Asatru Folk Assembly - 3⧸20⧸24 Victory Never Sleeps, Episode 89 - Ostara

00:00:00.000 Thank you very much.

00:00:30.000 We'll be right back.

00:01:00.000 Thank you.

00:01:30.000 Thank you.

00:02:00.000 Thank you.

00:02:30.000 We'll be right back.

00:03:00.000 Thank you.

00:03:30.000 Thank you.

00:04:00.000 So that getting started, I would like Whitton Young to go ahead and fill us in on what we

00:04:15.240 have to expect at OSTAR this weekend.

00:04:18.040 Whitton Young?

00:04:19.040 Thank you, Ms. Brandy.

00:04:22.040 Yeah, expect a lot of friff, fellowship, worship of the gods.

00:04:30.600 We will open the event with welcoming the gods.

00:04:34.620 We'll have Thorobloat around 6 p.m., which will be led by Ulster Gauthier Flaybel.

00:04:42.460 And we'll have a Q&A session with the AFA Witten.

00:04:47.500 And then Saturday, everything's around Ostorobloat,

00:04:50.600 Starobloat and that would be led by Githya Katie Erickson and we'll have

00:04:55.940 we'll have our auction our AFA auction we have artisans from all over the

00:05:00.320 country that have poured a lot of blood sweat and tears into their art to

00:05:05.660 donate for our Hoth auction we're expecting a record turnout for Ostara

00:05:12.860 in the south it'd be the first time Thor's Hoth's ever hit triple digits if

00:05:16.760 everybody comes that's promised to and while I'm on that topic I want to 0.94

00:05:23.100 recognize the folk builders that have really been grinding in Thoris Hall

00:05:27.180 South for the last 60 days I'm longer than that really ever really ever since

00:05:31.980 Yule so that's folk builder Tyler Bethea the beautiful lady next to me folk

00:05:38.240 builder Heather Young folk builder Bobby Shotwell folk builder Nick Rice and many

00:05:44.100 many others from other districts um it's really appreciated those guys have really worked their

00:05:48.480 tails off and and it's uh their work has paid off and uh i'm excited to get this weekend going but

00:05:54.760 you know expect to see every member of the afa witten and as long as i've been in the afa it's

00:05:59.500 the first time at a national event we've all been in the same place at the same time so that's gonna

00:06:04.260 be really fun um you can expect to see there's one more thing and i forget oh yeah we're gonna

00:06:10.700 have a wedding. We're going to have a vow renewal on Sunday, and we're also going to be hosting our

00:06:17.740 monthly food pantry on Saturday. That's about it. Thank you, sir. So I'm going to put my other good

00:06:27.700 gothies on the spot here, and we'll start with a gothi stam and then go into a gothi east.

00:06:34.960 Gothi stam, can you tell us a little bit about why we're celebrating Ostara? What does it mean?

00:06:40.420 And what do we do?

00:06:50.420 Am I still on mute?

00:06:55.420 No, no one hear me?

00:06:57.420 Okay.

00:06:58.420 Ostara.

00:06:59.420 So a lot of times you'll hear people say, well, Ostara is not in the Norse corpus, right?

00:07:05.420 We never hear of Ostara in the Norse myth.

00:07:08.420 However, she absolutely does have representation in the Germanic overall myth cycle and, of course, in all of the Aryan branches.

00:07:18.420 Every single one, as a matter of fact, the goddess of dawn is highly represented in the myths and the stories and the faith.

00:07:29.420 For example, her iteration in the Vedics of Ushas, she's the most mentioned goddess in the entire Rig Veda. And she's mentioned more than some of the gods. She's very highly respected and known and worshipped. And we know her from every single Aryan branch. And she's conspicuously missing from the Norse myths.

00:07:55.700 And I have my theories on that, of course, but I'm 100 percent sure that our Norse ancestors worshipped Ostara.

00:08:05.600 I believe that she was so important that she was deliberately erased to foster in the conversion.

00:08:15.880 But she is a goddess of spring, of renewal, of the earth coming alive again.

00:08:21.780 we celebrate her on the spring equinox which is when the sun is coming back and the earth

00:08:30.160 is starting to wake up again there are some theories that in our very distant past and

00:08:38.880 we're talking pre-vedic times proto-indo-european times that she was important because we were in

00:08:46.540 And the theory is Hyperborea, where the dawn doesn't come but once a year.

00:08:51.060 So the goddess of dawn becomes extremely important.

00:08:57.320 But she was so important that regardless of that theory, she still remained important in the faith and the worship of Arian people throughout the ages and down to us today.

00:09:11.880 In all the various Arian branches.

00:09:14.600 and we celebrate her still in the AFA as the Lady of Dawn and Renewal and Spring.

00:09:25.720 Thank you, sir. Go the East, could you give us some ideas on how we can celebrate Ostara

00:09:32.760 individually as families and as folk if we are not in a Hoth, even though we all

00:09:39.240 should really take the opportunity to visit one at this time of the year?

00:09:44.600 yeah absolutely um something you can do is you can kind of look at how our ancestors viewed

00:09:53.080 things in cycles the uh cycle the seasons is pretty much what our holy tides are built off

00:09:57.960 of and i'm sure they'll get covered later in the episode but um a good way to look at it is

00:10:04.520 ostara the dawn of spring is is almost like a new year right and a lot of people

00:10:12.040 do rune pulls during a star like gothi stam actually and uh they do that to kind of

00:10:19.480 you know divine some sort of uh meaning for their their uh their new year so you can do that with

00:10:28.520 your family do that as a household you can of course give bloat to a star at any time anywhere

00:10:34.120 you can do uh you know the christians do the easter egg hunt that's not an abrahamic thing

00:10:42.520 you can still do that just to call it no star egg hunt i suppose

00:10:46.800 you can just get out and enjoy the springtime weather and kind of

00:10:54.240 meditate on the beauty of it the uh the warmth what it means for the earth what it means for our

00:11:02.000 cult. You can decorate using the flowers that are starting to bloom as Ostara makes her way across

00:11:11.500 Midgard. Something that we used to do pretty often at Ostara in the south previous years was

00:11:20.520 founder McNallum would get up before dawn and those of us who wanted to wake up that early were

00:11:28.220 allowed to join him we would all greet the day together using the prayer from

00:11:32.360 the sing drive them all hail day hail the sons of day etc those are just off

00:11:36.920 the top of my head but you kind of get the gist I'm sure

00:11:44.380 thank you sir so folk builder young you know I had to call on your pretty face

00:11:55.400 Could you give me your first, your first or your favorite memories about Ostara since you've been in the AFA?

00:12:08.320 I would have to say my first Ostara ever.

00:12:12.840 What was that place that we?

00:12:14.540 I was in Kannapolis.

00:12:15.840 Kannapolis.

00:12:16.400 That was my first big event. Only like my third or fourth get together with AFA Folk.

00:12:27.340 And that's the first time I got to meet Rob. Trenton, I think Madison, weren't there that year.

00:12:36.100 I met Tyler. And the thing that stuck out to me most was the kids.

00:12:42.000 The kids got to run and play, and the parents weren't hovering.

00:12:46.180 I mean, the kids were everywhere, you know.

00:12:48.840 And then the Bethea kids, they were so little, and they had sippy cups.

00:12:54.720 And when Matt would say, hold the horn up, and he would say, hell to gods,

00:12:58.640 the little babies were walking on this little wall,

00:13:01.060 and they would hold their little sippy cups up and say, hell.

00:13:04.160 And I don't know, that just amazed me that they were so little,

00:13:09.440 and they were so involved, you know.

00:13:12.000 And that kind of stuck with me the most.

00:13:15.560 So I'm excited to have them at the SoStar again, but they're big boys now.

00:13:24.460 So we do have a donation from Ronald Blake, $25 for VNS and $25 for New York Toph.

00:13:32.820 Thank you, Ronald.

00:13:34.020 You are always so generous and we appreciate everything that you do every single week.

00:13:39.320 Thank you so much.

00:13:42.000 So I want to ask the people on this video, do you guys remember the first time we were all at the same place at the same time?

00:13:53.060 Where was that, Go the East?

00:13:58.100 All of us were at Ostara 2022, I believe.

00:14:05.440 Yeah, because the three of us were ordained already.

00:14:09.340 Are you sure?

00:14:12.720 no because oh i remember because they shut down all of the schools in the airports on my way

00:14:18.240 home from ostara that year and i was wondering if i was going to be able to get home or not

00:14:23.280 because they canceled all the kids at school all the flights and it was pandemonium everybody was

00:14:29.280 there on this call except uh gothe stan right except goldie sam yeah so you're right so 2022

00:14:35.520 it's actually 2020 was the one you're referring to and that was at drear island south carolina

00:14:40.080 yeah that was where that was where um my son and your daughter met for the first time and

00:14:47.400 one of the cutest pictures that ever existed in the afa is of that those two yeah yeah that's uh

00:14:55.140 in fact that's where i uh i turned in my application for the gothar program was at that

00:15:00.540 weekend and uh that same weekend um uh spawn approached me about you know helping him out

00:15:08.280 with Thor's off. We had just had a little shake up in the Carolinas with the previous leadership.

00:15:16.320 And yeah, so Svon and I knew each other. And I wouldn't say we were friends. We weren't not

00:15:22.100 friends. We were friendly, but didn't know each other all that well. And, you know, the beginning

00:15:26.780 of a very awesome friendship started that weekend. That's the first time I met, you know, Brandy too.

00:15:33.720 And she and Heather clicked immediately that weekend doing the kids crafts and stuff. I heard

00:15:38.060 about it the whole ride back to uh camden but yeah uh so 2022 is the last time we were all

00:15:44.200 together at out of the star and uh and they were also together at thor's offer uh mine and heather's

00:15:49.840 vow renewal a couple years back which was amazing happy happy moments um i share a lot of happy

00:15:56.080 moments with the folks on this call and i'm very appreciative and grateful for that

00:16:00.240 yeah i believe that that was the the great taco adventure of 2022 i believe

00:16:06.920 if you're if you're on this call or you were at ostara if you know you know but nothing will ever

00:16:15.020 beat the taco adventure of 2022 except all we're gonna say is when when you know these

00:16:23.120 damn wants tacos the whole crowd goes out to get tacos for him and he's sleeping when we get back

00:16:29.300 that was a great time so almost all of my best friends are on this call there's a few 0.99

00:16:40.580 there's a few people missing not many people missing but there are a few people missing from

00:16:46.740 the call that would consider my dearest friends but our relationship with each other all really

00:16:52.260 as a group really started at ostara so ostara kind of has a real special

00:16:56.800 real special place in my heart personally um i always say if i if i go to an event that's not

00:17:04.660 at baldur's hof which is the bestest hof then i definitely want to go down south go down south

00:17:11.260 at thor's hof because of the beauty of the building the hospitality of the people

00:17:14.760 it's an amazing event so tickets are still on sale at runestone.org

00:17:20.140 heather would you like to fill them in on what they can kind of expect um

00:17:26.800 getting to and from the airport or driving in what can they expect getting

00:17:32.080 into Thorsoff so we do have transportation arranged for a handful

00:17:39.560 of people yeah but Heather knows a little bit more about that yeah so we

00:17:43.820 have some people flying in that are coming in that we have gotten rides for

00:17:51.620 so if you do need rides please reach out so we can make sure we have somebody to

00:17:55.680 pick you up. I do know that the hotel in Dunn is sold out that we usually use. I think a couple

00:18:03.960 people got some rooms at Days Inn, but all that's left is Fayetteville and Lake Springs. So if

00:18:11.860 you're coming in and you need a room, make sure you get a room because we have a lady flying in 1.00

00:18:18.320 who hasn't reserved a room yet and so I'm trying to help her get a room and if 0.98

00:18:26.240 you need transport out please let us know so we can make sure we get we have

00:18:31.040 people to get you to your flights before you have to be leaving yeah we got some

00:18:40.160 folks going back to Raleigh and we've got transport arranged for them and we

00:18:44.080 have y'all's area go through heading back to charlotte and we got a transport range for him

00:18:49.140 and uh something heather said was really important um make sure that you know anytime that you guys

00:18:54.460 fly into an event like this that you pre-arranged you know transportation and lodging and stuff i

00:19:00.200 know some folks are coming in at last minute and and you know we're happy to have you but it really

00:19:05.360 puts us in a bind if we're not expecting to have to scoot people up from airports and run them to

00:19:10.140 airbnbs and stuff like that so

00:19:11.820 so what kind of uh events do we plant have planned for our men women and children do we

00:19:22.260 have anything special going on at the start of this year yes we do we have um ladies group will

00:19:27.760 be hosted by uh the beautiful lady next to me um and i don't know what that's about um spooky girl

00:19:34.580 stuff i guess and uh the men's group will be um you know strength games and that'll be hosted by

00:19:40.340 uh folk builders tyler buffet and bobby shotwell uh children's activities we have um an ingenious

00:19:48.380 thing that that uh actually just kind of happened by accident at the star a few years ago is during

00:19:53.400 our auction rather than having all the kids running around being a distraction or uh you

00:19:58.380 know pulling on mommy's dress while she's trying to to bid on a really cool set of runes um we have

00:20:03.700 story time in the bay with uh with spawn and uh we call it story time with papa spawn

00:20:10.020 and then of course expect an egg hunt on saturday in the afternoon i think that's about it um we

00:20:16.900 considered doing like maybe a meditation class with alan but um alan was kind of a last minute

00:20:22.100 addition so we we're gonna do feats of strength and stuff like that with the guys and heather

00:20:27.700 can you tell us what we're doing on the ladies group um i talked in the ladies chats but if

00:20:35.220 someone isn't in the ladies chats every lady is supposed to bring some kind of small gift

00:20:39.540 of it doesn't have to be of value it's what you find as a gift and i think that's the best way

00:20:47.300 to explain a person to another person is what you put value in so that was the whole point of

00:20:53.540 bring a gift you know rather it's an acorn a thimble a trinket um a leaf you know it says a

00:21:01.720 lot about a person and what they put value in so that's how i wanted to kind of open the ladies

00:21:06.140 group so that's why i reached out and um ask all the ladies to bring a small gift to exchange with

00:21:12.680 another lady so that's why i didn't want it to be anything expensive or you know don't go to walmart

00:21:18.480 and buy a 20 gift or anything um just put some like thought into it you know and some you know 0.88

00:21:26.480 some of our ladies are very talented and make things and um i am not very talented at making 1.00

00:21:33.280 things so i have something else planned um but we're gonna do that and we're gonna talk about

00:21:40.400 a lot about frith and um building bonds with the ladies stronger bonds

00:21:45.600 in the ladies group. Heather, are you familiar with the eggs that they're working on in the

00:21:54.520 ladies group right now? Are you familiar with those? I remember them from last year, right?

00:22:01.240 Yeah. Could you talk to us about those a little bit? Kind of one of the traditions that we have?

00:22:06.180 I didn't do it last year. I can. I can do it.

00:22:11.440 so the afa ladies are working on um ostara eggs but they are hand decorated by the women 1.00

00:22:21.540 um they are raw eggs that we have the holes cut in the bottom and a hole cut in the top and those 0.91

00:22:26.900 eggs are blown out um they're decorated by the women by the families and then they are filled

00:22:33.060 with um intention and prayers and gifts whether that's dried flowers incense uh resins uh small

00:22:41.240 trinkets, you know, anything that we want to put in there for gifts. And those eggs are protected

00:22:47.200 and nurtured and cared for by the women, um, until May Day, which after May Day, um, the eggs are 0.70

00:22:57.120 actually broken and either planted or burned into, into the May Day fires. Um, so it's something that

00:23:05.960 you can do as an individual or something that you can do as a family.

00:23:12.780 And it's something, it's a good project that you can get your kids involved in. The kids

00:23:16.340 love doing the eggs. They love decorating the eggs, filling them up with anything that you

00:23:21.580 can imagine. You can put small beads in them, resin, flowers, herbs. You can write notes and

00:23:28.320 intentions and put those in there. But that's one of the traditions that the ladies have 1.00

00:23:32.260 been working on. I think this is the second year that we've done that, right, Heather?

00:23:37.260 This is the second year that we've done that. So if you're one of our AFA ladies and you find

00:23:42.400 yourself kind of in an isolated area, make sure you go on MIUI and check in with your ladies in

00:23:48.540 that MIUI group. There's a lot of stuff that we do together as a group. There's a lot of good

00:23:53.500 conversation and it's a good place to network and really connect with people when you can't be

00:24:02.160 out of Hoff or can't be at an event, especially if you're isolated. Go the East. Would you be able

00:24:08.000 to fill us in a little bit on MeWe? What kind of groups we have, how they can get involved

00:24:13.440 and what they can expect and why they should be on MeWe? Yeah. So obviously social media is no,

00:24:21.240 you know, replacement for real life. Never has been, never will be. But for those of us who

00:24:28.100 are far away from the hops or you know work more than we should have to or whatever the mewe groups

00:24:37.320 uh the group chats especially are a great way to stay connected with you know your afa family

00:24:42.860 just throughout the day um at my day job for example i'm allowed to kind of look at my phone

00:24:48.800 for work related stuff and i also get in the mewe groups like i'm probably not supposed to do

00:24:54.120 And I check in with all my AFA friends and stuff, and it's great.

00:24:59.040 Different groups we have, there's physical excellence where you can, you know, post your gym routine or selfies or ask for advice on diet and exercise.

00:25:09.500 There's spiritual excellence where Goethe Jason Plourd does a weekly lore study, for example.

00:25:15.820 There's write-ups that all the Goethear do.

00:25:19.460 There's neat little auspicious things that people find that they might share there.

00:25:24.120 There's the moots and meetups group, which is exactly what it sounds like. There's moots and meetups, so you may end up finding something in your area that you didn't know was going to be there, or you may want to host something yourself, even if you're not a folk builder, and you can advertise it there and people will show up.

00:25:42.240 There's, of course, different groups for the different districts.

00:25:46.060 You can communicate more with your area specifically.

00:25:50.060 It really is a game changer for those of us who are busy or just separated from the rest of the folk geographically.

00:26:01.220 Yeah, MIUI is definitely where you're going to find a majority of our AFA people.

00:26:06.140 So if you haven't gotten on MIWI yet, that is where you need to go to find out about Moods, to see pictures, to connect with other members, to join the multitude of groups that we have.

00:26:19.180 You're going to get most of your social media, any information that you would usually get on social media, that's where you're going to find it is on MIWI.

00:26:26.700 So make sure if you are not on MIWI yet, contact your folk builder or contact any of your Godar or contact any of the other members.

00:26:35.620 ask them for a link for me we get yourself on there and get yourself involved also if you can

00:26:41.140 go to any of our websites we've got uh the main runestone website we've also got websites for each

00:26:48.260 of each of the four hops as well odin soft doors off new york's off balder soft each one of them

00:26:53.620 has its own website and each website kind of has its own personality you can find all the information

00:26:58.420 on who to contact as far as leadership you can also check out the handy dandy calendar feature

00:27:03.540 and that's going to tell you what's going on in your area and who to contact in that area so

00:27:10.660 go to me we check out those groups especially moods and meetups and things like that but also

00:27:15.540 make sure that you are going to the websites to the calendar feature and see what's going on

00:27:21.620 if you have any questions or or need help with transportation or looking for something to do or

00:27:26.500 you want to have something in your area by all means reach out to your folk builders

00:27:30.980 see if we can get something going in your area. I know a lot of the reason why people

00:27:37.060 don't get involved is because they don't feel like there's anyone that's close enough to them.

00:27:42.980 We have cross-state moots where we can get together in Nebraska and there's people from

00:27:49.720 three separate states that go down there. We definitely go between Minnesota and North Dakota

00:27:56.600 of constantly. So there's a lot of people that are willing to travel. You got to put in that

00:28:05.560 effort as well, meet them halfway. You might have to drive a couple hours to have a moot or have a

00:28:12.800 bloat, but it's only a couple hours to spend time with your folk and to connect with people

00:28:19.560 you know, with similar values that honor the gods and that you can really have a deeper

00:28:27.140 connection with other than just an online connection. So please get out, go see the

00:28:33.480 people around you. Everybody on this call has been to a moot or to an event for the first time.

00:28:42.140 We've all been there. We get it. Especially if you've got a little bit of social anxiety or

00:28:47.940 you don't, you're not sure what to expect. That first mood is going to be the hardest thing to go

00:28:54.440 to, right? After that, it gets a lot easier and then it gets easier. And then it's, I cannot wait

00:29:02.240 to go to the Hoff. That is where I see my friends and family. I cannot wait to have dinner with my

00:29:07.420 kindred. I cannot wait to go see this person that I haven't seen in a month. And that first

00:29:13.820 moot is the hardest getting out and doing that the first time and getting over it that's where

00:29:20.760 it gets hard once you do that it gets easier every single time after that so if you haven't

00:29:27.340 done it yet if you're holding back for some reason get out there meet your folk network

00:29:31.160 all of the things so we do have a question and I'm going to pass this over to our go these and

00:29:38.880 i'll let whichever one of them jump on it that want to it's from owl of omen owl of omens spawn

00:29:47.540 mentioned dellinger along with ostara and day and night last week can you expound on who they are

00:29:54.020 as divine beings so if one of them wants to take ostara and day and night i'll let them go ahead and

00:30:00.800 show their knowledge

00:30:02.140 uh i'll jump on it then i guess um so day and night and dellinger are something that

00:30:18.480 witton spawn calls uh heavenly wardens uh and he and i have had goofy half asleep conversations

00:30:28.980 about this before after thor's hop events and whatnot so i'm gonna be a little rusty on some

00:30:34.980 of it but just kind of bear with me um so obviously ostar is the goddess of the dawn

00:30:42.180 the one of the most well-attested most widely praised goddesses of the indo-european folk as

00:30:49.220 as Gothi Stam mentioned.

00:30:51.680 Day and night are mentioned very briefly

00:30:56.880 as personified deities.

00:31:02.140 Dellinger is mentioned even less, I'm pretty sure.

00:31:05.520 But the way Witten Svahn explained Dellinger to me

00:31:08.320 was he is the guardian of the door

00:31:14.400 through which Suna's Light and Ostara come through.

00:31:19.220 So, um, Whitton Spahn's theory is that he kind of represents the atmosphere, so to speak. Not that he is an archetype or anything like that, but that is his, his domain. Does anybody else have anything on that? Because that's all I got.

00:31:34.920 no you were absolutely right about the uh his hypothesis on uh deling that it's uh

00:31:44.220 almost represents like heaven's gate it's uh it's the gate that warmth and light passes through

00:31:50.520 and specifically comes from um east to west it's my understanding of it

00:31:58.520 Anybody else got anything to add on that before we go over to the next question?

00:32:09.880 No?

00:32:13.140 All right.

00:32:14.160 So we've got another question from Fenwraith.

00:32:16.480 How does the Easter Bunny work in America?

00:32:19.520 Do they come overnight like Santa Claus or in some other way?

00:32:24.000 Easter Bunny doesn't come to my house,

00:32:26.080 But we had the Ostara rabbit that came to our house and they would usually come in the morning.

00:32:34.860 So this is going to be one of those traditions that's going to vary, you know, home to home and heart to heart.

00:32:40.680 So the Ostara rabbit used to come in the morning when the kids were doing their chores and they would sneak in and hide baskets and eggs and cakes and treats and things of that nature.

00:32:57.440 So that's how it used to work at our house.

00:33:01.200 The Ostara rabbit would come and drop things off, but only when the children were busy and being industrious.

00:33:07.700 So that is how that has always worked at my house.

00:33:11.800 Folk Builder Young, do you have anything to add on that tradition wise?

00:33:17.100 Well, our kids, by the time we joined the AFA, were pretty much over all that.

00:33:24.540 But we did the same thing that you did.

00:33:29.520 Just, you know, naturally, we didn't make up. 0.99

00:33:35.340 It wasn't a big thing, you know, like they would be cleaning dishes from the night before, sprucing up for dinner, you know, because we still do a big family dinner, of course, with our non-Ossitru family for the holidays. 0.98

00:33:52.400 And so we would be getting ready for family to come over and cooking and all. 0.84

00:33:55.980 And Witt and Young would go hide some baskets somewhere.

00:34:03.420 And then they would find them and, you know, eat candy and be on a sugar high all day.

00:34:08.900 Then they go to Grandma's house.

00:34:11.900 It's interesting, too, because, I mean, our oldest child is 26 and our second oldest is 24.

00:34:18.740 And she still gets them O-Star baskets every year.

00:34:21.540 and they have children of their own so goodness we get almost 10 baskets yeah

00:34:27.600 so yeah the adult kids still get their baskets and and so does the grand

00:34:31.780 babies that's something that's but my daughter is very excited because this

00:34:36.240 year her basket is gonna be cleaning supplies for her home that's a good

00:34:44.940 gift to get that's a good gift to have right go these stam do you guys have any

00:34:50.260 traditions that you did with your children

00:35:00.020 you hear me

00:35:04.700 you hear me

00:35:08.340 okay sorry I'm having some technical difficulties um you know we do the very

00:35:15.700 american easter basket uh thing uh one thing that i do that is pretty unique and my kids

00:35:25.220 have kind of also participated to an extent is i i don't pull runes every day and i don't do it

00:35:33.860 every month i do it once a year and it's a thing and i usually do it at ostara so

00:35:40.820 So my kids would help me be involved with that because they'd want to see what I saw.

00:35:47.580 But we would also, one thing I'm a big fan of is the sunrise on Ostara is getting up and saying prayers and greeting the goddess as she slips her rosy fingers over the earth's horizon and welcomes the new dawn of spring.

00:36:07.040 and um my teenager doesn't want to do that so often anymore but my my toddler is still down to

00:36:14.220 go get up early and go say hello to the sun and to the lady of dawn um so that's been a tradition

00:36:22.240 the last couple of years for me um and one of my biggest traditions um is going to ostara in the

00:36:28.720 south um my youngest was named had her baby naming at thorsoff at ostara in the south um

00:36:37.040 I've got a lot of really happy, good memories and all my best friends are there.

00:36:41.200 So that's that's the best tradition, I believe, is going to worship the gods with people that I love every year.

00:36:49.880 You can also expect there to be a greeting of the dawn on Saturday morning.

00:36:54.700 Witten Harrell will be leading that. He actually did that last year with a number of.

00:37:01.220 uh it was uh mostly ladies um i can uh mike joiner and i were um preparing breakfast while

00:37:06.580 that was going on and it was a beautiful thing to behold so if that's something that you're

00:37:10.180 interested in uh 100 be up and early uh be up early and uh be ready for that um responded a

00:37:17.860 beautiful job of that thank you gentlemen we have a quick question from dysphoria european are you

00:37:29.380 guys can make a website for sagerheim as of right now not yet but as that grows a website probably

00:37:37.380 will sometime in the future so i'm gonna say tentatively maybe and monk asks where is the

00:37:45.220 donate button uh we don't have any donate links for youtube but if you go into the description

00:37:52.500 link for the video you'll see several ways that you can donate you can buy us a coffee you can

00:37:56.500 blow us a victory horn um and there's also all kinds of ways to

00:38:01.860 donate on the website as well at runestone.org

00:38:05.940 and let's see sarah asks so i heard the afa has a homeschool program as true

00:38:10.340 academy that's pretty cool is there any special

00:38:13.060 lessons activities the children will be donating for ostara

00:38:17.860 um sounds like they've got a lot of good stuff i'm gonna go ahead and let the

00:38:21.380 dean of the academy take that question

00:38:26.500 Okay. Yeah, we have lots of Ostara activities, lots of coloring pages, lots of kids' crafts

00:38:38.940 that we do to help them celebrate the holiday, and also just a lesson to learn about the

00:38:45.060 goddess. And of course, all our lessons and all our crafts and our storytimes, et cetera,

00:38:50.940 are catered to the individual age groups. As our kids get older, they're going to dive

00:38:56.300 little bit more into lore and less so much on coloring, but we definitely have plenty of

00:39:02.700 activities for every AFA and Aussie True Holiday for the kids to learn.

00:39:13.500 So if parents want to get themselves signed up and registered or interested in the program,

00:39:18.620 How do they do that, Godi?

00:39:23.280 Okay.

00:39:24.400 You're going to go to ossatrueacademy.org.

00:39:27.640 There's also a link on runestone.org for that.

00:39:31.480 If you're a member, you can go ahead and fill out an application,

00:39:35.200 which gets sent to our wonderful assistant dean, Sarah Ault,

00:39:40.580 who contacts the parents first and goes over the application,

00:39:44.420 It goes over the school and gets you logged into our learning program that we use.

00:39:51.300 If you're not a member of the AFA, you have to be a member of the AFA first to utilize the academy.

00:39:59.240 So you would need to apply to be an AFA member first.

00:40:03.040 But I will say, as far as the academy goes, one thing I really try to emphasize,

00:40:08.920 and this is one reason why it's exclusively to members.

00:40:12.920 There's other reasons, but for example, our academic program that we use, Waldorf, we

00:40:20.980 spend hundreds of dollars on curriculum for our kids that we offer to our members for

00:40:28.560 free.

00:40:29.560 That is a benefit of being an AFA member, if you have children, is that we offer this

00:40:34.500 time-tested, very good program for free.

00:40:39.440 All you have to do is be a member.

00:40:42.920 So that's a benefit we offer our members, and that's one of several reasons that we do limit the academy to members own.

00:40:54.900 Thank you, sir.

00:40:57.380 So we have a donation here.

00:41:02.840 Ronald Blake bought us three coffees.

00:41:07.100 Hail all.

00:41:08.000 Thank you, Ronald.

00:41:09.040 after all of the early mornings and traveling and all of those things we could probably all

00:41:14.500 use a coffee so that is very much appreciated thank you sir all right and we have another

00:41:20.900 question from the wolf throne question for each each of you what is your favorite as a true

00:41:27.280 holiday and why I'm going to start off with go the East that's a great question this one

00:41:34.800 Ostara uh and I'll give backstory on why that is so um this Ostara marks exactly nine years that

00:41:44.100 I've been Ausitru and eight years and 10 months or so that I've been in the AFA um so uh Dalton

00:41:54.340 and Karen Woodward who were uh that I started a kindred with we all grew up together and we were

00:41:59.220 in high school together and i remember um dalton had missed uh math class on friday didn't tell

00:42:07.660 him where he was going or what happened to him on monday he comes back and he runs into the

00:42:12.000 into the classroom he's like trent dude i always had this awesome thing you got to hear about it

00:42:16.160 and uh me being the kind of militant atheist that i was i was like you know okay what is it and uh

00:42:23.800 he was telling me it was this Viking religion thing called Asatru and for whatever reason,

00:42:30.440 and I, I, to this day, I, I think this was something from the gods or my ancestors or

00:42:35.560 something, but like I said, military atheist at the time, but as he was telling me about, uh,

00:42:40.700 Stephen McNallan's Botan bloat at that event in 2015, it's, it's like a flip of a light switch.

00:42:47.420 I instantly was like, all right, well, time to make this my whole life, and I did.

00:42:54.540 I wasn't able to get to a national event until I started in the South 2016, right before

00:42:59.200 I shipped off to boot camp, but that was life-changing for me, so I was kind of skeptic

00:43:06.780 of everything because I'm typically a skeptic in everything but my faith, and so I met

00:43:14.440 ulcererar gothy mcnallon at the time and that was pretty cool he did his uh botan bloat and uh

00:43:21.160 afterwards i was like man i really i really felt that this is real and i kind of talked myself out

00:43:26.440 of that and i said no you know it's just the chemicals in our brain from all the cool yelling

00:43:31.160 and stuff like that and then the next day uh gothy flavelle at the time did an ostara bloat and i felt

00:43:38.440 not the exact same feeling because Ostara and Woden are so different but a very real very

00:43:45.600 similar feeling of this is real and at that point I was absolutely sold and proceeded to make my life

00:43:52.860 all about this so yeah Ostara was my favorite for that reason and so many more it's just the

00:43:59.980 best time of year, and I love it. Thank you, sir. How about you, Whitney Young? Your favorite

00:44:08.620 Ashton holiday and why? It's kind of tough to answer. I have two. Ostara, of course, and my

00:44:21.760 experience is not all that dissimilar from Trent's. I still remember the first time I attended

00:44:28.960 of those star in the south was in 2019 and uh that was the first time heather and i and and

00:44:36.640 our daughter lauren had met you know rob had met staun we met the ericsson's uh we met i was here

00:44:44.080 go through flavell and our law speaker turnage and you know we met a lot of uh luminaries and

00:44:50.080 also true people that i would say are on the mount rushmore of alice true in the modern era and uh

00:44:56.080 I was here to go through Flavel's Odin bloat that Friday night, and Rob, you were there.

00:45:04.480 There was a point during the bloat where he was going to pour the horn into the need fire,

00:45:12.580 and he did so really aggressively, and at least it appeared to almost spike the horn,

00:45:19.720 and he was all flexed and,

00:45:21.800 hail odin and you know we walked away from that like vibrating it was just absolutely palpable

00:45:30.000 um i was telling rob not long ago that uh the um the harrier father song that's attached to

00:45:37.620 all here we go through flay bells woden bloke i can still hear that echoing across that lake

00:45:42.560 in my head uh to this day that was going on six exactly six years ago um and i like everything

00:45:51.660 that the holiday represents um i am not a cold weather person and even though i mean i live in

00:45:57.180 the south and i don't know cold the way that brandy does uh but usually by early february i'm

00:46:03.180 i'm done with it i'm ready for it to be over and i'll start complaining so i'm ready for it to be

00:46:07.740 110 in the shade but seeing everything kind of come back to life and uh you know the grass

00:46:15.020 starts turning green you know not being that ugly dormant brown um we have a lot of like

00:46:21.180 bradford pear trees uh in the carolinas and uh they they start blooming early in march and it's

00:46:27.500 just kind of like the first uh first sign of her arrival and i in a way i kind of i kind of wake up

00:46:36.780 also you know uh mentally and spiritually like i get rejuvenated uh during this time of year but my

00:46:44.060 My other favorite holiday, and it extends all the way back when I was a little boy, is Yule.

00:46:51.280 You know, when I was a little boy, my mother, she made sure she got us the best possible gifts she could get us.

00:46:59.580 And they weren't, you know, the insanely expensive stuff that, you know, maybe other kids in the neighborhood got.

00:47:06.280 But I knew when my mother gave me a gift, no matter what it was, it was the very best she could do.

00:47:13.000 And I really believed in the magic of the holiday when I was a little boy.

00:47:16.920 You know, I'd wait to hear the sled on the roof and stuff like that.

00:47:21.920 And there was times that I could have sworn I heard it.

00:47:25.500 And, yeah, so, you know, once I became Alistair True and realized that there was a connection between the two holidays,

00:47:33.400 that the root holiday was actually Alistair True and Nature, I started getting more involved with that.

00:47:39.720 That's a personal favorite, but Ostara is another one that just always stands out in my mind, particularly that first Ostara.

00:47:46.540 I don't know if I'll ever attend an event that moved me quite as much as that one did.

00:47:53.700 What about you, Heather? What would be your favorite?

00:47:57.640 Mine's going to have to be Ostara because people who knew me, well, Rob probably doesn't even remember me from the first Ostara

00:48:09.220 because i hid in a corner and i was terrified of everyone um when i tell people that now

00:48:17.800 they don't believe me but yes i did um i think i said two words to mandy and maybe seven to katie

00:48:26.720 and i sat around the fire and then if a bunch of people came then i disappeared to somewhere else

00:48:34.760 And I just ran and ran and ran. But, you know, I stayed. And then by the by the end of the weekend, I was talking with people and exchanged numbers. So I guess for me, it was like a new beginning for me, because from then on, I've just opened up more and more and more and seen more potential in myself.

00:48:59.180 And if I would have never took that step to go be around 70 people that I didn't know, I might still be the Heather that sat in the corner and said nothing to anybody.

00:49:11.180 You know, you never know. So, Ostara definitely because for personal reasons and kind of selfish reasons, it helped me see some of the potential that I have and things I have to offer.

00:49:24.640 what about you go these damn what's your favorite as a true holiday 0.94

00:49:30.900 well that's a 0.98

00:49:35.080 to ostara so i should probably say her holiday

00:49:46.020 and not to mention that most of the people that i care about i've met at an ostara event

00:49:54.040 one very special one sticks out but

00:50:00.360 I also like Mayday and Hexanok because of the feminine and masculine energies that are at play

00:50:08.620 in those two kind of back-to-back holidays you know I joke around but it's only semi-joking

00:50:16.680 that everything is fertility right and that is a perfect example so um yeah i would i also like

00:50:26.040 winter nights though so i it's really hard to pick out a specific but i'm going to go with ostara

00:50:30.580 so i'm gonna have to go with ostara as well um for a couple reasons but like a lot of people

00:50:45.200 on this call ostara's been special to me for a few years so it's it's where i met some of my

00:50:52.240 closest friends and it's it's where i met the people that i don't know where i would be without

00:50:59.360 them today you know everybody on this call is one of those people which is why we're we're all on

00:51:06.320 this call and we're doing this uh this particular takeover is because who am i going to have on

00:51:11.840 on there how am i i have to have my best friends on this is where i met you guys you know now they

00:51:19.120 are uh all kind of divided up now these all used to be thor's hof people and now we've got a go the

00:51:26.240 of new york's hof and we've got a new go the of balder's hof and we've got a witten and a folk

00:51:31.600 builder still in thor's hof but that's the beauty of the afa you can move to an entirely different

00:51:39.920 state you can move to an entirely different district and your family is still your family

00:51:47.440 the people that you love are still there we may only see each other two or three times

00:51:53.440 a year now versus every month but the connection is real enough and strong enough that

00:52:03.600 we can survive that one year of seeing each other it also helps that we're all on me which

00:52:08.960 if you're not on me we you really should be on me we also it helps that we do this together

00:52:15.120 quite often it also helps that we're constantly on the phone together

00:52:20.560 membership talks to membership leadership talks to leadership members talk to leaders leaders

00:52:25.840 talk to members we are a large family that is in constant communication with each other

00:52:34.640 and your level of communication is going to entirely depend on you on what it is that you're

00:52:41.900 comfortable with on what it is that you want if you want that regular family connection

00:52:47.100 and this is a place that you can find it but just like going to that first boot is the hardest mood

00:52:54.900 to go to that first call to your folk builder or picking up the phone when your folk builder or

00:53:02.180 your go there, your get there a call. Answering a text message from a member, if you've opted to be

00:53:09.320 someone willing to be in contact with people, answering that call, answering that first text

00:53:14.120 message is also the hardest call and the also hardest text message. But once you do it, you're

00:53:20.660 going to build relationships and frith that go beyond state lines, that in some cases go beyond

00:53:30.800 country lines. There are oceans between some of us, and we still have that connection.

00:53:38.000 So if you are looking for that, this is a place, if you are not already a member,

00:53:43.600 join if that's what you're looking for. If you are a member who feels isolated,

00:53:48.100 we are literally just a phone call away. That's all we are, just a phone call away,

00:53:54.460 and email a MIUI message. 0.99

00:53:58.360 Go to your Hoffs.

00:54:00.660 See your folk.

00:54:02.240 The first time is the hardest.

00:54:06.060 Go to the East, you said was, was it Ostara that you said was your very first event?

00:54:14.160 It was my first AFA event.

00:54:16.040 I had met up with a local kindred who are unfortunately anti-AFA now.

00:54:21.000 but um yes they uh were kind of a stepping stone for me to join the afa because i met with them

00:54:29.120 and i was like well these guys are okay but the afa is clearly better and that was back when we

00:54:33.300 had zero hoffs so you know it's only gotten better since then but yeah o-star was my first

00:54:38.860 and that'll always be my favorite

00:54:40.820 yeah all right we do have several donations that have come in thank you guys so much

00:54:50.740 um monk donated fifty dollars to vns fund thank you monk that is greatly appreciated

00:54:57.880 and then alzie miller donated thirty dollars to the general fund and also bought us three

00:55:05.580 coffees looking forward to astara hail the afa thank you so much all right we do have another

00:55:13.620 question what books would you recommend for someone that wants to get more in touch with

00:55:18.720 general as to our culture not necessarily religious books um go these stamp do you

00:55:24.740 want to give you let's say everybody on the call give two books so start with go the stem

00:55:29.820 okay um general uh as to culture not necessarily religious well there's a book that i always

00:55:42.380 recommend everybody read and it does have some it's obviously religious but it has a lot of

00:55:47.120 worldview and just Germanic Austro culture and it is we are our deeds I

00:55:52.640 always recommend everyone read that um and obviously Steve McNalen's book either

00:56:00.800 one really but the the native European spirituality is probably the best for

00:56:06.440 people that are wanting to know more you know Austro culture 101 type thing so

00:56:15.500 there's two I guess all rights Heather can you give us two of your recommended

00:56:24.080 books please well these are two that you taught me that helped me and it is

00:56:31.460 Beowulf and lady with me cup recommend reading them side by side with both of

00:56:40.160 books open it'll make your life a lot easier just saying all right really hard don't do that

00:56:49.520 witten young do you got some recommendations for us i do um the one-eyed god by chris kershaw

00:56:58.880 um gives a lot of uh history on odin's role in the in the ancient germanic mannerbund and uh

00:57:06.400 Culture of the Teutons by Wilhelm Grombeck which gives a really broad

00:57:12.160 narrative or broad commentary on the culture of the Teutons. It's pretty much

00:57:19.780 right there in the title but what's really interesting about Culture of the

00:57:23.540 Teutons is that every time I read it I find something new or I've read it before

00:57:31.120 or whatever but I wasn't ready for it that's how it's the best way to explain

00:57:35.680 it um so I definitely recommend if you're just starting out you start off

00:57:39.640 with a 101 book like Austru a native European spirituality boss founder

00:57:44.200 MacMallon a book of truth by Edric Thorson and then then you can start

00:57:53.020 venturing into culture the two times if you don't have a good foundational

00:57:55.920 knowledge culture two times pretty deep but that's up but that was probably the

00:58:01.060 best as far as overall Austrian culture. All right, Gothi East, what do you got, sir?

00:58:10.040 Quick note about culture of the Teutons since Witten Young stole one of mine. There is a version 0.99

00:58:18.620 of it that's published now by Antelope Hill Publishing, I think, that has a foreword by our

00:58:23.940 else harry gothi so i highly recommend grabbing that edition specifically um my two would be the

00:58:33.620 germanicization of early medieval christianity by whatever that author's name was uh and the other

00:58:42.820 one would be that's the one the other one would be mysteries of the goths by stephen flowers aka

00:58:51.300 edrid thorson and uh that one touches on the goths obviously and that's really important

00:58:58.260 because they um their language and their culture was probably the closest that we know of

00:59:04.420 to the proto-germanic worldview and um as far as we can tell their their pre-christian religion was

00:59:13.980 closest to that ancient kind of migration age version of Asatru. It's really, it's really good

00:59:21.360 book to read. And yeah, that one in Germanicization of early medieval Christianity, for sure.

00:59:33.060 Thank you, sir. So I'm going to take the botanic privilege and I'm going to do three. We're going

00:59:37.400 do Beowulf by Seamus Heaney, we're going to do Beowulf by Tolkien, and we're going to do Beowulf

00:59:44.520 by Dr. Leslie Hall. So those are my three that I would recommend reading. Other than that, the

00:59:51.160 sagas, Sagas of the Icelanders, please read the sagas. Sagas and lore and Beowulf and all of these

00:59:58.380 books we're talking about, they all go hand in hand. They all build on each other. I recommend

01:00:04.840 reading the sagas in the same way that you read the lore every time and the same way that you

01:00:09.080 read beowulf if you're one of my students you're required to read beowulf a minimum of five times

01:00:14.200 count that one two three four five times every time you read it you're gonna find something

01:00:20.040 different every five this many this many you'll find something new every single time you read it

01:00:29.240 same way when you read the lore same way when you read the sagas you're going to find something

01:00:34.840 something that speaks to you in one way shape or form all right let's see if we

01:00:41.640 have any other questions tonight it looks like those are all the questions

01:00:47.100 that we have so far unless somebody comes in at the last minute so Wynton

01:00:53.020 Young and Folk Builder Young could you give us one more push for Ostara why we

01:00:57.480 should be there where we can get tickets why it's gonna be the best thing ever

01:01:03.460 So again, it's going to be in Linden, North Carolina at Thorshoff.

01:01:07.620 This is our fourth annual Ostara at Thorshoff since the acquisition of the hoff.

01:01:15.600 It's steadily grown over the years, and this year has turned it out to be our biggest.

01:01:21.940 So come on down, support your folk.

01:01:23.440 If you've never been to Thorshoff, you'll be blown away by the hospitality of the people

01:01:28.000 and the piety that is exhibited inside that holy temple.

01:01:33.460 It's a sacred place. The three Gothis outside of Brandy really grew and were cultivated in that holy space.

01:01:44.280 It's where the foundations of our of our of our Gothar journey was really laid.

01:01:52.920 And it's a very special place to me personally. Again, I'll say we're going through Flavel, the AFA Witten in its entirety.

01:01:59.700 Gauthier Stamm, Gauthier East, Githya Erickson, and folk builders from all over the country

01:02:09.240 are going to be there. We're super excited about it. Again, expect a lot of hospitality,

01:02:15.100 a lot of friff, and seeing this beautiful face work in the room as we exchange gifts

01:02:23.240 with the Lady of the Dawn. It's an exciting time. Ostara isn't just about the beginning

01:02:28.740 of spring it's just about it can also be about beginnings and uh perhaps your path hasn't been

01:02:35.780 all that illuminated up to this point expect illumination whenever you meet up with us and

01:02:41.140 and sharing the gift exchange with ostara you'll only be better for it i promise you

01:02:49.380 so if you have social anxieties and things of that nature everybody on this call has had that

01:02:54.340 every last one of us and as you know brandy said i've met all of my best friends um through ostara

01:03:02.380 i actually met trent right before ostara but uh yeah it's it's a it's a beautiful holiday it's

01:03:09.120 my it's my very favorite all right so it looks like we do have a couple questions that have come

01:03:17.160 in we're gonna grab these really quick the first one is from finn do you do any of you know why

01:03:23.600 does this holiday change when it happens between years go these damn do you want to take that one

01:03:29.480 this this holiday is kind of your jam I'm not sure I understand the question holy why does the date 0.86

01:03:35.660 change I think uh well it's done on the equinox so there's some you know uh figuring about I mean

01:03:46.300 it literally I mean it's scientific about when it changes uh when the when the days start lengthening

01:03:51.900 um it's all about the equinox and i'm not a science guy so but um now obviously in in my

01:04:03.120 humble opinion uh when the goddess was at the height of her worship there was only one dawn

01:04:10.980 a day so it was hard to miss uh the day lasted all summer and the night lasted all winter

01:04:16.840 so you know the date is when the sun rose um but we do it on the equinox is why so the dates are

01:04:27.040 going to change and now of course in our modern era uh for example uh last weekend was balder's

01:04:33.240 balder's hoffs ostara it's we have to work around work schedules we have to work around

01:04:38.620 um kindred schedules and you know when can we get folks to to be there etc we all try to do it

01:04:46.000 around equinox but it's really hard to get people together on a on a tuesday so that's kind of why

01:04:53.520 the dates may fluctuate a little bit and as far as official dates it's all about uh

01:04:59.520 astronomy it's it's when the equinox happens to be

01:05:06.720 which is tomorrow which is which is tomorrow which is tomorrow

01:05:12.080 all right we have got one more question

01:05:18.340 and it is what is the opinion of the afa on wagner's ring cycle does anybody on this call

01:05:27.660 have an opinion about that go ahead if you do i do i do um i mean it's loosely based on the

01:05:41.680 Neibelungenleid, which is the continental German version, or not version, but their

01:05:48.460 viewpoint on the Sigurd's saga. There's some differences, but essentially they're very

01:05:56.680 similar. But Wagner used that and adapted that to make an opera, and a really good opera

01:06:03.240 at that. Wagner, a very talented man. His operas are wonderful. Recommend everybody

01:06:10.700 enjoy them thoroughly.

01:06:12.820 And it's loosely based on the

01:06:14.580 Nibelungen Lide.

01:06:17.160 So,

01:06:18.600 you know, and of course, the

01:06:20.600 Horned Helmets came from Wagnerian

01:06:22.840 Opera, because it lends some

01:06:24.780 spice, you know,

01:06:26.920 to the

01:06:28.020 show.

01:06:31.140 And I think in the beginning

01:06:32.560 it was Winged Helmets, but

01:06:34.420 just the same.

01:06:37.120 Yeah, I mean, enjoy

01:06:38.420 good music made by Germanic people.

01:06:40.700 It doesn't have to be 100% perfect to lore, just like we enjoy Tolkien, who wrote Lord of the Rings. There's some Germanic-esque myth intertwined in that story, but it's not 100% jiving with lore, but it's still very enjoyable and it's still part of the Germanic hero cycle, Germanic myth and storytelling style.

01:07:07.920 It may not be religion, but it's definitely enjoyable.

01:07:15.540 Thank you, sir. Appreciate it. Also, our producer and director, Nick, has got a really interesting paper about all of those helmets.

01:07:24.860 So contact him and he would love to give that to you. It's a very good presentation.

01:07:29.800 We've got a couple more questions. Ladies and gentlemen, how can we advance AFA via art?

01:07:35.660 your thoughts and what would you like to see specifically ideas thank you i'm gonna give

01:07:42.580 that one over to go the east because he's got a fabulous artist that lives in his house

01:07:47.460 so i'm gonna give that over to him yeah so um the best way to advance the afa through art is by

01:07:56.380 making it do it pour your piety into it your devotion do it uh if you are able to do it in a

01:08:06.720 way that's keeping with the afa aesthetic because that shows consistency and it already looks cool

01:08:12.220 because my wife designed all of that and so it just adds to all of our cool looking art that uh

01:08:18.720 A fun fact, while I'm at it, when Witten Spahn painted the Thorshoff mural and everybody with normal brains and eyes and senses of style was like, wow, that's really amazing and moving.

01:08:33.880 Even the people who hate us on Twitter, we're talking about, you know, how much they hate us because we're all normal or something, but they love Witten Spahn's art and felt that it was a great representation of Asa Thor.

01:08:46.660 So AFA art and art to our gods is, when done with piety and devotion, is so potent and powerful that even the people who hate us admire it.

01:09:01.960 Yeah, that's all you can do really is be the one to make the art.

01:09:05.800 do it pour your soul into it focus on whichever god or goddess you are depicting and kind of

01:09:14.720 you could galder while you do it there's all kinds of spiritual stuff you can incorporate

01:09:19.500 while you do that um just anything you do with art like i said just pour your devotion into it

01:09:27.840 and make it make it real bring it to life thank you sir

01:09:35.800 All right. We do have a couple more questions. Question for each of you,

01:09:41.260 what is your favorite food tradition in your household? Perhaps a recipe that was passed

01:09:45.300 down from your grandparents. In my household, the yearly tradition, and I will only make it

01:09:54.580 once a year, and it's going to be strawberry glazed ham and coal cannon. If you don't read

01:10:01.520 the runestone, you need to read the runestone. That's going to be going to your email. You

01:10:04.940 really need to open that up because they do have the folk um recipes in there and my coal cannon

01:10:10.900 recipe is in there somewhere and i'm just saying i'm a little bit biased but my coal cannon is

01:10:15.540 awesome but my tradition is going to be a strawberry ham and coal cannon on winter nights

01:10:21.480 go the east do you guys have any

01:10:24.120 um not especially as far as food itself but we use um

01:10:34.360 all of my granny east sold cooking utensils i remember when i was a tiny little kid staying

01:10:40.320 at her house she'd be cooking with stuff and she was real old-fashioned so she would say you know

01:10:45.940 try i know you're never going to cook with these but one of one of these days you're going to marry 0.95

01:10:48.840 a beautiful woman who will cook stuff for you using these things and as usual granny east was

01:10:54.080 right so we don't have any culinary traditions per se outside of um just cooking healthy delicious 0.98

01:11:04.020 things using, like, cast iron pots from pre-World War I, so.

01:11:14.180 Thank you, sir.

01:11:17.060 Youngs, do you guys have anything that you've got, traditional family, what's your favorite?

01:11:26.240 Well, I don't do many of them anymore.

01:11:32.280 um but my aunt has sent me um a lot of my grandma's recipes my grandma was the kind she

01:11:40.340 grew all of our food everything was homemade we didn't buy anything from the store but meat

01:11:45.340 so uh my beautiful lauren she makes all of our bread all of our rolls all of our cakes

01:11:54.360 um half the time she cooks all of our dinners so um i just give her the recipes and i get to

01:12:04.540 watch her because she does so many things that remind me of my grandmother um it's like watching

01:12:11.660 my grandmother in the kitchen again cooking her things but through lauren yeah she's in there

01:12:17.440 right now baking stuff that's what I keep looking at mine would be my so we

01:12:27.940 make a sauce in my family for for spaghetti and for lasagna it was taught

01:12:34.840 to me by my dad who's taught by his mom how to do it and it's fairly basic but

01:12:42.880 there's a little bit of a history behind it with me and the AFA and that

01:12:47.060 the recipe.

01:12:48.660 When we were in the Gothar program,

01:12:51.680 I was here to go through Flavel would have like a message group with us all

01:12:56.720 in it.

01:12:57.480 And he would say,

01:12:58.000 by all's Harrier Gothic decree,

01:12:59.660 you will do this,

01:13:00.940 whatever it was.

01:13:02.660 And one of those was, 0.75

01:13:04.160 I don't want you guys to just be homies. 0.97

01:13:06.580 You know,

01:13:06.740 I want this to be a fraternity of brothers and sisters that,

01:13:10.360 you know,

01:13:10.920 you're going to stand beside these people for the rest of your lives and

01:13:13.840 honor and represent our gods.

01:13:16.480 And he wanted us to start building better bonds.

01:13:19.900 And I didn't know Trent all that well then.

01:13:24.200 Trent lives one state away from me.

01:13:26.400 We were friendly, but, you know, weren't best friends or anything.

01:13:30.040 And I called him up and I said, Hey man, what are you doing on Sunday?

01:13:32.940 Oh, nothing. Why?

01:13:33.720 I said, why don't you drive up to Camden and I'll cook for you.

01:13:35.600 and yeah he drove four and a half hours from northern Georgia to my house in

01:13:42.260 central South Carolina we ate spaghetti and talked about how badass Slayer and

01:13:48.980 Megadeth are and again one of my very best friends a lot of that came out of

01:13:57.080 that and again that shared over my granny's meal so that was that's pretty

01:14:00.560 cool too and it will be one of the meals at its start that's right um my uh my grandma's lasagna

01:14:09.180 is uh the main dish saturday yeah

01:14:12.140 go the stam how about you any family traditions with food

01:14:18.580 yeah um one of the things i always like to do is for any holiday or or get together uh i

01:14:28.140 I cook German food, specifically Bavarian food, and my kids love it.

01:14:36.140 Yeah, rouladen is like German comfort foods.

01:14:39.600 I make that often with nodal.

01:14:44.780 And occasionally, because it's a lot of hard work, but it's a North German dish.

01:14:49.520 It's called Koenigsberger Klopse.

01:14:51.620 I'll make that.

01:14:53.320 I tend to do that, though.

01:14:55.100 It's very hearty, so I tend to do that.

01:14:58.140 like winter nights issue and it's a lot of work but um yeah that's what we do

01:15:05.660 the food is always worth the work food food brings people together so when we bless the

01:15:11.900 food at balder soft we always talk about blessing um blessing the food and blessing

01:15:17.980 the folk and blessing the temple you know may the fruit food nourish your body but

01:15:22.940 But may the conversation and the love that you have at that table nourish your soul.

01:15:27.900 So food definitely is what brings people together.

01:15:32.020 And speaking of food, we have another question about food.

01:15:34.980 Is there any specific food to eat at Ostara?

01:15:38.720 Yeah.

01:15:41.020 My family eats a lot of egg dishes, honey, milk, dairy, things of that nature.

01:15:48.040 very spring oriented lots of eggs of course because we're dying all the eggs and decorating

01:15:53.280 all the eggs you got to do something with eggs afterwards so lots of eggs and the other question

01:16:00.560 we got is um is there a website with more information on the event at thorsoff yes and

01:16:06.660 if nick can throw that up on the screen that would be great you're going to want to go to

01:16:10.560 runestone.org go to the store hit the events and check out the tickets for that there

01:16:17.140 all right well that looks like it is the end of the questions for us tonight we have a very big

01:16:29.060 day tomorrow we have a lot of traveling and i know witten young's gotta head to the airport

01:16:33.860 be picking up the big man himself so with that being said everybody have a happy ostara i hope

01:16:41.220 to see you at thor soft this weekend um hope to see all my best friends and all my best buds and

01:16:46.840 all of my family. So we'll talk to you guys next week, same time, same place. Hail the gods,

01:16:53.660 hail the folk, hail the AFA, and remember, victory never sleeps. Happy Ostara, everyone.

01:17:16.840 We'll be right back.

01:17:46.840 We'll be right back.

01:18:16.840 Thank you.

01:18:46.840 Thank you.

01:19:16.840 We'll be right back.

01:19:46.840 Thank you.

Asatru Folk Assembly - March 21, 2024

3⧸20⧸24 Victory Never Sleeps, Episode 89 - Ostara

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript