In this episode of Victory Never Sleeps, we discuss the life of Swedish heathen leader, Sven Bjorn Bjartarson. He was a pioneer of the heathen movement in Iceland, and was one of the founders of Asatru Erfellag, a heathen organization that became officially recognized by the Icelandic government in 1993.
00:03:00.000Hello, everyone, and welcome back to another exciting edition of Victory Never Sleeps.
00:03:19.460Just a forewarning to you guys, I'm going to do my best, but my chest and throat are killing me.
00:03:26.720so mandy's gonna bring me some tea and we're gonna we're gonna push on through but uh my
00:03:32.640voice starts getting wonky or if i'm coughing a bunch that is that is the reason um
00:03:42.080any business at the top of the hour since last time i saw you or i last time i spoke to you
00:03:47.360rather we had mid we've had midsummer a lot of places around the country but i was able to go
00:03:52.560go to midsummer at Odin's Hoff in Brownsville, California. And it was a amazing event. It was
00:03:59.600really, really nice this year. The whole attitude and the vibe was wonderful. The rituals were
00:04:05.840powerful. Met some amazing folks that it was their first time out to the Hoff. It was a really nice
00:04:12.340event. If I saw you there, then you know what I'm talking about. If I didn't, I would love to see
00:04:16.340there for midsummer next year other things to let you be aware of next month july the 22nd1.00
00:04:27.060we're going to have sigger bloat at siggerheim before warrants going to be kind of rustic0.92
00:04:34.500some folks will probably camp out the night before maybe even that night0.93
00:04:39.940we're going to get some kind of porta potty situation set up we hope we have some water
00:04:44.500happening by then but if we do not then we will truck in bottles of water water will be available
00:04:51.380we'll have some tents set up some like party pavilion tents set up idea being one set up down
00:04:59.220where we have where we will have the hall in the future the other set up on top of the ridge where
00:05:04.820we plan on putting tears off so that'll give kind of a spatial understanding of where stuff's going
00:05:11.620and it's an amazing place it's a beautiful place and i hope everybody who is able can
00:05:18.100meet me there and celebrate with me um yes the next uh two months and then in august we will
00:05:28.580be celebrating frayfaxi at baldershoff and that that's baldershoff's yearly event it's going to be
00:05:37.380be awesome. I look forward to going out there every time. Our guest tonight is from there
00:05:45.060and regularly leads things there at that Hoff and takes care of it. So he knows how special
00:05:50.140it is. If you guys can make it there, that's in Murdoch, Minnesota. We would love to see
00:05:55.660you. If you can't make it there, endeavor to find a way to make it there at some point.
00:06:02.900It's not going anywhere. And if you're interested, if you're not an AFA member, please contact
00:06:06.820your local folk builder and they can get you all set up um without further ado i'm gonna toss it
00:06:14.580over to our special guest tonight folk builder nathan erlinson and he is going to tell all of us
00:06:23.220what he knows about swain bjorn bjentensen and for the purposes of this let's just assume that
00:06:31.780nobody's ever heard of sven bjorn before and uh tell us tell folks what they need to know
00:06:39.460all right absolutely spen bjorn bainton's son he was a pioneer in iceland as far as
00:06:49.860the asa true faith is concerned um he was in the 70s um a man a farmer sheep farmer specifically
00:07:00.900who came from a very talented family of farmers, but also poets.
00:07:07.720And in the 70s, it was finally had been legal for some time for folks to leave the church.
00:07:15.620And he implemented a push for Osatru to be recognized as a national religion over there.
00:07:25.080in which it didn't come easy initially, but through dedication, eventually him and a few others were able to get that recognized.
00:07:38.960Sven Bjorn was born on April 4th, 1924 in Iceland, died the 24th of December, 1993.
00:07:46.780And like I was saying, in 1972, he founded a group called Asatru Erfellag, the Icelandic heathen organization, where he was the chief gothi to the day he died in 1993.
00:08:01.920His beliefs after lots of hard work were officially recognized by the Icelandic government as a religion in May of 1993.
00:08:11.920So just before he died, he was fortunate to see the fruits of his labors pay off after 20 some years of practice.
00:08:20.920Seven months before he died, it finally became recognized.
00:08:25.920As I was saying, he belonged to a family of farmers.
00:08:28.920of farmers he himself was a farmer and since early childhood they had a close connection with
00:08:33.720the gods of the norse pantheon at 16 he started writing his own poems
00:08:39.880about the norse gods inspired by the sagas that were written down
00:08:46.440and as most of us know the icelandic people were very tied to the next beliefs
00:08:50.520hey nathan your your audio is pretty rough we missed about the last sentence and a half okay
00:09:08.040maybe i'll just speak up much better icelandic people are very tied to the norse beliefs
00:09:14.280as most of us know and some some of you may just be learning uh before christianity came
00:09:20.520And when the Christian faith started to spread all over the continent, the religion was forbidden, illegal, but not lost.
00:09:26.800And for the next 970 years, people still worshipped the gods, hiding that from the eyes of the church because they feared it.
00:09:35.160Only after 1874, people had the right of religious freedom of choice.
00:09:40.260And so they, whoever wanted, could leave the church finally.
00:09:42.860In the 70s, Iceland lost many devotees of the Christian faith and started to spread again its original faith.0.79
00:09:52.220In these times, it was in these times that Sveinbjorn founded the heathen group called Asatruilarpelag,
00:09:59.180a group that still believed and worshipped the gods and also the land spirits of the area.
00:10:09.840Sveinbjorn and the people of his group were Asatru.
00:10:12.860They believed in the Aesir gods. It was the most important Norse pantheon to them. As you may know, the Norse gods are divided into groups, but Sveinbjorn's group was focused only in the Aesir, an important step to the future generations who wanted to learn more about their history, the old religion, and the beliefs, and also wanted to be connected with the land, which was in fact one of the main purposes of Sveinbjorn's group,
00:10:41.640to be in contact with the land spirits and the spirits of their ancestors.
00:10:47.940Sveinbjorn was a great figure who helped bring a lot of Norse beliefs back to our culture, back to our people.
00:10:56.460They have always been there, but hidden because people feared the power of the church and the Christian faith.
00:11:02.020But Sveinbjorn stimulated the awakening of these beliefs, and people now feel lighter and free to be what they are,
00:11:09.320choose the spiritual path that they are original to one of the many things that we are fortunate to
00:11:19.800have um in regards to al-shirya gothi's fianbjorn is shortly before his death um there were a couple
00:11:30.040of interviews performed uh or done in iceland with him and a couple of translators that he was close
00:11:38.600with and nick has a link that he can put up if anybody's interested in looking at these
00:11:45.240conversations they're very informative i'm just going to read one of the questions here real quick
00:11:52.920that is a common question among our people our folk and the woman that was interviewing him
00:12:00.600she asked the question i would like to know some more of the reading that one could pursue to
00:12:05.560learn the basis of Asitru. I know that there are some things available to people in the United
00:12:10.440States so that one could get an idea of the background of Asitru." Sveinbjorn responds,
00:12:16.920there are of course a number of scientific treatises on the history of Asitru available
00:12:22.600in the English language, but this is more of a historical than a religious nature available.
00:12:29.000Both the prosetta and the poetica are the main source for how our ancestors received
00:12:34.200the gods and nature and this is actually best to go back to the source once you go to some of the
00:12:41.000icelandic sagas which are available in the english translation where it is possible to see
00:12:46.280how this religion affected those who confessed it this would be a more real experience than reading
00:12:52.920a scientific or historical treatment of the subject if you read this with an open mind and
00:12:59.000concentrate to interpret according to your own society and environment you cannot go very much
00:13:04.200wrong and this interview goes on uh pages and pages and pages um a very good resource to get into
00:13:15.960the mindset of the al-shir-yar gothi back shortly before his death in 93.
00:13:22.360To sum it up, he was a pioneer for Ossetru, one of the first recognized El Shiryar Gothis in 970 plus years and held the float for the first time in Iceland in about that same time period.
00:13:47.300The other thing that he was most notably known for was his reunion, his music that he recorded, sang, and his poetry.
00:13:59.880And like I said at the beginning, his brothers and sisters, very, very talented poets, it seems out to be, even though they started out on a sheep farm.
00:14:09.720and so you can by searching him pretty easily find recordings of this great man's but wait
00:14:18.460while we're on that i've asked nick to cue up um and i'm told this is appropriate with fair use and
00:14:25.280everything just uh just a snippet of svein bjorn doing some of his reamer and he's doing a section
00:14:32.000out of the have them all reciting it in in reamer form nick do we have that ready
00:19:06.380And something we have rarely attested to amongst our heroes is such an overt blessing shown by our gods.
00:19:19.740um that's one of the reasons and and there's a number of just merit reasons for this man to be
00:19:28.900considered one of our heroes one of the most compelling things that we had to do this we had
00:19:34.460to honor him as a hero is if if for himself is acknowledging his efforts in something he's trying
00:19:43.020to do that speaks volumes and uh yeah yeah i think that's uh i don't know it's it's different
00:19:53.020like i say our heroes go over you know the millennia and i think that someone who did
00:20:00.380live so close to us is easier in a lot of ways to relate to more tangible for the people who are
00:20:08.940listening, but yeah, so that's a, that's a good, good start on talking about him. Anybody who has
00:20:21.160questions, please feel free to ask. We are still working on some MeWe stuff, but we've got it
00:20:27.340rigged where Nick's getting me y'all's questions. I forgot to do this at the top of the show,
00:20:35.480but we are live on Odyssey, VK, Twitter, Entropy, and YouTube.
00:20:44.200So I hope, you know, tell your friends to join us, any of those places,
00:20:47.320if those are their preferred platform.
00:20:49.620And also on Fridays, this is always uploaded on Spotify as a podcast to listen to later.
00:20:56.380If you want to donate or contribute or, you know, get your question to the front of the line,
00:21:03.420that's something you can do over on Entropy.
00:21:05.480And without further ado, I will get to the first questions here.
00:21:15.480All right. So, Woodcutter NPC, how many members does the AFA have?
00:21:23.480And is there a map that shows how many members each state has?
00:21:27.480Not exact location, but in each state roughly.
00:21:33.480So first, we've got 947 members as of this moment.
00:21:39.540As far as a map that shows that, no, not on your end.
00:21:44.460So internally, for internal use, we have a really amazing Google map that plots all our members all over the world.
00:21:52.500But it is very exact on addresses, and so it's not something that we publish out there publicly.
00:21:57.900As far as a stripped down version that just kind of graphically shows the states and how many in each state, we do not currently that we have to share out.
00:22:11.360One of our folk builders, Timmy Dumas, used to make up one of those for us pretty regularly.
00:22:18.320Internally with the folk builders, I do something similar.
00:22:21.980I run a report in our database to see the membership by state so we can see how many in each state like you're asking.
00:22:33.280But we don't really have that put out graphically.
00:22:35.820If that's something people are interested to see, I'm sure that's something we can mock up.
00:22:39.540But we don't have that available right now.
00:23:31.900I think that's something really important for everybody to consider.
00:23:37.060And again, it's kind of a perennial thing we talk about on this program, but
00:23:42.100the hardest thing to do is to go from nothing to something once you have momentum behind you
00:23:51.140everything becomes so much so much easier but many of our heroes um specifically spang bjorn
00:23:58.760uh elsie alexander rudd mills these people as well as our founders stephen mcnalen they
00:24:06.620We were that first generation of, hey, I have an idea. I have something that I want to see happen, something I feel compelled must happen for our gods and going out there into the world and doing that by yourself, building this from the ground up by yourself.
00:24:29.020and you know attracting a few friends along the way that is such that takes so much willpower
00:24:38.280and like like nathan points out so much perseverance you have to make it through
00:24:44.540all the times where it seems like nobody else cares where people look at you funny or
00:24:49.200other people don't take you seriously or realize why you take this so seriously
00:24:54.500these people were truly, truly pioneers of what we all love so dearly today. And, you know,
00:25:02.740all of the things that we have are because these heroes of our folk went out there and spent their
00:25:09.780lifetime building something out of nothing. And that's a, that's an amazing, amazing thing that
00:25:17.700I think it's very easy to take it, take for granted, not appreciate as much as we should.
00:25:24.500uh again our question system is a little bit clunky I appreciate y'all bearing with me and
00:25:35.060cutting me a little slack on it uh next question is also from Allie would the AFA at some point
00:25:40.520in the future have interest in developing an English language song version of the have them all
00:25:46.880sure uh that's one of those you know all we would let I saw over in the comments you know
00:25:53.540to hear svan do that in icelandic because he is a native icelander um yeah any and all of that
00:26:02.340we have far too little art in alsatru at this stage and it's something we'd really love to see
00:26:09.620and that includes poetry and music as well as the visual arts um i think it would be cool i
00:26:18.900just listening to that kind of inspires me to want to learn a little bit more about raymer myself
00:26:23.540Um, I don't know if the cadence fits or just how that works to translate over to English, but I think that would be, you know, something really beautiful to listen to and something we'd absolutely love to see happen.
00:26:38.600Oh, as a side note, I didn't want to interrupt Nathan earlier, but Monk, I saw your comment about your close call on your motorcycle, and I'm really glad that worked out well for you.
00:29:09.260All but how we decide to act in the interim.
00:29:13.680anyway. And so when something like that happens, its magnitude and its direction has to be
00:29:28.980acknowledged. They say lightning doesn't strike twice in the same spot. Well, we know that
00:29:37.680that's not true. But again, pay attention to things like that. Obviously, not every lightning
00:29:47.040strike you see is going to have meaning behind it as far as we can tell ourselves. But who are we to
00:29:57.820say that it doesn't either? I guess that would be my take on it.
00:30:02.440Yeah. Context is everything in those kind of circumstances. Do I think every lightning strike
00:30:11.600is a sign? No. Do I think every time lightning strikes, you know, a building is observed by
00:30:18.680people, is that a sign? No, probably not. But the key is the discernment on these things,
00:30:26.780being able to determine when something is special and when something is is mundane and it's it's an
00:30:35.580art form and you're not always going to get it right but for example the lightning strike that
00:30:41.500we spoke about earlier in reference to svenbjorn it happened so these are kind of things that i
00:30:47.980look at to evaluate whether i think something was you know a sign or whether it was just something
00:30:54.220that happened at random it happened at a very specific time it happened in a place where
00:31:05.100thunder and lightning happened very very rarely so to happen in a very specific way at a very
00:31:13.180specific time involving a decision about our faith specifically for a man who was inspired by
00:31:22.220as of thor i think all of those things coming together with the timing of it make it very
00:31:27.500auspicious and obvious to my eyes as being a sign of of divine recognition and divine action
00:31:39.580but like i said the context is everything um
00:31:43.500we get this a lot with animal sign animal signs one of the big things that people notice
00:31:47.660and take things away from. And very often when people see ravens,
00:31:56.640it's very meaningful to them every single time. Well, I grew up in Alaska and there's ravens
00:32:01.000everywhere all the time around every dumpster in the winter. So every time you see ravens,
00:32:05.740it's not the all father speaking to you. Sometimes it is. Oftentimes it might be.
00:32:11.780And figuring out what, figuring out when something feels different, when certain things are aligned, when there's a synchronicity, that is a challenging thing, but that is one of the big keys to maximizing your luck, your destiny.
00:32:32.680one of the big themes in Ausitru is the ribo rune. It's the rune of our priesthood,
00:32:40.180and it means right action at the right time. And by acting rightly, you pull things towards you.
00:32:49.400But you've got to know and you've got to recognize when synchronicities occur,
00:32:54.080and you've got to be able to recognize opportunities and capitalize on them.
00:32:57.420And that's, you know, that's so much easier said than done.
00:33:02.900But the better you're able to do that, the more you can maximize your potential in your life.
00:33:08.360So looking for signs and being open to that is valuable.
00:33:12.520And the next step of being able to view that with discernment is even more so.
00:39:01.700And if we had any members that were linguists that could do that, going back to the source retranslation, I'd be very curious what that turns up and what we would find different than the existent translations.
00:39:54.980Allie asks, you both do so much for our folk. What inspires you to persevere and seek victory? Nathan, what inspires you to keep on trucking until we're victorious?
00:40:08.900Well, I guess I asked myself what the alternative is to victory, and I don't have a comprehension for giving up, quitting, surrendering.
00:40:25.900I do acknowledge that sometimes you lose and some battles you win, but the ultimate goal is to win the war.
00:40:35.900And for me, with my background, that's kind of how I was brought up as a man anyway, and that was as an infantry soldier, and that's carried over to still today.
00:40:49.540And so when I approach the Austin Troop Folk Assembly, I am working towards victory in everything that I do.
00:40:57.320You know, I, so many things inspire me to persevere and pursue victory.
00:41:09.580Um, certainly the gods themselves, it's one of those, um, it's one of those things. Once you
00:41:21.460experience the reality of the gods in your life, uh, you can't go back, or I certainly couldn't
00:41:30.120ever go back to not realizing that and not feeling that and not knowing that that's there.
00:41:36.960knowing that the gods are real they're our gods they're my gods and feeling them
00:41:47.340work in my life and in ways that that affect my family and I I owe them so much how could I not
00:41:56.220do my best to achieve victory for them to build things for them to make hoffs for them and to
00:42:02.520bring people home to them. My love of my folk, absolutely. I love my family. One of the most
00:42:10.380amazing things, and you guys have heard me on and on about this on here is building this for my
00:42:18.700daughter and for my descendants after her. Just looking at how far we've come
00:42:25.480from when I started to the world she was born into where she was born into a world with0.98
00:42:33.780well she's born into a world with one half but her the year of her birth we got the next two
00:42:39.460um she's grown up there's never going to be a time in her life there's not temples to our gods
00:42:46.260and that's an amazing thing seeing how far we've come in that time certainly inspires me to
00:42:52.400wonder how far could we come by the time of my grandchildren. And I want to do my best to get
00:43:00.940us as far ahead and to build as great a legacy for them as I can. The other thing
00:43:08.040that really inspires me on a personal level.
00:43:16.200I am deeply, deeply committed to trying to do everything I can to do this job the best that I can.
00:43:28.520I feel this is, you know, this is my purpose in life is to do this and do this as well as I can
00:43:37.960possibly do. Any times that I fall short of that are devastating. And the way that I cope with
00:43:49.020stress or anything else in life is to try to throw myself at this as hard as I can
00:43:57.160to move closer and closer to victory, to win more for our folk and our gods, and to
00:44:04.060be worthy of being Osheriagothi. And it's something I don't ever want to slack in. I
00:44:12.980don't want to ever let up in. It's, you know, this is why I named the show Victory Never Sleeps,
00:44:18.020is you've got to stay on your toes and you can't rest on past successes. Every day is
00:44:27.060a new opportunity to win for us and for our gods. And throwing myself into that as hard as I can
00:44:35.180is what stills any kind of stress or doubt or uncomfortableness in my life. And we talk about
00:44:47.860this as far as righting wrongs or building reputation or making things right. And one of
00:44:55.180the things in our faith is stuff, just bad things don't disappear, but you outweigh them with good
00:45:02.820things. I want to outrun all of the ways that, you know, all of the things that I'm not perfect at,
00:45:10.940all of the things that I mess up at, any of the things in my life that aren't perfect,
00:45:16.020can't undo, but all I can do is run forward as hard as I can to do more, to build more,
00:45:24.640and to make more happen. And that brings me a certain amount of inner peace that inspires me
00:45:32.200to always keep moving and trying to build that, build that hymenia as mighty as I can.
00:45:39.440That's kind of a long answer to a question that maybe wasn't meant that long.
00:45:46.020Rachel asks, can you speak on the schedule of events for Cigar Bloat and elaborate on the victory games?
00:45:57.580Yes, because wouldn't you know, attached to this question, Nick gave me the current schedule of events.
00:46:06.200This may be the first time I've seen these events.
00:46:42.4201.30, we'll be doing the Tournament of Victory and Children Activities.
00:46:49.680At, I'm not going to math, 3.30, we'll be doing Victory Games.
00:46:54.260We'll be crowning the award winner of the Victory Games.
00:46:58.060Now, so in the Victory Games, that's been kind of out of my hands.
00:47:01.420It's something that other people have been developing and getting implements for.
00:47:06.600uh the idea in concept was for it to be a bit more serious than some of our
00:47:12.580our more fun viking games at events with a little bit more
00:47:16.040i don't know a little bit more serious about scoring and and athletic prowess as opposed
00:47:23.760to just having a good time ideally we'll do both but i think that was the original concept
00:47:28.680um nick could probably direct you on who best to talk about about some specifics on victory games
00:47:35.220though, as well. Then after that, at five, we're looking at doing bloat, dinner at 6.30,
00:47:45.940auction at 7.30, sumble at 8.30. I'm sure people will be hanging out, but it's important to keep
00:47:55.200in mind we have neighbors there. We don't want to be bad neighbors and be up hooting and hollering
00:48:00.960and yelling in the middle of the night. We want to be respectful of the people that live around us
00:48:04.500there. We really want to, from day one, which I guess technically we're a little bit past now
00:48:12.940because we actually have people living out there, but from as early as we can, we want to be good
00:48:19.320neighbors and we want to build a good reputation in that community
00:48:32.600our next question is what kind of lesson can we learn from swain bjorn's story
00:48:40.280nathan what kind of lessons do you think we can learn from the life of this hero
00:48:45.080well if you look back to where he how his life was and where he originated from grew up
00:48:55.880the challenges he had to overcome at that time with the church in in europe
00:49:04.020being a sheep farmer like i said with no electricity never had electricity out there
00:49:11.080His entire life had a phone eventually, but that was it. And so something I think we can definitely take away from his existence and everything he did for our folk was that no matter, no matter the stage, as long as you are acting in right action for your folk, your gods.
00:49:41.080don't ever give up. Perseverance, selfless service, you know, freestanding, all of that,
00:49:52.800that this man, El Shiryar Gothi Sveinbjorn, literally started studying the sagas at 16
00:50:01.680because they spoke to him. And, you know, that's rare. So something that I definitely,
00:50:09.460definitely believe that we can take from his existence and everything he accomplished was
00:50:16.040to fight for right action and what you believe in, especially when it's concerning our gods and our
00:50:23.880folk. You know, I think it goes along with what we were saying earlier on perseverance, but
00:50:35.660that idea of continuing to try, even when it's not the popular thing, even when you may not be
00:50:47.280in the majority on something, if you know it to be the right thing, continuing to push forward
00:50:53.060and make what you know is right happen. Those things, you know, those things can and do work
00:51:01.540out. It's very easy from the outset to just assume failure or assume it's unlikely and scrap it.
00:51:08.860But putting your whole life behind it and your whole self behind it, you can make big things
00:51:14.080happen. One person who's committed, one person who has faith in his gods can do amazing things.
00:51:22.140Sometimes it's lonely, but if you stay the course and stay committed, amazing things can happen.
00:51:29.120And that official recognition, you know, just a short time before his death is kind of a poignant illustration of that, because it took his entire life to make it happen.
00:52:04.340So it was, I didn't realize this until it actually happened.
00:52:10.640But once that spark ignited that flame within me, I realized that this is what I had been searching for and doing from a very, very young age.
00:52:24.280And when I finally realized or came to find the information, the names of our gods and our lore and everything like that, everything just fell into place at that time.
00:52:44.860And ever since then, everything's fallen into place as well, which is a testament to where I'm supposed to be and what I'm supposed to be doing for our folk and for our gods.
00:52:58.520So I've been doing this for probably close to six or seven years now with the AFA-3, and it's been nothing but energizing the whole time, absolutely energizing.
00:53:20.480um things things were rough for uh quite a while for me um in which i was i was looking for this
00:53:31.260i was searching for this i knew what i wanted i just didn't know what it looked like if that
00:53:38.640makes any sense and when i finally found it like i said it just it ignited a plan within me that
00:53:46.300has been growing exponentially ever since um to where it's become a driving force
00:53:54.780um every day for me in doing this for my folk and my gods for the afa
00:54:02.540this was a two-part question first part was just for you second part's for us both but while
00:54:07.740while you're on a roll here what uh what future afa goal excites you the most and
00:54:16.540do you like the metal and judging by his hand gesture afterwards i'm assuming he's talking
00:54:22.140about music absolutely um for future goal um what i want to see i want to see i want to see
00:54:32.940I want to see my kids do this as adults. That's what I'm doing this for. I want to see
00:54:42.140Tier and Rowan grow up in this. I want to see Lily take off with this. I want to see
00:54:48.620Ashley and I's kids live this life. And I'm excited to see what it becomes when,
00:54:59.220And, you know, they're adults themselves to see where we're at with all the hard work we're all doing, laying that groundwork and that foundation that had been laid before us by our founder and such, Stephen McNallan and Sheila.
00:55:46.460uh it's there's so much potential to do really amazing things there to build a community there
00:55:54.180and around it to be able to do this every day when i first uh first became yeah it's not when
00:56:03.080i first became house true i suppose when i first went to my my very first afa event was midsummer
00:56:09.720of 2010. And, uh, it, it sounds cliche because it's what a lot of people say, but I think it's
00:56:19.040very real. It changed my life. Um, I went to every other national event I could possibly go to since
00:56:27.020then. And at every one, every time I wanted that to be my life. I realized, you know, at that point
00:56:36.520we had one national event a year that I was spending, you know, 360 days every year so that
00:56:43.980I could live five days the way it ought to be at, you know, when our folk are together.
00:56:50.060And my life's gotten so much closer to that. We've got events all over the place. I'm flying
00:56:55.560out every month to some AFA gathering somewhere. And I'm so blessed to be able to do that.
00:57:01.060But still not close enough. Sigurheim is that dream where I can live there on property with a hoff, with our great hall, build a community around it and do this every single day of my life with my AFA family.
00:57:17.020And that's something I'm so excited about. I'm excited about building that hoff to tier and building that hall and gathering our folk in that hall.
00:57:26.560But what's probably the most important AFA goal that I'm also extremely excited about is the continued development of our Auschew Academy.
00:57:40.240It's hard because it's not visually as shiny as any of our Hoffs or things like that.
00:57:48.160So it's hard to give it the attention and the, you know, the pizzazz that it's due.
00:57:54.520but last year we started just with kindergartners at first but something that's going to change the
00:58:04.220world we're going to educate our own children and be able to help each other accomplish that
00:58:10.360so that our kids don't have to suffer the misinformation and the indignities of public
00:58:18.180school and can be educated side by side with other members of their afa family
00:58:27.860learning together growing together and educated in a way that we can be proud of
00:58:34.500this next school year we'll be taking k through third so that's a huge leap just there and our
00:58:41.380folks are very committed to making sure this continues all the way up till we have a full
00:58:45.300K through 12 curriculum. And that's such a big deal. And I say that as the else area go for you,
00:58:54.140but I also say it as a father who is going to homeschool his daughter and has had all kinds
00:59:00.480of fears and worries. And what if I don't do it right? And how do I comply with state rules on
00:59:05.640this? And what about this? And what all those things disappeared once we started doing this.
00:59:11.980And I'm so excited for that with parents. I want everybody to know that's the biggest thing that we're focused on is handholding because you can do it. This is not an unachievable goal.
00:59:27.020So educating your children through homeschool is something you can do.
00:59:32.340It's something we will hold your hand through doing and help be a partner in making you successful at doing.
01:06:02.680The AFA in no way encourages any illegal activity anywhere ever.
01:06:07.940That's not something we encourage anyone to do.
01:06:10.400So that would leave this to the realm of theory or to, you know, practicing it somewhere in the South American rainforest.
01:06:18.560or perhaps somewhere where it is legal and okay.
01:06:22.580Certainly, there's things that can alter your mind, alter your perception,
01:06:26.720and get you in a spiritual space that allows certain spiritual things to happen
01:06:34.780and can better facilitate communication between gods, ancestors,
01:06:41.360anything else for that matter, and you.
01:06:44.180And that can bypass some of the impediments that people might have.
01:06:48.420So I think that theoretically, in the theoretical realm, there's absolutely substance to that.
01:06:55.320I don't, however, feel that that's necessary to practice House of Truth.
01:07:00.080And again, the House of Truth Folk Assembly is not encouraging anyone to do any substance that is illegal to do in your state or country that you find yourself in.
01:07:10.360What do you got to say on that, Nathan?
01:07:11.960i think the important part of it all is that you have a solid solid foundation
01:07:19.240in the practice and in the beliefs um what you do with that um
01:07:27.480we can't condone or acknowledge um if it's illegal because that doesn't happen um just ask alan um
01:07:37.080um anyway so that i would encourage anybody that were anyone to do those things
01:07:50.440i think it's really important that it's done in the right context
01:07:56.040as with any ritual you pursuit you do involving that or anything else
01:08:00.920all the pieces fitting together help make it the best it can be um when we do a bloat the more you
01:08:12.200can keep people focused with smell with sight with sound you know perhaps you use incense or the flame
01:08:19.440of the fire or even one thing i notice as you come around with the asperging of mead i smell
01:08:24.720the mead when it splashes on me things that incorporate your senses your sense of touch
01:08:29.760All of those things go into making an experience better or worse.
01:08:37.500And I think having all those things in place and having people who are not altered there to help you out and to help guide that in a spiritual direction, in theory, would probably be a really good thing to do.
01:08:53.200And with that, too, I mean, just like you said, Matt, it's it's the senses that really make it powerful, triggering those senses, the smells, the feeling of what's happening around you to where you don't need any type of mind altering drug or chemical or anything like that to get outside of yourself to feel the power of
01:09:23.200a good bloat um that's that's where that's where the strength and the power really lies
01:09:31.820is in the connectivity of your folk around the group um that's around you in a bloat and having
01:09:40.800everybody in the same mindset on the same page whereas if you had somebody that was using some
01:09:47.540mind-altering drugs or something like that I think it would take away from a bloat personally
01:09:54.320because they would be experiencing something different yeah everybody experiences something
01:10:00.060different but when everybody's on the same page the focus is all in the same direction
01:10:06.480whereas you risk using anything mind-altering to losing somebody that's also part of
01:10:15.180you're weird at that point. All right. And so the next question is, again, very circumstantial.
01:10:26.700Mr. Skinner here, what is the correct way to interact with those who are now known hostile
01:10:32.920to the AFA, but still are personally cordial to myself and my family? Should I, should I just
01:10:40.140rip the band-aid off that's entirely up to you one of the things that i mentioned um before
01:10:47.020about recognizing recognizing signs is the development of discernment um
01:10:58.700people are grown and i'm not gonna sit here and tell you that you have to
01:11:04.300you know who you can and can't be friends with i don't think that's my place to do and i don't
01:11:09.020think it's appropriate um it has always been my stance as i'll share your goethe but before that
01:11:19.100when i was a folk builder even when i was a regular member if people were openly hostile
01:11:25.020to the afa then out of loyalty it was really important to me i i would cut those people off
01:11:30.620i would stand with the afa no matter what because those were my folk and my gods and my people and
01:11:37.020that was my team um that was how i handled it doesn't necessarily mean that's how you should
01:11:43.660handle it um again those are choices that that each and every person is going to have to make
01:11:49.740but there's certainly no eat it from the top that the afa demands you you know cut off anybody who
01:11:56.620isn't pro afa um that's a choice that you've got to make do you have any thoughts on that nathan
01:12:02.460I agree with what you said. It's just, you got to have balance. And so if you are interacting
01:12:18.180and have friendships outside or are hostile to the AFA, man, you're just going to have to watch
01:12:26.640your step. Um, you got to stay in balance with things and follow, follow your gut, follow your
01:12:33.740heart. Um, you know, it's either going to work for you or it's not, um, nobody's going to tell
01:12:41.220you who you can and can't hang out with and associate with. Um, but yeah. You know, so I,
01:12:50.900I will say this. What I think, what I think the best way to do, and what I've done in my life
01:12:59.960that's helped me a lot, is try to develop an existence that all works together. And I know
01:13:08.600different people are at different stages of this. Some people can't do it or, you know, choose not
01:13:13.700to, whatever. But the more that I've structured my life to where the pieces all fit together,
01:13:20.900to where my friends are in the AFA, and they get along with the other AFA friends that I have.
01:13:28.160My family is involved with the AFA. All of my life is involved with the AFA, so I don't have
01:13:34.920this pocket over here that thinks one way, and this pocket over here that's different,
01:13:41.040and this pocket over here that's different. Inevitably, to interact in those groups,
01:13:45.820if they don't all function together, then you have to keep up appearances of, you know,
01:13:56.660a slightly different person around all these different people, around all these different
01:14:00.600groups. I've found it's much, much better to make sure my life is harmonious, that the people that
01:14:07.940I interact with, I can be proud in who I am, that I can do that with my family, that I can do that
01:14:14.560while I'm, you know, involved in AFA activities, that I can do that when I'm hanging out on the
01:14:19.140side, that all those things kind of work together. And it's made my life much better to do things
01:14:23.860that way. Current AFA membership. I had mentioned that earlier in the broadcast. It is, let me
01:14:36.380refresh aha glad that i did so it was previously 9 47 it is now 9 49. so we've had two new people
01:14:49.500apply during the course of this program that's always cool to see um to my knowledge was mr
01:14:59.420mcnallan ever in contact with svenbiorn no to my knowledge they had no contact
01:15:07.420and i've asked that specifically so forgive me if i'm wrong and i and i mix something up but
01:15:12.060no as far as i know there's no contact between between steve and svenbiar
01:15:16.380and so it's the last question I have but I saw another question on here early so there's at
01:15:30.480least two questions here um for Nathan how do you guys do children's bloats we've been getting our
01:15:36.860daughter to join we have been getting our daughter to join in the bloats
01:15:40.840so that's something um witten callahan actually implemented out here at baldershoff
01:15:51.500we typically do a very low-key uh bloat for the kids obviously it's got to keep their attention
01:16:00.120do a what kind of bloat children's bloat no you said a low-key bloat and i was making a pun my
01:16:10.080fault gotcha yeah keeping the bloat low key um thank you for the correction see um no but that's
01:16:20.960something that's important um get our children especially the younger children used to it
01:16:26.320obviously the older children can participate in our formal bloats um but having something for the
01:16:33.200kids to do as well and bringing them up in our practice and our faith we do a children's bloat
01:16:42.240simultaneously with our formal bloats but yeah it's it's just kept low-key because they're not0.99
01:16:50.640going to stand in a circle for very long and so usually we have a couple of our women folk1.00
01:16:56.320in leadership that lead that up at the same time as our formal bloat
01:17:03.200So as far as including kids and stuff, that's also a context thing, because it's really
01:17:19.840different depending upon the kid, depending upon the bloat, depending upon the age.
01:17:24.840it's one thing we always kind of try to figure out at Odenshof is
01:17:34.180you know what what to do on that and what to not certainly our children are always welcome at all
01:17:42.700of our bloats but if they're squirrely and they don't want to be there and they're running around
01:17:46.620and they're they're unmanageable sometimes you know it's not right to hamper everybody else's
01:17:53.440experience just to have your kid there if your kid is going to be disruptive. So it's a difficult
01:18:00.040balance. And oftentimes, it's our ladies that have to figure it out. I know Mandy brings Aubrey in.1.00
01:18:05.320Aubrey will be great most of the time. But if she hasn't had her nap or she's fussy or whatever,
01:18:09.880then Mandy's got to take her out of the circle and go try to get it figured out.
01:18:16.380Aside from just doing children's bloats, one thing that I have seen work very well with children at
01:18:22.560Odinsoff is just exposing them to it often and giving them the opportunity, starting them out
01:18:29.000in the bloat. And then if they can't settle down or whatever, then, you know, stepping out with
01:18:33.680them perhaps, but it being a normal thing that they see, that they see often, that they understand
01:18:41.420why, and then see them experience it. It's really interesting because especially my Odin bloat,
01:18:52.480But other bloats as well, I'll get very, you know, for lack of a better word, I'll get furious with inspiration and I'll be loud and yelling.
01:19:03.540And it can all be a lot for a kid that's not used to that.
01:19:07.000But one of the things that I've seen is the more these children have been raised around it, the less, you know, the less scary or the less, you know, jarring that is for them.
01:19:17.420And and the more they the more they enjoy it and look forward to it.
01:19:21.540It's been specifically really fun to watch Witten Erikson's kids grow up and take such an active role in things.
01:19:30.780His son loves to hail for every opportunity that he gets.
01:19:35.920And he's very, very active and he's very inquisitive about our lore and all of the things that we're doing.
01:19:41.960so you know i would say offer the opportunity to your kids you know frequently and uh and really
01:19:51.160encourage that and they'll surprise you some of the best toasts at sumble that i can remember
01:19:56.360were children's toasts and they just moved me to my core because they were just very simple but
01:20:02.280very very genuine and uh yeah it's great it's great to have that um another question i guess
01:20:11.320a question i skipped someone in the chat asked what is cube cube is a lawn game of norse origin
01:20:22.520it's um trying to think of what it's most similar to i guess in a way it's similar to like bocce
01:20:30.120absolutely um but yeah you've got you've got a certain number of sticks your opponent's got a
01:20:40.780certain number of sticks and you throw them at a central king figure and there's i can't go into
01:20:48.640all the rules right now it'll make sense when it's there but yes it's a it's a yard game very
01:20:53.920similar to bocce in a lot of ways um i think we got some more questions coming in but we had a
01:21:00.320question a while back and i think because of how we're routing these things that i was the only
01:21:05.280one who saw it not nick due to our entropy interface so from a heineland question matt
01:21:12.160and nathan since swain bjorn was a bit of a scald it got me thinking that it's uh something we lack
01:21:18.080today from scaldic poetry to flighting there are numerous options and paths to pursue but
01:21:24.560in your opinions what ways can we revitalize the poetic nature of our folk within the afa
01:21:31.680do you have thoughts and ideas on that nathan
01:21:39.760you know um i think it's going to be really come down to
01:21:44.640members just starting to implement that for themselves in their lives initially become
01:21:55.380become that which is which you speak of and bring it to our events bring it to our hoffs and
01:22:03.600share it with people share it with the folk
01:26:10.660hail the folk hail the afa hail the gods
01:26:14.800aha somebody slipped one in right before the wire how do you respond to claims that all this modern
01:26:24.100lgb lgbt pride stuff was normal in viking times one argument i hear people make is comparing loki
01:26:32.900to transgenderism um it's ridiculous uh how do i respond to the the claims that0.86
01:26:42.580all this nonsense was normal in viking times because it's absurd it's absurd on the face of it0.95
01:26:48.580um there's plenty there is large amounts of evidence that that's not the case at all um
01:27:00.260And one of the big things, just thinking off the top of my head, in the Viking Age thing specifically, the concept of ergi was terrible and was like a huge, huge, huge insult and had huge social consequences.
01:27:20.460And that was basically being the female half of a gay couple, I guess.0.55
01:27:30.260or being a man that behaved femininely there were specific rules on that like you couldn't0.65
01:27:34.820cut your shirt a certain way because depending on how you cut the top of your shirt would make
01:27:41.060the difference on whether your garment was a male garment or a female garment a man that was wearing0.91
01:27:46.340women's clothes that was extremely frowned upon with a high social consequence for the principle
01:27:51.620of ergi that i talked before um we see writings in tacitus's day of the germanic tribes
01:28:01.620stomping homosexuals into bogs because the idea of male homosexuality was equated with their
01:28:10.100disgust of cowardice and other things um no these people like to make stuff up and it besmirches0.99
01:28:16.580our ancestors it's really unfortunate uh perhaps loki and so here's the thing we also take humor
01:28:23.860for granted the idea of loki turning into a female horse to uh give birth to slepner isn't
01:28:32.500to loki's credit is an illustration of how loki is an aberration and how he is an element of chaos
01:28:40.900and something that's repulsive to our gods and our folk. That was never something that was okay
01:28:47.140or celebrated. It was pointed out as an object of disgust and ridicule. But no, that's really
01:28:54.480unfortunate for people to take the voice of the dead and twist it to meet their own political
01:29:02.520cause. That's not right. And it's very disrespectful, especially when they know that
01:29:06.680it is not true. Well, that's exactly what it is, too. It's their political agendas, taking a very
01:29:14.520masculine people, history, and folk that took tremendous pride in masculinity and the separation
01:29:22.860of men and women in their sexuality and using it and trying to twist it for their own agenda
01:29:30.180and political purposes. And again, as we continue on this, other questions sneak through. So one
01:29:40.540more last question. I have one more question. Thoughts on the lost continent of Atlantis being
01:29:48.920the origin of the Aryan tribes? First, Nathan, do you have any thoughts on this?
01:29:56.720none all right so origin of the aryan tribes i don't know i think that's a that's a reach
01:30:04.480we just know too little to prove that or to make that assumption i will say this i find
01:30:14.740the idea of atlantis fascinating i find that kind of ancient archaeology to be very very interesting
01:30:21.200I don't buy all of Graham Hancock's theories, but I think Graham Hancock's work in that kind of field.
01:30:29.300And I could listen to and watch that all day long. I think it's fascinating.
01:30:34.200But no, I don't think we have enough have enough evidence or I have any reason to to say that in any way Atlantis was the the original Aryan homeland.
01:30:45.340land. I tend to think of that being Hyperborea and put it in an Arctic setting. I think a lot
01:30:53.580of things attest to that. Arctic home in the Vedas, I think, is a really compelling
01:31:00.340work on that subject. But again, that positions it much further north and away from where Atlantis
01:31:10.680as traditionally thought to have been.