00:03:31.980So before we want to get started, I do just want to talk a little bit about a couple of things before we get into our talk on Vidar.
00:03:39.760We just had a very successful in the first showcase event at New York's Hof, our national event, Charming of the Plow, this past weekend.
00:03:50.080I unfortunately was not able to make it, but I did get caught up on all the goings on there, and I was really sorry that I missed it.
00:03:58.880But we had really great things going on.
00:04:02.480A couple of the things I want to send out a congratulation to tonight to Mike Joyner of New York's Hoff and to Shane Duffy, one of our Baldershoff folk builders.
00:04:15.520And notice I did not use the word apprentice folk builder.
00:04:19.840Shane and Mike both this weekend took their oaths and we are very, very proud of them and all that they have accomplished.
00:04:27.100And we look forward to seeing all that they do in the future.
00:04:31.740So congratulations to Shane and to Mike.
00:04:34.620And also extra congratulations to Mike who took his folk builder oath and then was right
00:04:41.600away called back up to receive one of our folk builder of the year awards.
00:04:49.620Also, if you are watching tonight, you can catch us on all kinds of different platforms.
00:04:53.700you can get us on odyssey entropy uh twitter youtube vk we've got a links in the description
00:04:59.940down there go ahead and take a look at that if you do want to ask us some questions and jump to
00:05:04.740the top of the line every time spawns on here he gets a whole list of questions so if you do want
00:05:10.020your question put up at the top you can go ahead and go on entropy and ask a question there if you
00:05:15.540like to give us a donation and we will put you at the top of the list there we will answer any of
00:05:19.940the questions that you do have even if you don't do that but if you do want it at the top of the
00:05:23.940playlist go ahead and drop us a donation on entropy all right so we did actually have one
00:05:31.220question that was already emailed to us this evening before the before the start and it says
00:05:38.900if you have time on tonight's vns can go this one talk about any as a true origins or correlations
00:05:46.740you are aware of in regards to Fat Tuesday? It's fun. Do you have any kind of correlations with
00:05:54.740Fat Tuesday and if there's any kind of as-a-true origins in that?
00:06:03.500Fat Tuesday, Fat Tuesday. Fat Tuesday is just before Lent, correct? It's the,
00:06:12.720It is – now, from what I remember, it is a time in which the larders were released for – like it was the last and little bit of everything that was in the larders was brought out for the celebration of spring.
00:06:36.720And as far as connections to Ausatru, I mean, I don't, I honestly, I don't know.
00:06:51.080We have, I mean, we clearly, like if you look at some of the Ausatru calendars, right now we're in Lenting month or the idea that Lent is the time in which we're, you know, absolutely at the lowest amount.
00:07:04.780And so, of course, Fat Tuesday would be in correlation to Lenting Month and the idea, again, of that final celebration.
00:07:15.080Whatever didn't, you know, get eaten, I guess, would be the purpose of it or making a lot of the foods based off of that.
00:07:26.680But so far as I know, it was originally kind of a solemn day.
00:07:31.480I mean, it was an agricultural celebration, but it became more prominent with Christianity.
00:07:38.700That's really off the top of my head, all I know.
00:07:42.800Now, if you give me, like, that's the thing.
00:07:46.680I really kind of wish we had some pre-show questions because then I could really kind of look into stuff.
00:07:57.120Beyond that, the connections to it, I'm not 100% sure.
00:08:00.860And I would be very interested to look in its connections to Tuesday in and of itself, obviously being Tears Day or connection to Teo, if there is any correlation there.
00:08:15.000But again, if we're talking about the Gregorian calendar, the Gregorian calendar's use has been varied throughout European history.
00:08:23.560So it could have just simply been the day chosen.
00:08:28.540that again i don't want to say because i don't i don't know fully that irks me that that might be
00:08:36.480something's fun has to run down a couple rabbit holes and uh entertain us all with uh they all
00:08:42.360the uh answers he finds as he crawls his way back out of it because i think that might be
00:08:46.720that might be some interesting research there's to be fair um and uh and i i know i haven't
00:08:52.620answered her question yet, but like three episodes back, four episodes back, there was a question
00:08:59.220asked about the connection between, or if there is a connection between Enki from the Babylonian
00:09:05.320and Sumerian and Luian and kind of the Mesopotamian area, if there's connection between Enki and
00:09:11.120Yngwie Frey, and I'm still working on that question. So if you're out there and you're
00:09:16.160thinking that I'm ignoring you, I am not. This is how I, I'm sorry, I'm in like,
00:09:20.940my nose is in it, but I'm, I'm trying to find the answer and I can't, I can't say unless
00:09:27.840I really am in the belief that this is the correct answer. Right.
00:09:35.560Human Manipulation Nation asks, could you give us a few examples of how you live your practice
00:09:42.960daily? Fun. You want to take that one first and I will follow up. Yeah. And actually I'll loop
00:09:50.540this into obviously we're talking about the holy lord vidar so one of the things that i have always
00:09:59.740taken into uh my belief and devotion to vidar is correct action and i believe that vidar is the
00:10:09.980He is two things. He is a kind of, I would say, a passive karma and a active dharma, if you will.
00:10:21.020Now, if you're not familiar with the terms, people watching not familiar with it, dharma is like natural law.
00:10:27.200It's corrective action. It's foundations of moral cosmic order and moral natural law, as we would, you know, we talk about with the Asa and the Vana.
00:10:38.740Or the Aisir and the Vanir. And Vidar really represents this, whereas Vauli is a, I would say, an active Dharma, I mean an active and immediate Dharma and a passive kind of karma, I would even say more just associated with Dharma itself.
00:17:11.180I'm out of my schedule for one. And that's, that bothers me.
00:17:17.920But I also feel like if I don't do it and this is just for me,
00:17:21.560not necessarily for everybody, but I feel like I haven't,
00:17:25.400I haven't done what I promised I would do to my ancestors, particularly.
00:17:32.960so i do have time that i've carved out every morning and i was telling the ladies this in
00:17:38.560my ladies call i said that's that's really how i start my day that's before my cup of coffee it's
00:17:44.800before i get ready for work and if i'm running late that's still happens and everything else
00:17:52.720gives way to that because it's it's something that that i've tasked myself as a duty to my
00:17:59.360ancestors to do. So that's something that I do every day. I might do something devotional in
00:18:05.740the morning to one of the gods and goddesses as well. Typically to Baldr and Nana, but there are
00:18:14.140other gods and goddesses that I do hold devotionals to as well, or I do do daily
00:18:18.680dedications or something like that. But one thing that is always constant is my greeting of the
00:18:23.760ancestors every morning. So that's one thing that if I don't get anything else done, that is always
00:18:29.920done. Other than that, it's, I like to participate in forms of active meditation. And when I say
00:18:41.480active meditation, you may not think that scrubbing your floors is active meditation, but when
00:18:48.060you do so with intention when you're galdring, when you're singing. I like to sing with a lot
00:18:54.820of things I do, even though I have a terrible voice and I probably shouldn't, and it's not
00:18:58.660appreciated by anyone other than myself and the God. It's an active work, but it helps me focus.
00:19:07.300So I do a lot of active meditation when I'm either cleaning or doing thread work or something like
00:19:15.560that. And I try to implement that and put my mind in a space to where I can work out a lot of things
00:19:22.140and I can still sing, even if I'm doing something, I'm queen of multitasking. So I may be doing
00:19:28.320devotionals and singing to the gods while I'm scrubbing my floors, but I'm, I'm giving it my
00:19:32.540all. My nightly practice is very similar to my, my daily practice, my evening practice. There's
00:19:40.560usually some sort of ancestor devotion, more along the lines of thanking them for being with me that
00:19:46.900day, greeting them in the morning, but thanking them at night. So if there's anything that is
00:19:52.580absolutely constant, I would say it's my greeting of the ancestors and my thanking of them in the
00:19:57.700evening. That would be an absolute constant. Everything else can give way to that. I mean,
00:20:02.360I might not brush my hair that morning before I go out the door to work, but I've said good
00:20:06.460morning to my grandmothers. I have for sure done that. I see over here UlfBjorn14 is writing it
00:20:16.340down. He's screenshot that, folks. Beautiful prayer. It's really brought our family, my family
00:20:22.880together and Law Speaker. It was a wonderful thing. I actually got coronavirus or one of the
00:20:29.900strands of coronavirus last year and I was just ill and kind of out. And my son came up and he
00:20:36.900was beaming with pride because he led the family in their prayer. And then the best thing too is
00:20:44.020just like when my kids, sometimes I'll eat at work because I'm just, I can't make it home late
00:20:50.600and I'm cleaning and trying to get things ready for the next day. And I'll come in and so I've
00:20:56.400already eaten and my wife might've already eaten as well. Like just, and we're not hungry. So we're
00:21:02.540not going to over, you know, stuff ourselves. There's, there's a have them all verse on that
00:21:07.320one as well. So we'll just make food for the kids and they'll have kind of their own dinner that
00:21:12.620night. And, uh, they, they say it then on their own too. And it's really nice. So I'm really glad
00:21:18.380Again, I hope law speaker doesn't mind this, but it's absolutely an honor to him, I would say.
00:21:29.080I think publicly I'm saying great prayer.
00:21:32.780Before that, I always just said a small blessing that was kind of personal, but small.
00:21:40.100And then this one just really, the uniformity of doing daily practice, whatever it might be, however small it might be,
00:21:46.720the continuation of doing the same thing over and over and over and over again builds might,
00:21:52.840builds, there's a connectivity. The moment you learn how to do something in corrective steps,
00:22:01.320then it's almost like when you have the ability to break away from the mundane,
00:22:08.240it happens even faster when you have a kind of a process in which you do it. And then once you do
00:22:14.840that you can open up to the gods you can open up to your ancestors you can speak genuinely from
00:22:20.320the heart you're not reading you know you're not reading from something in front unless i mean of
00:22:25.480course you wrote something down that like a poem or something but it's just it's having that
00:22:31.940repetition and being able to separate it's like when someone hears a drum or a bell or a horn or
00:22:38.900something it just immediately goes into uh allowing the the soul to be open so sorry i
00:22:47.460i was just looking over here i got i got the comments like last last uh show i it froze on
00:22:54.640me so like all this stuff is going on and i'm just like i can't can't say anything
00:23:00.160Sarah asks us since we are talking about Vidar let's talk about his shoes
00:23:07.280what were they made of and what was the purpose fun
00:23:11.420okay so um on the basis of just like right out the the bat I think this is a cultural reference
00:23:21.380at the time of the of the nords um in relation to shoe repair and and creating shoes and so the
00:23:30.460idea was and this happens a lot i think in european traditions um where uh there's a like
00:23:36.700there's a cause and there's an effect and so uh it's simply stating a devotional the idea of
00:23:44.460sacrificing a piece of the shoe was in essence a reminder to always help the processes it was
00:23:52.060being also true it's it's being trothful and true and loyal to the gods so in regards to it having
00:24:01.340validity say like all the way back you know it very well could um it doesn't have validity now
00:24:08.060I mean, unless you're a cobbler, I mean, but what it represents, though, is Vidar or Vidar is the foundation of a vertical axis.
00:24:19.080And that devotion to that is kind of a remembrance to the idea that how important Vidar is after Ragnarok.
00:24:32.060And again, we talked about mythic time and spiraling time. So after is, I'm using that just in a common sense way. That devotion of taking a cut from the shoe of the soul and sacrificing it to Vidar is, I guess, more or less a testament to remembering what the gods are and what they will be.
00:25:02.060Now, looking at Vidar, remember Vidar is, he stretches the mouth of the wolf, the chaos wolf, Fenrir, the dweller in the fens, and stabs him in the heart, but by opening his mouth, this imagery of the verticalness.
00:25:23.200And it's very, very interesting when you look at Vidar's name.
00:25:26.660Vidar means the wide ruler or the one who besets upon the width of things or sees widely.
00:25:36.640There's a lot of different kind of takes to that.
00:25:39.380I mean, there could be an essence to the idea of, like, the wide cycle or the wide, I guess, cycle would be season, the idea that he's waiting, that his time, his rise to karma is first precluded with a long wait.
00:26:06.220And once he does rise, he rises vertically. He severs chaos. He severs the chaos, stabs the wolf in the heart, and then reclamates the gods back into order. That's when the tide is turned. Surtur is slated and recedes, and everything begins to start to reform again.
00:26:27.860And, you know, whether this could be, let's say, like, we've talked about things in the metaphysical, things in the physical, things in symbolic or allegoric meanings.
00:26:42.660Could this mean, like, a shifting of access of the earth?
00:26:50.300you know these are these are things that i often think about and and try to correlate with some of
00:26:56.520that or uh what that the symbolic meaning of what the gods are trying to say in the stories because
00:27:02.360again the gods don't exist because of the stories the stories exist because of the gods i always say
00:27:07.060that and so i i do believe that they are trying to transfer things and we have to go through what
00:27:13.240translations and also go through uh perhaps even snorty himself you know trying to make sense of
00:27:19.680what he wanted to do in meter and whether or not he was truly a believer or came from a devotional
00:27:27.000state. There's a lot of that, but the idea of his presence, what he's trying to do correlates to
00:27:42.840becoming an access point at that point. And so the foundation, the idea of the foot or the boot
00:27:51.400is what I think correlates to foundation, is that he needs that boot thick. He needs it strong
00:27:58.360because he's going to place it at the bottom of the mouth of the wolf to wrench the wolf up. And
00:28:05.000it's just, it's a gesture towards remembering that he is the foundational
00:28:10.000original axis that's going to be established to re-initiate and uh and slate chaos
00:28:17.400godi trent east has a question for us swan and it is i was going to ask the i'll share your godi
00:28:29.380this question but i'll ask y'all as well what was the best journey song i'm going to answer that
00:28:35.120first the best journey song is separate ways worlds apart hands down but i'll let spawn give
00:28:43.280it a crack and see if he can get close i know i i i mean what is it uh wheel in the sky is that the
00:28:55.440yeah wheel in the sky um i mean i i grew up in the 80s uh my sister was very much a fan of journey
00:29:04.400But she moved back to Iceland right after high school.
00:29:08.000She was not having any of – I live in a military town where people are from everywhere, and she was not having that.
00:29:15.460She went from a very homogenic society where everybody spoke everything, and she came here.
00:29:21.640It was absolute insanity, and so she left.
00:29:25.220So outside of that, like, you know, my brothers and stuff were into more, I think, just ridiculous 80s music, whereas my sister was the grounding of classics, you know, from Iron Maiden and Journey and all the way even to like The Police that were, you know, and those were the big ones.
00:29:48.500but i like it because it always makes me think of you know sunar and and the process is the
00:29:55.860the raido of the universe if you will but there's fun with the with a spiritual answer
00:30:01.700and here's me just the one that i could just belt out to with balder's ball or thor's ball
00:30:06.340all right tim asks when spawn can you give us some tips on making peace with hostile land
00:30:18.140whites and house whites witten brandy as well i'll let you start spawn uh i learned from my
00:30:24.680mother um she always had a a kind of a way um and it wasn't really burning anything in the air
00:30:33.900though you know that has become kind of a thing for me now um uh i burned dry rosemary
00:30:44.300but beyond that what really what it was was my mother um would salt the house that's what she
00:30:49.980called it i'm gonna salt this house and i asked her when i was little like why and she said because
00:30:55.820in pure spirits can't walk on pure earth and the idea that salt was the purest form of the earth
00:31:01.820um so she would uh salt and she would salt everywhere she would salt under the couch
00:31:09.240she would salt into the every corner of the closet um and and i mean she would just salt
00:31:15.620anywhere and everywhere and sometimes she would make lines of salt at the door
00:31:19.120um so salt was a big one but she also made sure not to she never salted the yard or anything like
00:31:28.160that. But she would salt near the house on the foundation if it was particularly bad.
00:31:33.860Or actually, when we first, I lived in a townhouse, so we couldn't really do that. I grew up in a
00:31:40.140very bad neighborhood. When I moved to America, I was living in a military kind of row housing that
00:31:46.540was, I mean, they tore it down. It was absolutely wretched. And it got no better after the, or during
00:31:53.040and slightly after the carter administration so um wow that was a long time ago uh so they
00:32:01.040i was like i was six uh um so yeah so like my mother couldn't do that but then when we finally
00:32:10.100moved uh when i was a little bit older i was about eight or nine we moved to a house that had a yard
00:32:16.220around it and um i remember her salting outside and that's the only time i ever saw her do that
00:32:21.420But inside the house, most certainly. Other things, too, that she would do is hang a nail from the bedpost, an iron nail. There was only one incident where that was kind of a thing.
00:32:40.080Um, I remember this really clearly. I woke up in the middle of the night. I was very young and, um, the, the blanket, uh, in, again, I don't know if I was lucid dreaming. I, I've tried to logically explain this away as an adult, but I'll just say it as, as a, as a kid, the blanket was moving down my face.
00:33:02.480I woke up, and I was extremely frightened, and I thought it was my brother, Ragnar, but Ragnar, so I started yelling out to my – and we used to call him Rocky, so I was like, Rocky, stop, stop, and I thought he was pulling and just kind of preying on his little brother,
00:33:24.380and I figured if I yelled loud enough, my, my mother would hear it and, um, really come in and
00:33:30.060like wreck house. So, um, I'm yelling, I'm screaming for him to stop. It doesn't stop.
00:33:37.620And by the time it gets to my chest, I'm like, Nope, that's it. I pulled the, I jump up in the
00:33:42.180bed. I jump across the spance of the room and I opened the door and to my recollection, I didn't
00:33:47.580close it, but the door closed. And I ran across the hallway and into my mother's room. I was very
00:33:55.820little and she had a waterbed. So old waterbeds were, you know, they were like these frames with
00:34:04.460a smaller frame underneath it. So there was a cubby and usually the blanket hung over. I slid
00:34:10.740under there and was like terrified. And I guess I fell asleep. And my mother, many, many years later
00:34:17.020when we were in Iceland and I was at my grandmother's funeral, I told her about that.
00:34:21.780And she said, yeah, I remember finding you. And she said that my grandfather, Svanr, came into
00:34:29.100the room, was speaking Icelandic, and he came in and she sat up in bed and she's like, you're not
00:34:35.460supposed to be here. You're dead. And he said, I know, I know, I know, I know, but everything's
00:34:42.220okay now. And she was like, you're not supposed to be here. You're dead. And he's like, I know,
00:34:47.740I know. I just want to let you know everything's okay. And then he walks out of the room in her
00:34:51.520dream and she wakes up and I'm under the bed. She hung a nail from my bedpost, but never really
00:34:58.540explained exactly why. And she never told me, I remember her hanging the nail, but she never told
00:35:05.160me about the dream of my grandfather until many years later. So that was an interesting thing.
00:35:12.220But that's what I got. Salt the house. Salt the house, burn dried rosemary, and tell whatever it is to get out.
00:35:22.960so we we talk about this a lot with um with the afa ladies we have a ladies uh mysteries group
00:35:30.820that if you're interested in that at all if you're one of our ladies talk to um folk builders uh
00:35:37.980sarah alt and christine dumas and they can get you the schedule for those but we talk about a
00:35:43.680lot of these kind of things in the women's mysteries um one thing you have to remember
00:35:48.940with the Vaitir. A lot of the time, they are curious about what you're doing. You've done
00:35:59.540something or possibly said something or given an offering that's caught attention a lot of the time,
00:36:03.900so they're curious as to what you're doing. If they become to whether frightening or
00:36:12.740things of that nature, that's a different story. A lot of the time, they'll pop in,
00:36:17.380they'll go away. And they're like, oh, I don't know why you're doing that, but okay. And then
00:36:22.040they're done. They're curious. They want to know what you're doing. But if they're frightening or
00:36:29.040they're becoming hostile or something like that, and you feel like you need to get rid of them,
00:36:36.220the first thing you need to be is commanding. You have to remember this is your home. This
00:36:40.700is your land. You took it. It's yours. Tell them to go away. I mean, people don't, people don't
00:36:48.320realize that that is the first step. You need to make sure that you are claiming your energy
00:36:53.960with, with your energy, you know, whether you're, you're doing a land taking or whether you're doing
00:36:58.960a house blessing or whatever it is, you need to make sure that your energy and your power is in
00:37:03.480that house. Um, people also underestimate the power of their ancestors. Like, you know,
00:37:09.280as Fawn was saying with his, his grandfather coming in, I have a home that I'm not going to
00:37:16.840say I'm, you know, they're all powerful, which maybe they are, but my grandmothers are not going
00:37:22.500to let anybody come in here and mess with her babies. She's not, I know that she is here. And
00:37:29.140this comes part of the daily practice. I have a daily relationship with my dad's ear. Um, I know
00:37:35.700that they are here and i do not believe that they would allow anything to harm us
00:37:44.660um we were just talking about this fun with the baits here not that long ago right yeah yep we
00:37:51.860were we were talking about this you know when we're claiming sacred space when we're when
00:37:56.020we're doing a ritual we call upon our our holy gods we call upon our honored ancestors
00:38:03.380and we call upon the friendly bates here and the else year ago they said something during
00:38:08.420that conversation that we had he goes i do not believe that anything is going to come into that
00:38:15.060circle with the power of my gods the power of my ancestors and the friendly bates here that
00:38:20.820are watching what we're doing and i don't believe that they're going to disrupt it
00:38:26.260this is a place where we have powerful gods honored ancestors
00:38:33.380we should not be disturbed and he also made a comment about make sure you're sending out
00:38:39.860invites to who you want there the holy gods the honored ancestors the friendly vates here
00:38:46.980the other ones you don't have to banish them they're not going to come in nobody's going to
00:38:50.820let them in there so yeah we were just talking about that's one yeah and uh before that like a
00:38:58.820month or two before our conversation which i think was like last week or earlier this week um there
00:39:06.180was another uh member of the folk who was speaking about that there was a foul creature that was
00:39:11.380plaguing a friend of his during uh right in the middle of sleeping and um i'm sure most people
00:39:20.260probably already surmised that yeah the the knock the mata or the night the nightmare um the night
00:39:27.300spirit uh foul foul creatures again and um sometimes the tethering of of is based on damage
00:39:37.340it's not necessarily the house it's not necessarily the the the people in the house it could be
00:39:43.020something perhaps that was outside of the house damaging of the mind damaging of of the heart or
00:39:48.920the soul and uh where it's being carried in and it kind of acts like a beacon towards that so the
00:39:55.300first thing i would say is again i'm insulting the house is a good move on the first first but
00:40:02.180a rectifying trauma whatever that trauma might be uh that stress um seeking respite from the gods
00:40:11.620asking them to give you guidance speaking to the ausenir again there's a reason why
00:40:17.220uh like my mother was the one that kind of taught me about cleansing the house the home
00:40:21.620and the ladies do talk about this because the home is that's where tight ships are run so
00:40:29.060you know you know everything including that which can't be seen sometimes um i think that
00:40:34.660the other thing is if you're dealing with a poltergeist or a poltergeist um a lot of times
00:40:39.620those are mistaken for for ill um spirits um and it's worth noting whether or not it's a dvergar
00:40:50.420or a troll a troll being a foul spirit that i think um very very bad needs a lot of work but
00:41:00.580is oftentimes outside of the house as well as inside of the house um and you might need the
00:41:05.780work of a lord locker in order to get rid of a troll um if if you're dealing with like a dvergar
00:41:14.580or a lance i mean a land spirit that's connected to the earth they have the ability i think to move
00:41:20.180very physical things because they are deeply connected to that which creates the physicality
00:41:25.380of our world and so sometimes dealing with that again is um you know i've never had that situation
00:41:32.980but i would think to like sacred smoke as opposed to salt might be of the better
00:41:38.740um move for that and of course to you know um hallowing or gaining hallowed mead
00:41:46.340from a Hoth, from a Gidia, from a Gothi, or, you know, besieging the gods to hollow mead for
00:41:54.080yourself so that you can, you know, make the space sacred. Or any means of, I guess,
00:42:01.360physical fluid, whether it's, you know, mead, it could be, of course, too, is so bad. Some,
00:42:07.360I could see perhaps holding a bloat, like a blooding as a possibility. But generally,
00:42:15.940you know those are very rare situations and by your circumstances right you know if you one one
00:42:22.260really good thing that you can do too is to boil the water on your so think of your stove as your
00:42:30.660modern day hearth right taking pots of water and boiling the water and boiling lavender rosemary
00:42:38.340thyme throw in a little bit of apple in there if you want to and boil that up because you're taking
00:42:44.900that and you're dispersing it in your home. It's like a humidifier. It's the same thing.
00:42:49.520You're putting water into the air, right? So that's one thing that I have seen a lot of
00:42:55.240women do. I have seen my mentors do is they would do rosemary, thyme, I think it was rosemary,
00:43:00.960thyme, lavender, and apple. And they would slice it up and they would boil all of that
00:43:05.220with the intentions that they had. Now remember, those are tools, right? Those are tools you were
00:43:14.460using it's not that itself that has the power it is what you are doing with it and your intentions
00:43:21.660of it that have that um i also know a very a lot more than one several ladies who will something
00:43:30.300goes bump in the night they are not below getting into their cupboards and getting out their pots
00:43:35.020and pans and chasing it out of the house opening up the doors i have done this it works something
00:43:41.420goes bump in the night scaring your kids that's perfectly fine teach your children to do that and
00:43:45.740teach them to control their fear and to control their space open up the doors and start banging
00:43:53.180the pots and chase it out the door so i'll go away don't come back ask your ancestors to be there
00:43:58.700with you for the rest of the evening scaring the hanks yep it's a thing all right sarah asks
00:44:09.820sometimes vidar is associated with silence is related to him not speaking or is it more a
00:44:16.140reference to him being calm and focused so we do um go ahead it's fine i'll give that one to you
00:44:25.260oh no no well i mean you know there's is there really anything that says he does not speak other
00:44:31.740than um other than snorri saying that is there anything in the lord that says he doesn't speak
00:44:37.420I know Snorri says he's a god of silence. Yes. Well, it talks about where he resides,
00:44:46.380you know, stating in the bushes and the high grass grow where he is at and that he's
00:44:51.340far away. But it also states, too, that he's asked by the gods for help. So there's kind
00:44:57.580of a conflicting idea there that there is a separation, but there's also a reference to him
00:45:03.420being of great help for the gods and that he is nearly as strong as Thor and, you know, these
00:45:10.840references. But I think one of the things that is most said is that, you know, he sits in silence
00:45:21.120and waits in his land for the time in which, and that's in Vivi. It's actually named. So
00:45:30.080that's another interesting thing. I mean, one thing that's worth noting is that out of the
00:45:36.220lands that are named, like for instance, there's Skadi and Thrymheim, and that is not seen as being
00:45:44.540in the heavenly abode, but seen in the middle world. Vivi, again, I'm not stating that it is
00:45:51.660in the middle world, but it could be if there's, you know, possibilities in, in, in, in, in the
00:46:01.380regards to like, say, Thrymheim. But the idea of the wide expanse, the, the place in which is silent
00:46:10.060and the place which is in the widening of, of the gap in the middle, you know, sitting in silence
00:46:20.160uh in the in the lone place i think the the loneliness is comparative to the idea of not
00:46:26.980being connected and in waiting as well and it's there that he's again enacting himself as the
00:46:34.700eventual karma that will flow over and rip the chaos wolf in half and it has to be done in a
00:46:43.540very specific way in which the consumption and you know and the rising up and being released
00:46:50.060from the black lake where he is um you know once he's uh you know takes to consuming the universe
00:46:57.200there has to be these these actions that are made in order for him to suddenly become exactly what
00:47:03.800he is destined to be dharma at that time and ultimately the karma of chaos um as far as
00:47:10.180Silence goes—there is reference to him, but there's also reference to Forseti being worshipped in silence.
00:47:17.660And so I often wonder if there is perhaps an overall Germanic practice of silence, or at least enacting silence in faith to the gods.
00:47:36.360But silence, determination, separation, I think these all denote the ideas of focusing and preparing.
00:47:47.500I've always taken Vidar to be, if he takes that oath of being separated, takes that oath of being quiet and waiting, I've always taken Vidar to be the lord of personal attestments.
00:48:01.440He's the representative of Thumos, but Thumos has to start first in preparation.
00:48:09.680Thumos, of course, heroic action and having the heroic soul.
00:48:17.540But like in Greek stories, you know, when somebody has a lot of hubris, it's usually done because they do it in rash action.
00:48:26.300They speak over much, and then they go forward headlong, and they end up getting just desserts.
00:48:35.860And I think in our people's stories, they're making note of the ideas, not about warning us about hubris,
00:48:44.680but instead showing us that there's great consideration, concentration, and devotion in preparing for Thumos.
00:48:51.500And that, I think, is a unique thing between, I think, our people, like our cousins to the south and us to the north is in that recollection of Vidar is quietly preparing his soul for the moment to strike as opposed to, you know, saying over much.
00:49:15.960So silence, yes, I could see it. And I could see it as perhaps a form of worship. I've seen it elsewhere. But it's also about determination, separation, and preparedness for moment.
00:49:31.100shield maiden has a question for us what are the mourning practices of as a true i recently lost
00:49:41.800someone but haven't lost anyone since i've been become as a true so first of all i'm very sorry
00:49:48.900about your loss um one thing i always talk to people when we're talking about um loss of loved
00:49:56.440ones is there are so many ways that you can keep that memory alive and remember that part of our
00:50:04.320immortality lies in the fact that our name will still be spoken on the lips of our ancestors
00:50:10.560and our friends even when we're gone. So that is going to be part of that mourning process
00:50:16.760is speaking their name, telling their stories and making sure that that person is never forgotten.
00:50:22.980Um, there are, um, there are rights that we do for rites of passage. We do have a funeral rite
00:50:33.480of passage on that. Um, the, the AFA does have an official, um, funeral service for those who pass
00:50:41.980away. And if you are interested in that, um, or just curious about that, um, get ahold of any of
00:50:48.920Godar and you can find that on our runestone.org website under um contact us and you can get a
00:50:55.640hold of the Godar and they can kind of talk you through what that looks like um just in case you
00:51:01.580were curious on on like an as a true funeral um one of the hardest things with grief is
00:51:10.840understanding that it's first of all okay to hurt and it's okay to feel that loss a lot of times
00:51:19.700people will get caught up in what they have to do next and what step to take next and i shouldn't be
00:51:25.940sad because it's been a year already it's okay to be sad that grief is going to come in waves
00:51:31.420it's going to ebb and flow like a low tide and a high tide and a big part of that is riding the
00:51:38.520tides appropriately. When you are on, when the waves are coming crashing in, part of that
00:51:46.520mourning process is going to be reaching out to that person. When you feel like it's overwhelming
00:51:52.720and that you need to speak to them, speak to them. Do a bloat for them. Mention their name and
00:52:00.120symbol. Hang their picture on your wall. Include them in your ancestor dedications and devotionals.
00:52:08.520And that is what I would say would be one of the biggest parts of mourning in as a true is understanding that you still have that duty to love them and honor them and keep their memory alive.
00:52:23.540But don't forget it's okay to hurt when, even if it's been a year or two or five, there's going to be days when that grief is at high tide.
00:52:34.340And those are the times to really connect with them the most. And that will be a big part of taking care of that mourning and dealing with that loss. Svon, do you have any recommendations?
00:52:44.940I really think you hit it right to the source of it. I would say that it's incumbent upon
00:52:56.600us to remember that we have a deep, and now it's true, we have a deep obligation to honor
00:53:02.920our ancestors because we realize that we are part of a cycle, that we too will be ancestors
00:53:10.640one day. So I would say, obviously, grief and mourning can be met in many different ways. I
00:53:21.520think that when we talk about going into silence and preparedness of it, there's a torrent of
00:53:30.480emotions that can come out in that moment of silence. And I think it's important to collect
00:53:34.420oneself. I'm not saying don't experience it. But what I am saying is that there's going to be a
00:53:39.280moment in which others are going to be looking at you. Because we are a community. AFA is a
00:53:45.240community. Whether you're dealing with your fellow folk, whether you're dealing with your children,
00:53:51.320whether you're dealing with siblings or parents or family members living and close to us,
00:53:57.240whether they're AUSA True or not, after that moment of, I would say, coming to grips with
00:54:06.760the loss of the mortalness of someone close to you and experiencing all of that.
00:54:13.420That is that it is an obligation for us to then step out of that and be strong for others.
00:54:26.280It's our obligation to help continue on that, the memory of them, to show your kids,
00:54:34.480to tell your kids about them, to honor them during Yule, during Ancestors Night, to honor them
00:54:41.040throughout your daily practices or weekly practices, and to speak fondly of them, to tell
00:54:48.100stories of them, and encourage others to speak about them, find out about them, things that you
00:54:55.680may have not known. And again, we spoke about honored dead. I know that the ideas that
00:55:04.420we have to understand, too, that people, as we learn about them, even after, you know, there's
00:55:09.920a tendency in the rawness of emotion to find things out that may, you know, bring us right
00:55:18.960back into that torrent and milstrom of emotions. It's a time to understand that they see things
00:55:26.300differently now. It's a time to understand that they are not completely severed or gone.
00:55:31.020uh and just like we will not be completely severed or gone and so uh it's okay to even
00:55:38.500try to make peace to uh maybe if if the folk or somebody that's passed away is is was good
00:55:47.340but maybe there was something personal between you and that person um i think it's important that you
00:55:54.420hold a horn and give honor to them in the sense that you are airing thoughts, ideas,
00:56:06.360grievances, things like that, and that you ask not just to air them, but you ask to heal them
00:56:13.040in hopes that now that they are in a different way, now that they've passed through the veil,
00:56:19.580that they um see things differently and that they help you build peace between uh you know
00:56:30.560that time that they shared with you here in the middle um i think that's important but other than
00:56:36.580i mean that is you've hit it right on the head
00:56:39.500all right we have ril veneer asks can you explain the underlying underlying meaning
00:56:48.960of Vidar being the spatial god, and does it correlate with him surviving Ragnarok? I know
00:56:54.920you've touched on that already, but is there anything else you want to add with that, Svam?
00:56:59.520Yes. I mean, being the spatial god, yes. The correlation between Vidar and expanse is clear
00:57:09.000in the name of the domain or the hall or the home in which he lives. It is remarked as
00:57:18.900being a wide open space filled with grass and shrubs. So it kind of lends this idea that it's
00:57:25.420not trod very often. So it is seen as almost like the spaces in between. Yes, absolutely
00:57:34.300seen as a horizontal spread that at the proper moment condenses immediately into a vertical
00:57:44.140accessing, a support structure of the middle world and heaven in which, again, chaos is usurped
00:57:54.200and the strut between things is established. Yes, I mean, spatial, yeah, in the name,
00:58:03.300the wideness, but again, I think it's about motion. And when we see motion, we see this
00:58:09.780spreading out and this constant spreading out. And then all of a sudden, there's this moment
00:58:14.660where everything starts to recede back in, condense up and vertically rip chaos apart.
00:58:21.640So yes, spatial and spatial by movement. Thank you, sir. Wolf Shirt McNewt asks,
00:58:31.320is anyone here familiar with the prophetic writings of Wolf in Gesuno as they relate to
00:58:38.700either i am not swan are you familiar with that at all no um
00:58:50.620i am not the prophetic writings of wolf ingess
00:58:59.340uh wolf shirt i would love for you to expound on that um yeah no i i am i am not
00:59:08.700um that's an interesting question we get we get man we're getting the interesting ones
00:59:18.540now i'm like now now we're gonna have an opinion i gotta go hunt it down
00:59:28.220all right antonia rodriguez asks since vdar is associated with vengeance can you explain about
00:59:36.780Vidar killing Fenrir for Odin's death? Well, remember to vengeance. I know that
00:59:43.420a lot of folks are, when they look out into say like just the internet, the word vengeance comes
00:59:52.740up specifically with Vidar, but Vidar and Vauli take a unique formulation of vengeance. One is
01:00:05.080long and timed the other is immediate and pinpointed extremely fast within the strains
01:00:13.220of time with within weird or within orlog it's like a the difference between say again karmic
01:00:18.920action slowly building up to the moment where it needs to be corrective dharma and then there's
01:00:23.300corrective dharma that's immediate and just strikes straight into it uh this is the correspondence
01:00:29.560between the two. So I've always taken the vengeance aspect is about understanding
01:00:40.200correlative buildup of the doom that is to come. It is known that, you know, the gods know of their
01:00:52.020doom. It is spoken, you know, that they do know it. So the idea is that everything has to be done
01:00:58.780correctly in time. And that vengeance is corrective, but only after a great expanse of
01:01:08.600preparation. So, you know, I, again, that's why I always, it's like karmic vengeance versus
01:01:16.900dharmic vengeance. And I take Vidar to be more of the karmic vengeance in relation to the topic
01:01:24.140of vengeance. You know, other than that, I mean, seeing him as the source of, like, devotional
01:01:32.380practice in which you hold yourself to an oath, again, that's another thing, is Vidar
01:01:38.320as owing to avenge is, I think, a key point. The holding focus on the inevitable turn is
01:01:52.720important in relation to Vidar as opposed to with Vaoli, which there is no weight. There is no
01:01:59.360oath. There is just action completely. So, oathing to proper action, I think, is the most important
01:02:10.160consideration when we talk about Vidar. And with Vidar specifically, of course, it is vengeance
01:02:16.160against Fenris or against the chaos, the consuming chaos, but it's not the entirety of it
01:02:24.960and involves more about the patience, the planning, the othing, the consistency to keep
01:02:31.760and understanding. I think vengeance is one of those topics that when we,
01:02:36.020it's like, do you have a God of Vengeance? Yeah, we got two.
01:02:39.240no uh um it's it's misplaced in the sense that again it's about forethought and understanding
01:02:48.540it's about understanding all things that are connected to the moment of it so uh you know
01:02:53.620understanding that when we talk about good and evil amongst our folk what is good for the folk
01:02:59.540and what is bad for the folk and sometimes immediate vengeance uh is done and it i think
01:03:05.580it is kind of seen that Vaoli is immediate vengeance, and that that has a brashness to it.
01:03:11.520It has a kind of a raw and slaking sense that is kind of seen by our ancestors as like,
01:03:19.840whoa, that might not be the wisest of ways. Whereas with Vidar, it is the wisest of ways
01:03:26.660to consider all of the situation, to consider all the balances, and then waiting for the correct
01:03:32.920and opportune time. And understanding that once you take that action, however it may be,
01:03:40.660all the implications that will follow after that moment. So Vidar is a threshold. He's the build
01:03:46.980up to a moment. And then once you pass through that moment and its action is created, what comes
01:03:51.660after that? So after the vengeance, Vidar becomes the substantial axis, divinity axis,
01:04:00.640and severing chaos and ripping it asunder to create the new, to create the whole of the
01:04:08.920universe again. So that vengeance, that karma is correct. It can't be done earlier. It can't be
01:04:17.080done too late. It has to be done at the moment that it was set to be. So vengeance has a
01:04:25.580threshold as opposed to an action with all consideration and keeping oath to that. And so
01:04:33.180what I mean really too is giving credence to heeding all situations. Seeking vengeance
01:04:42.240immediately in the heat of things I do not think is the path of Vidar. Yes. That's all I can say,
01:04:53.260guess so before we go into uh any of the other questions you know we're talking about how
01:05:01.020important timing is and things like that i think now is a good time to uh let folk know about
01:05:07.740ostara that's coming up next month swan ah yes yes yes we're we're having uh austra in the south
01:05:18.060once again. We've been holding this tradition very well. Oster has always been, you know,
01:05:25.180in the heart of the south for many, many years, even before Thorshof, so the continuation is
01:05:31.260present, in which we give honor and thankfulness for the opening of Dellings Hall, the openings of
01:05:40.860the gates and the return of the warmth that is to come through um and begin you know begin spring
01:05:51.340and we're prepping for it right now with charming of the plow that's that's really what this is
01:05:54.940about is this is the bottom of the barrel it's the scraping of of the larder it's the scraping
01:05:59.820of the pantry it's the lenting time it's the tightening of the belt but we are focusing we're
01:06:05.100We're honing, we're preparing the earth, we're preparing, you know, in preparation.
01:06:12.020And Charming of the Plow comes from remnants of Akerbot, which if you guys, you know, read up on that, that's really the origins of Charming of the Plow.
01:06:22.080And the idea, again, is focusing and preparing for the threshold, the moment that Ostera comes and she brings with her a new tidying of the dawn, which is the warmth.
01:06:35.760And, you know, we are celebrating again in March, and it'll be a multiple-day event, and, you know, classes, auctions, storytelling, bloats to Ostra, kids games, lots of, you know, running around with eggs haphazardly, or the children should.
01:07:03.840i mean sometimes i'll i'll get in there too but um yeah it's gonna be a great time
01:07:10.560so you heard it here first if you're bringing your kids to ostra make sure that you bring an
01:07:14.560extra set of clothes because fawn throws eggs yeah yeah sometimes sometimes they do it themselves
01:07:22.160though so bring an extra set of clothes for the kids and come down to um ostar in the south march
01:07:29.04010 to the 12th. You can get your tickets at runestone.org under Product and Ostara. We've
01:07:36.920got that link up there on the screen. I will tell you that Ostara at Thorshof is my second
01:07:45.120favorite event. I only say second because my first favorite event is going to be Freyfaxi
01:08:19.900that you could want for a family vacation so please take a chance go down there if you have
01:08:25.260not seen thor's off already and you have not met the people down there please go
01:08:29.340please go because you won't forget it all right yeah we might be uh covering hopefully if i can
01:08:37.440get the proper stuff um because we have to get multiples of things but uh um utilizing um uh
01:08:45.000the dyeing and uh painting with beeswax on eggs yes yes yes yes we yes that is a blast if you
01:08:54.520come to bouldershof for ostaro you'll see that but definitely hit uh thor's hop because they're
01:08:59.020going to be doing it too that is an absolute art that requires patience and a steady hand
01:09:05.220also bring another set of clothes if you're an adult because i promised you you were going to
01:09:10.800splash that on there and this is not like your egg dye people this is right emptying the eggs out
01:09:16.900and yeah having to purge the egg of the yolk and then getting things and then and then too you
01:09:22.880know doing some of those um beautiful designs with the beeswax and and dipping um a lot of times
01:09:30.600what i'll do is i'll sacrifice that egg by burying it in the ground to start spring so all that hard
01:09:36.420work, all that devotion, all that time and patience, and then, um, you know, placing it
01:09:40.980within the ground for, for fruitfulness of the, of the summer tide. Yes. One thing you can do with
01:09:46.840these, just a recommendation, especially if you have kids, what you can do with these eggs,
01:09:51.180once you hollow them out and you've put all of this time, work and dedication and painting them
01:09:55.820is you can go, we used to turn them into wish eggs, right? For the kids and the kids roll up
01:10:03.340their goals and a little piece of paper and they shove them in there with a bunch of um pretty
01:10:09.200um pretty papers um and some herbs and things like that and you seal them back up
01:10:15.500and then you put them on your altar and you whisper to them every day just like a mother
01:10:20.760bird sitting on her nest and then at uh mayday you break open your egg and release all of the
01:10:28.500stuff that you're doing so that's a lot of fun to do with kids and it's really cute to see your
01:10:33.240kids whispering to their eggs on the altars it's they're tending them just like a little mother
01:10:39.120bird it's adorable manifesting too manifesting their will using their will yes all right we've
01:10:48.100got a request a question from return of the nolder are land spirits the same as fairies and
01:10:56.440elves. Fairies and elves are, well, fairies and elves are going to be Vaetir. I'm going to let
01:11:04.020Spawn take the elves part of that one, but land spirits and things like that. So a Vaetir is going
01:11:11.860to be a spirit of some sort, whether that is your house Vaetir, whether that is just spirits
01:11:18.960that are wandering around um i would say yes fawn what do you got yeah yeah i would say uh when we
01:11:27.380talk about what uh when we consider like our gaulish cousins um uh celtic if you will again
01:11:36.000greek word uh i like i like using the word gaulish because they speak gallic and um uh yes when we
01:11:43.980talk about if they're you know like words that i think culturally are familiar i think it's very
01:11:48.560interesting too, in the Teutonic sphere, some of the languages not died. When you look at it
01:11:56.840from a perspective of the empire of Rome, where a lot of that was completely eradicated or subverted,
01:12:05.720even before Christianity, the Hellenistic tendencies of Rome to wipe a lot of that out
01:12:16.020was part of their process of growing as an empire, but with the Teutonic people.
01:12:19.820And it hasn't been, you know, all roses and fairy dust, if you will, between our two folks as cousins.
01:12:30.040I know we've had a long and torrid history of battle between each other,
01:12:36.020but it's worth noting that, yes, when you speak of fairies,
01:12:39.280Our folk, who might be completely Teutonic and not have any of the Gallic blood in them, they still know by the language, and that's how much the Gallic language and the idea.
01:12:52.200But yes, to consider the Vetter to be like that. Yes, absolutely.
01:12:57.160When we talk about the Alvar, though, we get into understanding that Alvar is kind of a spirit,
01:13:05.440but that spirit is connected to perhaps even more of a primordial or an older sense,
01:13:13.460whether it's the Alvar of the sky and the light.
01:13:17.980And sometimes we see them as guiding spirits.
01:13:22.600Sometimes we see Alvar as being connected.
01:13:26.000They were once mortal and have descended down from Yggdrasil as the dew drops into Urzuel.
01:13:33.000And then they enter into this world in a new form, not quite mortal, but something more.
01:13:40.600So we see the Alvar there, whether it's the light elves or the dark being connected to the mortal.
01:13:47.820Svart or Swarthi or the Dvergar are seen as, again, manifesting spirits that could be very much like what would be considered, I guess, a fairy or a fae or a seely kind of aspect,
01:14:03.680except that they're connected deeply to the physical building blocks of the universe, and so they can be, in their own right, very powerful.
01:14:12.440And it depends on how you interact, but Alvar is a broad term.
01:14:17.200Just like Disir is a broad term. We generally correlate the Disir to be our, you know, matron lineage and a dark elf is a, you know, a male connection, a spiritual being that's not quite mortal and not quite godly, but is in the middle.
01:14:40.680But like the Leosalf and the Svartalf are, you know, they're part of the primordial parts of like, you know, the creation in light and in void or in the neither, that which is beneath in the darkness and neither valor and in, you know, Leosalfheim where Frey is lord presiding over the mortal, over the middle, over the material.
01:15:08.340So alvar is a broad term, and it causes a lot of confusion when people read and look into things and how they're referenced, and it was used to mean, like even post-conversion in Iceland when they spoke about church bells scaring away, you know, the huddle folk, and the huddle folk are seen as like somewhere in between alvar and vetir.
01:15:30.400So we more or less stick to definitions in order to create clarity.
01:15:38.080But I think our ancestors and the following years or centuries after, there was a lot of broad term usage of words like Galdr and Alvar and things like that.
01:15:50.480So there is a little bit of confusion there.
01:16:00.400Sorry, I did want to say, they manifest in things. I wanted to really point out too that some people understand that the building blocks of the material can be manifested with vater, but that the material of the world is not simply like a vater is in every tree, but that a sacred tree can be manifested.
01:16:29.540A stone, like in Iceland, when they have people go out into the land and talk to Alvar, they're looking at not every stone.
01:16:38.880They're looking at oftentimes very specific stones where there's a manifestation of the vater, where they kind of gravitate, where their weird collects or where their oar log collects.
01:16:48.560And oftentimes, you know, it's spoken that in that manifested area, there might be problems if you disperse or relieve yourself.
01:17:00.720Like there's lots of points in, you know, in the sagas about not relieving oneself in improper places that the vetir or the alvar will take offense to that.
01:17:12.700So it's, it is about, you know, a lot of respect because of where they can manifest themselves. And so we generally treat all of those interactions with a sense of respect and try to gain allegiance with and friendship with those manifested spots, but not in all things, not every stone, not every tree. So I wanted to bring that up.
01:17:40.000Yes. Wolfshire McNewt asks, what's your opinion on the practice of burning sage to cleanse a room
01:17:48.360of negative forces? My mom does that. She believes in spirits, but not gods and is generally new EG.
01:17:55.800So you can do what you want. I'm not going to tell you to burn sage or not to burn sage. That's
01:18:02.000going to be between you and what you're going to do in your house. I personally, I personally don't
01:18:08.680burn sage. Um, I burn, if you look at the bundles that I have on my altars, I have a mugwort. I
01:18:15.920have cedar. Um, I have mixtures of rosemary and lavender. Um, I also, one of the things that I do
01:18:23.880as well, and this has to do with where we've talked about house cleansing before getting rid of the,
01:18:28.540the bad energies or the, the bad, you know, the baits here that you're think that need to go.
01:18:33.820I give roses a lot as offerings to my desir. So when those roses are done, I don't
01:18:41.020bury them and I don't throw them away, obviously, because they're gifts. So what I'll do is I'll
01:18:46.360actually dry them out. I collect the petals and I mix it with either lavender or thyme and I mix
01:18:53.120it together and I actually burn that over charcoal and I'll use that if I am asking my desir
01:18:58.620specifically to come into my home to help me get rid of whatever it is that's built up because
01:19:04.900things build up. Just like if you don't clean your house, it gets dirty. If you don't do the
01:19:09.780same thing, it gets heavy. So I will ask, that's what I will do to ask my grandmothers. This is
01:19:14.840where I want you to be. Right. And that's what I use is those roses mixed in with the, you know,
01:19:20.440some, some rosemary or time or whatever we've got going for whatever reason, but I keep those.
01:19:26.300and that's what i burn i personally don't burn sage myself doesn't mean he can it just means
01:19:31.740brandy doesn't it's fun uh yeah to go in specifically to sage uh when we're talking about
01:19:41.180that i think that first and foremost yeah it is kind of new agey and that's because i think it
01:19:47.900it really originates from the uh native americans in the in the southwest and they're using a
01:19:54.140specific type of uh salvia and the bundling and things and i think that you know there's there's
01:20:01.100been that pull in in uh as of late where people are kind of either pulling away from the things
01:20:10.780that don't speak to their soul and these have been having for generations of course the gods
01:20:15.580are you know calling people back a lot of folks though they they grip onto things that are
01:20:20.860attempting to hold some sense of an otherworldly sacredness. But it's not culturally based. So
01:20:32.780Burning Sage, I would say, is kind of more or less looking at it from another, pulling from
01:20:40.300another culture, or at least being influenced from another culture. And there is a lot of
01:20:45.240you know, symbiotic kind of things that we have picked up from, say, you know, whether we're
01:20:53.680talking like we're talking about the Gauls, and we're talking about the Teutons, and even the
01:20:57.080Hellenic folk, the Roman, the Latin, and Greek, there's a lot of stuff there that we have picked
01:21:04.100up and incorporated. But yeah, I think sometimes people do kind of go with that being, you know,
01:21:14.820new agey and that that is i guess that's the best term that we can we can really encounter
01:21:20.580but the burning of wart or burning of herb um in order to make sacred that is not you know
01:21:30.260that's that's that is something as much of a part of us as it is a part of most every
01:21:35.300you know type of people in the world so you know seeking like witten callahan said just about
01:21:44.180you know, if the roses have portents, the idea of drying them, the idea of burning them,
01:21:49.960burning them on coals, burning them on a sacred fire or a sacred, you know, even a sacred box
01:21:56.600that has, that is, you know, built for holding coals, whether the coals are from the Yule log
01:22:02.060or they're from, you know, the sacred fire that's burnt during Hexanoct or whether or not they're
01:22:07.560just like a charcoal resal um but me personally like i i often do rosemary um dried rosemary and
01:22:17.480also to hazel bark uh in in particular for protection um as hazel is you know associated
01:22:25.080to boundaries creating a boundary spaces amongst our folk so it's not necessarily
01:22:31.800sage-specific. I think you can really start to broaden your usage. Some people have been using
01:22:43.060on recently mountain laurel or bay leaf, as it's known, has been kind of popular. A lot of people
01:22:51.420were using that too. I occasionally have because seeking a gift of dry herb that I have, bay leaf
01:23:00.800is one that's readily available in my kitchen and in my house, but is by no means the only thing.
01:23:07.420You can get pretty creative with it based on certain things. And again, herb craft and ward
01:23:13.800craft and things of that nature are often, seek the women folk out, ask them about their knowledge
01:23:20.480of these things, or find wise women that know these things that can be good. As far as using
01:23:25.780things that might be correlated more towards um you know native american stuff like as in sage
01:23:33.220it's it's still worth noting that there is a sage that is in europe there is a sage that is in in
01:23:38.500um it's often referred to as russian sage uh it's commonly grown as a as a horticultural plant
01:23:46.340um so yeah i mean if that's what you got and that's what you're trying to do
01:23:52.260that's what you got but you it by no means are you confined to it right sage is not the just
01:23:59.540because you can buy sage in any metaphysical store and that's generally what you use does not mean
01:24:06.340it's your only option there's there's many many many more um jamie asks i have a question and i
01:24:13.620know we've touched on this already swan a little bit just to see if you have anything to add on
01:24:16.980that. I have a question. What was the meaning for Vidar to be frugal in words? Do you have
01:24:22.060anything else to add from what you were talking about earlier? Yeah, again, and this is really
01:24:27.640interesting because we've already covered a question about mourning, and when you look at
01:24:32.400some of the sagas, like when Eyal Skallagrimson's son passes, he goes into a drought of words,
01:24:41.620And for a poet to go into a drought of words is strong. He goes into a deep silence and in preparation for the poem that is recited. But I think, again, sparing in words is more or less showing a preparation for moment, preparation for an activity or a threshold or an indication of what could be the end of a devotional moment.
01:25:08.120So one of the basis of heroic action is the preparedness of it and what those parameters might mean culturally to our ancestors in the time. Silence, I think, was culturally understood. I think it's still understood, you know, is when someone goes quiet, things, you know, it's serious.
01:25:30.280And so, yes, sparing of words, I think, is about dedication to the timing of correct and heroic action.
01:25:44.960We had a question in regards to a comment about Sigurheim in the chat, and it was, would people resent us for seeking our own Israel?
01:25:55.980Do we actually need it at this point in human history?
01:26:01.080So what, not quite sure exactly what the question is, but if you're talking about, do we actually need a Sigerheim at this point in our human history?
01:26:10.960Absolutely. We need a community of our folk that can worship together, that can live together, that can implement that super important daily practice together that we were talking about earlier in the podcast.
01:26:25.740But one thing that we also need is a community for our elderly, a community for our disabled, a community for people to come when they have hard times.
01:26:38.620We absolutely need a place like that for, you know, our folk, for the members of the Ashton Folk Assembly that something happens and they need help.
01:26:51.520um you know you get older as we all are and you don't have any family left who's going to help
01:27:00.240you if you come across an accident and you're disabled you know who's going to be there the
01:27:08.900folk are going to be the ones that are going to be there so do i think we need that in this point
01:27:14.260in human history yes and i think that there are you know places like this all over the country
01:27:21.200You know, not necessarily a Sigerheim, but there's communities of people all over the place that are taking care of each other, that are taking care of each other's children, that are taking care of each other's elderly, disabled, downtrodden, needing help.
01:27:38.280There's communities like that all over the place.
01:27:45.200Well, I think kind of in context of the question, first and foremost, our holy land is Europe, is that source from which I think the culmination of layers of the folk kind of moving westward into Europe has created Europe to be our holiest of lands.
01:28:04.420But at the same time, it's understood that when we take up, you know, into moving into a place, we don't move into a place seeking to create a new holy land, if you will.
01:28:23.920But instead, we take up and build that which is sacred to us as well.
01:28:31.340Transience is part of the process, but it's not the end of it all. It's not what we seek to be. We don't seek to remain transient. And so I think that in context of the question is we're not separating ourselves from society.
01:28:50.280We're not separating ourselves from our land, this land, the land that our forefathers built, but instead looking at it as more of a spiritual homestead in which we can cultivate, again, helping the elderly, helping our folk, building a more cohesive community or communication network in which we can get things out and more focused.
01:29:17.160because right now we are kind of all spread about you know uh america is the americ it is the it is
01:29:24.040the giant kingdom it is the uh the immer reich if you will um it is one of our downfalls is that
01:29:33.480there's so much space between us i think a lot of times that we have to work through a lot of
01:29:38.920communication problems and things like that but it's also about taking up a steady making a place
01:29:45.640wholly on our own. Uh, we do that with every Hoff, but there's something more that we're doing with,
01:29:51.720with Sigurheim as a community, but we're not seeking to separate. We're not seeking to
01:29:56.600isolate. We're not seeking to create a, um, like, uh, I guess I, I don't know what the term would
01:30:04.200be, but, uh, you know, a, a, a separate neighborhood that, uh, you know, is completely
01:30:08.920like, like say for instance, like maybe the Amish or the Mennonites or something like that is it's,
01:30:13.160we're, we're seeking to build strength for ourselves, but not be completely disregarding
01:30:22.040of the, of the land that we're in, um, of the history of it. The, the, the, the history of
01:30:28.100our land is, is, you know, it's, uh, like comparatively to Europe. I mean, the history
01:30:35.100of America is, especially for me, like coming in, you know, from a young age, coming into America
01:30:41.720and falling in love with the history of it, but it's been so active in such a short amount of
01:30:47.040time in comparison to a lot of the countries in Europe. And so it's filled with vibrant life.
01:30:54.020It's filled with war. It's filled with emotion. It's filled with nobility. And I think that
01:30:59.980by separating away from that, we would be doing a disservice to our ancestors. And so I don't
01:31:06.840think that we are looking at it as a, you know, creating, I guess, like a new holy land, if you
01:31:16.320will. But in essence, doing as our ancestors have always done is taking up stead and holding
01:31:22.700sacredness of the land beneath our feet and utilizing that to build strength and network
01:31:28.540for our gods and building the glory of our gods up in faith and making a beacon for
01:31:36.480for people to come home to a spiritual beacon if you will not necessarily like a land beacon
01:31:42.640that would be cool if we had a land beacon though you know instead of the batman signal it's just a
01:31:49.780big trihorn right lighting the lighting the fires upon the upon the towers of the west
01:31:56.920wish list for sigurheim is a trihorn beacon because i think that would be great
01:32:05.840that would be awesome but yes spiritual beacon first look what happens when we're left unattended
01:32:13.840yeah last time we were left unattended in a call all right chris jones asks good evening i'm a
01:32:31.680trad european and i'm exploring the oara linda book by william r sandbach do you have an opinion
01:32:38.580on this book the aura linda i'm gonna have to defer to spawn on this one i do not have an
01:32:47.480opinion no this is the second time we're getting hit with uh references to um you know to books um
01:32:55.600let me see something real quick if you would permit me i would see now some of the stuff
01:33:01.380that I've come across too is like knowing origins of, of, um, complete names, like seeing essays
01:33:09.020or snippets. Um, okay. So we're talking about the, uh, um, the manuscript that surfaced in
01:33:16.260the Netherlands in the 13th century. Um, let's see here. Yes. 1867, a manuscript that surfaced
01:33:30.560in the Netherlands. Now, I'm familiar with this, interestingly enough, because we were recently
01:33:40.740talking about the laws of the Frigians in specifics to Forseti. We were recently discussing
01:33:47.900this, except with the 13th century, I'm not 100% sure to what degree Frigian law might be placed
01:33:55.960in this but coming from that area um i'm not surprised um but i'm not i'm not completely
01:34:05.380familiar with it so i'm i am putting a pin on that one and definitely holding uh true with it
01:34:13.200and and searching more about it um found another rabbit hole for fun yes
01:34:19.740i actually had a question in mind earlier about objects can any object in imbued with a purpose
01:34:33.700for a lack of a better words grow a soul if nurtured by that person or some kind of proto-soul
01:34:39.900no so not every tree has a soul not every blade of of grass has a soul
01:34:49.000um trees themselves don't have those um they don't grow those they can be inhabited
01:34:55.600by a vatir they can be taken over they can house many of them they can house one of them
01:35:04.340but can you put a proto soul or grow a soul of some sort or nurture that um i don't know
01:35:13.000You know, you can't nurture a soul into a stone or a tree that can only happen if you're going to have some sort of bait here that would claim that as a space.
01:35:25.920And I think there's confusion there, too, in the sense that sometimes things gain attachment through through or law, through through action and deed.
01:35:35.180And there are pieces, components of our soul in which like haminya could be attached perhaps, or maybe the hamr of a person could be attached to an object.
01:35:50.460But it's it's not the entirety of a soul as it is so much more a kind of a radiant effect of the soul being placed on an object that's used in continuous deed, whether it was to say the like, I guess, in ancient sense would be like, like if you're referring to like a sword, a sword having that imbuement of its owner through the deeds that it's doing creates a kind of primitive sense of
01:36:20.460uh, imbuement, but it's not necessarily in the entirety of a soul, nor is it a vetter. It's more
01:36:26.460of a, a component that's, um, being awashed and, and being a component of those, of those deeds.
01:36:35.720And we see that in our, our, our stories, like if a weapon is to break and if a weapon is to be
01:36:42.240reforged, uh, you know, and we see this like in the Volsunga saga, uh, or, you know, just in general
01:36:48.680through like even like Arthurian, you know, where we see the, the correlation of, of an object being
01:36:56.640directly kind of connected to perhaps the spirit of a nation or the humming, the humming of a
01:37:02.220nation or the hammer of the, of the, uh, the wielder there's of that, but complete and total
01:37:07.620soul in willfulness and in, in, um, like, uh, in, uh, an incorpore illness, but being completely
01:37:16.120willful upon its own i do not believe that's that's necessarily the case it's it can be confused
01:37:21.500because it does have a lot of layering and components to it but to be completely and
01:37:26.860independently willful yeah that's uh that's a whole other subject in regards to like say for
01:37:36.520instance like animals and humans and the gods and the alvar and the dsir those those are willful
01:37:42.700you know whole even though they may not be may not be corporeal so we're kind of going all over
01:37:51.980the place here tonight yeah shane folk builder shane duffy has sent us ten dollars thank you
01:38:00.700very much shane and he asked hello witness unrelated to vitar but i needed witness fun
01:38:06.700harrell's take nonetheless i have posed this to the go there recently as well so for some it's
01:38:11.940familiar what would you think of including a return of balder in our celebrations of ostara
01:38:17.700i will be discussing a presentation at ostara balder soft the return of balder with the return
01:38:26.020of spring well i think culturally uh we have connected the deep significance of the understanding
01:38:35.940the complete rise and the complete fall, if you will, as being correlated to the mid-summer and
01:38:47.260the mid-winter. I think that there, you know, again, with Mother's Night and with honoring
01:38:53.100Frigga, there's a sense of loss and, you know, remorse for the loss of the Bold One amongst the
01:39:03.500Aesir. And then, of course, we correlate Midsommar. The emanation, though, is an interesting
01:39:12.240point, because we do see Baldr, you know, as the source of emanation of light, of the
01:39:19.080expanse of the folk soul, expanse of boldness and things of that nature. In direct correlation to
01:39:28.260Ostara, you know, I could see it. And I think that every holy tide, there is perhaps an Aus or an
01:39:38.420Ausanir that are correlated heavily to a holy tide, but there are others too that, you know,
01:39:45.400for instance, during Winter Finding, a lot of times we hold great honorings towards Ullr,
01:39:49.980but also, you know, to Iduna or Idun, and so there's no, you know, disrespect towards Ullr,
01:39:58.820but in essence, we're spreading our love and our devotion towards multiple gods, so I mean,
01:40:05.300honoring Boulder during Asura, I don't think is wrong at all, I mean, I don't think honoring any
01:40:11.100of the gods at any time, and especially with the significance of understanding the radiance of
01:40:16.060light, of understanding the spreading or the emergence of light from darkness. By no means
01:40:22.020do I think that's misplaced. But culturally, I think we focus on Ostara and we focus on
01:40:32.260Baldr during Midsummer. But again, that convergence time, the day rune and the expansion of light
01:40:41.680from darkness does have i think significance so could it be incorporated absolutely i don't think
01:40:50.560there's anything wrong with that all right ryan oran wilson asks question do you think there's
01:41:01.840a spiritual significance of ask and embla coming from trees while trees come from ymir's head aka
01:41:10.400the noble parts okay so one of the things about uh i i guess the seeing of the upper part
01:41:21.680uh as being the noble and the lower part being the ignoble because again if we are we are to
01:41:27.680place that polaric sense we'd have to look at the opposite side um i mean
01:41:33.520the significance of the grass and the trees uh being of the hair and um you know the stones being
01:41:44.320of the bones and things like that that is mentioned um we're seeing again the poetics of it um
01:41:54.480as related to ask and um blah one thing that's worth noting is it said that they are
01:41:59.520unfaded and unrooted. That's the condition upon which they are found. So if there is any sort of
01:42:09.480language there that's being spoken, one of them is that there's a disconnect, that there is a
01:42:14.080complete disconnect, that the gods find a canvas to work upon that's been separated from origin,
01:42:27.860Or that the placement of the souls of mankind, because again, Asken Amla do represent the entirety of the folk, both men and women, and seeing that the generation of starting is that they are separated from the natural.
01:42:47.660They are seen, again, as unfated, and that they are made fated, that they are breathed into. So the emptying of the vessel, the idea that they are dead wood floating and, you know, washed upon the beach, there's a lot of language there about there's a clear separation from origin to the new potential.
01:43:11.060So as far as direct correlation, again, I think the language states pretty clearly that there is a separation. So I don't know if nobility being as from Ymir's head or things.
01:43:26.420I mean, Imr is spoken of being, you know, just clearly not seen as well for the gods, and that's why the slaying must be done.
01:43:38.680So there is that, but again, separation from those.
01:43:43.100The usage of tree, and again, the idea of shaping something from what was readily available.
01:43:50.880What we see as the usefulness of the shaping of the tree is showing more, I think, of the gods understanding our usefulness and seeing our potential and what we must be formed to.
01:44:02.860And that our soul might is important in the collecting of the soul might that will help in the end of times.
01:44:11.300I think that's one of our big purposes. And I think that's why Odin does collect the might of the souls of folk. But yes, yeah, separation I see there.
01:44:24.800So even if there is, is there after? Is there a correlation after? Perhaps before, but it's unrooted and unfaded and washed upon the shore and reshaped and rebreathed, breathed into and given on and given new purpose.
01:44:43.140all right so i hear that um our producer has indulged our silliness fawn and we actually
01:44:55.560have a batman style afa spotlight picture at the beacon yes there is our best
01:45:04.280this is why uh folk builder nicholas rice is absolutely amazing and anything that his
01:45:12.180Githya asked for, she receives, including a Batman-style trihorn for Sigurheim. It must be
01:45:20.920made of gold. Again, the soul might. If the soul might of the gods is we are to return to the gods
01:45:28.440and come home, the beacon is lit, but the purpose is there, is to call people home so that the
01:45:35.220soul might can be refilled and brought to bear, you know, when things come asunder, when chaos
01:45:43.680and order do meet head to head, our soul might is imperative in that process. And I think that's
01:45:49.960a grander purpose that I, you know, is the reasoning for the breath to be brought about,
01:45:57.520the shape to be made, for the folk to be, you know, focused upon and lifted by the gods up
01:46:04.080and into the world is because he understood the purpose of what we would play in his staving off
01:46:11.500of that moment. But that moment will come. And when it does, the soul might of the folk will
01:46:15.920be a huge part in that. So come home. Folk come him. All right. Our next question that we have
01:46:25.820comes from Jamie. I have a question. Did Vidar take, I think, did Vidar take Odin's place as
01:46:35.680king of the gods after Ragnarok was over? It specifically states about Vidar and Bauli
01:46:43.000taking stead. It's interesting when we look at the correlation of things. First and foremost,
01:46:53.940it's worth noting that Vidar's mother is GrÃder. GrÃder is, by Snorty's account, and he does this
01:47:01.800a lot, where he kind of, when he sees elder, really, really elder, divine, he kind of slaps
01:47:10.340Jotun on it. I think sometimes just, you know, he's just slapping it on there, but it's worth
01:47:18.640noting that the benefits that GrÃder gave to the gods in making her allegiance happened
01:47:23.780before she gave birth to Vidar, but GrÃðr is a part of the earth and part of the middle world.
01:47:30.020And so again, there is the sky and the earth producing yet another, and it's worth noting
01:47:38.020that it's said he's nearly as strong as Thor. So again, I think that's another connective tissue
01:47:43.120to understanding the earth giving birth by the divine of. But I think it's also important to
01:47:50.300know that like again his foot is placed within the physical realm and he creates that axis point
01:47:57.120again kind of like uh his steading is um uh like an ermine sila new um but it is mentioned
01:48:06.500specifically that vidar and vali will take stead um and then balder and nana return and um and
01:48:15.060Magni and Modi then take the, you know, the weapons, the weapon of their father, though it
01:48:20.960is also, again, worth noting, GrÃðr gives Thor a iron rod called GrÃðr, and it's at Thor's
01:48:33.180when you see in the godstead there, there is a rod in his belt, and that weapon is the weapon
01:48:42.660before Mjolnir. And that was given to Thor by GrÃðr. So again, we see Magni and Modi taking
01:48:54.720the stead and taking the weapons. There are two weapons. So I've often always taken that as one
01:49:02.440is to take the rod, the other to take the hammer, but that Vidar and Vali are again taking up their
01:49:09.760instead, in order and dominion, and Vidar's specific place is maintaining the axis.
01:49:18.640Okay. Shiro asks, can you suggest Havamal and Faluswal translations? Does the AFA have a
01:49:27.220suggested poetic Eta translation? So I personally, and it's going to be based on how you relate to
01:49:37.400it and how you understand it and what you can take from it and how you can read it. I am personally
01:49:43.580a Bray fan. I, I like Bray. That's my favorite. Um, but what I always recommend people doing is
01:49:51.760taking as many translations as possible. Um, Bellows, Bray, Thorpe, Hollander, um,
01:50:00.780um Larrington is really good so uh you've got Jackson Crawford's you've got
01:50:06.620uh what was the other one that we were just looking at the other day
01:50:12.320Chizom I think it was yes there are several different translations um you know even people
01:50:20.920who may not be believe exactly the ways that you do they may they may not like the AFA that
01:50:29.920that doesn't matter. You can still take all of their translations and put them all together and
01:50:34.020break them down. And you will find that some you relate to better than others. I'm personally a
01:50:41.160fan of Bray. That's usually my go-to. I highly recommend, and I actually have our Godard students
01:50:49.780do this as well, is go through them and write them side by side, whether that is in a notebook,
01:50:58.140whether that is on the computer, you know, whatever you want to do,
01:51:02.320but take those translations and break them down and write them side by side.
01:51:06.140And you're going to see some differences in numbering, especially in Voluspo.
01:51:10.280You're going to see a lot of difference in the numbering of them,
01:51:13.620but read through the whole thing, pick them out and put them,
01:51:18.240And you'll notice a difference between authors that have taken,
01:51:23.160or translators that have taken a lot of artistic privilege with those.
01:51:28.140Some who've tried to stay as close to the translation as possible.
01:51:32.500Some who have tried to keep, you know, the poeticism of it together.
01:51:37.020So, I mean, my recommendation is to take at least three, a minimum of three that you can relate to and write them down side by side.
01:51:47.980Svon, what are your recommendations on those?
01:51:50.300Yeah, I think basically what you were saying is the official is that there isn't an official, but that the utilization of multiple translations in order to find an understanding sometimes where there are deep differences in the translations, whether they're speaking of rivers or they're speaking of ages or people.
01:52:15.020um we were just discussing some of this stuff earlier the only way that you can really see
01:52:20.820those is by looking at all of them so a lot of times what we and you can find these on the
01:52:26.180internet there they are they are available where you can see multiple translations of every verse
01:52:32.560uh with the old norse initial and then every scholastic like translation and again just like
01:52:41.080what uh witten brandy just said is that sometimes you know they they come from people that are
01:52:45.480strictly scholastic uh there some are strictly linguistic some are strictly poetic and so we
01:52:53.400have the the huge benefit of having the well of information that is right at our fingertips to
01:53:00.280kind of compare and i think that's where the afa utilizes multiple translations for that reason is
01:53:06.360to see the differences between them. And, you know, again, it's that this instigates conversation
01:53:14.500for us to ask questions about, well, in this translation, you know, he speaks of rivers
01:53:19.540descending. And then in this translation, there seems to be a kenning in relation to, say,
01:53:25.120the, you know, the desire for, or mankind being the desire of sons and things like that. And
01:53:33.640And so we kind of go through and try to understand perhaps why certain translators have chosen certain things to say and what their reasonings are.
01:53:47.320Um, but we don't take one as a, uh, uh, like a, a biblical sense where there's like, there's just one way. And this is the only way it's, it's, um, again, there it's, when you look at all of them together, there's, that's not the way our faith works is, uh, we don't have this like pinnacle singular Bible.
01:54:09.780and we know that because the stories were compiled down and then of course are translated into
01:54:16.920various languages so if you're German or if you're from the Netherlands or you're from France
01:54:22.600you know these translations could be drastically different or if you're an English speaker you know
01:54:29.180if you're looking at Dumazil or if you're looking at Bellows or you know there's a lot to be had
01:54:35.920there. So I would say the best thing to do is find as many variations and translations in relation
01:54:43.500to the Old Norse. And again, ultimately, having a lexicon of understanding the Old Norse is
01:54:49.140important. But at the same time, you can't be 100% about that either. And I think some people
01:54:55.320do take the folly of that, where they take liberation in saying that the Old Norse means
01:55:03.700this and that requires a lot of delving into uh kenning work poetic works and the language at the
01:55:13.240time you know it's uh you know some people will shoot straight in the dark and say oh well this
01:55:19.820old norse word means this and that's not always the case especially when you start looking at
01:55:26.280other people's translations and looking into why they chose certain ways to say it you begin to
01:55:31.540realize that, you know, again, kenning work is not something you can just immediately pin down.
01:55:38.260You see that in, you know, in Fafruzismal and Grimnismal where they, you know, there's no
01:55:46.180one definitive sense. And so that requires, I think, study and cross-examination of all of them.
01:55:56.160and I know no matter how many years you read the lore and how long you study it you're always
01:56:06.080going to find something new in there no matter how many times you're always going to find
01:56:09.860especially when you start comparing the translations you're going to go wait a minute
01:56:14.380I did not realize that that might not be what I thought it was or until you have a conversation
01:56:20.920with a group of people with different with different translations or you have a conversation
01:56:26.240with spawn that will open your eyes on it you know you're always going to learn something no
01:56:31.160matter how many times you read it and you can't go wrong with too many translations so i'd get as
01:56:35.800many as you can all right our next question is has the afa or the members of the afa interacted
01:57:13.580and um some of the folks that were that were going over uh they made a trip of it and a lot
01:57:18.540of people like you know built up the funds to get over there and to to uh hold ceremony and uh frith
01:57:27.180with our our swedish you know uh brothers and sisters and there were uh germans that had come
01:57:34.300up after hearing this and wanted to spend time and and um hold bloat with the americans and the swedes
01:57:42.860so there was that but outside of that i'm not 100 sure um just specifically that story that i i you
01:57:50.460know we've discussed about but i remember him talking when we were doing um stuff for the
01:57:56.620history project is that was one of the most amazing experiences that he had when he was
01:58:00.780over in sweden and they were having bloat in and honoring the gods in like six different languages
01:58:07.740it was just something that really meant a lot to him so i yeah okay i remember that yeah he was
01:58:14.160talking about when he was in sweden there was people from germany and there was people from
01:58:18.800italy and people from norway and sweden and all over europe and there was so many languages being
01:58:26.200spoken there it was just it was a beautiful thing to see yeah and the fact that they had come after
01:58:31.040hearing that was seen as a great gesture of of um uh frith between us i think that uh we we sought
01:58:39.040um that they that actually sought out to come there and when they did show up and share their
01:58:46.160time they they were everyone was again doing their own you could tell culturally too there's
01:58:53.120some differences the americans and the swedes and the germans had uh very unique ways uh but they
01:58:59.400were sharing them all and it was um all the folk that were from germany were spoken very highly of
01:59:05.660by the alzheimer movie so all right we have another question from we have a question from
01:59:13.720obsidian skull would you say that vidar represents the natural aspect of the human who seeks revenge
01:59:21.000for a wrong cause revenge was something culturally very important to the old germanic peoples
01:59:27.400Yes, I mean, we're talking about the culture of the Teutons. That is a huge pinnacle to point. Again, though, I think it is about proper time and understanding of all of those things.
01:59:44.680when you take vengeance, but it puts your folk in danger, again, the immediacy of vengeance is
01:59:51.400often brought about by need and also emotion. And I think Vidar speaks more of a greater
01:59:59.560understanding of the timing of things. So again, a corrective action, much like with Odin,
02:00:09.100There's forethought. There's a lot of understanding of multiple angles being integrated into that thresholded moment of corrective action, and that corrective action brings about karmic release of wrongs that were done to the gods.
02:00:27.720then in return, he gains vengeance. So yes, I mean, it is vengeance, but
02:00:36.540in particular with Vidar, I think it's vengeance based upon deep forethought and an understanding
02:00:44.960of all of the matter and all of the actions, all of the threads that are connected to the moment
02:00:51.100that will be the threshold and measuring whether or not the worth is endangerment of the self
02:00:57.560or endangerment of the, um, your, your fellow folk, you know, it's, uh, it's kind of like,
02:01:04.120I remember I was here talking about it where he said, you know, it's if you seek vengeance,
02:01:08.400but you leave your, because you seek vengeance, you leave your children fatherless or motherless.
02:01:15.600Does this correlate correctively the worth of that vengeful moment? Yes. The wrong is,
02:01:22.600is righted in a way, but creates a whole new perhaps imbalance. So the idea is that I think
02:01:31.400with Vidar is preparation for the singular moment to create a return of karma that will leave the
02:01:39.440moment not less, but more. And that's something worth noting when we speak of the idea of
02:01:47.200vengeance and the action of vengeance is about taking in those considerations.
02:01:54.880Obsidian has another question and it says, why the AF, I'm assuming, why does the AFA expand the
02:02:02.480cult of Odin to all people? Historically, it is a cult focused on a community, on community leaders.
02:02:09.160It makes no sense for a farmer to worship Odin when he should worship Thor or Freyr.
02:02:17.200Oh, well, so that's like saying if you're not Swedish, you shouldn't worship Frey or something of that nature, I think. Or if you're not a skald, if you don't know the poetic meters, you shouldn't, you know, worship Odin or have troth with Odin.
02:02:37.960I think another thing to understand is that we don't see the gods in a static sense of the past.
02:02:45.260We see Odin as what he is doing is building, inciting the fervor in the folk to return.
02:02:56.340This is kind of alluded to with, you know, the sudden reemergence of Ausatru in multiple different places in a time when we weren't really connected to each other.
02:03:06.860There was no Internet. There was, you know, letter writing and maybe perhaps book mailing clubs.
02:03:13.680But suddenly, you know, variant places, this this starting of the emergence of Ausatru blows through the middle world, through the folk.
02:03:24.660And all of these people are kind of incited to start.
02:03:28.220And I think that Odin is doing that now. He's doing that in a lot of people.
02:03:32.700Now, is there a kind of an over focus? I would say yes. In a lot of ways, I think people correlate that that that fervor and ecstaticism that Odin brings to the folk as when they come from a monotheistic like mindset.
02:03:52.580They have a tendency to kind of hyper-focus and only focus on, you know, one sense when the AFA is a huge proponent for honoring all the gods.
02:04:07.160So the idea of, you know, a farmer honoring Odin.
02:04:13.860But again, Odin is seen as the prosperous god.
02:04:17.000He's seen as a god that if you are to create crops and you want to make money off of them, he's farmateer.
02:04:31.980It's like you can't pin Odin into one particular spot, but nor should you hyper-focus solely on Odin when the gods are.
02:04:41.780And it is stated that our ancestors honored many.
02:04:46.700So we're not whittling all of the gods down into one or into two. We're not making a singular soul, sky dad, earth mom, a sky lord, and an earth lady, or just lord and lady. We're not doing that.
02:05:04.160We are hard polytheists that believe that there are multiples of the divine will of the gods in many respects.
02:05:14.580But it's also, since Odin is the first in fervor and the first in inspiration, and often the one who, he's dynamic, he moves through the world and inspires people to come home, oftentimes that is, I think, a heavy emphasis, with rightfulness too.
02:05:32.060um but we can't say you know of if you're you're um you're this you must worship this
02:05:41.100um it's like saying if you're a man you shouldn't give honor to the ausenia that we don't believe
02:05:47.760in either you know there's um many folk who do honor both the aus and the ausenia or the gods
02:05:55.880and the goddesses. And that correlation is heavily built on personal experience. And then
02:06:03.340from the AFA, we honor all of the gods throughout the year in our devotionals. That's why we've
02:06:10.240expanded our tidings and had culturally incorporated many, because as Ausatru was
02:06:18.020spreading, it was still divided, and it's scattered in its intention, and different
02:06:25.180areas have different things different people do different things and we're starting to formulate
02:06:30.140that but within consideration of understanding that all the multiple pieces need to be honored
02:06:34.460so we you know we have 12 tidings we have you know the honoring of multiple gods and goddesses
02:06:42.940throughout the year and then on an individual level um you know i i've had many personal
02:06:48.700religious experiences with frig and i honor her often and i honor the maidens of fensaler
02:06:54.700quite often as well as odin and thor obviously thor because at being at thor's off um but it's
02:07:02.620it's it's circumstantial and it's not i i don't think it's it's objective if you're um
02:07:12.140if you're folk you have the right and you have the obligation to honor all of the gods and to
02:07:17.900build relationships with them as your life bears need of it and an understanding of perhaps the
02:07:24.060It's the way your mind wants to expand in building those relationships with the gods and the goddesses, and it's not balanced strictly by, say, class, station, desire.
02:07:35.700I mean, I was in the Marine Corps, and I didn't just honor Tyr for war.
02:07:43.820I didn't honor just Odin, all of the gods I found great inspiration in building relationship with.
02:07:53.120in that time in my life. And now I'm no longer in that time. And still my relationships have changed,
02:07:59.620but are built because of the past and because of those things. So we're not static. The gods
02:08:06.540aren't static. They move. They have willful movement. And so we have to see them as that.
02:08:15.020They're not just in the stories. They're not just in the poems. They're here now and they interact
02:08:21.520with us. You know, who are we to say that you can't, you know, honor Odin if you are a tradesman
02:08:31.820or a worker? Again, we see that in Uppsala when we see Thor was taking center in the tripartite
02:08:40.580that they had set there with Odin and with Frey. And I believe that they moved those. The center
02:08:48.080spot was, you know, during harvest or perhaps during the need or the relationship that all
02:08:54.620folks, and again, during, you know, during Sumble, you know, giving of honors to Njordh and to Frey
02:09:03.740as much as to Odin were also stated. So again, we can't, there is no like just set lane. It's
02:09:11.300understanding that they are a whole with many parts and that we we are obligated to search
02:09:18.740and build those relationships with multiple parts okay jamie asks how important do you think dwarves
02:09:28.900are in germanic myths and culture and i want to add on the side in folklore as well could you
02:09:37.460you answer that for us? Yeah, I mean, when we talk about, even like, I find it really
02:09:44.160interesting when we talk about spirits of the earth, you can look, especially the Germans
02:09:52.380with like the land geist, with the kobold, or, you know, like even here in America, those
02:09:59.420remnants, speaking about the Tommyknockers. There's a lot of rich history of our folks'
02:10:08.380relationship to the spirits of the building blocks of the middle, the material, and the
02:10:19.900correlation again of great items and great knowledge being passed on by the Dvergar or the
02:10:28.380the Svartalfar, the material whites, if you will.
02:10:36.000So, you know, when you look at folklore, you can really see it still.
02:10:43.640The relationship was still very much there from the salt mines of Salzburg
02:10:47.680to, you know, the coal mines in West Virginia.
02:10:52.860The relationship with the spirits of the earth and where they manifest,
02:10:58.380And, you know, seeking not offense, creating alliance, building respect or frith, while also taking the things that we need in order to help build our people forward.
02:11:12.040I think that's a big thing for our folk to understand is that we are not locked into stasis, but moving and having components. And that involves both building allegiances and possibly even creating, you know, disruption in areas.
02:11:32.160And that part creates the need for us to build allegiances, the need for us to build relationships even after the fact.
02:11:39.520And we see that even in post-Christian folk in the way they interact.
02:11:46.340That's very much a cultural thing for us.
02:11:48.960And I think it's important that people that are not folk, if they were to look at – they could write us off, especially in this day and age.
02:11:57.840oh, Europeans just don't, you know, care about these things.
02:12:02.240We do, and we see it even after Christianity has, you know,
02:12:10.320kind of spread throughout our culture or throughout our societies.
02:12:14.100And so they have a very poignant place.
02:12:18.740When we talk about, like, again, like the question before,
02:12:22.880like, you should never give honor to the Svartalf or to the Dvergarh
02:12:27.320unless you're a smith. That's not the correct way of thinking. It's correlated on what happens.
02:12:37.340It's subjective. How is weird built with these entities in mind just as much as your neighbor
02:12:44.500or your kinfolk that live nearby or things of that nature when we deal with the spirits of the land?
02:12:53.640building those allegiances holding those honors or understanding that we could again um i'm a firm
02:13:01.840believer that a lot of the uh physical interactions with with entities in the house that uh might be
02:13:09.280considered like poltergeist are oftentimes slighted and capriciously uh sometimes even malicious
02:17:18.920And so this, again, correlates to this burning time, mound building time. But our folk were, again, because of migrations or in Iceland, like there's not a lot of trees. The trees are scarce and the wood was extremely valuable in usage for ships and usage for housing.
02:17:39.640And again, we had to correlate stone. So mound building became a thing again in Iceland, even though burning was already established from before, especially in Norway, because wood was readily available.
02:17:54.620So I would say it's not settled so much as you can see it kind of ping-ponging back and forth based upon these things.
02:18:02.460Now, Dok Alfar. Yes, I am of the belief that Dok Alfar are, again, Alvar that were once mortal and are deeply connected to the mounds.
02:18:12.820Whether we, you know, in English, the barrow white, if you will, the barrow vetter, and we say white as in W-I-G-H-T, the English word kind of gets muddled when we talk about the color white and when we talk about the spirit white and how the spelling is lost because people just sometimes hear that.
02:18:35.580Um, so yes, the Dark Alvar are, um, again, once mortal, but Alvar is a broad term. It's a title. And that title means, again, that not quite a god, not quite a mortal, somewhere in between, and heavily focusing on that.
02:18:52.620So Dark Alvar versus Svart Alvar, I think, is what you were referencing. When I saw Dark Alvar slash Dvergar, I saw two separate things. I see the Dark Alvar in their correlation to the dead.
02:19:07.240I think we see them, especially when there's having, you know, loss in battles and in sacred places, you know, whether it was the nematons of our Gaulish cousins or the groves of the Teutonic folk.
02:19:22.760There are Alvar that were once mortal that are set to protect those places, and then the Dvergar or Svartalvar are actually more and older. They're not of a mortal origin. They have originated themselves from the beginning of the formulation of Ymir.
02:19:42.860josh has a question for you hello godor do you see a certain showing of piousness as a quality
02:19:55.100or a trait of vidar got in a little bit late forgive me if this was already touched on
02:20:01.980uh yes as a quality and a trait of piousness to uh i would say to again piousness to the
02:20:10.220preparation of a moment uh piousness in and of itself towards the devotion of something of a
02:20:19.420moment or of a a deed a pinnacle sense placing upon oneself the um hindrance of certain things
02:20:29.340I often partake in a, I would believe, a pious ritual in which I refrain from utilizing or doing something, or I actually set about doing something for 12 nights before Yule.
02:20:52.360and uh i take this as a a moment a set block of time in which i can either abstain from something
02:21:00.020or commit myself to action of something but in that is the is piousness the piousness uh whether
02:21:07.360whatever form it might be so that's what i'm trying to get at is like it's not always necessarily
02:21:12.060piousness as an action but piousness is cultivated from the action or the inaction the removal of
02:21:21.220oneself from it or the taking up of the action into it at the right time. So oftentimes it could
02:21:28.540be like, I've done fasting. I've done 12 consecutive days of meditation. Again, I would
02:21:38.120love to meditate more when you had mentioned that before about daily meditations. I don't get a
02:21:42.580chance often to, I mean, little kids and we got the whole house going and there's a lot of time
02:21:48.080And seeking peace is like, I guess meditation would be for me like in the sauna, but the idea of taking up an action, like whether I'm going to for 12 days consecutively commit to doing a deed, whether it's daily devotional, whether it's running a mile.
02:22:08.980i've done that once before i used to be a very um avid runner i'm not so much now but as more i
02:22:15.060prefer to work out and lift weights and things but i used to like i i one time had committed
02:22:20.340to the action piety of of my devotion was to go out and run a mile for 12 days so a total of 12
02:22:27.620miles for the for it and and it was solely done with dedication not only to myself uh in getting
02:22:36.580better but uh in dedication to the gods and understanding our purpose and having kind of
02:22:42.740you know moments of clarity in those those times to um further understand i think like how humanity
02:22:50.020and our soul might affects the gods so yeah awesome matthew gordon asks is there anything
02:23:02.820in the stories and sagas about ritual tattoos whenever i get tattooed i feel connected
02:23:13.380i mean we know culturally tattooing was it it it was done with a i mean our ancestors had
02:23:23.140it's kind of like um when we when they talk about drumming like they they say like oh you know did
02:23:30.180they use drums but there's no evidence of the drum because the you know the materials the wood
02:23:35.220the leather you know those things degrade and they go away i certainly would uh i think it would be
02:23:41.300foolish to say that you know a drum was never used uh but again the same with tattooing is that the
02:23:47.220evidence has kind of um you know gone away but when we see like again the uh the the tattoos on0.98
02:23:54.580some of the mummified bodies that have been found um and seeing some of the placement whether it
02:23:59.380It might be speculation that there's magical attunements to it, that there, you know, are marks or remarks of it being in correlation to station,
02:24:09.560whether it's like perhaps a powerful priestess or a woman of high magic might having, you know, that on her on her body.
02:24:21.300And we find that through this evidence and, you know, mummified remains.
02:24:25.020And as far as specific picturing on the body and the skin, I'm coming up with a blank right now.
02:24:36.760I mean, it is mentioned, of course, too, that Bragi has runes carved upon his tongue, but again, that's not necessarily – that's more or less showing the power and the manifestation of power from the mouthpiece of the gods, the sound of the gods, the frequency.
02:24:57.600Um, I, I too, I mean, I have tattoos as well. I used to, um, I used to give tattoos. I was, uh, uh, for a brief while, I mainly runic tattoos and, and, uh, doing, um, you know, Galdor and runic inscriptions on, on folk that, you know, were seeking it, um, for various reasons, whether it was magical or, or perhaps a reminder and dedication or something.
02:25:27.600spreading of willfulness in their life. But as far as right off the top of my head in relation
02:25:36.840and reference, I can't find it, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's not there because we have
02:25:44.460it elsewhere showing that it clearly was. Body modification was done. Was it done entirely by
02:25:53.280all the folk? No, by no means. I don't think that all the folk did it. I think that it may have been
02:25:58.140more of a testament, maybe perhaps by warriors or by a station. If you were wealthy, the idea,
02:26:04.080you know, the carving of the teeth and having gold in the teeth might've been more of a status
02:26:09.640thing. I know that our ancestors viewed wearing jewelry and wearing things upon their body
02:26:16.320differently. I think like a lot of us have that kind of Protestant vestige leftover of where it's
02:26:22.900like, it's not good to adorn yourself. And even I do it to a degree, you know, it's keeping,
02:26:27.160I don't like to wear a lot of, you know, adornment. But again, culturally, does it have
02:26:37.780significance now? Again, I've given runic tattoos now. So the gods and culture, our culture and
02:26:45.120expressing devotion and piety to the gods, if it's finding that correlative sense to the past
02:26:51.360doesn't mean that it's negated in the cultural sense now.
02:26:55.240Expression to the gods and devotion to the gods,
02:28:10.680i've got if loki is an agent of change like a catalyst from within the tribe
02:28:18.200could utgard loki be subversive hostile foreign change or revolution from our enemies
02:28:28.200i i would say the opposite actually because um loki is an outsider and uh
02:28:35.240So the difference is that Loki is an outsider in and Utgard-Loki is an outsider that is gone too.
02:28:46.900So it is known from the onset that Utgard-Loki is an outsider that is, again, being interacted with.
02:28:55.760The danger is that Loki is the element of, I would say, subversiveness from within.
02:29:05.240And it starts off with oftentimes with benefit, the ideas that, you know, to keep around.
02:29:11.820I think that Loki is very much a warning that the benefit of the subversive within oftentimes shrouds.
02:29:21.520And I think that the gods and the stories are telling us about that is that, you know, when you take in, whether it's, you know, even the gods took in Fenris.
02:29:31.120The idea is that, you know, with Hela being placed in the lower, you know, and Jormungandr in the middle, Fenris first was placed in the upper.
02:29:44.700And so that is a correlation in and of itself, and Loki would be more subversive.
02:29:51.600Whereas Fenris is quite, you know, up front that the gods understood that this was a bad thing, that the rising power of Fenris was clear and was immediately met with action.
02:30:08.680The warning would be the subversive, you know, making allegiances.
02:30:13.740And again, the question of why those allegiances were made, sometimes a catalyst of change isn't always necessarily good, as it is perhaps necessary for things to happen in a certain way.
02:30:28.500And I think that Odin is certainly the god of that wisdom, but it's not necessarily, I would say, the wisdom of humanity to see all things and have all understanding of the consequences of bringing that subversive power element into the inner guard.
02:30:51.020so i would view loki as subversive in the inner and utgard loki is in the outer he's
02:30:58.300he his implementations of what he's in the outer realm is flowing from his place in the
02:31:07.180middle in jotunheim in that seeing that further you go back from the middle the further you go
02:31:12.780back into that that realm of jotunheim is that that's the influence and powers but that's known
02:31:18.300that's known from the onset that's that's known in the beginning of the
02:31:23.860story the problem is the unknown within is a problem and eventually it forms
02:31:32.220into malicious sense you know it brings about the downfall of the bold one by
02:31:38.160the hand of not only a physical brother but also the blood brother and so then
02:31:44.100there is this kinslay and that kinslaying is seen as an atrocious mark it is a moment of absolute
02:31:51.780there is this is wrong there is a wrongness there and it it is met with swift action afterwards
02:31:58.720in which you know uh loki is bound and if you know how he's bound you can see the severity of
02:32:07.780his actions um bringing about that but it was it was far too late and in a way um again part of the
02:32:16.240overall destiny of the cycle um so yes yeah i would see i would see it as opposite loki is
02:32:25.860definitely the subvert within and utgard loki is the subvert without
02:32:30.500next question is from lutetia and she asked where's your water brandy so my water
02:32:42.260i am hydrating with high fruit fructose corn syrup and chocolate
02:32:53.300it's in the interview she caught you you need to hydrate she caught me you called me out
02:33:03.340yep at a girl that's why we love her that is why we love her big oof
02:33:08.560all right our last question from the night let's see last question from the night is from bob
02:33:19.900It says, is there anything inherently magical about the runes themselves, or is the magic just in the words the runes spell?
02:33:31.640When we talk about the runes magically, I think we're talking more about frequency and sound, the power of those, the creation of all sound within the universe.
02:33:44.520all things have frequency and sound. And those frequencies and sounds are part of the building
02:33:50.680blocks of the universe. And Ovin sacrificing, or in essence, transferring between his state
02:33:59.780as a divine being into the state of death of a divine being, to see, to glimpse into that,
02:34:10.300And to see those structural sounds is what they truly are. But when we talk about the runes after that, when we talk about how the runes disseminated to the folk, we talk about the symbols and the inspiration for those symbols where they might have come from.
02:34:32.080whether it's, you know, some people propone the idea that there's a mimicking of language from other folk or of other cousins of the folk.
02:34:43.680If you're well, if you're talking about like perhaps, you know, like getting it from the from the Romans or the Etruscans, there's some of that.
02:34:51.540Um, there's also, you know, looking back at the symbols that were carved on stones, um, even before the Nordic Viking age.
02:35:02.600Um, when we talk about power, uh, from a runic standpoint, the idea is that the, the symbol is a gateway to the frequency of that power that can change or shift things, shift, uh, the or law of an, an area around it.
02:35:31.220But again, when all things are shifting, that creates movement elsewhere.
02:35:36.260And those things are, again, are about consideration of those actions, that threshold.
02:35:41.140Again, too, it is spoken that they must be correlated correctly.
02:35:46.920And I think that when we see the runes, you go to a website and find a, you know, like a vikang shoulder pelt, buy yourself a rune, whatever.
02:35:58.860whether it's a you know for your beard or it's on a it's on a horn you know these things are
02:36:04.980manufactured they're not done in the proper set way of manifesting that gateway the the rune
02:36:13.480itself is is a gateway to that power to that primordial frequency that's that makes up and
02:36:20.460how they all interact together. But they can become deep symbolic images that have correlation
02:36:31.040to change within the self as well. There are some people who practice the runes that don't
02:36:37.200see them as necessarily affecting that which is without that or outside of them, but more or less
02:36:43.020affecting what's within. And so they utilize that symbology to open up, say, more like subconscious
02:36:50.680gateways to manifesting different ways of thinking and feeling and acting and thus gaining power in
02:36:59.420that understanding and that opening of the gateway. But for me, I've always taken the
02:37:04.920runes to be, again, gateways of that power. And when you correlate them correctly, if you sacrifice
02:37:10.980them correctly. If you speak them correctly, they have an ability. But runic studies within
02:37:22.640Alcetru, I've always joked, it's almost like a religion within the religion. Not all Alcetru
02:37:29.560have high merit or they don't take high stock in the runes. They don't need to. Again,
02:37:39.880And it is a mystery sometimes. And it's a mystery for a reason, because it's not for everyone.
02:37:44.700Other folks find the usage of those powers differently.
02:37:49.480We utilize Galdr a lot in our ceremonies as a way to harmonically connect all of the folk.
02:37:56.840And that symbol has importance in our culture when we think of the day rune, or if we use the reconstructed word dagas,
02:38:05.860or if we use the word day and you know just sounds like day like we speak it but we're
02:38:11.000talking about the anglo-saxon d-a-e-g um that symbol has portents in our culture and so if we
02:38:20.560are trying to manifest like um the importance of that power and we galder that during say
02:38:27.420austra or midsummer uh we are harmonizing ourselves and culturally kind of connecting
02:38:33.860our minds to a symbol that has purpose, meaning, and significance within our folk.
02:38:39.900So there is a latent and kind of magic there for ourselves, but not necessarily the same
02:38:51.080as it would be, say, doing, you know, like creating, you know, a stavr, or creating a
02:39:00.540mark on a stone or making a mark on a on a on um something that is going to affect things like
02:39:07.660they're they're creating uh using rister and going out and and carving rune to create and speaking uh
02:39:16.540or a song creating a like i guess would be considered like a bind rune again is the
02:39:21.180correlation of a of a um multiple runes brought about to manifest to create a change in the area
02:39:31.580um again we use some of these bind rune combinations like uh we oftentimes will um
02:39:39.180gold or aloo because that has uh deep significance both numerically within
02:39:44.620the the elder futhark and within the anglo-saxon futhark
02:39:47.740it's historically been written down, and there's correlations that we use it during
02:39:53.500symbol because, again, the horn is filled with mead or with ale, and it's more about the
02:39:59.760power of the fluid that we are sharing with each other, and that fluid has might. That fluid has
02:40:07.540inspiration in it. So, religiously, we kind of dabble in runic for purposes that I think are
02:40:17.220different than, say, for instance, if you were a lone person that was trying to create change
02:40:25.860through magic or whatever it would be called, the Galdr, in order to affect things around us.
02:40:35.920And then, of course, too, the big one is divination. Divination is argued amongst a lot of the folk.
02:40:44.660did our ancestors use the runes for divination that is a that is a rabbit hole and it's a fun
02:40:50.660one i really like it i i'm you know i use it for divination now but did our ancestors you know
02:40:57.820that's we i've heard great arguments on both sides and i i i really do enjoy it but not all
02:41:03.500the folk do um and again not all the folk take stock in it and they don't have to um some folk
02:41:09.960are perfectly content with going about and having devotion to the gods and and committing to deed
02:41:15.480for their family and their folk and that's it others are intrigued by the mystery and uh see
02:41:22.040the the the enigmatic struggle of odin to understand that they they take that deeply
02:41:29.640within themselves and they try to emulate it um and that in and of itself is its own kind of
02:41:36.680sanctum. But it's different with everyone you talk to. Some people say, you know, this
02:41:44.220Futhark is only, you know, worthy, or this Futhark, or things like that, or, you know,
02:41:50.440why the Nords only use the younger and for a writing system predominantly, from what we can
02:41:56.260see. But yet, Eil Skalagrimson, he carves runes to defend himself against, you know, baleful ale
02:42:05.680that's poured in a horn and, um, you know, heals, uh, someone who is sick. Um, so we see both and
02:42:15.160it really just depends on who, who you talk to and how interested they are. And you'll always find
02:42:20.060somebody that can counter signal it. Um, and I don't, again, I'm one of those people that don't
02:42:25.760take counter signaling as like, uh, just no, I like to entertain it, debate with it, consider it,
02:42:33.420go home go down rabbit holes search further um but ultimately it's not going to affect where i am
02:42:40.140personally right now if i if i see the validity in it i will utilize it so to answer your question
02:42:47.740that the runes are gateways to primordial powers and you manifest them uh through certain steps
02:42:56.860in order to create a effect in the world around you and it does depend i think greatly upon
02:43:05.660um where you learn who you learn from and how you learn and i think that's stated
02:43:10.380uh pretty clearly in the runatal um and it's a a hairy subject when you get into the into uh
02:43:23.260circles on the internet so sometimes i think it would be best that you start off by doing it at
02:43:29.100home and focusing on uh written things and and just gathering your own and utilizing what you
02:43:35.180see if it works and then it works if it doesn't then it doesn't so you you can't you can't say
02:43:43.020that it doesn't work for others in that regards because there are some folk that do believe
02:43:47.420heavily that it has that they have tapped into it that they have made a change and then other folks
02:43:52.620say no these are just decorations or these are just letters and words that we use to to write
02:43:57.280messages down um because they have been you know we there's uh rune carvings in scotland
02:44:03.500uh inside um old halls that that are like literally like a a man's wife yelling at us
02:44:12.520you know, she's, she's just not happy or, or there's graffiti, you know, that, that, yes,
02:44:16.900there is, but that doesn't negate one to the other. I guess I did miss one question.
02:44:25.740Rabbi Moshi Goldstein wants to know if your wife is Icelandic and are Scandinavian,
02:44:32.220Did you preserve your Icelandic ancestry?
02:44:55.220I think coming to America has made me appreciate some of the spiritual additions that I'm, you know, Anglo and Nordic, but I take great pleasure in, you know, seeing some of the Scotch-Irish traditions of America.
02:45:18.560And I find a deep and loving respect and connection to that.
02:45:24.520I see I don't I don't purity spiral into that, I think, is a big thing is we should not.
02:45:30.120You know, it's I need you to fill out this DNA test before I marry you, because if you're not this percentage of Nordic, you're out of here.
02:45:41.340In actuality, my my wife is Welsh and Slavic.
02:45:45.340on one side of her family. Her family's been connected to America for a very long time,
02:45:54.120and she descends from the twos, T-E-W. And if anybody knows pirates, you might know a Thomas
02:46:00.800two, and her family comes from Rhode Island. But the other side also moved to Rhode Island from
02:46:06.980the Ukraine back when the Bolsheviks were taking over Ukraine. Her family, well, in actuality,
02:46:15.160not her family just just two of her family made it out um and it took all of their family and
02:46:22.360their finances to get those two young um that that the two young the couple to get out there was quite
02:46:30.120a large amount of ukrainians coming into rhode island in the 20s from running from as refugees
02:46:36.520from the Bolsheviks that were just ravaging Ukraine. But she's American. So again, that
02:46:46.520mixture there. But I am too. I have English and Nordic blood. My Islamic side is strong in the
02:46:54.760upfront, but in the past too, there's a lot of connection to my Anglo side and Canadian too.
02:47:00.680I found out that my father's English blood comes from English-Canadian folk, and they moved down after the Civil War.
02:47:10.840Because of the westward expansion, there was a lot of jobs and opportunities in Rhode Island.
02:47:17.240Again, my family on my American side is from Rhode Island.
02:47:22.360My wife's family is also from Rhode Island with the Welsh and the Ukrainians.
02:47:29.800And so that's I found very interesting is that we did not know that about each other until, you know, being with each other for a long time, that there was that correlation that that our families kind of descend from the same place, even in America, even though we came there from very different spots, whether from Europe or from Canada.
02:47:49.600And I thought that was truly interesting.
02:47:53.480And even too, there are folk in the AFA, speaking about you cuz, she knows who she is, that we
02:48:02.720found out that I am actually related through marriage to a prominent member of the AFA
02:48:10.820And so in a way, I'm related to folk within the AFA from Rhode Island through the Burling
02:48:18.780games and they're the the anglos that uh of that family and i again ancestry.com it's just that's
02:48:27.420not a plug i'm just saying there's been a lot of uh very interesting stuff that's come about from
02:48:32.940that i even found out like uh my my great great uncle uh was a he came from canada but he was a
02:48:40.220banjo player and a mandolin player um on uh he played in coney island he played all along the
02:48:48.620east coast and was part of a kind of one of those straw hat bands um that played on the on the piers
02:48:55.420and that banjo was in our attic for years and and my mother did not know where that came from that
02:49:00.940came from my father and it wasn't until i saw the picture of him with his band that i realized what
02:49:07.020that banjo uh was about and then again going to bouldershofen and uh running into the mandolin
02:49:14.540And that I, you know, and that that connection to that instrument was, again, very strange how our ancestors kind of play, you know, in our modern lives.
02:49:27.360But, yeah, no, my wife, my wife is not Icelandic.
02:49:31.940She is American and she is of Welsh and Ukrainian descent.
02:49:39.920I think that officially is the last of the questions tonight.
02:49:45.540All right, Svan, I thank you very, very much for being on.
02:49:48.620It's always a pleasure to learn from you and talk to you and to listen to you answer all of these questions with humor and a lot of philosophical knowledge.
02:49:58.040So one more time, we're going to call the folk home, Mr. Nick, if we can get that trihorn one more time.
02:50:06.600So folk come home, if we can get our light back up and you can go to runestone.org if you like what you're doing.
02:50:14.160If you agree with what we've got going on and you want to be a part of that, please go to runestone.org and follow the light home over to your folk.