Asatru Folk Assembly - December 2019 Live Discussion

00:00:00.000 Hey, Mark. Hey, Rob.

00:00:20.140 Hope you guys are doing all right this evening. Hope you guys, hope everybody had a great Thanksgiving.

00:00:25.020 Sorry for the short notice tonight

00:00:29.940 I know I didn't give everybody a lot of lead time

00:00:32.380 But I got a number of things to do this week

00:00:34.840 And I wanted to make sure that

00:00:36.060 That I had time to sit and talk with you guys

00:00:39.440 And like I say, I look forward to these every month

00:00:42.760 So, yep, sorry for the little bit of short notice

00:00:45.040 But hopefully we get a good crowd in here tonight

00:00:47.120 And have some good conversation

00:00:50.460 one thing i was uh taking note of when i wrote my article for the void or for the runestone this

00:01:06.900 month was just how fast 2019 has seemed to have gone by um it seems you know seems like yesterday

00:01:16.980 that I was here closing out 2018 and doing things to prepare for 2019 and now the year's down.

00:01:29.040 It seems happening a lot faster the older I get.

00:01:32.340 And as I was talking about in the Roomstone article, I think it's extremely important

00:01:36.980 that we make the effort to be present and appreciate all the moments in our lives and

00:01:45.140 the times that we have. Because, you know, the older I get, the more it seems like they're going

00:01:50.160 by really quick. And I know it's even more so when we've got so much technology and stuff. I know

00:01:55.060 with my phone, a lot of people on our team tend to decry technology a lot or, you know, see it as

00:02:06.200 a bad thing. And I don't. I think the cell phone is an amazing thing. I think the internet's an

00:02:10.340 amazing thing. I think it's a great tool and it all depends on how you use it. But one thing it

00:02:15.400 does, because it's so efficient and because you're 24-7 connected to everything you're trying to do,

00:02:22.720 it takes you out of the moment and out of the time with people you're with. So I've noticed

00:02:28.760 myself at something that I'm working on is trying to make sure that I'm present where I'm at and

00:02:34.220 not always thinking about what I need to do, what I should be doing, you know, various tasks that pop

00:02:40.860 up notifications on my phone. One thing I'm going to really focus on this Yule season is making time

00:02:48.600 to really be there and really soak up and enjoy the holiday magic. I hope you guys do as well.

00:02:59.280 Thanks, Robert. Hopefully. Hopefully. It looks like we got a good crowd regardless of my

00:03:04.040 a lack of lead time on this. Hey, Josh, glad you could make it.

00:03:09.600 Okay, we got Will and Melana.

00:03:11.980 Hey, Brandy.

00:03:16.400 Alright.

00:03:18.300 Well,

00:03:20.300 instead of me rambling about

00:03:23.920 getting old, does anybody have any things that they want to talk about tonight?

00:03:27.160 Anything that's been on your mind since the last time we spoke?

00:03:29.920 anything that you guys wanted to make sure I covered

00:03:35.220 or had on your mind that you wanted me to throw a few words out there on

00:03:39.380 if there is go ahead and let me know

00:03:42.240 I'll go ahead and say this too

00:03:47.480 I think it's getting better but if there's any questions that get missed

00:03:51.820 during the course of this or they don't pop up

00:03:55.520 or the various tech gremlins steal them away

00:04:00.000 I will go through and look at all these comments.

00:04:02.020 They pop up on the Facebook post after the video.

00:04:07.040 And, you know, for the next 24 hours or so, I will make sure to answer all the questions or any questions you guys may have.

00:04:17.020 No worries, Robert. I'm glad you're here.

00:04:24.400 So, I don't know if I talked about this last time.

00:04:29.120 But I want to talk a little bit about some of the special things that Owning Odin's Off has allowed us to do in Brownsville, California.

00:04:40.640 Just something that's been on my mind because we're doing a lot more activity with that community lately.

00:04:45.920 And some of you guys may not know.

00:04:47.420 So Brownsville is in Yuba County, California.

00:04:53.440 It's back in the hills.

00:04:54.820 It's a pretty small, very economically depressed town.

00:04:59.120 lot of a lot of poverty there in their little town it's probably 45 minutes away

00:05:06.880 from you know a bigger town with stores that you know you might all be familiar

00:05:10.280 with where they relied on very heavily for their groceries was a little gas

00:05:16.220 station store and I'm sorry speaking of the phone but it was about this so I

00:05:27.320 can make sure in case there's any questions no there's a little gas station store in brownsville

00:05:31.720 and one other thing about brownsville and about california is fires seems like the state is

00:05:39.080 constantly on fire and as luck would have it those fires are very often very close to our

00:05:46.760 hoff now i think hoff's in a pretty safe spot it's a defensible area but a couple of years ago that

00:05:53.080 gas station market where they did their grocery shopping burned down and so we

00:05:57.400 had a bunch of people there that were that were hungry that didn't have

00:06:00.400 transportation and the ability to get a lot of places and the food bank Yuba

00:06:07.760 County Food Bank reached out to us and this was nice we didn't have to go and

00:06:12.280 reach out to them we didn't have to hunt it out they came to us apparently

00:06:16.360 they'd gone to a number of churches in Brownsville and were told no or they

00:06:21.520 weren't interested in helping well food bank needed to set up a distribution

00:06:25.360 center there so that they could get food to folks who were in need and we were so

00:06:30.340 happy we got the opportunity rush right over there and we've had a great

00:06:34.540 relationship with them ever since the food bank and for the last year and a

00:06:38.860 half every month we've been doing a food distribution to folks in Brownsville

00:06:44.980 and that's been such an amazing blessing for all of us I think it's been really

00:06:48.820 helpful to folks in brownsville i hope so i think it's built us a lot of good will there

00:06:54.100 but it's been a really good thing for the soul of our folk to be able to help in that way

00:06:58.340 to be able to do something nice and instead of complaining about all the things we wish

00:07:01.780 were different to go out there and actually help somebody so we've been doing that and at this

00:07:06.980 next one coming up i'm pretty excited because we've got something else going on so the building

00:07:13.940 that we bought and we repurposed for Odenshof, that building's been there since 1938.

00:07:22.100 And for a very long time in that community, that was the spot where kids would come and during the

00:07:27.380 holiday season, people would read stories to them and they'd get hot chocolate and some cookies.

00:07:32.980 And when people were available, they had a toy giveaway. Like I said, these are folks who don't

00:07:39.220 have a whole lot so they had the toy giveaway and this was something that hasn't happened in a long

00:07:45.700 time and it's one thing that i was looking around about doing a possible toy giveaway and it's

00:07:53.860 i think an interesting bit of syncretive synchronicity that the building we use for

00:07:58.500 odin's off once was the spot where that happened so anyways long story short this month along with

00:08:04.820 of food giveaway we're going to be having a hot chocolate story time and toy giveaway to the

00:08:10.820 to the kids of brownsville so i'm really excited to get to do that looking forward to it um having

00:08:17.780 a hoff having a physical building has really opened up so many opportunities for us to be

00:08:21.860 involved in the community and to really get out there and help people so that's just something

00:08:27.220 i'm pretty excited about coming up that we got out here hey guys glad everybody could make it

00:08:34.820 all right seriously I see you've got some questions I know that translating

00:08:50.480 can be a little bit difficult so I'll do my best to try to try to get to the any

00:08:55.580 questions you might have. Welcome to everybody who just joined us. Hope

00:09:05.960 everybody's doing good. Fulkish Pagan Story Hour, absolutely. We're looking for 1.00

00:09:12.000 some good books right now that are, you know, compatible with our worldview and

00:09:17.700 our beliefs, but also relevant for, you know, this time of the season and stuff

00:09:21.680 that kids would enjoy reading or getting read to and hearing.

00:09:25.620 So we're looking right now,

00:09:26.960 and Sheila MacNallan's going to be a big part of that.

00:09:30.360 Sheila always loves to read stories to the kids,

00:09:32.460 and I think this is going to be a really nice opportunity

00:09:34.480 for her to do that.

00:09:44.940 Um, Zach, yes, there is.

00:09:48.940 yeah I suppose there's a little bit of time

00:09:52.940 the toy giveaway is going to be on the 14th

00:09:55.520 I will try to have

00:10:00.880 Mandy get with you after this live chat

00:10:04.940 and give you an address where you guys could send something

00:10:09.180 and I appreciate you

00:10:12.760 wanting to do something like that, that's great

00:10:18.940 So we've got a question.

00:10:33.440 Who is the real death goddess?

00:10:41.880 I think that the most available answer to that is certainly hell.

00:10:48.940 um as she rules over over the land of the dead in that way i think that's really interesting and

00:10:55.980 i think it's something that we don't have a lot of information on to really flesh that out and

00:11:00.860 how and how that works um i think that your question of perhaps scald or you know the norns

00:11:08.460 in general certainly they have a hand to play what i think is really important and significant

00:11:14.460 is that it's a chthonic domain that's very feminine.

00:11:23.080 I think there's a lot of parallels between the tomb and the womb,

00:11:27.500 and between going back to a place of gestation.

00:11:31.200 That's one of the really interesting things that was shown to us

00:11:35.780 when I went to Denmark with the AFA back in 2014, 2013.

00:11:41.460 we went to a lot of burial chambers, and there were these dolmens, and they were, you know, burial chambers.

00:11:49.740 There wasn't a lot of bodies there.

00:11:52.280 In fact, very often they didn't find bodies at all,

00:11:55.220 but it was a place where the locals thought that a person who passed would go,

00:12:00.860 would sit for a time in this dolmen, and a time, you know, for the soul to migrate,

00:12:07.560 and for the process of death to complete.

00:12:11.060 And then the body was taken in and ended up being interred other places oftentimes.

00:12:16.180 So I think there's something to be said for the idea of the tomb and the womb

00:12:19.580 and that place of gestation.

00:12:21.920 And back to your question, I think that if we pick who's the Austro goddess of the dead,

00:12:26.140 certainly hell would be the most readily available.

00:12:36.680 Okay, Will, everybody, this isn't just somebody random.

00:12:40.300 Anybody who's not out west, Will has been super helpful at Odenshoff.

00:12:45.420 He and Milena are going to be a very big help to us on the 14th.

00:12:49.320 He's just mentioned that if folks do have toys that they want to send to hand out to the kids,

00:12:54.160 trying to keep it about $10 value and under, but whatever you feel that you would like to,

00:13:01.200 if that's something you'd like to do, Will can go ahead and take any of the information.

00:13:06.060 if you guys want to ask him.

00:13:08.760 I don't know how comfortable he is

00:13:10.440 just putting an address out there to everybody,

00:13:12.700 but Will, I'll let you take that from here.

00:13:15.560 Will has my complete trust.

00:13:17.120 You send toys to Will.

00:13:18.280 They're going to go to kids.

00:13:19.240 Will's not just going to have a toy room set up

00:13:21.040 in back of his house with all these toys.

00:13:23.940 I promise he's a good guy.

00:13:25.040 He's not going to do that.

00:13:26.500 So yeah, thank you very much for stepping up with that, Will.

00:13:36.060 So just in case nobody heard the date, toy giveaway is going to be in Brownsville on

00:13:49.380 the 14th, so if anybody is sending them, they would need to be to Brownsville by then, probably

00:14:00.740 to Will, at least a day previous to that.

00:14:08.420 Does anybody else have anything they want to ask or want to make sure we talk about

00:14:12.880 tonight?

00:14:16.460 Anything on you guys' mind?

00:14:28.500 Thank you for having so many questions, Cersei.

00:14:30.560 I'm glad, and they give us something to talk about. I'm not sure I understand this one.

00:14:36.280 In bloats, the kindred member must give the out blood. I'm not sure what you're asking,

00:14:44.440 so I'm not sure if there's somebody else that can maybe help me understand a little bit better

00:14:48.340 what you're asking. Yeah, I'm not really sure exactly where to go with that, but we'll keep

00:14:53.580 working, and if anybody has any idea that can help me, you know, see it a little bit clearer,

00:14:58.420 be really happy to address it. Rodney, how do you join? You go to www.runestone.org.

00:15:13.000 There you can just go ahead and straight up join, but you can also find information, you

00:15:17.480 can find our Declaration of Purpose, you can find our Statement of Ethics, and you can

00:15:22.460 also find in the contact section your local folk builder and they can get you connected with people

00:15:29.500 in your area if and when you do join they're the people that i'll be trying to get you connected

00:15:35.020 with that'll get you sorted let you know about local things going on and try to get you involved

00:15:39.500 with some people close to you so yeah write me if you go to www.runestone.org look forward to seeing

00:15:48.460 your application marcus absolutely i do uh he asked if with with winter coming do i feel like

00:16:07.260 cold weather and normal normal uh northern climates are uh a baked in part of our dna

00:16:14.860 And I think I think that it is. I think our ancestral memory teaches us a lot about a northerly northerly homeland and about the cold.

00:16:26.120 I think you see that in some of the ancient imagery when you get back to some of our most ancient lore.

00:16:31.260 And I think a lot of that takes us back to the Ice Age.

00:16:35.860 And I think a lot of that takes us beyond to Hyperborea.

00:16:38.560 But I definitely think that the cold and the snow and wintertime is something very, it's a very home feeling for our soul.

00:16:49.680 It's something that I think we long for a lot.

00:16:52.180 And I've seen, I've read a lot of other, you know, a lot of really good authors write about how difficult of a time our people have it when we end up in equatorial climates.

00:17:04.200 When it's hot weather, our folk don't do well.

00:17:07.820 And I think that that's led to a lot of different geopolitical things as far as workforce issues when you're in those places.

00:17:17.080 So, yeah, I think our people do tend to thrive and feel very much at home in a colder, you know, winter prominent environment.

00:17:26.600 And that's certainly where we earned a lot of who we are as far as surviving the adversity and making something shine in weather that wasn't always, you know, the easiest to manage.

00:17:49.420 Okay, Circe, I'm going to try to get to what you're asking a little bit.

00:17:52.900 it sounds like you're asking about folks giving some of their own blood in some kind of a bloke

00:18:03.500 ritual. I'm not sure how you guys do things in South America. Where you're at, I think that

00:18:11.680 traditions probably develop very different, especially when folks don't have, you know,

00:18:17.400 a lot of other long-standing ostriches are around them in my typically in a bloat at least in an

00:18:26.520 afa bloat the members present don't give blood usually it's something that will be done with

00:18:33.640 mead as a meat offering we call it a bloat but it's more traditionally a feigning

00:18:37.640 um but folks do on occasion and in a in a respectful way sometimes offer an animal

00:18:46.820 sacrifice in bloat and that blood will be used for ritual purposes and then the meat will be

00:18:52.620 consumed by the folk that are there but i've seen much more often when in terms of members using

00:18:58.160 their own blood in a ritual i've seen that done in oaths very often or often what else i've seen

00:19:04.300 is that done in constructing runes and really making any uh magical implement that you're going

00:19:13.580 to use it's common for people to imbue that in some of their own life force with that blood

00:19:19.900 and i've seen that done i certainly did that i blooded my own set of runes that i use

00:19:25.580 So I don't know if that gets to what you're asking, but that's the closest I've got right now.

00:19:45.580 I was going to, as show and tell, this is my first and only room set that I've carved.

00:19:53.580 and yeah I ended up bledding that with my own blood to put part of myself into

00:19:58.820 these rooms and found them to be very useful and helpful over the years I made

00:20:03.720 them out of crabapple tree that came from my grandparents backyard so those

00:20:10.740 are special to me and again to make them more personal I know that people have

00:20:15.420 blooded their rooms or will put some of their own blood on on those kind of

00:20:20.160 objects. Tobias, what are some of the advantages of joining? The Astru Folk

00:20:31.920 Assembly as a church has built a strong relationship with the Aesir over the

00:20:40.440 end of this month will make 25 years as the Astru Folk Assembly, building brick

00:20:47.140 by brick stone by stone a relationship with the divine a uh a give and a take relationship

00:20:56.820 to where gifts have been exchanged bonds have been formed and we've tried to really build a

00:21:03.460 powerful hymenia and a luck that way in that connection um i don't claim that the only way

00:21:09.700 you can connect with the a seer is to the astro folk assembly but i do think that it's the best

00:21:14.740 way i do think that it connects you with a very powerful tradition and that's not something our

00:21:21.380 people take lightly um so like i said the end of this month will be 25 years for the austral folk

00:21:28.420 assembly but it'll be 51 years if we consider that we're building upon the relationship that

00:21:33.780 steve mcnallen built with the a seer over you know the vast majority of his lifetime

00:21:41.060 um it's a powerful legacy and it's it's something that we connect to and that we benefit from just

00:21:46.340 like when we're ensemble we we gain spiritual might from the all of the people that surround

00:21:52.660 us and become worth more than some of our parts when we worship the a seer united as the astro

00:21:59.220 folk assembly we get something much more than just the sum of our membership we build upon this

00:22:06.820 long-standing relationship that we have with the divine and they've poured out a lot of blessings

00:22:12.580 on us hopefully they're proud of us and appreciate the work that we've put in and that we continue to

00:22:17.940 put in hopefully we're worthy of that that's the biggest thing you get outside of the spiritual

00:22:23.620 benefit you get to be part of a thriving community um excuse me yes true folk assembly

00:22:31.060 is out there every day trying to build our faith um our go thar out there practicing

00:22:38.980 also true daily and you become a part of that we have members around the world we have members in

00:22:44.820 15 countries i believe um certainly we have folk all across the united states but we have folk

00:22:52.160 wherever wherever our people are chances are there's afa members there and you become part

00:22:57.760 of that and part of that community that we're building so those are some of the

00:23:02.680 things but I think the connection with the divine through a church that they

00:23:06.920 appreciate all the effort that we've put in building on that relationship I

00:23:11.100 think that's certainly one of the most important things to get out of being a

00:23:14.280 member um Brandy that is a fine question I appreciate that our ladies think of 1.00

00:23:25.980 things like that if it was just up to me and some of the guys we just have a pile of toys and pass 1.00

00:23:30.600 them out um yeah uh we we need gift bags or wrapping paper or any of those things i'm sure

00:23:39.720 would be much appreciated i think sheila's going to be a big part of that effort but you know any

00:23:46.840 of those those end up going to the same locations as the toys would be put to good use making that

00:23:52.000 happen. And thank you for thinking of that. I'm really glad to, you know, I'm glad that we have

00:23:56.500 folks that do think about that. Uh-oh. Never mind. I read down the page and Sheila just said we don't

00:24:07.120 need any of the wrapping paper and stuff. Thank you, Sheila. I appreciate you being on here and

00:24:11.220 helping correct some of that.

00:24:13.440 Thank you very much.

00:24:29.340 Brandy, the question, would I want hats or gloves?

00:24:33.680 The way you make it sound is like I'm choosing

00:24:35.500 between the one or the other.

00:24:37.460 Warm clothes would probably be really nice for kids there.

00:24:41.220 We're collecting those anyway, and anything that we get as far as warm clothing goes

00:24:46.740 If we can give it away then at the toy giveaway, that's great

00:24:50.100 If not, we'll give it away in January, but warm clothes would be very welcome there to get good kids

00:25:11.220 I'm sorry guys I'm just reading over some of these questions I got a little

00:25:16.680 long-winded there and I want to make sure I get the stuff that you guys are asking

00:25:41.220 Dustin, as far as resources, I would recommend anything that Dr. Steve Flackers has written

00:25:57.740 and pointing out that they have both magical and that the runes, I'm sorry for anybody

00:26:01.860 you didn't see it, Dustin's writing a paper about runes having both linguistic and magical

00:26:11.100 uses and he needs four sources. As far as from different sources, my go-to for rune things

00:26:24.060 is um is dr stephen flowers uh also known or writes under the name edward thorson

00:26:31.740 uh he is by far the most accomplished rune master certainly of our time arguably of any time

00:26:41.100 i think rune lore goes into the topic that you talked about really well i know that futhark does

00:26:46.380 as well i think any of his books do but i don't know if you want to have all four of your sources

00:26:51.500 being the same guy you could get fancy and use his pen name for one and his his legal name for the

00:26:57.260 other but as far as academic sources he's not just some fringe weirdo he is a he's a doctor of i

00:27:04.860 believe germanic studies but he is an accomplished accomplished scholar and his his work should stand

00:27:12.380 up with the very best of them that write on the subject.

00:27:20.220 It's simple, but I think it is also a good source, and I'd recommend this to anybody

00:27:24.840 as a first time or a very introductory rune book is The Runes Workbook by Leon D. Wild.

00:27:32.500 I really like that book.

00:27:33.620 I strongly recommend it, and that's probably another good source as well for you.

00:27:39.620 Hey, Blaine. Hey, Melissa. Glad you guys joined us.

00:27:49.240 My thoughts on metagenetics.

00:27:53.460 I like it. It's real. It's thin.

00:27:56.740 I think that absolutely

00:27:58.380 our folk soul,

00:28:02.620 our makeup, our predispositions

00:28:06.620 dispositions to things the very things that make up our soul and our identity are absolutely passed

00:28:11.980 down to us from our ancestors and ultimately following that track from the gods themselves

00:28:19.100 i think that's very evident um that's been anecdotally proven time and time again continues

00:28:27.500 to be and always will be um i do think that some of that is a you know quantifiable genetic

00:28:35.980 component, but I don't claim to be a geneticist. I know for a fact that we get a heritage and a

00:28:41.420 legacy from our ancestors in a spiritual way. I think that's what takes it beyond just being

00:28:46.520 genetics and makes it metagenetics, but I think it's really solid, and I think it was a very,

00:28:51.680 I think it was a very groundbreaking thing that, uh, that Alistair Gauthier Steve McNallan, uh,

00:28:59.800 created and popularized and uh and has written them on for so many years um

00:29:08.600 yeah metagenetics is great uh anybody who hasn't read it we sell a copy at runestone.org you can

00:29:15.640 find it around you can find the essays in other places but it's really a foundation that the

00:29:21.400 astrofocus simply has been built on and it's something that we're very proud of and very

00:29:26.520 fortunate that Steve came up with and put to paper. Hmm. Circe, I've never I've

00:29:42.060 never heard that with the saliva being how how the slobs imbue things with 1.00

00:29:48.720 with their own essence. Thank you for sharing that with us it's really 1.00

00:29:51.360 interesting. Brandy, as far as podcast goes, I've really been out of the podcast game for a long

00:30:14.000 time now. I'm not really sure what's still going, what's out there, and what the kids listen to

00:30:20.440 these days I feel a little bit bad because I'd like to have some that I

00:30:24.520 could give out as recommendations this question that does get asked just not

00:30:28.360 really sure what's still active or a good one to recommend right now if you

00:30:32.320 have any you'd like to recommend please post them in case folks you know might

00:30:36.460 You might want to check those out.

00:31:01.460 Jack.

00:31:03.460 Yes, absolutely.

00:31:04.460 Absolutely. My advice is go to www.roomstone.org and go to the contact section. Your contact,

00:31:14.420 the folk builder for your region is Clifford Erickson. He's a good friend of mine, a guy

00:31:19.960 that has done such a big job for helping the AFA to be as successful as it is. He does

00:31:28.140 our technical things behind the scenes. He also sits on the Witten and yeah, absolutely

00:31:33.700 great guy his wife is a githya for us they manage your region and they would love to get you in

00:31:38.820 touch with people in your area we have a kindred in massachusetts it's not that big it's probably

00:31:48.900 members within an hour of boston uh the stone ship hearth kindred some great guys i went up

00:31:54.180 there and celebrated uh frayfaxi with them this year so we we have you know we have quite a few

00:32:00.900 members in massachusetts reach out to cliff he'd be happy to get you guys connected um it's one of

00:32:06.580 the great things about the afa we have members everywhere not literally everywhere we'll get

00:32:12.180 there but pretty close you'd be very surprised places that we've got folks they're right near

00:32:16.900 just got to reach out we'll do whatever we can to try to help you looks like my

00:32:32.260 wife's two or three steps ahead of me here on trying to get you in touch with 0.85

00:32:35.500 those folks. Appreciate that. Thank you, Mandy. Terry's asking if I have any advice on how 0.77

00:32:51.740 to connect or how to help somebody having a hard time connect with an ancestor such as

00:32:56.420 a parent. Yes, but I need to know a little bit more about what you think you're running

00:33:02.640 into or what you perceive as the the struggle that you're having and then i'd be really happy

00:33:07.360 to talk to you about that and try to help you get it figured i just that's something i can't

00:33:11.280 quite shoot that blind at

00:33:32.640 Rob a little bit on the wild hunt wild hunt comes at a really interesting time of the year during

00:33:47.160 the dark of winter and starting with winter nights the veil between the worlds is the thinnest and

00:33:51.780 our ancestors are closer to us than at other times or have a greater ability to interact

00:33:59.100 with us from the other side than at other times I think the wild hunt is

00:34:04.500 part of that I think that in the fall in the winter things are spooky and I think

00:34:13.500 that so it takes on the tone of that regardless I think that imagery speaks

00:34:17.040 to us but one thing that I think is really important about the wild hunt is

00:34:24.120 the stories you need to be wary of it you need to be respectful of it you need to offer a gift

00:34:33.800 um so that it'll pass you by and won't do you harm if you're out in the woods

00:34:38.280 um i think that the sense of awe and the sense of reverence associated with the wild hunt is

00:34:45.640 profound and interesting um the idea of seeing things in nature and things like the furious host

00:34:55.320 is something to treat with respect and with reverence i think that's a really good lesson

00:35:01.320 for people i think the idea of leaving out offerings so that you know you're good with

00:35:08.520 those spirits that are that are on the rampage and out on the hunt um i think that's an important

00:35:15.720 lesson for our folk and i think that it's kind of a reminder to to be reverent and to

00:35:23.400 be respectful of things that are greater than us

00:35:26.200 and and beyond our knowing so that's kind of a little takeaway i've always had from the wild

00:35:38.520 Cersei thank you so much for sharing all these resources I look forward to

00:35:54.180 checking them out and I hope folks hope folks do check them out thank you for

00:35:58.120 sharing them with people anybody who kind of joined in late or who I haven't

00:36:07.900 gotten to does anybody else have any questions or anything they'd like us to

00:36:12.040 make sure we talked about this evening not sure if anything's on your mind or

00:36:20.440 anything you'd like to have me speak on to Terry's question a little bit earlier

00:36:27.940 And again, please reach out to me if you want a more specific answer.

00:36:33.200 I'd like to talk kind of in general about folks trying to connect with, trying to connect

00:36:39.160 with ancestors that they may have trouble or feel like they have trouble getting, getting

00:36:46.320 close to and connecting to.

00:36:50.140 One of the things that I've noticed with, with recent ancestors, certainly that people

00:36:54.820 struggle with when they get into Ausitru and they want to start connecting with the ancestors is

00:37:01.780 either ancestors that they never knew you know maybe they had they were estranged from their

00:37:07.300 parents in some way maybe a parent died when they were very young and they never built that

00:37:11.940 relationship in life with them more often than that it's the case with the grandparent that they

00:37:17.140 never met or they never saw certainly the the further back you go you know eventually we know

00:37:23.780 very little about ancestors at a certain point but before we get there you know very few of us

00:37:30.180 are fortunate enough to know our great grandparents um so anything past that i think it's the same

00:37:37.140 thing it just becomes a little bit more there's more of a feeling of awkwardness when it's a

00:37:43.700 parent or a grandparent in that case i think the best thing to do is just go for it and open yourself

00:37:50.340 and uh you know of course try to find out whatever you can from living people that

00:37:57.700 did know them or if you have some sort of a resource you can look and read about

00:38:01.560 but i think that coming honestly putting yourself out there leaving an offering and just asking

00:38:09.520 saying hey you're reaching out from your end asking them to reach out for theirs and open

00:38:16.780 yourself to it i think that's often a really good thing to do and what i've found is beneficial in

00:38:21.980 that way is to do that right before bed do that late at night right before you lay down to bed

00:38:28.940 make an offering extend your hand say hey you know i don't know i never got to know you

00:38:34.860 but i'd like to you know here i am i'm your son i'm your grandson whatever the case may be

00:38:40.060 you know if you'd like to reach out i'm open and i'd welcome it and then go into bed like that i

00:38:48.360 think that opens you in a way that's easier for those kind of things to transmit through

00:38:53.000 i think that you can maybe have uh have an interaction in the dream state that's helpful

00:39:00.700 that's what i would suggest in that regard but the second part that i've seen is when folks have

00:39:08.020 trouble connecting with an ancestor because there's there's an animosity there maybe you

00:39:15.020 know in life there was a few there some kind of a family thing that they couldn't they couldn't

00:39:21.040 get past or you couldn't get past with them while they were alive maybe there's a hostility or an

00:39:25.120 anger or resentment there sometimes that's just stuff families go through that needs to be put

00:39:31.760 aside sometimes it's a very serious transgression that shouldn't be overlooked and put aside and I

00:39:37.720 that that's really uncomfortable for people coming into an ancestral faith you know if they're been

00:39:43.480 the victim of some sort of abuse in their family or uh you know there's a person in their in their

00:39:48.280 family that they're supposed to be you know worshiping now that um they knew to be a very

00:39:54.360 bad person and to that i'd say to try to leapfrog that person try to go around them uh if you look

00:40:04.200 at it even if you are disconnected with your immediate family and had a horrible time with them

00:40:10.040 you have thousands of ancestors going back to the beginning those people did good things

00:40:18.280 no matter your family line of those ancestors our folk had great people and you have great

00:40:26.680 people in your line even if you're dismayed by some of the recent examples um i would urge

00:40:34.200 where you can and where it's reasonable to to extend a certain amount of charity and grace

00:40:41.640 in looking past transgressions that aren't worth it there's something about death once that final

00:40:48.840 chapter in this life has been written that it puts things in perspective and it makes some of the

00:40:55.120 negative seem less big than it was and it makes the positive really stand out and be very poignant

00:41:02.320 it if you allow it to so again like the first instance i'd urge you to open yourself to it

00:41:08.720 and and see what comes see what when you put aside the stress of not knowing how to or what

00:41:16.720 if i can't connect with them or the stress of any kind of hostility that was there

00:41:22.000 see what good things can open up see what things you notice that you didn't notice before when

00:41:27.280 you're too busy being angry or resentful and you know there are circumstances that i'm not

00:41:32.960 suggesting you look past so don't get me wrong but if you can and if the issue really isn't

00:41:41.200 worth that estrangement i would encourage again in both instances reaching out with an openness

00:41:48.560 not having an expectation making an offering sleeping on it and saying hey if you have

00:41:54.880 anything for me i i'd welcome it and i invite you in i think that'll get you a long way towards

00:42:01.440 making those connections i don't know terry if that got to your question or where you were

00:42:06.160 coming from with it but hopefully it was useful to some of us

00:42:21.600 Oh, I'm glad that you liked it, Fawn.

00:42:26.920 You know, folks have been saying it a lot, but it's really neat when I found that people

00:42:34.000 sing it.

00:42:35.000 That was kind of a takeaway I had from visiting our members in Sweden this last year, is that

00:42:40.200 they sing it.

00:42:41.200 And so I've been trying to do that, and I feel it's been significant for me, too.

00:42:47.200 thoughts on the afterlife and reincarnation um like if you have any a question that's a little

00:42:57.740 bit more specific if not i'll go into it a little bit but if there's a little bit more specific of

00:43:03.060 a question i think i can kind of focus focus my thoughts on it general question from brandy what

00:43:15.320 some ways to support AFA military members. Reach out to Goethe Kevin Long. He is in charge of our

00:43:23.400 AFA military program. There was a lot more to do when we had a lot of people deployed.

00:43:31.240 One of the things now is a lot of our members aren't deployed. A lot of people have come off

00:43:34.920 of those deployments and we don't have a lot of our folk currently in harm's way.

00:43:40.360 um so that's been a different question on how do we deal with our veterans how do we deal with

00:43:46.920 folk that could be deployed at some point and that's a little bit more nuanced but uh gothi

00:43:53.560 long has you know he has served he's a veteran he knows and he uh he'd be able to give you a

00:43:59.880 better insight on exactly you know stuff you can do that would help in that but i think that would

00:44:05.160 would be a good place for you to start ah things take into consideration when

00:44:20.200 blessing the food um whenever you are invoking the gods doing ritual to the

00:44:31.560 gods doing any of those things and this sounds like it should go without saying

00:44:36.680 but i think it is extremely important talk to the gods i think very often that

00:44:43.960 we talk to the folk we talk to people in the room we talk to them about the gods

00:44:50.600 we make it some kind of weird academic exercise instead of talking to divinity

00:44:57.240 you know when you're when you're asking for the gods to bless your food

00:45:04.740 really make that connection take your eyes off the folk look up or look at an idol or look at

00:45:13.200 something and speak to the gods I don't think it needs to be overly wordy but have a clear

00:45:21.920 intention of what you're doing when you when you bless the food it doesn't have to be elaborate

00:45:26.560 it, but invoke the divine. Genuinely be thankful for the food that you have in front of you

00:45:33.220 and the people that you share it with. Remind them to be thankful and sanctify with holy

00:45:42.320 purpose what you're doing with that consuming food and that fellowship you have with your

00:45:46.240 folk. And I think that'll get you there. But like I said, whenever you're doing a ritual

00:45:52.460 to the gods speak to them it's not about the guy across the table it's about the divine

00:45:59.640 and that really needs to be that needs to shine through it needs to be what's in your heart but

00:46:07.040 it needs to be what's communicated and ideally it should elevate everyone at the table to realize

00:46:11.740 they're doing something holy and not something mundane

00:46:14.300 Seth, that's a difficult question, and I don't know if there's a quick and easy answer to

00:46:36.920 it you mentioned you know what do we do in a religion like ours that's often

00:46:45.260 persecuted by people who are very politically correct what do you do if

00:46:48.960 you're if you work for a company that's one politically correct side you can

00:46:54.480 share how much you want or how much you don't I would encourage you to as much

00:47:02.040 as you can be authentically who you are and all the things that you do if you

00:47:06.360 can't do that at the workplace then put up those walls I wouldn't add your

00:47:11.280 co-workers to your Facebook I wouldn't blend those two circles if that's

00:47:17.740 something you're very concerned with that's the best advice I can give where

00:47:22.880 you can I would advocate that you'd be proud of who you are and of our faith

00:47:27.360 and in doing so be the living example of the best that we ought to be at all

00:47:35.080 times what another thing I would suggest is maybe oftentimes if you establish a relationship with

00:47:47.320 people at work or just in your life for who you are and as a good person that they like and

00:47:53.620 respect and genuinely think is a great guy then when they find out what your faith is it's less

00:48:00.880 odd well surely this guy Seth he's fantastic we all love Seth we've been

00:48:06.040 friends with Seth for forever he's great if he believes in this and there may be

00:48:10.660 something to it and that way you can be an ambassador for our faith but if

00:48:15.700 you're just out to make a paycheck at a job that's on the politically correct

00:48:19.120 side just be vigilant what you do make whatever statement you need to but be

00:48:25.900 aware and be prepared for there to be consequences if that's the path you

00:48:29.080 choose I wish there was a better you know one-size-fits-all answer to that

00:48:34.780 but it all depends on your situation are you very welcome Terry I hope it was

00:48:44.840 helpful

00:48:50.800 Circe I'm really sorry to hear about that I wish more people were were helpful in

00:48:56.280 in brazil and i hope that you guys can kind of start that trend and find some good folks to

00:49:01.960 to do that with you where do we go when we die and do i believe in reincarnation

00:49:12.520 i don't think that we go to one place um i think that there are broadly speaking three

00:49:20.360 three kind of choices i think that the path of ascension is what's talked about when we read

00:49:28.280 about things like valhalla or going to the halls of the gods i think that for the hero for somebody

00:49:34.280 who is able to overcome the limitations of this world i think that you ascend to something greater

00:49:41.800 I think that you can ascend towards the divine, not so much become gods with a big G, but get a little bit closer to being gods with a little g, ascending towards Alfheim and towards Asgard.

00:50:00.700 I think that's one thing that happens with a very select few that have earned that through ability to ascend in their life and through heroism.

00:50:10.460 I think that another option and the option where the vast majority of our people go is to Helheim or to the borough with our ancestors to a place where we look on at our descendants and help watch over our family and help them to succeed.

00:50:32.260 it's hard to say from this side of the veil what the challenges are and what your potential is to

00:50:36.660 become more after you get there but i think that's initially a big part of where our ancestors always

00:50:42.820 believed that they went is to their ancestors in the halls of their folk to watch on after their

00:50:48.580 after their descendants um and then i think that you know folks that are very undifferentiated

00:50:55.460 folks that haven't earned that spot or have grossly abused that I think that those people

00:51:03.500 in a way get reabsorbed into the folk soul for different components of who they are to

00:51:10.000 be put to be put to better use as far as reincarnation goes whole hog reincarnation

00:51:17.200 I'm not so sure of but certainly point uh portions of our folk soul portions of our

00:51:22.720 individual soul reincarnate um in our lore we hear about that happening within the family line very

00:51:28.800 often that happens when we affix an ancestor's name to one of our children they get a piece

00:51:34.240 of that a piece of that luck a piece of who that person was um i think perhaps in the case of of

00:51:42.800 folks that that need another go around to to fix some things portion big portions of their

00:51:49.360 soul might be used again so hopefully they can transcend some of these things

00:51:54.460 I think there is a degree of reincarnation but I don't think in the

00:51:59.200 same way that oh I was Joan of Arc in another life I don't think that's quite

00:52:03.820 how it works but yeah basically the the path going back to the halls of our

00:52:09.280 ancestors or the path if we're very fortunate and if we learned it of

00:52:13.240 ascending to something greater I think that's what happens when we die

00:52:19.360 Yep, Rob, I always used to do that, I'd go, I need to get back to it, I'd go on Yule Eve

00:52:34.700 and leave out an apple for Slepner as an offering for when the wild hunt passed by.

00:52:44.660 Thank you very much John, that means a lot, I appreciate it.

00:52:49.360 All right, guys, I've got a Witten call after this meeting, so we've got about seven minutes

00:53:04.680 left with you guys.

00:53:05.680 I'm going to go through the rest of the comments, try to answer what I can.

00:53:08.180 If you guys have any last minute questions, please go ahead and ask them.

00:53:12.760 Thank you guys so much for the good questions tonight.

00:53:14.640 I think we've got a lot of good topics to cover.

00:53:19.360 Jack I'm reading your comments when you said you've directed them here or towards literature

00:53:43.680 is there any advice towards expanding that I'm not really sure what you're asking as

00:53:49.000 far as dealing with Roman Catholic tradition and families that you know are

00:53:56.140 brought up in that you mentioned honoring the ancestors is an easier way

00:54:00.700 to engage them I think that's true I think that that's same I think it's

00:54:06.440 really true in the case of Orthodox faiths and Catholicism because their 0.87

00:54:12.160 veneration and worship of Saints is very much a form of idolatry and

00:54:18.640 ancestor worship that they just don't refer to as that but I think it's

00:54:22.920 something that they're already kind of hardwired to be comfortable with and I

00:54:28.420 think for atheists it's really important because our ancestors existed that's

00:54:32.200 factual to get them to agree with the greater metaphysics or with the gods or

00:54:39.400 the land whites or things like that I think that's a bigger sell but I think

00:54:44.500 talking about honoring your ancestors and those who came before you is is a

00:54:48.640 much easier thing to do those people existed you can show them a picture and

00:54:53.680 honoring them and honoring the things that they taught you with and wanting

00:54:57.340 them to continue to be proud of you I think that's something that most people

00:55:02.020 religious or non-religious can understand and appreciate so I think

00:55:06.460 that's a really good route to go it was talking about wanting to get the

00:55:10.660 approval wanting to have your ancestors be proud of you is a really good way to

00:55:15.840 start the conversation Eric Mandy is doing fantastic thank you for asking

00:55:23.420 all is going great anybody who might not know Mandy is is pregnant with our

00:55:31.220 child she's about halfway through the pregnancy now and as far as we can tell

00:55:37.040 Tell mom and baby you're doing great.

00:56:02.400 Marilyn, thank you for joining us.

00:56:06.120 Yeah, and that means a lot.

00:56:07.960 I'm very, very happy to do it.

00:56:11.080 All right, guys.

00:56:11.820 Anybody got any last thing?

00:56:13.300 I only got a couple more minutes left tonight.

00:56:17.200 I really, really appreciate you guys being here.

00:56:20.600 I look forward to these every month.

00:56:22.400 It is fantastic to get to talk to you.

00:56:27.080 I hope that you guys have an amazing Yule.

00:56:29.440 I hope you guys get together and celebrate.

00:56:33.120 celebrate with your kindred if you're fortunate enough to have one find other afa members near you

00:56:39.760 go out take a chance really celebrate this year there's so much to be excited about

00:56:47.120 there's such a magical time of year and i would encourage you all if you haven't yet

00:56:51.600 get involved with your local afa community reach out to your folk builder see what's going on be

00:56:56.400 part of things i hope you guys and your families all have an absolutely amazing yule and a fantastic

00:57:06.080 new year and if i don't get to before i look really forward to talking to you guys next year

00:57:12.480 thank you guys for thank you guys for joining in tonight and see y'all next time hell the gods

00:57:19.440 and the folk of the AFA.

Asatru Folk Assembly - December 03, 2019

December 2019 Live Discussion

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