Asatru Folk Assembly - Gods Folk and Destiny with Stephen McNallen feat Matt Flavel June 2019

00:00:00.000 Transcription by CastingWords

00:00:30.000 Transcription by CastingWords

00:01:00.000 Thank you.

00:01:30.000 Thank you.

00:02:00.000 live hello everybody and welcome to episode two of god's folk and destiny uh a little bit of an

00:02:25.920 exciting start off in a bad sort of way there. The computer that I was on and had planned on

00:02:30.780 using and had just about where I wanted it just died. It just quit doing what it was supposed to

00:02:35.660 do. So we had to get rid of that, drag another one up from downstairs, get it onto the network

00:02:40.800 because it wasn't. And so anyway, it has not been the best fun I've had today or any time recently

00:02:48.700 for that matter but we're here we're operating my apologies because you know everybody's got

00:02:55.820 got apologies and everybody's got excuses i will do my best and it's just just bad on me i should

00:03:01.580 have had a backup ready to rock when the chopper leaves the chopper leaves um so welcome thank you

00:03:09.180 for your patience thank you for being here with us thanks to big dave martell for pulling my

00:03:15.340 ashes out of the fire as usual, and also to our guest who's standing by, and we'll be

00:03:22.780 talking with him in just a minute. So, God's folk and destiny. Let's pause it right there

00:03:28.460 for just a moment. God's folk and destiny. What do those three words mean, and why are

00:03:34.320 they like that? Why didn't I say folk, destiny, and gods are, and folk and gods are other

00:03:43.940 variation why did i come up with this idea of god's folk and destiny for the name of this

00:03:52.100 this program that you're watching well here's the logic behind it the idea is this through the

00:04:00.180 might and the wisdom of our gods our folk that slice of the human race that is our people

00:04:08.900 shall attain their destiny. It's a logical sequence. Now, what's that destiny going to

00:04:16.660 look like? Beats me. I'll tell you when we get there. But you know, words that come to mind

00:04:21.780 are things like adventure, drama, courage, outreach, overcoming, becoming, success,

00:04:33.200 well-being, the permanence of our people. All of these are the things that come to mind when

00:04:38.880 i think of our destiny we'll talk about all of that more in the episodes to come but keep that

00:04:44.720 in mind you know we live at a wonderful time we are at a time of maximum challenge right now and

00:04:52.480 that is the conditions in which a folk searches out and finds their destiny we will attain that

00:04:59.840 destiny and it's going to be a very interesting ride thank you for being here for it so this is

00:05:08.560 the point where i plug my book as big dave martell has been teaching me on he's kind of schooling me

00:05:16.000 a little bit on this kind of stuff because i don't know much about this sort of thing but i do know

00:05:20.560 something about this book also true a native european spirituality this obviously is my book

00:05:28.560 i highly recommend it not just because i wrote it but because it is an if i do say so myself

00:05:34.560 an excellent introduction to the subject i don't make it out to be rocket science it's not

00:05:40.160 wow peculiar and weird it's just a very straightforward bit by bit introduction to

00:05:46.160 and elaboration on this holy faith that we follow now you can go and buy this on amazon

00:05:54.640 if you really want to or you or you can buy it from us and for for 25 bucks we'll send this

00:06:03.520 anywhere in the united states media mail and i will gladly put in um you know a a

00:06:11.760 and a signature a personalized signature not just a scrawl not just a

00:06:17.760 which nobody can read you know you'll get a comment from me um probably it would be a little

00:06:22.720 better than the comments i would be giving right now because of our our upsets recently but on it

00:06:28.720 goes this this is an important book and I encourage you if you haven't already

00:06:34.960 read it please do so all of that out of the way things rocking along here got a

00:06:44.900 special guest for you tonight Matt Flavo and Matt has been overseas he's been in

00:06:54.100 Sweden, and I believe in Norway, visiting Alsatruer over there. He had a number of other AFA

00:06:59.780 leadership with him. And my understanding is, and from looking at all the pictures that have come

00:07:05.260 back on Facebook when I can find a way to access that platform, to which I'm no longer welcome,

00:07:13.260 they had a good time. So I want to talk with Matt a bit today about the trip. I want to talk about

00:07:19.580 the deeper significance of it. I want to talk about how things in Europe are going in general

00:07:24.160 and just kind of compare and contrast what they do over there with what we do over here.

00:07:29.680 So without further ado, I'll shut up and say, Matt, hey, thank you for being here with us today.

00:07:35.560 Hey, thanks for having me, Steve. It's always an honor to be on here and always have a good

00:07:39.660 time talking to you. Well, I do my best. Obviously, there are difficulties, but we try to overcome

00:07:45.680 the difficulties. Last time I had my big, remember that AFA flag that you gave me out of the Hoff

00:07:51.840 last time? I had it fly back here. It kind of got taken down and rearranged as we were kind of

00:07:58.400 pulling all of this stuff together in the last few minutes, but I fly it regularly.

00:08:03.120 You know, I'm still absolutely supportive of the work of the organization and the things that

00:08:07.340 you're doing. So, Traveler's Tales, tell us, just give us the kind of the quick outline,

00:08:16.620 the summary of where you've been and what you've done, and we'll ask questions from there.

00:08:21.720 Sounds good. I was going to say it would be impossible to do it justice sitting here trying

00:08:25.300 to tell you about it. It was absolutely amazing. First and foremost, our hosts were fantastic.

00:08:31.640 uh andrews nilson is our uh folk holder over there and in short order in two and a half years

00:08:40.500 maybe he's built one of our most vibrant regions over there i think our third most vibrant region

00:08:47.700 in the world it's uh really fantastic and he had a group of about six guys come over and camp in

00:08:56.840 his yard and just post up to be kind of our entourage for those first few days when we were in

00:09:02.920 the western portion of the country and they showed us amazing things those guys were fantastic they

00:09:10.420 took such good care of us anders and his family put us up and it was it was really amazing uh you

00:09:17.040 said we went to norway and we did we flew into oslo we found really good deals on flights out

00:09:23.200 of Oakland, of all places, direct flight from Oakland

00:09:27.880 to Oslo for a very, very good price.

00:09:31.000 So anybody hearing this, Norwegian Air out of Oakland,

00:09:34.380 be careful with your luggage.

00:09:35.600 They'll try to gougie, but the price is really nice

00:09:40.040 to get to a number of different destinations

00:09:42.820 in Europe, it sounds like.

00:09:44.420 So we flew in there.

00:09:45.320 We had some AFA members picking us up at the airport,

00:09:48.920 which was awesome, meeting us at the airport,

00:09:52.160 And then driving us over to the event, Mandy and myself went with a member over there named Hans that was absolutely a delight to get to meet and spend time with.

00:10:03.720 He stopped at points of interest throughout that little corner of Norway between there and down in Western Tannum in Western Sweden where Anders ends up living.

00:10:16.440 So that was fantastic.

00:10:18.320 we got a real treat to see some off the beaten path things in norway on the way down the first day

00:10:24.160 anders and his crew took us to fantastic old circles stone ships that were just magnificent

00:10:34.320 and ancient rock rock carvings and the ancient rock carvings were fantastic if you look at any

00:10:40.800 of the pictures there you know people have gone back in and painted them red so you could see the

00:10:46.240 the outlines of what was carved and it's a little bit odd but i'm glad they did it when you look at

00:10:51.440 the carvings that don't have the red on it you can barely make it out unless you get right in

00:10:55.440 the right light so it's really amazing to see some of these things and they're very ancient

00:11:00.240 um you know pretty much all of the things we were shown almost exclusively were were pre-viking age

00:11:07.120 our our faith and our our ancestry a lot of people get it too caught up with with a very short period

00:11:13.440 of 300 years in time and it it spans back the beginning of our folk it goes back you know

00:11:19.520 thousands of years so it was really a treat to get to see that stuff um and it was a treat to get to

00:11:26.080 go to their breakfast buffets i tell you what the swedes know how to do breakfast right um

00:11:33.120 west coast salad if you haven't had it look it up it's like shrimp and mayonnaise and delicious and

00:11:38.400 and you put it on bread or crackers or whatever else.

00:11:42.020 And Mark and myself couldn't get enough.

00:11:44.860 But, yeah, we did that for the first few days,

00:11:47.080 and then we headed fairly close by there for our AFA event,

00:11:51.800 Ultimatula, that Andrews and his guys put on and planned.

00:11:57.120 It was a kind of a Viking Age recreation village there

00:12:02.100 with a really nice hall we got to do our gathering in.

00:12:06.380 it was actually a hall that uh andrews was part of building years ago so that was kind of special

00:12:12.380 and it was fantastic as an international afa event we had folks from six different

00:12:20.300 countries represented and speaking five different languages and that was that was really something

00:12:27.500 um you know the the small inconvenience of having a couple of translators translate things was

00:12:33.500 nothing compared to the you know how good it felt to have that many people speaking european

00:12:38.380 languages in the afa event it was really special um met some great people we had uh gentlemen come

00:12:45.100 up from italy we had folks from the united kingdom there we had a group of germans coming up from the

00:12:50.540 artgemeinschaft group in germany and they were amazing it was great to meet those guys get to

00:12:56.060 know them the leader of their organization and spend some time with them fantastic group of folks

00:13:01.340 uh yeah it was it was a really great event did that and then uh spent the last couple of days

00:13:08.700 drove over to upsala got to see the sights there and got to go walk through stockholm a little bit

00:13:15.580 and see you know downtown historic areas of stockholm and it was fantastic they really packed

00:13:22.460 in a lot and they showed us you know it's triple lifetime one thing i'll note uh you and i were in

00:13:28.380 denmark a few years ago and it seems like the stone circles and the stone ships like the stones

00:13:34.940 were much more massive in sweden was kind of a difference and sweden seems to be a lot more

00:13:41.020 forested so it was really interesting to see kind of the difference in in the layout of some of those

00:13:46.540 scandinavian countries over there right right um i know that when we were there in 2013

00:13:54.700 on the little trip that you and i and a few other people took that we uh we had some pretty profound

00:14:01.340 experiences in in some of the some of the locations we went to uh and without prying

00:14:09.660 too deeply in anything that might be private did you do you experience anything like that did you

00:14:14.380 have any of those moments that were just moments of total connection and significance and a feeling

00:14:20.700 that there was more than just the obvious going on uh absolutely that was one of the things and

00:14:26.700 a number of our group noticed that and commented on it when we were places um

00:14:34.940 yeah once you've seen the stone circle and a stone ship they're all very very similar

00:14:40.060 but what was really interesting was the feeling that we got when we were in these

00:14:45.500 and when we're amongst these uh massive burial grounds um you really felt the presence of our

00:14:52.460 ancestors you really felt an ancient presence of our folk there and it's it's difficult to put in

00:14:58.860 words in a way that i think is going to translate to the folks listening here but i don't know if

00:15:05.100 you get that feeling when you go through a graveyard where there's there's a presence there

00:15:10.140 but a graveyard in the united states if you're very lucky has

00:15:18.060 of wintered there when you go to some of those grave areas and burial sites and sacred places

00:15:23.980 they have four and five thousand years of people in that that house and the feeling

00:15:32.620 it's really special and very hard to describe you know that that's interesting um yeah i go through

00:15:40.300 the average graveyard in the united states and except for the graves of people i'm personally

00:15:45.260 connected with um you know there's there's not much to describe it's just oh okay you know

00:15:50.700 another grave but and it's ironic that some of these sites that are really much much much older

00:15:57.980 you know that feeling is there it's not something that just dissipates with time

00:16:01.820 it seems to be uh imprinted on the very rocks imprinted in the very soil of the place in a way

00:16:09.100 that you know we 20th century we've lost a lot of that we've lost a lot of our connection

00:16:14.300 so it's ironic and a little strange but it's really cool too that we can go to a place like

00:16:21.340 that and it's the old stuff that's been that way for many centuries and even millennia that that

00:16:27.820 grabs us and touches us and reaches out for us so well it's something as as americans we don't have

00:16:35.340 we don't have that availability or that point of contact with the very remote past

00:16:42.220 as as white americans we don't have that here established um and so it's really something

00:16:50.140 something different to go over there where we know for a fact our folk were we can speak about what

00:16:55.340 people and what group of people were there in these you know thousands of year old grave sites

00:17:01.420 and it was really quite special yeah i would think so i would think so so tell me a little

00:17:09.580 bit about the practices that uh that you guys participated in yeah how do how do they do bloat

00:17:16.300 and how you know that in a way that contrasts with with what we do how are their techniques

00:17:21.820 unique well the uh swedes and i think you know maybe more scandinavians in general are a lot

00:17:29.420 more reserved i think emotionally um their uh the bloat that andrews performed was really

00:17:38.620 it was really interesting it was very powerful but it was also very quiet and very contemplative

00:17:44.940 yeah there was a lot internally going on there was you know almost a mantra of chanting that we did

00:17:53.980 that was nice but it was it was much more emotionally

00:18:02.860 calm than some of the things that that we tend to do and that was that was really interesting

00:18:08.060 and it was very nice i felt it was a really powerful bloat and i i believe the all father

00:18:12.460 received it well and and i think we're blessed because of it um one thing that they do there's

00:18:20.700 there's there's a lot of singing involved which is really nice and i wish i wish we had and i wish

00:18:26.060 we did more and i'd like to see more in the coming you know coming years there was there was singing

00:18:32.860 um not a ton but they had they had little songs that they sang and that was nice um

00:18:43.420 yeah a lot of practice in the in the old uh old sacred spaces and communing with the spirits of

00:18:49.020 the ancestors they talked a lot about how they do uh the out sitting on in the you know in the

00:18:56.460 circles and the grave mounds and in that kind of areas they do a lot of that over there

00:19:02.540 and that was that was really nice to see they seem very very connected with

00:19:05.660 their land and and the sacred sites that they have which was which was nice and certainly

00:19:12.700 something very different than how we are able to practice here in the united states right right

00:19:18.540 did you do did you do bloat for them uh yeah i did uh did an odin bloat for them uh the day

00:19:25.820 after andrew's odin bloat and it was it was done much differently than than they're used to um

00:19:33.820 I've heard good things I hope you know they could be just being polite I don't

00:19:39.700 know I think it was something certainly that was very different in the way

00:19:42.820 they're used to they're used to doing bloat and I hope it was well received I

00:19:47.020 promise it was well intended and yeah was it that was it typical to the other

00:19:52.840 bloats I've seen you do yes in other words it was wham-bam I could see how

00:19:58.840 would really contrast with contrast with the contemplative um introspective way and then i'm

00:20:05.160 not being critical of what they do but i'm just saying that uh your approach and you know my

00:20:10.280 approach as well has always been a little more uh you know othen voton woden whatever name you

00:20:17.240 want to call it by yeah let's get this going well that's the thing odin has you know hundreds of

00:20:23.800 names all reflecting a different aspect of his character and some of that is is very quiet and

00:20:29.960 is very contemplative and some of it is the god of warrior ecstasy you know there's there's a

00:20:36.920 wide range of emotions and i think that we we touched on that in very different ways so yeah

00:20:43.480 interesting yeah definitely what do they do in the way of sumble um

00:20:53.160 so we did a a formal three-round afa assemble at the event uh they typically don't they do

00:21:00.840 kind of a smaller sumble i mean they they pass the horn around and say stuff at casual times

00:21:06.360 and when they do their bloat so i'm told uh often in the you know after the main portion of the

00:21:13.160 the bloat they'll do a round of saying something over the horn as well and you

00:21:17.420 know kind of incorporate a bit of something into their bloats and that's

00:21:22.160 something similar to what the Danes did when we talked to them as well yeah

00:21:28.340 okay yeah Sheila tells me that people are asking how they can contact the AFA

00:21:36.620 you know if they're interested in doing so and so but what she let this scroll

00:21:43.300 without for me here to pass on to them is contact your regional folk builder

00:21:49.640 at www.runestone.org with folk builders or you can write to Sheila who seems to

00:21:57.020 spend most of her time these days on the computer she's sort of the folk

00:22:01.500 builder at large and that's sheila at roostone.org so yeah we'd be glad to get anybody hooked up with

00:22:08.380 the afa who's who's interested in and the sort of things we do and thank you for asking so just a

00:22:14.540 little intro mission there um do they do they use mead in in their their rituals they do i don't

00:22:25.420 think it's as commercially available over there for whatever reason we've been really fortunate

00:22:30.300 here in the united states to have a big meat resurgence as far as craft brewers and you know

00:22:36.700 we get some really nice stuff they had a couple guys over there that made some home brew that was

00:22:41.180 good and then some other guys had to had to mail out i guess over there you have to go through a

00:22:46.380 government liquor store and uh they requested some be imported in from poland so okay yeah

00:22:54.860 Yeah. All right. Sheila was telling me that she'd seen something online, and I guess the Icelanders seem to use beer generally, which, you know, a little surprising, but I guess it's just going to be done different ways in different countries.

00:23:09.200 so you know i'm not trying to be critical there but you know i kind of prefer the mead myself but

00:23:15.840 you know to each their own i guess you know something we've heard a lot about is the

00:23:22.400 allegations of a swedish ban on runes ban on other symbols some people say that's fake news some

00:23:30.880 people say it's not really fake news but it's exaggerated or it's specially applied or whatever

00:23:36.880 What's the scoop from the people on the ground?

00:23:40.520 Fake news.

00:23:41.940 Not completely.

00:23:43.100 I mean, there's certainly an element that wants to suppress that kind of thing.

00:23:47.100 But the impression I got from the locals was their rules are a lot more loose and a lot more contextual to where if you are politically correct and acceptable by the establishment, you have a lot more freedom to do things.

00:24:06.000 Yet, if you do the exact same things, wear the exact same symbols, and they feel that your opinions or your thoughts are incorrect, then all of a sudden those same things become criminalized.

00:24:18.000 but it became when that story broke we were actually over there and it was

00:24:25.760 really interesting as we're going through you know the average tourist and

00:24:31.140 local school children museum there's you know runic pendants and things

00:24:35.880 everywhere the runes are deeply ingrained in in their culture from a very

00:24:42.120 serious and in a very good way a spiritual aspect but even in a material

00:24:47.440 realistic economic aspect, it would seem kind of foolish because it would really hurt a lot of

00:24:53.740 their tourism industry and museum industry to completely ban the rooms. So most of our folk

00:25:01.240 over there I talked to didn't really take that news particularly seriously. Well, that's good 0.98

00:25:06.880 news for all of us. I mean, we don't need that kind of thing going on. Undoubtedly, there are

00:25:13.100 people on the left in Sweden are hell here for that matter it would gladly you

00:25:19.260 know do something that draconian but you know there's luckily there's a there's

00:25:23.360 still enough common sense left in society to where it's yeah that's less 1.00

00:25:28.520 and less likely to be something a real thing yeah how about the Christians the 0.63

00:25:35.420 Christians in in Scandinavia seem to do they more or less accept the existence

00:25:43.040 of house are true or is it something that they they rail against or somewhere in between

00:25:47.840 what's the story what christians as far as i could tell there seemed to be no christianity

00:25:55.920 in scandinavia there was you know old churches that were quite beautiful but there wasn't

00:26:01.760 um from what i can tell talking to the swedes over there christianity isn't really a thing there's

00:26:08.240 kind of a there's a cultural thing where people will get married or do something at a church but 0.61

00:26:13.920 as far as regular attendance or particularly sincere belief that seems to be very foreign

00:26:20.080 and i asked them kind of how long ago that was and they said you know over 50 years ago it's been a

00:26:25.920 very long time there um here in the united states i'd say that started to die out a lot in the 70s

00:26:32.480 and it's kind of increased exponentially to this point back in sweden it sounds like it started

00:26:37.840 much earlier than that so i don't think there's a lot of christian opposition because i didn't

00:26:43.200 get the impression christianity was very vibrant in in sweden wow that's not something you hear

00:26:58.800 every day that's interesting indeed yeah

00:27:05.920 how about the attitude of scandinavians towards you know americans that that want to practice

00:27:13.280 also true does that seem bizarre to them or unusual or especially a guy named mcmallon i

00:27:17.920 mean why is he out there with the kelts or something right you know that really didn't

00:27:21.600 come up and i think we have kind of a selective audience um most of the people that i interacted

00:27:27.360 with there were already loyal committed afa members and i think that if they you know had a

00:27:32.560 problem with you know you or myself they probably wouldn't have been there so i don't think it was

00:27:37.200 a fair sampling but i didn't pick any of that up and i was told you know anecdotally about stories

00:27:44.720 about questions folks had early on you know why do we need this american group like we're surrounded

00:27:50.720 by these holy places we're swedes why on earth would we need these americans to come tell us

00:27:57.920 how to be also true and a very similar thing to what i feel happened in denmark seemed to happen

00:28:04.960 over there is the locals looked around and said well what are the what are the ostrich you are in

00:28:10.640 our country doing what are these guys over in america doing that's why we need them is there's

00:28:16.880 you know something outside that is eager and mentally vibrant on it um it's one of those you

00:28:24.400 take stuff for granted that's around you a lot and i think it's referred to as zealotry of the fringe

00:28:29.280 but the further people are you know away from their ancestral center the more desperately they

00:28:35.600 hold on to those traditions and the more just fervent they are at creating and keeping things

00:28:41.760 alive mentally because there is that distance and i think that it shakes up the complacency a little

00:28:47.720 bit and they seem to understand that and be and be cool with that that being said what he's got

00:28:53.560 going over there what andrews has built in sweden what those guys are doing is extremely vibrant

00:28:58.100 and i was really glad to see it nice yeah i agree with you about the zealotry of the fringe

00:29:05.840 phenomenon i think that probably is a big part of what we go through over here we we we pine for

00:29:13.200 for those things that we're not surrounded by we far from taking it for for granted you know it's

00:29:19.840 it's a rarity to us and so we try to try to do the best we can with what we have

00:29:27.120 and in a way that's good you know we're not surrounded by the the material presence in terms

00:29:31.680 of you know rune stones on every corner or anything so in a way I think that

00:29:35.860 that drives our seeking maybe to a different level you know we have to we

00:29:40.820 have to try harder in order to to make that kind of a connection perhaps just

00:29:48.480 I don't know yeah I agree fully they've got six places all around them and we

00:29:53.040 know places internally and that's that's a different you know it I think it's a

00:30:00.180 more difficult struggles one of those things right right we have to begin

00:30:13.500 creating sacred spaces over here you know the Hough at Brownsville you know

00:30:18.720 is something that is accumulating power you know and that will continue and you

00:30:23.920 know generations from now I think that it will it will be deeper and more more

00:30:28.860 profound in a century from now even more so i mean in a way we are we are just kind of getting

00:30:33.820 the ball rolling over here but we we are influencing these places that we we do ritual

00:30:39.180 you know that that atmosphere that that sacred presence hangs on a bit and uh it's just a very

00:30:45.740 long uh very long procedure for us because we've got so far to go i think

00:30:49.340 so are are Scandinavians allowed to use the archaeological sites or the sacred sites over

00:31:00.440 there for their their ritual work I mean can they do bloat on the on the mounds at 0.76

00:31:07.820 Opsala or anything like that I think that place like Opsala you probably have to get

00:31:14.580 some kind of permission from someone but in general I guess one of the upsides

00:31:20.880 in the Swedish government not really caring is they don't take care of a lot

00:31:26.100 of these places and I'm sure there's very notable ones that you couldn't but

00:31:31.740 the ones we went to you absolutely could hold ritual at and they do and they do

00:31:37.560 very regularly very often these stone circles which are all over the place

00:31:43.620 they're you know on someone's farm or in the middle of the woods or off in the

00:31:49.680 middle of nowhere they're not it's not sterilized like you see in America where

00:31:54.500 everything is worked off and under three layers of plexiglass and removed from

00:32:01.480 removed from the people and moved kind of from the real world right and

00:32:06.980 certainly we visited lots of places in Denmark back in 2013 that would meet

00:32:11.180 that description you know that that one that one place out in the middle of the

00:32:15.440 of the of the field you know with that little hillock with the tiny little

00:32:20.480 entrance and crawling inside that and the the death moths or whatever they were

00:32:24.980 that flew out you know this she would disturbed and it was like something out

00:32:28.460 of a freaking horror movie or something you know excuse me obviously I've got a

00:32:34.820 little bit of lung problems today as well but I was just looking over at her

00:32:38.900 and laughing because that was kind of remarkable.

00:32:41.020 I just, yeah, yeah, that's awesome.

00:32:50.360 In terms of the Ausitru practice over there, is there a bias like we have, I think, generally

00:33:00.140 in favor of the Iser?

00:33:02.520 You know, Odin and Thor get an awful lot of our attention, and the others come in awful 0.99

00:33:08.640 on a kind of a seasonal basis, are they more Vanir-oriented? Are they more open to the Vanir? 0.92

00:33:14.800 I could certainly understand that in Sweden, given Yngwie Frey and all that kind of stuff.

00:33:19.680 So what's the balance in terms of their attention they pay to different deities?

00:33:25.040 Well, I think whoever's leading things tends to set a tone. And while certainly they are very

00:33:36.480 reverent towards the Vanir, I think the Odin prevalence in things may have a lot to do

00:33:47.920 with Anders' personal relationship to the Allfather or personal devotion to the Allfather,

00:33:56.240 and I think that comes through because he's setting the tone for a lot of things. So certainly

00:34:00.420 what we saw there was a lot of Odin representation but I have every reason

00:34:06.600 to believe and you know there was many many gods hail and goddesses hailed and

00:34:12.240 again I I didn't get the idea that there was any any particular of any or

00:34:16.800 preference and I thought that there might be but I didn't get that impression

00:34:20.880 there right interesting okay yeah I think Sheila's jotting down another

00:34:30.000 question over there mind oh okay something for her I guess okay just

00:34:35.340 regard that what what do they have in the way of their plans for the future

00:34:43.020 are there you know their hopes for the future what how do they see the thing

00:34:47.780 developing over the next say few decades they're extremely energized certainly our guys over there

00:34:55.940 are very energized they've seen what they've been able to build since they've been involved with the

00:35:02.480 AFA for the last few years since they've gotten together and been involved with each other and

00:35:07.700 they're they're really excited about the future it seems like they've got kind of a spot now where

00:35:14.300 know they're going to meet and get together they've been building lots of connections with

00:35:18.540 their countrymen who are also interested in australian who are involved uh anders being

00:35:23.820 in charge of our folk building effort in europe has really helped make connections with groups

00:35:29.020 outside of of sweden um you know we've already got three swedish kindreds we've got a norwegian

00:35:37.820 kindred on the way they're really building over there at a good pace and they see that and are

00:35:43.260 are very energized by it um one of the things they're talking about very heavily is they want

00:35:49.420 they want an afa hoff there they want an afa hoff there they want to make that happen

00:35:54.620 that's probably not in the running for hoff two we've got some other irons in the fire on that

00:35:59.900 but that may very well be an option for hoff three uh no sweet but i that's certainly in the running

00:36:08.140 and they're very eager to make that happen and put in the groundwork you know before we left

00:36:13.260 there we had serious discussion as far as legalities and costs and numbers and figures

00:36:18.780 and trying to make it happen and one of our members over there is in real estate and he's

00:36:22.940 already scouting out locations so they're they're all in and they're building very heavily and i

00:36:29.180 think they're extremely optimistic about the future when it comes to house are true in that country

00:36:32.700 awesome awesome you know i i think probably most of our listeners are aware you know that we've got

00:36:39.820 afa's got you know hof number one out there in brownsville you know several thousand square

00:36:45.020 feet in area some some leftist referred to it as a barn online but of course it's a grange hall

00:36:53.500 it's been used for community as a community hall basically for literally generations uh and it's

00:36:59.420 It's been a very good place for us, I think, in many, many ways.

00:37:04.560 Did that left him to show you a picture of his hof? 0.99

00:37:08.540 You know, darn. 0.99

00:37:12.160 Yeah. 0.99

00:37:12.860 I forgot.

00:37:13.960 Yeah.

00:37:14.420 Maybe next time.

00:37:15.000 Well, yeah.

00:37:15.880 It looked a little bit like his mom's basement.

00:37:19.520 So what can I say?

00:37:22.200 Yeah.

00:37:22.860 And so we're looking at a second one over in the other part of the country.

00:37:28.100 I don't know how much you want to give away about any of that, but why are we looking for a second AFA Hoff in the U.S. here?

00:37:38.560 In general, why we're looking to make more Hoffs is our faith is real.

00:37:45.220 It is vibrant.

00:37:46.400 Our gods are with us, and we need to erect temples to honor them.

00:37:50.840 Wherever our folk are present, wherever we gather, wherever we raise our voices in praise to our gods,

00:37:56.440 we need to raise buildings and things to honor them and to gather in and we're very committed

00:38:00.920 to doing that we're going to do them one after the other after the other after the other after

00:38:06.440 the other we're going to build success upon success uh we're still within the first year

00:38:11.080 of paying off that uh first you know odin's off and we're you know we're talking to realtors and

00:38:18.040 very much in the process of that second one and as soon as that one's paid off we'll be in the

00:38:22.120 process of that third one as far as why here in the u.s and why in the you know northern central

00:38:28.280 part of the country that's that's an easy question i want people who are listening out there who are

00:38:34.840 curious and afa members that are curious in order for us to decide on the spot where it needs to be

00:38:40.920 i mean certainly we need to find a place where the economics are right and it's something we can

00:38:44.600 afford to do but most importantly we need a vibrant afa community in the area we need something that 0.59

00:38:52.760 has some longevity some proven success under their belt that they're going to stick it out for the

00:38:57.400 long haul uh with volunteers that reliably step up to help out and ideally multiple volunteers

00:39:06.680 to where there's redundancy building a building a temple to our god someplace is something we take

00:39:12.280 extremely, extremely seriously. And we wouldn't want to put that much blood, sweat, tears and

00:39:20.280 devotion into something and then find out we couldn't use it. So we need a solid community

00:39:25.640 that has stick-to-itiveness and dedication to make it happen. Fortunately, it's a good problem

00:39:32.000 to have. We have multiple places to choose from and we get to choose the best of great options,

00:39:36.540 which is really a blessing in the AFA so right now there's not a not a shortage

00:39:41.820 of those areas but if you want to hop in you if you want an AFA off in your area

00:39:46.200 get your AFA community functioning throw yourself into volunteering to help make

00:39:50.880 it happen build that community make it steady and we'll get to you yeah there

00:39:56.180 you go and I guess I can certainly testify it makes a huge difference

00:39:59.760 having a place like that you know it's it's not that people haven't done

00:40:03.900 things and other circumstances you know people have had their sacred circles on their own land

00:40:09.280 or whatever for age you know for years and years they kind of come and go as people drop in or drop

00:40:14.460 out and you know there have been houses that that were used wholly or partly for for also true

00:40:22.260 services and I get that but what the AFA did was a whole different order of magnitude and I'm not

00:40:29.280 being critical of the people who came before because everything starts off small I mean gosh

00:40:33.360 some of us remember the very early days of Alistair in this country and the

00:40:42.860 difference between then and now is just immense immense this is a whole

00:40:47.180 different ballgame this is not the Alistair of 10 years ago or 15 years ago

00:40:52.620 or even 20 years ago it's it's it's a whole new and very exciting situation

00:41:00.980 as it's promised and we're moving on that I think with all deliberate speed

00:41:06.900 as they say I think got another question Jack that I'd like to say about it you

00:41:12.140 mentioned earlier that you know we talked about the sacred places over in

00:41:17.160 Europe that I was able to go visit and you said you know Odin's Hoff is our

00:41:21.440 first step at building that here and that's an important point you made you

00:41:26.280 talked about some of the the transient areas like somebody's backyard and then

00:41:32.280 they sell it and I'm not faulting on people selling their property I mean up

00:41:36.360 in Alaska at the house I had up there we had a place that we did ritual and

00:41:39.660 unfortunately that had to get sold when we sold our house the idea with building

00:41:44.400 AFA Hoffs those are meant to be there forever those are meant to be sacred

00:41:49.800 places that build that might over you know over years over decades and over

00:41:55.340 centuries. The tangibility of that is crucial, and while we've done an amazing job here building

00:42:02.780 the intangible, building the spiritual, building the community, and building concepts here in the

00:42:08.940 United States, it's a really special time that we get to be in where we're now building the tangible

00:42:16.460 very real reach out and touch them monuments to the divine and places for our people to

00:42:21.980 benefit from our spiritual the spiritual might that we're putting in those places

00:42:26.860 our children our children's children will get to feel that power and that's a special thing

00:42:32.300 yes absolutely very special got some more questions coming in uh for from chat um in

00:42:41.900 regardless to uh to dress for bloat uh the question as at least as sheila transcribed it is

00:42:49.420 it was did you dress formally for bloat like you do here uh how did they dress for bloat

00:42:55.340 uh and is there any traditional ritual garb that they used um

00:43:03.340 so yeah i at first i absolutely i dressed uh formally like i do here as did quite a few of

00:43:09.900 our members um i think that some of them do that out of practice i think some of them probably did

00:43:16.060 it out of respect, knowing that's something that I think is, you know, an important thing

00:43:19.880 to do. We had some other folks dressed a little bit more casually. We had two gentlemen that

00:43:26.660 were dressed, I guess, a little bit more in what you call traditional garb, but not in

00:43:33.860 a silly way. It didn't look reenactory. It was more a custom made tunic for that purpose

00:43:42.380 and not you know renaissance fair clothes um but yeah that was that was what i observed

00:43:51.300 not sure what they do in different circumstances i think that you dress for the occasion but for

00:43:57.240 what we were there part of and anybody who'd like can go on and check our pictures i encourage you

00:44:01.620 because it was a lot of fun and i want you guys to share them but take a look at the pictures

00:44:05.300 anything where we're in that uh viking looking hall is during our ritual time and that you'll

00:44:11.440 get an idea of what folks were wearing excellent excellent I haven't seen all

00:44:16.820 of those but I'm looking forward to getting a little more time to go over

00:44:19.420 some of them I think that's an important thing to discuss I'm glad to see it

00:44:25.360 that's that's taking place in terms of say their opinions of our practices did

00:44:32.980 do they have any preconceptions about what we do or what we don't do are the

00:44:37.380 things that we do that mystify them or puzzle America in worst case scenario 0.97

00:44:42.320 offend them you know what what do they think about those crazy Americans and

00:44:47.940 the way they do things this is this is less exciting but I think is a really 0.87

00:44:54.600 special thing I didn't get me to that there wasn't culture clash we had AFA

00:45:01.080 members who are AFA family in Sweden and one of the good things it's very easy to

00:45:07.360 black pill about social media but the afa has tried really hard to use it right and so we've

00:45:13.360 built relationships with these people over the course of years and we felt immediately at home

00:45:19.360 with them and you know within four days we felt like family uh there wasn't a lot of oh you crazy

00:45:25.520 americans what are you guys doing this is odd um we knew these people these were our brothers and

00:45:32.080 sisters and there was none of that culture clash awkwardness i didn't pick up on any of that the

00:45:39.120 afa we have here in the united states are always really emotional and we feel amazing with the

00:45:44.960 people that we meet this is the first afa event that when we were leaving and we had to break up

00:45:50.720 the event and everybody go their separate ways i can think of seven people off the top of my head

00:45:57.040 that were weeping about it because we felt so close to each other in such a short amount of time

00:46:05.040 so uh that was really a special a special thing from the second we got off the airplane we felt

00:46:10.080 like we were family and had known these people forever and i i hope they felt the same way about

00:46:15.200 us um i'm sure they can sure they did and you know i think that's something that is very special

00:46:21.920 indeed you know the the our deeper culture just totally supersedes you know

00:46:27.360 the little national differences between you know Sweden and the United States

00:46:30.800 you know we were bound by deep culture we're bound by blood we're bound by

00:46:35.920 practices in various interpretations that go back for millennia so yeah I

00:46:42.680 think that that's what you're telling me is proof of that and and it's it's a

00:46:49.540 wonderful thing Sheila you have something else for me yeah she was

00:46:57.340 over there doing all the work I'm just hanging out here chatting um you know

00:47:01.700 when we were when we were in Denmark in 2013 we saw a lot of use of the old of

00:47:06.640 the ancient Sun Sun wheel you know the one fellow that came out to meet us and

00:47:16.720 do ritual with us you know had his staff with the sun wheel on top and they you know and he used that

00:47:22.240 ritually for for blessing things and pouring things through it and so forth then it was

00:47:27.520 obviously a big deal with the danes um is is that particular variation of the sun wheel something

00:47:32.880 that that gets i mean obviously it was there and and you know but this does it get that kind of

00:47:38.960 recognition uh ritually or in any other way in uh in sweden um you know ritually i i'm not sure

00:47:47.840 it's certainly there and you certainly saw it on a lot of the rock carvings because it's very

00:47:52.960 ancient uh symbol um you saw a lot of what looked to be solar symbols on the ancient uh the ancient

00:48:01.760 rock carvings though like i believe rock carvings tons of souls everywhere and you saw that

00:48:07.920 particular version of the Sunwheel very often and yeah I can't like a real

00:48:19.260 specific use of it that I saw done ritually they're certainly not like

00:48:24.040 gentleman with with the end of his staff pouring the meat through it but I think

00:48:27.840 they all have a little bit different way of doing things Anders Odin ritual was

00:48:32.460 really nice because he created a really really beautiful blow bowl to to pour

00:48:38.820 offerings into and then he has a statue of Odin he puts in the middle of it

00:48:44.700 spoons meat spoonfuls of meat on top of it so I think that the way they the way

00:48:51.720 they pour and distribute the libation I think is very important over there

00:48:55.860 apparently it wasn't Andrew's ritual as well as it seemed to be with the Danes

00:48:59.580 some we're there okay all right and oh this is a this is a good one are they creating modern rune

00:49:13.900 stones i have no reason to believe that they are um i didn't see a ton of rune stones when i was

00:49:24.140 there certainly not like we did in denmark there was a lot of rune stones i guess in sweden that

00:49:29.580 were torn down and incorporated into buildings we were at a random street corner in downtown

00:49:35.740 stockholm and there was a rune stone fragment in some of the rock walls constructing it

00:49:41.500 which i guess somebody gone in and repainted the red over it so you could see like the runes in it

00:49:46.220 but that was really interesting a lot of the rune stones we found were from the christian period

00:49:52.140 Certainly the ones they have on display in downtown Uppsala were just right after the conversion.

00:50:00.040 So you saw a lot of crucifixes and things, but you still had a dragon motif around it with the runes in it.

00:50:08.860 Right. And of course, you had some of the very earliest runic revival in Sweden, as I recall.

00:50:15.520 you know, a lot of the scholarship was lacking, but there was still a real connection. And,

00:50:22.040 you know, back in the 1600s, you know, that a lot of the things that had been suppressed

00:50:25.740 were being reinvestigated and opened up and worked with. So, you know, they've obviously

00:50:33.200 got... When we were in Denmark, they didn't really incorporate the runes ritually. Certainly,

00:50:39.740 and I say this, we met a handful of Danes and I met a handful of Swedes. This may not speak for

00:50:44.700 entire country but the danes that we met used the runes for writing and certainly understood the

00:50:50.780 younger futhark as far as writing but they didn't really incorporate them into esoteric practice

00:50:57.100 the swedes certainly did our swedish members over there were very you know very much used the elder

00:51:03.020 futhark in uh in spiritual practice and it wasn't really you know something they were using a lot

00:51:11.740 for writing i'm sure they understand old viking writing with runes but they used it much more

00:51:17.820 esoterically okay yeah that was going to be my next question actually yeah uh j so they used

00:51:25.500 mostly um younger futhark rather than older as far as as far as i saw they can use elder futhark

00:51:33.900 Okay. Yeah. Interesting. Okay. All right. I think Sheila's got to take another question over there. Pretty much run through my list. Maybe. Here we go.

00:51:50.600 have they considered also true burial locations like the danes and like us

00:51:58.880 considered yes accomplished not that i'm aware of we did talk about that a little bit i spent a lot

00:52:06.940 of time in in and around burial like mass grave multiple burial mound areas and we spent a lot

00:52:16.400 time just in in modern uh modern graveyards over there as as we saw that scandinavians really make

00:52:23.920 a nice cemetery um but no and they mentioned the area that the danes have that we got to go see

00:52:32.160 they mentioned that as as a thing or something to consider to talk about but as far as i know

00:52:37.200 they haven't figured out any of any of that uh for themselves yet we did discuss it at one

00:52:46.400 um i think certainly that's something that we've all considered to one extent or another

00:52:52.320 um and you know the question of how to do that in a modern setting you know with laws restrictions

00:52:59.520 whatever whatever some ways it sounds rather like it's a considerable obstacle and then you know

00:53:04.640 other other things that i've run across indicate well no it's not that big an obstacle and it could

00:53:08.880 be overcome so uh i i think all that's going to happen eventually it's just a matter of time

00:53:15.600 If they can do it over there, we can sort of do it here.

00:53:18.420 It will absolutely happen.

00:53:20.000 We'll make it happen, and we'll make sure it does. 0.71

00:53:22.320 It's difficult on what state in the communist area of California. 0.69

00:53:27.960 It's very difficult.

00:53:29.320 In other states, it seems to be very easy.

00:53:32.340 We just don't happen to have the land there.

00:53:34.160 So it's something that we will absolutely make happen at some point.

00:53:39.800 Yeah.

00:53:40.780 Okay.

00:53:41.440 Super.

00:53:41.860 Super.

00:53:41.940 okay thanks dave got a little bit more here uh thanks for the update um that uh any news

00:53:52.500 you want to share about the afa duh uh uh and uh also south africa

00:54:00.180 oh okay south africa and you could get a new folk builder i guess for for for there uh kindreds

00:54:08.980 tell us about the kindred but she lots of them lots of them okay so so lots of

00:54:14.740 kindreds South Africa folk builder generic news I think that what this is

00:54:20.140 is giving you an opportunity just to tell people aside from this trip as

00:54:25.600 incredible as that was what are some real quick talking points about things

00:54:33.100 that it's happening here for us, for example.

00:54:38.540 Well, all right, we'll keep it international

00:54:39.960 and then we'll zero it back in to here in the States.

00:54:43.680 South Africa is doing fantastic.

00:54:46.180 Our membership there is growing.

00:54:48.760 It's just started this year and it's already fantastic.

00:54:52.800 We have an AFA kindred there that's doing great work.

00:54:55.840 And we have our newest folk builder in South Africa,

00:54:58.180 a guy named Christo Rue.

00:55:01.040 Christo is a member of leadership in Volk Vokstum, kindred there, and he's a fantastic guy.

00:55:08.620 I've gotten to talk to him quite a bit this year, and he's got his head on straight.

00:55:13.140 He's really solid.

00:55:14.160 His kindred are great folks.

00:55:17.380 They're actually, in the past, when we've collected monies as the AFA to help all folks in South Africa,

00:55:22.340 we've relied on third parties to distribute the relief.

00:55:25.020 Now, with us having membership in both Johannesburg and Cape Town, we're able to have AFA members go in to the camps as AFA members and personally distribute AFA members' contributions towards the relief effort.

00:55:41.020 And that's really nice to see. It's special to be able to. And this way, specific people get to know that the AFA cares about them.

00:55:51.340 and uh it's it's a really nice thing and we can know exactly where our donations are going and

00:55:57.020 how they're being distributed um but yeah christo's our new folk builder there since announcing him on

00:56:02.060 the page it's blown up with interest of people that want to contact him and get involved so

00:56:06.260 that's a beautiful thing uh kindred's doing amazing um if a kindred program is less than

00:56:13.780 three years old we've got 25 active kindreds i talked to jason gallagher our kindred coordinator

00:56:20.380 earlier today. He told me of four more kindreds that are in the works to become AFA kindreds.

00:56:27.940 And that being said, we don't accept all kindreds. You can have plenty of kindreds that involve AFA

00:56:33.040 members that don't want to take that next step of loyalty to be an official AFA kindred. So these

00:56:38.240 aren't just all the kindreds involved in the AFA. These are the elite kindreds that define

00:56:43.180 themselves by AFA loyalty. And we've got 25 of those right now. Other cool things going on. We

00:56:49.960 got midsummer coming up on the 21st through the 23rd at Odenshof. That's kind of our premier event.

00:56:57.200 It's usually the biggest one of the year. It's going to be spectacular this year. And if you're

00:57:02.220 an AFA member, we would love to see you out there. If you're not an AFA member and you want to come,

00:57:07.180 please do contact one of the folk builders at www.roomstone.org, and we can see about getting

00:57:12.460 you vouched for and getting you at the event. After that, our next thing we've got going on is

00:57:18.640 fall fest number four in minnesota fall fest has very fast become an amazing phenomenon with some

00:57:27.520 of the best members you will ever find it is a fantastic event this is going to be the fourth

00:57:32.680 one it has grown and become better every year this will be no exception we'd love to see you

00:57:37.800 guys there again if you're a member cool come on out uh if you're not you should become a member

00:57:43.660 and barring that you should contact the folk builders in that region and see about getting

00:57:47.760 vouch for and get you to come. If you come, probably going to become a member afterwards

00:57:51.860 because it's an amazing event and we really do show our best there.

00:57:56.580 Right. Always good to meet new people. So I'm looking forward to

00:57:59.680 meeting a lot of new AFA members in the coming weeks and months.

00:58:06.020 I think we're

00:58:07.440 running on down the pike here a little bit.

00:58:13.520 Big Dave, I know you're dying

00:58:15.820 to ask a question or two you back there buddy hello hello what's going on hey there's my producer

00:58:26.960 yes hey i just want to give i just wanted to give you a shout out uh and thanks for your

00:58:32.640 helping to square everything away uh and uh you know pulling all this together for us

00:58:38.400 as always you're doing a great job do you have anything you wanted to ask matt before we sign

00:58:43.040 off yeah well first of all thank you mr mcdallon you know it's my pleasure to produce this for you

00:58:48.040 guys and get the word out to uh all of our new incoming folk because the great folk awakening

00:58:53.280 is happening as we speak we are reaching you know the golden age here of heathenism so

00:58:58.900 i can't wait for the coming years and stuff like that and uh i have uh one quick question for for

00:59:05.740 mr matt i know uh you guys are working on half number two and we all know half number three is

00:59:11.820 going to be coming after that and very soon as we hops everywhere like for like a realistic

00:59:17.120 projection how long until like we can establish like galactic pagan supremacy like we're talking

00:59:24.920 you know spaceships hyperborean megaships and hops in space four years four years okay

00:59:32.340 you think it'll take that long seriously actually is since since we sort of lapsed into

00:59:41.140 relative cash here I want to correct a statement that I made last time we were

00:59:49.120 on I stated that let me find my notes I stated that the first human object went

00:59:59.020 into space in 1944 and that's actually not true and I've got the wrong piece of

01:00:04.800 paper. Standby. Standby for shuffles. Actually, it was 1942, not 1944. There's two different ways of

01:00:14.160 measuring objects in space. NASA has always said it's 50 miles. Internationally, it's the von

01:00:21.120 Karman line, which is like, I don't know, 100 kilometers or something like that. And so those

01:00:26.440 Those two records were attained, the first one in 1942 and the second one in 1944, both with V-2 rockets.

01:00:38.740 And so that is when the spaceship was born.

01:00:42.460 Incredible.

01:00:43.860 There it is.

01:00:45.380 Astounding.

01:00:46.080 And in 1942, they had airplanes, and that's about it.

01:00:48.960 You know, props, jets, barely kind of.

01:00:51.620 It just shows, you know, got to think big.

01:00:53.800 It's that destiny thing again, you know.

01:00:56.100 i've talked about destiny a lot on the last last episode and somewhat on this one got to think big

01:01:04.980 we got to work in the space and time we are right now to do things that are real and that will build

01:01:10.900 and build and build in a very incremental way you know it's like it's like microorganisms building

01:01:16.420 a reef almost you know and it's not fast and it's not dramatic but if we do that well if we

01:01:22.980 we excel at that, then the results will be massive.

01:01:28.140 You know, our great-great-grandchildren, hey, Dawson, Dawson,

01:01:36.220 we're all looking good.

01:01:38.900 Well, again, thanks, Dave, for producing.

01:01:42.340 Appreciate it very much.

01:01:43.560 You pulled this together.

01:01:46.000 Matt, thank you so much for being here with us.

01:01:48.400 a very inspiring trip

01:01:51.740 and it makes

01:01:54.000 me want to go travel

01:01:55.000 so

01:01:56.900 all of my people

01:02:00.180 out here who are tuning in on this

01:02:02.100 thank you for being here with us

01:02:03.700 your questions are always welcome

01:02:05.300 and your involvement

01:02:08.100 is always welcome

01:02:09.060 and give us a like

01:02:12.340 and don't forget

01:02:14.220 my book

01:02:14.700 I give you signature

01:02:17.120 thank you very much everybody we'll sign this off for now see you next week

01:02:47.120 Thank you.

01:03:17.120 Let's get started.

01:03:47.120 We'll be right back.

01:04:17.120 You

Asatru Folk Assembly - January 31, 2021

Gods Folk and Destiny with Stephen McNallen feat Matt Flavel June 2019

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