Focus on the Folk Part 1 October 2007
Episode Stats
Harmful content
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Summary
In this episode, we discuss the topic of growing a heathenry community, and how to deal with the growing number of heathens across the world. We also discuss the growing influence of heathen art and music in the heathen community.
Transcript
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As it true is a folk religion, it's a religion tying ethnicity and religious identity into a way of life.
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It doesn't get discussed often enough, but I thought it would be a good opportunity if
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we got together, at least for today, to begin discussing some of these issues, and maybe
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in the future we could discuss other issues of importance.
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The term folk is not often well defined, it's used a lot, but the way that I personally
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use it is basically meaning the people to whom Azatru was brought to originally, or
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religions very similar that we now today know as Azatru.
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Like I said, the whole forum idea is new, but I think it can be an interesting opportunity
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for us to discuss some of these interesting and difficult issues.
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What I've done is I've constructed a number of questions.
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I presented it to our participants here so that they could prepare some answers.
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Hopefully these will be issues that are important and interesting to you.
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So our three panelists don't need much introduction, but real briefly, if you, from left to right,
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Steve, if you could introduce yourself real briefly to everybody involved here.
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I head an organization called the Alsatru Folk Assembly.
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I first started following the gods about 35 years ago.
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Obviously, the opinions that I'll be giving here today
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actually represent not so much the AFA necessarily
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which obviously are somewhat connected to those of the AFA.
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I've been heathen for about 15 years, and I'm a member of the Hammer of Thor Kindred.
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And I was invited to speak by Stephan, so thank you.
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I'm Stephan Thorsman. I'm chieftain and goethe of the Hammer of Thor Kindred.
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I'm also clergy coordinator for the Asa True Folk Assembly.
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So what I've got, let's start out with either an easy or difficult question.
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Starting from left, my left, Mr. McNallan, how many azitrar do you think there are?
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We're not exactly organized in a way that allows us to keep track of that.
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You know, there is no central registry for azitrar, and even the term itself is debatable.
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Many people don't consider themselves Alcetur, but rather Odinists or Theodish or this, that, or the other,
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I'm kind of just leaving it open for people to discuss and maybe address as they see.
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um helga what do you think i think he answered it very well and there's a lot of people that
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i know they just moved to a small town in oregon and they found a heathen in their town who had
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never met another heathen before in her life right um so i think there's as good account as we could
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get from our who's in the troth who's in the afa who's in the odenic right would still probably
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only be a half to three quarters of who is total. I think the communication between is
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I'm going to say something. I could be way off base here, but this is just what my gut
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instinct tells me. I think worldwide we are probably counting solitaries, people who are
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practicing heathenry alone, heathens behind bars, various people who are searching and are going to
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very, very soon find heathenry. Worldwide, I'd venture to guess we're probably around 100,000
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counting heathens in Germany, Iceland, Sweden, because it's growing. It's taking a foothold
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in Europe much faster than it is here in Vinland. And I think part of the reason for that is because
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that's the mother country. That's the source. But it's really taking hold. And if you are
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on the internet, if you spend any time on the internet at all, you see this. It's reflective
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in the music, which is starting to take hold. Websites filled with heathen art. So I think
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we're growing. So I'd say probably 100,000. Steve, considering that growth can be both
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blessing and bring its own problems how do you think we should approach growing
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ourselves and bringing those people into our organizations and in our community
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in a way that's not going to be very disruptive disruptive to well if for
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example a bunch of people with their own ideas come in about who we are and what
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we are and they bring those in, often sheer numbers alone can affect and influence the
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culture and views that people hold. And if we start bringing people in from Christianity
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for example, they're going to bring their own ideas in.
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Okay, gotcha. I think it's important to mature this thing of ours that we do to the point
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that there is a general understanding of what we're about,
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that the scholarship is there, but not just the scholarship for the elite,
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but also versions of that that have filtered down to everyone involved.
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There needs to be a general understanding of what the Northern Way is,
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and we can institutionalize that to some extent,
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like within the AFA we've got the clergy program and so forth
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that largely meshes in with our own particular worldview.
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in a community such as ours where we're small enough that right now the people that come
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When I was 16 and trying to find other people of this faith, it took me, I think, two years
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to finally get an answer from what was then the Ring of Troth.
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I think making ourselves available for people to find us is a good thing.
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Pushing for growth, I think it's a little touchier because I'd like to maintain the
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quality of people who come into the community, and I certainly think that having some sort
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of a already established set of guidelines, I guess, for what the community is would be
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helpful for us in maintaining what we want and helpful for the people coming in for understanding
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what it is they're getting into, if that makes sense.