00:01:20.480The ancestors whisper to us all the time if only we have ears to listen.
00:01:26.640Responding to their call brings healing to us as individuals and to our people as well.
00:01:33.420In our last podcast, we addressed the subject of Asatru communities
00:01:38.300and what the Asatru Folk Assembly is doing about them.
00:01:42.500I would like to continue that discussion.
00:01:45.180In particular, I want to restate what I said last time,
00:01:48.860that the idea of Asatru communities is not a new thing.
00:01:52.880I also want to make it clear that this is the way forward for the Asatru Folk Assembly.
00:01:59.460The AFA's mission statement is, quote,
00:02:02.360to practice, promote, and further evolve the religion of Asatru,
00:02:06.660thus forging it into a powerful and effective tool for building a better world, unquote.
00:02:13.420There are many ways of approaching this momentous task,
00:02:17.160but communities could certainly be a part of that.
00:02:19.640The AFA's vision statement is much more explicit, quote,
00:02:24.520The AFA envisions a future in which a substantial percentage of European-descended people worldwide have returned to their ancestral Germanic religion, bound together in an extended community of the folk, serving their spiritual, social, and economic needs, the nation of Odin, unquote.
00:02:45.500This is far beyond merely educating people about our faith.
00:02:50.500It says outright that we are going to practice it not merely at the individual and the family level,
00:02:56.260but in the context of a community structure that will address not only that which is obviously spiritual,
00:03:02.400but which will deal with all facets of our lives in a holistic manner.
00:03:08.780Finally, there is the AFA's defining document, the Declaration of Purpose.
00:03:13.520Point four says that one of our aims is, quote, the restoration of community, the banishment of alienation, and the establishment of natural and just relations among our people.
00:03:28.360Our ancestors had religious and social folkways that gave them a feeling of continuity and community, yet jealously preserved individual rights.
00:03:37.440We can and will re-establish this natural order among our people.
00:03:43.180Let us have an ingathering of the folk.
00:03:48.640The religious values of Alcetru encourage sound families and provide an extended family or tribe to support the basic family unit.
00:03:57.020We help each other materially, socially, and religiously.
00:04:01.000At the same time, we respect the urge for privacy and allow individuals and families the space they need to run their own lives.
00:04:10.620Okay, so building communities is clearly part of our job description.
00:04:15.960Just what does that mean and how will we go about it?
00:04:20.300First, we need to understand that communities are people, not land and buildings.
00:04:26.900Some communities have these things, but most do not.
00:04:30.620The fact that they do not have them at this moment does not mean that they are not communities.
00:04:36.760Here's the way I see it from an AFA viewpoint, but the basics pertain to any group.
00:04:42.600The AFA community in any locality starts the moment two AFA members meet each other for the first time.
00:04:49.240They immediately begin building bonds, a process that starts with one buying the other a cup of coffee or a glass of beer,
00:04:57.160and which can, under ideal conditions, culminate years later in lifelong friendship or marriage
00:05:04.000or other permanent and mutually beneficial options.
00:05:08.260One or two people can establish a meetup, maybe or maybe not through something like meetup.com.
00:05:15.320Arranging to meet other AFA members at a pub moot or a coffee moot can be the beginning of something much larger.
00:05:22.220In time, a kindred or a small local organization may evolve out of this arrangement.
00:05:28.100Notice that we're still not talking about purchasing land yet.
00:05:32.360The kindred will probably meet in someone's home or in a park or in a rented facility.
00:05:38.160Eventually, the group may become both much larger and more tightly bound by time and mutual experiences.
00:05:46.020As this happens, purchasing land becomes more possible.
00:05:49.160The community may, just as an example, buy a small parcel, maybe land that is not suitable for home sites, but just fine for a roped-off outdoor ritual area that later gets a roof over it and, still later, a hoth complete with walls.
00:06:06.040The next step, what most people are talking about when they mention a community, or an intentional community, or what is now being called a resilient community, is a fairly large plot of land with places of worship, homes, businesses, gardens, a school, a place to bury our dead, and so forth.
00:06:26.560This is a huge undertaking, and barring a donation from a wealthy individual, it is the desired culmination, not the starting point for most of us.
00:06:37.800The people come first. Without them, land and buildings are nothing. With them, the land and buildings will come.
00:06:47.960But even at this point, we do not necessarily have something we would call a tribe.
00:06:54.000As Seth, one of our AFA members, noted the other day, and I'm paraphrasing this,
00:06:59.500a kindred can be formed in a year, but a true tribe takes generations.
00:07:04.360I completely agree with this long-term designation.
00:07:08.340As you can see, there is a whole spectrum of community.