Asatru Folk Assembly - 2⧸7⧸24 Victory Never Sleeps, Episode 83 - Hávamál, Part 2

00:00:00.000 Transcription by CastingWords

00:00:30.000 Transcription by CastingWords

00:01:00.000 We'll be right back.

00:01:30.000 Thank you.

00:02:00.000 Thank you.

00:02:30.000 Thank you.

00:03:00.000 We'll be right back.

00:03:29.980 wrestling montage to start us off today, for some reason. Welcome, everybody, to another

00:03:37.720 exciting edition of Victory Never Sleeps. First in the chat room, Jaded, I'm glad you

00:03:45.120 found us. Welcome. First time that I'm getting to speak with you guys in the month of February.

00:03:54.620 I figured we'd go through a couple housekeeping things, a couple little updates and such.

00:04:04.620 First, today's episode is going to be part two of our study of the Have-Em-All, the

00:04:11.760 Sayings of the High One.

00:04:12.900 um producer nick can post up the link to where we're on them if they are less so we may take

00:04:26.560 a little bit and answer those at the end but we will answer any and all questions that come our

00:04:31.220 way um we are being broadcast live on youtube entropy odyssey rumble vk twitter and twitch

00:04:51.620 i believe so all of those things you feel free to ask us any questions if you are consuming

00:04:57.140 this broadcast on one of those platforms um yeah we'd also like to just think of stuff coming up

00:05:09.540 next week we're going to take a break from our have them all study because uh svan and myself

00:05:16.340 along with many others are going to be celebrating charming of the plow

00:05:21.300 at uh niorbshoff in white springs florida so we're going to be there a little bit early

00:05:27.780 to do some spiritual work with some other members of witten um

00:05:34.580 but we would love to see you guys uh it's going to nick can throw up he's already done it and

00:05:43.140 thrown up the advertisement for it uh but it's coming up quick quicker than quicker than i

00:05:48.980 imagined it would come up that's going to be the 16th the 17th and the 18th if you would like to

00:05:55.140 attend that please reach out to your local folk builder they can get you squared away um yeah we

00:06:02.420 would we would love to see you there and love to get a chance to talk to you guys um and a month

00:06:10.180 later we're going to be celebrating ostara at thorshof ostara ostara is at thorshof

00:06:17.620 in linden north carolina and uh myself and swan will be at that as well and we'd love to see you

00:06:24.740 guys as with anything else reach out to your local folk builder they can get you

00:06:31.380 get you squared away with how to how to attend those and we would love to see you there

00:06:41.380 so something else during these broadcasts if you would like there's cool little bells and whistles

00:06:47.620 to encourage y'all to donate. If you want to donate any of those fun ways,

00:06:53.860 in the description of this video, those are in the text there on how to do those.

00:07:02.500 We appreciate it. Y'all's generosity makes a huge difference in our ability to accomplish things

00:07:10.420 in a timely way. So thank you guys ahead of time for that.

00:07:17.620 just kind of an update because people want to know our next big thing that we are looking to do

00:07:24.900 and again these things are long-term goals and they take time but uh next thing that we're

00:07:30.700 looking to do is establish a hof for lord frayer in order to do that we need to pay off njord's

00:07:38.800 hof this is our our plan that's got us the four hofs we have and it's going to get us

00:07:44.300 the many Hoffs we're going to have in the future.

00:07:49.660 You guys have been awesome and generous on that.

00:07:53.920 If producer Nick could throw the calculator

00:07:57.300 or the thermometer up to show the progress on that.

00:08:02.360 We have made amazing progress

00:08:04.800 in a relatively short amount of time.

00:08:06.800 You can see it shown for you there graphically.

00:08:10.060 We still have a ways to go.

00:08:11.680 we still need to raise $98,651.87. It's a lot, but it's not a lot considering that we've had it for

00:08:23.200 about a year and a half, maybe less. And it was purchased for $245,000. So we're well over halfway.

00:08:35.480 Looking at that thermometer really gives you a good sense of it. And the reason we're able to do

00:08:39.480 that is one because our gods have smiled on us with uh really amazing blessings and two because

00:08:46.040 you guys have been so generous so thank you very much for those who have contributed and if you

00:08:50.600 would like to uh nick's giving you the link you can also do any of the fun little noise making

00:08:58.520 noise making gimmicks during our program and we appreciate that too

00:09:03.000 um with that oh another kind of update so originally when we were i don't know if it's

00:09:11.400 an update but it's kind of a point before we get into the meat of things today uh we had planned

00:09:18.200 to go probably two and a half times further through the have them all last time than we made

00:09:25.480 it um and that's okay i would rather these take as many episodes as they need to for us to discuss

00:09:34.840 it thoroughly and emphasize things that are important then have us rush through there is

00:09:42.920 no time limit we are discussing we're discussing ancient uh ancient texts and uh so that's

00:09:52.120 that's that's not a problem so don't be dismayed last time we made it through um stanzas

00:10:02.760 one through 30. so we will be starting at 31 today

00:10:12.360 and with that just giving everybody another moment to get there if you're following along

00:10:19.240 that's uh chapter or i'm sorry uh stanza 31.

00:10:28.440 that said

00:10:32.360 spawn would you like to start us out on have them all 31.

00:10:41.000 yeah absolutely uh this um

00:10:43.640 Um, this stanza, like many, the, the many before are still kind of, again, speaking about the

00:10:50.280 maxims of etiquette around the whole culture. And this one is kind of an interesting one,

00:10:55.440 mainly because I think Bellows keeps true to the poetics. He's really trying to present the words

00:11:03.480 in a way that is poetic and I think quite beautiful, but it can be confusing. Um, whereas

00:11:11.120 other people may have, you know, translated it far more, you know, bluntly, but I like the

00:11:17.080 crypticness of it. It's just when you read it out, it might not be upfront understood when you like

00:11:24.420 in this part, I'll give an example. He says in 31, wise, a guest holds it to take to his heels

00:11:29.880 when mock of another he makes. So this translation is disjointed because it's more like it's saying

00:11:39.840 a wise man would do well to back away from those who are biting words at other guests.

00:11:48.400 That's more along the lines of it, is that a wise person who sees others perhaps throwing insults at each other

00:11:57.600 would be best to not partake, to not get involved, or even to be kind of seen as, you know, supporting,

00:12:05.320 even just by presence alone um it says you know in the second half but little he knows who laughs

00:12:11.560 at the feast though he mocks in the midst of his foes so that second part is saying you know like

00:12:17.580 a witless man will laugh and joke and jeer without realizing that he's surrounded by far

00:12:25.840 more uh against him than he thinks he's he's pointing and laughing at someone and all of 0.88

00:12:32.400 those people around him might be actually more loyal to the person he's jeering at. And so he's

00:12:38.360 he's fomenting a lot of animosity. And that's I think this is so true to to modern day. You find

00:12:50.200 this a lot. We talked a lot last episode about cynicism. We talked a lot about the scolding

00:12:57.540 nature that people have to kind of dissect and to scathe things. The anonymity of the internet has

00:13:03.940 left people with a false sense of bravery, especially when it comes to expressing themselves

00:13:09.940 or expressing their opinions. They do it without any kind of sense of poise or tactfulness or just

00:13:16.920 any consideration to the idea that there might be a discussion. Instead, it's usually very biting.

00:13:21.940 And what you end up getting is a lot of those people might be kind of laughing, but they're not laughing with you.

00:13:30.400 And you could end up in the hurt locker down the line.

00:13:37.360 So it's a clear warning to that.

00:13:40.820 yeah it um as we discussed last time so much of this is laid out in the scenario of

00:13:50.440 going to the feast or celebrating at the hall um but that's a really good microcosm of

00:13:59.740 social interaction and the wisdom contained in this poem is

00:14:07.320 yeah this is why it is so such a beloved poem is is it's very readily available and readily

00:14:15.980 applicable to almost anybody's life we all find ourselves in these spots

00:14:24.060 point being and this is kind of something i've

00:14:27.720 talked about on the program a number of times

00:14:31.600 we behave very very differently to people's face than we do behind people's back

00:14:38.820 and just because to your face and in the company of others in a public setting somebody says all

00:14:47.200 the right things and they seek to ingratiate themselves to you by you guys teaming up making

00:14:53.860 fun of people you don't like be very wary because the second you get up and go to the bathroom those

00:15:00.320 same people may very well be making fun of you. And that's just a social dynamic that I think we

00:15:06.440 all know. And probably whether we want to admit it or not, a lot of us probably participate and

00:15:12.200 find ourselves being those people sometimes. So it's important, you know, the premise for those

00:15:17.740 who missed it last week and those catching up, the premise with this is someone who's traveled

00:15:22.580 far from home, who doesn't know the circumstances that he finds himself in. He's a guest in someone

00:15:28.400 else's hall and doing that listen listen more than you talk and be aware and pick up and try to

00:15:40.000 find ways to accurately read the room but uh yeah there's a lot of people that will tell you

00:15:47.440 just what you want to hear to your face but behind your back they really have you know evil designs

00:15:53.560 for you. And that's just the path of wisdom to people, you know, going to an unfamiliar location

00:16:03.580 with unfamiliar people, maybe even with familiar people. Keep some objectivity about you and don't

00:16:12.280 be too trusting, especially in a situation where you don't know folks. Oh, and just as a random

00:16:20.820 side. Ronald, I see that once again, you've come through donating to help out some of our folk who

00:16:27.880 are in need. We appreciate your donation. We appreciate all that you've done for us

00:16:32.600 over time. Thank you so much. Awesome. I didn't see that. I'm kind of running behind on the text.

00:16:42.740 this uh these next two again are still kind of of the courtly manner but i find this one

00:16:56.240 to be a little bit kind of reversed in our day and age um well so 32 friendly of mind

00:17:04.860 are many men till feasting they mock at their friends to mankind a bane must it ever be

00:17:12.060 when guests together strive and i think he's he's saying strife or when they come together

00:17:21.900 this one seems to be more along the lines of there's a there's a lot to be said back in the

00:17:28.380 day for our ancestors when um they were living so far apart a lot of times everything was done

00:17:34.900 by word of mouth so you know it's like hey are you with gunner yeah i'm with gunner when if he

00:17:40.480 needs help you know he can get help or or whatever he's a good man but then they come together they

00:17:46.220 start drinking and then it's like gunner why are you always getting into trouble why are you you 0.99

00:17:50.380 know being such an idiot or something and then they start kind of jibing at each other i find i 0.96

00:17:56.100 feel like this is the opposite nowadays where it's um you might have somebody who's on the internet 0.99

00:18:02.180 is just toxic they're they move via the computer like they got a dagger in their hands they just

00:18:09.980 the thought that hits their head goes right through their fingers. But the moment you see

00:18:13.940 them in public or the moment you see them in person, even if you don't have a problem with

00:18:18.160 them and you've never had a problem with them, all of a sudden you meet this person, you hear

00:18:22.320 everyone saying, this person is just absolutely vile online. And then you go to meet them and

00:18:28.100 they're so nice. They're great. And you would never guess they were the same person. Now that's

00:18:37.360 my personal take on this is that it's kind of seems to be flipped in this time age well you

00:18:42.400 know it's it's a little of both some of this has to do with the competition that comes with

00:18:50.960 conversation in the hall um trying to put your best foot forward and present yourself well it's

00:18:57.200 very easy to compete with your with your friends with a game of one-upsmanship and that often

00:19:03.440 doesn't end up well um one of the i don't know something to keep in mind that i think this

00:19:15.120 this brings up and is worth reiterating the idea of

00:19:23.120 people always have this common refrain like you know how about you say that to my face or you

00:19:29.440 wouldn't say that to my face that's true i think we front load it with so much bravado as if if

00:19:37.600 you said that to my face i would hit you that's perhaps one outcome of something but that's not

00:19:44.720 the big thing everyone's afraid of if they're being honest when you speak to someone's face

00:19:53.120 you have to deal with the consequences of your words um how that makes someone feel how they

00:20:01.240 respond it's all of a sudden a very real thing it's very easy to speak behind someone's back

00:20:08.360 and to uh to tear somebody up verbally from a distance uh behind a screen or in a hall when

00:20:18.680 they're not paying attention or when they leave and they're they're not there so it's very it's

00:20:25.780 just something to always be aware of just because somebody is is friendly to your face well most

00:20:31.320 people will be that doesn't necessarily mean that they're as friendly to you or maintain the same

00:20:37.940 the same attitude towards you when you're not when you're not present

00:20:42.860 um this one also this one also has an air of interesting compared to modern times when it

00:21:01.060 comes to um feasting culture on 33 it says oft should one make an early meal

00:21:07.920 nor fasting come to the feast else he sits and chews as if he would joke and little is he able

00:21:16.440 to ask and this is really talking about the idea of one you should uh prime yourself for moderation

00:21:24.600 um and you know don't be seen as a glutton but if we talk about hall culture back in the day

00:21:34.100 It was an understood thing. I mean, if you were invited to a hall, it was good. But these, the food that you were receiving is part of, say, the overall rationing of food that's built for surviving on the day to day.

00:21:48.860 And it was a, it was a very big power play in order to host a feast to say, you know, you're doing so well, the gods have granted you, you know, so much bounty, you share it with others. And it was seen that way. So it was also kind of seen as unseemly if you, you know, just showed up and stuffed your face.

00:22:10.720 and that was like all and we can kind of see that with uh certain modern events where it's like

00:22:15.740 you know this person just pretty much shows up to eat and then as soon as the the food's gone

00:22:20.600 he's out or you know she's gone um and that's kind of what this is saying is um you know prime

00:22:29.040 yourself uh perhaps eat a little before you show up so that you're not starving and hungry and then

00:22:36.980 just mowing through things and you know then you don't even have any time to talk to anyone or

00:22:44.200 socialize or anything like that so this is really about not only just moderation it's active or

00:22:52.120 proactive moderation the idea of disciplining yourself ahead of time whether it's you know

00:22:58.840 and i'm not talking about like pre-gaming anything like that the idea again yeah we are talking about

00:23:04.920 pre-gaming a little bit though if you read line one

00:23:07.400 pre-game with food but not with drink the idea is you know take your time with the drink and

00:23:17.760 make sure that you have a full belly when you show up at the hall so that way you can just kind

00:23:22.240 of eat a little bit nowadays i think a lot of people are like please eat because i don't want

00:23:27.180 to take any of this home so i can see a lot of that kind of that little flip there so it's fun

00:23:33.940 We have not actually read the text together yet, have we, for 33?

00:23:44.180 Oh, no, no.

00:23:46.740 Yeah, I just read the off one should make an early deal.

00:23:50.240 How did I miss it?

00:23:51.260 Okay, so anyways, don't know how I spaced it, but I guess I did.

00:23:57.260 And one of the things I think this points out is, yes, what Svan said, but also, this isn't advice for, you know, your average nobody.

00:24:18.740 this is odin speaking to an audience that seeks to be socially successful that seeks to rise

00:24:31.360 in station and be more than they are um you know we've heard him liken certain traits to the sons

00:24:38.360 of princes sons of kings this is for noble people on how to approach things

00:24:44.900 a feast on the surface sounds like oh cool i'm getting invited over to eat

00:24:51.340 that's the most surface level um element of that no eating is the

00:25:01.780 eating is the stage for a social evaluation people are evaluating you're evaluating them

00:25:12.420 you're finding your place in our hierarchy and you're you know if done right you're vying for

00:25:19.060 a higher place in that hierarchy if you're focused just on feeding your face you miss

00:25:26.500 the social interactions that you're supposed to be aware of if you're eating and drinking

00:25:31.060 desperately because you're famished then you are not picking up on what that guy over in the

00:25:36.900 corners doing or what these guys behind you were saying or the look you're getting from you know

00:25:43.620 the queen or the lady of the hall or you know subtle gestures that the lord might make in his

00:25:50.660 hall all of these things that you're picking up on all of these social cues give you so much context

00:25:58.900 and are such valuable social tools and if you're just like i'm hungry and you're there just

00:26:06.580 shovel and stuff and i can throw down on some food at at dinner don't get me wrong

00:26:13.700 but if you're focused on the food and not the social aspect of why you're there

00:26:19.300 then you're missing the point and it's it's very important random side note this was a different

00:26:26.020 lifetime i was much younger i had not advanced in my spirituality at this point this is back when i

00:26:31.860 was a jehovah's witness but me and my cousins we'd go to um church potlucks and we would describe it

00:26:42.580 as winning the potluck if uh if we were able to consume more food than we brought so that was our

00:26:50.820 game is we would go we would try to make sure that before we left we consumed a greater quantity of

00:26:57.060 food than the food that we brought, and that was winning our Jehovah's Witness potluck.

00:27:02.660 I'm not proud of that story, per se. That's more of a cautionary tale of what not to do, 1.00

00:27:10.500 but it reminds me of this stanza, because that was our focus instead of

00:27:15.700 what was going on, was just how much stuff we could consume.

00:27:19.140 i think it sounds very much like a thing that young men do sometimes especially if they're

00:27:27.660 you know single or living on their own can also be kind of a thing like a milit even in the

00:27:35.120 military we were sometimes like that i was looking for a specific translation here because this one

00:27:43.680 is interesting because of the way that they translated it and i wanted to make sure um

00:27:54.320 well so when you look at this next one 34 is is one that is really used often i think it's a it's

00:28:01.760 a one that resonates with people a lot um but the way that bellows writes it he says you know

00:28:07.680 crooked and far is the road to a foe. And I wonder about this because many of the other

00:28:17.860 translations always pull it towards a bad friend. And he uses the word foe. And I wonder if that

00:28:25.780 is perhaps a criticism on that part is that it kind of denotes a very different thing.

00:28:35.280 you know a crooked and far is the road to a foe or a bad friend though his house on the highway be

00:28:42.020 so even though he has easy you have easy access to his house it's crooked it's long it always

00:28:48.520 takes it's too much work as a point of reference um regardless of bellows the uh the old norse

00:29:00.840 is Illsvenor in contrast to Gothisvenor.

00:29:07.700 So it's an ill friend, a bad friend,

00:29:10.940 as opposed to a good friend.

00:29:14.460 And I mean, that survives beyond translation.

00:29:18.380 That's from our source text.

00:29:21.300 So keep that in mind.

00:29:23.040 You're absolutely, it's good that you point that out.

00:29:26.860 And that's one of the cautionary things about

00:29:29.220 reading translations is that the only way that you can truly get a clarity of the translational

00:29:38.720 issues is by comparative. You know, if you take somebody's, I know that in the millstrom

00:29:46.860 of the internet or in the, in this internet age is that it's very hard to, you want to kind of

00:29:53.420 more down on one thing in order to gain the millstrom uh you know but in this case i think

00:30:01.180 that we focus more on focused practice focused religious you know orthopraxy and that when we

00:30:11.420 look at lore we look at lore as more of a kind of perhaps comparative thing uh we we don't see lore

00:30:20.300 as trying to be a pinnacle sense i think a lot of people try to turn the lore into a biblical thing

00:30:28.940 and they lose something they kind of inadvertently turn our very non-semitic faith into kind of a

00:30:36.940 semitic pattern when they want this kind of singular translation the singular thing obviously

00:30:44.700 the bible is translated many different ways but for us talking to the gods and giving gifts to

00:30:50.860 the gods is the way that we do but reading and understanding the wisdom and also to the poetics

00:30:58.220 comes through comparativeness and i think this is a perfect example it's very

00:31:03.340 not particularly uh bad or scary it's just a slight differentiation an ill friend versus a

00:31:10.540 foe. You know, you want the road to be crooked if you've got a foe out there that's trying to get

00:31:17.440 at you. But then this is comparative to, but you know, it's wide and straight is the way to a

00:31:23.460 friend's home, though they'd be far away. So the idea is that I really think it's, it speaks more

00:31:30.500 about the connection that you have with someone. And I think all of us kind of have these friendships

00:31:37.940 where we could be very far away from each other.

00:31:41.440 We could be engrossed in something.

00:31:43.280 And then all of a sudden you get a chance, an opportunity.

00:31:47.200 You meet up with the person, you go and visit them.

00:31:49.720 You even travel really far.

00:31:51.260 And as soon as you meet up with them, it's like butter in a pan.

00:31:57.140 It's just meant to be.

00:31:58.520 And it just, you know, works out well.

00:32:00.560 And everything seems to be good and happy.

00:32:03.200 And then you kind of, you end up as you're leaving thinking like,

00:32:07.060 man, I, you know, I miss being able to have that kind of ease and joy of the friendship.

00:32:15.100 Instead, I got to go back to the grind. And so I think that longing too, is kind of a,

00:32:20.460 if you're leaving a friend thinking, man, it's going to be way too long before I get a chance

00:32:25.180 to hang out with him again. That's a good feeling. That's the type of friend you want.

00:32:29.760 um so you know the the no i was just gonna say this is a a particularly important one

00:32:37.340 and i think that the ramifications of it are far-reaching and it's double-edged

00:32:44.940 um yes in one sense you don't want to go to somebody's house that's not a good friend so

00:32:55.200 you make a bunch of excuses not to, even if it's very convenient for you to do so, even

00:33:00.940 if their house is on the highway. But if somebody is, if you like somebody and they're a good

00:33:09.840 friend, then you consider them a good friend, then it's no big deal. Even if it's an arduous,

00:33:15.740 obnoxious journey, you'll gladly do it because you want to see your friend so bad.

00:33:19.760 um keep that in mind in the inverse as well you know your friends that are your real friends

00:33:30.500 they'll make the time to come visit you even if it's out of their way your you know poor friends

00:33:38.340 uh you know poor and quality friends are those that you know no matter how easy it is they always

00:33:45.280 have an excuse not to come see you. And I'd like to extend this one further when it comes to going

00:33:52.320 to moots with the folk and going to our Hoffs. Is this really important to you? If it's one of

00:34:04.400 those things that you always have a, always have an excuse on how you can't go and you can't make

00:34:09.440 it and uh but you know favorite tv shows on or whatever ridiculous excuse gets made 0.82

00:34:16.760 or is it something that even if it's a pain in the butt to go do you're more than willing to

00:34:23.520 do it because you care that much that speaks to your connection with the folk and it also

00:34:29.500 specifically in terms of our hofs that's a reflection of your your relationship with the

00:34:35.520 gods as well is, you know, Thor's Hoff. Are you a good enough friend to Thor that you make the

00:34:43.960 time to go to his Hoff, even if it's not convenient for you? Or even though you live 20 minutes away,

00:34:52.520 you just can't quite find that reason to show up because, you know, life and got to let the dog

00:35:00.500 out and whatever else you want to say and i think that's a really important thing for us all to do

00:35:08.580 an audit of our behavior and our attitude towards things

00:35:14.660 and see where we're at on that you know we we in

00:35:20.340 you put your resources where your mouth is and yeah we hear that in terms of money all the time

00:35:27.700 but time is a valuable resource as well time convenience

00:35:35.380 are you willing to invest of yourself into these friendships to make them work and to get the most

00:35:41.220 out of it be it relationship with our gods relationship with your friends relationship

00:35:47.140 with your afa brothers and sisters relationships with your family are you willing to put in the

00:35:53.620 time to travel to them because it's all about mindset it says these your friends are close

00:36:00.020 with an easy path even if they're really far away and the path is very difficult and anything but

00:36:06.020 easy you perceive it as no big deal because you care so much or even if they're on the way home

00:36:14.340 and they're right there and it's the easiest thing in the world to get to it if you really

00:36:17.780 don't like the person you'll come up with you will create reasons to make that path

00:36:22.500 long and treacherous and just undoable so we should i think we'd all do well to keep that in mind

00:36:37.060 this um this next one has a really i love the way it's written in old norse um and

00:36:46.500 And it's the only part of it that's really stuck with me.

00:36:51.780 But in 35, it says, you know,

00:36:55.140 forth shall one go, nor stay as a guest in a single spot forever.

00:37:00.620 Love becomes loathing if long one sits by the hearth in another's home.

00:37:08.620 I really, really like it because the Old Norse is

00:37:13.220 love turns to loathing and love i mean i just i love the idea that um it's it's wise to

00:37:30.180 keep stock at your presence and sometimes in the way it might inconvenience people

00:37:38.020 um you know when you take a guest when you are a guest you know you should consider

00:37:43.240 that you don't sit too long or or uh you know stay about too long it has to be just perfectly

00:37:50.520 timed in order to not be so burdensome that it throws off the the flow of the house and um

00:37:58.260 and then then you end up leaving with a that joyous sense of man it was so nice instead of

00:38:05.200 It was like, man, it was nice, but, uh, or something of that nature is that timing.

00:38:12.380 It's, it's knowing when to pull the ripcord.

00:38:14.420 It's knowing when to pop smoke and, and, and, and get out of, get out of there.

00:38:20.280 You know, that's, again, it's hard to, uh, encapsulate these things in.

00:38:35.200 I'm tripping over my words here, and that's kind of what I was trying to say.

00:38:40.860 When we view this like perhaps biblical verses are viewed to where we hyper-focus on its particulars, sometimes we lose its broader application.

00:38:59.500 and there's so much wisdom in these stanzas to be passed to us that's very very relevant in a lot

00:39:07.060 of different ways and can be learned from social dynamics in a in a principled way and this is the

00:39:15.220 thing with our faith the principles are timeless the circumstance and the situation is going to

00:39:23.100 look really different depending on place and depending on time but the wisdom in in the have

00:39:28.220 Mall specifically is just as applicable in 900 as it is in 2024. And before I elaborate a little

00:39:41.480 bit more, I just want to point out the Phelps family blew the victory horn for $20 and said

00:39:46.940 hail the McNabb, hail the AFA, and then hashtag bestest Hoff. So there's that. We appreciate

00:39:55.560 $20. As always, thank you very much. You too can blow the victory horn for a $20 donation.

00:40:03.300 So keep that in mind. All right. That said, a little bit more I want to say about the stanza.

00:40:14.800 There is a, I've mentioned this before, in

00:40:19.840 original aryan language the very oldest roots of the word host and guest are the same word

00:40:30.520 and it diverged at some point from that concept but there's a reciprocity

00:40:37.900 and there's a delicate balance between being guest and host

00:40:42.040 and yeah if you show up to somebody's house and you you know they're waiting for you to leave so

00:40:50.380 they can go on with their family's business and you just aren't aren't going to or if you stay

00:40:56.020 there and you're literally eating them out of house and home they don't want to be impolite

00:41:02.440 And they're balancing the desire to be polite with their growing resentment for perhaps some of their politeness that they're doing.

00:41:14.500 So some of it has to do with, you know, you in this instance being a bad guest.

00:41:20.080 But some of it also has to do with them and not being, you know, forthcoming with what they think.

00:41:26.600 it's one of the things when we have a freer discourse with our friends and those close to us

00:41:33.500 sometimes if you give them a hint it's less bad than if you sit around and you grow resentful of

00:41:41.740 it so yes don't stay too long at the party don't be burdensome don't stay after the host

00:41:50.280 kind of gives you hints they want you to leave but as a host before you get upset did you mention

00:41:56.860 like hey it's fun you want to be getting on home um we got stuff to do in the morning

00:42:01.640 at some point at some point that is a greater kindness than you know sitting there gritting

00:42:08.640 your teeth and being upset as fawn sits by the fire and eats all your food till you know 7 a.m

00:42:15.200 So I think there's value in expanding the application of that there.

00:42:24.860 Yeah, I was looking, when you said it, I looked it up real quick about the etymology and the gastes from the old Proto-Germanic.

00:42:35.360 It meant stranger, a guest, and a host.

00:42:38.720 It was used for all of that.

00:42:41.420 It could mean someone who was not known, someone who was known and welcome or the one welcoming others.

00:42:49.140 So it had a lot of uses. And the really cool thing that was written is the most likely of root sense of the word was someone who is or has reciprocal duties of hospitality or to give what is given to.

00:43:07.860 So I think in the sense of the enemy is like you're giving to the enemy what the enemy is going to give to you and you give to your guest what the guest gives to you.

00:43:15.640 All of our social interaction, and this is what our interaction with the gods is built upon, is the cycle of exchange from one to the other.

00:43:27.380 It's a process of gifting, of sharing. That same idea of guest and host being part, two sides of the same coin, part of one cycle of building relationship is very fundamental to Alcetree.

00:43:44.200 I also want to note that while we're doing this, Brandy blew the victory horn for $20.

00:43:49.560 We appreciate that, Brandy.

00:43:51.420 Blowing the victory horn for the hashtag bestest Hoff.

00:43:56.500 Thanks to our producer, Nick.

00:43:58.600 You're the best.

00:44:02.140 I knew someone in another Hoff wasn't going to let that sit.

00:44:06.440 I'm not surprised it was Brandy.

00:44:09.860 You know, no, this is doubled down.

00:44:13.760 This is two people both affirming twice over that Baldur's Hoff is the bestest Hoff.

00:44:21.920 So everybody else got to catch up. 0.76

00:44:28.340 Oh, I thought the first was from Othenshoff.

00:44:30.800 No, no, it was from the fellas. 1.00

00:44:32.880 Oh.

00:44:35.820 All right.

00:44:39.980 So with that, we flip the page.

00:44:44.540 We're on 36.

00:44:50.060 Yeah, 36 is an interesting one because I think a lot of people might use it

00:44:54.740 to kind of soften or maybe perhaps it's –

00:45:01.520 I see it often laid upon too much as a sense of like accepting

00:45:08.200 as opposed to always desiring for the better.

00:45:12.360 I think that the idea of being the master of your home is interesting, but it precludes something.

00:45:22.980 I've seen people kind of say like, well, you know, I got this and that's what I got.

00:45:27.760 And that's good, but it's like they don't want a desire for more.

00:45:32.980 They don't want desire for better.

00:45:35.760 So 36 is better a house, though a hut it be.

00:45:41.520 a man is a master at home, a pair of goats and a patched up roof are far better than begging.

00:45:51.060 And I think that's what sets the idea of the trajectory of this statement is that

00:45:58.880 there is a kind of one for one. And so it leads you to say, well, what is better than

00:46:05.240 my pair of goats and patched up roof? What is better than what I have now? And I think that

00:46:11.320 it ultimately is saying that first off you don't want to be you know one of uh that's forced to

00:46:18.940 you know scratch at the uh at the palms of of your fellow kinsmen or or what have you i mean

00:46:25.660 unless tragedy befalls you you don't want that to be just your natural state and um but then it's

00:46:32.620 the question is is do you want better do you want more uh can you make things better do you strive

00:46:38.800 for success and then you know you could be the one that's looking back into where you were

00:46:44.480 and want your other folk to be better you want them to get and and and push forward i think that

00:46:51.920 that's um this one sometimes might allude to people saying well you know i got this and this

00:46:58.880 is good enough i think it's more along the lines that you you have this because you don't you're

00:47:05.280 not that but where you are could you be looking back at where you are now in the future wanting

00:47:13.120 more wanting better and i think that that's a a key and subtle thing that's being said here

00:47:20.000 and better doesn't necessarily mean bigger or or what have you it could be more functional it could

00:47:24.720 be more um independent it could be um you know more comforts or the ability to take care of

00:47:31.760 certain people in your family because they need help and there's a lot of things that that that

00:47:37.760 um are the i guess the the baseline for success but you should want it you know that's a thing

00:47:48.080 um that goes back to what i mentioned on the previous stanzas this isn't

00:47:54.080 you know this isn't generic advice for for the the thrall this is advice for those who want to

00:48:09.520 achieve more this is the god of kings giving wisdom to noble people to become the best

00:48:18.060 and it would mean something very different yeah if you read that verse to

00:48:22.540 lowly people that were lowly of spirit and lowly of mind as well then yeah

00:48:29.000 be happy with your with your shack that's got a hole in the roof and your your couple of goats

00:48:36.860 and you know be happy with that at least you're not begging when that's said to the son of a

00:48:44.940 prince when that's said to one who's noble and wants more the point is about even if it's of

00:48:52.760 low means self-reliance is better than having to rely on the goodwill of others it's an idea of

00:49:02.240 seizing control of your life and appreciating building from what you have rather than basing

00:49:13.800 all of your ability on the whims of other people it's a it's a nod towards self-reliance because

00:49:21.180 the text itself you know a fair reading of it makes it yeah they're describing a very you know

00:49:27.980 a very not great home and a very not great uh farm with just a pair of goats

00:49:34.460 but it's yours and it's a place to start from when you're reliant upon the uh the charity of others

00:49:42.840 that can get shut off at a moment's notice that's on the whims of someone else this allows you as a

00:49:50.160 as a man to be able to exercise your will from your own resources and self-reliance is this is

00:49:56.020 one of the reasons that self-reliance is is one of our noble virtues

00:49:59.140 and uh as you'll see here the the next verse doubles down on that

00:50:04.780 and you also notice that in the beginning there is a this is another repeat and i

00:50:12.820 you know i'm of a firm belief that that these repeat entry um parts were more than just perhaps

00:50:22.020 verse um i guess you know just filling in spots if you will i really think these are signposts

00:50:29.380 that they're going to start shifting into other concepts and ideas and so these kind of

00:50:35.380 double tap verses are are a sign um you know that as you get to a certain point you want to

00:50:44.340 start turning your your poem in a different direction or remembering the verses that follow

00:50:49.620 that that uh road sign in the verses so again you see you know better a house uh though a hut it be

00:50:57.300 a man is a master at home his heart is bleeding who needs must beg when food he feign would have

00:51:08.160 then and so you know obviously that those first two lines same as in 36

00:51:15.180 you know but the the latter part is of course a man who must uh struggle a man who must beg

00:51:23.700 um his heart bleeds if you if you have any ounce of worth to your pride the the lowest you know is

00:51:34.720 the the most heart-wrenching thing is to be to be a slave to be a prisoner or to be a beggar

00:51:41.020 and the idea is that you you know there's above all all things you you shan't find yourself

00:51:47.500 in these situations unless, you know, really, really dire. And even then, it should always

00:51:55.300 be of the mindset that you're trying to get out of that, to get away from that and to fix and

00:52:01.100 rectify that life so that you can be a freestanding person and have your own will and your own and

00:52:07.880 your own movement forward. It was so intrinsically hurtful to our ancestors in relation to the idea

00:52:16.200 of, of kind of being compressed, um, because of our deeds, um, or, or the, or other people's

00:52:25.920 deeds in reaction to, or however you want to look at it as the ideas you just didn't want to end up

00:52:30.420 being that way. So you, you desperately try to work your life at not being closed down and that

00:52:39.920 you're weird and your orlog is no longer able to, you know, implement itself upon the world.

00:52:46.200 now the um these next two oh since we were talking last and and somebody asked you know

00:53:04.080 what were your favorites i i think now i am kind of zeroing in on on what perhaps is my favorite

00:53:10.460 it. But, um, but this one is also a really, really good one. Um, number 38, uh, away from

00:53:22.060 his arms in the open field, a man should, should fare not a foot for never. He knows

00:53:30.040 when the needed for a spear shall arise on the distant road. This one is, I think quoted

00:53:37.200 quite often. It does bring up some concepts about the idea of being able to be armed,

00:53:43.360 being an armed person, both in Anglo-Saxon culture and in Nordic culture was

00:53:49.900 absolutely a sign of freedom and that you, you know, should not step away from your arms.

00:53:58.680 But in this case, too, as you're speaking of the fact that this is coming from Lord

00:54:02.620 Volvin is paramount. The idea that you never know when you might find yourself to have to rise up to

00:54:12.000 an occasion that you never suspected was coming. And so the ways in which you prepare for those

00:54:21.460 things should always be at least in the direct periphery of your mental state.

00:54:28.800 um this is one that really emphasizes that we are a warrior's religion we are a warrior faith

00:54:36.620 and i think this one absolutely keys in with a lot of people who are

00:54:41.140 in a former military and things like that

00:54:43.360 yeah this one is one of the more popular ones um i think it gets used a lot and i think

00:54:56.340 I think it very often is dumbed down to people wanting to talk about rights to carry weapons

00:55:16.760 in, you know, odd and socially less acceptable circumstances as like justification.

00:55:25.240 And I'm not faulting that. I'm all for people being able to keep and bear arms. I'm all about it. But there's more to this than that. It's about preparedness. And it's about when you go places, you don't know what you're going to find when you get there. So be prepared.

00:55:44.220 one of the most effective weapons that you have in any circumstance isn't a sidearm it's not a

00:55:53.760 sword it's not a spear it's having your wits about you being situationally aware of what's

00:55:59.440 available what's going on where people are in relationship to you and seeing danger before it

00:56:06.840 comes at you so though on in a literal sense yeah when you go traveling keep your weapons close at

00:56:17.340 hand i get it but i think there is deep wisdom here about keep your head on a swivel and be aware

00:56:24.920 of where you're at let's see we're doing 39 or is it 38 i got yeah 39

00:56:48.760 um and this is another thing that's kind of interesting um

00:57:00.760 this the interesting thing about bellows and i think the reason why we chose

00:57:06.040 him was he doesn't remove verses a lot and you'll find translations kind of omit away

00:57:16.600 certain, you know, translations to make sure, you know, that it just kind of has congruence,

00:57:27.580 or perhaps there's, you know, a question about other things. Now, the other part is, too, is that

00:57:37.600 this verse sometimes is in other translations is added is is added in or brought down to

00:57:46.160 stanza 40 and added into it depending on how it was written and translated um whereas bellows kind

00:57:53.520 of separates this and finds the spot to place it in that would fit well uh in relation to everything

00:58:01.660 else. So here, 39, if wealth a man has done for himself, let him never suffer his need.

00:58:15.340 Oft he saves for a foe what he plans for a friend, for much goes worse than we wish.

00:58:24.760 so i i've always taken this uh as a two-part um the first part of of of this is that you know

00:58:38.620 the wealth of a man uh if he has gained worth through hard work um then and he has done it

00:58:46.660 well it is a it is an ill sign to see him suffer for need um or to be of you know a struggling

00:58:55.000 nature um but the the second half is kind of i see is um you know oft he saves for a foe that

00:59:05.080 he plans for a friend um is more along the lines that we are in preparedness oftentimes for the

00:59:14.660 negative when we should be perhaps in preparedness for the positive. That we oftentimes amass or

00:59:26.160 think of things in the worst case scenarios when in reality, if we do take the time to consider

00:59:32.980 building friendships and community, that when things do get bad, we have help. A lot of people

00:59:39.740 think nowadays look at certain interactions as detriment and so they you know they prepare

00:59:48.460 or they they work their life or they they just want to be absolutely independent and they don't

00:59:54.620 want to have to rely on anyone and and there's that sense of individuality that is so venomous

01:00:00.540 to the point where you end up kind of becoming uh unrelatable and you don't take the time to

01:00:08.220 to understand that perhaps working towards having friendships, working towards the benefits

01:00:13.280 that you have and sharing them with your friends can help and go a very long way when you're

01:00:19.240 in need.

01:00:20.380 So that's what this one is kind of interesting.

01:00:22.720 I've always just taken it that way is don't be a doom pill so much as you need to, you

01:00:30.280 know, garner friendships and, and spend your time and your efforts and the things that

01:00:36.060 you've won, to share moments with friends. Not only that, because, again, a simple moment of

01:00:43.660 whether it's, you know, again, an arrow or a spear, as they would say, you know, you might

01:00:51.780 dodge arrows and spears, but, you know, Hela's Hall has all the calamities of mankind within it.

01:00:59.220 It might catch you. And so you spend all this time kind of fortifying yourself as an island and

01:01:05.660 and that it's lost because you never built any sense of anyone mourning your loss if you got sick.

01:01:13.920 So I really, I like this stanza.

01:01:15.960 This isn't my absolute favorite, but these three are really kind of, I enjoy them because they're a little bit.

01:01:24.000 I've got a, I've got a different take on that one.

01:01:26.280 And I'd like to first acknowledge Michael Cosgrove blowing the victory horn for a $20 donation.

01:01:32.780 Thank you, Michael.

01:01:33.440 What Hoff is the best

01:01:36.180 And why should everyone go there for Charming of the Plow

01:01:38.980 Well that would depopulate

01:01:42.760 Y'all's Nordshoff event

01:01:44.120 Michael I mean if everybody came out to Odenshoff

01:01:46.920 For Charming of the Plow

01:01:48.100 I know you guys have put a lot of effort

01:01:51.140 Into having it at Nordshoff as well

01:01:53.380 You guys would be kind of high and dry

01:01:55.620 If everybody came to the best Hoff

01:01:57.040 But I will be at Nordshoff

01:02:00.180 For Charming of the Plow

01:02:01.100 And foregoing the Charming at

01:02:03.100 at uh my home hof odin's hof uh and that's obviously the point you're getting at i would

01:02:10.220 encourage everyone and i'll say it one more time on here we got charming and plow at new york's

01:02:14.700 hof coming up in a week and two days in white springs florida at new york's hof please make

01:02:25.660 an effort to get there uh spawn and i will be there i'm looking forward to seeing everybody

01:02:33.500 there looking forward to meeting you guys um looking forward to celebrating charming of the

01:02:39.020 plow at uh at new york's amazing hoff and it will have been a full year since i've been there it

01:02:46.380 doesn't seem like it's been that long so i'm definitely looking forward to it um as far as

01:02:53.180 the stanza what i feel very much is being imparted here

01:03:03.180 don't be stingy um and i think this goes well with the rune poems when svan and i talked about

01:03:12.620 those you know number of months back a dragon sits on his wealth and festers and is

01:03:24.620 corrupted by it and doesn't get any joy out of it he just sits there and and and keeps it to

01:03:31.820 himself instead of circulating his energy uh this talks about you know money comes and money goes

01:03:38.620 a lot of people will save up and they're always saving for something in the future and they're

01:03:44.620 always saving for when they need it they're always saving for this and then they get hit by a bus

01:03:50.140 you know three weeks into their four-week plan and it was it was all for naught

01:03:59.420 enjoy resources that you've garnered for yourself if you've been successful

01:04:03.980 use that success to benefit yourself and your family and your friends get benefit out of it

01:04:11.600 while you have it instead of saving it up because one day your enemy can just come snatch it from

01:04:17.940 you and that's the thing if you're just saving up a horde for one day and this is okay so I often

01:04:25.160 get on the wrong side of of preppers with some of my talk about prepping there's plenty to be said

01:04:33.800 for being prepared and having a reasonable plan on it there's other people that have squandered

01:04:38.760 their entire life preparing for an apocalypse that doesn't happen at the cost of all that

01:04:45.240 opportunity cost between now and then of enjoying those resources a lot of people's prep plan

01:04:54.600 is to enjoy their life have a certain amount of weapon and cunning

01:05:01.000 and then once the time comes just go and take all the preparation for those guys that spent

01:05:07.440 their whole life storing it up for them because that's the storehouse of supplies that's a solid

01:05:13.920 prepping plan from a lot of people is uh knowing where everybody else is stashing their stuff so

01:05:20.120 they can come take it when it's game time um and i think that's what's meant here by saving up

01:05:27.880 uh you know what could be spent on a friend for the foe to take stuff happens and you never know

01:05:37.660 how long you've got or what the future holds for you and sometimes it's not what you want

01:05:43.160 and your plans go awry this isn't an advice to be frivolous and wasteful but enjoy what you have

01:05:52.420 I mean, we've all heard those tragic stories of, you know, the homeless guy with a million dollars in his paper sack, in his shopping cart, who's lived his whole life this miser.

01:06:06.620 And, you know, they're sitting on a fortune that they could have used to get a whole lot more out of their life and have a whole lot more celebration.

01:06:16.020 So I think that's I think that's important.

01:06:19.300 And you can obviously take it too far.

01:06:26.020 And I don't think Google wants me to use the term that comes to mind when people get a whole bunch of money and then blow it on frivolous things.

01:06:36.820 But you guys can can draw connections on that.

01:06:40.500 There's there's there's a reason it's called that.

01:06:42.780 So carry on.

01:06:44.860 well and I was looking in the chat and just uh seeing some really good insights there and

01:06:52.620 yeah absolutely you know there is no real true point of the there's only the moment now

01:07:00.620 everything in the past is a memory and everything in the future is an imagination and sometimes it

01:07:05.940 is good to imagine and to focus and to plan but at the end of the day I mean are you sacrificing

01:07:11.760 all of your present moment for the projections that's where it really really kind of is is where

01:07:18.900 lord volvin's saying um that you should you know take a step back and i think that's really

01:07:24.560 interesting you know from i think i speak about it often when we talk about the gods in the way

01:07:32.440 that they have seen so many lives they have seen so many waves of our actions and the things that

01:07:40.540 we go through and we do and again it's such a clear understanding in this in the poetics that

01:07:50.080 you know that the the assas know that our time is fleeting and uh in in truth you know that's

01:07:58.840 the glory of what makes us wanting to be seen by the gods wanting to be witnessed by the gods is

01:08:04.820 because we have these moments but if you squander it away for these only for future moments

01:08:10.460 you're you're you're going against i think a great amount of the very vitality of our faith

01:08:18.580 um so let's see this okay so uh in this stanza stanza 40 and it's the way that bellows writes

01:08:31.820 it is not my favorite but this is probably my favorite um stanza um so none so free with gifts

01:08:44.240 or food have i found that gladly he took not a gift nor one who is so widely scattered his wealth

01:08:53.900 that of recompense, hatred he had.

01:08:59.780 And I remember when I was very new to Alistair True

01:09:03.320 and I remember somebody saying it in a very different way,

01:09:08.420 but it hit home.

01:09:10.520 It was, you know, that none was so lowly

01:09:15.460 that they could not, sorry, was it?

01:09:19.320 Um, none were so rich that they could not accept a gift or none were so lowly that they could not

01:09:26.520 accept a gift. None were so rich that they could not ask for what they rightly deserved.

01:09:31.180 Actually, I got that backwards. I knew I was going to do it.

01:09:36.200 So none are, none are so rich that they, they cannot accept a gift and none so lowly that

01:09:41.680 they cannot ask for what they rightly deserve. And I think what that really got to me was,

01:09:47.900 is about knowing your worth and, and kind of leaning back to what you had said before about

01:09:53.540 the idea that if you are someone who has, um, amassed much, uh, from, from the goodness of

01:10:01.820 your, of your, of your work ethic, your deeds, or whatever it might be that got you the idea of,

01:10:08.500 of sitting on that and never spending any of it is kind of the ideas like you're, you're so wealthy

01:10:13.720 that you you can't accept someone you know trying to give you something or being friends with you

01:10:20.760 and then at the same time knowing your worth when you're trying to be something more um i know that

01:10:27.240 in my my field of work that is a big thing is the ideas is uh you know the difference between like

01:10:34.040 say gouging a customer but also asking for a goodly price based worth worth off of your craft

01:10:43.080 is kind of a a very hard and um liminal thing to to nail down and so i think it's kind of

01:10:52.200 cautioning i think that lord voden saying like if you if you win much and you gain much don't ever

01:10:58.840 be so closed off that you can't accept a gift from someone especially perhaps someone who has a less

01:11:04.920 less than you is is that a gift is still has that value but if you're also of not you don't have

01:11:11.800 much. You know, never be afraid to ask for some of the craft and the deed or the knowledge or

01:11:18.220 whatever it may be that you have. You have to see yourself as value. And I think that's something

01:11:24.260 that's always we're doing throughout the Havamal that we keep bringing up is you're being judged,

01:11:30.120 but you are also judging. You're finding your place in the hierarchy, but that place should

01:11:36.400 be owned with the caveat that you want more or that you want better, but you should also own

01:11:43.640 the square you're in and become a master of it too. You know, I see it a lot, like even in the

01:11:49.160 Marine Corps, they talk about it a lot is, you know, it's good to be a leader, but sometimes

01:11:52.440 you got to shut up and be a follower. You got to know how to be a good follower because you know

01:11:58.300 what it's like to lead people and how hard it can be. So, you know, show up. There's a lot of that

01:12:05.320 being played throughout the Havamal, and everything is kind of listed as almost like being on

01:12:11.180 a hinge. The fulcrum can swing both ways and have two kind of overall knowledge being presented

01:12:20.080 in the stanzas. And I think that a lot of these stanzas can be applied

01:12:27.060 um reciprocally in different situations um to me the wisdom of this stanza is

01:12:40.080 it's very easy for us especially in the age that we live in

01:12:50.540 um we see people with the whole you know eat the rich attitude all the time like you can take

01:12:57.620 advantage of rich people this says you know even never is one so so giving and so like abundant in

01:13:07.400 their gifts that they don't appreciate when somebody gives them something and that's the

01:13:12.060 thing the richest guy in the world still everybody appreciates a gift and that you know nobody has

01:13:22.940 given so much and give so freely that they're going to turn it down when somebody makes an

01:13:28.260 effort to pay them back don't feel like ah they're rich they can afford it and take advantage of

01:13:32.900 folks don't feel like ah they're rich what do they need me to give them a gift for because it's the

01:13:39.900 right thing to do. And doing the right thing in circumstances where perhaps somebody doesn't

01:13:46.440 need it, but it's still the right thing to do, bears fruit and is valuable. And that kind of

01:13:53.940 stuff gets remembered at different times. So much of this is about building your reputation.

01:14:00.120 If you assume that the Lord that's entertaining you is so rich that he doesn't need you to

01:14:05.760 fulfill your obligations as a guest you're sorely mistaken and that's the thing we've talked before

01:14:13.680 about the reciprocity of lord and retainer and of giving gifts and exchanging gifts the gift

01:14:20.720 cycle is the key to all the things that we do and it's in a lot of ways it is the thought that counts

01:14:33.120 a very rich person appreciates gifts and you know a king if another king gives him a gift

01:14:41.220 is going to give him some big lavish kingly gift but if a peasant gives him a gift

01:14:48.120 it's just as appreciated maybe more so depending on what's given it's not so it's i've often

01:14:55.860 mention this as a, as a adult to a child, if a child gives you something that's of no material

01:15:04.040 value, but it's something they put thought into because they care about you and they wanted to

01:15:09.400 do something nice for you, it is tremendously valuable. All the more so if you've got lots of

01:15:15.460 stuff, last thing you need is more stuff. But what you do need is the love and the appreciation of a

01:15:22.160 child um so it's one of the things giving a gift is always well received even if you're giving a

01:15:30.560 gift to someone who has no need of it the principle of you giving means a lot and you know

01:15:37.420 richest person in the world goes and you know loans you some money yeah they're not going to

01:15:42.620 be hurt if you stiff them but they're going to appreciate it if you pay them back because the

01:15:48.660 gesture is what matters, not the dollar value. And in the inverse, those subtle slights will

01:15:56.960 be remembered. And if you find yourself in a spot where you really could use that friend

01:16:01.420 that's got means, they're not going to be anywhere around.

01:16:12.120 I think that this is the point in which we start really tackling the gift cycle that

01:16:17.940 you spoke of. And I think that it's miskewed often in our modern devotion and cultural practices,

01:16:31.280 because I think a lot of people don't realize perhaps, like a lot of religions

01:16:36.140 nowadays might not have cultural context. There is life at the church, but perhaps

01:16:46.620 not a lot, you know, the variables between people going there and coming home might have

01:16:55.820 great differences. Whereas in our faith, there is a kind of cultural congruence that goes beyond

01:17:02.180 just going to the Hoff or holding bloat and things like that. And I think gift giving is

01:17:07.600 one of those things. And I think that as of late, a lot of people have kind of

01:17:13.920 twisted this just as much as with, say, perhaps kneeling or standing up in respect or kneeling

01:17:23.840 in respect. This one always seems to be kind of that looming thing where our culture is still

01:17:30.900 trying to work it out because it might be conflicting with modern ideals or they're

01:17:36.660 trying to reject certain things just despite it. And I think this is really one of those

01:17:42.200 uh sections that covers a lot of this we can hopefully you know make some clarity

01:17:47.200 um 41 friends shall gladden each other with arms and garments

01:17:56.940 weapons and investments and things uh as each for himself can see gift givers friendship or

01:18:05.980 generous friendships are longest found if fair their fates may be so in essence friends will

01:18:16.320 give each other gifts um that that cycle of gift giving will oftentimes be established and i think

01:18:23.160 this happens almost naturally sometimes in really good friendships where oh i got you this time

01:18:28.540 and then like later on that person's like oh i remember that one time i got you this time and

01:18:33.260 It starts this kind of just more or less a cycling of bounty as opposed to perhaps the misconstrued idea of you give me something.

01:18:43.320 I have to give you something back.

01:18:46.360 Or the worst off is when someone's giving you a gift in order to kind of put you into debt and lord it over you.

01:18:53.140 In this case, it's more of because the speaking of if fair their fates may be is really talking about that natural synchronicity of friendships.

01:19:03.260 of giving and receiving with uh you know without really a sense of that there needs to be an

01:19:11.500 immediate dotted line there has to be a balance on the other side of the weight no no this time

01:19:17.580 you know your scale is is heavy with with a gift and it's good and then you know you know the next

01:19:23.180 time you you catch them you get them and you get their side of the scale and it's kind of fun and

01:19:27.820 it's good and it's not really seen as being weighted or added to anything else i think that's

01:19:35.420 i love this one because of how light-hearted it's it's taking it should not be seen as

01:19:42.380 uh reciprocity under absolute cultural law

01:19:53.980 yes these next um

01:19:57.820 I mean, it elaborates on it and takes it, talks about some of the negative implications here as well, but this one, 41, and then it's reiterated throughout, you know, 42, 43, 44, even 45 to a degree.

01:20:14.880 But the gift cycle is our fundamental building block for relationships between friends, between hierarchies of people, between us and our gods.

01:20:34.020 We build relationships by sharing and by exchange of goods and treasures, absolutely, but exchange of favors, of kindnesses, of...

01:21:00.020 We think, and it's very easy today to think of our resources solely in terms of dollars or dollar value of physical things.

01:21:18.500 and that absolutely counts and is obviously important and is the example used here when

01:21:24.620 talked about you know things of value that were cool gifts back then were fancy clothes and and

01:21:30.620 weapons um certainly in in this hall culture that that this is based around but as i've mentioned

01:21:38.480 before so much of it is on the point of you know the fact that you care and that you are giving

01:21:47.140 something of yourself to the people that you care about and that they're giving back to

01:21:54.460 you.

01:21:55.920 And the way that it's expressed so often here is of each person giving.

01:22:06.360 You'll notice it's not talking about giving and taking.

01:22:13.140 It's talking about giving and giving.

01:22:15.540 it's not talking about a consequence or a forced obligation it's talking about the goodwill that's

01:22:24.600 built between people when they give each other things sometimes that's a gift of time sometimes

01:22:32.000 it's a gift of a shoulder to cry on sometimes it's a gift of standing with them when they

01:22:37.580 needed an ally or a friend or someone to help them it's the idea of

01:22:42.420 giving of yourself to the people that you care about and those people in turn

01:22:49.560 giving of themselves to you making you stronger and through the gift cycle

01:22:53.640 the value exchanged is more than that value if placed individually because it keeps the cycle

01:23:03.960 spinning and it builds a relationship that has a intangible value that's much greater than the sum

01:23:12.980 of the goods and services passed between two people. It talks here, you know, if the fate's

01:23:18.520 favorite, you know, if people have long life, you'll have a friend forever if you guys have

01:23:23.880 established your friendship through the freely giving from one to another of your resources

01:23:29.160 and that sharing that builds lasting lifelong friendships that withstand the test of time

01:23:35.020 that withstand circumstance and you know we live in a time as I've mentioned in the wolf age there

01:23:48.740 There's so much cynicism and sarcasm

01:23:54.120 and lots and lots of acquaintances,

01:23:58.460 but true friendship that equals loyalty

01:24:03.140 over the course of a lifetime is very hard to come by.

01:24:07.300 And it should be tended and treasured

01:24:09.960 and cared for when you find it.

01:24:12.960 And if that's done by both parties,

01:24:14.660 then that may well last a lifetime.

01:24:18.740 I realized I didn't shut off my camera when I had to run away.

01:24:28.400 I didn't, I came back and didn't see the Disney version of myself.

01:24:38.400 You can read stanza 42 to the people.

01:24:42.740 Okay.

01:24:44.020 So this one is often, you might hear another translation.

01:24:48.740 um more often than this one but i like this one because it's poetic and it's subtle

01:24:54.620 whereas the other one seems to be kind of again utilized um

01:25:00.080 sometimes misplaced so uh 42 to his friend a man a friend shall prove and gifts with gifts

01:25:10.740 requite but men shall mocking with mockery answer and fraud with falsehood meet so this is again

01:25:19.580 very you know the the poetics a way of writing it is really really nice oftentimes what you'll hear

01:25:26.360 is you know to a friend give gifts and repay gifts and laughter for laughter and treachery

01:25:33.860 for treachery or treachery for lies um is is it often the one you'll hear the most and in essence

01:25:40.440 They are saying that, but I like the way this is worded because it's really talking about the idea of the company you keep and the people you're surrounded with, as opposed to perhaps, I think a lot of people utilize this as like, if they're ignorant or they don't fully see the entirety of the situation, they assume that they've been wronged or they don't even really talk about it.

01:26:08.500 They don't actually step forward and try to figure out the answer.

01:26:12.700 Instead, nope, they've been wronged.

01:26:14.660 And now it's the green light to return whatever they have perceived brought upon them.

01:26:20.500 And that's why I don't necessarily like those translations, because this translation is

01:26:27.500 saying you get what you give.

01:26:30.380 And so if you if you're with a friend and you shall be proven good friends, when you

01:26:34.980 give each other reciprocity when you give each other, you know, the gifts. And again, it doesn't

01:26:39.940 have to be tangible, just like you said, but you will also find that you'll, you'll get quick

01:26:45.440 mockery when around people who mock, you find yourself in the company you keep. If you're

01:26:52.920 consistently, you know, ending up with the people that are, uh, black-pilled or they're, you know, 0.84

01:26:59.840 again sardonic or and and and cynical um it ends up enveloping your life and then at what point do

01:27:08.000 you realize that perhaps these people are being cynical with you and they're being you know false 0.97

01:27:13.840 with you or they you know as soon as you turn around they're talking crap about you as well

01:27:19.120 and that's what i think this is ultimately also saying in that uh with fraud with and uh and

01:27:26.320 fraud with falsehood you should meet is the ideas is that, um, if you meet someone knowingly

01:27:33.980 being deceptive, there is nothing wrong with meeting that at the same time. I don't think

01:27:44.080 it's always necessary though. Again, because wisdom is about application. Sometimes it's

01:27:48.820 not necessary. Sometimes you don't have to be deceptive with someone who you know is being

01:27:53.240 deceptive um but the the ilk of it is not one to be lost if you already know that that's being

01:28:00.660 played but the the big one is in the middle there is mocking when when when you find yourself around

01:28:07.740 people who mock when you find yourself you know around your the company you keep be very very

01:28:13.560 careful it is better to be with someone who's giving with gifts open and honest and kind and

01:28:19.940 good uh than someone who is too biting um because they could be talking about you in that same way

01:28:27.300 and so you have to be careful with that and i think that that's often too much is that when

01:28:34.620 someone perceives that they've been wronged they just green light to attack or deceive or or almost

01:28:41.980 become as bad as the the if like say me and you are are sharing kind of a an affliction of a common

01:28:48.860 enemy and then i perceive that you did something wrong without ever having the bravery to just

01:28:54.220 talk to you about it i know immediately turn venomous and then in what way am i not any

01:28:59.980 different than the person we were both you know dealing with a week ago i'm in essence have become

01:29:06.780 just like them. Yeah, I think, again, our folk, folks suffer from a soul sickness. And I think

01:29:19.900 a number of the things that you've talked about recently relate to that. This is one of those

01:29:25.580 stanzas. And it's not wrong, but I think we're often very, very eager to see this stanza as

01:29:34.700 license to behave badly and that's that is a part of it but that's not the totality of the message

01:29:47.200 it is very much about reciprocity of deed you know I tried to look at the you know to see if

01:29:57.860 there was clues or a little bit more of an admonition in the in the Icelandic or in the

01:30:04.000 Old Norse, and there's not. It's not a command that if someone lies to you, you must then somehow

01:30:11.800 compensate by lying to them. Our default stance as noble people should be to behave truthfully

01:30:22.080 and honestly. It's one of our noble virtues, and it's something that we value. But this talks a

01:30:28.720 about obligation and it's not so much that you are obliged to lie to someone who has lied to you

01:30:40.400 but more that you do not if they are lying to you and you know they are lying to you

01:30:46.160 then you do not owe them truth so much of what we do

01:30:51.120 that's noble relies on generosity of spirit and you don't have to there's a lot of things that

01:31:04.320 you are not obliged to do that it's still noble and good to do when you can this frees you from

01:31:11.440 obligation and what it also does is reinforces to you if someone is a good friend to you

01:31:20.080 you owe it to them to treat them truthfully and to treat them well and to do good to them

01:31:27.120 they have earned that from you and if people treat you poorly and behave poorly to them

01:31:33.680 to you you do not have the same obligation to those people and you have a

01:31:42.000 license to return to them the same behavior that that they are doing to you not a commandment that

01:31:48.960 you have to but a license to if if need should be and some of this is reflected in um

01:31:59.360 the our ancestors understanding of justice um

01:32:05.280 we didn't have a throw people in dungeons culture what we had was you're either bound by the the

01:32:12.880 rules and the appropriate conduct of society or you live outside of those things which is fine

01:32:21.360 if that's what you want to do but if you live outside of society then we do not owe you what

01:32:28.960 we owe our kinsmen or what we owe other members of our society we don't owe you anything because you

01:32:36.320 a person's existence and their worth was through the social context that was the

01:32:44.320 entire world view of our ancestors everything was about how you fit in to your community

01:32:57.360 okay all right good night baby i'll come see you in a minute

01:33:02.400 i'll come see you in just a minute sorry about that guys um but yeah the idea that if you're

01:33:12.500 outside of society you're not owed the same kindnesses you're not owed the same conduct

01:33:17.860 of behavior if you reject the social contract altogether and you're your own island out there

01:33:24.020 then you are at the mercy of what people want how people want to treat you and that idea of

01:33:31.180 outlawry and being outside the bonds of community was the greatest punishment to our ancestors

01:33:38.460 because they were left to fend for themselves and they couldn't count on the kindness of

01:33:44.520 strangers they couldn't count on things because when their reputation was made known that no

01:33:49.560 they're an outlaw they're a barger they they were at the whims of whoever was was strong enough

01:33:59.620 where they were at there was no social reciprocity and that's what this talks to it talks to the good

01:34:05.680 that's earned by treating people well and the likely outcome of treating people poorly

01:34:12.700 and your obligations to one who treats you well versus one who treats you poorly

01:34:17.300 but again I think it's

01:34:20.860 it is seductive in the wolf age for us to always look for license

01:34:28.920 to behave ignobly it's hard to hold yourself to a noble standard it's very easy and very tempting

01:34:41.640 to drop to the lowest common denominator like aha i found a loophole i can

01:34:46.520 you know i can free myself of obligation to treat people well

01:34:51.460 that's not the point it's certainly an option this presents to you

01:34:58.220 but it's very quick for us to to all run to that side of the scale

01:35:03.300 let's see we are on

01:35:17.780 43 yeah and this one is one of my favorites and one that

01:35:29.180 i bring up often and i think is

01:35:35.420 scandalously hard for our folk in specific to grasp and implement for whatever reason

01:35:44.860 and i think that's unfortunate yeah this is the friend of everyone

01:35:49.660 number 43 to his friend a man a friend shall prove to him and the friend of his friend

01:36:02.920 but never a man shall friendship make with one of his foeman's friends

01:36:08.420 so in this case the best way i mean the first two are very very clear to his friend a man shall

01:36:16.280 shall be a friend and prove and to him and his friends they shall remain but never make friendship

01:36:23.620 with an enemy's friend never make friendship with an enemy of your friend so and this is kind of

01:36:34.700 plays out and what i had said was that you know the friend to everyone is kind of more or less

01:36:40.180 the social situation you might find in modern times it's like i don't want to get involved in

01:36:45.840 this eye, the, again, the, the sitter on the fence, the, whatever you might want to call it

01:36:51.720 the end of the day, it's, this is just as much a cautionary point is that you should be friends

01:37:02.000 with your friends, friends. If you trust your friends, um, judgment wisdom, then there is to

01:37:11.520 a degree, a goodness that spreads amongst that. If not, you might have to, you know, question

01:37:17.320 things and figure things out perhaps for how close you are. But if you, if you find and trust

01:37:23.120 your friend, their friends should be treated well. But if your friend is good and you are close to

01:37:30.000 them and they have an enemy or someone that speaks ill of them, someone who's trying to deliberately

01:37:35.040 hurt them or discredit them or do whatever they're trying to do, don't be friends with that.

01:37:43.400 Don't be friends with that friend or that enemy. I mean, I've heard some people try to kind of

01:37:51.900 twist it and say, you know, like I'm keeping my ear to the rail or keeping my enemies close and

01:37:57.020 so on and so forth. But at the end of the day, if you don't ever make a straight stand,

01:38:01.440 And I guess there's two sides to that.

01:38:04.800 If you don't make a straight stand, that's terrible.

01:38:06.600 Or if you make a straight stand to your friend, but then turn around and tell the enemy that you're, oh, you know, I'm cool with you. 0.95

01:38:16.620 That's wretched. 1.00

01:38:18.460 You are a dog. 1.00

01:38:21.960 So this is pretty clear. 0.99

01:38:24.120 I can't state this strongly enough as a core value.

01:38:27.800 It is perhaps the thing I've been most disappointed by in my time in Ausatru, and it's a symptom of how far our people have to go to be healed of our soul sickness and to get our souls right.

01:38:43.840 but there is this well you know i want i want to be friends with you know everybody and you know

01:38:53.920 well i'll you know i'll pick and choose and i'll you know i'll i'll be open just because you're not

01:39:00.700 you don't like somebody doesn't mean i don't have to don't like yes it does it does if you're my

01:39:05.380 friend. And that's the thing. Loyalty is exclusive by definition. You can't be loyal to everybody.

01:39:17.580 Loyalty to everyone is loyalty to no one. It's one of the values that's value comes from its

01:39:28.840 scarcity and its discernment not from its freely being freely given friend to all is a friend of

01:39:38.280 none we've got two groups of people that would be wise to heed this counsel the folks that don't

01:39:52.520 want to ever take a side that perpetually sit on the fence there is no virtue in neutrality

01:40:00.200 none whatsoever our virtue as creatures with will is us choosing

01:40:11.560 choosing a side and then standing with your convictions

01:40:15.400 that is perhaps our most important virtue

01:40:22.540 it is literally what Alcetru means is that we are standing loyal to the Aesir 0.94

01:40:30.100 which doesn't just mean that we're pro Aesir it means we are anti the enemies of the Aesir 0.55

01:40:38.380 that's what we owe one another within our afa family that's what you owe to people that you 0.97

01:40:50.820 are aligned with

01:40:51.900 is loyalty to them and opposition and animosity enmity with their enemies

01:41:02.120 standing with one person often means standing against other people and that's what loyalty

01:41:12.580 means and it was crystal clear to our ancestors because violence was such a common thing in the

01:41:19.800 times that this was written in the times that these were codified so it was a very very clear

01:41:28.560 delineation back then is, you know, somebody comes looking for me, you know, who's going to

01:41:33.740 be in his posse out to get vengeance? And who's going to stand with me to protect me and my family

01:41:39.540 from that vengeance is really, really clear. Today, it's murkier, like, well, I can kind of

01:41:46.940 be friends with these guys. And then, you know, the next week, I'll be friends with these guys

01:41:50.700 over here. And you know, their problems, not really my problem. Then at best, you're someone's

01:41:56.620 acquaintance. But that's not being a friend, which this is

01:42:00.860 about. And it's not being loyal to someone, which this is

01:42:04.700 about. Loyalty is what bonds us together, and what unifies us.

01:42:10.540 If we don't have loyalty, all the rest is cheapened and of

01:42:16.780 these stanzas kind of put things in these boxes. It's like

01:42:24.220 You're either a friend and fully entrenched in the obligations of friendship, or you're not.

01:42:32.980 And there's suspicion and distrust and looking over your shoulder.

01:42:37.800 There's all the people on the outside in the Utgard, and there's your inner Utgard, your inner yard, your friends.

01:42:47.700 Loyalty is essential.

01:42:49.980 It is one of the most noble virtues of our folk.

01:42:54.220 Since the receding ice back to the very beginning of our people, and to this very day, and as far in the future as our folk exist, loyalty is the key, and that's why we stand also true.

01:43:20.300 Very well said. I can't add any more to that.

01:43:24.220 Let's see, we are on 44. 0.98

01:43:39.540 Before we do that, Sarah has blown the victory horn for $20.

01:43:44.020 Thank you, Sarah.

01:43:45.020 We appreciate you.

01:43:46.020 hail victory hail the afa baldursof hashtag bestest off

01:43:54.500 they're showing up in force now that is overtly three

01:43:58.420 victory horn blows for baldursof and one for uh njortsof

01:44:07.060 ods off thorsof where you guys at

01:44:08.980 all right uh and no i believe we're on 46.

01:44:23.380 oh no i got uh 44 if a man find if a friend thou hast whom thou fully will trust

01:44:31.460 ah well there you go i jumped ahead of myself you are correct 44. um if if a friend thou hast

01:44:38.980 whom thou fully wilt trust and good from him would get thy thoughts with his mingle

01:44:47.360 and gifts shalt thou make and fair to find him often or oft

01:44:53.160 this i think is is more along the lines of the nobility of brevity the ability to speak to each

01:45:02.780 other uh with the perfect measure of honesty and perhaps tactfulness or um again we're almost

01:45:13.780 lying to them would be an insult to to the friendship so the idea is to speak the truth

01:45:20.140 you don't necessarily have to be biting i mean i think certain people have personalities

01:45:24.560 and that's fine everyone has kind of their ways of delivering um their honesties but if they're

01:45:31.940 giving you the honesty, that's more important than how they might deliver it. Whereas perhaps

01:45:38.520 if you're not getting the honesty, if you're getting or worse, just a benignness, that's not

01:45:45.380 good. That's not something that you owe someone you consider a friend. And I think that this is

01:45:50.260 all predicated on the idea that, you know, when you make friends, it's about learning. That's,

01:45:57.200 I think that's what all of the silence and sitting by and finding the wise

01:46:01.520 people, listening to those people,

01:46:03.020 that's the part that predicates friendship is making sure that you,

01:46:06.820 you listen, you learn, you don't make commitments and, and, and false,

01:46:11.760 you know, uh, brotherhoods. And when you find that person,

01:46:15.240 then you owe it to them to, to be honest with them,

01:46:20.180 to share, uh, and share your thoughts, share your inclinations,

01:46:25.300 share your desires, or perhaps projected plans and things that you might be excited about.

01:46:33.940 Those things come about after you find a person who you've kind of worked your way into understanding

01:46:39.600 that they are a wise, good person. I mean, nobody's without faults, but the idea is that you

01:46:45.500 want to honor the friendship with the nobility of truth, with the nobility of, again, and lack

01:46:55.160 of secrecy i think this is a this is a good one but it's it's pretty straightforward yeah it's

01:47:01.480 very straightforward but i like that it um it's juxtaposed in a really good contrast with the

01:47:09.960 following verse and the point of this is the differentiation between stuff you owe somebody who

01:47:18.520 you have that loyalty with and you have that bond with versus folks that you don't

01:47:25.080 um this idea of with your friends being open speaking freely letting them know your plans

01:47:35.320 sharing with them engaging in the gift cycle and visiting them frequently keeping and tending that

01:47:42.780 friendship and so much of this poem is about when you are traveling outside of your circle of

01:47:53.860 friends outside of your companions outside of your home to different places where you don't

01:47:58.480 have those bonds so much of it is about suspicion and caution and you know you don't know what

01:48:07.240 people are saying behind your back and yeah everybody may be laughing and having a good time

01:48:11.220 but don't overshare it's a lot of stuff about watching your back when you're in enemy territory

01:48:16.740 this is one that is but when you're with your friends you can let your guard down

01:48:22.420 and you can feel comfortable sharing you know your true thoughts and them sharing their true

01:48:29.380 thoughts with you this talks about the comfort that friendship brings that's in such contrast to

01:48:35.700 how you deal with people who are outside of that circle

01:48:40.580 i think this next one too kind of uh is misused but i think in the comments i was looking and i

01:48:52.300 saw um adam really i think keyed in on what this stanza is truly about um you know he posted a

01:49:02.600 little bit ahead just saying you know honestly protecting your protecting your peace um is

01:49:08.040 important i think in 45 that's really what this is kind of going about and a lot of people again

01:49:13.960 use this as an admittance to to be treacherous as opposed to thinking i don't owe treacherous

01:49:20.040 people anything but that you should protect your peace and um and you know in 45 it says if another

01:49:29.000 If another thou hast, whom thou hardly wilt trust, yet good from him would get or wouldst get, thou shalt speak him fair but falsely think, and fraud with falsehood requite.

01:49:50.120 So people are like, well, is Lord Vothan saying I should deceive someone?

01:50:00.640 I think that, again, it's more about you are not beholden to those who you have very little trust for.

01:50:09.420 Predicated on the idea that you don't have trust for them for many reasons.

01:50:14.980 One reason could be flat out they're an outsider.

01:50:17.700 That's a perfectly good reason.

01:50:18.960 A lot of people for millions of years have lived with that knowledge and it's done them good, but it could be other things.

01:50:27.400 And so the idea is that if you have someone that you don't trust coming at at you, you can still meet them with kind words or tactfulness or a cleanliness of it where you just want to, again, protect your peace.

01:50:46.820 keep things amicable and move on. It's, I think this is one of those, um, a lot of times where

01:50:54.100 we find ourselves in a hotheaded situation and we want to, you know, say something to someone

01:51:03.060 we don't trust, but at the same time, you're not quite at that point where this person is

01:51:09.200 made themselves known as a, as a threat. And so perhaps the idea is to just be cordial

01:51:15.520 and leave it be until you can figure out later that this person absolutely deserves scorn,

01:51:22.880 you know, and you can have animosity. So I think this is kind of like that gray zone area.

01:51:29.760 It's okay to speak to people and kind of hold your tongue. You don't have to be wild and out

01:51:34.720 of it just because you've perceived this person as wrong. Until you absolutely know, speak kindly.

01:51:40.980 don't lose yourself and become like a, you know, just a boorish dog, you know, and snipping and

01:51:50.260 snapping at them. No, treat them with the risk with just the basic necessity of decency. And

01:51:58.380 then if you find out more and move from there, then yes, you don't owe them anything. But at

01:52:03.580 least at that point, you have the wisdom and wherewithal to not simply lash out. Everything

01:52:11.500 is timed and measured by wisdom. And here's the thing. That and the following stanza.

01:52:22.800 Yeah, it does say that. It does say if there's somebody out there that you don't trust

01:52:29.400 and you're, you're not going to trust, but you want to get good things out of them.

01:52:35.020 Then, uh, you know, one of your options is to tell them what they want to hear,

01:52:40.860 but have sinister intention behind, you know, in your thoughts and look for opportunities to,

01:52:47.200 to get what you get, what you need. You don't have to revert to that, but that is an option.

01:52:55.440 And it's talking about kind of the rules that apply in a bond of loyalty that don't apply to people outside of that circle of trust.

01:53:07.500 And I think a little bit of what's implied is not only that you don't trust them yet, but you have reason to distrust them.

01:53:17.760 And that's different.

01:53:19.100 And in the situation where somebody has bad intentions and you absolutely do not find them trustworthy, then, you know, some deception and misleading them is called for and can make a lot of sense and may be an important safety measure.

01:53:36.880 Also, it talks about, you know, saying good words, even if you don't think highly of them behind their back.

01:53:43.960 There's all kind of levels of that.

01:53:45.480 You don't need to be over-the-top dishonest with it, but you can kind of laugh and smile and go along with stuff so that you don't create a problem if you don't know these person's intentions or what they have in store for you.

01:54:02.300 There's a lot of subtlety here in interaction with folks that this talks about.

01:54:09.320 yeah i think these stanzas about

01:54:14.660 the movement towards whether this person has good intentions for you that i think is the key

01:54:26.800 to that that trust issue if the person doesn't have good intentions for you if you suspect that

01:54:32.920 they don't then absolutely you know the cordialness can be made the deception in and of itself is

01:54:41.140 there already kind of predicated by them possibly trying to get one over on you you don't owe that

01:54:47.220 to them but fair speech can oftentimes again buy you time to see exactly what level of ill this

01:54:57.740 person has. I think it's kind of airing in that usage of measuring out your wisdom. And it applies

01:55:09.400 again in 46. So is it with him whom thou hardly will trust, and whose mind thou mayest not know.

01:55:19.820 laugh with him mayest thou but speak not thy mind like gifts to his shall you give or shall

01:55:30.060 thou give this is again straightforward if if you don't fully know the intentions of this person

01:55:36.700 if you suspect that the intentions of this person is not with your best interest in mind don't

01:55:42.740 speak what you are truly thinking you can you know if they make a joke you laugh with them

01:55:49.580 and whatever it may be give them those gifts in return um but in the back of your head you know

01:55:57.520 the truth of the situation and this kind of again goes all the way back to the verses before be

01:56:02.120 careful who you mock because the people that are kind of laughing with you might not be laughing

01:56:08.660 with you at all and they might have great uh respect or loyalty to the person you're mocking 0.99

01:56:14.560 And so you're looking around like an idiot, just like, ah, and in reality, you're just digging your own grave. 0.99

01:56:22.380 So you got to be careful with that. 1.00

01:56:24.760 And this is also a lot about one of the greatest underlying themes of this in general, the Have-Em-All-As-A-Hole.

01:56:39.340 and unsurprising that it's it's the words of the words of the high one of the words of odin

01:56:46.060 be act with will and intention when you go somewhere be strategic in how you do things

01:56:59.180 calculate the room calculate the risks and then choose to proceed or choose not to

01:57:09.340 This doesn't say, you know, be dishonest or sinister to this person.

01:57:21.100 It does say, don't open your mind to them and let them in willy-nilly.

01:57:30.540 And also, give to them what they're giving you.

01:57:35.400 so if we're not trustworthy but you know they give an inch okay you can give an inch too

01:57:42.500 all right well they're sharing this a little bit more okay well then i'll open up a little bit more

01:57:49.420 there's a measured and a and a willful okay i'm choosing to tell them this thing

01:57:58.000 Or, you know what?

01:58:00.080 I'm choosing not to tell them this thing.

01:58:03.720 Those are really important.

01:58:06.500 And this talks about with your friends,

01:58:08.560 your ability to let your guard down and to speak freely.

01:58:11.820 But when you're in the company of strangers,

01:58:14.680 be very, very deliberate about what you do and how you act.

01:58:19.320 All of it builds reputation.

01:58:21.980 All of it leaves openings for your enemies, perhaps.

01:58:25.920 or maybe you build friendships and build alliances those things all happen all of this is about the

01:58:32.360 subtle politicking when you're out in a social environment with strangers and people who don't

01:58:38.240 know the wisdom here is is very valuable so many people one of the things that i i used to always

01:58:47.380 say to folks and it's been a little while since i harped on it but arians act they don't just react

01:58:59.860 it's not your job to just flail at stuff that happens to you but to choose actions to choose

01:59:09.540 when you want to engage and to choose when you want to refrain from engaging

01:59:14.580 choose the things that you want to share choose consciously with will the things you want to

01:59:22.760 withhold use your person and the gifts inherent to your person in a willful way to build alliances

01:59:34.660 or to build walls against threats.

01:59:39.400 Do those things willingly.

01:59:41.860 Don't stumble into them willy-nilly.

01:59:44.440 That's not the way of the willpower.

01:59:46.180 That's not what a king's son does.

01:59:51.480 That's not what nobles do.

01:59:54.160 It's what churls do, is stumble into bar fights and random stuff 0.98

01:59:58.560 through saying something dumb over their mead cup 1.00

02:00:03.220 or, you know, insulting the wrong guy 0.98

02:00:05.920 or taking a joke too far when you don't know the room.

02:00:10.040 No, when you have your wits about you,

02:00:12.320 you can measure the things that you say

02:00:14.300 and the ways that you act

02:00:15.680 depending upon the actions of those around you.

02:00:18.820 And it's really, really important.

02:00:21.580 You know, one of the things I always told the guys

02:00:24.480 when I was running a security anywhere,

02:00:27.360 be it at the bar or at an event or anything else,

02:00:29.720 i will have your back if you if you want to get us into a fight cool i've got your back let's do

02:00:39.700 that what i don't want to have happen is you get me in a bunch of fights because you stumble into

02:00:46.060 it doing something dumb and not knowing where you're where you are anytime you want to choose

02:00:52.060 to engage i'm all for it but don't let me catch you stumbling into something that you don't see 0.52

02:00:58.140 coming that's a big part of odin's wisdom is our keeping our head on a swivel and seeing problems

02:01:08.220 before they occur and keeping our options open and choosing our options accordingly

02:01:14.220 according to our wisdom, to our experience, and to our Aryan nature.

02:01:28.220 These are interesting ones that we're going to be moving into

02:01:43.260 And I was just looking up some things

02:01:45.380 Let's see, we are on 47 now

02:01:51.800 48 is also one of my favorites

02:01:55.380 yeah and this really starts to get into the idea of the acting nobility the acting of being noble

02:02:04.220 that the the actions of being noble kind of juxtaposed to like a caveat of kind of like

02:02:11.640 the brunt of the joke if you will or or like a comparison um and then another interesting part

02:02:19.000 of this too is, is the usage of experience as being a teaching lesson. The idea that Lord of

02:02:29.860 Odin is kind of placing himself as the key to unlocking the wisdom is through the application

02:02:38.360 that was already kind of attained, if you will. And I think that that's truly an interesting

02:02:44.500 way that our look at divinity is very much different than perhaps a lot of other

02:02:50.280 religions. So here we have, let's see, young was I once and wandered alone and not of the road I

02:03:03.680 knew rich did i feel when a comrade i found for man is man's delight so i like this one because

02:03:15.520 we often find ourselves as especially as young men like when i was in the military you know you

02:03:21.000 find yourself alone you find yourself thinking that you are um kind of standing on your own but

02:03:28.160 when you do find a comrade in arms, when you do find a friend, you really do understand the joy

02:03:36.980 of that friendship. You really do appreciate. And so I think scarcity often breeds the necessity or

02:03:44.100 the wisdom of value. And I think that's what's taking place here is

02:03:52.200 uh the brashness again mentioning of being young um and and traveling about only when i was

02:04:00.440 traveling about and had nothing did i truly realize how important it is to have a friend because

02:04:06.100 friends are what make us who we are like we we can't be unto ourselves alone um without any help

02:04:14.960 without any aid, without any, you know, person to share and move forward with, we are not singular

02:04:26.000 people. We are tribal. We are collective. We are, we see our, you know, we can't, we shouldn't see

02:04:32.420 ourselves strictly as just these individual mechanisms. We require that connectivity between

02:04:43.200 those around us. And so when you lose that, that's when you realize the value of it.

02:04:48.480 So I can't reiterate this enough. The rugged individual being a virtue to our people, that

02:04:59.500 is a lie. And it is a, it is a wrong that was trotted out there early on before some of our

02:05:11.300 Before Ausatru had matured, when folks had a much more incomplete knowledge and integration of our faith,

02:05:22.080 and unfortunately it's something that's stuck around in certain circles far too long,

02:05:29.580 Ausatru is now and always has been a social faith.

02:05:35.200 the value is defined by your relationships be that with the iser with your church

02:05:45.260 with the people that you are close to with your community with the people you interact with

02:05:54.440 um we see that most starkly in the idea of honor honor has become your personal code of right and

02:06:02.380 wrong but that's not what it meant to our ancestors it meant the value placed in you by your community

02:06:13.340 now they would place that value in you perhaps because of your code of right or wrong

02:06:18.940 but it's your consistent displaying of those traits and we still see this in when

02:06:25.660 an organization gives someone a recognition. They give them an honor. They bestow an honor

02:06:34.500 upon someone. Someone is honorary, has the honorary this or the honorary that. The idea of

02:06:41.760 the community bestowing the honor on an individual. It was all done in the context of your relationship

02:06:48.980 with others. The following few verses here are going to reiterate that in some stark ways.

02:06:55.660 This idea of the value of, you know, you traveling and being alone and feeling alone and feeling isolated, you against the elements, was a necessity sometimes, but that was a terrible thing for our ancestors.

02:07:14.260 and the whole world was different when you found a friend and you found somebody to share with

02:07:22.200 you found someone to help you when you were struggling someone for you to help when they

02:07:27.040 were struggling you could see a reflection of your actions in how they treat you and you can

02:07:34.560 feel the warmth of connection between two people that is fundamental to our existence and can't be

02:07:42.740 overstressed so a couple of things i want to hit before we go on to the next um next stanza

02:07:50.260 first uh callum you can absolutely do super chats if you do a super chat we'll get you right up front

02:07:56.420 and answer your question as soon as we are done with the stanza we're currently on you can do that

02:08:01.940 on entropy you can also do that by attaching a question to any of the fun bells and whistles

02:08:07.620 like folks have been doing with the uh victory horn there's also the like buy us a coffee option

02:08:13.700 there's another thing too there's a couple of those any of those will get you to the front of

02:08:17.860 line on it if you have a question that's about a specific stanza or concept that we're talking

02:08:24.020 about we'll get that in real time and address it if not all of those we will address as soon as

02:08:32.660 we're done with the meat and taters of what we're on and we're probably going to go another about

02:08:39.380 50 minutes on actually going over have them all verses and then we'll hit all those questions that

02:08:46.180 we've missed so far one question though by jamie i think is relevant because it goes into the context

02:08:54.740 to a degree of this poem jamie says i have a question is the ritual of drinking wine

02:09:04.180 a very ancient pagan tradition absolutely it is um in a number of different ways

02:09:13.540 but very specifically in some of the earliest attested practices of our ancestors

02:09:19.940 the idea of communal drinking was extremely important to the chieftains and nobles of

02:09:29.980 Germanic tribes and Tacitus wrote about this matter of fact the the Latin phrase that we've

02:09:39.540 all heard in vino veritas from wine truth was originally applied as a reference to our ancestors

02:09:49.040 to germanic tribesmen because a part of their taking counsel on serious things

02:09:57.440 would be they would drink together and be in a you know get a little bit buzzed and be in a

02:10:05.120 more receptive state to those things speak freely amongst their council have these conversations

02:10:13.440 and then make decisions and plans and ideas and confirm them the next day when they were

02:10:20.960 make sure everybody had a clear head but the fact that they would share and talk with each other

02:10:26.160 over over the drinking horn was really important and um we see in later times a lot of talk about

02:10:34.320 need but it's important to note most of our ancestors for most of the practice of

02:10:39.120 of Alcetru wine was very often the drink of choice for the nobility it's harder to come by it was a

02:10:46.240 it was a fancier beverage than mead or ale so wine was very often something that the nobles

02:10:52.560 would share together when they had their councils and that communal drinking and toasting culture

02:11:02.000 certainly goes on in the hall culture that we're discussing that to have them all is set in the

02:11:06.960 backdrop of and it's absolutely something that we do today we share food and drink socially in so

02:11:14.960 many occasions and a very overtly religious occasion we share that during the ritual called

02:11:22.000 symbol where we have multiple rounds but typically around to the gods one to our ancestors and then

02:11:30.160 one that is uh for the heroes it's a bit more free form but yeah ritual ritual drinking was

02:11:37.200 very important to our ancestors and uh still is today swan did you have anything you wanted to add

02:11:43.440 on that yeah i think one of the key converting points of christianity amongst um europeans and

02:11:54.480 And I would say like Hellenics and Teutonic Aryans, there was an admixturing of that.

02:12:04.000 If you were one of the Hellenics, though, you had to make a wine spritzer. 0.92

02:12:07.560 Couldn't have that straight wine. 1.00

02:12:08.980 That was just for barbarians. 1.00

02:12:11.240 Or beer. 0.94

02:12:12.280 Beer was seen as something for, it was lesser than wine.

02:12:18.080 It was seen as like a woman's drink or like something that would be fed to a horse.

02:12:24.480 But the culture around the time, and I'm speaking specifically of the usage of the Last Supper in relation, and there are many things in Christianity that were utilized based off of the necessity that was already built in the religiosity of Europe.

02:12:45.500 So the focus on the Last Supper and the communion of wine was brought into the forefront later on after, say, like Saul of Tarsus and Simon or Peter.

02:13:01.500 Peter. Their emphasis was more on the crucifixion itself. But later on, the prevalence of the wine

02:13:11.140 and drinking of the wine was, I think, a great part of the need and the usage of conversion

02:13:20.900 because it was already established amongst Europe, that libational connection to the gods,

02:13:28.700 whether it was and to each other communally um and so this here's a communal drinking moment

02:13:35.500 at this at the final you know the last supper and so that was really keyed in on and i think for a

02:13:42.700 reason um but its emphasis became more in europe than i believe the you know the the heretical um

02:13:52.060 jews like saul was hunting down these these uh believers that this particular rabbi was uh the

02:13:59.220 messiah they did not focus so much on libational connections um to the messiah uh in before and

02:14:08.820 during that time it was much much later and i think that was because it was influenced by your

02:14:12.860 you know european precepts same with the trinity the idea of a tripartite is extremely arian every

02:14:19.780 Aryan religion has a tripartite. The Hellenics even numbered theirs with Zeus and Hadis and

02:14:28.400 Poseidon having one, two, and three in connection with the implements that they carry.

02:14:36.980 So the Trinity also was one of those things. But again, reemphasizing, it was long established,

02:14:42.960 The idea of sharing sacred liquid that elevated the mind, whether it was, you know, soma amongst the Indians to the sacred mead or the mead of poetry, wine and other, you know, vital fluids.

02:15:02.060 Again, the usage of ingesting and speaking into and over a threshold of liquid is a huge part in Arian gift cycling towards the gods, whether it's speaking over perhaps in, you know, again, and a lot of times in the olden days, there was sacral butchering that was done in which they would prepare a meal with an animal that was given as a gift to the gods and then was shared with the gods and the folk.

02:15:31.500 but the blood was spoken over. It was anointed or sprinkled upon because that was seen as that

02:15:37.720 transference. So even to the connection with blood and wine was already long established

02:15:43.300 in the ethnic European faith of Europe before the Semitic. And again, I wonder too how much

02:15:52.200 that was influenced by Roman culture in relation to the times in the Levant. The Romans had fully

02:16:00.660 taken over for a very long time, from Egypt all the way through the Levant and back up into Greece.

02:16:07.040 There had been so much integration of the usage of wine that it may have been even further back

02:16:15.280 that the usage of wine to influence even the religions of the Middle East.

02:16:20.160 All right. Well, let's go on to 48.

02:16:30.660 ah yes this is a good one the lives of the brave and noble are best sorrows they seldom feed 1.00

02:16:41.440 it's a good one but the coward fear of all things and not gladly the niggard gives 0.99

02:16:48.040 so this is again that juxtaposition of goodly behavior versus bad behavior and at first it 0.98

02:16:55.540 starts off with you know living nobly and bravely is the best way to live because you seldom give

02:17:01.280 the fear anxiety or the faults of the world any fuel to douse your um your confidence you're

02:17:12.340 moving forward you have to you have to attain and and you don't feed the things that uh take

02:17:18.700 away from your ability to succeed so immediately there is the coward that's the juxtaposition 0.82

02:17:25.340 is the coward and the miserly niggardly means miserly um it's it's an interesting one because 0.57

02:17:32.780 the and what i had to look up was the translation of it is glocker and glocker can have a positive

02:17:38.680 meaning it could mean someone who's kind of keen or swift in their thoughts but it also has another

02:17:45.060 meaning which is a person who's kind of uh scheming and or holds to themselves too much again

02:17:52.260 a hoarder of of um things because they're so good at attaining them but they don't ever give it out

02:17:59.220 so that's an interesting usage of that um that uh translation and i you know it's worth knowing

02:18:06.660 like bellows um wrote all of these downs in the 1800s so there's no need to like twist and bend

02:18:14.340 and kind of hem and haw about the usage of you know english words as they should be but um i

02:18:21.140 think that this is really cool because it does explain like miserliness greediness and cowardliness

02:18:29.140 are so in juxtaposition to what a noble person a noble folk person should be attaining

02:18:38.420 really really important because it establishes a default position as well

02:18:43.300 it's easy if you labor over these verses like what should i do if i am a stranger and i find

02:18:51.760 myself somewhere what should i do you know and have them all tells me i shouldn't you know i

02:18:57.060 should eat some but not too much and you know i should pay attention to what these guys are doing

02:19:01.700 not overshare with these guys and be it's also what do i do you revert to when in doubt

02:19:10.420 be brave be noble that's your best bet and if you are cowardly and stingy avoid those things

02:19:23.020 embrace bravery and nobility shun cowardice and being stingy do those things that will give you

02:19:34.180 will orient your course the rest is detail work off of that but those are our fundamentals that

02:19:40.660 we fall back on i think that's really key to all of us to internalize and i point out some of these

02:19:48.340 things that i know afflict our folk more than others in this day and age cowardice nobody likes

02:19:57.940 to say that and i'm not picking on anyone to point out and like aha look a coward nobody likes to

02:20:03.940 hear that but the idea of cowardice the force of cowardice is something we all need to guard against

02:20:12.420 fear is used and weaponized today against us very often

02:20:21.380 we don't have people coming at us with with guns or swords or spears

02:20:27.220 people come at us with threats of economic and social consequence for right action and so so

02:20:37.260 many of our people so many of us find ourselves afraid of things so often and it's a powerful

02:20:46.880 powerful tool of the enemy and they can always use it because it's always effective the best fear

02:20:53.060 The most important fear is the fear of the unknown.

02:20:56.860 Well, what could happen?

02:21:00.080 And pressing the fear button is a very easy, low-cost way for our enemies to prevent us from doing anything.

02:21:10.780 Fear pins one down and prevents action.

02:21:15.260 It's the quickest way to put the brakes on anything happening, is to make them fearful.

02:21:23.060 And too many of our people are afflicted with that.

02:21:26.640 And that's unfortunate.

02:21:27.880 And I think we all struggle with that to one degree or another.

02:21:31.760 It's one of the beautiful things about the motto for Odinsov, do right and fear no one.

02:21:40.280 Take comfort in knowing that you were brave and noble.

02:21:46.020 And you can take peace of mind in that.

02:21:50.040 Whereas it talks, you know, it talks about how you're not feeding sorrow when you behave that way.

02:21:58.880 But when you're scared all the time and when you're stingy all the time, then you always got something to worry about.

02:22:05.820 You will always be able to find something to be afraid of or worried is going to come back at you.

02:22:11.800 So this is a powerful admonition of how to live and a good general rule of thumb to live by that's extremely important.

02:22:22.100 and one of the other things that fear

02:22:30.720 that we all instinctively try to do is to justify behaving in ways that are less than we ought to

02:22:43.240 any of us can justify any fear we have the human brain is very very good at having

02:22:51.240 justifications and excuses for acting wrong it's the noble man it's the aryan man that chooses 0.84

02:23:02.440 not to take those to see clearly the difference between truth and illusion and to choose truth 0.98

02:23:11.320 and if they recognize that they're behaving cowardly to differ from that action to reject

02:23:18.120 cowardice and embrace bravery or if we're behaving ignobly to embrace nobility and reject living

02:23:27.000 ignobly but we can always find an excuse readily available to do any of the things that our lower

02:23:35.400 self wants us to do the challenge is rejecting those excuses and being honest with ourselves

02:23:41.880 internally. One of the greatest things that I've seen in relation to this was your desire in our

02:23:53.400 movement towards being giving. And that in turn brought about a great sense of the nobility of

02:24:03.100 being simply brave. Um, you know, we, we started giving food and, um, we would give to anyone

02:24:11.000 that comes up, they get food. And what ends up happening is a lot of people too, they have fear

02:24:16.060 of us and, and things. So they're thinking all kinds of things. I mean, absolutely. You go on

02:24:20.880 the internet and you're, or you go on social media, you'll see plenty of vile jackals saying

02:24:25.320 all kinds of things about the AFA, but these people come up, they get food and they talk to

02:24:31.920 us. And then they're like, you know, you guys, there's a lot of bad stuff on the internet,

02:24:35.700 but you guys are all right. Thanks for the food. We'll be back next month. I hope you guys have a

02:24:39.960 great day. And we're like, you too. We're shaking hands. We're, you know, it's, it's, it's, it's,

02:24:44.820 it's just an open, honest way in which you kind of defeat fear by being honest, being open and

02:24:52.640 being giving, helping people out. If you have the ability to help someone out, help them out. And I

02:24:57.780 think they predicate so much of their argument against us. Oh, they're going to be marching

02:25:03.320 through the streets. They're going to be throwing rocks at your kids. They're going to be peeing on

02:25:07.020 your mailboxes or whatever the hell they come up with thinking that we're going to do. And then we

02:25:11.620 show up. We want to honor our gods. We want to help people out because we have a surplus or

02:25:16.460 we're just a great nexus for an ability to help out the community. And then when people come up

02:25:22.260 and talk to us, they generally are like, oh, I respect what you guys are doing. I would do the

02:25:27.560 same i feel the same way or you know there's a mutual mutualism there that's kind of brought

02:25:33.300 about it's not anybody falling over each other to try to uh appease or you know uh showing throat

02:25:40.880 instead it's there's that mutual respect of the ability to to say like you know thank you for

02:25:46.740 helping out especially when a lot of other churches in the area aren't helping out but i hear that a

02:25:51.620 lot too it's like not a lot of people are doing stuff for a lot of the folks around here so glad

02:25:56.080 you guys are out here, you know, in the, in the weather, in the cold or in the heat slinging out

02:26:01.320 food because you got extra. That's, that really does, I think a huge amount of the, um, pride and

02:26:10.300 ability for our folk to, to, to not listen to these people on the internet and think that just

02:26:15.680 because they paint us a certain way, they need us to be that way. They need us to be some sort of,

02:26:20.320 you know, hand, hand, uh, clawing hand, cowled shadowy figure in reality. We just want to be

02:26:28.860 and have our own, but we're willing to help out other people. It's simple as.

02:26:36.740 All right. Take us through 49, if you will.

02:26:39.720 uh this one i really like um it's it's it's odd but it's good my garments once in a field i gave

02:26:51.760 to a pair of carven poles heroes they seemed when they when clothes they had but nate but the naked

02:26:58.560 man is not so i think this is really speaking about depriving of of yourself there is a sense

02:27:07.240 of giving. There's a sense of, like I kept saying surplus. When you have surplus, give,

02:27:15.820 but don't give over much to the point where you're at the deficit that you can't help anyone

02:27:21.060 or give needlessly to something or someone that bears no good. And in this case, the carven poles

02:27:30.580 are clearly like scarecrows, generally seen as the translation is, you know, I had garments and

02:27:38.960 I clothed these scarecrows in the field and they seemed like such great heroes, but I was left

02:27:45.780 naked and not. And I think that's kind of the overall point of this is, again, it is about

02:27:53.580 giving and giving when you have surplus because that's noble. That's the thing to do. But don't

02:27:58.540 give to dead ends. Don't give to, um, you know, false starts and don't give to, uh, things that,

02:28:06.380 you know, your, your, your actions, your deeds should be about giving to things that produce

02:28:12.700 worth that show it not, you know, scarecrows in the, in the field passively doing what they do.

02:28:21.120 uh let's see so yeah the the the next one is 50 um on the hillside drear the fir tree dies

02:28:38.300 all bootless its needles and bark it is like a man whom no one loves

02:28:46.020 why should his life be long this one i like too uh again these are juxtaposition verses

02:28:54.020 you have um the the person who gives to needless things and finds himself

02:29:00.640 uh for not and then the person who is alone the person who seeks only to be of themselves

02:29:09.280 and then finds no one to share these moments with um the all bootless is its needles that

02:29:17.900 that translation is very interesting because it in the old norse it kind of references to the face

02:29:25.140 of or the um like um the ridge line uh the the word of itself could also be uh uh like

02:29:34.880 the hirat is the word that's used in reference to the mast of a ship the front of a of a ship

02:29:41.680 or i mean the mast alone or the the bow of the ship kind of facing forward and so this one uh

02:29:47.600 is really red like without the mast without the bow of the ship it's being exposed and opened so

02:29:57.920 on the on the hillside the fir tree dies when its bark is exposed when it's exposed its trunk

02:30:04.080 is exposed it's alone there's no other trees to bar the wind from it it's it's it stands alone on

02:30:11.640 the hill and like a man who is also alone you know he will find himself uh you know in in short life

02:30:19.640 really the tree being by itself and not being brunted by the wind with other trees is where

02:30:27.780 we find ourselves as a person without anyone around that we can rely on, that we can hold

02:30:34.100 truth with, that we can bear dark times with.

02:30:42.180 Thank you for that. Absolutely.

02:30:49.060 On 49, this one's a really interesting one. It's one I've thought on over the years,

02:30:54.860 And it took more than just the first reading to internalize and think on. 0.94

02:31:03.340 Um, so much of, and it, it is easily said and just always agreed upon that in order to come home to Ausitru and practice Ausitru correctly, we need to unlearn a lot of things that Christianity taught us. 0.76

02:31:30.520 And it's very easy to do that with the things that we don't like.

02:31:37.000 It's harder to do that with the things that we've taken comfort in or that have been easy and validated behavior that's less than. 0.60

02:31:57.200 One thing to keep in mind is Christianity was a religion that was targeted towards the lowly.

02:32:10.060 It was targeted towards the slaves and the outcasts.

02:32:16.800 Jesus' Beatitudes were all, you know, blessed are the meek, blessed are the downtrodden, blessed are those who mourn.

02:32:25.180 it's basically blessed to the um the losers in society and i don't say that as a as an insulting

02:32:35.200 term i say that as people who are losing at life taking hope in jesus for you know getting their

02:32:44.240 you know being compensated on the other side or being made whole on the other side of a miserable

02:32:50.200 existence. Alcatru's not. It's for all of our folk, but it's upward oriented. It's aimed at

02:32:59.400 the nobility. And if not noble in kingdom, noble in spirit, nobly inspired to be more, to do more,

02:33:10.020 to achieve things. That's why we see things addressed to a prince's son. This is how they

02:33:17.620 should behave this is advice to you know these travelers aren't your peasant that's working the

02:33:22.660 land these are our people who are out trading and building and doing and achieving who are

02:33:29.220 our missionary or not missionaries um um what's the word i'm looking for emissaries to different

02:33:39.020 courts to different uh places of importance these are people who are aspiring to be their very best

02:33:46.900 and stanza 49 talks about this is i guess what i'm saying breaking the habit of christianity

02:33:54.260 we've taught ourselves that the clothes don't make the man and you shouldn't judge by appearances

02:34:01.620 and you don't judge a book by a coat by its cover yes you absolutely do successful people do um

02:34:10.180 people that are not successful don't if we pretend that how we look doesn't matter then

02:34:19.020 we can all just you know show up in our in our jammies and you know it can be like walmart all

02:34:25.500 the time we're better than that we owe our spouses better than that we owe our children better than

02:34:36.160 that. We owe our ancestors better than that. We owe ourselves better than that. When you

02:34:43.080 look your best and you show up in your best, that's when you make those impressions that you

02:34:50.580 want. And that's not all that counts about a person, but that is the first thing that others

02:34:56.900 notice about someone is the way that they look. Not only the way that they look in terms of what

02:35:03.360 they're wearing but are they clean do they look like they take care of themselves are they in

02:35:11.440 decent shape how do they carry themselves their head high and their chest out are they looking

02:35:16.740 down and with their shoulders hunched those things those things communicate on a profound

02:35:25.580 level and they set the tone for your interactions thereafter and it doesn't

02:35:33.680 talk about how these people are who they are it says how they seemed heroes they

02:35:40.820 seemed when clothes they had the naked man is not if you look you know if you

02:35:48.680 look homeless that's how you're gonna be perceived if you show up looking like a

02:35:54.620 a king that's how you're going to be perceived and then your actions can take it from there

02:36:02.140 but all too often you're never going to get to that point if you show up looking like a bum

02:36:08.300 we see that you know you see that at job interviews if you show up looking like

02:36:13.260 somebody who wants to do well and be successful cool maybe you can actually have an interview

02:36:20.700 with somebody if you show up looking scrubby uh stand in line and maybe we'll get to you maybe we

02:36:27.500 won't and you know we all know the truth of that we all know the truth of that and see it in others

02:36:35.500 we judge people with our eyes all day every day in every situation we find ourselves in

02:36:42.220 every time you know today when you went to work when you went to the store

02:36:46.300 when you were out you know walking out to get your mail every person you looked at you made a

02:36:52.220 judgment of based on how they presented themselves how they looked how they carried themselves

02:37:01.180 the non-verbal communication that they gave you without ever talking to them

02:37:05.660 you made an assessment of them and that truth is is known to our ancestors and will be known

02:37:11.660 to our descendants we don't gain by denying the truth of it we gain by understanding and using

02:37:18.940 that to the best of our abilities to project the very best of ourselves when we when we meet people

02:37:28.540 and then uh 50.

02:37:32.540 this is a really kind of beautiful way that it uh presents what we've been saying tonight

02:37:42.540 your life is about your community it's about your family it's about the people you care about

02:37:50.460 and your relationship to them if you don't have family and you don't have community

02:37:58.780 you don't have people that care about you then so much of the context of the meaning of your life

02:38:06.620 isn't there and that's why that's one of the most beautiful things about the afa

02:38:14.780 is bringing people in to have that community and not just people that we pass on the street but

02:38:22.140 people that share the values and the worldview that we have to build that sense of community

02:38:31.900 in that context for life for ourselves and for our families and it's one of the most beautiful

02:38:37.740 things about being part of our AFA.

02:39:00.140 i like this next one uh a lot it is i've seen it applied uh quite a few times in my life and um

02:39:12.140 luckily for me it's been through other friends um and i've never had to experience the fall of it

02:39:19.500 but it does have a huge amount of value worth considering.

02:39:26.680 And 51 says, hotter than fire between false friends does friendship five days burn.

02:39:35.860 When the sixth day comes, the fire cools and ended is all the love.

02:39:41.020 all all of this really is leaning towards the idea that strong friendships are not built

02:39:50.940 off of strong emotions and swift moments um they're built over time and oftentimes you'll

02:39:59.780 find people who are like oh this person is great i see every you know they're it's like a an instant

02:40:07.520 high five but then you know they're hanging out all the time and then eventually it falls to

02:40:16.480 either again another person kind of gets you know uh comes along and then it's like hopping to her

02:40:24.080 car chasing over to another person or sometimes it's it's uh you know you're so blindsided by

02:40:30.960 the things that are good that you miss the things that are bad and those end up catching you

02:40:35.040 you know, a few days later. Um, I think that's, that's what this, uh, stanza is referring to.

02:40:42.700 And it can be also, I think in a, in a sense towards relationships, relationships that are

02:40:47.780 built slowly and work, um, have a tendency to last longer than ones that are, you know,

02:40:54.420 built swiftly and over bait, you know, uh, perhaps events that are just simply,

02:41:00.740 brought about for those moments. So if you're looking for strong friendship,

02:41:08.960 be, be weary of ones that start so swiftly. You should look towards slowly learning about the

02:41:16.260 person and building a stronger friendship. Otherwise it will, and often does fall out

02:41:21.940 underneath you you know i think um

02:41:31.060 all of these stanzas are about teaching us lessons and not thou shalt thou shalt not that's

02:41:37.060 not the point they're not commandments they're advice and their advice from on high their advice

02:41:48.020 from the god of kings and of travelers the wise one um it's advice we should all heed

02:41:59.380 that's really important but it doesn't mean that you know every time there's an infatuation that

02:42:06.660 it burns out and it's worthless but that's often the case and i think the older that we are the

02:42:14.420 the more we've experienced that

02:42:17.200 or certainly seen it in the periphery.

02:42:21.980 The difference between lust and love,

02:42:24.900 you find somebody that you are just infatuated with,

02:42:28.180 you can't live without, you're obsessed.

02:42:33.300 Waiting to see, does that go the long term?

02:42:35.740 Is that gonna last?

02:42:37.660 Or is that just while passions burn hot

02:42:40.300 and then it's gone in a short amount of time?

02:42:43.220 think we've all seen that and it doesn't mean it has to but it does mean be wary and

02:42:51.700 reserve your judgment until there's been some time and some space to build something lasting on

02:42:58.980 um one of the other things

02:43:02.180 super infatuation with something or someone

02:43:09.160 creates false expectations and it breeds resentment when this thing that you've built

02:43:20.000 in your head about a person or a thing doesn't live up to the reality doesn't live up to it

02:43:26.660 because you jumped in too far too fast and then got mad we've seen that too that's something I've

02:43:34.040 seen unfortunately in uh in my involvement with Ausatru I've seen a lot of people find Ausatru

02:43:41.920 be on fire for it and for our gods and for our faith and for all of it and when it doesn't work

02:43:53.280 out exactly how they want exactly as fast as they want it's not immediate gratification of all their

02:43:58.560 hopes and dreams then they vanish the same people that you know on their first meeting swear to you

02:44:06.640 their eternal loyalty and they will you know slay your foes and care for your family for the end of

02:44:13.660 time a month later you don't see them again and that happens a lot and i think that happens in a

02:44:21.020 of other faiths as well i don't think that's unique to house the truth but it is something we see

02:44:27.420 very often i want everybody who hears my voice right now it's one of our fault to come home and

02:44:34.060 join the afa i want you to do it this second but i have learned that sometimes on balance

02:44:42.380 the ones that take a longer time to join because they've really internalized it thought about it

02:44:49.740 and decided this is what they want to do with their life and their soul and their family

02:44:55.820 those ones tend to stay around longer than those that jump right in where do i sign up i'm all for

02:45:02.380 it both are great but it we will run into some verses here coming up soon about praising ice

02:45:12.060 once it's been crossed and not before and i think that wisdom is really valuable and this kind of

02:45:17.260 sets this tease that one up but those of us that have been around and seen some things and

02:45:27.740 fallen in and out of love with people and things have can really feel can really feel this one

02:45:34.940 52 that spawns going to read you here in just sec this one is one that is very often quoted

02:45:46.720 and it's a really good one it's a really valuable one it's also the one of the more popular ones

02:45:51.160 spawn could you take folks through 52 please absolutely uh no great thing needs a man to give

02:45:59.140 oft little will purchase praise with half a loaf and half a filled cup a friend full fast i have

02:46:08.380 made it doesn't take much to give to someone and it doesn't take much to build a fast friendship

02:46:18.260 with that person take that moment to not take the whole but to look at that person and go

02:46:25.140 you know i have some of this share it with me so this is a lot about again not being miserly

02:46:33.940 not being stingy giving to those around you but also too you never know the possibilities is what

02:46:42.400 it's also saying with just a little bit of effort a little bit of uh nobility oftentimes you can

02:46:50.200 find yourself with a steadfast friend that you didn't have and probably wouldn't have

02:46:56.100 if you had maintained, you know, such a tight grip on, on fleeting things, if you will.

02:47:02.460 You know, this is one of the, yes, obviously, if you, you know, sometimes with really small

02:47:13.400 gifts, a nice gesture here and there goes a long way towards building friendships and

02:47:18.500 making friends. And again, we see that expressed by that sharing, that sharing of food and drink

02:47:25.180 in this case. But this goes into something that I, you know, can ask Mandy, I often

02:47:33.480 opine about this, but customer service is free. Like I get so irritated when dealing with

02:47:43.560 with companies and people over the phone and people are just so rude and treat you poorly,

02:47:49.540 it takes nothing but a little bit of intention. And the desire to try to be nice

02:48:00.780 doesn't cost you anything, but it makes all the difference in the world.

02:48:06.640 Simple, simple things don't have to be expensive, but they are meaningful.

02:48:11.340 taking the time and the effort to think of someone else and to do them a kindness

02:48:18.480 can pay off big in ways you'd never expect it and it's worth it to do

02:48:24.540 but that's also I think this also

02:48:30.120 goes into

02:48:37.720 the idea of not letting perfect be the enemy of good

02:48:40.720 well i didn't give him anything because i couldn't afford this one expensive thing i wanted to get

02:48:47.100 him cool then get him a candy bar give him you know better to give a gift that's not the best

02:48:57.760 gift in the world but is the thought of giving someone something than to not do it because it

02:49:02.820 wasn't perfect you know and the same thing with our altar practice well you know it's just it's

02:49:09.140 not up to the standards of our gods i'm going to wait until i have this thing now i'm going to wait

02:49:14.080 until i can my special mead that i've got uh ferments and once i've waited a year for this

02:49:19.760 mead to be perfect then and only then i'll come before the altar and offer it to the gods

02:49:24.720 in the meantime you're missing all the opportunity

02:49:28.140 just doing a kindness with what you have and going from there

02:49:32.700 um so yeah i think this is this is applicable in that case uh as well and it's fine if you

02:49:43.400 take them through 53 and we are going to end tonight's have them all study with 55

02:49:49.940 all right uh and this one is really interesting especially from the nordic sense too

02:50:00.500 Little is sand, little is the sea, and little is the minds of men.

02:50:18.940 The idea of this is really to understand that, again, we're talking little sand, little sea.

02:50:24.380 the if you're standing on a beach and you see the the water in front of you that is the little sea

02:50:31.820 in front of the little sand and some men only have tiny strips of land so but but we know the ocean

02:50:39.740 is big we know the ocean is vast we know the ocean is deep so oftentimes this is really being

02:50:45.940 translated as the smaller the beach, the less understanding of the sea is a great way to look

02:50:54.900 at this. So, you know, little is the sand, little is the sea. The perception of minds men's can

02:51:02.360 often be this way. Not all men, it says, you know, three other men, not every man is of equal speech

02:51:13.900 or equal wisdom or knowing, but really even speech, yet half-wise only are all.

02:51:27.240 And it's kind of saying that in a way we all have those ignorances.

02:51:34.400 We all have those misunderstandings, if you will,

02:51:39.040 or the inability to fully know the scope of all things.

02:51:42.840 In some ways, this can be good. In other ways, it can be detrimental. So you have to bear in mind when you speak with people not to get caught up into thinking that they know so much.

02:51:56.720 um a lot of times people don't know a lot a lot of times people um may even front load that they

02:52:04.420 know a lot and uh you you could get caught up in the idea of being around wise men um

02:52:13.220 with the idea that they they know so much what do i do in reality all of us are still learning

02:52:20.140 still working still trying to attain um a better understanding of the of the waters beyond our

02:52:26.240 beaches. And so I think that this one is really cautioning the listener is that Odin is saying

02:52:33.900 that, um, often more often than not, you will find that the people around you are only focusing

02:52:40.900 on what's in front of them and you cannot beat yourself up in the perception that perhaps

02:52:46.080 they know more. It's kind of like the old saying is like, you're focusing on some fault that you

02:52:51.380 have but no one's focusing on anyone else's faults but their own it's a lot of that in which you have

02:52:58.580 to understand that there are people out desperately trying to know more but don't get in your head

02:53:06.100 that um the people are are so overly wise that you have nothing to contribute

02:53:12.500 to so i think this is fascinating what svan is saying is absolutely true what i'm about to say

02:53:23.540 is as well one of the interesting things when reading this the have them all is applicable

02:53:32.180 in such a broad scope across experience in life i'm really thankful that we are doing this

02:53:39.940 with the lore because this is stuff that svan and i have each read many many times

02:53:48.180 but every time i go through the lore again there's something that i learned that i didn't before and

02:53:56.980 the words are the same and they're all familiar but the concept you'll see it in a different way

02:54:02.020 depending on the different season of your life you're in or things you've learned since the

02:54:06.900 the last time you read it and i would encourage everybody to do that from time to time because

02:54:14.220 it's amazing the different little nuances you pick up see when i read this um i read it as an

02:54:23.160 admonition like don't get full of yourself equality is not a thing nobody's equal like

02:54:30.520 there's smart people and there's dumb people but even the smartest person doesn't know everything

02:54:36.860 there's always room to learn and when you start thinking that you know it all 0.82

02:54:42.720 that's when you're slipping and that's when you don't see things that are obvious

02:54:47.320 that's when you you know i'm smarter than that guy maybe but maybe you're smart about world

02:54:55.120 history and he's smart about cars maybe you're going to get swindled on this mechanic thing

02:55:01.120 because you don't know as much as you think you know you know you can there's a lot of different

02:55:05.880 ways and there is so much out in the world to learn it's very easy when you're

02:55:11.880 we all compare ourselves to the things that we see it's harder to compare yourself and judge

02:55:20.680 against the things you don't see when you find yourself being feeling like you're the smartest

02:55:26.780 person in the room it's easy to get lazy but one of the things about wisdom you don't know

02:55:34.200 the things that you don't know if you did then you'd know them it's a it's a paradox

02:55:40.360 so you have no idea of the things that you have yet to learn

02:55:47.720 you have to factor that into your decision making sometimes you're going to get surprised and

02:55:53.160 sometimes there's going to be more for you to learn um but no i think those two different ways

02:55:59.320 are both equally applicable and valuable wisdom from the all-father here

02:56:09.400 these next ones and i want to preface this the next two are really really interesting

02:56:17.160 because i don't think they're meant to be taken lightly

02:56:23.480 we always

02:56:24.360 it is very easy to see the world in terms of all or nothing everything's not always that way

02:56:37.680 and there are always consequences and it's worth considering that it's fun if you could take them

02:56:48.740 through uh 54 for us please a measure of wisdom each man shall have but never too much let him

02:57:02.460 know the fairest lives do those men live whose wisdom wide has grown

02:57:10.420 and this one is i think really good i like i love the fact that bellows uses the word

02:57:17.820 measure because the the direct translation is is uh middle snotter and that's middle wise or

02:57:26.760 middle knowing and i'm most familiar with yeah and i you hear it and it's like

02:57:35.640 And it's even interesting to ponder on the idea of what middling wise means.

02:57:42.520 I really like the fact that he says, you know, a measure of wisdom.

02:57:46.700 Because it's, again, it's like weighing your wisdom with action.

02:57:51.720 A measure of wisdom every man shall have, but never too much let him know.

02:57:56.600 because the fairest of lives is the one that has applied his wisdom far and wide or has learned

02:58:04.060 his wisdom through his deeds. Your wisdom grows as you experience life. So the ones that often

02:58:13.380 have the most valuable wisdom, and this is kind of, I think, ultimately what the measurement of

02:58:18.760 wisdom is, is you can be very wise on many things, but the value of that wisdom has

02:58:27.420 a currency to it. It can, you know, you can be very, very wise about a singular thing,

02:58:36.240 but if you have not gone out and applied your life around and had some other common sense

02:58:42.360 things about you, then perhaps that wisdom is not measured very well in comparison to other things.

02:58:49.560 So I think that that's ultimately what Lord Walden is saying is, is wisdom is good in

02:58:55.760 things, but it should be spread. It should be, it's better to have a measured wisdom of many

02:59:04.180 things than a great wisdom in a singular thing, but not know how to do other things.

02:59:12.360 Absolutely. When you're over-focused, and you see that sometimes with geniuses on certain things, they'll be, you know, a savant on a certain thing where they will know all of that thing that you could possibly know, not quite because I remember last stanza, but they will know more than everybody else about that thing.

02:59:42.920 but be completely ignorant on the simplest of other things so this isn't it's about having a

02:59:50.040 wide range of knowledge but also a wisdom that comes from experience it talks about a traveler

02:59:56.200 traveling far and wide learning through experience is different than just

03:00:03.720 theory or just book learning the wealth of experience spread out in different places

03:00:09.960 in different contexts is you know pound for pound much more valuable than than just book learning

03:00:20.280 and spawn could you take us through 55 for our last uh stanza of the night and then we'll get

03:00:26.040 to your guys other questions that weren't specifically have them already yeah this

03:00:33.080 one again another another warning about the idea and again knowing too much in one thing

03:00:38.920 I think this speaks true because we might know people that have a great knowledge towards one

03:00:44.480 thing, but they end up finding great sorrow because they lose the understanding of something

03:00:50.800 else. Um, 55, a measure of wisdom, each man shall have, but never too much. Let him know

03:00:59.380 for the wise man's heart is seldom happy. If wisdom too great, he has one. This one I think

03:01:06.860 is deeply lamentable because ultimately Lord Oven is the exemplary um lord of seeking knowledge

03:01:20.000 but with that knowing of things comes the knowing of the of the doom the always trying to work

03:01:27.340 towards it so the great knowledge that one has comes at a price and that price uh whether I

03:01:35.120 would say either hyper-focused or even measured comes with an understanding of knowing things

03:01:40.160 that perhaps others might not know. And it can plague you. And I don't think that, I think the

03:01:46.900 way it's written is saying, simply stating a kind of repercussion of wisdom that's meant to be

03:01:54.260 understood and measured with the other versus before about being happy, about meeting your

03:02:01.440 doom with with a smile is knowing much is good but don't let it drag you down is kind of what i

03:02:10.540 think this is ultimately uh warning against so every time i have a conversation with someone

03:02:19.760 about them studying to be a Goethe or a Githya I asked them how wise does the

03:02:33.200 All-Father advise that you be and then when they give me the correct answer I

03:02:40.460 say okay now by doing this you are choosing to go against that advice are

03:02:48.740 Are you sure you want to do that?

03:02:52.140 Because that's the thing.

03:02:53.560 When you delve past the normal measure of knowledge and you want to peer behind the curtain, you sacrifice certain things.

03:03:07.520 It's a sacrifice that all of our Gothar make for things to work.

03:03:13.780 But it comes out in a lot of different ways.

03:03:16.060 you know when you work at the you work at the hot dog factory you enjoy your hot dog a lot less

03:03:24.960 when you know you know exactly what percentage of you know rodent carcass and feces and any other

03:03:32.800 thing is technically in the hot dog it doesn't taste quite as good as it used to you know if

03:03:39.840 start everybody's curious but if you you know it's fun to go to you know an illusionist show and be

03:03:48.000 astounded by these amazing things when you know the secret of how it all works

03:03:55.200 you lose some of that sense of wonder as a gothi when you uh counsel people 0.76

03:04:02.440 You get to hear all the dirty and unseemly things about folks that you didn't know or you didn't necessarily want to know. 0.91

03:04:13.060 You need to know that to do your job and to be a priest.

03:04:19.200 But you don't quite look at the world with the same innocence that you once had.

03:04:25.220 the older you get in life the more you see

03:04:30.900 given enough time everyone will in some way disappoint you and let you down

03:04:41.080 given enough time far more people will betray you or crush your your hopes and dreams

03:04:52.200 than those that stand the test of time now when you know some of those things you can prepare for

03:04:58.740 if you take on the burden of knowledge you can shelter others with a lot of stuff you can do with

03:05:06.180 it but it's a tremendous burden um it reminds me this may this may sound silly but it reminds me of

03:05:15.920 the Garth Brooks song, The Dance.

03:05:19.480 And now I'm glad I didn't know the way it all would end, the way it all would go.

03:05:24.500 Our lives are better left to chance.

03:05:28.840 I could have missed the pain, but I'd have had to miss the dance.

03:05:33.220 And that's one of the things that you embrace

03:05:36.640 when you choose to

03:05:39.300 peer behind the curtain and know

03:05:43.160 all the secrets.

03:05:45.920 so i think that's a i think that's a good place to stop for tonight with that i think that's a

03:05:52.460 lot to think on we went through some really really meaty stanzas i think this evening and i'm glad

03:06:00.540 you guys are sharing all this with us and like i said it's it's really nice to go through this

03:06:07.040 again with you guys and this fawn um while we look at cartoons fawn we will start hitting some

03:06:17.280 of the questions that you guys have asked tonight that we haven't uh haven't gotten to yet oh and

03:06:23.760 nick reminded me on this it is late and we've lost some of our core audience but i'm still

03:06:28.660 going to say it, go and check out baldershoff.org when you have a chance. Folk builder Lydia

03:06:39.000 Phelps has put a lot of time and effort in making our sites beautiful and much more functional

03:06:45.360 than they have been in the past. She's done a great job and continues to. She has now done one

03:06:52.880 for each of our hoff district sites with baldershoff being the the one that took her the most

03:06:58.800 time and the one that we have done today and now she's going to work on our main runestone site

03:07:05.120 so there's a lot of different stuff to do with that one but by the end of this month

03:07:09.680 we are the beginning of next month rather we will have a brand new and improved version of

03:07:15.040 our runestone site ready to share with you guys in the meantime check out any of our district sites

03:07:21.360 It's at odenshoff.org, thorshoff.com, baldershoff.org, and njordshoff.org.

03:07:36.760 So yeah, go check those out.

03:07:38.660 And if you see her, you talk to her, give Lydia a big thank you for all the hard work she's put in on that.

03:07:48.680 Svon has returned to us.

03:07:51.360 Okay, so John asks, anybody have thoughts on Cassandra Eason, the author?

03:08:05.680 Svahn, what are your thoughts on Ms. Eason?

03:08:09.720 I was muted. I was muted for a moment there. Sorry.

03:08:28.840 I, uh, it's, it's not ringing a bell. I'm, I need perhaps a work or a book.

03:08:40.520 Oh, well, she wrote, um, what is it? A thousand magical crystals or something. Um, she's a noted

03:08:51.420 author of metaphysical and new age books i say that i had to look it up while we were

03:08:59.420 while we were earlier in the call but i did look it up a little bit so i could know who

03:09:03.500 folks were talking about i've never encountered any of her works i looked a little bit at um

03:09:10.380 just kind of some of the titles and ideas of some of the things she talks about

03:09:15.100 i think it's interesting but it's

03:09:17.100 typically those kind of authors are often it's very easy in that space to

03:09:32.300 be cringy and take things in a way that i really

03:09:39.260 it's easy to scoff at and look down on but every now and again you get some of them that are really

03:09:44.540 on to some profound and really good things and i don't want to paint this lady with a broad brush

03:09:49.420 because i really don't know and i haven't encountered any of her works or read anything

03:09:55.180 that being said her scope of things she writes about is very very broad and it seems to cross a

03:10:02.300 lot of different traditions that's usually not a great sign in my experience but again i i'm not

03:10:12.460 going to say something negative when i truly don't know anything about uh about her or the

03:10:18.220 things that she writes about or as far as her take on it and you were saying i think i cut

03:10:25.500 you off on accident there's oh no i i was immediately looking at perhaps it's in direct

03:10:31.900 relation to her book a little bit of runes um there seems to be two different covers

03:10:38.540 for it. I'm not familiar with

03:10:41.040 this

03:10:42.900 rune book. I know that

03:10:45.360 she is prominent

03:10:46.940 in

03:10:47.640 Wicca, and so when you start looking at people

03:10:51.300 who do Nordic runes

03:10:53.360 and things like that, a lot of times

03:10:54.840 they're rehashing

03:10:56.460 a fair

03:10:59.460 amount.

03:11:00.880 I'm actually looking at some of the pages right now,

03:11:04.560 or at least

03:11:07.200 what what is available um yeah casting runes i mean a lot of it is about kind of rehashing

03:11:17.480 um subject matter and i think they do it a lot to gain money um they they produce a book

03:11:24.640 they can kind of rewrite some of the groundwork that's already been made by a lot of the people

03:11:30.200 in um runic studies and kind of build a name for themselves or you know maybe catch the eye of

03:11:37.780 someone um but you'll find like there's a commonality if you read all these books together

03:11:42.820 you'll they'll mention about tacitus and um his recollection of the of the casting of plots

03:11:49.000 you'll um you know you can tell by the the the front of the book there's the usage of the um

03:11:57.520 the Viveser in relation to the Futhark as well.

03:12:03.340 And so that might be used just to catch people's eye.

03:12:08.340 I doubt most likely that she went into the idea 0.90

03:12:12.100 of like ladder usage of sigil magic

03:12:15.300 in Iceland post-runic studies.

03:12:22.420 There's just a lot there.

03:12:23.720 I don't know.

03:12:24.360 I don't, I'm not familiar with,

03:12:25.920 i'm just kind of giving my from the hip opinions when you have somebody who has a very eclectic

03:12:32.320 pull a lot of these authors are again flooding the market in order to gain the books are the

03:12:39.820 prices are low and um they're trying to catch the eye um some of them are very well uh researched

03:12:48.320 and again others are oftentimes just rehashes of groundwork if you're really looking for something

03:12:53.960 especially in relation to the runes um i would clearly state you know moving towards edward

03:12:59.760 thorson or nigel pennock right out right off the the bat um and they have books spanning all the

03:13:06.500 way to the late 70s and early 80s and you know but again i will say this much some of these books

03:13:13.200 when i was very young i think the first rune book i ever got i was 11 or 12 and it was a book by a

03:13:22.560 woman named Lisa Peschel. And I don't take much stock in it now, but it definitely inspired me

03:13:30.660 to learn more. And I think there's a lot of people that may have the same with like

03:13:37.980 Ralph Bloom's book, which I didn't actually get in contact with till far, far later. And

03:13:44.920 a lot of it is just

03:13:46.820 really bad.

03:13:50.240 It's very, very

03:13:51.140 mismatched kind of personal

03:13:53.680 takes on it.

03:13:55.740 But if it inspires you

03:13:57.700 to move forward,

03:13:59.420 that's its worth.

03:14:01.380 Yeah, I would be really curious to know more

03:14:03.440 about it. I'd like to know

03:14:05.200 her background in it, kind of where

03:14:11.360 she comes from with runes,

03:14:13.220 where she learned about rooms initially

03:14:17.360 as a place for her to start from.

03:14:21.160 But again, there's not a lot that it's fair for me

03:14:25.000 to say about it when I haven't delved into her works.

03:14:30.920 Some of the other things that she writes about

03:14:33.720 and the Wicca stuff she's involved in

03:14:35.820 give me a perception.

03:14:39.920 and i'd like to know a little bit more before i before i judge that i think that's only fair

03:14:47.500 and i'd be a little bit i'd be kind of curious it's not something i've ever i will say this

03:14:52.060 i've never heard of her or her room book um because a lot of people have questions about

03:14:59.060 books and there's people that bring up you know that bring a lot of pieces to my attention this

03:15:04.280 the first time i've heard about hers so you know i'm curious if there's some kind of a pdf i would

03:15:12.360 read it a little bit and see see what's what but i can't give you a more detailed opinion than that

03:15:18.360 because i really don't know i think it'd be improper for me to go too far on it without

03:15:23.560 knowing a little bit more i do think that as fawn said uh some of these books that

03:15:30.040 may not be the end of your journey on it, bring up questions and spark inspiration

03:15:37.720 that leads you to something deeper or something, you know, something better sometimes. And I think

03:15:44.840 that's, I think that has a value. Yeah, I'm looking at one page in particular,

03:15:55.920 a type of rune reading in which doing, you know, three runes to represent the upper realms of Yggdrasil,

03:16:05.300 three runes to represent the middle, and three runes to represent the lower and each of the

03:16:11.600 roots. It's interesting. It all sounds, I mean, I can see where it was going. I don't really

03:16:20.340 necessarily see anything terrible uh in relation to this like particular page of the interpretation

03:16:29.140 one interesting thing too that a lot of um uh rune books don't do that that she is doing but

03:16:36.100 she's coming from a tarot background so i can see why she's doing this is she has a specific

03:16:42.340 interpretation of a person a woman named naomi cast these runes let's interpret her results

03:16:51.380 and so they kind of give you an idea of what it would look like to do a process i and here's

03:16:57.220 something and i want to give um credit to this at least in a concept

03:17:03.940 we can find historical source work about runes we're all drawn from the same places

03:17:19.120 that's easy enough to come by there is value if you are trying to understand operative magic

03:17:26.740 by reading experience of someone who's actually employed the rooms in the present for whatever

03:17:38.240 magical slash spiritual practice she has applied them for and her experience with them would be

03:17:46.940 very interesting to me one way or another rather you know where good bad or otherwise whatever it

03:17:54.420 might be. I would be very curious to read and understand that. And I do think that someone who

03:18:01.120 is good at, if they are successful in tarot reading and other divination, they might do well

03:18:11.540 with divination with the runes. So perhaps there's that. Again, I don't know. And I would like to

03:18:18.400 learn more. Our next one, and Michael has left us, but hopefully he will listen to this later

03:18:27.220 down the line. He had to go to bed. Understandable, it's very late on the East Coast. Svan, could you

03:18:33.820 delve deeper into your personal opinion on when it is proper to stand or kneel in worship or oath

03:18:40.600 uh oath swearing oh well i think there's uh quite a bit of

03:18:50.160 uh there's there's a bit of that one thing is is i i think um you actually when i was when you

03:19:00.000 were my mentor for the govi program something you said really hit home was you know if you if

03:19:07.320 you're if you're willing to stand up for a judge if you're willing to put a tie on for a judge

03:19:12.280 but you're not willing to show respect and dress well for your gods you you got a problem like this

03:19:19.900 is this is the wrong way of placing your efforts and uh that really did hit home to me and it

03:19:26.540 opened up a great amount of the way that we do show respect um in the military and in the marine

03:19:34.300 core, when an officer enters a room, you stand up and you yell out that there's an officer on deck

03:19:39.600 and everyone stands up or you salute. There's these traditions of showing respect without

03:19:45.160 necessarily prostrating yourself. And again, I think prostration is built on the nature of the

03:19:56.020 relationship. And if your nature is fear, if your nature is to fear some sort of retribution,

03:20:05.520 because you are not, I don't know, perhaps eating the right things or sitting in the right places

03:20:11.240 where a woman, you know, is unclean or eating shellfish or any number of lists of things in

03:20:20.200 which you fear that you're going against this list and that the ultimate outcome is detrimental,

03:20:27.680 then that is the source of your prostration, is fear, the fear of breaking those rules.

03:20:35.180 Instead, if you go with, I wish to have someone witness my respect for them

03:20:41.540 because of their honored position in my life, that is not prostration.

03:20:47.880 that is noble and it shows a sense that you are willing and wanting for that person to know that

03:20:59.600 you have a great amount of respect for them um and it is not based out of uh fear but it's based

03:21:06.860 out of their station uh and i can see no higher station than that of the gods so why not give them

03:21:14.780 any sort of, uh, sense of an honor and it can be placed. And that's what I think is interesting

03:21:21.000 about your question is it can be placed at certain times. There are times in which you would stand up

03:21:26.980 and give praise to the gods. There are times when you can kneel or sit and give praise to the gods.

03:21:35.280 I have a tendency to look at them as more internal, external, um, amongst community and, or, or

03:21:43.760 outside, oftentimes it is much better in a sense to stand, to perhaps hold arms up, head up, and

03:21:53.500 to give a hailing to the gods based out of the situation that you're in. Whereas indoors before

03:22:03.380 harrows and before even personal home harrows, I kneel. I kneel sometimes one-legged, sometimes

03:22:11.820 I even have a chair that is a kneeling chair that oftentimes is applied.

03:22:17.460 So I think that there is the right time, but ultimately it's based on the caveat of,

03:22:22.920 are you fearful or are you giving honor because of station?

03:22:26.640 And I think that no one in certain other religions can actually say they're giving honor in station

03:22:33.720 because their entire religion is predicated on fear.

03:22:38.260 So they cannot separate that, but we can.

03:22:41.820 And so then it would be very much the the highest point is to give respect to the highest of gods, the high gods themselves, the ones above all and in the place above.

03:22:55.460 At that point, I have absolutely no problem showing honorific gestures. And as long as they're done authentically, I don't think that they should be done. I don't think that people should be doing these gestures just for the sake of doing them.

03:23:13.000 They have a measurement of purpose. And again, movement during ceremony is important.

03:23:20.520 We walk into areas, we circle around areas, we kneel down, we stand up, we hold our arms up,

03:23:27.580 we take sacred vessel, we lean forward. Sometimes we hold our hands forward to take anointment

03:23:34.340 or sprinkling. There's a lot of movement in ceremony and it isn't just,

03:23:38.420 you know again the hyper focus on kneeling standing or what have you i think it's just

03:23:43.540 all part of it and uh people focus way too much because again they don't want to go into the

03:23:50.560 religion with a predication of fear and i don't think that that's even present for us so why not

03:23:56.520 do it you know i know that this was specifically asked as fun but i i would really like to speak

03:24:03.240 on this. When I talked about things that we need to unlearn, one of the sacred cows, if

03:24:20.340 you will, of Ausatru originally was this, you know, chest thumping. I don't kneel before

03:24:29.220 my gods i stand and the gods are my friends and it's i can't even say it without having a

03:24:38.500 disrespectful tone to it i get where people were coming from there was an attitude at the beginning

03:24:45.220 to define also true by it being anti-christian so everything the christians did we needed to

03:24:54.740 do the opposite. And that's a first step, but ultimately it's wrong-headed.

03:25:03.140 The rights and wrongs of Ausatru are decided by Ausatru, not in response to a foreign creed 0.91

03:25:10.740 and what they do, but in a response to what our ancestors valued and what they didn't, 0.90

03:25:17.460 what's noble to do and what's not. So one of the ideas was, well, we're Ausatru because,

03:25:23.780 You know, Christians are subservient, kneel, and we don't kneel because every individual's their own, you know, whatever.

03:25:34.780 Again, that's an overreaction. 1.00

03:25:36.840 Absolutely right. 0.94

03:25:37.700 Christianity is about submission to their God that demands they kneel and also demands they don't have pride or dignity in themselves, that they're saved by faith alone and not by works that none should boast. 0.95

03:25:53.780 And that religion is very foreign to ours. But yes, one of the hallmarks of that is a demand that everyone kneel and must have this forced submission to their God. 0.89

03:26:07.200 there's you don't have to kneel in house a true but i think you should consider why you think

03:26:18.400 what you think and if it's baggage from something else or if it's an actual tenant of our faith

03:26:25.420 worship is our word there the jewish word is something else worship

03:26:34.060 Worship comes from worth-ship, which means to apply worth to something or to recognize and, you know, acknowledge that relative worth.

03:26:48.080 Our gods are worthy of worship.

03:26:50.960 They are our gods.

03:26:52.080 They are worthy of recognizing that.

03:26:55.680 And I think that there is an internal trauma if we have a person who refuses to kneel before their gods, but will go visit me at my martial arts class and doesn't think twice about kneeling and bowing.

03:27:18.380 or goes to court all rise the honorable so-and-so presiding they'll rise for that judge and they'll

03:27:26.220 sit down when they're told to sit they'll you know join the military and they will

03:27:33.880 stand at attention and salute superior officers so they recognize rank and superiority

03:27:39.680 but they wouldn't kneel before the great gods of our folk

03:27:45.480 that tells me it's an internal issue with them and their perception of what they feel

03:27:52.840 kneeling represents and again they don't have to you know the standard stance of worship

03:28:00.680 in the afa is standing in the algees pose with arms upstretched towards the heavens

03:28:06.980 but something is wrong and it tells me that either there is something mentally that has

03:28:17.220 caused you to feel that the act of kneeling is some humiliation towards yourself which it's not

03:28:23.840 in and of itself or that you must not really conceive of our gods as real if a literal god

03:28:33.600 appears before you one of your gods that you are loyal to and you wouldn't take a knee but you

03:28:41.120 would towards a king if you would kneel before your king certainly you should kneel before our

03:28:47.920 gods you know the one if you would do the one then you should certainly do the other

03:28:53.040 if you're willing to do acts of showing respect for authority and you recognize the authority of

03:29:00.560 officers or of judges or of, you know, any other number of people that you see as a legitimate

03:29:09.440 authority, it tells me that you don't see our gods in that way. And that's something that

03:29:16.960 needs to be rectified. But the act of kneeling isn't humiliating. You know, everyone who is

03:29:24.580 knighted and received knighthood would kneel before their monarch to be knighted, the king

03:29:30.380 of their folk. There's no shame in that. As a matter of fact, there's a great dignity in

03:29:39.480 recognizing your place in a hierarchy and embracing that with respect. That's a dignified

03:29:46.740 thing, not a humiliation. Context is everything. If the foreign invader demands you bow before

03:29:53.720 them that's something different if someone in an attempt to humiliate you as a conqueror makes you

03:30:01.400 bow in subjugation that's different but bowing and worship and respect for your gods that's

03:30:10.360 that's beautiful and i don't think there's anything terrible about that um but i know

03:30:15.640 that a lot of people come with some baggage on it and i do know that that's something that

03:30:19.640 was stressed early on in Ausatru a lot is this rugged individualism that we've talked about

03:30:27.720 and a rejection of anything that Christians do. And a big part of that was the idea that 0.96

03:30:35.860 we don't kneel before our gods. Our gods are gods. They're not our homies. They're not like

03:30:44.540 our buddies there's no equality we live an illusion if we pretend that's the case no our

03:30:50.140 gods are real and they are gods and we revere them and worship them that's what one does towards gods

03:30:57.260 of his folk um yes i don't want to beat that one up but that's a that's an important thing and i

03:31:05.100 know it's something that especially for folks that you know depending where they found out

03:31:09.980 to true and under what concept uh what concept they were taught our faith can start with some

03:31:16.940 initial you know resistance to that as an idea um next up

03:31:27.340 matt and svan have either of you seen the vikings tv show and what are your thoughts on it

03:31:31.980 i'm talking about the one that started in 2013 starring uh travis fimmel as ragnar svan

03:31:40.860 Commence your rant about shoulder pelts.

03:31:46.940 I can honestly say for anybody who might be surprised or not, I don't know. I have only

03:31:54.540 seen the first episode of the Viking show. I've never seen any more out of that than

03:32:02.460 the first episode i think that the uh the the battle scene and the showing of lord will then

03:32:11.480 like kind of moving about with the with the crows around and the ravens um a lot of that imagery

03:32:19.120 again it's pretty cool i thought it was pretty cool but i heard the story kind of deviates and

03:32:26.280 I never really just got into it. I never had a chance to. Um, and then by the time I was

03:32:31.960 possible to do it, I just didn't have the time, uh, you know, with work, uh, and homeschooling

03:32:40.180 children and things like that. There's not a lot of time for things. Uh, it's the same with

03:32:46.120 the Northman. I, I, um, I haven't seen the Northman either. So a lot of people, especially

03:32:51.300 at my work, they're like, Oh, you, you had to have seen this, right. You've had to have seen

03:32:55.480 this and i'm like no i haven't i haven't seen it at all so i think uh yeah i i don't know again my

03:33:05.620 rant would be simply this um it's kind of like those books that inspire people to learn more

03:33:11.080 and then they grow away from the fan fiction of it the shoulder pelting the black paint the um

03:33:18.540 uh, living like a, uh, you know, a barbarian. And then they come to a realization later on,

03:33:25.360 no, their ancestors weren't like that at all. Um, but other people, no, this is just something

03:33:29.820 that they're clinging to. It's a, it's a, it's a, uh, an attitude again. It's that kind of like,

03:33:36.200 I'm not kneeling for nobody. I'm going to put these runes on my face and, uh, get a Mohawk

03:33:41.880 ponytail and um go to ren fairs and that's kind of all they do um

03:33:51.320 it we're just we're in a different league we're not the same

03:33:56.120 you know i uh i'm being nice about it well i saw up so again on that first episode um seeing

03:34:05.480 seeing odin appear in visions as a god and not just as some silly character but as being treated

03:34:21.880 religiously on the battlefield with the ravens that was really special there were things about

03:34:29.240 it that that was the first time that a lot of us saw that depicted in media in a religious context

03:34:38.760 and that's that was neat um there was things about it that were kind of cool i i watched way

03:34:46.520 more of it than i should have um but i i think i've seen about every episode of it or whatever and

03:34:56.040 it's really historically inaccurate and i'm not just talking about the merging of

03:35:03.720 characters from different places and times into one narrative i get that um but it's

03:35:14.040 there is this modern conception of vikings that they were these primitive barbarous

03:35:20.200 filthy only wore black and primitive furs and were completely uncivilized and again

03:35:31.160 it's the idea to juxtapose oh well christians and civilized europe was this way well the vikings

03:35:39.000 have to be the opposite of that that's not how it was you know anyone who studied about vikings for

03:35:46.120 any amount of time no they i would go so far as to say a majority of viking age artifacts

03:35:54.280 are personal hygiene items are like trimmers for beards and mustaches and stuff to get

03:36:03.160 crap out of your ears and like stuff and combs a lot of combs because there was a long hair culture

03:36:10.920 so the combing and braiding and taking great care with your appearance vikings love bright colored 0.99

03:36:19.240 clothing and you know being clean one of the things that they were because they did bathe and clean

03:36:27.640 clean themselves regularly made them an outcast from other parts of europe where that wasn't

03:36:32.440 something you did um and then when they went into just this moral license of you know here let's 0.59

03:36:42.920 have a three-way with my wife and all this other just degeneracy because again the christians had

03:36:49.560 morality so the vikings needed to be the opposite that's not true um and it's it's disrespect

03:36:58.440 they portrayed our faith through that concept and our values through that concept in a way

03:37:05.880 that's very disrespectful to real things that we believe um so yeah and when you looked at

03:37:14.260 the gothar there are these strange like oh yeah mutants that like are deformed and

03:37:21.980 yeah i love it on youtube yeah and it's it's gross and it's disrespectful

03:37:29.100 um and it's just really inaccurate and so it made it very uncomfortable to watch

03:37:35.500 but it did inspire people to look into their heritage and look into our ancestral faith and

03:37:43.340 look into that and i'm sure some amazing people have come home to house a true because of it

03:37:48.860 inadvertently. Um, next up, uh, also for you, Svon, uh, yeah, can you explain what is the

03:38:10.000 tripartite. The tripartite is an Aryan religious component. I think it is in every Aryan religion

03:38:24.900 and it is worth looking at. And the best way to look at it for us, and this is based off of

03:38:33.060 observation of our faith in literature, poetry, and, and, uh, even observation from outsiders

03:38:42.500 from Tacitus to the Adas, the idea of the three, uh, presenting or being focused upon as of the

03:38:52.600 gods. Um, and, and I'm speaking right now, mainly in the Teutonic sense. Tacitus spoke clearly that

03:38:58.860 the Germanic people honored Mars, Mercury, and he mentioned like divine Hercules. And so again,

03:39:11.380 he mentioning these three, we clearly see in the Adas, there's the usage of the king that is high

03:39:18.780 king, just as high king and the third. Again, this is establishing the tripartite. We see it with

03:39:25.620 Adam of Bremen mentioning in Uppsala that the Swedes have Thor in the center, and then they

03:39:32.140 have the furious one and the fruitful one next to him. And so a lot of people get caught up in

03:39:40.940 this idea that they try to boil back Aryan religion into a sky daddy, earth mommy, or

03:39:48.680 sometimes they don't even do the earth mommy. But they don't understand that our ancestors 0.70

03:39:55.120 were polytheistic i think this is a christian reaction to try to boil the gods down into

03:40:02.720 singularities and um what we see first and foremost is the functioning of a triplicate

03:40:10.880 we see this with lord woden himself as being a tripartite in odin villi and ve and i think that

03:40:20.240 each of the tripartites based off of my religious observations and aryan religions and studying them

03:40:27.600 is that each of the tripartites i'm not saying this is how the gods work what i am saying is

03:40:33.520 that this is most certainly how it is kind of framed out whether it's a cultural representation

03:40:40.640 of the powers of the gods or whether the gods are telling us this is how they function

03:40:44.800 the point of it is is that there is always seeming to be a dynamic lord so one i i would say the

03:40:52.820 tripartite is like three thrones and one is dynamicism the other is stasis and the third

03:40:59.420 one is catalystic so we have the one that can go up and down the one that can go around the

03:41:06.080 edges or left and right and the one that maintains position and how that plays out for a lot of

03:41:13.900 people is different everywhere. And then you have even more confusion when you start to look at

03:41:21.280 different Aryan cultures and you try to not fit the gods into perhaps their dominions or thrones,

03:41:30.160 but try to fit the gods into other gods. And I think that's where we get a lot of confusion

03:41:36.920 and fallacy. But the tripartite is clearly Aryan and it doesn't always follow in the same patterns

03:41:45.460 that we always think of. It's unique to the culture. If you look at the Etruscans who called

03:41:51.300 their gods Essir, they had a tripartite, but it was a singular, it was the head of their gods,

03:41:59.500 the masculine and his two wives in essence uh was their tripartite and for them the gods all the

03:42:09.180 gods and what made the gods the gods was their ability to throw lightning again i think this is

03:42:15.120 a very hellenic concept of the the power of divinity um but there is a tripartite the hellenics

03:42:22.840 like the Romans and the Greco-Romans have a tripartite. The Slavs, a tripartite. The Gauls,

03:42:30.840 a tripartite. The Germanics, a tripartite. Going all the way back to the Bhagavad Gita and into 0.63

03:42:37.200 the Vedic movement into India, there is a tripartite. It is a huge pinnacle structuring

03:42:47.180 of the heavenly fathers in a way. And again, it also seems to change. Sometimes the heavenly

03:42:55.900 fathers have like the culture will emphasis more on stasis as an important factor of divinity.

03:43:03.080 And so they'll focus on that throne and the Lord that fills it. Others will focus on dynamicism

03:43:09.200 and the Lord that fills it. Others will go with catalyst. And sometimes I think it moves. I think

03:43:15.180 that the Swedes had Thor in the center of their tripartite at that time of year with the function

03:43:21.240 of, um, giving honor where honor was due. So I don't think it was a singular thing. Like you

03:43:28.060 can't have, um, Tyr or Thor have any sort of honorific position that outsways Odin. And I

03:43:36.580 think this is greatly emphasized by people who are trying to take polytheism and turn it into

03:43:43.080 like shivaism in hindu or uh uh ism that is becoming very popular in hinduism now boiling

03:43:52.600 things down and kind of making this quasi monotheism and perhaps they're thinking that it'll

03:43:58.520 attract more people home but i think it leads down the improper usage and understanding of the way

03:44:04.800 our ancestors uh interacted with the multiplicity of the gods

03:44:09.800 absolutely um real quick it didn't show up but i've been reading the chat um john

03:44:19.560 he talked about the uh so john john said a long time ago an old friend of his was telling him

03:44:33.280 about odinism and how it was different from monotheism he was like we don't pray and beg

03:44:39.340 the gods for stuff. We let them encourage us. Um, I think that that is a overly simplistic

03:44:52.260 way of expressing what we do in our faith. And I think that that attitude was really common

03:44:59.200 at a earlier stage in the modern development of our faith. Um, when again, it was defining

03:45:07.160 also true by how different it was than another religion, as opposed to defining also true of

03:45:13.480 its own terms. We absolutely pray. We don't beg our gods for stuff, but we do ask for things that

03:45:22.460 are beyond our power. And one of the things we often ask for is them encouraging us or inspiring

03:45:30.140 us or or those type of things we don't our prayers aren't always asking for things very

03:45:43.000 often they're prayers of thanksgiving or of you know just honoring the gods at different

03:45:50.000 times sometimes we ask things very often we offer things um that at that earlier attitude

03:45:59.840 tends to be from folks that treat the gods

03:46:05.080 as concepts and archetypes and not as gods.

03:46:10.620 When you interact with a god, you pray.

03:46:14.800 Just like some of the other conversation

03:46:16.680 about vowing or kneeling or anything else,

03:46:20.820 if one of our literal real gods appears before you,

03:46:27.760 you've taken me before a god.

03:46:30.800 and if you wouldn't you're you're not truly putting yourself in that scenario um

03:46:41.360 so yeah the next question um from finn wraith what do you think of wicca

03:46:49.920 svan what do you think of wicca

03:46:51.280 oh wow what a tragic story wicca uh as a it is it is a it is a tale of woe

03:47:03.520 and i i'll explain it it's um i think that wicca started out as a resurgence of anglo-saxon

03:47:12.160 folklore. And I'm talking before the introduction of perhaps ritualistic themes from other sources,

03:47:22.420 whether it's hermetic magic or, you know, a lot of people talk about Alistair Crowley and the

03:47:28.200 Golden Dawn and all of that. And, you know, and then there's even the rejection of that to a

03:47:34.540 point where it's also kind of foolish. And I'll get into that in a second. But ultimately, it was 0.90

03:47:39.640 starting out as a you know it was a a re-emergence of the folklore practices of the anglo-saxons

03:47:47.720 and it was coming about at a time i think where there was this instigation of these many revolutions

03:47:57.320 religious revolution clearly one of them and one of the reasons why we harp on

03:48:01.480 not building a faith based out of rejection is that once it kind of compiled with

03:48:06.760 you taking folklore, but mainly really focusing on witches. Why witches? Well, because they were

03:48:14.900 burned by the church. Okay. So we're going to focus on that antithesis. Then we're going to

03:48:21.180 mix it with ritualistic magic. And again, a sense of like powerlessness. Women who are powerless

03:48:29.360 in a patriarchal society have their way to make power again by practicing, you know, Wicca. 0.92

03:48:37.800 And this is where it starts to layer on this tale of woe. We know that, you know, our ancestors 0.90

03:48:44.340 held the mothers in great respects and it's consistently placed throughout our lore. The

03:48:52.120 idea of kind of a lower class beyond breeding age woman was more of a Hellenic thing, to be honest.

03:48:58.000 And I'm not deride, you know, showing any derision to them. It's just that was the case a lot, like especially in mentioning in Athens and in Rome. But again, it was just used as a vehicle to kind of antagonize ideas. 0.98

03:49:14.520 and uh and all that the the other tragic part was denying its source over time i remember seeing

03:49:22.760 these wiccans say oh no no no it's it's celtic magic it's because it was okay to be celtic it

03:49:29.260 wasn't okay to be anglo-saxon it it they started stripping a lot of the core of where a lot of

03:49:36.620 those traditions come from in the Vanek practices of common folk in Anglo-Saxon times. I did see

03:49:46.620 some movements towards that. Matter of fact, what caught my eye initially was there was a movement

03:49:52.160 called Sayax Wicca. It was by a very popular guy named Raymond Buckland. And I'm not saying he's

03:49:58.460 cut from a different cloth, but one thing that truly interested me was the usage of Anglo-Saxon

03:50:04.200 runes and the usage of the actual like ethnic origins of anglo-saxon belief in relation to

03:50:12.600 uh lord uh vodan as as he said and uh lady afreya or afriya and um i thought that was interesting

03:50:24.380 but beyond that there's not much gravity in what he was what he was doing but it again spurned me

03:50:30.000 in the proper direction. It was a signpost. But it's a tragic story that ultimately is about

03:50:37.540 marking people towards antithesis, politicizing a religious view, or not even a religious view.

03:50:44.680 It's taking atheism and turning it into a political religion. Ultimately, that's what I

03:50:49.960 have seen over the decades that I've been intertwined with it. I have seen it because

03:50:55.460 When I was younger, I would go to a local bookstore, pagan bookstore, and things like that, and see a lot of that.

03:51:04.600 These people saying they're in a nature religion while sucking down cigarettes and drinking vapidly,

03:51:11.940 or using it as an excuse, whether it's hedonism or political ideology, a little bit of column A, a little bit of column B.

03:51:19.380 overall at the end of the day the the divine is being melted down into again like a a subservient

03:51:30.080 sky daddy and a and a big powerful earth mommy and um yeah it doesn't really matter what they

03:51:38.320 do because they're not they're not reverencing them anything outside of themselves they're just

03:51:42.920 worshiping uh the divine through themselves so in essence worshiping themselves and it becomes this

03:51:50.360 kind of uh hedonistic masturbatory uh political drama and all the while the biggest loss is that

03:51:59.640 it originated from such a beautiful place the anglo-saxon um wart culture wart craft leech craft 0.66

03:52:10.600 the usage of herbs and the knowledge that our mothers of ancient days had

03:52:18.200 was just kind of washed away into like, you know, hot topic, fishnet, 0.94

03:52:24.900 you know, dirty car Ren Faire girls that frequent drum circles for hedonistic reasons. 1.00

03:52:34.880 That's my take on Wicca. 1.00

03:52:37.360 There you have it.

03:52:38.320 I hope this gets quoted.

03:52:39.740 i hope somebody sees it yeah i don't i don't have any more to add i think spawn covered it really

03:52:46.480 well um wicca in gardener's day probably had a little bit more meat to it now it's just yeah

03:52:58.120 it that's that's what it is it's it's licensed to hedonism it's a rejection of

03:53:10.360 like any kind of exclusion for any reason and any kind of

03:53:17.920 behavior imperative and it it's just it's just a mask for degeneracy at this point

03:53:29.120 unfortunately and i do think that it

03:53:33.760 originally came from a noble attempt to re-establish a form of native spirituality

03:53:44.160 of our people um but very very quickly that was co-opted into a really not great way um

03:53:52.560 callum we have no questions over on entropy so either you did you did something that didn't

03:54:01.360 work well with their system or it's not working wouldn't surprise me um

03:54:06.000 I really want entropy to be better than it is,

03:54:12.600 but it's not great.

03:54:13.840 And so we give it less attention than we did starting out.

03:54:17.460 It really doesn't, yeah.

03:54:21.420 So I don't have any questions from you over there,

03:54:23.100 but if you've got a question here, I'm happy to answer it.

03:54:28.740 Our next one is

03:54:32.200 meaty uh from the wolf throne matt and swan and i'll let you go first on this one i've been taught

03:54:43.480 i've been taking more interest in sanatana dharma and listening to sri dharma pravartaka acharya

03:54:53.320 talk and rant about stuff on his channel i know absolutely nothing about vedic religion

03:54:58.840 But his claim is that Sanatana Dharma is the authentic Vedic path and is purely based on Vedic texts, as opposed to modern Hinduism.

03:55:11.220 Anyway, my question is, how much crossover do you think there is between Sanatana Dharma and Ausatru?

03:55:19.540 And do you think the Vedic scriptures can be of use to us, considering they are some of the oldest Aryan religious texts ever recorded?

03:55:27.300 Also, while he says the gods and goddesses are 100% real beings, he also talks a lot

03:55:34.420 about God, in quotation marks, and demonic forces, and he also says Jesus was a Vedic

03:55:41.140 guru.

03:55:42.140 Anyways, I thought that was interesting, and I wanted to hear your take on it.

03:55:48.680 okay first off i remember having this conversation with a gentleman who was uh deep he even did time

03:55:59.960 as a hari krishna and then he was uh deeply invested in um hinduism and then he became

03:56:06.860 folkish because the the revelation of of reality uh kind of um set in and he spoke about how

03:56:15.220 there wasn't a great crossover and i could see like it's for a lot of people 0.75

03:56:21.840 it's hard to see a connecting bridge because there's years and years and years of hinduism

03:56:28.660 uh evolving um whereas for asa true there there's this kind of cliffhanger and then there's a lot

03:56:36.140 of pieces that we have to put together but like i i began to speak about uh lord fray

03:56:43.360 uh the battle-ready prince riding on the horse with bloody hooves wielding a sword that fights

03:56:49.940 for itself while he laughs in joy as at the the the distraught as in the war between the gods as

03:56:56.820 they fight in heaven and he just never conceptualized the gods that way he saw the poetic

03:57:02.660 poems uh it was just kind of flat for him and he he's like you're speaking about lord fray like

03:57:08.460 he's you know lord krishna um or and and it's like i can see the similarities there but the

03:57:15.300 problem is is that people fall short on their perspective of their own native faith and they

03:57:21.280 end up kind of looking at it um flatly and i think that that they they gravitate towards the

03:57:28.900 the spice if you will i'm using that just in a funny sense but like the spice road of of the of

03:57:34.960 the Vedic sense, but we have that. I mean, if we're talking about eternal dharma, the first

03:57:42.620 lord I would immediately bring up would be the wide ruler, Vidar. He is the lord of eternal dharma.

03:57:50.780 If we're talking about what's, I'm going to say it wrong. It's not, it's not,

03:57:56.520 how do you say is you said sanatana is eternal but there's another dharma that's

03:58:05.220 brought with it it's it's spoken of in the bhagavida and i can't remember the name of it's

03:58:11.580 like sudra dharma but the difference between personal versus corrective dharma in the world

03:58:18.300 around you and the difference between like doing no harm and having to do harm is that takes place

03:58:24.760 in our faith. It is clearly Lord Vidar and Lord Vaoli. And we have the corrective internal dharma

03:58:31.840 versus the exuding corrective dharma in the world around us. And we can use the word dharma because

03:58:38.180 that's just like using the word shaman. It has a value in our language, but it's corrective action.

03:58:45.800 It is in our faith. It's just that a lot of people lack and instead will go towards the

03:58:53.980 copious amounts of lore and books and things that were written. And, and unfortunately,

03:58:59.740 you know, Vedic religion has changed greatly over time and has greatly incorporated

03:59:09.200 concepts that are not part of the folk anymore. And I think that that's something,

03:59:15.720 you know, that we should consider. So, um, I think it has a lot of crossover. It's just

03:59:22.120 the matter of perception of understanding what we're doing here versus what others are doing

03:59:27.260 and to try to get away from seeking the exotic, seeking the, um, a lot of that simply because,

03:59:39.460 oh, it's the oldest Arian, you know, scriptures. It's like, yes, but also no. And it, and it,

03:59:48.840 it is here it's just a are you perceiving it are you seeing it in your own and hearing it in your

03:59:56.360 own stories in your own blood in your own practice um you know do you see do you want to go and see

04:00:04.300 like uh you know uh priya and not frigga and understand just let priya go take frigga she is

04:00:14.360 yours. That is of your people. She is the gods of your folk. That's how you can interact with her 1.00

04:00:19.460 and understand her. If you're understanding that, you know, the great Deva mother is Nertha and the

04:00:26.440 earth, Ertha and so on and so forth. Understanding the tripartite, like I brought up before and

04:00:32.780 seeing the tripartite that the Vedics did with Vishnu and Indra and Agni. They had their own

04:00:42.980 tripartite. Perhaps there is a relation. Perhaps we could look at Agni and see Heimdall and we can

04:00:48.740 speculate a lot of that. But at the end of the day, no, we have our faith, they have theirs.

04:00:53.160 And I think that more people should take solace in understanding their perspective instead of

04:01:00.740 buffering with kind of a lot of the other things that, you know, I think a lot of people desperately

04:01:08.520 place in um i know the hindu bros are probably going to be uh you know upset with me uh there's

04:01:16.760 the same thing they're the same thing but i'm saying that we should focus more on what we are

04:01:22.880 doing as a people and can we can compare notes we can look over we can even greatly respect

04:01:29.300 but i don't think we should copy

04:01:31.760 so first

04:01:36.740 acharya g has already always been really

04:01:46.760 a really good ally of ours very complimentary um he talks about uh steve mcdallen our founder in

04:01:56.760 in a number of his works and recognizes you know steve as an important religious figure

04:02:05.400 recognizes the validity and the importance of alsatru as it and that alsatru is in fact a dharmic

04:02:12.040 religion um so i really i really appreciate and have a lot of respect for him personally um

04:02:23.000 Um, I, the concept of each racial group following their correct relationship to their divinities

04:02:40.880 is a Dharmic concept that he espouses that I think is, is good and right. 0.80

04:02:46.880 And he kind of separates world religions into dharmic religions that follow the natural order of things and the religions that aren't that.

04:02:59.600 And, you know, any true folk religion of a people tends to be a dharmic faith, whereas world rejecting faiths aren't.

04:03:16.880 there is

04:03:33.320 and somebody who is more in the midst of it would have a better

04:03:38.280 I don't know more nuanced take on this but

04:03:43.240 But the line between Vedic religion and Hindu religion all depends on who you talk to, and 1.00

04:03:56.880 I don't think that you can cleanly separate the two, other than the people that want to 0.91

04:04:03.480 champion Vedic religion talk about how Hinduism is a corrupted modern reflection of it, and 0.93

04:04:12.780 they harken back to the true Vedic religion. 1.00

04:04:17.240 I think Hindus would say that so do they,

04:04:21.520 and they would reject that premise.

04:04:25.080 And as someone who is neither of those two things,

04:04:29.900 they look real, real similar.

04:04:31.660 And I think that the line between the two

04:04:34.220 is not easy to define.

04:04:36.000 um certainly in the most ancient of times there was a absolute connection between us and you know

04:04:49.920 those of us who became us and those of us who became them go back to a common Aryan root in

04:04:56.100 the distant distant mists of prehistory but I think that's one of the first big points of 0.71

04:05:03.420 separation between our folk. We talk about other Aryan spiritualities and how they broke off. They 0.91

04:05:10.280 all broke off from one another at a much later stage. So the commonality is more obvious and

04:05:16.520 applicable in, you know, say, Celtic belief or Rodnoverie or even Roman or Hellenic belief.

04:05:28.960 Vedic religion

04:05:31.920 looks foreign 1.00

04:05:35.560 and there's reasons that it looks foreign

04:05:38.060 it is most often

04:05:39.900 practiced by people that aren't

04:05:41.960 us or people that are

04:05:43.920 us who want to

04:05:45.500 seek out the exotic

04:05:47.840 there is a lot

04:05:53.760 of writing in early

04:05:56.020 Vedic scripture that is lacking

04:05:57.980 in European branches of Aryan religion, and that's true, but I think even at the stage

04:06:07.360 of a lot of that writing, it's still past that original truth and that original stage, 0.92

04:06:15.020 and the culture that's developed around it is a, you know, it looks Hindu, and the reason

04:06:25.640 it looks hindu is because it's greatly influenced by that culture in that part of the world and in

04:06:31.960 that stage of development and a lot of that is very foreign and one of the reasons that it's

04:06:39.160 appealing is is in its foreignness um people seek out something exotic they reject traditional you

04:06:47.000 know quote unquote traditional western spirituality which to most of us growing up is christianity

04:06:54.200 or you know perhaps judaism or something else that they're more familiar with but

04:07:01.720 hinduism or vedic practice that's pagan that's you know that's other that's different and that's

04:07:08.920 very appealing in a lot of ways it's unbroken tradition since

04:07:16.440 the the myths of the the distant distant past is also very appealing

04:07:20.600 the structure that it provides that's built off of an existence structure for a very long time

04:07:30.100 is also very appealing just because it has fun bells and whistles that look cool doesn't make

04:07:39.180 it the right choice though um we have a very

04:07:45.700 fundamental and primal connection to Ausatru because it's ours and it relates to us and it's

04:07:56.000 very similar to us and it makes sense and it's familiar and it works that's because

04:08:02.600 it is genetically linked to us in the most direct and best way

04:08:07.820 i perhaps they have similar claims but i've never heard this one of the things that's very

04:08:16.580 gratifying about aussiturism people find it they feel like they're coming home to something that's

04:08:21.700 very natural to them i have not heard that about people who have joined the sanatana dharma movement

04:08:30.040 um there is you know there are points of commonality there's certainly points of

04:08:40.560 commonality in worldview but I don't think we I think we veer further away from Ausatru by

04:08:51.180 trying to incorporate that corpus of literature then by focusing on the things that we know that

04:08:59.440 we grasp that are relevant to modern Ausitru and that are working very well for us. I think

04:09:06.080 trying to like back engineer Vedic practice is frustrating and I don't ultimately think

04:09:19.060 it's particularly fruitful. And at the end of the day, I don't feel that's what our gods want us to

04:09:24.840 do. I feel that they do want us to practice

04:09:26.940 as far as

04:09:29.180 his, you know,

04:09:31.460 talk about God.

04:09:32.800 They have this idea of

04:09:34.220 a supreme Godhead.

04:09:37.180 Not that the other gods don't exist

04:09:39.360 underneath that dominion,

04:09:41.420 but like, and I

04:09:43.180 don't want to overspeak, but

04:09:45.000 typically, and

04:09:46.260 knowing some of the schools that Acharya

04:09:49.000 learned from initially,

04:09:51.000 that perhaps Krishna is

04:09:53.120 like the supreme godhead and the other gods are exist under his dominion and i think that's

04:10:00.800 perhaps how they look at it i know that he has a lot of respect for um

04:10:07.680 prabhupada and the uh the heart the original harry krishnas in that regard so i'm assuming

04:10:13.920 that but typically they'll pick one of their hindu gods and say that's the the godhead and

04:10:20.880 the rest are different manifestations or separate legitimate entities that are gods but that are

04:10:27.360 underneath a bigger god force also they'll go one further and they'll be like a prime mover

04:10:34.800 disinterested creative god that creates all of these things but any of the interaction

04:10:40.960 is done through intermediary gods and so that's one of the things when they talk about god

04:10:46.960 i know it can be off-putting when we're used to hearing it in a christian context but god's a

04:10:54.240 title and not somebody's name and so that's one of the things i think we grow up thinking that

04:11:00.000 you know the jewish god is god but no he's yahweh who is the god of the jews um

04:11:09.760 and he talks about you know 0.80

04:11:11.040 god demonic forces and jesus being a vedic guru

04:11:19.220 i think people like to do that and feel some kind of need to co-opt jesus into their tradition

04:11:28.340 a lot of the time that's a common esoteric thing to do i think that's still a part of

04:11:36.360 our folk that don't feel comfortable completely leaving that behind. And so they try to force it

04:11:43.560 into their context. And I think you see that in very, very early practices of, you know,

04:11:49.580 proto-Ausatru, where they'll come up with, you know, some fanciful theory of German archaeology

04:11:58.600 where, you know, Jesus was really an ancient Germanic, you know, form of one of our gods and

04:12:06.960 all of that stuff is not true. And it's a lot of people playing a lot of mental gymnastics to try

04:12:14.540 to make it true because it makes the transition easier. But I don't believe there's truth in that.

04:12:20.740 But I do know that's a fairly common thing to do. But yeah, I wish I wish that those people

04:12:27.580 who are of our folk including acharya ji would join us i would love to have him you know join

04:12:35.660 the afa and embrace alsatru and approach divinity through something that is is closer to uh

04:12:46.220 to his roots and i believe he's a he's a spaniard um predominantly

04:12:51.340 um finwraith have either of you guys watched the last kingdom i've watched the last kingdom 0.52

04:13:01.360 it's silly for all of the reasons that i said that vikings was silly

04:13:09.600 its portrayal of history is grossly inaccurate and silly i've not read the source books that it's a

04:13:18.260 writing of. I think it's cool in the fact that it shines light on a time of history that's really

04:13:24.360 interesting, but it's gross how it misportrays it. That's all I really got on it. Svan, do you

04:13:33.220 have any thoughts on it? I'm going to disappoint again. I haven't seen it. I've heard that it was

04:13:39.300 uh you know better than the vikings as far as the anglo-saxon um kind of kingships but i haven't

04:13:48.500 seen it and again that's mainly because of time um time to do things as far as uh you know teaching

04:13:56.020 my children in the morning going to work in the uh noon to late evenings and then coming home

04:14:03.860 and doing other things and then going back to bed and kind of rinse and repeat so i i live of

04:14:10.020 an existence very much in what's kind of going on right in front of me um and so i don't have a lot

04:14:17.780 of time to do that um i wanted to say something to just about the previous question and something

04:14:24.820 that wolf throne just said about you know he's he's too devoted to his gods one of the things

04:14:29.940 of my understanding about santana uh sanatana dharma is obligation i've said obligation before

04:14:38.900 and it threw a lot of people off because again it's kind of like the kneeling subject is that

04:14:44.820 we are obligated or indebted to our gods and so therefore with the on in our in our lungs we

04:14:50.420 should then kind of continue the gift cycle i think that that resides a little bit in our faith

04:14:56.420 as well as the idea of this obligational devotion.

04:14:59.980 But I think that a lot of Hinduism will, you know, 0.97

04:15:03.880 I cannot see unless you are my eyes. 1.00

04:15:05.800 I cannot walk unless you are my feet.

04:15:07.680 There's a lot of that involved.

04:15:09.640 I think that Ausatürer should look at the gods more

04:15:14.900 and pray to the gods that they witness our deeds

04:15:19.520 and that they should consider that the gods are watching them

04:15:22.180 and not live a life where they think they can just do whatever

04:15:24.760 and the gods aren't even paying attention or what have you.

04:15:27.880 I wish that Asatrua would have more devotion and piety to the gods,

04:15:31.640 but I also don't think that we have a kind of the more Eastern Asian sense

04:15:38.940 of like vast, you know, like devotion in temples

04:15:45.060 that are placed around the idea of like the obligation to correct dharma

04:15:50.740 is simply through worship and not living.

04:15:56.020 Wolfthrown, I think that that's a fundamental misunderstanding.

04:16:00.220 If the basic premise is that the Vedic religion

04:16:04.180 is our shared ancient religion,

04:16:08.280 that Alcetru is a branch of,

04:16:10.160 then his gods are our gods,

04:16:14.940 just with a blue coat of paint

04:16:22.920 that they tend to do over there.

04:16:28.200 The gods exist and are,

04:16:30.620 no matter what name we call them by,

04:16:33.540 as far as our racial gods.

04:16:35.800 The whole point of Dharma 0.89

04:16:37.120 is you worship the gods of your people

04:16:40.960 and your ancestors.

04:16:43.120 As a Spaniard,

04:16:44.460 his, you know, his gods and our gods are the same gods. I think that he is perhaps too devoted to

04:16:53.420 the trappings that he has, the lens that he has seen his gods through.

04:17:02.520 But fundamentally, and I think that he believes that his gods and our gods are the same gods as

04:17:08.540 well, with different names and a different cultural understanding to them. So I think

04:17:18.700 he should come home to Ausatru. And I hope he does sometime. That said, also from Finn 1.00

04:17:27.000 Wraith, what do you think of the Marvel Thor? And do you think it has done more good or

04:17:32.780 harm to our beliefs. So as opposed to the other two things talked about, the Vikings and the Last

04:17:39.440 Kingdom, Marvel Thor is obviously about a comic book and existing in a comic book universe. In

04:17:47.460 that way, I think that it gets people curious sometimes about Alcetru. It's also cringy and

04:17:56.260 obnoxious. I don't think it has done any damage to Alcetru, certainly, because nobody who practices

04:18:02.520 is also true is confused that you know a 1960s comic book is is authentic lore um i don't think

04:18:10.520 it's really done much to confuse that i pray i've seen it confuse little kids and i've seen that be

04:18:15.560 a thing um but ultimately i think it's probably led people to be more curious about our lore um

04:18:25.400 the others however miss display real history and i think that's far more dangerous because

04:18:32.360 i think the casual person watching assumes oh clearly they must be working with you know facts

04:18:38.120 and then they misunderstand history um so that's my take on it what's your thoughts do you have

04:18:44.840 any thoughts on that for right now it's fun i never i mean i that's interesting that you

04:18:49.800 brought that up it's just the relationship between miscuing uh historical things versus

04:18:55.640 you know creating a fantasy realm is like along with like say lord of the rings you you know you

04:19:03.240 um it's yeah it exists within that world encapsulated so um yeah i i

04:19:12.600 i never put much stock in it even growing up um

04:19:18.400 i i became austin true when i was a teenager and before that i was uh i i read comic books i think

04:19:26.760 a lot a lot of kids in the 80s and early 90s read a lot of comic books i never equated the two i i

04:19:36.320 i mean i saw some of them and they were interesting with the way that they would

04:19:42.340 artistically draw certain things they uh i remember seeing a drawing in one of the comics of um

04:19:49.940 of a bragi lord bragi and he had runes on his tongue and i was like

04:19:57.140 whoa what is that and then i actually looked it up and was reading about it and sure there is a

04:20:01.860 mention of lord bragi having runes on his tongue i thought that was really cool but outside of that

04:20:07.460 like i never really saw the two together i think that a lot of people do get confused with when it

04:20:13.540 comes especially with the idea of how loki plays in our stories versus the marvel thing and again

04:20:21.380 they're they're attuning themselves to the anti-hero and the um you know making the the um

04:20:29.140 imminent threat like sexy and uh trying to sell it um they do that a lot they make they make uh

04:20:38.660 clear enemies into kind of quasi heroes um that i think is the most detrimental thing for me in my

04:20:44.660 opinion on that is not so much thor but how they have kind of utilized loki um uh to perpetuate

04:20:55.620 these these kind of false notions of well not every good guy's good and not every bad guy's bad

04:21:01.700 um and i mean most of us could probably complain about that in any other form of media but that's

04:21:08.760 one of them that really like just sticks in my craw about it it's like they're just watering it

04:21:15.400 all down but i mean at the end of the day it's relative and if if a name and entertainment kind

04:21:21.080 of gets people to go look on a wikipedia and look things up and that leads them down the road then

04:21:25.420 at the end of the day, you know, the end result is, is far, far outweighs the, uh, the initial

04:21:32.320 spark, if you will. All right. Well, the next question is, what are your thoughts on getting

04:21:38.980 rune tattoos? I do not have any tattoos. I have no strong thoughts or feelings about it. Um,

04:21:50.040 it's just something that I never got into. And the older I get, the more it's like,

04:21:54.840 if I'm going to deviate from that, I have to have a really good reason or a really good plan

04:21:59.660 in place. But I don't have any great taboo against that. I think some people do. A lot

04:22:05.780 of people have really specific ideas of how it should be done. Svan, what are your thoughts

04:22:14.400 on runic tattoos? I have runic tattoos. Good and bad. Good. What's oftentimes is

04:22:24.560 lacking in modern Ausitru, you will find it when, especially in older Ausitru, if somebody

04:22:32.080 was to say they got a Valkna tattooed on their body, there was a sudden visceral realness that

04:22:38.120 the practitioners of Ausitru would say, what are you doing? Like Lord Odin, that's like him owning

04:22:44.220 you. You're a cog in the machinations. Suddenly, and I remember so viscerally that people that we

04:22:52.100 would talk to about getting valknats on our skin spear goes here yes yeah but i would never i never

04:22:59.680 heard modern also true folk speak of lord odin so viscerally real as in relation to the valknot

04:23:07.800 and the tattoo and so in my opinion that was kind of a good thing in the sense that

04:23:14.560 for once a lot of modern house of true folks were considering the gods um as powerful beings

04:23:23.140 with caveats to the way that we act with them that i found great value as far as the runes go

04:23:31.480 and again i was here ago they kind of leaned on it and i i am in that group of the specifics

04:23:36.820 if you get a rune tattoo and it's not sung properly it's not sacrificed properly it's

04:23:44.260 not done properly as we will see in the runatal it will be made mention of um then i feel that

04:23:51.180 it's more of again kind of a perhaps a placeholder more symbolic it has uh more connections to

04:23:58.660 perhaps linguistics and symbology than it does to actual rune magic and that is the difference and

04:24:06.060 i think that when you play around with magic because it is very real for me if you do it

04:24:12.720 correctly, you have to do it properly and you have to do it with great consideration.

04:24:16.360 If you're not doing it from a magical standpoint, but from a symbolic standpoint, then having

04:24:23.660 runes that are juxtaposed, having somebody who maybe isn't even ausitru tattooing it

04:24:29.620 on your body doesn't necessarily hold a great visceral caveat of it having like, you're

04:24:37.440 dooming yourself, your limb's going to shrivel up or, you know, you're going to be followed

04:24:41.400 by ravens with diapers in their mouths for the rest of your days um it's just it's this kind of

04:24:49.160 uh concept of the symbology of it i think is important it it does i think a very good thing

04:24:55.640 in the sense of us taking our cultural art and expanding on it i'm big into tattoos i used to

04:25:02.200 give tattoos and um i'm you know re-breaking out some of my stuff and uh i really um enjoy

04:25:10.360 the artwork that comes about from it even some of the more uh like primitive bronze age style

04:25:17.880 that's coming out and tattooing and some of the like fabric not work that's starting to catch a

04:25:23.800 lot of attention um you know it used to be a lot of celtic not work um so i i think that that's

04:25:32.200 good in its expression and i i would i would encourage people to adorn their bodies if they

04:25:37.800 feel the need so um with art of their people and of the folk and don't get a chinese tattoo don't

04:25:46.840 get a japanese tattoo don't you know that stuff go away from that if you're gonna get tattoos get

04:25:55.160 tattoos of your folk and again the visceralness um i'm still a kind of like you know if somebody

04:26:00.680 tells me i'm gonna get a valk knot i'm still very real in my my hesitate i try to tell people don't

04:26:07.480 do that like this is not the path you do understand like just like what else here ago they said once

04:26:13.640 you see behind the curtain sometimes it is not joy that you find behind that place but whoa and

04:26:20.600 you know be middle wise um but i i have no problem with it i have i have run tattoos i also think

04:26:27.400 culturally for us our tattoos should be something that are more intimate and shared with people

04:26:32.120 that are close to us i wear uh long sleeve shirts not because i'm ashamed of my tattoos

04:26:37.480 But because the only people that know I have those tattoos are people that are close to me.

04:26:42.720 Outside of that, there's no necessity for anyone outside of my folk or outside of my family to know that I even have those tattoos.

04:26:50.400 So it's not about showing them off and flexing.

04:26:54.000 I think it should be more about personal devotion and intimacy with your kinfolk.

04:26:59.540 So few people know that I have a lot of tattoos. 0.81

04:27:03.500 so yes fun takes off his shirt he's like the the occidental yakuza

04:27:12.460 all right well thank you guys tonight uh that was our last question of the evening

04:27:22.140 we are taking a break next week swan and i will be in florida um but we have a special treat for you

04:27:32.060 uh we brandy will be hosting and we will have a all githya episode i believe all of our githyas

04:27:40.740 are going to be on and and do that the last time we did a githya episode it was very well received

04:27:45.820 um you guys treat them well ask good questions um be a good audience and i look forward to seeing

04:27:55.280 you again in two weeks if i don't see you earlier at uh charming of the plow so please if you want

04:28:02.460 Come join us there.

04:28:03.880 That's in White Springs, Florida.

04:28:06.940 Would love to see you there.

04:28:10.260 Until then, hail the gods, hail the folk, hail the AFA, and remember that victory never sleeps.

04:28:31.840 Thank you.

04:29:01.840 Thank you.

04:29:31.840 Thank you.

04:30:01.840 We'll be right back.

04:30:31.840 Thank you.

04:31:01.840 Transcription by CastingWords

Asatru Folk Assembly - February 08, 2024

2⧸7⧸24 Victory Never Sleeps, Episode 83 - Hávamál, Part 2

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