Asatru Folk Assembly - August 2020 Facebook Live Chat

00:00:00.000 hello everybody it's that time of the month again and i get to get to chat with my afa family it's

00:00:28.960 something that always, always I'm looking forward to. And July has been a very, very exciting month.

00:00:41.380 Lots of activity. One of the really remarkable things to me about 2020, we know all the craziness

00:00:49.540 that's going on in the world and all the things that we see around us that cause a lot of anxiety,

00:00:55.800 a lot of depression out there. But 2020 has been a really amazing year so far for the Ask True Folk

00:01:03.000 Assembly. In 2020, just so far, we've had our biggest ever AFA event at Midsummer. And we've

00:01:11.620 got two new Hoffs in 2020. All of this at a time where the rest of the world is locking down and

00:01:19.780 there's distance between folks. The AFA has been coming together. And I thank you guys

00:01:25.720 all for being a part of that i am so so proud and so excited to be part of the afa

00:01:32.920 with all of the things that we're doing and all of the things that we're going to do

00:01:36.840 so i just wanted to start out talking about that um i had the tremendous honor of

00:01:47.640 doing the land taking and the dedication of thor's off on the 18th of july and

00:01:53.880 And for those of you who were able to join me and be part of that special occasion, I know you guys felt the gravity of it.

00:02:04.220 We could feel it in the air.

00:02:06.120 We could literally feel the electricity in the air.

00:02:09.580 Those of you that missed it and haven't gotten a chance, if you can make it, if you find your way towards Linden, North Carolina, you need to check out Thorshoff.

00:02:23.880 But it's ours, and we are building immortality. It's not going anyplace, but if you can get there, I would highly encourage anybody who can go check it out to go see that truly holy and amazing place and see all of the hard work and all of the love and dedication that our AFA family in the Upper South region has done for that place.

00:02:49.280 We have members coming from Virginia, from the Carolinas, from Maryland, a lot of people traveling a long distance to make sure that place is loved and taken care of to prepare the property that we purchased and turn it into the beautiful off that we have today.

00:03:14.400 And it's a labor of love that they continue to do just about every weekend out there, putting in effort, putting in blood, sweat, and tears to make that place truly shine for us and for Thor.

00:03:26.900 And we're very, very thankful for that, very thankful for all of the hard work that they've put in, especially Iron Guard and especially Donner's Oak.

00:03:38.920 those two kindreds have really spearheaded that uh that effort they've been out there

00:03:46.560 they've put in they've put in so much work and you can really tell um and something

00:03:54.000 trying to describe it it has uh quite a bit more property in the back and on the side than you'd

00:04:01.840 think looking at some of the pictures and it's really really a special place um get a really

00:04:08.880 good feeling there the main hoff building itself has a lot of extra rooms with a lot of potential

00:04:16.400 for our ladies for our children a fantastic office space and there's a lower floor with a lot of area

00:04:23.280 for storage i think the guys there are maybe gonna put up a heavy bag and have some weights down there

00:04:28.480 as well so a lot a lot of really special things we can do there in the main sanctuary area of the

00:04:35.920 hof itself the crowning achievement of that place and something that truly truly dominates the room

00:04:44.160 and dominates the space is the most amazing magnificent mural of of thor and it was it was

00:04:54.080 painted by Gothi Svahn Harald. And if you look at this, we use the word awesome far too often,

00:05:04.080 and it's become commonplace. But when you walk in there, it is truly awe-inspiring.

00:05:12.800 That fantastic mural is an amazing testimony to our devotion to Thor, to Svahn's devotion to Thor,

00:05:24.080 and really makes that place something special um i could talk all night about how great that place

00:05:30.880 was and how great getting to share that with so many of you was we are living in very very special

00:05:38.640 times so i'm looking on you on here uh thank you for everybody who is has joined the conversation um

00:05:50.240 looking to see if we got any uh initial questions here looks like we're we're starting off with a

00:05:59.380 few if i'm looking down it's because i've got to look at the monitor and my phone and have

00:06:04.860 mandy help monitor to make sure we get all the questions as best as we can

00:06:08.580 um folk builder trent east wants me to explain for any new folks that may be tuning in because

00:06:27.240 of our recent acquisitions of those two offs why also true is an ethnic faith why that's important

00:06:34.680 and uh to talk a little bit about that

00:06:37.440 I think for any people the best and most efficient route to their higher selves and to the divine

00:06:51.760 is by practicing a faith that is

00:06:55.840 that is built within them from their their innermost core from literally the very fiber of

00:07:05.140 their being um the world around us certainly in the west has for a long time been very familiar

00:07:14.180 with christianity or judaism or islam those three being abrahamic faiths and the nature of those

00:07:21.700 certainly if Christianity and Islam tends to be universal for all of mankind, all of the people

00:07:28.500 in the world. But historically speaking, that's very anomalous. Most faiths were and numerically

00:07:37.740 are still ethnic faiths. They're a religion based around a specific group of people

00:07:45.640 and their links to their ancestors.

00:07:49.840 And in Austertru, we believe that our ultimate ancestors are our gods.

00:07:55.440 So it truly is being part of a family,

00:07:58.960 of a great big AFA family that goes all the way back to Odin and to the gods.

00:08:06.680 That is the best way for people to practice religion,

00:08:10.120 is instead of trying to beat a square peg into a round hole,

00:08:13.940 to practice the faith of your people, your ancestors, a faith that's literally hardwired

00:08:21.000 into your very DNA. We believe that strongly in the House True Folk Assembly. Our founder,

00:08:26.400 Steve McNallan, called that metagenetics. And it's kind of a core principle of what we do. And

00:08:32.180 it brings us a lot of benefit. And what our ancestors, one of the roots of the idea of

00:08:40.780 health. It brings us a wholeness. It's literally a wholesome faith in that sense.

00:08:57.700 Ian, glad you joined us tonight, and I'm glad to hear you want to put in your application.

00:09:01.520 That's fantastic. I look real forward to seeing that. That's really great news, and I'm excited

00:09:06.320 about it. Matthias, you missed the beard. Sometimes I find myself doing this to a beard

00:09:18.360 that's not there. We'll see. Maybe this fall I'll grow it back again for the winter season.

00:09:22.700 all right well

00:09:38.540 i'm looking on here but i just want to check does anybody have any questions or anything

00:09:42.620 on their mind that they want to make sure that we get to and that we talk about this evening

00:09:49.100 um

00:09:52.700 uh mrs williams is asking uh she says somehow so true or say they don't worship the gods and

00:10:02.220 goddesses instead they honor them what's the difference i think arrogance is the difference

00:10:08.420 um it's funny that we find ourselves finding a need to play semantic games um i absolutely

00:10:19.340 worship our gods and i worship our ancestors and i worship our heroes that's certainly what our

00:10:25.420 ancestors did and i think that we do a disservice to the divine forces of our people to need to

00:10:35.740 come up with some different word that somehow implies we place less reverence in them we honor

00:10:43.260 them as well as worship them and i think the true practice of also true is very much worshiping our

00:10:49.340 gods and goddesses now our form of worship may look very different to than some other faiths

00:10:57.580 in a lot of i think what some of that hang up has to do with is a lot of the faiths the

00:11:03.180 abrahamic faiths that i mentioned in the west place a lot of emphasis on debasing yourself and

00:11:13.260 I don't know, viewing yourself as unworthy and supplicating and groveling before their

00:11:22.000 divinity. And I think that's the nature of how their religion is structured and how they do

00:11:27.060 things. Our gods want us to be proud and stand tall and to make ourselves be worthy of them.

00:11:36.260 But that pride in ourselves shouldn't hold us back from giving worship to our deities.

00:11:45.460 And I think that's a real fundamental difference.

00:11:48.360 We don't have to feel unworthy and feel small in order for them to be great and large.

00:11:54.180 They want us to be the very best we can be.

00:11:57.480 And so in that sense, and with hearts full of dignity and pride, we absolutely worship our gods.

00:12:06.260 uh mark now that we have three hoffs are we looking at a fourth absolutely we are we're

00:12:26.200 looking at a fourth we're looking at a fifth in a broader sense we're looking at knocking out the

00:12:31.420 first 12 and then coming up with what our plan is after that. But yeah, we're absolutely looking

00:12:39.820 at the fourth half. We don't want to get ahead of ourselves. We do want to be responsible. We need

00:12:43.320 to go ahead and pay off these two halves. We were able to work it to where we didn't have to incur

00:12:48.980 any additional debt for the third half, but it is important for us to be responsible. So I do want

00:12:54.160 to get these, these halves paid for and taken care of before we, we extend ourself on a fourth one.

00:12:59.760 But yes, we're absolutely looking for that fourth one. 1.00

00:13:02.700 I told you once we get one done, we're going to immediately start trying to figure out on the next one because we're absolutely going to have Hoffs across this country and around this world. 0.57

00:13:14.000 Wherever our folk gather and worship our gods, we want to make sure there's Hoffs there to shelter our people and to honor our gods.

00:13:29.760 uh folk builder rob stam is asking what's a good book for new folks for folks interested

00:13:49.680 in learning about their native spirituality the question's so broad and it gets asked a lot there is

00:13:56.640 you know almost infinitely many books that are great for that and a good place to start if you

00:14:04.080 want to find out about um also true in general or about the afa and and how we practice um also true

00:14:14.080 a native european spirituality by our founder stephen mcnalen is is a great book on that

00:14:21.040 we sell that on the website um it's something that steve put a lot of time and effort into

00:14:27.700 and that's a really good book to start with um a book of trough by uh edrid thorson is also a very

00:14:36.660 good book um that gives you a different perspective on kind of the practice of also true and i think

00:14:43.980 that's that's foundational and really good and uh for anyone out there who wants to know about

00:14:49.220 runes and things in that sense um the runes workbook by leon d wild is a fantastic beginner's

00:14:58.420 first book about runes so younger people or anybody who are just starting the runes fresh

00:15:04.740 i really love that book and i always want to plug that as best i can so those those are a couple of

00:15:10.260 the suggestions I have. So I'm looking, I'm continuing to look for questions. I'm not

00:15:39.340 to have dead air but i do want to make sure i get everybody that's asking something um

00:15:45.500 something that i noticed i touched on briefly when i started this conversation um

00:15:56.060 things are going crazy out there there is a lot of a lot of messed up things in the world and

00:16:03.340 And for a lot of us, it's very concerning.

00:16:08.920 And I know for a lot of our AFA family, it can be really scary and it can cause a lot of anxiety and a lot of stress.

00:16:17.140 And I get that. And I want you guys to know that I get that.

00:16:20.520 um please don't think that mandy and i don't often find ourselves you know sad about what's

00:16:31.440 going on in in the world and here in the united states where we are there's a lot of stuff that's

00:16:36.960 not recognizable to us and the values that make any sense to us but the thing is that's most

00:16:44.020 important i feel in coping with any of that stress or any of that anxiety we have about the world

00:16:49.820 around us is what can we build what gaps in that system can we fill with what's ours

00:17:02.300 something that i found that's very special one thing that's been very hard has been the social

00:17:09.260 distance and the mask wearing and kind of a dehumanization of people don't get me wrong

00:17:16.220 if you have a medical condition or if you're genuinely very scared of this and you you need

00:17:23.660 to do what you're going to do for your family and to make yourself feel like you're doing the best

00:17:28.780 you can and i don't mean to disrespect that but for a lot of folks that alienation and that

00:17:34.380 distance has been very difficult while in society that's increased in the afa when we get together

00:17:42.940 we don't have to do that we don't have to do that it's been so nice to get together

00:17:48.220 and hug one another and share the horn and we have that normalcy and we have that because we are

00:17:56.860 building our own community within the shell of whatever's going on around us there's not a lot

00:18:04.540 we can do about that readily but there is a lot we can do about this and it

00:18:13.020 it may sound trite if you haven't felt it and you haven't tasted it

00:18:17.820 but it's been a tremendous thing to be part of that building we've got so many great things

00:18:22.140 going on in the afa and our family is growing we're getting stronger we're doing more we're

00:18:27.740 being more we're building that momentum three hoffs now it's a special thing and we're building

00:18:35.260 something really special so everybody who has that anxiety and that fear and that that discomfort

00:18:40.140 with the state of the world around us do whatever you're going to do uh if there's you know vote how

00:18:47.100 you're going to vote take part in things in your community that you think will help absolutely

00:18:52.700 but be part of this. Make this a priority. Come out to this. Your AFA family is here for you,

00:19:01.740 and while things out there may be worse than you're used to, things in here are better than

00:19:05.740 they've ever been. So take strength in your AFA family. Let's all take strength from each other,

00:19:12.060 and not only can we do great things, but we are doing great things. So take heart in that.

00:19:21.820 uh we got a guy reaching out who is uh wants to apply he is in the navy and stationed in japan

00:19:37.620 uh no absolutely we would as like i said earlier the afa wants to be wherever our folk are

00:19:47.080 And if we find our folk deployed and overseas, that's where we need more members.

00:19:53.640 You're not currently being in the United States.

00:19:56.940 It doesn't affect your ability to join the AFA at all.

00:19:59.780 As a matter of fact, we have members now in 16 different countries around the world.

00:20:04.960 And so it's a very special time to be part of the AFA.

00:20:07.400 Please submit your application.

00:20:08.980 Ah, look, I got a visitor.

00:20:11.800 This is my beautiful little daughter, Aubrey.

00:20:14.580 She's looking all over the place.

00:20:16.140 But I always like to show her off because I'm super proud dad of her.

00:20:21.120 She is. She's amazing. And she's leveled up. She is no longer particularly fussy.

00:20:26.120 She is a smiley, happy little girl growing all the time. And I am. I am very, very blessed.

00:20:33.400 So thank you, Mandy, for bringing up some special guests. I appreciate that. She is always welcome.

00:20:39.740 mandy is helping make sure all of your guys questions get answered uh facebook live is

00:20:47.100 kind of an unwieldy system to where we've got to monitor a whole bunch of different stuff to try to

00:20:52.060 get to everybody's questions and uh huge thanks to my wife mandy because she's doing doing her

00:20:57.820 part in making that happen membership application how long does it usually take to be processed

00:21:06.700 you should no longer than a week ideally um your folk builder should reach out to you

00:21:14.940 pretty much immediately as soon as we receive the application and try to arrange talking to

00:21:19.260 you and and feeling you out a little bit and assuming there's no issues within a week if

00:21:25.260 something does come up that we want to know a little bit more about or we have some questions

00:21:29.100 about that it may take a little bit longer but assuming nothing comes up you should be hearing

00:21:33.500 from us within a week of applying and if you don't please reach out please send an email

00:21:38.620 you can email me personally matt flavel at runestone.org

00:21:42.620 if for some reason there's a hold up and we'll get you situated

00:21:57.900 where is the next half going to be located do i have any idea

00:22:03.500 Yes, I have an idea. I have a couple of ideas, actually.

00:22:10.500 So the next half is going to be dedicated to New York.

00:22:18.300 Where exactly it's going to be located is still up in the air.

00:22:21.320 We're looking something that we've learned on these past two halves is to keep our eyes and our ears open for, you know,

00:22:28.980 signs and what the gods might tell us is as what would be a advantageous place to have that fourth

00:22:34.880 half but we are looking we're looking a number of different places um it's too far out right now to

00:22:42.500 to pinpoint something or tie it to a specific location but yes there are ideas going around

00:22:47.960 and we are looking

00:22:48.680 and like i said while we go through all these finding uh finding comments that may not show up

00:23:18.680 Please don't take a personal I do try to go over the next probably day or so reading any messages and if there's something that I miss, I will absolutely try to get back to it for some reason I don't get to it.

00:23:33.680 It's not because I don't like it it's because I'm having trouble navigating the technology here and finding your question.

00:23:39.680 I know we've had people in the past that, you know, were frustrated that they couldn't get to me on it.

00:23:46.940 So I want you guys to know we are doing the very best we can on finding it.

00:23:52.840 Got any more questions out there?

00:23:59.260 We got somebody asking if AFA get-togethers are family friendly.

00:24:05.340 Absolutely they are.

00:24:06.460 Um, the vast majority of AFA gathered gatherings are, it's not only okay if you bring your family, but we want you to bring your family, please.

00:24:18.640 You know, we, we may have a group of guys that gets together for their own thing by themselves sometimes, but an AFA gathering is always family friendly.

00:24:27.460 If you're coming out, we always want you to be able to bring your family with you.

00:24:31.460 Um, watching the growth and, uh, just flowering of all these families has been amazing watching

00:24:42.880 that bloom. We've got so many AFA babies being born, so many kids at these events, and it's so

00:24:50.100 beautiful to watch these kids play together. Um, you'll see kids that never met before and, you

00:24:55.400 know, within just a few minutes, it's like they're old friends. That's a really beautiful and a

00:25:00.600 really special thing. We work really hard to make sure that the atmosphere at AFA events is family

00:25:05.780 friendly, that we have stuff that supports being able to have children there, that, you know,

00:25:13.440 the increase in that men and women both feel comfortable being there. And yeah, it's,

00:25:21.360 it would be a tremendous sadness to me if you felt that your family wasn't welcome.

00:25:27.960 um and it's a it's an amazing thing that so many families are coming around

00:25:32.440 absolutely family friendly please bring your families out

00:25:43.480 what else

00:25:44.200 Well, thank you, Terry.

00:25:56.380 That was nice.

00:26:06.500 All right, guys.

00:26:07.680 I'm still going through here trying to look for stuff.

00:26:11.200 I appreciate so many questions and so many people.

00:26:14.200 chiming in tonight with stuff they want to say and things they want to ask

00:26:19.300 Lane uh when I mentioned that we're looking at we have ideas don't think that that doesn't come

00:26:29.120 to mind all right best way to find others in your area um ask Cliff Cliff I don't know where you are

00:26:37.200 um let us know in the chat and we'll try to get you in touch with your local folk builder for

00:26:41.640 anybody out there, there's a contact page, www.runestone.org. That's got your folk builder,

00:26:50.080 that's got local Gothar in your area. That's going to be your best way to get in contact with local

00:26:56.620 people. Your folk builder in your region is your prime AFA local contact. Not only is it good to

00:27:05.220 get in touch with he or she, but they can get you in touch with other people in your area and really

00:27:10.480 help solidify that and make that real for you and they're more than happy to help that's literally

00:27:16.620 what they're there for so please do reach out to your local folk builder like i said cliff if you

00:27:21.680 share with us where you're from over in the sidebar uh mandy or myself or one of our folk

00:27:26.620 builders will chime in and get you get you where you need to be

00:27:40.480 Okay, we've got a couple of different comments here.

00:27:51.020 Cody's asking for new members if I could explain the role that the ancestors and the gods play in our everyday lives.

00:28:02.980 I'm trying to think of the best way to put this.

00:28:04.540 One of the tendencies in Western civilization has been a, certainly in Christianity, has been an idea that Jesus is your personal Lord and Savior and cares about everything all of us do, even to kind of a creepy degree how much he cares about the details of our personal lives.

00:28:27.920 and now it's true that's not the case our gods have other things to do and

00:28:34.820 I don't wish to discourage any personal practice of interacting with the gods on an individual

00:28:43.360 basis I certainly have always done that myself and I think it's important I think that too often

00:28:50.540 in our individual private practice we focus all on our gods we neglect our ancestors

00:28:56.320 as far as beings in the spirit world that care the most about us individually

00:29:03.920 your grandmother or grandfather that passed probably cares a lot more about your personal

00:29:10.660 life and how you're doing and your family than the great gods of the Aryan people back to the

00:29:18.180 dawn of time just due to proximity and familiarity I think your ancestors take a very important

00:29:26.300 personal role in your house in your family and your children and i think they're the best point

00:29:32.220 of contact to reach out to the beyond for for help and for for for blessings in your personal life

00:29:41.180 now we all reach out to the greater gods of our folk and i truly believe that sometimes they do

00:29:46.460 listen um what i think the best way to reach out to the gods of our folk the great gods of our folk

00:29:54.460 is through practice in a community with the Astru Folk assembly. When we all gather together

00:30:01.740 and in one voice and bloat, stand there, you know, a hundred of us raising our voices in praise

00:30:09.680 and hailing our gods, I know they listen and I know we have their attention. And we're building

00:30:17.480 on the back of 25 years of a group hymenia that we've built of a relationship between the gods

00:30:25.960 so through the afa and through our group practice i think that's the best way of of approaching

00:30:31.640 the gods of our folk um and i think our ancestors are really really important in our day-to-day

00:30:37.960 life in our family life with those kind of smaller in the scope of things or more personal rather in

00:30:46.600 the scope of things concerns and i hope that gets to it uh northeast louisiana cliff

00:30:56.360 who you would like to talk to is michael foley m foley at runestone.org

00:31:04.040 he's our folk builder he's in louisiana and he would love to help you get connected

00:31:08.120 um we got a question about inter-religion marriages um

00:31:19.720 i'm gonna be honest with you it's um it's important that we be honest

00:31:24.040 that's not the optimal situation but um that is a situation that a lot of

00:31:29.080 as a true or find themselves in in a household that with divided religiosity

00:31:37.320 i think the best case scenario for that is for the spouse that is not also true to

00:31:44.520 realize the beauty of what we're doing to see the light and to become house true

00:31:52.520 i think there's ways to make inter-religion marriages work 1.00

00:31:56.360 but i think the best thing to do my best advice is to try to expose the spouse that's not also true

00:32:02.760 to also true to show them the uh the great things that we're doing and the effect it has on your

00:32:10.520 life because working together is so very essential in a marriage and i found this in my own life

00:32:18.920 once i found a partner that was also true um everything clicked and everything became so much

00:32:26.600 better i would advise everybody out there if you're in a spot to build relationships with

00:32:33.480 people who are going the same direction that you want to go so that you guys can journey through

00:32:38.200 life together in one direction instead of gradually over time moving apart and if you

00:32:43.640 find yourself apart when you get together i'm very hopeful that uh that you can work with your spouse

00:32:51.960 that you can work with weird and that you guys can grow closer together so eventually you guys

00:32:56.680 are on the same path being on that same path is extremely important and it's especially important

00:33:01.640 when raising children.

00:33:31.640 it's funny because i'm seeing replies over here on the side to questions i didn't see answered

00:33:36.920 that's more mandy having my back and and uh and our back on that appreciate that so i'm looking

00:33:45.320 to make sure there's stuff i didn't miss um one thing that that is absolutely worth mentioning

00:33:52.360 and taking the time is this month if you haven't seen or you don't know the afa lost a very very

00:34:03.640 valued family member mr terry rumpf passed away terry was a member of raven's blood kindred

00:34:12.440 he was a very important member of our deep south region and if anybody got a chance to know terry

00:34:20.280 he touched so many lives. The way he handled his last few years that were fraught with ill health

00:34:30.820 showed a very impressive dignity. Terry was a great man. I count myself very fortunate

00:34:41.860 that I got a chance to know him, a chance to speak to him.

00:34:45.440 And yeah, he will be truly, truly missed.

00:34:50.900 So hail Terry Rumpf.

00:35:15.440 Now, as good a time as any, Goethe Blaine Qualls wants to remind everybody to attend Fall Fest.

00:35:28.540 Fall Fest is September 4th, 5th, and 6th in Minnesota. If you guys have not been to Fall Fest,

00:35:36.700 it is a very, very special time. It's a very good time. It feels like a big family reunion.

00:35:43.980 Ever since the first Fall Fest, it has been something I look forward to every single year.

00:35:50.580 Great people, our folk up in Minnesota, are some of our very best.

00:35:56.820 It's funny because everybody talks about the idea of Southern hospitality.

00:36:02.000 And a lot of my entire mom's side of my family has very deep Southern roots.

00:36:08.500 And I've got a lot of love for our members in the South.

00:36:13.420 There is no hospitality like the Midwest, Minnesota, and Dakota's hospitality.

00:36:19.680 Hands down, that is currently the best hospitality in our national gatherings.

00:36:27.600 Come to Fall Fest. Those people are amazing.

00:36:29.640 I would love to see you up there.

00:36:31.900 It's a fantastic time.

00:36:33.280 If you're feeling cooped up with all of the various things going on in the world right now,

00:36:38.960 and you're feeling socially distant, not connected, come to AFA events, come to Fall Fest, give me a hug.

00:36:47.900 Let's have a weekend of something, life the way it should be and not the way that we've had to settle for a lot so far this year.

00:36:59.620 Fall Fest is going to be amazing. I look forward to seeing you guys there.

00:37:08.960 Damian, you're also going to want to get in touch with Michael Foley.

00:37:27.880 He's close there.

00:37:29.120 He's in Louisiana and can get you squared away.

00:37:31.900 Also, Lane Ashby, who is on the side listening to us right now, he is a folk builder for

00:37:37.480 the region mississippi's technically in the deep south region and he can certainly get

00:37:42.120 you squared away on other members in mississippi and help you get something going there if you're

00:37:45.960 interested roy there will absolutely be events around yule at thorshoff now that we have thors

00:38:02.120 we're going to have seasonal events at all times of the year at Thorshof.

00:38:06.120 So yes, absolutely. You want to reach out to those folks.

00:38:09.120 There will be a Yule event at Thorshof, guaranteed.

00:38:21.120 Got a question about the well and the tree as it relates to our folk.

00:38:27.120 And if you're completely brand new, I'm not sure who all we've got in the audience tonight or who may be listening.

00:38:32.120 In our worldview, in our cosmology and view of the world, existence is thought of as being in the body, the roots, and the branches of a great world tree.

00:38:50.680 And that world tree is fed by a well, the well of earth.

00:38:55.880 and the idea is that the things we put into the well affect the health of that tree

00:39:06.180 and this is a microcosm macrocosm thing there's a lot of symbology there between the entire world

00:39:15.800 tree of our existence as people and between the various trees of our family of the austral folk

00:39:24.860 assembly of any groups and circles that we might be in the idea is your deeds your words the past

00:39:35.340 goes into the well and it feeds that tree now if you feed it with glory if you feed it with

00:39:42.220 heroism if you feed it with nobility then it grows healthy and strong and beautiful

00:39:48.060 And if you feed it with ill deeds or with carelessness or with mistakes and dishonor and disrespect and garbage, then it withers and it grows unhealthy and gnarly and it slowly dies and it rots.

00:40:10.460 But here's the thing, it grows and it sheds off its leaves and they fall back in the well.

00:40:15.440 and we can we can keep this cycle going so just because there was a bad batch of stuff in the

00:40:22.520 well and the tree got uglier than it should be if you want to make it better put better stuff in

00:40:28.940 that well we can't erase the negative that finds its way in the well but we can absolutely dilute

00:40:36.220 it with as much positive as we can and we can make something beautiful and we can make new health

00:40:42.980 new growth, and new beauty in that tree. And that's a really important concept in Alcetru.

00:40:48.580 It's very essential to our ritual of sambal that we do, where we have ritual drinking out of a horn.

00:40:54.340 The words said over that horn are likened to the things that we put in that well.

00:40:58.580 And by sharing it, we're all made strong by the good things put in the horn.

00:41:03.140 Or if people were to put bad things into the horn, we're all made weaker by it.

00:41:08.020 I hope that made a little bit of sense.

00:41:12.980 Roy, yes, there is already a date set for the dedication of Baldershoff.

00:41:25.960 That is going to be coming up in November.

00:41:28.900 Guys up in Minnesota, guys coming down from the Dakotas, have put a lot of work making that place really special.

00:41:35.720 It was already a beautiful, beautiful building and a beautiful place.

00:41:38.920 and with the love these guys have shown it it is it is shaping up to be really remarkable and it's

00:41:45.100 going to be really something to behold so yeah keep your eyes open for uh in November having

00:41:50.200 that dedication of Baldur's Hoff I will be there and I'm very excited for that

00:42:08.920 All right, I'm looking to see if I'm catching any questions that I may have missed.

00:42:25.880 If I haven't gotten to you, please ask again or something because I'm looking and I'm very eager to answer anything you guys care enough to ask.

00:42:38.920 yeah for uh folks that don't know we do have a youtube channel so if you search on youtube for

00:42:55.000 the astro folk assembly we have a channel there where after we're done with these i save these

00:42:59.880 and i and i put them up in there um there's other content besides that but there's you know any of

00:43:05.640 these that i've done and if anybody needs to catch them later or whatever the case may be

00:43:14.200 like i said i appreciate you guys joining me for these i look forward to them every month

00:43:19.320 this is a really nice opportunity to be able to interact with all of our afa members from

00:43:25.960 from across the world um also like to mention i'm not sure if i mentioned it last month but

00:43:32.760 But we have a new kindred that has joined us in Brazil that we're very proud of, the fighter folk kindred.

00:43:44.360 And I'm very excited to have those guys with us.

00:43:47.900 As I mentioned earlier, we've got AFA members now in 16 countries around the world.

00:43:53.640 Truly, wherever our folk are, that's where we want to be.

00:43:57.000 And we'd love to see kindreds grow and flourish in those places.

00:44:00.500 we'd love to see hoffs there and with our third hoff having happened we're

00:44:06.260 we're well on our way to making some of that a reality

00:44:14.580 so i mentioned we have uh fall fest coming up in just about a month from now so everyone absolutely

00:44:23.140 do what you can make it there but also if for some reason you can't or if you want to do both

00:44:28.500 which i'd highly encourage winter nights in the poconos coming up in middle of october

00:44:35.300 if you can make it there that's an amazing event it's very special it's a beautiful place

00:44:40.340 a beautiful time of the year uh we've checked there's no no worries about the camp everything's

00:44:46.500 great um everything is squared away and we're very excited for it this year um

00:44:53.060 um so personally uh winter nights is a very special event for me it's where i met my wife

00:45:00.500 mandy i have a lot of good memories from that site and from that event so if you can't make

00:45:06.740 it out to fall fest or even if you can go to winter nights in poconos it's absolutely amazing

00:45:12.900 and uh cliff and his wife katie erickson they they do so much to make that event special so uh

00:45:20.260 looking forward to that this year too we've got a lot of really exciting things in store

00:45:26.340 we're still celebrating our 25th anniversary all year so these events are all very special

00:45:31.860 and they all mark a very special time in our history and uh it's another thing i wanted to

00:45:38.020 mention um we are well on our way i've talked about this few times we are working behind the

00:45:44.900 scenes we have some pretty amazing volunteers working to compile and write a history of the

00:45:51.300 Auschwitz folk assembly knowing our past knowing the amazing story of how we got to where we are

00:46:00.980 is really important gives us something to build on and that's something that when I first joined

00:46:06.580 the AFA I wanted to find out more about and it just wasn't available we're going to have

00:46:11.940 a history of the astro folk assembly and we're going to get that going as soon as we can we're

00:46:18.340 going to keep adding to it compiling it history is so very important to us and we're really focusing

00:46:24.100 on that from this year on into the future one thing that we're making sure we have at each of

00:46:29.860 these hoffs is a hoff historian to write down our history at these hoffs to track the things that

00:46:38.340 happened at these really special places and to learn and compile some of the history of these

00:46:44.500 sites before they were ours the buildings that we've that we've taken over the land

00:46:49.780 where what it was beforehand how it developed how it grew and we're going to add our layers

00:46:55.540 to that story as the years go by so history is really important and we've got some really great

00:47:00.580 volunteers putting that to the forefront lately got any more questions tonight

00:47:15.140 suppose questions or just any any broad things that you you may want to want to hear me comment on

00:47:30.580 Oh, what I recommend for daily practice.

00:47:38.740 So some of this may not sound particularly spiritual, but everything is spiritual.

00:47:47.420 Some of it may not sound particularly religious, but our religion is something that we practice in all that we do.

00:47:54.360 Daily practice, live nobly and live heroically.

00:47:59.580 Be a good man, be a good woman, be a good father, be a good son, be a good husband,

00:48:06.620 be a good employer, be a good employee, be a noble person in the things that you do.

00:48:13.380 And I think that's the essential to daily practice.

00:48:16.360 For the more overtly spiritual, I would really encourage altar work.

00:48:22.600 Coming before your altar once a day, lighting candles, burning incense,

00:48:27.020 addressing the the gods and also making a space and addressing your ancestors

00:48:33.160 um we often think that when we approach in prayer either our ancestors or the gods that we need to

00:48:40.140 be asking for something it's not the case we can just be thankful for something we can just say

00:48:47.000 thank you what else we can do is in that holy space in our home we can make affirmations we

00:48:56.440 can affirm our goals and things that we will do. We can say these things out loud in the presence

00:49:04.240 of our gods and in the presence of our ancestors in a holy place. That in and of itself is a sacred

00:49:11.840 act. And I think having that touchstone to come before your altar once a day is extremely important

00:49:17.440 in your daily practice. A lot of people include an amount of meditation with that. One thing that

00:49:24.760 I've found very useful in meditating and altar work has been Galder. For those that may not know,

00:49:33.080 Galder is basically chanting a rune. When you chant a rune and you Galder that rune and think

00:49:40.500 on its shape, the sound after a while, if you do it long enough, ends up taking on a life of its own

00:49:47.620 and your mind frees up and goes to a very special sacred place i've found a lot of value in that i

00:49:55.480 have some trouble stilling everything with silence but galder work which is very similar to what in

00:50:02.660 the east they would call mantra work does a lot for me and has helped me a lot throughout the

00:50:07.580 year so i really recommend that too in your daily practice to center you to focus you on a room that

00:50:13.940 you wish to galler, to elevate your mind to a different place. So I would highly encourage that.

00:50:29.980 Do the gods fight among one another?

00:50:32.560 i am not so presumptuous to tell you all the ins and outs of what the gods do or don't do

00:50:44.180 in asgard but in general strife amongst kinsmen is one of the biggest curses

00:50:51.220 we see in our lore you know there there may be competition and good-spirited things

00:50:58.600 but when we see amongst the gods malicious fight happen is at the death of balder and that's the

00:51:06.400 greatest tragedy that we have in our lore um strife amongst kinsmen and strife in the hall

00:51:13.900 is one of the greatest curses to our ancestors so um in the bigger sense the aesir fought the

00:51:24.260 vanir. There's expressions of conflict between great things and great ideas and great spheres

00:51:32.540 amongst the gods. But the Aesir, as a family, as a grouping, gather in harmony. We see Loki in the

00:51:43.420 lore as being an example of a disruption of that harmony. That disruption is the very bane of

00:51:49.700 progress of anything great happening so increasing that harmony and the acr functioning harmoniously

00:51:57.300 is a huge core of what we believe in and it's a big part of the theme of order versus chaos

00:52:04.820 we always want to support order and we want to shun needless chaos order always above chaos

00:52:19.700 as a true morality do we have rules yes we have rules um being a noble people being people that

00:52:34.100 celebrate order we absolutely have rules but we're not a litigious people to where our rules need to

00:52:40.880 be some massive tome of thou shalt and thou shalt not but there are codes of ethics of how you deal

00:52:48.520 with one another. Our nine noble virtues are certainly rules. Within the AFA, we have the

00:52:53.700 law of the hall. But a lot of our rules are inherent in the nobility of Western culture

00:53:01.580 that have been inculcated in our people since the dawn of our folk and have defined us as

00:53:06.560 a people. We certainly have rules. We certainly have morality. A lot of that morality comes

00:53:16.480 around living virtuously living our our values and aspiring to be noble people and doing things

00:53:26.240 that increase our reputation and increase our renown and not things that bring shame upon us

00:53:32.000 and a shame upon our community it's not a black and white list of you know 47 things you're allowed

00:53:38.320 to do and 27 things that will cast you out for um it's fluid and it changes with the situation that

00:53:46.560 we live in in the world that we face what the specifics of specific rules are but the principles

00:53:53.040 of nobility and the principles of our virtues remain constant even though they get expressed

00:53:57.760 differently in different times. Daniel, how does one become an apprentice folk builder?

00:54:11.840 One reaches out and talks to the current leadership in your region, the folk builders,

00:54:17.040 and if there is a Gothia or a Githia in your region, those are the ones that you want to speak

00:54:20.960 to. Let them know what you'd like to do. Oftentimes they'll see if you've been around,

00:54:26.320 have been a member for a little bit they may ask that you host a couple of local get-togethers and

00:54:33.360 see if that's something you're comfortable with and they can talk to you a little bit more about

00:54:37.520 moving you in that direction we always love volunteers we need folk builders we love the

00:54:42.080 help so if that's something you're called to do and you and you want to do for the full

00:54:46.640 please reach out to your local go through your githya and uh and they can get you squared away

00:54:51.760 on the right track ash i'm very very glad that you asked yes you can absolutely be part of the

00:55:07.600 afa as a solitary practitioner um community is super important and you are always welcome

00:55:17.440 in our community if and when you feel comfortable doing so but if you need or want to just be

00:55:24.320 solitary for a while or for as long as you want that's fine you're welcome to be an afa member

00:55:31.600 um i'm really glad you reached out and asked that

00:55:46.480 what is hymenia

00:56:00.880 your hymenia is

00:56:08.680 your spiritual might that is built up of

00:56:16.240 I guess the best way to describe it is a combination

00:56:26.260 or the sum of your your defeats and your successes your hymenia is the spiritual

00:56:39.200 might that you build and you build it strong through right action through heroic things

00:56:45.580 through fame through doing good and you diminish it by moral compromise by degeneracy by by bad

00:56:54.760 behavior um and this can increase and it can decrease depending but your hymenia is that value

00:57:04.360 and we believe that when we function as a group a group has a hymenia as well your family your

00:57:12.200 kindred the afa in general um in a huge sense our folk in general um but your hymenia is the

00:57:22.040 spiritual might that you've built and it's not just by being a good guy or being a famous guy

00:57:28.680 but it's also by right practice and consistent ritual practice if you do consistent ritual you

00:57:34.760 do consistent meditative work you offer to the gods regularly you interact with your ancestors

00:57:40.920 regularly as you grow in spiritual power your hymenia grows as well and when you participate

00:57:48.200 ensemble and you share your spiritual energy in the horn with other outside true are they benefit

00:57:55.720 from your hymenia and you benefit from theirs so it's important that we we share good hymenias

00:58:03.240 amongst each other so that our group of minion gets strong whereas if we were just made of a 0.97

00:58:08.600 bunch of jerks then we have somebody who's great that that gets together with us their hymenia goes 0.99

00:58:15.240 down because they're hanging out with a bunch of losers that's why it's really important in the afa 1.00

00:58:19.960 that each of us tries to be the very best we can be so what we share with our family what we bring

00:58:26.520 to the table is the very best it can be by us all being great we spur each other to even greater

00:58:35.480 even greater heights by us all doing our very best we come together with the

00:58:41.560 best hymenia and the mightiest hymenia that's kind of a real quick way of explaining it

00:59:11.560 all right guys well that hour went by very very quickly um if you guys have any any last things

00:59:26.680 you want to ask that i didn't get to um yeah any any last questions or any last things that you

00:59:37.240 If you want any kind of comment on before we call it a night.

00:59:45.240 Oh, I didn't mean to ignore that question.

00:59:48.240 Hollander's translation of the Eddas is a is a really good one.

00:59:54.240 I think there's something a little bit to be gained out of all of them.

00:59:58.240 I don't I've yet to run into a translation that I really dislike.

01:00:05.240 But I think that we're best served if you can take a couple of translations and put them together, and then you get kind of an idea of where they, where everybody's in agreement, where there's something a little bit different.

01:00:17.660 So I would encourage, you know, take a look at a couple of different translations, especially if there's a point that really sticks out to you, either positively or negatively that really speaks to you.

01:00:26.700 I'd take a look at a couple different ETA translations to see what the different translators have, how they've interpreted the language.

01:00:35.240 And thank you for chiming in on that, Blaine and Mandy.

01:00:42.240 So I'm going to check here one more time.

01:00:47.240 I hope that I've answered everybody's questions.

01:00:49.240 If for some reason I did not get to something you asked, I apologize, and I will try to try to get to them best I can here in the next day or so.

01:00:58.240 Okay, last question. Got a gentleman. Daniel, you asked about has the AFA considered buying land

01:01:13.560 to build an AFA community on? Yes, absolutely. That has always been something that our people

01:01:22.040 have dreamed about doing and thought would be a good idea the idea of it always seems to be

01:01:28.280 better than the practicality of actually making it work um i don't say that to squash any dreams

01:01:35.720 maybe one day that'll be a great reality um something that our people tend to do is fantasize

01:01:42.600 about you know getting some big spread of land somewhere and building a little afa village on

01:01:48.040 it and doing all these things and that's great and beautiful i myself really bought into a plan on

01:01:52.760 that about six years ago and what i found is what most people run into is you'll have one

01:01:59.480 one or two people that are very very committed and then you'll have other people that the more

01:02:03.880 it becomes a reality it's just too big of a jump it's too big of a jump for most people

01:02:09.880 um maybe we'll get there i'd love to see us get there but what i think is is much more reasonable

01:02:15.880 is in the in the regular lives that we're in have our people move closer together an AFA

01:02:22.520 community doesn't have to be a set aside you know 100 acres off in the middle of nowhere

01:02:29.720 you start with an AFA community if you got AFA members that move to the same state move to the

01:02:35.000 same county move to the same town you have an AFA community when you got AFA members that decide to

01:02:42.040 moved to the same street or the same neighborhood or heck if you're in an urban environment you have

01:02:47.560 an afa community if people live in the same apartment building the closer we get together

01:02:54.120 that's where afa community is and what i would really encourage is while while we plan for you

01:03:00.760 know the big afa intentional community somewhere in the meantime let's not let perfect be the enemy

01:03:07.240 of good and those of us that are mobile or if you're you don't have anything going where you're

01:03:12.120 at move next to some other afa members i think a really great idea if you want afa community

01:03:18.680 and you're mobile and you don't know where to put down roots um get near brownsville california

01:03:25.720 get near linden north carolina get near murdoch minnesota and let's start building

01:03:31.000 communities around our house that's what i'd really encourage

01:03:36.600 it's been great talking to you guys tonight it's always great talking to my afa family i love you

01:03:41.320 guys um i look forward to seeing everybody at fall fest and i will talk to you guys again next month

01:03:50.840 if not sooner um this is an amazing amazing time to be part of the outstreet folk assembly

01:03:57.720 and I'm glad you guys are here to, we can share that together. Hail the gods, hail the folk, hail the ASA.

Asatru Folk Assembly - August 02, 2020

August 2020 Facebook Live Chat

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