Asatru Folk Assembly - Get Started Creating an Altar (from VNS Episode 5)

00:00:00.000 uh matt and sheila how do i get started creating an altar what do you say to that sheila

00:00:16.160 um yeah first of all what is the purpose of your altar is it going to be to the gods and do you

00:00:22.400 have a particular god that you would like to honor are you going to rotate it depending on

00:00:28.320 the season of the year or your particular needs or is it going to be an altar to the ancestors

00:00:34.080 a lot of people do that they have a special one to the ancestors with pictures and artifacts and

00:00:39.120 things like that where they can pour a horn and again you don't need to have a horn and you don't

00:00:44.640 need to have mead you need to sincerely recognize and give blessing and honoring to those ancestors

00:00:53.920 to a god or goddess a lot of people will get a statue statuary that's not necessary you can

00:01:00.800 start with something very simple if you're on a tight budget again it all has to do

00:01:05.680 with your heart and your intentions i remember years ago we used to actually um when elsie

00:01:11.360 christensen um kind of gave up a summer for work we took on a lot of that prison work for a long

00:01:18.800 time and uh i remember actually corresponding with several people who ended up coming into

00:01:24.800 the afa and kind of moving up through the ranks um the one thing i would have never forgotten was

00:01:31.920 uh some guys who were in some um were incarcerated and they wanted to have some kind of a ritual

00:01:40.320 fire well they knew they couldn't do it but they were able to gather together some pine needles

00:01:45.520 and with that they wove the pine needles into a traditional old sun wheel the the kind of the

00:01:52.320 primal sun wheel the circle with the cross in it and then they all sat around it and they envisioned

00:01:58.800 that just bursting into flame that to me has stayed with me my whole life i mean how could i

00:02:05.200 say that was not a real um experience and one that wasn't profound it was profound for them to

00:02:12.000 have gone to that much attention to it and to manifest that and then to describe it to others

00:02:19.040 so know that the gods are not going to uh have a checklist on whether you've done it right if you

00:02:26.880 do it with a good heart with good intention and again what we do is give a offering of some kind

00:02:34.480 and and usually heart to hand a horn or our truth our love our wish for well-being for our gods

00:02:43.680 for them to to be able to do their work in all the worlds and then to ask for a blessing if

00:02:50.720 that's what we need or to ask for guidance or to ask for intuition or whatever might be needed

00:02:57.680 but again we don't just say give me riches no it's not that kind of thing that would be kind

00:03:02.800 of abusing the relationship but it doesn't take very much so you can get a drinking horn you can

00:03:08.960 have some mead but you could use spring water you could use fine apple juice or wine in fact

00:03:14.000 we were reading about how um wine was typically used in in in scandinavia because it was imported

00:03:24.800 and so um odin offerings to odin would be typically with wine rather than with mead

00:03:31.920 because mead was the common beverage there so when we did open world prayer day yesterday we

00:03:36.960 used red wine and that just felt right you know it's what you do so again it's your intentions

00:03:42.800 but definitely plan it execute it as best you can and put your heart into it

00:03:50.320 you know i don't think i can put much more on it than that i think that the thing that i would add

00:03:55.120 is do it do it now don't wait until it's perfect don't let perfect be the enemy of good

00:04:02.960 um ideally it'd be great if you got your own special altar table set up in the perfect spot

00:04:09.520 and you're able to have statuary and the things that you really want there but until you get to

00:04:15.200 that point clear off the top of a bookshelf clear off the top of a bookshelf and if you just got a

00:04:22.240 candle set it up there don't let um the logistics prevent you from taking that first step the most

00:04:30.720 important part is that you're doing it and the intention of doing it so by all means make it

00:04:37.840 beautiful make it elaborate make it your own make it as special as you want over time

00:04:43.680 but start today and look up to it don't don't let concern of doing it the right way hold you back

00:04:51.120 from doing it often and right away.

Asatru Folk Assembly - September 24, 2023