Asatru Folk Assembly - 7⧸16⧸25 Victory Never Sleeps, Episode 158 - Reginsmál

00:00:00.000 Transcription by CastingWords

00:00:30.000 Transcription by CastingWords

00:01:00.000 Thank you.

00:01:30.000 Thank you.

00:02:00.000 Thank you.

00:02:30.000 Thank you.

00:03:00.000 hello everyone and welcome to this week's exciting edition of victory never sleeps

00:03:11.760 um we are gonna wait a little bit we're uh hopefully witness fawn is joining me this

00:03:21.540 evening and uh when he does we're gonna go over the reigns model uh it's the next in the series

00:03:28.440 series of Volsunga oriented poems in the Etta that we're going through might as well mention it off

00:03:39.600 the top we are reading directly from veluspow.org that's Nick posted a link if you go there there's

00:03:49.920 cool stuff it's where we've been doing almost all of our our lore readings from so if you

00:03:58.320 follow along exactly we're doing it there you can feel free to read from whatever translation you

00:04:03.900 might have handy or whatever you'd like to but that's where we're going to be working from

00:04:08.220 it's kind of a short one tonight so we can afford to give spawn a few minutes here to get sorted

00:04:15.120 um top of the show things so i update you every week on how we're doing on phrasehoff and matter

00:04:25.860 of fact we're going to have uh witten clifford erickson and his lovely wife githy katie erickson

00:04:32.580 on next week to talk to you guys about how all that's going what that's going to mean when it

00:04:38.820 happens other hoff related and future as relates to hoff things so it should be a good show a fun

00:04:46.580 show and a timely show next week um but so far uh you know i talk to you guys every week i ask you

00:04:54.180 guys to help out and you guys always answer you guys are amazing extremely generous we're trying

00:05:00.340 to raise money for the down payment of phrase off we are currently up to four thousand five hundred

00:05:06.180 and thirty dollars towards that and that's thanks to y'all's generosity so it is very much appreciated

00:05:13.780 you guys are amazing um so you know we've looked at uh i believe four properties now just scouring

00:05:23.300 things. We've got a good line of funding as far as loan stuff figured out for it. So we are

00:05:31.600 making progress and we're very excited about getting that hopefully very soon. So thank you

00:05:38.420 guys for all your generosity, not just on this, but throughout the years, you guys have been

00:05:44.580 amazing and it enables us to do some really special things together. Coming up very quickly,

00:05:52.820 It's about a week and two days from now.

00:05:55.740 We have Sigur Bloat at Sigurheim.

00:05:57.640 That's in Jackson County, Tennessee.

00:06:00.660 If you can make it there, it's going to be hot, but it's going to be fantastic.

00:06:08.100 It is a beautiful, beautiful property.

00:06:10.120 It's going to eventually be the home of Tiershoff and the home of the AFA Capital.

00:06:15.720 We've got big plans for it in the coming years.

00:06:18.560 It's a very special, very powerful place.

00:06:21.860 and I am looking forward to seeing you all there. We're getting really good attendance numbers as

00:06:27.140 far as pre-sales on tickets, so it looks like it's going to be a really nice event. I'm very excited

00:06:32.760 for the awesome people we have showing up. Nick and I have been working on a history presentation

00:06:40.100 on a slideshow deal for you guys, so hopefully that will turn out good. If not, it will certainly

00:06:47.660 turn out entertaining. So I'm looking forward to that. As mentioned, producer Nick will be there

00:06:53.500 and our absent co-host Svon will also be there. We would all love to see you guys. We've got some

00:07:01.000 folks coming in from surrounding states. It's going to be a really nice time. If you can make

00:07:05.180 it, we'd love to see you there. Following month at beautiful Baldershof in Murdoch, Minnesota,

00:07:13.560 we have Freyfaxi. That's the big yearly event at Baldershof. It's going to be amazing. It always

00:07:22.300 is. I'm very excited to see everyone there. It's going to be awesome. A number of us will be there

00:07:28.620 and yeah, if you can make it, yeah, absolutely.

00:07:31.120 um i think that's oh oh also top of the show thanks we are now accepting um enrollment for

00:07:47.920 the what the 2025 2026 school year um got k through seven already so if you have children

00:07:58.560 that you would like to enroll in the Astru Academy, now is the time.

00:08:04.140 Children between kindergarten all the way up through seventh grade this year.

00:08:08.820 So our folks working with the Academy under the direction of Dean Gauthier Rob Stam

00:08:13.900 are doing amazing work.

00:08:16.260 They're getting them set up to where we have a...

00:08:20.260 we are set up to where at least for United States citizens, but also in, I think in a couple of

00:08:33.100 provinces in Canada, we have a legitimate homeschooling program that is acceptable to

00:08:39.600 the standard of your states that can hold parents' hands and help them navigate homeschooling your

00:08:47.860 children in this day and age, that is extremely important to take back that ability to teach your

00:08:56.000 children the values that you want them to have while protecting them against a lot of very

00:09:02.340 damaging things in the world around us. So, you know, make the choices you're going to make with

00:09:09.580 your children on their schooling, but know that this is an option. Know that you don't have to

00:09:15.180 put your children in public school, there is ways to homeschool them, and we are here to help

00:09:21.740 through that process. I'm very excited about it. This fall, Aubrey will be enrolling, and I will be,

00:09:29.360 you know, instructing her through that, so I am looking forward to it, you know, not just as the

00:09:35.760 ulcerative go-thee, but also as a dad with a daughter that's going to start being a part of

00:09:40.520 that program this fall so very much looking forward to that um see where we

00:09:49.040 are at and Nick could you see on the side if you can reach out and see maybe

00:09:56.240 what the

00:09:57.280 yeah

00:09:59.300 all right

00:10:00.900 cool so

00:10:07.320 also of note

00:10:10.860 as always

00:10:13.120 GW Farnsworth

00:10:14.560 our amazing

00:10:15.780 amazing pillar of

00:10:17.520 generosity

00:10:18.100 has donated

00:10:19.480 $25

00:10:20.120 towards our

00:10:21.300 Frazhoff efforts

00:10:22.500 and $25

00:10:23.760 to Victory Never Sleeps

00:10:25.060 fund

00:10:25.420 so thank you

00:10:26.220 as always. It's very, very much appreciated. Also should mention, a large part of our program,

00:10:33.780 a lot of our front-loaded portion of today's program until we get my co-host in, is going to be

00:10:40.140 question and answer stuff. So please, you know, ask things about anything you might want. We

00:10:51.220 promise we will answer your questions on the program, or if we miss them, or they come in

00:10:57.140 late at the end, or whatever, we'll get to them in the next program. Also, at any time, if you're

00:11:02.460 interested, vns at runestone.org. Email your questions there, and we will answer them on the

00:11:10.920 next program, and we already have a number of you that do that, so do that. Also, while we're on the

00:11:18.260 killing a little bit of time at the beginning of the program, it's worth mentioning. Like,

00:11:22.660 share, subscribe. Wherever you are consuming this, if you're watching it live, if you're watching it

00:11:28.620 later, or if you're listening to it as a podcast, wherever you're finding it, like, share, subscribe.

00:11:35.100 Tell your friends, tell people you might know. You're all part of different groups and things

00:11:40.600 on social media out there. Get the word out for other people to check it out. Word of mouth is our

00:11:47.300 our most powerful tool to get our message and our existence in front of the eyes of more of

00:11:55.580 our folk that need to come home. So please feel free to do that. Yeah. Also, thank you to the

00:12:06.680 folks at CounterCurrents who had myself and our law speaker on about a week and a half ago to do

00:12:14.540 an interview there. That was, that was very nice. Always enjoy talking to that audience.

00:12:21.640 Appreciate that. And I should mention coming up in a week and a day, I will be being interviewed

00:12:31.540 on No More News. So looking forward to that as well. Always appreciate opportunities to get,

00:12:39.760 Again, get our existence and our message out in front of more people that need to be coming home.

00:12:45.540 The biggest hurdle to our growth at this stage is that there's a lot of people that simply don't know we exist.

00:12:56.020 The sky is the limit. We've got a huge room for growth.

00:12:59.480 There are a ton of our folk that need to come home to our gods and our faith, our our true folk assembly.

00:13:06.460 The thing holding the biggest majority of that back is simply not knowing that we exist.

00:13:12.520 So the more we get the word out and, you know, because we are who we are and we stand for what we stand for, we it's harder for us on certain platforms.

00:13:21.620 So anything you can do there helps us out.

00:13:23.800 Um, all right. So I do not have any idea what situation is with Svan. Hopefully he joins us.

00:13:38.420 If not, I can go ahead and get us started into the meat of this.

00:13:44.580 yeah let me see where we are at

00:13:53.880 all right sorry guys I am spinning plates here by myself not used to it so I know I'm killing

00:14:05.840 a little bit of air but I appreciate you guys bearing with us here and like I said hopefully

00:14:10.740 Svon will join us in a bit.

00:14:15.880 But if everybody wants to follow along, once again,

00:14:18.640 velispow.org, and we are going to be reading the

00:14:22.360 Rehkan's Maul tonight.

00:14:26.060 And all of these, all of these pieces that we're

00:14:30.800 reading in this section, again, they add

00:14:33.520 depth and additional material to the Volsunga Saga that we did

00:14:38.600 like a seven-part breakdown of. So keep in mind going into it, this is a very old tale. By the

00:14:50.880 time of the Edda's getting compiled, you know, this, the events of, of this would have taken

00:14:58.260 place roughly 800 years earlier 750 years earlier so this survived for a very long time in an oral

00:15:14.020 format amongst our ancestors it also is copied down across northern europe and western europe

00:15:20.980 in a number of different ways. There are undoubtedly tons of bits and bobs of this

00:15:31.540 that we do not currently have access to that were floating around at the time.

00:15:36.100 Everything doesn't match up perfectly, but the more different source material we read

00:15:42.260 about the subject, the more we get a deeper, more fleshed out understanding of the Volsunga

00:15:51.820 cycle as a as a thing all right a question before we get started do we

00:16:13.660 have anything like pamphlets we can drop places funny you should mention that

00:16:20.500 Short answer is no, but the bigger answer is, yeah, something that we've been working on. It's a project that stalled out a little bit that we were working on. Witten Brandy and myself have been working on it, figuring out the right format and what information we need on the pamphlet has always been kind of a curiosity.

00:16:48.900 one of the interesting things and this is a good problem to have but it's really interesting one

00:16:54.820 we need pamphlets for each of our Hoffs and we can model those after you know local church pamphlets

00:17:02.980 but for the bigger deal and for most of the you know most of the area that we'd be putting

00:17:10.980 pamphlets or handing them out we need a generic AFA one we run into something different because

00:17:17.060 our faith is dissimilar to any other it's dissimilar to any other uh any other church

00:17:27.060 any other religious body out there it's strange because numerically it's you know

00:17:36.260 as as numeric as several small local church or you know good-sized local churches

00:17:43.220 but in scope our practice is along the lines of you know the mormons or the jehovah's witnesses

00:17:50.740 or the catholics to where we have you know we have membership in 12 different countries

00:17:57.300 so figuring out the best way to let people know who we are what we're about and drive them to

00:18:05.460 the site figuring out the right verbiage and the right uh imagery for that is something we are

00:18:11.380 working on. I know you guys want that. I appreciate you wanting to pass those out, and we will

00:18:16.580 definitely try to get some of that ironed out. Matter of fact, I'll talk to Brandy about that

00:18:21.060 tomorrow. Okay, so Nosfahn tonight. He got his weeks mixed up. Wondering what we can do for

00:18:39.060 replacement stuff or not. I don't know. I don't think we have anybody queued up, but

00:18:47.380 if any of our Gothar want to call in and step up and join on here, you guys are welcome to join me

00:18:55.140 this evening. If not, I will just take us through the Reagan's Mile, and I think I'll go ahead and

00:19:00.520 get started with it. Sigurd went to Hjallprecht's stud and chose for himself a horse, who thereafter

00:19:10.700 was called Grani. At that time, Reyn, the son of Hreithmar, was come to Hjallprecht's

00:19:25.500 home he was more ingenious than all other men and a dwarf in stature he was wise fierce and skilled

00:19:34.980 in magic reagan under undertook sigurd's uh bringing up and teaching and loved him much

00:19:43.200 he told sigurd of his forefathers and also of this that once odin and honer and loki had come

00:19:52.900 to Anvari's waterfall, and in the fall were many fish. Anvari was a dwarf who had dwelt long in

00:20:03.400 the waterfall in the shape of a pike, and there he got his food. Otter was the name of a brother of 0.94

00:20:11.800 ours, said Reagan, who often went into the fall in the shape of an otter. He had caught a salmon

00:20:19.260 and sat on the high bank eating it, with his eyes shut.

00:20:24.820 Loki threw a stone at him and killed him.

00:20:27.920 The gods thought they had great good luck and stripped the skin of the otter.

00:20:44.160 That same evening, they sought a night's lodging at Hrithmar's house and showed their booty.

00:20:53.340 Then we seized them and told them as ransom for their lives to fill the otter skin with gold and completely cover it outside as well with red gold. 0.73

00:21:04.860 And then they sent Loki to get the gold. 0.99

00:21:07.920 He went to Raun and got her net, and then went to Andavari's fall and cast the net in front of the pike. 0.97

00:21:18.340 As the pike leaped in the net, then Loki said,

00:21:22.100 What is the fish that runs in the flood, and itself from ill cannot save?

00:21:30.900 If I had thou was from hell redeemed, find me the water's flame.

00:21:36.420 Anvari spoke. Anvari am I, and Owen my father, in many a fall have I fared. An evil norn in olden

00:21:49.940 days doomed me in waters to dwell. Loki spake. Anvari, say, if thou seekest still to live in

00:21:58.240 the land of men, what pain have you set for the sons of men who war with lying words? Anvari 0.68

00:22:05.040 spake a mighty payment the man must make who in wolf gelometer's waterway waters weighed on the

00:22:15.680 long road lead the lying words that one to another utters loki saw all the gold that anthari had

00:22:27.680 but when he had brought forth all the gold he held back one ring and loki took this from him

00:22:33.760 the dwarf went into the rocky hole and said now shall the gold that gus once had bring their death

00:22:44.040 to brothers twain and evil be for heroes eight joy of my wealth shall no man win

00:23:04.520 Working on it took me a second to load there.

00:23:08.240 The gods gave Hrithmar the gold and filled up the otter skin and stood it on its feet.

00:23:15.980 Then the gods had to heap up gold and hide it.

00:23:20.320 And when that was done, Hrithmar came forward and saw a single whisker and bade them to cover it.

00:23:28.060 Then Othyn brought out the ring and varanot and covered the hair.

00:23:34.600 And then Loki said, the gold is given and great the price.

00:23:40.000 Thou hast my head to save.

00:23:42.420 But fortune thy sons shall find not there.

00:23:46.360 The bane of ye both it is.

00:23:49.180 Hrithmar spake, gifts ye gave, but ye gave not kindly.

00:23:54.580 gave not with hearts that were whole your lives ere this should y'all have lost if sooner this

00:24:02.980 fate i had seen loki spake worse is this that me thinks i see for a maid shall kinsmen clash

00:24:14.260 heroes unborn thereby shall be i deem to hatred doomed hrythmar spake the gold so red

00:24:24.460 shall I rule me thanks

00:24:26.420 so long as I shall live

00:24:28.220 not of fear

00:24:30.440 for thy threats I feel

00:24:32.240 so get ye 0.98

00:24:34.280 hence to your homes

00:24:35.740 Fafnir

00:24:38.440 and Reyn

00:24:39.220 asked Hrithmar for a share of the

00:24:42.420 wealth that was paid for the slaying

00:24:44.520 of their brother, Otter

00:24:45.660 this he refused

00:24:47.960 and Fafnir thrust his sword

00:24:50.120 through the body of his father, Hrithmar

00:24:52.320 while he was sleeping

00:24:54.280 hrythmar called to his daughters ling heath and lofen heath fled is my life and mighty now is my

00:25:05.180 need ling heath spake though a sister loses her father seldom revenge on her brother she brings

00:25:14.100 a couple of things while we're at this point uh to kind of reiterate

00:25:20.340 There is a complex web of things and a certain butterfly effect that happens.

00:25:31.300 If we're not cautious through life, you stumble into bigger situations by being casual and unthinking with silly things you do.

00:25:45.380 The gods are out walking and Loki decides, I'm gonna chuck this rock at this otter, not knowing where he's at not taking time to think it seems like a thoughtless act, but it literally puts his life at stake.

00:26:03.380 And it forces them to get in a rough and unfortunate situation that they need to find a way out of.

00:26:13.380 And Loki's dealings with any of these strangers that they meet is particularly hostile and sets about a very painful set of events that we see throughout this story, throughout this sequence of stories.

00:26:35.560 The other thing to think about that we're coming up to right now is the strange interlocking obligations as far as your bonds of duty to kin.

00:26:55.700 we have sons slaying their father and then their father asking his daughter their sister to avenge

00:27:08.080 him and creating an impossible circumstance and I think that the depth of this is often

00:27:15.960 ill understood by folks. Very often, for a long time, and I certainly heard this early on when

00:27:29.740 I was involved in Alistair, there is this inviolable, you know, kinslaying is the ultimate

00:27:38.440 evil. There's this supreme loyalty to kin under any circumstance, but it doesn't take into account

00:27:45.840 When there's kin-on-kin bad action, and then you have conflicting obligations.

00:28:01.300 And I think in a lot of ways, this speaks to some bigger pictures in Ausatru.

00:28:07.220 We live in a very complex world.

00:28:10.000 Our religion recognizes complexity and that sometimes there are just bad options and there is an art and a wisdom to navigating your way through the most honorable or the best possible way of playing hands that you're dealt.

00:28:35.300 We believe very much in or law or in, you know, the hand that you're dealt. You come into this world with a complex matrix of luck and of destiny and of past deeds of your kin that you can either be benefiting from or hampered by.

00:28:58.900 And we all come into the world with a certain hand to play. There is an art in playing that hand. In other faiths, it's like you cash in and just hope for the best and let Jesus take the wheel.

00:29:14.940 In our faith, very much, you're expected to play the hand that you're dealt and to make the most out of your opportunities in life and to craft victory from that to the best of your ability.

00:29:30.800 And that's often very complex when you have to choose, you know, do I kill my brothers or do I avenge my father?

00:29:39.800 You know, it doesn't do I not avenge my father if it means killing my brothers or do I go ahead and become a kinslayer, but fulfill my obligation to my father.

00:29:51.920 And there's not always the perfect answer.

00:29:54.300 Things in life are very difficult and very challenging.

00:29:57.340 The art of nobility is taking the responsibility upon yourself to make the hard choices to live with their outcomes and to be bold in facing situations to where the path is not clear, to where things are foggy and you have to choose the best with the information you have.

00:30:23.260 And it's not as appealing for mass consumption because it requires a certain amount of work, but it is honest and it is ennobling if you embrace those challenges, even if it's difficult.

00:30:37.960 so to continue hrythmar spake a daughter woman with wolf's heart bare if thou hast no son

00:30:54.380 with the hero brave if one weds the maid for the need is mighty their son for thy hurt

00:31:02.180 may vengeance seek. 0.56

00:31:04.600 Then Hrithmar died 0.86

00:31:06.000 and Fafnir took all

00:31:08.240 the gold. Thereupon

00:31:10.680 Reion asked

00:31:12.360 to have his inheritance from his

00:31:14.360 father, but Fafnir refused

00:31:16.380 this. Then Reion

00:31:18.560 asked counsel

00:31:20.100 of

00:31:20.840 Lengeith,

00:31:23.540 his sister,

00:31:27.320 how he should win his

00:31:28.360 inheritance. She said,

00:31:30.420 and friendly wise the wealth shall thou ask of thy brother and better will not seem not seemly

00:31:39.020 is it to seek with the sword fafner's treasure to take all these happenings did rayon tell to sigarth

00:31:47.360 one day when he came to rayon's house he was gladly welcome rayon said

00:31:54.400 hither the son of sigmund has come the hero eager here to our hall his courage is more

00:32:03.900 than an ancient man's and battle i hope from thy hearty wolf here shall i foster the fearless prince

00:32:14.560 now engvi's heir to us has come the noblest hero beneath the sun the threads of his fate

00:32:23.760 all lands in fold. Sigurd was there continually with Reyn, who said to Sigurd that Fafnir lay

00:32:32.420 at Nithith and was in the shape of a dragon. He had a fear helm, of which all living creatures

00:32:43.940 were terrified. Reyn made Sigurd the sword, which was called Grom. It was so sharp that when he

00:32:53.360 thrust it down into the Rhine, and let a strand of wool drift

00:32:57.400 against it with the stream. It cleft the strand asunder

00:33:01.320 as if it were water. With this sword Sigurth

00:33:05.040 cleft asunder Regan's anvil. After Regan

00:33:09.040 egged Sigurth on to slay Fafner, but he said, 0.89

00:33:13.540 loud will the sons of Hunding laugh, when low

00:33:17.380 did Elimi lay in death. If the 0.79

00:33:21.320 hero sooner seeks the red rings to find than his father's vengeance. So this is an interesting

00:33:32.460 point that they talk about, that I think a lot of you guys are familiar with a magical

00:33:42.040 sigil called the August Helmer, or the helm of awe. And that's one of the features they're

00:33:49.720 talking about here is this, this magically enchanted terror that if you're to look upon

00:33:55.960 Fafner's, Fafner's face, he wears this, this helm of awe, and it strikes terror in his foes.

00:34:09.400 And it also, you know, points out that the sisters like Kay, Ray, and if you want your,

00:34:17.680 if you want your gold for from our brother you you best to ask nicely because he is he's not

00:34:23.760 one to be trifled with um this serpent at this point is world renowned for its might and it's uh

00:34:34.160 it's a deadly and quarrelsome nature

00:34:47.680 King Helpreck gave Sager the fleet for the avenging of his father.

00:34:55.400 They ran into a great storm and were off a certain headland.

00:34:59.720 A man stood on the mountain and said,

00:35:02.660 Who yonder rides on Rival's steeds?

00:35:08.400 O'er towering waves and water's wild.

00:35:12.980 The sail horses all with sweat are dripping.

00:35:16.580 nor can the sea steeds the gale withstand Reagan answered on the sea trees

00:35:24.120 here are sicker than I the storm winds dry wind drives us on to our death the

00:35:33.320 waves crash down on the forward deck and the roller steeds sink who seeks our

00:35:39.180 names the man spake kniker i was when volsung once gladdened the ravens and battle gave call

00:35:50.540 me the man from the mountain now fang or fjolnir with uh with you will i fare and they sailed to

00:36:00.620 the land, and the man went on board the ship. The storm subsided, and Sigurds spake, Knikar,

00:36:08.840 say, for thou seest the fate that to gods and men is given. What sign is fairest for

00:36:17.400 him who fights, and best for the swinging of swords? Knikar spake. Knikar spake. Knikar 0.61

00:36:28.780 spake many the signs if men but knew that are good for the swinging of swords it is well

00:36:36.460 methinks if the warrior meets a raven black on his road um and anyone who is

00:36:50.700 curious about that um that's one of the the many names of the all-father odin it's one of the times

00:37:00.940 in the story that he gets himself involved in affairs of the uh the wool songs and it's really

00:37:10.940 cool to see this i don't know this whole passage of them being you know in a in a storm at sea

00:37:21.660 him being on the mountain and and calling out them picking them up and then the seas subsiding

00:37:26.940 and him letting them know the sign of the raven being you know beneficial to them and i think that

00:37:33.260 the tradition of the raven banner go back to this this concept of that fortuitous sign of the of the

00:37:44.540 raven another it is if thou art come and art ready forth to fare to behold on the path before the

00:38:02.540 house two fighters greedy of fame third it is well of a howling wolf thou hearest under the ash

00:38:11.380 and fortune comes if thy foe thou seest ere thee the hero beholds a man shall fight not

00:38:20.040 when he must face the moon's bright sisters setting late when he shall who well can see

00:38:28.460 and wedge-like forms his men for the fray.

00:38:34.720 Foul is the sign if thy foot shall stumble

00:38:38.380 as thou goest forth to fight.

00:38:44.240 Goddess is baneful, at both thy sides

00:38:47.920 will that wounds thou shalt get.

00:38:54.260 Combed and washed shall the wise man go

00:38:57.220 and a meal

00:38:58.800 at mom shall take

00:39:01.500 for unknown it is

00:39:03.500 where at eve

00:39:05.240 he may be

00:39:06.220 it is ill thy luck to lose

00:39:09.720 Sigurd had a great battle

00:39:14.800 with Lengvi 1.00

00:39:16.820 the son of Hunding

00:39:18.700 and his brothers 1.00

00:39:20.300 there Lengvi fell 1.00

00:39:22.700 and his two brothers with him

00:39:24.720 after the battle of Regan said

00:39:27.700 Now the bloody eagle with biting sword is carved on the back of Sigmund's killer.

00:39:35.080 Few were more fierce in the fight than his son, who reddened the earth and gladdened the ravens.

00:39:41.140 Sigurd went home to Hjalprak's house.

00:39:45.640 Thereupon Rey and Egnon to fight with Fafnir.

00:39:50.760 And that is all for tonight.

00:39:54.260 that did not take long and not having my co-host it went by kind of quick one of the things they

00:40:02.280 referenced in the last passage there as a special denouement to completing vengeance

00:40:11.800 was uh carving the blood eagle into into the back of the slain and that's a

00:40:19.860 And that's a thing where a captive is arms tied, you know, splayed out, and the ribs

00:40:29.960 are cut from the spinal column to flare out like the wings of an eagle as the innards

00:40:37.080 fall, and it's a gruesome and agonizing death and a exclamation point on a quest of vengeance.

00:40:47.880 And so that's kind of dramatically laid out there for folks.

00:40:53.960 All right.

00:40:55.420 So it's just me this evening, but I will answer any and all questions you guys might have,

00:41:00.320 and I'm happy to talk about as much stuff as you would like to this evening.

00:41:05.380 So let's see where we are at and what we got.

00:41:13.540 So I'm going to ask for some audience participation on this one,

00:41:17.300 if you guys have ideas. Gabe asks, he says, Hale, do you have any book recommendations

00:41:23.700 specifically for children in mind? I have a three-month-old and in the coming years

00:41:29.780 will need some good books. I've got The Northern Path by Dag Rossman on a previous episode's

00:41:39.540 recommendation. I don't have any great kids books, especially

00:41:46.380 little kids books off the top of my head. If folks out there

00:41:51.160 might have a good idea, that would be cool. I that's was kind

00:42:02.100 of a thing. My daughter, my daughter Aubrey is five now.

00:42:05.940 trying to figure out good like kids books she's just now getting to where she's starting to

00:42:14.840 understand some of the little bit older kids books as far as little kid books I don't have

00:42:21.200 great ones that are specifically also true or that talk about the lore there's a number of

00:42:27.240 cool like little kid books but ones that talk about the lore and talk about you know our myth

00:42:33.740 cycle for kids. They're hard to come by. Now one I got that's good for, you know, a little

00:42:39.200 bit older kids and I actually have it right here because me and Aubrey go through it is

00:42:47.820 this one, the Dallaire's Book of Norse Myths. It's really cool and it's got big, engaging

00:42:58.500 colored pencil looking drawings. I don't know if that's the actual medium, but it's what

00:43:02.420 kind of looks like to me it's got a lot of very dramatic pictures Aubrey really likes the pictures

00:43:08.660 and when she likes the pictures it gets her much more engaged in like what the myth is of what

00:43:13.940 the story is and who the characters are because she really relates to the pictures they're cool

00:43:20.020 they're dramatic they're not always the best pictures but they're bright colors and they're

00:43:24.020 interesting they're compelling and it's actually I found that in my high school library it is not

00:43:31.540 remotely meant for high schoolers, but it was an early thing that I, you know, I forget what the

00:43:38.160 occasion was, but I had time between classes or whatever else, and I sat there and looked through

00:43:42.720 it, and it was one of the early hooks that got me more curious about our lore, so I recommend that

00:43:51.220 when your child is able to, able to put some things together that way and comprehend some

00:43:59.220 stuff i don't have a lot of great book recommendations if really cool ones come in for

00:44:04.500 little kids cool ones come in i will let you know if they come in over in the chat read the next

00:44:11.300 thing in the private chat i did you don't like them cool so um an option from nick is uh

00:44:22.980 Thor is My Friend and Where Did I Come From? by Jim Cummings.

00:44:29.380 So you may want to check those out if you like those.

00:44:40.740 Our next question is from Scott.

00:44:47.680 i wish to speak upon a subject male bonding men bond differently than women 0.97

00:44:55.640 uh if i personally don't have a man or two to smoke and spit and swear with and bust balls

00:45:04.540 occasionally i truly feel alone the afa is a wonderful church but can it possibly see the

00:45:10.660 wisdom in this. Um, yeah, absolutely. Um, absolutely. There is. So I'm trying to take

00:45:27.420 this question as, as broad as possible. Um, with the, the person who asked that, I know a little

00:45:32.940 bit deeper of where they're trying to get on it, but I want to make it broad for the audience.

00:45:36.680 just continue with a couple posts down i accidentally skipped it oh okay so i guess

00:45:41.480 there's there's more to it uh providing a vital or a virtual place where men can be men as it were

00:45:50.600 not posting nudie pics of women but a place where freedom of speech is not stifled by rules and

00:45:56.200 proper church behavior so the afa has that we have a men's group where folks can talk and talk about

00:46:03.240 men things um no we don't want a group where our guys get together and are overly crass or you know

00:46:16.040 there's a lot of opportunities for that as the afa we absolutely have a spot for men to talk

00:46:23.080 about men's issues and men's things in a you know in a frank way but yeah encouraging folks to be

00:46:33.480 dignified in their behavior on AFA sponsored things is really important I know the AFA doesn't

00:46:40.040 want to sponsor a group where guys can you know be be crass or be vulgar or do things that you know

00:46:47.720 you wouldn't be proud of doing in a church group that said i'm not silly and i'm not prudish i get

00:46:55.240 that the best thing for that is not a church sponsored group for guys to do that it's to make

00:47:01.180 some friends and talk to them online um and then you can have you know whatever level of guy talk

00:47:07.840 that you need to have with them um in those groups that you know are volunteer the groups that people

00:47:16.040 groups that men choose to engage in with people that they choose to engage in with.

00:47:21.980 I get that it's cool to sit around with guys and tell vulgar jokes and not have to watch what you

00:47:30.360 say. I get the idea for that, but that's something you do with groups of friends that you create that

00:47:37.020 want to be there, that want to engage in that kind of discussion with, and that you've built

00:47:42.740 that relationship with. It's a strange thing and an artificial thing to come in with people that

00:47:48.580 you, your only point of connectivity with them is your membership in our church. And then wanting to

00:47:57.680 jump into a, you know, to a much, much more guys will be guys locker room situation with people

00:48:09.920 That works a lot better when you've got people that you know and that you've built that level of closeness with where you feel comfortable having those kind of conversations with.

00:48:18.720 And not every guy is going to be comfortable with that or going to like to converse that way.

00:48:24.220 That's not, you know, that's not a requirement to be a man is to be to be crass or to be vulgar.

00:48:31.620 But, you know, again, I'm not silly.

00:48:34.000 I've got my guys that on the side I'll, you know, text off-color things to and do that plenty.

00:48:42.740 I think that we all do.

00:48:44.400 But I think the value of that, you can make those friends in the AFA men's group and then have those conversations on the side.

00:48:54.100 um anything that the afa has you know complete freedom of speech is a misnomer we like to have

00:49:05.980 uh you know we like to have people express themselves freely as a general sense and we

00:49:13.380 like there's but there's bounds of what's appropriate there's bounds of what's appropriate

00:49:17.860 there's bounds of when something becomes um just rude and crass and insulting there's things that

00:49:29.880 are detrimental to the group and uh while you have a certain amount of freedom to do those things

00:49:35.260 in a place of your choosing if it's under the auspices of the afa then we have an obligation

00:49:41.180 to kind of keep the peace and make it an environment where people are not forced to

00:49:48.320 be at the whim of, you know, people choosing to be antisocial in social settings.

00:49:57.740 That's really broad.

00:49:59.000 I can answer any specifics on stuff.

00:50:01.840 But yeah, freedom of speech is really important.

00:50:04.240 But within AFA-sponsored stuff, there's a way you act within the group and there's a

00:50:08.780 way you don't act within the group.

00:50:11.180 And I think that's kind of the responsibility of the group that is hosting wherever you're you're having your discussion.

00:50:19.580 Um, what else we got?

00:50:22.680 Hold on.

00:50:23.200 trent asks i'll tell you go for you what advice would you give our young men who want to improve

00:50:40.240 themselves but feel overwhelmed by the modern world best advice that i would give in that kind

00:50:49.120 of a scenario is

00:50:58.160 with whatever you decide to do and it's going to be different depending upon what you do

00:51:04.000 don't allow yourself to be overwhelmed by the end result that you want to achieve take things

00:51:10.560 one step at a time that can be really hard because we are in a you mentioned the modern world in the

00:51:21.440 modern world we have we have a lot of access to instant gratification to lots of things

00:51:32.480 we with our phone at a moment's notice get an answer to any question we want get directions

00:51:40.640 we can order whatever food we want and pick it up either we can use doordash and they'll deliver it

00:51:46.740 you've got all these things to where results come very very quickly but on the bigger

00:51:51.820 life things results sometimes don't come that quickly and especially when you have the perception

00:51:59.980 that it does come that quickly for other people it's very hard to put in the work for a goal that

00:52:10.040 seems distant it really is true and I understand this and it would this would not be soothing to

00:52:18.780 me 20 years ago but it is something that I've learned is true developing habits and being

00:52:29.120 consistent in those habits more often than not that's what gets you where you're trying to go

00:52:37.040 and that's what wins you victory in your life um there's a follow-up question by nick and i

00:52:45.360 think this is going to address and cover some of it when our young men especially you know

00:52:55.920 again our young men young heterosexual white men get so much messaging in the world today

00:53:04.800 that they're unwanted or that all of the things they can't do or you know

00:53:13.440 all of the places that they're toxic or all of the ways that they feel unwanted and i

00:53:19.920 absolutely get that but it's really easy when that's the messaging that you're constantly fed

00:53:29.440 to lean into that and to embrace the doom spiraling uh doom porn as it were where you're just

00:53:39.920 feeding on bad social media all day about how terrible everything is

00:53:44.320 that wastes a lot of time where you could be spending it based on what's positive and what

00:53:53.140 victories that you that are in front of you if all your focus is on listing all of the things

00:53:59.520 you can't do it makes it much harder to notice and to see the things that you can do to get

00:54:08.140 closer to what you want. So often we look at the end result of something and it may seem so far

00:54:16.040 away that it's unattainable and we give up and don't even try. Most things in life aren't a

00:54:24.640 zero 100 proposition. There's a lot of things that get you so much closer to what you want

00:54:32.380 than you are now whether or not you make it to that 100 or not if that's where you want to go

00:54:42.220 and you get halfway there it's halfway closer than you are today there's a lot to be said for that

00:54:48.940 we often let perfect be the enemy of good and we don't capitalize on opportunities that we have to

00:54:56.860 make our lives better and so that's kind of what i would say is taking those small steps

00:55:03.660 um doing things incrementally is how you get most anywhere in your life we see moments and they

00:55:11.820 stand out because they're the the subject of of legend and you know drama and history these big

00:55:19.180 These big moments to where in one really special person's lifetime, you know, they conquer the world, but there's only so many Caesars or Alexanders or Napoleons out there.

00:55:34.460 It is great to dream on that scale.

00:55:39.360 But in the meantime, take advantage of all of those little opportunities you have.

00:55:45.900 And I'm speaking in vagaries because it depends on what you're trying to do.

00:55:51.200 But if you're scrawny and you want to put on some weight and get in better shape, there's nothing you can do that's going to magically make that happen.

00:56:00.700 Even if you took a whole bunch of steroids and other things, without going in there and putting in the effort or without eating enough, your body is not going to do what you want it to do.

00:56:12.840 So the whole idea of weight training is progressive overload that over time and very consistently over years, you build that physique that you want.

00:56:28.040 If you're overweight and you want to lose weight, it's daunting because you spend years getting fat and then you're like, man, I want to look like I want to look and I want to do it in just a couple of months.

00:56:39.360 It doesn't work that way, but it does if you do incrementally. And when I say this, it's not just theoretically come up with ways to gauge your incremental progress. So just using the analogy that I made, if you keep a workout log, when you work out, you can chart over time. Are you lifting? Have you gone up in weight? Have you gone up in reps? Are you lifting more at the given exercise than you did this time last year? You can chart that.

00:57:09.360 and you can see differences if you chart your body fat percentage and you're trying to lose weight

00:57:18.160 or you're trying to lose fat rather you can see if that percentage is going up and down you can

00:57:23.440 see how you're doing you can celebrate those small victories but finding ways to gauge small

00:57:29.040 victories and check in is really really important most of these that i'm saying today are things

00:57:34.640 that individuals can do but i've talked about this before and i think i talked about it the last show

00:57:40.720 or two shows ago there was something that was really valuable to me that i read in nine doors

00:57:46.160 of midgard by edward thorson and at the beginning of that curriculum he has you make i think a

00:57:52.960 low staff and merc staff list basically a you know your good qualities and your bad qualities

00:58:01.680 or good things you're bringing to the table and bad things that you have and over time you check

00:58:08.400 in with this maybe monthly i forget how long he prescribes between check-ins but over time

00:58:14.480 and i've kept that list since i first started doing that um man like 15 years ago now and

00:58:23.120 And over time, it is beneficial to look and see all of the things you've been able to, you know, scratch off the bad list and the things you've been able to add to the good list.

00:58:38.020 That requires you to be honest with yourself.

00:58:40.760 But coming up with ways to check in is important.

00:58:43.080 The other thing I would say, and this is, you know me, and I get on here with our law speaker and he's, you know, a little bit older than I am and he's fairly resistant to technology.

00:58:57.440 I'm not that guy. I don't mind technology. I'm on my phone a lot. I have to be to do this and to do this well.

00:59:03.360 but it's easy to get wrapped up in that in a way that's distorted i don't know that all those

00:59:13.620 people are artificial but you're in a you're in a space where everything is democratized and

00:59:19.560 whoever's got the most time to be the loudest on social media is perceived as having some kind of

00:59:25.580 value check in with real people in life get friends even if it's just a few our young men

00:59:35.660 finding other young men in the real world that they are able to check in with measure themselves

00:59:42.060 against and hold accountable and have them hold you accountable accountability is the biggest

00:59:49.980 is one of the biggest factors and it's the reason that people want life coaches it's the reason that

00:59:56.960 people want uh you know nutritionists or people want personal trainers most people if they do

01:00:04.720 any effort can figure out how to get a good diet they can figure out a good exercise routine

01:00:09.900 but having somebody you check in with they're like hey you know how you doing at the gym well

01:00:17.220 i haven't been going there's something inherent in men men of value to where you man you don't

01:00:25.140 that's the last thing you want to do is admit to your your peer that you are not holding up your

01:00:32.340 end whatever it is whatever you guys decide to do if you guys are going to read stuff you guys are

01:00:36.100 going to learn a language if you guys are going to pursue something in your careers having somebody

01:00:42.020 that you check in and have to report your progress or lack thereof to you forces you

01:00:47.780 to get out of the cycle of justifying things and doing mental gymnastics and to speak it

01:00:54.320 into the world to another person and see their reaction to your failure or your success.

01:01:03.420 Accountability is really important, chunking things into small attainable things that you

01:01:07.900 can measure is really important and avoiding the tendency to spiral to doom spiral is really

01:01:17.340 important so that's what i would say um and to nick's question about victory and what victory

01:01:23.420 looks like victory looks real different to a lot of people depending on where you're deficient or

01:01:30.060 what you're trying to do with your life but we need to never lose sight of the big victories

01:01:38.460 but we also need to celebrate and appreciate each of our small victories

01:01:44.780 victory is usually not a one big bite victory it is most often a series of small bites that

01:01:54.060 gets you ever closer to your goal and i truly believe this and this can be applied to a lot

01:02:01.420 of different stuff but if you um if you gear yourself right be in position to capitalize on

01:02:12.780 that big lightning once in a lifetime circumstance victory absolutely you don't ever want that to

01:02:19.900 pass you by if the opportunity is there. But in the meantime, in the meantime, do all

01:02:27.680 of those things to secure all of those small victories. You build it brick by brick with

01:02:34.720 those small victories. Again, that doesn't cost you the big victory. But if you bet

01:02:42.940 wrong and the big victory doesn't come, you miss out on everything if you don't seize

01:02:47.340 those small victories. And if you're busy stacking bricks of small victories, then you are best

01:02:55.000 poised to recognize when the opportunity comes to make a big leap towards victory. You can do both.

01:03:02.560 Do both. The hardest thing is to, and I said this before, the hardest step is from the couch to the

01:03:10.880 front door. Everything else is easier. If all of our young men

01:03:18.840 would go out and make an effort each and every day to win, we

01:03:23.360 would be in such a better place and we would be so much happier

01:03:28.260 and we would set such a better example for our children. So do

01:03:33.520 that and encourage other men to do that.

01:03:40.880 what have you unlearned in your path as an

01:03:49.680 into as into and through the priesthood that surprised you huh

01:03:58.700 so i don't want to be flipped with my answer to this i actually want to give this some thought

01:04:07.140 because I think it's a really good question.

01:04:09.420 This is when I would throw it to Svahn

01:04:10.960 and then capitalize on him having to answer it first

01:04:13.540 to come up with a really good answer.

01:04:17.380 But yeah.

01:04:28.400 So I don't know if this counts as unlearning.

01:04:37.140 yeah yeah forgive me if this isn't the exact answer to the question but i think this gets

01:04:43.940 us towards it and i think that it's i don't know hopefully useful for somebody um

01:04:55.220 i got a lot of

01:04:58.260 i got a lot better understanding of how people really are and the reality of people

01:05:13.700 um when you're a gofi and you have to give people counseling you

01:05:24.660 become

01:05:28.260 people trust you and let you in and to be most effective you need to be able to know

01:05:40.500 as much as possible about the circumstance and about the person that you're helping about what

01:05:46.420 they actually think and feel who they actually are and what they're actually going through

01:05:50.660 we all in our lives try to put our best foot forward and to show an idealized version of

01:05:59.580 ourselves to a significant degree that's a good thing to do is to present yourself well

01:06:06.220 you don't advertise your weaknesses but when I counsel people

01:06:12.500 to do it effectively I need them to you know tell me how it really is and to open up 0.96

01:06:20.060 And a lot of people with a lot of a lot of problems, you hear a lot of things as a Goathe that you can't unhear. 0.88

01:06:31.060 And you learn all of the dirty secrets that people don't let out in the course of their day. 0.98

01:06:41.060 And so you learn a lot of interesting and I want to say disappointing sometimes, but

01:06:52.740 I don't really mean that in that sense.

01:06:56.840 But you get a much more accurate picture of what people are going through and who they

01:07:01.940 really are.

01:07:02.940 You hear about, you know, people's relationships, struggles, and the failings that people have

01:07:11.540 romantically with members of the failings people have with members of their family

01:07:17.300 you really get to see the parts of people that aren't meant for public consumption

01:07:25.700 and sometimes it recalibrates you know the distance between the person they project

01:07:33.940 themselves to be and who they really are or you know whoever they're telling you a story about

01:07:40.820 But it also, you learn a lot of things.

01:07:47.440 Sometimes you learn positively about all of the stuff this person has gone through and the fact that you didn't know because they held themselves with a certain amount of dignity or they held themselves in a way to where you thought they had it all together.

01:08:01.500 so it readjusts and you unlearn in the sense you have to readjust your barometer of you know

01:08:11.840 what's real and what people are really going through and what's the real evaluation of people

01:08:19.500 one thing that I've learned um and again it cuts both ways sometimes you discover villains where

01:08:27.420 you thought you had heroes, and sometimes you discover heroes where, you know, you thought you 0.61

01:08:32.000 had villains or you thought you had dullards. Some of the people that I have least expected great

01:08:38.320 things from turn out to be amazing. Some of the people that, and I've learned this a lot, a lot

01:08:45.320 of the people that look the part that seem like they are, you know, the best, you know, the best

01:08:52.420 and the brightest, they look like they should be on the recruitment poster, very often those people

01:08:57.400 are worthless those people do not they're not made of solid things they don't know anything

01:09:03.080 about loyalty or hard work or dedication i've heard you know some of the scariest 0.99

01:09:15.080 meanest looking you know baddest looking dudes turn out to be the biggest cowards

01:09:21.240 some of the most unassuming, you know, meek looking guys that you'd never expect it from

01:09:29.580 turn out to be champions for our faith and our folk and turn out to be rock solid.

01:09:36.580 So I've learned a lot of that. I've learned how to see that a little bit better.

01:09:42.380 I've also learned really deeply how depressed a lot of our folk can be.

01:09:50.500 i've had to counsel people through some really bad things i had to counsel people

01:09:56.740 through suicidal situations or situations where um maybe somebody that we all knew and loved

01:10:03.940 uh took their own life so i've learned some of that i've learned you know signs of who

01:10:14.180 really believes in the gods and takes this seriously and who doesn't and it's not always

01:10:20.060 who you think in counseling i have you know every time i think that you know i've got a good grasp

01:10:28.140 on it and i've seen it all and i've seen you know most of the things i could encounter

01:10:31.920 you get the most strange and random odd things that you never in a million years would think

01:10:41.920 were having to counsel people through or or hear about and so a wide variety of those things

01:10:53.600 and that's that's the thing so all of those things and I suppose some of that's unlearning

01:11:00.960 a lot of it's just read readjusting

01:11:06.080 knowing where our people really are at versus where they say they're at

01:11:09.680 and getting a better feel for the real soul condition of a large chunk of our folk

01:11:17.520 it's also kind of interesting and i'll say this too i get to see things on a much broader scale so

01:11:27.840 because our folk span economics and upbringing and geography and age and countless other things

01:11:39.680 i get a wide perspective on stuff that people are going through i'm able to counsel people who are

01:11:48.000 you know in their 70s and 80s i can also counsel people who are in their 20s i counsel people in

01:11:56.640 all different parts of the country and i've counseled people in different parts of the world

01:12:01.360 you know men women veterans students health care workers a wide variety of our folk with a wide

01:12:11.520 variety of issues so i think it's given me a very valuable perspective on just on better understanding

01:12:19.760 people um but i think that was a really good question

01:12:30.400 um so all right a question i would like to ask if

01:12:46.240 heathenistic behavior tribalism primalism and modern primitives have a place in modern house true

01:12:54.560 um i don't know what all of that means because i think they mean different things to different

01:13:03.340 people um there is a wide spectrum of stuff you can do if you want and it's not disqualifying

01:13:20.600 i don't know if that means it has a place in modern house to true so if you want to do

01:13:29.400 primal primitive things it's is again it's hard to those words mean different things

01:13:35.960 to different people they sound like a variety of primitivism things and as

01:13:45.400 it's broad and I'm trying to be artful on it I want to want to keep it real on stuff as a broad

01:13:54.920 term no I think that sounds like ooga booga stuff in a sense of you know there being time and a

01:14:01.800 place for you to want to get out in the woods and get back to nature or to test yourself against the

01:14:08.360 elements or to something like that I think there is absolutely a place for that if you as a hobby

01:14:15.400 want to do caveman stuff or flint nap which some people do or do a variety of if it's just fun for

01:14:23.560 you to go run around in the woods in a loincloth or whatever you do you i don't think that's

01:14:29.960 disqualifying but no i don't think it has a particular again when you ask that no i don't

01:14:37.080 think that's something that modern house is true needs to encompass but if that's something you

01:14:41.240 want to do on your own time i don't think that's a a horrible thing to do um it just isn't really

01:14:48.520 related to alsatru now i say that there's been um people that want to do like primitive weapons

01:14:56.760 hunting or those kind of things and i think that's appropriate i think there is a place

01:15:02.360 for something like that and i is i do think there's a place for some you know getting out

01:15:10.040 in the woods male bonding over you know going through struggle and going through some kind

01:15:16.600 of ordeal i think there's place for that i think those things as lifestyle choices though no not so

01:15:23.160 much next question if you could speak privately to your 20 year old self at the beginning of your

01:15:30.840 spiritual path what would you warn or encourage him about

01:15:40.440 so again with the deep questions i think that's a really good question too

01:15:45.640 and it's something that i've kind of thought about but it always

01:15:48.360 there's a number of things if you get burdened by negativity over a long period of time i wouldn't

01:16:04.680 want to go back and crush my youthful optimism with reality checks on things

01:16:14.040 What I would strongly do is tell the 20-year-old version of me to trust that people have reasons for doing things the way they do.

01:16:37.220 And when I look at something and it's not like the cool idea I have in my head, to stop and consider why and maybe ask before I assume.

01:16:51.860 I think that's one of the things is we get young and we get, you know, everybody knows, we know it all.

01:16:58.320 And I think all of us have gone through that to one degree or another.

01:17:01.600 But you get involved in something at a young age and you know the right way to do it. 1.00

01:17:05.440 What is with these idiots? Why are they not doing it this way? This is clearly the right way things were supposed to be done. Often when you get closer and you see the inner workings, you realize why those things aren't done. Maybe those things have been tried and didn't work. Maybe those things require resources that are much harder to attain than you might think they are. 1.00

01:17:29.560 maybe the uh the folks that you think would be all about chipping in and helping out with something

01:17:36.120 maybe they're not so i think that there's i would teach that to myself the idea of respecting your

01:17:44.760 elders and if something's not done the way you think it ought to be done ask those that you

01:17:51.560 think are doing it wrong, ask them why ask questions, always ask questions. I tell that

01:17:58.120 to my 20 year old self, I would tell that to all I'm literally telling that to all of

01:18:01.940 you right now. Ask questions. If you you wonder why something is the way it is, be intellectually

01:18:09.580 curious and ask more importantly, you don't have any right to be grumpy about it. If you

01:18:16.300 don't ask and figure out why things are the way they are. And

01:18:21.340 so I think I would try to encourage myself to be slower

01:18:24.700 to make big, you know, condemnations of people and

01:18:28.140 things and quicker to learn the why things are the way they

01:18:33.100 are.

01:18:46.300 yeah, it's hard, you know, like I said, I wouldn't want to share the all the baggage

01:18:55.540 of, you know, 20 years and put that all on a on a 20 year younger version of myself shoulders.

01:19:04.880 But I would advise them to do that.

01:19:07.800 that's I think the biggest thing honestly I'm looking back on it and there's stuff that you

01:19:16.620 know a lot of it led here in a very organic way that I appreciate I think that's the biggest one

01:19:25.560 that I would that I would do there have been a lot of people that I trusted that let me down

01:19:34.300 in really big ways in my spiritual journey to where I am now, but I don't think I would dissuade

01:19:43.160 the younger version of me from having those same experiences because I think I got a lot out of

01:19:48.280 them. I think I learned a lot out of them, and if I were that jaded or overcautious, I would have

01:19:56.520 missed out on a lot of things, so I think some of my open-hearted trust that I put in some people

01:20:02.620 that weren't worthy of it i think that also gave me a great boon in that openness i learned a lot

01:20:12.780 and made a lot of relationships it wouldn't have made otherwise so i probably would keep

01:20:16.380 that in there and not try to advise against it um what tension exists between tradition

01:20:25.820 and modernity in also true and how do you personally reconcile it um

01:20:35.740 not sure whether we're talking about

01:20:40.380 okay so and i i don't reconcile it because i have always felt this way

01:20:45.420 we are a real religion as such we can't larp things so holding on to traditional things

01:21:04.260 that are traditional is really cool but it's always been fundamental to know

01:21:11.220 why we're why those traditions exist and why we're doing them if we're doing something within

01:21:18.180 the a as a the afa as a tradition because it's cool and it's something we've always done and it

01:21:23.320 you know ties us together with the fluid practice of our faith great but being like stuck in it

01:21:31.700 if we learn a better way and not wanting to do it right and this is i think the fundamental key

01:21:37.500 This is where the tension comes in. When we learn and we grow and we learn that a tradition is wrong and we should do something different, dealing with the old heads that have always done it this way and don't want to change, that is a problem.

01:21:57.880 And I think that's a problem for all of us. We should want to do things right. And we should know that we will always, we are not perfect, but we should always strive towards perfection. And that means we're going to have to evolve things we do to get closer and closer to right. And I think that's really, really important.

01:22:19.580 I've always thought that was important but that's where we run into and I think that's what separates

01:22:26.060 and maybe this is not fair we all have sentimentality and I can understand when we all

01:22:37.180 want to continue to do traditions that we're used to that are comfortable that are fun

01:22:43.300 or that you know are our comfort zone that's not wrong in and of itself but it's always valuable

01:22:52.360 to check in and say what's the right thing to do what would the gods want us to do

01:22:59.260 both of those things are more important than what's comfortable to do or what we're used to

01:23:06.620 doing so refreshing our priorities on what's um right and why we do the things we do is really

01:23:15.440 important thank you baby all right that's enough um that's really important so i would say i would

01:23:23.360 say that there's a there's a big tension between people who are comfortable doing stuff and then

01:23:28.460 also you have if you've been doing something wrong for 20 years it's really uncomfortable

01:23:35.060 to switch it up and admit that and change course. We all have a sunk cost thing where if we've been

01:23:43.120 doing something wrong for a long time, we don't want to change what we do. It takes courage and

01:23:48.580 it takes resolution to be able to do that. And I say that when something's wrong. More often than

01:23:54.940 not, the vast majority of the time, it's not that something's wrong. It's just that something can be

01:24:00.640 done better and so you have to alter a tradition most often you don't have to abandon it you just

01:24:06.980 have to tweak it to make it better or to get closer to you know where it ought to be there's

01:24:14.840 a certain humility that we all should have knowing that we're not perfect and that getting it right

01:24:21.440 is much more important than continuing something that makes us comfortable battling against the

01:24:29.900 I don't know the entropy of staying in your comfort zone it's one of the biggest okay so

01:24:35.880 I'm stuff that I've learned while doing this that's one of the biggest ones that I've seen

01:24:40.620 getting outside of your comfort zone is scary and that may look like really different things

01:24:49.060 really different people if you are not very socially adept and you're you're a nerd or

01:24:59.420 you're not popular or you're not you didn't have you're not outgoing or you're one of those kind

01:25:05.320 of people going out and interacting with groups of people and being outgoing is terrifying

01:25:16.300 that may not seem like a big deal at all to people who it comes natural for but if you don't have

01:25:25.460 that and you don't develop that in you know your school period you're like high school age

01:25:32.900 every year that goes by it's exponentially harder to go talk to girls it's exponentially harder to 0.72

01:25:38.340 go like make a friend and like do that i'm amazed that aubrey you know will go to the park and she

01:25:45.940 can just go hi you want to be my friend cool and they click up and they're buddies for the next

01:25:50.500 two hours they play at the park i can't do that as an adult um so if you're not outgoing that's

01:25:58.100 hard and it can be terrifying i've seen um the idea of you know not knowing what ausitru is

01:26:07.140 and who you'll meet at an afa event or at an ausitru moot that's scary and i get that people

01:26:14.660 oftentimes always have an excuse or a reason that they don't go and make the effort because it's

01:26:21.060 scary and it could be disappointing they don't want to face that so that's terrifying um for some

01:26:27.420 people getting out of the house the thing about the first step from the the couch to the door is

01:26:32.960 the biggest deal i've seen other people that are you know that have defined themselves in their

01:26:41.200 life by being counterculture or by being skinheads or by being, you know, maybe they're,

01:26:47.360 they're ex-cons and they're guys that a lot of, you know, other groups of people would be

01:26:51.580 intimidated by and think are, you know, these scary, bad-ass dudes. I'm always surprised.

01:26:59.240 Sometimes it's very scary for them to meet a group and interact with a group of people that

01:27:05.460 don't come from that background, that haven't lived a rough life, that haven't shared those

01:27:11.220 life experiences, that aren't rough around the edges, that aren't covered in tattoos or whatever

01:27:17.000 the situation is, as much as, you know, it's intimidating for people who've never been around

01:27:25.060 that to be around those folks, it's very intimidating for those folks to be around

01:27:29.480 normal people and not feel like they're going to mess it up, not feel like they're going to say

01:27:34.660 the wrong thing and everybody look at them like they have, you know, four heads. We all face

01:27:40.360 different things that are our comfort zone that it's scary to get out of. Maybe we've been

01:27:45.520 practicing Ausitru for, you know, 20, 30 years, but we've all been doing it this one way. And now

01:27:51.480 we come to the AFA and they want to want us to do it different. And that's uncomfortable.

01:27:58.880 Getting in a room of people, maybe you're around, you know, you're new to this and you're in a peer

01:28:03.580 group of people that, you know, studied a lot and know all the little, you know, can make lower

01:28:09.480 references and know all these things. That's intimidating. It can be scary too, get you out

01:28:14.520 of your comfort zone. We are very used to in the modern world, being very comfortable at all times

01:28:20.380 and being uncomfortable is terrifying to people. That's how you get victory though, is forcing

01:28:26.720 yourself into uncomfortable situations and overcoming those challenges, getting comfortable

01:28:33.280 with being uncomfortable is really important. And I would

01:28:37.360 advise all of us, especially young men, to learn how to do that.

01:28:43.800 The AFA has

01:28:45.700 our list of heroes with days of remembrance. Why is it

01:28:49.660 important for us as members 1.00

01:28:52.680 to hold these Helgemen

01:28:57.440 in esteem?

01:28:58.780 it is extremely important for us to celebrate our heroes it is

01:29:08.840 so in the most mundane way it is noble for us to celebrate the deeds of great people

01:29:22.660 and to acknowledge those deeds and give those people their their worth and their recognition

01:29:29.780 that's the right thing to do those people also serve as an example for us to aspire to and learn

01:29:40.080 lessons from their life and to celebrate that they were real flesh and blood people like we are with

01:29:47.420 the same fears and hopes and dreams and feelings and to see the things they were able to do

01:29:57.200 and to aspire to that and to know that it's attainable if we just have the metal as men

01:30:04.180 or as women to achieve those things. Metaphysically, that is very important and we owe them. They did

01:30:15.320 a great you know depending on what it was they did great deeds to get us to where we are for

01:30:21.400 their folk and for their gods we owe celebrating them and continuing to build and accelerate their

01:30:30.220 fame our ancestors those who have passed hear us beyond the veil they see the things we do

01:30:39.220 And when we celebrate heroes, we continue building their fame beyond the veil, and we continue building their storehouse of spiritual might in the realm they find themselves in.

01:30:54.140 We absolutely believe in the idea of posthumous ascension that, you know, at any point in the future, souls that are beyond the veil, you know, can get called up to become more than they are, can get brought closer to the halls of the gods, can get elevated to something better.

01:31:12.500 And we help provide them that momentum by celebrating them after their death and by spreading their fame.

01:31:21.220 And that's really important.

01:31:22.860 And it was it is an obligation we have to those who pass in our own family as well to tell their stories, to speak of them, to keep their names alive and to, you know, continue reminding and refreshing the well of fame with stories of their deeds and with acclaim for the things that they've done.

01:31:46.640 that is a tremendous gift that we can give to those who've done great things and it's something

01:31:53.420 that we're obliged to give and that hopefully in continuing the cycle that are you know big or

01:32:00.780 small perhaps one day we are grand enough that we're acknowledged as heroes with days of

01:32:05.780 remembrance but even if we're not amongst our family to be talked about positively to have

01:32:12.180 people that knew us talk about and celebrate the things that we've accomplished and the people that

01:32:19.060 we the lives that we led here in Midgard the people that we are that is a something beautiful

01:32:26.980 that we pass on that we hope those who follow us will do for us that we owe to the generations

01:32:33.780 that come before us to celebrate them and to keep their memory alive and to keep

01:32:39.140 aspiring and using them as a point

01:32:43.220 of worship and celebration for our folk

01:32:45.940 and for our children

01:32:47.380 what do you think the gods expect of us

01:32:52.300 if anything at all

01:32:54.620 that's a funny little linguistic thing

01:32:59.700 because it depends on what you mean with that

01:33:01.440 like what they expect we're going to do

01:33:06.820 or what is expected of us

01:33:08.740 kind of mean different stuff the gods are are realistic and they know us and they know where

01:33:13.940 we're at so i think they have a very realistic expectation of most people are not going to rise

01:33:21.120 to the occasion most people are uh going to be disappointing i think what the gods expect to

01:33:30.880 of us as in what they think we ought to do and want us to do is expect us to be in a state of

01:33:42.320 becoming more noble uh ennoblement of our folk i think is important i think the gods you know

01:33:50.020 certainly know where we are in things in the world they know the challenges we face

01:33:55.220 they know the state of our soul sickness they see our souls and they know us

01:34:00.040 i think that they expect us to take the hand that we are dealt and to play it well

01:34:06.700 i think they you know want to be maximally proud of us they want us all to be heroes

01:34:15.700 but i think they expect us to bear the burdens of life nobly and to

01:34:22.620 leave midgard

01:34:27.880 better than we came into it as people to have made progress over our lives to

01:34:35.900 transcend you know the level we were at to become more than we were i think that's something they

01:34:44.060 expect of us and i think in a you know more practical sense they expect us to be loyal to

01:34:50.920 them and to be noble and dignified people they expect us to share and engage in the gift cycle

01:34:57.800 with our folk and with our gods they expect our trough and our loyalty and i think that

01:35:07.080 you know those of us who come home that is what they expect once we know once you know

01:35:12.040 you can't unknow and i think they judge those harshly who turn against that loyalty or who

01:35:20.040 don't show the nobility and the troth through the iser that they know they ought to do

01:35:28.040 so i think those are things that the gods expect of us i think they expect us to

01:35:34.440 function within a hierarchy and a structure to get things done and not to be selfish they expect

01:35:41.240 us to put the need of the folk and of the tribe and of our families at the forefront of stuff we

01:35:46.760 do and not be self-obsessed and atomized they expect us to be a people and look out for the

01:35:53.800 interests of our people and i think that they expect us to again act nobly and it means different

01:36:00.840 things but one of the things i think they expect of us that i've seen on the you know greatly

01:36:07.800 lacking in today's world is they expect us to be reverent and respectful of our elders and to be

01:36:15.560 pious and respectful of our gods i think that has become you know it's become a fun like

01:36:22.120 complimentary thing to describe a show or an entertainment thing is irreverent

01:36:27.960 i think our gods expect us to have reverence i think they expect those things but they expect

01:36:34.280 probably much more.

01:36:43.040 Huh.

01:36:45.060 What would

01:36:46.220 I want

01:36:48.220 Alistair True to look like in a hundred

01:36:50.300 years? Not what I think

01:36:52.440 it will look like,

01:36:54.220 but what I hope and want it to look

01:36:56.420 like.

01:36:59.940 Let me contemplate

01:37:02.480 for a second.

01:37:04.280 Um, I want it to, in a hundred years, I want everyone to know what it is. I want it to be a,

01:37:21.520 you know, commonly understood thing. And I want what it is to be defined by the Astru Folk Assembly.

01:37:27.420 I want the AstroFolk Assembly to be, you know, 130 years old at that point. 0.63

01:37:38.960 And to function in a way that is, you know, smooth and well-ordered with this.

01:37:52.420 i would like it to maintain all of its core values but to have a greatly advanced relationship with

01:38:03.920 our gods through a hundred additional years of our gift cycle like our gothar to be a hundred

01:38:10.280 years you know wiser with a hundred years greater wealth of experience i would like in a hundred

01:38:17.040 years for there to be at least a half in every state and a half in every country that we have

01:38:22.260 members in. Um, yeah, at that point, I would like us to have a much more, um, put together

01:38:38.240 institution with an understanding from people of the outside. At that point, I would like

01:38:46.200 all certainly all uh heterosexual white people to know about the afa to know what it is

01:38:55.160 to have some familiarity with the alzharia gothi and you know what goes on like right now in the

01:39:02.360 world people know what catholics is people know what catholicism is they know that there's the

01:39:09.900 vatican they know the pope they probably know the pope's name they know it's a thing it has a

01:39:15.440 cultural value that people understand what it is and it exists and it's cemented in the minds of

01:39:21.720 our people to where it's kind of an eternal thing that's there i want the astro focus assembly to be

01:39:27.360 that to be on that level of uh understanding at that point to where it's it's a it's a brand name

01:39:35.840 thing that everyone understands and that the values of aussage who are understood

01:39:41.500 not in the hodgepodge that people kind of think they have now but in a very much firmer and well

01:39:50.340 understood and well digested way i'd like our practice to increase at that point what i would

01:39:58.080 like to also see happen by 100 years is i'd like our folk to be restored i'd like our folk as a

01:40:03.640 body to be cured of the soul sickness that we've been under to be able to be openly proud of being

01:40:10.260 white again to be openly proud of who we are and to be able to act as a culture and as a race as

01:40:18.180 a people in a dignified way that enough of us do to where that is what the popular thing is

01:40:27.220 most of the people that jump on politically correct bandwagons

01:40:31.380 that demonize our folk over the last you know 75 years

01:40:35.780 they do so because it's popular and the the herd does that within a hundred years i'd like to see

01:40:45.620 the herd fix it to where and i think ausitry is a big part of that to where you know if we grow to

01:40:52.420 where we have a million or a few million members we can be openly proud of who we are and others

01:41:00.260 will take strength for that if that becomes popular we'll be in a much better spot because

01:41:06.260 all of those voices will treat it as something to be respected not something to be reviled

01:41:12.100 so i think that's really important and i'd like to see that in 100 years

01:41:16.740 um where are we at and i'm sorry for anybody over in the comments i can't

01:41:24.180 keep track of the questions and answer and follow the chat so i hope y'all are doing good

01:41:29.940 over there looks like you skipped two right above it raven q what is your most bitter should be

01:41:38.980 your next one oh i did i don't know how i skipped that but i did um all right what is my most bitter

01:41:49.460 one victory and do you have a story of hardship faced and victory one

01:41:59.940 um

01:42:13.940 you stumped him ryan well all right so there's good

01:42:29.240 I'm trying to think of one that makes for a good story or would make an awesome movie or something

01:42:37.340 um the truth is that they're often much more subtle than that

01:42:44.900 the ongoing bitter hardship thing that the AFA faces is

01:42:55.580 our folk are notorious for being disloyal and stabbing each

01:43:06.860 other in the back. There is a thought out there that there's various other, you know, groups of

01:43:14.780 people or governments or races or things that try to keep us down. I'm sure that they do in some

01:43:21.980 ways. But the biggest problem that we have is other white people. And within Ausitry, the biggest 0.98

01:43:30.320 problem we have is grossly disloyal and selfish people we are stabbed in the back constantly at

01:43:40.160 every step and that's part of the forces of chaos and the idea of entropy that we battle

01:43:45.520 our folk have a deep soul sickness and one of the big symptoms of that is we have very

01:43:51.280 self-destructive people that don't think about the future and that turn on you know

01:43:58.640 that turn on us and betray us we've always had that and i'm very happy and proud that the afa

01:44:07.200 has always overcome and withstood that it is sad it is very sad it's heartbreaking to think of

01:44:15.280 how much further along we'd be and how much better everything would be if everybody would

01:44:21.520 have stayed loyal and stayed with us over all the time and if there'd been no betrayals

01:44:26.880 but there's inevitably betrayal and people that succumb to their weaker self or can't get out of

01:44:34.560 their comfort zone and they implode when they implode they take a lot of people with them

01:44:41.360 and form these you know little betrayal cycle things we've had you know

01:44:48.800 we've had many of them we continue to have them what triggers them is when this becomes real

01:44:58.240 our people like to theorize about what and it just this same

01:45:05.840 concept displays itself a number of different ways many different times

01:45:10.640 we all want to talk about how cool it would be if we had nice things but the second we get nice

01:45:22.980 things then it's real and then it's scary so people can use fake names and fake pictures on

01:45:30.640 the internet and talk about whatever extreme position they might have they can talk about

01:45:37.480 you know how great it would be if we had this or if we had that but when things become real and

01:45:45.680 things happen a lot of people find out they're really not quote unquote about that life

01:45:54.440 I want to say every Hoff we have has had that kind of little story with it, some bigger

01:46:10.880 than others um in you know pretty much 2016 through 2020 year through you know 16 17 18 and 19

01:46:27.280 everybody wondered where that second half would be they wanted a hof so bad and went to different

01:46:32.640 parts of the country and you know everybody's you know how do we get a hof here i want to

01:46:37.680 what can we do we would do anything to have a hof here it would be wonderful if we had a hof

01:46:43.120 and with carolinas one of the places i went we had a kindred there

01:46:48.160 because the big you know prominent kindred there and a couple of kindreds actually man

01:46:54.560 how do we get a kindred i remember there was one we had a we were hosting an event there it was

01:46:59.040 uh star in the south and it was in uh we had rented a camp and there was some kind of a tent

01:47:06.640 they had outside they have a big gathering of people and i don't know it was raining or whatever

01:47:10.640 it was we're in this tent and i want to say 10 i mean like a big like pavilion tent for an event

01:47:17.200 kind of a thing and you know hey what do we have to do to get a hof here you know we will do

01:47:23.120 anything how do we get off so we worked hard we found stuff we made things happen i made moves

01:47:32.800 I got them off there whole way no I will 100% I will do anything for this off we will we will

01:47:40.140 we will do anything it takes this is amazing I've got you 100% hey guys you know that

01:47:45.820 get a half you're gonna have some scrutiny and you know you're gonna put your name in your face

01:47:51.320 and in your community we're gonna have a half and such thing you ready absolutely I've got you buddy

01:47:56.860 i'll be there 100 100 cool as soon as we put down money on it well you well so when i said 100 what

01:48:05.580 i meant was well you know you i know that you want to use my name but how what what if we use

01:48:13.340 my middle name and we didn't use my picture well uh um well you know well i gotta quit

01:48:21.740 it. And I'm thinking of one person in particular, but that was, you know, two kindreds worth of

01:48:29.360 people, the same people promising and begging and, you know, what can we do in anything? And

01:48:36.260 we just want this, but they don't when it becomes real and you have to put your name in your face

01:48:41.720 with it. The reality is scary to a lot of people. So that's been the story of most of them. We got

01:48:48.460 the Hoff in Minnesota. Again, we had a whole kindred of people there. They were promised

01:48:53.760 they're going to stand by us forever. They're AFA loyal. They're the best. They're going

01:49:00.180 to do this. Thank you so much for getting us a Hoff. It's amazing. We're going to make 0.55

01:49:04.460 this Hoff shine. It's going to be wonderful. Didn't even make it to dedication. As soon

01:49:10.160 as we got a Hoff and it got real, it all fell apart because they're not really about

01:49:14.900 they just like to talk about it over the long haul it's beneficial that we separate the people

01:49:23.380 who are serious for the people who are not serious but it's sad it's sad to see people that can't

01:49:29.620 overcome you know like i mentioned their comfort zone they can't get out of it they can't become

01:49:37.620 the people they know they should be because they're too comfortable eking out the existence

01:49:43.460 they have, meanwhile complaining about their existence every step of the way. But it's more

01:49:49.460 comfortable to be unhappy with an unhappy you know and are used to than to do something scary that

01:49:57.400 requires courage. Courage is very, very easy to talk about, but it's very hard to do. But we've

01:50:05.560 overcome every time. We've got the Hoffs. The Hoffs are amazing. The people who we thought were

01:50:10.780 going to be the champions of the Hoff, turned tail and ran just about every time. But other

01:50:17.460 people that we didn't know that weren't even on the radar turned out to be champions of the Hoffs

01:50:21.740 and have taken amazing care of them. And now we've got, you know, our fifth Hoff on the way here very

01:50:27.940 soon. So we're doing great. The whole story of the AFA is kind of that, you know, hardship to 0.92

01:50:35.640 victory thing, but I don't have a really cool one-off, man, there was this one time this guy

01:50:42.620 did this one thing, or at least not one that comes to mind to answer your question a little

01:50:46.740 bit, you know, I don't know, more poetically or in a way that I'd like to. What do you see as the

01:50:52.700 greatest threat to the long-term survival of Alcetro? Laziness and indifference?

01:51:02.040 Um, what I have seen and what I've seen, we are in an age where so many of our folk

01:51:19.160 treat life and everything, every aspect of it is disposable.

01:51:25.680 The one thing they won't risk is their job.

01:51:28.680 they'll risk relationships over very little

01:51:32.200 they will sacrifice their faith

01:51:36.520 or their politics or anything else

01:51:39.280 but they won't take a day off work

01:51:42.820 and it shows a lot about people's priorities

01:51:45.580 so many of our folk have been raised

01:51:51.120 atheist

01:51:52.320 that they don't know how to do religion anymore

01:51:58.040 And so it's a hard transition for some people.

01:52:01.460 And there's, again, about the comfort zone.

01:52:03.420 When people join, they want to get shuffled into something that's easy, that's already been figured out, that you have a Hoff on every corner. 0.90

01:52:17.160 You know, there's five Hoffs in every major city.

01:52:21.500 And cool, where's the closest one to me? 0.97

01:52:23.380 And I can show up when I want to.

01:52:25.840 It's much harder to put in the work to build Alcetru, to grow Alcetru, to put in the effort of making all of this work.

01:52:36.900 There is lots of moving pieces, and unfortunately, they're done by a relatively small group of us.

01:52:44.760 so the biggest threat is our people's casual indifference or reluctance to join and be part

01:52:55.540 of something bigger than themselves and them not stepping up to their potential but that said

01:53:04.020 that potential is there so the opposite is also true we are able to do amazing things with a

01:53:12.080 very small fraction of our people actually caring and trying to make it work. If all of a sudden all

01:53:19.600 of our people decided, if any of our people, if 10% of our folk decided to join the AFA, become

01:53:27.360 Alistair True and push the ball forward with everything they had, sky's the limit. We're able

01:53:33.600 to do tremendous things with a very small part of the population. How much more if we had double

01:53:41.700 triple, 10 times. None of those numbers are, you know, outside of the realm of, you know,

01:53:47.640 very recent or very soon possibilities. So if our people decided to step up and all of a sudden

01:53:54.800 they took everything serious, they got out of the like sarcasm and atheism and doom spiraling and

01:54:02.700 decided to really engage in this, we could do what we could do is limitless. It is shocking how

01:54:10.700 amazing we're able to do with so few of us putting our, you know, putting our shoulder

01:54:16.280 to the wheel. If, you know, just a small percentage of us decided to really put in

01:54:22.240 that effort, it'd be tremendous. There's nothing that could stop us.

01:54:31.160 What is the current plan for Sigurheim and Tiershoff? So current plan as of now.

01:54:40.700 We are going to get as many of us that we can to move to Jackson County, Tennessee.

01:54:50.320 The whole county, you know, anywhere you want to live in there is about 30 minutes from, you know, the farthest other place you'd want to be.

01:54:58.260 So we could all live very, very close together and have very regular community.

01:55:05.060 We could have community there, certainly weekly.

01:55:09.060 We could have community there several times a week.

01:55:12.080 We could put down roots and make something very important happen there.

01:55:15.320 And many of us are going to do just that.

01:55:18.900 We're trying to get leadership families and those who want to get there, there as soon as we can.

01:55:24.220 And then develop some things on the property.

01:55:31.400 So we've got graveyard improvements.

01:55:34.420 we want to do to help beautify and take the best care of that we can. Those are easy to do. We just

01:55:45.300 need people out there to do them. We also would like to build a covered pavilion area to sit

01:55:55.020 together, to eat, to talk about stuff and have kind of a seating in a defined area there in a

01:56:03.440 place that's out of the elements. We've talked about doing that, got some plans in the works on

01:56:07.780 that. Depends on time frame, because we need to pay off the property before we work on the great

01:56:15.960 hall that's going to be there. But that property is going to be the capital of the Astro Folk

01:56:21.080 Assembly. We're going to build a great hall that has, you know, office space in it, as well as a

01:56:28.860 big hall space, as well as a big kitchen, restroom facilities, the other things you'd want out of

01:56:37.560 that to run the AFA from. And I'm looking very forward to that. That's going to be a really cool

01:56:44.220 thing. And it'll be a very good venue to have, you know, our big national gatherings at.

01:56:52.580 Also, and but again, we can't do that until we pay off the property. And so we still have a

01:56:58.540 ways to go to do that the other thing that's running on a completely separate timetable

01:57:03.660 after we have phrasehoff we're going to build tiershoff now how much of that's our own labor

01:57:11.260 and how much of that we might have to contract out for we'll see we'll see who wants to help

01:57:16.380 and who's got the necessary skills at the right time but tiershoff will be in the north field

01:57:23.180 of the Sigurheim property um we've got a lot of different plans in the works for what we want to

01:57:30.220 do on that and how we would like it to be but that's going to come in after phrasehoff um you

01:57:38.220 know if you're have specific questions or want to be part of making that happen uh let me know if

01:57:45.260 you are a member we can get you involved in those conversations if it's something you want to be

01:57:49.340 involved in because i'd like as much you know of our own people doing that as we can tears

01:57:55.340 hoff is going to be our first purpose built hoff so that's a really unique opportunity as opposed

01:58:02.620 to repurposing a former church or a different building tears hoff is going to be you know

01:58:08.060 built from the ground up for us and for the worship of lord tier and i think that'll come

01:58:14.940 faster than people i think tiershoff will most likely come first and i think that'll come a lot

01:58:20.140 faster than people realize but yeah we've got to get get phrasehoff established before we can move

01:58:26.780 to that but we got some really cool ideas on what we want to build there

01:58:32.860 Is there a question no one ever asks you, but you wish they would, and what's the answer?

01:58:52.580 not that i know of i really can't think of one that i wish people so

01:59:03.100 i don't have an answer to your question as it is but i will put this out there

01:59:08.720 because we're talking about stuff and if the tone tonight is somber on like letdowns and

01:59:14.900 you know bitterness that comes with experiencing hardship or whatever i don't mean for it to be

01:59:21.380 but it does kind of get some stuff on a theme so one of the things I mentioned was

01:59:28.340 asking questions and wondering you know trying to figure out why things aren't the way they are

01:59:33.980 what I wish people would do

01:59:37.580 anytime you're doing something that's right or good or important if you're doing something impactful

01:59:46.240 you're going to have critics the AFA gets critics all the time that have nasty things to say or

01:59:53.340 whatever what I wish people would do ask the question that there's that's on their mind

02:00:00.940 before they make decisions about things we've seen in the past a lot of people that will hear

02:00:07.460 something they'll hear a rumor and they'll just react to it and maybe they'll quit maybe they'll

02:00:13.600 drift away. Maybe it'll be years before we get them back and it's all over. They didn't just

02:00:18.700 stop and ask. You know, somebody will have a disagreement about why we do something this way

02:00:24.280 or why don't you do it that way, but then they won't ask. So I think in general, it's just ask

02:00:29.940 questions. I can't promise that you like the answer or agree on the answer, but if you don't

02:00:36.780 ask, you'll never know. And it's really hard. We have, again, our people have a soul sickness and

02:00:42.940 part of that is a tendency to assume the worst instead of asking and figuring it out so i wish

02:00:49.820 more people would if something strikes them wrong or if they you know don't like something or think

02:00:55.900 we should do something differently than we do it i wish they would ask why we do it the way we do

02:01:00.860 or why don't we do it the way they think it should be done the times that's happened very often we

02:01:07.100 come to an understanding really quickly in a positive way and it all makes sense so i would

02:01:12.380 encourage people if you get you know something strikes you wrong take the time and ask

02:01:21.500 um good evening i'll share you go with you matt uh and producer nick uh i'll share you go with you

02:01:29.980 what is your favorite lift exercise why and how heavy can you lift uh cool and i didn't acknowledge

02:01:38.620 this earlier and i will now austin donated ten dollars to phrase off and ten dollars to the

02:01:45.100 balder soft steeple thank you very much for that we appreciate it sorry i'm having a little bit of

02:01:49.900 trouble keeping up with some of the stuff because i don't have my co-host uh favorite lift is deadlift

02:01:57.900 deadlift is awesome for a number of reasons I think fundamentally you know if you lock out on

02:02:12.180 it you can't really cheat there's not there's a heavy weight that is on the ground and you

02:02:18.060 either stand up with it or you don't I don't I think there are a variety of different forms

02:02:25.260 that you can use to do it with a different grip or a different foot stance or a different whatever

02:02:31.340 the important thing is the weight was on the ground and you stood up with it i also think

02:02:37.420 it is a really really good exercise i think it is arguably the best exercise a lot of people

02:02:42.780 will go squat but i think that there's not a question that it's top two um works your entire

02:02:50.940 rear chain it is tremendously valuable and it's something that doesn't you know different machines

02:03:02.300 different stuff depending on your body mechanics are hard are difficult to do or maybe you don't

02:03:09.040 fit right but picking up something heavy off the ground is something that we all can figure out a

02:03:15.340 to get our body doing and it's really good how much can i lift on it uh i don't know at present

02:03:24.060 it's been a long time uh i lifted 621 time that's the heaviest i've lifted that's been a very long

02:03:32.860 time i think right now i'm okay so right now i i don't think i know for a fact right now i am doing

02:03:40.140 uh sets of i'm doing sets of eight with uh 350 right now and that's pretty heavy for me um

02:03:52.140 i recommend over under grip and i recommend people not use wrist straps do it raw um

02:04:00.780 and yeah I grip strength is really important I know that you know likely your back and your

02:04:11.840 and your uh hamstrings can lift more than your wrists than like your uh grip can hold so grip

02:04:18.640 tends to give out but I think that's important like figuring out making your grip stronger is

02:04:24.680 going to help in literally everything you do so that's a big part of the exercise I wouldn't want

02:04:28.740 you to cheat yourself out of the grip strength um uh question from unknown i need assistance

02:04:40.340 do i get a

02:04:44.340 what he's talking about guns blocks specifically oh um i'm not that guy uh yeah i'm not that guy

02:04:54.820 didn't see part of the conversation i apologize um yeah i can't really help you on that um i've got a 19.

02:05:08.420 but it was gifted to me so i don't uh i can't really speak intelligently on that

02:05:17.540 how do we honor our dead animal companions that we loved deeply

02:05:22.260 I think there's probably a lot of ways you can do that so this I don't mean for this to sound I don't

02:05:37.920 know for people who do not have this experience it may sound bad I don't mean it that way I it's

02:05:46.260 been really important to me to be the one to um to end my animals to put my animals to sleep if

02:05:58.280 that's where they're at in their life and they don't just go easy and naturally and it's time

02:06:04.180 to put them down that's always something that I've done myself because I feel like I owe them

02:06:11.580 that and i wouldn't want to put them in a strange environment and a strange stressful situation to

02:06:19.660 do that it's one of the only things that i know about um my great grandfather harold was that

02:06:28.540 uh you know they had a family dog that i think got rabies or something and it was important to him to

02:06:36.460 to be the one who took care of that and uh so i've done that with my animals um

02:06:44.140 because i feel like i owe them that and i'd rather you know that be done by

02:06:48.940 a friend than you know in a sterile situation um i think after they're gone

02:06:55.580 i don't know there's a lot of stuff you can do i don't you know they're not people and i think

02:06:59.900 treating them like they're people is is not the right way to go it's a little bit too much

02:07:09.180 but i think honoring them and remembering them is a nice thing to do i think um you know i like

02:07:16.700 uh cremation and then scattering their ashes you know some place that's important and that's

02:07:24.860 special. One thing that I want to do at Sigurheim is put up and I saw this at the

02:07:30.060 the Sparks Marina. There is a gravel pit that got filled up with water and the city kept it

02:07:37.960 and has made it a nice like artificial lake in town and it's cool. But there are a lot of people

02:07:47.460 walk their dogs there and there's like a piece of fencing set up like a special decorative piece

02:07:53.100 of fencing where everybody goes and clips like the little tags, the little dog tags or cat tags

02:08:04.280 or whatever that go on, that go on a collar. They put those there, and that's a really kind of a

02:08:13.380 nice way to honor them, I think. That's a neat thing. I'd like to put up, you know, a chunk of

02:08:19.140 that fence there at Sigurheim so people can scatter the ashes of the pets there and you know

02:08:24.860 remember them with a with a little you know dog tag on the on the fence um but yeah there's

02:08:34.200 something to that and I and I do think that you know something of our pets does live on beyond

02:08:38.920 the veil um a number of people have had experiences with you know ghostly pets that's not an

02:08:48.920 unknown thing. And I think there's something to that too. What's a good martial art for a young

02:08:57.740 man with no prior experience? Something that builds real toughness, teaches discipline,

02:09:03.320 and makes him more capable? Almost any. This is the trouble when you start talking about martial

02:09:12.000 arts everybody's everybody their martial art is the best martial art and everybody else's martial 0.94

02:09:18.960 arts stupid i've seen that i've seen that at the dojo i train at that is a very common thing and

02:09:26.400 it's really cool to take pride in your school in your dojo in your martial art do that that's awesome 0.92

02:09:34.560 but the truth is you know in general and I say every there's there's exceptions to every rule

02:09:44.460 but martial arts will do all of those things they will teach discipline they will help you be more

02:09:53.220 capable of achieving something they will help you build self-confidence they will help you

02:10:00.660 get your mind into a, I don't know, an athletic and a martial way of thinking and way of acting

02:10:10.920 to where you're in that headspace and you contemplate those kind of situations and those

02:10:17.900 kind of tactics, which I think is really important for men to do. Any martial art, if you apply

02:10:26.500 yourself to it seriously I think positions you better in a physical confrontation than someone

02:10:32.400 who doesn't have that training I'll also say um if you and this is I don't mean this to be fluffy

02:10:53.060 this is really true and i've seen it in my own life and know know it to be true the more you

02:11:00.260 have self-confidence about your abilities in a physical confrontation the less likely you are

02:11:06.500 to have a physical confrontation i don't know that doesn't you know work with everybody if

02:11:12.820 somebody's coming at you and they're on pcp or whatever whatever you're doing has very little

02:11:18.420 to do with what they're doing um but i learned when i was bouncing when i started bouncing

02:11:26.340 and i didn't know what i was capable of and i didn't know if i would win and i didn't know

02:11:32.260 what was going to happen that lack of self-confidence that lack of knowing

02:11:37.620 and that you know instinctively we smell fear i was getting in fights all the time

02:11:45.220 when I was getting done with bouncing and I'd done that for a long time and I felt comfortable

02:11:51.480 and I felt again not invincible but I felt like I knew what I could do and I knew the situation

02:11:58.700 and I was comfortable if it got to a physical altercation it's almost never in a fight at that

02:12:04.440 point because people can kind of smell that on you so I think martial arts helps with that a lot

02:12:10.900 I'm going to put out a plug because I am a first degree black belt in Danzenryu Jiu Jitsu.

02:12:23.520 It is Japanese Jiu Jitsu.

02:12:26.920 You should absolutely take up the art of Danzenryu Jiu Jitsu.

02:12:31.460 That is what I recommend.

02:12:32.940 That is the best martial art ever and all the other martial arts sting.

02:12:37.200 No, but it is a really cool one and it's one I was really happy that I learned.

02:12:40.900 i say learned that i'm learning and and participating in i was actually going to ask

02:12:46.260 as a follow-up sure why did you get into danzen rue japanese jiu-jitsu did you just did you

02:12:51.860 research it or did it just happen to be the local dojo yes so a matrix of things

02:13:00.820 I have never been an awesome striker that's just not the body mechanics of that just haven't been

02:13:13.440 something that I did a lot and in my work bouncing strikes aren't always the most effective and you

02:13:22.400 get in a lot of you know you get in more trouble you have a lot more liability with that

02:13:27.200 and I you know at least at my level of competency it wasn't like you get a lot of bang for your buck

02:13:35.360 most of the time it's funny we were on camera and when I was bouncing if I ever had to swing on

02:13:41.500 anybody man it's nine times out of ten nine times out of ten it would be laughable it's just me like

02:13:49.560 extending my arm at them it it's funny and people laugh at me that tenth one was amazing I'll tell

02:13:57.080 what that tenth one was spectacular but the other nine were hilarious um so i wasn't ever great that

02:14:03.400 way but what i was good at through bouncing was using my weight was you know grabbing and then

02:14:11.320 doing something and that worked well and i found myself in spots where i didn't want to be on the

02:14:17.400 ground all the time i bounced at one place where i had 13 guys on my team so i could afford to be

02:14:24.920 on the ground in that spot but i had other places i bounced i was the only guy and i can't afford to

02:14:30.040 be on the ground and i don't know the circumstance i don't know who's coming up i don't know if this

02:14:34.040 guy's got friends i don't want to be in that spot all the time so i wanted something versatile where

02:14:40.440 i could do things on the ground if necessary but to where i was doing throws i wanted something

02:14:46.360 where i was doing throws to where i'm standing up and i'm putting the other guy on the ground

02:14:50.760 so I looked around here for and you know jiu-jitsu was big Brazilian jiu-jitsu which

02:15:01.200 has taken over and almost become synonymous that's why I need to say Japanese jiu-jitsu

02:15:05.520 saying Japanese jiu-jitsu at one time was like a redundant thing to say but Japanese style jiu-jitsu

02:15:13.980 incorporates so brazilian jiu-jitsu took the same from the same school of techniques and just

02:15:22.620 focused in very heavily on all the ground techniques a lot of those are very similar or have

02:15:28.800 um are used in japanese jiu-jitsu but they're they were developed more focused on in brazilian

02:15:37.620 jiu-jitsu but Japanese jiu-jitsu you have throws you have you know various self-defense techniques

02:15:44.220 and escapes and wrist locks joint locks arm locks holds that you do from standing as well as on the

02:15:51.480 ground but you also have throws you like you have trips and sweeps but you have like throw throws

02:15:58.020 to um so i looked around for japanese jujitsu schools or for judo and this one i just happened

02:16:08.420 to find this dojo in like a really sketchy part of town but it was you know it was like a co-op

02:16:18.340 that's you know donation based so it's free it's not like you're signing up for you know a very

02:16:24.340 expensive thing but you can donate if you want and so i decided to go check it out it looks sketchy

02:16:31.140 and it seems sketchy but i went home i had a good experience i went home and i looked up you know

02:16:35.540 the guy in the school and stuff very legitimate very good credentials some amazing martial artist

02:16:44.020 trained there this just happened to be their humble beginnings flagship dojo which is really cool

02:16:49.940 um so i looked and and i say that there's other uh dens and rue schools but the bushido con

02:16:57.860 is what i'm part of out here and yeah turns out very legit i've learned from some really

02:17:06.180 really good people that go on and teach it at uh you know much fancier and more expensive dojos

02:17:13.700 um but i learned a lot i've learned a lot i've had a really good time doing it

02:17:18.420 it um it's been a very good experience i wish i would have started doing it uh earlier in life

02:17:25.380 but yeah i think it's really cool i would love to have you know to encourage you guys to do that but

02:17:31.260 literally any martial art is going to be a lot better than no martial art i think all of them

02:17:36.960 have really good pluses and minuses to them what i do think is kind of important for a practical

02:17:45.660 thing is you get something that's well-rounded that has a variety of different techniques for

02:17:50.860 different scenarios and that it incorporate grappling and i don't just mean on the ground i

02:17:58.060 mean from standing your ability to manipulate another person by grabbing or them grabbing you

02:18:06.060 and you responding to it strikes look bad when you're trying to defend them in court

02:18:15.660 You are much better served often with being able to physically subdue somebody through using your body weight, through throws, through joint locks and grabbing and holds.

02:18:29.960 You're in a better spot and you have less room for something to go wrong and for you to end up getting in trouble.

02:18:37.200 And that is something, unfortunately, we have to think about in the world we live in.

02:18:40.360 um were there any AFA members in Central and Eastern Europe I'm moving to Prague Czech

02:18:51.100 Republic uh this fall wondering if there is anyone around there so uh that's awesome

02:19:00.400 congratulations I want to go there really bad one day I've heard it is absolutely beautiful

02:19:05.980 and one of the most amazing places to go visit in Europe,

02:19:09.700 and I've never been there, so I'm very envious.

02:19:12.400 That sounds like an awesome, awesome adventure for you.

02:19:15.540 Congratulations.

02:19:18.540 We do, we've got a couple of Russian members now.

02:19:24.960 I wish that I could tell you we had like a deep roster over in Eastern Europe.

02:19:32.280 We don't, but we do have two members in, in Russia that I would, you know, encourage you to connect with.

02:19:45.420 No, I lied.

02:19:48.880 We got three members in Russia.

02:19:50.580 They're kind of spread out across, but across the very, you know, western edges of Russia.

02:19:58.540 So those are going to be your closest bet over there.

02:20:02.280 but actually looking at a map with czechia he's actually closer to italy and denmark members

02:20:08.820 no oh yeah he is yeah he is yeah he is slightly um still hang out with the russians

02:20:18.840 um we do have uh members as he mentioned in denmark and in italy but you're kind of in the

02:20:26.460 middle of where we don't have a big membership in europe love to see you fix that if you can

02:20:31.800 bring some people uh you know spread the word we would love to have eastern european members

02:20:37.080 um we are it's so kind of on on a theme we've been covering on tonight's show it's

02:20:48.200 we talk about breaking the momentum of you know on the couch to the door and the same is true

02:20:53.000 with developing community it's a hard sell where there's nothing to then build something

02:20:59.880 so we you know i talk to uh folk builders about this all the time they see an area that's really

02:21:06.760 successful and then it's really depressing to go somewhere and there'd be nothing and then you kind

02:21:11.640 of invite people and maybe you know somebody shows up once in a while and it takes a while

02:21:17.000 and this and that but every place we have a lot of people started with zero people

02:21:21.240 and it took one person to say hey how about we do this hey other people uh let's get together

02:21:30.300 the momentum builds the one becomes two the two become three three become you know five or six

02:21:38.580 and then a momentum happens so absolutely talk to people let them know your outs are true if

02:21:45.960 their outs are true get them to join up we can see what we can build there and get get happening

02:21:52.680 but i'm very excited about your move that's awesome and and that's gonna you're gonna get

02:21:57.240 to see a really cool part of the world that i'm envious of so well done uh good luck on your

02:22:02.760 journey uh uh how do i see how do i understand weird and or law in contrast to deterministic fate

02:22:18.600 so

02:22:28.440 that is a

02:22:31.640 seemingly deep question and undoubtedly it can be but i think it is much more simpler

02:22:41.000 i think it is much simpler than all of that um

02:22:48.600 and I think inherently we know these things I think that everything about the human condition

02:23:05.880 tells us that deterministic fate isn't isn't that simple there's not a one-for-one

02:23:14.580 and oh, this is all predetermined.

02:23:18.260 We exercise free will every moment of every day,

02:23:22.600 and we all know that.

02:23:26.020 What's more, if there is no free will,

02:23:29.420 then life is literally meaningless.

02:23:33.880 Everything that, and our faith is one of heroism.

02:23:40.020 It's a heroic faith.

02:23:41.260 It's a noble faith.

02:23:42.200 you celebrate accomplishment and deeds we are our deeds if we don't choose our deeds then what's the

02:23:49.080 point in that if you're not choosing to be heroic in the face of the impetus to be cowardly

02:23:59.160 what's the point if we're just acting something out that's already predetermined there is no point

02:24:05.960 The heroic struggle of life is overcoming situation, overcoming adversity, and doing big things.

02:24:16.060 It's about accomplishment.

02:24:17.800 If you can't take responsibility for your accomplishment, there's really no point.

02:24:22.440 And it's antithetical to the heroic faith of Ausatr.

02:24:26.440 But that said, it becomes more confusing.

02:24:30.980 I mentioned that earlier in the show.

02:24:33.100 it's not as simple as a lot of people would like it to be. And I know it's, you know,

02:24:38.860 more appealing and makes a better soundbite, but it's also not true. So there are a lot of forces

02:24:46.320 at play in, you mentioned weird, which is an old English word or our word, earth,

02:24:53.680 which means fate. And it implies, you know, the well of past actions.

02:24:59.980 or or law the original law or the primal layer in the well i talked earlier today about

02:25:10.460 we get dealt a certain hand and the challenge in ausitru is how we play the hand that we're

02:25:16.100 dealt what we do with it heroism comes in overcoming uh obstacle and momentum and

02:25:26.120 in a way overcoming fate so the struggle against

02:25:32.220 the current of things is important that said our you know the three major nornir

02:25:47.380 are Earth,

02:25:50.140 Verdandi, and Skuld.

02:25:53.080 And

02:25:53.500 the first Earth

02:25:59.600 is, like I said,

02:26:02.580 that well of past action.

02:26:06.320 All of the things leading up to a point

02:26:09.000 that have set

02:26:10.500 boundaries, set limitations,

02:26:14.520 set the course in motion

02:26:18.100 of where you're headed.

02:26:21.220 So you come into this world with a momentum

02:26:24.260 in a certain directionality.

02:26:28.840 Berthandi is

02:26:29.920 the understanding of the current unfolding

02:26:34.320 of things. How is

02:26:36.940 fate or how is

02:26:39.920 your

02:26:40.840 life unfolding at present what forces are at work and what are those forces compelling you towards

02:26:52.360 and then scold is cognate with the word should it's you know if earth plus earth plus verdandy

02:27:04.600 equals scold you know if these things continue the way that they are going if your past action

02:27:15.720 if any past action that's bringing you to this point is coupled with your current way that you

02:27:21.880 are handling that momentum then this is where you should end up or where you are likely to end up

02:27:29.160 unless you change but that's why it's useful to know now in some of our stories we see people

02:27:36.680 unable to escape fate we see you know prophecies that you know inevitably come true

02:27:44.840 those are often on big things and they're done in you know there are certain things that you can't

02:27:55.320 effect there are certain things that are so overwhelming that your action isn't going to

02:28:00.560 forestall them there's cosmic events that worry that way there's there's a number of things

02:28:06.080 but in general every step of your life every moment of your life is made up of choices that

02:28:15.580 you are making now we all have a predisposition towards certain choices a lot of that is genetic

02:28:24.500 some of a lot of it is environmental a lot of it is getting in ruts or patterns of behavior

02:28:31.940 if you see prophecy about that or you're able to do divination in some way or you're an insightful

02:28:41.300 person that can recognize those threads of earth that come towards you the waves of synchronicities

02:28:50.120 and possibilities then you can make a choice to change how you navigate the flow of your life

02:29:00.320 those changes are extremely meaningful and they're what makes the hero and they're what

02:29:09.460 defines who you are you're defined by your deeds and fundamentally your deeds are choices that you

02:29:16.480 make you can't be defined by those things if you do not have any choice in the matter

02:29:22.720 um and you know there's people that write endless books or can give endless discussion on that but

02:29:30.880 fundamentally you absolutely have freedom of choice that is what makes us noble we are noble

02:29:40.160 to the degree that we can choose to act rightly and to elevate ourselves

02:29:47.840 none of that matters if it's all predetermined and we have no say in it

02:29:57.600 what separates a man who leads from one who simply wants to be in charge

02:30:02.240 responsibility

02:30:13.200 and rising to responsibility i think it's very natural for many people to want to

02:30:22.880 be in charge to want to have the big seat or wear the big hat or be you know at the

02:30:31.840 top of whatever hierarchy there is wanting to be the best wanting to be the top dog at stuff

02:30:38.480 is good i would never say that's not good being ambitious is awesome

02:30:47.200 but what your question gets at is do you just want to

02:30:55.600 get all the cool points and get all the attention or do you want to put in the work that comes

02:31:01.680 with that being um leading is all about in my you know in my understanding is all about

02:31:14.240 responsibility and wanting to do those things like you shouldn't want the trophy you should

02:31:22.320 want to win the race yes that comes with you know trophies and prizes but you want your prize for

02:31:30.560 being the fastest guy who's working the hardest who's running the fastest not because somebody

02:31:35.840 just gives you a trophy for no reason you should want to win by earning it you should want to be

02:31:42.320 the best to be acknowledged as the best because you are the best not because a bunch of people

02:31:50.320 you know put you in a spot where they tell you that you're the best

02:31:54.580 You should actually want to be worthy of that spot.

02:31:58.540 In my experience, and I don't, I'm absolutely an ambitious person.

02:32:07.360 I absolutely want to be the top guy.

02:32:11.180 I'm not suggesting otherwise.

02:32:14.040 But every day, I feel the weight of the responsibility of being Los Heri Gophie.

02:32:21.080 And I would never want that not to be the case. I would never want to not feel the obligation and the weight of carrying those responsibilities and handling them.

02:32:40.660 um it's stressful but it's supposed to be if it's not stressful you don't care and you shouldn't be

02:32:49.040 in that spot um so yeah to me leadership is very much about being eager to actually want to do the

02:32:59.660 work of leading not just uh not just to sit on the throne and i don't begrudge anybody that throne

02:33:07.420 But if you're going to be there, then be worthy of it. Be worthy of it every single day. Be worthy of it. The two go hand in hand. And I don't know why you'd want the one without the other.

02:33:19.940 This is something in modern Ausatru that plagued us early on and still does to a degree in the, you know, unaffiliated crowd out there. 0.97

02:33:33.340 everybody and this was particularly prevalent in the theodism everybody wants to be the high

02:33:43.420 exalted king of their you know backyard kingdom of two guys

02:33:49.920 but i saw early on and i had this discussion with friends of mine

02:33:54.380 um they would rather be the king of their backyard kingdom than be you know a folk builder in the AFA

02:34:09.080 and again that's all about the title and feeling like you're at the top and nobody's above you

02:34:17.300 because if it's about the power and I don't mean power in a self-aggrandizing way I mean sure there

02:34:24.320 There can be some of that, but I mean power in the ability to affect change and to make things happen.

02:34:30.740 That's one of the cool things when people talk about power, we act like wanting power is some kind of bad thing.

02:34:36.700 It's not. If you want to use that power to do good stuff with, to make life better, to help move things forward, to help make good things happen, then that's a wonderful thing.

02:34:48.420 But most of those people, the backyard emperors, you'd have a kindred of, like, four people in the backyard, and each of them would have some ridiculously grand title, and it would be all chiefs and no Indians, and they never got anything done.

02:35:08.480 um early on when i was just a just a member up in alaska you know this group of people that were

02:35:17.720 you know hey you could be top three on this new group we're trying to do i could be number three

02:35:22.380 in the the heathen folk revival it was called but i'm like no guys how about we join the afa

02:35:28.920 they're doing stuff well no no no and that was very common at the time everybody wanted to start

02:35:36.160 their own thing so they could be the king of their own little kingdom that they set up

02:35:41.120 instead of being part of a hierarchy to where maybe they weren't the top of

02:35:46.480 but to where they were moving this forward building out so true and making things happen

02:35:53.200 um you know what good is being a king if you don't have a functioning kingdom that's doing

02:36:02.240 cool kingdom stuff uh king of the backyard is lame and it's all about you know ego and not about

02:36:11.520 actually accomplishing anything in the world so i think leadership is about responsibility but it's

02:36:18.080 also about wanting to exercise that leadership to accomplish things or to build and make value

02:36:29.840 and make worth for yourself and whatever you happen to be leading or the folk you happen to

02:36:35.680 be leading are you helping people are you making those under you you know better are you are you

02:36:43.600 contributing and accomplishing in the world or are you just occupying the spot because you don't want

02:36:49.680 anybody else to have it and i think that all those things are at play in that question let's skip to

02:36:56.480 the last two while we have somebody new in the chat talking with us okay last two uh i went to

02:37:04.400 your website curious about what else true is about but it seems to be about mostly what nazis were

02:37:10.320 about um and this okay um

02:37:23.200 i that's a strange question i don't know what i don't know what you see on there that you assume

02:37:32.400 nazis were about i don't think anything i don't think most of the things on our website are the

02:37:40.800 same as the you know nsdap's political platform in 1930s germany but um

02:37:50.240 i answer anything specific we're certainly about uh celebrating our folk and worshiping our gods

02:37:57.440 or about the worship of the iser and the reconnecting our folk meaning our race

02:38:05.240 with the gods of our race and uh celebrating that i think that's you know i could sure i

02:38:14.480 could see similarities there i think that's probably similar to any group of people that

02:38:21.140 want to build their folk and their folks connection to divinity um up until the coming

02:38:30.900 of christianity that was literally every nation in the world were a unique group of people with

02:38:36.980 a unique group of gods that they worshiped and celebrated that were the gods of their folk

02:38:43.540 some kind of a universal understanding of we're all the same and we all have the same god

02:38:49.860 that's a very new and rare concept in the history of religion and it's you know i think it's odd

02:39:00.420 and i think it's very unnatural so no i don't think that we have the same political aims as

02:39:06.740 you know a political movement in 1930s germany but we do have a pride in who we are

02:39:12.500 uh we do recognize that we are a people we are a race and we're proud of who we are and where we

02:39:17.940 come from and we want to have the connection between our folk and our gods we want to make

02:39:25.780 our gods proud by making ourselves and our folk the very best we can be and by shining to the world

02:39:33.300 as examples of nobility of you know embodying those values that we think make a man or a woman

02:39:41.540 noble and elevated so we want to elevate and make ourselves the very best we can be

02:39:46.100 and we want to worship our gods and keep the gift cycle going between our people and our gods.

02:39:55.080 And that's what we're about doing.

02:39:57.900 What do you think about other followers of pagan religions that are not focused on white Europeans?

02:40:05.520 If they're focused on their folk, I think that's amazing.

02:40:08.980 I think that, you know, Yoruba is cool.

02:40:13.240 I think Shinto's cool.

02:40:14.540 i think uh tribal native american religion is cool i think any ethnic expression like

02:40:22.540 any group of people that want to celebrate their folk and connect with their gods and become the

02:40:30.460 very best they can be in a way of worshiping their gods with their own you know the greatness of

02:40:37.020 their folk that's a beautiful and really cool thing and i'm very supportive of that 0.94

02:40:41.980 um it is tragic that um Abrahamic faiths have washed away difference and tried to 1.00

02:40:57.400 make everyone small in order to have this I don't know this shapeless colorless mass of people 1.00

02:41:11.980 all subservient to you know a jewish god of jewish people i would want every group of people 0.99

02:41:21.140 including jewish people to have their own gods that they celebrate and are proud of and to

02:41:27.140 have dignity as people within their their religion and their relationship to their gods

02:41:34.360 into each other i think we've seen throughout humanity since forever there is a something very

02:41:42.680 beautiful about a group of people who recognize their difference celebrate who they are take pride

02:41:50.360 in themselves and that pride helps them become better and elevate themselves having pride in who

02:41:57.800 they are loving who they see in the mirror and connecting with the gods of their race

02:42:04.200 i think is beautiful and i would encourage that of you know anybody that wants to follow their

02:42:09.160 ethnic faith now i gotta find where i was at um i'll yell at you if you skip one don't worry no

02:42:24.920 no no you're fine i think no i've got it i got it yep i'm i'm i may sort of i may shift on some of

02:42:37.160 these um uh so on culture struggle and legacy what is worth sacrificing for a future we may

02:42:54.600 never see. I don't pettiness, comfort, small minded, self

02:43:21.800 selfishness um i'm trying to think about the question and i think that it in a more nebulous

02:43:29.960 way might mean different things to different people but in a very real way what i've seen

02:43:34.440 in modern alsatru it's hard to break free of what we're comfortable doing to accomplish something

02:43:43.320 there's a lot of people out there who miss the point and i don't think this is a conscious

02:43:48.920 calculation they make some of them it may be but i think more often than not

02:43:55.960 they don't look towards legacy they don't look towards the future they are not factoring in

02:44:02.040 what they are leaving for their children or their grandchildren they are just thinking

02:44:07.160 about what is comfortable for them and their friends there is a legacy of you know 1980s and

02:44:15.800 1990s also true to where there's a lot of small groups of backyard kindreds to where

02:44:21.960 their practice of also true is them and you know three or four other dudes in their backyard

02:44:28.600 or you know best case scenario maybe three other families in their backyards

02:44:35.000 getting together and practicing their faith very privately

02:44:39.480 and that dies with them and then maybe the next generation does the same thing for the course of

02:44:49.200 again one generation they don't build anything so i think that what holds people back is discomfort

02:44:56.780 well it's awkward to be some of the first people it's awkward to tell people that you do this

02:45:02.200 this um you know religion they've never heard of and don't understand

02:45:07.460 um it's awkward when we live in the world we do today to where it's you know sexy for the media

02:45:14.440 to call everybody a racist or to call you names or to try to shame you for being proud of who you

02:45:20.840 are so so many people just go along and get along and they stay quiet they don't talk about what

02:45:27.960 they really think and squander life that way. And life goes by quick. But I think that sacrificing

02:45:36.560 that immediate comfort to build something, everyone who steps forward and says, Hi, I'm

02:45:42.040 Alcitru. I'm a member of the AFA. That makes it that much easier for the next person behind them

02:45:49.960 to do the same. But it takes those first people to make those sacrifices. It takes people feeling

02:45:56.140 a little bit uncomfortable doing something they've never tried before it takes getting over yourself

02:46:03.100 and sticking around in a group if you feel slighted or you feel like somebody's getting

02:46:07.260 attention that you think you should be getting or you don't like this guy or you don't like that guy 0.96

02:46:12.700 or you think that this gothy's a jerk or whatever sticking around because you believe in the gods 0.99

02:46:19.660 and because you want to build this to be something for your children and your grandchildren 0.98

02:46:23.740 it takes you getting over petty things that you might be feeling and that doesn't sound like a

02:46:32.280 lot but for many people that's a huge thing and they can't get over themselves and I've watched

02:46:37.240 a lot of people not be able to I've watched other people show tremendous effort being able to

02:46:43.600 withstand anything and then I've seen people who couldn't get past themselves they took some time

02:46:49.300 They went away. They thought about it. They matured and they came back. So I think, you know, those things, they seem small, seem like a small sacrifice.

02:46:58.800 But to a lot of us, they're a really big sacrifice. Being able to get past your own sense of self-importance and being able to, you know, be offended and not burn it all to the ground takes a lot for a lot of people.

02:47:14.560 It's harder than a lot of people think.

02:47:19.300 What constitutes legitimate spiritual experience in Ausitry?

02:47:23.920 Is personal gnosis, UPG, valid, dangerous, essential, or all three?

02:47:30.180 Yes.

02:47:33.540 Again, I think what everybody wants is the super clean answer.

02:47:37.700 I think that super clean answer doesn't exist.

02:47:41.600 Everybody's UPG is not equal.

02:47:43.540 um i think

02:47:47.960 i think if it is an experience shared by multiple people that adds to its weight

02:47:56.020 i think that if it is something that proves to be true over time and experience it adds weight

02:48:03.200 i think that if you're hearing testimony from somebody who is normally very even keeled and

02:48:12.540 they tell you something that seems beyond your experience, it's much more likely to be believed

02:48:21.020 and put trust in than if somebody is constantly, you know, every day is a magical adventure

02:48:30.060 about really mundane things. And we've got some people that are very fanciful and that are prone

02:48:34.860 to flights of fancy. I don't think it's always dishonesty. I think sometimes people tend to have

02:48:39.860 flair for the dramatic. But somebody who's always dramatic, their next dramatic thing maybe doesn't

02:48:46.200 have the same stock as somebody who's usually very, very sober minded, but tells you something

02:48:52.160 fantastical. I think that if it proves true over time and experience, and other people experience

02:49:00.600 similar things, then it becomes, you know, gradually verified as a as a personal gnosis.

02:49:06.920 I think if it happens to a lot of people, it becomes a collective gnosis.

02:49:11.940 And I also think it matters, you know, if it's from a position of authority.

02:49:15.660 Does it come from somebody that has the ability to interpret those things or to express those things in a wise way?

02:49:26.400 Or does it come from somebody who doesn't have that experience?

02:49:28.720 I trust you know elders and gothar and experienced people more than the random you know the random

02:49:40.760 guy that tells me something fantastic the other thing is I think it's you know things can be in

02:49:46.300 between something can be spectacular and not necessarily be have the same meaning that a

02:49:53.480 person assigns to it. You know, sometimes there are, you know, people will experience something

02:50:00.480 that is transcendent, and then they will assign a completely different meaning than, you know,

02:50:05.900 the rest of us would assign to it. So I think you got to be judicious in that as well.

02:50:11.620 But again, those are things that take root over the process of time and, you know, the source

02:50:18.360 being trusted and the uh you know the things proving true or proving meaningful over over

02:50:26.760 the period of time to you know multiple people um what does a mature spiritually literate also true

02:50:38.920 uh also true are look like in a post-industrial globalized age

02:50:43.720 um okay so this is important too i think that you can tell a lot

02:50:59.240 of how serious to take someone by what their life looks like

02:51:07.560 are you successful in your life i don't just mean financially but that can factor in as well 0.98

02:51:13.720 Um, I mean, I think that you find some dude that looks ridiculous, that seems ridiculous. 0.97

02:51:23.200 They're missing, they're missing something. 0.97

02:51:25.600 I think you can take somebody seriously who's successful, who's got, you know, a successful marriage, who has a successful family, who is, you know, doing all right by getting their needs met.

02:51:37.820 Who's able to have success in their life and success in their relationships with other people.

02:51:42.780 um i think you are not spiritually literate if you talk about what a great you know

02:51:49.360 rune magician you are but you live in squalor and you don't have a girlfriend and you are

02:51:58.040 you know single and penniless and whatever else your your magic's not working your magic's not

02:52:04.460 effective i think that a lot of the seriousness and the spiritual literacy you see is if that

02:52:11.920 person is living a whole life or if they're you know fragmented and all the things that they do i

02:52:20.160 think whole the wholeness of their life is the marker of that and i don't think post-industrial

02:52:26.880 global has to do with it i think at any point in our people's history if you've seen somebody whose

02:52:32.400 life is congruent and part of that congruency is their house of true practice that speaks volumes

02:52:38.960 on their spiritual literacy does the afa have an emergency contingency plan in place if slash when

02:52:48.720 a mass awakening of the folk spontaneously occurs

02:53:00.080 no not in like break glass and pull out the plan kind of a way but it is something that we do

02:53:14.900 discuss and it's something that we discuss seriously and I kind of this feeds onto an

02:53:20.880 earlier topic tonight too so you know you want to keep doing all the little things right to win

02:53:26.980 the little victories but you also want to be prepared if and when that big you know lightning

02:53:33.100 strikes moment happens to where all of a sudden 100 million of our people awaken and want to come

02:53:40.020 home to house a true what do you do and i think that when you deal with a certain

02:53:46.360 It is very easy for that to become a ludicrous exercise in whatever, because if you talk

02:53:58.780 about millions of people, I don't think you can speculate on that type of thing with any

02:54:05.140 consistency.

02:54:06.500 There's millions, at that point, there are millions of variables.

02:54:12.020 But we do talk about like, hey, what if the membership doubled tomorrow?

02:54:16.360 hey what if something happened and all of a sudden we got you know 10 000 members or

02:54:22.520 whatever we have talked about that quite a bit so to say there's a plan in place i think might

02:54:29.240 be a little bit ambitious but to say we've discussed different scenarios and what that

02:54:35.000 would be like and what we might do in different iterations of it that has that is a frequent

02:54:41.000 topic of conversation and something that we have given a lot of thought to

02:54:47.240 and something that i hope happens

02:54:53.000 do you think the average outsider is more or less prepared for emergencies slash disasters i know

02:55:01.080 there are some communities that place a huge emphasis on preparedness and i personally do as

02:55:06.040 well? Yes, okay, I will say that I do think the average Ausatruar is more prepared. But

02:55:23.200 I think in a different way. I think the average Ausatruar is just as physically prepared

02:55:29.860 as most people out there. What is true is the average house of true arm may talk a real

02:55:36.820 big game about preparedness, or fitness or anything else. I don't think that they're

02:55:43.100 any more prepared or any more fit or any more stocked up than the average person. I think

02:55:49.620 that's something they would like to tell themselves. But I also don't think it's true. What I do

02:55:54.020 think makes them more prepared is i think the average also true or has contemplated preparing

02:55:59.860 this a lot more has given a lot more you know the a lot of the people out there in the world that

02:56:07.700 are not practicing also true and that are you know quote unquote normies

02:56:15.380 they just float through life they don't critically think about much they don't prepare for things

02:56:21.460 they don't go through the mental exercise of gaming things out because they are you know

02:56:27.460 they're npcs to use you know the kids term i think that also true are awakened to realities

02:56:37.940 of the world that they live in and i do think they give thought to it i don't think in reality

02:56:44.340 there's this huge prepper thing amongst house to true are though i think that a lot of people

02:56:50.340 would talk like they are but i do think they've given that thought i think they game things i

02:56:56.580 think they frequently and fantasy is important that way going through scenarios in your head

02:57:03.140 even if they're fanciful it trains your mind to think critically and it trains your mind to

02:57:09.380 you know think about different options to think outside the box so i think there is a mental

02:57:15.620 preparedness there that is at a much higher rate than society at large um yeah

02:57:28.420 matt what does being austro mean to you

02:57:34.340 it means everything to me and i don't say that in a in a blow off the question way

02:57:38.820 i believe fundamentally that our faith is a holistic faith and it needs to encompass

02:57:46.040 all parts of your life it's not to say that i don't ever you know do things that aren't

02:57:52.160 overtly ouster true related or screw around or have hobbies or have whatever else but

02:57:56.880 ouster true is woven into the kind of husband i am the kind of father i am the kind of you know

02:58:08.040 how i interact with people at the store or at the park or at the gym or literally anywhere

02:58:16.200 with the son that i am with all of the relationships and all of the things in my life

02:58:24.060 are done through an also true lens and so

02:58:28.440 i think that literally everything is what it means to me but i also think what it means to me is

02:58:36.160 It's a constant awareness that the ancestors and the Aesir are, I have a, it's my response, it's my duty to make them proud of me and to behave nobly so that they're proud of me and find me to be worthy of their association.

02:59:03.540 and it's wanting to be worth that every day.

02:59:11.640 So it's a daily awareness that I'm part of a whole

02:59:16.460 to where my ancestors and my gods and my folk

02:59:23.080 are looking at me and judging me

02:59:28.620 and I want to be found worthy

02:59:30.700 and I want to make them proud.

02:59:32.400 And so I think that focuses in on, you know, how I act to other people, how I take care of myself or how I don't, what I accomplish, am I accomplishing things, or am I worthless, all of those things, I think, factor in.

02:59:54.800 What advice would you give to an average man who feels directionless, yet knows deep down he's meant for more?

03:00:02.400 to find his way home.

03:00:14.800 I would advise them to join the AFA and get actively involved.

03:00:28.880 Obviously, that's what I'm selling.

03:00:30.900 That's what I'm out here doing.

03:00:32.140 So, of course, that's my advice. But one of the really important things about that is if they feel directionless and they know that there's something more to be involved in.

03:00:43.340 So many of our folk, almost all of our folk are atomized and they don't have a big effect on other people.

03:00:51.700 They may have a small friend group they're having effect on. They may have a family, you know, a wife and a couple of kids they can affect.

03:01:02.140 But most people feel very powerless not being able to be an important piece in a really, really big puzzle.

03:01:12.360 In the AFA, we are small enough at the stage of our development to where individuals can have a huge impact on the development of the Ausatru Folk Assembly, of the development of Ausatru, and specifically on the life of, you know, hundreds of people.

03:01:32.140 Most individuals don't have the ability to be meaningfully impactful to hundreds of people.

03:01:39.980 But if you're in the AFA and you volunteer and you step up and you become very active, you can make things better for hundreds of people.

03:01:50.060 You can potentially make things better for thousands of people, of your people.

03:01:55.380 That's not an opportunity that you have in most walks of your life.

03:01:59.820 And I would encourage them to do that.

03:02:04.320 That's absolutely what I did and has brought tremendous direction and meaning to my life.

03:02:17.400 All right, guys.

03:02:18.820 Well, thank you all for your questions.

03:02:21.180 Thank you for being here tonight.

03:02:23.920 I greatly appreciate you.

03:02:25.860 I'm sorry for the mix up with my co-host not joining us, but I'm glad that I got the evening

03:02:35.440 with you.

03:02:36.600 I hope the reading went all right.

03:02:38.140 I stumbled over a couple of names there.

03:02:41.300 I'm going to blame some of it on there's a couple of typos in that translation, but I

03:02:45.940 appreciate you guys bearing with me.

03:02:48.980 Look forward to talking to you all next week.

03:02:51.960 Get your, you know, get squared up.

03:02:54.200 Get your plans ready for Sigur Bloat at Sigurheim.

03:02:57.780 It's coming up quick, a little bit over a week,

03:03:01.000 and I really hope to see everybody there.

03:03:03.260 If not, I will see you.

03:03:05.320 If so, I guess.

03:03:06.400 Either way, I will see you this time next week,

03:03:08.900 and we will talk with the Erickson's about Frashoff and the future.

03:03:15.140 So until next time, hail the Eysir, hail the folk, hail the AFA.

03:03:20.340 Remember, victory never sleeps.

03:03:50.340 We'll be right back.

03:04:20.340 Thank you.

03:04:50.340 Thank you.

03:05:20.340 Thank you.

03:05:50.340 Thank you.

03:06:20.340 Thank you.

Asatru Folk Assembly - July 17, 2025

7⧸16⧸25 Victory Never Sleeps, Episode 158 - Reginsmál

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