Asatru Folk Assembly - 7⧸22⧸26 Victory Never Sleeps, Ep 211 - Community

00:00:00.000 Transcription by CastingWords

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

00:01:00.000 Transcription by CastingWords

00:01:30.000 We'll be right back.

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

00:02:30.000 Thank you.

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

00:03:15.080 I will hopefully be joined by our law speaker, Alan Turnage, here at some point.

00:03:21.940 But until then, thank you to all the amazing people out at Thorshaw.

00:03:28.200 My family and I attended Siggerbloat at Thorshoff, and it was fantastic. 0.93

00:03:35.040 It was great to get an opportunity to be in that amazing, amazing hoff and to be around some wonderful people there. 0.91

00:03:42.840 This weekend here at Siggerhame in Jackson County, Tennessee, we will be celebrating Siggerbloat as well. 0.99

00:03:52.320 Yeah, so thanks everybody who helped put that on and make that happen. 0.99

00:03:55.680 um a reminder or kind of a letting folks know it is my family's plan to be up at phrasehoff

00:04:04.120 for fray faxy on the uh coming up here in august so anybody who would like to come up to uh fray

00:04:14.640 faxy at phrasehoff in austintown ohio we would love to see you guys there it's a great opportunity

00:04:21.620 to see our Frazehoff district folks.

00:04:25.400 So I look forward to seeing folks there.

00:04:29.120 Some top of the show things for people.

00:04:34.980 At long last in the AFA store,

00:04:38.080 we now have physical copies of the Ossetru true law law.

00:04:42.760 I know I talk about it and reference the show a lot.

00:04:46.220 Anybody can take a look at it

00:04:50.280 the link on our website um but at runestone.org store people can get physical copies so you can

00:05:00.120 have them there as an easy reference or share them with your friends or whatever you cut them up and

00:05:06.120 make art projects out of them whatever you guys would like to do with them um but yeah those are

00:05:11.160 are available at runestone.org. Also, top of the show things, as is our custom pavilion

00:05:26.280 stuff. How are we coming on that? Doing good. We have raised over $10,000 so far on the

00:05:34.060 a billion, which is fantastic. Got a little ways to go. It looks like that's at 28.9%.

00:05:41.660 Appreciate everybody's generosity. You guys are amazing. And then at paying off phrase

00:05:49.780 off. So paying off phrase off, we are 45.3% done paying that off. That's again, after

00:05:57.180 having dedicated that on the 6th of december in 2025 so tremendous progress in a very short amount

00:06:05.020 of time and just kind of as a note paying off phrase off is one of those prerequisites before

00:06:11.740 we can get started in earnest on constructing tears off so we appreciate everybody who has

00:06:19.020 donated and contributed to any of those things feel free to you know if you can if you're so

00:06:26.780 inclined runestone.org slash donate and you can donate to any of our any of our fundraisers there

00:06:35.180 and like i said we appreciate you guys on that note gilbert started off our show

00:06:41.580 with a 150 donation towards our memorial fund we have the ability now to one of our uh

00:06:52.060 one of our fallen members that i mentioned on the program melanda harris

00:06:55.420 we are trying to raise money to handle the cremation expenses and um internment expenses

00:07:05.660 for making sure her remains wind up where she wanted them which will be in our cemetery

00:07:11.580 at odin's off for our people to share with and have with us in our spiritual community

00:07:20.220 from now until forever so we're very excited about that that broke in our favor in a way

00:07:27.560 that we could provide her what she wanted and we appreciate everybody who's donated to help

00:07:31.960 make that happen uh you guys are awesome and i think we're we're just about halfway to our goal

00:07:37.520 on that one um appreciate everybody joining us in the chat room tonight i am trying to kill time

00:07:50.780 just briefly because uh expecting our law speaker on so i'm not sure what the hold up is there

00:07:59.660 hopefully nick is reaching out on the back end and we can get everything all squared away the

00:08:04.480 way we would like. Don't want to steal this thunder, but the idea tonight is to talk about

00:08:09.700 community. And if it doesn't pop on, I think we may dive right in on that here in a few.

00:08:22.360 Oh, but I will note, something is in the air. We have had a little surge of membership applications

00:08:31.400 over this last this last week which has been beautiful to see we're always very excited

00:08:38.240 when our folk come home something that i have noticed in my time doing this

00:08:44.140 we talk on the program a lot i know i mentioned on here a lot uh

00:08:51.160 cores to some of our magic practice are recognizing currents in the web of earth and

00:09:00.760 a lot of times that sounds figurative but it's strange it's weird in the very best sense

00:09:12.000 how that does end up playing out in a strange way whenever we get surge of of members i try to look

00:09:19.200 and i try to see is there a commonality are these people all coming from one area do they know each

00:09:24.120 other in their reason for joining or how they found us? Is there something in common or some

00:09:32.120 kind of catalyst to get a bunch of people to join at once? And seldom can I find that. Every now and

00:09:38.220 again, that happens. But more often than not, we get these surges because something's in the air

00:09:43.540 and something strikes in a way that is unknowable to us. But a number of people get that pull to

00:09:52.560 come home and uh and do so at the same time so that's always a really cool thing to see

00:10:11.760 so kind of last thing that i want to uh

00:10:15.600 All right. So, one of the things that we often mention on the program is the communal nature of our faith.

00:10:30.760 AUSA Troop is something that is, so I'm thinking on how I want to put this, there are,

00:10:51.960 you guys may can tell i'm flailing a little bit because i'm starting fresh and i know the

00:10:59.520 law speaker has an outline that he wanted to discuss tonight but i guess something i'd like

00:11:02.880 to say is they're in modern discussion about religion and spirituality there are a lot of

00:11:14.640 people that define themselves as spiritual and their expression of their faith or their practice

00:11:21.080 of what that means to them is often a very personal thing it's their personal between

00:11:31.340 them and the gods or them and their one god or whatever however they define themselves in their

00:11:36.980 faith it's very much a them and the divine relationship and there's certainly a place

00:11:44.580 for that in Ausatru. But what is very, very prominent in Ausatru is the relationship of

00:11:54.580 one to the divine through the lens and in the context of community. And more than that,

00:12:01.680 the relationship of a community of people to the gods. It fills out and it adds context

00:12:10.120 to our faith. Community is the medium through which we express all of our noble virtues

00:12:21.500 and put into practice the things that we value. Through our interactions with our community,

00:12:29.820 we're able to demonstrate our character and show our deeds in a way that's recognized and

00:12:38.160 of values plays to them.

00:12:41.900 I've got word that our law speaker's on the way here

00:12:45.080 in a few minutes.

00:12:46.420 So I'll put a pin in the community bit for a second

00:12:49.300 and hope that he joins us before I dive right back into it.

00:12:52.500 But I want you to keep those things in mind.

00:12:54.920 Community is the context that our deeds

00:12:59.340 and our values play out.

00:13:02.220 Community is the medium by which we're able to express

00:13:06.740 those things.

00:13:08.160 We have one question so far. As a veteran, is there any way that the government can help with the cremation costs for Melinda?

00:13:22.080 so no to my understanding as far as the cremation goes but as a veteran she is

00:13:29.600 entitled to her grave marker so her tombstone will be provided as i understand through um

00:13:39.760 i think through the veterans administration or however they do that but yes as a veteran her

00:13:44.080 a grave marker is something they help with but the actual uh cremation and transport of her remains

00:13:52.880 i don't believe so um so that's where we're at with our conversation with the uh

00:14:03.040 mortuary facility but we are engaging that and they are interfacing with the veterans

00:14:10.400 administration and getting that all sorted out and this is the figures that they quoted us and

00:14:17.840 if we can shave anything off we'll definitely reflect that in that thermometer as we go

00:14:28.880 here he is he exists

00:14:33.440 in a different time zone

00:14:34.880 okay in fact in a different time zone um welcome i uh i hopefully primed them and they are they're

00:14:46.800 uh oozing with anticipation at this point so they're they're ready for you

00:14:53.200 okay okay so we'll just jump right into it hey um so i apologize for my tardiness um no disrespect i

00:15:02.000 And I, it's been kind of a chaotic couple of weeks, and so I am behind on several things.

00:15:11.240 So, community, right?

00:15:14.900 First of all, I want to review a couple things, as I often do.

00:15:20.920 I'm listening to another book about diet, and it just reminded me about, again, I know

00:15:27.900 we've talked about it a couple of times, but the, I, you know, I find it really, you know,

00:15:33.220 it just emphasized the importance of, uh, eating well, um, eating in synchronization and even,

00:15:41.400 um, you know, timing the, uh, the timing your meals so that you're, you know, three or four

00:15:50.000 hours before bedtimes when you finish eating. Um, and there was something else I left my

00:15:57.860 notes at the office. So anyway, so community. In thinking about that, the one thing that I wanted

00:16:07.580 to emphasize or one of the things I wanted to emphasize is taking advantage of the HOFs that

00:16:16.120 we have. It has been a lot of work getting us up to this stage. I know it seems not, you know,

00:16:24.860 it seems inconvenient when a Hoff is two or three hours away from you,

00:16:29.020 but trust me, it was, it has been a great deal of effort,

00:16:35.680 of love, mostly with Matt,

00:16:38.400 but I helped to get us up to this stage of the game with the Hoffs that we

00:16:43.820 have. And it is, you know,

00:16:47.700 we are building Hoff cultures around all of our locations.

00:16:50.860 locations. I, um, there, uh, we have a good strong community at Njordshof, um, Thorshof,

00:16:57.960 the same, Odinzhof, I'm sure, um, where there's, you know, where we have groups that, that come in

00:17:04.100 and are regulars there at the Hof, and, you know, you get to know each other, you get to, uh, know

00:17:11.160 each other's, um, uh, personalities and, uh, troubles and joys and all that sort of stuff,

00:17:20.860 So it makes the practice of all is true, you know, a happier thing instead of sitting at home wondering if you're the only one, because if you're sitting at home by yourself, you are the only one.

00:17:34.740 But if you come to the Hof, then you can be around a bunch of like-minded people that share your assumptions about the way the world works.

00:17:44.620 We are traditionalist-minded people that believe in the natural order of things and a hierarchical existence that is run in a hierarchical structure in keeping with nature and 300,000 years of cultural evolution.

00:18:12.020 So we certainly believe that Western civilization manifested in its way, the way that it has, because of the cultural influence of the Germanic tribal peoples.

00:18:31.540 So that despite the overlay of Christianity, the bedrock community aspects of Western culture are those that it inherited from its pagan past.

00:18:51.920 um so the odinic structure that lies beneath the christian overlay

00:19:01.800 um is what gives western civilization all of its best features um

00:19:08.940 and a thousand examples of that of course so the um so the other thing about um also true community

00:19:20.180 is that when you join the Osdru Folk Assembly,

00:19:25.360 obviously you get to take advantage of the member chats,

00:19:32.760 and that is an important means of shaping

00:19:37.360 and expanding your understanding not only of the lore

00:19:41.860 and the beliefs and practice of our folk,

00:19:44.260 but also the zeitgeist, the world spirit

00:19:48.820 that we manifest as we track our way through the world.

00:19:55.060 The way that we approach things is not necessarily cast in stone in that way,

00:20:04.980 but I was actually listening to a podcast about theurgy, of all things,

00:20:10.920 and what they talk about when you have those bedrock principles,

00:20:15.480 it doesn't necessarily solve every problem.

00:20:18.820 But what it does is it gives you a firm stance from which to analyze all these issues so that you can come at a problem in a rational way that takes into account the right understanding of the world.

00:20:40.620 And, of course, that applies not only in, you know, in family and social situations, but writ larger into the political stuff.

00:20:53.600 And, you know, we don't talk a lot of politic on here and there are reasons for that, but the analysis of it, and you can come to many conclusions as long as you're approaching it through the right way.

00:21:11.460 And I think a lot of these political ideologies are, as they say, downstream of culture.

00:21:21.440 So when you have your culture right, if we can fix the culture, and that's what we are trying to do, certainly within the AFA, if we can figure out a way to put Matt in charge, we could get a lot of the rest of this stuff straightened out, too.

00:21:38.100 um so so there's that you know you uh you know you you get the understanding

00:21:46.080 of people who have been at this for a while that includes me there are lots of others who

00:21:53.980 have been doing it just as long or longer and you can if you hang around in the um the chats

00:22:03.600 If you come to the Hoffmore especially, then you can share knowledge and wisdom and understanding with us,

00:22:12.880 and we can deepen our understanding by approaching problems in new ways that we hadn't thought of before.

00:22:21.280 In addition to that, the other important aspect of community, it seems to me,

00:22:26.640 is the community that we share with the ancestors and ultimately with the gods.

00:22:33.600 we are all one folk um odin as the progenitor and all of our culture and folk are descended

00:22:46.880 from that

00:22:51.840 beginning and so you know if you if you read books of history i mean even the early english kings

00:22:58.880 for example, trace their lineage back to Odin. They were ostensibly Christian in their practice

00:23:05.920 because that's what you had to do. But, you know, in the early days, they were certainly

00:23:13.040 much more aware of the fact that their actual culture, their pride and lineage,

00:23:20.480 tracked its way back to their own gods and to their own understanding of the world.

00:23:26.080 So through the ancestors and the veneration of the ancestors to their rightful place among the gods, through the desir, that is all part of the community that we share.

00:23:44.620 by coming to the Hoff

00:23:47.100 and by actually going to moots

00:23:50.480 that your folk builders sponsor.

00:23:52.180 You can meet people in your local group.

00:23:55.980 You know, they don't have to be your best friend,

00:23:57.920 but you can...

00:24:01.100 And actually, I think that's one of the things

00:24:02.920 that has gone wrong with society in general,

00:24:07.400 America in particular.

00:24:08.900 You know, we've gotten so particularized about,

00:24:12.220 You know, we don't want to be around somebody unless they match up with us 88%.

00:24:18.480 But, you know, in point of fact, people with larger friend groups that maybe match less well overall,

00:24:35.380 but they have a I'm sorry that have like a less complete overlay if you have a bunch of people

00:24:41.980 that are 50 60 percent of the way there then between all of you you get you know it all works

00:24:48.480 and it all happens and that's the kind of group that you can build by um bloating together by

00:24:55.200 going to moots and having dinner and riding bikes and kayaking you know you build common interest

00:25:01.920 and common stories, and those are the kinds of things that by sharing community, it, you know,

00:25:09.360 it makes you a happier person. The, you know, wealth that we've created in this country is

00:25:15.420 one thing, and it's marvelous, but the, but we'd really be better off having less stuff and having

00:25:23.680 more friends, even though it means driving a couple hours, you know, but if you think about

00:25:31.280 A couple hours used to mean barely being able to get out of sight of your house, to hitch up a team and go to a big county fair or something like that was a big deal that didn't happen very often.

00:25:50.940 But we have the opportunity now with modern transportation that we can avail ourselves of these functions of community, and we should.

00:26:08.900 So that's the starting point.

00:26:13.140 Nick, put up the thing.

00:26:17.340 Pardon? 1.00

00:26:18.720 Ta-da!

00:26:19.580 all right so i just think this is an apropos for our theme today i have them all 47.

00:26:26.220 oh nice i was young once i walked alone and bewildered seemed in the way then i found me

00:26:32.140 another rich i thought me for man is the man and i think this rings true i think it rang true

00:26:41.340 in the viking age i think it rang true in the neolithic period i think it will always ring true

00:26:47.260 um humans are social creatures we are built and formed to interact in groups and to interact with

00:26:56.860 one another um I kind of primed the discussion a little bit the fact that that interaction is the

00:27:10.780 it's the context that we express our values you can't express hospitality by yourself

00:27:17.260 You can't, you know, it's not there are, I guess, you in the woods can do courageous things.

00:27:25.240 But so much of the virtue of courage is others recognizing it and celebrating it and you being part of celebrating it when you see it in others.

00:27:36.280 One of the terms that I think is very often misunderstood in a modern context is honor.

00:27:42.280 honor was never intended to mean like your personal code of doing stuff that's awesome

00:27:49.800 and there's nothing wrong with that that's a very admirable thing but honor was the value that your

00:27:56.880 community placed upon you honors were bestowed upon you by recognized representatives of your

00:28:04.080 tribe and your people and important personages in your orbit. And we still see that in some

00:28:13.220 things when there's a civic award given or something. But honor was, it wasn't your self-value.

00:28:21.460 It was the value placed upon you by your community. We have become very, very atomized in the

00:28:31.200 world around us. And as individuals, many of us have had to break from groups and institutions

00:28:41.280 we were once part of that weren't fulfilling and that we learned not to be the right thing.

00:28:46.280 There's been an overcorrection to where so many of us have trouble getting along with others,

00:28:52.840 have trouble being part of something, have trouble fitting into their place in a hierarchy. We

00:28:59.780 have a hyper focus on individualism and we have a a lacking focus on group function alan pointed

00:29:09.040 something out that i think is worth noting um hopefully you guys all see when we post the uh

00:29:14.260 the various pictures of afa gatherings and man that just looks like some people sitting around

00:29:20.520 eating dinner quite often it is but that sharing of food with your folk with your

00:29:28.120 spiritual community is a religious act. Building bonds, building frith, building trust

00:29:35.800 between you and your fellow Alcetruar and your fellow AFA members,

00:29:43.180 that's what this is. That's a big part of what this is about. I would say ritually,

00:29:50.020 what we do in Bloat and Ensemble is very significantly ingrained in community practice.

00:29:56.560 It's not one guy and the gods. It's a circle of worshipers together worshiping the gods.

00:30:05.160 It's a gathering of our folk, raising toasts to the gods, to ancestors, and to one another.

00:30:13.580 Community is at the very core of this, and it always has been.

00:30:17.740 But I think all too often that is common sense, it's what happens, but it's not spoken about as much.

00:30:24.800 And so sometimes I don't think he gets the emphasis that it ought to be.

00:30:38.820 Alan, you're muted.

00:30:40.020 And I first was telling you about it as I was muted.

00:30:44.300 Sorry.

00:30:44.780 um uh one of the remember one of the most severe punishments that uh could be exacted on uh you

00:30:54.360 know on a wrongdoer was banishment so like the very worst thing that could happen to you i guess

00:31:00.180 worse than unless short of being blood eagled which probably never happened but the but the

00:31:06.980 But but to be turned away from your community. So the the mindset of certainly those who wielded justice absolutely was like the most important thing to people is the people that you know and the people who have your back and the people who know you and respect you.

00:31:31.700 And to be excluded from that community of friends and loved ones was, you know, was a harsh punishment almost beyond thinking.

00:31:43.220 And but the atomization of modern culture has just put us in a totally different mindset.

00:31:50.280 You know, like we'll, you know, we can just go find some different friends that do some different stuff.

00:31:57.560 But the friend group that I found in the AFA, and I think that most of us find, is a diverse group in the proper sense of that term.

00:32:10.520 We have a lot of experience in a lot of different areas and are able to share those experiences, share those stories with a common understanding of what what the proper meaning and context of all this sort of stuff is in our culture.

00:32:28.580 so you mentioned um justice and i think that we don't

00:32:43.220 i don't know it's not one of the things that's front and center when we talk about the faith

00:32:49.300 but community is again highly highly reflected in our understanding of of

00:32:57.200 I want to say justice, but I guess when I say legal law and when I say like criminal justice,

00:33:09.060 it puts it in a real modern context. But as a person in relation to society, justice concept,

00:33:18.780 we often hear debt to society but that doesn't really mean much in its current implication but

00:33:28.780 it meant everything to our ancestors the understanding of crime and how to

00:33:36.700 right those kind of wrongs was fundamentally about repaying the damage to social fabric

00:33:44.600 that you cause it wasn't about locking somebody up or doing something punitive necessarily

00:33:52.520 sometimes but those had community implications it was very much about what damage have you caused

00:33:59.640 to the community what you know by doing something harmful to one of my family members

00:34:06.200 you have made us weaker you have made my clan and my house weaker you have

00:34:14.440 put a hole in what was known as the kin fence everything was an understanding of community

00:34:21.800 a place in that community and a value in that community i think that with so many things we

00:34:30.360 We have a very disposable culture today, as Alan mentioned, you know, if you do wrong by one set of friends, you can pretend they don't exist or you can go move somewhere and, you know, have a bunch of new friends.

00:34:43.660 But I think the more you do that, the less, the less intimate those friendships, the less enduring those friendships are.

00:34:53.660 And I think that when we look at many of us, there is a decreasing, as the generations progress, number of lifelong friendships or lifelong connections that our people end up having.

00:35:06.040 and some of that's a consequence of just the circumstances we all live in but so much of it

00:35:13.980 is because we don't it is easier to flee discomfort than it is to fix damage that one's done

00:35:23.420 in the eyes of your community i think that factors in the house true in many many ways

00:35:31.280 The other part of it, and again, I don't use this word a lot, but, you know, we have to also be tolerant of the errors of our friends and the, you know, the mistakes that they make.

00:35:47.580 as long as like the, although it took me a long time to get here, but, you know, it certainly

00:35:53.160 is the idea that, um, as long as people are acting in good faith, like if, you know, you may do

00:36:03.800 something wrong, but if it doesn't start with thought crime, like if, you know, if, if somebody

00:36:09.600 makes a mistake, it's one thing. Um, you know, but if, if somebody's does something to intentionally

00:36:17.740 wrong you, that puts them in a very different place and posture of the, um, you know, their

00:36:24.480 relationship to you and the kind of friend that they are, the kind of person that, um, that you

00:36:29.160 can subsequently know that they are. Uh, I think it's also true talking about community. First of

00:36:36.840 Well, you know, America is a complicated place in many ways, you know, and part of the reason that we've ended up in this crazy posture is exactly because of the diversity that's been forced into our neighborhoods. 0.99

00:36:56.560 I mean, you know, 50 years ago, 60 years ago when I was growing up, I mean, you know, people bought a house and stayed there. 1.00

00:37:06.940 My mother and father, you know, bought a house in 1968 and we still have it.

00:37:13.160 That's where I grew up, spent my whole childhood there from age seven on.

00:37:19.480 But, you know, and most of the neighbors are still around there.

00:37:23.240 And that's not, you know, so this portability that we have, and I realize it's part of the American mosaic that we, you know, that we think we can always move on to greener pastures.

00:37:36.800 But what we've lost in return for that marginal increase in wealth or status that we get from skipping around through the neighborhoods is drastically worse than what we've lost.

00:37:54.860 We've given up these lifelong friendships and the idea of permanence and settled the ability to be comfortable, you know, around your own neighbors because you've known them for a long period of time.

00:38:10.420 I think it's also true, you know, again, relating to Hoff culture and people that you bloat and moot with.

00:38:18.040 You know, you can be comfortable around them. And there's, it is, as those of us who hold opinions that are not welcome necessarily by the mainstream in a lot of places, it's a good thing to be able to let your guard down a little bit and talk about things with people of understanding, with people of right understanding, who grasp what these things are.

00:38:46.360 And trust me, it's worth it to drive a couple, three hours each way, get a hotel, spend the night.

00:38:54.260 It's worth it. It's worth it a thousand times over.

00:38:57.660 I think the other thing that we should address while we're talking about community is the idea of the of the community at large.

00:39:05.860 our civic community. Most of us are certainly, in many places, for many of your friends,

00:39:20.000 you're the only Odinist that they know. And certainly for most strangers, even

00:39:26.440 it frustrates me how many guys I have run into wearing a hammer or who recognize my hammer and

00:39:35.560 I try to invite them to stuff and try to get them to get involved and give them a card with the Brunestone URL on it, and you just never hear from them.

00:39:48.020 It's frustrating. I don't know what the cause of that is, but in the greater civic community, we should all be more active, I'm talking to myself as much as anybody, in trying to shape the communities that we live in.

00:40:05.560 Um, and it's, it's bigger things like, and, you know, I'm not as, I don't even live in the city, so I can't go to city council meetings anymore. I guess go to county commission meetings, um, but getting involved in that sort of thing.

00:40:21.280 And also, you know, being generally polite to people and, you know, putting your cart back when you are grocery shopping, you know, being a good citizen also plays into the idea of community in the larger sense of the word.

00:40:40.420 You know, what we what we have to be, especially at this stage in the development of our faith, we have to be examples of honor and integrity and responsibility so that people will see us and want to emulate who we are and what we do.

00:40:58.620 ideally i'd like that to be a commonality and a marker that people can recognize

00:41:08.880 about us it's one of the things i will say very very positively about latter-day saints

00:41:15.400 growing up and in my high school we did not have a huge mormon team

00:41:20.860 but the mormon kids in my school were the best at all the things they were academically

00:41:28.920 high achievers they were athletically high achievers they were good looking kids that

00:41:35.480 were in shape that took care of themselves that were respectful of other students respectful of

00:41:42.160 teachers you could as a brand thing the latter-day saints were top-notch folks in the

00:41:52.320 community i grew up in and all of that spoke volumes about that being something positive

00:42:00.320 without them having to open their mouth and tell me about joseph smith um those non-verbal

00:42:07.760 communications go a long way and allen's points very well taken you may be their only point of

00:42:12.160 reference to what else true is or what else sure are like by you being the example and again wearing

00:42:20.960 your hammer out so they know what that is and associating that with somebody who is dignified

00:42:27.760 and a good member of community and something they want you know the kind of guy they want to be to

00:42:35.920 be friends with or they want their sisters or daughters to find themselves with that's what you

00:42:42.800 want that's the kind of thing you want to i ran into this with aubrey the other day and i was

00:42:48.560 talking about it it's always such a nice thing when other parents come up to you and compliment

00:42:55.920 you on how well behaved your child is i think that is informative to this discussion it's always

00:43:02.880 is a great thing when you hear about you know i don't know much about that's true but i know this

00:43:07.920 one that's true guy that guy was great they they they're doing something right that's invaluable um

00:43:19.280 and i have to think how much more so for the gods to recognize like wow people think that

00:43:26.560 our followers are somebody special i i talk all the time in ritual and i think it's really important

00:43:35.360 we want our gods to be proud of us we want our families to be proud of us

00:43:41.360 um a big part of that is by being the example and living the things that we talk about instead of

00:43:49.760 you know just making cool viking memes about them but living out our values in the world

00:43:55.440 it's one of those things with the food pantries they are a big effort on our part to be part of

00:44:01.840 our local community and to show our best face our hospitality our generosity in those communities

00:44:09.040 to be recognized as a positive force to have in your area and a source of good things in your

00:44:16.480 community so far that's worked out very very well for us it's something that i'm really proud that

00:44:21.360 we're doing yeah that has been awesome and we you know i know at nortoff like um one of the guys

00:44:32.080 who's a regular there at the at the food bank picking up food i mean he gave us two wild boars

00:44:40.000 that he killed so now we have meat for a while um and it's you know and you know and some of the

00:44:50.640 the some of the other regulars there at the at the um community as you know i mean i think you've

00:44:55.680 seen some of the pottery that the one guy has made for us um and very much with the njortov motif

00:45:02.800 and you know so he gets the you know so he gets what it is that we're trying to do there i mean

00:45:08.000 it even had you know someone has the marlin on it that we you know that is the njortov symbol

00:45:14.000 so and thor's ham you know replete with thor's hammers and you know that sort of thing um

00:45:20.640 Another lady has brought us, she made little, like, lays, but, you know, just out of cloth.

00:45:34.740 So she brought some of those for us to wear one time.

00:45:37.580 So, you know, and I asked those people that are eligible for membership, you know, I suggested them, you know, you ought to check us out.

00:45:47.600 And, you know, you should be here.

00:45:49.200 You should be here.

00:45:50.000 and

00:45:51.160 so far no takers

00:45:55.920 but you never know

00:45:57.180 I think the other part of that

00:46:00.180 same thing

00:46:01.520 and another aspect of community

00:46:04.080 if you want more of your friends to be there

00:46:05.780 invite them

00:46:06.840 I mean I've invited a good friend of mine

00:46:08.920 who is

00:46:09.800 non-religious 1.00

00:46:12.000 but he came 0.98

00:46:14.320 enjoyed it

00:46:16.160 found lots of good folk

00:46:18.080 that he could have common interest with, you know, we are, I mean, he's almost as conservative as we

00:46:27.380 are. And so he found a good cadre of friends that he could, that he could discuss things with in a,

00:46:36.700 you know, in a good spirit. And, you know, he hadn't been back, but he will. So, and again,

00:46:46.080 So that's, you know, because we enjoy it, because we know that we are on the right path spiritually and culturally, we should all be inviting more of our culture, our circle of friends to, you know, to join us at the Hoff.

00:47:03.740 So we should be good people with everybody we interact with, and we should always make the best impression.

00:47:10.080 we should do that because we are Aryan and we should be noble

00:47:16.180 but outside just that it is very practical towards

00:47:22.560 showing how special and beneficial this is that we're part of and helping to bring our folk home

00:47:31.860 and it's like so many things these days one of the unique features we

00:47:44.340 we all have these different web of people that we know and that web transcends

00:47:51.540 age oftentimes it transcends communication we all have friends and through the internet and

00:47:57.460 everything else we have friends all over the place if you're talking to somebody and they're not

00:48:05.140 interested or not eligible or not religious or whatever their thing is maybe their roommate is

00:48:11.140 maybe their friend is maybe their parents are maybe the next guy they meet when they go down

00:48:16.660 the road man you know what just happened to me i was over at that half and man them honking

00:48:21.700 some good folks cool what's that about i'll check it out next time i drive by

00:48:28.260 it those things and as silly as that sounds those things do happen those things happen all the time

00:48:36.180 planting seeds by having a good reputation is fundamental that's something that our ancestors

00:48:41.620 certainly surely knew our reputation is so very fundamental to what we do for those kind of

00:48:47.780 reasons um but in this day and age where the word spreads fast on a lot of things we can really make

00:48:55.300 a good impression that affects people you know states away and brings the folk home you may not

00:49:03.380 always see it but that doesn't mean it it doesn't happen i talked at the beginning of the

00:49:10.740 excuse me at the beginning of the broadcast about we have a little surge in membership going on

00:49:16.820 um and how i never can figure out what the x factor is i always look for man are these people

00:49:22.820 all in the same area or do they have the same reason for joining or you know what caused this

00:49:29.380 all to happen and it's always very elusive but oftentimes it's because of things like this they

00:49:35.780 may not put it in the reason for joining but sometimes they do hey i knew a guy one time that

00:49:41.220 said they were an afa member and they were really cool now that i've got you know whatever in my

00:49:46.020 life i want to check that out we have that happen we have it happen frequently so those things do

00:49:51.620 matter and i think the lds or mormon example is spot on um the um i was watching a

00:50:10.580 documentary about this lady who was a um

00:50:14.420 counselor for you know for mormon families and she developed this little niche specialty 0.98

00:50:22.500 in uh in in counseling afa merit marital problems she turned out to be quite a 0.96

00:50:33.860 uh a wrongdoer um in the long run but you know you're exactly right like all those you know all

00:50:40.820 the families that they interviewed you know were in good condition doing well financially

00:50:49.540 and i think i think that they have although of course the genesis of that the right word for them

00:50:58.020 um the genesis of that for them was you know that they got whipped out of town until they

00:51:02.740 They just really had no choice but to circle up and help each other out.

00:51:10.520 Otherwise, they weren't going to make it through the Utah.

00:51:17.040 You know, they just weren't going to make it through, you know, through the next winter.

00:51:21.160 So they, you know, they developed a culture out of necessity, a culture of assisting each other and holding each other to a higher standard.

00:51:29.380 You know, I think a lot of times we are worried about, and rightly so, perhaps, we're, you know, we're worried about being too hard on each other.

00:51:41.720 But at the same time, you know, we should look to each other to meet the standard that we expect of ourselves and of each other.

00:51:52.600 And that's something that as we build culture over time, we'll get better.

00:51:57.540 It is difficult because I think we're all, especially the younger generations coming up, but I'd say most people now in the West have a fragileness for plain speaking.

00:52:13.880 There is a line between being straightforward and being rude, and a lot of people, you know, on both sides of that, misunderstand the one for the other.

00:52:27.540 But I think we're very quick to take offense, and because we don't place strong enough value on community, those are the kind of things that we're very quick to hide from rather than address and rise to the occasion.

00:52:45.660 um lesson that i learned uh you know unfortunately by by negative example on it but from my mom

00:52:56.220 i watched growing up and she had this friend you know this friend group of other you know other 0.99

00:53:03.180 i don't know if you would call them liberal liberal white ladies now but you certainly 0.99

00:53:11.280 would back in the eighties and nineties, um, teacher friends. And their friendship was always

00:53:17.860 very, uh, work oriented and man, the slightest, the slightest dose of honesty about something

00:53:26.520 that bothered one of them or something that, you know, Hey, you did this thing and I need you not

00:53:32.460 to do that again. And they would sever ties and you'd never talk to that person again. And I

00:53:38.080 watched i watched her really suffer a drought of friends over the years because those friendships

00:53:46.240 couldn't endure any kind of straight talk or honest reflection to one another and that's

00:53:51.760 unfortunate and i've seen that up front and i i think that we do well to uh

00:53:59.520 steel ourselves against hypersensitivity and be willing to not only speak plainly or not

00:54:07.600 only be able to hear plain speaking about ourselves amongst friends but be able to

00:54:14.080 give that back in appropriate measure where we can all be made better and

00:54:21.920 not have that artificial barrier of hypersensitivity there you're certainly

00:54:28.080 right that you know that there's a line between honesty and rudeness you can be direct without

00:54:33.600 being rude and it but you have to hear it in that way too honest constructive criticism is not meant

00:54:44.800 to hurt your feelings it's meant to you know improve your position and to you know so that you

00:54:52.160 don't continue to engage in that inappropriate behavior or activity or you know so you get the

00:55:03.520 spinach out from in between your teeth i mean at that stage of the game the you should be able again

00:55:11.920 it's a function of uh what used to be called helicopter parenting which i now understand is

00:55:18.480 you know devolved further into snowplow parenting if you know what that is um yeah uh it's snowplow

00:55:27.840 parenting is where the parents go and clear every obstacle out of the way so the child gets like the

00:55:33.440 red carpet ride all the way through um to the participation trophy um but it's uh

00:55:45.360 and i realize that you know that this whole approach seems anachronistic it seems like

00:55:50.800 we're out of touch but really it's the rest of the civilization the rest of the world is what's

00:55:57.440 out of touch the fact that um people can't certainly can't take a joke much less um hear

00:56:06.320 an honest criticism about themselves um is is disheartening in a lot of ways and you know i

00:56:14.080 i've just i've come to expect it in the outside world like um the you know for the for the rest

00:56:22.320 of the planet um you know the people who are not us uh i just you know i treat them all with kid

00:56:32.320 gloves and but i at the same time i tell people who are my friends um you know if i speak to you

00:56:38.560 directly it's because i like you you know if i if i am being hyper polite and dancing around something

00:56:46.720 it's because i know you can't can't you know you can't handle the truth as jack nicholson said

00:56:56.720 so that brings me to something but before i do

00:57:00.640 andrew in texas thank you he donated uh ten dollars towards melinda's um

00:57:08.800 cremation and memorial funds so thank you for that we appreciate you

00:57:12.480 um appreciate all our generous givers on the program something alan brings up that i think

00:57:18.480 is very you know appropriate to talk about in the discussion community

00:57:24.560 is uh in and guard and guard so converse at alan kind of had a dichotomy there of randos that he

00:57:34.560 meets at the gas station you have a different different rules of engagement and a different

00:57:42.960 posture towards you still want to be dignified and noble too but there is a proprietary relationship

00:57:50.720 in your inner yard of people who are your friends or who are part of your afa family when i say

00:57:57.280 welcome to our afa family on the little welcome emails it's not like branding or hyperbolic

00:58:04.560 i believe that wholeheartedly and i feel that way you become part of this you become part of a

00:58:11.280 a family of faith and as such i think that we owe each other a certain amount of grace of

00:58:21.200 and this is i am aware this is much much easier said than done and i think we all fall short of

00:58:28.720 it sometimes but i challenge i do this with leadership from time to time and i believe in it

00:58:36.640 i challenge folks to extend everybody when in doubt extend them the courtesy of interpreting

00:58:43.920 what they're saying or what they're typing to you in the best possible tone with the best possible

00:58:49.680 intention we know for a fact that that is not always the case but until you know for sure

00:58:56.080 until you know for reasonably short it is a good social kindness to be able to expend the

00:59:06.320 what if let's just assume that he means that in the nicest possible way and let's act as though

00:59:12.540 that's the case i think that if we all did that with one another we would all have an easier time

00:59:19.800 life and i think a lot of um a lot of our friends might still be with us as friends

00:59:27.240 and we would have much more enduring relationships if we actively tried to extend that courtesy to

00:59:34.760 one another and i think that you know if you mess up and you let something slide by assuming it was

00:59:43.160 meant in the best possible way i think that's a minimal cost for a beneficial effect over time 0.94

00:59:51.400 and when you are getting that email about being part of family don't be that loser cousin who only 0.99

00:59:56.280 comes around once at every fifth year's family reunion get off your butt and do stuff so uh 0.98

01:00:03.160 since you did that um alan kind of went on a a thing about you know coming to the halls so 0.61

01:00:13.160 a little bit over a week ago I turned 45 years old and I may not seem like much to some people

01:00:24.780 but to other people it entitles me to like doing some old man things so back in my day 0.52

01:00:31.240 um I remember the dream of one day having a hoff like man one of these days maybe

01:00:41.700 If we got all our ducks in a row, we could have a hof, and how awesome that would be. 0.98

01:00:49.880 And I've been fortunate enough to live in a time where that happened. 0.56

01:00:58.320 And that was amazing when we just had that one hof out there in Brownsville, California, Odin's hof. 0.89

01:01:03.680 and that gave the opportunity for all of our people to come together at a hoth and worship 0.93

01:01:11.900 our gods and fellowship with their afa family in one place and that was so special and you know

01:01:19.660 you have people to this day that will travel you know maybe once maybe twice maybe three or four

01:01:26.400 times a year they'll travel you know eight or ten hours to go to that hoth got a lot of other

01:01:31.520 people that monthly will travel say past three hours is a lot but we have people that will travel

01:01:39.600 four hours a month to go to their local off and i don't hear those people complain about it

01:01:44.640 i know that it's a lot but all those people are very fulfilled um

01:01:49.360 it's worth doing and we live in a time now where we have five hops there is a very good odds that

01:01:59.360 there is a Hoff somewhere near you that you can attend. And I would encourage you in the

01:02:06.600 strongest possible terms to make that a priority to attend your Hoff. If it's very, very far away,

01:02:13.600 maybe you can only make it a couple of times a year. If it's more reasonable, hopefully you can

01:02:18.360 make it once a month. It is always going to be worth the effort. And it is amazing that we live

01:02:24.760 as close to Hoffs as we do and if we have enough participation and if our gods favor us we'll have 0.88

01:02:33.460 more Hoffs in the future and every one we did it'll be that much closer but that only happens if the

01:02:39.320 people we have now are willing to make that effort to get to the Hoffs we have. More than that you

01:02:45.720 have members near you that host gatherings that host dinners that go hiking that go kayaking that

01:02:55.080 go have a board game night they get together and have a beer that do things together

01:03:00.760 you have that all over the place and you may not know about it unless you actively engage

01:03:06.360 we have a couple of tools for that the afa calendar at runestone.org calendar or slash

01:03:14.040 calendar there is a calendar that's got all these events on it of all the stuff we do

01:03:21.640 chances are you're going to find your state on there you're going to find something close

01:03:24.920 enough to you that you can be part of it now's the time be part of it we have a

01:03:31.960 rich community um nick if you have that other graphic i sent you from earlier

01:03:37.560 this is a graphical layout of our membership each one of these little pins is a member of the astro

01:03:46.240 folk assembly now we have international members we have folks in alaska but they wouldn't fit on

01:03:51.660 this map in a nice and usable way but look at how densely packed a lot of the states that we find

01:03:58.980 ourselves in are you got members close to you and those members do things be part of it take

01:04:05.640 advantage of it. This is an amazing time to be part of the Astro Folk Assembly. Your local folk

01:04:13.060 builder, or a folk builder at least, will reach out to you regularly, inviting you to these events.

01:04:19.640 If you're not on the team already, now is the time. Get off the fence. Get on the team.

01:04:24.880 And if you are on the team, don't wait for something down the road that is more perfect.

01:04:29.800 is get in the car and show up you will be glad that you did and i i genuinely mean that uh

01:04:38.840 trying to think it's hard to think that like never has somebody

01:04:43.080 been disgruntled that they've gone to an event but i don't hear that i hear

01:04:51.080 several times a month at least how special it was that these people traveled a great distance to be

01:04:58.440 at one of our events and how much they loved it how much they're coming back

01:05:02.600 i hear that a lot and i want you to be the next person i hear it from so go to local stuff

01:05:15.080 i 100 agree and i i'm reminded of uh a member who used to come north talk quite regularly but

01:05:23.640 has now moved to Texas, so it's a much further trek for her and her family, but she, you know,

01:05:30.380 she was literally in tears talking about the fact that her daughters were so

01:05:37.740 relieved to know that there are other normal people in the world, you know, that for so long

01:05:47.980 They'd felt isolated in their public school system because all this leftist woke ideology is so taken hold.

01:05:58.720 And it's not because they are right or even because they are in the majority.

01:06:03.080 They're just the loudest, most obnoxious people in the room.

01:06:08.700 So they have this idea and certainly it's promoted by the media culture and by the corporate overlords.

01:06:17.980 but the, um, they, you know, we, so conservatives, right thinking, traditionalists have been,

01:06:25.840 um, had to sit on their hands and keep their mouth shut for so long because of the fear of

01:06:31.500 speaking out. But, you know, there is, there is safety in numbers. And once we realize that we

01:06:37.620 are the majority um we can start readjusting everybody else's attitude so i wanted to mention

01:06:48.980 another thing that goes back to something you kind of opened with but

01:06:53.220 guess another couple things

01:06:57.060 and about community one of the very beautiful things

01:07:05.160 i think this is true of our existence in general but it's a very special

01:07:11.860 manifestation of it through the austral folk symbol

01:07:15.160 we are now at a time to where we do womb blessings we do our asavatny which is our baby naming

01:07:26.580 ceremony we do weddings we do funerals and now at each of our hafs and at siggerheim

01:07:33.920 we inter the remains of our loved ones with their gravestones.

01:07:42.260 We are very aware of our connection to each other, to the Iser,

01:07:50.740 to the ancestors that live beyond the veil, and to the spirits that surround us.

01:07:57.820 We have an unseen community that also permeates the world in which we occupy.

01:08:06.120 And it does to a very special degree when you make note of it and you acknowledge it.

01:08:15.800 And this has a lot of implications, and I may rabbit trail on this a little bit, but I think it's very relevant.

01:08:27.820 When you interact with somebody with second sight,

01:08:34.680 who is perceptive to unseen beings,

01:08:42.300 it's really interesting because I've heard it noted

01:08:45.780 by people that I trust that way,

01:08:48.520 that often, especially amongst us,

01:08:53.640 we have people around us

01:08:55.760 when we walk into a room, when we walk from place to place, there are other folks with us

01:09:05.540 in a perceptible way by those that have eyes to see and ears to hear.

01:09:14.420 That's a very real thing. And we invite, so assuming that we all have our ancestors in

01:09:23.240 touch with us in some way, and we all have the ability for those kind of things. If we are in a

01:09:30.300 faith that rejects that and sees that as bad or impious or demonic or taboo or some kind of a no-no,

01:09:40.180 there is a less than that happens there. There's a disconnect. There's a lack of harmony. There's

01:09:48.000 lack of power there but being in a faith that embraces that that worships and venerates our

01:09:56.080 ancestors that invites the spirits to be with us to know us to hear us to see our actions and to

01:10:04.160 be part of the things that we're doing we are mighty in our presence when we do things we have

01:10:13.520 have ancestors and spirits that walk with us, that accompany us.

01:10:19.040 We have, we are connected to a community of our folk that goes back to the very beginning

01:10:25.400 and that extends for all time.

01:10:28.520 And we enthusiastically embrace our part in that community.

01:10:35.300 That's really important too.

01:10:37.400 Don't neglect your ancestors and those that we love that have passed on.

01:10:44.520 Don't neglect bringing them in and making offerings to them and having them be part

01:10:49.800 of the community.

01:10:50.800 In a very particular and interesting way, and this hit me a couple of years ago when

01:10:56.680 my friend Thorgrin passed, because of the maturity of the Astrofolk Assembly, we now

01:11:04.160 We now have two of our Gothar part of our very particular spiritual community that exists

01:11:12.940 beyond the veil.

01:11:17.780 That's special and there's special implications to that.

01:11:22.160 We have Gothar that serve us here in Midgard, and we also have Gothar representing us beyond

01:11:30.180 in a way that's closer to the Aesir, that's closer to the ancestors,

01:11:34.400 and in a way that's aware of things that we're not aware of.

01:11:37.320 And I think that's a tremendous boom.

01:11:40.480 We have our AFA family here in Midgard,

01:11:44.600 but we also have AFA family beyond the veil that we include.

01:11:48.280 And it's one of the special things when we have our loved ones of each of our hoffs,

01:11:53.500 when we do ritual there and we ask to receive the blessings of the gods for those who are there,

01:11:58.660 we always go and distribute a portion of that received blessing to our our afa family that

01:12:08.720 are interred there they're part of our of our gift cycle with the ic or they're part of our

01:12:14.560 spiritual community um infinitely on into the future and that's a really special thing that

01:12:21.940 we have that I don't think other people take full advantage of or fully embrace in their

01:12:30.380 existence. I know that's kind of hard to quantify and I think maybe deliberately so, but it's

01:12:38.140 very significant nonetheless. Yeah, fully agree and that's the, in the restoration of those

01:12:49.200 traditions, I actually bought a book that has not been out for very long, but the opening

01:12:58.420 part of it has a discussion that in the tribal time, in the pre-Christian era, if that's

01:13:11.380 the terminology that you want to use, people just assumed that the dead were with us still,

01:13:18.240 that you sat under the watchful eye of your great-great-grandmother. 0.99

01:13:26.740 That's why you didn't want to offend people or act like a jerk, 0.99

01:13:30.060 not only because you'd get your nose bloodied if your uncle was in reach, 0.99

01:13:38.180 but also because you didn't want to offend the sensibilities of your grandmother

01:13:44.200 by going against your proper custom.

01:13:48.240 so alan do you have more things of a community nature to uh speak to us on at this juncture

01:13:59.920 nope that uh i think i i i discussed the horizontal and the vertical

01:14:08.560 you know trying to get more people out to the half because you know more makes more and if we

01:14:14.000 We, you know, as things start to grow, we will, more of us will get there.

01:14:20.000 And, you know, the more people that show up, the better time will be had by all.

01:14:27.800 So that said, here on the 15th, let me verify.

01:14:34.960 All right. Yeah, here on the 15th, in White Springs, Florida, they will be celebrating Freyfax.

01:14:44.000 i think you can plot it on google maps and see how far it is it's a pretty drive uh it's it's

01:14:53.440 it's a beautiful place you guys should get in your car and go there you guys should meet this

01:14:59.040 amazing gentleman who's sharing the podcast with me and you should celebrate Freyfaxi with him

01:15:05.360 but maybe that's outside of your range maybe it's more up your alley or closer to you

01:15:12.160 to celebrate free faxia phrase off in austin town ohio it's where my family and i are going to go

01:15:18.080 and i'd love to see you guys there and i say that i realize that i am in a different

01:15:27.040 mechanic in my life with that i understand i am excited about driving eight hours up there

01:15:33.280 to spend the day to drive eight hours home because it's awesome to go see and celebrate

01:15:40.240 all my friends all my family at phrase off and to stand and bloat with them worshiping lord frayer

01:15:46.720 in his hall um it is a million percent worth it it is a long drive i have to sell on a pillow

01:15:54.080 because it hurts my butt literally um it is it is it is a long drive there is a long drive back

01:16:01.760 but it's amazing and i'm so excited that i get to do that this month and that i got to do it or i 0.61

01:16:07.760 I need to do it next month and that here a couple of days ago, I got to do it for a force off.

01:16:12.480 So I understand it being a distance, but I promise you it's worth it.

01:16:18.600 With that, we've got some questions from Connor.

01:16:26.080 Question for Matt.

01:16:27.200 As a former professional bouncer, what are your thoughts on the three simple rules from Roadhouse?

01:16:34.980 One, never underestimate your opponent.

01:16:37.740 Okay, so I'm going to hit each of these individually.

01:16:40.260 One, never underestimate your opponent.

01:16:43.240 Absolutely.

01:16:44.120 I almost lost an eye because I did that one time.

01:16:47.380 So I got real cocky, and I was really, really good at dealing with drunk people.

01:16:52.380 But one time, this guy came in there, and he wasn't drunk.

01:16:55.300 He was just mad.

01:16:57.060 He was going to pick somebody up or whatever he was doing.

01:17:00.460 But he wanted to get me attitude going out the door.

01:17:02.560 And I'd gotten pretty good.

01:17:03.500 I had a move set that kind of always worked on dealing with these people.

01:17:08.600 That night, it didn't.

01:17:10.760 And I did not have good track of where that guy's hands were.

01:17:14.600 I did my one super move.

01:17:16.840 I had a thing where I would, I don't know if this would make sense articulating it,

01:17:23.980 but if it was coming to fisticuffs, I would, if they were loading up a punch for me,

01:17:30.280 I would lean my forehead in, eat the punch in my forehead because that didn't hurt and it hurt them and close the distance so I could get a headlock.

01:17:42.940 And then I would roll to where I ended up falling with all my weight on them when we hit the ground.

01:17:48.600 That and then they were done. That's all it was. And they were done. And it was an easy victory and it worked.

01:17:54.820 it worked a lot it didn't work this time and I didn't have I didn't have a next step

01:18:01.260 so the guy reached around and hooked his finger into my eye socket and he got

01:18:06.600 almost up to his second knuckle in and all of a sudden I was seeing rainbows and I was like

01:18:15.740 a turtle on my back but didn't know what to do luckily my guys were there and they were able

01:18:20.560 get me out of the situation pretty quick um but he had stretched out my eyelids so much

01:18:28.000 that i wasn't seeing right because my eyelid was all droopy over my eye

01:18:32.880 so i thought my eye was hanging and i was gonna push my eye back in luckily that was not the case

01:18:41.200 uh my my uh my colleagues were making fun of me saying i was crying until they realized oh no

01:18:47.120 that's blood. I was bleeding from the eye socket. But it was a, I appreciate the lesson. I value

01:18:56.100 the lesson. I only had to wear an eye patch for about a week. And I may do things wrong if I get

01:19:02.440 into a conflict in the future, but I'm going to know where people's hands are. I'll tell you that.

01:19:07.260 So yeah, don't underestimate people. You got to never take it for granted. Even if it's worked

01:19:11.760 100 times it may not work 101 times uh number two never start anything inside yeah you always want

01:19:18.640 to get out get them out the door as quick as possible especially i mean you can walk them to

01:19:24.560 the front door whatever but if they look like it's going to get squirly get them out the closest door

01:19:28.080 and you can deal with it out in the parking lot that is always good and it minimizes their friends

01:19:34.320 inside you don't know they have coming at you and it also makes it not a problem for everybody else

01:19:41.280 And you don't end up tackling, you know, old ladies and random people that have nothing to do with it that get in the way. 0.75

01:19:48.580 So that's always a solid policy.

01:19:51.240 And be nice.

01:19:52.040 That is always the best way to do things.

01:19:54.080 I'll tell you this, too.

01:19:57.180 When I started, we were in fights every Friday and Saturday night.

01:20:04.960 Like four or five different physical altercations every single Friday and every single Saturday.

01:20:11.280 And by the time that I got out of there, I was almost never in a fight because I developed enough self-confidence and conflict resolution skills that it just usually didn't have to go there.

01:20:28.740 And it wasn't by letting people take advantage, but it was by having a calmness of demeanor when you're dealing with folks, being comfortable enough to treat people nicely and to not escalate and get people all amped up.

01:20:44.320 And, yeah, if you can get that and get that under control, you're able to accomplish a lot of stuff without it getting sketchy.

01:20:53.120 So all three of those are solid.

01:20:55.240 Alan, you're gazing down

01:21:00.040 with some skepticism.

01:21:01.620 Do you have commentary?

01:21:05.000 No, it's not skepticism.

01:21:06.380 The dog needed his head scratched.

01:21:09.260 Fair enough.

01:21:10.420 I endorse everything you say.

01:21:13.740 All right, there you go.

01:21:16.760 I have three questions.

01:21:18.160 Troubled guests.

01:21:19.220 I have three questions tonight.

01:21:22.900 One, are the gods personal?

01:21:25.240 i see online all the time from uh folkish pagans that the gods don't care about us

01:21:31.400 they don't even notice us and it's silly to think that we would be worth their time what do you

01:21:35.800 think about this mindset i don't think those people are actually folkish pagans i think that

01:21:43.880 practicing devotional religion is you would know that that's not true if you were an honest

01:21:50.520 practitioner of that faith. I think those people are atheists that pretend because it's cool to

01:22:01.220 have religion. And when I say that, I want to practice what I preached earlier, to extend them 0.89

01:22:06.740 the maximum possible grace. Maybe they have not engaged with the gods yet in such a way that they

01:22:13.400 would feel their presence i promise you a million percent the gods absolutely notice us they

01:22:23.120 absolutely do care about us and they are personal and can and do interact with us

01:22:29.960 is that equally distributed amongst all of people certainly not amongst all of our folks certainly

01:22:38.600 not amongst any twofold certainly not because we don't believe in equality

01:22:44.120 it's i have been blessed by that experience in my life

01:22:49.400 myriad people that i know and have been in in bloat with have experienced that

01:22:55.720 it is foundational that is a million percent true and if any of those people would like to

01:23:02.760 open themselves up to that experience, I would invite them to attend one of our bloats, come to

01:23:09.360 one of our Hoffs, and open themselves to that possibility. But in the best, in the most generous

01:23:17.280 possible way to that question, no, those people are simply wrong and misguided. Alan, what are

01:23:22.780 your thoughts. Well, I agree with you absolutely with the caveat that I don't think that Odin is

01:23:38.800 going to intervene so that you get a parking place up close to the shopping center where

01:23:44.440 you're going. I don't think tear is gonna make the cop forget about the traffic citation that

01:23:53.040 you have to pay. You know, those sorts of trivial matters are certainly outside the concern of

01:24:02.540 our gods. I mean, if you want to, and I have said before on this format that, you know,

01:24:12.600 that if you want those sorts of things addressed, you talk to the desir, you talk to your ancestors.

01:24:19.240 In the hierarchical viewpoint of things, you know, you don't call the governor when your trash doesn't get picked up.

01:24:31.820 So the, you know, so there is a hierarchy here, too.

01:24:35.580 So you address your major concerns to the gods and they hear you.

01:24:39.200 You address your mundane concerns to your ancestors, and they hear you.

01:24:45.680 So I want to throw in another couple of thoughts on this.

01:24:49.520 I think it's a really important point.

01:24:51.440 A lot of people, there was a time where most people came to Al-Satru from another faith.

01:24:58.900 I think that now more often people come to Al-Satru from some form of atheism, from no faith.

01:25:06.280 they recognize that they should have a faith in that religion you know they they're not ignorant

01:25:13.880 to history and sociology and they know it's a thing but they've never experienced it so sometimes

01:25:20.280 it sounds cooler amongst your friends or it sounds more educated or whatever to rationalize

01:25:28.140 the gods in some way that they're prime mover things that don't care that are you know

01:25:33.880 existent as as forces in the universe but that you can't connect to because these people haven't

01:25:41.220 experienced faith and they don't know what that's like um no our gift cycle ties us in a particularly

01:25:47.920 personal way now there are greater forces of the universe that maybe care less than that the icr

01:25:54.800 particularly have always had a uh worship relationship with our folk to where there's

01:26:02.060 the gift cycle and a very personal interaction.

01:26:06.360 Do they care about everybody? 1.00

01:26:07.660 No, some people are probably foolish 0.99

01:26:09.240 that they probably don't care about. 0.99

01:26:11.120 I don't want to speak for who they do or who they don't.

01:26:15.480 We've, they've certainly often cared about kings and heroes.

01:26:19.360 I think they care about a great many people,

01:26:22.000 a great much of the time about everybody.

01:26:25.740 Again, there's no such thing as equality,

01:26:27.840 but in those things, I think in our life,

01:26:32.060 it's right that we should go for very minor things

01:26:37.160 to our ancestors or major things,

01:26:40.060 but to not overly pester the gods with minutia,

01:26:44.420 I think it's probably annoying to ask for Thor

01:26:48.780 to give you the answer to a math problem. 0.94

01:26:51.680 I think that's ridiculous. 0.90

01:26:53.920 I think it's probably comical at best 0.99

01:26:56.180 and offensive at worst.

01:26:57.860 but i think those things scale up too i think that if you're a little kid

01:27:04.660 and that's how you relate to the gods is things that are big concerns to you

01:27:11.000 because you're little and maybe aren't big concerns the rest of us i know that that's a thing

01:27:18.160 and maybe the response isn't you know some the heavens part and the gods descend and speak to

01:27:27.160 the child at bedtime but there's a comfort that's extended and there's an acknowledgement of

01:27:34.040 a presence there in a lot of in a lot of circumstances so i would encourage those

01:27:41.100 people to um open themselves in their heart and in their mind and make offerings and see what

01:27:50.420 happens i can't guarantee you something will happen but i guarantee you some things have

01:27:56.360 happened by people following that advice and hopefully that might happen in their case

01:28:01.060 um alan what if any music do you listen to for devotional purposes

01:28:07.160 um i have a high long channel uh on by pandora that

01:28:16.720 And again, you know, this is especially with music, you got to leave some of the stuff out, you know, like they're they always have a little political thing before they.

01:28:31.840 In other words, I enjoy their music, even though they seem to be they don't own the folkishness that they should.

01:28:40.760 I'll say it that way. So High Lung is a great.

01:28:46.720 devotional thing and the associated things with that um i also have some yoga music um

01:28:57.680 can't i'd have to look on my phone to remember the girl's name but there's a you know that

01:29:04.760 who does some mantra work um chanting with kind of some cool instrumentation

01:29:14.780 um one of those or i'll listen to some techno um because uh you know it's it's typically

01:29:25.240 non-lyrical and i just think that that you know i because i can shape that thing and and and in

01:29:33.700 in its own way it is it is about elevation and so i shape it to my own purpose so that's what i

01:29:41.260 That's the way I roll

01:29:44.360 Or some Sturgill Simpson

01:29:45.860 If I'm riding in the car

01:29:47.780 And need something to sing to

01:29:48.840 So that's an interesting question

01:29:52.080 Because I think it goes

01:29:53.540 Overtly to like

01:29:56.900 Worshipful hymns

01:29:58.520 Or meditative stuff

01:30:00.220 And that's not wrong

01:30:01.540 I

01:30:04.120 I, there are some different, again, I had a, it's been a while since I've done this,

01:30:16.740 but I had a Pandora channel too, and I would fill it with sometimes stuff like that,

01:30:22.900 but oftentimes different Icelandic singers, sometimes, and I've done this a lot

01:30:31.840 not because of the cadence also because of what it is and because he's one of the heroes but

01:30:36.760 um Svengaren Vientensen and I don't know if it counts as music it's kind of I think it

01:30:45.640 categorized maybe poetry it's it's a metered recitation of uh stuff called Reamer and it's

01:30:53.320 um him going through reading poems from the Eddas in a cadence and if you guys haven't

01:30:59.860 to it and nick may be able to find you a link or something because it's it's really cool it's cool

01:31:04.820 to hear the voice of one of our heroes and also just the like cadence of it is really neat to

01:31:12.580 listen to and i'm excited because the more i learn of the old north slash icelandic the more like i

01:31:19.860 pick up words and stuff but also because it's a little bit removed from me having to focus on the

01:31:27.140 lyrics i hear the rise and fall of the cadence and it's a nice thing to have in the background

01:31:32.660 when i'm doing something like that i've done um different kind of yogic mantra things in the

01:31:40.820 background too i think there's certainly something to that again for that kind of

01:31:46.100 providing atmosphere where that part of your senses are activated but you don't have to focus

01:31:51.540 on the lap but i think there's something else too when it is devotional for the point of

01:31:58.180 expressiveness or if it's devotional to an ancestor or someone um

01:32:08.820 trying to remember i uh yes singing music

01:32:15.220 music will get me very weepy very quick i am very emotional sometimes when i feel moved and i will

01:32:24.240 like weep saying different stuff um if again if it's associated with an ancestor with my mom

01:32:33.340 with my grandma with my uncle um that kind of a thing connects differently and again it's a

01:32:40.340 different kind of devotional music but it evokes something really powerful and if it's with an

01:32:47.720 ancestor that you know and that there's that connection through the song that's really special

01:32:54.460 but that can also be you know devotionally if the song reminds you or connects you with one of the

01:33:03.220 gods or you know I don't think there's if your heart's in the right place I don't think there's

01:33:08.440 terribly wrong answers i think that you know some gangster rap is probably not the best choice

01:33:15.080 there's there's there's less good choices but i think there's a lot of right ways to do it

01:33:20.760 but those are the ones that you know have been useful to me

01:33:27.160 that uh the lemur with my outstanding stand going comes up like once a month it feels like in this 0.52

01:33:33.880 shit by y'all i auto i ought to bookmark the dang link but i can find it real easy 0.75

01:33:39.160 it's in the yes all right um alan storm cloaks or imperials 0.97

01:33:49.960 um i'm not sure what those are so

01:33:54.600 boo

01:33:57.960 that's why that's why i threw it to you no context just to see if you had the

01:34:01.640 point of reference. Stormcloaks, because the Imperials are multi-culti and conspicuously

01:34:12.740 brown at times. It's been a while since I joined with Ulfric. Yeah, I think Stormcloaks,

01:34:27.020 I don't know any of our people that say Imperials over Stormcloaks, although there's cool things,

01:34:31.580 But in that context, I don't think there's folks that do that.

01:34:36.240 And apparently, I don't know that whatever that is, I'm not familiar.

01:34:41.640 I will say, though, like the older I get, the more I become like the more stormtrooper I get and less rebel alliance.

01:34:54.400 OK, so in that dichotomy, yes, the empire is the only way to go.

01:35:00.260 But in this one, it's a Skyrim situation.

01:35:04.440 I'm surprised at how enduring that is.

01:35:06.200 That game's got to be 20 years old now.

01:35:08.880 15.

01:35:09.480 It came out 11-11.

01:35:12.560 Yeah, it's an old game.

01:35:14.160 It's one of them newfangled Vigi games, sir.

01:35:17.020 A little bit after Pac-Man and the Atari.

01:35:20.980 Postpone.

01:35:22.420 It's like in the interwebs or something.

01:35:24.520 There you go.

01:35:29.460 Oh, the songs by the minstrels.

01:35:35.800 I want to say the minstrel songs, but that's a different thing.

01:35:39.340 But those get stuck in my head still to this day.

01:35:45.280 Those are well done with the swarthy elves and the taverns. 1.00

01:35:51.940 No, it's a fun game.

01:35:53.160 Anyways, I believe I'm about your age, Matt, 42.

01:35:59.460 you are three years my junior. I lift a couple times a week and do quite a bit of cardio.

01:36:06.000 I'd say I'm in very good shape, but recently I've felt a little sluggish and it takes longer to get

01:36:13.580 warmed up for exercise. I've not researched it, but a lot of guys start thinking about doing some

01:36:19.780 sort of testosterone therapy slash replacement stuff around this age. What are your guys'

01:36:26.560 thoughts on it and we'll let alan go first on it and i want to i want to wrap this wrap this up

01:36:33.040 alan what are your thoughts on this to this gentleman

01:36:37.500 first i think you look at diet um the more like diet nutrition research has exploded

01:36:53.340 in the last dozen years and they are really putting a fine point on a lot of things that we

01:37:01.060 you know that we used to sort of have this vague belief that all you needed was calories you know

01:37:06.660 calories in calories out x amount of protein everything good but now we know that certain

01:37:14.300 food combinations can make you feel sluggish while the same foods in a different order of battle

01:37:20.920 can make you attack the day.

01:37:24.420 Sleep habits.

01:37:27.600 You should never have a phone anywhere near your bedroom.

01:37:31.720 No TV in the phone, no TV in the bedroom.

01:37:36.660 You know, those sorts of things.

01:37:37.820 If you're getting enough sleep and you're eating well,

01:37:42.160 then that can do a lot of that lifting for you.

01:37:50.920 did there. Um, the, um, another thing that I'm, you know, at a certain point you may consider

01:38:00.360 replacement therapy, you know, you know, I'm not a doctor. And so, you know, below a certain

01:38:09.520 threshold, you may have to consider that, but I'm always hesitant to, to, to even this,

01:38:18.460 to really give it serious consideration for people because I think if you start it's like a lot of

01:38:26.120 other things like if you start replacing that then your body is going to make less because so

01:38:33.260 you get into a get into a thing where um you um you know because your body has a feedback loop in

01:38:42.800 it and so like if your body is getting testosterone from outside then the inside part starts making

01:38:48.160 less. Again, that's the broad theory. I've looked at it a little bit. The one thing that I can say,

01:39:02.440 and I'll say it in the politest way possible because I know we're in mixed company, 0.98

01:39:07.960 but getting some sunshine on your testicles is a way to stimulate testosterone production. 0.96

01:39:14.240 um and if you're lifting that goes a long way um you know i'm a couple years past past matt's age 0.50

01:39:23.300 and i think i'm still doing okay i mean i can roll 100 setups so um

01:39:29.220 and i am still uh oh natural the sunshine on the nuts all right so i will absolutely answer

01:39:41.940 this question here in just a sec, but important news. Three things of import. Jarrett in Virginia

01:39:50.500 donated $100 towards Melinda's Memorial Fund and $50 towards the Pavilion. Thank you, Jarrett. That

01:39:56.880 is awesome and much appreciated. Shannon in Georgia donated $10 to this broadcast and $10 towards the

01:40:04.540 pavilion. Thank you, Shannon. And Jamie donated $1,000 to Melinda's Memorial Fund. With that,

01:40:14.820 she will be cremated. She will have an urn. She will be transported to Odin's Hoth and she will

01:40:21.780 be interred with our loved ones at the Hoth of the Allfather in perpetuity. And that is tremendous.

01:40:31.640 this. Thank you all so much, Jamie. Thank you for that amazing contribution. Um, and thank you all.

01:40:39.140 This is really a beautiful thing that Melinda gets what she wants. And anybody been following

01:40:44.000 this saga, she did not leave a will. So we did not think that she would be able to get what she

01:40:49.340 on it. Um, this is fantastic. Uh, hail to the givers, hail the Iseer, hail Melinda.

01:41:00.160 With that, what I think is,

01:41:06.820 I am unaware of the efficacy of sunlight on the testes. Uh, that one, I would put an asterisk

01:41:18.360 by i'm not endorsing that um although i it's probably not bad for you um

01:41:26.440 there is value in okay you're gonna assume whatever value from uh alan and my suggestion

01:41:32.840 here but i i don't disagree with anything alan said um but what i would like to say is this

01:41:38.920 get it tested go get your testosterone test see where it's at um

01:41:45.640 Um, again, it's worth the caveat. I am not a doctor. This is not medical advice. This is just

01:41:51.640 anecdotal opinion about your situation. Um, yeah, get it tested. You want to have your testosterone

01:41:59.940 optimal for a man. That affects lots of stuff. Lots of things in our world around us make that

01:42:11.600 less. So if it's a little bit askew, maybe you can bump it up with some dietary changes or with

01:42:19.280 some things. If you are very low and it's not a thing that will be fixed by those things,

01:42:26.300 absolutely get yourself some testosterone replacement therapy and get to where you're

01:42:30.100 healthy. But do be aware, Alan is a thousand percent right. If you are getting your testosterone

01:42:36.820 externally, your testes will stop producing testosterone significantly. So if you can stay

01:42:45.820 on the TRT forever, okay, that's definitely something to consider. You are in your 40s.

01:42:56.360 I don't know if the lady in your life, if you have one, is younger or where you're at 0.99

01:43:00.940 in your your child producing years but it will kill your ability to produce offspring unless 0.80

01:43:09.100 you get off of it and get some other remedy to get your sperm count back up so do be really aware of

01:43:16.220 that before you start it if you have had all the kids you're going to have then i think it is a

01:43:22.940 very viable thing to consider um yeah so i i'm absolutely a million percent open to you doing

01:43:32.220 that but get it checked you don't know until you get it checked and you can see where you're at

01:43:37.180 i think that we would all do well to try to optimize nutrition and other factors on bumping

01:43:45.740 it up and if you're close i think that's a better way for you to go if you're if you're close

01:43:52.220 but if you're not close and it's a severe problem and one of the big ways that it does manifest i

01:43:57.500 think people very often think about it in terms of muscularity or in terms of things you would

01:44:04.220 normally associate with testosterone but the energy level thing is a very common precursor to

01:44:11.020 you know a precursor not right word a common indicator of being low on testosterone so get it

01:44:16.460 checked out you don't know until you know get your test levels checked and see where that's at and

01:44:21.260 There are more and more. So Alan mentioned that we're learning more and more about diet.

01:44:26.460 We are. I mean, calories in, calorie out. That's true. But it's there's more to the story.

01:44:32.900 Then we moved into getting your your protein intake. Right. And that's also true.

01:44:37.700 But now we learn there's more to the story. So there's always ways to enhance that and kind of tweak that.

01:44:43.360 Do those things. But, yeah, get it checked out. Talk to your doctor.

01:44:48.280 And, you know, what I would say is don't let any don't let anything that people on the Internet who virtue signal and spiraling about.

01:45:00.880 Get you in your head about it.

01:45:03.040 If it is a medical thing that you need to do to make yourself have a good life and be optimized, go ahead and do it.

01:45:08.480 But do check it out and talk to your doctor and get it figured out and know that if you do, you're not going to produce on your own.

01:45:14.380 and that there may be other things you want to try first to see if that does bump it and move

01:45:21.080 it the right direction, like diet, like timing different things. Again, it all depends on kind

01:45:27.160 of where you're at, but your doctor will be able to tell that a little bit better when you get a

01:45:30.580 check. While we're on the topic, while you're talking, remind me of two more things about diet.

01:45:37.860 Number one, none of us, you've ever, after all the things I've read, I'm never going to go anywhere near a fast food restaurant again.

01:45:47.600 That stuff is horrible for you.

01:45:49.140 The chemicals they use to treat things with, the processing that they use for it is bad for you.

01:45:54.800 It's bad for your testosterone and every other part of your system.

01:46:00.320 And also, organic food.

01:46:04.400 You know, one of the reasons, one of the many reasons that people in the United States are suffering from low testosterone in general is that pesticides that are put on food are deliberately targeted toward the reproductive system of insects.

01:46:26.840 And, you know, people are not insects. Folkish people are not insects, but the, but the, um, but the, in the big set of things, you know, read about atrazine and how nasty it is and how, you know, to quote my buddy Alex Jones, they're turning the frogs gay. 0.67

01:46:50.660 so and yeah i know it's more expensive eat less eat more expensive food it's worth 0.98

01:47:03.780 it is in fact turning frogs gay and it's been really nice in the last few years 0.90

01:47:12.580 no now mainstream people have to admit like no i know it sounds funny but he was right 0.57

01:47:17.220 it's turning the frogs gay because it is um i'm me and alan have this push pull on some chemicals

01:47:26.120 and some stuff but i don't agree with them on energy drinks they're good for you there's a lot

01:47:31.660 of stuff i can do but i i can't advocate for fast food other than it's tasty and fun sometimes but

01:47:37.920 even then i find that i think it's going to be this tasty treat it's going to be awesome it's

01:47:43.240 really not. It's not that satisfying. It's not that great. There's some items here and there, but

01:47:48.020 though I want to jump on as the counterpoint, I can't on the fast food. It's not good for you.

01:47:56.940 It's just not. Alan, where does monotheism come from, and why does their doctrine seem to hate

01:48:06.900 Well, the conclusion that I reached on that question, I will say it's not universally held, but it is bolstered by a lot of research and by a lot of the writings of a lot of people smarter than I am.

01:48:31.520 But monotheism originates from the encounter between Abraham, Isaac, and the Demiurge.

01:48:52.440 Demiurge is the false god of this world, the false god of materialism.

01:48:58.380 and he made a pact with Abraham

01:49:02.560 and said that if you do exactly as I say

01:49:07.140 then I will

01:49:11.320 put your people in charge of this world 1.00

01:49:14.300 and from that encounter 0.99

01:49:19.640 and what flowed after that

01:49:23.980 came the first

01:49:29.800 the faith of the Hebrews, the Jews 0.99

01:49:33.440 out of that came Christianity

01:49:35.940 and then as a side branch or somewhere along in there

01:49:40.140 came Islam

01:49:40.840 and those three together are called the Abrahamic faiths

01:49:47.820 and are referred to in that way

01:49:50.320 just as the blanket term for those three faiths

01:49:54.680 because those are the ones who are strict monotheists.

01:49:59.020 In fact, Muslims believe that Christians are pagans

01:50:03.820 because they believe in three gods,

01:50:05.940 the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.

01:50:07.560 And so they're not really monotheists.

01:50:10.280 They are idolaters because they believe

01:50:14.020 that the one is divided into three.

01:50:20.320 Why do they hate us? Because their books tell them to hate us, because we do not follow the Judaic stricture that says that you will have no other God before me.

01:50:42.000 And oddly, you know, even to say that to have that written in there admits of the existence of other gods.

01:50:49.740 So to think that there is only one God, but you can't worship other gods, I mean, it disproves itself, in my opinion.

01:51:00.600 One of the many disproves of that theological error, I recommend over and over and have bought and given away and put in auction and recommended.

01:51:15.680 There's a book by an acquaintance of mine, Acharya Ji, wrote the book, published a book that you can still get on Amazon.

01:51:27.480 It's called The Dharma Manifesto, The Dharma Manifesto.

01:51:31.600 And the Dharma is the naturally arising organic faith of any given people.

01:51:39.260 Like the the dharmic faith of Japanese people is Shinto.

01:51:43.220 The Dharmic faith of the Indian people, and, you know, I mean, I realize this overgeneralizes, but, you know, the Vedic faith, Hinduism, the Dharmic faith of the European peoples is also true. 0.92

01:52:02.280 Um, the Abrahamic faiths are at war with us because their book tells them that we are in scriptural error, which we are for them.

01:52:16.020 Um, but, and that's why they hate us because we refuse to believe in their God, um, in a meaningful way. 0.83

01:52:31.560 Um, believe may not be the right word there, but you, but, you know, we, and I also think that there is a phenomenon going on that is the thing of like the emperor's new class. 0.97

01:52:46.020 Like, everybody knows that Christianity is the real religion, and we will kill you until you stop not believing that.

01:52:57.000 But, and I think that a lot of, I think it dovetails with the woke ideology that's out there. 0.56

01:53:04.020 People scream it from the top of their lungs because they don't want people to see that they don't really believe it.

01:53:10.980 that's why I think they hate us because they expect that they should hate us really

01:53:21.780 they we we have opened the door that so that they can rejoin us and rejoin the faith of their

01:53:31.080 ancestors and that's part of the cognitive dissonance I think that also in modern ideal

01:53:36.960 makes it more difficult for them to get there because they know that Christianity is an empty

01:53:47.020 shell. They know that we are right in our history. They know we are right in our tradition. They know 0.99

01:53:53.500 we are right in the gods that we worship and that we are right to venerate our ancestors,

01:53:58.440 their ancestors and that's why i think it's uh it certainly is an aspect of hatred but i think

01:54:06.840 there's also a degree of resentment like we're brave enough to get out here on the tip of the

01:54:11.220 spear and uh do what should be done and they're not but that's on them they're welcome to join us

01:54:19.100 sorry that was so long that's i'd get animated about that question

01:54:27.320 no that's fine um i think it's important to note that

01:54:36.920 well and alan covered this a little bit in the dawn of monotheism

01:54:46.840 and if you genuinely study it the proposition isn't that there's only one god it's that you're

01:54:53.720 only allowed to worship that one god even in their original text

01:55:02.280 it's acknowledged that that monotheistic god that yahweh is one of many gods

01:55:11.400 in ancient levantine religion he is one of many gods he gains some degree of prominence and in

01:55:20.840 the bible you are not allowed to have any other gods before him he is described throughout those

01:55:27.640 holy texts of the monotheists as a jealous god and you find that there's this hyper obsession with

01:55:40.680 needing all possible adulation all possible worship of possible praise to the point

01:55:48.280 that it is sinful to celebrate any of his mortal followers because you're supposed to just give him

01:55:56.260 all of the credit for all of the things all the time because celebrating you know

01:56:01.540 a guy doing something good is idolatrous and like he can't stand even that small degree of

01:56:09.100 credit going to somewhere that's not his and I think that speaks to a really gross pathology

01:56:18.160 um just real quick about my thought is every christian i've ever met whether the book says

01:56:28.540 it or not they believe the gut that their god is the only god that exists they completely discount

01:56:35.400 the existence of other gods so and that's yeah that's what they believe that's and that's their

01:56:41.660 religion would that would be even more i mean more monotheistic i don't know well so yeah it's

01:56:50.380 evolved and it becomes simplified and you find the very early texts and the more you study the

01:56:56.620 history of the region telling you that there's other gods you find those few references like

01:57:04.940 in genesis and in exodus in the very early books of the bible mention plurality of gods

01:57:14.140 and then from then on it's that's the one god and all the other gods are just demons or whatever um

01:57:23.580 one of the features of that particular entity is a demand for all of their people to

01:57:38.060 persecute anyone who is of a different faith and to um 0.97

01:57:44.060 you know ethnically cleanse the people who are not um in alignment with that one particular deity

01:57:54.280 and it's really interesting because and i can't speak to every possible world religion but in my

01:58:00.480 understanding that is very much not the norm that's not how it works in all the other you know

01:58:09.340 all religion tends to be ethnically based in the history of mankind but we have an anomalous

01:58:17.420 religion of abrahamism that takes its you know three heads of christianity judaism and islam 0.97

01:58:23.980 that all venerate this very different spiritual force that very much demands he's the only good 0.86

01:58:33.580 thing and everything else is bad in a really destructive way i think it is a part of a very

01:58:40.940 negative chaos pathology that is debasing to humanity and that is genuinely evil and i don't

01:58:55.340 think that every jew or every christian or every muslim is necessarily some horrible person but 0.99

01:59:00.860 But I think that ideology and that particular spiritual entity is not a good thing. 1.00

01:59:09.600 And that's why I'm where I'm at.

01:59:11.880 You know, many of us come from Christianity or another faith. 0.93

01:59:14.900 And it dawned upon me that that person, that spiritual being was evil. 0.99

01:59:21.240 And I did not want to be a part of that.

01:59:23.480 And I think that that's kind of a fundamental teaching.

01:59:27.220 But, you know, where did it come from?

01:59:29.720 I think it came almost specifically.

01:59:33.440 And there's later schools of Hinduism that kind of logically end up in a form of monotheism.

01:59:45.580 I think that's a later development in Hinduism.

01:59:48.320 I don't think that's the most ancient Vedic practice of it.

01:59:53.120 But that kind of monotheism, I think you see specifically from the Hebrews in the Levant towards Yahweh. 0.93

02:00:04.780 And that is bent on destruction of all other people's faiths. 0.98

02:00:09.940 And that is baked in as one of the most fundamental tenets of that existence.

02:00:15.860 And that's bad.

02:00:17.500 And it's polar opposite to what we believe.

02:00:22.120 And not to completely discount, because at least my understanding of it is monotheistic,

02:00:26.900 because Zoroastrianism as well, but that wouldn't be lumped in so much with the ones that are out there attacking the pagans.

02:00:35.040 No, it's funny because it kind of became that in duality, but only sort of.

02:00:42.760 It evolved out of a Hinduism to where it recognized the existence of other gods.

02:00:50.080 it classifies them as somehow less than uhura mazda but it like it recognizes their existence

02:00:57.980 and almost casts them in what you would equate to angels or demons and i don't think that's

02:01:05.540 fair to put on it but it's kind of the thing people might recognize but again that's a

02:01:11.540 development of something much earlier that that wasn't there so i do wonder about that

02:01:16.880 it was a little bit, but it is fair to put, put that out there. Um, okay. All right. This

02:01:29.700 one is a extremely long multiple part question. Hello. I am not too late for this, or if I'm

02:01:37.060 not too late for this to be asked on the stream with the law speaker today, please raise the

02:01:41.840 question. If I am too late, maybe next time. First, a kind of PSA for any listeners in the

02:01:47.720 Las Vegas area who are not members to become members. Yeah, if you're in Las Vegas, you should

02:01:55.640 join the AFA if you are eligible. If you are not in Las Vegas, you should join the AFA if you're

02:02:02.160 eligible. Sorry, the way I copied and pasted this is my fault. Second, I have recently come across

02:02:13.280 a few examples of court cases regarding religious provisions in estate planning,

02:02:18.260 stating that inheritors of an estate must belong to a specific religion and being upheld by the

02:02:25.380 U.S. Supreme Court in contrast to other discrimination laws. These have primarily been from Jewish

02:02:32.740 Americans stipulating their grandchildren must be agreed to ethnic Jews and or Jewish converts,

02:02:39.520 but hypothetically extends to any religious affiliation. The most recent of these cases

02:02:46.660 was a state of Feinberg in 2009, but there are examples going back to at least the 1970s.

02:02:55.380 I have also read about Catholics and Mormons indicating that their heirs must have official letters of good standing issued from their respective churches in order to receive inheritance.

02:03:07.600 I'm curious if we, as Alcetruer and AFA members in particular, can replicate this.

02:03:13.240 Would requiring that one's grandkids need a letter of good standing from the AFA be a legal way of excluding non-folkish descendants from receiving inheritance against the will of the deceased? 0.69

02:03:26.920 I feel this may also bolster the AFA's legitimacy as well. 0.87

02:03:32.460 I'm working on defining a beneficiary class in a dynastic trust using these parameters

02:03:40.860 and may reach out to the law speaker personally as a client, if appropriate.

02:03:46.100 Thanks.

02:03:49.040 I will defer to the law speaker on his legal expertise in this matter.

02:03:56.920 And I've never heard of that, but AI tells me that that is a thing.

02:04:05.120 It was not the United States Supreme Court, but the Illinois Supreme Court that upheld a clause and a will whereby the takers under a will were disinherited because they were no longer practicing Jews.

02:04:29.860 um that's like the 30 second summary that i was able to glean while matt was reading the question

02:04:35.780 um i now so a couple things um probate law is not my specialty i've done some work in the area

02:04:48.180 though and i can tell you that courts go a long way toward enacting the will

02:04:59.860 the final wishes of the testator. So it doesn't surprise me that this, um, that this, um,

02:05:08.060 clause was enacted. I, I do think that it's a great idea as this questioner says, you know,

02:05:16.140 that, um, that we should, first of all, we should rate. So I'm going to go in the right order.

02:05:25.400 Yes, I think it's absolutely a good idea that those of us who have more than a couple of dollars should put in there terms in their wills that favor those children who follow our faith.

02:05:44.120 Absolutely, good idea.

02:05:46.240 Secondly, I think it is part of the hangover of cultural Marxism to say that we have to let our kids decide for themselves what they are.

02:06:01.220 Now, to a certain extent, I'm glad that I came of age in that era because it allowed me to find also true.

02:06:08.180 But you should raise your kids as also true.

02:06:12.420 And we should, and I am absolutely willing to email with this person and help figure out a way to help people put clauses in their wills to favor those of our faith.

02:06:29.660 Absolutely. Good idea.

02:06:30.720 So, I'm a broken record on this, but I will be until Alan starts to be overburdened with

02:06:46.480 wills that he's got to keep track of.

02:06:50.160 All right, so, we're going to use Melinda as an example here.

02:06:57.180 disregard that we've just got this figured out

02:07:00.360 where it is in fact a success story.

02:07:03.100 But it was in peril for a second.

02:07:05.840 She had a illness that she knew was terminal.

02:07:11.060 And she had a very clear idea of what she wanted

02:07:15.900 for her remains and for how she wanted that to go.

02:07:24.620 But she didn't articulate it to anybody.

02:07:27.180 until very, very close before, uh, before she passed, um, Steve and Sheila went out to visit

02:07:33.960 her in her last days and she made clear what she wanted, but she didn't make a will. She didn't get

02:07:40.440 it done without that. We don't have the standing to advocate for her best interests of what she 0.98

02:07:51.180 wanted. She had kin that, you know, that was not a very close situation. That was not really factored

02:07:58.320 into the situation. And so when the time came, you know, the mortuary people or whoever deals with

02:08:07.980 that took possession of her remains and her assets or whatever got figured out with her

02:08:14.220 remaining next of kin. And we thought we'd lost that opportunity and she was going to go with

02:08:20.880 whatever, you know, distant kinfolk that weren't particularly close were going to, 0.93

02:08:26.020 you know, do to the best of their discretion.

02:08:31.680 And that's really unfortunate when we know what someone wants.

02:08:35.860 We just can't do anything about it.

02:08:38.640 Fortunately, in this case, it worked out.

02:08:41.460 Her kin reached out for help with funeral expenses, and we were able to say,

02:08:45.260 hey, we talked to her, and this is what she wanted.

02:08:48.060 We'd love to help with that.

02:08:49.240 can we give her this that she asked for and they were willing to let us do that which is amazing

02:08:55.640 and your guys generosity made that happen so thank you all but i've seen this happen with so many of

02:09:01.760 our people where they don't get what they want very specifically former member well not former

02:09:08.500 a member who passed

02:09:11.080 didn't get this figured out

02:09:15.260 his parents

02:09:17.180 did not support

02:09:18.600 they were his next of kin

02:09:20.140 didn't support his religious choices 0.57

02:09:22.840 they were completely white people

02:09:25.380 but they had converted to Judaism

02:09:27.180 he was

02:09:30.000 aligned in such a way

02:09:32.120 religiously, politically

02:09:33.500 and worldview wise

02:09:34.820 to where that was very incongruent

02:09:36.860 what he would want

02:09:37.760 His remains now and, you know, for the foreseeable future will be in a Jewish cemetery with Hebrew writing on the headstone, or however they do it, because he didn't have a will in place that said otherwise.

02:09:56.680 And it's hard because I know that's not what he wanted. 0.84

02:10:02.540 Get your will done.

02:10:03.640 as you see on the screen or if you don't do your own will.com by all means get your will done

02:10:13.400 however you want go to a lawyer get it done whatever way you need to get it done but this

02:10:17.660 is a very simple way it is a free way get it done get original copies of it signed and notarized

02:10:25.980 and send one of those copies to our law speaker.

02:10:31.840 He will do what is within his power

02:10:34.400 and what he can to advocate for your best interest

02:10:37.260 upon our notification that you have passed.

02:10:40.760 I hope none of you pass, ever.

02:10:45.800 But I think it's very likely that all of us will at some point.

02:10:51.460 It's a very simple thing to do,

02:10:53.560 but it means a lot.

02:10:55.180 It makes a real big impact on those you leave behind, on how you're remembered, and on what happens with your remains.

02:11:02.920 And it's a very easy thing to do.

02:11:04.380 I was able to do mine in like 10 minutes. 0.87

02:11:07.820 Getting a notary is a little bit more pain in the butt, but not a big deal, not a difficult thing.

02:11:14.360 And you put it in the mail. 0.82

02:11:15.700 It's not hard.

02:11:17.240 Get it done.

02:11:18.260 Let's make it happen.

02:11:20.600 I want what's best for you, and this is the only way I know how to help you with that.

02:11:25.180 and if you don't know go to your bank they almost all have notaries and are going to

02:11:29.980 if you're a member of the bank probably not even charge anything or just a few bucks

02:11:35.100 if not the ups store maybe even a staples these places have notaries you can always

02:11:45.100 also i don't know if i mentioned it steven in japan donated 15

02:11:49.900 uh towards helping out melinda we appreciate it steven thank you very much

02:11:55.180 So, Alan, do you have any parting thoughts for the folk about community or anything else for that matter?

02:12:12.060 All the truth is the practice of the native indigenous approach to the eternal.

02:12:21.560 Um, I think it is self-evident that our culture has built the most desirable, um, approach to living in the world.

02:12:38.760 and that by being honest and steadfast members of the community

02:12:47.140 would be enriching to your life and to the lives of all the people

02:12:52.380 that you come in contact with.

02:12:54.000 If you haven't been to a Hoff, what are you waiting for? 0.97

02:13:02.140 Yeah, I will.

02:13:03.300 Well, I'll just say I've, if it's the only choice you got, if you're locked up in some

02:13:17.720 kind of a shipping container somewhere, if you are on a desert island somewhere, if you

02:13:24.660 are you know floating adrift in space then you know if you're a solitary practitioner that is

02:13:32.820 much better than nothing but you're not getting you're not getting the value out of this you're

02:13:40.100 not getting the enrichment of being part of the community opening yourself up to others is scary

02:13:46.900 for some of us it is well well worth it um to anybody that is scared to give it a shot

02:13:57.380 or to get out of their comfort zone check it out i think we've all been there first uh house true

02:14:04.300 event i ever went to i showed up and it was at a park and it was a park that was surrounded by

02:14:14.060 forest. I snuck around

02:14:16.240 in the trees trying to get an eye on

02:14:18.100 who these people were and what we're up to

02:14:20.260 because, yeah, you don't know what you're

02:14:22.220 going to see. You don't know what you're going to encounter.

02:14:24.800 We do the best we can

02:14:26.360 to show you guys groups

02:14:28.180 of happy folks

02:14:29.980 that are normal, good,

02:14:33.000 you know, good-hearted,

02:14:34.700 positive

02:14:36.440 white men and women worshiping

02:14:38.160 their gods.

02:14:39.860 We would invite you to join us

02:14:41.880 and be part of things.

02:14:44.060 it's such a game changer

02:14:46.600 and you owe it to yourself

02:14:48.040 to take that opportunity

02:14:49.380 to, you know,

02:14:52.920 to make that effort

02:14:57.980 getting outside of your comfort zone.

02:14:59.660 Biggest thing I say all the time,

02:15:01.240 and I don't do this to trivialize,

02:15:02.960 we've all had to make this journey.

02:15:05.140 The hardest step is that first distance

02:15:08.180 from your couch to the door.

02:15:10.700 It's all downhill.

02:15:12.460 It's all easy after that.

02:15:14.060 But getting that mustering up the courage to get out of where you're comfortable, to decide today is the day, to drive however long it might be, show up and say, hi, my name is so-and-so, I'm with the AFA, glad to meet you.

02:15:28.880 It can change your life in the most wonderful ways.

02:15:32.720 And I would encourage everybody to take that opportunity.

02:15:37.580 Alan, thank you for joining us tonight and sharing your wisdom.

02:15:41.140 i apologize for my tardiness i will be on time next time i got my bond right boss

02:15:48.260 there we go it happens um nick thank you for all that you do we appreciate you

02:15:54.280 folks out here uh who donated tonight thank you guys very much you guys brought it over the line

02:16:00.160 melinda is getting what she wanted and you guys are a big part of that so thank you for it

02:16:05.180 um everybody start making plans now to go to your hoth for um free faxing coming up on the 15th

02:16:16.500 of august i'm looking for i will not talk to you next week uh expecting a trend east will be here

02:16:24.720 to uh do his program he has taken over for brandy for a while to do the uh when we find ourselves

02:16:31.940 with a fifth wednesday in a month so he's going to bring you a fantastic show with amazing tales

02:16:39.940 of daring do and whatnot so uh that's going to be awesome make sure you tune in for that

02:16:45.300 um until i see you again two wednesdays from now hail the icer folk ldafa and remember

02:16:53.460 victory never sleeps

02:17:01.940 We'll be right back.

02:17:31.940 Thank you.

02:18:01.940 Thank you.

02:18:31.940 Thank you.

02:19:01.940 Thank you.

02:19:31.940 Transcription by CastingWords

02:20:01.940 You

Asatru Folk Assembly - July 23, 2026

7⧸22⧸26 Victory Never Sleeps, Ep 211 - Community

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