00:08:12.580We imagine our gods not simply as people, but as the very best people.
00:08:20.220And we work from there in our understanding.
00:08:23.280Now, if that's the case, how would you feel if you had folks genuinely reach out to you?
00:08:35.540Or how would you feel when you're one of the ancestors and your descendants reach out to you?
00:08:40.420Would you be more concerned that they followed a formula or that they read a script or that they were super knowledgeable in your life?
00:08:48.040Or would you genuinely appreciate them coming with an open heart and doing their best and opening up and just reaching out to you and telling you how much they care and how much they want to get to know you?
00:09:01.400And I think the answer is the latter and not the former.
00:09:03.920If you think how you are as a person when you're approached, do you have a relationship with
00:09:11.200someone who stalks you and knows all about your life and knows about your credit history and
00:09:16.840whatever else? Or to somebody who reaches out a hand, who gives you a hug, who shares a meal with
00:09:22.900you, and who genuinely cares about getting to know you and building a relationship? And that may sound
00:09:28.700silly, but I think we need to approach Ausatru in the same way. It's not that we shouldn't develop
00:09:34.160deep understanding of the gods and we shouldn't study things. Of course we should. But the most
00:09:39.640important thing is going out there and actually doing Ausatru, actually practicing our faith,
00:09:46.080actually building relationships. And the same goes with the folk. I hear a lot of people that
00:09:51.860say, you know, they'll proudly talk about how they're individual practitioners.
00:09:57.260And that's not something to be, it's not something to be proud of.
00:10:03.640One can certainly individually practice Ausitru, but you're missing out on so much of it if you do.
00:10:10.640It's certainly better than nothing, but Ausitru is about those relationships you build with your community, with your ancestors, and with your gods.
00:13:35.040And you guys are right over on the side. We definitely take strength from one another.
00:13:39.320That's one of the most important things about community is that we get to benefit from each other's strength.
00:13:46.440There's something very magical that happens when we gather in community, especially when we do it in a sacred context and as a faithful people under the sight of our gods.
00:13:59.120When we gather together to practice ausiture, when we gather together as our AFA family, we're more than the sum of our parts.
00:14:08.820something happens that our value isn't just, you know, if there's five of us, it's not just one
00:14:15.500plus one plus one plus one plus one. There's an X factor there that makes us so much better than
00:14:22.420we would be just as individuals. And it's hard to explain that if you haven't participated in it,
00:14:28.220but it's palpable. You can feel it. And so, yeah, I really do encourage everyone to come out and be
00:14:34.580part of this. Sherrilyn, absolutely. Our apprentice folk builders and folk builders
00:14:44.580are absolutely the tip of the spear. They're the ones out there laying the groundwork for real life
00:14:50.460interaction, real life meeting, and for the beginnings and maintenance of that community
00:14:55.500that we talk about. A lot of folks, you know, wonder how things work and, you know, imagine
00:15:00.740some sort of AFA genie that can conjure up AFA events places. It doesn't work that way. I really
00:15:08.740wish I had those powers, but I don't. If AFA things happen in your area, it's because men and women
00:15:16.100have stepped up to volunteer to lead those endeavors, to make those things happen, to host
00:15:20.900meetups, to gather people together, sometimes at their home, sometimes at a restaurant,
00:15:26.900sometimes for a hike. It's an interesting question, Nathan.
00:15:49.920I'm not sure how this looks on the other end and if you guys see questions, but Nathan asked,
00:15:54.820What does it mean that Thor's hammer was won and forged through Loki and the Jotuns?
00:15:59.820Does that show us that power is realized through the interaction of order and chaos?0.99
00:16:14.740It's more forged and won through Loki and the dwarves than the Jotuns.1.00
00:16:19.860But the point remains that there's there's a catalyst of chaos in there that allows for it to happen or maybe necessitates its its being there.0.99
00:16:31.100But I want to be really careful on that.
00:16:38.160Power and greatness is a direct result of struggle, of overcoming adversity, of doing battle with the forces of chaos.
00:16:53.900And there's absolutely power and greatness that comes through that.
00:16:58.160But that in no way means that that chaos or that that struggle in and of itself is a good thing.
00:17:07.520We want to battle that and through doing so become powerful and become become great.
00:17:14.200We want to take the chaos. Very well put, Jim.
00:17:17.120We want to take chaos where we find it and order the chaos.
00:17:21.520um and but that is that is the source of not only power but it's the source of opportunity in life
00:17:30.840um when situations arrives often when challenges and negative situations arise
00:17:38.140that's the crucible that forges and welds together and creates for those who are able
00:17:47.820to stand up to it for those who are able to harness that negativity and shape it into something
00:17:53.980beautiful that's the the very tale of of our creation that's that's what odin and his brothers
00:18:01.100did with with the primal giant to build the beauty that's all around us and that's fundamental to what
00:18:08.020we do. I hope that that addresses what you're asking.
00:18:16.980Michaela, I'm glad. I hope that your folk builder in your area is getting you integrated.
00:18:21.620We've got amazing AFA community, you know, all across this country and surprisingly in 15
00:18:29.060different countries around the world. So yeah, the AFA community is something we're so very proud of
00:18:36.020and it's growing every day and getting better.
00:22:04.580So I'd say jump right in enthusiastically, get to know people, open yourself up to the
00:22:10.900gods, but very importantly and often overlooked, especially at first, open yourself up to your
00:22:17.020ancestors, invite them into your life, invite them into your heart, invite them to be in
00:22:24.400your home and part of your daily life.
00:22:26.420And I think when you do that, everything starts working better. Everything comes together. So I think courage and openness are extremely important.
00:22:36.140Tyler, as a matter of fact, this last weekend we have been having discussions about creating
00:22:45.540a homeschooling curriculum for AFA families.
00:44:46.860And it's easy to be friendly with a lot of people.
00:44:51.520But it's important that there's a compatibility there to form that core unit of the kindred.
00:44:56.720So I don't think it's just a friends thing. I think it's a fundamental compatibility thing. And that's really important because those people interact like a family. So it's a subtle difference, but I think it's an important one.
00:45:26.720So, one of our folk builders, Jason Plurd, is asking why universalists seem to miss the context of the term All-Father.
00:45:49.920I've always found that really interesting.
00:45:52.740The forces of diversity, or at least those who like to use that word, would presume that the person who they call their all-father or the king of their gods would be the all-father of negating all the other faiths.0.88
00:46:23.460negating all the indigenous faiths of all the different rainbows of people that they want to
00:46:28.020let into Ausatru, they would demand that Odin is the all-father of all different shades of humanity.
00:46:36.580And they don't see how fundamentally racist and offensive that would be to all of the other
00:46:44.100people that they court support from. And I've always found that really funny.
00:46:48.740um odin is the father of all of our folk um he is the all father not just because of that but as
00:46:56.980the lore specifically says he is the all father because he is the father of our gods that doesn't
00:47:03.660relate to other people's gods that doesn't relate to other groups of people and individuals that's
00:47:09.760completely out of context and we would never supposed to tell all of the different indigenous
00:47:16.480this cultures of the world, that our gods are the only gods and that their gods don't count.
00:47:22.640That in and of itself is quite offensive and certainly not something that we would suggest.
00:49:28.880How would I address the term Aryan being an exclusively Nazi, neo-Nazi term?
00:49:48.500Go say that to folks in India and see what their answer would be.
00:49:54.300And that's a very small and pop culture thing. And in the wider sense, the term Aryan is an ancient, ancient word. It's the root word of the country Iran. It's also the root word of the name of the country Ireland.
00:50:16.920Both mean the land of the Aryans. It's an ancient word. And to ascribe it to only have a value from, you know, the 1930s to now in a political context is, I think that's willfully ignorant.
00:50:38.600I think that's choosing to be ignorant of the fact. It's still a word that's commonly used, to my understanding, in India and by folks who speak and use Sanskrit. It's a noble word. It literally means noble and shiningly noble. And it's a beautiful word.
00:50:57.400Now, we don't use it all the time in all places because the left is co-opted it and tried to make it ugly and made it made it their their villain to pile stuff on.
00:51:10.600But it's ours and I wouldn't, you know, wouldn't hide from the use of it.
00:51:14.140it's a beautiful word and it's a really special way of thinking as ourselves and challenging
00:51:19.580ourselves to be Aryan in what we do to shine with nobility through our actions and through
00:51:26.860how we carry ourselves and so I think that's a it's an important thing and I
00:51:32.940I don't think the people who complain about it being a Nazi or neo-Nazi term
00:51:37.660are doing it genuinely I think those people would complain no matter what you said
00:51:52.720Is there anything else on your mind or anything else you'd like to make sure we discuss while we have this time together?
00:52:04.580Well, like I mentioned before, and I talked about it at the top of the discussion tonight,
00:52:12.860But for folks just joining, I really want us to think this year about relationships and how Ausatru is so fundamentally the building of a connectivity and a relationship between us and the gods, between us and our AFA family, and between us and our ancestors.
00:52:36.920relationship building is fundamental and i want us to think about that when we go into ritual
00:52:43.260practice i want us to think about that when we contemplate what alsatru is so many people get
00:52:49.620so wrapped up in studying obscurity and studying archaeology and all these other things that are
00:52:57.720really cool things to know but all of that is frosting on the cake that is your relationship
00:53:26.240Jim, I think the confusion comes from up until very recently,
00:53:30.100religious, cultural, and linguistic were racial.
00:53:34.800the culture religion and linguistics were very specific to groups of people and
00:53:42.800the group of people that practiced our culture religion and linguistics
00:53:49.600were were our folk our race of people and those people were known as as aryan um the word comes
00:53:56.960into a little bit different use in india because there's been such a mixture of peoples there
00:54:02.560that it's been relegated to to more of a linguistic sense but originally it was
00:54:08.240you know a a group of a group of related peoples which is what racial means
00:54:14.480I think that's a good question, Jason. Jason asked how I would encourage our folks to
00:54:34.660ride the tiger instead of being chased by the tiger. And for those of you who don't
00:54:40.720know what that means it's basically when forces around you are violent and chaotic and scary
00:54:50.800you can spend your time being chased from that and hiding from that and battling that
00:54:56.720and maybe getting devoured by that or you can find ways to use that to your advantage to ride the
00:55:04.160tiger. I think there's lots of different ways to do that. One of the most important ways I think
00:55:14.000is to hold your head up and not be so...
00:55:20.720Our folk, especially younger members of our folk, get very hyper focused on political situations
00:55:31.120going on. There's a lot of really depressing stuff going on. There's a lot of terrible things
00:55:36.700going on in the world. Absolutely. It's not going to pretend there's not, but when we obsess about
00:55:44.820it and we just get so hyper-focused on either sarcastic meme culture or on negativity,
00:55:54.960we miss very realistic opportunities that are presented by every negative circumstance
00:56:01.360to build and to grow and to do. And there's plenty of those around us. In one of the most
00:56:08.640crazy years I've ever seen, we got two Hoffs, our membership grew. We had the largest AFA
00:56:16.560gathering ever during the year where most people weren't able to gather at all.
00:56:21.120um the ways to ride the tiger are they're going to be different depending on every circumstance
00:56:29.260but being calm looking for positives and more important than just looking for positives
00:56:35.680looking for opportunities that's what I would advise folks to do we are living at a time where
00:56:44.640However, however bad the politics are out there, we've all got food, we've got heat, we've got water, we're comfortable, and we've got each other.
00:56:57.980We're in a really good spot to seize on opportunities and make the best out of things.
00:57:04.920Focusing on the AstroFolk Assembly is a huge thing to do that way.
00:57:08.580And I know it's really self-serving as me being the AFA guy trying to tell you guys to do that.
00:57:14.640but there's so much in the world that we don't have direct control of fixing.
00:57:20.480A lot of these bigger problems, there is nothing we as individuals, I say that, I don't mean to
00:57:26.580be hopeless on it, but there's very little ways we have of accessing those problems in a way to
00:57:31.760fix them. But within the AFA, we have a very significant group of people that are all here
00:57:38.560together and what you do here can have huge impacts on all of us it's relatively small but
00:57:48.880right now you know we have 764 members of the astro folk assembly number's not huge
00:57:57.840but in your day-to-day how many other opportunities do you have to affect the lives of 764 people
00:58:04.960not many even you know big deals of small companies don't have that many people involved
00:58:11.340you have that many people in your AFA family you participating in doing something and building
00:58:18.120something within the AFA is a is a way to do something good even when everything outside is
00:58:24.620crazy the AFA in of itself I think is one of the best ways to ride the tiger
00:58:30.860and it certainly is very therapeutic to me when so much outside is crazy.
00:59:47.440If we are Euro-Americans. I mean, it's hard to say what that means. Because of the current0.64
00:59:54.480state of christianity i'm sure that we can i get along with a lot of christians i think in a in a
01:00:00.960very practical real way in life of course we can get along with each other in a very fundamentalist
01:00:06.320way um the more christians get along with pagans the less authentic i think their christianity is
01:00:16.480um and i take that from from their teachings not from ours but i would encourage all of our folk
01:00:22.560to get along well. The folks that still find themselves Christians, I'd love for them to
01:00:27.180come back home to their authentic faith. And I hope that they do. And in the meantime,
01:00:32.940I'm very happy to get along with them. The Christians of today don't seem to be1.00
01:00:39.160following the Christianity that would persecute us so bad. So yeah, of course, in a practical way,0.99
01:00:47.120we can get along with Christians all the time. I get along with Christians. Most of us have
01:00:51.400you know, large portions of our family that are Christian. But I would encourage you if you find
01:00:57.660Christians that are not bothered by your paganism, bring those people over. Maybe those people would
01:01:02.640like to come home to House of Truth. How does personal practice or daily practice look as an
01:01:13.500altar work and meditation, et cetera. I think that looks as different as we have different people.
01:01:21.960I think one of the ways that looks is sincere. There's plenty of wrong ways to do it, don't get
01:01:31.560me wrong, but there's a lot of right ways to do it too. I think fundamentally, having a special
01:01:38.860place in your home, or I mean, maybe it's a place you do something outside, but I personally have
01:01:43.780my altar in my home. I have it in my stairwell set up with all, it's kind of a, you know, a set
01:01:50.960aside place in my landing in the stairwell, which is the center of my home and spiraling up the
01:01:55.680stairs are photographs of my ancestors. So that's kind of a special thing I have in my house, but
01:02:01.540depends where you're at in your apartment, wherever you're at, a special shelf, a special
01:02:06.280corner a special altar whatever you may have some image of the of one of the gods or many of the
01:02:13.560gods some pictures of your ancestors maybe some relics and things that are important to you but
01:02:20.600having a set aside space a quiet time a still time that you can reach out um and give of yourself and
01:02:32.480commune with the gods and the ancestors. People often will light candles. They'll often offer
01:02:38.500some incense or maybe, you know, a shot or a swig of, you know, a preferred beverage. Our people
01:02:47.880like meat a lot, but if you're doing something with your ancestors, maybe it's something, you
01:02:51.700know, maybe your grandpa really liked, you know, my grandpa really liked Jim Beam. Sometimes if I'm
01:02:56.080trying to connect with my grandfather, then that's what I'll offer. But as I was talking about
01:03:03.360earlier on tonight, the key is that openness, approaching our gods in a way that, and our
01:03:11.060ancestors, in an authentic way that we're open, that we care, that we're there, and that we want
01:03:18.500to do right by them. We want to honor them, and we're open to them sharing with us. And I think
01:03:25.300just doing that amazing things happen one thing i like to do in front of my altar is to do
01:03:30.900affirmations of things that i will do things that that i've you know reaffirmed promises
01:03:36.420or commitments that i've made um i think that helps me to be motivated to fulfill them and i
01:03:44.100think it makes fulfilling those uh a sacred act um i think bringing your family involved in those
01:03:51.140things is very important. I'd also say as far as altar work and meditation goes,
01:03:58.000sometimes atmosphere is really important to get you in that space. A lot of times people will do
01:04:04.720it in the dark with their candles lit, with incense going because the smell brings them
01:04:09.520to a spiritual place. Maybe a certain kind of music in the background will help get you there.
01:04:15.200Very often when I meditate, I'll meditate through Galdor work, and that helps, gives me something to intone and something for me to hear that triggers some things for me and helps me get there.
01:04:27.900But I think the key to personal practice is just doing it.
01:04:31.780And no matter how awkward it may feel, going through doing it, being wide open, and even if it's just, hey, you know, grandpa, I just want you to know I care, thinking about you.
01:04:45.200um here's a here's a shot of jim beam i hope you're doing well as simple and as lame as that
01:04:51.700may sound if you've never done it that's huge um how much would it mean to you if you passed away
01:04:59.420you're beyond the veil and time goes and people think about you less and less and one of your
01:05:04.180descendants 20 years after your pass you know raises a shot glass and speaks your name and
01:05:11.300remembers you with, you know, with love in their heart, I think that would mean a lot.
01:05:16.420And I hope that's something that my descendants do for me.
01:05:41.300Doug, I don't think that's wholly accurate. I'm sure that's one person's theory or something
01:05:52.080that they said, but it doesn't account for the linguistics that we find in the West very often.
01:05:56.660And it certainly doesn't account for the linguistic root of the word Ireland.
01:06:11.300now I'm trying to find my spot every time I scroll over on the side it makes it really
01:11:06.460Connecting with your ancestors, they're there and they exist.
01:11:10.440Whether you know their names, they still exist.
01:11:14.500And I have to believe that beyond the veil, you may not know them, but they know you.
01:11:20.400And the more you reach out and make that effort, things have a way of happening.
01:11:25.020But just the realization that you may never know, you know, a name or a place, but those people exist and you have a line of people back to the very beginning of our folk that exist, that we're able to bring you to the place that you are today.
01:11:41.920Just acknowledging that in a ritual context adds something to your practice.
01:11:47.820So I'd really encourage you to do that.
01:11:55.020um okay so we have somebody asking about books in our store that are sold out it depends on the
01:12:22.860books that are sold out in the store. If you're seeing them pop up as sold out, then I'm not
01:12:28.040doing a good enough job on the back end of making, of taking them down and I will try to get better
01:12:33.680at that. Steve's book is almost sold out or as of this broadcast may be sold out. We have a back
01:12:40.140order of that whenever the next round of publishing goes on that, we'll get it. A lot of those books
01:12:47.000were in talks on whether or not we're going to restock. We want to stock books that are AFA
01:12:51.540specific certainly but the generic history books about you know Vikings or
01:12:58.220whatever else those are very easy for folks to get and much more economic for
01:13:03.500folks to get on Amazon or other booksellers so we're talking about
01:13:08.260whether we do want to buy any buy an amount of stock in that because it
01:13:11.860involves us housing the inventory and shelling out the money for the stock
01:13:16.140when so many people are able to get those at a much better a much better
01:13:19.560price and much easier on other booksellers. We really want to focus on our own material though
01:13:24.600and make sure we have that there. So we are talking about whether or not to restock some of those books.
01:13:49.560Is there a plan to get a Hoff in the Northeast? Absolutely there is. What time and when that's0.58
01:14:08.280going to happen? I don't know. But that is something that we've thought about. We're
01:14:12.180considering a number of different locations for our next Hoff. And that is a strong, you know,
01:14:19.000one of the regions that's up front in that consideration.
01:14:29.280And we have the folks and the volunteers in the area
01:14:32.280to do them justice and to take care of them.
01:14:35.180So there will absolutely be a Hoff in the Northeast.
01:14:37.920It's just a matter of when that's gonna happen.
01:14:40.680um print on demand services for the sold out items the trouble is the sold out items that
01:14:51.880he's referring to aren't our material there are other books that are you know like penguin or
01:14:57.800various other publishing people's books that we're selling or reselling through our site
01:15:03.320so we can't print those on demand having a print on demand option for afa materials is absolutely
01:15:08.600something to think about but we don't have a problem stocking those either uh but no looking
01:15:15.320into to print on demand is a really smart thing for us to do for some things
01:15:25.800all right guys we're a little bit over how long we usually go
01:15:29.640if anybody has last questions please go ahead and and get those to me um
01:15:34.840In the meantime, I'd like to address, James asked what my vision is for 2021 and how we can best
01:15:44.520be part of the vision. And I'll do that here. I see Jim asked about stocking other things such
01:15:50.340as shirts. We have a couple of things we're working on behind the scenes, Jim, to get stocked
01:15:55.340on the store. Figuring out how to stock the merchandise on the store is kind of a process,
01:16:03.260But we're talking to a number of different people about that right now.
01:16:06.620If you have ideas on stuff you'd like to see, please hit me on the back end and we'll see about having that discussion.
01:16:12.820But to James's question, vision for 2021, I would like to take the momentum that we had by establishing HOFs and by having such a successful midsummer in 2020 and push that momentum forward in 2021 by really maximizing the community specifically around our three HOFs.
01:16:39.920um we're fixing to open up and do the dedication of Baldur's Hoff and then we'll
01:16:46.000for the first time have three Hoffs up and running to worship our gods to gather our folk
01:16:53.500to be involved in our community to do charitable outreach to do all of those things and in 2021
01:16:59.060I really want to see those things happen also I want to continue
01:17:05.860an artistic effort that was started last year. Last year with the beautiful mural that Witten
01:17:17.200Svon Harrell painted at Thorshof, we really started to incorporate more art and more beauty
01:17:23.440in a lot of the things that we do. I'd like to see that continue throughout 2021. I'd like to
01:17:29.540continue this growth. So we planted the seeds in 2020 of getting all of these fold builders. And
01:17:35.620You guys may notice, but we've had a massive influx of apprentice folk builders.
01:17:39.980I want to see that roll into an increase in our membership.
01:17:43.720I'd like folks in 2021 to be empowered to tell their friends, tell their family about the Astro Folk Assembly.