00:05:50.220yeah this was this was a big deal for us we knew that anywhere that was going to be a state near
00:05:59.300the coast that was gonna fit our needs for njordshoff was gonna be gonna be a little bit
00:06:06.300out of the same price range as some of our previous Hoffs. Florida is very desirable for
00:06:13.780a lot of really good reasons. So this one was a little bit, dig a little bit deeper to make this
00:06:18.960one happen. And in such a short amount of time, in less than three years, you guys have helped us
00:06:28.140pay this down like we said 78.4 percent we have 52 815 to go that's just about 72 dollars per
00:06:40.860member we get that paid off immediately and we're pretty excited because we've got big plans and a
00:06:48.540lot of enthusiasm behind getting phrase off in order to do that we have to pay his father's half
00:06:53.180off first. So if anybody wants to contribute, we would appreciate it. And thank you so much
00:06:59.020to everyone who's contributed so far. If you're listening to this on the podcast format, you can
00:07:07.360contribute at runestone, R-U-N-E-S-T-O-N-E dot O-R-G. You can also apply there. If anybody is hearing
00:07:17.840this message, if you listen to the show, maybe you're listening for the first time, maybe you're
00:07:22.380long-time listener. You are a heterosexual white person that wants to come home to your ancestral
00:07:28.080gods. We invite you to join us. Link at the same website. Any of our folk builders, any of our
00:07:36.960leadership up to including Cliff and myself would be very happy to answer any questions you might
00:07:42.020have or help you with that process if it's something you'd like to do. But we're doing really,
00:07:46.560truly amazing and groundbreaking things. We're changing lives. We've got a lot of wonderful
00:07:52.980things ahead of us. We would love to have you guys be part of it. So if you're not a member,
00:07:59.540please consider it. Also, wherever you are consuming this, whether you're watching it
00:08:04.640or whether you're listening to it as a podcast, please like, share, subscribe, tell your friends.
00:08:10.820this is you know if you find this spiritually impactful wonderful if you find it educational
00:08:19.020great just find it entertaining that's good too and we appreciate you share it around there may
00:08:24.540be one of your friends or family that might really get something out of it so we appreciate
00:08:28.820appreciate your help that way too um it's a little bit of a scramble to get ready for tonight's
00:08:35.880broadcast, so forgive me if I get a little bit tongue-tied here at the start.
00:08:44.980We still have 30th anniversary t-shirts on sale at our website, also at the previous link.
00:08:51.460They look great. Go the East's lovely wife, Madison, did the design work on that and did a
00:08:59.140beautiful job. They're nice quality shirts. If you would like yours, I don't know if we're going to
00:09:04.800restock or just what we're going to do. So this may be your only opportunity. And we would love
00:09:10.400to sell you one of these amazing shirts. And we appreciate you. So we got that.
00:09:20.220So what I've got for you so far, and there's a lot of, please keep in mind, it's a question
00:09:28.080driven program often so any question you guys have tonight about also true but probably about
00:09:37.060most anything else we would be very happy to answer those may take us a while to get through
00:09:42.780them depending on how big the stat gets but we will definitely get to them and if you have a
00:09:47.320question at any time that you want us to answer on a future edition of the program please feel
00:09:53.780free to email vns at runestone.org and we would be we'll definitely put that and it will move to the
00:10:02.820front of the line in the order it's received for the next program that said um a lot of different
00:10:09.860places for the conversation to go tonight i'm pretty excited about it uh cliff how are you doing
00:10:17.460how are things in your neck of the woods and if you can lay the groundwork for us this evening
00:10:23.780it would help if you were not muted yep it would help if i could find the right tab too sorry i
00:10:38.180was looking around at some stuff um things are good here um we are starting to see signs of
00:10:46.340spring i actually take the kids out and like we look for them you know hearing the birds chirp and
00:10:52.180seeing those first flowers that'll probably get killed by frost in the next few weeks as
00:10:56.740winter reminds us it's not quite spring yet um getting ready to head down to north carolina
00:11:04.580for um ostara in the south at at thor's off i'm very excited for that to see a lot of my
00:11:12.420my friends and and colleagues and our our folk it's it's exciting um and uh yeah we're we're
00:11:22.180It's a good time of year. I really like this time of year, even though it's not, it's not quite there. The, you know, the, you know, I work, you know, like an eight to five job. So having daylight again after I leave the office is nice. I really do like this time of year.
00:11:52.180So I suppose, and because I don't think you're the first person to use the term,
00:12:01.320but you're the one that really crystallized in a conversation now probably two months ago.
00:12:08.440When you say Ausatru is a living religion, what, I suppose, what do you mean when you say that?
00:12:18.200so i mean um so i guess it came up we were in a conversation amongst our gothar um i forget
00:12:27.880if it was one of our gothar calls or one of our our gothi student calls or something like that but
00:12:33.500um when when i talk about asatru being a living religion um you know it it grows and it changes
00:12:42.980is um i think i i remember now we were talking about um not being able to name the names of all
00:12:54.100of the aesir um that you know sometimes a a christian or an atheist or anyone who's who's
00:13:00.660not asitru or um you know who's not polytheistic really wouldn't really understand where we're
00:13:06.340coming from on that well you know you you can't even name all of your gods you don't know um
00:13:12.980all of your history um and and so on and so forth where that might be something that they
00:13:18.740they challenge us on and you know use that to sort of undermine the legitimacy of our faith and
00:13:29.060i don't think that's a a bad thing i think that not knowing the names of all of the aesir actually
00:13:35.220enriches us true and some of it may be because some of their names are lost to time you know
00:13:41.620Maybe our ancestors did know their names and, you know, particular poems weren't recorded in writing in the poetic edda or weren't referred to by Snorri Sturluson in the pros edda or in any of the other sources that we have from, you know, all over Europe at different times.
00:14:05.400You know, that's I would wager that there's at least one Aesir's name who, you know, perhaps has been forgotten over time.
00:14:13.660But I also mean that there are surely Aesir whose names we never knew, just as the folk, that when we, the stories that we have about the Aesir are nothing like the complete and unabridged history of all things that have occurred amongst the Aesir.
00:14:38.020It's the portion of their existence that's been revealed to us through stories that were relayed, sometimes by the gods themselves to our ancestors, perhaps in visions by our ancestors, by inspiration from our ancestors and how they related to the world.
00:14:58.700We know these things that were handed down, but that's not the totality of the Aesir.
00:15:04.080You know, I think I referred to it at that time as that, you know, we know the names of the nobility amongst the Aesir, the greatest of them.
00:22:01.540we receive insight, we receive blessings,
00:22:06.200We receive, you know, countless boons in our life and that the Aesir guide us and help us in the, in the reforging and continual forging of Al-Satrim.
00:22:28.620And what that means is, you know, as Cliff said, yes, there's plenty of things that are lost to history.
00:22:40.780And I think that if any religion is honest, that's probably the case if it's very, very old.
00:22:47.120But there's also within Ausitru a steady revealing process to where as we build closer and closer relationship with our gods, they reveal more and more of themselves, their personality, their will to us.
00:23:09.740and fill in gaps in a way that perhaps our ancestors knew
00:24:05.880from the dawn of our race until the conversion period
00:24:14.440and spanning all of the lands that our ancestors conquered
00:24:19.940and immigrated to and moved through would be preposterous.
00:24:27.420But that's one of the things that, as Cliff said, makes things special
00:24:31.600is we have a living relationship with our gods and goddesses.
00:24:35.880We seek to know them and build from our increased knowledge and our increased relationship.
00:24:44.580And over time, we get to know them better.
00:24:47.460And we get to learn more and grow in our faith.
00:24:51.020And as a result, the Astru Folk assembly grows in our practice and grows in ideally ever more perfect ways of knowing, worshiping, and honoring our gods.
00:25:08.460And that's really kind of a special thing.
00:25:10.120I've said on here before a number of times, and I believe it to be true, our gods are connected to us.
00:25:17.900the more we know and the more we learn from a variety of things the better but if we had to
00:25:27.820start fresh if somehow all that knowledge was lost the iser still exists and we still exist
00:25:36.160and through good faith exchanging of gifts and giving of worship and loyalty to the iser
00:25:43.640we would get to know them anew as a people we would get to learn their stories and know them
00:25:53.940over time and rebuild you know the corpus of material that we have because they live they
00:26:03.460exist. We live. We exist. Therefore, we can interact. A lot of really well-meaning people
00:26:14.460get stuck in a research phase about Ausitru and neglect practice and neglect
00:26:27.180very simple but heartfelt worship and gift exchange and i think that that misses the
00:26:38.100richness and the for lack of a better term the realness of what we do before i get much further
00:26:44.880i want to acknowledge um gw farnsworth consistent donor on the program we appreciate you so much
00:26:52.560donated $30 to the BNS Fund. Thank you so much. We appreciate you and your generosity is an example
00:27:01.200to us all. So I'm looking over on the side of some of our questions. I think what we'll do,
00:27:09.420because it can go a lot of ways, is try to tie some of these things back into our main theme
00:27:15.340as we go through. But our first question tonight is from Sierra, wonderful folk builder,
00:27:26.160Sierra Chapman in California. Good evening. I hope you men are well. What is a bloat fair
00:27:32.940and why is it important? Why should I strive to do it? Cliff, would you like to answer that?
00:27:39.520Sure. Speaking of Asitru as a living and dynamic religion, the Blutfaird is something that we have only recently given a name to, although I think that the core concept of it has existed for longer than that.
00:27:58.240And, you know, correct me if I'm wrong, Ashrigothi, this is something that's relatively new, even amongst our conversations in the Gothar.
00:28:06.060So I may not have the full technical refined meaning of it down.
00:28:10.340But as I understand it, it is a journey of faith, much like a pilgrimage, making a journey to our Hoffs, for example.
00:28:21.280um and as i understand it the the name bloat um the ferth um actually has something in common with
00:28:29.860the the the word ferth has the this a root connection to um like the fair in farewell
00:28:39.440well, like journey well, and that it is an act of worship to make the effort to go to
00:28:54.680a hof or to a national event. It's all of what we put into, you know, it's not just
00:29:02.980physical journey it is all of the the effort and expense and um planning that's required to
00:29:10.660make that happen to get yourself and to get our folk collected into a place where we can hold
00:29:18.340um you know a high bloat as it were at one of our hoffs or our national events
00:30:31.200preparing your things going on the journey gathering with your folk perhaps in a distant place
00:30:40.160spending time in that in contemplation in worship in celebration
00:30:47.120was a real testament to your faith, to the significance that you placed in your belief in the Aesir and your, I guess, your faith that they would look kindly upon the gift of that effort that you put forth.
00:31:06.000And so in a modern sense, this kind of popped up organically amongst the membership.
00:31:12.800We have members that, so Cliff and I, being leaders, have had the honor of going to a great many of our national events over the years, and more specifically, of being able to go to all of our Hoffs.
00:31:29.380Anyone who's just tuning in, we have our first Hoff was established in 2015, Odenshoff in Brownsville, California, followed in 2020 by Thorshoff in Linden, North Carolina, and Baldershoff in Murdoch, Minnesota, and then in 2022 by Njordshoff in White Springs, Florida.
00:31:53.480So we've been able to go to all four of our Hoffs, and many people haven't.
00:32:01.040And so a lot of our members are very excited, and over time, as they're able, as life permits,
00:32:06.620to plan trips to go worship these gods in their Hoffs, the first of their kind in well over a thousand years.
00:32:19.820And that's a really special thing. We've had a number, we had a California member recently travel all the way across the country on a massive road trip to go to all of the different Hoffs and then to Sigerheim and in Tennessee, all in one, in one big trip to see them all.
00:32:39.320and it was a really special thing for him we have members all the time that maybe they'll do one half
00:32:45.080at a time some of them will have a road trip and they'll go to a couple of them and it's a really
00:32:52.740nice thing and it's a beautiful thing to see our folk be able to do and for those of us who've been
00:32:57.380doing this for for a long time I think it's kind of an amazing thing that I don't think
00:33:03.360you know i don't think people were necessarily even thinking about the the re that being a
00:33:10.160reality for our folk i mean 15 years ago or more that seemed like a very distant thing like man
00:33:19.280one day if we can just get one off that'll be that'll be life-changing and the fact that in
00:33:26.120such short time we now have four and soon to be uh five when we end up getting phrase off and i
00:33:32.300that's going to be closer than people think but yeah going on those journeys everyone i know who's
00:33:38.380made the effort to go out to one of our hafs has many have found it life-changing everyone has
00:33:46.300benefited from the experience and so many people have been shaken to their core in a very good way
00:33:55.340by the experience and it's so beautiful to watch our children play in the courtyards of
00:34:02.940hoffs dedicated to our gods that is that was the dream of so many people for so long and
00:34:11.340to live in a time where that dream has become reality is is a real blessing in and of itself
00:34:17.900it's interesting you mentioned the uh the the months every nine year journey that our ancestors
00:34:23.500would have made to upsala um and that is is you know probably the highest one at least the highest
00:34:29.820one that we know of that our ancestors did but i think that also um in order to travel to any hof
00:34:36.780um you know for their um you know for for for midsummer for example our our ancestors would
00:34:45.180have had to have done some significant significant traveling even if it was just in their you know
00:34:49.740their their petty kingdom um you know which would be like a county that we have today that still
00:34:55.340might have been a day or two's travel for them to go to their most local hof and to to leave the
00:35:00.620farm behind and to make that journey was was not a small undertaking that would have required
00:35:05.900planning that would have required expense and effort um so you know for for many of us we're
00:35:12.780fortunate and able to you know to to travel to a hof that's local in the same state as we are
00:35:18.300or uh you know to to to have a bloke group or um you know other other gathering we can get to
00:35:25.740you know in the same day and go home and sleep in our own bed all in the in the same journey and i
00:35:30.380don't that was the exception for our folk i think um that they would they would have had to travel
00:35:36.780at least a day or two to to make it to to to any off and um yeah i think it's a good thing
00:35:45.020for us to exercise that that discipline and that sacrifice
00:35:51.820absolutely so we have a couple of questions from twitch appreciate our twitch uh audience
00:35:59.500it's good to hear from you guys any place that you're watching this feel free to ask questions
00:36:04.940we'd love to get all of those on here uh bubblegumman how come so many self-identified
00:36:12.540Norse pagans on TikTok are really aesthetically negative, like fat and colored hair and stuff.
00:36:19.180You know what I mean. Yes, we do know what you mean. Cliff, do you want to take a swing at that?
00:36:25.380Sure. First, I will state that I am not a self-identified Norse pagan. I am an
00:36:31.060Ositre. There's a big difference. And some of the things that Bubblegum Man describes are,
00:36:37.860are i think maybe central to that or at least they're symptomatic of it um i think that
00:36:45.580for for for a lot of people um out there in general
00:36:50.580um they they will look at finding a religion that is not currently mainstream as their form of uh
00:37:01.500rebelling against the mainstream culture it's a very counterculture thing to do
00:37:05.440So for them, being a self-identified Norse pagan is not much different from being, you know, a wigger into hip hop or being, you know, a punker.
00:37:22.500It depends on what decade you're in, what would have been the thing that would have made your dad most pissed off.
00:37:27.180But that's kind of what they're trying to do.
00:37:28.800They're, you know, trying to distinguish themselves from a previous generation because they are trying to assert some sort of cultural independence from what they were brought up as, whatever that might be.
00:37:46.480A lot of times it's Christianity, although more and more we're finding that is more of an atheistic secularism that people are being brought up in.
00:37:54.140and I think that that's an unhealthy thing to do on the whole although a lot of us have to go
00:38:01.380through that phase in order to you know be able to come to sincere belief in the Aesir I mean I
00:38:11.880had a phase where I you know was was into different occult things and didn't really
00:38:18.320connect with them and went through a period of atheism where i you know i thought i knew
00:38:24.760everything because the the universe man right and uh i think that's what some of them are doing and
00:38:31.900i think that a lot of the other things that you see i mean so being fat that's just because they're
00:38:36.320lazy they're not actually applying the proper self-discipline in their life that is true
00:38:40.760almost across the board um it's very rare that somebody has some kind of condition that
00:38:45.980causes them to be that way that's out of their control um things like colored hair i i carve out
00:38:54.060a special exception for like teenagers who are supposed to biologically be sort of in that um
00:39:01.220trying to assert their independence mode where they're you know they're they're in that final
00:39:07.240stage of becoming an adult and you know for anyone who's a parent we know that ultimately
00:39:11.780what we're trying to do is to make our children not need us right like they're supposed to be
00:39:16.400able to feed themselves and survive when we're gone like that's that's the most basic um sort
00:39:23.360of primordial goal of um of raising a child so teenagers who do some of these rebellious things
00:39:30.520i think it's a natural thing as long as it's a phase um you know for for people that get to be
00:39:36.400into their early to mid 20s and are still, you know, exhibiting teenage rebellion, I think that's
00:39:47.460where it can start to be problematic. And that the more distance you get from that being the natural
00:39:52.200phase in your life, the less healthy and less complimentary that it is to someone. You know,
00:40:00.740I think that, uh, a lot of it is, it's, it's,
00:40:06.100it's common in American culture or in, um, you know,
00:40:11.800Western European culture that, that this, that this persists, you know,
00:40:17.140well into adulthood when, when it should not.
00:40:19.860And it doesn't have to exist in teenage years. It just, I, you know,
00:40:24.420I'm a lot more understanding of it there because they're still trying to find
00:40:27.580out who they are. They're not grownups yet. So it's a different standard.
00:40:30.740um but um i think that it's it shares a common root with other symptoms of of being unwell that
00:40:42.880we see in you know in in our people you know thing things like alcoholism or other addictive
00:40:50.680tendencies across the board i think that it is um it's a way it's a way of acting out a way of
00:40:57.960getting attention which is negative it's you know like the kid who will um you know break a toy
00:41:06.820rather than clean it up um because it gets them more attention that kind of a thing that's my
00:41:12.680take on it it has nothing to do with religion that's for sure yeah so those people are gross
00:41:20.620and i just want to put that out there those people are yucky uh cliffs opening volley i think
00:41:27.760like bears repeating. I wish that we could, you know, completely control all of the branding
00:41:39.140of who claims to be what. The world doesn't work like that. A lot of people can claim
00:41:43.840to be whatever they are. One of the things that is very nice, we have worked very hard
00:42:19.700yes the language of our paganism comes from the norse we are in fact pagans it's not wrong
00:42:29.200but it's why it's so important to me everybody wants to call what they do something different
00:42:34.000or odinus or heathen or this or that all of those things on their own aren't wrong and aren't
00:42:42.040incorrect but it's really confusing and it mixes your association with a lot of unsavory things
00:42:51.640like the people that you were identifying on tiktok um but no we are also true are
00:42:59.440and we don't do that now you know like any other group of people people come to us with a varying
00:43:08.240degree of health or unhealth. And it's really important to bring all our folk home. We got
00:43:15.040fat people in the AFA and we actively try to help them be healthy. And, you know, if they're willing
00:43:22.940to, we want to support them every step of the way and encourage our people to be healthy.
00:43:27.100We've got people with colored hair in the AFA. A lot of them with natural colors that are quite
00:43:31.740beautiful a lot of you know some of them with more exotic choices that i wouldn't advise them
00:43:39.100to make but i think the commonality in the person that we're all picturing by your question
00:43:43.460is that rebellion angsty try to be edgy thing and aside from just being disparaging to it
00:43:54.640There is a phenomenon that I think Cliff touched on that children go through a phase of, but in the world that we live in, in recent decades, more and more adult people don't get out of that perhaps social adolescence until later in their life and spend a lot of time reacting against.
00:44:19.540so oh well normal well-adjusted people in my country are christians so i'm not going to be
00:44:28.680a christian i'm going to be a pagan i'm not pagan for any paganism's sake in a lot of ways
00:44:34.520very often they're that to be the anti-christian or you know they dress up particularly edgy to be
00:44:44.200anti-normalcy or anti, you know, whatever social constraint they feel is there. And they're
00:44:52.240defining a lot of their stuff by either a desire not to or an inability to fit in socially with
00:45:01.600their friends and their family and the world around them. And it displays itself in a lot
00:45:06.540of ways, but I think the most common one we see is the grossly unhealthy and like just championing
00:45:16.000degeneracy thing. And we see that phenomenon a lot. To be honest, a lot of our people are lost.
00:45:24.240They don't know what to do. They feel let down by a lot of, you know, quote unquote,
00:45:30.540traditional authority around them they don't see their place in the world and they it metastasizes
00:45:38.460in some really unhealthy life choices and some visually unappealing trends and i think that's
00:45:45.100what you see um but you had another question following this do you agree with oswald spengler's
00:45:52.780uh idea that christianity set the stage for cultural marxism and progressivism cliff
00:46:00.540So I'm not familiar with Oswald Spengles, but I mean, given the length of its history and reach, I think Christianity set the stage for a great deal of things in the modern world.
00:46:19.080um not all of them bad by the way um you know it's certainly um you know the um you know the
00:46:29.000certain certain aspects of it certainly could be you know considered um globalist and and
00:46:36.020communistic and in the sense that you know it is a a universal religion that in its own text
00:46:43.260explicitly says to go and to um you know preach the gospel to the four corners of of the earth um
00:46:51.580it um you know it it taught it does talk about uh you know giving the the the shirt off of your
00:47:00.700back to those in need there's a lot of ideas like that which um not all of them are bad i mean
00:47:06.220giving to people who need um things people that are worse off than you is not necessarily bad
00:47:11.980uh it's all in context and um i would say there's a lot about you know who are you giving to um and
00:47:21.680you know supporting your own family i think should be obvious but not everyone does it so
00:47:26.120it's not always um supporting your your own people it should be obvious um
00:47:32.680i think that um in in other aspects christianity helped to um protect europe in a way um you know
00:47:44.840i i was in some ways i wonder sometimes if um if christianity or something like it was
00:47:57.080was not part of Odin's overall plan to have our folk ready um for for things that work to come
00:48:05.540um our our folk tend to be disunited um and and tribalists um referring back to the previous
00:48:12.740question about how everyone has you know a special name for what they do I I knew some guys that
00:48:19.340referred to themselves as folkish, tribal, independent heathens.
00:48:42.680We have a real hard time at uniting against the common foe.
00:48:46.480And I think that in the history of Europe, for all of its faults, I think that Christianity served as a bulwark against Islam that I don't know that the tribal society under Asatru would have.
00:49:04.780A unified Asatru people would have been able to withstand that, but that wasn't the reality that existed at that time.
00:49:16.480But, I mean, at its core, Christianity is is globalist and is, you know, it's I don't I guess the short answer is yes, but I don't I don't know that the things like cultural Marxism or progressivism would not have occurred without it, which I guess means the short answer is no, it's it's complicated.
00:49:46.480Yes, I absolutely believe that Christianity is the root of both of those things.
00:49:54.120But like Cliff said, I have no idea if they would have reared their ugly head in a different form or a different way if that hadn't been the medium that was there.
00:50:07.280But I think it was specifically well-suited because the teachings of Jesus, certainly as recorded in the Gospels, are that way.
00:50:17.960They are a specific appeal to the underclass in a Roman Judea that was downtrodden.
00:50:38.400um the beatitudes and the sermon on the mount is a lot about blessed are the losers and i don't
00:50:48.780mean that in a like pejorative but the people who are losing at life you know those who suffer
00:50:55.200uh the meek those who are downtrodden um it's a celebration of
00:56:01.440and something that the Aesir are concerned with
00:56:04.740and not just a distant afterlife that's unconnected.
00:56:11.580It is literally something that we are participating in
00:56:15.740in an active and meaningful way during this life
00:56:20.060And there are, you know, rewards and benefits and blessings for that in this life.
00:56:28.040So many other faiths, so many other universal faiths are world rejecting in the way that Cliff described, in the way that I mentioned earlier about Christianity.
00:56:41.280There is a narrative that the world is bad, that the world is suffering, and modern Hinduism shares a lot of that as well.
00:56:48.440whereas I don't think that Vedic Hinduism did in the same way.
00:56:54.240Just this idea that life is terrible and something to be escaped
00:56:59.020or something to be avoided or cloistered away from
00:57:05.320or whatever that might mean, in Asatru,
00:57:09.260we want our people to be actively engaged in life,
00:57:14.180actively engaged in the world in the events and the things of their time that matter constantly
00:57:21.720a force of nobility and of good in the world and the time that they live in their their sagas are
00:57:29.980played out in the world and not in a you know an afterlife and this is part of something i've
00:57:36.900mention too is a very important contrast in Christianity and perhaps in other
00:57:43.500faiths as well there's an emphasis on salvation and salvation through the
00:57:54.720benevolence of a higher power disconnected in part or in
00:58:01.680christianity's case wholly from your own worth and value um in also true we don't have a concept
00:58:10.880of you need to be saved but you are elevated and blessed and celebrated in proportion
00:58:20.960to your deeds and to your accomplishments your victories matter your actions matter it's not
00:58:29.600throwing all of that at the at the feet of a perhaps merciful perhaps not deity it's winning
00:58:38.960respect and making the icr proud of you and making them proud to acknowledge you as one of theirs
00:58:47.360and that's a real fundamental difference but i think it factors a lot into
00:58:51.920the nature of also true being a living faith we're forging our relationship daily
00:58:59.060with our gods through our deeds and through active things on our part
00:59:07.580so what do we got next all right next one is from rachel and i believe spawn answered a lot of it
00:59:24.080in the chat room but i think for our listeners it's a good question uh if we do not know for
00:59:30.420certain all the names of the Iser, how do we recognize them as such? We celebrate Nerthus
00:59:36.580and Ostara, but are they Iser? Is Prekta or Frauhola what determines belonging to that
00:59:46.240specific pantheon? And to clear up a couple of things for a second, you just mentioned
00:59:55.040names those names indicate existence and that gives us something to go on what i think is more
01:00:02.320of the point isn't how many things that we might not have it's allowing for the possibility and the
01:00:08.240near certainty that some of those names are lost to time and perhaps some of those names are yet
01:00:15.520to come into existence um we know the ice ear that we are devoted to worship towards
01:00:25.600now as fawn was talking about in the in the chat room we also include the osvanir
01:00:34.320and the him and further the heavenly wardens so the osvanir are the loved ones of the gods ones
01:00:43.680that have through marriage and through relationship given their loyalty to the iser and been and become
01:00:53.360part of the iser compound when we talk about the iser in its broadest sense it extends to
01:01:03.120godly beings within our cosmic order of things and that extends a little bit beyond
01:01:12.000the the core tribe of the israel um we know them as they reveal themselves to us be them be it
01:01:24.400through archaeological understanding be it through being blessed by insight and as we develop and
01:01:32.400forge those relationships we build those kind of bonds it's one of the reasons we
01:01:37.280pay particular emphasis to the gilfaginning because it lists there very clearly at least
01:01:46.280at the time of its writing the gods and goddesses that were good for us to worship
01:01:53.120the iser and the asenior that were good for us to worship and it lists
01:02:20.480And also it lists the great goddesses of our folk, Lady Freya and Mother Frigg.
01:02:28.160along with Frigg's handmaidens who serve her and are in her court.
01:02:38.600So we do know quite a bit of them, and those are where we're focusing our worship.
01:02:43.340And then we learn and build relationship with the others as they make themselves known to us.
01:02:52.720And we're always in that process of wanting to make sure we give proper worship to our gods and our goddesses, especially those that perhaps have been forgotten.
01:03:02.580And the other thing to consider, and we, and our Gothar spend time on, on contemplating this too, our faith is expressed by a lot of different related cultures within Europe over the span of thousands of, you know, thousands of years and matching up linguistic differences to see where overlap is, is really important too.
01:03:32.580you have anything to add on that clip yeah sure um i think it's important to specify that when i
01:03:38.260was speaking about this earlier i was definitely referring to the aesir in the broader sense
01:03:43.540um of the um the deities and entities that are aligned with the cosmic order of the aesir that
01:03:51.940was set by odin so that would include a lot of the gods and goddesses that um you know maybe
01:03:59.940were were localized um it would include all of the the vanir who were unified with the aesir
01:04:08.900after um the the aesir vanir war and the exchanging of hostages um and and like
01:04:17.860ashir gothi matt talked about and and what was a really um important in some of the initial
01:04:23.940points i was making when talking about how we can't even name all of our gods is that you know
01:04:32.740so we don't we we don't really understand cosmic time or mythic time the way you know the time
01:04:39.140scale on which our our gods and goddesses operate um and you know we we know that it's cyclic but
01:04:46.100that they probably don't exist in the same time that that we do um but you know you know thor
01:04:54.420like to use the thor's son's example right so so magni and modi are the sons of thor so you know
01:05:02.260to to my understanding as as a human as a as a gothi of the of the acer of the austria folk
01:05:08.740assembly that makes them you know of the same type of being as thor you know maybe not as great as
01:05:15.700thor yet but over time whatever that means to the gods um you know the the idea would be as a parent
01:05:26.900that thor would be nurturing them to you know ideally be greater than he currently is you know
01:05:34.340to to to consider continue ascension whatever that means to uh a deity like thor and then that
01:05:42.820by implication i think means that um that magmi and modi would have that same capability one day
01:05:49.460and that for we humans that the the pious approach is to understand that you know if
01:05:59.620magmi or modi had their aesir man-making we would not necessarily be notified of that
01:06:06.740and that if they took a bride we would not necessarily be notified of that and that if
01:06:11.940they then had a son and then therefore thor had a grandchild we would not be notified about that
01:06:17.780necessarily and so that there's a a continuing stream of life that our our gods and goddesses
01:06:26.020have um you know we we certainly believe that they are capable of of creating life they are
01:06:32.660i mean they are divine after all so i i think that leaves open the possibility that there
01:06:40.180could be new aesir created that we simply are unaware of yet which is where you know we talk
01:06:47.540about revelation the the the revelation of the aesir to us not only can we learn about our gods
01:06:59.780by meditation and and by study and so perhaps we gain some insight into odin or thor that we didn't
01:07:07.300have before um sometimes that's called universe uh unverified personal gnosis which is just for
01:07:14.660an individual until maybe many people have the same unverified personal gnosis and it becomes a
01:07:21.700more um you know a more widespread type of of revelation from the acr um and that's that's
01:07:32.980sort of the you know the the point of what i was driving it at is that um we don't know what we
01:07:40.260don't know and i think it would be um inappropriate and and um very prideful for us to not account
01:07:50.820for the the possibility that the if the acer the in the broad sense are are more than what we know
01:07:58.980and that and to discount the possibility of them growing beyond the ones that we do know
01:08:18.980just thinking on that um before we move on i'd like to acknowledge uh tyler
01:08:26.500m hall bought us a coffee thank you so much tyler that is a five dollar donation to the astro folk
01:08:33.220assembly thank you we appreciate your generosity appreciate all of you that donate if you want to
01:08:38.660do the buy us a coffee thing it's in the description of this uh this broadcast um
01:08:46.820So the next question up is, Matt, why is that Jotun painted alongside Thor in the Hoth depicted as a Swarli foreigner when many of the Aesir have significant Jotun heritage?
01:09:06.440Shouldn't Jotunar be depicted by the AFA as white?
01:09:12.860Right. So Svan corrected this or spoke on this in the in the chat room.
01:09:20.060But for those of you listening, I want to rephrase what or I don't know, paraphrase what Svan said, maybe add a little bit on that.
01:09:31.620So. If you look, he's not a different ethnicity, like a different race of people, he's not like a black guy or something.
01:09:42.860The Jotun in that particular depiction is displaying, and you see this a lot in lore and in epic poetry, nobility comes through in physical characteristic as well.
01:10:05.460A person, often a hero, one of the gods, will be particularly bright and particularly gleaming their skin with bright, brilliant hair and piercing blue eyes and a nobleness of bearing of hue.
01:10:29.120and that extends the entire image the entire hammer of that being and villains quite the
01:10:39.440opposite even if they're white guys they're dark and they're they're brooding and they're
01:10:45.620they have a darkness about them they have an ashen hue to their skin as opposed to
01:10:51.900the gleaming skin of Asa Thor in this. They have a different bearing displaying
01:11:00.980less brilliant, less highly prized, less noble appearance. As we mentioned in a previous episode,
01:11:12.480But so folks realize one of the interesting and unique things about Alcetru is our soul complex.
01:11:25.620It's not just that there is the body and separate from that is your soul.
01:11:31.520Within Ausatru, your soul, that which makes you you, is made up of many different components.
01:11:42.100One of them is the hammer or the visual effect that you project from your being.
01:11:49.460And also one of those is the leak or the physical body or literally your physical body that you inhabit.
01:17:43.000And I think it matters to our ancestors and to our gods because, you know, cumulatively, all these little things, they build up a lot.
01:17:51.760And I think that's one of the reasons the Ashtore Folk Assembly has been so successful, because it is something that starting with founder McNallan and Alshir Gauthier Flavel and so many others along the way and currently and in the future have, you know, brick by brick, mile by mile put together.
01:18:13.760together and any one of those people would have had less of an impact than than all of us together
01:18:23.520and some of the impact those people make would have been you know greater than others but
01:18:28.000it all stacks up and it's it's really important um and and and talk to the gods and talk to
01:18:37.200your ancestors you know be be respectful it's going to be a different conversation
01:18:41.600with uh with a deity than it would be with your ancestors your tone should you know be a little
01:18:48.280different um with your ancestors you probably know the tone to take with the uh with with the
01:18:55.780acer um you know piety and respect i think is always good advice
01:19:02.300yeah i mean i think that nick your question is a good question it's also a exponentially
01:19:13.840broad question because there's lots of right ways to do it there's also lots of wrong ways to do it
01:19:22.220kind of starting where cliff left off and working my way back
01:19:29.120Piety is always a great default option. When in doubt, be truthful and pious. If you rely on piety and honesty, that is a really good default setting.
01:19:53.040when you're approaching being Alcetru,
01:19:58.420when you're approaching interacting with the gods,
01:21:49.500they are better honored by heroes than by villains or by those that are not accomplished
01:21:59.100we honor them by making the very best of ourselves and a big part of that
01:22:04.380is when you wear a hammer when you're also true and that defines who you are
01:22:09.660are you are their representative here in Midgar you are the person that people see just like it
01:22:21.180pains Cliff and I even though we have no kinship to the fat strange-haired uh tick-tock quote
01:22:30.660quote, Norse pagan, they're putting themselves out there at that is damaging to the overall
01:22:40.620fame of us, our faith, and the Aesir themselves. We want to glorify them, and we best do that by
01:22:50.660when people see pictures of us and say, those guys are Ausatru, does that elevate the Aesir
01:22:59.240and our ancestors or is it a cause for them to be ashamed considering that not just in our appearance
01:23:06.600but in how we act you are also true when you interact with your neighbors you're also true
01:23:13.880when you interact with your spouse when you interact with your children
01:23:18.440you're also true when you interact with your co-workers does that interaction bring glory
01:23:25.560to the isera and our ancestors or does it make them cringe or does it bring them shame living
01:23:34.680your life that way matters another thing that i think is extremely important is considering
01:23:44.120legacy in the next generation. There is a, among some Alistair that I have known in my time doing
01:23:56.460this, there is a feeling like, no, we're just going to stay in this, you know, backyard group
01:24:02.500and it's good enough for me and my four buddies and that's all there is. And bully for you that
01:24:10.880it's good enough for you and your four buddies, is it good enough for the Aesir? Are you building
01:24:17.800something that will be greater and better for our children and them to practice Ausatru?
01:24:25.820I believe an obligation that we have living Ausatru is to move this forward to where the
01:24:34.800next generation when you say also true people don't say huh people know what that means and
01:24:43.500they know what that means in a good way for us to have more Hoffs and places for our children
01:24:51.100together and play under the watchful eye of the Iser and to grow into men and women fathers and
01:24:59.580mothers in that place giving worship throughout their lives to our gods that's done when we live
01:25:07.720intentionally to provide that and pass that down to those who come after us i think we also do that
01:25:14.220by remembering and honoring our heroes and those who've come before us making sure that their name
01:25:21.120is spoken with reverence and with praise and with celebration in years to come
01:25:26.480remembering and telling the tale is a big part of our obligation in living ausitry i think some of
01:25:37.300the next part comes in uh next follow-up question he says how does that look different uh for the
01:25:46.660member as a layman versus those in gothic ordinance cliff what are your thoughts that way
01:25:53.480well um the the biggest responsibility that is given to our gothar is the maintenance of the
01:26:07.140gift cycle between the gods and the folk um with you know capital g and capital f
01:26:14.480We have a sacred responsibility to bring the truth and to bring the gifts, the sacrifices of the folk to the Aesir and to accept whatever blessings the Aesir see fit to bestow on us that they find us worthy of.
01:49:55.560Dellinger, Naut, Sunna, or Sol, Mani, Deir, and Ostara being the ones of note.
01:50:08.160There's a lot of gods in our cosmology that exist outside of the very human relationship that we see the Iser in, that exist in more of a cosmic and a bit more of a distant sense.
01:58:44.020On the topic of living Alcitru, can you touch on the importance of practicing Alcitru in a very experiential way rather than taking too much from a scholarly approach to Alcitru, which makes it into a head game rather than something that is experienced?
02:11:44.720It just means some people express that.
02:11:47.080But back to how to do this in an experiential way and not to be, I don't know, cheated out of your experience by never progressing beyond the scholastic.
02:12:01.900I think what really needs to be emphasized most is directionality.
02:12:06.180Our gods have zero obligation to conform to your reading list
02:12:16.740Or the stuff that some scholar somewhere has posited about the way the gods work
02:16:35.200And if you are going before the altar and reaching out, you are more ausitru than the greatest scholar of any of this subject matter as a scholar.
02:16:50.840Please keep that in mind that scholasticism is a tool to better understand and bring us closer to the gods.
02:16:58.580it should never be an impediment to appreciating the glory and the agency that our gods have
02:17:05.920and that gets misunderstood a lot i think i think it's really important too um most of the books
02:17:15.720that people will will recommend about also true especially primary sources were not written by
02:17:23.820also sure um they they are by and large literary or scholastic works sometimes they're archaeological
02:17:30.460works but um that does not mean they do not have value but um it's important to keep in mind that
02:17:38.460they you know that the you know the prosetta for example was not a religious document when it was
02:17:46.640written we're fortunate to have it we get a lot from that but that it was written down by a a
02:17:53.320christian and that you know sometimes we need to read it as such um so that's something i think
02:18:00.600that is important to remember about most of the um scholarly scholarly works we we're fortunate
02:18:07.160that that is becoming less the cases you know people like our founder stephen mcnellen put
02:18:12.320out works that are actually about also true by an author truer but a lot of the stuff and this
02:18:19.140includes modern stuff too are not really um not really so much awesome true books as they are
02:18:26.100books about something that is also true
02:18:28.620absolutely um okay that leads right into the next question if you're new to all this where do you
02:18:39.600start cliff what do you suggest all right so if you haven't already the first thing that you do
02:23:30.360um everything cliff said with the addition i dipped out for a second because i needed to go
02:23:41.460and kiss my daughter good night so i may have missed it but i think that the
02:23:47.160also true true log mall is a really important thing for you to check out first i would say
02:23:54.060even before anything else because it and again it is it is not perfect uh but with a lot of help
02:24:05.820from argothar i did the very best i could to lay out the to lay out the fundamentals of our beliefs
02:24:15.820in a way that would be um accessible to someone who was familiar with also true but also someone
02:24:25.700who was completely fresh and wasn't and because i put it together with that purpose in mind
02:24:33.540i think it's well suited to give you kind of a foundation to work from but yes as soon as you can
02:24:45.040get involved with real people doing this in real life i'm not sure where you are located
02:24:51.440but if you are in the united states chances are you are close to where you can get together with
02:24:57.200real alsatruar doing this and that is the most healthy best way to get started
02:25:06.640also we have members in 11 different countries
02:25:10.720uh i think 11 in addition to the united states so we could find just someone depending on where
02:25:19.520you're at but joining and being part that is much closer to how our ancestors did this
02:25:30.560i get it i love to read i love history i love those things so when i first came home to
02:25:37.280ausitru i wanted to just jump right in and read all the books and and do that too but
02:25:45.120our ancestors didn't do that they learned ausitru from their elders from the gothar from the people
02:25:55.920in their community who were already practicing our faith and it was passed down that way
02:26:01.440it wasn't go do research or go do study now do all of those things please and cliff's
02:26:09.760thing about starting with children's books sounds silly but if you genuinely have no other
02:26:15.840familiarity do that this is funny and until cliff brought this up i don't really bring this up as
02:26:24.000part of my origin story but before i became aussitrew when i had very little familiarity
02:26:33.680i was in high school the lair's book is meant for like little kids i got it in high school
02:26:45.120to read and look at i remember to this day i can't remember i think i was a sophomore
02:26:50.480or a junior and i got it in high school because it did it had all the pictures it's beautifully
02:26:56.640illustrated and you know i don't consider that my first house of true book because i read it far
02:27:02.160before i became also true but that was my introduction um so yeah it's not a bad idea at
02:27:10.400all there's a lot of good things that any of us can help direct you to if you get further in what
02:27:16.480you're doing but like i said the true limo and if it's something this is something to think about
02:27:24.080too guys for joining our standard for you joining isn't that you are a die hard 100
02:27:34.480loyal to the ic or also true are that day that's a relationship that's built over time
02:27:40.640our standard is that that's something you want to pursue and joining is your first step towards
02:27:50.300that so you don't need to be a thousand percent committed to everything the day you join but you
02:27:57.740do need to be open and desirous of that at the end of your journey so please keep that in mind
02:28:04.820Don't let that be a hindrance from you taking that step and joining.
02:28:09.640Because in order, again, like I said earlier, that's not the most convenient thing, but it is the right thing and the true thing.
02:28:19.460For you to build that deeply sincere faith, you need opportunity provided to you where that can happen.
02:28:29.740joining with your folk and being there in bloat and being actively involved in that process
02:28:38.220that's the best way and the way that we can be most helpful to facilitate that experience and
02:28:47.240help you get there so do keep that in mind something i want to add real quick um
02:28:55.840so yeah the uh the Dallaire's book it's like the picture book of saints for Asatru and I think
02:29:02.320that you know most Christians remember those early childhood books like the picture book of
02:29:07.500saints way more than they do some yeah that's it they remember that way more than they do some
02:29:13.040you know um some some prayer study or or something from when they were older um the other thing that
02:29:21.520I wanted to mention real quick about Pros Edda is, you know, don't skip the Skald Skaparmel
02:29:28.480because it's a little tough to get through, but there's a lot in there that will benefit you
02:29:37.440when you get into the Poetic Edda. So read The Gilfoginning, read Skald Skaparmel,
02:29:43.820or I'm sorry, Skald Skaparmel, and there's a lot. The whole list of kennings in there
02:29:49.480is really important for um understanding what the heck the poetica is talking about in a lot
02:29:56.560of places it's good that you mentioned that I want to say if you read all of it the the best
02:30:04.440answer is all but if you're prioritizing and there's only one that you can can do and keep
02:30:12.420in mind, the Eddas aren't set up sequentially. So they're a collection of lore, a collection of
02:30:22.660poetry about our ancestral faith. But they're each kind of individual, so it's not like you
02:30:29.620need to read each of the poems in succession. If you could only read one, I would say read
02:30:37.880the gilfaginning if you could read two the gilfaginning and the veluspel
02:30:44.900if you could read two the gilfaginning and the havamal and if you could read three the gilfaginning
02:30:53.100and the havamal and veluspel i say that other people may have different choices they put on
02:30:58.840there and i think there's probably merit to all of it but i think the gilfaginning gives you a
02:31:03.320really good orientation about the broad scope of it and it's kind of written with that purpose in
02:31:09.520mind so I think that's a very accessible one to start with that tells you this is this and that's
02:31:17.120that and this is here and this is there and it gives you that orientation in a really direct way
02:31:23.180um our next thing I feel like I'm missing a question okay that's why because I'm on the
02:31:30.460on ten all right have you had dreams of the gods or do you know people who have had dreams of the
02:31:37.900gods or things like near-death experiences cliff oh man my dreams we don't want to get into that
02:31:46.780is like scramble city there um so uh you know in all seriousness i don't remember in particular
02:31:58.500if i have had you know a dream of a god where like a a god or goddess spoke to me or even like
02:32:09.240featured as like the the central theme of the dream if a lot of my dreams don't have a central
02:32:16.600theme but um but i have had quite a few dreams that are about also true in my folk um i don't
02:32:27.280know that those are revelations as much as they're you know kind of a function of the fact that my
02:32:32.420life is so deeply invested in Asitru so that it's only natural that I would have dreams about
02:32:39.100Asitru and the people that I know through Asitru just like you know one might have dreams about
02:32:45.660work or you know going back to one's grade school or any of those things that are you know so deeply
02:32:53.260embedded in our minds um i have heard you know as a gothi i certainly have heard people talk about
02:33:01.700having dreams of the gods um and like i was talking about earlier i i don't necessarily
02:33:07.360literally believe that they had that dream but i always take them at at face value it's not really
02:33:13.200my judgment on that that's important whether or not they you know had a god or a goddess
02:33:21.620speak to them or provide some revelation in that dream it's more about helping them understand
02:33:29.260what it means to them because whether it came from inside of them or you know was something
02:33:35.520that was communicated from outside that's the most important part is that they understand it
02:33:40.200and are able to you know have something productive and constructive come of it
02:33:47.340um as far as um i think the second part was about near-death experiences um
02:33:55.380so i i come from a very catholic um background and family and so in my family there were all
02:34:05.540sorts of sort of like spooky stories um my grandmother and my mom um and
02:34:13.900And a lot of the ants, it seems like it was always the females who talked about this stuff.
02:34:18.940My grandfather and the uncles and stuff really didn't.
02:34:22.580It was much more down-to-earth kind of stuff with them.
02:34:27.320They were very devout, but it wasn't, you know, spirits with them.
02:34:33.020But I've had lots of stories in my family about, you know, like visitations or apparitions.
02:34:44.600Being a Catholic family, a lot of times it was, oh, so-and-so saw the Virgin Mary or something like that.
02:34:49.880I personally haven't had any of those.
02:34:52.600But, you know, and I don't disbelieve the things that my family members said,
02:34:58.620although I do think that perhaps they misinterpreted them.
02:35:03.020you know just because uh you know some kind of female spirit with a glowing aura appears to you
02:35:12.020and tells you to do something i don't think it they necessarily correctly identify the identity
02:35:18.740of that entity uh but that's again just like in the other scenario that's not really for me to
02:35:25.740that's something that um you know observationally like i was talking about earlier that that's
02:35:34.420something that uh even though i had a skeptical attitude for a good chunk of my younger years
02:35:42.240that i think helped open me to the idea of um spirits or or supernatural sort of things being
02:35:52.520a part of, uh, of, of human existence in this world.
02:36:00.500Yeah, I, so to answer your question, there, there is this murky area of dreams, as Cliff
02:36:13.240kind of mentioned, you know, what is legitimate revelation from the gods and what is just
02:36:22.060a dream um it's really a cool sign in your life and people talk about this about languages like
02:36:31.840you really know you've mastered language when you start dreaming in a different language
02:36:36.600it's nice when your touchstones in your dreams are fully integrated incorporated
02:36:49.160also true to where that is the context of your dreamscape that speaks a lot to
02:36:57.960your interior as a person and how much that's become a part of you um
02:37:06.920i have had i've had the gods in many many dreams that i've had but of note there's a difference
02:37:16.600It's because a lot of my dreams are really fleeting, like they're really cool and I'll wake up and I'm like, ah, this dream's amazing, and an hour later I will have lost it.
02:37:29.300It's very hard for me to remember my dreams, except for a couple really important ones that I can remember clear as day decades later.
02:37:42.880one of those involved lady freya and one of those involved y'all father
02:37:52.240those are both really significant to me and i do think that messages were
02:38:02.500were given to me that were important in those um i've had a handful of other really
02:38:10.820profound experiences in waking time which asked about dreams um
02:38:17.940near-death experiences i have never experienced that but i do know people who have
02:38:24.500one really specific who you know usually is often a frequent um audience member of this program
02:38:31.620had a very visceral near-death experience that led him to Ossetree and that's really inspirational
02:38:42.000and if he comes on here I may prompt him to share that with the chat room
02:38:45.420um what do you think about books about people's modern experiences with the gods Cliff