Asatru Folk Assembly - 9⧸11⧸24 Victory Never Sleeps, Episode 114 - King Blót-Sveinn

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

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00:02:30.000 Transcription by CastingWords

00:03:00.000 Hello, and welcome to Victory Never Sleeps, episode 114.

00:03:11.700 I appreciate getting to talk to you guys this evening.

00:03:15.120 Got a special episode for you today.

00:03:19.440 We've brought on my good friend and colleague, Witten Clifford Erickson, to introduce to you a newly recognized Ausatruo hero, King Blotswain of Sweden.

00:03:36.640 and we will talk about him tonight the events surrounding his life and times and why it's

00:03:47.920 important that we celebrate and remember him and his deeds um but before we do that uh housekeeping

00:03:58.240 and stuff coming up very quickly. Next weekend, we have Freres Harvest Feast in Montana. That's

00:04:12.600 the 20th through the 22nd. If you can make it, it's going to be fantastic. I am looking

00:04:18.380 forward to it. I'm going to be there. Our folk builder up there, Tyler Heinlein, has

00:04:24.160 put in a lot of a lot of effort to make sure we have a really nice event and I'm pretty excited

00:04:30.340 about it it's it's going to be beautiful uh pictures from last year were amazing so I'm

00:04:36.600 really looking forward to it it's been a long time since I have been to Montana so come on out to

00:04:42.440 that if you can. Following that, in October, October 11th through the 13th, for the first

00:04:55.740 time ever in New Hampshire, we're going to have the Winter Nights 13. It's going to be

00:05:00.720 awesome. That is the district event for that part of the world. As the number would indicate,

00:05:10.320 this is the 13th year we've been doing that. I've been fortunate enough to be at every one of those.

00:05:20.160 Winter nights is awesome in general. It's a very powerful time. The desear bloat is always

00:05:26.480 really special and I'm looking forward to that. It's also going to be beautiful. That's the time

00:05:32.240 of year where the leaves are changing there. It should be just spectacular. It should be

00:05:38.080 breathtaking i'm looking forward to it never been to new hampshire so that'll be a first for me

00:05:43.520 looking forward to meeting all of our folk in that part of the country and uh if you're listening to

00:05:49.600 this we'd love to see you there if you're interested you'd like to be there we'd love to

00:05:54.000 have you go ahead and reach out to any of your folk builders they can get you all set up

00:05:59.360 um if you are wherever you are consuming this be it live be it after the fact the video or after

00:06:06.400 the fact uh comes out on fridays as a podcast make sure you like share subscribe comment do the things

00:06:14.080 to uh spread this by word of mouth spreading it organically is the best way for us to reach as

00:06:20.640 many eyes and ears of our folk as we can and that's certainly our mission and we appreciate any

00:06:26.720 help you guys can do with that so if you enjoy the show if you get anything out of it if you

00:06:31.120 benefited by it or if you're entertained by it either way or if you know somebody who might be

00:06:35.680 Please get the word out.

00:06:36.880 We appreciate it.

00:06:39.100 Also, if you are listening to this show and you are a heterosexual white person and find yourself in agreement with our worldview, join the Astro Folk Assembly.

00:06:51.680 We would invite you to join us and be part of what we are doing.

00:06:54.500 We're doing some amazing things and we can use all the help we can get.

00:06:59.120 We would love to have all of our folk come home to our ancestral faith and our ancestral gods.

00:07:07.480 And, yeah, we'd love to get you guys on the team and accomplish great things together.

00:07:14.040 So if you're not a member, ask yourself why not.

00:07:17.280 And if you don't have a fantastic reason, then we'd invite you to join and we'd love to have you.

00:07:22.160 But other top of the hour stuff, I appreciate everybody's generosity.

00:07:35.020 You guys have been awesome with that.

00:07:37.380 The current project we're pushing away at and making awesome progress at this year is paying off New York's Hoff.

00:07:43.380 It's going to be our first step in getting Frey's Hoff.

00:07:46.420 phrase hoff is the hoff that will eventually service that northeastern part of the country

00:07:52.240 um it's going to be in eastern pennsylvania or western oh i'm sorry western pennsylvania or

00:08:01.120 eastern ohio and uh cliff is a good guy to talk to about that if you guys have any questions or

00:08:06.680 thoughts on that because he and his lovely wife githy katie erickson will be heading that up and

00:08:14.000 a big part of making that happen in the coming months and years when we get a little bit closer

00:08:20.140 to it. But in the meantime, fastest way to get there is to help us pay off Njortzhoff. Made

00:08:26.420 awesome progress. You guys have been helping us consistently chip away at that. We're two years

00:08:33.600 and one month into it and we've paid off 67.7%. Still have $79,111 to go. But that

00:08:43.960 comes out to less than $104 per AFA member. If we had everybody do that right now, we'd have it

00:08:51.640 paid off today. Anything you guys can do is appreciated, but yeah, if you want to donate,

00:08:57.580 the link is there. Also in the description of this video is ways to buy us coffees as a way

00:09:05.000 of donating. You guys have been extremely generous and we appreciate you guys a lot.

00:09:13.960 think that's top of the show things i have um

00:09:22.680 before we talk about king bloatswain cliff could you set the stage for folks about

00:09:30.600 time and place and the environment that we encounter this story in sure um so it is the

00:09:40.760 mid 11th century when uh when when bluswain lived um and uh sweden is nominally christian

00:09:52.520 at this point uh the the kings and some of the nobility um

00:10:00.520 have been christian for maybe a generation or two um one of the kings who preceded him

00:10:07.560 um fought in the battle of hastings and died there which we'll get into that's sort of what

00:10:12.440 precipitates bloat swain coming to kingship um but the people are very much still astro

00:10:21.000 especially uh around the the temple of upsala where uh as i'm sure almost everyone here listening

00:10:27.960 knows um it was the you know a if not the major religious center of ossishrew at this time and uh

00:10:38.040 the the folk were were still very much ossishrew especially in sweden the farther from well the

00:10:45.400 farther from rome you get the more likely it was that our our ancestors were still practicing their

00:10:53.240 you know their native religion um with a few exceptions ireland converted very early um but

00:10:59.560 that was because monks like to sail on rafts um but sweden had nominal contact with christianity

00:11:09.320 at this point the the nobility was starting to to turn to christianity for um for political

00:11:17.880 reasons essentially they you know i mean each case is a little bit different but generally speaking

00:11:24.200 it was politically and strategically advantageous for them to conform to european christianity so

00:11:33.000 that they didn't get crusaded so that they could intermarry with the nobles on the the continent

00:11:40.040 and in in britain um and there was a i'm sure there was a financial motive for them as well

00:11:48.360 because if you don't stay king you don't stay rich um so that's just all in this period of time

00:11:54.920 where um it's after the viking age now um the the battle of um

00:12:01.000 not the Battle of Hastings, but one of the battles in the conquest of Britain by

00:12:10.000 I can't think of his name right now. I'd know this any other time because I'm a nerd like this.

00:12:23.280 The Duke of Normandy, who conquered Britain and subjugated its fine people.

00:12:27.940 um anyway they um christianity is is taking over um yes william the conqueror that is hey thank you

00:12:40.600 um and and scandinavia is is is one of the last few outposts there are some other places in the

00:12:48.760 in the baltics and in eastern europe that are practicing their traditional ways but

00:12:52.760 It is a light that is fading.

00:13:01.060 All right.

00:13:03.000 And so for folks that may not have heard of him before, if you could tell what we know about him and the situation of his reign.

00:13:17.400 Yeah, of course.

00:13:18.000 So we don't know a lot about, well, before I get into all of this, I do want to put some thanks out there to our folk builder, Chris Savage, who did a lot of research for us on this.

00:13:31.660 He spent the past month really getting as much information about Bloat Swain to me and to Matt once Matt discovered that this was a man who had existed.

00:13:45.020 And something that we are trying to do is to identify figures in both modern history and, you know, deeper history who we should honor because of the exemplary loyalty that they had to the Aesir.

00:14:06.680 and um bloat swain is one of those who uh who matt found and we we talked about him and

00:14:12.740 uh we we gave chris the job of digging deeper than we could and he came up with a lot of the

00:14:20.200 material um that i'm going to present to you tonight so thank you very much chris for that

00:14:25.700 it really you you did a fantastic job on it and and did it quickly and kept the timeline that you

00:14:32.760 set, which is impressive. Not everyone can do that. But there was a Christian king of Sweden

00:14:43.640 named Stenkel, who was the king in Uppsala and who died in the Battle of Hastings, like I

00:14:51.000 mentioned. Now, this Christian king, though, was tolerant of the Asichu practices because that was,

00:14:57.820 you know the practice of his people and many of um of of the nobles at that time i'm not sure

00:15:06.160 you know the the percentage or how you know what the breakdown in the nobility would have been

00:15:11.100 but um you know those who were serious about their ways the ways of their father and about

00:15:16.940 the aesir were still in you know still entrenched in ossaroo and others who you know wanted to be

00:15:22.500 close to the king and close to the gold, we're converting to Christianity. And that was especially

00:15:28.240 so in the southern part of the country. The farther you got from there, the more

00:15:33.800 Osatru Sweden remained. And when this king died, his son Inge took over as king. He was the heir,

00:15:45.480 And he was not tolerant of Ossichu and would not partake in the Ossichu rituals and sought to outlaw them.

00:15:58.700 The people were not enthusiastic about this, to say the least.

00:16:05.100 And he was removed from being king and fled to West Gotland in southern Sweden.

00:16:13.660 And that's like the towards the border area.

00:16:20.600 And there's all kinds of conflicting detail.

00:16:26.900 The life of Bloatswain is in a lot of ways shrouded in mystery.

00:16:31.660 And a lot of the details are lost to history if they were ever recorded in the first place.

00:16:38.580 But he was named king by the people.

00:16:43.000 and continued to practice Asatru and did the Asatru rites that were expected of a king

00:16:52.620 for the people and for the nobles that were still loyal to the gods

00:16:59.020 and therefore loyal to King Bloat Swain.

00:17:02.800 I should point out that Bloat is not part of his name.

00:17:06.780 His name is Swain.

00:17:08.220 um there's a few variations on how it's spelled um in the the different sources that we can find

00:17:14.800 um but uh he maintained ossaroo at a time when it was it was dangerous to do so and um it's

00:17:27.320 it's unlikely that he ruled the entire nation of what we think of as sweden now um it would

00:17:33.180 been a lot more um the the upsala which is you know roughly near stockholm um if if you're not

00:17:41.740 familiar with where upsala is in sweden and that um you know kind of core part of of the modern

00:17:49.420 swedish nation in in that part of uh the world down in uh west scotland which is part of sweden

00:17:56.460 today um it doesn't appear that that bloat swain may actually exercised any power or had any you

00:18:04.940 know uh any any any recognized kingship down there um we know that um he ruled for a time there and

00:18:25.180 that um you know it it appears that there was pretty much a period of conflict in sweden in

00:18:33.900 that time because uh the deposed king ingi never really went away or or recognized the uh the you

00:18:44.620 know the the the pagan king king bloat swain in the north um

00:18:55.740 the reign was was relatively short um it would be at most about 14 years um the the records are

00:19:07.500 are spotty um so we can we can kind of trace from when we know that king ingi died

00:19:17.820 and when bloat's fame died but we don't know exactly when um

00:19:25.900 i'm sorry from when stankhill died to to when bloat's fame died we don't know exactly the times

00:19:32.860 when um certain other events happened um he's he's attested in some of the histories and there's

00:19:40.780 you know there's actually some level of of pushback from academic communities as to whether

00:19:46.540 he actually existed or not um i i definitely believe uh that that he did there's no reason

00:19:54.380 for him to be mentioned in the records if um if he were not there i think that's true for a lot of

00:20:03.340 parts of history that are that are poorly recorded just because it wasn't written down

00:20:10.380 or because it wasn't something that was highlighted by the the ruling class

00:20:15.340 you know a century or two later doesn't mean that it that it did not occur

00:20:19.260 um

00:20:32.220 so i mean that is that is the most important thing about bloat swain is that he

00:20:37.020 returned Sweden to Austria for a period of time um now um he he was eventually um deposed again

00:20:48.980 by by King Inge and um you know King Inge continued his Christianization of of Sweden

00:21:00.380 um unfortunately but uh this is a period where we you know we we know that the the conversion

00:21:10.620 of scandinavia and of many other european countries was not something that was uneventful

00:21:18.220 it wasn't something that um that the people wanted and it wasn't something that um that the

00:21:27.580 the nobility in all cases rolled over on now there's some there's some speculation that his

00:21:45.900 name bloatswain um maybe because he participated um in in the in the in the sacrifices and the

00:21:54.780 were sacrifices that were customary at the time um it's not clear if he was the one making the

00:22:02.380 sacrifice or if he got that name for allowing the sacrifice um but it is important that that he did

00:22:10.380 that um and this was something that that continued in in swedish history um for for a short time

00:22:20.780 where the the upper class would there were there was a there was a struggle in swedish nobility

00:22:31.260 about what um the path of the country would be about what um you know basically a struggle

00:22:37.180 between those who were intros to the gods um and and held that serious in their in their hearts

00:22:44.620 and in their souls or um by those who have been convinced for one reason or another to

00:22:51.900 to convert to christianity um and it's it's you know it's really important for us to honor

00:23:01.340 people who did this because um so often in modern times we will you know face some kind

00:23:09.740 of a struggle as far as you know our our religious faith you know are we going to do

00:23:16.140 the right thing in the face of adversity or are we going to

00:23:24.700 go along to get along you know it's the we talk a lot about wearing your hammer

00:23:29.580 out or wearing your hammer under your shirt and um bloat spain i think is

00:23:35.580 this is someone that we we certainly want to learn more about um there's hopefully more that

00:23:43.180 we can learn about him over time um it is also i think an indisputable fact that you know he lived

00:23:50.780 and that um the the struggle to keep our folk asa true um you know it it's something that we

00:24:03.340 should honor there are uh other kings throughout history that had done things like this there are

00:24:08.780 other heroes who held true to their faith and um i'm really glad that we're going to be honoring

00:24:15.580 him and having him on our our calendar for days of remembrances and um you know giving him his just

00:24:26.620 his just due uh it's not someone that i'd heard of before this year uh king bloke swain and

00:24:33.340 uh that's sad really because you know we hear we hear stories of others that um

00:24:40.540 that we know the names of um you know uh you know

00:24:45.980 herman for example we just celebrated his his day and he's been known for a long time he's you know

00:24:53.900 fabled in in history they make movies about him now and all of that um i i wish it were the case

00:25:01.020 with with with all the the people who tried to stay true to our faith that they were remembered

00:25:06.940 and you know when we toast bloat swain ensemble um which i'm sure has happened somewhere along the

00:25:12.940 line but when we you know do that with more regularity with he being uh recognized and

00:25:19.020 honored by us i think that will um will be heard and will help to continue his legacy and his his

00:25:29.820 faith in the ASEAR. So thank you for that, Cliff. I appreciate you showing up and presenting that to

00:25:39.980 folks. When we were first talking about this, you know, the reason I invited you on tonight was you

00:25:47.660 seem the most enthusiastic about, you know, really looking into this and making sure that

00:25:52.620 he got the recognition that he deserves um as we as we grow and develop there's a lot of

00:26:03.340 other opportunity for folk to ascend and be worthy of this status but as you may notice so many of our

00:26:15.820 So many of the heroes that we've honored with Days of Remembrance so far are recognized because of their opposition to or their restoring of our faith during the conversion period where they were fighting against the tide to maintain their loyalty when there was cost to do so.

00:26:45.060 I mean, it's really good to be loyal when you have the freedom to do so.

00:26:50.960 It's also really good to be loyal when it's the cool thing to do.

00:26:55.940 But it's something very special to remain loyal when there's great personal cost.

00:27:03.280 And almost to a man, the people that we recognize for that have met their death because of it.

00:27:15.060 Um, certainly the other two most recent that we've, uh, celebrated, um, also Kings, Osric and, uh, Infraith in, uh, what would become Northumbria.

00:27:30.300 And it's interesting because their stories are very similar in a lot of ways, but about 400 years apart, um, from Blokesway.

00:27:38.920 it's so one of the reasons that we are assured of his historicity i think that's a word if not

00:27:50.980 it should be is that he's attested in a number of different sagas and sources around the time

00:27:57.440 um scholars like to find reason to pick stuff apart and in the midst of history there's a lot

00:28:04.560 things that are confusing this one not so much he's mentioned and referenced in a number of

00:28:09.280 different places about you know with matching things about this period in history and about his

00:28:18.560 his life um the so he was king ingi's brother-in-law so he was also you know we don't

00:28:31.040 know his exact lineage but he was from you know a noble house to where he was the the queen's

00:28:37.840 brother he was you know a person you know worthy of of that kind of a regal position

00:28:45.120 and the description here that comes from um

00:28:48.880 the Herverar saga, I think it's Herverar Vida, and it's the original Old Norse, the

00:29:02.020 saga tells about his ascension to the throne. It says, Svein, the king's brother-in-law,

00:29:09.120 remained behind in the assembly. This was after it talks about how Ingi was

00:29:14.080 chased out of the royal assembly with like having rocks thrown at him and pelted because he refused

00:29:20.960 to to honor honor the iser in the traditional manner and it said swain the king's brother

00:29:26.720 remained behind in the assembly and offered the swedes to do sacrifices on their behalf if they

00:29:32.240 would give him the kingdom they all agreed to accept swain's offer and he was then recognized

00:29:37.200 as king over all sweden so it's disputed where his reign went to in theory and where it went to in

00:29:45.200 practice um those two those two things often don't match up in you know historically those

00:29:55.040 two things seldom match up exactly but uh yeah so a horse was then brought in the assembly and

00:30:04.720 hewn into pieces and cut up for eating and the sacred tree was smeared with blood then all the

00:30:10.720 swedes abandoned christianity and sacrifices started again they drove king ingu away uh and

00:30:17.200 he went into uh vestra gauntland so one of the things about alsatru kings was their position

00:30:29.200 of kingship went hand in hand with their position as as chief priest or as sacrificial priest for

00:30:38.320 the nation that they were in charge of and responsible of and they would represent that

00:30:43.120 nation before the isir in doing the sacrifices or at least officiating them in whatever capacity 0.99

00:30:50.320 that looked like and their luck in doing so in the hominia that they built was 0.94

00:30:55.440 thought to be, in a lot of ways, the very lifeblood of the kingdom as far as success

00:31:02.940 and prosperity went. So yeah, his stepping in and doing this at a time, you know, in the sagas,

00:31:14.720 it's, again, he got proclaimed king over all of Sweden and all the Swedes in one fell swoop came

00:31:21.320 back to Ausatru and it certainly wasn't that simple but in some ways it was when a king would

00:31:27.380 embrace a faith implicitly all those under his charge would as well to one degree or another

00:31:35.580 it brought the whole nation in or the whole nation out we I mean we see that up until modern times

00:31:41.220 um but yeah that for a brief moment however many few years bringing you know bringing the

00:31:52.660 the nation of sweden back into loyalty with the icer is a is a really special thing in a

00:31:59.320 way that he was able to serve our gods in a truly remarkable and unique way so we're very happy to

00:32:06.380 honor him we are looking at january the 18th to be the day that we celebrate his day of remembrance

00:32:14.380 as i recall it's not set in stone yet but i think that's what it's going to look like when it comes

00:32:18.220 out um got a few questions lining up before we get to those going on go ahead it was about four

00:32:25.340 years that bloke's vein reigned um not sure if it was a little more than four or a little less than

00:32:30.700 for um but about 1180 to 1184. yeah the biggest variance i've seen is 80 to 87. okay yeah i've

00:32:43.500 heard anywhere between three and like i said three and not like six to seven but not a lot

00:32:50.620 but enough to where for that moment in time you know a substantial number of the sons and daughters

00:33:00.460 of the icier came home to them and that's that's special chris found some more information um i

00:33:07.180 didn't you know read his paper verbatim uh that would have been perhaps boring perhaps it would

00:33:12.780 have been interesting maybe i should have done that um there's a lot of good information in there

00:33:17.740 and um you know we um we'll we'll put that out we'll put out some stuff uh you know in a in

00:33:26.460 in a more of a a story of bloats fame kind of format

00:33:33.980 um i want to thank gw farnsworth very frequent contributor to the show thank you so much he

00:33:41.580 bought us five coffees that's a 25 donation thank you very much for that we appreciate it

00:33:47.740 um and reginald bought us three coffees that's 15 donation thank you so much for that reginald

00:33:54.780 uh enjoy the live streams and respect the work of the afa thanks you're very welcome and i'm glad

00:34:00.300 you enjoy it ah with that we have a question coming in from rumble uh we appreciate our

00:34:09.340 rumble fans we don't often get live questions from there so we're glad when we do and we you know

00:34:15.260 welcome any and all of those we can get to be fair this question's not live he posted it in the chat

00:34:21.980 of or in the comments on the video from last week saying he didn't get it in in time all right i've

00:34:29.020 been misled by my producer but that's okay no i i mis assumed still from rumble and we appreciate

00:34:36.700 our rumble fans uh is prayer similar to the way it is in other religions

00:34:44.540 sure um it is or it isn't or whatever it needs to be i think people get

00:35:00.860 there are other in other faiths that i'm aware of sometimes there are very specific

00:35:07.900 memorized verbatim prayers this is not that outside of the prayer in the cedrifamow that's

00:35:18.640 the one that people remember and sometimes will will say but in most faiths that I'm aware of

00:35:28.080 there are a lot of different visuals to it perhaps or setting to it but the idea of

00:35:36.920 speaking from your heart to your gods and in a place of reverence and respect is the

00:35:46.960 fundamental of it. And in that sense, it's very much the same. It doesn't have to be boastful.

00:35:52.880 It doesn't have to be theatrical. As long as you are reaching out to your gods in a respectful

00:36:00.980 and pious way with honesty and sincerity from your heart, I think and believe that counts.

00:36:09.240 Probably a lot of ways it's really similar. I imagine that there's some ways it's different,

00:36:14.860 but I know my own experience and folks that I know there are prayers before mealtimes,

00:36:24.820 there's prayers before bedtime, there's coming before your altar in a moment of quiet where you

00:36:30.200 want to commune with and approach your gods in prayer there are all kind of varieties of way

00:36:36.120 that folks do it and there's not you know one perfect way that that's done do you have anything

00:36:42.120 that you want to add on that cliff sure um you know i think in the the etymology of the word

00:36:50.040 prayer is is basically to ask um some definitions will say to to beg or you know to beseech um

00:36:59.080 And so in that sense, you know, I don't think that we ever beg our gods.

00:37:05.460 But, you know, as Alistair Goethe and Matt pointed out, a lot of what conventionally is called prayers isn't really begging either.

00:37:14.720 is you know asking for a blessing perhaps when uh when a meal is blessed um asking

00:37:22.640 a god or a goddess for for some recognition if um you know for praying to them to you know to to

00:37:30.000 boast about a a deed that we did in their honor or something that we that we think that that we

00:37:35.920 would like for them to to see us as worthy of uh their attention um but really prayer is you know

00:37:44.480 of just speaking to the gods, the particular content of that is going to vary based on

00:37:52.080 so many things.

00:37:57.920 Yeah, there's, don't, I would urge, okay, when people first contemplate how to, how

00:38:10.840 to practice house of truth either you know theoretically as a thought exercise of you know

00:38:17.620 what if or if they're at a crossroads in their own faith or if they have left one faith and want to

00:38:24.580 embrace house of truth you get in a thought process where you want to do it right and that's

00:38:31.440 that's awesome that's exactly as it should be but it's very easy for that to become paralysis by

00:38:39.740 analysis and, you know, well, I need to research more. Well, I need to, I need to have my altar

00:38:48.300 set up and I don't have my altar set up right now. And when I do though, all right, like I'm out,

00:38:52.540 but I don't have any incidents. So I need to get incidents, but it needs to be traditional

00:38:55.880 incidents. If you wait for the perfect time, it's never going to happen. The important thing is

00:39:03.860 doing the act of prayer and doing it with sincerity. It can always be improved upon

00:39:10.600 and, you know, get better as it goes. But the most important thing is that first step of reaching out

00:39:18.600 and making that connection and offering prayer to the gods. There's a lot of ways to do it better,

00:39:26.540 but that in and of itself is significant, important, and absolutely counts.

00:39:33.860 um gofi trent east asks for the ulterior gofi can you explain the term uh highlighter mother

00:39:43.700 that you used in the mewe post about this screen well i'm gonna do my best as some of you guys

00:39:49.860 know some of you have even joined me on my old norse um quest to better familiarize myself

00:40:00.180 with the language and importantly the etymology um as i saw in the chat and rightly so yeah this

00:40:08.420 lit that literally means holy man um it's important because it predates the christian use of the term

00:40:20.660 holy uh it it comes before one of the ways that we can find religious terms um

00:40:33.860 ironically or i think ironically counts is how christianity and christian texts and sermons and

00:40:44.260 concepts got translated into a language that didn't have other words for them before they

00:40:50.660 used latin or the language of the church in order for their concept to make sense

00:40:57.780 there's pre-existing terms that they use um one of the things when looking for a term to

00:41:06.420 approximate the position of these holy revered figures of our folk

00:41:12.180 um we're looking for that i actually found in found an anglo-saxon term that got me onto this

00:41:20.740 and it was in um stephen polington's elder gods there's a pre-existing term that got used to mean

00:41:31.380 saint but it was a concept that existed amongst our folk before the advent of christianity that

00:41:39.140 meant you know people of great holiness people that exuded the um the hymenia of someone with

00:41:49.860 with a great deal of holiness and that term translates directly into the old norse as uh

00:41:57.700 halyer and i think i want to find a usage of it where it's just a noun like that

00:42:05.540 so far i'm looking for that spot i think it exists somewhere and i think we'll get there

00:42:09.460 but i've seen it as an adjective so when the earliest old norse were writing about

00:42:17.380 someone who was saintly and they didn't have a term for it the term that they would use was was

00:42:24.820 a highly grandmother and or yeah and that's basically what it means and it's the exact

00:42:32.100 same concept as a matter of fact that's one of the odd things if you're coming in you're not familiar

00:42:37.460 but the idea of saints is probably one of the most pagan elements of european christianity that's

00:42:46.340 overtly it's overt idolatry and it's um it's one of the reasons it's awesome because it's

00:42:54.500 absolutely our thing that was co-opted because our people wouldn't leave that concept behind

00:43:00.820 along with the veneration of ancestors and heroes that's where that comes from so that's

00:43:06.100 the etymology of where it is somebody also mentioned that the root of that is whole

00:43:11.380 and that was fundamental to the idea of of holy as it's come down in every context that you know it

00:43:19.540 at least in um aryan languages is the idea of wholeness the idea of

00:43:25.700 things being right ordered things being healthy and the way they should be in order with like

00:43:37.300 the right function of things whereas chaos is a deviation from that

00:43:43.940 we see that concept a lot and it even functions through our um our symbology for our priesthood

00:43:53.020 uh the the rune the rhido rune is that idea of right action at the right time maintains that

00:44:00.340 wholeness or that being in line with the proper functioning of of earth and of right action

00:44:10.180 so that's kind of the roots of that

00:44:13.900 All right. Currently, the AFA's heroes are all of a Germanic aesthetic. Will there come a day

00:44:30.300 when Hellenic, Rodnover, et cetera, individuals are added as heroes, perhaps with a different term?

00:44:40.140 Cliff, you got any thoughts on that?

00:44:43.900 It's an interesting idea. So I think it's important, you know, to kind of preface any

00:44:54.300 answer to this question with why Ossetru over Hellenism or Radnavri or, you know, other

00:45:05.380 expressions of Aryan religiosity. And the reason that we're the Ossetru Folk Assembly

00:45:12.700 is um is several fold one probably the the most fundamental for our church is that

00:45:23.420 when founder mcnalen began down this path it was odin that he reached out to um

00:45:33.100 and it's not just stephen mcnalen who

00:45:36.140 had this inspiration if you will i think that um odin was rousing our folk um on multiple fronts

00:45:49.820 um there there are others um who also you know heard the whisper of odin or or were driven to

00:45:59.780 to seek him out um founder mcdallan was the one who was most successful he established a church

00:46:07.140 that is lasting um but you know there were were others who the the ac in particular were were

00:46:19.380 reaching out to our folk um and and and roused this native religion this native spirituality in

00:46:27.940 our people um so you know we believe that that asatru is the

00:46:38.660 the most perfect of the expressions of arian divinity but it's but it's not the only one

00:46:44.100 and um there are there's a lot to learn in hellenism ra navari and so on so i don't know that i

00:46:54.100 personally would be opposed to us one day having heroes who were loyal to

00:47:03.540 our gods in the context that they knew them in their place and and time it's not like

00:47:10.420 you know it's not like somebody in the ancient greek world had a choice about

00:47:14.900 you know becoming australia they were hellenes and that's all there was

00:47:18.420 yeah it's interesting as a thought experiment i'm not opposed to it either 0.99

00:47:28.340 realistically in the short term probably not um and some of that is there's a lot of work to do

00:47:38.260 to flesh out how all of those pieces fit and i think that you know we could spend

00:47:45.940 And decades attempting to do that, and no doubt we would continuously get closer and closer, and it's a worthwhile thing to do.

00:47:55.880 In the meantime, there are, so if we got to a point where we stopped honoring new heroes, because there weren't, there just weren't any left, what are we going to do?

00:48:10.880 Then I think there's a case to be made.

00:48:12.860 I think right now, the order that we're doing them in and the focus that we're doing them in on people that are in a very overt sense, Ausitru, is the best practice right now.

00:48:29.920 I think a lot of those other heroes and some of this comes in with simply a lack of familiarity because our focus is on the Norse expression of our faith.

00:48:40.760 When you get further afield to things that don't quite fit as cleanly, like you mentioned, Hellenics, Latins, certainly Slavic folk, here where the vast majority of our membership currently is in the United States, we have very little familiarity with that culturally.

00:49:09.340 certainly with um a lot of the the slavic expression it's one thing i desperately like

00:49:16.220 to learn more about and i think it's fascinating so i'm not i those people absolutely deserve to

00:49:22.600 be honored and i would never want to deny them that and i'm not doing that but right now we have

00:49:30.340 a lot of a lot of more on the face of it also true heroes that need to get their their due

00:49:41.820 honor and remembrance from us and that's where we're starting but i'm i i have no problem with

00:49:49.860 your suggestion eventually at some point i don't think we're quite there yet but i think it's really

00:49:55.640 good in concept and i'm you know if anyone were to raise a horn to those folks in sumble i would

00:50:04.040 gladly you know celebrate that inhale that and appreciate that remembrance

00:50:10.680 and i think we may see more of that as time goes on um which reminds me before i forget about it

00:50:18.440 if y'all will indulge me in a side note um kevin in the side i hope kevin is still here he was in

00:50:26.120 the chat a bit ago if he is kevin if you would email me at matt flavel at runestone.org or get

00:50:34.280 a hold of any of us somehow you mentioned a man last time when swan and i were on that you wanted

00:50:42.040 to have us consider for um the heiliger status and we'd like to do that we're currently trying

00:50:51.800 to look into and research that man and you seem to know more about him than we are able to find

00:50:57.960 with our resources right now so i'd love to hear what you know what sources you could direct us to

00:51:03.960 because something that as earth would have it um cliff is the first person to bring that gentleman

00:51:11.160 to our attention for this possibility and we've been having a really hard time finding out

00:51:17.080 information so if we could reach out with that that would be awesome um next uh couple of questions

00:51:27.240 and i i'm not sure if the uh person who asked the question if corey is still with us or not

00:51:37.240 not. Some folks were suggesting that he is a troll. And he might be, I don't know. But

00:51:47.220 I think his question was expressed civilly. So I think it's worth answering and addressing

00:51:55.140 under the best of terms. And so he asked a couple of things. And Cliff, I'll let you

00:52:05.300 take a swing at this one first, and I will, you know, add my thoughts after it. But the question

00:52:14.160 is, how can y'all say you are not white supremacists, but you celebrate actual fascists

00:52:20.320 like Elsie Christensen? Cliff, how would you react to that? Or not would you, it's not

00:52:26.360 theoretical. Cliff, how do you react to that? So I think one thing that's really important is that

00:52:33.200 we don't celebrate elsie christensen because she was a fascist we celebrate elsie christensen

00:52:40.080 she's one of the people that i was referring to that um felt the call of odin or or sought out

00:52:47.520 odin i don't know exactly you know how the relationship began either she felt devoted to

00:52:56.480 odin and and began the relationship that way or odin you know whispered in her ear and stirred

00:53:04.400 that inside her and that relationship began that way but we we celebrate elsie because she

00:53:13.280 was an early proponent of asa true at a time when that wasn't something that was available to the

00:53:22.080 general public um and that's why we honor lc christensen so i don't i don't see the relationship

00:53:31.120 between the rest of the question and how we celebrate lc you know i don't know how old cory

00:53:37.520 is but if he's 30 or under i absolutely understand um where he's coming from because

00:53:44.080 Because that is a really toxic thing in our society these days.

00:53:50.400 There is a current in thinking by misguided at best degenerate elements of society more accurately to retroactively judge historical figures by the current cartoonish villainy

00:54:18.760 that we've placed upon their political ideologies.

00:54:21.760 I've mentioned before, in the Astro Folk Assembly,

00:54:25.480 we care a lot more about principles and about right and wrong

00:54:29.380 than we do about politics,

00:54:31.180 because politics are locked in time and place.

00:54:38.160 And when viewed outside of the circumstances,

00:54:41.020 they don't make a lot of sense,

00:54:43.540 and they're very often misrepresented and odd.

00:54:46.500 politics have everything to do with the current situation one finds themselves in and

00:54:53.620 they should be informed by your value system but they shouldn't be mistaken for your value system

00:55:00.840 values ought to be timeless as cliff said we celebrate elsie because she reawoke to

00:55:10.760 Alcitru and she sought to bring others back into trough with the Isir and in doing so set about

00:55:22.200 currents that still bear fruit and still bring people home today. What I think everybody needs 0.99

00:55:30.500 to realize is political movements that are currently vilified 80 90 years later are very

00:55:43.420 often nothing like the discussions around the kitchen table of the people who were part

00:55:48.680 of political parties at the time i think it's not only do i think it's unfair but i think

00:55:55.940 it's historically abusive. And I think that, you know, the person asking the question, I think

00:56:02.060 that Corey's understanding of fascism is probably very, very different than the Christiansen

00:56:10.940 household at the time. I think it's something that we would all do well to look back on with

00:56:18.280 a little bit of grace on political things that either don't make sense to us through legitimate

00:56:24.680 ignorance and not understanding or at best or at worst have been vilified for nefarious ends by

00:56:32.820 other people and labeled, you know, 90 years later to judge someone almost a century later

00:56:39.660 because your politics have shifted drastically where those are where theirs are stuck in a

00:56:44.300 specific time period. It's just not fair and it's not a fair way to judge. We don't base your

00:56:52.260 relevance to Ausitru based on political things you're involved with at a time, unless those

00:56:59.800 political things are specifically counter to our value system. We have no reason to believe that

00:57:06.480 hers were. So I think it's, I understand why the question gets asked. I think the question

00:57:14.180 misses the point um yeah i i think that's it becomes kind of silly and needlessly contentious

00:57:28.120 to argue centuries-old politics outside of context and outside of understanding of it

00:57:36.540 when evaluating religious practice of today especially if we don't really know what we're

00:57:43.200 talking about and i think we run into that quite a bit it's it's interesting too because i think

00:57:49.040 you know you're you're right they're like okay fascism has is viewed as particularly toxic in

00:57:54.400 the modern american political discourse and the modern western political discourse

00:58:00.400 um but they're not really talking about what existed contemporarily at the time the people

00:58:06.960 who were proponents of that in their time and place

00:58:10.960 and in their politics of their day.

00:58:13.980 And it can sort of, you know, I can make it, I guess,

00:58:17.280 seem a little bit more obvious.

00:58:18.400 If we replace fascism and Elsie in the question

00:58:21.960 with monarchism and bloatswain,

00:58:25.180 like how can you support a king?

00:58:28.340 He, you know, I don't believe in monarchy.

00:58:31.800 And I think if the question is put that way,

00:58:35.400 it kind of highlights its irrelevance to our religious practice. 0.97

00:58:41.220 Yeah, and the other thing is just silly.

00:58:43.240 The concept of fascism wasn't explicitly racial.

00:58:47.340 Some other things might have been, but the term fascist, it's kind of funny.

00:58:52.000 So I think we have a lot of comic book villain versions of political movements of the past 0.66

00:58:58.500 that have gone out of fashion or out of favor, and it's silly.

00:59:02.940 We run into that on a lot of issues.

00:59:04.760 I know issues surrounding the Second World War are particularly spicy, but we run into that a lot of different places.

00:59:11.840 I'm sure different countries have other similar things, which just like we have that about the Civil War in the United States.

00:59:20.780 all of a sudden we put on whatever side we don't like all of our modern things that we dislike

00:59:26.460 and we act as if they at the time in the 1860s were, you know, on our team or on the other team

00:59:34.780 about these current political issues without really having a deeper understanding of where

00:59:39.480 people found themselves and why they did the things they did. People that want to invest the

00:59:43.380 time to really dig into the history, I think that's a very valid and important thing to do

00:59:48.280 they'd like to but for the uninformed that just throw out we throw out names of political movements

00:59:55.320 as you know as insults and pejoratives and i think it

01:00:03.800 i certainly hope that the future judges us a little bit more fairly than we tend to judge

01:00:09.000 people in the past politically i think it won't it never does but it's it it's true i think that

01:00:16.760 this is something i think i've mentioned on this show before i've certainly mentioned it

01:00:20.520 in conversations with you and and with with other ossature where um

01:00:27.800 you know there's this there's this impulse i think in in modern culture to assume that we are

01:00:36.040 the best that has ever been and we can not me personally not you not most of our listeners but

01:00:43.160 we as as western civilization are very quick to condemn the past that they were dumber than us

01:00:52.040 that they were less civilized than us that they were you know meaner and more cruel than than we

01:00:59.800 are there's just this there's this hubris that that we think that we're the best thing that's

01:01:05.880 ever walked on earth and I don't think it's true especially if you know if we were born in a

01:01:13.300 different time and place we would be very much creatures of that time and place just like if I

01:01:18.340 was born in France I'd be French or at least I'd speak French you know maybe I would still be

01:01:23.980 Scandinavian and Irish but I wouldn't be an American and it's just every time a question

01:01:33.160 like that is asked it really rubs me the wrong way because there's this built-in assumption

01:01:37.640 of supremacy over the past this you know this question is present supremacist

01:01:45.720 yeah it's but like i said i don't think it's

01:01:52.120 i think it's come about fairly by people who've been you know educated in the current environment

01:01:59.320 we find ourselves in unfortunately i think they come by the question honestly it's very much

01:02:04.680 encouraged right now yeah yeah so that's unfortunate but so this is a good enough

01:02:11.080 time let's plug this we are just starting out on year three of the house true academy

01:02:20.120 um we are enrolling students all the time it is our afa homeschooling program for our children

01:02:32.200 have a little ways north of 30 children enrolled at this point and it is an opportunity for us to

01:02:41.240 take back the responsibility of teaching the next generation of our families in a way that

01:02:50.560 is consistent with our values, our beliefs, and, you know, a better, I don't know, I'm trying to

01:03:00.820 think of the nice way of saying real education and not the false education that we think is very

01:03:06.100 often being served up in the public school system but worse than that i think the current public

01:03:12.420 school system in a lot of places can be really really dangerous and detrimental and where we're

01:03:17.620 able we would love to help parents that would like to educate their children um at home with

01:03:26.020 you know with our values we would love to support that as best as we can and that's what we're doing

01:03:31.300 um gothi rob stamm is the dean of the austro academy uh he and his staff put in a lot of work

01:03:37.780 and are doing amazing things with it as a father i'm very excited about it as y'all's harrier

01:03:43.780 gothi i'm extremely proud of it please consider that if you have children uh we have curriculum

01:03:49.300 now uh k through sixth grade so taking the enrollment all the time anytime you're able

01:03:58.020 or you'd like to we'd love to have you partake in that and uh they are really awesome uh dean

01:04:05.140 stam and the rest of the staff there are are working really hard uh my boy is enrolled in

01:04:12.900 the ossaroo academy for his his kindergarten year this year and we are are getting the hang of the

01:04:20.180 things that we need to do um and they are are backing us up we're in we're in pennsylvania

01:04:26.340 which is a particularly tough state to do this in and um we're you know i'll be quite frank katie and

01:04:33.300 i are a little bit intimidated by all of the reporting requirements and things that the

01:04:38.100 the state expects of us to do that here and uh the the ossaroo academy really and and truly is

01:04:45.940 a i think the only reason we are able to do this they are um helping us with that they're helping

01:04:53.540 us navigate these the requirements and uh uh i'm very grateful that we have the australia folk

01:05:01.380 assembly and the australia academy in particular there to back us up because um you know where i

01:05:07.060 live it it might not have been something that we could do on our own um something else i'd like to

01:05:16.500 throw out there on the side um just i think it's a really good resource and it's not afa specific

01:05:26.020 or afa proprietary um the homeschool legal defense network or legal defense association nick if you

01:05:34.740 could find an address for that and put that up for folks that would be awesome they are a really

01:05:40.180 really good resource for anybody who's considering homeschooling whether you're doing with us or

01:05:45.540 however you want to do it they're a very good organization their advocacy is top-notch their

01:05:54.340 expertise on this is second to none and they're they're very good and reassuring group to help

01:06:06.900 to help you really get a handle on how difficult or how easy it is to homeschool your own children

01:06:14.100 and to work through that process and it's got it broken down state by state um if you have kids

01:06:20.500 and it's something that you're thinking about it'd be in your best interest to go to their site and

01:06:25.300 just check it out and see what's what because a lot of really good information um so we are taking

01:06:34.340 all your questions tonight we would love to answer as many as you as you have for us about anything

01:06:39.620 you'd like us to talk about um from the heathen hammer is the new bloat book still in the works

01:06:48.740 uh no it's not we're working on a lot of material but we're not at present in uh in line to present

01:06:56.180 a book of of pre-made bloats we are working and we've talked about a number of different ways to

01:07:02.820 give examples of how bloat's done um and

01:07:13.380 there may be something in the future as far as like altar work things and things that way we

01:07:20.980 would really encourage everyone to get involved with the house true folk assembly and participate

01:07:27.220 in bloats with our gothar at the hoffs in a more formal way when we talk about actual bloats but

01:07:36.340 as far as offerings and alter work go we may very well have some stuff on that and we also

01:07:41.700 were talking about maybe even doing some example videos of that kind of a structure

01:07:48.660 that's currently where we're at with it um

01:07:57.220 So, we have a question here, Cliff, that you might be the one to answer.

01:08:08.020 Where? Oh, never mind. Never mind. Hold on. I was misreading the chat.

01:08:13.180 But to talk a little bit more about Frazehoff plans. I know folks are curious to narrow down

01:08:23.080 kind of where we're looking and what that looks like and maybe a little bit about

01:08:30.040 what kind of things factor into that choice and i think you may have some of the better answers on

01:08:35.480 that cliff sure sure it's going to depend on the facts on the ground of course um so we're

01:08:44.760 probably about a year and a half away i think based on our current um rate of progress to

01:08:51.640 to being in a position where we can start to seriously look at properties as opposed to,

01:08:58.340 you know, just browsing them online to keep ourselves familiar with the market, which we do.

01:09:04.340 It's important for us to go into things when the time comes, knowing what, you know,

01:09:11.260 what's been available, even if it still isn't available now at the time. That way we, you know,

01:09:17.380 have realistic expectations of the the types of properties and the price ranges and the rest of

01:09:23.620 that that goes into it um you know matt mentioned it would be in um eastern ohio or or western

01:09:31.280 pennsylvania there's also a small chance it'll be in that little triangle of of west virginia

01:09:36.780 that's that's wedged in between there i'm i don't want to exclude that from our search area because

01:09:41.200 if we do the best possible place of course we'll end up being there right um and i've you know

01:09:48.000 this based on the current distribution of membership in the north of the thorshof district

01:09:57.620 um i'm i'm thinking it's probably going to be somewhere between interstate 90 on its um

01:10:06.380 It's northern boundary, Interstate 79 as an eastern boundary, Interstate 70 as a southern boundary and Interstate 77 as a western boundary.

01:10:17.280 That's a pretty big box. That's like the top quarter of Ohio, the northeast quarter of Ohio, that West Virginia triangle and a small chunk of northwestern Pennsylvania down to somewhere a little bit north of like the Pittsburgh area.

01:10:36.380 area. That's where we're going to be looking. That's where, you know, that's going to be in

01:10:43.520 the area where it's going to serve Ohio and Pennsylvania and Michigan and Indiana the best

01:10:51.560 as far as how people are distributed right now. And Western New York. Western New York can just,

01:10:58.320 it's just that little flag to Pennsylvania to get across into Ohio from there. So it's not far from 0.89

01:11:03.220 there um and that's where the bulk of the the afa membership is in in this part of the country in

01:11:12.260 in pennsylvania ohio and indiana in particular um michigan is growing though so it's uh

01:11:18.500 it's it's up and coming as well and it's actually not very far most i don't know how

01:11:22.740 geographically minded people are but uh michigan touches ohio there um on the uh lake erie coast

01:11:31.140 Detroit and Toledo are not very far from each other, so I-90 would be a quick trip for a lot

01:11:38.820 of people in southern Michigan, at least, to get to the area we're talking about. Now, as far as

01:11:45.460 what kind of stuff we would like to have in the Hoff, this is all completely theoretical wishlist

01:11:50.240 kind of stuff, so don't hold me to it. We have no idea what the property will be, but as far as

01:11:55.140 honoring lord frey we would like to have some amount of acreage so we can have some green

01:12:00.980 space there um if we don't end up getting that then it's very likely that we will do

01:12:06.580 some kind of a a greenhouse or you know indoor garden i think it would be really important

01:12:12.100 for freyshoff to have green present there um you know frey is uh

01:12:20.180 he he's a vanyer he's a god of fertility i got growth who brings the rains in the spring and

01:12:28.740 it would just seem completely incorrect to uh not recognize that in the environment that we

01:12:37.040 that we select and set for for those grounds but again we have no idea what property it's

01:12:44.180 actually be so a lot of that's going to depend on um you know luck um and uh what we can find at the

01:12:52.980 time yeah there's a ton of things that go into it and we always want to make sure that we are being

01:13:04.980 as diligent looking as we can but there are a lot of metaphysical x factors that go into it

01:13:16.740 we want to make sure our do we're doing our part but whenever we get a new uh hoff i

01:13:25.380 ask regularly at my altar for the god of that hoff to help guide that process and you know

01:13:33.780 help us ensure that we get a hoff that you know would bring them honor that would you know be

01:13:39.460 pleasing to them that they'd like and a lot of things move in a in an interesting way when that

01:13:44.340 process gets started but we you know pick some target things we're looking at um

01:13:52.660 we don't want to be too rigidly bound to them you know we have

01:13:56.260 price figures we look at finding the right price in the right location with the right building

01:14:07.060 and the right land those things very seldom all come into play so a mixture of those things and

01:14:14.740 it sorts out kind of interesting when the time comes a couple of things that we need to get us

01:14:21.380 there um we need to first pay off new york's off and we're working hard on that we need to also

01:14:32.020 increase our monthly income

01:14:36.420 by it's right on screen sir i can't read it that's little 9.6 percent

01:14:42.980 old i got old eyes so 9.6 percent and that's that's very doable um

01:14:55.380 and we also you know once we get closer we'll need to build a war chest for a down payment

01:15:01.540 it depends on what that looks like a lot of variables but we've got a process now we've

01:15:09.220 been very fortunate in the ability to get hoffs and establish hoffs but once we have one what a

01:15:16.820 lot of people don't take into account but is extremely important is we take on an obligation

01:15:23.780 that is the temple for lord fray and we need to take care of it so we need to make sure that

01:15:30.180 whatever happens we have the funds to be able to do maintenance take care of it treat it well

01:15:37.940 and and maintain it and that's the recurring monthly stuff that becomes really important

01:15:44.020 so we have different figures on that we try to be very responsible stewards of these hoffs

01:15:48.980 it's a big deal getting them but it's a much more important thing to maintain them and to keep them

01:15:57.380 to keep them and to improve them over time and so we're really dedicated to that

01:16:02.100 something i want to add as far as property details too is uh you know we've had people suggest things

01:16:10.500 um that seem like a good idea but that aren't always suitable for our uses

01:16:15.140 you know like a like an old hotel or uh an old school or something like that and they seem like

01:16:21.540 yeah okay they've got kitchens they've got the square footage they sometimes they look really

01:16:25.780 beautiful um but what we really want to make sure of from from past experience and just as far as

01:16:33.140 uh you know having everything that we need we're looking for churches that are still zoned

01:16:42.820 as churches whatever that means in the particular locality that'll depend on where we look exactly

01:16:48.500 what the what the laws are and what it means as far as zoning but um we have a very very strong

01:16:54.260 preference for a facility that would be turnkey as a religious facility now anything can change

01:17:02.580 if we find something different that doesn't quite meet that we might consider it but um we're

01:17:07.940 looking for for churches i'm saying this to cliff as much as i'm saying it to the audience because

01:17:14.980 i was asking our law speaker alan about it myself that's not always the same depending on where you

01:17:21.380 go so yes something that is a church now or is a house of worship now that is zoned to be a house

01:17:30.260 of worship we will we can maintain that when we purchase it and that's the perfect scenario but

01:17:38.740 depending charitable use doesn't necessarily have to have the religious component to it to still

01:17:46.340 have the same zoning in certain counties and certain municipalities and however that's broken

01:17:51.860 down in in the state and in the area we're talking about also certain places are like must grant if

01:17:58.740 the zoning is less restrictive than whatever the current zoning is so something's commercial then

01:18:05.220 if you apply for religious zoning within commercial then it's a guaranteed

01:18:09.780 thing it's just a paperwork filing so if we found the right circumstance that way what we want to

01:18:15.140 avoid is any kind of you know asking permission for something we would much rather go in with

01:18:23.300 a surety as opposed to with a question mark over whether we can or can't do something

01:18:28.420 yeah we don't know where it's may grant where the city council can say no we ran into one

01:18:35.380 spot in florida when we were looking to where it'd go around and like 80 or more of the neighbors had

01:18:41.780 to express in writing that they wanted us granted the permission if we wanted to change the zoning

01:18:49.780 like the the city's zoning on that was really extreme so there's different rules different

01:18:55.780 places and those things are all really important to consider anything that's a house of worship

01:19:00.340 that's zoned that way is is a turnkey option for us and that's usually the best bet but

01:19:06.580 we're not opposed to thinking outside the box people have suggestions

01:19:10.020 but we're a little ways away say that i think cliff does this too i know that i

01:19:16.260 very often go in and just see what's on the market because i'm excited about it and it's

01:19:22.020 i don't know it's neat and it gets the creative juices flowing as far as what's possible and

01:19:28.100 fortunately there's a lot of really cool things possible so i have no doubt there'll be plenty

01:19:32.980 cool choices when we get closer. 80% agreement from neighbors is a very high burden. If anyone

01:19:42.020 who's had to collect signatures for anything, that number is effectively unattainable. Not even if

01:19:47.380 they oppose what you're doing, just the odds of getting them to do it out of laziness and

01:19:54.580 other factors, that's a very high bar. Yeah, it is. And again, maybe if I was

01:20:01.700 living in those communities i would very much want that to be the rule depending if you know

01:20:06.580 something i didn't like rolling so that's that's a thing and i think i skipped a question

01:20:14.660 i did um also from corey who asked about the fascist thing he wanted to know

01:20:21.540 why do you hail your own church that's a cult red flag is it i don't

01:20:31.700 I don't know that it is. I don't think I've ever heard someone. It's the first time. I've been in the AFA for, I don't know, 15 years or so, and I've been around the AFA for a lot longer than that.

01:20:49.160 it's the first time i've heard that particular concern raised i'm unaware of other cults that

01:21:00.520 do that to where that's like a stereotypical like oh red flag for cultism i had not heard that

01:21:06.760 before we hail our own church because we are the church of the iser in midgard and our church is

01:21:14.760 literally defined by our mission to

01:21:20.520 pursue loyalty to the iser and to enact their wishes and worship them in midgard it

01:21:33.320 our church is our religion hailing our religion is hailing our loyalty to our gods so i think

01:21:41.880 it's really congruent with that but i've never heard that it was a particularly you know cult

01:21:48.360 red flag kind of thing to do cliff are you familiar with with that particular allegation

01:21:54.040 well you know i don't always make friends when i come on this show um i think it's kind of a silly

01:21:58.760 question corey no offense i just think it is because all religions are cults there is a cult

01:22:04.680 aspect to all religious practice and if it doesn't have that it's not religion i don't understand

01:22:13.800 so in that in that regard i don't understand the question and and it is common in other churches to

01:22:18.200 do this um you know for example i was raised catholic and they regularly um petition saints

01:22:26.040 uh especially saint mary the the mother of god um to pray for the church um people will all and i

01:22:35.640 don't i don't know that it's any different from saying something like god bless the usa i mean

01:22:40.200 to to ask for the divine to bless the work that the people are doing here on earth is a very

01:22:50.760 common and natural thing to be done and you know if it's the word hail that is in question

01:22:57.800 matt talked about this at pretty good length earlier when you are hailing something you are

01:23:03.080 wishing it health you are wishing it to be whole that that's what that means so

01:23:11.720 it would seem very odd to me if we did not do that if anyone if anyone wants the

01:23:17.080 asatru folk assembly to be successful it should be our own congregation and we should be teaching

01:23:22.280 the bod the gods to bless our work and to help us continue it so i mean i think this is very

01:23:29.800 much connected to the way of thinking with his first question because it does the the name calling

01:23:36.680 thing um like we've evolved fascism to mean something different i don't think that elsie

01:23:47.640 would have referred to herself as a fascist at the time just wasn't what was continental like

01:23:54.840 in england there was a pronounced fascist movement and certainly in in italian territories that would

01:24:00.600 have made sense it's not the term that she would have identified with it's one of those it's like

01:24:05.720 Like, a government that you like is an administration.

01:24:09.560 A government you don't like is the regime.

01:24:12.560 They mean the exact same thing, but we vilified one.

01:24:17.060 A cult is religion that you don't like, whereas, you know, church or faith or religion is religion that you think's okay.

01:24:25.580 It's weaponized language that's unfortunately really common in chaotic social circles.

01:24:35.720 But I mean, again, I don't think it's a dishonest question.

01:24:39.580 I think that's unfortunately how a lot of our young people think in the world today.

01:24:47.720 So question for me, when is next time I'll visit Sigurheim?

01:24:52.760 I don't know.

01:24:53.800 I was really hoping maybe in December, but I'm not sure.

01:24:58.480 Very disappointed that I didn't get to go out for Sigurblok this year.

01:25:02.420 that was my flight was on that one day that all of the plane reservation stuff software crashed

01:25:12.100 tried i was stuck at the airport for like nine hours and never made it out of reno so

01:25:17.780 i wanted to i was really looking forward to it i love that place uh as soon as i can it's the

01:25:23.140 best answer i've got i was trying to figure out something for december i still think that would

01:25:27.380 be cool i don't know but as soon as i can i would love to be out there um and then follow up in the

01:25:34.820 same deal follow-up question will there be an afa house of gains built on the property someday

01:25:40.580 that's one of the dreams now i've i've located pretty close it's still about 45 minutes but

01:25:45.540 it's worth it it's a really good gym in uh in cookville that's cool to go to if you live

01:25:52.900 in and around Sigurheim.

01:25:55.500 It's probably what we're going to be doing initially.

01:25:57.760 But yes, I've absolutely looked into the idea

01:26:00.440 of building a gym on there somewhere.

01:26:06.460 Ideally, a gym slash dojo would be awesome.

01:26:10.360 But we'll see.

01:26:11.320 I think that's low on the priority list.

01:26:13.920 We have a number of things

01:26:14.920 that we need to accomplish there first.

01:26:17.060 But I think that that would be great.

01:26:19.040 I'd love to see it there.

01:26:20.380 If you want to come on out to Sigurheim

01:26:21.820 and help make that happen,

01:26:22.900 that's you know many hands make light work we'd like to do that or heavy work in that situation

01:26:28.780 there will be plenty of physical work to be done before that happens though so there will be

01:26:33.760 things happening there one way or the other it's humid it's tennessee there'll be sweat regardless

01:26:39.580 um we'll throw in matt can you sing the thor gayatri mantra

01:26:47.620 I think, if I remember it correctly, it's been a really long time.

01:27:17.620 will phrasehoff this one's for you cliff will phrasehoff have something for freya like a grove

01:27:27.080 or something absolutely um a a grove would depend on a lot of those details about property that we

01:27:35.100 don't know yet if there's exterior green space where we can do that i think that would be

01:27:40.780 fantastic but there will definitely at least be a shrine to freya present somewhere on or in the

01:27:48.620 premises that's really important to give the akadi and to me um to to make sure that that happens so

01:27:56.780 what the shape of it exactly looks like how small or how magnificent it is is yet to be seen but

01:28:04.700 yeah there will there will be a place for devotion to freya somewhere in or around the temple

01:28:11.900 so and rest assured a hoff to lady freya is in the in the planning it is

01:28:20.540 several of them out i have to stop and math i think it's 10 hoffs from now like the 10th hoff

01:28:31.180 from now that we build or that we establish will be to lady freya number 14 right number 14 the

01:28:40.460 again the quicker we get these things rolling the quicker we will get there but i'd love to see that

01:28:45.900 in my lifetime um i will work tirelessly the rest of my life to make sure that happens hopefully we

01:28:52.860 get there first and then i got to find other hoffs to uh start making happen but yes that's

01:28:58.300 absolutely going to happen it's in the planning just can't give you a time and a date for it yet

01:29:04.700 a long time it's pretty far down the road it'll be a few years

01:29:11.980 maybe a little more than a few um

01:29:17.340 question for whit and cliff what is the short version of how you came home to oust a troop

01:29:23.660 and the afa all right um so short version is i was raised catholic i became a doubting catholic

01:29:36.300 i asked questions um based on the difference between theology class at catholic school on one

01:29:42.860 hand and the mythology classes in uh in english and literature classes that were immediately

01:29:49.340 after that um i wasn't satisfied with the answers so i started looking into other things i i you

01:29:57.100 know went to occult bookstores and picked up some wiccan books i picked up ralph bloom's book of

01:30:04.060 runes which is the closest to asatru i got at the time which is not very close but it was at least

01:30:09.660 runes um picked up uh lavey's a satanic bible i picked up a few books on on eastern religion and

01:30:19.180 wasn't really satisfied with what i found in any of them um so i became a very snobby

01:30:27.500 secular humanist atheist type for about a decade shockingly that path is not ultimately fulfilling

01:30:37.420 uh you know thinking of yourself as the center of the universe and that all the stuff happens

01:30:44.540 simply for you to observe it or that it's meaningless if you're not there to observe it

01:30:49.260 is uh is really shallow i know it sounds silly coming out of my mouth now but it took me some

01:30:54.380 time to get there and um when i was in that period of searching again you know searching

01:31:03.340 kind of in reverse for community and for for meaning after having like expunged it from myself

01:31:10.220 i tried going back to catholicism actually um i went to several churches went to some masses trying

01:31:18.820 to you know reclaim what i had lost and uh in the time i was gone the church had changed to the

01:31:26.040 point that it wasn't recognizable to me all the different sex scandals and the east coast churches

01:31:30.880 and stuff had had become public um and their attendance was down and it just wasn't the

01:31:38.800 same place that i left um which was fortunate um also around the same time i was becoming aware of

01:31:48.720 the fact that um my standing as a white man in america wasn't what it used to be the the the

01:31:58.000 things that i had you know seen when i was raised the things that um that i had been taught that

01:32:04.640 were right were were starting to be undermined and eroded and and that didn't sit well with me

01:32:10.480 and i was um fortunate enough to meet our folk builder patricia hall um through mutual friends

01:32:19.760 in in that endeavor and uh as soon as i knew that she was a folk builder i didn't initially

01:32:26.480 um you know i kept bugging her to talk about the afa once i knew who she was because i knew about

01:32:32.240 ostrich at that point i'd kind of found her on the internet like so many people do and

01:32:36.160 was making my rounds with different heathen groups that um

01:32:45.520 were more or less serious depending on which one we're talking about but none of them really seemed

01:32:50.720 like a good fit and so i harassed patricia into letting me start coming to to things and eventually

01:32:57.040 um i was fortunate that she vouched for me to come to winter nights one in the poconos in 2012

01:33:04.480 and um i still kicked the tires for about a year after that uh i you know am and was a skeptic at

01:33:15.280 heart. So I wanted to be really sure about this Asa True Folk Assembly thing. Why was it the

01:33:21.400 version of, you know, heathenry that I'd read about online that was valid compared to other

01:33:29.760 groups that I'd read about, other people that I'd met? Fortunately, Patricia was willing to keep me

01:33:36.620 around while I figured out where I stood and figured out what I needed. And a year later,

01:33:44.460 I joined the AFA officially just before Winter Nights 2 because I really, you know, anyone who

01:33:52.440 knows me knows I like to think of things in a cycle of a year. And if I hadn't joined by the

01:33:57.320 time I was at Winter Nights 2, then I don't think I was going to. It would be silly to be vouched

01:34:02.700 for, for the first one and to have to be vouched for, for the second one, then I'm just a hang

01:34:09.460 around. Uh, so I joined, um, initially I joined, you know, just, you know, just to, to, to, to make

01:34:20.880 good on, on the, the generosity that the AFA had shown me, um, and to, you know, to, to have my

01:34:28.040 place in the ostrich folk assembly and then uh within a couple of years i i had uh signed up to

01:34:35.160 be a folk builder and really had put all my chips in uh once i once i committed to the ostrich folk

01:34:42.920 assembly i was i was all in and and was was a lifer uh but it took me a little while to come 0.90

01:34:49.080 to that conclusion i was uh a pain in the ass for patricia and for matt for those first several years 0.98

01:34:55.480 I'm sure. Hopefully it was worth it. 0.99

01:35:05.020 Seems like Matt thought I was going to talk for longer and maybe has gone to take a break.

01:35:11.180 So I'm just going to pull another question out of the queue here.

01:35:18.020 Chris asked, is there a particular service or an agent we're relying on for our property search

01:35:25.100 for Frazehoff? So Cliff, let me interject first because it's anticipating a future question.

01:35:32.060 We have a question coming up in the queue. If you look up the 10 signs of a dangerous cult list,

01:35:41.400 Do you think the AFA has any of those?

01:35:44.720 If there is an authoritative list, like I'm not sure if that was a theoretical look up a list or if you have a specific list in mind.

01:35:53.180 If you have a list and you give me the link, I can look.

01:35:57.900 I tried to Google what you asked and there's a bunch of different lists of stuff, but none of them look like exactly what you're referring to.

01:36:04.920 So if you could get me the list or a link to it, I can answer your question a little bit better.

01:36:11.080 Back to you, Cliff. Sorry about that.

01:36:18.820 No worries. And now you've got me looking for that list, too.

01:36:21.600 I found one that's 12 long, so that'll do.

01:36:23.580 Yeah, I found a couple of different, like I'm trying.

01:36:26.320 I'm just not finding exactly what matches it perfect.

01:36:30.020 Yeah, I mean, for me, real quick, I'll just tease a little bit of the answer.

01:36:33.960 We can go into it because I'd like to go through a whole list.

01:36:36.160 That'd be a lot of fun.

01:36:37.060 um but for me the the red flag for a a harmful cult if we want to qualify it has been if uh

01:36:45.200 there is some sort of requirement or coercion to cut off your own family 0.63

01:36:53.700 that's unhealthy the ostrich folk assembly would never do that to anyone 0.93

01:37:00.620 so um that's always been like the clear one to me where you know if if we're not kidnapping you

01:37:07.980 we're probably okay um and we're happy to have friends and family come check us out one of my

01:37:15.820 friends did that when i first started hosting things he wanted to see what the heck was going

01:37:19.740 on make sure it was okay we've had plenty of members or prospective members bring their mom

01:37:25.500 or their dad or another friend along just so they could see what this strange and scary to them

01:37:31.980 thing that their their beloved their loved one is getting involved in and i and i respect that we

01:37:36.700 should watch out for our friends and our families and uh we've got nothing to hide that way so

01:37:41.180 they're welcome to come along and see what we do usually they're pretty impressed too unless they're

01:37:45.740 like real hardcore christians then they might be a little spooked by it but i can understand why

01:37:50.300 if they're devout christians we should be a little spooky to them yeah and as far as the question

01:37:56.940 that chris asked is there a particular service or agent we're relying on for our property search for

01:38:01.180 phrasehoff not at this time um it is always possible that we'll reach out to a real estate

01:38:07.180 agent when we zero in on like a particular county they don't real estate agents don't really like

01:38:13.740 to search like statewide i know that because i tried to get one to do it when i was moving

01:38:17.660 in pennsylvania and i drove her completely mad because she wanted to know where we were going

01:38:22.140 to move and i just kept saying well you know west of the susquehanna river which is two-thirds of

01:38:27.100 the state of pennsylvania it's a pretty big field she wasn't going to go driving around

01:38:31.500 scouting that stuff all for us so we had to do it on our own um but uh we we do use various

01:38:38.540 commercial real estate websites um to to look for um the you know the what is it called special use

01:38:46.380 properties i think is the term that they that they have um that churches qualify under when

01:38:51.260 you're looking for them on those sites um nothing nothing secret it's you know like the the remax

01:38:57.980 site like uh what's uh crexy matt mentioned crexy there's a few others i can't rattle them off off

01:39:03.660 the top of my head but commercial real estate websites is what we're looking at now and as we

01:39:09.020 get closer we'll probably if if they'll do business with us that's always a thing that we

01:39:13.580 you know sometimes have a challenge with they might not want to have anything to do with us

01:39:18.560 but if there is someone that will reach out to them yeah we're up for whatever i usually look

01:39:25.880 on loop net crexy city fleet usually those overlap sometimes some of them have something

01:39:35.340 the other one doesn't have but i google churches for sale ohio or pennsylvania and then i redraw

01:39:44.220 the little geographical circle where i'm looking in then i sort by price lowest to highest and i

01:39:53.900 i sort by square footage highest to lowest

01:39:59.100 so there's a lot of ways to do it a lot of ways to organize it

01:40:03.340 um but yeah that's kind of where we start on looking we again wouldn't be opposed to

01:40:09.980 we haven't had a lot of luck with local realtors finding stuff although that is what was in play

01:40:17.180 to get uh odin's off way back when um dorgan and sheila used a local realtor to get that

01:40:25.340 setup and that worked out really great it's not if anybody's got someone we're willing to accept

01:40:32.540 referrals or if any of our members are a real estate agent in ohio or pennsylvania and we just

01:40:38.140 don't know about that we we'd love to have your help i think nick had something to offer what's

01:40:45.500 up nick yeah i was just saying it's not a hawk but we did use a realtor to find sigerheim

01:40:49.580 did we yes

01:40:55.340 i don't recall perhaps we did nick knows that we did so there you go you there you have it um

01:41:10.660 has a

01:41:17.780 Yeah. Just seeing if that list has materialized. I do not see it. I'm going to save that question

01:41:32.960 until last in the hopes that the list will materialize. If not, we can kind of examine

01:41:39.580 a random one that we find if you want, because I think going through it's kind of interesting.

01:41:44.100 It's probably questions that maybe somebody has who's listening to this.

01:41:47.780 um is there a strategy to reach more heathens then ah you guys couldn't see it was off screen

01:41:58.980 i did the little air quotes um but been out of truth since 2007 but just became a member this

01:42:06.180 year i know you've mentioned that word of mouth is huge right now because of the climate we find

01:42:10.820 ourselves in but is there a change in strategy warranted or being discussed going forward to

01:42:18.020 reach more folk cliff you got thoughts and feelings on this or anything to add to shed light

01:42:26.500 well i think it always surprises me when there are people in paganism in general which we don't

01:42:36.820 view ourselves as part of, but, you know, I understand why others might. It always amazes

01:42:42.860 me when people have not heard of the Asatru Folk Assembly, because if you Google Asatru

01:42:49.220 or heathenry or Odinism or Norse paganism or Viking religion, we come up, you know,

01:43:01.940 it might not always be flattering things that are said about us but um we're mentioned in

01:43:08.260 the main wikipedia articles on these things we're we're not like a secret society um

01:43:16.780 and in you know in a lot of cases it's our detractors who have the most to say about us

01:43:21.600 So, I mean, we're happy to have people who are already aware of the gods and Germanic religion join us.

01:43:35.680 I don't know if there's going to be a specific strategy to reach out to more people like that, because in my experience, most people who are, you know, quote unquote heathens. 0.65

01:43:48.180 And that is how it was in the question, by the way.

01:43:49.980 It wasn't just Matt doing the air quotes.

01:43:51.420 it is in quotes in the question um if they already are aware of our existence and haven't joined

01:44:00.780 they they have an opinion about us already now that said um we are happy to talk to

01:44:07.500 anybody uh about ossitru um and you know including people that aren't of our fault

01:44:12.940 people who might not be eligible for for membership in the austria folk assembly we want

01:44:17.980 people to know that we exist we want people to understand what we believe um especially

01:44:25.020 coming from us if they have a correct understanding of it rather than you know people saying that

01:44:29.420 we're bad because whatever the list of reasons they might have would be um i'd be interested

01:44:36.700 to know more um from you about your personal experience in this if you know if you've been

01:44:43.100 been Osatru since 2007. I'm curious if you have only recently become aware of the Osatru Folk

01:44:49.360 Assembly, or if you knew about us the whole time and there was just other reasons you didn't become

01:44:57.020 involved with us, whether it was our reputation for good or bad, or whether it was, you know,

01:45:02.680 you looked at the website and then it just wasn't a folk builder in your area or something like that.

01:45:07.180 but I think you know I think we're best served reaching out to all of our folk going to you know

01:45:15.180 local fairs there's all sorts of like harvest festivals and stuff like that right now I want

01:45:20.080 for our people to be present there and and representing us well to you know to to quote

01:45:26.740 unquote I'll put the real quotes real close together so you can see them you know normal

01:45:31.540 people. Not that Asatru are not normal people, we are, but I think that's a, it's a small pond to

01:45:38.620 fish in. And we, you know, there's a, there's a billion of our folk out there who deserve to know

01:45:45.760 that Asatru is a thing and that it's their birthright, that they should rightly be Asatru,

01:45:54.500 that it's their natural religion. And if we limit ourselves to just like the, I'll be generous and

01:46:00.920 say 1% of our folk who are interested in any kind of paganism, even if it's not like

01:46:08.400 Asatru, um, would really hold us back in that regard. Um, we're not going to exclude reaching

01:46:15.500 out to people like that, but I don't think that that would be, um, I don't think that would be

01:46:19.960 the most efficient use of our resources to target that exclusively or specifically.

01:46:26.000 Yeah, so I, everything Cliff said, um, I would be curious, like Cliff also said, of, uh,

01:46:47.520 Boney Rat, who asked the question of, you know, what would have been effective to you? Where do

01:46:54.420 you suggest what do we do I don't think it's an either or it's a all of the above approach if we 0.68

01:47:00.200 have something that we think is a fruitful way to reach out to people that are heterosexual white 0.71

01:47:07.360 people that ought to come home to our ancestral religion we're all for it it's finding what that

01:47:15.700 is that's useful in going there um we are as public as we know how to be um we're wide open

01:47:30.580 we operate what six different websites we're on youtube we're on you know we're on all the social

01:47:40.180 media that will allow us to be on advertising with as you know as much volume as we can in that way

01:47:53.380 we try to reach out to whoever we are able to

01:48:00.100 as cliff said it's always really curious to a lot of us and this isn't a right or wrong thing like

01:48:05.460 Like we're not married to the habits of how we do certain things.

01:48:12.500 What we're trying to do stuff is do it the right way and the most effective way.

01:48:16.260 So if there's better ways to go or places we're not looking, we'd love to know and we'd love to be able to access those.

01:48:24.180 there is extremely small amounts of crossover between us and the narrow 0.97

01:48:35.180 okay over here sorry pagan community

01:48:39.680 there's nothing there as far as commonality for the most part as far as people that call

01:48:47.940 themselves heathens and other people that either practice or claim to practice a form of vows a true

01:48:58.020 if you the simplest google search says we're there so i don't know how that audience is 0.69

01:49:03.940 unaware of our existence if any of them have questions we're always you know not only open

01:49:11.540 to but eager to answer questions and engage in conversation with those folks but i don't know

01:49:17.780 how people are genuinely not aware. And I know some are, but I also don't know of a quick way

01:49:23.860 of reaching all of those people. And I wish there was. That's why we do talk about how word of

01:49:28.900 mouth is so important, is we all have different circles that connect, that we have folks we

01:49:38.920 talk about in them. Whatever your hobby is, if it's model trains, if it's martial arts,

01:49:44.500 if it's basket weaving whatever you do has got people in it that would probably like to be here

01:49:52.180 if we get our voices out in all of those different circles um great but yeah we would love to have a

01:49:59.300 better outreach to bring more of our folk home and we're certainly open to ideas on doing that

01:50:05.620 but we haven't been presented any that are viable outside of what we're currently doing

01:50:11.220 But if you have ideas, we would love to hear them.

01:50:16.560 So to the cult question, I'm looking back over here to see if there's something that

01:50:25.000 I don't. Yeah. And just as a as a side note in the chat, it was mentioned, and this is something

01:50:46.120 the most effective tool that we have for reaching people is when large media outlets post smear

01:50:53.740 articles about us trying to vilify us that has been the greatest thing that we have had for

01:50:59.180 recruitment because the battle lines are drawn so starkly in this day and age that you know if the

01:51:07.020 splc says one thing a lot of people that will immediately fall in lockstep and there's a lot

01:51:12.860 of people that will immediately do the opposite so that gets us in front of a lot more eyes

01:51:18.540 but i have said this and i mean it we're not going to intentionally court negative publicity

01:51:26.540 in order to get more visibility that would not be the right thing to do it wouldn't be the best way

01:51:32.380 to bring honor and reputation to our gods and it would be abusive to our members who don't want

01:51:40.220 that type of attention up in their face so we don't seek negative attention but whenever negative

01:51:46.060 attention comes our way it does drive members here so they don't see people talking badly about us

01:51:54.780 isn't it yeah they're very tolerant in one direction um so to the cult question nick found

01:52:08.860 the same list that i found when i googled it but it's not really titled what the guy asking

01:52:16.780 had his title so hope it addresses it i don't know but we'll go through it anyway because it's

01:52:25.020 might be entertaining and or informative to people that might want to know

01:52:29.820 so cliff i'm gonna pose these to you one by one i will follow your answer of them but i'd like you

01:52:41.340 to take a swing at them first all right game on hold on just gotta just gotta link you got one

01:52:50.860 with 12 on it yeah it's from this thing called you're not alone it looks like it's from like

01:52:58.220 people who have escaped cults

01:53:02.940 yeah this one is a

01:53:07.340 better

01:53:10.380 this one is a better list um

01:53:18.940 yeah i think this is a

01:53:20.300 i i don't know the best way to hit this i think this i think the one that you found is a better

01:53:28.440 list than the one that we've got um too longer i'll take 12 reasons we can refute 12 instead of

01:53:36.600 10 i mean some of them i don't know they agree with some of them i skimmed it so point one

01:53:44.660 charismatic leadership. A defining feature of cults is their charismatic leaders who wield

01:53:50.860 extraordinary influence over their followers. These leaders often present themselves as

01:53:55.940 enlightened or possessing special knowledge, making them appear larger than life. Their

01:54:00.660 charm and persuasiveness can be incredibly compelling, drawing people in and making them

01:54:04.860 feel uniquely understood. Charismatic leaders use their magnetic personalities to create a sense

01:54:12.980 trust and admiration amongst their followers. They often position themselves as the sole source of

01:54:18.500 truth and wisdom, discouraging critical thinking and independent thought. This unquestioning loyalty

01:54:25.060 can lead members to overlook or rationalize the leader's more questionable actions or demands.

01:54:30.660 These leaders are adept at exploiting their followers' emotional and psychological needs.

01:54:35.940 They often promise salvation, enlightenment, or exclusive knowledge appealing to those who

01:54:40.500 are seeking answers or a sense of purpose by presenting themselves as the key to fulfillment

01:54:45.940 they foster deep dependency and devotion it's important to recognize the signs of charismatic

01:54:51.620 leader to protect yourself and often form and other i'm sorry to protect yourself and others

01:54:59.460 from potential manipulation understanding the tactics they use can help you maintain a healthy

01:55:05.380 skepticism and avoid becoming entangled in their influence if you suspect someone you know is under

01:55:10.340 the sway of such a leader approaching the situation with empathy and informed guidance

01:55:14.900 is crucial cliff what is your thoughts on that i think it's kind of funny that charisma is bad

01:55:22.180 um that's the assumption you have the ribs no as the kids say these days clearly bad i i think that

01:55:29.140 all successful organizations churches corporations it's you know political parties have charismatic

01:55:37.700 leadership um that helps motivate people it helps relate to them it helps you know um

01:55:46.820 it helps get people's attention um i think it's good for our priesthood to be charismatic um

01:55:55.060 you know other other churches christian in particular even use that term on purpose that

01:56:01.220 they that they want their their leadership to be to be charismatic um now i think that the

01:56:07.700 article points out rightly where if um if someone is exploiting um their their charisma to um you

01:56:15.780 know you know to to exploit you then that's bad i i would really i i cannot think of how the also

01:56:25.700 true folk assembly would would be doing that and if someone had concerns about that i would invite

01:56:30.740 them to come to us directly about it and we can figure out what's going on but charismatic

01:56:37.380 leadership in and of itself is i mean that that's something that successful organizations in

01:56:42.740 particular churches need i can't imagine it another way i wouldn't do folks want like not

01:56:53.940 charismatic leader like that's that seems lame um yeah i'm not going to defend against being

01:57:02.020 charismatic uh i wish i wish i could flex greater riz um but i'm working on it the keys and i don't

01:57:12.660 a lot of these lists come about by people that are anti-religion and that kind of been burned

01:57:20.660 and are reacting to it the point in the explanatory text is important if the leader is using their

01:57:30.820 charisma to emotionally manipulate people in a bad way to take advantage of them or something

01:57:38.180 and i'd certainly never want to have anyone feel like i was doing that to them i can honestly say

01:57:44.580 I don't consciously do any of that, and I would love to be more charismatic.

01:57:54.620 I think being charismatic is awesome.

01:57:56.820 I would like all of our leaders to be charismatic.

01:57:59.180 I think that's a good thing, but power is one of those things that can be used for good

01:58:04.460 or for evil, and I think we try really hard in the AFA, and I try to surround myself with

01:58:10.020 people that will tell me you know what's what if i were to treat people badly in that way so

01:58:18.540 i mean again this is the reason that i want cliff to answer these first because a lot of them are

01:58:22.620 directed at you know the leader of an alleged cult so i mean i don't know what good my response

01:58:28.500 to it is to y'all but i'm going to try to anyway to the best of my ability but yeah i'm not going

01:58:35.180 be not going to be weak and beta to make people not think it's a cult that's lame um

01:58:44.460 and thinking that the leader has some special relationship with their gods or special wisdom

01:58:51.100 or special whatever i should hope they do i mean i don't think that we can think of a religious

01:58:56.380 leader in history that doesn't have some degree of that i think that that's kind of silly and i

01:59:03.340 don't think there would be religions if you didn't have leaders that had a special relationship with

01:59:09.980 their god or gods. I think that's really important. Point number two, isolation from family and

01:59:17.660 friends. Isolation from family and friends is a common tactic used by cults to increase control

01:59:22.940 over their members. By severing ties with loved ones, cult leaders can limit outside influence

01:59:28.700 and criticism, making it easier to indoctrinate members with the group's ideology. This isolation

01:59:34.060 can have devastating effects on an individual's mental health and sense of self. Cults often

01:59:39.500 create an environment where contact with outsiders is discouraged or outright forbidden. Members may

01:59:45.420 be told that their family and friends are a negative influence or that they will never

01:59:49.420 understand the group's true purpose. This creates a divide, making the individual increasingly

01:59:54.220 dependent upon the cult for emotional support and validation the process of isolation is gradual

02:00:00.300 can be subtle at first may begin with the encouragement spend more time with the group

02:00:04.220 and less with those outside over time this escalates complete separation where members

02:00:09.020 might be relocated to communal living arrangements uh-oh or be constantly monitored to ensure

02:00:16.140 compliance this isolation can lead to a deep sense of loneliness and helplessness without

02:00:23.820 the support from the perspective of family and friends individuals become more susceptible to

02:00:28.300 the manipulations of the cult they may not start to believe that the group is their only source of

02:00:33.260 love and acceptance further entrenching their commitment understanding the dynamics of isolation

02:00:39.180 is crucial for those looking to help a loved one involved in a cult it's important to remain

02:00:44.540 a supportive presence even in if contact is limited expressing concern and offering non-judgmental

02:00:50.460 space for dialogue can eventually help bridge the gap created by the cult re-establishing

02:00:56.300 connections with family and friends can be a slow process but it's essential for recovery

02:01:00.700 encouraging activities and conversations that remind the individual of their life before the

02:01:05.180 cult can help them regain their sense of identity and autonomy what are your thoughts on that cliff

02:01:12.860 well i want to promise everyone who's listening that if the asa true folk assembly ever tells you

02:01:19.020 to stop going to your mom's for dinner you can tell us to go to hell because the whole concept 0.97

02:01:25.900 of us trying to control your friendships or separate for you from your family is is laughable 0.97

02:01:32.780 we we do quite the opposite in fact we want you to be also true among these people because they

02:01:42.140 if they're of our folk your family obviously and your friends maybe maybe not um they they have

02:01:47.820 they deserve to know who you are they deserve to know that you're also sure they deserve to know

02:01:53.980 that the reason you are a better person than maybe when they first met you that's true in

02:01:59.820 my case the afa made me a better person is because you're also true and because of the things that

02:02:05.900 you've learned and experienced through the austral folk assembly um we we don't tell people to

02:02:12.300 leave their families in any way we we would look down on that um you know life is complicated so

02:02:19.420 sometimes people do become estranged from their families for all kinds of reasons but

02:02:23.260 it's far from the ideal um we don't tell people to

02:02:29.980 end any of their their friendships um you know we we have we all have friends and family who are

02:02:35.820 christian um many people have friends who you know are not of our folk or co-workers who are

02:02:42.820 not of our folk and that is all perfectly okay this is the real world we're in the united states

02:02:49.060 most of us in the 25th century if you you know have been in the military and and and serve with

02:02:55.100 someone who you know doesn't share our background that doesn't mean that they that they didn't you

02:03:00.460 know you know risk their lives to to protect yours and watch your back and and vice versa um 0.79

02:03:06.780 yeah we we we don't do that we do have one thing where when somebody leaves the asa true folk

02:03:13.980 assembly we will ask our leadership in particular to make sure that they no longer offer asa true

02:03:21.020 folk assembly services to those persons and the reason for that is um it actually it it is

02:03:29.100 an act of compassion on our part because we really want those people to come back

02:03:33.580 and the only reason that they can come back is if they're actually gone

02:03:37.400 in the first place. They have to actually know what's missing

02:03:41.580 before they can identify that and be able to

02:03:45.700 consider returning on their own. We don't

02:03:49.600 mandate that for our congregants though.

02:03:53.580 That's something specific to leadership where if you are hosting an AFA event

02:03:57.660 It needs to be made available to AFA members or people who are interested in becoming AFA members, not someone who used to be an AFA member and is disaffected and now has gone to practice another religion or, you know, is going to, you know, have a chip on their shoulder about the AFA and spread that kind of venom to other people who are new and are trying to get the best out of their experience.

02:04:27.660 with Asashu and the Asashu Folk Assembly.

02:04:30.980 And I think it's a pretty reasonable position that we take there.

02:04:36.960 Yeah.

02:04:39.700 This is a thing, and this will come up in other stuff.

02:04:42.760 We don't force everybody to break friendships,

02:04:46.080 but if your friend breaks their trough with our gods and with the AFA,

02:04:53.560 then, yeah, separate from those people.

02:04:56.140 That's bad.

02:04:56.820 disloyalty is bad loyalty is good i'm not gonna apologize for that but outside of that no we want

02:05:03.200 everybody to interact with their friends and their family and do stuff and have a fulfilling life in

02:05:08.800 the actual world you know we talk about wanting to have our folks live close together we talk about

02:05:14.440 wanting to go to you know have people move to sigerheim so we can have a community of people

02:05:19.000 that share our values that are you know our big family but it's never at the exclusion of community

02:05:26.440 involvement it's always been a really important thing to us to be actively immersed in and involved

02:05:32.520 in the community we don't we don't build something worthy of our gods by trying to separate from the

02:05:40.200 rest of the world and not interact with people no we're here and we deserve to be here and we're

02:05:45.560 part of communities we're part of the places that we live we want to be active and we want to be

02:05:50.920 involved at least as a church individuals don't have to be if they don't want to be

02:05:54.600 but we look for opportunities to be involved in local charity stuff in local community things

02:06:02.220 because we're very much part of the world that we live in and we want to build our reputation

02:06:08.040 amongst the communities that we're in and we're really proud of the reputation we've been able

02:06:12.780 to build in the communities that we find ourselves that's something we pride ourselves on and it's

02:06:17.520 actually a really big priority with us um control over personal lives cults exert control over

02:06:26.720 their members personal lives in a variety of ways this control can be overt or subtle but it's always

02:06:32.640 aims to diminish individual autonomy and increase dependence on the group members may find their

02:06:38.000 daily routines relationships and even thoughts tightly regulated by cult leaders one common

02:06:43.840 method of control is through strict rules and regulations that govern every aspect of a member's

02:06:48.080 lives these can uh these rules often dictate what members can wear where they can live how they

02:06:53.920 should spend their time and who they can associate with goal is to create a uniform compliant

02:06:58.640 membership that is easy to manage and manipulate cult leaders often use fear and guilt to enforce

02:07:04.000 these rules members may be warned of severe consequences for disobedience ranging from

02:07:09.280 social ostracism to spiritual damnation this creates a climate of fear where members are

02:07:14.320 constantly anxious about making mistakes and eager to prove their loyalty to the group

02:07:20.160 psychologically this control can lead to a phenomenon known as learned helplessness

02:07:25.760 members become so accustomed to having their decisions made for them that they lose the

02:07:29.920 ability to think and act independently this deepens their reliance on the cult and makes

02:07:34.480 it increasingly difficult to leave. Recognizing the signs of this control is crucial for anyone

02:07:40.200 trying to help a loved one in a cult. Encouraging small acts of independence and decision-making

02:07:44.940 can help rebuild their sense of autonomy. Providing a safe space for them to express

02:07:49.720 doubts and fears without judgment is also vital. For more strategies on how to support someone in

02:07:54.380 this situation, consider reading additional resources on cult dynamics and recovery.

02:07:58.840 cliff thoughts i'm trying not to laugh too much at this because it could be serious for someone

02:08:06.340 um but it so we're a religion right so we have a certain standard of of ethics and and behavior as

02:08:18.580 far as what we believe right action is what we believe being noble people is um and that's about

02:08:25.940 as far as i think it goes as far as control over personal lives we we do not in any practical way

02:08:32.460 exercise control over people's personal lives we do uh provide counsel and um and try to point

02:08:40.540 people in the direction of what um a a good way to conduct themselves in in their in their lives

02:08:48.040 in general would be um you know i i i i think that if if someone were to accuse the ostrich folk

02:08:57.320 assembly of of creating a uniform and compliant membership um that's that's pretty funny anyone um

02:09:06.040 in our leadership knows that our membership is is not uh of that of that particular quality

02:09:11.800 of uniformity and compliance. And I mean, we love, we love our members, but we do not have

02:09:17.560 people that are all pointed in the same direction, wearing the same t-shirts

02:09:21.480 on the same day of the week. That is, that is not an accurate description of our congregation in any

02:09:27.520 way. Yeah, I just, you know, helplessness is not one of our virtues. All of our virtues are

02:09:39.000 are pointed against things like helplessness and um you know i know this one's funny and

02:09:49.320 i wish our people it's almost like hard-headed but cliff can can tell you one of the other things

02:09:55.560 i wish people took more initiative i'm always talking about that we want to instill our values

02:10:02.440 in our folk in a way that they can go out and be agent have agency in their life to build the world

02:10:11.880 they want and to build their dreams we want people to stop being hopeless and to look up and find

02:10:19.160 ways that they can build and do and achieve the things they want for their life and for their

02:10:23.480 families we want yes we would like loyal people that are within the afa hierarchy and work with

02:10:34.520 us instead of being hard-headed but we really want people that are able to be independent and

02:10:40.600 successful and accomplish things those kind of strong members help us build a strong church

02:10:47.000 and help us be strong for our future we want that we want that example for our kids

02:10:53.480 Most all of our noble virtues are about developing that character and that ability to make good decisions for yourself and live the life that you want.

02:11:04.340 If you're just a dirtbag and your personal life is completely egregious, we'll certainly try to counsel you toward something better.

02:11:13.820 And if there's lines that you cross that make you a danger to the rest of our membership, then we'll part ways.

02:11:20.060 But, no, we don't want to go through your wardrobe and sort some things out.

02:11:26.500 If we did, we would have a lot of work to do.

02:11:33.620 Exploitation and manipulation.

02:11:36.000 Exploitation and manipulation are core tactics used by cults to maintain control over their members.

02:11:41.060 These tactics can take many forms, including financial exploitation, emotional manipulation, and physical abuse.

02:11:48.300 Cult leaders often exploit members' vulnerabilities, taking advantage of their trust and loyalty for personal gain.

02:11:54.260 Financial exploitation is a common practice in many cults.

02:11:57.660 Members may be pressured to donate large sums of money, give up their personal assets,

02:12:02.740 or work for free under the guise of supporting the group's mission.

02:12:06.060 This not only drains members financially, but also deepens their dependency on the cult,

02:12:10.600 as they have fewer resources to leave and start anew.

02:12:13.760 Emotional manipulation is another powerful tool used by cult leaders.

02:12:17.440 They may use guilt, shame, and fear to control their members' behavior and keep them in line.

02:12:22.780 For example, members might be told that leaving the cult will result in spiritual damnation,

02:12:27.540 but they will be betraying the group's cause.

02:12:30.820 The emotional tactics can be incredibly effective in keeping members compliant and loyal.

02:12:36.020 In some cases, physical abuse is also used to control and punish members.

02:12:39.940 This can range from physical violence to more subtle forms of coercion,

02:12:43.500 such as sleep deprivation or food restrictions.

02:12:47.440 threat of punishment creates an environment of fear, making it difficult for members to speak

02:12:51.560 out or leave. Understanding these tactics is crucial for recognizing the signs of exploitation

02:12:56.580 and manipulation in a loved one's involvement with a cult. If you suspect that someone you know

02:13:01.800 is being exploited, it's important to approach situational care, offer support, providing

02:13:06.300 information about cult dynamics and resources for help can empower them to seek a way out. Cliff.

02:13:12.480 well we don't starve people so we actually give food away so there goes that one i don't slap

02:13:20.800 people around nope i've never seen it i've never seen it so if you do you're very very tricky about

02:13:27.160 it um i the the rest of it though as far as you know this whole concept of um volunteerism 0.51

02:13:36.580 and donating to a cause that you you think is worthy somehow being exploitive is it's ridiculous

02:13:45.260 and it would it can describe so many organizations again like all all churches all churches do that

02:13:53.560 um all political parties do that no matter what their beliefs are it's just such a every charity

02:13:59.440 that i know of does yeah it like i can't i don't i don't understand how any kind of a

02:14:05.600 non-profit organization is supposed to function if people don't donate money to it

02:14:11.840 shouldn't have charisma what yeah i think a lot of these you know i'm having fun with this i think

02:14:18.400 that uh a lot of these are are very like hyper the the point of view of the people who write this is

02:14:27.600 like hyper individualistic and completely anti-authoritarian of any kind like these

02:14:34.160 these people are all mad at their parents who wrote this they're very damaged atheists that

02:14:38.880 have daddy issues um that really seems to be a theme in this but hey i said okay so cliff and

02:14:45.280 i are having fun with this there are real cults in the world that treat people really badly

02:14:52.160 and that take advantage of people and that hurt people and that do really bad things

02:15:00.480 if that's serious and we don't want to pretend that it's not the details really matter

02:15:09.920 and i think that's that's the serious reason that we are going over this list in case and

02:15:16.000 when we encounter those things to assure people that that's not the case in our situation um

02:15:24.720 but we do recognize there are really bad situations

02:15:29.280 and we're not that and we don't ever want to be that or have people think that we're that like

02:15:38.560 you know i talk about this a lot from time to time we have uh and i think this brings

02:15:44.800 up kind of interesting topics to talk about so one thing that are

02:15:54.400 some of our members that seemingly have their life together better than others

02:16:00.800 always want us to punish people or to enforce you know really strict rules when they think that

02:16:07.200 somebody did something wrong that's not our job and what we're trying to do what we're trying to

02:16:13.920 do is so this it's it's funny and i think it is beautiful how often in this show

02:16:24.800 earth is at work and things come full circle back to previous conversations

02:16:31.280 so the root of holy is to heal and make things whole our people suffer from soul sickness we've

02:16:38.880 we've got a lot of really broken people. Our job as a church is to help those people heal.

02:16:45.920 Unless they're doing something that is so bad that it is dangerous or it hurts us as a church,

02:16:54.280 we want to help heal individuals and help heal families. We don't do that by trying to starve

02:17:00.120 them or by beating them or whatever the examples of that. No, we want to heal people

02:17:07.560 and that has a lot of it's a long it's a longer process but no that's really important to us

02:17:17.720 um the other thing is and this is important too is we try to work with people who are in a

02:17:24.620 financial spot to help them be more successful we want our a big thing in the AFA is winning

02:17:30.020 and it's not that we just want the AFA to win certainly we do but we want our members to win

02:17:36.100 personally and as a family. And by, you know, it's funny because I've had a conversation

02:17:43.760 with two of our GoThar today about three different members trying to help them get

02:17:53.000 more financially viable to where they're more able to take care of themselves and their family

02:18:00.820 and not always dealing with the stress of living paycheck to paycheck. We want them to be

02:18:05.880 financially healthy yes we really appreciate donations absolutely and we really appreciate

02:18:13.140 people donating their time to work for us or to you know give us their services for for free so

02:18:22.440 that we can build things um but we want to build strong people that are economically physically

02:18:30.340 mentally emotionally and spiritually healthy and we're really committed to that we work very hard

02:18:35.640 to do that. The part that I think that we think is fun about this and that we're having fun with

02:18:47.440 is the implication that the Ossetree Folk Assembly is somehow a dangerous cult. Obviously,

02:18:53.580 I think we recognize that actual dangerous cults like the People's Temple or Heaven's Gate are

02:19:01.320 are very bad and have harmed people's lives um but the the leap to you know accusing the

02:19:12.500 ostrich because that's the implication when someone says cult these days right that's what

02:19:15.920 they think of they think of harmful cult like jim jones and the people's temple or um heaven's

02:19:21.760 gate where like it ends up with everyone dying right um the the accusation towards the afa that

02:19:28.660 we are a cult is um that's that's that's what i find so humorous that i have to bring it up so

02:19:37.060 the heaven's gate thing watched a documentary on netflix about that recently

02:19:41.340 i feel really bad so that was in what 1999 thereabouts late 90s um

02:19:53.420 and that ended in a mass suicide and there was a guy that one of the requirements was

02:19:59.660 at the end they started being like gender neutral and castrating themselves and trying to be

02:20:07.580 androgynous and this guy couldn't go through with it because he was having impure thoughts about the

02:20:16.380 um ebony soul group in vogue and uh because he could not reconcile his lust for in in vogue

02:20:27.580 with the tenants of the heaven's gate he wasn't he didn't participate in their mass suicide and

02:20:33.420 he spent the last 25 years being sad about that so there's real damage to people sometimes

02:20:41.980 um so just an interesting anecdote i felt i needed to throw out there

02:20:47.660 you're welcome pressure to recruit others cults often play significant oh so before we get to that

02:20:55.660 one of the points they made about exploitation manipulation um for example remember might be

02:21:01.660 told that leaving the cult will result in spiritual damnation or that that they will

02:21:05.660 be betraying the group's cause well duh if you're in a serious religion and you leave that religion

02:21:14.540 the thought that that might have spiritual consequences and that that might be betraying

02:21:18.940 the mission of the church you're part of that seems self-evident um which church does not

02:21:26.940 have that yeah that's that's kind of silly there may be different levels of seriousness

02:21:31.500 in different churches but they all have it yeah of course pressure to recruit others cults often

02:21:37.420 place significant pressure on their members to recruit others this recruitment drive serves

02:21:42.060 several purposes and increases the group's influences provides new sources of income and

02:21:47.980 reinforces a member's commitment to the cause process of recruitment can be intense and

02:21:53.020 manipulative putting members in a difficult position new recruits are often seen as a

02:21:57.980 validation of the group's mission and the leader's authority members are made to feel that they're

02:22:03.100 worth and excuse me and standing are directly tied to their ability to bring in new followers

02:22:09.740 this creates competitive and high pressure environment where recruitment becomes a

02:22:15.020 primary focus tactics used for recruitment can vary widely members might be encouraged to use

02:22:21.660 their personal and professional networks to find potential recruits they may be trained in specific

02:22:27.020 techniques to persuade and manipulate others using the same psychological tactics that were

02:22:31.440 employed on them. This can include love bombing, presenting the group as a solution to personal

02:22:37.800 problems, and creating a sense of urgency and exclusivity. The pressure to recruit can lead

02:22:44.160 to strained relationships outside the cult. Members may alienate friends and family by

02:22:48.740 constantly trying to recruit them, leading to further isolation and dependence on the cult.

02:22:53.140 this recruitment pressure can also create ethical dilemmas for members who are uncomfortable with

02:22:59.000 manipulative tactics but feel unable to resist the group's demands. Recruitment efforts are often

02:23:05.860 accompanied by the promise of reward or status within the cult. Members might be told that their

02:23:11.060 successful recruitment will lead to a greater spiritual enlightenment, higher position within

02:23:14.820 the group, or special privileges. These incentives make it difficult for members to refuse participation

02:23:20.320 and recruitment activities. It's important to understand the intense pressure members face to

02:23:26.060 recruit others when trying to help someone involved in a cult. Providing a non-judgmental

02:23:30.500 space where they can talk about their experience and feelings can be a critical first step in

02:23:34.400 breaking the cycle of manipulation. Recognizing the signs of recruitment pressure can help you

02:23:39.120 better support a loved one who may be involved in a cult. By understanding the tactics used,

02:23:43.600 you can offer informed advice and resources to help them make an informed decision about their

02:23:48.380 well cliff so uh yeah we we do want our our members to tell everyone about asa true and

02:23:56.540 we want them to tell every one of the white people in the world that they should be also true

02:24:01.820 um we don't want them to manipulate it into it though and i think we've been really open about

02:24:05.980 that we don't want to trick people into being also true we want to we want them to see that

02:24:12.620 they should be asitru if they are of our folk and for those that aren't of our folk we want them to

02:24:18.940 know that asitru is our our native religion and you know to to better understand us so we can

02:24:30.740 better understand them uh i mean i i yeah of course we want to to bring new new folk back to

02:24:38.580 to us is true um but we don't manipulate them to do it yeah the excuse the term but the devil's in

02:24:46.900 the details on these things um if you're part of any religion and it benefits your life and you

02:24:52.740 sincerely believe in it of course you're going to try to get others to be involved and bring others

02:24:57.220 in um yes we want to recruit people because it's the right thing to do but we don't want to trick

02:25:03.860 anybody we never want to trick anybody and that's been explicit the entire time i have been involved

02:25:10.740 certainly um that's very important we don't ever want to lie or manipulate or trick anyone into

02:25:18.180 things at all and i've tried really hard to be as transparent as possible in order to avoid that

02:25:25.460 because we don't want somebody as a member that doesn't fully understand

02:25:30.260 who we are, what we believe, and share that in common with us. We don't want to try to trick

02:25:38.080 anybody and make anybody be who it doesn't want to be. I think it's worth pointing out to you,

02:25:43.180 like, we don't want people to annoy people either. You know, yeah, of course, talk to your mom about

02:25:48.600 Asitru, let her know why you're Asitru, and let her know that she should be Asitru too. And then

02:25:53.600 if she doesn't accept that idea and wants to keep being Christian or whatever else that she's doing, 0.53

02:25:59.880 let it be for a while don't like don't ruin your relationships over it because that's just not

02:26:07.000 productive it'll make you less whole less healthy it will it'll be damaging in your life um there's

02:26:13.160 no reason to do that um it's it i think an interesting point of detail as far as

02:26:18.520 asa true and like modern asa true history and culture is that there had been this idea that

02:26:28.420 asa true was a religion that was not missionary that did not proselytize and that is one i mean

02:26:38.760 i i think they're wrong but that is one area where i could see people that are in heathenry

02:26:45.740 that view the asatru folk assembly as a cult maybe that's the angle they're coming from and that we

02:26:51.260 we do view it as our mission to share asatru with the rest of our folk whereas others are content

02:26:58.220 to uh i probably won't say this nicely not good at that are are content to be closeted in their

02:27:05.580 asatru and not share the thing that's most important to them in their lives with other

02:27:13.500 people who deserve that and that's either cowardly or selfish probably depends on yeah and it's

02:27:19.820 definitely wrong absolutely um six us versus them mentality cult often foster and us versus them

02:27:28.700 mentality to strengthen the bonds within the group and isolate members from the outside world this

02:27:33.900 mentality creates a sense of exclusivity and superiority among members making them feel special

02:27:39.900 and chosen. It also serves to demonize those outside the cult, creating a clear division

02:27:45.120 between the good members and the evil outsiders. The us-vers-them mentality can be extremely

02:27:50.700 powerful in maintaining control over members. By portraying the outside world as dangerous

02:27:55.540 and hostile, cult leaders can discourage members from seeking help or questioning the group's

02:28:00.700 practices. This fear of the outside world reinforces the members' reliance on the cult

02:28:05.400 for safety and support cults often use languages and rituals to reinforce this mentality special

02:28:11.960 terms chants and behaviors that are unique to the group create a sense of unity and different

02:28:17.720 and differentiation from outsiders this shared identity strengthens the group's cohesion and

02:28:23.400 makes it harder for members to leave as they feel they'd be losing a significant part of themselves

02:28:28.040 the us versus them dynamic can also lead to a heightened sense of paranoia and suspicion

02:28:34.040 members may be encouraged to report on each other and be constantly vigilant for signs of disloyalty

02:28:40.040 this creates a climate of mistrust where individuals feel they can only rely on the

02:28:44.280 group and must always be on guard against outsiders even fellow members understanding

02:28:49.320 the us versus them mentality is crucial for anyone trying to help a loved one in a cult

02:28:53.000 it's important to offering there i'm just going to leave out the last paragraph of all of these

02:28:57.960 because it's exactly the same how to get a paragraph how to be understanding yeah i i mean

02:29:07.560 innengard and utengard are are fundamental concepts in ossishu like there there is an us

02:29:14.360 in the end of them or any group you're a part of or any religion that i've ever heard of

02:29:20.280 absolutely and it's true for families like i can identify who is in in my family and who is not

02:29:25.880 that doesn't mean the people that are not in my family are bad but there's a distinction there

02:29:31.800 um so you know the the fact that we you know can see the world as it is because animals do this

02:29:42.600 all most other peoples in the world recognize this is true that there are in groups and out groups

02:29:48.360 um you know within animal species and certainly you know between them uh it that's that's the

02:29:55.920 natural state of affairs um i don't think that we uh that we demonize those that are not in the

02:30:04.020 ostrich folk assembly or those who are not our folk um but we do have clear boundaries and that's

02:30:10.320 reasonable because so does every other living thing yeah the only part i see in there that's

02:30:17.120 objectionable that I'm not like, yeah, of course we do, is the, you know, try to make people rat

02:30:23.060 each other out or whatever. One thing we talk about internally a lot is when you join the AFA,

02:30:30.140 you're in a frith relationship with the other AFA members. And a part of that is extending a certain

02:30:36.540 amount of trust, a certain amount of grace, and like giving people the benefit of the doubt.

02:30:41.120 We talk about that a lot. It's our obligation to other members to assume, when in doubt, when you don't know, to assume the very best of intentions and go from there.

02:30:57.460 Now, don't be willfully ignorant when you know something's not true, but always try to give people the benefit of the doubt that are in our in-group.

02:31:05.040 that's part of the benefit of being in the in-group is that you have a certain amount of trust and

02:31:11.200 we're even willing to extend that trust when you know when it may not be

02:31:20.720 we want to give people opportunities to be successful until we know that they are doing

02:31:27.040 us wrong or until we know that they are bad people now we don't do that to the point where

02:31:33.120 it's dangerous but we certainly do that to the point we give people a chance even when

02:31:38.080 you know the odds are they're probably a dirt bag we still want to give them a chance to succeed

02:31:43.200 because that's important on our in-group so i think we go the opposite direction on that

02:31:51.040 article would would suggest were we a dangerous cult which we are not um

02:32:04.080 so financial exploitation financial exploitation is a hallmark of many cults

02:32:08.880 where members are often pressured to contribute large sums of money or or assets to the group

02:32:14.000 this exploitation serves to enrich the leaders while increasing the financial dependency of the

02:32:18.800 members making it harder for them to leave cults employ various tactics to extract money from their

02:32:24.880 members these can include mandatory donations special fees for advanced teaching and requirements

02:32:30.240 to give up personal assets. Members might be encouraged or even coerced into handing over

02:32:34.900 their savings, property, and other valuables, believing that their contributions are essential

02:32:39.720 for the group's mission. One common method of financial exploitation is the promise of spiritual

02:32:45.160 or personal rewards in exchange for donations. Members may be told that their financial

02:32:49.300 contributions will lead to greater enlightenment, spiritual advancement, or other intangible

02:32:54.160 benefits. This promise of a better future can be a powerful motivator, especially for those who are

02:32:59.680 are deeply invested in the group's beliefs.

02:33:03.640 Cults often create a culture of guilt and obligation around financial contributions.

02:33:08.060 Members may be made to feel that they are not truly committed to the cause unless they

02:33:11.080 are willing to make significant financial sacrifices.

02:33:14.380 This guilt can be compounded by public shaming or pressure from other members, making it

02:33:18.400 difficult for individuals to resist the demands for money.

02:33:22.920 The financial strain placed on members can have severe consequences.

02:33:28.180 individuals end up depleting their savings going into debt or losing their homes as a result of

02:33:32.660 their involvement in a cult this financial instability further entrenches them in the group

02:33:38.020 and they have fewer resources to support themselves independently understanding the extent of financial

02:33:43.620 exploitation is important for helping someone involved in a cult providing practical support

02:33:48.980 such as a as financial advice or assistance and managing debt can be a crucial step in their

02:33:54.020 recovery cliff thoughts um well i mean we we we do have the gall to ask our our folk to contribute

02:34:05.940 to the ostrich folk assembly um you know we ask for a minimum of one percent of half taller which

02:34:14.420 is a tithe for anyone who's not familiar with that the christians ask for 10 so i think we're

02:34:19.380 we're pretty conservative in that regard um we we also um have methods of donations that are

02:34:26.980 that are even less than that um we certainly aren't enriching ourselves all of our our gothar

02:34:33.860 and folk builders are are unpaid except for our alshir gothi who um receives a salary that is

02:34:42.340 far below poverty level in the united states um we do charge um for for tickets for our larger

02:34:52.660 events so that we can afford to do wild and crazy things like feed our guests we need to buy the

02:35:00.260 food so that's where money like that goes and into um the you know the travel expenses for

02:35:07.780 our our gothar to be present there to you know perform the religious services that are expected

02:35:13.220 what the events are actually for um our our finances are geared uh almost exclusively towards

02:35:23.780 the the maintenance and establishment of our hofs and the uh the the actual practice of of

02:35:32.180 ossaroo through through events we don't charge anything for our members children to participate

02:35:41.060 in the ossaroo academy most of our events at our hofs that are not the the big uh national ticketed

02:35:51.060 events um where you know all like where five meals six meals are included um are either potluck or

02:35:59.460 are just provided to the folk for free um we have our folk services program where when our folk are

02:36:06.660 are down and out for any reason job loss a medical issue whatever else some kind of you know uh

02:36:13.220 what disaster like a flood or a fire or something like that we'll we'll we'll raise money for them

02:36:18.820 and give it to them no strings attached in fact we have a a policy of not doing loans we will give

02:36:25.460 people money but we will not loan them money um for both reasons of of ethics and legal complications

02:36:32.980 uh the the idea to me of the afa being financially exploitive is um this is kind of ludicrous because

02:36:45.140 we we ask for so much less than what uh contemporary churches ask of of their congregations

02:36:53.580 Now, I mean, that said, of course, we will accept more if someone is, you know, of great means and great generosity and they want to help advance the mission of the Ossachou Folk Assembly.

02:37:03.920 Because of that, we will accept as much as someone is willing to give us.

02:37:08.660 But by and large, our members stick to the guidelines that I just described.

02:37:15.740 And we're very grateful for that.

02:37:17.780 uh but exploitation financially is if if if we were financially exploitive we would see

02:37:26.260 uh a lot yeah exactly we would we would we would have more and fancier hoffs for certain

02:37:34.980 i like their hops i like them but they're not gold laden at this point so not yet not yet we'll

02:37:41.220 get there but we won't exploit people to do it we'll we'll get there we want converted our folk

02:37:46.580 back to ossaroo and they will be contribution is really important and that's part of commitment

02:37:53.860 is being able to share it's one of the cool things about the hoff toller being

02:38:00.500 at minimum one percent there are people that give more i've heard of people giving you know five

02:38:04.740 even ten percent um we appreciate that we don't want to twist anybody's arm that's not what we're

02:38:10.980 trying to do it all and we want hoff toller is awesome because if you're a bajillionaire then

02:38:19.620 we're all getting rich off it cool we're sharing and we're all rising together but if you're barely

02:38:25.140 scraping by cool then we all deal with that too you know maybe you're one percent literally like

02:38:32.820 a dollar that's not where we want it to be and and we need to work on that if that's the case

02:38:40.020 because something's going wrong in your life and you're not whole if that's the case but um yeah we

02:38:50.180 the daddy issues in this article are strong and the idea that you know contribution to something

02:38:57.300 is bad is silly but we would never want to exploit people would put them in a bad spot and like i

02:39:03.540 said earlier we try really hard to help counsel our people to get in a better spot uh financially

02:39:09.380 if they're struggling. It's important. We don't want financial stress. It's deadly. It's literally

02:39:18.680 deadly with stress, but it also kills relationship. It hurts families. It's really hard. So we try to

02:39:26.160 counsel. We spend a lot of time as Gothar trying to counsel our people into a better financial

02:39:30.720 position. Point eight, use of fear and intimidation. Fear and intimidation are powerful tools used by

02:39:37.960 cults to maintain control over their members. These tactics can create an atmosphere of constant

02:39:43.460 anxiety and vigilance, where members are too frightened to question the group's practices

02:39:49.900 or consider leaving. The use of fear ensures compliance to deter dissent within the cult.

02:39:59.860 Cults may employ various forms of intimidation and can keep members in line. They can include

02:40:04.260 threats of physical harm emotional abuse or public humiliation members might be warned that leaving

02:40:09.620 group will result in severe consequences such as divine retribution social ostracism and even

02:40:16.740 physical violence the constant fear of punishment creates a sense of helplessness and dependence

02:40:22.020 upon cult for safety intimidation tactics are often coupled with demonstrations of power by

02:40:28.340 the cult leaders these displays can be symbolic such as rituals that emphasize the leader's

02:40:34.260 authority or practice or practical such as enforcing strict rules and meeting out of harsh

02:40:41.460 punishments for disobedience the group is to instill the goal is to instill a sense of awe

02:40:47.940 and fear making members believe that they are under constant surveillance and control

02:40:52.660 fear can also be used to manipulate members perceptions of the outside world cult leaders

02:41:00.560 might exaggerate or fabricate threats from external sources convincing members that they

02:41:04.860 are under constant danger only the cult can provide protection this creates a closed environment where

02:41:11.960 members are too afraid to seek help or even think critically about their situation cliff

02:41:17.140 well i mean i don't even know what what methods if we hypothetically would do this we we could

02:41:32.680 even employ um i mean you you could impress people with some some bench presses as a display of

02:41:42.160 power i suppose matt um you know the i'm gonna come beat you up yeah no it's uh it's a thing

02:41:50.800 um i mean i i don't know i i can't we'd have a lot more we do not intimidate we do not intimidate

02:42:00.000 people and i i can't imagine anyone being afraid of the altitude folk assembly it's uh you know i

02:42:07.280 I mean, I guess, you know, one thing that it talks about how, you know, that there could be social shame if, you know, if people aren't in the cult or or something like that.

02:42:24.020 And we do support shame culture.

02:42:26.120 If someone is behaving badly, we do encourage our people not to ignore that and to, you know, treat them accordingly.

02:42:34.160 um you know but we but we don't remove them from our church for things like that

02:42:40.160 um you know you were talking when we were talking earlier about like you know controlling

02:42:45.020 people's personal lives or something like that like when people when people fail um the ideal

02:42:52.300 when they fall short of the ideal which can happen in many ways maybe they're an alcoholic maybe they

02:42:56.880 have a drug problem maybe they were unfaithful in their marriage there's plenty of bad things

02:43:01.800 that people can do right um you know we don't run we don't take people out of our church for those

02:43:08.140 things um but there there certainly can be a social cost you know if you if you're caught

02:43:14.480 cheating on your wife and the whole congregation knows about that then don't be surprised if if

02:43:20.020 people don't view you as a very noble person or someone that they want to to have around their

02:43:26.540 families but there's natural consequences to behaviors um and yeah social ostracism if you

02:43:37.120 quit you're not my friend anymore this is 100 of my life and what i do and i'm loyal to our gods

02:43:43.800 if you cease being loyal to our gods and our church then we're not friends anymore but

02:43:50.760 i want you to come back and when you do i'd love to be your friend again um we have that happen a

02:43:59.480 lot i'm always i'm always very happy to see someone who's made a bad choice and who's left

02:44:07.080 the afa come home when they decide that they did choose poorly and they want to fix it

02:44:13.240 i want to bend over backwards to do anything i can to help them fix it assuming that it's within

02:44:20.200 the realm of fixability and there's very few things that aren't there are some but we want to

02:44:26.360 we want to heal people um and i also don't want anybody here that doesn't want to be here

02:44:33.400 um and i mean that and i've said that and i say it time and time again i don't want to trick

02:44:39.080 anybody i don't want to force anybody if you don't want to be here and you don't believe what we

02:44:43.480 believe then you know please you know where the door is we don't want that we would love to help

02:44:51.240 you be here we'd love to help you work through whatever you're going through we'd love to welcome

02:44:55.720 you back when you figure it out but nobody's interested in forcing anybody to be here against

02:45:01.080 their will that's too much emotional time and effort spent for nothing we want we want loyalty

02:45:10.760 and we want good noble people standing loyal with us not you know captives as a source of

02:45:19.560 economic exploitation or whatever it's just that it's funny because some of these things are things

02:45:25.320 we really do have internal dialogue on like we don't we don't want that i don't want to force

02:45:30.120 people to do things i don't want to do that's never been something we're trying to do at all

02:45:33.640 i think a good example of that internal dialogue most of our our members and people watching this

02:45:41.160 might not be aware of is when when somebody informs their full builder or our gothar

02:45:47.480 that they want to leave the afa um we have a gothi or githia reach out to that person we um you know

02:45:56.040 we we will we always want to talk to them before they before we remove them from the member roles

02:46:02.600 and of course you know sometimes people ignore that and there's never actually a conversation

02:46:06.520 and we we can't do anything about that that's on them but you know the goal of those calls isn't to

02:46:12.440 to talk them out of it it is to to to first of all understand the context of why they want to leave

02:46:21.000 maybe there's been a miscommunication or maybe you know this hasn't happened in a long time but maybe

02:46:27.720 our folk builder gave us bad information about something and you know they have another side of

02:46:33.560 a story that they would appreciate being able to share with um with a gothy or a githya you know

02:46:39.000 they they might want to voice their side of of something maybe they maybe they actually didn't

02:46:43.960 want to leave and there was some kind of dispute that we needed to know about um and you know we

02:46:50.600 want to make sure that they're okay you know if there's something going on there when someone

02:46:54.920 leaves their church there's usually something going on in their life that's serious maybe

02:46:59.480 maybe it's something that they should be drawing closer to us for maybe there's something that we

02:47:03.480 can help with um and and sometimes it's just oh you know the catholic guilt got me i'm going back

02:47:09.800 to to christianity and i'm gonna be a christian again and you know of course we we don't agree

02:47:15.160 with that we don't think it's best for them but we'll respect that decision um but that's something

02:47:20.920 that we do that um you know i i don't know if that makes us a cult because we care about our

02:47:27.720 people and want to make sure that if they're leaving that they are leaving for for the right

02:47:32.120 reasons and that they've had a chance to to speak for for themselves on the matter um but that's one

02:47:39.240 of those things that we do elitist attitude an elitist attitude is a common trait amongst cults

02:47:47.800 where members are made to feel superior to those outside the group this sense of elitism fosters

02:47:52.920 a strong group identity and reinforces loyalty to the cult members are often told that they possess

02:47:58.440 special knowledge or abilities to set them apart from the rest of society cults cultivate an elitist

02:48:04.280 mentality by emphasizing the unique nature of their teachings and the exceptional qualities

02:48:08.840 of their members this can create a sense of pride and exclusivity to not have a sense of pride making

02:48:15.800 members feel privileged to be part of the group the belief in their own superiority can justify

02:48:21.320 their isolation from the outside world and their commitment to the cult's cause elitism can be

02:48:26.360 reinforced through rituals special titles and hierarchical structure within the cult members

02:48:33.480 may be given ranks or roles that signify their status and contribute to the group these distinctions

02:48:38.920 create a competitive environment where members strive for recognition and approval from leaders

02:48:44.040 further binding them to the cult an elitist attitude can lead to disdain for outsiders

02:48:49.640 and reluctance to engage with different perspectives members may be encouraged to

02:48:53.960 view those outside their cult is inferior unenlightened or even dangerous this worldview

02:48:59.240 can reinforce the group's insularity making it difficult for members to consider alternative

02:49:04.840 viewpoints or leave the cult cliff here we go again crazy cult with our our rituals and our

02:49:13.240 hierarchy just like every other church that exists i suppose you know i suppose it's not

02:49:19.100 quite true there are some churches in like protestantism that don't have hierarchy like

02:49:26.000 the the quakers i guess are an example of that but um they're they're the outliers um they're

02:49:32.420 they're you know uh not they don't work the way most other uh religions do but uh yeah i don't

02:49:41.380 i don't i don't i mean having things like giving someone a role i i don't know i always thought

02:49:48.180 that was a good thing you want people to um be invested in something that they care about you

02:49:54.100 want them to be able to participate i mean we're a church so rituals and hierarchy i think goes

02:49:59.460 without saying um uh and you know as far as like thinking that we are better than others i wouldn't

02:50:10.660 i wouldn't say that i do think that we're we're more fortunate and that um we're ahead of the

02:50:16.980 curve compared with many of our folk who haven't returned to aussitrew and i think it's okay to

02:50:24.100 think that as long as it's not in a uh a kind of um chauvinistic kind of way where you know

02:50:34.420 we're snobbish about it if we if we view that enlightenment that we have being in in truth

02:50:41.940 with the aesir as a duty and that we are supposed to be uplifting the rest of our folk to to the

02:50:48.180 same then it's a good thing so hierarchy is good having a sense of pride when you're doing the

02:50:58.180 right thing is good titles that come with responsibility are good rituals are good

02:51:10.580 and we are special being in the astrophil assembly but we want others to come be special with us

02:51:17.220 um but yeah that's a lot of that is silly and antithetical to what we believe in um

02:51:28.180 Again, the people who wrote this have been very badly abused and are reacting out of that, and I'm sad for them that they're in the state that they're in. 0.99

02:51:39.040 But no, feeling, don't be a jerk. 0.99

02:51:45.800 I think that's solid advice all around. 0.99

02:51:48.120 but no holding yourself to a higher standard and living up to that standard and being part

02:51:56.500 of a hierarchy to where you respect those who are above you in the hierarchy that's order

02:52:03.200 that's the right way for us to function and it's not you know not something that i intend to

02:52:11.180 apologize for 10 punishment for questioning cults often implement severe punishments for questioning

02:52:18.700 or dissenting against the group's beliefs or practices this suppression of critical thinking

02:52:24.140 is fundamental tactic to maintaining control and prevent any challenge to the leader's authority

02:52:29.580 the fear of punishment ensures that members remain obedient and compliant punishments can take many

02:52:35.900 forms ranging from verbal reprimands to public shaming to even more extreme measures like

02:52:42.140 physical abuse or forced isolation these punishment serves as a warning to others

02:52:47.580 creating an environment where questioning is not tolerated and conformity is strictly enforced

02:52:53.420 public punishment is a particularly effective tool by humiliating dissenters in front of the group

02:52:58.940 cult leaders can reinforce the consequence of non-compliance and still fear in other members

02:53:04.540 this public spectacle serves to discourage others from voicing their doubts or criticisms

02:53:09.420 ensuring a unified and obedient membership

02:53:14.380 the psychological impact impact of punishment for questioning can be profound members may

02:53:19.660 internalize the belief that they are inherently flawed or unworthy if they harbor doubts this

02:53:24.860 self-doubt can make it difficult for them to trust their own judgment and break free from the cult's

02:53:29.740 influence cliff well you've got the list of everyone who asked questions tonight right

02:53:36.380 so we can punish them uh i we literally ask i mean here we are answering questions we're

02:53:43.740 encouraging questions and answering them um you literally i mean you put that out regularly and

02:53:51.740 And clearly, pretty much any time that you are doing any kind of public speaking at every

02:54:00.020 event where you do a Q&A, I mean, it's a Q&A, so obviously it's answering questions.

02:54:06.140 We encourage our people to ask questions.

02:54:11.160 We don't want people to be disruptive.

02:54:15.540 We don't want people to take over one of our chats and become problematic.

02:54:24.660 Sometimes things need to be put into a sidebar or handled in a one-on-one telephone conversation

02:54:31.760 rather than spurred all over the internet.

02:54:36.420 But we want questions and we want suggestions too.

02:54:40.960 questions and suggestions help to make us better at fulfilling our declaration of purpose

02:54:48.880 exhibit a this conversation so that really is the genesis of this 0.99

02:54:58.800 i have always welcomed questions but we had one dishonest member that's kind of a jerk 0.91

02:55:08.480 over on the east coast that suggested 2017 or something that we don't 0.88

02:55:19.600 like questions or you can't question my authority or whatever else i've really

02:55:26.640 ever since then been hyper conscious of no i'm an open book please ask me questions

02:55:34.220 I've gone on, I used to do these monthly before BNS became a thing.

02:55:39.600 I try to do them at all of our national events.

02:55:43.660 I put my private information out for people to just contact me with questions

02:55:48.460 if they don't want to ask them publicly.

02:55:50.860 We're not trying to trick anybody.

02:55:54.000 I'm confident that by asking questions and getting answers,

02:55:57.920 that will strengthen people's faith and not, you know, reveal the evil mask of whatever our scheme

02:56:06.020 is. No, I want to answer questions openly and honestly, so that people can be strengthened by

02:56:12.440 the answers. And I found that, you know, more often than not, that's the case. But no, we want

02:56:18.540 our people to ask whatever questions they might have. What I hate is when they're too scared to

02:56:23.420 ask a question. So they make assumptions based on not knowing any of the facts, but on some rumor

02:56:30.100 or something. I hate that. If you ask me a question and you don't like my answer, you fundamentally

02:56:35.100 disagree. I can respect that. And I can live with that. What is much harder for me to live with

02:56:44.000 is when we lose people because they don't ask questions. That's something that's really tragic

02:56:50.400 because that's a misunderstanding.

02:56:56.880 Wind it down.

02:56:57.660 We've got two more to go.

02:56:59.620 All right.

02:57:00.620 Deceptive practices.

02:57:02.520 Deception is the cornerstone of cult operations.

02:57:05.720 Used to lure new members and maintain control over existing ones,

02:57:08.800 cult leaders often employ various deceptive practices to manipulate perceptions,

02:57:13.960 hide their true intentions, and ensure loyalty from their followers.

02:57:17.800 These practices can be subtle or blatant.

02:57:20.400 they're all but they always serve to maintain the leader's power and control

02:57:26.560 one common form of deception is the misrepresent misrepresentation of a cult's

02:57:32.240 beliefs and practices new recruits might be presented with a sanitized or appealing version

02:57:37.600 of the group's ideology only to discover that the more extreme or harmful aspects once they are

02:57:43.600 deeply involved debate and switch tactics ensure that new members are already committed before

02:57:49.440 they fully understand what they have joined cults also use deceptive practices to create an illusion

02:57:55.680 of success and legitimacy leaders might fabricate stories of miracles achievements or endorsements

02:58:01.920 to enhance their credibility and attract new members this false image can create can make

02:58:07.120 it difficult for members to see the reality of the situation and they are constantly bombarded

02:58:11.520 with evidence of the group's supposed greatness. Manipulation is information in another,

02:58:18.100 sorry, I'm having trouble reading, guys, I apologize. Manipulation of information is another

02:58:26.100 key tactic. Cults often control the flow of information to their members, censoring external

02:58:32.640 sources, and promoting internal propaganda. This information control ensures that members only

02:58:39.200 receive a one-sided perspective, making it harder for them to question the group's narrative or

02:58:43.900 seek outside help. Deceptive financial practices are also common. Members may be misled about how

02:58:51.020 their donations are used, with funds being diverted to leaders' personal gain rather than the group's

02:58:56.940 stated mission. This financial deception deepens members' commitment as they believe they are

02:59:02.760 contributing to a noble cause. Cliff? I mean, I think one of the things that gets us in trouble

02:59:11.060 sometimes is that we are so open about what our beliefs are up front. That's why people don't

02:59:19.500 like us who don't like us. I mean, I think they're wrong about that, but at least they're

02:59:25.420 aware of what our beliefs are. They may then go and misconstrue them and go on and do their

02:59:31.580 own deceptive practices with that but um no we're real clear about what we believe and what our

02:59:39.340 mission is and uh what we do with our fundraising um and you know and and we have the proof for it

02:59:47.820 uh you know you can visit our hoffs and see what we're doing um you can go to our website and our

02:59:56.220 declaration of purpose the ostrich true law mall it's all there really clear the statement of

03:00:01.820 ethics saying who we are and and what we're about and sometimes people don't like that and that

03:00:07.580 that's fair enough but it's not deceptive so i think it's also a beautiful working of earth

03:00:18.300 that we're cliff and i that i have cliff on while we're going through this particular exercise

03:00:25.660 um this has been extremely important to both of us um those of you may not know Cliff's been

03:00:32.680 you know with me every step of the way since I've been also your Yothy and one of the first things

03:00:40.120 we did was try to clarify any possible you know perceived deception that may have been lingering

03:00:50.320 when I became Alzheimer's Goethe.

03:00:55.020 There was a time before I was Alzheimer's Goethe

03:00:58.560 where we'd been very PC on how we answered questions

03:01:05.060 so as not to offend.

03:01:06.640 But we got to a point where I thought

03:01:08.080 that the non-offense was becoming unclear

03:01:12.980 to folks about exactly where we stood on things.

03:01:16.320 And as I've said before, it's really important to me

03:01:18.840 that we're not tricking anybody, that everybody's in the right place.

03:01:22.760 At that time, we had members with radically different ideas of what we meant about different things.

03:01:30.680 It was really important to me to disabuse anybody of misconceptions

03:01:37.320 so they could be where they needed to be as close to immediately as I could. 0.57

03:01:42.140 And I released the infamous white babies post on Facebook that caused a huge, huge uproar and a whole like movement on the left against me or whatever. 0.91

03:01:57.160 Something to the effect of in the AstroFolk Assembly, we appreciate our masculine men, our feminine ladies and our beautiful white babies or beautiful white children or something.

03:02:09.800 and everybody lost their minds and there was this big outrage or whatever but i wanted it very clear

03:02:17.760 and that's why you've heard me say on this many times if you are a heterosexual white person

03:02:22.300 this is where you need to be because there was a time where that wasn't as clear to everyone

03:02:28.120 and i wanted to make it crystal clear because it's important i didn't we had people at the

03:02:35.180 time who didn't believe those things who remembers and that's wrong to continue to have them and to

03:02:43.260 take their donations and to have them be part of our group if we weren't clear about what we were

03:02:51.260 doing and what our positions were that wasn't right and it was really important for me to clear

03:02:56.220 that up and i've tried to do that consistently since that day to this day with this program

03:03:02.780 because it's really important cliff was a big part of that he was a part in um revamping how

03:03:08.700 our statement of ethics and our declaration of purpose were written to where we were very

03:03:12.700 explicit about what exactly we meant so that nobody was confused because we don't want anybody

03:03:19.500 to be confused that's not what we're doing we want people here who believe what we believe

03:03:25.100 so that we're united in our purpose we don't want to trick anybody

03:03:32.780 last one obsession with the leader an obsession with the leader is the hallmark of many cults

03:03:43.100 but the leader is often viewed as an infallible figure deserving of absolute loyalty and admiration

03:03:48.480 this leader of or this cult of personality is cultivated through various means ensuring that

03:03:54.940 the leader remains the central figure in the members lives and thoughts

03:03:59.980 cult leaders often portray themselves uniquely gifted or divinely inspired

03:04:07.560 claiming to possess special knowledge or abilities that set them apart from ordinary people

03:04:13.280 this perception is reinforced through teachings rituals and leaders own behavior all designed to

03:04:19.520 elevate their status and solidify their authority members are encouraged to see the leader as a

03:04:25.760 parental or godlike figure, goodness gracious, you shouldn't view the leader as a parental figure,

03:04:36.700 often referring to them with daddy issues, something Cliff and I talked about earlier,

03:04:41.940 often referring to them with reverence and displaying unwavering loyalty. This deep emotional

03:04:49.040 bond can make it incredibly difficult for members to question the leader or to consider leaving the

03:04:54.400 group as doing so would feel like a profound betrayal. The leader's image is carefully

03:05:00.340 controlled and maintained throughout through constant reinforcement. Stories of the leader's

03:05:05.060 wisdom and benevolence and miraculous deeds are frequently shared, creating a larger-than-life

03:05:09.840 persona that commands respect and devotion. Any criticism or doubt about the leader's

03:05:14.340 is swiftly addressed and suppressed to maintain the leader's unchallenged authority. Obsession

03:05:19.740 with the leader can also manifest in members daily life this may be required they may be required to

03:05:26.460 display an image of the leader in their homes participate in regular rituals that honor the

03:05:31.020 leader and dedicate significant time and resources to activity that promote the leader's vision

03:05:36.700 this constant focus on the leader reinforces the central role and deepens their central role and

03:05:42.540 deepens the members commitment cliff i'm gonna have to put a picture of you up in the dining room

03:05:50.380 now like you know my grandma used to have jfk and the pope um i i mean it's again because we're a

03:06:01.100 church some of this seems kind of ridiculous of course clergy and of course the high priest um

03:06:07.900 should be looked at with uh with reverence and and and with respect and you know we we do believe

03:06:15.460 that our ordained clergy have a special connection and special duty to both the gods and the folk

03:06:25.300 that's like that's the definition of of a priesthood i think but uh i don't view it as a

03:06:33.260 is a bad thing um yeah i mean there's definitely you know there's the the hyper individualism the

03:06:43.740 anti-family anti-community nature of these particular authors um seems really relevant

03:06:53.060 and this to be fair this is not the list that the uh that the original question uh came from so

03:06:58.440 perhaps the tone was very different in the list that was referenced but

03:07:02.760 yeah I don't know the I mean I don't I don't remember

03:07:09.760 I don't remember us doing anything to curate your image I mean you do that when you go to the gym

03:07:19.480 and when you put on a nice shirt but yeah i think um

03:07:31.960 this speaks really specifically to daddy issues of who wrote this hierarchy is really important

03:07:40.760 i understand how that sounds coming from me

03:07:43.240 i am not perfect i'm by no means infallible got lots of things that i need to improve

03:07:55.240 on and better myself on and try to work on all the time

03:07:58.120 i am divinely inspired if i did not believe that i wouldn't be doing the things that i'm doing

03:08:06.860 and I appreciate the loyalty that's shown to me

03:08:10.560 by any of those who wish to be loyal and show that to me.

03:08:16.780 I strive to be the best example that I can be for our church.

03:08:22.360 And I do view myself paternally.

03:08:25.660 This is my AFA family.

03:08:27.960 And I do take on the responsibility of the father to that family.

03:08:32.400 And I don't apologize for that at all.

03:08:34.340 I don't curate my image by media control, but I try to do it by building a good reputation and being the very best I can be.

03:08:48.640 But yeah, we believe really strongly in the cult of the hero, in building heroism, and building ascended individuals to be the best that they can be.

03:09:02.800 and I wouldn't be being a good leader

03:09:06.260 if I didn't try to enhance my charisma,

03:09:09.140 which is point one.

03:09:11.260 And I don't know,

03:09:13.480 trying to be worthy of the loyalty

03:09:15.020 of our folk as point 12.

03:09:17.860 I think those are really important things

03:09:19.820 and they're things that I'm proud of

03:09:21.300 to the degree at which I succeed at them.

03:09:26.200 But this is interesting

03:09:27.320 and I'm glad that we went through

03:09:28.680 the thought exercise.

03:09:30.060 I hope it's been informative

03:09:32.240 or at the very least entertaining.

03:09:34.420 We do have some more questions that are stacked up.

03:09:40.220 The Wolf Throne, what do you say to the anti-whites in America

03:09:44.560 who tell us to go back to Europe?

03:09:47.680 That's not a thing.

03:09:48.920 I don't hear that.

03:09:50.140 I've never really heard that.

03:09:51.280 That's really not a thing.

03:09:52.540 Cliff, do you find that to be a thing in your spheres?

03:09:57.360 No, but if they did, I would just say no.

03:10:00.460 because our our homes we've talked about this as far as like where is the homeland of

03:10:07.980 the aryan people and stuff like that too um you know our our our lands our countries our homes

03:10:17.320 are are where we are um you know by by colonization which i don't think is a dirty word by conquest

03:10:26.460 which is also not a dirty word um our ancestors worked and bled and suffered so that so that we

03:10:36.120 could be here and uh no not leaving hi i found you guys well just uh guys just while browsing

03:10:48.220 so i'm not a member of your religion is also true a more niche version of norse paganism

03:10:54.320 or would they be considered the same? Apologies if my terminology isn't accurate, just curious.

03:11:01.120 Cliff? So I do think that the question probably does have terminology issues,

03:11:06.840 which makes it hard to answer. We don't. All right. So Norse paganism. There are modern

03:11:17.440 religious spiritual movements that identify themselves as Norse paganism or like Norse

03:11:24.980 Wiccanism etc and Asatru is distinct and has nothing to do with those those are using

03:11:32.860 Norse terminologies to talk about what's an entirely different religion from Asatru

03:11:39.300 but more academically speaking you know if we were around the clock a hundred years or something like

03:11:48.320 that and use the term norse paganism to mean norse polytheistic religion then yes that is

03:11:59.200 what asitru is so it really depends on what what what bashful the bear means by that

03:12:06.880 if you're trying to associate us with like the the the quote-unquote pagan umbrella that exists

03:12:14.040 like the people that go to pagan pride events or that you may have found on other websites no we're

03:12:18.860 not them at all um but um while we don't use the term paganism um because it's uh i mean it's

03:12:27.320 pejorative and it's a term used by by outsiders to diminish what um our ancestors were practicing

03:12:34.440 as their religion um it would be in the academic sense an accurate description of it i guess is

03:12:43.240 what i'm trying to say but not the neo-paganism what cliff said it really is a nomenclature like a

03:12:55.000 terminology thing that's

03:12:56.520 nor the norse form of what the christians would have referred to at the time as paganism is also

03:13:07.140 true people today who do not call themselves also true but do want to call themselves north

03:13:15.020 norse pagan are not practicing that religion they're practicing like norse flavored wicca

03:13:23.880 more often than not. But it's not an inaccurate... No, it is our belief that if you are doing

03:13:32.900 Norse paganism the correct way, you are practicing Alcetru, then, now, forever.

03:13:42.420 Wolf Throne, have you heard of Nordic aliens? There have been supposed sightings of technologically 0.99

03:13:50.940 advanced six to seven foot tall aliens with nordic arian features cliff what are your thoughts on

03:13:58.300 nordic aliens i have not heard of anything credible regarding nordic aliens i have seen

03:14:07.820 things on stuff like ancient aliens or in the stargate sg1 tv series but i don't think that's

03:14:15.980 what the wolf throne is referring to so no it's like should be my short answer i haven't heard of

03:14:22.620 them uh yes wolf throne i am aware of people talking about nordic aliens so

03:14:36.700 there's a really strange psychological gap that i acknowledge

03:14:49.340 most people

03:14:52.700 and i'll take this step further so most people you know there's billions and billions of stars

03:14:58.060 out there there's got to be life somewhere believe in aliens a lot of those same people

03:15:04.940 when asked like cool but do you think aliens visit earth like you believe in alien sightings or

03:15:10.780 whatever no that's ridiculous and i get the logical distance between those two points of view

03:15:19.500 i also will stipulate people are seeing things people see unidentified flying objects or

03:15:26.860 what is it now unidentified unexplained aerial phenomenon or whatever it is

03:15:34.940 So there's interesting stuff out there that I don't know about.

03:15:41.960 The talk of these like bunch of different really distinct alien races that we have secret agreements with that people, it's a lot for me to, it's a lot for me to extend belief on without some really good evidence of stuff.

03:16:03.960 and I've seen no really good evidence about that.

03:16:07.160 I've seen evidence that there are unidentified flying things

03:16:11.940 that people are observing that exists.

03:16:16.180 What those are, I don't know.

03:16:19.120 I do hold out the possibility there's life from other in the galaxy

03:16:23.640 that may come here. 0.69

03:16:25.300 They might look like Nordic people.

03:16:27.060 I don't know.

03:16:28.620 But I've seen nothing credible to give me any strong belief

03:16:32.700 in that being the case.

03:16:33.960 i'll just add to it um it's useful like i i used to be really into like aliens and ufos

03:16:42.820 because unsolved mysteries terrified me as a kid it was it's like my version of bigfoot for you

03:16:48.120 um something about robert stack and a picture of a gray up on that tv screen

03:16:54.700 made me i couldn't sleep um probably also had to do with the fact that i was like 10 years old

03:16:59.300 But, you know, it's like, you know, I've read Communion and, you know, was really interested in the, I forget the name of the person's story, but the one that A Fire in the Sky is based on the true story.

03:17:20.520 i'll look up his name later but um you know that sort of stuff i don't entirely discount but i've

03:17:28.120 never seen anything to verify it but i have seen what i would describe as a ufo one time um it was

03:17:33.800 just like a light in the sky and it moved real quick and it turned 90 degrees and i can't explain

03:17:38.120 what it was so it's unidentified don't think meteors make like sharp 90 degree turns so i

03:17:44.280 don't think it was that um but there was nothing nordic or arian about it and it could be my

03:17:52.920 imagination i mean my friend was there and he saw it too so i doubt that but you know we could

03:17:57.480 reinforce each other's confusion about something um but yeah i don't i don't think that people that

03:18:06.440 think those things are necessarily like like crazy or odd i just i've never i don't know

03:18:15.080 are there time travelers those are questions that you know i don't have answers to and that don't

03:18:19.960 really have to be lots of truth so but i've encouraged people to ask whatever questions

03:18:25.400 they want i'll entertain it because it entertains me so that's one of my favorite things to do if

03:18:32.280 if I'm trying to go to bed

03:18:33.920 and I need something to fall asleep to,

03:18:35.580 if I've got stuff on my mind

03:18:36.880 or if I just can't fall asleep.

03:18:40.880 I'll watch stuff about aliens or whatever

03:18:44.380 because it entertains me.

03:18:45.920 Not because I buy into it,

03:18:47.100 but it's something fun to have on in the background

03:18:48.980 to fall asleep to.

03:18:50.640 And I've used up all the ones on Amazon Prime

03:18:53.400 that I don't have to pay for

03:18:54.840 and frustrates me,

03:18:56.280 but there's a new batch out recently,

03:18:57.940 so I think I got some more.

03:19:02.280 what I wonder about, and this is something with all of these things, Bigfoot, other cryptids,

03:19:11.300 aliens, all of this coast-to-coast AM kind of topics, they don't all need to be telling the

03:19:19.340 truth. Just one person does. There could be a million hoaxers, but one guy's telling the truth

03:19:25.840 makes it a thing um and i really don't know i feel bad because one of the thing that's always

03:19:34.080 fascinated me about this kind of topic there are lots of kooks that are lying to you but then

03:19:42.640 there's some people that are not lying i don't i'm not saying i believe that their narrative is

03:19:49.600 accurate but i think they believe their their narrative is accurate and that fascinate the

03:19:56.960 distance between what really happened and what they genuinely believe happened that's fascinating

03:20:04.160 to me and i don't know what that is i don't know if people have been abducted by aliens or not

03:20:10.640 i know there's a lot of people that have really similar stories i don't know if those are

03:20:17.760 implanted memories and i don't mean like nefarious but there was a there's been phenomenon in

03:20:24.400 psychological fields for a long time with regression therapy and hypnosis and other stuff

03:20:30.320 to where it seems as though perhaps well-meaning medical professionals plant ideas in people's head

03:20:37.920 that never really happened and we've seen that about like cult practices like satanic cult stuff

03:20:45.440 or people claiming childhood abuse that turns out never happened or the alien abduction phenomenon

03:20:53.920 there's a lot of things that people have been manipulated mentally to where they believe

03:21:01.520 happened to them i think that's really tragic when we start getting into like nordic aliens

03:21:07.280 it starts being real specific and so i feel more confident dismissing it but i think there's some

03:21:15.040 unexplained things going on and if aliens are involved in some unexplained things going on

03:21:20.240 that's fascinating to me and i don't write it off as impossible i think cliff and i both like

03:21:26.000 sci-fi stuff so it's it's a fun thing regardless i like strange stuff in general like kind of like

03:21:33.920 what you were saying i'm if i can't fall asleep i'll put any like alternate or fringe history

03:21:42.880 thing on whether it's nostradamus or like is genesis history and i'm also true i don't think

03:21:49.200 genesis is history but i might be all those yes like the kind of finding was arc stuff the like

03:21:55.440 there was one about what was it called something anyways about ancient egypt with some strange

03:22:05.040 things those are all fascinating i enjoy those things i don't really buy into all of them don't

03:22:11.200 buy into most or any of them 100 but i find a lot of them fascinating last question range you know

03:22:18.960 that a little bit i just don't get i don't know this is the thing i don't get it's a point of

03:22:25.920 interest like i don't devote a lot of conscious time to it but if i need to zone out on something

03:22:31.600 while i'm trying to crash i that entertains me a lot and i don't mean to just dismiss it as that

03:22:37.680 like i'll watch bigfoot stuff it's really i really want bigfoot to be a thing don't think that it is

03:22:44.880 i hold out hope that maybe it is i think it'd be cool because i thought that would be cool

03:22:48.960 since i was little but doubt that it is a lot more gamers in the world the odds are going down every

03:22:55.280 day that's so i'll revert back to this and then we'll leave this topic for a second but

03:23:02.560 random hillbilly

03:23:09.600 doesn't convince me but like police officers on police recorded radio or like air force pilots

03:23:18.640 or nasa people or that uh pope dude that was part of the like english uh what's his name he was on

03:23:26.560 like the english ministry of defense like he was a high functioning dude that's out there nick pope

03:23:35.040 those kind of experts that are actually functional members of like legitimate authority things that

03:23:40.960 are willing to say stuff i find those guys a lot more compelling but there's still some distance

03:23:48.000 betwixt that and me buying into some of these things that said last question for tonight

03:23:52.800 today is william pierce's birthday any take on his religion cosmotheism was about the

03:24:05.120 question is worded strange any take on his religion cosmotheism was about the evolution

03:24:10.480 of human consciousness cliff are you aware of cosmotheism and if so what are your thoughts

03:24:16.320 so i'm aware of cosmo theism i didn't have any idea that dr pierce believed in it and i'm

03:24:25.520 not really sure about it as an evolution of human consciousness my understanding of it was always

03:24:31.800 that cosmo theism is basically that the universe is god and that god is the universe and i just

03:24:40.960 one of the things that i looked into when i you know was leaving catholicism um and you know my

03:24:48.960 my take on it is was more that it was for me this is you know that it that it was equivalent to

03:24:56.840 atheism because if the universe is god like is is the universe conscious and does it matter i

03:25:08.020 you know I that it it wasn't compelling to me um at least not in a religious way

03:25:15.520 that was sort of where I mean that it sort of led me down the whole

03:25:20.060 atheism is enough because the universe is beautiful all on its own um even though it's

03:25:28.620 also not beautiful it's also really dangerous and cruel um

03:25:32.380 but yeah i mean that's that's my take on it i i wasn't familiar with uh with dr pierce's

03:25:41.740 part of it but i'm not that familiar with dr pierce in general so that might be why

03:25:47.800 and then i know who he is and all of that i just haven't read all of his works

03:25:52.480 yeah so that's

03:25:56.160 that's interesting so yes so dr pierce as i understand it glommed on to what you are

03:26:10.240 calling cosmo theism which was cosmo theism for 200 years and then he added like

03:26:16.400 the idea of the arian superman on to it like as a function of that the highest expression of

03:26:29.520 evolution is like arian becoming of the superman and realizing their cosmic implication or whatever

03:26:37.760 but to me it always sounded like it did boil down to a form of atheism and like a philosophical

03:26:45.520 Nietzschean kind of thing, and not really a religion. And I think it's really important for

03:26:53.720 our people to differentiate the difference betwixt religion and philosophy. They are not

03:27:04.500 the same. And a lot of people try to equate them, or they view religion from such a detached

03:27:13.700 an impersonal perspective that they see them similar but religion is not a

03:27:26.740 it is active it's not what a thing what you think it's what you do with what you think

03:27:34.020 and that may strike some as strange

03:27:35.940 so a lot of people think religion is about belief this is funny and it may sound odd or

03:27:48.960 comical coming from me but something that I think is a poignant description of it comes from the

03:27:57.240 Bible where it talks about it not being about what you believe because the demons believe and shudder

03:28:05.940 Like you can be on the other team and still kind of believe in the gods, but Alcetruism isn't about believing in them.

03:28:14.060 It's about being loyal to them.

03:28:16.940 Religion is about engaging divinity in a devotional practice, in the gift cycle, in our case.

03:28:25.160 but it's about an active worship relationship process and not a conception of how you you

03:28:33.740 conceive of the world or you conceive of the cosmos they're really different and the one can

03:28:39.560 imply the other and they can certainly work in tandem but they're not the same and I hope that

03:28:46.100 makes sense. I don't think that the philosophy of Dr. Pierce's cosmotheism is the same as an actual

03:28:56.340 religion, because I don't think it talks about, you know, a devotional relationship with divinity

03:29:05.740 or a relationship with external divinity at all, but a kind of a personal empowerment divinity

03:29:13.680 that I think inherently we all know is lacking.

03:29:17.760 I don't think we would be looking externally

03:29:19.600 if we genuinely believed that it worked that way.

03:29:26.900 But that said, it's not meant as a slap against

03:29:29.880 or a disrespect for Dr. Pierce or any of his work.

03:29:32.680 I think that that's a philosophy and not a religion.

03:29:37.360 And I think that our people are better served religiously

03:29:42.560 involved in a actual living practical gift cycle relationship with the authentic gods of our race

03:29:51.460 since the dawn of our folk, which is Ausentrum. So Cliff, thank you so much for joining us

03:30:00.160 tonight. This has been a longer and more exciting show than I thought it might be. I enjoyed our

03:30:05.900 little side quest into examining the 12 daddy issues complaints about cults and bad relationships

03:30:15.740 people have been in and uh thought it was fun but i also hope it was informative and helpful to some

03:30:22.060 folks who listened thank you very much for sharing the story of king globeswain um i look forward

03:30:28.620 to honoring him in years to come remembering him on celebrating him on his day of remembrance and

03:30:34.540 his legacy and his story inspiring others make a last minute plug for winter nights if you would

03:30:45.660 yeah please if uh if anyone's interested in attending winter nights now's the time to

03:30:50.140 register uh we're in the late planning stages and this is when you being registered really does help

03:30:57.980 us uh i you you if you're in thorshoff north um you've probably already gotten a call from our

03:31:06.140 folk builders they've been been on the case for a few months now um if you haven't gotten a call

03:31:13.100 you will um and uh you know we we're excited to see you there uh the the dc and the and the alfar

03:31:23.100 bloat are are really special um we we have alshir gothi matt and uh my myself and katie and wittens

03:31:33.020 fawn will will be there so uh we're looking forward to seeing you there and uh like i joked

03:31:39.900 about in the email that i sent out but also i mean it because it's true uh your registration

03:31:45.020 is your plate so if you intend on being there do us the favor of registering now

03:31:49.900 so that we can have an accurate head count for what we should be planning for

03:31:55.740 i want you there regardless if you don't register it means i go hungry but that's okay

03:32:00.220 i can i can figure something out um katie knows that i like the pb and j's so she can she hook

03:32:08.460 that up and i can make that happen while you guys are eating other food we want everybody to show up

03:32:13.820 but yeah the earlier you guys register the better planning works it's going to be awesome i hope

03:32:19.100 to see you guys there like i said earlier thank you very much for joining us this evening cliff

03:32:24.940 um appreciate you guys in your questions and we will see you next week as witness fawn and i

03:32:31.820 go over the alvis mo until then hail the icr hail the folk hail the afa hail king bloatswain and

03:32:42.780 And remember, victory never sleeps.

03:33:12.780 We'll be right back.

03:33:42.780 Thank you.

03:34:12.780 Thank you.

03:34:42.780 Thank you.

03:35:12.780 Thank you.

03:35:42.780 Thank you.

Asatru Folk Assembly - September 12, 2024

9⧸11⧸24 Victory Never Sleeps, Episode 114 - King Blót-Sveinn

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