Asatru Folk Assembly - August 2019 Facebook Live DIscussion

00:00:00.000 Hey guys, just giving it a few seconds for folks to get on tonight.

00:00:24.600 Welcome to everybody who's out there

00:00:31.400 I always look forward to this

00:00:34.200 I'm glad to see you guys popping up over there in the corner

00:00:37.620 Hey Jason, glad you could make it tonight

00:00:42.820 Hey Rob

00:00:46.460 It's like we got a bunch of folk builders in attendance so far

00:00:52.460 um so you know this is if you get a chance to check out the afa's youtube channel i've started

00:00:59.040 to put these after the fact on there uh this last month i've loaded a lot of things on the

00:01:04.660 youtube channel so go ahead and check that out we got a link on the website www.runestone.org

00:01:10.940 if you want to listen to any of these from past months or other videos i'm trying to put up on

00:01:15.880 there um and yeah after we get this one done and over i'll load this one up on there as well

00:01:21.820 So, how's everybody doing tonight?

00:01:29.380 Hey, Dan. Hey, Ann. Hey, Steve. Wrong?

00:01:36.980 Well, as always, format for tonight is question and answers.

00:01:43.140 If you guys have anything that you want to know, any questions, anything you want me to talk about,

00:01:48.240 Please send out a message and let's see what we can get answered.

00:01:56.760 Probably going to plug it a few times during tonight's conversation, but if we have anybody listening,

00:02:04.060 first, anybody at all, but specifically anybody in the New England area, anyone near Massachusetts,

00:02:11.720 on the 17th, I'm going to be out in Massachusetts for the AFA Fray Faxi event.

00:02:18.240 Stoneship Hearth is hosting that. We are very excited to go out there and support our

00:02:24.800 Massachusetts AFA family. I'm looking forward to being there and meeting you guys that I haven't

00:02:30.420 gotten a chance to meet and saying hi to some friends that I have. This is going to be my first

00:02:36.760 time that far north over on the east coast. I'm pretty excited about that, excited about seeing

00:02:41.260 Massachusetts a little bit. Yes, that's going to be pretty exciting. Like I say, if you guys can

00:02:48.120 make it out to that. It's a day-long event. It's going to be a really nice afternoon. We're going

00:02:53.000 to celebrate. We're going to have a meal, have some good times meeting each other and having

00:02:57.780 some fellowship there. So if anybody wants to come out, anybody's able to come out, let me know,

00:03:03.660 let Cliff know, let Derek or any of the guys up there know, and we'll get you all set up and

00:03:09.640 get that figured out for you. In the world of events, if anybody can make it, what else we

00:03:19.620 have coming up? Let's check the weekend here, but first weekend of, yeah, first weekend of September

00:03:31.840 we're having Fall Fest. Fall Fest in Minnesota is one of our very best events. This is going to be

00:03:37.640 the fourth one. Jason Gallagher and Blaine Qualls have done a great job of hosting those and building

00:03:44.800 that event. It's a fantastic time. It's great people. If you're traveling in, they're some of

00:03:52.240 the AFA's very best people there. They would give you the shirt off their back, do anything to help

00:03:58.500 you out. If that's an event you think you can make and you'd like to, we can get you all set up. People

00:04:03.120 would love to give you some help and we'd love to see you out there. So keep that in mind too as we

00:04:06.760 throughout tonight's program does anybody have any questions or anything that's on their mind

00:04:12.440 they'd like us to talk about i notice in uh our group today i want to want to announce and you

00:04:20.440 know bring you guys attention to the fact that we now have an afa kindred in brazil i think that is

00:04:28.280 absolutely fantastic and i'd love to welcome our uh welcome our afa brothers and sisters

00:04:36.440 in brazil i am so glad to have them with us thank you for coming on the show tonight and being here

00:04:43.560 thank you for being part of the afa family and thank you for for building something down in

00:04:47.720 south america you guys are our first kindred in south america and hopefully we can get more going

00:04:53.880 on in your area hi Katie all right so questions questions anybody have anything

00:05:05.640 they want to talk about or any subjects that are particularly interesting to

00:05:10.060 them this month or in general well in the meantime I want to kind of mention

00:05:22.200 something we're focused, trying to focus a lot more on in the AFA lately, and that's our modern

00:05:28.020 Ausatru history. I've spent a lot of time over the past days and weeks. Before that, Alan spent a

00:05:36.660 lot of time, and we've really tried to load up a lot of old issues of the runestone and a number

00:05:42.960 of other really amazing, amazing old finds from back to the Ausatru free assembly days. We have

00:05:51.300 things on our website in our download section of the library from the early 1980s. I've uploaded

00:05:59.180 a bunch of things this week from 1985. So there's a lot of really fascinating things there. And if

00:06:05.660 you guys haven't checked it out, you should go to www.roomstone.org and look at that library

00:06:11.200 section on those downloads. They're not terribly long, but they're fascinating looks at where we

00:06:17.940 came from and how we got here and all of the all of the work and all of the joy and love that went

00:06:24.740 into uh steven mcnellen building this for us and establishing our faith um we've got a proud history

00:06:34.140 we've got a long history and it's been a real blessing for me to be able to read those and look

00:06:39.700 over those as i've been uploading them i still have more material to upload if you guys have

00:06:44.560 old issues of the rune stone or you know anybody who does that are not represented on that website

00:06:50.480 please let me know we would love to get that digitized and get them on there um i think

00:06:55.760 learning about our history is not only is it fascinating but i think it's extremely important

00:07:02.080 for a faith that is so so very focused on history when we look at you know the ancient days of our

00:07:08.960 ancestors it's perhaps even more important that we become aware of the

00:07:15.620 history of you know our fathers and their father's generation and the

00:07:20.560 foundations of what we have today because it's been an amazing struggle

00:07:24.380 and an amazing story to get here and we owe those people learning about that

00:07:31.660 it's like we got a bunch of people on here tonight somebody's got to have a question for

00:07:44.400 me or something they want to talk about let me take a quick look here at the facebook and see

00:07:49.800 anybody is commenting on there because that very often will uh generate a couple of different

00:07:57.240 comments that i don't get on this live feed on the chat like i say we're still trying to work

00:08:01.340 on that if we got anybody listening that knows about this system a little bit better so we can

00:08:06.160 figure out why we missed some of the comments i would uh i'd really like to know because

00:08:11.540 like i say i want to answer all your guys comments i've said this before but anybody that

00:08:16.460 has um anybody that has any questions or asks anything that that i don't answer it's not

00:08:26.240 because i'm ignoring you it's because i don't see it on the side and i'll be happy to go through

00:08:30.140 who tomorrow and later this evening can answer anything.

00:08:43.300 Hmm.

00:08:50.500 Alright, Rob, I would be happy to and thank you for,

00:08:53.660 thank you for chiming in with something you want to discuss.

00:08:57.840 Hope Builder in Virginia, Rob Stam, is asking,

00:09:01.120 he mentions that we have a lot of babies and families coming into the AFA.

00:09:05.300 And I'm sure my wife will chime in over on the side on just how many of you that is, 0.78

00:09:09.680 but it's been an overwhelming tide of the next generation this year so far. 0.96

00:09:14.960 We've had so many AFA babies. 0.55

00:09:17.720 And so Rob was asking a little bit about naming customs and newborn rituals.

00:09:22.860 probably my favorite thing that I get to do as I'll hear you go see is to perform a baby name

00:09:32.460 I've been lucky enough to perform

00:09:36.420 five baby naming so far and I'm looking forward to doing as many as I can

00:09:43.980 can it's my custom when we're doing a baby naming to also accompany it with a

00:09:52.920 room pole ideally the night before if I've had a chance to to hold the baby

00:09:59.100 and get a sense of it I tend to if I can have three receptacles for for me

00:10:13.740 and make a little offering to earth for dandy and skull for blessings on the

00:10:22.800 child and that's kind of what I do with the rune pull I ask that the norms grant

00:10:30.060 blessings to the newborn child and when I pull the runes one for each of those

00:10:35.500 norms and I try to bestow upon that child from the norms of gift a blessing

00:10:43.080 of of where they come from a blessing of where they are and a blessing of of where they'll go in

00:10:49.160 their life and affix that child when we do the naming uh very often i'll uh assuming both parents

00:10:56.280 are present they'll be up there with me and the child in front of in front of the folk sometimes

00:11:01.400 we'll have them call up you know close friends or members of their family and say words over the horn

00:11:07.960 and i'll toast that child for the first time bringing them in those runes that i mentioned

00:11:13.000 that i did the poll when i do that i will use um use mead or i've also used water before to

00:11:20.920 to trace the rune on the child's head and kind of imbued them with that blessing as i'm giving

00:11:27.160 them their name or rather as i'm passing on to them the name that their parents have chosen for

00:11:33.080 them and it's really a special time and i also try to uh try to get the folk involved so that

00:11:43.560 they accept this child and make commitments to be there to support that child and that new family as

00:11:49.560 they grow and develop i think it's extremely important that within the afa and our afa family

00:11:55.240 in a bigger sense that we are there for those children and those families trying to raise

00:11:59.480 those children so they have a whole community there to support them and to bring them up in

00:12:04.720 our church to bring them up in the afa and so i think there's something special knowing that as

00:12:10.220 they grow they will always have a support system that way and i genuinely mean that and i hope

00:12:17.040 that everyone else does when we say those words and all us in it and say hail we talk about what

00:12:22.300 we'll do for those children because it's very exciting to watch and grow up steve you asked

00:12:27.480 why the norns specifically the norns are the norns are the are the beings the the mothers that

00:12:36.900 that weave together fate that weave together weird and give these give us all a uh a start

00:12:48.460 and a a pattern in the tapestry that we're going to weave and they set a course and and guide us

00:12:56.960 a way certainly when we're placing a name on that child that's when we're laying down those first

00:13:02.720 layers that that or log that the child comes into this world with and the first bits of weird that

00:13:09.760 will build that tapestry throughout their life so we think it's really important to have um to have

00:13:16.160 the norns bestow a blessing upon that child and look favorably on them when they first start out

00:13:21.840 So it's, everything in life is easier

00:13:24.620 when you've got a good head start.

00:13:46.460 Tobias.

00:13:47.760 It's not hard to see that, he mentions that it's not hard to see that some people have a very negative view of the AFA and drag our name through the mud.

00:13:59.200 And he wants to know if there's any ideas on how to combat that.

00:14:05.460 I wish there was some, you know, I wish there was some grand formula that I have that, you know, we can go out and lay waste to our foes and this and that.

00:14:14.200 But honestly, at the end of the day, the more that we are successful and the more that we do, the more we're going to have people detract from what we do.

00:14:25.160 That's a consequence of success in doing things.

00:14:28.520 It's a crab in the bucket kind of thing.

00:14:30.520 If you're able to accomplish what others aren't, everyone wants to bring you back down.

00:14:34.720 I think that the best thing the AFA can do and what I advise us to do is to set the example and to show through our deeds and who we are that we're doing something good, that we have something, that we have a spiritual value that other people would want to emulate and have in their lives and would want to be a part of.

00:14:56.840 um it's not as satisfying as some you know as maybe fantasies folks have but we in reality

00:15:05.920 that's the best way to accomplish what we're trying to do is to be that example and set the

00:15:12.380 example and be consistent it's very hard to get people to buy into those narratives

00:15:17.980 once they know the afa they see afa members that go to afa events and see what kind of folks we are

00:15:25.700 And I think that's what we're going to be able to do that's successful.

00:15:32.060 So far, I've seen that be successful.

00:15:34.420 I've seen a lot of people who actually look into it actually go to an AFA event coming away with a very different perception than they may have started with.

00:15:42.740 And I think that's what's going to help us out in the long run.

00:15:45.200 trouble is people don't have a great attention span sometimes and it's very

00:15:49.940 hard to combat he said she said stuff on Facebook or whatever else that's part

00:15:57.160 this has grown and I really love doing this to talk to you know members of the

00:16:04.580 AFA and talk to my AFA family on here and it's a special time but what this

00:16:09.260 started as is a way to address those things if there's rumors if there's

00:16:14.480 any problems if people have concerns it's why I come on here once a month now

00:16:19.360 people can contact me throughout the month and I'm happy to address anything

00:16:22.580 or talk to anybody who has concerns but right here right now face-to-face or as

00:16:27.920 close as that can be I'm very happy to answer things or try to you know you can

00:16:33.680 go straight to the horse's mouth as it were instead of you know listening to

00:16:37.520 idle gossip but those are the ideas I have on it that's what we try to do is

00:16:41.480 live the best we can and be the most noble that we can every day, and I think that does yield

00:16:47.240 results, and it's yielded a lot of success for the AFA so far, and I think that it's garnered

00:16:52.280 a lot of blessings from our gods.

00:17:05.780 Well, good, Steve. I'm glad that conversation was helpful to you.

00:17:08.560 hey Mary I'm glad you're on tonight so does anybody else have anything they

00:17:26.980 want to make sure we're talking about or make sure make sure there's you know

00:17:31.740 something gets answered or something gets addressed it could be any kind of

00:17:36.280 curiosity any kind of questions I'm just happy to talk with you guys so if you

00:17:41.560 have anything please you know speak up let me know yeah just just checking on

00:17:50.620 that and I want to make sure like I said that that I get everybody answered who

00:17:53.800 has something they want to talk about it's the first of the month and this

00:17:59.920 month we're celebrating our our day of remembrance to King Radbot of the

00:18:04.900 Frisians. The story of Radbot has always been one that's really special to me. It's, the feast day

00:18:13.000 for Radbot is one of the, no, it was the first House of Truth thing that I did when I discovered

00:18:19.500 House of Truth. And it was really special to me because when I left Christianity, I didn't have

00:18:28.600 something i was going to so it was scary i was a spiritual person and at that point you know my

00:18:35.240 beliefs were based around the christian god or the alternate you know the alternative to that god

00:18:41.720 being some form of damnation or finality or separation from anything in the other world

00:18:49.240 and that was a really scary thing because like i said i didn't have anything i was jumping to

00:18:53.400 when I broke with Christianity I had to make a really hard choice but I realized that God of

00:19:03.900 the Bible and the religion of Christianity was very contrary to the things that that I believed

00:19:10.080 in and things that I knew to be right and it was really scary because I got to a point where I had 0.98

00:19:14.940 to to say well you know if God is on this side and this is who he is then no

00:19:24.840 matter the consequences I've got to be on this side because I can't stand with

00:19:28.820 with this person because I realized that the God of the Bible was just a bad

00:19:33.060 person and that was terrifying and that reminds me of the choice that the

00:19:39.860 rabbi had made he'd already you know kind of broken with his tradition in his head and he was

00:19:45.500 getting ready to step in the baptismal font and he was all ready to do it and he made the

00:19:51.040 he asked a question right then he said well okay but but where are my ancestors and uh and the

00:19:59.720 priest told him that you know his ancestors were you know they were they were godless and also 0.76

00:20:04.880 of true ancestors were going to burn in hell. And with the very real possibility in his mind of

00:20:12.120 spending eternity burning in hell, he chose rather to do that and be with his noble ancestors 0.99

00:20:18.000 than to go to paradise and be with a parcel of beggars and people of low character. 0.99

00:20:25.340 And that's always been extremely poignant to me. So I'm very excited to celebrate that this month. 0.99

00:20:30.060 I encourage everybody where you guys are at,

00:20:33.260 get members of your AFA family together,

00:20:35.740 get your kindreds together, and celebrate. 0.86

00:20:38.340 Have a meal, raise a horn to Radbot, 0.62

00:20:40.480 and celebrate that choice he made,

00:20:43.040 and follow his example,

00:20:44.580 and find ways to enact that in your life.

00:21:00.060 I'm Matthias Futhark, I'm not sure if that's a question or just something to address.

00:21:08.560 He mentions the idea of raising funds to gift members children who become 18 and need some

00:21:15.540 money for a start in life as far as rent, business plans, trade schools, even college.

00:21:20.620 I think that's a great idea.

00:21:23.540 ways we can find within our community to help you know strengthen a member of our

00:21:30.620 folk especially somebody young and bright-eyed going out into the world

00:21:34.160 and wanting that fresh start or that you know that blessing to start life with

00:21:39.080 just like I mentioned that we want to bestow that at a baby naming and give

00:21:44.000 them the best start we can in life as a child it's very similar as they become

00:21:49.700 an adult and go out into the world. Anything we can do to help support them and give them

00:21:54.640 a boost to help them be successful in what they're going to do, I think is fantastic.

00:21:58.620 And if folks want to raise money to give them a little something to start out with, I think

00:22:03.420 that's a really great idea.

00:22:10.360 Yeah, Steve, I've seen advertisements of that film and I've been kind of scared to watch

00:22:14.540 it. I wasn't sure how it was. You say it's a good movie. I think I may give it a shot.

00:22:19.700 Well, it's good to hear that you're going to Lane's study group, Michael.

00:22:33.200 I'm glad you guys are talking about that, and I'm glad you guys are talking about frith. 0.58

00:22:38.700 Frith was always an odd idea to me when I first started out because everybody translates

00:22:44.820 it as as peace peace let's just be frithful all the time and that didn't really

00:22:54.740 that didn't sound that great of a thing because there wasn't anything attached to it when i was

00:22:59.860 first learning and something that really solidified the true meaning of frith that it wasn't just

00:23:06.260 a generic piece. It was an alliance built on mutual protection. It was a noble association

00:23:16.540 between noble people to look out for each other's interests. Really learning that came

00:23:22.720 from The Culture of the Teutons by Wilhelm Groenbeck. I think that's a fantastic book

00:23:28.680 and I would highly recommend that if anybody out there hasn't read it. It's not the easiest

00:23:35.020 read but it's one of the very few books that I had to put it down every few

00:23:39.820 pages and just digest something because it put it so succinctly and so perfectly

00:23:44.780 and really crystallized a lot of things so I would encourage anyone who can to

00:23:50.140 go out and and get and read The Culture of the Two Tons by Wilhelm Grunbeck

00:23:57.100 Well, thanks, Michael.

00:24:04.860 I try.

00:24:05.860 I really love doing these.

00:24:06.860 I look forward to them every month.

00:24:10.480 I love getting a chance to talk to you guys, and this has been a pretty cool way to do

00:24:15.380 that.

00:24:16.380 I hope you guys are enjoying it, and yeah, I'm going to keep doing them as long as you

00:24:19.580 guys are getting something out of them, and yeah, I look forward to it every month, so

00:24:24.700 thank you.

00:24:25.700 I'm glad you like it.

00:24:26.700 Lucio, that's a really good question.

00:24:42.100 As soon as we get off this call, I'll go and check that out and reread my Runatal and see about the nine strong songs.

00:24:49.900 i am a firm believer in the uh the runes that he speaks about the spells that he knows being

00:24:56.140 related to the to the armin and fluthark i very much believe that that meister bond list was

00:25:00.940 inspired in that way and that those rooms relate to that i'm not sure how that relates to exactly

00:25:05.660 what you're talking about and i want to go read up and make sure that that we're on the same wavelength

00:25:09.180 on it that's okay Mathias sentence fragments are always welcome I will

00:25:23.920 interpret them to the best of my ability and give you what I got yeah

00:25:32.560 anybody interested in genealogy Sheila McNallan and Steve Engle both folk

00:25:37.560 builders in the AFA Sheila is so much more than that but she is also folk

00:25:42.360 building and they do a great job with the AFA genealogy group if you guys have an

00:25:46.680 interest in that they would love to have you in there there we go here's my wife

00:25:51.540 she chimes in that there's almost 20 babies so far this year that's 20 AFA

00:25:57.420 babies born to our family into our church that's 20 babies that we have a

00:26:03.000 a responsibility to help to raise to nurture as they grow and to help them become the young men

00:26:09.060 and women then that we need in this world the ladies and the gentlemen that are going to lead

00:26:13.800 us into the future so that's an amazing amazing thing seeing the growth of families of women

00:26:22.880 participating in the AFA of all the children running around has been it's just been an

00:26:31.080 exponential growth i'd say the last four you know four or five years and it's been something really

00:26:36.280 beautiful to be a part of and i i'm so very thankful of everyone who's brought their wives

00:26:41.480 and children out of all the ladies who've discovered this on their own maybe who brought

00:26:45.960 their husbands out and uh all of you that bring your families to our events that's something

00:26:52.280 that's always one of the most special parts is when we see families and children and any more

00:26:58.920 in our pictures, that's half of what we have is, almost half of what we have is children

00:27:04.680 running around and over half sometimes is ladies.

00:27:13.700 So Will, Hoff in Minnesota, it is coming, it's coming, Tappman, we're looking, we've

00:27:21.380 had folks look at a lot of different properties so far, getting it accomplished, getting the

00:27:26.980 the right fit in the right place, the right facility that's a good investment for our

00:27:32.980 folk that's going to truly honor our gods and be the right thing for our people. It takes

00:27:37.200 a little bit of legwork, but it's good to be in the position to where we're just finding

00:27:40.760 the right spot. We are working on that. As a matter of fact, I had three calls today

00:27:45.820 just about that. So I think that's coming up pretty quick.

00:27:56.980 Reciprocal inviolability, that is absolutely the true essence of frith, I'm glad that you

00:28:07.300 brought up that phrase Michael, that's what stood out to me and that's, I love that book.

00:28:26.980 well Terry if you get the get the reading glasses out it will be well

00:28:33.840 worth your while to read that book it's one of the ones I highly highly highly

00:28:37.860 recommend probably the book I recommend the most as far as anything on the

00:28:45.900 traditions of our ancestors as far as a starter book on modern Alcatru I tend to

00:28:50.940 recommend Astro and Northern European spirituality by Steve McDowell and is the place to start on

00:29:00.260 that. But learning about the values of our ancestors, I think the culture of the two

00:29:04.160 tons, you couldn't do better. Rob, will there be another European event in the future? Yes, 0.70

00:29:12.740 absolutely. Exactly when? I can't tell you right now as far as a big international event.

00:29:17.960 But if you want to go over there, we've got three AFA kindreds in Sweden.

00:29:23.420 Word on the grapevine is we may have a kindred forming in Norway here very soon.

00:29:27.680 So there's events going on over there all the time.

00:29:29.700 If you want to hop on a plane, we can connect you with some great people over in Sweden.

00:29:33.480 In Norway, we've got some great people in Denmark.

00:29:38.960 That's if that's where you're going.

00:29:40.340 We have some others scattered throughout the continent as well.

00:29:43.140 So you tell me where you're going, and I'll get you connected with somebody.

00:29:47.960 oh i agree uh michael physical locations for hoffs are a huge part of of connecting with the divine

00:29:59.040 um that's something that we're very much working on i've talked a lot with our gothar about it

00:30:05.660 our establishment of these hoffs and holy places to our gods is literally building a bridge to the

00:30:14.140 gods and to connect our folk with divinity. And we're absolutely committed to making that happen

00:30:22.680 and we're going to continue. Every time we get one done, purchased, paid off, we're going to move

00:30:28.080 immediately to the next one as long as we have people to support it. So we appreciate it and we

00:30:33.980 appreciate all of the help that you guys do in funding these things and making them happen.

00:30:38.020 Thank you so much.

00:30:44.140 Special message for Brazil.

00:30:52.240 Well, I already mentioned to you guys, to everyone here, that we're so glad to have you.

00:30:56.700 This is another member of our Brazilian kindred, I believe.

00:30:59.980 And, yeah, that's an amazing thing.

00:31:03.580 Like I said, we've had nothing there.

00:31:05.320 We've had a couple sporadic members in the past at different locations in South America

00:31:10.680 that just kind of come and go and don't stay on the radar.

00:31:13.320 having an official afa kindred down there is amazing we would love to help you guys find

00:31:18.440 success the best we can my message for you guys is to stay connected to be in contact with us

00:31:26.600 and for us to try to be in contact with y'all as best as we can across borders it's not just

00:31:31.960 members in of the afa of the united states i encourage our brothers and sisters around the

00:31:36.920 world we've got afa members in 15 countries now and i want us all to be talking to one another

00:31:43.480 and building those bonds and staying strong as a family so as far as a message to our folks in

00:31:49.560 brazil reach out to other afa members join in take part be on things like you're on right now

00:31:56.280 being part of things um we'll get you guys up we'll get you guys running we'll get y'all some

00:32:02.360 more members there and we will watch things flourish in brazil with your guys help thank

00:32:06.440 and thank you so much for stepping up.

00:32:16.920 All right, well, Michael, I'll be sure to tell Sean

00:32:19.480 he will absolutely, he's working on designs

00:32:21.860 for the Next Hoff T-shirt to support

00:32:25.120 the Next Hoff that's happening,

00:32:27.300 so we'll get you all set on that.

00:32:30.240 Proceeds for any of those shirts are gonna go

00:32:32.100 towards funding that Hoff, so we appreciate it.

00:32:35.260 get you looking good as well. Yes, Brazilians, come visit us. We would love to have you.

00:32:48.020 I'm sure anybody across the United States would love to have you. For that matter, what

00:32:52.760 I said to Rob about going over to Europe, keep that in mind. And I want everybody, all

00:32:57.620 of our AFA family on this to keep in mind. One of the best things you can do. I'm trying

00:33:04.560 the best way to phrase it um something that's a huge blessing that i've noticed is when i travel

00:33:10.480 anywhere now the afa is spread so far and so thick with members that chances are anywhere you go you're

00:33:19.280 within you know a short amount of time for some afa members our folk builders would love to get

00:33:24.880 you connected with people any place you're going to travel any place you're passing through if you

00:33:29.520 you go somewhere for work for a few days make that effort reach out to the local folk builders

00:33:34.800 reach out to your folk builder and they can get you connected with people it's one of the most

00:33:39.600 special things that we have as the afa is we've got you guys we have members all over all across

00:33:46.560 this country and around the world that we can go visit and see and reach out and your family they're

00:33:54.640 all part of your afa family and that's a very special thing so i'd encourage any of you guys

00:33:58.720 who are traveling to do that Elaine as far as selling AFA polo shirts um not

00:34:17.120 really that's something we've done in the past certainly something we could

00:34:21.000 consider doing again. Yeah, if you have an interest, reach out to Sean and he can probably

00:34:30.500 get some made. Right now, the AFA polo shirts that we have made are kind of just for folk

00:34:36.360 builders. But, you know, I don't know. I found that I used to wear the polo shirt a lot for

00:34:42.820 stuff, but I'd rather kick it up a notch and wear a collar and a tie. So that's kind of where I'm

00:34:48.260 with trying to dress it up a little bit,

00:34:49.900 but as far as getting AFA polos,

00:34:51.500 Sean could probably come up with something

00:34:53.100 and we can talk about that

00:34:54.180 if enough people would like to get them.

00:35:00.440 Current growth rate of AFA membership.

00:35:05.560 I can say that we're up,

00:35:09.500 we've had a 53% increase in the last three years.

00:35:14.180 That's the best rate number I can give you right now.

00:35:18.260 I could probably break that down over the last year a little bit but I'd be spitballing,

00:35:23.160 but we're up 53% in the last three years.

00:35:34.260 Apparently Eric is supposed to assist with something, I could not see that question.

00:35:44.260 All right, so Paul Hester reached out and wants to say, and I'm sure this would help a lot of our folk builders,

00:35:55.060 as some of you may have noticed, PayPal has chosen to part ways with the Astru Folk Assembly.

00:36:01.780 So we are moving our membership dues over to Stripe or to the Hof Toler. And I would appreciate

00:36:09.620 everybody who is able to go ahead and get a hold of their folk builders and we'll try

00:36:14.640 to get you transitioned over there as quickly and as smoothly as possible. So far that's

00:36:19.200 been going really well and really smooth. Apologize for any inconvenience on it, but

00:36:25.440 that's fine. We've got backups, we've got plans, and we'll just move right on over.

00:36:31.360 Thank you guys for everybody who's been cooperative on that. And anybody who wants to pay Hofftoller,

00:36:35.520 reach out to your folk builder that's a really good way to be secure from you know any of that

00:36:42.100 kind of thing it's a direct deposit or a direct payment from you to our account it's a percentage

00:36:49.800 based giving you know like the church model that works very well to get things funded and it helps

00:36:57.380 move us away from the membership model into a more giving a percentage of what you have and

00:37:02.260 more sharing with our community model and i think that's where we really want to go in the future

00:37:08.180 and where we want to head towards anyone on this call who pays by hoff toller i want you guys to

00:37:13.380 know that we appreciate it so very much it really helps us accomplish things and move the mission

00:37:19.540 forward and yeah thank you guys so much anyone who's interested in transitioning over to hoff

00:37:25.060 toller please reach out to your local folk builder and they would love to get you set up

00:37:29.700 up, and yeah, thank you.

00:37:47.340 Hmm.

00:37:50.000 Okay, Ryan, that's a tricky question to see who are most

00:37:53.940 northern, most southern, and most out in the boonies

00:37:58.340 members are. I think as far as kindreds go, Der Volkstamm auf dem Nordlikabär is the most

00:38:12.100 northerly kindred, although they could be equal, you know, it could be equal to some

00:38:19.840 of our Swedish kindreds. I'd have to look on a map to see. And then we have Wotan's

00:38:27.580 southern kindred in Australia that I believe is our furthest south group of members. Now we

00:38:34.280 probably have some individual members that are much further north and we can look into that for

00:38:39.800 you if it's more than a curiosity. We do have members all the way out in the boonies but we

00:38:45.820 have boonies all over the place we have members hiding in but hopefully we get them some community

00:38:50.960 out there. We've seen that happen too. All right. Sounds like some of our Brazilians want to get

00:39:02.540 out to California as soon as possible. We'd love to have you guys out at Odenshof. It would be

00:39:08.220 fantastic. And I think it's a special thing. It's an amazing place. It's our Odo property that we

00:39:13.820 have. It is our sacred space that we've been able to carve out here in Midgard for our gods and our

00:39:19.120 and we would love to have you guys join us out there.

00:39:28.040 I like that on the sidelines over there,

00:39:29.700 we're getting things going,

00:39:30.860 and Lane is mobilizing for his study group.

00:39:34.500 That's fantastic.

00:39:35.620 I would encourage anybody that can get to Lane Ashby's

00:39:38.320 study group to go make that happen and be a part of that.

00:39:42.340 If I was anywhere close,

00:39:43.440 I would go and try to support that as well.

00:39:45.620 I'm sure the guy's got great things going on there.

00:39:49.120 Oh, yeah, Lane's making another point about the Hofftoller.

00:39:55.480 What that does, it cuts out the middleman.

00:39:57.520 It cuts out anybody that wants to get a cut or that wants to stop, you know, our ability to function.

00:40:04.180 The Hofftoller bypasses all of that and goes straight from you guys to us with no problems, no hard times, no hiccups, and, yeah, it gets stuff.

00:40:15.080 enough, it's really the most effective way to give and support the AFA.

00:40:22.580 Any donations, all of your membership dues and any of your donations to the AFA is always

00:40:27.380 a tax deductible.

00:40:33.300 Verona Qualls could help you understand the best way to utilize that for your taxes probably.

00:40:39.400 Law Speaker Alan Turnage could also help you with that.

00:40:41.960 But yeah, so you guys know, AFA is a 501c3 church, and any of your donations are absolutely

00:40:48.500 tax deductible, and we'd be very happy to get you tax ID numbers and anything you need

00:40:52.760 to make that happen.

00:41:07.280 Matthias, it depends on how you're doing it to get the money there.

00:41:10.380 As far as with the Hoftoller, if you need an account number and a routing number, there's also, I believe, like an international number.

00:41:17.480 If you ask any of your folk builders, you ask me after this, I can get you set up.

00:41:21.480 We've got the account number, the routing number, the little international number.

00:41:25.400 With those things, you should be able to get the payments to us, no problem on that.

00:41:29.940 We'd get that all squared away.

00:41:31.280 And if that's something you're considering doing, I'd thank you in advance for thinking about it.

00:41:34.960 Apparently, we've got folks laughing at boonies.

00:41:41.960 So, anybody who wasn't here at the beginning of the call, something I want to keep hammering

00:41:53.260 home, if you're in the northeast part of the United States, or if you're in anywhere and

00:41:59.260 you want to make it out. Freyfaxi in Massachusetts on the 17th of August. I'm going to be flying

00:42:06.180 out. Cliff Erickson and his lovely wife Katie are going to be driving up for it. We're going

00:42:13.520 to be celebrating, having a great day, enjoying each other's company. It's going to be a potluck

00:42:18.560 and it's going to be fantastic. I'm really looking forward to it and I want as many people out there

00:42:23.380 as can possibly be there so I can meet y'all if I've already met you so that I can spend more time

00:42:28.800 you and get to know you better and so that we can all get together as a family and worship our gods

00:42:34.400 that's going to be a great event it's really going to be fantastic our local kindred up

00:42:39.520 there is putting a lot of themselves into it and i want to help them be successful

00:42:43.440 and build that community so anybody who can make it to freefaxi in massachusetts let's do it

00:42:49.520 Matthias as far as I know you just need those numbers it's just like transferring money to a

00:43:02.960 person's account but the account is under the AUSA True Folk Assembly's name AUSA True Folk

00:43:09.320 Assembly but those numbers should get you where you need to go so anybody else have questions or

00:43:18.380 anything they want to have me talk about tonight or anything they're curious about they want to

00:43:24.840 discuss if you do please speak up I would love to love to hear from you and love to give you an

00:43:31.180 answer best I can and like I said if I'm missing anybody if I'm not getting comments let me go

00:43:37.120 back through all of these things tonight after the call and I'll do my best to answer them I

00:43:43.140 don't want to leave anybody out and it's it's tricky on this to find out to get

00:43:51.240 all of the comments it's very strange because some of the comments are coming

00:43:56.040 in and some of them I don't get until after as well afterwards so I am taking

00:44:05.340 a look really quick because I get different notifications on my phone than

00:44:09.120 than I do over here as far as who's saying what.

00:44:30.880 Something else that I'll mention while we're here

00:44:33.100 is I want anybody who can, and this may be easier

00:44:35.780 for some of you guys to make it to,

00:44:37.720 come on out to fall fest in minnesota we've got that coming up the first weekend in uh in september

00:44:44.120 it's the fourth fall fest it is fantastic i love fall fest i love our members up there our northern

00:44:50.280 plains members are some of our very best members it is an amazing event i it's been my honor and

00:44:55.960 privilege to be all of the fall fests and like i say it's the fourth fourth year they only get better

00:45:02.440 um so come on out i would love to meet you guys there we would love to celebrate together fall

00:45:08.120 fest is an amazing thing that i would encourage anybody to go to uh i would encourage any of our

00:45:14.840 afa family to go to and vouch for guests and if you guys can make that up there that would be

00:45:20.120 fantastic uh blaine qualls and jason gallagher do a great job putting that on and you know i want to

00:45:26.680 support them any way possible like i said it's something that we look forward to all year

00:45:31.640 fantastic people and it's a fantastic event and there's very often a tater tot hot dish if you

00:45:38.440 haven't had tater tot hot dish you are missing out and you need to acquire some at your earliest

00:45:42.920 as possible convenience and eat it because it's amazing.

00:46:00.200 Great, and North Wind Cold, y'all in Brazil,

00:46:03.760 if you need help, if there's anything that the rest

00:46:05.840 of the AFA can do to help you build in Brazil

00:46:09.580 or to make you guys feel more connected

00:46:11.840 you guys are a very important part of our afa family so if there's anything we can do to be

00:46:16.000 helpful to you um we would love to please let me know reach out to me or sheila mcnallan is

00:46:22.800 your folk builder for your area right now so anything we can do to be helpful please let us

00:46:27.920 know uh you guys are an afa kindred you guys are here for us we are certainly all here for you as

00:46:33.520 well. Thanks, Jessica, that's sweet. Me and Mandy really appreciate that. Terry, you're very welcome.

00:46:42.880 I love putting all that archival material on the AFA website. It is a blessing to have so much of

00:46:50.720 that. The source for the vast, you know, the vast trove of things that we have has come from the

00:46:59.020 personal collection of Robert Taylor. He gifted that a number of years ago to Brad Taylor Hicks

00:47:05.460 and Brad has lent that to us for a long time now for us to be able to digitize and get that out

00:47:12.600 and we're extremely appreciative of Brad and of Robert preserving those things. If it wasn't for

00:47:19.140 them, we would not have them. We would not have them on the site and we would not have them

00:47:22.660 preserved for you guys so big thanks to them and uh yeah it's been an honor being able to put those

00:47:29.820 on the site and it's been really special to read through them and look at where we've come from the

00:47:34.420 things we were doing then and how we got to where we are now um that's our history guys so if you

00:47:40.420 can go to uh runestone look at our library and and look at those uh those downloads you click

00:47:47.420 on it. It opens up a PDF and none of them are super long, but they're really special. So I'd

00:47:53.720 encourage you guys all to go take a look at them. Hey, Blaine. Ah, Haminha and the AFA. No, I have

00:48:07.340 not. And I think that's a good thing for us to talk about. One of the most important things with

00:48:16.640 what we're doing as a church, and what we're doing as the AFA family, is building a powerful

00:48:22.880 collective hymenia. By us building the AFA strong, and by building upon all of the hymenia that was

00:48:33.660 built in those rune stones that I just talked about over, you know, the past forever many years

00:48:40.000 ago, all the way back since the 80s, I have on there. Specifically, the Astro Folk Assembly that

00:48:45.160 started in 1995. We build upon that hymenia. By us coming together, worshiping the gods together

00:48:52.920 and being unified, we all get to be part of that AFA hymenia. Our spiritual might is increased,

00:49:00.300 our standing before the gods is increased. By us standing together under the trihorns,

00:49:06.660 we're in a position that the gods take notice of, that I believe that they truly appreciate and have

00:49:13.420 blessed, and by us being part of the AFA and by us standing together, we share in that

00:49:20.000 powerful hymenya. Just in a brief sense, when we do sumble and we all share that hymenya

00:49:26.880 together, we all lay those layers in the well together, it makes us all stronger. When you

00:49:32.880 are a member of the Ashtoreth Folk Assembly, when your kindred is a kindred in the Ashtoreth

00:49:38.080 folk assembly that little bit we get during symbol is a thousand fold we

00:49:45.280 stand strong and unified as a force before our gods proud and worshiping

00:49:52.000 them serving their purpose standing tall as their sons and daughters in Midgard

00:49:57.760 and that's something really special and it's something that folks miss out on

00:50:01.540 if they're just a group of four guys in their backyard I mean I appreciate what

00:50:06.700 they do and i think it's great but it's something very different when we stand together as a unified

00:50:10.940 church before our gods it's it's a much different thing and i'm very blessed to be able to be a part

00:50:16.440 of it and i thank you guys for being a part of it with me

00:50:36.700 Ryan, I'm hoping I'm understanding your question. You're asking about the reps that I'm doing

00:50:46.680 each day of the week and what type and maybe challenge folk to keep up with their folk

00:50:51.360 builders and folk builders to keep up with me. I think that you were talking about lifting.

00:50:58.100 That's fantastic if you are. We should all get in better shape. It is our duty to be

00:51:03.820 the best we can be at all things health wise physically that means getting in good shape

00:51:09.420 it means evaluating where we're at and becoming better um if you're interested i hope that you're

00:51:15.480 part of the physical excellence group i will up my game on there and post my current routine i've

00:51:21.140 posted a lot of routines on there before but i will get better at doing that and i will try to

00:51:26.640 i will make a point of doing that here we can see and yeah uh ryan put out that challenge so i

00:51:32.660 assume that Ryan is going to try to keep up with me let's hope and yeah that's fantastic I'm glad

00:51:38.140 you're taking an interest in that Ryan and I encourage everybody no matter where you're at

00:51:41.860 let's all get better that's what I'm going to do tomorrow that's what I hope we're all going to do

00:51:47.340 and it's not about you know going from zero to excellence in a day what it's about is being a

00:51:53.820 little bit better a little bit faster a little bit stronger a little bit leaner a little bit

00:51:58.460 bigger than you were yesterday and moving upward and upward and upward towards our very best selves

00:52:05.340 and i would encourage us all to do that and it's a good reminder ryan i will get on there and post

00:52:09.660 on physical excellence more often and try to try to encourage you guys with what i'm doing

00:52:14.220 and look and i have been looking at all the things you guys are sharing that you're doing

00:52:18.060 it's really exciting to see

00:52:23.580 you're very welcome uh welcome michael there's nothing in this world i would rather do

00:52:28.460 It is the greatest honor of my life to be able to be Al Saragogi of the Austro-Folk Assembly.

00:52:33.380 You are very, very welcome.

00:52:38.680 Absolutely, Terry, when a kindred gathers, every time we gather before our gods as a unified folk doing something,

00:52:51.860 we make each other and our group a little bit stronger.

00:52:57.040 now maybe a lot stronger depending on what we're doing every little bit counts to bring us together

00:53:04.340 and keep us strong and kindred's having frequent activities and frequent time they get together

00:53:08.720 maybe they're just getting together for a meal maybe they're just all going to see a movie or

00:53:12.220 go bowling them getting together us getting together every time makes us stronger than we

00:53:18.560 were before every time builds us makes us a little bit better gets us closer to where we're trying

00:53:24.780 to go. I think that's great advice and I thank you for bringing it up. Teter Tot Hot Dish,

00:53:32.020 it's a thing. What is the recipe? You should ask Robin. Mandy should get you guys together,

00:53:41.020 Mary, you should ask Robin and I would encourage you to cook Teter Tot Hot Dish as often as

00:53:46.780 possible because it's amazing and I ate way too much of it at Last Fall Fest than I probably

00:53:52.060 should have, but it was fantastic.

00:53:54.480 I think I had to hold one of those pans all to myself.

00:54:04.360 Well, it looks like Matthias Futhark

00:54:07.540 is giving you some advice, Mary.

00:54:10.220 Everything I'm seeing sounds legitimate

00:54:13.020 and like a good tater tot hot dish.

00:54:15.020 I'm not an expert, but I do hope to become one.

00:54:17.920 Eric, glad that you joined us.

00:54:22.060 So, tonight has gone really quickly. We're coming up on an hour. That's usually how long this goes. If you guys have more questions and more things you want to discuss, I'll stay on until folks get it out of their system and we get everything off our chest that we need to.

00:54:43.680 But barring any more questions or whatever, we're probably going to wrap it up here soon.

00:54:49.780 So if there's anything you guys want to ask or make sure it gets said or make sure it gets mentioned, please do reach out.

00:54:58.860 Like I say, I'm very happy to answer anything.

00:55:00.780 And if there's folks on here that, like I say, if your questions didn't get got, it's frustrating because I'm trying really hard to take everybody's questions live.

00:55:09.020 and inevitably after every show we have a few people that will have asked something that just

00:55:14.800 didn't didn't come through on my end and i want you to know i'm not i'm not ducking you i'm not

00:55:20.140 ignoring you certainly and i'll go back over and i will try to answer everything i can answer

00:55:24.800 because i care and i appreciate you guys taking the effort to come on here and ask questions and

00:55:29.120 reach out um yeah like i say i look forward to this every month i love talking to you guys so

00:55:34.960 Very cool. Raven's blood is

00:55:38.620 representing really strong on here tonight. That's great to see.

00:55:49.720 I appreciate you reminding me on that.

00:55:53.300 Matthias Futhark wants me to say, please go,

00:55:57.360 please donate at www.runestone.org.

00:56:01.060 Go to our donation links. We still are very much

00:56:04.700 accepting funds to distribute to the to the folks in the camps in south africa to white farmers and

00:56:11.420 folks that have been displaced and grossly persecuted for being part of our folk those

00:56:18.460 people always need help and now we've got folk in south africa that are able to go into camps

00:56:23.580 and distribute those resources ourselves in-house as afa members please go donate to that we always

00:56:31.260 always need funds in folk services. One of the most special things we are able to do as a church

00:56:36.180 is to support our own when they have hard times. It's to be able to take care of our people when

00:56:42.160 they come upon something unexpected. It's been really special that we're able to do that, and

00:56:47.160 the only way we can do it is the generous donations that you guys do. So I encourage you to donate to

00:56:52.720 that. And Hoff number two, it is coming. It is coming quick. It will come quicker than where you

00:56:59.180 guys donate. We can always use help and finances on making that happen. And I promise you that

00:57:06.320 our folk in the Northern Plains, myself, members of our Witten, we are literally working daily to

00:57:13.300 get that closer and to make that happen. It's coming. I've told you it's going to happen by

00:57:17.480 next midsummer and we're going to make that happen. So please do donate to those things.

00:57:23.020 We really appreciate you guys' generosity. As you know, that's the only way we can get stuff done.

00:57:28.000 nobody likes to talk about money but i appreciate when i ask and we put it out there you guys

00:57:32.800 answer the call you guys are generous and you guys help out so much very very appreciated

00:57:58.000 all right guys well any last minute things anybody got questions or anything they

00:58:10.160 want to talk about or want to make sure that i mention something about

00:58:14.200 i appreciate you guys tonight i thank you guys all for coming out and asking and being part of

00:58:20.580 stuff. Thank you guys so much. Like I say, anybody who can make it out to Freyfaxi in

00:58:29.800 Massachusetts, please do. I would love to see you guys there. If you can't, or if you

00:58:35.280 can, please make it to Fall Fest. We'd love to see you there also. Hope you guys have

00:58:39.860 an absolutely amazing August. I look forward to talking to you again. First Thursday of

00:58:45.500 first thursday of september i may be on the way to fall fest we may do it a little bit earlier

00:58:50.620 next month thank you guys so much for coming out um i appreciate you guys thank you hail the gods

00:58:58.140 hail the folk hail the afa you guys have a good night

Asatru Folk Assembly - August 02, 2019

August 2019 Facebook Live DIscussion

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