Asatru Folk Assembly - February 2020 Facebook Live Discussion

00:00:00.000 all right it's like we got our our first first viewer tonight that's great

00:00:29.400 I'm trying to give everybody else a second here to get on.

00:00:35.480 Hey, Lane, thanks for joining.

00:00:39.860 For anybody coming on, if they don't already know Lane Ashby, his kindred, the American

00:00:46.920 Crow kindred, is our newest kindred.

00:00:49.920 So I'm very excited to welcome American Crow as an AFA kindred.

00:00:56.600 anybody in Central Florida you guys may want to look them up Lane's got a great

00:01:03.740 start down there they're doing nice events yeah it's a really it's a place

00:01:10.320 we've always had a lot of interest it's a place we do have a lot of members and

00:01:13.580 it's really nice to see them starting to do stuff down there and the first AFA

00:01:18.000 first official AFA candidate in Florida to my knowledge so well done and

00:01:22.840 congratulations Lane. Good to see you all. I wanted to take just a second to

00:01:35.680 talk about what a great time I had at Thorfest in Colorado last weekend. Those

00:01:41.920 of you may not know this is the second Thorfest that folk builder Jason

00:01:46.880 Clurd is put on in Colorado in January, and it's always a lot of fun. It was a really nice event

00:01:55.460 this year. It's always had a really intimate, close atmosphere. He's done it at kind of rustic

00:02:02.680 camps, and it gives guys and gals a chance to, I don't know, kind of bond over that camping

00:02:09.780 experience a little bit. It was really great this year. We had some amazing talks. Thanks to

00:02:15.840 everybody who called in and did video conference talks.

00:02:19.160 We had Githya Anna Funk,

00:02:20.980 and we also had Gauthya Brian Wilton calling in.

00:02:23.920 So that was really nice.

00:02:24.860 I know those helped a lot of the people in attendance.

00:02:27.860 And Brian, if you're listening,

00:02:29.280 there was one gentleman who,

00:02:31.320 that was his first event he'd been to,

00:02:33.520 and your talk meant the world to him.

00:02:35.320 So well done, that was awesome.

00:02:37.960 And we also had Phillip from Mimers Brunner

00:02:42.080 calling in and doing a conference chat with us

00:02:45.160 the way from England so that was was really a nice thing it was really special treat for everybody

00:02:50.200 there it was a fun time we had one of our members who's a chef there he always made sure we ate

00:02:56.120 really good I appreciate all his hard work on that it's great to make some new friends and see

00:03:02.840 some old ones that I hadn't seen in a while if you guys you know mark your calendars now if you're

00:03:08.840 looking for something to do in January of next year there's going to be Thorfest 3 in Colorado

00:03:14.280 and i would love to see you guys there um it was a 16 and a half hour drive for me and i

00:03:21.320 it was well worth every mile of it i had a great weekend and like i said jason does a really good

00:03:27.160 event hmm hoffs in space dave that's absolutely gonna happen i don't know in space per se but on

00:03:38.680 other planets I'm sure maybe maybe a little like chapel Hoffs on space

00:03:43.640 stations or starships at some point but before we get there we're gonna have a

00:03:49.680 number of more Hoffs here in Midgard here on earth I'm excited to see that

00:03:56.200 move forward as we get there I think I missed a question but looks like

00:04:03.240 somebody jumped in and got to it anybody who listens to this enjoys what we have

00:04:07.920 to say. Enjoy what we're about. You can always join the Ask True Folk Assembly at www.runestone.org.

00:04:16.480 It's got our core documents. It's got contact information for kindreds, for folk builders,

00:04:22.480 for your local go-far, and also a join button. So if it's something that you're into, if you like

00:04:28.800 what we're doing, if you share our faith and the gods and our core values, then absolutely everybody

00:04:34.880 who sees this, I'd invite you to go and submit an application.

00:04:52.720 Alright, well, got a lot of folks joining now.

00:05:07.000 This is fantastic.

00:05:07.880 I hope this time worked out good for you guys.

00:05:09.520 I'm trying to, when able, schedule these on the 1st

00:05:12.640 so it kind of rotates throughout the week.

00:05:15.320 Maybe depending on people's work schedules

00:05:17.220 or their time zones, this will hit folks at times

00:05:20.540 to folks that want to get on can get on.

00:05:23.440 I look forward to this every month.

00:05:24.560 This is really fun for me.

00:05:26.340 It's awesome to get to talk to you guys and chat.

00:05:29.660 Hope y'all enjoy it.

00:05:30.880 And as always, bring any questions you guys have

00:05:35.140 or anything you guys want to talk about.

00:05:37.020 And I would love to have those conversations.

00:05:40.240 Before I get to that portion,

00:05:41.820 I want to mention coming up this next weekend.

00:05:46.980 I know it's not a lot of time for you guys to move on it,

00:05:49.580 but anybody out here is in the pacific northwest or has a wild hair and thinks they want to travel

00:05:54.620 to the pacific northwest uh next weekend contact uh joe rosenich he's the folk builder for the

00:06:01.740 region they're having their charming of the plow and it's going to be a really cool event

00:06:04.780 i'm excited for it i'm going to drive up and i look forward to seeing you guys there i heard

00:06:11.500 they have a great time up there i heard this is kind of their big event of the year and i want

00:06:14.620 want to go up support them and get a chance to hang out with with our

00:06:19.960 Northwest family I don't get don't get enough opportunity to do that and if you

00:06:28.700 guys can next month yes Dave is absolutely Q&A I'm just doing a little

00:06:34.780 preamble about some events coming up first

00:06:38.660 Ostara in the South in March. It's going to be a great event. Put a lot into planning it this year.

00:06:46.360 We've got a whole lot of folks showing up. I'll be out there. A number of other members of AFA

00:06:50.820 leadership will be there. Stephen Sheila McNallan will be there, and they'd love to meet you guys.

00:06:55.700 So if you can at all make it to North Carolina in March for Ostara in the South, it's going to be

00:07:03.440 a great time it's well worth the travel it's well worth you know any effort to

00:07:07.940 go to it's going to be a really good event I hope to see you guys there

00:07:18.260 Mathias California midsummer I believe is over the 13th this year but we do

00:07:24.860 have that up on the AFA Facebook site where this is being broadcast from just

00:07:30.240 Click on the little link and it's in our upcoming events and it will give you all the details you need on that.

00:07:36.120 This midsummer is going to be a big deal.

00:07:38.020 This is our official celebration of 25 years of the Astro Folk Assembly.

00:07:42.680 It's a really special time and I hope as many people can join us at Odin's Off for that.

00:08:00.240 Dave, if you would please break down to us what you mean by the cosmological argument.

00:08:24.040 Roan, it is going to be awesome. It's going to be an amazing, amazing time.

00:08:27.620 If you can make it, come on out to California, come on out to Brownsville, and it's a fantastic event.

00:08:35.540 It's going to be really good.

00:08:36.340 I know folks out here put a lot of effort into making that nice every year.

00:08:42.660 Githya Anna Funk is going to be a special guest at O-Star in the South, looks like. 0.57

00:08:48.560 I think that'll be great to get folks in the southeast part of the country to meet her and for her to meet them.

00:08:54.940 If you haven't met her yet, she's a fantastic woman and an amazing Githya, and it's a real

00:09:00.100 treat that she's going to go all the way and see you guys there.

00:09:03.560 I think we have a good contingent from the Northern Plains region coming all the way

00:09:10.280 down to support that event and really make it shine.

00:09:13.820 Side note, I know that our Gothar coordinator, Blaine Qualls, he's really done a lot behind

00:09:19.380 the scenes to make sure Ostara in the South is happening this year and that it's happening

00:09:24.120 at a capacity better than it has in a long time. He's put a lot of effort into that,

00:09:28.840 and I have no doubt that's going to pay off really big for all of us.

00:09:40.920 Well, Dave, I thought that might be where you were going. It's one of those,

00:09:46.760 certainly not a bad question, but it's one of those endless navel-gazing questions that I

00:09:56.680 don't think anyone can ever truly know all of the answer to. You know, what came cool? What

00:10:03.440 came before the gap? So, you know, Ganunga Gap was there. What was before the gap?

00:10:08.360 Whatever answer I would give you, well, cool. What came before that? What came before that?

00:10:14.060 what came before that I think with the limits of human consciousness there's only so far we can go

00:10:18.740 back I think that the more important question is where did our people come from what's the source

00:10:27.080 of our folk soul what's the source of our existence and I think we have a clear answer

00:10:32.160 to that in the gods of of Aryan man in Odin Vili and Vey constructing us and taking something that

00:10:39.100 existed and making it us i think that's the most important point but i think going back a step

00:10:45.380 further to our gods emerging from that potent magical void and shaping that chaos into the

00:10:53.880 order that we have and the order that is our consciousness and the order that is our world

00:10:58.080 i think that's the essential point i think we can we can presuppose well who or what put the gap

00:11:05.960 into motion well who or what put those people into motion well where did they come from and

00:11:11.260 like i said it's a fascinating thing to ponder and the more we you know deal with quantum mechanics

00:11:17.400 and really advanced scientific theory the more interesting it becomes but i think that the more

00:11:22.280 important thing for us to focus on is where did we come from where did our gods come from and

00:11:27.940 what that means to how we function in the world around us and how we interact with the divine

00:11:33.060 Blaine is a great guy well thanks Daniel I know it's not a real complete answer but I hope it

00:11:45.720 I hope it touches on at least where we're coming from in that sort of a in that sort of an argument

00:11:50.640 hey Melissa glad you joined us

00:12:03.060 Excellent. I'm glad we got a bunch of Florida guys coming up for Ostara. Ostara has been

00:12:14.140 a little bit light on folks from the deep south, from Florida and Georgia. I'm hoping

00:12:18.440 Florida and Georgia make a really big splash at Ostara this year. Got any more questions

00:12:26.360 or anything you guys want to bring up and talk about at this juncture?

00:12:33.900 Well, we have a little lull in the conversation here.

00:12:37.420 There's something that I wanted to talk to you guys about that's been, I don't know,

00:12:41.320 been on my mind a little bit lately with some arguments to see folks having or some discussions out there.

00:12:52.760 I just want to, I'm trying to think of the best way to break into the topic, but

00:12:59.520 fundamentally, religion is not about belief.

00:13:03.060 And it's not about study. It's about practice. It's about what belief and or study leads you to do with that information or to do with that belief.

00:13:15.940 I think we get caught up a lot in theory. And I think that what's much more important is intention and practice and building relationships with the divine.

00:13:26.740 I've thought about this a lot.

00:13:28.020 I think a lot of us came into Alcitru and we heard that old line that Alcitru is the

00:13:33.600 religion with homework.

00:13:35.060 No, it's not.

00:13:36.520 Any religion that you devoutly believe in is a religion of homework.

00:13:40.880 Any religion that you genuinely believe is true and valuable, everybody should go out

00:13:46.020 and try to learn about it as you should do with anything you care about.

00:13:49.080 But there's no point in time that the majority of Ausitru were, you know, some sort of scholars on it or theologians or pondered over ancient tomes.

00:14:00.080 For the vast amount of history, people who practiced Ausitru were sincere, regular folk that revered their gods, that looked to them for inspiration, that came to them in time of trouble, that not only believed in them, but that called out to them and tried to build relationships.

00:14:16.080 relationships. And that's the fundamentals of Austritus, building a relationship with the

00:14:20.320 divine. And when I say that, I don't mean that, you know, each of our gods are your personal

00:14:25.360 Lord and Savior, that they always personally care about all of the goings on in your life.

00:14:30.560 But I do mean that us as a community, as a church, we come together in a group and we interact with

00:14:36.580 the divine. The very nature of all of our ritual is about building a relationship. It's about a

00:14:42.580 it's about an exchange of energies between us and them I think that's

00:14:47.560 really really fundamental a lot of the time people get lost in pondering how

00:14:57.400 else you should look or how it would look or what the perfect way to practice

00:15:01.640 is or the perfect way to structure a ritual function some obscure bit of bit

00:15:06.880 of lore that maybe our ancestors you know moved left or move right but I

00:15:11.080 think it's not a science project it's it's an issue of relationships in the

00:15:16.660 building I often thought of this analogy and I don't think that it's a perfect

00:15:21.820 one but it is one that comes to mind you know who has the better relationship a

00:15:28.300 man who's been you know married to a woman for for six months or a guy that's

00:15:34.460 been stalking her for 10 years and never interacted with her sure he knows what

00:15:39.400 she orders at Starbucks, and he knows where she parks her car, but at the end of the day,

00:15:44.060 he's never spoken to her. He has no troth. He has no relationship with her.

00:15:49.720 I think it's much more important, rather than being stalkers or being scholars of the gods,

00:15:56.300 that we be in a troth relationship with them, that we build a connection between us and divinity.

00:16:04.020 also true doesn't mean believing in the gods it means trough to means loyalty to the gods

00:16:11.300 and that's an issue of relationship we see that in all that we do with that exchange

00:16:14.960 so everybody out there that you know is studying and spends more time reading than they do

00:16:22.000 practicing or more time you know pondering pondering than they do participating i'd urge

00:16:30.880 you to to reshift that balance come out and practice build that relationship and

00:16:35.260 I think that people will find that over time if you build that relationship and

00:16:39.700 you're out there doing house a true that it sheds a lot more light on the things

00:16:43.720 that you read and the things that you study

00:16:47.280 Well, Mary, I think that what you asked kind of touches on another long trotted out thing

00:17:07.220 about Ossetru that I think is misleading.

00:17:10.040 Ossetru isn't a nature religion, not in the sense that we worship nature.

00:17:14.640 We don't.

00:17:15.640 We learn from nature.

00:17:17.080 We use nature as a great guide, and very often our rituals conform to cycles of nature.

00:17:22.880 But our faith has always been about gods of consciousness that dominate nature, that take nature and shape it towards their will, that build civilization, that carve out what we have from that undifferentiated, from that chaotic nature.

00:17:40.440 So I think you do just like our ancestors did when they found themselves in a new place.

00:17:44.720 I don't think that your connection with the gods is based on pine trees and foreboding

00:17:52.320 German swamps. I think our relationships with the gods are in our blood or in our heart and

00:17:58.420 in our soul. And I think that you can connect with them no matter where you are. I think that

00:18:02.580 the biggest thing you need to do instead of equating them with natural phenomenon around

00:18:08.340 you is equating them with the consciousness within you and the consciousness within our folk

00:18:13.380 and reaching out to them that way you know looking up into the ether and

00:18:17.700 calling out to them as individuals and not as some sort of of nature forces

00:18:22.620 because our gods are that and the ways that they interact with nature help us

00:18:27.800 to better understand them but our gods shaped nature they're not shaped by

00:18:33.480 nature if that makes sense

00:18:37.720 Ron, I think that's something interesting that you're picking up on, and I don't think

00:19:01.400 that's, that's just, um, just a function of the Norse gods. Honestly, all of the gods that spring

00:19:09.080 from, uh, Aryan religion all have those layers. I think that when you see the simplicity or the

00:19:18.900 depth, as far as their cults are concerned, it gives you a snapshot of those people and how

00:19:24.820 those people were able to relate to them and the circumstances which they related to. But I think

00:19:29.600 it's really important that to realize that our gods are multifaceted. Frey is not just a god of

00:19:37.240 agriculture or of fertility. In Sweden and Denmark, Frey was a god of kings in abundance that way. He

00:19:45.400 was a god of shipping and transport and joy and merriment and so many other things. You see that

00:19:53.280 with a lot of our gods. You see that with Odin and all of his many by-names. He wasn't just a god of

00:19:57.680 kings or just the god of magic or just the god of the berserker he was a god of very many things

00:20:03.360 i think all of our gods have those layers and to delve into that as part of what i meant by

00:20:09.100 that relationship building getting to know and building relationship with our gods instead of

00:20:14.300 you know just using them as symbols or you know literary devices no these are the forces that

00:20:21.120 shaped our consciousness these are the great gods of our folk trying to build that relationship i

00:20:26.500 think is a real key. Thanks, Dave.

00:20:49.060 exactly mary that's exactly exactly my point um our gods have propelled you know

00:21:03.080 propelled us to to conquer the nature that's that's threatening and to use the nature that's

00:21:09.040 beneficial in a good and responsible way and they're the same gods that do project us to the

00:21:13.860 stars and beyond that have always fueled our folk to go over that next horizon to

00:21:19.140 move west and to to spread to be bountiful to to be successful and to push

00:21:26.740 those boundaries and do new things to glean the cube so absolutely

00:21:32.540 Thoughts on reincarnation. We've hit this a lot and I've got, I've got a couple things to say on

00:21:44.940 it. But first hydration lest I need reincarnation. So there are parts of us that absolutely

00:22:01.940 reincarnate in a fashion, but I think the simplistic, you know, oh, here I am. Last

00:22:09.780 time around, I was this guy. At one point in time, I was King Tut. I think that sort of

00:22:14.600 very simplistic reincarnation isn't always the case. I don't think that's even mostly the case.

00:22:20.720 When we look at the heroes in our sagas and in our history, we see the idea of ascension. 0.99

00:22:30.100 And I think we see that in most Aryan pantheons, some idea of breaking free of that. 1.00

00:22:36.340 We see our ancestors talking about going to Valhalla, the other halls of the gods. 1.00

00:22:40.980 We see the Greeks talking about going to Elysium. 0.92

00:22:43.820 We see the Vedics talk about breaking this samsaric cycle of life and freeing themselves

00:22:51.380 from that cycle to move on to something better.

00:22:54.320 And I think that's really important.

00:22:57.420 I think that there are certainly elements, as you guys know, our soul is a complex, it's a many-faceted thing,

00:23:04.560 and there's certainly elements of yourself that do reincarnate, that go into our family line, that get passed down.

00:23:10.640 I think a lot of that has to do with luck and ancestral memory.

00:23:15.620 Those things absolutely come back in.

00:23:17.920 That's an important part of when we pass on names of our kin to our children.

00:23:22.780 We pass on a piece of their luck and a piece of who they are.

00:23:25.920 But I don't think we pass them on whole cloth to that next generation.

00:23:31.340 I think pieces of us go to the mound.

00:23:34.360 I think, you know, if we completely reincarnated, we wouldn't have concepts like the desir and like our ancestors that look on from the mound.

00:23:43.100 Or, you know, the desir that look on after their family line long after they're gone. 0.74

00:23:47.560 I don't think you have the heroes, the Einherjar, that go and feast with the gods and train

00:23:52.840 with them to have spiritual battles in other realms.

00:23:56.180 I don't think that that would happen if there's that complete flipping of personality in the

00:24:02.180 typical sense of reincarnation.

00:24:04.240 But I think there absolutely is an element to it.

00:24:06.380 I think it's a fine science that our ancestors certainly understood better than we do, but

00:24:11.420 there's many parts to our soul complex.

00:24:14.200 shortly, I think some of them get reincarnated and passed on. I think some of them recycle

00:24:20.440 generally. And I think some of them have the potential to ascend. And a large part of our

00:24:25.780 personality, if we achieve glory, if we achieve that heroic stature, I think that can pass whole

00:24:35.160 into the next world. I think that was the hope of the heroes and the great people of

00:24:41.060 of our ancestors, and even down to this time.

00:24:54.200 Absolutely, Mary.

00:24:55.300 Folks, our ancestors out here in Nevada and in the desert

00:25:00.080 certainly did have to push boundaries and bend nature to their will

00:25:04.900 and carve something out of a very barren and inhospitable place.

00:25:09.500 I think it's absolutely a testament to our folk that we were able to do that and do that as well as we were able to.

00:25:19.460 Daniel, it's interesting you bring up the idea of kneeling during prayer versus standing.

00:25:26.060 This whole macho, we don't kneel before our gods, why not?

00:25:32.740 I think it's unaccustomed to what most of us are used to is taking a knee.

00:25:37.360 but the idea of assuming a irreverent position towards deities that are absolutely greater than

00:25:46.860 us that are absolutely our betters the same folks that like to push the idea that we don't

00:25:52.260 kneel before our gods the same ones that share that little meme about equality being a false god

00:25:57.000 if you think that you are too good or there's it's somehow beneath you to take a knee before

00:26:05.440 the gods of our consciousness and the gods of our folk the gods that shaped our reality if you are

00:26:11.840 that full of your own ego a lot of work needs to be done on your end um i would have no problem

00:26:19.040 kneeling before our gods that's not typically our custom but certainly you know i i've always made

00:26:24.480 a point when i'm addressing the divine to remove my hat to to put our arms out in the elhas position

00:26:31.520 to you know to take a stance that shows that we are we're worshiping gods if you

00:26:39.280 would salute a superior officer if you would stand up in court when judge comes

00:26:44.280 out and they say all rise if you would do any of those physical acts of

00:26:47.700 acknowledging your betters here on earth what would possess you not to be willing

00:26:55.280 to do those things to our great gods I would certainly do those things to my

00:27:00.160 grandparents or my great-grandparents what would go on in my head that I

00:27:05.680 would find it beneath me are inappropriate to show that same

00:27:09.640 deference to the divine and I think that's something a lot of our folks

00:27:14.800 just don't think about I think some of these things are so have been bandied

00:27:19.100 about so much and for so long that we repeat them without really giving them

00:27:23.080 much thought and I'm glad you bring it up and ask that question Daniel

00:27:30.160 um

00:27:51.600 uh katrina that's a really good question um i don't know all the questions i know i'm missing

00:27:57.440 questions on my end because I'm seeing responses to questions that I'm not seeing. If anybody

00:28:01.860 doesn't see Katrina's question, she said that they recently had a loved one pass and wanted

00:28:06.440 to know if there's something special they can do as a bloat to honor them. Absolutely.

00:28:12.380 Like I mentioned earlier, you could go ad nauseum trying to figure out the exact proper technique

00:28:18.060 to honor the dead, but in the most fundamental way, reaching out and doing something is absolutely

00:28:24.180 what you should do. I think that you can perform a bloat to your dead ancestor just like you would

00:28:30.260 to the gods. Very often that's what we do during a de-seer bloat is do a bloat honoring our de-seer. 0.68

00:28:36.820 So you could do you know basically the same process you would for for a regular bloat

00:28:42.420 but just to one who's passed. I think an important element in doing that would be

00:28:48.260 to get some artifacts of that person so that everybody there really connects with them.

00:28:52.100 you know some things that bring you close to them um perhaps music that was important to them that

00:28:59.600 they liked or that you enjoyed with them in life i think that those things are are important one

00:29:05.700 thing i think whenever you do any ritual the more you can engage your five senses

00:29:10.060 the better it is the more you can have a sound element something that brings everybody in that

00:29:16.960 way you know a smell incense I don't know this person but perhaps cologne or

00:29:21.780 perfume respectively that you associate with them or even if there's a you know

00:29:27.100 a dish that they like and you can smell that you know a pie or something that

00:29:32.140 smell really brings you back I notice and this is whatever but I notice if I

00:29:38.200 go into a place that's been smoking and very seldom you find a room that people

00:29:42.160 smoking anymore. But if you go into, if you choose the smoking room at a hotel or whatever,

00:29:47.800 that smell reminds me so much of my grandparents' house, you know, my grandfather, that it really

00:29:52.960 takes me back. Something like that, that brings people into that. And, you know, maybe instead of

00:30:00.840 me, you share a beverage that was important to them. Maybe if they were a whiskey drinker,

00:30:04.940 you toast them with whiskey, maybe something like that. But I think that

00:30:09.360 But shaping it towards the persons that's passed and making that effort is really important.

00:30:16.320 And certainly those who've passed look on from beyond and hear when we reach out to

00:30:23.320 them in that kind of a ritual context.

00:30:25.320 It was always very important, I say always, it was certainly very important to our ancestors

00:30:29.880 to keep both familial altars in their house to those that have passed, but also to go

00:30:36.280 and sit on mounds and you know be next to the the remains of their loved one

00:30:42.460 and reach out to them that way for for guidance for to honor them for various

00:30:48.400 things from beyond the grave so I would absolutely encourage you to do those

00:30:52.000 things and any of our go-thart would be very happy to help you shape something

00:30:56.560 if you'd like any help

00:31:06.280 absolutely roan uh dave i think that's really important i think that um our gods are all of

00:31:21.980 the above i think it's very easy to try to a couple a couple of thoughts on how we conceive

00:31:28.840 our gods i hope this gets to your question um just off the off the bat no our gods are not

00:31:35.460 just symbols yes our gods are absolutely real beings with personality and

00:31:41.380 existence it would be silly for us to try to build a relationship with symbols

00:31:47.160 it's very important that we build a relationship with actual deities that

00:31:50.920 exist just to get that out of the way but on a deeper note how we conceive of

00:31:56.280 our gods is really really interesting our ancestors when you read the stories

00:32:04.300 of our gods they drew they drew them like big people and that may seem

00:32:11.920 primitive or it may seem not good enough but in a way empathy is the closest way

00:32:19.600 we have to relating to any other being empathy is how we relate to animals it's

00:32:27.340 how we relate to children it's how we relate to each other and it's a very

00:32:31.260 honest way to try to relate to the divine. Now, can we fully, as humans here in this existence

00:32:38.460 on Midgard, can we ever fully know the depth and breadth of all of our gods? Absolutely not.

00:32:44.620 Hopefully, as we grow in Ausatru, we come closer to a more perfect understanding of them.

00:32:50.700 But while no part of me believes that Thor's, you know, some big,

00:32:55.820 buff red bearded dude that rides a goat chariot that image helps us all have a better picture of

00:33:05.500 what thor is it helps us understand who he is better and we understand that through images

00:33:10.300 that we're comfortable with that that draw back something in our minds um and the stories of the

00:33:16.780 gods tell us about their personality and about the the core things that make them tick but through

00:33:23.340 long years of making offerings and building a relationship, we come to know them on a deeper

00:33:31.020 level that transcends words and often can't be expressed that way. I've often said that our gods

00:33:36.700 speak from without to us, but they also speak from within. And just because they do both doesn't mean

00:33:43.180 that they're merely archetypical. They certainly represent archetypes, but that's because

00:33:47.820 they're the building blocks that shaped who we are. In a way, our fathers and our mothers are

00:33:54.160 archetypes that we gauge ourselves by, or in the negative sense that we gauge ourselves against.

00:34:01.460 But either way, our fathers and our mothers are the exemplars that we use to gauge right,

00:34:07.720 to gauge wrong, to gauge the men and women that we want to become, either because of them or in

00:34:12.840 spite of them. And the gods do that on just such a greater scale. But I hope that addresses what

00:34:19.500 you're asking, Dave. But like I said, I think that empathy and that trying to put forth how do our

00:34:27.000 gods think, maybe we'll never know that. But at the very least, we can accredit them to how would

00:34:34.400 the noblest amongst us think, and at least afford them that amount of credit, and then their grace

00:34:41.520 and nobility and grandeur expands leagues beyond that, but that's at the very least we can give them.

00:35:01.840 Malenka, that's a good question.

00:35:03.040 first and this is a this is kind of a big topic um other aryan gods certainly when you mention

00:35:12.620 specifically celtic and slavic deities there is a great amount of crossover and there is a great

00:35:19.420 amount of those deities tracing back to the same source and the same root deity yes we have afa

00:35:27.520 members that are particularly ethnically Slavic or ethnically Celtic and we do

00:35:34.900 have those folks that that will call out those names for the divine and that's

00:35:39.280 how they will interact with the divine in their homes and there's that's

00:35:43.660 perfectly fine and the Astro Folk Assembly as a whole so that we have a

00:35:47.340 unity amongst each other when the AFA does something yes we call the deities

00:35:53.080 by by their Germanic or their Norse names because that's less confusing but

00:35:58.000 we do have folks at home that that relate to the divine you know in their

00:36:02.600 Slavic or that were their Celtic guys

00:36:12.880 yes yes yes anybody here who has children that would like them to be

00:36:18.400 involved. Today we started the second month of the AFA Youth Program. Brandi Callahan,

00:36:29.360 our newest folk builder, and Jessica Lambert, a folk builder in the Midwest, have really

00:36:34.880 taken that on and shaped that into a really beautiful thing. It's growing and getting

00:36:39.600 better every month. We're so excited to have that. The children are absolutely, literally

00:36:45.160 and figuratively our future. We've talked in the AFA for two years now about the idea of building

00:36:51.600 immortality. That is the immortality of the Astro Folk Assembly, is building our church and our folk

00:36:59.400 in a way that this will be around for our children, for their children, for their children's

00:37:04.400 children. When we talk about what our ancestors did, hopefully a thousand years from now we'll

00:37:09.320 have folks talking about what we're doing right now. And that's the goal of the Astro Folk Assembly

00:37:14.100 And the way to do that is to help build this faith and build this within our children, because they're going to carry that torch into the future.

00:37:22.180 So if you've got kids that want to be a part of that, please contact Brandy and Jessica at youth at runestone.org.

00:37:30.560 And we would love to see them be involved.

00:37:35.040 Oh, I should also say, if you want to participate in helping that program, you have ideas for that program.

00:37:41.660 also reach out at youth at runestone.org.

00:37:45.400 We'd appreciate input and ideas.

00:37:49.520 We want this to be the very best it can be,

00:37:51.600 and the way we do that is by all of us contributing

00:37:54.600 and doing what we can to make it successful.

00:38:01.880 Got any more questions or things folks would like to talk about this evening?

00:38:11.660 not sure if I'm missing some stuff I know I know I do I kind of say this every time but I do mean

00:38:21.800 it if you guys have asked a question and it hasn't come through on my end I will absolutely go back

00:38:26.960 through these questions and answer them over the next couple of days so yeah I apologize something

00:38:34.940 doesn't always work on Facebook to where I get to see all of them but I do tend to over the next

00:38:39.920 couple of days when I go back after this post is no longer live. A lot of them end up showing up.

00:38:49.700 Not sure if we have any of our Scandinavian members on tonight, but had a great call with

00:38:58.740 our Scandinavian members yesterday. It was fantastic talking to those guys. Any of you

00:39:04.500 that might not know we have three kindreds in Sweden and we have one

00:39:09.260 kindred that's forming at present in Norway we've got a really good group of

00:39:14.640 people in Scandinavia that are really strong part of our AFA family Andrews

00:39:19.500 our folk builder over there is doing an amazing job it's got fantastic people

00:39:23.520 that I had the pleasure of meeting last May so yeah we got good things going

00:39:29.340 over there so some you may have noticed one thing I'm trying to do this year is

00:39:40.800 get everybody up to speed on their AFA history we talk a lot about history so

00:39:46.780 much Vows to True is rooted in history and an appreciation of you know very

00:39:51.740 ancient old history but I think that all too often too many of us don't know

00:39:57.580 about our recent history. They don't know about the history of the Astro Folk

00:40:01.300 Assembly. They don't know about you know all of the great things that Steve and

00:40:05.580 Sheila McNallan put in to bring us to where we are today. So I've been trying

00:40:11.200 to post you know old things out of the rune stone that I find interesting. I'm

00:40:15.760 always looking for different little stuff to post. I hope you guys appreciate

00:40:19.900 those. I hope they're interesting. If you see them and you want more I've put all

00:40:25.980 of the back issues that we have the rune stone and of the voice on our archives section our

00:40:34.220 library section at www.runestone.org you guys can go download those and check them out if you want to

00:40:45.260 um but yeah those are there i hope folks like them i sure enjoy doing them it uh it's a good

00:40:52.780 type and practice for me and it also it's just neat to look back and reflect on where we were

00:40:58.380 and where we are and how far we've come and the great things that brought us to where we're at.

00:41:05.740 There's so many people over the years and so much effort that's been put in the AstroFolk Assembly

00:41:11.020 to bring us to where we are today. I talk all the time about there being no AFA genie out,

00:41:15.980 you know, out west that magically manifests all these things that we want. It's the blood,

00:41:20.940 sweat and tears of members and of volunteers that put themselves out there and try new

00:41:27.380 things, have new ideas, open up their homes, put on events, host things, see something

00:41:33.420 that needs fixing and volunteer to fix it.

00:41:35.620 So we appreciate all those people over the last quarter of a century that have done that

00:41:40.700 and brought us to where we're at, often at a great cost to themselves, not just financially

00:41:45.580 but, you know, time with their families.

00:41:49.280 Just heartache of going out and trying and swinging and missing

00:41:53.960 until one of the times you end up hit.

00:41:56.220 And that's what it's taken to build what we have.

00:41:59.320 We're very lucky and very thankful that folks put themselves out there.

00:42:05.260 Next 25 years, what do they look like?

00:42:09.540 They look glorious, Daniel.

00:42:11.980 They look fantastic.

00:42:14.940 Next 25 years are not going to be without struggle.

00:42:19.720 They're not going to be without difficulty, but we've got a really great momentum going into those 25 years.

00:42:27.160 Over the next 25 years, we're going to have HOFs across the United States.

00:42:33.500 What else are we going to have over the next 25 years?

00:42:35.900 We're going to have international AFA HOFs.

00:42:37.880 that's coming and I think it's coming much quicker than that that next quarter century

00:42:45.620 it's interesting I was going through and we have Astro Folk Assembly members in 16 countries at

00:42:52.740 present we have got five six international kindreds at present and I know of at least

00:43:05.700 two more international kindreds in the making right now so I think the AFA will

00:43:10.660 be much less of just an American thing within those next 25 years I think it

00:43:15.360 will expand to the corners of the globe where we have have all of our folk and I 0.89

00:43:20.760 definitely think we're gonna see Hoffs we're going to see much more Gothar our

00:43:25.980 Gothar are going to end up being more structured the other thing that we're

00:43:30.500 going to see happen is a further evolution from a club to the church that we ought to be honoring

00:43:38.940 our gods. We already see that. We see that momentum picking up. One of the big parts of that has been

00:43:44.480 folks contributing to the Hofftoller as opposed to membership dues and having your folk builder

00:43:50.200 hassle you for $10 a month. What's happened over this last year is a lot of our members have chosen

00:43:56.460 contribute to the to the hoftoller and that's a percentage-based giving that supports the astro

00:44:01.980 folk assembly and that's how any functional religion in this world works is they give a

00:44:06.540 percentage of what they have so when they're having good times their religious community

00:44:11.180 their church benefits when they have hard times they do what they can they keep that commitment

00:44:16.380 at the same percentage but we all share that burden um and that's a really special thing

00:44:22.060 and in the short time we've had folks paying hoftoller it's made a tremendous difference

00:44:25.820 behind the scenes on what we're able to accomplish, how we're able to help our folk, and how we're

00:44:31.320 able to move forward with Hoff projects that we're working on. So I think we're going to see

00:44:36.660 a lot more streamlined. The other thing we're going to see, Daniel, is we're going to see a lot

00:44:40.140 more piety. We're going to see a lot more piety, and we're going to see a lot less infighting over

00:44:44.820 petty silliness. It's been really nice to watch how Alcatru is growing up. We're moving beyond a

00:44:55.220 of the pettiness that was there in the beginning and any new thing when you start out have a lot

00:45:02.740 of folks that you know end up being on the fringe there ends up being in fighting and

00:45:07.220 and silliness as everybody finds their way one thing i've already noticed is we're growing up

00:45:12.100 beyond that so in the next 25 years we're gonna have a lot more serious people taking this

00:45:16.740 seriously we're going to see the children that we have now in the afa youth program

00:45:21.380 become adults in the next 25 years, not only become adults, but have children of their own.

00:45:28.580 So we're going to see the AFA families blossom into generational AstroFolk Assembly members.

00:45:36.360 And I think that's a really, really special thing. So I think that's what our next 25 years

00:45:42.560 is going to look like. I think it's already such a nice thing in the United States when

00:45:51.000 you travel, you're never but a few hours away from members of your AFA family that would love to

00:45:56.840 share a meal with you and spend time with you. You have that already, but I think that's going

00:46:01.500 to be much better. I think we're going to have AFA members in every town you're going to be in

00:46:06.460 or every county. And that'll be really nice. I think in 25 years, we'll have, instead of regional

00:46:12.740 fold builders, we'll have state fold builders. And we may even have more than that in big urban

00:46:17.660 areas i think uh rather than spreading our gothar out across the world we'll have gothar in every

00:46:24.700 state at that point i think in 25 years the average uh the average white uh american and

00:46:31.500 hopefully the average son or daughter of europe around the world will know that ouser true is a

00:46:36.780 real religion that we are real people doing real things and they'll come out and join us and be

00:46:43.020 part of our family and take part in worshiping our gods and being part of that relationship

00:46:47.020 that we've built for 25 years. I'm looking really forward to AFA's golden 50th anniversary

00:46:54.060 as we sit here and celebrate our silver anniversary.

00:47:18.140 Malenka, I think that's a really good idea and I know that a number of people

00:47:21.340 have asked for audiobooks um anybody hears the sound of my voice remember to ask me about that

00:47:28.060 it's something i would like to look into and see about see about making happen i think audiobooks

00:47:34.540 would be a really nice thing for a number of reasons people want to listen in their car people

00:47:39.020 that want to listen at the gym whatever but also folks that uh that have disabilities and can't uh

00:47:44.700 can't just pick up the page and read like the rest of us i think audiobooks are a nice thing

00:47:48.940 and we should absolutely work on getting those happening like a reach out to me privately if

00:47:54.960 you have any suggestions on stuff you particularly want to read and you know we can see if that's

00:48:01.180 feasible and if it is on how to go about getting us there because I would like to do that

00:48:04.980 hey Blaine you missed when we were talking about how great you were earlier but

00:48:10.820 playing quals ladies and gentlemen he's joining us and he's a fantastic gentleman

00:48:15.160 and he is doing way more than you guys realize behind the scenes to make the

00:48:21.020 AstroFolk assembly a success and to do some really big things coming up in the

00:48:24.940 next couple of months look Blaine look at your eruption all right I don't know

00:48:43.100 if you guys see all the little hearts and thumbs up and stuff that I see on my

00:48:47.720 end but it's always cool to see when that happens so got anything else we

00:48:55.940 want to talk about tonight any questions any any things you guys want to know

00:49:00.140 about or things you want my take on or I don't know anything you think bears

00:49:06.200 mention in this evening. Well, cool. While we're celebrating Blaine here, not only is Blaine a

00:49:19.680 fantastic Gothi and a good friend of mine, but he is our Gothar coordinator. He does all the work

00:49:25.060 on building our Gothar program and training up our Gothis and Githya so that we have what I was 1.00

00:49:34.740 just talking about, about what's going to happen in the next 25 years, the Astro Folk Assembly

00:49:38.640 for any, for any faith to be successful, they need a very strong clergy. And Blaine is, is

00:49:45.440 putting in the effort to make that happen. Um, it's not for anybody, not just everybody makes

00:49:52.320 it through our, with our training. In fact, quite a few people don't. Um, so it really is the cream

00:49:57.860 of the crop that make it through. If you have an interest and if you've been around for a little

00:50:02.960 while and you want to see about becoming a gothy Blaine is the man to talk to we

00:50:07.760 have an application on our website www.runestone.org it's got kind of a

00:50:13.280 reading list and some prerequisites that we expect folks to have before they are

00:50:17.360 accepted to go with our program and accepted or not we appreciate you guys

00:50:21.620 applying and Blaine can put you on a course to get you there eventually if

00:50:26.580 that's where you want to head and if that's where we see you heading so it's

00:50:31.640 worth contacting him and space it's space available it's run through a

00:50:35.420 mentorship situation so if we have the go thar available to provide that

00:50:40.420 mentorship then we'll take those students if we don't have enough to

00:50:44.520 provide them and maybe next time around but like I said Blaine can get you on

00:50:48.280 that course I did not realize it was Anna's birthday and a happy birthday we

00:51:00.120 We talked about how awesome you were a little bit earlier, but, yeah, I hope that you had an amazing birthday, and I look forward to seeing you at OSARA.

00:51:12.700 Everybody say happy birthday to Anna.

00:51:16.140 All right, guys.

00:51:17.880 Well, anything else you'd like us to touch on?

00:51:24.040 Trying to get all the questions out.

00:51:28.140 Like I say, ask me anything you want.

00:51:30.120 One thing I think sometimes people are hesitant to ask questions sometimes, or they think they'd be rude or that they'd be silly or whatever.

00:51:40.640 I encourage you guys to ask whatever you want.

00:51:44.780 Being transparent is really important to me.

00:51:48.540 And not being distant, being somebody at the AFA being a church that's accessible to our members is really important to me.

00:51:56.660 If folks have questions and want their voices heard, I want you guys to know that I'm here to listen and that the other members of AFA leadership are always here to listen.

00:52:07.480 And if a format like this is weird to ask questions, please know you guys can reach out privately. Email addresses for all of our Gothar, for me, are at www.runestone.org. If you're my friend here on Facebook, I'd love to answer anything that way.

00:52:25.180 but when I talk about this being an AFA family I mean that from the bottom of my

00:52:31.720 heart you guys are all very important to me and if you guys do ever have

00:52:35.860 questions or concerns or anything that you want to talk to any member AFA

00:52:39.220 leadership about reach out if for some reason something gets lost in the mail

00:52:43.180 and people don't talk to you reach out to me personally and I promise I will

00:52:46.420 get back to you and I promise I'll reach out and see where something got missed

00:52:50.080 and we'll get you we'll get you situated all right we absolutely have do have so

00:52:57.100 many awesome people in the AFA and that is a really good problem to have we've

00:53:01.520 got fantastic people our AFA family is the best around I'm not sure if you

00:53:12.260 don't know this but we we have our first Hoff in California Odin's Hoff is in

00:53:17.140 Brownsville, California, about an hour out of Sacramento. Um, if you, if you're in the area,

00:53:25.280 if it's something that you want to do, please reach out to one of our folk builders, reach out

00:53:28.860 to me. Uh, we'd love to get you, get you out to see Odin's Hoff. Um, yeah, that is, that is where 0.58

00:53:36.560 our first Hoff, the first Hoff, the Astro Folk Assembly. And as far as I know, the first Hoff 0.60

00:53:40.900 of its kind to our gods in uh in vinland is in brownsville california so there you go 0.84

00:53:52.900 roan there's not a hof in oklahoma right now if you'd like to see one happen there i would urge

00:53:58.820 you to get in touch with your folk builder for the area melissa mills we can start seeing about 0.52

00:54:04.100 building a thriving community there when we have the people there we would love to have a hof in

00:54:09.140 Oklahoma and in your area and I could see something like that happen and 0.99

00:54:13.860 absolutely within the next 25 years like Daniel asked about earlier

00:54:23.300 Mary says that her Facebook is stalled and there's a little circle going around

00:54:27.800 endlessly not sure if everybody else is having that kind of problem hope not I

00:54:31.880 hope people are able to hear me and I'm not just talking to myself I think so I

00:54:38.320 I think some of your others, the others here were coming through really good.

00:54:49.500 Trying to look and see if anything popped in on my phone,

00:54:51.780 because maybe that's a little bit different than on here on the computer.

00:55:09.040 Maybe that doesn't count because you guys are downstairs.

00:55:11.500 You guys probably hear me bellowing throughout the house.

00:55:21.340 All right, well, I'm trying to go through and see if there's any last things

00:55:25.420 or any last questions folks have or things they want me to comment on.

00:55:30.020 I've got a few more minutes here if you guys have anything.

00:55:33.460 If not, we can call it good, and I'll talk to you all next month.

00:55:37.180 But like I say, I want to give everybody an opportunity.

00:55:39.560 If you have anything, anything you want to say, anything you want to talk about, please do.

00:55:44.600 This is really a special time we get together.

00:55:47.000 And like I said, it's one of my favorite things to do all month.

00:55:50.160 So.

00:56:00.440 All right.

00:56:01.080 Well, I think we got Mary's technical issue figured out, and that's good.

00:56:07.180 Well, I appreciate you guys all very, very much for joining this evening and coming in

00:56:14.600 with your questions.

00:56:15.600 I think we've talked about some really important things tonight.

00:56:18.460 I appreciate everybody who has questions and the courage to reach out and ask them.

00:56:26.720 As so many have said tonight, we've got great people, you guys are fantastic, and we've

00:56:31.080 got really, really good things ahead here in 2020.

00:56:34.680 It is amazing to be celebrating 25 years of the Astro Folk Assembly with you fine folks.

00:56:39.860 So I appreciate you guys joining me tonight.

00:56:42.440 We'll try to do this again, I haven't looked at the calendar, but we'll be looking about

00:56:46.140 March 1st, and like I said, if you guys can make it out to Ostara in the south, it's going

00:56:52.180 on the weekend of the 13th of March.

00:56:54.820 So if you can make it to the Carolinas for that, we would love to see you there.

00:56:57.840 It's going to be a fantastic weekend with amazing people from all across, certainly

00:57:03.820 in the United States. It's going to be a fantastic deal. All right, guys. Well, I'm going to call

00:57:09.880 it a night. Thank you guys again. Hail the gods. Hail the folk. Hail the AFA.

Asatru Folk Assembly - February 02, 2020

February 2020 Facebook Live Discussion

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