminine. It is something that we excel at. It is something that is a gift that most women are

02:12:19.940 born with. We have the ability to diffuse emotion, stress, anxiety, bad feelings, bad energy. We can

02:12:30.540 diffuse that. We have a frithful nature, a frithful touch. As Githya Erickson explains,

02:12:38.020 that's part of being a hornbearer for the AFA, is your touch is making sure that everything that

02:12:44.860 is in that well is frithful. You know, that is part of our job. We have that special energy,

02:12:51.520 that special quote-unquote magic about the feminine power. It's a real thing.

02:13:00.540 um and part and the biggest part of that is the frith weaving it is the weaving of relationships

02:13:05.580 it is the weaving of families um friendships pairing couples up for marriage whatever it is

02:13:12.620 a woman's touch makes it better that's just the way it is so that's our job especially as our

02:13:19.080 female leadership we are we are there to support you we are there in good times bad times ugly

02:13:25.080 times when you're fighting with your sister when you're fighting with your brother um anytime

02:13:30.260 time. That's what we do. We want to make sure that we have healthy relationships and healthy

02:13:35.060 families because that makes a healthy folk and a healthy church. What are some of your favorite

02:13:43.020 examples of industriousness in the AFA? Brandy? Sheila McNallan. Sheila McNallan is my hero.

02:13:51.920 I want to be like her when I grow up. She's amazing. I will forever be chasing her, trying to

02:14:00.260 live up to her and what she has already done. I don't know if I'll ever get there,

02:14:05.860 but Sheila, Sheila McNallan is, is my Githia and she is my role model. Um, also the Alshira

02:14:15.220 Godhi and not just the Alshira Godhi, but the Alshira Godhi's wife, Mandy. Mandy does so many

02:14:23.060 things that people don't even know about. I mean, she truly is the lady of victory because she's

02:14:30.040 behind the scenes making that happen um more than any of you guys would ever know um and matt

02:14:37.760 the usher ago he has a restless energy which is the reason we are so successful most of the time

02:14:43.640 if something's not going on he doesn't know what to do with his hands he wants to do something all

02:14:48.480 the time and he's got such a restless spirit there is always on the go um i would also have to say

02:14:56.940 Dan and Heather Young as well they are always doing something and Dan will tell you he's chasing

02:15:04.960 me so I'm chasing Sheila and Dan's chasing me so but our leadership in general is industrious

02:15:12.500 they work so hard behind the scenes for everything so I can't thank all of them enough it's just

02:15:17.940 we have so many of them it would be hard to list them all but the leadership of the AFA is the

02:15:23.460 economy of industriousness. So I think Brandy's saying stuff about my wife because she sees the

02:15:29.680 next question coming up. I don't know if that's the case or not. For the record, when I was talking

02:15:36.560 about top three, Sheila was the other leg of that trifecta there. So yeah, I think Sheila's

02:15:43.400 absolutely a really good choice on that. And one of the cool, just a point of note for everybody.

02:15:53.460 And Sheila is not only top three of our doers in the AFA right now, but she's easily been, you know, I'm trying to think.

02:16:09.920 And she has certainly been in the top three, sometimes in the top two of AFA doers in the entire time that I've been in the Astro Folk Assembly.

02:16:25.660 But Sheila has been making this happen since 95.

02:16:32.040 She's been there since the beginning, making all of these things happen.

02:16:37.760 And she has been such a doer this entire time.

02:16:41.260 So it's not just how industrious she currently is, which is phenomenal.

02:16:45.820 But she has maintained that industriousness over 28 years and counting.

02:16:54.040 And that's that's huge.

02:16:58.620 Brandy, obviously, that's why she's on the show.

02:17:01.440 And I've I've gushed about that tonight.

02:17:03.840 um so i think that daniel and heather are really good example i think it's also

02:17:13.200 um ashley mcstocker really impresses me with her industriousness especially on

02:17:22.300 the food pantry at baldershoff and making that happen but uh behind the scenes and you guys

02:17:29.200 have no way of knowing this but ashley is very diligent in training up new folk builders and

02:17:35.040 she does really awesome at that i think she puts in a whole lot of work um i know a bunch of people

02:17:41.120 down at njordshoff do but mike joiner specifically i know he's he's putting in a ton of work down

02:17:47.120 there uh for neward for our folk uh for our gods he's doing awesome and something else i think is

02:17:54.800 important on industriousness. Yeah, two others. I could, okay, first, I could, I could do this

02:18:01.460 literally all night. We have amazing, amazing people. But the, the producer of this program,

02:18:08.700 Nick Rice, is super industrious, but he's also lightning fast with that industry, which is

02:18:19.220 very much appreciated. He's got a skill set that most of us don't possess when it comes to

02:18:25.900 technology and things. One of the things, Brandy talks about my restless energy. So when I decide

02:18:31.920 I need something to happen, it needs to happen like now. It needs to happen minutes ago. And

02:18:37.800 the fact that it didn't is frustrating. So having somebody, and the other thing is, I don't want to

02:18:44.980 a jerk if it's something i can just do myself i'll do it there's a lot of there's some things

02:18:49.860 that i can't do and a lot of our tech stuff is stuff that i can't do but man nick nick jumps 0.95

02:18:56.500 on it quick and also on the tech note i want to mention cliff uh witten clifford erickson

02:19:03.380 has his pace is not as breakneck as some of the other people that we mentioned but his longevity

02:19:09.380 is um he's been there being a huge leg of industry in the afa since certainly i mean he was one of

02:19:19.540 the first like on my witten guys making stuff happen partnering with me on all the way through

02:19:27.380 my administration but probably the last three years two at least two years of uh steve's time

02:19:34.740 as ulterior cliff cliff was top four at least if not top three for a while there i mean he was

02:19:44.020 he was really putting in work there for a long time and his work has been steady over a lot of

02:19:48.820 these years and unfortunately so much of it is tech stuff that you know may not be may not get

02:19:55.460 the attention that it really deserves but i think that he's definitely somebody i want to mention

02:19:59.460 about industriousness also want to say a thank you and a shout out to nathan erlinson so

02:20:06.260 for moving mountains of snow so i don't have to and also to sarah alt who is maintaining

02:20:13.380 that bouldershoff website and doing a bunch of other stuff behind the scenes and that's awesome

02:20:20.260 if uh nick can put up that bouldershoff link that would be awesome because that website is

02:20:25.780 what it is because of nick and nick and sarah so appreciate those two very much

02:20:33.380 so our next question comes from my wife mandy brandy how did you get so gorgeous

02:20:42.260 thanks mandy it's because my mama gave me red hair and i have bffs like you to feed

02:20:46.740 my ego about it so real talk on this you always look really good on these brandy it's like it's

02:20:53.700 it's a thing i get a lot of feedback on that thank you

02:21:00.260 um monica asks how important is a woman's position in aussitrew brandy do you want to speak to that

02:21:09.300 very important because it's it's half of aussitrew men and women most definitely have their very

02:21:16.180 very important but separate roles in the real in the religion of aussitrew men have a very

02:21:21.620 very different role than the women do. The beautiful part of that is that we come together

02:21:27.540 in worship. So there's, you know, there's things that we do together, but there's so many beautiful

02:21:33.980 aspects to femininity in as a true. A lot of those things have to do with Frith that we've already

02:21:41.860 talked about, but also the sacredness of a lot of the things that we do. The preparation of space

02:21:48.080 is something that I always love bringing my women into. The calling of our folk is something I'd

02:21:56.140 love to have our women do because it is the sound of a woman's voice calling out over the winds and

02:22:04.000 trees and airs and mountains will call a man home from battle and call a child home from play.

02:22:09.820 the voice of a woman is strong and powerful. We have so many unique feminine gifts that

02:22:19.440 benefit our folk and delight our gods that the importance is really, really hard to try to

02:22:27.420 explain in an eight hour podcast, let alone just a few minutes. But I definitely recommend reaching

02:22:33.420 out to myself, Githia Sheila McNallan, Githia Katie Erickson, and Githia Anna Port. If you

02:22:39.580 have any questions specifically about women's roles or women's practice in Asitru, we also do

02:22:45.420 have a women-only call once a month where we do discuss women's mysteries, things that are innate

02:22:54.220 and inherent to us as women in the faith, and get a hold of folk builders Sarah Ault and Christine

02:23:03.140 Dumas on that. All right. Either a Sigrune or a lightning bolt, my eyes are failing me on what

02:23:13.920 it is, asks, are there any events going on at Baldershof this month? Could I visit the place?

02:23:21.680 I'm not a member. It's a good brandy question as well. We always have events. Those can be found

02:23:28.480 on the website there is events every single month if you are not a member you need to be vetted for

02:23:34.960 and accompanied by a member to the hof if you are coming for any of our events if you just want to

02:23:41.840 see the place we do give tours of the building between 10 a.m and noon on the third saturday of

02:23:48.640 every month and you can tour the building and speak to the folk builders if you're not a member

02:23:53.520 if you do want to attend services or events you must be with a member embedded for prior to coming

02:24:03.600 yeah and i don't know your circumstance but i want to you know kind of mention to everybody

02:24:07.360 watching this and i want to make a point to do this more often so to everybody watching this

02:24:12.400 if you like the or i say watching because i'm watching on the video i know some of you guys

02:24:16.640 listen to it as a podcast just audio anybody hearing this though if you like what we're doing

02:24:22.960 if you share our beliefs i would invite you to get on the team and try to join us join the afa

02:24:29.120 and become a member if you're not ask the question why i'm saying you may have a real good reason why

02:24:36.800 um but i'm wondering what that reason is and if you can't find it i would encourage you to try to

02:24:40.960 join and if you want to just scope us out first that's great too i think that's great for you to

02:24:45.440 ask that sigroon or lightning bolt um no that's cool i appreciate you wanting to step out and

02:24:54.080 see see what it's about and it's beautiful they've done an amazing job you know even even if you have

02:25:00.640 no interest even if you're a committed christian or whatever the situation is if you just want to

02:25:04.480 see it and check it out uh she did mention the visiting hours and uh yeah check in and get vetted

02:25:10.400 and uh we we like to show the place off because they really have done an amazing job we give tours

02:25:16.240 all the time so next question um when facing hardship do you have tips on maintaining confidence

02:25:25.840 and self-esteem to remain industrious or to main in yeah to remain industrious

02:25:31.760 brandy yes so one of my big secret weapons is

02:25:40.440 i am very very highly organized in a lot of ways in my life i i have a planner i go by my planner

02:25:49.540 my life is regimented um i've talked about this i think with our women but i'm not sure if i've

02:25:56.540 talked about it anywhere else. I do everything by 15 minutes. It keeps me from getting burned out.

02:26:03.620 So if I'm writing for the history project, I do it for 15 minutes. I get up and hold of

02:26:07.840 a basket of socks and do the dishes. I come back, I write for another 15 minutes.

02:26:13.380 I go declutter something, I come back and I write. I spend 15 minutes on something because

02:26:18.000 if I don't and I get writer's block, I'm not going to sit at my computer screen

02:26:23.640 and curse it and get mad and frustrated and waste time. I'm going to walk away, do something else.

02:26:29.980 If something, if I think of something in the meantime, I'll write it down. And when it's

02:26:33.620 time to go back to that project, I pick it up and do it. 15 minute increments. I live my life by 15

02:26:38.060 minutes. Um, but I'm also very structured in what I do. I do the same thing at the same time every

02:26:44.480 single day. It's, I am an absolute creature of habit. I'm not afraid to admit that. Um,

02:26:50.620 So I find comfort in detail. I find comfort in logistics. So that really helps me because this gives me a sense of control and structure that I thrive in.

02:27:02.380 so so it's an interesting question the way it's phrased um and let me let me tell you how um

02:27:16.220 so when facing hardship do i have any tips on maintaining confidence and self-esteem

02:27:22.140 to remain industrious honestly i don't

02:27:25.900 industriousness is what my tip is to maintain confidence and self-esteem

02:27:38.220 whenever whenever i'm feeling um

02:27:44.220 you know hardship it's hard to say so whenever i'm feeling criticized or

02:27:50.780 or like I'm under a microscope or like, you know, whenever I'm feeling bad or I'm feeling the

02:27:58.680 pressure, throwing myself into accomplishment is what helps me maintain. And it's what shores up

02:28:09.740 my confidence and what shores up my self-esteem. Because if your self-esteem is based on praise

02:28:16.900 And all of us, that's a thing. If people are kissing your butt and telling you you're awesome, it's good for your self-esteem. 0.55

02:28:24.620 When all of a sudden they're not or somebody's telling you something counter to that, then it goes away in an instant. 0.93

02:28:31.460 It doesn't. Compliments don't last. What lasts is accomplishment.

02:28:36.480 So the more I can do to say, well, you know, yeah, whatever you're saying, but look at this.

02:28:43.900 but look at this, then I have a justifiable case that I should be self-confident and that I should

02:28:49.960 have esteem about myself. And I don't just mean that in AFA stuff. I mean it personally or

02:28:55.000 anything else. Doubling down on getting stuff done is huge. And so she's a little bit noisy

02:29:08.620 right now but another thing ah and she's wiggly too so anyways hope she got on camera for a second

02:29:15.420 there i'm sure her noises did um but that's another thing that shores me up under adversity

02:29:25.180 is remembering who's watching um it's really it's so often it's easier

02:29:33.900 to give up or to buckle or to, you know, hide and to not push through things that are difficult.

02:29:43.560 And I try to remember the people that are watching me and that are going to

02:29:48.660 going to learn from this are going to judge by this. And I want that little girl to be proud of

02:29:55.000 me. And I want her to learn from what I'm doing. And I want my ancestors to be proud of me.

02:30:00.680 And I want my gods to be proud of me. And so sometimes that means being uncomfortable when, you know, sometimes it means being uncomfortable. Sometimes that means pushing through when it's difficult.

02:30:16.440 don't. But the other thing, I guess the third tip on it is I try to conceive what this is going to

02:30:26.160 look like on the other side of it and where I want to have been. Ducking stuff makes this afternoon

02:30:34.980 easy or tomorrow easy. But looking back on it two years from now, what am I going to wish that I had

02:30:44.500 done because it's really easy to make very short-sighted decisions because they're easier

02:30:49.700 right now but they're things you're going to regret a year from now or five years from now i

02:30:54.900 don't want to be that guy that sits on on his deathbed you know hopefully a long time from now

02:31:01.780 and thinks all the things he wishes he would have done different or he wishes he would have done

02:31:05.700 more of so that motivates me too so a question for both of you hindsight is always 20 20.

02:31:18.420 looking back at the baldershoff media storm or anything else in the afa's past

02:31:24.020 knowing what you know now would you do anything different if you could

02:31:29.860 i think it's a really interesting question uh brandy what are your what are your thoughts

02:31:35.700 Would I do anything different?

02:31:43.240 That's a really interesting question.

02:31:47.640 I don't think I would have done anything different.

02:31:53.040 One thing I would have done was put tires on my car earlier because it was icy drive from North Dakota to Minnesota.

02:32:00.620 And a couple of them were scary, so I think I would have put tires on my car earlier than I did.

02:32:05.700 Um, but as far as what we did and how we did it, no, I really don't think I would have.

02:32:16.200 But knowing what I know now, I would have, I would have savored it more rather than been in such a rush.

02:32:28.480 And what I mean by that is, is I would have taken more pictures.

02:32:32.000 I would have taken more pictures and I would have documented more things because it went so fast.

02:32:41.660 I mean, I know that for everybody else, it seemed like it took forever to get Baldur's Hof open.

02:32:48.960 But for us, it was so fast and it went by so fast.

02:32:54.040 I would have spent that extra hour in the hot tub.

02:32:56.520 I would have, I would have had that extra breakfast instead of driving straight home

02:33:01.740 on Sunday morning. I think I would have done that a little bit more.

02:33:12.460 I asking me these questions is, I guess not dangerous, but it's, it exposes me the fact

02:33:22.500 that I overthink these things. I'm sitting here, you know, yes, obviously there's things that if

02:33:28.660 I knew now, what if I knew then what I know now that I would have done differently. But I'm really,

02:33:34.640 really happy thinking on this because there's not a lot of big ones. You know, there's

02:33:43.140 so knowing the end result obviously there's people that have let me down that if I knew

02:33:55.920 now that I wouldn't have trusted or I wouldn't have trusted in certain ways with certain things

02:34:00.880 um but looking back on it it's not a regret because it was the right thing to do at the

02:34:08.820 time with the knowledge that I have, that I had at the time, like, I don't look back on it and be

02:34:13.840 like, man, that was wrong of me to do it. Working under the things that I had at the time, I think

02:34:20.460 that, you know, I stand by a lot of those things. But obviously, there's some people that

02:34:26.200 claim to hold a certain values and claim to be about stuff that turned out not to be.

02:34:34.620 And I would not have put responsibility or faith in, you know, a number of people that way. And I think that's a thing. And to be honest, and along with that, when we were fairly early on, when we were, we had a lot of groups involved with us in Pennsylvania.

02:34:58.640 um we were fed information that turned out not to be true and it caused a rift between us and a

02:35:10.240 one of our kindreds out there this finfilkin and if i had all it all to do over again i

02:35:18.280 realize now that the information we had wasn't wasn't honest and i do regret us us parting ways

02:35:27.320 with those guys in the way that we did i don't you know i wish i could take that back um if

02:35:33.240 they're listening now i'm sorry i apologize um but yeah it turns out we were we were listening

02:35:39.240 to some people that uh turned out not to be trustworthy so that was a thing but i think

02:35:45.000 you know we've been fortunate i think we've been blessed in a way that that i don't think there's

02:35:49.960 a whole lot of big ones that uh that i would change certainly not uh not from my time leading

02:35:55.960 the afa um next question is what do you believe happens to non-ousatru when they die depends on

02:36:08.040 what uh depends on who we're talking about um i think that each um each race of people

02:36:19.720 goes to their you know depending on their situation goes to their gods and their ancestors

02:36:25.000 um it's not up to me to define that for them or exactly what that looks like and i don't presume

02:36:32.980 to have strong opinions on you know what an african gentleman you know what happens to

02:36:40.380 him when he dies and how he relates to his gods and his ancestors um but but i assume that they

02:36:46.120 go to to like i said to their gods and ancestors if we're talking about another uh white person

02:36:52.540 that that dies reality is real whether you want it to be or not so i believe that those people

02:37:01.660 again go to our gods and ancestors and if they spent their life as a devoted christian then

02:37:08.700 they're probably in for for a surprise in the afterlife on how that works out but i think that

02:37:15.180 the most the right the most universal right answer to your question is those people go to their

02:37:21.340 ancestors. And I think that's comforting. And I think that's a truth of humanity of where people

02:37:31.120 go. And I think as far as interacting with the higher powers, with the gods and the heroes,

02:37:40.140 I think that, you know, I'm curious about that. It's one of those things, you know,

02:37:45.060 I always imagine that when you die, you get this, you know, almost like a video game,

02:37:49.000 you get the end of the game wrap up where all the fog of war disappears and you can

02:37:52.900 know the answers to all these questions that you didn't know when you were around

02:37:56.960 and all these things. You know, I hope that's the case. And I hope that we,

02:38:00.520 you know, kind of get a, get a sit down and a review and know things that we, that we don't

02:38:05.780 know now. But yeah, I don't think that, you know, a person not dying house or true prevents them

02:38:13.260 from being welcomed by their ancestors i think they may have some some remedial remedial studies

02:38:20.540 to do on the other side of the veil if that's the case but um but yeah i think that you go to the

02:38:26.220 ancestors of your people no matter what your your faith is i think that is a truth and that that

02:38:32.060 truth occurs do you have any thoughts on that brady nope i i agree with you on that i think

02:38:39.580 you're going to return to i think you're going to return to your ancestors despite what you call it

02:38:46.220 that's more than likely where we're going to end up um i don't really have anything to add on that

02:38:51.980 okay so cody says brandy you're a heck of a dancer where did you pick it up

02:39:00.860 i'm a heck of a dancer i like to polka i'm a big polka fan i am one of those geeks and that's okay

02:39:08.300 um i've actually been dancing since i was little my grandparents danced my parents danced my

02:39:12.860 uncles danced um i've got probably on both sides of my family 50 some cousins so there's a lot of

02:39:22.300 weddings and a lot of opportunities to dance and that's what we did we also did it on saturday

02:39:27.980 nights at the german hungarian or wherever we were at i don't know it was just the cool thing

02:39:33.820 to do there's not much else to do in north dakota but dance and have a good time

02:39:38.300 there you go. Sarah says, Brandy, could you talk about your love of fika and its importance at

02:39:46.580 every Baldur's Hoff event? Yes, fika is coffee. Fika is 10 o'clock at every Baldur's Hoff events.

02:39:58.220 Everybody is required to stop what they're doing, including myself, and sit down and have a cup of

02:40:04.680 coffee and a delightful snack and have a conversation with your folk. It is time to

02:40:11.300 bond and build for it and take a minute, 10, 15 minutes and stop working.

02:40:21.200 All right. So we've got one more question in the, in the line here. And John Smith asks,

02:40:30.320 So just how did Matt gain leadership in the AFA again?

02:40:35.680 Well, so when I first, my very first Midsommar, as a matter of fact, in 2010, Steve McNallan had announced that sometime soon he was going to step back and retire from leadership.

02:40:58.740 And he had announced a gentleman named Brad as his successor whenever that happened.

02:41:08.360 And so that was that was going to happen then. And he said that.

02:41:17.100 Years went on and there was no real advancement on that or what the timeline was for that.

02:41:21.840 but uh brad was very much the second in command and was was groomed for that position um

02:41:31.760 yeah so

02:41:37.680 try to think how to how to explain the timeline on that so anyways that was the that was the

02:41:45.280 situation. And then over the next few years, my position in the AFA really advanced. When I'd

02:41:56.000 first, my first midsummer I went to, I went there as a folk builder from Alaska. And I took my folk

02:42:02.580 builder oath at that event. And by 2012, I had become, at the 2012 midsummer at that same event,

02:42:13.260 two years later i got my ordination and i became a gothe and at that time i was also

02:42:25.180 figuring out the timeline on this is a little tricky i think before i was officially a gothe

02:42:32.140 i was the assistant folk builder coordinator under brad and eventually as brad got more into

02:42:38.860 the position of of steve's successor he became what was called the chief of operations i believe

02:42:45.260 at the time sometimes referred to as chief of staff and when he did that around the time i

02:42:52.860 became a gothe i also was the folk builder coordinator and the way it worked at the time

02:43:00.620 is is we had steve as the else harry gothe and then we had a board of directors

02:43:05.100 and that functioned much like our current witten functions and when i became the folk builder

02:43:11.500 coordinator i was i was on that board and you know by sometime between 2012 2013 i think

02:43:26.060 either officially or unofficially i was number three in the afa

02:43:31.500 and that kind of kept on until very quickly before uh steve stepped back so

02:43:42.620 i'm just trying to think of the the artful way to put stuff i want to be as you know

02:43:51.260 open and honest with things as i can be but also don't talk badly about people

02:43:55.740 things did not work out well with Brad he was going through some personal things it was really

02:44:05.420 hard for me because he and I were very close but he was going through some personal spiritual

02:44:11.300 things and got into a spot where he was really not functioning at a very high rate for a couple

02:44:20.460 years there and uh towards the end there that just became too much and in

02:44:32.860 the early spring of 2016 in and this this was all happened lightning fast um

02:44:42.060 um Steve had relieved Brad of his position and because I was kind of number three you know by

02:44:53.220 default I was I was in that number two spot with Brad gone and then within a month Steve had gone

02:45:01.620 from um removing Brad from his spot to going ahead and wanting to to fulfill what he'd said

02:45:09.780 2010 and retire and step back from active leadership of the AFA. And so

02:45:16.980 yeah, it was spring of

02:45:21.720 that discussion was going on shortly after Ostara of 2016. And we talked about it. The

02:45:35.520 board of directors talked about it Steve and Alan and I and Pat had a conversation and initially it

02:45:44.480 was like a trifecta for for a short time there where it was it was me as like the the first

02:45:54.600 among equals but I also had um Alan and Pat there to assist me in that and that was kind of Pat and

02:46:02.760 Alan were kind of my, my proto Witten, I'd say for a few months there. And, uh, by the end of that

02:46:11.280 year, it kind of sorted itself out to where, you know, Pat had gone her separate ways with us.

02:46:18.840 Uh, Alan wanted to, it worked out to where I had the full, I was Harry Gothi spot and Alan

02:46:27.260 was then on the Witten that I formed initially and still is to this day but that's how that all

02:46:35.100 took place and then I became installed as Osheria Gauthier officially at mid-summer of that year

02:46:41.000 mid-summer of 2016 at Odenshof and yeah that's how that's broad strokes how that worked

02:46:50.200 a couple of more questions have popped up uh can we talk about the three new days

02:47:00.920 so i did not create three new days just uh just so we know i did not possess the power

02:47:09.660 to add days to the year i wish i could um but this year officially and i haven't really talked

02:47:18.360 about this a lot yet but it's not a it's not a secret and i did uh assign this for some future

02:47:23.720 talks there are three three uh heroes of alsatru that i want to celebrate with days of remembrance

02:47:32.840 and i've been thinking on this for for a time and it's really important to honor the people that have

02:47:40.520 paved the way to get where we are and that have been

02:47:42.840 influential and you know honorable and worth worth celebrating in in our faith and so the three um

02:47:54.520 folks that i'd like to like to celebrate and have the afa have days of remembrance for from here on

02:47:59.720 out now i gotta look at what days we assigned to those because we we were comfortable up to

02:48:06.360 this point we had 12 and they were all on the ninth these ones we have um assigned different

02:48:15.560 days to because there's no more nights to do seeing as i said i can't add days to the year

02:48:21.640 so i'm looking back here at what those dates were um but to uh not have dead air the

02:48:33.880 The thought process, I want to honor John Gibbs Bailey, who also was known as Hoskold and was one of the, one of the founders of the Odenic right and a very influential Alcetor back in, I think as early as the 1930s.

02:48:56.140 And then John Ewell, I think that's how you pronounce his last name, also an Englishman, also a one of the founding fathers of the Odinic right way back when.

02:49:08.860 And both of those gentlemen combined were the folks that came up with the original nine noble virtues.

02:49:15.620 issues um you know they were practicing also true when you know it it was odd and obscure to practice

02:49:28.820 in the 60s or the 70s these gentlemen were practicing very early on in England and they

02:49:34.340 got together and formed the Odenic Rite in the 70s and again that was done kind of in a bubble

02:49:39.140 without any other interaction with with other folks who at the same time were were re-embracing

02:49:45.560 our gods. And so another gentleman around that time that was re-embracing our gods was an

02:49:50.160 Icelander named Sveinbjorn Bjornsson, Sveinbjorn Bjornsson, the founder of the

02:50:00.440 Austertruller Felaget in Iceland. And, you know, I think that organization has gone radically

02:50:11.740 askew and we don't currently support the things those folks are involved with but from all that

02:50:19.340 I can tell and from all that I'm aware of Sven Bjorn was a pious man that believed very much in

02:50:24.700 our gods believed very much in the metaphysics and the lore of our people and wanted to go back to

02:50:35.420 that um and to bring his people back to that and that's absolutely worth honoring and celebrating

02:50:42.700 and there's a there's a story about how when sveinbjorn and some of his his lieutenants

02:50:50.860 at the time wanted to get official recognition from the icelandic government um you know they

02:50:57.260 had to talk to i think a a christian clergyman that was was involved in some of that decision

02:51:02.620 making at the time and they weren't taken seriously and uh iceland is not particularly

02:51:10.540 known for its its thunderstorms and it's you know things of that nature and there was a

02:51:15.420 there was a lightning strike right at that time that disabled government buildings and stuff and

02:51:20.620 it was a it was a pretty standout astronomical occurrence when uh when the government didn't

02:51:27.100 taken seriously i think that's a that's kind of a special sign and uh so i want to honor those men

02:51:33.660 i was looking at the days and i can't figure them out right now because i can't find where i wrote

02:51:37.260 it down um but one of them is in the end of april i think april 21st is what we were doing to honor

02:51:48.460 uh hoskold um i believe swain bjorn was

02:51:55.820 july the fourth and i believe stubble was october the fourth so don't quote me on that

02:52:05.980 it'll come out hopefully i got close and i think it did um

02:52:12.700 um oh and so Nick threw on as a as an addition to that question to let you guys know that we

02:52:24.220 are doing um when we're done with our series on the Noble Virtues we're going to do episodes

02:52:31.600 um on each of our heroes for a while and alternate that with the spawn episodes

02:52:36.640 so that is the game plan and we've already got a number of AFA folk builders and I think some

02:52:43.120 gothar even that have signed up to talk to us about those folks and so I'm excited about those

02:52:50.860 yeah so we got that and then the next question currently the last question but some may pop up

02:52:56.200 while we're answering it um does founder McNallan still got power decision making in the AFA or is

02:53:06.340 more like an advisor at this point thanks um Steve Steve is retired and I appreciate that uh you know

02:53:16.300 it it would be really awkward if there was a sharing of powers and it would it would be difficult

02:53:28.120 um so Steve stepped completely back he is still an active participant he shows up he's you know

02:53:36.340 he's certainly active in the afa and we love him we love having him there but he handed over full

02:53:42.740 full authority to me as i was here you go the and he's been very supportive in that and i appreciate

02:53:47.940 it um you know if steve wanted to and he had things important to him that he wanted to reach

02:53:54.340 out and talk to me about absolutely that's conversation i would have at any point in time

02:53:59.940 with him but he's been very graceful to not armchair quarterback by all's harrier gothian um

02:54:10.500 he and sheila both have been extremely extremely supportive and very very gracious in that but no

02:54:18.260 he doesn't officially have decision making power at this point but he's steve mcnalen if he has

02:54:24.180 something that he wants to say i think that we'll all listen and uh he's immensely respected

02:54:33.460 um looks like we got

02:54:36.820 a couple questions i'll tell you what is the different

02:54:42.100 what is different or stands out in today's afa versus when you first joined

02:54:47.460 it's a whole different world um

02:54:57.780 shoot

02:55:01.220 we are easily twice as big as we were when i first joined um we are almost twice as big as

02:55:08.660 when i became os harry but we are certainly over twice as big as when i first became a member of

02:55:14.660 the afa um huge difference obviously is our hoffs um we've got four temples to our gods now when i

02:55:24.940 joined that was still a distant pie in the sky maybe someday we could possibly have a hoff

02:55:31.080 maybe in the distant future and those are you know the first one became a reality and we've

02:55:36.780 got three more on top of it um sigerheim obviously is a huge thing but that still is a whole bunch

02:55:43.820 potential and right now it's raw land so i'll celebrate that a little bit more you asked me

02:55:48.620 this in a few years um the house true academy also we're not quite done with our first academic year

02:55:54.860 so it's hard to really claim that as a huge difference but you know it certainly is starting

02:56:01.180 to be and will be and it's a huge difference for those families that are involved in it currently

02:56:05.740 um but that brings me to families uh when i first joined a lot of dudes um there's a lot of single

02:56:15.180 guys uh that has changed tremendously at any of our events the guys are almost always outnumbered

02:56:26.000 by the women and the children um again we got ladies around it's not just you know a couple

02:56:33.180 eccentric gothic larger ladies it is a a whole different caliber of of women that come out to

02:56:45.720 our events um and children and families and we had i think we had north of 50 babies born last

02:56:53.520 year and that number goes up every single year um and that's been one of the most beautiful and

02:56:59.120 amazing things, seeing all the growth of families, mine included. When I first joined the AFA, we had

02:57:08.540 one national event, and that was at Midsummer. Now we have a national, a quote-unquote national event

02:57:19.100 at each of our four Hoffs and Elsie Fest, and usually there's another that will get thrown in

02:57:31.360 that counts, but we have events all over the place. When I first started, events in general

02:57:37.820 were, you know, we had things, but I guess I can't say that in this context. We had stuff that people

02:57:46.280 did um but certainly not where it is now to where you look and on any of our calendars any given

02:57:52.680 weekend there's you know 10 15 20 different uh different moots and activities going on with afa

02:57:59.480 members um when i first joined i think we had members in three other countries now we have

02:58:06.840 members in 14 other countries um our membership like i said it's grown and it's spread out over

02:58:14.760 the country when i first joined the afa was very largely a west coast phenomenon and there's

02:58:20.920 members scattered different places but it was very west coast heavy now we've we're all across

02:58:27.640 the united states and i mentioned our international members and if you look at the distribution in the

02:58:33.400 united states the majority of afa members in the united states are east of the mississippi river

02:58:40.280 now and that's without losing people in the west it's just seen a tremendous uptick in people in

02:58:45.240 the east um man it's so many different ways we're we're just functioning at uh at such a higher

02:58:56.600 capacity we've been very very fortunate and very very blessed um not sure if it's been asked already

02:59:06.680 uh i was an hour late that's okay we appreciate you coming in that's i we have super long shows

02:59:12.280 and i don't expect everybody to sit there for you know well we're almost at the three hour mark

02:59:17.000 but what grades are currently available for the academy so it's an interesting question uh

02:59:23.720 currently only kindergarten but by um and so for everybody listening and not just for shannon so

02:59:33.240 it's a in case you guys are unfamiliar we started uh the very first academic year of the astrue

02:59:39.160 academy last september and that has been awesome our the kids have been doing great the families

02:59:46.360 have been participating it's been really really good and we're committed at that point i wanted

02:59:53.080 to make sure before we launched this that everybody was 100 committed um

02:59:58.280 we're going to follow that class and at the very very least we're going to have their next grade

03:00:07.880 ready for them each year so we'll grow with them all the way up through when they're graduating

03:00:13.160 in 2035 i believe but that said we we want to do better than that and i've been assured

03:00:21.240 and i've heard some different numbers but i've been assured for certain that this next go around

03:00:27.080 this next september when we take enrollment we will have kindergarten first and second grade

03:00:33.080 available so be looking for that if you have kids in those those age brackets um that will be up and

03:00:40.360 open and getting people in in september if you have kids that you want to transfer into it even

03:00:47.160 at this uh at this point in the year it was just a notification that we you know we're taking these

03:00:52.840 people anytime so if you've got kids that are kindergartners that you want involved in the

03:00:56.680 the Astro Academy, please do not hesitate. We would love to have those kids there and

03:01:02.080 help educate the future of our folk and our church. And I think that's that.

03:01:17.040 Thank you guys so much. There have been a lot of really good questions tonight. I appreciate you

03:01:21.220 guys participating. I appreciate you guys listening to us. I say this all the time when

03:01:29.000 Tony asks how I'm doing, but I look forward to these every week. It's literally me talking to

03:01:33.140 my very best friends. So it's really cool for me and I'm glad that you guys participate and are

03:01:39.920 here to listen and ask. Brandy, thank you so much for joining us. You are a fantastic guest and you

03:01:47.360 are a testament to the concept of industriousness and it was great having you on thank you

03:01:54.640 all right well um those of you that can try to make it out to charming of the plow this weekend

03:02:01.200 if you're able to i will be happy to see you there in white springs florida at njordshoff

03:02:07.600 and i will be back just in time to do this next week so until then hail the gods

03:02:14.400 Hail the folk, hail the AFA, and remember, victory never sleeps.

03:02:44.400 Thank you.

03:03:14.400 Thank you.

03:03:44.400 Thank you.

03:04:14.400 Thank you.

03:04:44.400 We'll be right back.

03:05:14.400 We'll be right back.

Asatru Folk Assembly - February 02, 2023

2⧸1⧸23 Victory Never Sleeps, Episode 30 - Industriousness

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