Asatru Folk Assembly - 9⧸7⧸22 Victory Never Sleeps, Episode 9

00:00:00.000 Transcription by CastingWords

00:00:30.000 Transcription by CastingWords

00:01:00.000 Thank you.

00:01:30.000 Thank you.

00:02:00.000 Thank you.

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00:03:00.000 We'll be right back.

00:03:30.000 all right i think we're having a entropy struggle going on but hey guys welcome again to another

00:03:42.480 exciting edition of victory never sleeps with me tonight i've got a good friend of mine and

00:03:50.420 spectacular goethe trent east welcome trent hey thanks for having me ah thanks for thanks for

00:03:57.360 coming on and spending a few hours with us. To start with, could you give folks a little bit

00:04:02.300 of background on yourself, how you came to Ausatru and how you came to the Ausatru Folk Assembly?

00:04:08.300 Sure. So I'm 25 years old. I've been practicing Ausatru since my senior year of high school,

00:04:17.280 right after I turned 18. So it would have been a star 2015. That's when I started practicing.

00:04:23.660 I found Ossetru because of the AFA, a good friend of mine who's still an AFA member in good standing.

00:04:30.600 He went to a Star in the South 2015 and came back to school and told me about it.

00:04:37.360 So instead of doing our math work in class like we should have been doing, probably, we just talked about Ossetru.

00:04:44.480 And something really interesting about that conversation is that I've been like one of those militant atheist types up to that point.

00:04:52.640 But hearing about Stephen McNallan's Odin bloat, it was like a flip or a switch was flipped.

00:04:58.900 And I just I had to learn everything I could about Ossetree right then and there.

00:05:03.960 And I just haven't looked back. I joined the AFA about two months later after kind of checking it out.

00:05:11.460 And, yeah, that's about it. The rest is history.

00:05:14.160 well i'm i'm glad all that happened and i would would argue that uh

00:05:21.440 also true has probably served you better than high school math a little bit

00:05:28.720 math teachers out there i apologize um well excellent so um we got a question already from

00:05:36.240 sarah sarah asks ah that's kind of question already asked she asked what your journey to

00:05:41.840 uh to the afa was like and just to refresh everybody how long ago was that uh seven and a

00:05:49.280 half years ago so started in uh march of 2015 when i was 18 years old all right so that dates

00:05:58.560 you a little bit there um to my knowledge you are the youngest gothi that we've ever had in the

00:06:04.400 as true folk assembly uh i think that sure that may cut both ways but i think that affords you

00:06:12.160 a unique perspective um how have you i don't know how has that affected your time being a goathy so

00:06:19.280 far um it hasn't affected it too negatively i don't think uh i mean i'm sure there are people

00:06:30.320 when they need like counseling for something they think well i'm not gonna go to the kid i'm gonna

00:06:34.080 go to go the stam or go the young you know but other than that i don't think it's really had much

00:06:39.040 of an effect other than like you know just comments about my age occasionally good deal

00:06:47.920 well so uh folks make sure you're getting your questions in here we're trying to figure out a few

00:06:54.240 entropy glitches but uh for folks that do want to join us over on entropy

00:06:59.520 nick can throw you the link up there and it's a really nice way to throw some tips at us if

00:07:05.600 you'd like to all those donations go to the astro folk assembly um and if you donate enough and you

00:07:12.560 want to they're certainly all tax deductible as well also we've got super chat it's real easy for

00:07:19.200 our questions section to get overloaded with questions because you guys have so many amazing

00:07:25.440 questions for us and we all appreciate it if you want to move here so front of the line we do have

00:07:29.840 a super chat function over on entropy as well um you know we appreciate any and all donations you

00:07:37.440 guys do but please realize you know we're very happy to answer any and all of your questions

00:07:42.800 and as long as you stay on with us tonight we will definitely even if you don't stay on with

00:07:48.240 us we'll answer your question whether you hear it or not i suppose it's up to you but we will

00:07:52.000 get to all the questions before we leave you a couple of a couple of more things i guess off

00:07:58.640 the top so i don't forget about doing it i'd like to invite all of you guys to come out next month

00:08:06.000 for winter nights it's going to be in ohio and nick can throw up a link for that for the dates

00:08:13.280 and such but it's going to be really nice it's going to be our first time at a new event venue

00:08:17.840 we're really looking forward to it traditionally winter nights has gone on in eastern pennsylvania

00:08:24.960 and so we're moving a state over this year and probably going to get a lot of folks that haven't

00:08:29.440 been there before hopefully we'll get to see a lot of our winter nights regulars as well

00:08:33.840 and that's always a special event it's a cool time of year it's it's a neat part of the country

00:08:38.880 i'd love to see you guys there um also while we're on the subject the following month in

00:08:45.520 oklahoma the afa will be celebrating feast of the iron hair yarn i'll be out at that i know

00:08:51.360 the mcnallan's plan to be out at that as well if you guys would like to join us there you're

00:08:55.200 welcome and we'd love to have you guys cool and with that i agree asks does the afa have any

00:09:07.040 scope in the future to look into possibly teaching the esoteric side of aussitrew

00:09:12.960 or are we concentrating on the exoteric for now so that's an interesting question when you ask that um

00:09:23.200 yeah we certainly have a scope to do some of that um i'd be curious the best way to

00:09:29.120 implement that though it's a conversation that we often have internally um but it's

00:09:36.080 one of those conversations we have with people with the requisite experience um

00:09:42.960 One thing, when you look at our faith in a holistic way, it's meant to be a faith for all of our people.

00:09:51.720 And certainly in the days where that was the case, most folks were farmers and they wanted to come to the Hoffs and participate in the sacrifice and the feast and, you know, make prayers and offerings to their gods.

00:10:08.340 and the the more specific magical practices and more esoteric elements weren't really something

00:10:18.040 that everybody was involved in it was something for kind of an initiated group of people that

00:10:22.740 took that special interest and so when we're just talking to the the random member or person

00:10:30.020 interested in also true talking about the fundamentals the values and the worship of our

00:10:35.980 gods is much more of an immediate thing for us to to discuss than the finer points of esoterics

00:10:43.820 or rune work or say their practice or things that way but it is a discussion that if you have

00:10:48.860 questions on that we're very happy to to talk to you about that individually it's kind of something

00:10:53.340 that up to this point is a word of mouth thing from our gothar to to those members that are

00:10:58.940 specifically interested but i hope that helps and it is something we'll give some thought to

00:11:03.180 uh sarah asks you were oath does a few trent that you were oathed as a gothy with two of

00:11:10.380 your closest friends what was that like uh it was just really fitting it felt right it was uh

00:11:18.460 you know the three of us were the last in our class to be oathed i like to think it was just

00:11:22.540 because we didn't make it out to midsummer or it may just because it took us the longest to

00:11:27.820 get where we needed to be to earn that i don't know but it it just felt really fitting because

00:11:32.860 because the whole time we were going through that together.

00:11:36.600 We were always critiquing each other's work and hyping each other up for things

00:11:42.180 and having each other's backs the whole time.

00:11:44.620 So, yeah, to go through that with my two best friends, it was a really memorable event,

00:11:52.140 and I wouldn't have had it any other way.

00:11:55.780 Well, that's great.

00:11:58.580 i've had each of the two two gentlemen in question on this show in weeks previous you guys

00:12:08.420 you guys individually are all outstanding gothar and your guys ability to synergize

00:12:14.820 and work together has been a real asset to the afa so we really appreciate that um

00:12:20.180 Um, Tim asks, Goethe Trent, what's your favorite tea and why is it Irish breakfast?

00:12:30.800 It is not Irish breakfast, but it's Twining's English breakfast.

00:12:38.140 That is incorrect.

00:12:39.840 Irish breakfast is much more delicious than English breakfast, though they are both good.

00:12:46.380 Yeah, whatever.

00:12:47.140 despite the grumbles i would also recommend sweet and spicy by good earth tea the sweet

00:12:55.540 and spicy orange spice is excellent as are many of their other delicious flavors

00:13:02.420 you should you all should i would highly encourage it uh the king of cheese asks um anyway

00:13:09.620 a question for both of you for folk unawares could you explain what aryan means and how

00:13:16.420 it's used in our lexicon as aussitru trent go ahead and take that first okay so the arians in the

00:13:25.460 i guess strictest most mundane material sense of the word were our proto-indo-european ancestors

00:13:34.580 that came over the steps uh around the uh was it the pontic caspian step kind of near ukraine

00:13:41.860 they came westward expanding and conquering and creating all of western civilization

00:13:49.380 uh as far as how it relates to asatru i would just say you know we're an ethnic faith um our

00:13:56.420 ethnicity is arian in the same way that you know english people would call themselves anglo-saxons

00:14:02.740 or the irish would call themselves celts you know it's it's a broad thing sort of but uh

00:14:11.860 it's it's true whether people you know see that as a bad word or not is irrelevant it's

00:14:19.220 our ancestors and it's us so the word arian is has gone out of favor in recent years

00:14:27.540 but uh it's an ancient word uh a lot of people have different 20th century associations with it

00:14:34.340 but it's a it's a very ancient word that's preserved in sanskrit and it means

00:14:38.820 noble the noble people and it it implies a shining nobility or a shining example of nobility

00:14:47.460 it's a self-identifier that we see ourselves as noble people not only is it that we identify

00:14:55.560 ourselves that way but that's a standard we hold ourselves to and that's why i think it's

00:14:59.800 particularly valuable. For point of information, both Ireland and Iran, both in their relative

00:15:09.400 languages, mean the land of the Aryans. So those are kind of the two distant fringes of where the

00:15:15.700 Aryan migrations ended up before the New World. So that's why we use it. That's why it's important. 0.86

00:15:22.820 As Trent says, it identifies us as a distinct people, and it identifies us in a positive way, in a way, something for us to aspire to and to be worthy of.

00:15:35.800 And so that's why it's something that we certainly don't shy away from using.

00:15:42.180 Robert asks, is a Hoff in Europe a possibility? 0.98

00:15:46.620 Certainly it is.

00:15:47.940 A Hoff in Europe, I would love to see. 1.00

00:15:50.560 it's something that we talked about early on but what we really need to see to get a hof somewhere

00:15:56.640 is a very active membership that can maintain it and upkeep it but also committed leadership

00:16:06.640 that's consistent and that's that's putting in the effort on that so far a lot of our

00:16:12.240 international membership has been either too few in number in a location to justify a hof

00:16:19.680 Or, and we were getting very close to the idea of having a Hoff in Sweden, but with the global reactions to COVID-19 and such, the enthusiasm for international membership has really decreased from the height that it was at.

00:16:37.000 Now, we have members in 14 different countries around the world, so it's absolutely a possibility and it's a dream of ours.

00:16:43.600 I would love to have a Hoff in Sweden. We've talked about, we've at different times had a

00:16:49.760 very active membership in Australia and New Zealand. So it is something that I'd love to

00:16:55.840 see one day, but I don't think it's going to be one of our next couple.

00:17:04.100 Katla asks, what's your favorite type of pie and why is it pumpkin? Trent, go for it.

00:17:10.520 uh that's cool that you guessed that and you guessed correctly why is it pumpkin

00:17:16.900 i don't know it's it's just the best and that's an objective fact and anybody that disagrees is

00:17:24.940 just wrong i guess that's the only that's the fairest answer i can give you so gothe east is

00:17:30.060 asking to get booted from the program i apologize guys best pie is clearly cherry pie and it's

00:17:36.440 magnificent. Um, Madison asks, Trent, could you explain to us what words are wind style is iron

00:17:46.460 means? Uh, caught me off guard there. Uh, at Thorsoff, we've developed a culture of, uh,

00:17:58.600 dressing nicely and Thorsoff's motto, which was adapted from the iron guard kindred's motto,

00:18:05.720 uh words are when deeds are iron uh I think I originally had said it to Daniel while he was

00:18:13.960 trying to pick out a tweed suit for Ostara a year or two ago so it's it's a meme more than anything

00:18:21.840 else I gotta say I'm impressed with y'all wearing tweed in uh in North Carolina um it's a little

00:18:30.680 bit warm for for tweed I have found so it's impressive that you gentlemen can wear a three

00:18:35.340 piece tweed in that environment um to get to a little bit more of a serious subject josh asks

00:18:43.340 gothi trent uh how you've been working with the folk futhark and what do you like about it

00:18:54.140 and then he asks i was harry gothi any thoughts on the folk futhark yourself go for it trent okay

00:19:00.380 okay so uh spawn mentioned it to me kind of offhand a couple years ago and i've been bugging him about

00:19:07.620 it to finish it ever since because i thought it was a really neat idea uh what i like about it

00:19:12.340 is that it takes runes from all four of the you know main futharks i guess uh older younger anglo

00:19:21.040 frisian and uh armanin and it creates sort of a pan-arian rune row for us to use whereas with

00:19:29.000 elder futhark is proto-germanic and the younger futhark is icelandic i think anglo-frisian futhark

00:19:36.760 of course is uh it's like english dutch and the armonian futhark was given to us by meister guido

00:19:43.880 von list so the folk futhark brings all those together and makes it into one pan-arian runero

00:19:52.280 for all of us. And it's something that's going to be specific to the AFA. You're not going to see

00:19:59.540 any of our detractors using that. So that's, that's what I like about it. So, you know,

00:20:06.560 my thoughts are a couple on it. First, there's no pretension that, you know, we're adding some

00:20:13.060 extra layer of esotericism to it it's really like trent said it's the brainchild of of witten spawn

00:20:24.340 and it's really an homage to our futharkic heritage if you will uh it's something that

00:20:35.460 the best way to put it um linguistically certainly other futharks were adapted

00:20:41.620 to the linguistics of the area um as trent said the elder was was proto-germanic

00:20:48.740 um the younger futhark is much more uh viking aged norse uh the anglo-saxon futhork is

00:20:56.900 you know good for anglo-saxon words and even you know probably your best bet to translate english

00:21:02.660 into uh but we find ourselves in the united states as a mixture of all of the european peoples who've

00:21:13.860 who've come here uh and so to kind of celebrate that and the things that bond us together the

00:21:20.180 folk futhark was created as an homage to all those different that rich runic heritage that we have

00:21:26.820 um we picked the the stave or the symbol of of each of those futhark uh runes that you know

00:21:37.140 we found most fitting and that's kind of what we like to use in some of our afa signage and

00:21:42.900 artwork and things of that nature but it's not really a you know any any diversion it's it's

00:21:48.500 an evolution of of using those runes and yeah it's one of those things we also like to use

00:21:54.260 is because we're not trapped in a, in an ancient era.

00:21:57.680 Also true is a,

00:21:58.480 is a living faith that lives and exists with our people in the times that we

00:22:02.300 are in and in the times that we'll be in the future. So yeah,

00:22:06.720 it's kind of a, kind of a neat and a special AFA thing we like to do.

00:22:12.500 Heather asks, Trent, I would love to know your favorite ice cream flavor.

00:22:18.540 Not to just go with the crowd,

00:22:20.120 but I remember this question last week and I have to agree it's mint chocolate

00:22:23.520 that's another one of those things where that's just a fact and anybody else can kick rocks

00:22:30.240 that is that is a fact that is truth we endorse that on this program the king of cheese asks

00:22:38.160 another question how are you two lads doing today trent how are you doing doing all right

00:22:47.280 i'm doing pretty good myself it's always fun i look forward to these every week

00:22:53.520 i love talking with you all i like getting your guys questions i like this kind of direct

00:22:58.320 interaction with people we've got folks that join this from all around the world

00:23:02.160 and you guys are amazing and i love talking to you and i get to spend a couple hours talking

00:23:07.120 with very good friends of mine about something that's my whole life that i love with all my heart

00:23:12.720 so it's anytime i get to do this i'm having a good day that's for sure um james asks gothy trent

00:23:23.040 isn't the importance men's mental health something that's important to you

00:23:29.680 um yes i mean it should be important to all of us gothar folk builder whatever level you're at

00:23:36.640 that should be something that's important to you obviously men are half of our folk

00:23:41.280 and uh men's mental health is something that's not really looked at nowadays not if you're uh

00:23:48.000 uh, not a straight white guy, uh, any, any deviation from that in your mental health

00:23:55.120 will be considered important. But, um, yeah, it's just one of those things that's not really

00:24:01.740 talked about, but it should be. And I mean, it's important to me in that regard. And,

00:24:06.580 you know, when I do counseling, it's usually with men and they're going through this stuff,

00:24:12.700 they feel like they can't talk to anybody about and a lot of times it's sometimes it's some pretty

00:24:18.540 mundane stuff they should be able to open up to friends about but they feel they can't because

00:24:24.860 our society with how it is right now it just uh doesn't allow for that i guess

00:24:34.620 yeah i uh i think men's mental health is

00:24:37.900 is probably at an all-time low certainly when we talk about heterosexual white men's mental health

00:24:47.100 Steve McNall and our founders always talked about how our people are experiencing a soul sickness

00:24:54.060 and I think we see that a lot especially in our in our young men society has or is trying as best

00:25:02.860 as they can to displace young heterosexual white men and to confuse them and to demonize

00:25:10.780 the the natural inclinations of of their heart and their spirit uh and it's it's very difficult

00:25:17.660 these days um i would encourage any of our men young or old who are having mental health issues

00:25:24.780 and need somebody to talk to to reach out to our go thar uh it's something we take very seriously

00:25:30.540 in the AFA. And I know, especially being men, strength is really important. And sometimes it's

00:25:37.700 difficult to talk to somebody about a weakness that you're experiencing. But truth is definitely

00:25:45.360 one of our noble virtues. And it's better to be honest and to seek, seek some help and some

00:25:52.040 counsel than to pretend that everything's okay and have problems go untreated or uncared for

00:26:02.420 and things spiral out of control. So I would encourage you guys, please speak to one of our

00:26:08.540 Gothar. We care about you guys. We love you guys. And we would love to help all of our men

00:26:12.740 and our ladies be as successful in life as they can be. Sarah asks, Gothi Trent,

00:26:20.000 What do you see as your role as a Gothi as servant of the people or advocate between the gods and the folk?

00:26:29.680 Yes. Yeah, both of those.

00:26:34.440 I mean, so I think this was mentioned last week on Gothi Young's episode,

00:26:40.100 but the old Latin word for a Roman priest, pre-Christian, was pontifex.

00:26:48.200 and it meant bridge and uh that's something that as gothar we talk about a lot with rituals that

00:26:54.420 we build the bridge between folk and gods and so that is something that's important to me and

00:27:00.100 that's something that i actually visualize specifically when i do bloat um and then of

00:27:05.180 course there's the more uh mundane side of being like the counseling and uh just as important

00:27:13.300 stuff, of course, but just being here to help people when I can. So I would, they're equally

00:27:18.200 important to me. And those are both things. And I try and be a role model too, as best I can,

00:27:23.400 because I've, I've had the AFA my whole adult life and I've had awesome guys like Mark McLeod

00:27:30.260 and Cliff Erickson and Carl's hair. I go through here to like, look up to, and to kind of help me

00:27:34.700 walk in the right footsteps in life. So I'm trying to sort of pay that forward.

00:27:39.920 Yeah, to throw on there, there's so many hats that our Goethe are aware, and they synergize really well with one another.

00:27:52.280 I think that the idea of serving the people could be misleading, depending on what people are used to hearing, if they're used to hearing that in a Christian context.

00:28:03.120 I think we need to take care and tend our people and care for our people absolutely 100%. But I

00:28:11.700 also think that the goal isn't just to serve our folk, the goal is to lead our folk as well. And I

00:28:17.180 think our Gothar do a very good job of that. But also, that bridge between our gods and our folk

00:28:25.400 is so important. And we're living in a day and age where that bridge is literally being rebuilt.

00:28:31.060 And it's pioneering work that our Gothar are doing to reforge that connection between our folk and our gods and between our gods and our folk.

00:28:40.700 So that's an essential, an essential job function of being a Gothi.

00:28:45.500 Our Gothar are asked to shoulder a lot of responsibility and they they do amazing work.

00:28:52.020 And so much of it, like Trent mentioned, is counseling and things behind the scenes that you guys may never see because there's a lot of confidentiality involved.

00:29:03.280 But the work that's put in is tremendous and we all appreciate it very much.

00:29:08.920 Got a couple of a couple of tips over here on the side.

00:29:13.620 Ruben gave us ten dollars. Thank you so much, Ruben.

00:29:15.940 Good evening, folks. To both gentlemen, if you could have a drink and a chat with one of our gods or goddesses, who would you choose and why? Trent, you first.

00:29:29.660 I think I would want to have a drink with Tyr, actually. I'd like to hear his thoughts on why he did what he did, putting his hand in Fenrir's mouth.

00:29:41.320 i mean we all know the answer but i think it'd be really interesting to hear him put it into words

00:29:46.440 yes uh it's an interesting question and these kind of

00:29:52.760 these kind of navel gazing questions are stuff that i overthink a lot um

00:29:57.960 i think as is this cheating because i'm gonna give you two i think it would be

00:30:08.360 exciting to have a drink and talk with and hear stories from Thor. I think that would be amazing.

00:30:21.700 I also think it would be very, very interesting to sit and listen to the Allfather and hear

00:30:30.560 whatever Odin would want to tell me. I think it might be less of a fun experience,

00:30:36.580 but I think it'd be extremely profound. And I, I would be in, I'd be ecstatic to be able to sit

00:30:44.760 and to speak with or drink with any of our gods and goddesses. And, you know, hopefully one day

00:30:50.660 through some form of ascension that can be closer to be in my reality. Sunshine sucks gives us $10. 0.97

00:30:58.520 Thank you. I appreciate that. You are a loyal follower of this program, and we really do appreciate you. 0.99

00:31:07.500 I think you're here for every one of these we've done.

00:31:13.420 Daniel Young asks, Gauthier East, what inspired you to ascend to the clergy class, and who inspires you?

00:31:28.520 I don't really, I wish I could give a better answer than this, but I don't really remember

00:31:34.380 a specific moment where I was like, aha, I want to be a Goathe.

00:31:38.720 My initial plan for leadership, in fact, was just to be a folk builder. 0.91

00:31:43.360 And I, you know, I didn't think I'd ever want to do something like lead bloat or do a baby

00:31:48.160 naming or anything like that.

00:31:50.680 And then at some point, I changed my mind, I guess.

00:31:54.700 It's kind of gradually happened.

00:31:55.940 And as for who inspires me, I could give you a whole list of, like, motivational, you know, these role models I have.

00:32:05.160 I've listed a few. They're still with us, of course, within the AFA, and there's all kinds of historical figures.

00:32:11.860 But I won't bore everyone with, like, this long soliloquy on my personal motivations.

00:32:24.100 Fair enough.

00:32:25.940 Um, Sage of Sylvania asks, what is the order the next Hoffs will be built in?

00:32:35.040 I think the order I heard on a previous stream was Frey's Hoff, then Tears Hoff, then Braggie's Hoff.

00:32:41.620 But beyond these, I don't know the order.

00:32:44.460 Well, first, good job.

00:32:46.300 You're, you're spot on on those.

00:32:48.180 Following Bragi's Hoff will be Heimdall's Hoff, then Vidar's Hoff, then Valli's Hoff, then Uller's Hoff, and then Forseti's Hoff.

00:32:59.760 And that's what we're firm on at this point.

00:33:03.120 And that's the order that's presented in the Edic poem, The Gildhagening.

00:33:07.840 And that's a poem that Goethe Svahn and I will be discussing here in about three weeks, I believe, on on one of these episodes of Victory Never Sleeps.

00:33:20.540 Sarah asks, what has been the most memorable bloat you have performed?

00:33:25.520 Trent.

00:33:27.880 Definitely the Odin bloat I got to do for leadership at Fall Fest.

00:33:31.640 um every every bloat i do is memorable because i'm uh really anxious beforehand and then i kind

00:33:38.640 of center myself and i feel really in the moment so they're all memorable but uh being there in

00:33:43.720 for the first time and uh being able to do that was something really special there was a moment

00:33:52.400 where uh witten witten callahan was doing her thing like hail the acer the ancestors etc

00:34:01.500 Sarah. And it was like, I kind of stopped hearing for a minute. My heart started beating really

00:34:06.740 fast. And I kind of felt that inspiration. And I, it was really fitting since it was an ode and

00:34:11.180 bloat, of course. I remember just thinking, oh, man, this is going to be awesome.

00:34:16.440 So that was, that's definitely been the most memorable for me so far.

00:34:23.300 All right, next question, also from Sarah, Goethe Trent, Madison and you are such an

00:34:29.400 adorable couple. How have you made practicing us true together as a couple a priority in your

00:34:35.740 lives? Before you answer that, they are ridiculously adorable couple. They're absolutely

00:34:42.440 the couple that we want on the poster. You guys are doing it right. So yeah, how have you made

00:34:50.280 practicing house true together as a couple of priority in your lives um well we just go to

00:34:58.880 afa stuff as often as we can and you know i mean we'll talk about also true stuff and she does all

00:35:05.600 the artwork for a lot of the afa stuff so i'll help her with stuff for that like she made that

00:35:10.640 awesome wheel of the year thing that you guys might have seen on me we um so i gave my input

00:35:16.980 on that and it's you know i've been practicing also true for uh four or five years longer than

00:35:23.940 she has so of course i always get to have like these little teaching moments so it's like i

00:35:27.920 always have somebody i can bother with my uh long-winded also true stuff so that's that's

00:35:36.080 pretty much it we just it just is part of our lives there's not really an effort that needs

00:35:40.620 we made to make it part of our lives i think all of our wives are probably long suffering with our

00:35:49.580 listening to our our bursts of inspiration we get about gothy stuff i appreciate your

00:35:56.860 appreciate their patience with that um next up uh katla asks for both of you

00:36:07.660 favorite story of helping bring someone home to our folk

00:36:17.740 trent go ahead

00:36:21.820 um i

00:36:27.020 when uh i don't know i'm having to think about it a little bit you have one in mind do you want to

00:36:31.260 to go ahead well see you messed me up trent because i was hoping to use the time that you

00:36:38.060 were giving your answer to think of mine so there there have been a lot and i've i've talked about

00:36:45.100 this before that moment where you get to bring somebody home and they see that it's real and

00:36:49.100 that this is where they're supposed to be uh it's such a special thing i'm trying to think of

00:36:55.820 of trying to think of a time where I've helped somebody who was on the outside get in and

00:37:03.300 without mentioning anybody's names, because I don't know if that'd be appropriate, but

00:37:08.820 I remember one time, for those of you that don't know, I was born and raised in Alaska.

00:37:16.220 And so time zone wise, if people are up in the middle of the night with questions across the

00:37:21.780 country. I was one of the last ones to go to bed. I also worked as a bouncer in Alaska for a long

00:37:26.760 time. So it meant my hours were all over the place. And I was a folk builder up there. And

00:37:31.820 one of the guys you could, you know, anybody around the world could reach when all the rest

00:37:36.440 of the United States folk builders were were asleep. I remember I got a couple of couple of

00:37:44.060 questions from guys that uh were in our uh our northern plains region and i was able to talk to

00:37:54.060 them over a period of time and this is when i was uh you know just a folk builder up in alaska

00:38:01.820 and it was really nice because i was able to help them come home one of them i was able to help

00:38:07.020 start a kindred in the Dakotas. And, you know, I didn't realize that I would get a chance to meet

00:38:14.180 them years later. The first time I was in that part of the country was when I was here to go

00:38:19.380 with you in 2016. And I mean, these conversations that I had probably happened in 2009, 2010. So

00:38:27.340 it was really special to get to meet those guys later down the line and have come to found out

00:38:34.540 that I was I was a big part of them coming home to also true and coming home to the AFA those

00:38:39.200 that meant a lot to me your turn Trent all right um I think one of my favorites has been a really

00:38:48.340 recent one that we uh so it was uh a gentleman whose wife applied first and she had been

00:38:55.020 for a while because she had read some of Ron McMahon's stuff and uh she applied to the AFA

00:39:01.940 And, you know, I've met at her since she was in Georgia and we've talked and stuff.

00:39:05.660 And that was cool.

00:39:07.400 And then she said, hey, my husband wants to ask a few questions.

00:39:09.980 He's not also true, but, you know, his values align with ours and he wants to ask some questions.

00:39:16.080 And I had like a two or three hour long phone call with the guy.

00:39:19.980 And by the end, he was like, well, you know what?

00:39:21.960 I might I might give it a shot.

00:39:23.580 And then like the next day, he's just excitedly texting me all this stuff he's read like like I hadn't heard it before.

00:39:30.480 but he was just so excited about it and he was apologizing like oh i'm sorry you already know

00:39:35.200 all this and like yeah you know i i did but well like you said that's that's probably the best

00:39:41.640 moment is when it kind of becomes real for someone and they just have like this new life

00:39:47.420 and then this like kind of vigor to just really jump right into everything

00:39:52.680 and I got to do that guy's daughter's baby naming at the Njortzhov dedication so that was a huge

00:40:01.720 honor as kind of a bonus answer on that not really a story but just something that ends

00:40:09.180 up being really cool and we'll get this with couples often but what's really special is when

00:40:18.820 someone does this and their parents see the impact it's made on their life and when they can bring

00:40:26.580 their parents with them and we've had you know we've had a number of times where folks were able

00:40:33.300 to to through their example and through you know the impact that also true's had on their life

00:40:40.180 to have their parents go ahead and join and become part of the afa and that's always a really special

00:40:44.980 thing to see. It's so nice when you can get your family to participate in something that

00:40:52.900 is so important to you and that you love so much. And it's such a difficult transition to get your

00:40:59.300 parents that are oftentimes very much older to be involved in this that we do. It's a major

00:41:04.660 change in maybe what they grew up with. So I've seen that a few times and that's been a really

00:41:10.680 special testament to to our gods and to house the truth don asks what would be your advice

00:41:18.680 for young married couples today and the daily struggles uh they encounter trent

00:41:26.920 um advice uh i would say don't feel like you're alone in the world

00:41:36.120 I know society is kind of set up in a way right now where it feels like young people, especially young, traditionally minded married couples are kind of like set up for failure.

00:41:47.620 But even if that is the case, you have your fault to lean on.

00:41:51.460 You have your church.

00:41:53.800 Well, I guess, you know, if we're talking AFA specific couples, you have your church to lean on.

00:41:59.120 that'd be my biggest piece of advice honestly is just don't let that uh that feeling of loneliness

00:42:05.880 overtake you realize that you have people in your lives that can help you out and that can be there

00:42:10.800 for you don't be afraid to reach out to one of our go thar for marriage counseling um pretty much

00:42:18.120 all of us are married have been for varying lengths of time so we'll make sure to get

00:42:25.220 you some kind of help if you need it. You know, I'm not sure if that was a Trent question or both

00:42:31.660 because it wasn't specified. I'm going to throw in my two cents as well. What I think is really

00:42:38.340 important. And I know I've said this a number of times on these shows, build your family and

00:42:44.560 your relationship around the AFA. The more you can make the different parts of your life all fit in

00:42:52.560 and be holistic with your faith the more buttressed you are against those struggles

00:43:05.200 that's what we work so hard to do here in the afa and it gets better all the time but there's so

00:43:12.400 much out there in the world that's crazy and that's just out of whack today and i think we

00:43:16.800 we all know that. But there's so much right in here in the AFA, though, that we're all working

00:43:23.580 so hard to build. When that's your circle of friends, when that's your family, and that's

00:43:29.120 your support group. The world's a lot less crazy, or at least your world is a lot less crazy. You

00:43:35.920 have something positive to come back to as a home base, you have something positive to to build your

00:43:42.300 life and your family around. And you have a really good group of people to have your kids interact

00:43:48.320 with, to have your spouse make friends and lasting relationships with, and for you guys as a couple

00:43:54.460 to build friendship with. So I would really encourage you to make our gods and also true

00:44:00.040 a fundamental, you know, glue that holds your family together. James asks, to both of you,

00:44:09.780 What is your favorite ritual to officiate and why?

00:44:13.700 Trent?

00:44:16.260 I really enjoy baby namings.

00:44:20.700 I haven't done a wedding or a funeral yet.

00:44:25.520 I think my favorite ritual to lead is Sumble.

00:44:32.040 Sumble's always been my favorite.

00:44:33.500 I think it's a lot of people's favorites.

00:44:34.820 Um, so I got deleted at, uh, Thorshoff, Sigur Blur a couple months ago and it was,

00:44:43.020 I don't really know how to put it into words. It was just really cool

00:44:45.720 to, uh, kind of be the big guy sitting at the head of the table and telling everybody the rules and

00:44:51.620 stuff. I don't know. That's probably my favorite. So my favorite, uh, has always been baby namings.

00:45:00.120 um it's just such a happy and such a special time and such a special thing to be there for

00:45:10.100 um you're there with this with these new parents that are so happy and these little babies that

00:45:15.760 scream and cry at the worst possible moments during the ceremony you're trying to do

00:45:21.360 but it's such a it's just such a beautiful thing to be part of and i'm ridiculous i can't do a

00:45:29.560 baby naming without crying and tearing up and blubbering. And that's just kind of how I'm

00:45:34.840 built. But I love baby namings. I would say the most, the biggest honor of a ceremony to perform

00:45:43.560 has been the few funerals that I've performed. I can't say it's my favorite, but I'm very honored

00:45:51.000 that families would trust me to do that as a send-off to their loved ones.

00:45:59.560 Martin asks, do you guys have any other podcasts you like on the topic of Ossetru or just interesting subjects in general? Trent, go ahead and go first.

00:46:11.940 uh i'm not really a podcast guy honestly uh and if it's not afa it's not awesome true

00:46:19.980 so um in my spare time i listen to the british history podcast on spotify just because you know

00:46:27.580 i'm english i'm a nerd so that's what i do other than that no you know i i get these questions and

00:46:36.400 I'm not trying to dodge them. I'm just not really a podcast guy either.

00:46:42.220 When I know when I'm at the gym, I always like to listen to books on tape or when I'm on a long

00:46:46.240 drive. I listen to a lot of things on Audible, a lot of history stuff. I'm listening to Adrian

00:46:54.720 Goldsworthy's books on ancient Rome right now. I've listened to quite a few of his stuff and

00:47:00.340 working through that catalog right now but i a lot of a lot of history books on on audible i really

00:47:06.820 enjoy um yeah it's the best i got i'm sorry i wish i could give you better advice on podcasts

00:47:13.860 hopefully some folks over in the the side chat may have something a little bit more for you

00:47:17.700 uh tim asks gothi trent as practitioner practitioners of our ancestral faith how

00:47:29.700 does attending european cultural festivals further our connection to the ancestors and gods

00:47:36.580 matt can you share your thoughts as as well

00:47:41.300 um i mean it just helps insofar as kind of putting you in touch with i guess any european

00:47:52.900 cultural festival would put you in touch with that greater aryan culture but there's probably

00:47:59.700 something particularly special about attending a festival that relates to a culture that your

00:48:06.180 ancestors were a part of like uh highland games uh irish fests things like that i mean i would

00:48:15.380 imagine it connects you more to your ancestors than the gods specifically but uh yeah it just

00:48:23.460 i haven't been to anything like that but i would assume it really just makes you feel

00:48:27.620 at home in a sense and just helps you connect with those ancestors

00:48:34.020 you know what trent said but also it's one of the few times in the modern world where folks

00:48:43.200 specifically white folks get to be proud of where they come from um and that's really nice to be

00:48:50.160 part of they're folks that you know maybe aren't aren't part of what we do but for that moment for

00:48:56.600 that time that they're there they get to full-throatedly celebrate their european heritage

00:49:01.680 and that's really nice to see and be a part of. I've had some really good experiences with the

00:49:07.060 Highland Games. I used to participate in the Alaska Highland Games pretty regularly,

00:49:11.340 and I also did one while I was in Florida. It's been a long time. My joints are not what they

00:49:17.100 used to be, but that's a lot of fun, and it's something really special about going out there

00:49:22.520 and competing in something seriously. When you're wearing your family's tartan, I have an ancient

00:49:30.500 ross hunting kilt that i was wearing and still got it in the other room and it's just it's it's

00:49:36.500 it's special it's hard to it's hard to put words around but it's neat not only when you attend it

00:49:41.700 but when you're part of it in that way and being a competitor in the highland games is

00:49:45.620 you know one of the one of the really neat things i've got to do in my life

00:49:51.780 um daniel asks can you speak on the importance of physical excellence as it pertains to spiritual

00:50:00.020 health trent you can go first okay uh so there's a thing people always say they talk about like

00:50:09.700 mind body spirit and that's like one of those cliche things that people say and it doesn't

00:50:15.060 really have any meaning when they say it but it it is a real thing the mind body spirit connection

00:50:20.580 is very real so when you go and you work out and you apply your will to something especially

00:50:27.460 something that's going to make you stronger or make you better or make you healthier it really

00:50:33.060 does wonders for your i mean your mental health of course and your spiritual health as well it's

00:50:39.300 like we always you know people always say onwards and upwards or whatever it is that's that's a real

00:50:45.860 thing and working out is uh is a big part of that is you're taking what you have and making something

00:50:54.740 from it you know i think there's a couple of really important things to be said about it

00:51:04.900 you're

00:51:08.340 the state of your physique is a very obvious um advertisement for

00:51:19.380 a lot of aspects of your health. And, you know, our faith is, is a holistic faith. It's not about

00:51:29.040 going to church on Sundays. It's about living a life as an Asa Truar that you're, that you're

00:51:35.920 healthy and whole all around. It's very important. And your physical condition is a shining beacon

00:51:44.880 to the rest of the world on how seriously you take yourself. Um, if you are in very good physical

00:51:53.720 condition, it, you know, a lot of things first, if you're looking good, you feel good, you've got

00:52:00.000 your head up, you have a pride in yourself and that, that shines, that's extremely important.

00:52:06.480 You know, we want our faith and the AFA and our gods to be associated with good looking people.

00:52:18.760 Given the option, it's better to look good than to not look good.

00:52:22.520 Beyond that, having being physically healthy is certainly important.

00:52:26.060 It's important for all of those reasons.

00:52:27.760 It's important for mental health.

00:52:29.280 It's important for self-esteem.

00:52:30.800 The other thing that folks certainly know is being in good shape requires discipline.

00:52:37.800 It requires discipline as far as you're working out and your athleticism, but it also requires a lot of discipline in the kitchen.

00:52:45.800 You showing the world that you have that discipline and that you're a person of that kind of bearing speaks volumes about your spiritual health.

00:52:53.800 And I think it's a really important thing.

00:52:55.800 thing. And it's a conversation that I had with our founder, Steve McNallan, a number of years ago,

00:53:01.320 I think when I first became, I was Harry Goethe. And we both certainly agree that

00:53:06.040 your physical condition says a lot about your spiritual condition. And I'd love to see all of

00:53:12.200 us get as spiritually healthy, as mentally healthy, and as physically healthy and beautiful as we

00:53:18.140 possibly can be. And, you know, we all got areas we can improve on it. But the important thing

00:53:23.660 is that every day is an opportunity to be a little bit better than we were the day before.

00:53:31.280 And I want us all to reach out and strive for that. Lawrence Forbes, thank you, sir. You are

00:53:37.780 a loyal viewer and contributor to this program. Thank you so much. And you just gave us 10

00:53:45.000 Canadian dollars. We appreciate that. Good evening, Matt and Trent. I get that Arian

00:53:50.700 is a politically charged word in our current environment.

00:53:54.180 But at some point in the future,

00:53:55.540 when we're stronger and more recognized slash accepted,

00:53:59.680 any thoughts on changing the AFA to the Aryan Folk Assembly?

00:54:07.780 Trent, do you have any thoughts on that?

00:54:10.060 Yes.

00:54:11.460 No, we shouldn't do that.

00:54:13.240 Not because there's anything against the word Aryan,

00:54:15.420 but just because we're the Ossetru Folk Assembly.

00:54:18.280 We are Aryan, yes.

00:54:19.660 but we are also true and i guess the two are one in the same in a way but it's the also true folk

00:54:26.340 assembly and i me personally i'd like to see it stay that way i would i would definitely be open

00:54:32.900 to using the word arian in the future more uh i know people like when we call ourselves white

00:54:38.860 that's a great identifier and it's really clear and cut but i think words like arian would be

00:54:45.800 cool to bring back more mainstream, I guess. Yeah, I agree with Trent. First, branding is

00:54:56.340 important. Asatru Folk Assembly is really important. It's important because as a church,

00:55:03.140 our fundamental basis that defines our existence is our troth to the iser, is us being literally

00:55:12.520 also true um race is very important race is certainly a a necessary thing for you to be

00:55:20.920 able to participate in our spiritual uh our ethnic spirituality our ethnic religion

00:55:27.960 certainly is the astro folk assembly but it's a it's a requirement to get in the door it's

00:55:33.480 not a completion of what's required you don't just have to be um an aryan man or woman you

00:55:40.920 have to be an aryan man or woman who is loyal to and defines themselves by their loyalty to our gods

00:55:48.200 and that's that's really fundamental and essential but also like trent said i would love to use the

00:55:53.080 term more often it's something i'm proud of it's something i certainly don't shy away from using

00:55:57.880 now but you know i think that we are strategic and we try to make sure there's a context when

00:56:05.000 we use it because there is so much confusion out there in the in the larger world

00:56:10.920 um nathan asks trent uh what for you is the most difficult and the most important part of being a

00:56:20.900 gothi um i would say probably just missing time with my wife and my family uh having to answer

00:56:29.840 calls um but i don't want to make it seem like it's a burden i guess but i would say that's the

00:56:35.500 closest thing to being difficult to having to answer, answer calls at any hour. But like I

00:56:42.140 said, it's, it's, it's an honor to be the one that's charged with taking those calls.

00:56:52.920 That's legit. I want you guys to all realize that, um, our GoTar choose a responsibility

00:57:00.500 for themselves to where there's no, there's no office hours. You're a gothy 24 seven. 0.77

00:57:10.320 I mean, there, there are times where you're more or less engaged in the more, you know, 0.84

00:57:15.280 administrative aspects of it when it comes to being there for our folk who are in need.

00:57:20.980 Our goth are always there and you guys can reach out to gothar at runestone.org anytime.

00:57:30.500 And we will respond to you. One of us will respond to you very, very quickly, and we will do our very best to help any of you guys that are having a problem.

00:57:40.880 And that's members or non-members. If you're having a problem and you need to reach out to Agothi, please reach out there.

00:57:46.120 um if you don't remember that or whatever matt flavel at runestone.org please reach out to me

00:57:54.640 and i will help you or i will get you somebody who can help you or both as quickly as i possibly can

00:58:02.160 we're here for you guys all the time and it's really important to us that you know that and

00:58:06.320 that you take advantage of that um so we've got it queued up to show off the work of trent's

00:58:13.280 lovely wife madison here is her artwork on the wheel of the year

00:58:24.560 everybody take a gander it's beautiful um madison does lovely work she is very very talented

00:58:31.600 and we're really appreciative of the the time she puts in she helps with our

00:58:37.360 our hoff design and our hoff flags in various visual projects that we're working on matter

00:58:44.000 of fact tonight when we get off of this i have a project i want to talk to her about a little bit

00:58:50.480 um nathan asked trent a follow-up to daniel's question what is your take on

00:59:00.240 what is your take on one-arm push-ups and how many can you do

00:59:03.440 uh that's a that's a dirty move nate they're really impressive looking i can do a lot of

00:59:13.840 two-arm push-ups i would ask you how many pull-ups can you do and we can compare those

00:59:19.840 but i will allow you the satisfaction of knowing that i currently can do like 0.75 of a one-arm

00:59:27.200 push-up at this time so that's that's unfortunate uh go the east i would like to see you increase

00:59:34.320 your your one-arm push-up abilities um so there's not a hole in our our gothic kin fence when it

00:59:41.040 comes to that um and i'd like to also venture that i think nathan can probably destroy quite

00:59:47.600 a few of us at the pull-ups i would be curious to see you guys do a pull-up off uh maybe i will

00:59:53.680 insist upon that the next time you two are together uh one arm push-up advice it's all

00:59:58.640 about making that triangular base a lot of people try to have a really narrow leg position it's no

01:00:04.960 good for the one-arm push-ups put your hand in the center of your chest get your legs wide across

01:00:10.640 do those one-arm push-ups it's a good thing it's an impressive thing nate can do quite a few um

01:00:17.600 Robert asks, is being a folk builder required before becoming a Gothi? Yes, it is. And I'll

01:00:25.680 explain a little bit of why that is. For a long time, it wasn't. When I got ordained,

01:00:32.960 the folk builders and the Gothar were two kind of separate paths that serve separate functions.

01:00:39.220 And one of the things that we've worked to do is to unite those into a progression of

01:00:45.460 responsibilities. A lot of folks don't realize the hard work that goes into being a go-thee.

01:00:56.460 And that just is what it is. It's not anybody's fault, per se. Like I mentioned earlier in the

01:01:01.920 program, so much of what we do is behind the scenes that, you know, you may never know about.

01:01:08.620 But the responsibility is really important. I've had a lot of people when they first join,

01:01:14.740 And, you know, immediately ask, hey, can I be a Gothi? How do I be a Gothi?

01:01:18.120 And I think a lot of people, when they're new to House of Truth, think that what that largely entails is basically being a master of ceremonies when it comes to rituals.

01:01:28.380 And that's one thing that we do, but it's it's not it's not the most important thing that we do.

01:01:33.640 And it's not the majority of what we do. Being a folk builder makes people in touch with the work that goes into running this church.

01:01:44.740 Being a folk builder gets you acquainted with your local membership to where you deal with those people regularly and you know how everything works and it prepares you because as a Gothi, you not only do all the Gothic responsibilities, but you're an overseer of the folk builders in your district.

01:02:04.940 so you're really involved in the running of things and this equips you to know that job and be able

01:02:10.620 to do it because you don't really stop being a folk builder you just become a folk builder plus

01:02:16.060 the gothy responsibilities so it really is essential and we've had a lot of success since

01:02:21.020 that's been a requirement we've gotten a lot more very serious people into the program

01:02:25.820 and i think it's served us really well another um misunderstanding i think some folks have

01:02:31.420 have, when they get involved in Asatru, they see Asatru as a means to their personal spiritual

01:02:40.080 advancement. And sometimes they act as though us giving them the opportunity to be a Gothi

01:02:47.960 is something that we owe them for their own spiritual benefit. Being a Gothi isn't about 0.68

01:02:53.140 your own spiritual benefit. It's about serving our gods, our folk, and our church. It's about

01:02:59.940 taking on tremendous responsibilities. And it's something that, you know, it's not about whether

01:03:08.260 you want to be one or not. It's about whether we trust you to be one and you're going to be a value

01:03:14.000 to our gods, our church, and us for you to be one. And so that's why that's structured the way that

01:03:20.880 it is king of cheese i tried to explain to a friend of mine the afterlife of our faith and i

01:03:31.040 feel i only did a half service i explained what i've picked up from elder mcnowen's book and

01:03:38.400 elsewhere i'm trying to read the second half of the question i'm sorry guys uh that we either go

01:03:46.480 to hellheim or go to one of the gods or goddesses may take you to them if you formed a good

01:03:53.440 relationship with them how would you explain it and where did i mess up well okay first uh tony

01:04:01.200 i don't think you messed up at all i think that um we are in a in a time and in a society where

01:04:11.280 everybody wants a really really clear answer on everything and i think that there's more variation

01:04:19.760 in our afterlife than in some other people's religious traditions um

01:04:27.760 first i think that at the very least what typically happens in our afterlife is one goes to the halls

01:04:35.200 of their ancestors and that's the most common afterlife experience it's something that is

01:04:42.080 confirmed by many many near-death experiences it's something that you know we're pretty solid on is

01:04:48.960 in your in in your afterlife experiences you go and reside with with your people with your

01:04:54.480 ancestors um we do have mentions in our lore of after of you being judged in your afterlife

01:05:01.280 and i think that's absolutely the case uh people who are are very very dishonorable and very bad

01:05:10.160 i think those people lose more and more of themselves in a process of uh dissolution

01:05:17.920 i think that's described in our lore in the term of of venom and other things dissolving that

01:05:24.080 person i think with the worst extreme being that you're washed from existence and your component

01:05:30.160 parts go back into the greater folk soul to be hopefully put to uh to better use in the future

01:05:37.280 but i think most people go to their ancestors i think there's another thing that happens though

01:05:41.360 and this is what uh steve mcnellen talks about about going to the halls of the gods i don't think

01:05:47.040 it's just your personal relationship with that god i think it's your uh spiritual evolution in

01:05:52.960 your your personal evolution there's the idea of ascension and for those heroes for those who have

01:05:59.200 gone above and beyond i think that they have the opportunity to ascend to something closer

01:06:06.320 to to where our gods are and to commune with our gods in a closer and more special way and i think

01:06:12.560 that's what's described as as feasting with the gods um and so you know i think that we all

01:06:19.680 should aspire to that and it would be amazing if we have that opportunity and i think that

01:06:24.960 in the afterlife we may have opportunities once we get there to to ascend in the afa we also

01:06:31.200 believe in the idea of posthumous ascension if you have created such a reputation for yourself

01:06:36.880 that you're continually celebrated worshipped exalted uh stories told about you and honored

01:06:43.440 after your passing that increases your reputation in the afterlife and i think that helps

01:06:49.840 propel you towards higher towards higher things and that's that's the afa understanding of our

01:06:56.400 afterlife none of us knows perfectly until we go there but that's the best that we have to go on

01:07:01.520 at this point amber asks how do we bring more folk home when i mention the afa to those that

01:07:09.760 are interested the first thing they usually do for research is google the afa and it tells them

01:07:15.680 that we are wrongly hate group so and you know let trend answer this in a second but i want to

01:07:23.280 address this first um unfortunately we can't make google be fair to us though we've tried many many

01:07:34.960 times we can't make wikipedia be fair to us either um but it do unfortunately that's just how it is

01:07:45.680 What we can do is direct them to alternate sources when they do that.

01:07:51.280 So that's fine that they read that, but ask them critically, okay, well, in those sources

01:07:57.060 that say that we're a hate group, what hateful things do they say we've done?

01:08:01.480 If you carefully read the SPLC article or any of the others, they don't mention any

01:08:06.200 specific acts of hatred or mean-spirited things that we do because we don't do those things.

01:08:13.060 um they their evidence evidence with the air quotes for those of you listening in

01:08:19.680 podcast land they don't have any they say they know what we really mean or they randomly throw

01:08:29.280 in people that aren't members of the afa in the same sentence with us and imply that we have a

01:08:34.020 connection that we don't have but they can't point to hateful things that we do because we don't

01:08:39.760 i would encourage all of those folks to watch our youtube channel and they can listen to

01:08:46.720 to me and trent blab and whatever but what i think is really special is getting them to watch our uh

01:08:54.000 the little clip shows of our events or of our year you know we have the 2021 year in the afa

01:09:01.040 of just slides of us doing nice things and families and it's beautiful a picture's worth

01:09:07.200 a thousand words and it's very hard when they know us or when they see us to uh

01:09:14.320 to think of us in the way the media has portrayed us um i'd also say a couple of other things first

01:09:24.160 courage is essential and unfortunately uh courage is is not a commodity that everyone possesses

01:09:31.360 For our folk to come home in this day and age, it takes a certain amount of courage to step

01:09:38.480 outside of the paradigm that this world has placed everyone in and to think critically.

01:09:44.580 And it also takes courage to do this next step that I would encourage everybody to do.

01:09:49.180 If you have a problem and you want to ask us, if you are concerned, you have a question,

01:09:55.980 you have to reach out and ask. And I don't expect you to trust our answer,

01:10:00.820 but at least give us the opportunity to give you our side and you can see which one sounds true and

01:10:06.100 which one proves to be true anybody who is listening right now if you want to if you have

01:10:11.860 questions give me a call 907-350-8252 if you call during this podcast or during this broadcast i'm

01:10:21.540 probably not going to answer but other than that you guys are welcome to call um we're happy to

01:10:27.300 answer any questions and that's unfortunately that's probably the best i can do right now

01:10:31.860 uh what does happen and is true is the more successful we become and the more of you guys

01:10:36.980 that come home the easier it is for the next guy to come and join us so i appreciate your courage

01:10:43.700 and uh if we can instill more courage in our folk much more of our people will come home

01:10:49.060 trent what are your thoughts on how we bring more people home

01:10:51.380 uh honestly it yeah a little bit of courage is needed but the biggest the biggest thing is just

01:11:00.760 being uh out so to speak as australia being openly australia and i mean real australia 0.93

01:11:08.240 afa australia not like the wiccan bs that you see because like we keep saying afa people are all

01:11:17.820 good righteous normal people you know it's if you can just be that and be also true that's

01:11:28.280 a shining example of what the afa is and what the afa is about i mean feel free to

01:11:35.680 wear some of our awesome afa t-shirts or hoodies while you do it use our slogans so people

01:11:43.940 hear the mottos and ask what it's about um you vouch for folks you can have them come to uh

01:11:52.260 events to kind of get an idea of what we're about uh like like y'all's hair ago he said show them

01:11:59.220 this podcast show them youtube videos

01:12:03.780 uh it the biggest thing is just having a little courage and being openly afa

01:12:13.060 All right. Christine asks, and we'll let you start on these, Trent. Can you share with us the reason why the AFA dresses up for rituals and events? Also, Gauthier, Trent, how many bow ties do you own? And when are we getting AFA bow ties?

01:12:36.800 um we dress up for rituals and events because we're going first and foremost just to be with

01:12:49.140 our folk and we don't want to look like slobs and second we're going before our gods and we

01:12:55.060 don't want to look like slobs um i mean you can think of when maybe a couple generations back

01:13:03.180 probably your grandparents or your great grandparents when they would go to church 0.59

01:13:06.800 they would dress up right because they were going to be before their god

01:13:11.440 and in front of all their local congregation or flock or whatever and they would dress nicely

01:13:20.560 because they were in the presence of their people and the uh abrahamic god so i figure if uh people

01:13:32.020 are willing to dress up for an Abrahamic God, we should absolutely dress up for our gods

01:13:36.640 and for our folk, for our ancestors. As for bow ties, I really just got the two that I

01:13:46.040 wear that match my tweed suits, but I think I own half a dozen or so.

01:13:51.740 all right so here's a real question do you tie them yourself or are they already tied

01:14:03.020 uh they're already tied so

01:14:07.980 the afa dressing up question um genesis of that and credit is due uh where it is it's not my idea

01:14:18.880 uh first person i saw do it was a gentleman who was a mentor of mine brad taylor hicks i showed

01:14:24.640 up to a midsummer and i was wearing jean shorts and a cut off t-shirt and it was hot in california

01:14:31.920 and it was midsummer and you know there's there's nothing wrong with that per se i guess

01:14:36.400 but everybody there was wearing jeans and t-shirts and you know band shirts and

01:14:42.480 and whatever, and it was very, very casual.

01:14:45.920 But Brad showed up and he was wearing a tweed suit.

01:14:50.680 And I asked about that and he said,

01:14:53.720 well, if I would dress up to go to my grandparents,

01:14:58.400 why wouldn't I dress up to go before our gods?

01:15:01.800 And that's always stuck with me.

01:15:03.560 And from that day forward, it's been very important to me.

01:15:07.580 If we're willing to dress up for a wedding,

01:15:11.240 for a funeral for you know a work christmas party for going to court for anything that we would

01:15:22.520 dress up for why would approaching our gods in ritual be a lesser occasion than that don't we

01:15:32.120 owe our gods putting our best foot forward isn't the day that we go and speak to our gods and ritual

01:15:39.000 more important than those other mundane occasions that we think nothing of dressing up for

01:15:45.820 the other thing um in the west that's what white people do when they go to church

01:15:51.600 not just that that's what all people have done historically when they go to something that's

01:15:57.220 religious that they take seriously and when you dress up you take you hold yourself differently

01:16:03.480 i've known a lot of people in the afa that were very resistant to the idea but i talk them into

01:16:08.480 it. And they'll put on a tie and a button up shirt and they hold their head higher and they

01:16:11.920 stick their chest out and they feel like there's somebody and they like, man, I look good. They do

01:16:17.080 look good. And we should all look good before, before our fellows, before our gods, before our

01:16:22.720 families. Dressing up is always better than not dressing up. And I would encourage you guys all

01:16:28.920 to when you come before your gods, be your best self, present your best self. And Trent is

01:16:37.020 certainly a fine example of doing that. Antonio asks, my question is, will there be a Hoff in 1.00

01:16:45.020 Michigan? Antonio, absolutely. I promise you there will be a Hoff in Michigan. When will there be a

01:16:51.100 Hoff in Michigan? That's the question. We are working towards it. Hopefully, Frey's Hoff will

01:16:58.880 be just south of you guys in Ohio. When we'll have a Hoff in Michigan? I don't know. Get your 0.84

01:17:04.840 friends to join the AFA. Bring your friends home. We would love to have a Hoff in Michigan and we

01:17:09.640 will get there someday. You could help us get there faster though. Nick asks, someone mentioned

01:17:19.440 it in chat, so tell us about it. The AFA has a Tartan? Yes, we do. The AFA has an officially

01:17:26.620 registered Tartan. A member of ours in Minnesota got that set up for us. It's really cool. It's

01:17:34.340 awesome if i had thought about it before this broadcast i would have gotten nick the graphic

01:17:41.220 just so happens i have it pulled up here on my screen so if you guys excuse me for a second i

01:17:47.460 will send it to nick and nick can show you all we do in fact have a tartan and uh it's pretty cool

01:17:54.020 now here's the trouble because there's not a lot of demand for our tartan and for them to do the

01:17:59.620 tartan right they have to make special cloth it's very expensive to get anything made in our tartan

01:18:05.380 but our tartan is officially registered you can get whatever items you're willing to pay for

01:18:10.420 in our tartan so i just sent it to nick and he will have that up very soon for you guys so you

01:18:19.380 can see a picture of the beautiful afa tartan um nick please throw that up as soon as you get it

01:18:26.660 I think people will know the... Whoa, look at you, Nick. So Nick Rice, this guy deserves a round of

01:18:33.780 applause. Trust me, they're applauding at home, Nick. You do a fantastic job producing this

01:18:42.240 program. You make it look like a million bucks. Thank you so much. We appreciate you.

01:18:50.500 And got another monetized question. 10 more Canadian dollars for Lawrence. There you go.

01:18:56.060 look, behold, the beautiful AFA tartan. You can get that done. I would love to see you guys get

01:19:02.720 that done. I'd love for that price point to get something that the rest of us can get that done,

01:19:06.920 but it is beautiful. And I really appreciate the effort that went into getting that made

01:19:12.980 for us. And it is official and it is registered. So Lawrence with his 10 Canadian dollars. Thank

01:19:20.080 you so much, Lawrence Forbes, for your contributions. We really appreciate them.

01:19:23.860 thanks to the answer to my last question i have strong political leanings but i'm trying to chill

01:19:29.120 on that a bit despite my serious side i have a light-hearted and fun side i know that loki is

01:19:35.500 not recognized by the uh by the afa but is there a god slash goddess who exhibits similar fun-loving

01:19:43.460 traits. All right. So there's a spectrum of Loki things that go from lovable prankster to the

01:19:59.280 murder of Odin's son. So I don't want to say that any of our gods have any sort of similarity to

01:20:07.280 that. But question was asked in a lighthearted way. So I'm going to try to give a lighthearted

01:20:13.100 to answer. There is humor amongst our gods. You see that a lot with Thor. You see a very serious

01:20:22.520 side when lightning flashes in his eyes and it terrifies mortals. But you also see him laugh and

01:20:29.160 feast and celebrate. And I don't think you see the same prankster element, but you certainly see

01:20:34.960 joy and a jolliness. I think that if you look for joy in our gods, Frey and his father Nyorder

01:20:42.420 I think they exhibit that happiness, and you feel that.

01:20:49.480 One of the things that was really striking, I felt, at Njordshof was standing before Njordshof there and just that feeling of joy and abundance and happiness and life is good.

01:21:05.240 And I think the idea that life is good and life is abundant is shared by many of our gods and goddesses.

01:21:12.420 And I think that that playful, that happy, that fun spirit, I would say Frey and Thor and Jorther were probably the ones I would I would suggest most for that.

01:21:25.500 What are your thoughts on that, Trent?

01:21:26.660 I don't have a specific god or goddess in mind for that, but the scene, so to speak, right before Balder is killed, you'll notice it says many of the gods and goddesses are throwing things at him to just watch them bounce off, and they're making a game of it, and they're having fun.

01:21:45.360 so that's that's just what comes to mind for me is that the ice here as a as a collective they do

01:21:52.560 have fun they enjoy life and they make little games of throwing things at balder because they

01:21:59.320 know it won't hurt him so human uh human manipulation nation has a question hey thank

01:22:10.720 you so much for being here. You've been on all of these. You've been a very eager participant

01:22:17.040 in these. Thank you for that. So he asks, when we step into the world, do you have any

01:22:23.100 recommendations on how to approach social or political issues that we face? Trent, go

01:22:28.860 ahead and take this first.

01:22:33.900 That kind of goes back to what we said earlier about courage. You just need to kind of have

01:22:38.280 courage. There's a, I would say the biggest reason that so many of our societies like social

01:22:44.500 and political issues have come about is because people have been afraid to speak up. That's a

01:22:49.620 thing with our people, especially where we've always been so altruistic, I think. And lately

01:22:55.200 it's gotten to the point of, you know, we don't want to hurt feelings or whatever, but you can

01:23:02.020 be assertive on your social and political views without you know being a douchebag it

01:23:09.600 you know you can just calmly say no to whatever it is or calmly say i'm not changing my stance

01:23:18.320 on whatever it is and at the end of the day i mean yeah some people are going to get upset and

01:23:23.560 go cry on twitter or whatever it is people like that do but for the most part i think you'll find

01:23:30.060 people will respect you for it even if they're like okay well i want nothing to do with you

01:23:34.220 they'll they'll just move on that's the biggest thing with a lot of this stuff is just having some

01:23:40.140 courage to be and you know what to quote the odin's hawk motto uh just do right and fear no one

01:23:50.300 so uh all of that but i think the other thing is

01:23:54.940 is, and Trent said this, but just to elaborate on it a little bit.

01:24:05.060 Don't be naive. Be courageous and stand up and say what you mean and mean what you say.

01:24:13.540 But there's a big difference in that. There's this phenomenon amongst our people is when they go on

01:24:20.420 internet and they create a fake name and use a fake picture they say the most outlandish ridiculous

01:24:26.900 things in the most in your face possible way because it feels so good to finally be able to 0.69

01:24:34.260 say the things that you've been afraid to say and so they spew it out in the most repulsive

01:24:39.940 way they can think of because it's been repressed for so long what i would say is speak nobly

01:24:47.460 Realize that what you say and how you say it is going to be seen by everyone, not just your friends, but your enemies, your employers, your family.

01:24:57.080 So own it. Believe what you believe, but say it in a way that's honest and that reflects your real feelings.

01:25:05.600 Most of us aren't bad people. We're good people who have good values and good things to say.

01:25:11.300 Keep that in mind when you're speaking. It's really easy to become embittered and frustrated

01:25:17.860 by all of the things we don't like, and rightly so. There's so many things in this world that

01:25:23.020 are so far askew from how they should be. It's easy to get mad. Don't speak out of anger. Speak

01:25:30.600 out of love. Speak about the things you love, the things you value, the things you want for you and

01:25:36.820 for your family i think that we do much better speaking politically or about anything to people

01:25:44.260 when we talk about what we love rather than all the things that we don't like or all the ways

01:25:48.660 things are messed up think about what we do want to see and the world we do want for our children

01:25:54.820 talking positively about what we're trying to build and who we want to become those those

01:26:01.300 are beautiful things and i think we need to speak those courageously and thoughtfully

01:26:06.820 Uh-huh, Zoe, Gauthier Trent, is there any specific moment in your time in the AFA where you felt, this is where I belong?

01:26:23.540 This is going to be one of those answers that's going to make you kind of roll your eyes a little bit, but every moment I feel like that.

01:26:29.600 But I guess the first moment I felt like that, though, was me and my kindred pulling up to Ostar in the South 2016 and seeing, at the time, Altair Yargothi McNallan sitting on the porch of this 4-H camp in a rocking chair.

01:26:50.720 And, of course, I'm kind of, like, freaking out because this guy is, like, he's Steve McNallan.

01:26:56.200 And I was going to just kind of walk past him and not try and, like, bother him by being like, oh, my God, you're Steve McNallan.

01:27:03.220 But he stopped me and introduced himself to me, and we talked about the Army a little bit because that was, like, a month before I left for infantry school.

01:27:11.940 And I don't know.

01:27:13.640 It's hard to put into words, really, but everybody was just so normal and cool.

01:27:17.180 and as time goes on goes by it just gets better and better so there's every moment there I feel

01:27:27.020 like I belong so Bobby asks what is the best and worst advice you have received when it comes to

01:27:38.420 being a go-thee? Go for it, Trent. I'm very privileged to be able to say that I haven't

01:27:51.200 really received any bad advice. All the people above me and at my level that are able to give

01:28:03.180 me advice. They've always given good advice. As far as the best advice, um, I would say it's

01:28:10.840 come from the Ulster Agothi. Just kind of, I don't remember, I don't have like a cool quote

01:28:16.220 of what you said, but just being patient with people and kind of having some patience and some,

01:28:23.800 uh, some kindness, I guess. So that's a big thing is, you know, people get on our nerves

01:28:30.680 or whatever but it's you have to do the right thing and be kind even in tough situations

01:28:39.320 you know i'm trying to think on this it's a it's a really good question and it's a question that i

01:28:44.760 think deserves good well thought answers and trent and i are just sitting here quick trying

01:28:49.640 to shoot from the hip on what we've got um but it's one i'm after this call tonight i'm going to

01:28:57.240 give some thought to because i think it's really i don't know gets my brain churning um

01:29:05.880 so when i got ordained

01:29:12.360 the afa gothar as a whole were

01:29:18.360 a much different place than we are now and i think we've we've come a long way since then

01:29:23.480 so i don't

01:29:27.920 i will choose that the best gothar advice i've ever got came from yos tomb on his tombstone

01:29:40.760 it says do right and fear no one and that's odenshoff's motto

01:29:47.760 and it it's an important touchstone with me to go back to and make sure that fear doesn't dictate

01:30:01.980 my actions and doesn't guide my life and that fear can come in a lot of different ways one

01:30:11.340 of the things that I deal with as the alzharia gothi of the astro folk assembly I am very aware

01:30:17.360 that what i say impacts people um if i'm not careful about what i say it can hurt people and

01:30:25.200 it can hurt their families and it can hurt the afa that we that we love so much work so hard to build

01:30:34.240 so it's really tempting a lot of the time to say less or to

01:30:40.320 go the super safe route and not say the things that need to be said because i don't want to hurt

01:30:48.560 anybody and i don't want to cause i don't want to cause damage to to our membership and to to folks

01:30:56.080 outside of myself and i and i'm aware that i have the ability to

01:31:00.960 but it's been really important to harken back to that advice and to make my first concern doing

01:31:08.640 the right thing and uh you know temper how i do the right thing based on how it may affect people

01:31:16.320 but not let fear direct the course of either myself or the astro folk assembly ultimately

01:31:22.480 i owe you guys and i owe our gods better than that and so that i think is the best advice i've gotten

01:31:30.880 worst advice i think gets summed up and and there's no guy i can picture that that said

01:31:36.160 this to me but it was this old also true you know thing everybody said is about this the religion

01:31:44.960 with homework any religion you take seriously is a religion with homework but what i found so much

01:31:51.840 about being gothi it's not about the lore lore is important but it's about being real and being able

01:32:00.320 to help our folk um when people come to you with tragedy in their family they don't want you to

01:32:07.200 recite some obscure viking poem to them they want you to give them advice from the heart

01:32:17.440 about how to heal and how to live right and how to make their family whole again as best you can

01:32:24.960 and the lord can help you understand our gods better but your connection that you build through

01:32:31.980 real experience and through your life is what's going to be able to help guide those people and

01:32:36.500 give them the spiritual advice they need so that's that's probably the worst advice so i hope i hope

01:32:44.260 that was helpful and got to got to what you were asking um bodie asks is there a program on the

01:32:52.720 Horizon to help adult new members to understand and internalize the lower. No, but several people

01:33:02.860 have asked about that lately. We had something like that at one time. When we get off of the

01:33:09.540 call tonight, I'm going to ask Witten Callahan, my good friend Brandy that does so many of these

01:33:19.620 things to help me out and help us out i'm gonna ask her about that because i think we have some

01:33:24.260 materials and some things along those lines so uh please get with me if i forget it and

01:33:30.660 it's good to see you on here tonight um finn asks is the afa against shows that blackwash european

01:33:41.860 histories or mythology or fantasy inspired by history or yes so there's a lot of that and would

01:33:49.940 you not encourage watching shows like lord of the rings or oh lord of the rings rings of power or

01:33:59.300 vikings valhalla um you guys are grown watch what you want to watch yes the afa is absolutely against

01:34:07.700 blackwashing stuff we love history history should be about what happened right wrong or otherwise

01:34:17.300 it's not about your current social issues we do everyone a disservice when we don't portray history

01:34:26.260 accurate to the best of our knowledge and understanding it's a disservice to everyone

01:34:32.100 i would never ever do that to other people's history and i do not stand for our history

01:34:38.580 being robbed from us and it's obvious on things where they blackwash and there's random

01:34:45.940 you know victorian era scottish earls that are black that's absurd uh where you watch viking

01:34:53.300 is vikings valhalla and real historical viking personages are portrayed by africans that's not 0.95

01:35:02.100 That's not right. And it would be universally understood as not right if we did that to Blacks or to Asians with their history. 0.94

01:35:12.560 It is equally as not right when they try due to political correctness to do that to our history. It's just wrong. 0.73

01:35:20.900 with fantasy it's a little bit different it's still wrong when it misportrays books and

01:35:29.940 long-standing traditions and it's insulting as if these other groups of people can't come up with

01:35:38.060 their own their own stories and their own histories and tales of their own people

01:35:42.620 that's the most racist thing is taking that away from the people and making it to where the only

01:35:48.800 things they can have that are worthwhile is stealing white things that's offensive and it

01:35:54.000 should be offensive to them as well um but i take this a step further uh the the racial considerations

01:36:02.640 aside i think that any time a film is done every single effort should be extended to portray real

01:36:12.720 people the best that we knew they were when we choose to out of our need for heroes and villains

01:36:20.560 to villainize historical figures inappropriately we rob real people of the real lives that they

01:36:29.200 led and that's fundamentally against the principles of ausitru we worship our ancestors we honor our

01:36:36.480 ancestors. Truth is just as valuable now and today as it is when we're portraying events of

01:36:43.400 the past. Truth should guide us in all of those endeavors. And I believe that strongly.

01:36:49.580 Trent, do you have any thoughts on this?

01:36:53.940 Pretty much just everything you said. And yeah, the biggest thing I would say is,

01:36:58.040 I know it's a common thing to say in this, but what if the shoe were on the other foot?

01:37:02.500 you know they're not going to want to watch uh a movie about martin luther king jr where he's 0.98

01:37:08.000 played by ryan gosling or something you know that's that's just stupid and i would be offended 0.91

01:37:14.100 on on their behalf a little bit if they tried to do that you know i wouldn't wish that on anybody 0.98

01:37:20.160 that's just silly and it's absurd and they know what they're doing and

01:37:24.960 so there's a common misconception too that white people used to do this in the old movies 0.95

01:37:34.100 and yeah a lot of the time you have uh different races of people played by white actors but if

01:37:39.520 they were playing uh indians they wear red makeup to try and darken their hair and dye their hair

01:37:47.340 black and try to look as indian as they could you know they'd tape their eyes back and get 0.98

01:37:53.580 silly teeth to try to look Asian. They do different stuff to at least try to portray the person 1.00

01:37:59.500 correctly. That's not done. There's an idea to steal our history from us and to teach

01:38:08.820 the current generation that that's really how it was and that these different races of people 0.98

01:38:15.200 were responsible for things that our ancestors are responsible for. And that's wrong.

01:38:20.680 uh joe asks what are your ethnic backgrounds and what are both of your thoughts on common

01:38:28.680 roots of the arian race trent go ahead and go first uh i'm as you can tell by my general pastiness

01:38:40.040 and uh baby face here i'm mostly english 80 something percent by a few dna test standards

01:38:49.080 i'm just kind of broadly british i've got some german dutch french and danish ancestry a little

01:38:54.920 bit as well pretty much just anglo um what about you sir um so largely my ancestors are from

01:39:08.520 mostly from england uh some from scotland and from ireland as well but my most recent

01:39:15.720 I think that makes up the bulk of my ancestry, but my most recent ancestors that came to the

01:39:23.600 Americas were an interesting couple, and I wish I knew a little bit more about them and their

01:39:28.860 relationship. The gentleman named Fritz Montanden was a Swissman from the Neuchatel.

01:39:39.200 now it's escaping me what French states are called it's going to bother me until I figure

01:39:47.440 it out hopefully somebody in the chat can save me here canton I think anyways yeah he came over

01:39:55.640 and he came over separately and his wife was named Sophie and she came from France so those are my

01:40:01.140 most recent folks in the new world most of my people have been in the Americas mostly in the

01:40:08.080 Carolinas, Arkansas, and Mississippi for hundreds of years, since before our nationhood, certainly.

01:40:20.120 So that's most of my ethnic background that I'm aware of.

01:40:24.500 so trent

01:40:35.420 why is rust in peace the greatest piece of art known to mankind this is a false question but

01:40:44.260 i'll let you answer it anyways i mean if you listen to it come on

01:40:51.600 so i knew i should have done this before the show i did not cue up uh cue up that picture

01:40:59.300 i should have um perhaps i can find it on his end because i think it's worth uh worth all of us

01:41:08.020 viewing um that being said thundercross asks does the afa intend to create intentional communities

01:41:18.740 so i'm glad you asked that and there it's it's very interesting when certain thoughts and ideas

01:41:29.360 move and percolate in the folk soul um

01:41:33.580 i think that's a really good idea i would encourage you to stay tuned in the coming

01:41:43.120 months and within the next year to hear a little bit more. And I'll tease that out there. Sorry

01:41:49.760 for that. And so that being said, I'll throw out this too. A lot of people want the buy-in

01:41:57.880 on this idea of these intentional communities. What I found over the years, and everyone talks

01:42:03.040 about this, but I found over the years that successful people picking up from where they live

01:42:08.860 and putting their stock in an intentional community is a very hard sell. It doesn't

01:42:14.560 mean it's not a worthy one. It doesn't mean it's not something that I think we should

01:42:17.700 aspire towards, but it's hard to do. It's very easy for folks that haven't been successful

01:42:25.900 in life to do those things and to be very fluid on where they live. And so that's a danger that

01:42:33.820 got to be careful of other thing our people love to talk they love to talk they love to plan they

01:42:39.580 love to say they're going to do stuff but what i found in my time is the commitment to actually do

01:42:44.940 that takes a little bit more and a lot of people there's quite a difference in the people who say

01:42:52.620 they're about that life to the people who are actually about that life um other thing i'd say

01:42:59.180 on that there are levels of participation in that um you can certainly start by moving to the same

01:43:11.740 county as other afa members or even moving to the same town as other may afa members

01:43:19.180 what i would love to see everybody who's able to out there today move to the towns where we have

01:43:24.860 hoffs if we had a you know a migration of afa members to brownsville california to lyndon

01:43:31.100 north carolina to murdoch minnesota and white springs florida that would get us so much closer

01:43:37.180 to the real value of intentional communities that you're talking about but

01:43:45.100 pay attention for the next few months and i think we got something that'll be exciting for you

01:43:48.540 um king of cheese a question i got a while ago what's the difference between cunning and cowardice

01:43:58.780 trent what do you think

01:44:01.360 um i'm not sure i understand the context i guess but cunning when i think of the word it's

01:44:12.820 kind of a cleverness where

01:44:15.440 I guess

01:44:18.080 so if I think of cunning I think of Odin

01:44:20.360 some of the things he's done

01:44:22.380 to attain things

01:44:24.300 like the runes or the meat

01:44:26.300 of inspiration

01:44:27.100 cowardice I think more like Loki

01:44:30.220 I suppose

01:44:31.300 hiding from things

01:44:33.920 hiding from the consequences of your

01:44:36.220 actions

01:44:36.660 I don't know

01:44:40.080 that's an interesting dichotomy I had

01:44:42.280 never really thought about nick play that funky music white boy load it up

01:44:57.880 all right i just want to say this doesn't detract from the awesomeness of that album

01:45:04.120 all right no it clearly it clearly does he's he's strumming on a slug

01:45:08.200 he's strumming on a giant slug and he's weeping clearly that detracts all that aside so the

01:45:13.880 cunning cowardice deal um excuse us we talk about really important things here but sometimes some

01:45:20.920 levity is is worth doing this is important cunning and cowardice though it's very very easy for

01:45:30.680 people to delude themselves and pretend that they're cunning when they're really acting out

01:45:36.600 of cowardice it's easy for you to strategically comfort yourself by taking the fear response

01:45:46.520 but you really know on the inside it's all part of your grand plan

01:45:51.560 be honest with yourself um truth i spoke about earlier is one of our most important values and

01:45:57.000 virtues are you really being cunning and and acting on some you know 3d chess or 4d chess

01:46:06.280 rather or are you just doing the mental gym gymnastics to justify a cowardly decision that

01:46:14.920 you make and that's human nature we all do that none of us are immune to that it's really easy

01:46:20.920 to think all the roundabout ways to it's really the right thing to do to do this easier thing

01:46:27.880 or this thing that that is is safer but pretending that really in the back of your

01:46:34.840 mind you have a grand plan to do the big reveal and so often the big reveal never happens um

01:46:43.480 i think we're much better served when we're we don't try to outsmart ourselves we act boldly

01:46:51.240 we act courageously and we act responsibly i think that's the best thing to do i think i've

01:46:57.160 heard too many people in my life pretend to be cunning when they're really masking cowardice

01:47:03.160 And, you know, at different stages in my life, I know I've done that, too.

01:47:07.440 I think we all do.

01:47:08.660 But we need to recognize that and correct it when we can.

01:47:13.480 But he asked both of y'all, where do you see the AFA in 25 years?

01:47:17.740 Trent, where do you see us in 25 years?

01:47:20.720 All over the galaxy.

01:47:22.480 I don't know.

01:47:23.740 25 years, realistically, I think we'll have a Hoff in most states.

01:47:29.720 I think we'd have one in Sweden by then, maybe in the United Kingdom. 0.69

01:47:33.160 oh man the gothar program will be even better than it is now we'll have so many awesome people

01:47:42.660 in leadership even more than we already do i don't know it's it's sort of like uh after

01:47:49.100 ragnarok how gimli is described with all this shining and all this gold and all this happiness

01:47:55.000 that's that's kind of how i see the afa now a little bit but in 25 years like i've said a

01:48:01.900 couple times, it's only going to keep getting better. So 25 years from now, I see it, you

01:48:07.760 know, being even better than it is now. So it's, it's a hard question to, it's hard

01:48:16.600 question to have or to answer. Because think we're in a time where things are evolving

01:48:24.140 and changing so quickly. Certainly, like Trent said, it's going to be shining and beautiful

01:48:29.920 and amazing. Exactly how that amazingness is going to manifest, it's very hard to tell.

01:48:37.040 I think certainly all 12 of those Hoffs I mentioned earlier are going to come to fruition,

01:48:41.100 and we'll be worshiping all 12 of those gods in their own Hoffs.

01:48:45.780 I think that spread will be much more even in the United States, and I think also by 25 years,

01:48:52.980 we'll certainly have an international Hoff somewhere outside of the United States.

01:48:58.560 If you ask today, that Hoff would probably be in Sweden.

01:49:01.660 But by that time, maybe it's in Australia.

01:49:03.660 Maybe it's in South Africa.

01:49:06.880 I'd love to see that, though.

01:49:10.000 I think that in 25 years, we'll certainly have, you know, five or more digits worth of membership.

01:49:18.960 I think in 25 years we'll have active AFA communities and hopefully Hoffs in all 50

01:49:29.160 states. 50 new, you know, 26 new Hoffs in 25 years. That's a big ask. We'll see. We'll see

01:49:38.100 how close we get. I think we will have thriving AFA communities in different parts of the United

01:49:44.040 states than we see today certainly i think as trent said our leadership will evolve exponentially

01:49:51.160 one of the cool things about our leadership and our gothar in specific is we uh we get to share

01:49:58.360 each other's experience every new gothi gets to come in with the wealth of experience of all of

01:50:06.520 the gothar who've come before them who've seen who've experienced who've done uh you know i'd

01:50:13.480 like to think that we do a good job as gothar and we certainly do our very best but we learn from

01:50:20.520 our successes and even more we learn from our failures the more we have leadership come in

01:50:28.200 they get to learn from all of that and bring that knowledge into the future with them

01:50:34.360 25 years is going to be in it's going to be amazing and i'm excited to see what the next 25 years will

01:50:40.200 bring um don asks actually first before we get to that we're almost two hours in we've got two more

01:50:52.520 questions left if you guys got questions please go ahead and throw them up like i said we'll gladly

01:50:58.680 answer any of you guys questions uh if you don't that's fine too and we'll call it a night but

01:51:05.160 we've got two more questions so if you got more please go ahead and get those out there for us

01:51:10.200 Oh, good call. So if you want to join us on entropy, I forgot to mention this at the top of the seven o'clock hour, you're able to give us tips and super chats. We really appreciate those. So go ahead and throw those up if you'd like to. But we appreciate you guys.

01:51:27.620 Anyways, Don asks, Trent, what are some daily rituals you do or recommend to begin your day?

01:51:44.020 There's a lot of little things you can do.

01:51:47.820 Honestly, when I first wake up, I just start running through my head of whatever AFA stuff I might have to get done that day,

01:51:55.900 like people I have to get back to or whatever.

01:51:57.620 or i'll just think about one of the gods or something but that's that's just me you know

01:52:04.500 my brain's kind of all aaa pretty much um but something i used to do i need to get back into

01:52:14.640 doing because it was really cool is uh doing a rune pull every day and i would just pull one

01:52:19.860 rune out of my folk futhark set and uh i would just kind of think of how that could relate to

01:52:27.780 my day and uh you know you'll find a way to relate it and learn a lesson from it i think

01:52:34.460 uh other things you can do if you wake up and you have time when the sun rises you can greet the day

01:52:41.840 that's a fun thing that a lot of people do um another thing you can do is just when you get

01:52:48.720 time go outside take a little walk through nature or just outside in general and just sort of

01:52:54.960 think about the work that went into making all that happen when odin billy and bay kind of crafted

01:53:01.360 midgard so yeah there's not like uh like a process of steps i can give you i guess there's lots of

01:53:12.480 little meditative things like that that sort of help enrich your worldview and your day a little bit

01:53:23.360 you know something really simple that i do and it i'm more of a nighttime guy than a morning guy

01:53:30.640 i think any of my ritual work i do come before my altar is is done in the evening but in the morning

01:53:37.840 so i wake up with my daughter because i've got a two and a half year old and when she decides

01:53:45.680 it's time to wake up it's time to wake up let's take her down the stairs and on doing that we go

01:53:52.000 by my picture wall with all of our ancestors and we we say good morning to the ancestors

01:53:58.240 and it may be simple but it's really neat when we go downstairs and descend into to our day in the

01:54:06.080 world we greet our ancestors and say hail the ancestors and you know i hold up my little daughter

01:54:13.120 and say good morning ancestors and she very often will point at one that's i don't know the picture

01:54:19.920 stands out to her or something you know i'll tell her who it is and maybe a little bit something

01:54:25.440 about them and i'll reassure that our ancestors love her and they set her down and go about our

01:54:30.400 day. It's such a simple little thing, but it's something that we do every day and kind of a nice

01:54:36.660 way to check in, I think. Notice over in the side, people talking about classic country. Appreciate

01:54:44.520 that. Somebody mentioned Marty Robbins. If you haven't heard it, if you don't have it, if you

01:54:48.860 don't listen to it, Trail Songs and Gunfighter Ballads by Marty Robbins is amazing. Although now

01:54:55.460 i'm a little bit more racially aware i don't like el paso as much as i once did

01:55:03.060 um that being said go see trend you mentioned earlier being in georgia

01:55:09.940 do you find it hard to follow such a traditional european religion in the bible belt

01:55:17.300 uh that's another one of those things that goes back to courage 0.61

01:55:21.860 my personal experience with this a lot of times the worst absolute worst reaction i'll get when

01:55:27.800 i tell someone i'm also true is they'll be like well that's weird i'll pray for you you know you're

01:55:33.240 going to hell but you're a good guy so whatever that's like the worst reaction i get so uh no

01:55:41.280 not really but you have to also keep in mind that while yes we are in the bible belt here in georgia

01:55:46.800 We're also living in a time where pretty much any religion and especially religion for our people is kind of looked down on as like superstition or old or obsolete, I guess.

01:56:02.740 And so, you know, Christians don't really care too much.

01:56:08.980 A lot of them are kind of just glad I have some sort of faith. 0.99

01:56:11.500 You know, I've said this before, but the paradigm we face today is atheism and progressivism

01:56:23.940 versus traditionalism and Christians or religious people in general that have a traditional

01:56:35.660 outlook and traditional Western values are much more natural allies to us than quote-unquote

01:56:44.580 pagans who have completely degenerate and misguided senses of morality. And I find that

01:56:53.420 that's a reaction we get from traditional folks of all different religions more often than not.

01:56:59.160 Now, some of them may have doctrines that say that we're destined for damnation,

01:57:03.220 but they kind of brush that off and are just happy that we're we're good normal folks that

01:57:10.300 have values that them and their families can recognize as opposed to the other end of the

01:57:15.960 spectrum that's very scary to all of us with traditional values and with children

01:57:20.960 so while i'm thinking of it on the album i just mentioned uh trail songs and gunfighter ballads

01:57:29.580 by Marty Robbins. Hanging Tree is a really good song. It's a song I don't think enough people are

01:57:34.260 familiar with, but I really enjoy it. I used to listen to that album, as a matter of fact,

01:57:38.940 with my grandfather. I can remember we'd go for, you know, we'd just go for drives in his old,

01:57:45.100 he had a Eddie Bauer Bronco 2. And that was my first car. I actually inherited that after he

01:57:53.740 passed and we would drive around town and we'd sometimes get some some fried shrimp from skippers

01:58:00.460 sometimes we'd get a get a whopper from from burger king and uh we we'd listen to some marty

01:58:08.700 robbins and remember some good times with my grandpa uh thanks for that just kind of random

01:58:14.860 aside but i'll put it out there um shovelhead i'm a new subscriber and i have a question

01:58:21.020 Are y'all's mission the preservation of the white race or just paganism like Old Norse worship?

01:58:28.820 So for our mission, I'd really encourage you to look at runestone.org.

01:58:35.060 That's our website.

01:58:37.320 It's got our declaration of purpose there.

01:58:40.020 And we have a lot of things on there.

01:58:45.240 I'm visited by my beautiful daughter, Aubrey.

01:58:48.780 funny enough the grandfather that i just mentioned where we'd listen to marty robbins

01:58:52.840 i actually named this little girl after because you know aubrey has kind of gone back and forth

01:58:57.740 between being a boy's name and a girl's name and i always thought it was pretty when i was a kid

01:59:01.860 anyways it was a quick

01:59:04.180 drive by on that and she took out my camera so let me try to get this figured i hope you guys

01:59:12.220 can still hear me still on your question certainly the preservation of the white race is part of

01:59:18.720 what we do because our gods and our, and our race are connected. We believe that really strongly 0.76

01:59:26.900 and that's because we're an ethnic faith. We think that all folk have a,

01:59:33.800 I apologize for the camera issues guys, all folk have a, have a unique connection to their gods

01:59:41.900 and certainly as a white people we have a unique connection to our gods and the afa is about

01:59:50.120 developing and preserving that so yeah of course and we want to have

01:59:55.860 we want to have kids and grandkids that look like us and look like our ancestors

02:00:02.140 um and we're proud of that uh so to answer your question i think that's the quickest answer i

02:00:08.860 have. But we're absolutely, again, just like earlier in the conversation, I don't want to

02:00:15.620 name us the Aryan Folk Assembly, we're the Astru Folk Assembly. So it's not just that.

02:00:22.100 So much of what we are isn't just that we're preserving white folks, but we happen to be 0.76

02:00:29.240 white folks who are loyal to the Iser and we're worshiping the Iser. We are the first 0.96

02:00:36.880 the first group to establish Hoffs to our gods. Once again, we have four Hoffs now to, to our 0.96

02:00:46.040 gods. Despite any confusion, our, our focus is, is on our gods and on our faith and our spirituality.

02:00:56.060 And certainly that has an ethnic component because we want what's best to our extended family,

02:01:00.880 to our people but uh yeah so both of those things combine for what we're trying to do

02:01:08.080 i hope that answers your question and again i direct you to our website with our declaration

02:01:13.360 of purpose for for more on that um daniel asks apologies if this has been asked but

02:01:21.440 trent how have you grown as a person since becoming a gothi

02:01:28.000 um i i've just learned a lot of a lot of i guess skills in

02:01:40.480 almost like stoicism i guess so like in counseling somebody might be having the

02:01:46.080 the worst day of their life you know and they're just their emotions are all over the place and

02:01:51.760 you need to kind of be the bigger person and you need to stay calm and steady and give them solid

02:01:58.500 advice or just a solid ear to uh you know hear what they have to say you need to exercise patience

02:02:07.960 in that regard and so I think that's the biggest thing is just the patience

02:02:12.920 so forgive me I know you probably get tired of this it's been really a special privilege

02:02:24.920 Trent mentions that he has been in the AFA his entire adult life it's been really special to

02:02:34.020 watch trent grow into manhood in the afa and to grow and develop and i think he was fantastic

02:02:44.820 when he joined the afa it's been really nice to watch him develop as a man in his time in the afa

02:02:51.860 and i'm really honored to be able to to watch that as that continues

02:02:57.060 so ryan asks what is the folk futhark is it like the elder futhark so we talked about this a little

02:03:08.040 bit earlier but basically the folk futhark is combining the the the pictures or the rune

02:03:15.120 staves of the younger futhark the anglo-saxon futhark the elder futhark and the armin and

02:03:24.300 runes together to get a holistic combination of all those systems. Now, we're using the Elder

02:03:36.140 Futhark as the template, but we're using some of the different shapes and designs of those

02:03:41.220 runes from the different systems as a celebration of our overall runic history. As far as esoteric

02:03:50.300 linguistic meanings certainly we've kept them you know all of that is the same as the elder futhark

02:03:56.220 but at the afa we believe in in layering those with the additional futharks so if you take the

02:04:02.300 same rune and you take it all the way through those evolutions it adds some perspective and

02:04:07.580 some meaning and i think that's the case when we use the the elder futhark as it is

02:04:13.420 is you layer on the meanings of those other runic systems um because at the end of the day

02:04:19.580 rune means mystery the rune isn't the stave it's not the you know the line design of the room

02:04:28.460 it's this the mystery that that rune represents and so we're representing those with you know

02:04:36.140 some of the different staves from all the different systems but the essential mystery

02:04:40.860 is the same that's combined in those in those elder futhark runes and the uh the lore that

02:04:47.020 we've accumulated through the ages on better understanding those

02:04:53.340 shay asks good evening gentlemen we're excited to have y'all out to oklahoma for the feast of

02:04:59.500 the iron here you are this november have either of you been out to home oklahoma to our runestone

02:05:07.020 i have never been to oklah i was in oklahoma one time it was i flew in there and then i

02:05:16.140 went to an event in missouri but i was in oklahoma very very briefly and then i drove up to uh

02:05:21.740 missouri so i'm excited to go out and see that and i have never seen the havener runestone

02:05:26.380 trent what about you i've never been to oklahoma i've been to missouri i imagine it was the same

02:05:32.860 event that you were speaking of um i have not been to oklahoma yet no i've not seen the runestone

02:05:39.900 but i'm excited for the event for sure so point of fact it was not the same event i've been to

02:05:46.700 missouri exactly twice i went to one event um the the first event i went to i forget how many

02:05:52.860 years ago now was a book signing that brian wilton was doing and i got to visit his home

02:05:58.300 in oklahoma and he drove me up to this event in missouri last year i was lucky enough to go to

02:06:03.100 missouri for uh the feast of the einherjar and it's going to be the same event that trent and

02:06:07.980 and I will be attending in Oklahoma, and I really do hope we get a chance to go see the Havener

02:06:12.700 runestone. I've heard really, really good things about it over the years. I was able to see,

02:06:19.980 now my words escape me, the runestone that is in Minnesota, and that was a really neat thing to see.

02:06:28.800 It's bothering me. I can't remember the name of it right now, but it will come to me,

02:06:32.460 but I'm excited to see the one in Havener as well.

02:06:37.460 Don asks,

02:06:38.660 how hard was your transition to never go back out to true from the

02:06:43.240 Christian life with concerned others or your former

02:06:47.880 indoctrination telling you you're going the wrong way?

02:06:51.780 He didn't put a name on it. So we'll start with you first, Trent.

02:06:57.180 Well, I was raised kind of this weird combination of Southern Baptist.

02:07:02.460 and Mormon, sort of back and forth. And then, like I kind of mentioned at the start of the video,

02:07:08.900 I was super, like, liberal, atheist, always skeptic of everything type. And for me, going

02:07:17.980 into Asatru from, you know, nothing is sacred, whatever cringy mindset I had at age 18, I guess,

02:07:26.760 going from that into Asitru was pretty easy for me in a way just because I like to believe that

02:07:38.880 I was meant to be Asitru. And so when I heard about it and I was hearing all these experiences

02:07:45.120 of it from my friend, it just pulled me in and I haven't looked back. But I remember I was still

02:07:54.100 in high school when I went from being an atheist to Osatru, you know, it was a couple months from

02:07:58.380 graduation and all my friends, uh, were kind of like taken aback by my, my change in, uh, outlook,

02:08:07.320 I guess, not necessarily in a negative way, but just there was a noticeable change, I suppose.

02:08:13.940 And yeah, nothing really, no negative consequences of what I suppose just kind of happened. And I

02:08:21.300 was young enough where I guess a change like that is like, you know, well, whatever, he's a teenager,

02:08:25.300 he's going to change his mind about things. So everybody just went along with it. And here I am.

02:08:31.740 So my, my experience is a little bit different. I was, I was raised as generically Protestant as

02:08:42.260 you could possibly be. When I was real little, we went to church. But as you know, any of my

02:08:49.880 conscious memory really after that we didn't we're in a church going family when you ask my

02:08:55.360 parents what religion we are they kind of shrug their shoulders and we're protestant and that's

02:09:00.500 the best i got um but i was a real spiritual person as a kid i remember in junior high

02:09:07.940 um having a real need that way and my parents didn't have much to offer to me spiritually

02:09:15.160 So I started reading my Bible and I read through it several times.

02:09:19.580 And at that time, I didn't really know what options there were for me.

02:09:23.100 I was, you know, I'm not Jewish, so I wouldn't pursue Judaism.

02:09:29.520 I'm not Middle Eastern, so I wouldn't be Islamic.

02:09:33.440 You know, I'm not Asian, so I wouldn't be a Buddhist or a Hindu or Shinto or something. 0.72

02:09:39.840 So I thought all we had as white people was Christianity. 0.86

02:09:43.260 And I tried that. I tried that really hard for a while. My aunt and her family were Jehovah's Witnesses. So I ended up being part of that and becoming a Jehovah's Witness for a time.

02:09:59.180 Um, I will always really respect the Jehovah's Witnesses that they try as best as they can to be biblically accurate. They remove all of the paganism that they notice from the scriptures, and they keep it, you know, Middle Eastern, Jesus era Christianity as best they can.

02:10:20.000 And I'm very thankful to that because that faith is very incompatible with our folk soul, especially if you take away all of the European elements that are part of most of Christianity. 0.88

02:10:34.460 If you take all of those out and you keep it to biblical Christianity, it makes the choice much more clear, I think. 0.92

02:10:43.780 So I tried that the best I could, but I was a young man and, you know, in the 19 or 20 year old part of my life, I tried so hard and I read my Bible over and over again. 0.75

02:11:00.600 But one of the other things that contributed was a mainstream Christian thing.

02:11:06.000 This wasn't a Jehovah's Witness thing, but the what would Jesus do slogan was a big deal back then.

02:11:11.300 And I started thinking about what the right thing would be to do and what would Jesus do.

02:11:18.240 And I found that very often those didn't intersect and those weren't the same.

02:11:23.660 And I started, you know, I'd go to the kingdom hall and I'd listen to the elders up there and they'd say, you know, they'd say these things that I thought were ridiculous.

02:11:35.960 And my friends in the congregation would, amen. 0.57

02:11:41.300 And I knew damn well that they didn't believe those things.

02:11:45.420 You know, they'd talk about movies or video games or this activity or hunting or whatever.

02:11:50.380 And we had plans that weekend to do that thing.

02:11:54.040 And they would say amen to it.

02:11:55.380 And I'm like, hold on, you're still coming over, right?

02:11:57.540 Of course they are.

02:11:58.980 And so I decided that I needed to live authentically.

02:12:02.040 I wasn't going to be dishonest.

02:12:04.120 And my hang up, it occurred to me, it wasn't that I felt I was doing something wrong.

02:12:10.040 But I knew it was against the doctrine of the Bible and the doctrine of the church.

02:12:16.300 And so finally, I got to a point.

02:12:19.340 This is before I knew how it was true as a thing, where I knew I didn't want to live my life that way.

02:12:28.940 But I also didn't understand that there was another option.

02:12:33.280 So when I broke with Christianity, I very much chose that the God of the universe was on one side and I was going to go and be on this different side.

02:12:44.920 So weirdly, syncretically, the first house to event I ever celebrated was a day of remembrance for King Radbot.

02:12:58.640 His story has always stood out to me.

02:13:01.040 for those of you who don't know, Radbod was a king of Frasier at the time of the conversion.

02:13:07.240 And he was being pressured by the Franks to convert to Christianity. And he was almost ready

02:13:13.620 to do it. And he's, you know, at that point where he's believing everything and he's believing in

02:13:18.920 the hellfire and the damnation and the Christian God. And he's about to step into the baptismal 0.99

02:13:23.940 font. And he asked the priest, he says, you know, where are my ancestors though? Will I be able to

02:13:29.420 see my ancestors in heaven. And they said, no, your ancestors are burning in hell. And he said,

02:13:36.040 I'd rather burn in hell with my noble ancestors than spend eternity in heaven with a parcel of 1.00

02:13:42.200 beggars. And with that, he stepped out and he reaffirmed his also true relationship. 1.00

02:13:50.580 That meant a lot to me because at that moment, he thought he was really facing

02:13:54.620 eternal damnation with his ancestors or the christian heaven of eternal praising their

02:14:03.060 their jewish god um and that's very much where i felt like i was at that time so i uh i chose

02:14:12.980 well first i didn't know this was the thing but i was a very spiritual person and i uh

02:14:19.360 And I knew that our folk had gods before, you know, the Middle Eastern God came to Europe.

02:14:26.320 So I was looking into that and I thought I was the only one doing this.

02:14:30.220 And I tried to find out the right way to do it.

02:14:32.460 And in Googling that, I found this guy, Stephen McNallan in the Austro Folk Assembly.

02:14:38.080 And I've been hooked ever since.

02:14:42.660 My own parents have, you know, I've always been kind of OK with it.

02:14:46.420 Like I said, they were never very religious. 0.91

02:14:48.060 My aunt and the Jehovah's Witnesses in my family, I've been disfellowshipped, so they're not allowed to talk with or interact with me.

02:14:59.560 And that's sad, but I understand that choice based on their faith.

02:15:06.720 My parents, I don't know how serious they took it for a long time.

02:15:13.460 It was really special to me.

02:15:15.220 My wife and I got married at Odenshof in 2017, and my father and my stepmother came to our wedding.

02:15:23.580 And it was at Midsummer at Odenshof.

02:15:25.720 So they got to be there for a couple of days and see what it is that their son was doing.

02:15:31.420 And it was really special to me because at that moment, it became real to them.

02:15:36.020 They got to see that there were these other people and everyone took this very seriously

02:15:40.580 and that their son was a leader in this faith that he's chosen.

02:15:46.700 And I think that's meant something to them ever since then.

02:15:50.380 But that was kind of my experience.

02:15:52.480 I know it was a little bit long-winded.

02:15:57.080 Shovelhead asks, what brought you people to worship these gods?

02:16:01.220 Are y'all military?

02:16:02.780 I've been to war in Iraq and Afghanistan,

02:16:05.420 so I know evil beyond what usual humans can comprehend.

02:16:10.300 trent go ahead and take the first swing at this okay so uh i was in the military i was

02:16:17.420 army national guard i didn't get to deploy for combat i just deployed across the states to help

02:16:22.700 with like pulling cars out of inclement weather unfortunately um i was infantry so i was

02:16:30.060 sort of uh i had that like wanting to go to combat mindset i guess for a long time

02:16:36.060 um as for what brought me to worship these gods specifically it's kind of they were the gods my

02:16:41.820 ancestors you know um my ancestors being largely anglo-saxon you know they worship woden thunor

02:16:50.460 and two or odin thorn tier and so that was pretty much just the original thing that drew me to them

02:16:57.900 um as far as that relates to the military i uh i felt a really specific closeness to thor

02:17:06.720 when i was in the infantry um but uh like i said my army career wasn't a whole lot it was just

02:17:16.200 three years of training the whole time pretty much so not a whole lot of relation i guess between

02:17:24.300 my faith and my brief stint in the service.

02:17:32.680 So, guys, if you have any questions, we're, you know, into our third hour here. If you guys have

02:17:39.700 any more questions, please go ahead and ask those because we're running down. We have one more

02:17:43.640 question after this. So yeah, if you got questions, go ahead and get them out there. If not, we'll

02:17:49.620 talk to you guys again next week shovelhead on your question um first thank you for your service

02:17:57.300 uh i have not ever been in the military i told my story of how i got involved in house of true um

02:18:08.260 it's appealed to me a lot because it's it's natural of the virtues of alsa true

02:18:14.340 are very much life embracing whereas the abrahamic faiths are kind of life denying

02:18:24.020 all the inclinations of a young man's heart according to the bible every inclination of

02:18:29.300 man's heart is upon evil i don't believe that i think that the things that are in our heart that

02:18:34.820 drive us come from our folk soul and are are very often in the right context very good and very

02:18:42.180 noble things. Certainly in being a Jehovah's Witness at the time, anything sexual, anything

02:18:53.960 martial was wrong. And as a young man, no, those things are very important. Standing up for

02:19:00.900 myself and what I believe in is very important. Wanting to engage with women and do that and be

02:19:12.020 a sexually active person was very important. Wanting to have pride in myself and do things

02:19:20.660 to bring pride to myself and my family was very important. One of the biggest things to me was

02:19:25.900 conceiving of the Christian God. He's always talked about as our father, our father. If he

02:19:32.440 were a human father and he demanded all the glory for everything and wouldn't allow you to be proud

02:19:39.500 of yourself, we would find that to be abusive and wrong. One of the things I love about

02:19:45.800 Austertru is I want our gods to be proud of us. And I believe that our gods want us to

02:19:52.420 be heroes so that they can be proud of us. And I don't think they're so petty that they

02:19:57.760 need all of the glory. They want us to glorify them, certainly. But they're not made less

02:20:03.720 by me gaining glory if anything it makes me more worthy of them taking note of me

02:20:10.520 and that was very special to me a part of why this became my faith

02:20:16.680 so last question we have in the night unless anything else comes through here king of cheese

02:20:24.200 if you two are willing to answer another question as a blacksmith i pray to the

02:20:29.160 The Tree de Danon and Tuatha de Danon, when I forge.

02:20:35.040 What Germanic gods do you suggest I pray to?

02:20:38.580 Trent, go ahead.

02:20:41.560 There is a specific Smith god in the Germanic stories.

02:20:48.540 It was called Boland to the Norse, Wayland to the Anglo-Saxons.

02:20:54.600 And I guess he wasn't a god.

02:20:57.520 He was more an ascended human, but he was a smith.

02:21:03.620 And so that's who I would pray to in that endeavor.

02:21:08.200 And he's a cognate, I'm pretty sure, to one of the Celtic gods.

02:21:14.300 I think he's a guvnu.

02:21:15.600 I don't know if I'm pronouncing that right, but he's direct cognate to that Gaelic smith god.

02:21:23.240 so uh i just saw the second half of your question the way it goes up on the side i can't always see

02:21:30.480 the full question so i apologize absolutely with uh trent on this wayland would be who i would

02:21:36.640 you know make offering to before i did smithing wayland the smith is is our you know beyond the

02:21:46.180 a veil smithing advocate so I think that's your best bet uh I also have a reminder from Nick and

02:21:54.220 I think this is important especially as it's September every quarter the AFA uh donates a 1.00

02:22:00.880 lump sum to help our folk in South Africa uh many of you know about the uh atrocities that

02:22:09.640 committed against our folk in south africa white farmers in south africa have been targeted for

02:22:18.680 having their land taken from them being robbed being raped and being murdered violently

02:22:27.960 many of those folks have been impoverished where they literally sometimes live in dumps

02:22:33.960 in corrugated steel huts they've been able to cobble together. A lot of them are in a really

02:22:41.300 bad way. So every quarter the AFA collects donations and we pay out every quarter to

02:22:47.920 the South Africa Family Relief Project. And we've been doing this for a number of years.

02:22:54.800 I don't pretend it fixes everything over there, but I do know that it makes life better for some

02:23:01.680 people so if you guys want to contribute to that our south africa fund uh all of that money goes

02:23:08.080 to the folks over in south africa and they're very very grateful for it um and it helps those people

02:23:14.400 to have enough to eat most of most of our donations now we've done stuff to uh farm

02:23:19.280 fencing projects before but most of our donations end up going to the grocery list for that

02:23:25.280 organization. They've got one of the squatter camps that they deal with and help feed those 0.99

02:23:32.240 people. For a long time, baby formula was a big thing they were lacking. Mothers are lacking the 0.96

02:23:39.080 nutrients to produce healthy milk for the babies. And formula prices have gone up. So a lot of the

02:23:46.540 money that we send over there ends up going to baby formula. But those people are very, very

02:23:53.180 grateful your dollar goes a long way in south africa the dollar to rand ratio comes out

02:24:00.460 very advantageous when it comes to groceries certainly so any of you guys help we really

02:24:05.740 really appreciate that um that's all we've got for questions tonight thank you guys so much

02:24:12.300 for joining us uh trent we really appreciate you being here tonight and talking to us we'd

02:24:17.980 We'd love to have you back on sometime.

02:24:25.220 All right, guys.

02:24:26.320 Well, thank you for listening to us for the last, I don't know, almost two and a half hours now.

02:24:31.120 We appreciate you.

02:24:32.060 And I look forward to talking to you guys again next week.

02:24:35.420 Hail the gods.

02:24:36.560 Hail the folk.

02:24:37.560 Hail the AFA.

02:24:38.780 And remember, victory never sleeps.

02:24:42.080 Good night, guys.

02:24:47.980 We'll be right back.

02:25:17.980 Transcription by CastingWords

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Asatru Folk Assembly - September 08, 2022

9⧸7⧸22 Victory Never Sleeps, Episode 9

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