Asatru Folk Assembly - 7⧸13⧸22 Victory Never Sleeps, Episode 1

00:00:00.000 Hello, everybody.

00:00:23.780 Welcome to Victory Never Sleeps.

00:00:27.140 My guest today is going to be Witten Brandy Callahan, a good friend of mine, and probably the hardest working woman in the AFA for sure.

00:00:39.140 Appreciate you guys being here with us tonight. We're kind of experimenting on some stuff.

00:00:43.940 It's the first time we're doing this with a guest. It's also the first time we are trying out broadcasting through Entropy as well.

00:00:52.440 Entropy is kind of a neat system. They really champion free speech and they they do super chats.

00:00:59.000 So if any of you guys at any point in the broadcast want to give a donation or, you know, throw a few bucks out there for a question, you don't have to pay me to ask a question.

00:01:09.500 I would love to answer any of your guys questions. But if you do, we'll prioritize those.

00:01:13.840 And yeah, it's always appreciated. It's always going to a good cause.

00:01:17.260 um hope everybody is is seeing me out there um looking at the chat we're gonna want to rely on

00:01:28.740 some of my afa folks to post the entropy link up there i think i can probably do that myself too

00:01:36.900 cool awesome king of cheese hears us so brady thank you so much for joining me today i appreciate

00:01:50.740 it um i know it's you know time zones are different you're coming in after work so

00:01:55.820 thank you for being here um you guys have an event coming up this weekend correct

00:02:02.580 we do we have our major work day for bouldershoff coming up this weekend which is going to be

00:02:10.920 starting on friday and going through saturday and sunday for those who can still attend

00:02:16.740 and this is going to be one of our major pushes for the year we tend to do a couple a year

00:02:21.080 we're really excited about this stage where we're at with bouldershoff we have moved past the

00:02:27.640 functionality phase of making it a working half and we are now working on the beautification phase

00:02:33.240 which is really exciting to see the progress from then till now so we have people coming from all

00:02:38.440 over uh balder south district we have people coming from wisconsin north dakota iowa and of

00:02:44.740 course minnesota so it's going to be a great great time meals are provided and we'll be working all

00:02:51.300 day. We also are very, very lucky to have Goldie Robstam from Thorthoff District joining us this

00:02:59.580 weekend, coming to the Hoff for the first time. So we're very excited about that and honored to have

00:03:03.300 him. Excellent. Kind of a topic that comes up often on my lives is people wanting to know the

00:03:13.620 score with Murdoch. A lot of people who are tuning in have seen, you know, the hit piece the Guardian

00:03:19.800 did on us and various negative news commentaries. And I've reassured them that those are works of

00:03:26.300 fiction. But if you could kind of give us a breakdown of how it's been with the community

00:03:30.960 there, what's the community like? Let our listeners know, I don't know, what the home

00:03:35.840 community of Baldershoff, Murdoch, Minnesota is like. Sure. So Baldershoff had a lot of

00:03:44.200 attention positive and negative attention when we first acquired the building and it seems like

00:03:50.760 things just started snowballing from the second it was announced that we had the building there

00:03:56.120 was a lot of initial apprehension from the community initially in the very first days

00:04:02.520 that we started working we had people from the community showing up um asking who we were what

00:04:08.600 we were about uh finding out that we were just normal people working on the church the church

00:04:14.840 has been a very very important part of that community for a very long time and it had

00:04:21.880 really fallen down into disrepair it had been sold to a private person who had been remodeling

00:04:28.680 it into a home and very quickly i think realized what it was going to take to do that and abandon

00:04:34.120 the project so the building was literally uninhabitable when we got there and the community

00:04:41.800 themselves we have members stop over every food pantry we have people show up every time we're

00:04:48.840 there somebody from the community stops in um we have regulars that stop in every time we're there

00:04:54.120 they're very friendly they let us know that you know they're not going to judge us for our

00:04:58.680 religion they're not going to judge us for our beliefs you know they're going to judge us on

00:05:01.880 our deeds and we've had people walk in and thank us for making that that building beautiful and

00:05:10.200 usable again one of my favorite visitors that have stopped by at bouldershop was actually a couple

00:05:16.600 that got married in that building would be 51 years ago this was shortly after the dedication

00:05:23.240 and they actually brought their wedding album they no longer live in the area they drove

00:05:27.560 several hours from out of state just to see the building because it was their anniversary and they

00:05:32.920 showed us pictures of their wedding pictures from 50 years ago and what the building looked like

00:05:37.960 then and stood in the same place and they were very amazed that we had still kept it a place of

00:05:44.440 worship it didn't bother them that it was no longer a lutheran church they were just very

00:05:49.880 happy that the building was still standing and that it was well cared for

00:05:53.320 well that's that's that's awesome I've been really lucky I've gotten to

00:06:00.640 shoot I gotta think now how many times I've been there I've gotten to

00:06:04.600 see Baldershof about four or five times now and the work you guys have done on that place is

00:06:09.940 amazing I got to see it when we first first got it and it was it was a mess and you guys have

00:06:17.600 really put in a lot of love, making that place beautiful. Seems like we've got people out there

00:06:23.740 every weekend working on it and making it something nice. And it's nice to go there

00:06:31.200 and have the neighbors pass by and wave and kids and their family riding their bike by and saying

00:06:38.600 hi and wishing us well. That's really cool to get to experience there. So Melinda asks if we

00:06:46.620 could consider a join up period before starting and um like an undefined five or ten minute period

00:06:55.520 at the beginning with a song or two um i don't know about a five or ten minute spot i'm not sure

00:07:01.460 how that sets up i know you can go when it's already scheduled and get in early if you'd like

00:07:06.380 um but i do think a buffer at the beginning of like some intro music or something would be kind

00:07:11.680 cool and i want to talk to my people after the broadcast and in between next now and next week

00:07:17.120 and see if we can figure something out and thank you for that so with that coming up i guess also

00:07:31.040 it'd be a good time for you to plug the the major baldershoff event of the year um the somewhat

00:07:37.840 oddly named fall fest for our august event at uh at balder soft could you tell everybody a little

00:07:43.360 bit about that maybe a little bit of the history of that event yes so fall fest um i believe this

00:07:49.040 is year six or seven i believe uh for fall fest and originally it was usually in september but

00:07:56.800 we did actually take into consideration this year uh the price of travel over labor day weekend the

00:08:02.720 price of gas we did this with the folk in mind um making it so that there would be more availability

00:08:09.680 make it easier for them to come make it more affordable for them to come this year

00:08:13.600 so that event is going to be if i can pull up the exact date so i don't get mixed up

00:08:20.960 it is going to be friday august 19th through sunday august 21st

00:08:29.360 so even though it is named fall fest for tradition it will be held in august this year

00:08:35.520 tickets are required and available through runestone.org and it can be found in the shop

00:08:40.860 and we do have very reasonable prices if anybody has any questions about fall fest about the

00:08:46.560 itinerary travel arrangements where you can stay we do ask that you contact myself at vcallaghan

00:08:54.700 at runestone.org or one of our amazing folk builders jason gallagher at j gallagher at runestone.org

00:09:05.340 so i gotta take just a second to thank our folk builder nick rice for

00:09:10.140 moderating stuff here and kind of helping produce he's throwing up useful links over

00:09:14.700 in the chat which is much much appreciated um yeah no we appreciate him uh fall fest is awesome

00:09:22.940 That's one of, after becoming Ausheri Goethe in 2016, that was the first big event that I went to as the leader of the Ausatru Folk Assembly.

00:09:35.460 And it was the very first fall fest.

00:09:37.360 And it was a really, a really special thing.

00:09:39.980 That area in the Dakotas and in Minnesota there had been, it had been a wasteland as far as Ausatru was concerned for a very long time.

00:09:50.500 And then in, I don't know, I want to say 2013, 2014, really started seeing a lot of activity there.

00:10:01.120 We started getting a really good community, some great people that put a whole lot of love and a whole lot of themselves in building the AFA up there.

00:10:09.480 And so much so that within just a couple of short years, they had their first national event.

00:10:13.300 So Fall Fest's always got kind of a special place in my heart.

00:10:17.360 um our folk builder jason gallagher that brandy mentioned a few minutes ago he's been there since

00:10:23.460 the beginning making this happen and kind of being being the host of this event and uh yeah it's it's

00:10:30.240 a really good time if any if anyone can make it i would recommend that you do even if you can't

00:10:36.560 make it for fall fest if you get a chance you should you know you're anywhere close you should

00:10:40.960 check out Baldershof in Minnesota. It's beautiful. It's a great place. A lot of what we do and still

00:10:47.880 this on this broadcast is going to be question and answer stuff. We got Brandy here. If anybody's got

00:10:53.700 any specific Brandy questions, I can get her to give you some answers. If you've got any questions

00:11:01.580 for me, as always, I'm happy to answer anything. And folks just joining us are coming in a little

00:11:08.440 bit late this is also on a platform called entropy and over on entropy we can take um

00:11:16.520 take donations and a super chat feature that will you know help throw a little bit of money

00:11:21.480 the afa's way and we'll take that i'm looking over here it looks like king of cheese has got a

00:11:26.440 question for us um yeah he says he's hoping to contact you brandy at some point and uh about

00:11:36.360 about a project so hopefully he can reach out to you um he's our members up there named tony

00:11:43.320 and goes by king of cheese and i think that's probably the most clever clever handle that we

00:11:48.920 got on here so there's that one more uh plug about fall fest um as well as any of the other national

00:11:58.600 events at any of the hops that you go through um during the year these are our major fundraising

00:12:05.800 events for the Hoff. So there's going to be a lot of opportunity for, you know, games and things

00:12:10.480 like that. Excellent discussions, wonderful food, powerful bloats. There's also going to be an

00:12:16.120 auction on there. You know, you mentioned the auction and that's really great. So this is our

00:12:19.680 major fundraising event of the year. Baldur's Hoff still does need a lot of beautification

00:12:25.420 and anybody who would like to donate that to that can definitely do so at Fall Fest.

00:12:30.760 If you're not able to make Fall Fest, but you do want to add to the beauty of your Hoff,

00:12:34.860 You can always visit runestone.org in the donate section, and there is the ability to donate to all four of the Hoffs to make them beautiful, our own, and buildings worthy of the gods that they're dedicated to.

00:12:50.060 One of the things that you guys may not know, each of our Hoffs have one event a year that's kind of their big signature event.

00:12:59.620 And as Brandy mentioned, it's a fundraising opportunity for that particular Hoff.

00:13:04.300 and it's kind of their showcase. We get people from around the country and certainly all over

00:13:08.820 the different districts coming to those and supporting those, and those are always a big

00:13:14.000 deal. We're, matter of fact, on the side, and we're having discussions with our Njortzhoff

00:13:18.440 leadership on what their big event's going to look like. Those of you who aren't aware,

00:13:25.200 Njortzhoff is fixing to have their dedication. That is coming up exactly one month from today.

00:13:34.300 i will be going down for that it's in white springs florida and uh we couldn't be more

00:13:40.060 excited about that you guys have heard me on here for months telling you in anticipation of this and

00:13:45.740 had hurdles along the way and it's really nice to finally have that fourth half dedicated to

00:13:50.620 new order um so yep we're going to go down there and do that here in one month if you guys can

00:13:56.620 make it out fantastic and i hope to see you guys there melissa asks how do people get their name

00:14:03.580 on the beautiful Baldershof shield of names. Brandy, can you break that down for us?

00:14:08.780 I can. So for those who have not seen it yet, the beautiful Baldershof shield is one Brandy tall,

00:14:15.420 almost. It's a very large, beautiful shield with our crest on it. And that is our donator

00:14:22.380 plaque. And the way to get your name on that plaque is to donate $500 to Baldershof.

00:14:31.500 and that can be done all at one time or over the course of five months but when you hit that 500

00:14:38.060 mark we will go ahead and put a beautiful silver colored engraved plaque up on that big beautiful

00:14:43.500 shield um melinda uh has there been any consideration of having online auctions as

00:14:52.940 well at some point as a matter of fact as a matter of fact brandy brought that up earlier this morning

00:14:58.460 in one of our our leadership groups discussing that as a a good way for fundraising so uh yes

00:15:04.940 we absolutely are thinking about doing those down the down the road here and i know we're

00:15:09.500 going to need people who want to donate and also who want to bid on on some of those items

00:15:14.780 but that's a that's a real good question uh so sheila sheila chimed in that the stream looks

00:15:23.740 great and this is one more big step for the afa and i thank you for that i really hope that it is

00:15:28.460 hope you all are enjoying this i hope this is a you know a good format an easy fun format for

00:15:34.860 everybody to participate in and it's a good chance to just talk with my folk i love you guys and i

00:15:40.540 want to be able to talk to you and it's great to spotlight some of our some of our leaders that are

00:15:45.740 so dedicated to making this work so it's really a privilege to have brandy on here with us anybody

00:15:51.420 got any any questions and he also true questions for me and he asked true questions for brandy

00:15:58.380 any any questions in general if you do please go ahead and throw them up one of the coolest

00:16:03.340 things about this new format and having nick help me is it cuts way down on my having to sit there

00:16:08.540 and have the dead air of hold on guys let me read the chat i know that i know that that was getting

00:16:13.740 tedious i appreciate appreciate you guys sticking with me on my monthlies with that um brandy we

00:16:20.780 we talked earlier about some, some topics that you wanted to hit on. Could you tell us a little

00:16:24.780 bit about, I don't know, about women in the AFA and how that works? I know a lot of ladies are 0.98

00:16:30.660 curious about how women in our church function and you are the best person to talk on that.

00:16:37.380 Thank you. Well, one thing that is a very big misconception about the As-A-True Folk Assembly

00:16:44.100 and about As-A-True is that women don't have a place here. One of the things that our,

00:16:49.580 our naysayers will say is that there's no there's no room for women here there's plenty of room for

00:16:56.820 women here and we definitely take up our own space we do believe in the as true folk assembly that

00:17:03.280 there are very distinct roles between the masculine and the feminine our men and our women and those

00:17:09.680 roles are very distinct and they're both very beautiful and they're separate and both very

00:17:17.480 very, very important. A woman's role in the AFA as a leadership, or even just as a wife or a mother

00:17:25.680 or a friend within the AFA, an AFA sister, is to build frith with the other folk in the AFA.

00:17:33.320 That is a duty that is almost like it was made for a woman's role. Now, frith is something that,

00:17:41.080 you know, if you, if you look up the books and you look up all the educational material about

00:17:45.560 Frith, it's going to tell you that Frith is peace. Frith is so much more than peace.

00:17:53.060 Frith is a reciprocal relationship of give and take. It's built on respect. It's built on loyalty.

00:17:59.620 It's built on love for one another, love for each other's families. Women have an ability, 1.00

00:18:07.440 a very unique ability to soften when things are hard, to make it a little bit easier, 1.00

00:18:14.500 to maybe be a little bit gentler in resolving conflicts. Sometimes we can do that as women to

00:18:21.460 women. Sometimes we can do that with our children. We have a very beautiful ability to build 1.00

00:18:27.940 relationships and tie ourselves to each other as sisters, tie ourselves to families, build bonds

00:18:36.020 with our children, build bonds with entire districts. We have a lot of women in the AFA 0.98

00:18:43.140 and a lot of in the in Baldur's Hof as well, they send out cards to people in the AFA. 0.99

00:18:48.980 They don't have to. What they want to do is let you know that we're thinking about you,

00:18:53.700 that we appreciate you being here, that you're important, maybe just to tell you happy birthday

00:18:59.140 or to thank you for showing up to an event. That is frith building. That is letting you know how

00:19:04.580 important you are to them personally, to the district, and to the AFA as a whole. 1.00

00:19:10.180 so that is something that that women are like i said are very very good at and just built for

00:19:16.820 we have we are emotional creatures we we thrive in emotional settings to build those relationships 0.92

00:19:23.960 so that's one very important role of the women another really distinct role of our women is

00:19:30.980 as get the as of the astro folk assembly now everyone's always very familiar with our gods

00:19:36.460 odin thor balder the women have a very unique relationship with our goddesses

00:19:45.580 where you can see a godi having a strong powerful emotional blow to odin you can get that same sort

00:19:54.540 of emotion and power and beauty when agithya will do a blow to frigga or to freya

00:20:03.340 just like there needs to be a beauty and a balance between the gods and goddesses there's a beauty and

00:20:09.980 a balance between the men and the women of the afa so to say that we don't have a place or we

00:20:15.700 don't have importance is really silly and proves that the people who say it have never been to an

00:20:22.700 event they've never been to a hoff they've never sat down and had a conversation with a woman in

00:20:28.200 the AFA. You hit the nail on the head right there. The people that criticize the, you know,

00:20:37.840 archaic gender roles of the AFA, they're just regurgitating that somebody on the left or

00:20:44.280 somebody in the media told them instead of actually experiencing it. Our women are such

00:20:50.180 a very important part of what we do. And, you know, you mentioned the power that is inherent 1.00

00:20:56.000 when we have our githya performing, performing bloats to our goddesses, but something that I

00:21:01.680 think is a misconception, and sometimes it's even a misconception within the AFA. I don't think that

00:21:06.280 you need to only have the, the, you know, Agothi is the only one that can do a bloat to a god,

00:21:12.600 and Agothi is the only one that can do a bloat to a goddess. I think that what is

00:21:17.860 really special is that the way that Agothi bloats to a god, and the way that Agothi bloats to a

00:21:25.980 god is different and the energy is so different the way that a gothi comes before one of our

00:21:32.140 goddesses and the way that agithya does is also very different and the the tone of that is is

00:21:38.700 really powerful in and of itself um but no i think that's that's definitely you know that's the point

00:21:46.460 people who say that have never gotten a chance to experience it and it's really unfortunate because

00:21:50.860 I think that if some of those people got out from the basement and out in the world practicing

00:21:57.120 Ausatru, they'd get over some of their misconceptions and some of their blind hate

00:22:01.720 they have for us. See, over on the side, Melinda wishes that these were weekly. Well, that's the 1.00

00:22:07.940 plan. So I'm hoping to do these every Wednesday. We'll wait and see your guys' reaction to this,

00:22:13.800 and if you shout it down too bad, we may mix it up. But if you guys are enjoying it, I like this

00:22:18.840 format. I like talking to you guys as much as I can, and I kind of look for every excuse to do

00:22:22.860 it. So Wednesdays at 6 Pacific is the plan to do these. And also people were asking for the AFA to

00:22:32.660 do things in a podcast format. So what I want to do is take these and, you know, clean them up on

00:22:39.060 the back end and release them as podcasts. And that's going to be the plan here in a little bit.

00:22:43.820 Michael Dostoyevsky asks, he's heard there's websites for each of our Hoffs. There is,

00:22:54.140 I see the Baldur's Hoff site up. If any of our amazing AFA folks over on the side could post

00:23:01.220 links to each of our four Hoff pages now, that would be fantastic. Then you guys could check

00:23:09.520 those out. Our folk builder, Jessica Lambert, has done an amazing job making beautiful websites for 0.96

00:23:15.920 each of our Hoffs. If you go check them out, there's a lot of neat things on them, but probably

00:23:21.500 the most useful and very telling about the AFA and how we're doing is there's a calendar section.

00:23:30.060 I think it's called events on each of those sites, and it interfaces really beautifully with

00:23:35.500 smartphones but it shows you that every weekend we've got multiple things going on in all of our

00:23:42.380 districts there's so much activity right now because our folk builders are making things

00:23:47.420 happen our members are coming out they're getting out in the world they're doing ausitru and it's

00:23:53.020 it's a really it's really beautiful thing and a special time to be part of the afa

00:23:56.700 there we go thanks guys i see some of those other links coming up in the in the chat over there um

00:24:07.080 oh talking about women and also true um one of the most powerful bloats i was ever a part of

00:24:14.460 was i think it was 2016 at fall fest a githy of ours at the time patricia hall did a uh

00:24:24.240 a de-seer bloat. And a de-seer bloat is where they, it's where we do a bloat honoring our

00:24:30.800 female ancestors. We believe that our female ancestors, I say we believe, we know that our

00:24:36.320 female ancestors look on after death over the members of their family. And the love and the

00:24:42.980 devotion that women give their families doesn't end when their time in Midgard ends. They look

00:24:50.440 on from beyond the veil, and that time right in the fall there is a really special time where

00:24:55.380 that veil's thin. Anyways, Pat did this bloat, and I mean, I would say 75% of us there, myself

00:25:05.400 included, were just in tears. It's strange the Pavlovian response I have to it, because I'm

00:25:11.600 tearing up a little bit right now thinking about it. We called upon our desear, and

00:25:17.480 i closed my eyes and i swear to you i literally gave my grandma a hug in that circle and she'd

00:25:24.840 been you know she'd passed for 16 15 years at that point so what women can do ritually is very

00:25:34.020 very powerful and their spot in the afa has always been really important to us

00:25:37.420 um and those sort of bloats really show the difference between theoretical as a true and

00:25:46.460 real as a true. You know, there's only so much you can get out of a book when you're actually

00:25:54.580 standing in a circle, bloating to your gods and sharing that with your folk. A book cannot replace

00:26:01.920 that. No, you actually made a really cool, really cool meme after Midsommar about how, you know,

00:26:10.900 some of the most special things in Austertroup don't happen in books. They happen by getting

00:26:15.520 out there getting in the arena and participating and building that gift cycle with the gods and

00:26:21.280 that brings us something i want to talk to you about but first i want to get to uh

00:26:25.440 question that reuben had um i thank you for tuning in all the way from argentina that's

00:26:31.360 awesome to have you here i hope you can make it up to our hoffs sometime soon we would love to

00:26:37.200 have you see us and visit us in the united states um you mentioned that even in the middle of this

00:26:42.560 post-covid weakened economy the afa has kept donating to the community through the hoffs

00:26:48.000 and you ask if this changed in any way the perception that the the neighbors had about

00:26:53.040 our organization and i want to let brandy go on this because she's probably got a

00:26:57.600 she's probably got a lot to give you very specifically and hands-on there but

00:27:02.560 our uh those of you that may not be aware at each of our hoffs um and we'll start it up at

00:27:07.440 njordshoff as soon as they're dedicated i've always i've already asked those folks to get

00:27:11.200 prepared and ready. But we do a monthly food giveaway, what's called the food pantry, to where

00:27:18.460 locals in the community that are struggling with having enough to eat for them and their families

00:27:23.060 can come out and we can load them up with what we've got and help them out a little bit. And

00:27:28.580 it's been a really special thing. It's something that we started at Odenshof 2017, 2018, somewhere

00:27:36.900 in there. And it's been a really, a really nice thing to be a part of. And that's helped us in

00:27:43.680 Brownsville at Odenshof. It's helped us in Linden at Thorshof. It's helped us in Murdoch. And

00:27:51.000 Brandy's going to tell you a little bit more about that. But yeah, it's been a really special thing.

00:27:54.600 And, you know, we're honestly, in a weakened economy, folks need that much more than when

00:28:00.340 things are strong. So we're always going to keep those up and keep trying to be good neighbors in

00:28:04.660 communities we're in brandy if you could tell us a little bit about how our food distributions have

00:28:09.460 gone in murdoch yeah absolutely so before we get into the the food distribution in minnesota

00:28:15.860 specifically we do have to give a shout out to uh sheila mcnellen who has really set the bar

00:28:22.180 and the standard of excellence when it comes to the food pantry i mean she's so dedicated

00:28:27.060 so dedicated um and she has been a huge help to all of us over here in the baldershoff district

00:28:34.660 really figuring out logistics and what to do and how to run and things like that. So we do

00:28:39.140 got to say thank you, Sheila McAllen, for all the help that you've given us on the back end,

00:28:43.900 you know, helping us through that. At Baldursoft, we started out a little bit small because we had

00:28:49.840 to build a relationship with the people who are giving us the donations. Folk Builders, Ashley

00:28:55.940 McStocker and Nathan Erlandson had a really good connection with a local food bank who was

00:29:04.540 given us a lot of dried goods to get us started and helping us out with hygiene items uh go the

00:29:09.360 jason thort who's now in the nornshof district uh set up the relationship with uh one of the other

00:29:15.960 businesses in wilmer and they donate just started donating to us as well and uh at folk builder

00:29:22.620 mixed docker has really just built that relationship so strong to the point where we have almost have

00:29:29.300 too much food sometimes you know we end up giving it away all the time but we we actually

00:29:34.360 have to buy another freezer for Baldursoft because our frozen goods and our prime meats,

00:29:40.500 we're getting so many of them that we're having trouble storing it all almost. So we actually

00:29:46.160 need to get another freezer to make sure we have enough capacity. And we started out feeding two

00:29:50.880 or three families, you know, waving at people. Folk builder Jason Gallagher would walk the street

00:29:55.440 and wave at people and they would honk at him. It was a beautiful thing to see. But we started out

00:30:00.540 just a few families and anywhere between 15 and 23 families a weekend uh the last food pantry we

00:30:08.300 gave out i think an entire bag of beverages to the brim of just different beverages we gave out

00:30:16.460 bags so full of dried goods that they were overflowing and we gave out two bags of prime

00:30:21.580 cut meats and frozen items and frozen bread so we have really grown to be able to accommodate a lot

00:30:27.820 of these families in very lean times um it seems like the smaller communities um in our area have

00:30:35.260 really been hit the hardest over the past year or so so it's really good to be able to build that

00:30:41.020 relationship and help the people who need it the most um we've had people send us car we've had

00:30:47.740 people give us cards thanking us um the city of murdoch does have us in their newsletter um letting

00:30:53.740 people know that we're going to have a food pan food pantry on the third weekend of the month so

00:30:59.260 the city is helping us get people we actually have referrals from other local churches that

00:31:05.580 send people to us they talk about it in their their sunday um masses they talk about sending

00:31:12.780 you know if you need food go to balder's house they'll help you um so we really do have a support

00:31:18.380 from the community and we do have a support from the public we've had people stop by and

00:31:24.300 not take food but give us a monetary donation to help buy more food and these are local people

00:31:31.180 so we've we've had tremendous support and a really really just a great experience this

00:31:38.060 whole way around with this with this food pantry yeah didn't i see you guys giving away crab legs

00:31:44.460 at one point there was a month we gave away lobster tails crab legs and tomahawk steaks

00:31:50.220 so it was amazing and we have had people get these bags of food and cry i mean there was a few

00:31:59.900 a few times that people couldn't make it because of the weather you know sometimes they can't make

00:32:04.380 it if we get a snowstorm or something like that people can't make it we hold that food pantry

00:32:10.460 on the third saturday of the month in minus 40 below in january and 100 degrees in august we

00:32:17.580 will be there we will make it to make sure you have food and sometimes people had to miss because

00:32:24.060 they couldn't make it and to see the expressions of gratitude and having them falling down their

00:32:33.420 face thanking them because we're filling their freezer with food and they have not been able

00:32:38.220 to leave the house in two weeks because of the snow. It's a really good feeling, and I'm really

00:32:43.080 glad we can help those people. We've got a couple of questions for you, Brandy, but that's a

00:32:48.000 point that I really want to reiterate. It's really helpful to these families. It's really helpful to

00:32:57.720 these communities, but it's really, really helpful to us as people to be able to do something in a

00:33:06.520 very tangible way that helps folks and that makes people's day or week or month a little bit better

00:33:12.580 and a little bit easier. I know a lot of our listeners do this. I think we all do. It's easy

00:33:18.640 to get bogged down in all the stuff about the world that you don't know how to change, but that

00:33:24.620 frustrates you, all the things that aren't right that should be. To be able to take a moment and

00:33:30.620 do something good and make a positive difference in the world is a really special thing. And it's

00:33:36.280 blessing that we've all been able to experience when we've participated in these different food

00:33:40.520 pantries at our house so stevie asks brandy how did you become a part of the afa and how did you

00:33:48.280 come into this religion coming into the religion was something that has been coming since my teenage

00:33:57.000 years. I was never someone that could, I guess, accept a Christian upbringing. I fortunately

00:34:08.220 had a grandparent who was very, very, very supportive of me exploring other options.

00:34:17.300 I first actually started out exploring the Slavic deities and following my culture in that regards,

00:34:24.960 but I ultimately found my way home with the easier. My best friend actually got me started

00:34:32.260 in the AFA. She said, hey, listen, we've got this group. I want to go meet up with them. Let's go

00:34:37.420 talk to them. And we did. We had coffee with the local folk builder and started talking about the

00:34:44.140 lore, talking about values, talking about what the AFA stood for. And it was really great to

00:34:49.460 have a community of like-minded people. I did attend one of their events and I literally signed

00:34:57.900 up the next day. This is where I want my children to be. This is who I want my kids to be around.

00:35:02.620 This is something I can get behind. This place feels like home. I had been part of groups in

00:35:08.780 the past from 1999 until 2018 i have never experienced a group of people that i felt as

00:35:19.640 safe with that i felt secure in my own beliefs that i could share with them um that i had that

00:35:27.980 i felt had a real understanding of what as a true was and also saw as a true as a religion

00:35:34.980 that worshiped their gods that was a big deal for me because one thing that really bothered me was

00:35:41.200 um you know people telling me they i refuse to bow down to my gods well i worship my gods

00:35:46.740 and i really wanted to find a group that was like that as well um i wanted to worship the

00:35:52.920 and i found a way to do that here in the afa um bruce asks um so bruce says he

00:36:04.400 only had a chance to practice House of True while in prison, and he knows some things are different

00:36:10.540 in the free world and wanted to buy some books and learn everything that he can. He says he's

00:36:17.320 ordered some books from runestone.org. Anybody out there who wants to order any books or any of our

00:36:22.740 merchandise, there's a store at runestone.org. And he wanted to know if I could recommend any

00:36:28.560 others that would be helpful. And Brandy, I want you to chime in on this too on some good books

00:36:32.900 for him. First, Bruce, I'm glad that you're out, and that's great that you want to learn as much

00:36:37.980 about Asatru as you can. I'm trying to think of the best books that we don't have on the website.

00:36:45.400 The Culture of the Teutons, people are probably going to get tired of hearing me say it, but it's

00:36:49.680 always one of my go-tos. It's, as far as for the worldview and practice of our ancestors,

00:36:57.340 It's probably the best book I've come across.

00:37:00.260 It's The Culture of the Teutons by Wilhelm Groenbeck.

00:37:04.500 And it's, I mean, it's a profound book.

00:37:06.440 It's really wonderful.

00:37:07.740 And I got a lot out of it.

00:37:09.440 That's always my top recommendation.

00:37:11.940 I don't know how much you know about runes.

00:37:14.620 I know a lot of guys inside do a lot of studying about that.

00:37:17.760 So I don't know if that's something you know about.

00:37:19.500 If you're brand new to it, one of the other books I always recommend is The Runes Workbook

00:37:24.600 by Leon Wild.

00:37:27.300 it's a really good intro book it's good for children it's good for people who are brand new

00:37:33.140 i really like that book if you're a little bit further along i think i'd recommend just about

00:37:38.340 any of edrid thorson's books on runes but alu his book alu a-l-u is uh probably my favorite

00:37:48.580 book that he has on runes but those are what i have off the top of my head brandy do you have

00:37:52.740 any recommendations i do especially for our our women folk are in here and it's good for the men

00:37:58.500 as well a lady with a meat cup right alongside of beowulf is a great combination um i also like

00:38:06.180 the road to hell i like that book um and culture of the tunes is a must read on that one and also

00:38:13.220 stephen mcdallin's book on as true is always a definite required reading if you really want to

00:38:18.340 know how as a true works especially within afa um i think that's what i've got off the top of

00:38:26.180 my head without looking at my bookcase across the room okay so michael uh dossier fc is asking again

00:38:35.060 uh he says he understands there's an amount to donate to get on the shield 500 or better

00:38:40.740 uh but is there a time frame no there's not um this is cumulative uh if you start running it

00:38:47.460 into the decades. It's going to be really hard for us to track, but there's no time frame. We

00:38:52.500 really appreciate anything y'all can give. That's how stuff happens, and it's much appreciated,

00:38:57.780 and as soon as you reach that 500 mark, we would love to have your name up there.

00:39:04.040 So yeah, there's no time frame. Humanipulation asks,

00:39:10.780 who specifically practiced Midsommar as inspiration? I'm not sure I understand the question.

00:39:25.760 Yeah, I'm sorry. I really, I'm not sure what you asked there. If you could ask again,

00:39:29.300 I'll give you a better answer. I apologize. Lars from Denmark. Thank you for making it on,

00:39:37.960 lars it's great to have somebody from denmark on here i was a really special thing i got to travel

00:39:42.440 to denmark in uh 2014 i believe and meet some of our folks over there and it's really nice to have

00:39:49.160 you on the program um i wanted to know if i could explain the meanings behind the flags

00:39:56.520 so these two behind me um the blue with the tri horn on it is actually uh that's the afa flag but

00:40:04.440 but it's based on a rune stone, the Snovalev stone that's in the National Museum there in Copenhagen.

00:40:11.900 And it's basically the three horns of Odin's inspiration.

00:40:16.060 And it's been the official AFA symbol, I think, since 2010, I want to say.

00:40:24.020 But I could be wrong. I had to look back on our history on that.

00:40:28.720 But yeah, that's what that one is. And then the red one behind me, that's the official flag for Odinsov.

00:40:33.780 And, yes, you noticed it has Slepner on it and as the as the mascot.

00:40:40.100 And then the motto says, do right and fear no one.

00:40:43.580 And that's kind of the motto of Odin's off.

00:40:45.780 We've got a flag similar to this for our other three Hobbes as well.

00:40:55.620 Leonard asks, how can I be a friend of the AFA without joining the church, so to speak,

00:41:01.180 specifically on a social level perhaps for folks who are not uh ready to take the spiritual plunge

00:41:07.740 but support um so there's lots of ways and i'm glad you asked that um

00:41:14.620 word of mouth telling people about the afa um letting them know that we're out here letting

00:41:21.420 them know what some of our core beliefs are sharing the things that we do sharing our story to folks

00:41:29.180 um financial contributions are always helpful and you know not just with yourself but with

00:41:35.980 those you talk to you talked about in a social context i mean even stuff like this if they want

00:41:40.620 to come in here and ask questions or throw some donations on entropy that'd be awesome

00:41:44.700 so there's a lot of ways that that you can help and i think just educating folks about who we are

00:41:50.140 um every time we have people with real interaction that go out in the world and talk about us

00:41:55.180 it's always a great thing for us but unfortunately sometimes if people just google us we can't really

00:42:00.620 control those algorithms and uh that's not always putting our best foot forward that's a lot of

00:42:06.460 people with a lot of untruths but it's hard to it's hard to dispute those if we're not there

00:42:11.020 so yeah just advocating for us and telling the story of who we are and it's much appreciated

00:42:15.100 that you want to do that um sheila uh giphea sheila mcnalen has some suggestions on some books

00:42:23.340 books. The Germanization of Early Medieval Christianity is a hard one to get a hold of,

00:42:32.700 but it's a really good book. And it explains a lot about the interplay between Christianity

00:42:37.860 and Ausitru, especially in the very, very early stages of European Christian development.

00:42:44.660 And it talks about how a great many Christian practices are adopted from our practices.

00:42:51.680 And so it explains a lot and it does a lot to clarify stuff.

00:42:55.060 I think that's a really good recommendation.

00:42:57.820 Ah, okay, there we go.

00:42:58.900 Thank you for asking again.

00:43:00.680 Hugh Manipulation asks, he sees the Midsummer Celebration posts and was wondering what the

00:43:07.760 root of the practices are.

00:43:13.720 As far back as I'm aware of, our people practiced celebrating the return of the sun at Midsummer

00:43:21.280 at the you know at or very close to the summer summer solstice um that practice has been with

00:43:29.920 us as a as a race since at least neolithic times and it was always a time of celebrating

00:43:39.920 the vibrancy and the energy of summer and the return of that sun and the return of of

00:43:45.680 warmth. That sun once again being at its height at midsummer and that promise of that height of

00:43:52.620 the sun. So that's kind of the inspiration behind it and why we do it. Very often people will

00:44:01.020 dedicate that bloat to Suna. Very often people in the AFA specifically, we really spend our time

00:44:07.300 dedicating that to Balder and to his resurrection as the light and the bright and shining one of

00:44:14.860 acer but yeah that's that's kind of the history of of uh midsummer with the afa i think it's

00:44:21.420 probably one of the one of the bigger think if people break it down to the really big ones that

00:44:28.940 we do certainly uh yule at the at the winter solstice and midsummer at summer solstice are

00:44:35.500 probably two of the biggest ones and most uh most popular gloats and celebrations that we do

00:44:41.020 and midsummer is also the biggest event we do in the country statistically it's i mentioned earlier

00:44:49.340 that each of the hoffs has a signature event that's the one for odenshoff and for a very long time

00:44:54.220 that was the only national event the afa did was midsummer and now we host that at odenshoff and

00:45:00.220 it's gotten our our highest attendance of anything we've ever done and it was great once again this

00:45:05.740 year and uh yeah so i hope that answers your question um yeah getting back to it i was gonna

00:45:13.020 i'm gonna start a second ago or a little while back when you finished on something brandy but

00:45:18.300 we talked about getting out and practicing real ousa true in the real world and you mentioned

00:45:23.900 earlier that that real life ousa true versus internet ousa true is something you wanted to

00:45:27.980 speak on so go ahead and tell us a little bit about your thoughts on that i do so a lot of the

00:45:34.540 the time and it's it's kind of a tongue-in-cheek funny not funny joke within as a true communities

00:45:40.160 that you're constantly being told you're doing it wrong you're doing this wrong you're doing that

00:45:45.200 wrong i can sort this source from this book from this publication date from this author you're

00:45:50.900 doing it wrong as a true is not in a book worshiping the gods is not in a book worshiping

00:46:00.340 the gods is in your blood it is in your soul it is your birthright there is no book that can determine

00:46:09.140 your birthright the gods are your most ancient ancestors and you carry that on through your

00:46:17.300 ancestors you have a direct link you don't need to read 500 books to have that that spark is natural

00:46:27.060 now there are a few things that we have historically that we can see that we're done

00:46:32.760 however for the people who are constantly telling telling you that you're doing it wrong or telling

00:46:38.460 the afa that we're doing it wrong they're putting a lot of faith in a book we're putting the faith

00:46:44.580 in our folk we're putting the faith in our leadership we're putting the faith in our godard

00:46:48.080 we're utmost putting the faith in our gods that's where we find out justification

00:46:53.340 you can read a million books you can write a million essays but when's the last time you did

00:47:00.140 a bloat when's the last time you participated in the gift cycle when's the last time you shared

00:47:05.580 frith with someone those are the things that are important you can regurgitate all the information

00:47:10.840 you want but it has no meaning without practice and it has no meaning without devotion so that

00:47:18.360 one thing i really wanted to touch on tonight is that you know this is your birthright as the folks

00:47:24.280 this is our birthright and you you don't need a certificate from a book you don't need anyone

00:47:29.000 else's permission this is your birthright you know that's really important um i made this

00:47:37.480 you know first it's easy for me to get on on a tangent on this and for people to misunderstand

00:47:44.680 in reading books is really important studying things studying archaeology studying linguistics

00:47:52.600 studying the lore is super important and it can do so much to inform your practice to help you build

00:48:00.280 a better relationship with the gods to help you build a better understanding but if it ends there

00:48:07.960 you're not connected to our gods in a relationship

00:48:14.680 you're a weird stalker like i made this analogy before and it may sound silly but i think it's 0.97

00:48:20.840 absolutely the truth you know if my wife had a strange stalker that dug through the trash 0.96

00:48:27.080 and you know dug up old records on essays my wife wrote in high school he would know

00:48:33.480 certain things about my wife that i don't know i will give him that but he doesn't have a

00:48:38.680 relationship meanwhile we're married and she's the mother of my child and every day i have a

00:48:43.720 relationship with my wife. The minutia of details that you get when you go through the dumpster

00:48:49.180 doesn't make a relationship. A relationship is made through interaction. Brandy made this point

00:48:56.820 with the gifting cycle. A relationship is made with our gods when you stand before them and you

00:49:04.040 offer them your sincere worship or something from your heart when they receive it and when they give

00:49:10.880 you their blessings in return. And when you do that, it's a cycle. When you do that cyclically,

00:49:16.340 it doesn't just go in a circle, but it spirals upwards to even better and stronger things.

00:49:21.660 And we see that the longer we're engaged in that gift cycle with our gods.

00:49:27.840 You know, something I say to our detractors, but it's also something I say to our members and

00:49:32.420 anybody listening to this, the biggest thing I can recommend you do is go out there and practice

00:49:38.040 asa true with other asa true are go and open your heart open your mind to our gods and and see give

00:49:46.920 it a shot and see what happens it's the hardest thing to argue with some of these people because

00:49:51.800 we can argue about different ancient texts but i can't talk to them in a way that's going to make

00:49:58.600 sense about religious experience if they haven't experienced it but the people who have experienced

00:50:04.440 that once you do, you can never go back

00:50:07.160 and you can never not know and never not have that.

00:50:10.120 But the folks that won't take that first step

00:50:13.140 of participating, they miss out on that

00:50:15.440 and they'll never know that joy.

00:50:16.500 And that's really unfortunate.

00:50:17.780 So I can't encourage you more than more to go out

00:50:22.600 and be part of that gifting cycle and be and do Ausatru.

00:50:28.920 For those, you know, for a lot of people

00:50:30.600 that are just starting out

00:50:32.360 and they are just feeling that first spark of pull to the acer the question is always where do i start

00:50:39.560 and we can give you a few good books to start with but one thing i want you to really think

00:50:45.480 about and really start with before you get too deep into quoting any books is i want you to find

00:50:52.440 a nice quiet place in your home that's going to be undisturbed get some candles some incense

00:50:58.920 Get a bowl for an offering.

00:51:02.160 Decide who it is that you want to start that gift cycle with, whether it's the Aesir, whether it's a specific god or goddess, whether it's what I would recommend also is your ancestors that have passed on.

00:51:14.680 Leave a gift for them on this space.

00:51:16.900 It doesn't have to be fancy wording.

00:51:18.900 You don't have to have on a special cloak made of crushed velvet or anything like that.

00:51:24.000 Find a quiet place.

00:51:25.980 Talk to your gods.

00:51:26.880 talk to the heroes and talk to your ancestors and leave them a gift. And the more you do this,

00:51:34.000 and the more you build that relationship, the more that you're going to see these gifts return to you.

00:51:39.460 And that's how you start the cycle. It's not memorizing a book. It's something from the heart.

00:51:46.720 Start the cycle. Everybody says, where do I start? Start there. Doesn't have to be anything fancy.

00:51:51.560 start with what you got. We got another question from Ruben. It says, lately, there's been a steady

00:52:00.600 amount of new brothers and sisters joining the AFA. Are you perceiving a rise in the numbers of

00:52:06.000 people reaching, that are reaching to, or is it just a seasonal thing? Certainly, our year comes

00:52:13.060 in seasonal cycles of people join in or, you know, upped enthusiasm. But no, overall, the AFA is

00:52:21.820 doing amazing right now. I think last month, we reached the highest number of members we've ever

00:52:27.260 had. I was trying to crush the numbers. And I think we're up about about 15% over the last year.

00:52:36.400 And that's a that's a pretty substantial increase. So no, the AFA is doing doing amazing. And so many

00:52:42.640 people are coming out of the woodwork and finding us and joining a big part of that's our hoffs

00:52:50.080 you know we get local folks in those areas that didn't know we exist that come out

00:52:54.240 um i think a lot of it is just the the steady hard work that our folk builders put in to

00:53:00.960 to spreading the message and meeting people and talking people and talking to people and

00:53:05.120 representing the afa in a in a good and honorable way i think our folk builders do

00:53:09.600 they do so much. If you look at any of those websites that I talked about and that we linked

00:53:15.820 over in the side, I said, go to that event section, look on the calendar of how many different things

00:53:22.780 are going on. And seeing this level of activity is something the AFA has never seen this much

00:53:26.980 before. It is fantastic. So no, it's not just seasonal. I'm sure that we do get a lot of folks

00:53:32.420 during the summer, but that happens throughout the year for different reasons. Right now is just a

00:53:38.080 really powerful time to be part of the AFA. And it goes back to what I just said with that gifting

00:53:41.660 cycle. The AFA has been engaged actively in the gifting cycle with our gods and in building

00:53:47.280 relationship with our gods for 28 years now. And that's built on the back of Steve McNallan's

00:53:55.780 relationship with the gods that's, I have to look, I think about 54 years now that he's been

00:54:02.240 worshiping the the gods and has built that relationship so those relationships really 0.77

00:54:09.120 it really shows the god's blessings and i believe that with our establishing these hofs

00:54:14.560 and with with our steadily improving what we do and how we do it that we've really earned the

00:54:20.000 favor of our gods and we see that in the success we've been having and that's

00:54:24.960 a powerful testament to me that we're doing something right

00:54:27.680 uh lane asks okay will there be will there be crushed velvet cloaks in the store

00:54:35.720 no lane there will not be crushed velvet cloaks in the store um i don't know if we have velveteers

00:54:43.100 that can can make those uh i don't think it's the i don't think it's the the appropriate fashion

00:54:49.400 choice for 2022 we are also not selling shoulder pelts or low cut bonus leather

00:54:57.640 shirts for the women either makeup also not included

00:55:03.080 on your way to the hof you may be able to find suitable shoulder pelt material depending on

00:55:08.280 what part of the country that you are in um well do we have any more questions from you guys today

00:55:17.240 from me or from our guest Brandy tonight. And I think we hit on it, but is there anything you

00:55:28.960 wanted to add further about the gift cycle? You mentioned that as one of the things you wanted to

00:55:32.960 discuss tonight. Oh, you know, you touched on it a lot with, you know, mentioning, you know,

00:55:40.380 Stephen McNallan's relationship and how the AFA has really built off of that. And the one thing

00:55:45.380 I really want people to remember as well as when you sit and stumble with your folk, when you sit

00:55:51.560 in, you know, in that circle or at a half with your folk, you're sharing in that, you know, being

00:55:57.000 a member of the AFA is bringing you and bringing you into that. You are sharing that with us. You

00:56:03.280 are connected with us there. You know, so it's, you're included if you're a member of the AFA.

00:56:09.840 so we've got a couple last things human manipulation uh

00:56:17.520 first thank you he says uh this is a great spiritual chat it's very good stuff this is

00:56:22.080 what we need and uh he wants us to give you your own podcast brandy apparently apparently i'm

00:56:27.840 stinking up the joint so no we're i'm good that the brandy's on making us look making me look

00:56:33.280 better this time that's great no it's really nice to have brandy here and i'm glad you like what

00:56:37.600 we're doing i'm glad you like this format um he also asks uh what are our thoughts on uh the the

00:56:46.080 marvel movies and marvel's thor has that increased membership it's it's a mixed bag i think that it's

00:56:56.160 brought a amount of attention that hadn't happened before or in that in the same circles that it's

00:57:05.520 brought attention to but i don't think it's had a particularly significant effect that way i think

00:57:11.200 that it has caused confusion or brought you know weirdos over that that maybe have no actual

00:57:23.200 spiritual desire to be part of also true but have a passing interest because of it

00:57:27.760 but i really don't think it's had any any particular effect other than you know people

00:57:32.960 with obnoxious t-shirts and such brandy what do you think well i'm not a really big fan however

00:57:40.080 what i will say is this if that is what brought you to as a true that's fine i might look at you

00:57:47.440 a little bit sideways and give you a little wink wink nudge nudge and that's okay i'm gonna tease

00:57:52.160 you a little bit but you know what if that's what brought you here at least something brought you

00:57:57.040 here at least something sparked that you know stephen mcdallan was inspired by a book you know

00:58:02.800 i know people who have been inspired by hearing about mythology in second grade when their teacher

00:58:09.280 read them from you know norse mythology book i mean if that's what brought you here great it's

00:58:15.040 probably not what's going to keep you here what's going to keep you here is real worship of the aesir

00:58:21.040 how that's going to touch your soul and the relationships that you're going to build with

00:58:24.400 your brothers and sisters if it brought you here that's fine but it shouldn't be the reason that

00:58:28.720 it keeps you here good deal sheila made a a point point of note that uh nick thinks we should

00:58:36.640 reiterate and i do too um sheila says while people of other religions feared covid and hid away in

00:58:44.960 their homes we in the afa gathered at odinsoff every month to celebrate and to honor our gods

00:58:51.760 so we didn't just do that at odinsoff something really interesting to to note and i'm sure many

00:58:59.360 of us have different opinions about covid19 and about the various responses to it and this isn't

00:59:06.800 really about that we saw america that still has a very substantial faith community of people that

00:59:15.760 would go every week since they were children to their church or you know whatever their place

00:59:22.720 of worship might be and and engage in worship services and in in religious activity and then

00:59:30.000 all of a sudden because of uh covet or the or the response to it we've had christians that still

00:59:39.120 haven't gone back to their churches we've watched for two years faithful people not be allowed to

00:59:46.880 interact with their god in in that way and together with their folk in in that act of worship

00:59:54.160 i'm very very proud to say that we didn't miss a beat during uh any of the any of covet 19 or the

01:00:01.040 oppressive responses to it we held events at each of our hofs every single month during it

01:00:08.480 we actually acquired Baldershof and Thorshof during 2020, during the height of that.

01:00:17.760 During the height of that, we had our record attendance for midsummer at Odenshof. So we

01:00:23.840 don't let anything prevent us from worshiping our gods and from gathering with our folk.

01:00:28.880 And during that time, we hugged, shook hands, we shared a horn, we shared a meal.

01:00:33.760 and I think that got a lot of us through a very difficult time in this country and it's

01:00:39.320 unfortunate that other folks didn't have that opportunity but I feel very blessed to be part

01:00:44.340 of the AFA and have my AFA brothers and sisters go strong during that. Melissa asks if the AFA

01:00:51.500 is considered something like a Founders Day celebration. Absolutely we have Melissa. That's

01:00:56.760 certainly something that I've thought about. I think we're still fleshing some of that out but

01:01:01.200 I do make a point of having Steve's birthday on our calendar, and I want people to celebrate that

01:01:05.900 when it comes around each year. But yeah, we'll talk a little bit about more about that on the

01:01:11.960 back end. You can reach out to me, but that is something we have to consider. Brandy, Josh wants

01:01:17.860 you to give another plug for upcoming Fall Fest and its activities for folks, anybody who may have

01:01:25.200 missed it at the top of the broadcast. Sure. So Fall Fest activities are going to include several

01:01:31.040 speakers as they always do. Kind of how the rundown of the schedule briefly will look. I

01:01:36.280 won't bore you with the logistical details, but we will be starting every morning with the

01:01:41.060 dedication at the altars of our Fulkiro Elsie Christensen, our Ancestor Altar, as well as

01:01:47.720 Baldur's Altar. We will start out each day with the dedication for that. There will be breakfast

01:01:52.760 every day, fika every day, lunch and dinner. We are going to have several speakers. We will have

01:01:59.080 a children's bloat and activity as well. We will also be splitting off into men's groups and

01:02:05.180 women's groups so that we can talk about things that are specific to each one of us. There's

01:02:11.320 going to be several bloats throughout the day. The first bloat is going to be a welcoming of

01:02:15.840 the gods, and that's going to be by folk builder Nathan Erlinson. And then Witten Allen Turnage,

01:02:21.920 which I am super excited to see because he hasn't been there in a long time, has told me that he

01:02:27.060 will do Baldur's Bloat for us, and I'm mentioning that in public, so now he can't back down.

01:02:32.960 Our El Shiar Godhi is actually going to hold our main bloat on Saturday, and I'm very excited for

01:02:39.640 that, and I will be holding our Wayfarer's Bloat on Sunday. We will also have a high stumble. We 0.90

01:02:46.580 will have all kinds of games for kids and adults, tests of skill. We have a special tournament

01:02:52.600 that's planned. That's going to be great. But it's just going to be a great time. There's

01:02:57.500 going to be plenty of time for you to reconnect with people that you haven't seen in a year or

01:03:01.980 six months or two years. You know, we definitely build that time in the schedule where you can

01:03:05.700 just sit down and talk to your folks. So it's going to be a great weekend. It's going to be

01:03:09.840 August 19th, 2021. That's awesome. I didn't know Alan was coming. I'm looking forward to that.

01:03:16.860 That'll be great. I'm doing it on the podcast. Can't back down, Alan.

01:03:21.100 There we go.

01:03:22.420 There we go.

01:03:23.040 No, it'll be really exciting to see Allen's Balder bloat.

01:03:26.540 Just throws me for a loop.

01:03:27.520 I thought that's what I was going to do.

01:03:28.660 So I'm doing the other one.

01:03:29.780 I'm going to have to figure that.

01:03:31.820 I am really excited about it.

01:03:33.660 It's going to be great.

01:03:34.520 We're going to have awesome people there.

01:03:36.120 Also, Gauthier Trent East from way down in Georgia is going to be a guest there as well.

01:03:44.280 So once again, if you guys can make it to Baldershof, please do.

01:03:48.360 You guys are missing out, and I want you all to be there.

01:03:50.440 Yeah, we got a couple of other questions, comments on the side.

01:03:57.800 Michael asks, are the rituals a rite of initiation?

01:04:04.840 That's a hard question, depending on how you want to take the question.

01:04:13.340 In the same sense that it's used in a lot of mystery traditions,

01:04:20.440 I think it serves an initiatory purpose, but I don't think we do it in the same way or with some of the same implications.

01:04:36.880 But our rituals are very much a relationship building with our gods.

01:04:43.300 And what happens during those rituals is really special.

01:04:47.300 we had a very very powerful one at midsummer and what i ask everyone to do before they go

01:04:54.740 into the circle and i've paid way more attention to doing this more now um to open up your heart

01:05:02.820 open up your mind and reach out to the gods and a fundamental change happens in the core of many

01:05:13.780 people during these rituals, to where they reach out. And if

01:05:18.700 they're worthy, and if their hearts open, then the gods

01:05:21.320 reach back. And when you see that happen in someone's eyes,

01:05:25.340 when you see that they had that moment, that's absolutely

01:05:29.260 initiatory. And it, it changes them in a profound, alchemical

01:05:34.480 way that they're not the same person. They're not the same

01:05:37.140 person when they leave that circle. I've got so we got a

01:05:41.260 question on any thoughts on the north man i did not see it so i did not have any thoughts on it

01:05:46.780 brandy do you have any thoughts on it did you see it haven't seen it got no opinion

01:05:52.300 i'm sorry don i got nothing for you um i've heard a lot of people liked it i've heard a number of

01:05:57.020 people it wasn't their cup of tea i've heard kind of mixed reviews i don't think it is probably as

01:06:02.460 bad as many of us have feared it might be um when it comes out on any of my streaming services i

01:06:08.940 think that i'll probably give it a watch and i have something to report back then and i'll try

01:06:14.220 to remember to do that um sheila asks what is a folk builder and how does one go about joining

01:06:22.060 the afa these are always good questions for us to reinforce on here start with the last one first

01:06:27.340 how do you join the afa you go to our website www.runestone.org and there's a join link there

01:06:37.900 that's the that's the easiest simplest version a little bit more expanded than that go there

01:06:44.380 and read our core documents read our declaration of purpose our statement of ethics and if that

01:06:50.540 resonates with you and if you're you know a heterosexual white person and you would like

01:06:56.860 to be part of the house true folk assembly please join us um i'd also recommend uh that you reach

01:07:04.540 out either before or after you join it depends on you um but reach out to your local folk builder

01:07:10.300 if you already join they'll reach out to you but reach out to your local folk builder and

01:07:13.900 ask them anything you want to know go to an event become involved see what we do see what we're all

01:07:18.620 about and that's what i'd recommend on that now it brings me to what is a folk builder um

01:07:25.820 a folk builder it's it's ironic that you know irony is the right word but it's interesting

01:07:33.340 that Sheila asked that question. Sheila is the template of a folk builder. Sheila is what most

01:07:41.120 of us who've gone through being a folk builder have emulated on how that process is done. As we

01:07:47.720 grow and evolve, there's so many different things that are done in the AFA that are requiring the

01:07:53.020 help of a folk builder. A folk builder is the entry-level volunteer position with our church.

01:08:00.400 And so it means all of the things you might normally think of, like scheduling events, reaching out to members, reaching out to non-members, facilitating our members' participation in the AFA, but it's also building bonds between areas, between other folk builders, so that we can more comprehensively serve our folk.

01:08:22.880 it involves database work it involves fundraising it involves building relationships with the other

01:08:34.000 members of AFA leadership it involves building relationships with the members in in a particular

01:08:39.480 area there's a lot that goes into it and many of our folk builders put in tireless amazing work for

01:08:48.460 us. And, um, you know, I say we don't give them the credit they deserve. We try, but you know,

01:08:55.100 there's some things that, that you put in that you just don't always get that thanks for. And I hope

01:08:59.040 that they see that thanks in all of the people that are joining, but our folk builders are great

01:09:03.540 and they do a really great job. Um, I was a folk builder for Alaska for a time before I eventually

01:09:09.560 was what we had at the time was a folk builder coordinator. And, uh, yeah, so I came up through

01:09:15.400 doing that i understand how some of that goes and yeah we've all looked to sheila as an inspiration

01:09:21.960 on how to do that folk building and do it right um alister steve has a new website coming out soon

01:09:33.640 maybe plug that does anybody have the ad address to steve's website we'll try to throw that up in

01:09:39.480 the side over there yeah please go check out steve's steve's website when it comes out and

01:09:46.040 give that your attention give that your likes give that your support

01:09:54.120 uh nick asks is there an afa chat room like on discord or irc

01:10:03.080 i think that there is some informal ones on discord by afa members i know a lot of us are

01:10:09.560 are not on Discord, and I'm not really sure what IRC is. Brandy, do you know anything about that?

01:10:16.960 I don't think we have, we don't have any official chat rooms or anything like that. We just have

01:10:22.800 our MeWe groups, so that if you really want to know what's going on with the folk in your area

01:10:27.280 with the AFA, MeWe is where you need to be. That is where we post up our event information. That's

01:10:33.600 where we've got an amazing, we have got so many groups. We've got outdoors groups. We've got

01:10:39.800 women's groups. We've got men's groups, veterans groups, parenting groups. We've got everything

01:10:43.740 you could possibly need for your spiritual and mundane life in the AFA. And there's probably a

01:10:48.640 group for it on MeWe. You do have to be an AFA member to be part of that. So that is just another

01:10:53.660 reason to join if you haven't already and start connecting with people. I'm looking over at the

01:11:01.160 chat. I assume those are redirects. StephenMcNallan.com is where you want to go to go to

01:11:08.620 Steve's website. Yeah, Brandy's right on. If you want to get involved in interacting and chatting

01:11:14.720 with your, you know, with AFA folks, got to join up and then you can chat with us through our

01:11:21.060 MeWe groups. And, you know, certainly the functionality we have here is good for that.

01:11:27.760 uh brandy there's a special question for you from credence uh redcalf uh he has a question

01:11:35.360 about victory and how to conquer it you're probably expecting me to say something with

01:11:42.740 uh an axon in blood and without fear but it's going to be a little bit more complicated than

01:11:47.080 that a lot of people will say with courage and without fear fear is not a bad thing as long as

01:11:52.180 you know what to do with it and how to control it and how to redirect it now as far as victory

01:11:56.980 there's always going to be something standing in your way think of it as a brick wall take each one

01:12:03.240 of those bricks down and use it to build something else on the side until your path is clear whatever

01:12:09.260 those obstacles are take them one at a time tear it down build something useful out of it that is

01:12:15.000 the surefire way to victory that is the surefire way to clear your path tear down that wall but

01:12:20.820 remember to use the materials of that wall to build something else don't just discard them

01:12:26.360 They're just going to slow you down, build something on each side of you.

01:12:31.400 I think that's really sound advice.

01:12:33.200 I know it's a brandy question, but I think that that it's really important.

01:12:37.920 It's obviously important to me.

01:12:39.280 It's why the name of this broadcast is Victory Never Sleeps.

01:12:42.360 I think an important thing to victory is it's a it's an action and it's a continuous doing.

01:12:48.520 I don't think you achieve victory and then can rest on it because it slips away.

01:12:52.440 It's elusive.

01:12:53.640 so if you want to be victorious you've got to always stay on the grind doing that always stay

01:12:59.400 in that conquering mindset of achieving of doing of being victorious and that persistence that's

01:13:05.960 what's going to get it done uh grims man asks what about our grimness man i'm sorry

01:13:12.280 ask what about runic practices or guilds in the afa so a couple things and thoughts on that

01:13:20.440 i know a lot of people look for that and would like to see some of that

01:13:27.240 there is that that goes on it doesn't go on in the most public in front of everybody's face

01:13:34.200 way and a large reason is because we don't we don't want to cheapen it by doing so um i found

01:13:42.840 that when people talk too loosely about metaphysical things they're very often cheapened

01:13:54.680 and they take something that's very sparing and very profound and turn it into something

01:14:03.080 very casual and very mundane and so one of the reasons that that doesn't get talked about as much

01:14:10.360 is it something that people keep personally it's something that our gothar talk about

01:14:14.040 in private it's something that interested members that have a proclivity or a you know something

01:14:19.320 towards that uh are talked to on the side a lot of people have very esoteric practices with their

01:14:26.280 ausitru but that's not so much the focus of what we do at major afa events or what we like to talk

01:14:32.040 about that's more for those people who who have that special aptitude those people who are initiated

01:14:39.000 into those those mysteries those people that that ought to be having those very very high

01:14:46.200 level conversations about those things we never want to cheapen things and i think sometimes

01:14:53.080 the caution is due to an abundance of piety there mace does the afa ever do hunting parties

01:15:01.880 or bushcraft camping um yes i can't think of any time the afa's had like a big hunt we've

01:15:09.400 talked about it a lot we've talked about getting together for like a men's weekend

01:15:13.320 and doing a hunt it's been talked about several times it hasn't happened um but i know that a

01:15:20.040 number of us have gone on hunts with other afa members i know it's something that uh that folks

01:15:26.040 do. I didn't get to do it together with another Ausatruar, but that was one of my first most

01:15:33.920 powerful early on bloats that I did or was a part of was I did an Uler bloat back when I lived in

01:15:40.840 Alaska during moose season. And my friend and I, we both did this and we were both going out on

01:15:47.460 on our on our first big moose hunts. And those hunts were very successful. I'll tell you the

01:15:54.380 story sometime, but I had a very interesting encounter with the moose that I ended up

01:15:58.940 eating on for the next, you know, next year or so. So yeah, hunting absolutely is something

01:16:06.940 that AFA members do together and something that I'd like to see more of in the future.

01:16:10.580 okay so all right me and brandy will both answer this one uh human manipulation asks he's not

01:16:25.900 asking for fashion tips mind you but curiously where do you each as men or women get your

01:16:33.340 inspiration for how you present yourselves at functions and in general um

01:16:38.960 Um, okay. So my, my situation, um, if you go look at, at really old AFA pictures or, uh, a video for me at my first AFA events, I'm from Alaska, it's hot. And so I would show up in, uh, jean shorts and a sleeveless shirt all the time. And that's kind of what I would do.

01:17:02.940 I did that for the first, probably two years I was involved in the AFA. And then I met a gentleman

01:17:11.660 at Midsummer, Brad Taylor Hicks, and he was wearing a suit full with the jacket and everything

01:17:19.180 and a shirt and a tie. And he was the only guy doing it at the time. And, you know, we were

01:17:23.720 wondering why or whatever. And he said that, you know, if you would dress up to go over to your

01:17:28.740 grandmother's house why wouldn't you dress up to stand before our gods if you would dress up for

01:17:36.080 you know for a wedding or a funeral or you know an important event what would make you think that

01:17:42.360 standing before our gods is less important than that and it really got me got me going from there

01:17:48.420 and ever since then I've tried to tried to dress nice I've tried to wear a tie and a button-up

01:17:53.120 shirt sometimes it's too hot for me to wear the full jacket but I like to wear a vest

01:17:57.260 I think it's putting my best foot forward for the gods. I think it's looking my best to go do

01:18:06.240 something that is a very significant and important occasion. And I think whenever we go and worship

01:18:10.760 our gods, it's a very special occasion. Something else I've also found, though, is that when others

01:18:18.640 do that, when you dress for that purpose, you conduct yourself in an entirely different way.

01:18:26.480 you hold your head up higher, you have pride, you have more dignity in how you present yourself and

01:18:31.320 what you do. Watching that different mindset come upon people when they when they put on their nice

01:18:37.040 clothes is, is really a special thing. So that's been my inspiration. And to keep it going, not

01:18:45.920 just dressing well, but trying to be in shape, trying to be look good in general. As a gothy, 1.00

01:18:54.500 I represent us all before the gods and I represent the gods before the rest of my folk.

01:19:03.360 And certainly as the leader of the Astro Folk Assembly, it's literally my job to be the best I can be and to be that example and to look good and act good and be the best I can be for for the rest of everyone else and for myself.

01:19:17.860 So that's what I'm thinking.

01:19:20.000 Brandy, what's what's your inspiration for for how you choose to dress for this stuff?

01:19:24.500 Well, you kind of stole my answer. I'll share a go there because I was going to say I'm not playing dress up and make believe that I am a Viking princess. I am a Githya of the Azatru Folk Assembly. I represent my gods. I represent my folk. I represent my ancestors. I represent my children. I represent my husband and my mother. And that's a big deal. I represent my mother too.

01:19:49.900 And my mother is very, very unimpressed with a lot of modern fashion.

01:19:57.620 So I always keep that in mind.

01:19:59.580 Would my gods approve of what I'm wearing?

01:20:01.980 Would my grandmother approve of what I'm wearing?

01:20:04.640 Are my children embarrassed or happy to be seen with me?

01:20:09.500 Am I being respectful of my husband?

01:20:11.660 Am I being respectful of my folk and my gods?

01:20:13.540 i always want to look my best be my best present myself in the best way that i can because i am

01:20:21.300 representing you as the folk i am representing my family i'm representing all of our ancestors

01:20:26.700 and the gods you know and it's reciprocal them to you and you to them so i have to try really

01:20:33.820 hard to always remember on how you speak how you dress how you act and how you are

01:20:38.920 not just when you're at the hof but every day every day you can look as outstanding as you 0.99

01:20:49.000 want in a three-piece suit and tie in a picture at the hof but if you look like a jerk on the 0.94

01:20:53.440 street and act like one you just erased everything that you did at the hof so it's it's not just 0.87

01:21:00.680 it's not just when we are at an event or at a mood it's it's every day i am as a true every day

01:21:08.220 I am the AFA every day. I am a Githya of the Aesir every day.

01:21:14.500 All right. We've got a question from Alistair. He's asked it of me before,

01:21:19.300 but specifically for you, Brandy. Do you have any tips or suggestions for a single

01:21:25.580 Asitua looking to meet someone and start a family? Yes. Join the AFA and find another

01:21:30.640 single Asitua and start a family. I'm not being facetious. I'm being serious.

01:21:35.780 um we all know somebody or you know some of us are in relationships where you may not be the

01:21:42.840 same religion as your spouse and that's sometimes going to be hard so if you have an opportunity to

01:21:47.640 really set that standard now do it absolutely do it there are single folk all over in the afa we've

01:21:54.120 got lots of women and lots of men and we've got lots of wives and husbands and babies but we also

01:21:59.380 got a lot of young single folk that are looking for like-minded people with the intention of

01:22:04.940 honoring their gods, finding a spouse for life and starting a family.

01:22:10.180 Where else are you going to find somebody with the exact same values as you as

01:22:13.280 rather than your church? What better place to find your future spouse?

01:22:18.480 I want to throw this out here. Don't let distance be a problem. One of the things that's daunting

01:22:24.260 for AFA members is they look around and, you know, we've got a ton of members, but we don't

01:22:30.320 always have somebody who is single that's your cup of tea that's in your area don't be afraid

01:22:37.360 we've got afa members across the country and around the world don't be afraid to to go out

01:22:43.040 on a limb and deal with the distance situation uh when i met my wife i lived in alaska and she

01:22:49.840 lived in florida we met at an afa event in pennsylvania and uh i'm in trouble i got a

01:22:56.560 math again okay so we've been married five years now and uh and we have a beautiful beautiful baby

01:23:02.160 girl and we have a have a family and that all started from looking within the afa literally

01:23:08.720 the furthest you could possibly be in this country and making that work so don't let distance hold

01:23:15.760 you back um and i've got a we've got a note over here on where people can go to donate during this

01:23:28.640 podcast well we have donation links at www.runstone.org to each of our hops and special

01:23:35.200 stuff we've got going on but also if you folks go over and follow the link to entropy

01:23:40.480 Matt Flavelle on Entropy. You can donate during the broadcast. It's kind of a cool function over

01:23:49.160 there. And it's a neat way if people want to throw us a few bucks here and there,

01:23:52.220 we would certainly appreciate them. But yeah, so that's a thing.

01:23:59.740 I think my daughter was going to come visit and then decided not to. She popped her head in the 0.99

01:24:03.780 door and then ran back out. So I don't know if we're going to get an OBS visit today,

01:24:08.060 but that's okay we've been on for about an hour and a half now brandy is there is there any stuff

01:24:13.840 you want to make sure that we covered tonight i think we've covered uh covered everything oh are

01:24:19.800 we going to get an aubrey we do everybody princess aubrey this is the result of going out of your

01:24:32.120 way to find somebody within the AFA. You make things like this happen. All right, guys, you

01:24:42.840 guys are awesome. Does anybody else have any last minute stuff they want to make sure we cover this

01:24:46.980 evening? We'll give it just a second here in case they do. She's got the wiggles, so I think that's

01:24:55.920 the obs we're going to get this evening at least you guys i'm probably going to get some more of

01:25:02.640 that as it approaches approaches bedtime all right questions going once questions going twice

01:25:17.920 cool we will talk to you guys or i will talk to you guys next week still figuring out who my guest

01:25:23.040 is going to be brandy thank you so much for being on here tonight i know everybody's enjoyed having

01:25:29.120 you uh i've certainly always enjoyed talking to you so it's it's really nice to have you on um

01:25:36.160 i hope you guys like this give us some feedback if this is something you enjoy

01:25:40.000 if something you enjoy um i'd like to do these once a week and uh like i said we're going to try

01:25:45.840 to put these up as podcasts so you know folks that don't want to listen to them you know on youtube

01:25:52.160 or whatever, can go ahead and listen to those while they're at the gym, while they're driving,

01:25:55.500 whatever they need. Yeah, I appreciate everybody's helped out. Nick, thank you so much. And thank

01:26:01.820 you to everybody who's asked questions tonight. They are certainly, certainly much appreciated.

01:26:09.720 Until next time, hail the gods, hail the folk, hail the AFA. And remember, victory never sleeps.

Asatru Folk Assembly - July 14, 2022

7⧸13⧸22 Victory Never Sleeps, Episode 1

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