Asatru Folk Assembly - 3⧸25⧸26 Victory Never Sleeps, Ep 194 - Proximity + Frequency = Victory

00:00:00.000 To be continued...

00:00:30.000 Thank you.

00:01:00.000 Thank you.

00:01:30.000 Thank you.

00:02:00.000 We'll be right back.

00:02:30.000 Transcription by CastingWords

00:03:00.000 Hello, everyone, and welcome to this week's edition of Victory Never Sleeps.

00:03:12.520 Our law speaker, Turnage, is not available this evening. He was on a personal vacation,

00:03:19.300 and he is not back in and settled to do adulting with Alan. Hopefully, we'll see him again on that

00:03:24.880 next month we have a special treat for you tonight we have uh specklinger clifford erickson

00:03:32.400 um once again on the show to share his share his wisdom and insights with all of us

00:03:38.560 know y'all look forward to that um

00:03:44.720 we had an amazing well first i hope that you guys wherever you were had an awesome uh austra

00:03:50.400 celebration certainly at thorsoff we did uh thank you everybody who came out for it thank you to

00:03:57.520 our fantastic leadership at thorsoff for making it an amazing success it was beautiful to see all

00:04:04.560 of the people there and uh hopefully we'll have like a slideshow coming out soon on it i'll see

00:04:10.400 if we can get that arranged um but just a just beautiful event i was very excited to be there

00:04:16.160 Also, since I live in Jackson County, Tennessee now, I'm able to drive and bring my family to to these events, which I haven't been able to as much in the past few years since Aubrey was born. So it's great to get to show up there under my own power and my own vehicle with my family. It's a special treat and I'm still really looking forward to it. Anybody who does not know, Jackson County and Sigurheim is

00:04:47.120 seven hours and 50 x minutes from uh phrase hof thor's hof and new york's off and it's literally

00:04:57.840 within five minutes exactly the same to each of those i'm sure that shifts depending on traffic

00:05:02.800 and whatnot and next month will mean you've been to all three of them one a month three months in

00:05:09.200 a row yes i am trying to uh where i can make um make the circuit so that i can see more of my

00:05:21.760 amazing afa family more often and i'm excited about that opportunity um we will be headed up

00:05:29.520 to phrase off um the flavels that is we'll be heading up to phrase off for uh norna not coming

00:05:37.040 up at the third the third saturday of april sorry i was looking for a calendar and makes it easy

00:05:45.520 when we kind of standardize and it's one of the reasons we did it so other top of the show stuff

00:05:55.040 weekly phrase off update

00:05:59.520 78,888 remaining. That means we are 36.9% paid off. You guys have been incredibly generous and

00:06:08.080 you continue to do so. We appreciate that tremendously. So thank you guys. If you're

00:06:13.320 interested, runestone.org slash donate. We appreciate you guys' generosity and all y'all's

00:06:21.660 help. While we're on the note of generosity, as always, GW Farnsworth started us off with

00:06:27.960 $25 to paying off Sigerheim and $25 towards the Thorshoff Heat. Thank you, as always. Thank you.

00:06:37.400 And Steven in Japan, another very frequent donor, gave $5 towards Thorshoff Heat and $10

00:06:45.240 towards paying off Freyshoff. So thank you for that. Much, much appreciated.

00:06:49.800 um other top of the show stuff i don't think we really have for you today um

00:07:01.140 we encourage any and all questions as usual um this is going to be kind of a free-for-all with

00:07:11.700 you know cliff and my thoughts on stuff and y'all's question uh but it's built around the overall

00:07:18.620 theme. Um, and this show is very victory oriented. So, uh, proximity plus frequency equals victory.

00:07:30.340 Everybody wants to know like the secret formula of how to successfully do Ausitru, how to start,

00:07:41.300 how to be more involved, how to grow the AFA, how to realize their their hopes and dreams.

00:07:51.700 And this is the answer to all of those questions. There are additional answers, a way to enhance

00:07:58.660 these answers. But this is a winning formula. And often we neglect the simple things

00:08:06.580 while we search for the the more complex and more difficult things

00:08:11.780 it's all about the fundamentals proximity and frequency are those fundamentals

00:08:17.540 um as a first deal because it is we haven't done it in a while and it provides a little

00:08:23.700 bit of a bio for first-time listeners or folks unfamiliar cliff how long have you

00:08:30.420 been a member of the ask true focusing sorry i had to unmute myself there i was uh putting links

00:08:42.260 in a few chats to invite people to come ask questions of us um it's it's been a while now um

00:08:49.140 i think my official um join date was in in 2013 um i i hung around for about a year prior to that

00:08:59.620 and and was involved in um also true nominally a little bit before that but i i've officially joined

00:09:08.340 the afa in uh september of 2013 i think so i'm a teenager now there you go and

00:09:22.660 so for folks that might be

00:09:24.980 i don't know just as kind of a thing on that uh cliff had a pretty pretty fast rise in the afa

00:09:34.180 it's one of those um we and by we i mean uh githya pat hall at the time knew that uh that he was

00:09:43.460 capable of great things and was constantly you know pushing and encouraging him to folk build

00:09:48.660 and to be involved and to do stuff and he did he did in that capacity um he has been

00:09:57.380 at a high level of making this happen

00:10:06.180 i don't know how quickly after you started folk building were you you know quote unquote the tech

00:10:11.140 guy so that didn't happen all at once um initially it started off with me helping um

00:10:22.420 the the people that were doing updates on the website with just doing a few things you know

00:10:28.340 making some gosh i guess it was updates to specific pages i don't think we had a news

00:10:34.820 feed or anything on there at that time i it's long enough ago that i don't remember exactly

00:10:40.260 what i was doing but i was helping with the the then like like i guess it was the i don't know

00:10:49.540 it was like six different websites ago so i forget exactly what we were working on at that time it

00:10:54.180 really was um it was the one where stuff was coming at you yeah no no it was before that

00:11:00.340 it was before the one where the tree was trying to eat you um it was the one with alistair goethe

00:11:05.140 steve um in you know his probably his most famous picture um uh managing managing managing the old

00:11:14.340 forums that was a big part of it um but i started off helping um charlotte and stew were the people

00:11:24.980 that were really involved in doing that at the time and uh i guess through attrition i kind of

00:11:31.540 just inherited it i don't i don't remember there being a single moment when i was asked to be the

00:11:38.180 tech guy or where it was turned over to me it was sort of like i was i was the one who was involved

00:11:44.980 in it that was you know continuing on um through you know through some staff turnover and all that

00:11:52.100 and i ran with that for probably about nine or ten years before um

00:12:00.900 nick took over how long have you been doing the the tech stuff solo

00:12:07.060 um well i became a princess at the end of 2001 no 2000 yeah 2001 21 oh probably

00:12:22.100 probably at least since summer of 22 yeah yeah 21 not 2001 21 and then so probably since summer

00:12:31.540 22 so going on you know four years yeah so that's that's about right with what i was saying as far

00:12:36.660 as about nine or ten years probably closer to nine i guess that's a good number um for a little while

00:12:42.180 there nick and i were we're working it together but he uh he took it over fully and that's that's

00:12:47.860 been a big big help to me i'm able to focus on um doing gothic things and i you know i wanted to

00:12:54.260 mention for anyone who's you know interested in volunteering for the afa or anything like that um

00:13:01.780 matt was folk builder coordinator at the time and and pat hall was the folk builder for the northeast

00:13:07.060 and was ordained agithias in that time frame um they had to push me a little bit like i was stubborn

00:13:16.420 um i'm sure matt remembers i i guess i am still stubborn but i'm on team afa fully now but uh

00:13:22.740 you know i i was hosting local moots in the lansdale pennsylvania area and you know i didn't

00:13:29.460 want to be told how to do them or who i could invite or stuff like that you know i was gonna

00:13:36.180 do things my way because i had that kind of old school mindset of you know heathenry is not united

00:13:44.660 man. We all do it differently where we're going to be. Um, and so, you know, I, I, I tried that

00:13:53.580 for a bit, but it, it took a little bit of this, you know, experience for me to figure out that

00:13:59.480 the advice that I was getting was, was good advice. Some of the people that I was inviting

00:14:04.340 around were either crazy or uh or bad or uh insincere or or worse in some cases so um you

00:14:16.280 know i i joined the afa in 2013 i was doing ostrich stuff a little bit before that um

00:14:23.480 but i guess it wasn't until 2015 when i was you know

00:14:29.700 fully committed to the afa and you know being involved in in afa leadership um and since then

00:14:40.120 i've been you know completely fully committed to the afa um yeah so that's kind of a meandering

00:14:46.680 answer but um no it's uh let's say meandering evening so i think that's i am that's good um so

00:14:54.880 Also to add, put some respect on his name, there was – I was trying to think in my head.

00:15:05.680 There's probably a three- or four-year period that I would say Cliff was shouldering the burden of running at least 25% of the outstreet focusing.

00:15:24.880 which for anybody out there in leadership listening um you guys might know this intimately

00:15:32.960 whereas other people might have ideas that's a lot so um yeah you've been really involved the

00:15:41.760 entire time and in 2016 when i became y'all's here you go the um you were top of the list of

00:15:50.800 of people I wanted by my side moving forward.

00:15:54.880 And, you know, I guess carrying on the Astru Folk Assembly

00:16:03.160 in the best way towards the future

00:16:05.480 and kind of making all the building

00:16:07.740 and all the development that we've done.

00:16:10.560 You've been intimately involved in all of that.

00:16:13.860 So, to what degree would you say that proximity between you and AFA activity and frequency of involvement in said activity has been a factor in that success?

00:16:36.640 It's huge.

00:16:38.200 Um, you know, for, for me personally, um, proximity was one of the reasons that I started

00:16:45.660 to host moots, um, even before I was a folk builder.

00:16:49.980 Um, I was finding that there were, you know, people active an hour North East, South or 0.84

00:16:58.560 West of me, which is actually incredibly fortunate.

00:17:00.720 I didn't quite realize how lucky I was, um, to have things going on kind of all around

00:17:07.180 me in such a short distance there but that wasn't all a fa activity um so i started hosting moots 0.70

00:17:14.380 in my hometown figuring like oh i've got this donut hole let me let me fill it all you know

00:17:19.740 i'll raise the banner and and see what happens and um you know some people that i knew from from

00:17:26.460 other other places showed up but there were people who you know wouldn't travel that hour or more

00:17:32.620 outside of that area that that showed up that wouldn't have had something to do otherwise

00:17:37.580 um and and some of them are members to this day um and i think that my own being able to get

00:17:45.180 involved had a lot to do with the proximity that i had to uh githya pat hall um without her

00:17:53.500 you know steering me towards the afa and really being the first like real life afa person that i

00:18:00.060 could talk to um i don't know where i would have ended up um it was you know when i was hanging

00:18:08.460 around other heathen groups um you know i i was interested in the afa because you know strange

00:18:16.700 people talk badly about the afa and that definitely um you know gave it a kind of shine like okay this

00:18:24.300 is probably better than what these oddballs here are doing if they you know have such a problem

00:18:30.060 with it and i remember when i first met pat hall was at one of these not specifically afa events

00:18:36.220 that's kind of how it was back in the day and when i found out she was a member of the afa i was like

00:18:41.340 oh i need to talk to you um sometime about the afa you know like it was some kind of secret society

00:18:48.700 And, you know, I couldn't do it right there. Had to, you know, I need to get your ear. And fortunately, she gave me the time of day. And I was able to talk to her about that over the phone and to start to, you know, to attend actual AFA events that she was hosting.

00:19:05.780 um but proximity matters and i always do you know it's tough because we we want to serve the people

00:19:12.780 that don't have that proximity as best we can um and i do you know genuinely feel for people where

00:19:19.840 you know they're the only person in their country or the only person in their

00:19:25.040 large western state or something like that where um you know the proximity is just not there

00:19:32.320 and, you know, encourage them to participate online and on calls and all of that as much as

00:19:39.200 we can. But it's not real until you get together in person. You know, I don't mean that their

00:19:44.900 devotion or their faith isn't real, but it is really difficult to have

00:19:50.600 religious rights that are powerful on your own. You know, I mean, we should all make bloke to

00:19:59.100 ancestors and the gods privately but when you get together with a group it adds a gravitas

00:20:06.620 and a power to it and i think it literally raises the volume of our voices so that the gods can

00:20:13.340 you know hopefully see us better not that they couldn't see us but so that we can get their

00:20:17.100 attention right um us being gathered together and and you know raising our voices to the gods it

00:20:25.980 it does both literally literally and i think um metaphysically increase the likelihood of us being

00:20:32.700 heard by them um it certainly you know it can increase our worth if you have the right people

00:20:38.700 you know three good men are better than one good man um choose your company wisely of course don't

00:20:44.780 want to have someone who's such a detriment there that it reduces the value of the good people you

00:20:49.100 have there but it it matters a lot and um my my kindred keystone true folk was founded around

00:20:56.060 that too we was really important to us that we were able to get together regularly and have bloat

00:21:01.500 almost once every month there were you know of course sometimes when because of illness or travel

00:21:06.060 or something where we weren't able to get together but um really important that we were practicing

00:21:12.140 us true in person regularly so that we can um you know be be serious about this

00:21:21.420 absolutely um gilbert donated 150 to thorishoff heat thank you gilbert and you're awesome gilbert

00:21:28.620 thank you and leroy donated 20 each towards thorishoff heat and towards the payoff of phrase

00:21:35.260 off so thank you very much Leroy we appreciate you thanks Leroy so I'd like to you know a little bit

00:21:47.760 of my own trajectory in the Astro Folk Assembly I was nobody special I was living in Anchorage

00:22:02.880 Alaska at the time and wasn't a lot going on around me, but I knew that this was very important

00:22:13.560 and I wanted to do the best I could to make, you know, to be as helpful to this as I could be.

00:22:22.300 And so I tried to interact as frequently as I could with AFA leadership. And again, I didn't

00:22:29.080 have the proximity right then i found myself in you know fairly uncharted territory up in alaska

00:22:37.400 and i was very far away from you know the center of afa activity but i tried to at least increase

00:22:44.760 my virtual proximity by frequent interaction and my um by frequent interaction i wanted to increase

00:22:53.240 the frequency of how much i was engaging by actively participating you know we have me we

00:22:59.880 chats and things now as leaders we have discussions on our uh on the back end on teams but we have

00:23:06.200 ways to connect with one another even if we're at distance back in the day when when this was

00:23:11.560 happening cliff mentioned earlier when he was the website admin on it but you know we would we get

00:23:17.000 on the message board so before that we'd talk on the the afa internal yahoo groups and that

00:23:24.680 frequency of involvement putting myself out there and trying to be part of stuff

00:23:31.800 was a huge thing and so i knew that um you needed to get together with a group of people for this

00:23:38.440 would be you know really for real so i tried to find people locally and it was odd and i found a

00:23:47.800 lot of odd folks um there's like meetup.com and there were other things back then to try to

00:23:56.520 locate people and you know there were there's hits there were a lot of misses but um

00:24:02.520 um trying to build you know if i can't go if i can't build proximity by traveling closer to stuff

00:24:12.200 i can try to pull stuff closer to me and so i tried to do that for a time there and uh 2010

00:24:21.240 i went to midsummer in the sierras and i got you know prior to that we'd have maybe

00:24:28.360 I think at most, kids included, we'd be a 10-person, 10-person moat or a 10-person, you know, dinner at my house.

00:24:42.460 So we would do that.

00:24:45.960 But going down to where there was, you know, probably at that event, 70 or 80 people, it was a whole different game.

00:24:53.780 and it was being close to luminaries in Allison Trudeau was a number of AFA leadership at the

00:25:01.740 time that all came out that was our one big national event at that time and uh you know

00:25:07.580 being close to the McNallans getting to know them and see them in person and stand and bloat with

00:25:12.980 them um doing that was really important and so I tried to make it to all of the national events

00:25:21.400 that i could do from that point until now and i've only missed a few for you know a couple of

00:25:27.080 occasions i've been only missed a few in those last 16 years um and eventually in you know 2014

00:25:43.080 i realized that proximity was a continuous issue i was isolated in alaska and so i picked up and

00:25:49.720 moved there was a bunch of afa activity going on in florida so i moved down there it was you know it

00:25:58.280 uh spiced up the deal a little bit that that's also where mandy lived so i was able to

00:26:05.240 to make that work and that's you know 12 years in i think that's that's successful um

00:26:13.720 but yeah that proximity that wasn't going to work if i stayed where i was so i needed to go where

00:26:20.680 where the afa was happening and then 2016 when i became y'all's harry goethe

00:26:26.840 florida was there was stuff going on there but the hof that we had odin's hof that we got in

00:26:32.440 the fall of 2015 in south california was out west so i had to pick up move across the country and

00:26:41.080 again fix that proximity issue so i can be there and be part of things

00:26:45.960 um i would say that trying to do also true with afa members as frequently as possible

00:26:53.560 and then increase as i could my proximity to where this was happening at a high level was essential

00:27:02.440 to being where i am and this being such a big part of my life and it's been

00:27:10.680 it's been the greatest blessing i could imagine um but the proximity and the frequency

00:27:18.360 that's how it all happened those things are overriding considerations and all those things

00:27:25.000 and i think they really did a lot to bring me to where i am um you know once again i was

00:27:32.120 kind of isolated out west i didn't get to get involved with where a lot of the afa event space

00:27:38.280 was happening a lot of our membership was and i want to build a central the you know the sacred

00:27:44.840 center the hub of which the afa revolves around here in jackson county tennessee so once again

00:27:50.920 i had to pick up and get my proximity right to where that was going on and uh

00:27:56.440 And it's difficult every time.

00:28:00.180 I can't say that it's easy, but I can say that I'm not a hypocrite

00:28:04.120 and I'm not asking you guys to do something that I'm not willing to do myself.

00:28:13.600 So we have some relevant questions that I think help us

00:28:18.400 get to some meat and taters, stuff we'd like to discuss tonight.

00:28:25.680 First one was emailed to us.

00:28:28.800 And as a note, if you guys have questions, either now or at any time in the future, email them to vns at runestone.org.

00:28:37.480 You will answer them on the next available opportunity.

00:28:41.720 We have several people that do this weekly, and so it's a really good way to do things.

00:28:48.880 So Tyler emailed us, hey there, question for the show tonight.

00:28:52.800 For obvious reasons, there's emphasis on members potentially moving to areas where there are HOFs and communities already established.

00:29:01.280 But for those for whom moving is not on the table for whatever reason,

00:29:05.500 what are some practical tips and strategies for making and growing an AFA hotspot where you happen to live?

00:29:13.000 What is the path to getting a community that can sustain a HOF in every state?

00:29:17.760 apart from the standard answer of getting together with those who are already near

00:29:21.740 near or near ish to you thanks cliff what do you say to that so volunteer to be a folk builder

00:29:30.640 um you definitely want to begin that like so if you want to hoff near you there needs to be a go

00:29:37.380 theme near you right um if there's not one you need to seriously consider becoming that go the

00:29:45.440 yourself because if you want a temple to the gods and you're committed to it that is a task that

00:29:55.760 very few have taken up in in this age and you should make it a goal by contacting your gothar

00:30:05.940 contacting me about taking the first up to that and becoming an apprentice here um the afa will 0.50

00:30:13.400 We'll put our resources behind you

00:30:16.060 getting that sort of standard answer

00:30:18.320 while getting the people near you together

00:30:20.460 to be participating.

00:30:23.640 And you need to be willing to talk to your friends

00:30:27.940 and your family about Asitru.

00:30:29.740 It's not just the people that are near you

00:30:31.400 that are on an AFA referral list.

00:30:34.420 It's the people that are near to you

00:30:36.260 that are your family and friends.

00:30:39.080 Encourage them to get involved.

00:30:41.560 That's going to take different forms,

00:30:43.400 depending on your relationship to them

00:30:45.080 and what their beliefs or exposure to Asatru are so far.

00:30:50.120 But they at least have a little bit of exposure

00:30:52.460 embodied in you and how you conduct yourself

00:30:56.100 and how you treat them and how you live your life.

00:30:59.760 And so hopefully they've already got

00:31:01.580 a pretty good example right there.

00:31:05.060 You need to be willing to talk to strangers.

00:31:07.720 If you are in the Walmart

00:31:09.760 and you see someone wearing a millimeter

00:31:12.440 or you see someone with a

00:31:14.520 Valknut tattoo, talk

00:31:16.600 to them. It may not

00:31:18.680 bear any fruit. Most of the time

00:31:20.500 it won't. You're going to find out that

00:31:22.220 it's

00:31:22.820 someone who served in the

00:31:26.440 military and got the Valknut because

00:31:28.340 they did

00:31:30.500 so in camaraderie with

00:31:32.360 their unit or something

00:31:34.380 like that, or because of the warrior

00:31:36.520 aspect of it with no relation

00:31:38.540 to religion.

00:31:40.060 And you'll find out that some of the people wearing that Mjolnir are just into it because some guy in a band that they like wears that or something like that.

00:31:48.640 But you've got to take the chance.

00:31:50.780 You know, it could be that they are new at this or that they've been doing this for decades and that they simply didn't know that there were other people out there who believe this.

00:32:03.320 Which, you know, sometimes I find hard to believe, but we get contacts from people like that regularly.

00:32:09.540 so they are out there um you need to um be consistent it's not just about getting the

00:32:17.520 people around you together it's about doing it every single month in a predictable way

00:32:23.420 if you could pick a set weekend of every month and make that the day that you commit to being

00:32:30.180 available to 20 people or to zero people no matter who shows up um and you can demonstrate

00:32:36.600 that there's always an Ossetru event in your town,

00:32:40.040 it will eventually get critical.

00:32:45.520 People will see what you're doing

00:32:47.780 and they will want to become involved in that.

00:32:51.540 And take pictures.

00:32:52.820 You got to take pictures.

00:32:53.920 You got to put it up on social media.

00:32:55.760 You've got to do things

00:32:58.840 so that people can see what you're doing

00:33:00.900 and want to be a part of it.

00:33:03.320 You can't do it in secret.

00:33:04.520 You're not going to grow Asatru into a hoth to our gods by having a secret society.

00:33:14.440 I've talked on this program and in person all the time, I like to talk about this, I guess, about you need to be practicing Asatru openly.

00:33:24.000 Make sure that people know that you are Asatru.

00:33:27.360 You should be openly Asatru, especially to your friends and family.

00:33:32.440 um that sometimes is the scariest one because you think they're going to reject it but most

00:33:37.560 of our folk have pretty good experiences with that and the ones who don't usually end up better

00:33:41.900 off for it anyway but it's a it's a challenge or trauma or whatever that you want to get behind you

00:33:48.800 because once you've done that you're completely free and you don't have to worry about what people

00:33:52.960 are going to think of you because you already know it and you can move forward with you know

00:33:58.380 talking to people in your community people at work anything like that also make your intentions

00:34:07.160 clear to the gods it's not just about you know a checklist of of action items that you can do

00:34:15.220 in an organizational way but make bloat to the gods and make it clear that your intention

00:34:24.220 is to dedicate a hoff in that place um and that that is something that you're committing to do to

00:34:34.080 that for them um build up that energy over time and you know frequency and proximity um

00:34:44.120 are are applicable in in bloat as well as in organizing and and establishing hoffs you can

00:34:52.260 make your words more sacred. You can make your intentions more true by repeatedly practicing

00:35:03.380 devotion and, you know, restating them and making small incremental progress, you know, through

00:35:11.120 your life, through the days, through the weeks, through the years, until you have achieved that

00:35:17.380 goal um i don't know um where you're located but also you know communicate with the the afa on the

00:35:25.540 side about um leadership i think it was a question from tyler so we got a bunch of tyler's that could

00:35:31.900 be um i don't think it is yeah as far as i know it's not any tyler's all right cool so we can have

00:35:40.860 new tyler um but yeah i mean get involved and and be consistent about it and um you know

00:35:49.740 demonstrate success it's you you need to show the folk that you are someone

00:35:55.740 worth following and that what you're doing is something worth being involved in

00:36:01.980 so a couple of things on all of the things cliff said

00:36:06.940 that just is and i know your question is like as a your question negates some of that because

00:36:15.580 you're asking about not the standards but i want to reiterate the fundamentals

00:36:21.020 get together with your local people do that do that consistently if you volunteer to be a folk

00:36:28.700 builder and you know if that's too much or too big of a leap we can always use people who want

00:36:35.100 to be local contacts for us to send members towards you can still host a moat and you can do

00:36:42.220 things um and yes i'm saying moat because it is the exact same word in old norse and i'm trying

00:36:50.220 to unify our vocabulary so i did not misspeak um but yeah host stuff near you and we can get people 0.85

00:36:59.420 to you if putting your face out there is too much but in order to get a hof in your area somebody's

00:37:06.140 got to put the face out there and several somebodies need to do it and they need to do it

00:37:11.740 consistently for a you know a reliable period of time that builds something that's not fly by night

00:37:20.460 here's the thing even if you are the the best most charismatic awesome leader and you're able to get

00:37:28.780 big group of people around you if you are not able to raise others up that have a degree of

00:37:35.340 independence then we're exactly one cult of personality away from not having any community

00:37:41.020 there if something were to go wrong or god's forbid if you get hit by a bus so building the

00:37:48.700 institutional loyalty of an area to where you have several people who are independently very

00:37:54.780 committed to the australian folk assembly and to making a hoff a success is absolutely vital

00:38:01.740 you know part of your question is about hoffs and cliff talked about you know how you get

00:38:05.420 something going in your area so i want to emphasize a little bit more about the hoff

00:38:08.780 equation and how all that works um there is several because you asked for hoff in each state

00:38:18.060 how do we do that there are a lot of answers and i hope well before i do that jared thank you for

00:38:25.420 your donation of 100 towards thor's hofke we appreciate you so these are the real answers

00:38:32.860 and they're not all sexy but but it do there is a lot of um unglamorous but very necessary things

00:38:41.740 that go into play so we need the economic formula to be right to afford additional hoffs

00:38:52.460 we have rapidly increased our hoff over our hoff number over the past few years

00:38:58.780 which is amazing we're at a point now to where if you know magically tiershoff appeared today

00:39:06.140 we would not move directly on to braggishoff we would have to wait until our um membership growth

00:39:15.160 slash monthly donation number increased enough to make that a sustainable and feasible thing

00:39:23.180 we have a formula for that but um

00:39:26.540 we would need i don't know we would need to increase

00:39:37.180 by like i would need to increase our income by like 10 to 15 percent i'm saying just off the cuff

00:39:45.200 so uh that would be necessary for that half and then that increases a little bit every time we

00:39:51.920 a new hof so it follows a natural growth pattern it would be the challenge anymore isn't buying

00:39:58.960 the hof we can figure that out the challenge is responsibly having the people and the income in

00:40:08.240 place to responsibly care for the hof throughout the march of years because once we have a hof

00:40:15.280 we're very committed to that place and we have a very sacred responsibility both to our folk but

00:40:21.600 also very importantly to the gods to maintain the hof and keep it there so we don't want to over

00:40:26.960 expand because we get all excited and then find ourselves unable to maintain a temple to our gods

00:40:32.480 that would be a huge failure um so getting that right is a big part of it assuming that that is

00:40:39.840 in place then figuring out you know where the next spot is that it makes sense to have it in

00:40:46.560 And so, yes, we'd like it anchored ideally where we have a strong group of people, but the window for a Hoff at present that we look at is the quality and consistency of the people within about a three hour driving radius.

00:41:08.520 sometimes we have people that come from great distance to go to the hoff sometimes we have

00:41:14.520 people that are very fortunate that it's a very short distance but the the thing we look at is

00:41:19.320 about a three-hour driving radius and then we look at you know what parts of the country

00:41:25.420 or I suppose internationally but we don't have any front runner for that right now

00:41:29.740 so what parts of the country are underserved or we'd like to put a hoff in do we have that

00:41:35.400 kind of community there. We look at those things. So getting the member map to populate with a whole

00:41:43.400 bunch of pins right around you is going to be a good step to recommend the Hoff in your area.

00:41:49.420 As Cliff said though, pictures. One of the biggest ways to attract members is to talk about this

00:41:57.780 and show pictures picture is literally worth a thousand words um there's a big difference

00:42:07.000 in hearing that there's something oh that probably sucks oh i want i those people are probably not

00:42:12.920 like me or those people or whatever you think seeing oh wow that looks really nice

00:42:19.040 and this can cut a lot of different ways and hits people different oh wow those people look like me

00:42:25.560 i think i'd fit in they're just fine wow those people look great i'd aspire to be around those

00:42:30.840 people wow that's something really simple i could do that or wow that's awesome why aren't i doing

00:42:37.960 any of those things make it real they see there's a number of people gathered together

00:42:42.520 and they see oh wow that location is not that far from me i i should be there so the pictures are

00:42:49.560 huge. They're a fundamental building block that has caused the success in the regions where we

00:42:56.540 have AFA success. Being open and advertising to your family and your friend group and other groups

00:43:07.620 you're part of. It's very simple. It's common sense, but overcoming just feeling awkward or

00:43:13.580 feeling uncomfortable is a real thing. And I don't pretend that's not a real thing. I mean,

00:43:18.700 make that sound inconsequential i know it's a big deal um and it's not so much there's a difference

00:43:24.380 between being ashamed and not being honest about being also true and like being reluctant to

00:43:33.020 front load it at people all the time and i'm not saying that everybody that doesn't tell their you

00:43:39.500 know bowling league or whatever they're a part of that they're also true all the time that's not

00:43:44.380 cowardice but it is a missed opportunity a lot of the time so finding ways to talk to the groups of

00:43:50.460 people you find yourself around about how wonderful allows the true in the afa are and how you know

00:43:57.420 important a part of your life that is those things work but the consistency over time is a key to that

00:44:04.780 um so yeah building that up and then somebody preferably several somebodies within that three

00:44:12.220 hour window need to be full builders and then need to uh eventually become ordained gothar

00:44:21.500 it would not be appropriate to have a hof where we don't have any gothar to perform

00:44:26.460 the rights there and to run the hof so these are all factors that will help get them places 0.74

00:44:36.540 you know your your other thing that you presupposed

00:44:38.860 closed. The simple thing is move to where there's AFA activity, move to where there's a Hoff. That's

00:44:44.280 your quickest thing to have a Hoff near you is to go where Hoff is. But you're right. We want a Hoff 0.97

00:44:50.060 in every state. So building that in the state that you're in and seeing what we can do. And so that

00:44:55.660 may seem like, oh, wow, but there's a Hoff already just a state away from me. I can never get a Hoff 0.96

00:45:00.600 in my state. That's not really true. We start having Hoffs that are very close to other states

00:45:07.160 when we have tears off it will border another state that has a hoff and it will be you know

00:45:12.520 one state between ohio and tennessee there's one state between florida and tennessee you can find

00:45:21.000 a hoff in a state that borders your state or is very close to it assuming that we have the right

00:45:27.240 number of people and the right proximity to make that a real thing so you know our goals are there

00:45:33.160 we would love to have your help to make that happen and that goes for you who asked the

00:45:36.760 question but also for anybody out there who's listening to this also wants to see it happen

00:45:40.680 in your area and i will say this i know it sounds like a distant dream

00:45:47.800 but i was here when there was no offs so was cliff and we saw the distant unattainable since

00:45:55.080 the 70s man if only we had a hof we saw that happen in our lifetime and then very quickly

00:46:01.720 we saw us have two hops and three and four and five it's real and it's a thing you know the i

00:46:10.440 was trying to convince people it was the hardest sell in the world when i was trying to pay off 0.77

00:46:14.440 odin's off all these people on the east coast man what's the fastest way to get a hof near us

00:46:19.880 well you see it's to throw lots of money at this hot mountain california that's the ticket

00:46:25.400 it. That's a rough sell, and I understand. I hope that when it comes to, you know, when it came to

00:46:33.220 Baldr's Hoff, and then to Njord's Hoff, and now to Frey's Hoff, that we've earned some credibility

00:46:39.800 to where people believe that formula. Up until that, everyone wanted to spread out the resources

00:46:49.020 all the time. Any of you who've been involved for a long time would know this, Cliff certainly,

00:46:53.640 you know, is aware of this because how it was when he started, every, every

00:46:59.280 Assetruer wants to keep all of their money at home in their backyard and them

00:47:05.640 and their small group of people, they're gonna build a Hoff. They're gonna buy a

00:47:09.000 Hoff. They're gonna make a Hoff happen. And so we had, you know, no joke. We had 0.93

00:47:14.020 hundreds of Hoff dreams that never got off the ground because five people to

00:47:22.220 get together you know 50 to 250 000 for hoff that's a no-go out of the out of the gate

00:47:34.060 but pulling together hundreds of people to pay those makes those attainable and it means for

00:47:41.020 some people right then it's not going to be a hoff near you but it makes it that much more likely

00:47:47.180 for a hoff to be near you in the future once that hoff's paid off that proximity you know we talk

00:47:52.700 about proximity i've watched the map fill up to where if you're driving across the united states

00:47:58.940 and your places chances are we have afa members very close to you that wasn't always the case

00:48:05.900 chances are you find yourself in a spot where in a day's drive you can be near a hoff

00:48:10.700 that used to not be the case it's increasing all the time but it increases by people joining

00:48:16.940 and by people being generous so that's a big part of it but again if we had all the money in the

00:48:25.180 world we wouldn't want to put a half out in the middle of nowhere where nobody's going to show up

00:48:29.580 to it that also wouldn't be responsible so building your community of people who are devoted

00:48:34.140 and who stick with this for the long term is a big big part of it i want to just add something

00:48:40.220 to this and i don't mean this is an attack on on tyler asking the question this way but the uh

00:48:44.860 The sort of, you know, pretext of other than the standard answer is like the standard answer is the standard answer for a reason, because it works, because it's been demonstrated to work.

00:48:59.140 And, you know, don't take shortcuts, basically, like there's, you know, there's not some secret method on the side that we're keeping from people, you know, like the way that we explain it and the way that we're working towards it has worked for 500 years.

00:49:14.860 hoffs and it'll be six and less time than people realize and committing yourself to to implementing

00:49:22.460 that known working method is is the way to go or move to a hoff that's that's the secret cheat code

00:49:31.680 is move to a hoff if you don't want to put the effort into building one somewhere it really is

00:49:39.000 And the other thing I just want to say is everybody can pick up and move to

00:49:45.920 where there's off in order for it to,

00:49:49.020 and one of the things that's hard is everybody wants for the other people to

00:49:54.100 do that.

00:49:55.500 Everybody's like, well, I know some people are going to,

00:49:57.740 but how about we have a Hoff near me?

00:50:02.660 I am the all seriogothy of the Astro Folk Assembly.

00:50:05.920 I was very happy living in Reno, Nevada.

00:50:09.000 I did not insist that Tiershoff be built there because it would be convenient to me.

00:50:14.060 I moved my family and all of my things across the country because this is where it should be,

00:50:20.920 where it made sense to be, and where it needed to be. Again, I don't say that as a flex. I say

00:50:26.400 it as credibility that I'm not telling anybody to do something I wasn't willing to do myself.

00:50:30.440 you can pick up and you can move Nick did Cliff did three of us did you can absolutely do it

00:50:42.800 never said it was going to be easy zero promise to that and I understand there's compelling

00:50:47.760 reasons there's family there's you may have responsibilities that that is a much harder 0.91

00:50:52.580 sell so I'm not like you suck if you don't move that's not the case either but it is

00:50:57.860 a lot of people's first thing is like, I could never do that. Think about it and plan. You 0.93

00:51:05.600 probably very well could do that. And there's a lot of options. And if it's something you're

00:51:09.180 interested in doing, we got a lot of support and a lot of people that would help make that happen

00:51:12.800 and help plan, help you move, help you get settled and help make that transition as easy

00:51:18.280 as possible. So it's something absolutely worth considering. It's funny. Sometimes I forget that

00:51:24.640 I did move to help make Frazehoff happen because I didn't cross that state line.

00:51:30.000 So I don't know if people realize that we did that, but we moved six hours across Pennsylvania

00:51:35.300 and only 20 minutes from the Ohio state line where we are here.

00:51:39.760 And it wasn't the only reason we moved.

00:51:41.540 We wanted to get away from the East Coast megalopolis.

00:51:44.340 We had young kids we were raising and didn't want to raise them in the Philadelphia suburbs

00:51:49.500 and all that.

00:51:51.340 but where we ended up was because we knew where a half in this area would be and so we we put

00:51:58.860 ourselves not as close as we possibly could have to it i suppose but pretty darn close

00:52:07.900 so you put yourself as close as you needed to where you guys were committed to making that

00:52:13.420 drive every week yeah 15 minutes it's a pretty easy drive yeah to add more detail to what i

00:52:19.820 was saying earlier about proximity we okay so i should expand a little bit more so when we're

00:52:25.900 looking for the hoss and we see what that kind of three hour window is

00:52:33.980 like all right who who can we anchor this around what can we do ideally it would have been a really

00:52:40.860 good thing to put one in erie next to cliff but one you know the adjacent property of cliff would

00:52:46.940 the perfect spot to put off that is a church but it would be too expensive there you go so

00:52:53.900 but then we put that proximity up and we think what's the what can we do within that zone 0.89

00:52:59.660 we started looking at where we've got members versus where we've got the ericsons

00:53:04.540 and what our budget is and it worked out

00:53:09.420 it it's the more you do this the longer you do it the more you just you recognize um

00:53:15.580 earlier when it is made manifest and we had a a triangle that was like all right this is a sweet

00:53:23.740 spot is we want something within this triangle and austintown ended up being almost dead center

00:53:30.240 of that triangle so it worked out beautifully um but yeah so that's part of the thing is so

00:53:38.280 even if you're you know the awesome super gothy in your area there's no guarantee i can get the

00:53:44.200 next available church for sale near your house. We do have economic concerns that we have to,

00:53:51.340 you know, make sure it's the right place that has the right amenities for the right price. So that

00:53:56.540 does mean we pick a target spot and then we look in a certain proximity to it. But

00:54:04.480 spiking your east wants to know cliff uh are you liking the phrasehof culture so far

00:54:14.980 i'm liking it very much so far it's uh it's still very new you know we're going through our first

00:54:21.580 year of holy tides so every one is new at phrasehof so we uh you know we have materials to

00:54:30.680 acquire to make each holy tide function properly um so far we've been fortunate our ourselves or

00:54:39.160 members have have come up with the things that we need um and i'm sure that's going to continue

00:54:44.720 through the year i don't doubt it but you know until it's done there's always a little um i

00:54:51.280 guess anxiety like okay where are we going to get the plow and we ended up having the potential of

00:54:57.500 three different plows for, for do something. That was great. Um, uh, the, the culture is good. I

00:55:04.820 mean, it's, it's definitely one focused around hospitality, which I think is true at all of our

00:55:09.480 halls, but, um, Githya Katie wants to make sure that everyone is well fed. We do potlucks for

00:55:15.740 most of our events, but, um, honestly, we try to make sure that if everybody forgets to bring

00:55:20.640 something that everyone is still going to be able to you know have a full plate um

00:55:28.720 we have families you know every single event that we've had has had um families and children

00:55:37.360 um our our work days have been going well we get um decent attendance at those and we always get

00:55:44.240 things done um you know it was to the point where before we started doing outside stuff the last

00:55:51.280 work day we had we were almost trying to think of things that we needed to do um we found them there

00:55:59.600 was stuff but it was good to have to actually kind of like okay find something and if it looks broken

00:56:05.520 fix it you know like i don't have a set list for this week um and it's you know it's still

00:56:13.040 developing but it's but it's but it's going well i'm really excited about uh summer mall and fray

00:56:18.880 faxy um those are gonna i think help kind of define our our our phrase off culture and then

00:56:27.040 um winter nights in october is going to be um be really great um yeah it's it's it's going well we

00:56:35.120 have um been incorporating the hero and ancestor prayer um that we introduced at the the dedication

00:56:44.000 we've done that every holy time since um and it's starting to become you know something that people

00:56:51.200 expect and something that we're we're getting used to um there been one or two times where we almost

00:56:57.680 forgot but i made sure that we we got to it it may have not flowed exactly the way that we wanted it

00:57:06.040 to but i i feel i feel it's important to do even if uh even if we don't do it perfectly don't let

00:57:12.740 perfect be the enemy of the good right um it's okay to remember something um after the fact

00:57:19.540 at it um yeah excited for the the springtime coming up um you know the the property starting

00:57:30.340 to start to show some green again um a lot like it looked when we first looked at it in august

00:57:35.460 um not there yet of course but it's starting to to to warm up and uh it's nice um still working

00:57:43.540 getting the food pantry to to be successful we we have had individual people come and receive

00:57:51.300 food packages from us but we have never had a line um looking to fix that we got some ideas

00:57:57.220 for that but um the people who have shown up have been very grateful and have promised me

00:58:02.420 that they will tell people about it i don't know if that actually happened we haven't seen any

00:58:06.420 evidence of it yet but i suppose the more of those promises that i get out there the more likely it

00:58:11.620 it is to happen. Matt and Cliff both. What were the greatest challenges the AFA faced when you

00:58:22.300 first became leadership? So Cliff, what was the greatest challenge that you recall in the AFA when

00:58:30.120 you first were, you know, first were AFA? When I first became leadership, interesting. It's not

00:58:38.060 the greatest challenge ever it's in that time frame i like the question because it's making me

00:58:43.680 happy um so i think there were there were two um the the first one and i think the one that

00:58:55.700 probably has that correcting this problem has given us the most blessings and help solve other

00:59:03.600 problems you know that that were perhaps downstream of this but the first problem i can think of is

00:59:08.720 there was definitely a and i don't mean this for everyone but among the the among the membership

00:59:16.720 there was a culture of impiety um when i when i first got involved in austria in the afa there was

00:59:24.640 um a lot more of a hang out and drink mead and talk about the stuff in the world that bugs you 0.85

00:59:36.300 kind of um kind of culture that's not what the gothar were doing but that's what the folk were

00:59:43.860 doing and um i think we've come a long way in bringing our folk to asatru as a devotional

00:59:54.000 religion and you know focusing on the positive and you know acknowledging that it is not a

01:00:03.120 you know a a cosplay viking drinking festival because there were events that you might not

01:00:10.220 have been able to tell that it was not such a thing um the other one that i think got partially

01:00:18.800 helped by the you know the work of our gothar and increasing the piety by demonstrating it and and

01:00:26.240 guiding our people to it um i mean one of the things for me i want my my i used to show up to

01:00:32.220 the events wearing my favorite viking band shirt and jeans and i you know had a backpack and all

01:00:37.900 my books because i was wanting to take notes but it was you know i i remember asking one of our

01:00:43.380 go through i'm like why why are you wearing a suit like it just he was the only one or one of only

01:00:49.260 very few at the time wearing a suit and you know he said to me well what do you wear when you meet

01:00:56.200 the gods and i'm standing there in my you know my tattered jeans and my my viking band shirt and

01:01:01.640 realized that he was right and i was wrong didn't need to say any more words about that

01:01:05.900 my question was answered very very plainly and i appreciate that um but the other the other problem

01:01:13.240 that i guess was was prevalent is there was a lot of disunity there was a lot of like very very

01:01:20.800 sincere but counterproductive like local tribalism there was very very strong feelings about how

01:01:33.400 um the local group was the core of everything there was all there was there was very little

01:01:41.780 vision among the folk for anything like the greater good um there were a lot of people who

01:01:48.420 thought that the asa true folk assembly was like some kind of confederation like the asa true

01:01:55.140 alliance or that it was simply a mechanism for like kindreds to network with other kindreds but

01:02:07.780 that it wasn't a church in and of itself um you know back in those days they we called them

01:02:13.860 national orgs and there were there were there were quite a few of them and most of them are

01:02:19.220 not successful the ostrich folk assembly is is very successful um but until until new grange hall

01:02:27.220 until Odinshoff, it was not clear, I think, that the AFA was the serious church that a few of us

01:02:39.780 knew that it was and that it needed to be. And, you know, getting Newgrange Hall and I think the

01:02:50.260 blessings and the luck that the Alistair Folk Assembly gained from that

01:02:55.700 really kind of broke the back of that mindset of you know

01:03:03.140 my local kindred and getting a fancy shed at our gothi's big backyard is how we're gonna make

01:03:12.340 ossaroo great was was antiquated because up until then that was like the only model matt talked

01:03:18.500 about it a little bit before how people had you know a lot of talk about gonna get a hoff most of

01:03:24.260 those dreams only ever got to the stage of talk very few of them got to you know

01:03:32.740 breaking ground or you know driving nails into wood or turning wrenches to actually build a

01:03:38.980 structure and the the few that i know of that ever were done only one of them was done in in anything

01:03:45.620 like uh what i would view as um you know a respectful and pious way um you know i think

01:03:54.660 the intentions were there for the people that did them but a lot of times it was you know kind of a

01:03:59.380 shed kit or something like that um and in all cases they were on private property so the whole

01:04:05.460 thing was dependent on that one person and whether they sold their property or who they left it to

01:04:12.500 in their will there was no permanent there was no there was no institutional permanency there was no

01:04:19.700 permanency of institutional assets or materials and that disunity i think would have made

01:04:28.900 modern asa true a single or two generational kind of flash in the pan cultural phenomena

01:04:39.140 rather than um a lasting religion for you know our great great grandchildren to inherit from us

01:04:47.860 all right so that was the greatest challenge when you became leadership

01:04:51.860 what would you say the greatest challenge is currently oh what are they now i missed that

01:04:56.100 part entirely yeah um right now well it's something that's become a lot more difficult

01:05:07.460 for us um that was easier actually when i first uh got involved in leadership was getting our

01:05:14.180 message out we've been deplatformed all over the place um you know matt mentioned meetup.com it's

01:05:20.740 not that meetup went away it's that we were no longer able to use it we we used to have uh how

01:05:26.660 many how many followers did we have on facebook at its height matt like it was five digits it wasn't

01:05:33.060 four right it was tens of thousands of people i recall 80 plus thousand yeah i don't know if we

01:05:41.940 ever broke that hundred thousand mark but by now we surely would have i mean realistically if we

01:05:46.260 had another 10 years of facebook life and us we probably would have got to a million

01:05:50.900 i mean maybe not but hundreds of thousands so the the deep platforming of the afa by by various

01:05:58.180 medium has um has been a big headwind it's been you know something that's that's a challenge for

01:06:04.660 us um fortunately we have people that are committed to getting the word out and are clever

01:06:11.060 you know um there's there's no level of of censorship that is that is foolproof but um

01:06:18.340 i mean i think even here on on youtube um we can you know see the effects of um

01:06:23.460 what do they call it the quiet censorship i can't think of the word right now but

01:06:30.540 you know we we shadowing shadow abandon yeah we we can we can sometimes see the effects of

01:06:35.880 you know how the the algorithm doesn't work to our benefit um x x seems to to be fair that way

01:06:43.260 um looks like things actually do get out for us that way but um yeah it used to be a lot easier

01:06:49.460 We used to just be able to join these general pagan and heathenry groups and go in there and start talking with people who were nominally interested in, you know, non-Abrahamic religion.

01:07:05.540 And we could talk about Asichu and the AFA and it might not be received well by everyone, but we wouldn't get kicked out.

01:07:11.900 now um we've really had to make our own spaces um the discourse with the general public um has been

01:07:19.580 intentionally taken from us but our our hoffs and some of the media attention that they get have um

01:07:26.380 you know been a boon that way we we we do get um spikes in visibility from time to time

01:07:34.380 but yeah i think that's that's probably the biggest challenge is finding creative ways to

01:07:39.580 get our message in front of the folk who need to see it

01:07:46.700 so for me the greatest challenge is when i first became leadership and i think it's

01:07:56.140 similar to stuff that cliff said um i think the focus on

01:08:08.540 individual kindreds and stuff was much more prevalent in cliff's part of the country than

01:08:13.180 where i was from um but biggest problem as i saw it were twofold cliff mentioned the piety so i

01:08:23.420 I think that Ausatru was this general catch-all thing that a wide variety of

01:08:36.980 counterculture people were involved in that were not unified around the core principles.

01:08:47.140 there was a sacred cow of dogma's bad so you don't have any rules people were not able to define

01:08:59.460 what also true is and what we stood for in a consistent way so a lot of people would practice

01:09:08.000 a lot of very diverse things, literally and figuratively. And there was kind of no rules.

01:09:21.300 And there was by that, there's also not a lot that bound us together. There's people part of

01:09:26.140 the AFA because it was a big national organization, but everybody, you know, lots of different people

01:09:33.020 did lots of different things and thought it was all good. We also had a fear, a reluctance

01:09:41.400 to be honest about where we were at on core issues. So we had a lot of people that were

01:09:47.000 in the wrong place. And I don't think we're nefarious, but Gene, you only didn't know

01:09:52.000 any better. And that kind of persisted in different ways. I think some things made an

01:09:58.200 improvement. Other things, I think the first thing made a slow improvement over time. I

01:10:02.540 think the second thing made a rapid improvement when I got in a spot where I could directly

01:10:08.180 address it. Um, but those were the big things at the time. Like it was just a big tent for

01:10:15.180 every remotely Norse flavored neo-pagan, whatever. And you had some people who were amazing

01:10:22.880 and solidly folkish and absolutely on the right page. And they would get a wink and a nudge. And

01:10:29.180 like those of us who got it would do the sacred handshake with them and they were the cool guys

01:10:35.100 which had a whole lot of people that wasn't fair to them it wasn't fair to us to have them around

01:10:40.860 so it was good to fix that and i think it's amazing our ability to unite around core values

01:10:49.580 now and that wasn't there there are things that you had to be very very sensitive discussing

01:10:53.740 and you never really know who's on what team and you had to play this awkward and shady game of

01:11:01.920 figuring out who you could talk to about what stuff and it was I'm glad we're past that it's

01:11:07.860 been a very nice and important thing for our folk to be able to be full-throated about our core

01:11:13.320 beliefs um biggest problem now I'm glad that you know Cliff and I assess it in a real similar way

01:11:22.300 I don't know that I would have said specifically the B platforming, but it was what I was going to say was the challenge is to get our message out to a larger number of people.

01:11:32.540 So the very obvious circles have largely been fished out.

01:11:39.000 The people there know who we are.

01:11:40.800 They know where we're at when they come around or if it's the mood strikes them, they end up joining.

01:11:46.360 but we have these very small you know concentric circles that kind of all end up overlapping at

01:11:55.900 some point there's still you know 300 plus million people in the united states let's call it 150 of

01:12:05.460 those are white people let's pretend 75 of those are heterosexuals um that's like that's the ratio

01:12:13.440 that commercials would give you so that's 75 million people of that let's just say 10 million

01:12:24.560 of those are aligned with our core values and would be really interested in joining if they

01:12:31.280 knew we existed that's enormous that is enormous the number is bigger than that and it's worldwide

01:12:38.880 but there's so many of our folk that would be here if they knew about us getting the message

01:12:44.720 out to those people is a significant challenge that we're always trying to find new and better

01:12:48.960 ways to fix it you guys spreading stuff word of mouth and click and like share subscribe to our

01:12:55.680 algorithms on all the platforms we're at it helps it absolutely helps in a big way uh right now

01:13:02.400 youtube and twitter are our most successful outlets to get the message out those are areas

01:13:10.720 that we have seen a lot of growth and we have our biggest reach so we try to make the most out of

01:13:17.040 those but yeah i think those are the big challenges we face currently so can you tell us about the

01:13:27.200 lore of patricia hall she is an enigma that too many of us never got to experience excuse me

01:13:34.000 experience cliff could you tell folks about who pat hall is or was i'll do my best um so pat hall

01:13:46.160 um so according to paddle um as told to directly to me she was raised um

01:14:00.880 raised pagan but she would later end up calling us true um you know she remembers um

01:14:07.840 um her father showing her um underneath the the crib where there was a bind room under the mattress

01:14:17.040 and you know she asked him why you know that's beautiful why does why is it hidden

01:14:22.000 and he says because it wouldn't work if it was not secret um so there's you know there's a

01:14:28.480 a long a long tradition there that that she had that i i you know never really fully fully learned

01:14:38.880 or understood um and pat pat was a uh is a charismatic lady um i haven't heard from her

01:14:48.000 in a few years but i'm going to use the present tense um she she was a person that all those

01:14:57.280 different disparate um kindreds and all those disparate um interest groups that were you know

01:15:04.560 trying to be involved in the afa at that time would rally around she was very much um

01:15:12.080 the the folk mother of the northeast region's also true um you know she was she was the she 0.97

01:15:21.920 was the old lady who all the bikers would listen to the neo-nazi guys would listen to her the

01:15:30.720 libertarian nerds would listen to her it was you know um she had a commanding presence you know 1.00

01:15:37.920 when when pat was there you knew that she was in charge and um you know she had the benefit of

01:15:44.640 having uh you know a decent number of young men around to make sure that all the work got done

01:15:50.720 and she just needed to tell you what what had to get done um and she was a spooky lady um in a good

01:15:59.360 way though um you know not like in a i mean i get it could be scary sometimes but it wasn't um

01:16:06.640 malicious uh you know she she was incredibly gifted in her connection to the runes um

01:16:20.720 um she she would give some really powerful bloats as well um i'm sure matt can can speak

01:16:29.440 to that in a minute um for a personal experience that he had but um you know she she's one of the 0.74

01:16:37.120 few gothar of the asachu folk assembly who have um driven people away from the afa because the

01:16:48.560 experience they had was too intense um and that's that's a true story of uh winter nights in the

01:16:56.160 poconos she did a a right for the ladies which i was not there to witness personally so my

01:17:02.160 my account is second hand but that um a young woman who was there she she warned the ladies

01:17:09.200 in advance she's like look this is going to be some serious stuff we're going to be doing some

01:17:15.600 i don't know if she would have used this term so i i beg her forgiveness if i'm getting wrong but

01:17:20.080 some spirit work essentially and you know she wanted to make sure that the people had a good

01:17:26.560 frame of mind that they hadn't been drinking that they they weren't on any medications and so on

01:17:32.480 she wanted people clear-headed about it and um i don't know all that that went on i wasn't there

01:17:40.480 and it would be inappropriate of me to ask but at afterwards um a young woman and the guys that had

01:17:49.680 come there with her they all they they tore out of the camp and we found out later that um

01:17:57.280 that the lady was concerned that patricia was summoning demons um moloch in particular which

01:18:04.880 which i found kind of hilarious because if you know pat hall if you knew her that is a preposterous

01:18:09.520 thing to suggest but it it kind of let me know that whatever she was doing um in the playhouse

01:18:16.560 there was a playhouse that they were in they had a nice um fireplace it was a real cozy place

01:18:21.520 but whatever they were doing down there was

01:18:25.760 was magical and and was real and um it's something that uh important and also true it's not something

01:18:34.480 that everyone must do in order to be australia but it's a component to our faith in particular

01:18:41.200 that the you know that the ladies are are adept at that um you know that i i think needs care um

01:18:50.880 and that our you know our githia uh our githia are are working hard to you know to to build

01:18:59.520 a tradition like that and to share their their knowledges and their experiences um

01:19:07.520 you know the lore of pad hall i got to go on a lot of road trips with her we would go

01:19:11.680 um you know and meet up with people in uh anywhere in our in our region um which was

01:19:20.480 didn't include ohio but it was west virginia pennsylvania and everything northeast of that

01:19:24.320 basically as far as you could go so you know we did you know long road trips to sometimes to to

01:19:31.520 people that weren't afa members at all she was willing to drive uh six hours one way to

01:19:38.480 make bloat for people that were just interested in the afa or for a kindred that um you know

01:19:46.080 was was strong-headed and didn't want to join the afa but recognized the need that

01:19:51.040 they needed to have a book conducted by an afa githia and invited her as a special guest

01:19:57.760 um i don't think we'd do it quite like that these days it was a different time but

01:20:02.160 um she had that legitimacy um you know that outside groups would invite her um specifically

01:20:09.680 to i i guess represent us true better than they could themselves um always bugged me that they

01:20:17.840 wouldn't simply join up because if they recognize that they really should just join the afa but um

01:20:25.600 it's just a few things i can share about patricia um i wish i had a a better like chronological

01:20:32.720 saga of patricia to share but those are those are some anecdotes about her

01:20:40.560 yeah um

01:20:44.320 pat hall is

01:20:47.840 She's probably the most magically effective person that I've ever known.

01:20:59.460 She is adept at these things. She has a skill and a legitimacy that you can feel like it is uncomfortable to talk about magic and spirits and stuff at times because so many charlatans have made it ridiculous 0.58

01:21:27.240 and made it have a taint to it because they're absurd she is somebody that you don't question

01:21:34.860 it when she talks about those things because it is self-evident that she

01:21:38.780 it's not just that she is you know an expert on the subject matter but you can tell that she

01:21:46.540 has that gravitas in practice and it's really important it was cool that you know I was at

01:21:55.600 the site that day too. Again, I wasn't in the room because it was a ladies deal, but

01:22:00.220 I always hate losing members, but it was a really important testimonial that, you know,

01:22:12.380 people thought they're just screwing around, doing some, you know, fun pagan weekend, whatever.

01:22:18.080 She's like, okay, guys, it's going to get real. So if you don't want to be here for this,

01:22:23.440 that's fine. I understand that. If you have any like attachments or any negativity that you're

01:22:28.880 bringing in, if you've opened doors that you haven't closed, if you've got stuff going on,

01:22:34.260 you know, please stay outside and don't join us. Oh, whatever. I'm going to go do the spooky

01:22:40.100 seance with the crazy witch lady. She fled the camp in terror because stuff got real. 0.90

01:22:49.040 that is powerful. Um, you know, I've mentioned on here a bajillion times about the, uh,

01:22:57.620 um, desabloat that that conducted to where, um, she was asking that the, you know,

01:23:04.160 she was basically calling, having us call in our DC or to be with us in the circle.

01:23:10.840 And that is the most viscerally felt ritual I've ever been a part of. Um,

01:23:19.040 You know, she asked us all to, to, you know, basically call out to one of our female ancestors, to close our eyes, to call them out, to be there, to have them be there with us in the circle.

01:23:32.120 And my grandma was with me in that circle.

01:23:36.160 And Pat's ability to make that happen or to facilitate that happening.

01:23:42.880 And it still affects me to my core this, to this day.

01:23:47.280 And it's, there's nothing else that has the instant make me tear up response that that does.

01:23:56.800 And it wasn't just me that night.

01:23:58.980 Like I can think of off the top of my head, six other men that were just weeping like babies because they summoned their grandma or their mom or their great grandma to be there with them.

01:24:13.460 And it moved all of them, all of us.

01:24:18.080 so she's she was awesome um great lady awesome sense of humor like just a really cool person

01:24:25.360 um you know she's quite a bit older than i am but you know we were very close she was a really good

01:24:33.040 friend of mine um absolutely very very important helping me in the transition when i became also

01:24:40.000 here go the huge part of that i mean i was when that was coming about i was on the phone with

01:24:47.520 her just about every day um talking through stuff and planning things and trying to get things

01:24:53.600 situated and she was essential to that and then she just kind of disappeared there was no fanfare

01:25:00.720 there was no blow up there was no falling out it's like she just disappeared into the ether

01:25:05.920 it was really very strange so i don't know i hope where she is she's doing well there's a lot of

01:25:11.200 people that i'm grumpy about when they leave especially leadership she's one of the people

01:25:16.160 that i really don't have any grumpiness about i wish that she would reappear um but yeah she was

01:25:25.520 very very magically adept and a link to that world that we are very very much poor without

01:25:33.040 having with us i did get some communication from her a few years ago um and that you know she's

01:25:41.120 she's well at least she was as of then she had some medical issues she needed to address but

01:25:45.440 they weren't why she left um i don't know i think it was just uh she felt she needed to move on and

01:25:54.640 i don't know exactly why she never articulated that but uh i mean she was in very well in a

01:26:00.400 lot of ways she was my mentor she's the person who really encouraged me to get involved in folk 0.69

01:26:04.640 building um i'm i guarantee i was a huge pain in her butt because i i wouldn't listen at first i

01:26:10.800 had to learn the hard way um and i think you know she taught me how to treat the runes personally

01:26:21.040 like i can't say that everything i know about the runes i learned from pat because there's a lot of

01:26:24.720 stuff i learned from books and all that but um she really helped me to

01:26:34.480 treat the runes individually and you know kind of feel them if that makes sense um

01:26:41.360 but yeah a lot of a lot of a lot of things she taught me i think i have trouble expressing

01:26:45.520 because they've kind of helped me make i am who make me who i am today and i don't think i even

01:26:51.440 and quite realize the impact she had on me fully.

01:26:59.880 Yeah, absolutely, absolutely.

01:27:06.840 So next up, Matt and Cliff,

01:27:10.360 what are some tangible ways that members can become involved?

01:27:13.560 What are some aspects of the AFA

01:27:16.080 that might not be well known, but should be?

01:27:19.760 we've talked a little bit about um the first part but not so much about the second and there's

01:27:26.240 others to add so cliff what would you say to that quote two-part question there sure so i won't i

01:27:32.160 won't answer all sort of the world folk builder organization kind of stuff that we already touched

01:27:37.360 on with you know the how do you how do you get a hoff established kind of question but for for

01:27:43.840 For those of you that are already near a Hoff, I would encourage you to participate in the

01:27:50.400 workdays at the Hoff.

01:27:53.440 You know, those places don't maintain themselves and, you know, many hands lighten the load.

01:28:01.580 So your efforts there are definitely always going to be appreciated.

01:28:08.820 thing that I think we would really like to see people become involved with is the food

01:28:15.320 pantries. I know that we need people to, you know, to pick up food and bring it to the

01:28:19.820 Hoffs. The specifics will vary. So, you know, contact your Hoffgothia or Hoffgithia about

01:28:25.780 that. But the food pantries are really important and getting involved in them is a way that

01:28:33.600 can be you know helping on on something that honestly relatively few people um are involved

01:28:40.000 in making those happen at the halls um i think that um you know we we do we do have volunteers

01:28:48.880 who who do projects for us so if you're interested reach out to matt or i or um you know your go thar

01:28:57.120 and we can find we can find a fit for a skill that you have if you have something to bring

01:29:03.360 we will we will try to utilize it in in a way that makes sense um

01:29:11.920 and talk to you know i i said i wasn't to say this but i will you know talk to other people

01:29:16.880 about ossaroo really the the getting the word out is the single biggest thing that we need you know

01:29:24.720 um talking about ossaroo where you are present is talking about ossaroo in a place where we

01:29:32.240 cannot be present so you know you you are the austro folk assembly um you know represent us

01:29:39.440 everywhere you go don't be annoying people and drive them away but

01:29:44.080 you know don't hide it either make the opportunities as they come up absolutely um

01:29:52.800 so rather than

01:29:55.040 wax poetic on it and you know go into a big diatribe very specifically stuff you can do

01:30:03.280 if anybody listening is a architect slash engineer that works in metal construction we need that

01:30:13.940 to move forward with tears off anybody listening who is a grant writer slash grant finder slash

01:30:22.280 has experience with grants and grant stuff we would like to figure out what our possibilities

01:30:29.640 for making that happen are and if you reach out we can talk about some different ideas that way

01:30:36.440 if you are somebody who understands working and through and activating the social services

01:30:43.320 system places be that for people in crisis for um single mothers for for children's nutrition for

01:30:52.280 people out of work, for whatever those things are. We have a lot of built-in

01:30:56.520 social safety nets that our tax dollars go to that very often

01:31:00.700 our folk don't know how to access. Having somebody who can help us figure that out

01:31:07.000 for people in need that are our folk is really important. We'd love to have some

01:31:12.060 help with it. If you are a person who works in, and when I say works in, sure, if you

01:31:17.920 work for the VA, awesome. If you are someone who knows how to efficiently navigate that system,

01:31:25.520 we need a similar thing that I just mentioned, but through the Veterans Administration.

01:31:30.000 So often in either of those circumstances, the paperwork and the figuring out how to make the

01:31:38.460 system work for you is more than people who are really damaged sometimes know how to or have the

01:31:45.660 endurance to endure so having someone who can hand hold people through those processes

01:31:51.180 and who can you know guide them through the labyrinthine

01:31:57.820 maze that bureaucracy is would be very important and we could certainly use your help

01:32:02.300 um also and very relevant to this vns shorts the single most effective

01:32:14.860 thing that we have in a short burst is those vns shorts we need people to make them

01:32:23.820 we have a process that's not long or difficult but we need volunteers for that

01:32:30.860 we ask a lot a lot of people express an interest very few people have followed through all of them

01:32:36.640 are being made by our producer nick the more of them we have the more our algorithm gets boosted

01:32:43.840 the more we get our message in front of more eyes the more we address the greatest current

01:32:50.260 challenge for the astro focus assembly in both cliff and my understanding of it we need people

01:32:55.960 making vns shorts please help us please contact nick and i'll actually add to that yeah it is

01:33:03.880 very important you actually want to do it because there's been 20 people that have said they're

01:33:11.020 going to do it they haven't done but also on top of shorts if you don't if you don't like dealing

01:33:16.220 with the vertical format three minute limit if you want to clip long like take the good stuff

01:33:22.580 out of vns episodes that are four hours long and turn them into a 15-minute video that would be

01:33:28.720 great to repost because those are awesome things too um also um i don't know if i'm gonna steal

01:33:34.960 any thunder but while i'm talking so i don't interrupt again if you write we'd love to have

01:33:40.600 your stuff in the runestone poems articles anything like that if you are a photographer

01:33:48.920 or somebody who's actually really good at taking photos,

01:33:52.700 I'd love for you to record a little something-something with me,

01:33:56.820 teaching people how to take photos,

01:33:58.460 especially taking photos with their phones,

01:34:00.740 because part of getting our messes out there really is the photos we take in our boots.

01:34:07.580 And sometimes they're blurry or they're just badly stuck.

01:34:11.060 I'd love some proper instruction on taking photos for our folk.

01:34:15.780 That'd be great.

01:34:16.620 yeah there's and this leads into the second half of the question

01:34:21.100 what are some aspects of the afa that might not be well known but should be

01:34:26.220 that kind of stuff i think when people hear about it at first they either positively or negatively

01:34:37.480 they don't know maybe what it looks like what it is and they conceive of overtly religious

01:34:46.340 things like oh they get together and they do house of truth they do paganism they do

01:34:53.940 uh idolatry stuff yes certainly and that i mean that goes without saying

01:35:01.940 but the aspect i don't think people know enough about is all of the

01:35:10.020 extra things that go with being spiritual leaders in our communities

01:35:14.340 our um first when i send a welcome email i talk about welcome to our afa family and i mean that

01:35:25.360 because that's really how we look at it we are trying to welcome new people home to their

01:35:32.880 ancestral faith and to a family of spiritual um companions of spiritual brothers and sisters doing

01:35:43.420 this and we try to look out for each other we try to engage in you know numerous groups about

01:35:50.380 different interests and different occupations and segments of our folk that um need different

01:35:58.620 things or want to communicate with others and uh build fellowship in that way our gothar

01:36:06.060 yes they all are well equipped to perform the religious rites of aussitry but the vast majority

01:36:14.620 of the time spent by gothar is on counseling so counseling people on stuff and when you think

01:36:21.900 counseling you think oh like marriage counseling or helping them through like psychological trauma

01:36:28.060 or sure we do the best we can on that and we try to help them with resources if they need help

01:36:34.060 beyond our scope but we talk people through struggles in their life and a struggle in

01:36:39.580 you know we may have a um a veteran with ptsv related things that we deal with

01:36:45.580 and then the next call could be somebody who you know lost a beloved pet or is struggling in school

01:36:54.700 or has trouble making friends or who's going through relationship struggles or any any of

01:37:03.500 the things in life that people go through are our goals are are here to help our members

01:37:11.980 make it through that successfully and healthy and healthily

01:37:17.660 i'll take it um and to try to make that you know try to help folks have happy and successful

01:37:24.780 families connect them with other people that can help them apply the three plus decades of experience

01:37:33.340 that our collected body of Gothar bring to the table in being Gothar to help them make their

01:37:43.100 situation and their life better for themselves and their family. So the counseling is a huge part of

01:37:48.800 it. When you're a part of the AFA, you are a part of a community that is actively wanting to help

01:37:57.860 you be successful in your life not just passively hoping that you are but a lot of people very

01:38:03.840 willing to help you get there and to share their wisdom uh oftentimes as you see in this program

01:38:10.800 share their uh their funds their availability to to get you get you where you're going

01:38:17.460 we have a couple of different groups of afa members trying to help people develop professionally

01:38:23.180 in different professional avenues there's a lot going on that people don't see that's under the

01:38:30.560 surface but that we do to help our people succeed to try to cure the soul sickness that afflicts us

01:38:37.220 so um yeah if you're ever curious about that ask a local folk builder or reach out and ask me and

01:38:44.180 we'd be happy to get you squared away and help direct you to some of those things if you're

01:38:49.820 interested question for both of you what has been your single favorite hoff experience

01:38:56.860 and what would you say to a newcomer to seal the deal getting them out to a hoff cliff let's say you

01:39:05.820 so first this wasn't technically a hoff experience but i proposed to my wife

01:39:11.420 during sumble at camp natimus which was almost kind of like a hoff for the northeast for

01:39:18.220 a number of years um but not technically a hoff so doesn't really answer the question but um

01:39:26.620 one of my favorite experiences ever right there so i had to mention it

01:39:30.940 um sticking to the question a hoff experience um that for me um it certainly would be um

01:39:42.540 leading the balder bloat at odenshoff two years ago um that that circle is charged up in a way

01:39:53.100 um that is that is difficult to express i've led many bloats through the years

01:39:58.760 um i've i've led bloat at at other hoffs um but that that that circle at odenshoff is very special

01:40:10.780 And I think part of it is because of the time that it's existed, the number of bloat that have been conducted there and, you know, the particular gothar who have led bloat there, I think is part of it.

01:40:27.300 The building up of the spiritual energy there is in a way that as a Goethe, I hadn't really felt before. 0.96

01:40:41.920 It was definitely the most special place that I've ever led Bloat at, if not the most special Bloat to me personally that I've ever led.

01:40:51.360 um it's hard to describe um especially to a wider audience you know speaking to the other gothar

01:40:59.180 i think that most of them but probably not all of them would understand what i'm talking about here

01:41:04.560 um so conveying that to um you know the the folk at large is a little bit more difficult but it

01:41:12.680 at first it was very intimidating right so i've led many bloats before but i've never led one in

01:41:20.000 front of founder mcnallan so that was intimidating on its own um i had uh had never had never made

01:41:30.280 bloat at odenshoff i'd been to bloat at odenshoff many times um but there was you know it was the

01:41:38.300 first bloat in a long while that i'd felt like truly nervous about you know not like where i'm

01:41:44.800 like okay what am i going to do for this bloat and what are the particulars i'm going to do

01:41:49.600 where I'm thinking about, you know, the specifics for it.

01:41:52.340 But this is where, like, I knew what I wanted to do.

01:41:54.860 And I was just straight up nervous about it.

01:41:58.060 You know, like, first date kind of nervous.

01:42:00.720 And that all changed as soon as I stepped into the circle there.

01:42:06.600 You know, I usually run through my bloats in advance.

01:42:11.720 I prefer to write them down, but then not to, like,

01:42:14.980 lean on that writing while I'm actually in the bloat.

01:42:18.540 which is funny because i didn't use the block right that way i used to never write them down

01:42:21.660 it was all off the cuff but i made an effort to write them down because i'd never done it before

01:42:25.900 i figured a change would be good anyway i i went out there maybe an hour or half an hour before

01:42:32.380 bullet was scheduled to begin and you know i walked the circle and i went through what i had

01:42:37.420 written down and it just felt so natural there in a you know not because it would be like my

01:42:47.980 hundredth or two hundredth blow or however many it had been but a pretty big number um but it

01:42:56.220 you know it was just it's a space that is

01:43:01.200 i mean in in the you know in our time i suppose it is the place that is most charged up with the

01:43:10.980 gift cycle in the world and um you know it certainly felt different from my backyard

01:43:18.120 it certainly felt different from you know even the most beautiful state or national parks with

01:43:24.380 a waterfall in the background like i've done bloating some pretty cool places but um

01:43:30.540 yeah it it it's very difficult to describe but it was it was very powerful all of that nervousness

01:43:42.500 just immediately went away it was a very you know a very natural place um and there was a

01:43:50.300 there was an energy that was you know vibrating there like good vibes man but for real

01:43:56.440 there was there's an energy there that was empowering to me and you know i hope that i

01:44:05.760 helped to bring that to the folk that day and that i i represented our folk to the gods well

01:44:12.840 that day and i'm pretty sure i did but um yeah it was it was a very special experience for me to

01:44:19.080 to lead bloke there and um you know i think that all of our hosts have that potential

01:44:24.160 um you know some of them are farther along in that potential than others thorshoff um you know

01:44:30.100 i think that each hoff in order probably is a little bit farther down that path because they

01:44:34.980 have that repeated devotion and the deeper that one is in that the the more sacred the space gets

01:44:43.140 um but yeah that that circle is very special there and and i feel very privileged to have

01:44:50.080 able to lead a bloke there and i hope to be able to do it again sometime i'm not that old so it

01:44:54.800 should happen so both of mine are at odin's off um but there's there's a bunch um it's hard you

01:45:10.480 know i was dreading this question when i saw it come up because i overthink and i'm exceedingly

01:45:17.760 blessed that i have been to all of the hafs i've been to all of the hafs multiple times

01:45:25.760 i because of my position i get a lot of half time um

01:45:37.440 so the two that stand out i was

01:45:47.760 yeah so my first

01:45:54.560 my first time at odin's hof since it was a hof i was there at the first time for everyone when

01:46:00.800 we discovered it but my first time there as a hof was for uh midsummer of 2016 which was

01:46:13.920 when i officially became installed as the ulcerative

01:46:19.840 and there's a lot of it's bittersweet there's a lot of things at that event it was very much a um

01:46:30.560 you know uh

01:46:34.320 an ending of an era and a dawning of a new one and there was a lot of different emotions there but

01:46:39.920 it. It was the first experience of doing Ausatruita Hoff. And

01:46:46.560 we had set up there the tables. I'm trying to imagine it. So if you're in front of where

01:46:58.300 the altar is now, and there wasn't an altar there, it was just a flat space. And up against

01:47:02.700 the wall was um one of the big afa canvas banners that we had made and you know sitting at the head

01:47:11.340 of the table there we had a head table and we had tables running the length of the hall

01:47:16.540 and for the first time we sat at uh dinner on the big like saturday night at the hof and

01:47:25.100 you know we had the hall line with these tables the tables were full of our folk

01:47:31.500 inside a half that was our half the first half and at the end of the table it was

01:47:38.900 um you know we turned out the lights and we had you know soft like candle lighting and

01:47:46.140 i think maybe some fairy lights but i'm not sure but um yeah it was nice it was still

01:47:53.260 light enough out we had enough light but it wasn't you know it was very nice ambiance for up for a

01:47:59.180 special dinner there all the folk were there they were gathered and i was sitting at the head of the

01:48:03.260 table and at the end there's these dramatic double doors um that open up out into out into the world

01:48:12.140 and it was just that sunset time where the light was just particularly beautiful off of the greenery

01:48:19.100 and off of the stuff and it had that that perfect kind of just before sunset light out there and

01:48:27.420 looking out down the hall at all the folk sitting along the tables and then out into

01:48:33.340 the world after the bright light with the greenery and and the world um just a sense of

01:48:42.860 of destiny of the future laid out before me before us and steve uh came up to me and he put his hand

01:48:56.060 on my shoulder and he said you know this is this is what it's all about you know us in a hof to

01:49:04.060 the gods with gathered with our folk along the tables sharing a meal and looking out into the

01:49:09.740 future and it was very very special and continues to be so um the other one was a few years later uh

01:49:22.940 when it hit me and it probably wasn't the first time it happened but

01:49:29.340 after um aubrey became old enough to to walk and kind of get around on her own doing stuff

01:49:35.340 it hit me one time when i was looking out uh behind the hof and

01:49:43.740 my daughter was getting to play in the you know in the courtyard of of a hof to our gods

01:49:52.060 with other kids and other families and folk all gathered there and my daughter's playing at one

01:49:56.940 of our hofs and she would never know a world that didn't have hofs to our gods in it and it

01:50:04.700 just hit me there and it crystallized and it was such a distant dream when i got involved in also

01:50:11.100 true and it was the dream of generations that this would be a thing and it is beautiful and

01:50:18.780 i'll always remember remember that in that moment um matt and cliff what is a parent parenting

01:50:31.980 technique you use that you're proud of and would be happy to share

01:50:39.100 cliff what are your what parenting tip do you got for us

01:50:45.660 um i talk to my kids i'm i'm honest with them and i listen to them i don't do what they say

01:50:55.580 but i hear their i try i really try to hear their thoughts and and understand their perspective

01:51:00.700 um and it's really a gift as a parent you know to to get the eyes of your son or your daughter

01:51:10.360 and to you know be able to see the world through you know such such it's such an untarnished point

01:51:19.480 of view um but I really do try to be be straightforward and and honest with them

01:51:28.120 um i'm really really big about not lying to them and not making things up you know if they ask me

01:51:34.140 a hard question about the way the world is um you know well i'll i'll tell them the truth in an age

01:51:40.600 appropriate way but um you know i'm not i'm not going to fabricate an answer to make me comfortable

01:51:52.760 and um you know just last night i was um owen and alice had a sleepover in owen's room so um

01:52:01.400 partly for them partly for us it's sometimes easier to do sleepover for bedtime stories and

01:52:07.940 all that stuff depends on what the parents have going on we might we might nudge them towards

01:52:11.820 a sleepover once in a while but um before i read them their story um i was talking to them about

01:52:20.240 how they perceive the world like i i told them a short story about

01:52:28.000 like about getting out of the car and walking to the beach and what the sun felt like and what

01:52:37.460 the sand felt like and all of that and i asked them you know could you actually see that when

01:52:43.500 i was telling you the story could you hear anything could you feel the warmth of the sun

01:52:47.700 on your skin and and they and they said that they could but it was you know i was listening to the

01:52:55.540 radio on the way to phrasehoff last weekend and i've read stuff about this before where not

01:52:59.700 everyone can do that you know um some people literally can't like picture a description of

01:53:07.380 something like a movie in their head uh it's called aphantasia so i was just kind of seeing

01:53:13.460 how that worked for them and um and it was neat because you know i told them the same story but

01:53:23.180 they experienced it a little bit differently in their mind's eye right and um i really love to

01:53:29.220 have conversations like that with my kids just about the world and about how it works and about

01:53:34.120 our gods and about our stories and you know i don't lie to them but um you know i do i do keep

01:53:44.280 myth alive for them so if they ask me if dragons are real i say yes because sigurd killed fafnir

01:53:54.200 so clearly dragons are real um just i've never seen one

01:53:59.720 But yeah, I mean, just I think it's enjoying talking to your kids is really important.

01:54:11.100 And, you know, I hope I hope most parents out there do enjoy talking to their kids.

01:54:18.060 But observationally, I can tell that not all do.

01:54:21.440 And I would encourage people to, you know, really just kind of, you know, you're still their parent.

01:54:26.920 You can't be their parent and their friend at the same time.

01:54:29.040 But, you know, take the time to hear what they're saying and and just have conversations with them about day to day stuff, you know, about things that are happening, things that they've seen in the world, about the trees in the yard, about the seasons, about your garden, about, you know, regular stuff and and about Asatru and about the relationships between people and how the world works.

01:54:59.040 I think it equips them in the long term for dealing with the world in an honest way.

01:55:08.220 And, you know, it helps keep me young, too.

01:55:11.540 Seeing the world through their eyes and hearing their input on things, I think, is good for me as much as it is for them.

01:55:23.260 Yeah.

01:55:23.700 um i again i overthink the question so

01:55:34.740 a couple a couple of few things um

01:55:40.340 i think honesty is super important i don't

01:55:44.980 i don't draw ultimatums that i'm not going to enforce and i try to resist the urge to do that

01:55:53.380 with like ultimatum threats that i don't plan on enforcing because i don't want to get in a spot

01:56:00.340 where i have to enforce stuff because i said i would but i don't really want to

01:56:05.460 and i also don't want to tell them things that i don't need so making sure not to do that making

01:56:13.060 sure even stuff that's dumb and not important to adults may be very important to kids and so

01:56:22.980 i don't i don't give my word on something casually like if i make her a promise that

01:56:30.180 we're going to do something or that i'm going to do something i fulfill that promise unless

01:56:39.460 there's some very you know some emergency thing comes up and then i try to make good on it in the

01:56:45.300 best way that i can but i always try to be really really strict on that if i say if i if i give her

01:56:54.100 my word we're going to do something i make a deal on something then i've gotta i've gotta live up to

01:56:57.780 mine and that's really important and i try to make sure i do that even on just like little

01:57:03.220 inconsequential things it may be small to me but they're you know very big to her

01:57:09.060 and i think it role models something really important um

01:57:15.300 i so cliff's got a more diverse experience because he's got a son and a daughter i just

01:57:24.140 got a daughter so it's a little bit different i am very aware of girls and women's issues with

01:57:34.500 self-esteem with feelings of self-worth and of

01:57:39.220 you know feeling confident to do things in the world um i think that's a thing that often is

01:57:48.760 a particular challenge for for women and girls so i've tried very consciously always

01:57:56.760 to do everything i can to tell her how great she is and

01:58:05.240 make her feel like she's somebody special and she's somebody very important and i try to also

01:58:11.920 give her

01:58:13.940 a very long leash when we do stuff like mandy is much more um

01:58:22.620 much closer with the attentiveness when we're out someplace like i don't want to take my

01:58:31.260 attention off but i try to give her maximum freedom of doing stuff and feeling like she's

01:58:37.900 capable to do things on her own one of the cool things is aubrey's very fearless on trying stuff

01:58:43.420 or on you know just doing things and not having me helicopter around and i'm really proud of that

01:58:53.500 i've had other parents you know that won't that'll come over and they'll see aubrey at the park like

01:58:59.980 by herself doing a bunch of stuff and don't know readily apparent like who who the adult is and i

01:59:06.060 might be the only adult there so like is that your daughter i'm like yep they're like wow you know

01:59:11.020 she's really confident doing all this stuff on her own and you know it's very complimentary

01:59:16.860 because there's never a time that i'm not there and i can't see her but i try to let her do things

01:59:22.140 on her own as much as i can so she builds confidence in herself and her ability to

01:59:27.180 to do stuff in the world and to try things and so i think that's really important too

01:59:33.320 i don't think any of those are magical you know awesome bumper sticker answers but those are

01:59:39.920 kind of things that i am proud of that work really good for us

01:59:43.360 um do you two have do the two of you have any advice to our single members

01:59:53.620 uh how can us married couples help encourage the expansion of our faith and people

02:00:00.160 cliff do you have any advice for the singles and advice for how um married couples can

02:00:07.660 encourage successful fecundity

02:00:12.340 so to to the single folk out there um you know

02:00:19.420 focus on yourself build yourself up make yourself the best person the most attractive

02:00:28.860 person that you can be um you want you know you want to be worthy of that mate that you

02:00:39.100 would like to have one day um you know show up to lots of events you have to be somewhere

02:00:46.500 in in order to be seen right so you know being present is is really important um you know you

02:00:56.080 got to show up for the interview in order to get the job right so um continue to improve your your

02:01:05.060 physical appearance your health learn as much as you can um you know um learn the skills that

02:01:12.760 going to need build a good foundation men out there make sure that you are you know

02:01:19.720 demonstrating that you're able to take care of more than just yourself and if you you know you

02:01:25.720 have to first if you got to show that you can take care of yourself before you can demonstrate that

02:01:29.400 you can take care of more than one person so you know dress properly comb your hair

02:01:36.920 shave you know wherever it is that you need to shave if you have a beard make sure that it's neat

02:01:41.640 um you know do all the things that you know that you should make sure that you can demonstrate um

02:01:49.960 that you can provide a home essentially um

02:01:56.920 to the ladies out there i don't know you guys have it pretty easy and also true at least i

02:02:01.080 think i'm probably wrong about that it's not probably anywhere near as easy as i might think

02:02:04.920 it is but you certainly have your pick and i would i would recommend that you be aware of it

02:02:09.880 that you have your pick of the Ossetru men out there.

02:02:14.640 A lot of the fellows are, you know,

02:02:17.420 going to need to look outside of Ossetru sometimes to, to,

02:02:20.720 to find a lady and to bring her to Ossetru. But, you know, you,

02:02:25.160 you single Ossetru ladies choose the best men, you know, 0.99

02:02:30.720 I mean, that seems obvious, but don't, don't sell yourself short. 1.00

02:02:33.980 You are very valuable and don't,

02:02:38.160 don't don't underestimate just how awesome you are and um you know make him earn you

02:02:47.120 um for the married couples out there um 0.74

02:02:52.480 build up the the single people you know um i know that the the ladies probably have a good idea of

02:02:59.920 what single men out there um have demonstrated some sense of worth um and and who have not

02:03:09.120 steer the ladies where they need to be steered um and and also give advice to the fellows that 0.86

02:03:16.000 are falling short on on what they need to do they may just be dumb they might not know that they 0.92

02:03:21.040 smell you got to tell them sometimes you know um it's a silly example but it's real um 0.92

02:03:27.280 um, people might not know that their jokes are obnoxious or whatever it is, um, help to build

02:03:35.180 them up into better versions of themselves, um, to help them achieve that. Um, they, they, they,

02:03:42.360 you know, in Ausatru, we should be trying to build ourselves and the folk around us into as close to

02:03:49.840 our ideal as we can. And we're all going to fall short of that in ways, but we really should be,

02:03:55.480 you know, willing to, to help our, our fellow folk when we can. And, um, you know, making sure

02:04:03.080 that they know their value and making sure that they know that they are wanted and that they,

02:04:09.480 you know, that success is not guaranteed, but that they, they are capable of success if they,

02:04:17.460 if they put the effort into it and they don't quit. That's the biggest thing. Don't quit.

02:04:21.780 um you know that that's just that's like you know consigning yourself to being a loser so don't do

02:04:31.720 that all of the stuff so i mean there's a lot of thoughts on this um as far as advice to singles 1.00

02:04:43.400 single women 1.00

02:04:46.680 cliff's right you do have your choice of men 1.00

02:04:52.960 be judicious in that women have a tremendous ability to 0.98

02:05:01.980 incentivize or de-incentivize behavior and 1.00

02:05:09.580 there's a lot of toxic

02:05:15.500 soul sickness things that affect women in different ways than they affect men 0.97

02:05:23.720 don't reward

02:05:29.960 bad people because there's some kind of bad boy sex appeal

02:05:36.720 at the expense of building up good people that are of value.

02:05:46.060 You have the ability through who you show attention to,

02:05:51.600 and I don't just mean in a physical way,

02:05:53.660 but just with all the nonverbals and who you talk with and giggle with

02:05:57.300 and give some of your time to.

02:06:04.020 Reward people that are worth something.

02:06:06.720 and that are good people

02:06:08.860 and help them to develop the confidence to be successful.

02:06:14.560 Even if they're not the men

02:06:16.020 that you plan on pursuing a relationship with,

02:06:20.340 just being nice and giving them attention

02:06:22.660 and letting them feel like they aren't gross

02:06:28.660 is a big thing to help our men

02:06:31.120 that often struggle a lot with self-confidence.

02:06:36.720 Guys, don't be gross.

02:06:40.280 Cliff's thing about the body odor,

02:06:42.220 I can think of like five people off the top of my head

02:06:44.740 that need a heads up.

02:06:48.220 But realistically,

02:06:56.420 don't let your past failures

02:07:02.120 sabotage your current and future success.

02:07:05.360 So it's really easy to black pill. And we do that on everything. It's easy to like, man, there's no single girls here and everybody's taken. Nobody wants me. And get your feelings about it and be grumpy. And then you're going to look like you're grumpy and you're going to be unapproachable and you're going to be standoffish and you're going to miss every opportunity when they do present themselves.

02:07:29.060 look for opportunities don't look for of course i'm not going to succeed you miss all the shots

02:07:36.860 you don't take um i would also say don't men today get very resentful when they feel like

02:07:50.660 they're doing everything right and they are not rewarded with the attention of the ladies

02:07:55.620 and then they get mad and when they get mad and resentful then when they do have somebody

02:08:03.880 who's interested or they do have an opportunity they carry that resentment into that opportunity

02:08:11.340 and they you know strangle it before it has the chance to be anything don't do that

02:08:19.600 I know it's way easier said than done I get that don't do that do all the things Cliff said make

02:08:26.900 yourself worthy make yourself you know known by being worth some but be willing to let's say this 0.99

02:08:34.920 don't settle for a woman that doesn't share your core values

02:08:39.820 no matter how hot she is like there's core values things there's stuff that you know yes you can

02:08:47.560 grow together in good ways. But if they are not capable of sharing your core values, you will be

02:08:56.460 in that struggle for the rest of your life. You will either be in a place where she resents you

02:09:03.500 and your values and you resent her and it's unpleasant and you don't want to be stuck in

02:09:08.680 that. Or you're going to compromise all your things because you're so thirsty and then you're

02:09:15.720 going to not like the man that that has you become. Pick somebody who's going to share your

02:09:22.060 core values and build on that. It's really important. And again, way easier said than

02:09:27.400 done, especially when you're not presented with a lot of options. So hang in there. As far as

02:09:32.720 couples, share the wealth. That's a thing. It used to be, and we're seeing this now when we're 0.97

02:09:43.240 getting a good culture of um women and children and families and things women have friends that

02:09:56.680 are women help encourage the coupling of people when you see people that should be together

02:10:06.200 the you know your church your religious community helping with matchmaking of people

02:10:13.220 is a time-honored and very successful and good way to go about doing that don't force people

02:10:21.420 into situations they don't want to be in and make them uncomfortable but encourage that give people

02:10:26.680 a hand up help people out if you've got friends that are single you know encourage double dates

02:10:32.720 with you and your wife or you and your husband whatever the case may be um you know ladies if 0.71

02:10:37.760 you have female friends help nudge them in the direction of guys that you know you think are

02:10:42.400 worthy um let's help our people we we get too it's too easy to become insular we should work

02:10:50.640 as a community to help pair up these people um and this is what it is one of the things that's

02:10:58.400 really cool about church culture is that there's that mechanism you find people that are not

02:11:08.800 you know socially outgoing to make those things happen and you nudge those people to get together

02:11:15.040 and i've seen that work really well and it's something that's really missing in modern culture

02:11:19.920 in the world that we live in we have an opportunity to do that for our folk or help with that let's do

02:11:25.600 that a little more advice for the fellas too something that i i thought about while while

02:11:32.000 you were talking is um like like matt was saying you have to be bold but also you have to be

02:11:37.040 specific you have to lead her um like you're you're gonna break up with every girlfriend you

02:11:44.560 ever have until you meet your wife don't be afraid of that um then try not to get so wrapped up in 0.99

02:11:54.240 in your feelings that you start acting like an asshole it's really easy to do that it is not 0.99

02:11:59.960 all about your feelings you have to control that you have to manage to you have to take control 0.99

02:12:05.440 of your emotions and and not be so weak that you're ruled by your feelings and it's way easier

02:12:12.920 said than done um it takes decades to learn that for a lot of people but you have to have control

02:12:21.980 and demonstrate that you are able to to exercise control and you know make good decisions and one

02:12:31.940 of the first things you can do to demonstrate that to a woman guys is when you ask her out

02:12:36.660 ask her on a very specific date you should have a date a place a time and be able to pick her up 0.87

02:12:46.160 if you just say hey do you want to go bowling sometime it's not going to be obvious to her

02:12:52.740 that that's even a request for a date and she'll probably say yeah that sounds nice and then

02:12:58.300 you realize that you didn't actually make a date she just gave you a polite yeah sure i like bowling

02:13:03.560 so be real specific and and use the word date make it really clear that there's no confusion

02:13:11.520 that you are courting her i went so far as to use that word with my wife rather early on in our

02:13:19.500 dating um if that's what you're looking for and that's what she's looking for she's going to

02:13:25.560 respect that you're being direct and not wasting your time and if that's not what she's into you're

02:13:30.740 going to save yourself the trouble of wasting time on it and you're going to save her the time too

02:13:34.300 it's and this is much much easier said than done and i

02:13:40.780 i'm not this guy so i had to find other ways and other things came into play to make stuff work

02:13:48.720 well but it is way easier like cliff said though to rip the band-aid off and you know straight up

02:13:57.760 hey, do you want to go on a date with me to do X at X time?

02:14:02.840 Ugh, no. 0.92

02:14:04.220 Okay, well, that sucks, but at least you can move on. 0.88

02:14:07.920 The, like, lingering, wondering, well, does she like me? 0.84

02:14:13.020 Does she not?

02:14:13.960 Is this a date?

02:14:15.360 Like, all that stuff is a confidence killer at the time you don't need it to be.

02:14:20.940 If you get that out of the way up front, it's a much better solution.

02:14:25.060 I remember this kid I went to high school with.

02:14:27.760 he was um a nerdy fella and he went up to this girl and he summoned up the courage and he uh

02:14:40.480 he asked her

02:14:45.040 um trying to think of what he asked her to go do but it was something

02:14:50.960 nonsense it was like hey do you want to go see a movie or something he was like

02:14:53.440 oh hello would you like to go see a movie with me how about we go see a movie on friday and

02:15:01.460 he doesn't really have a mickey mouse voice but me and my other friends whenever we

02:15:06.620 do an impersonation it always has that so he has there was a mickey mouse essence

02:15:10.880 um but she said uh i i think i'm busy this friday and he oh great next friday it is and he like

02:15:24.020 scurried around thinking that he had he had set this date for later because she didn't flat out

02:15:28.960 say no and late later in that day she was in a class i was in and knew that i was this guy's

02:15:36.480 friend so she told me like hey um i don't want to date with that guy um no please tell him so i had

02:15:43.760 to go like break his heart and tell him it wasn't a thing the more specific you are you can have some

02:15:50.080 confidence in knowing stuff because it is really devastating if you get the wrong message i don't

02:15:57.440 know if it's germane or not but it came to mind so i figured i would share and you got to demonstrate

02:16:03.040 confidence if you don't have it you're going to have to fake it because they can smell it

02:16:09.200 that's the real they can literally smell it so guys are in a spot where

02:16:17.840 in order to get women's interest you need to have confidence in order to build confidence

02:16:25.120 oftentimes you build that based on your success with women and there's a horrible um paradoxical

02:16:35.120 cycle that is broken in traditional societies by your older brother or your friend that's your

02:16:44.480 wingman just kind of getting you set up and putting you in position and those kind of things

02:16:50.320 we don't have as much of that anymore and where we can we need to this is what i meant by share

02:16:55.200 the wealth earlier if you're good with that stuff then help them succeed if you're you've got friends

02:17:01.600 you've got people you can talk to hey see my friend over there he thinks you're cute you should

02:17:06.640 go talk to him blah blah blah something help make those ice breakers and those kind of things work

02:17:15.040 but i will say this and i've seen this a lot in the afa trying to make it work here is a much

02:17:22.560 better solution than trying to find what you can get out at the random bar or online or whatever

02:17:29.520 you do and hoping for the best here you have a default set of core values to rally behind and

02:17:37.280 to bond over that add a context in an icebreaker with common people that you have in common

02:17:44.880 and common things that you have in common i think that's a very significant thing to

02:17:49.440 be able to build on and if you do find one outside bring her to a hoff for like your

02:17:55.360 first or second date yes at least your time that happened at that we've seen that happen

02:18:04.320 and that's amazing we saw a first date at a hoff dedication if that sounds good i think that's a

02:18:14.160 really good i think that's a really good i think that's that's well done where are you going to

02:18:20.960 look better than at a hoff anyway like you're going to be dressed up you're going to be surrounded by

02:18:26.960 good normal functional folk who all think well of you the food is free do it

02:18:41.360 all right so next up um

02:18:48.080 how do you feel about an unaffiliated hof that's not part of the afa and one that is folkish

02:18:55.120 gathering with the afa for a bloat uh we have a little over 40 people here in utah that would like

02:19:01.520 that i have much i would like to say but cliff go ahead and take the first swing at this i've never

02:19:11.040 heard of the place so if that's an actual thing utah it's out west i've heard of utah i've not

02:19:18.080 heard of an unaffiliated hoff the closest thing i've ever heard of is this uh house in glad in

02:19:26.080 in maryland um that is just that it's a house that you know uh a man that i respect but who

02:19:33.920 really should join the afa calls a hoff um and you know people sometimes go to it for bloat but

02:19:41.840 it's like somebody lives there it's not a hoff um as far as like

02:19:50.320 us wanting to

02:19:53.600 like if that's something someone wants to establish i'm against it because that is counter to

02:19:59.360 the ostrich folk assembly furthering the declaration of purpose um it might seem cliche

02:20:07.200 but anyone who is not with us is against us and that doesn't mean that they're bad people 0.60

02:20:11.840 necessarily but they are a counterweight on what we are trying to do um any efforts that they put

02:20:18.160 towards something like that um is slowing down our successful model of establishing hof to the

02:20:25.760 ace here that we discussed earlier in the show and i think is therefore depriving the gods of

02:20:34.480 temples in mid guard in the proper time frame that they're due um those 40 people

02:20:42.000 should join the aussie true folk assembly that's also 40 people we don't have background checks on

02:20:47.520 and don't know if they're safe for our families to be around so all right i don't by the nature

02:20:56.560 of the question is it an invite for afa people to attend your hof that has a 40 person attendance

02:21:04.480 Or is it we have 40 people here that would like to make a Hoff that the AFA could attend stuff at or maybe be supportive in making it happen.

02:21:17.480 So.

02:21:17.840 a couple of things I would never speak against or do something to prevent our gods from getting

02:21:40.100 a hoff i'm not telling people don't do that or you can't do that or it's bad or whatever

02:21:50.180 gifting a hoff to our gods is wonderful

02:21:57.300 i believe with every ounce of my being that the right way to do that is for it to be an afa off

02:22:05.140 um and i i know that sounds self-serving or whatever it sounds like because i am who i am

02:22:14.900 but i am who i am because i believe that to my core um

02:22:18.940 if you have 40 people in utah that are folkish that are also true and you want a hof to happen

02:22:29.620 in utah if you've already got a community of 40 people to get together get them to join the asa

02:22:37.860 true folk assembly and that is an amazing seed for us to build and establish a hof somewhere where we

02:22:44.980 could very much use a hof get on the team and let's do that let's try to make that happen let's

02:22:52.100 try to make that a thing that's the best solution um you know again i'm not gonna 0.99

02:23:02.900 i'm not gonna encourage anybody not to make a hoff to the gods but the way that works

02:23:09.700 the only way that has worked in over a thousand years is the afa way

02:23:17.860 will we be successful with these hoffs forever i'm committed to doing my best to make that a reality

02:23:26.980 but we have been successful with odenshoff for 10 and a half years now we have been successful

02:23:37.140 with thorshoff and baldershoff for uh five and a half five six years now

02:23:46.980 we have been successful with new words off for three years now and we've been successful

02:23:52.580 with phrasehoff for five months now just about so it works it is what's working

02:24:03.140 and i know that it is the thing that has the greatest chance of making a off successful in the

02:24:10.500 long term other buildings used as hoffs that are owned by individuals those buildings cease being

02:24:23.620 hoffs and cease being sacred and get sold with property and torn down we've seen that happen a

02:24:30.100 number of times um their own thing real quick the definition of a hoff versus a bloat hall

02:24:40.020 or a stalli or the thing that's at uh othala acres i think that might be an important thing okay so

02:24:50.340 any of those things because that's an issue of scale any building that you want to call a hoff

02:24:57.860 any bloat hall any sacred space that is owned by a small group of people it tends to stop

02:25:08.740 being a sacred space as soon as that small group breaks up do all small groups break up

02:25:16.900 i don't know but they tend to the vast majority of them do i know countless ones that have

02:25:26.420 if it's owned by an individual if something or anything happens to that individual if they pass

02:25:33.860 away if they get butt hurt if they find jesus whatever they do all of a sudden you're hoff

02:25:40.660 in the hoff anymore they sell the property they go broke they go bankrupt you lose those things

02:25:49.460 the afa tried to build a hoff many years ago

02:25:55.860 like 2005 or something on land that was promised in perpetuity to be the afa's land that this

02:26:02.660 hoff would be on and so blood sweat and tears went into the construction of this hoff

02:26:09.700 and right before it became you know a dedicated used afa hoff the guy had a case of butt hurt

02:26:17.780 and sold the land with the hoff on it out from under the afa and that just disappeared overnight

02:26:25.860 If the AFA has a Hoff, the entire weight of the AFA is on making that Hoff be successful for eternity. 0.89

02:26:37.000 That's something the AFA has the capability, and we are the only group that has the capability, credibly, to do that and have an assurance, a reasonable assurance that that's a thing.

02:26:51.360 um so yeah get with the afa and let's do that that is the best way to do it and i don't again

02:27:01.460 i'm not i would never begrudge these the gods a hoff but the afa and going through the afa

02:27:09.540 is the way to do that a million percent is the way to do that um matt cliff as leadership and 0.83

02:27:19.800 long-term outdoor, what is the hardest diversity that you've defeated slash overcome and conquered?

02:27:26.480 I think it's adversity, but conquering diversity entertains me.

02:27:34.340 And along with that theme, what one phrase has been a mantra in your life? Cliff?

02:27:43.180 Well, I mean, in some ways you did conquer some diversity when you

02:27:47.820 became Alshir Gauthier there were some issues you settled um adversity um

02:27:57.020 honestly I didn't believe in myself very much um for probably

02:28:10.960 definitely the first 20 years of my life maybe even the first 30

02:28:15.720 um you know that's where a lot of my speech to the fellows about confidence comes from

02:28:21.020 i was very much on the the weak end of that spectrum um you know stridling up to a lady

02:28:30.120 that i thought was pretty and trying to make small talk if i said anything at all being super

02:28:35.700 unclear about my intentions and it wasn't just in you know love that that i behaved that way um

02:28:43.500 Um, you know, it, it took me a long time to figure out that, um, while reputation matters

02:28:52.500 and what other people think of me does matter, it doesn't rule me and it shouldn't be something

02:28:59.260 that, um, is part of my calculation for, for what's right and wrong or, or for who I am.

02:29:08.920 And, you know, a lot of a lot of what helped me with that was Asatru itself, realizing, you know, I think part of it is that, you know, kind of Christianity kind of kind of beats that into people.

02:29:26.300 You know, the whole concept of submission is really baked into Christianity and, you know, the whole, you know, pride is a sin in in Christianity. 0.76

02:29:37.040 And so, you know, I'm not angry at anyone for it, but I think that a lot of my upbringing and my schooling was kind of revolved around, centered around that, you know, the rejection of self.

02:29:51.080 And once I realized that I was okay and that, you know, I needed to be the protagonist in my own life, basically, that things started to work.

02:30:14.140 And Asichu was a big part of that for me because that's where I really figured out that I wasn't alone, that, you know, that my ancestors were like literally behind me, that they had my back and that I had a sense of where I was going and why I was going there.

02:30:37.000 So, I mean, you know, that's the biggest one for me.

02:30:42.580 There has, you know, I, I needed to believe in myself a lot before I was able to do anything of real consequence in my life.

02:30:51.800 And I think that that's a struggle that a lot of our young men share.

02:30:57.220 It is a, you know, it's a sad fact that a lot of men, most, the number one cause of death in the AFA is suicide and the, primarily among our young men.

02:31:08.520 while i was never suicidal in any way i didn't have thoughts like that i can kind of sympathize

02:31:13.000 with it to a point because our men are not taught that they have value in the world anymore um and

02:31:22.600 that's a that's something that they kind of have to find for themselves but that we need to

02:31:26.440 try to guide them to where we can point to it for them and we can give them clues but they kind of

02:31:32.120 really do have to internalize it on their own there's nothing that we can say or do to convince

02:31:38.360 some of that um yeah so you know i think it's um it's partly tied in with that that phrase

02:31:49.480 hoffmodo by our good names like my name my family name my given name these are things that um

02:32:01.240 you know that my family gave to me and that i can help then i can

02:32:06.600 that i can use to kind of help define myself things that i want to have good reputation

02:32:11.700 things that i want my son and his sons and his grandsons to to remember with pride and

02:32:18.860 yeah i think it's important um our our men folk in the world today the the confidence problem is

02:32:28.140 real and i think that it sometimes has tragic results and um and as true as the cure i mean

02:32:35.920 it's it's that's you know the preacher in me saying that but it's true also true is literally

02:32:41.140 the cure for the soul sickness and the confidence issue is i think one of the primary ways it

02:32:48.020 manifests among our young men and it leads them to all the chemical abuses and degeneracy and

02:32:54.600 all that stuff that's out there so it's hard to answer the question because i try to think

02:33:05.900 of when i think of specific adversity things that have been overcome the race like specific incidents

02:33:24.300 and i think the bigger picture things it's a little bit ambitious to say they've been defeated

02:33:33.580 or overcome but i think i've made progress towards overcoming some of them on the bigger

02:33:41.580 bigger scale so

02:33:48.940 some of it i wouldn't say that it's

02:33:53.980 a confidence issue as much as a

02:33:57.100 a something that i had to prove kind of issue and there's a couple other specifics so okay

02:34:08.700 on the little specific stuff

02:34:13.100 and i will go back to the original thing assuming that maybe that was the way it was meant to be

02:34:17.900 read overcoming diversity so i had known for the longest time

02:34:29.820 that we needed to be very explicit about who we were and what our values were

02:34:37.180 before i was the ulcerer goethe it was a different time in a different place

02:34:41.420 and there was a fear of you know what would happen if we are openly discriminatory what

02:34:50.220 would happen if we're clear and we use the word right what would happen if we you know

02:34:56.580 are very upfront about um homosexuals and uh transgendered uh folks 0.64

02:35:05.460 oh dear if we do that what if we get in trouble what if what if there's a legal concern what if

02:35:13.500 there's this what if there's that there was this this great um institutional fear to overcome with

02:35:19.940 that and i knew that something that needed to happen i wasn't able to affect that change

02:35:30.720 when I was the folk builder coordinator.

02:35:34.580 But when I became the Alls Harrier Goethe,

02:35:37.000 I was able to do that and make our stance very clear. 1.00

02:35:43.920 I made the infamous white babies post. 0.97

02:35:47.760 And I said something to the effect of in the Alls True Folk Assembly,

02:35:50.720 we love our masculine men, our feminine ladies,

02:35:53.780 and above all, our beautiful white children,

02:35:57.380 our beautiful white babies.

02:35:58.520 Um, and I tried to express things very positive because it really wasn't meant to be a hateful

02:36:07.340 statement, but it was meant to be a very clear statement on race and on, um, dangerous, sexually

02:36:17.500 expressed mental illness. And, you know, immediately there was this huge backlash and

02:36:26.040 these people like aha the afa shows its true colors we've known all along and but it did

02:36:33.480 exactly what i wanted it to do there was no more from that moment on there was no more overlap

02:36:39.320 between the universalists and the folkish people there was no more um wink wink nudge nudge 0.56

02:36:50.360 this person's a tranny but we don't want to say so because it forces us to make a moral decision 1.00

02:36:55.240 so we'll pretend we don't see it there is no more of that it was very clear and that was very scary 1.00

02:37:04.600 because that was one of the first things i did as i was here to go and i didn't want to you know

02:37:09.640 my big thing and this is still my thing and this will be my thing till the end of my days and i

02:37:13.560 never want it not to be because i don't ever want to take my responsibility lightly but i'm aware

02:37:19.880 that i'm in a spot where if i do the wrong things i could bring all of this that so many people have

02:37:26.040 worked for for so long crashing down and i don't ever want to do that so i'm always very very

02:37:32.760 conscious of that and that's something that i overcame was that initial fear factor to step

02:37:41.400 outside of what's comfortable in business as usual to do the things that needed to be done another

02:37:45.800 one adjacent to that was in also true up to that point it was very um in vogue to

02:37:55.000 not have any rules to say that dogma is bad and to loosely define everything so nobody could give

02:38:01.960 you a clear answer about what we are and what we aren't and that was very comfortable because it

02:38:07.240 allowed people the ability to have mental wiggle room where they could kind of we could sit across

02:38:14.120 from each other and pretend we're on the same team and agree with the same things but we didn't have

02:38:19.000 to confront where we might have differences and overcome that one of us is right and one of us is

02:38:24.840 wrong and and have the uncomfortable conversation of moving forward it was very important but also

02:38:33.880 very scary i guess to try to fix that something that i knew that we needed since i first found

02:38:41.960 house of true in 2001 was we need some concise this is what we believe things to where this is

02:38:52.440 what it means to do this this is what also true is and um releasing the true lug mall was a big

02:39:00.360 part of that because again every time you draw a line it's going to alienate certain people and

02:39:07.080 get backlash and get grumpy people that you know hate you for it and being willing to overcome that

02:39:16.520 embrace for whatever opposition might come was really important and so i'm glad that i was able

02:39:21.960 to overcome that that was a very difficult thing that was a scary thing for me personally but

02:39:27.240 something i was very committed to knowing needed to be done um i think cliff's always been one of

02:39:35.080 the greatest advocates that you know the right thing is very seldom the easy thing usually the

02:39:40.880 hard thing is an indication that's the right thing to do something else for me just on a really

02:39:47.460 personal note when I had a had a falling out with my mentor that kind of brought me up in this and

02:40:00.160 was a really close, personal friend of mine.

02:40:09.760 We had a falling out and in very short order,

02:40:13.040 Steve stepped back.

02:40:14.820 My mentor was supposed to,

02:40:16.760 he was slated to be the guy to take over for Steve.

02:40:20.560 And then within like a week's time

02:40:25.620 or maybe a month's time,

02:40:27.680 within a very, very short order,

02:40:32.120 Steve decided that my mentor was no longer

02:40:34.720 in the line of succession.

02:40:36.780 And then Steve decided he's stepping back

02:40:39.080 and that I was gonna be the one who was gonna take over.

02:40:43.720 And so that was very hurtful

02:40:47.780 and there was a lot of emotional upheaval and I get that,

02:40:50.600 but my mentor had, and this was hard

02:40:55.600 because I was doing a lot of his work for a couple of years there.

02:40:59.820 But trying to be supportive and letting him take credit for it,

02:41:02.520 but I was doing a lot of the heavy lifting.

02:41:04.200 So he said at the time that I would never be able to do this,

02:41:12.400 that I shouldn't have been the one to take over,

02:41:16.100 that I should have been under him so that he could be the charismatic leader

02:41:22.940 And I can be the one behind the scenes doing the work, but that I didn't have it in me or the charisma or the leadership or whatever that I didn't have it in me to make this a successful and it was all going to fail.

02:41:34.920 And, you know, that has been at the forefront of a lot of things was to, um, to disprove that and to use that to fuel me to redouble my efforts to be successful and to make the AFA successful.

02:42:00.220 to overcome whatever that proclamation and that expectation was to do this in a way that is

02:42:09.920 maximally successful. And that's just kind of a personal challenge that, you know, to say I've

02:42:15.160 overcome it, we can judge the ice when it's crossed. But I so far for 10 years this year have

02:42:22.660 tried very hard to overcome it. And I think that there's a lot of successes that I've been

02:42:30.200 able to accomplish so that's that is something that's been at the forefront

02:42:42.040 um next up this is all you cliff what's happening at phrasehof such as repairs slash or comma

02:42:51.240 weather issues regular weather so i'll address that first it snowed in the winter it has melted

02:42:58.920 so now the field is muddy and uh i expect that by july we'll have a very dry field with you know

02:43:05.720 cracks in the dirt until it starts raining again um one i guess one weather related issue is we are

02:43:13.000 um in the process of of sealing the back wall foundation um we have all the uh

02:43:22.120 all the lock type paint for the concrete that we need there we're just waiting for

02:43:25.560 a good work day where we get there and everything is bone dry so we can apply it

02:43:32.120 some some of our volunteers did a very awesome job of scrubbing that clean

02:43:37.320 um to within an inch of its death as githya katie would say or within an inch of its life

02:43:42.920 not its death i guess it's kind of the same thing just which side you're on um but it uh

02:43:49.000 it required scrubbing it with um with cleaning vinegar and so they were they were gassed out of

02:43:55.240 that room a couple of times while they were working on it, but it is all complete. There

02:43:59.980 was a little bit of a mold problem because there had been a flood there before we bought it.

02:44:04.020 Sump pump failed. It's the only issue that way. So that's ready to go, and we don't expect to

02:44:10.760 have any further problems with that. As far as other work that's going on there, we have begun

02:44:16.720 the process of clearing a space in the woods on the property for use for our outdoor vey

02:44:26.640 we're not quite sure when we're going to be able to dedicate it um

02:44:32.320 but i i had my eye on mayday but it has to be ready if it's not ready we will we will do other

02:44:37.600 things we can um you know use the field and the maypole would be in the field um we are

02:44:46.720 let's see so we're clearing the we're getting the area cleared there oh there's also um

02:44:55.760 potentially a bees nest we had some there were some issues with some bees when we first bought

02:45:00.720 the property it was in the fall so they were already kind of um going into their inactive

02:45:05.760 phase so we didn't address it then we had a lot of other things to take care of before dedication

02:45:12.160 um i've been reaching out to exterminators and they've told me that they really can't do anything

02:45:17.920 about it until it's active but that if it is wasps like it i said bees but i meant i mean wasps when

02:45:23.520 i say that they were definitely not honeybees um that they probably won't return to the same nest

02:45:29.840 i am skeptical about that because it's massive and there are points of entry at the top gable

02:45:34.800 areas that i suspect if uh if the same queen is not there there will be a new one more than happy

02:45:40.000 to move in so we're keeping an eye on it and the first sign of activity we're going to get that

02:45:44.000 addressed also the roof gabling itself needs to be addressed because when there is not be activity

02:45:50.560 up there we want those holes where they gain entry sealed off um and eventually maybe even

02:45:56.880 this year but i'm not promising that uh we want to get um the the proper stylized gables up on

02:46:04.480 both ends of the hoff the front first of course but there will be two two stags in the the cross

02:46:11.520 gables like on the on the logo up there at some point and if we're up there doing work anyway

02:46:17.040 that's a pretty reasonable time to do it and githya katie's gotten a lot of practice with

02:46:21.360 the router doing the sign for phrase off out front so um we should be able to get a lot of that work

02:46:26.560 done in-house um and except for the bees we don't really need a bucket truck or a scaffolding to do

02:46:33.760 it because you can get access to it by going up on the roof on the sides where it's fairly low

02:46:38.480 and working from on top of the roof i wouldn't want to do that for bee removal though because

02:46:42.880 if you got to move quick that's a really not a good spot to be no pun intended there um

02:46:50.000 and that's our our list for the time being um longer term we would eventually like to remodel

02:46:55.280 the kitchen and we'd like to take the central storage room downstairs and turn it into a

02:47:00.640 library as i've advertised it to people but for now it's kind of just temporary storage

02:47:05.680 those are those are probably post phrasehoff paid off kind of projects but um that's where we're at

02:47:13.680 we also you know i we want to start to get um fruit trees and some perennial plants planted

02:47:23.200 there that bear fruit uh it's really important to us that um at phrasehof we have um you know

02:47:31.120 apple trees or pear trees and we we'd like to establish a community garden there so getting

02:47:37.040 some basic things started for that this year is going to be important we may start with an herb

02:47:41.200 garden they tend to be more easy to maintain um and you know they can be used in the kitchen

02:47:47.840 and in bloat depending on what herb it is um and we'll go from there lots of lots of long-term

02:47:55.040 grand visions of things but uh it'll be a while before you know we're erecting uh you know a

02:48:01.920 stonehenge or anything like that but we see we have talked about it we just don't know how we're

02:48:06.560 gonna pull it off i've talked about a woodhenge too but first things first we need to get a fire

02:48:11.440 pit and have a clearing in the woods it's exciting um a new hof and all of the just hopes and dreams

02:48:22.560 and excitement for it is always a really cool thing we do know where the cemetery will go

02:48:29.680 once we need it we are going to make sure that area is you know not used for anything else in

02:48:36.400 the meantime um on the on the road frontage on the other side of the parking lot from the

02:48:41.760 hoth is where we're going to reserve the spot for a cemetery which hopefully we won't need for a

02:48:46.480 long time but you know in the full natural life cycle of things it it will be a thing that we'll

02:48:52.000 need um and we have some some ideas about where we'd like to put a playground and get some fenced

02:48:58.160 in areas for the for the kids so that you know we can have them out there in the summer and you know

02:49:04.000 have the mostly free range but not running out into the street stuff like that um a lot of that

02:49:10.640 stuff requires fundraising or people visiting our uh our what is it our amazon wish list um

02:49:18.640 we have some of the things we need up there i actually have to sit down with githya katie and

02:49:22.400 make sure we add some stuff to it a lot of the basic things that we needed and stuff people

02:49:27.760 been real generous about we we thank everyone who's uh you know purchased something or other

02:49:32.640 for Freysolv so far.

02:49:37.700 Excellent. 1.00

02:49:41.220 Is Matt drinking a white monster?

02:49:43.840 Is he going to Agartha?

02:49:45.760 So I had to Google that that was a thing.

02:49:47.700 I'm not hip to what the kid's talking about,

02:49:49.640 but if that punches my ticket to go and visit the Hidden Masters in Agartha,

02:49:55.980 cool, I'd love to go see that.

02:49:57.740 I'm not, though.

02:49:58.440 I'm drinking a Ultra Vice Guava.

02:50:00.900 it is a

02:50:02.920 pastel green

02:50:06.480 monster

02:50:07.320 and I did ask in the chat what the connection

02:50:10.680 is of what the assumption of

02:50:12.680 white monsters and Gartha is

02:50:14.560 I didn't have an answer in the chat

02:50:16.260 I'm sad to say I don't know

02:50:18.460 what the connection is there

02:50:20.540 these kids

02:50:22.620 these kids in their

02:50:23.760 in their lingo 0.97

02:50:25.760 I was drinking the white monster before it was 0.98

02:50:28.520 cool it's just the way to go 0.91

02:50:31.160 i white monster solid i would gladly enjoy any white monster that is in a variety pack

02:50:37.160 i get or that somebody hands to me um so yes indeed uh down to i'd skip that once i gotta

02:50:48.600 go find the thing where we were at um is there a specific counseling program that gothar used

02:50:54.760 to train or does the afa have their own way of teaching um combination of stuff so we do have

02:51:00.440 our own way of teaching it we have looked and continue to look for good like counseling

02:51:06.280 materials and primers and things for the go far um what we also like to do and we have a good

02:51:13.800 member who's volunteering to do this that's a um a clinician that helps us with crisis counseling

02:51:22.680 and with running things by them and educating our gothar on things that way that we can go to

02:51:30.920 for resources um both to navigate mental health field but also you know ideas on how to do that

02:51:40.600 well within our scope and we also have a you know very traditional

02:51:47.160 sharing the generations of what's worked and what hasn't an experience that we have amongst

02:51:55.480 the gofar it's it's cool because our our gofar consult one another on all these things

02:52:01.000 and over time we build on that collected base of of knowledge and experience to help prepare

02:52:08.600 um to help prepare go far to do a good job and to help field you know unforeseen or new questions

02:52:19.640 and new circumstances and the uh collected wisdom to go far is really helpful in that regard

02:52:27.000 um austin says greeting all speaking of frequency what about members who frequently

02:52:35.640 never show up to events or never engage virtually joining a church and not doing stuff is a behavior

02:52:43.000 that has always confused me any ideas to get these people active thank you for what you do

02:52:49.320 cliff what are your thoughts uh so it is confusing but it is common um it is it is not um

02:52:58.120 you know i don't want to say that it's the majority that's not true but

02:53:01.240 but it's not a small minority.

02:53:04.580 It's a substantial portion of our congregation

02:53:06.720 that for one reason or another, you know, doesn't participate.

02:53:13.320 Some of that is frustrating and it's easy to want to like blame them.

02:53:17.000 Like, why did you do this?

02:53:18.940 But I think that we in the Austria folk assembly

02:53:23.420 have to get better at reaching out to them.

02:53:26.640 You know, getting them involved early after they join is really key.

02:53:31.240 you know it's it's far from perfect but getting them involved in our miui groups is really

02:53:36.200 important that way no matter where they're located they can start to get to know other

02:53:41.960 members and have regular contact making sure that they are getting our newsletter and are

02:53:49.960 getting regular communications from their folk builders and their gothar is really important

02:53:54.280 um if you are hosting events or if you are a folk builder um you know and you know where someone who

02:54:03.820 should be involved is located and are able to do it bring us true to them like set up a moot in a

02:54:11.840 moat a moat uh in in their town like make them an offer they can't refuse make it embarrassing to

02:54:19.640 them to say no um that'll take some effort on your part and it might just be the two of you

02:54:24.900 getting together for a coffee or a beer depending on where they are but you know if you know if if

02:54:30.640 if they say oh it's always too far it's always too far and you're like oh okay well um next month

02:54:36.800 i'm going to be at the the coffee shop down the street from you can you meet me there

02:54:41.300 you know they they're going to run out of excuses um but it's also important just to

02:54:49.220 patient with them i mean some people some people join the afa because they believe in what we do

02:54:55.700 and they you know they believe in ossitru at some level if they don't show up it's hard to

02:55:03.700 say exactly you know how to how devout they are but um for a lot of people they want to

02:55:09.140 they want to support our efforts they want to support the declaration of purpose they want to

02:55:14.740 help us establish Hoffs and for one reason or another that might be all they want to do

02:55:19.960 and joining was the way that they saw to do that because then they can make a donation on a regular

02:55:26.600 basis you know and get our newsletter and that might be all they want to do and well you know

02:55:33.500 I think it'd be better for them if they did more but it would definitely be healthier for them

02:55:38.240 it's not something that everyone's going to do so we need to be patient with them and be grateful

02:55:44.240 for what they are giving you know um if they're if they're given a donation every month um that

02:55:51.280 is helping us reach other people and so kind of in a way they are showing up like their their

02:55:58.480 contribution is in that bloat at the hall every month because they're helping to make it so that

02:56:05.280 other people are there they're helping to make it so that the gothar are able to be there um 1.00

02:56:10.320 Um, but for their own sake, I would really like to see them show up because then being 0.98

02:56:15.380 able to participate directly in the gift cycle and to be present for the bloat and just to

02:56:21.460 enjoy the wonderful community that we have and know that they're not alone and to, you

02:56:25.720 know, hear all my funny jokes, you know, it's, it's worth it show up, but yeah, I mean, you

02:56:31.920 gotta, you gotta, you gotta, sometimes you gotta be pushy with people, but you gotta,

02:56:35.720 it's, it's case by case.

02:56:36.820 sometimes being pushy is going to drive them away sometimes it's going to be what they need

02:56:42.020 it's just a matter of um you know not giving up on them being patient

02:56:50.340 so

02:56:56.260 yeah um

02:57:01.780 so you mentioned frequency in your question the other part of that is proximity

02:57:07.220 and there's two there's two things at play there's people that aren't close to anything

02:57:14.820 and so they use that as an excuse to not engage

02:57:18.500 virtually or to not go to small scale moats in their area

02:57:25.380 that is something that we get closer to as we grow but there's other people who are very close

02:57:32.260 that are always going to show up next time same answer every time you ask them they're always

02:57:38.580 going to show up next time or they don't answer at all i don't know what that is i wish i did

02:57:46.100 i think sometimes you have people that muster up the courage to join and they chicken out

02:57:50.740 i think a lot of it is personal fear and chickening out and i think there's a variety

02:57:57.060 of reasons for that i think they don't know what to expect and new things and new situations are

02:58:04.100 scary and in the current state of our soul sickness the sphere of getting out of your

02:58:11.780 comfort zone is debilitating to a lot of our people and i hope they overcome that sometimes

02:58:17.540 the same people that are flakes that never show up to anything that are non-committal

02:58:21.940 four or five years later they show up to something and they become you know i can think of a number

02:58:28.400 of those off the top of my head they finally do show up when the time's right or they're at the

02:58:33.140 right season of their life and they end up being great members so hold out hope i've seen that

02:58:38.220 happen cliff has to um sometimes it's a fear of you get an idea in your head of how amazing it's

02:58:48.160 going to be and you're scared to burst your bubble. And as long as it stays in your head

02:58:52.560 of what you think it's like, you don't have to cope with the reality of like, what if it lets

02:58:57.920 you down or what if it's different than you thought it would be? Fear is a strange thing

02:59:02.540 and it affects people differently. So you just got to keep slugging away and keep trying and hope

02:59:08.200 that the right time hits them to where they do. But in order to do that, you got to keep inviting

02:59:13.760 them got to keep reaching out you got to keep it's that consistency we talked about earlier

02:59:19.760 and it'll surprise you because on some of the people some of the time they'll just end up

02:59:25.520 showing up one day they had enough courage they you know got fed up and you know what by the gods

02:59:32.640 this time i'm going to do it and most time they don't sometimes they follow through and it can

02:59:37.600 set the hook for the whole rest of their time with us also yes i'm with nick on the monsters

02:59:46.400 go zero sugar route they're just as delicious if not more so than the full sugar ones and it's not

02:59:56.240 worth the you know 40 odd carbohydrates that you're getting out of you know for no additional

03:00:03.600 flavor and no additional boost and we want to decrease the obese

03:00:12.080 what else we got here

03:00:16.000 question how much value do you consider to be in writing

03:00:24.240 white representatives slash politicians as a white person and insisting the country be

03:00:30.800 resegregated due to lawlessness even if it doesn't work is there is it a rewarded struggle

03:00:40.080 cliff what are your thoughts on this um so it's a fun question first of all so thanks for it so um

03:00:49.840 policy is downstream from politics which is downstream from culture which is downstream

03:00:58.160 from religion so i think that the and of course religion is downstream from race but we all know

03:01:05.280 that um i think if you want to affect policy we have a long way to go before you know calling

03:01:15.280 up politicians for that particular ask is going to be effective context matters depending on what

03:01:21.760 politician and what jurisdiction the situation may be different but um you know you said country

03:01:28.400 so you're talking national policy here i think that you know that's a windmill right now um

03:01:36.480 but right now um but what you need to do to get good policy for our people is to get the religious

03:01:48.880 groundwork straightened out first our people don't have their head straight right now and they're

03:01:54.480 probably not gonna for a while and also true is the way to do that matt was talking about

03:02:02.240 you know a you know a real simple breakdown of like how many people we could get if just

03:02:08.000 a fraction of the white people in in america were open to you know the the ideas that we have and

03:02:18.000 That's true for policy too. 0.66

03:02:19.800 If we were able to get 10% of all the white folk in America to embrace Ossetru, to return 0.81

03:02:30.700 to Ossetru, the effects that that would have on the national politics and therefore the 0.78

03:02:37.340 policy would be profound. 1.00

03:02:39.360 If we could get that up to 50% of them, I don't think that we could fully comprehend

03:02:44.020 just how much that would impact actual policy in the world um i mean you know we're in favor of of

03:02:55.700 you using your political will um you know being involved in politics um being involved in activism

03:03:03.700 those are good things um but i think you want to spend your time wisely now you said even if it

03:03:10.260 doesn't work is it a rewarding struggle i mean i guess if you if it's fun for you then yes um you

03:03:16.260 know there's there's lots of things that can be rewarding that maybe don't have um you know

03:03:22.100 tangible effect but if but you know if the goal is to actually have policy implemented um i don't

03:03:29.780 think just calling white politicians is going to have much of an impact because i can't think of

03:03:36.900 any that are elected that are going to sign on to any kind of policy like that um that wouldn't make

03:03:47.060 political sense for them like they would they would lose their base so it's just it's not the

03:03:53.700 time for something like that i think what you got to do is get the the populace on on the side of

03:04:01.220 that and then i mean the politicians just they're they're not they're not strong-loved people they

03:04:07.940 are panderers so you have to get the polls to show that people want that and then that's

03:04:13.620 what they're going to do yeah i uh

03:04:23.540 no it's not a struggle that's going to be rewarded and that is an entire waste of your time

03:04:31.220 reaching out to your representative and expressing things that you want i also don't think is

03:04:39.140 rewarded but i think there is some tangible to it i think them hearing from a constituent

03:04:46.660 and you know maybe you inspire them to ask man do other people think this too

03:04:52.420 it's it's not impossible there's not a zero percent chance that that inspires them to do

03:04:57.860 something there is a zero percent chance that hey guys we should resegregate the united states

03:05:05.700 that will make you a joke and get you completely rejected if not set them up to be afraid of other

03:05:14.900 scary racists that comment that you know reach out to them and i'm not i'm not judging your

03:05:20.340 position i'm just telling you what will happen if you reach out to actually elected white politicians

03:05:26.260 and say that i think it's to whatever effect that's going to have any impact in a positive way

03:05:36.420 you pick a much more incremental step on something like you push for a

03:05:46.900 relaxing of forced integration of things if your issue is a segregation issue

03:05:52.100 then you try to push back on you know housing and things that may be forcibly integrated

03:06:00.820 where you want an option to not be forcibly integrated or you know you pick something

03:06:09.740 that's much closer to be um conceivable as a direction to go and like you know express your

03:06:21.020 issues about safety acknowledge that you know maybe it is a particular part of the population

03:06:25.900 that is particularly unsafe and try to figure out ways around that in a in a smaller scale but

03:06:34.780 just a blanket hey we need to resegregate that's not that will immediately get laughed out of the

03:06:43.240 room if not scare people and that's not going to move you forward or have any positive effect

03:06:48.480 So I think picking something smaller that incrementally moves towards something that is a goal is a much more effective thing.

03:06:56.180 But I do would encourage everyone to act in a legal and responsible political way to express, you know, your views and your politics that you want achieved.

03:07:07.300 I think that's absolutely something that we all should do to the ability that we're engaged or that it's important to us.

03:07:13.780 And I think reaching out for a variety of your concerns to your elected representative is most likely not going to help, but it's not a zero percent. It's better than nothing. And if like const categorical imperative, if we all did that, then things would absolutely move in a direction that you want.

03:07:35.520 if you're the only guy who does it probably not but if everyone listening to my voice were all

03:07:42.320 in the same place and they were in a town of a thousand people then i think that maybe something

03:07:48.540 good would happen like if they were all in jackson county yeah and that's so very realistically

03:07:54.960 we talked about proximity to bring it back into that move to where there's a hof move to jackson

03:08:03.440 county tennessee the proximity makes us a significant group demographic in a small town

03:08:13.200 in a small county to have a voice in local politics and this isn't to advocate for your

03:08:20.240 particular segregation issue or not but for any issue that's important to us and that we believe in

03:08:26.000 then people if we are murdoch minnesota where we have boulders off is a town of 309 people

03:08:37.580 if we had enough people move there and it wouldn't take that many we had 30 people move there we had

03:08:43.680 31 people move there we would be 10 of that population they would have to consider the

03:08:49.520 else a true vote. I don't think people have had to think about that in a very, very long time.

03:08:56.420 If you have numbers in a community, then the panderers that Cliff talked about will consider

03:09:02.300 having to pander to you. That's something that in our lifetime, we're not used to.

03:09:09.720 And I think that it is very realistic in a very small town or a very small county

03:09:14.260 to be significant and not to change the entire world but to change specific things for the

03:09:23.260 better in the place that you're in i think that often you know our people want to talk about

03:09:29.000 political activism and you know marching in a skull mask and like yelling at people i don't

03:09:35.700 really think has done a lot good for us a lot of people don't consider it actually being involved

03:09:42.820 in politics actually getting groups of people to together to rally behind specific candidates or

03:09:50.340 specific issues to be involved in the political process and i think a lot of us you know are

03:09:58.660 very disheartened we've seen a lot of um electoral theft and you know cheating happen and it makes

03:10:07.780 it hard but i think that the more local it is the more likely it is to have an impact and to be

03:10:13.700 fairer but you know again for the amount of effort it takes to do those things versus the

03:10:23.380 potential reward i think that there's a potential in that so yeah we encourage everybody yet don't

03:10:28.900 get the idea that you ought not be political act politically active there's a difference between

03:10:33.860 you know and i'm not even decrying this i'm just saying i haven't seen it to be effective

03:10:42.420 like marching in the streets and running for office or you know getting involved in political

03:10:50.260 campaign process processes i think the second is more likely to actually have any kind of an effect

03:10:57.220 in the world that you live in in a positive way but you know as long as it's legal be involved

03:11:02.420 with the things that you care about politically go do that if you'd like to and that may look

03:11:07.380 different for different you know members here i'm sure we're not in lockstep on all of our

03:11:11.780 all of our political policy you know preferences but stand behind things that you're passionate

03:11:18.500 about that's always something that we should do um that's the last oh i i missed it earlier i

03:11:26.660 meant to say something and i didn't when it was my turn virginia if you're still around that was

03:11:31.060 a very nice thing you to say thank you for the compliment um

03:11:38.180 yeah that's our uh any any parting parting message to the folk tonight cliff

03:11:48.100 well just to

03:11:52.020 you know be openly also true everywhere you go you are always also true um you should be known to

03:11:58.820 be asa true and that you personally should be you personally can and should be that person

03:12:08.980 that introduces asa true to the people that you care about um they may not take advantage of that

03:12:14.820 but um you know it it should be considered a personal defeat if the people that you care

03:12:21.060 about don't know that asa true is their right that it is their spiritual heritage

03:12:32.260 and if there's nothing frequent in your proximal area come that

03:12:40.580 um

03:12:44.500 yeah if you look around for a hero and there's not one there

03:12:49.700 that means it's up to you that means you're it step up and rise to the occasion if you can um

03:12:58.260 also to reiterate proximity plus frequency equals victory very seriously

03:13:09.300 do your best to get yourself close to where this is happening

03:13:14.820 move to yuba county california move to cumberland county uh north carolina move to

03:13:26.420 swift county uh minnesota move to what is it hamilton county florida

03:13:34.260 move to austin town township mahoney county mahoney county in ohio move to jackson county

03:13:45.880 tennessee do that if you can seriously think about it it's achievable if not build stuff

03:13:53.440 where you're at proximity matters and frequency take every opportunity you can together together

03:14:01.600 with your afa brothers and sisters to fellowship to build bonds to honor our gods to honor our

03:14:08.000 heroes and our ancestors and to be part of this your life will be better for it and you will be

03:14:15.120 that much closer to the victories you want in your life um thank you for joining us tonight cliff

03:14:22.800 you're welcome we will see you guys next week when spawn and i continue uh indefinitely

03:14:29.840 on the gilfaginning um it's getting meaty i thought we'd finished it last week but there

03:14:34.720 is much more to go so uh be there for that i look forward to it and until then hail the icer

03:14:40.320 Hail the folk, hail the AFA, and remember, victory never sleeps.

03:15:10.320 Thank you.

03:15:40.320 Thank you.

03:16:10.320 Thank you.

03:16:40.320 We'll be right back.

03:17:10.320 We'll be right back.

03:17:40.320 Transcription by CastingWords

Asatru Folk Assembly - March 26, 2026

3⧸25⧸26 Victory Never Sleeps, Ep 194 - Proximity + Frequency = Victory

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