00:09:45.320We had some AFA members picking us up at the airport,
00:09:48.920which was awesome, meeting us at the airport,
00:09:52.160And 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.
00:10:03.720He 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.
00:10:18.320we got a real treat to see some off the beaten path things in norway on the way down the first day
00:10:24.160anders and his crew took us to fantastic old circles stone ships that were just magnificent
00:10:34.320and ancient rock rock carvings and the ancient rock carvings were fantastic if you look at any
00:10:40.800of the pictures there you know people have gone back in and painted them red so you could see the
00:10:46.240the outlines of what was carved and it's a little bit odd but i'm glad they did it when you look at
00:10:51.440the carvings that don't have the red on it you can barely make it out unless you get right in
00:10:55.440the right light so it's really amazing to see some of these things and they're very ancient
00:11:00.240um you know pretty much all of the things we were shown almost exclusively were were pre-viking age
00:11:07.120our our faith and our our ancestry a lot of people get it too caught up with with a very short period
00:11:13.440of 300 years in time and it it spans back the beginning of our folk it goes back you know
00:11:19.520thousands of years so it was really a treat to get to see that stuff um and it was a treat to get to
00:11:26.080go to their breakfast buffets i tell you what the swedes know how to do breakfast right um
00:11:33.120west coast salad if you haven't had it look it up it's like shrimp and mayonnaise and delicious and
00:11:38.400and you put it on bread or crackers or whatever else.
00:11:42.020And Mark and myself couldn't get enough.
00:11:44.860But, yeah, we did that for the first few days,
00:11:47.080and then we headed fairly close by there for our AFA event,
00:11:51.800Ultimatula, that Andrews and his guys put on and planned.
00:11:57.120It was a kind of a Viking Age recreation village there
00:12:02.100with a really nice hall we got to do our gathering in.
00:12:06.380it was actually a hall that uh andrews was part of building years ago so that was kind of special
00:12:12.380and it was fantastic as an international afa event we had folks from six different
00:12:20.300countries represented and speaking five different languages and that was that was really something
00:12:27.500um you know the the small inconvenience of having a couple of translators translate things was
00:12:33.500nothing compared to the you know how good it felt to have that many people speaking european
00:12:38.380languages in the afa event it was really special um met some great people we had uh gentlemen come
00:12:45.100up from italy we had folks from the united kingdom there we had a group of germans coming up from the
00:12:50.540artgemeinschaft group in germany and they were amazing it was great to meet those guys get to
00:12:56.060know them the leader of their organization and spend some time with them fantastic group of folks
00:13:01.340uh yeah it was it was a really great event did that and then uh spent the last couple of days
00:13:08.700drove over to upsala got to see the sights there and got to go walk through stockholm a little bit
00:13:15.580and see you know downtown historic areas of stockholm and it was fantastic they really packed
00:13:22.460in a lot and they showed us you know it's triple lifetime one thing i'll note uh you and i were in
00:13:28.380denmark a few years ago and it seems like the stone circles and the stone ships like the stones
00:13:34.940were much more massive in sweden was kind of a difference and sweden seems to be a lot more
00:13:41.020forested so it was really interesting to see kind of the difference in in the layout of some of those
00:13:46.540scandinavian countries over there right right um i know that when we were there in 2013
00:13:54.700on the little trip that you and i and a few other people took that we uh we had some pretty profound
00:14:01.340experiences in in some of the some of the locations we went to uh and without prying
00:14:09.660too deeply in anything that might be private did you do you experience anything like that did you
00:14:14.380have any of those moments that were just moments of total connection and significance and a feeling
00:14:20.700that there was more than just the obvious going on uh absolutely that was one of the things and
00:14:26.700a number of our group noticed that and commented on it when we were places um
00:14:34.940yeah once you've seen the stone circle and a stone ship they're all very very similar
00:14:40.060but what was really interesting was the feeling that we got when we were in these
00:14:45.500and when we're amongst these uh massive burial grounds um you really felt the presence of our
00:14:52.460ancestors you really felt an ancient presence of our folk there and it's it's difficult to put in
00:14:58.860words in a way that i think is going to translate to the folks listening here but i don't know if
00:15:05.100you get that feeling when you go through a graveyard where there's there's a presence there
00:15:10.140but a graveyard in the united states if you're very lucky has
00:15:18.060of wintered there when you go to some of those grave areas and burial sites and sacred places
00:15:23.980they have four and five thousand years of people in that that house and the feeling
00:15:32.620it's really special and very hard to describe you know that that's interesting um yeah i go through
00:15:40.300the average graveyard in the united states and except for the graves of people i'm personally
00:15:45.260connected with um you know there's there's not much to describe it's just oh okay you know
00:15:50.700another grave but and it's ironic that some of these sites that are really much much much older
00:15:57.980you know that feeling is there it's not something that just dissipates with time
00:16:01.820it seems to be uh imprinted on the very rocks imprinted in the very soil of the place in a way
00:16:09.100that you know we 20th century we've lost a lot of that we've lost a lot of our connection
00:16:14.300so it's ironic and a little strange but it's really cool too that we can go to a place like
00:16:21.340that and it's the old stuff that's been that way for many centuries and even millennia that that
00:16:27.820grabs us and touches us and reaches out for us so well it's something as as americans we don't have
00:16:35.340we don't have that availability or that point of contact with the very remote past
00:16:42.220as as white americans we don't have that here established um and so it's really something
00:16:50.140something different to go over there where we know for a fact our folk were we can speak about what
00:16:55.340people and what group of people were there in these you know thousands of year old grave sites
00:17:01.420and it was really quite special yeah i would think so i would think so so tell me a little
00:17:09.580bit about the practices that uh that you guys participated in yeah how do how do they do bloat
00:17:16.300and how you know that in a way that contrasts with with what we do how are their techniques
00:17:21.820unique well the uh swedes and i think you know maybe more scandinavians in general are a lot
00:17:29.420more reserved i think emotionally um their uh the bloat that andrews performed was really
00:17:38.620it was really interesting it was very powerful but it was also very quiet and very contemplative
00:17:44.940yeah there was a lot internally going on there was you know almost a mantra of chanting that we did
00:17:53.980that was nice but it was it was much more emotionally
00:18:02.860calm than some of the things that that we tend to do and that was that was really interesting
00:18:08.060and it was very nice i felt it was a really powerful bloat and i i believe the all father
00:18:12.460received it well and and i think we're blessed because of it um one thing that they do there's
00:18:20.700there's there's a lot of singing involved which is really nice and i wish i wish we had and i wish
00:18:26.060we did more and i'd like to see more in the coming you know coming years there was there was singing
00:18:32.860um not a ton but they had they had little songs that they sang and that was nice um
00:18:43.420yeah a lot of practice in the in the old uh old sacred spaces and communing with the spirits of
00:18:49.020the ancestors they talked a lot about how they do uh the out sitting on in the you know in the
00:18:56.460circles and the grave mounds and in that kind of areas they do a lot of that over there
00:19:02.540and that was that was really nice to see they seem very very connected with
00:19:05.660their land and and the sacred sites that they have which was which was nice and certainly
00:19:12.700something very different than how we are able to practice here in the united states right right
00:19:18.540did you do did you do bloat for them uh yeah i did uh did an odin bloat for them uh the day
00:19:25.820after andrew's odin bloat and it was it was done much differently than than they're used to um
00:19:33.820I've heard good things I hope you know they could be just being polite I don't
00:19:39.700know I think it was something certainly that was very different in the way
00:19:42.820they're used to they're used to doing bloat and I hope it was well received I
00:19:47.020promise it was well intended and yeah was it that was it typical to the other
00:19:52.840bloats I've seen you do yes in other words it was wham-bam I could see how
00:19:58.840would really contrast with contrast with the contemplative um introspective way and then i'm
00:20:05.160not being critical of what they do but i'm just saying that uh your approach and you know my
00:20:10.280approach as well has always been a little more uh you know othen voton woden whatever name you
00:20:17.240want to call it by yeah let's get this going well that's the thing odin has you know hundreds of
00:20:23.800names all reflecting a different aspect of his character and some of that is is very quiet and
00:20:29.960is very contemplative and some of it is the god of warrior ecstasy you know there's there's a
00:20:36.920wide range of emotions and i think that we we touched on that in very different ways so yeah
00:20:43.480interesting yeah definitely what do they do in the way of sumble um
00:20:53.160so we did a a formal three-round afa assemble at the event uh they typically don't they do
00:21:00.840kind of a smaller sumble i mean they they pass the horn around and say stuff at casual times
00:21:06.360and when they do their bloat so i'm told uh often in the you know after the main portion of the
00:21:13.160the bloat they'll do a round of saying something over the horn as well and you
00:21:17.420know kind of incorporate a bit of something into their bloats and that's
00:21:22.160something similar to what the Danes did when we talked to them as well yeah
00:21:28.340okay yeah Sheila tells me that people are asking how they can contact the AFA
00:21:36.620you know if they're interested in doing so and so but what she let this scroll
00:21:43.300without for me here to pass on to them is contact your regional folk builder
00:21:49.640at www.runestone.org with folk builders or you can write to Sheila who seems to
00:21:57.020spend most of her time these days on the computer she's sort of the folk
00:22:01.500builder at large and that's sheila at roostone.org so yeah we'd be glad to get anybody hooked up with
00:22:08.380the afa who's who's interested in and the sort of things we do and thank you for asking so just a
00:22:14.540little intro mission there um do they do they use mead in in their their rituals they do i don't
00:22:25.420think it's as commercially available over there for whatever reason we've been really fortunate
00:22:30.300here in the united states to have a big meat resurgence as far as craft brewers and you know
00:22:36.700we get some really nice stuff they had a couple guys over there that made some home brew that was
00:22:41.180good and then some other guys had to had to mail out i guess over there you have to go through a
00:22:46.380government liquor store and uh they requested some be imported in from poland so okay yeah
00:22:54.860Yeah. 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.
00:23:09.200so you know i'm not trying to be critical there but you know i kind of prefer the mead myself but
00:23:15.840you know to each their own i guess you know something we've heard a lot about is the
00:23:22.400allegations of a swedish ban on runes ban on other symbols some people say that's fake news some
00:23:30.880people say it's not really fake news but it's exaggerated or it's specially applied or whatever
00:23:36.880What's the scoop from the people on the ground?
00:23:43.100I mean, there's certainly an element that wants to suppress that kind of thing.
00:23:47.100But 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.
00:24:06.000Yet, 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.
00:24:18.000but it became when that story broke we were actually over there and it was
00:24:25.760really interesting as we're going through you know the average tourist and
00:24:31.140local school children museum there's you know runic pendants and things
00:24:35.880everywhere the runes are deeply ingrained in in their culture from a very
00:24:42.120serious and in a very good way a spiritual aspect but even in a material
00:24:47.440realistic economic aspect, it would seem kind of foolish because it would really hurt a lot of
00:24:53.740their tourism industry and museum industry to completely ban the rooms. So most of our folk
00:25:01.240over there I talked to didn't really take that news particularly seriously. Well, that's good0.98
00:25:06.880news for all of us. I mean, we don't need that kind of thing going on. Undoubtedly, there are
00:25:13.100people on the left in Sweden are hell here for that matter it would gladly you
00:25:19.260know do something that draconian but you know there's luckily there's a there's
00:25:23.360still enough common sense left in society to where it's yeah that's less1.00
00:25:28.520and less likely to be something a real thing yeah how about the Christians the0.63
00:25:35.420Christians in in Scandinavia seem to do they more or less accept the existence
00:25:43.040of house are true or is it something that they they rail against or somewhere in between
00:25:47.840what's the story what christians as far as i could tell there seemed to be no christianity
00:25:55.920in scandinavia there was you know old churches that were quite beautiful but there wasn't
00:26:01.760um from what i can tell talking to the swedes over there christianity isn't really a thing there's
00:26:08.240kind of a there's a cultural thing where people will get married or do something at a church but0.61
00:26:13.920as far as regular attendance or particularly sincere belief that seems to be very foreign
00:26:20.080and i asked them kind of how long ago that was and they said you know over 50 years ago it's been a
00:26:25.920very long time there um here in the united states i'd say that started to die out a lot in the 70s
00:26:32.480and it's kind of increased exponentially to this point back in sweden it sounds like it started
00:26:37.840much earlier than that so i don't think there's a lot of christian opposition because i didn't
00:26:43.200get the impression christianity was very vibrant in in sweden wow that's not something you hear
00:26:58.800every day that's interesting indeed yeah
00:27:05.920how about the attitude of scandinavians towards you know americans that that want to practice
00:27:13.280also true does that seem bizarre to them or unusual or especially a guy named mcmallon i
00:27:17.920mean why is he out there with the kelts or something right you know that really didn't
00:27:21.600come up and i think we have kind of a selective audience um most of the people that i interacted
00:27:27.360with there were already loyal committed afa members and i think that if they you know had a
00:27:32.560problem with you know you or myself they probably wouldn't have been there so i don't think it was
00:27:37.200a fair sampling but i didn't pick any of that up and i was told you know anecdotally about stories
00:27:44.720about questions folks had early on you know why do we need this american group like we're surrounded
00:27:50.720by these holy places we're swedes why on earth would we need these americans to come tell us
00:27:57.920how to be also true and a very similar thing to what i feel happened in denmark seemed to happen
00:28:04.960over there is the locals looked around and said well what are the what are the ostrich you are in
00:28:10.640our country doing what are these guys over in america doing that's why we need them is there's
00:28:16.880you know something outside that is eager and mentally vibrant on it um it's one of those you
00:28:24.400take stuff for granted that's around you a lot and i think it's referred to as zealotry of the fringe
00:28:29.280but the further people are you know away from their ancestral center the more desperately they
00:28:35.600hold on to those traditions and the more just fervent they are at creating and keeping things
00:28:41.760alive mentally because there is that distance and i think that it shakes up the complacency a little
00:28:47.720bit and they seem to understand that and be and be cool with that that being said what he's got
00:28:53.560going over there what andrews has built in sweden what those guys are doing is extremely vibrant
00:28:58.100and i was really glad to see it nice yeah i agree with you about the zealotry of the fringe
00:29:05.840phenomenon i think that probably is a big part of what we go through over here we we we pine for
00:29:13.200for those things that we're not surrounded by we far from taking it for for granted you know it's
00:29:19.840it's a rarity to us and so we try to try to do the best we can with what we have
00:29:27.120and in a way that's good you know we're not surrounded by the the material presence in terms
00:29:31.680of you know rune stones on every corner or anything so in a way I think that
00:29:35.860that drives our seeking maybe to a different level you know we have to we
00:29:40.820have to try harder in order to to make that kind of a connection perhaps just
00:29:48.480I don't know yeah I agree fully they've got six places all around them and we
00:29:53.040know places internally and that's that's a different you know it I think it's a
00:30:00.180more difficult struggles one of those things right right we have to begin
00:30:13.500creating sacred spaces over here you know the Hough at Brownsville you know
00:30:18.720is something that is accumulating power you know and that will continue and you
00:30:23.920know generations from now I think that it will it will be deeper and more more
00:30:28.860profound in a century from now even more so i mean in a way we are we are just kind of getting
00:30:33.820the ball rolling over here but we we are influencing these places that we we do ritual
00:30:39.180you know that that atmosphere that that sacred presence hangs on a bit and uh it's just a very
00:30:45.740long uh very long procedure for us because we've got so far to go i think
00:30:49.340so are are Scandinavians allowed to use the archaeological sites or the sacred sites over
00:31:00.440there for their their ritual work I mean can they do bloat on the on the mounds at0.76
00:31:07.820Opsala or anything like that I think that place like Opsala you probably have to get
00:31:14.580some kind of permission from someone but in general I guess one of the upsides
00:31:20.880in the Swedish government not really caring is they don't take care of a lot
00:31:26.100of these places and I'm sure there's very notable ones that you couldn't but
00:31:31.740the ones we went to you absolutely could hold ritual at and they do and they do
00:31:37.560very regularly very often these stone circles which are all over the place
00:31:43.620they're you know on someone's farm or in the middle of the woods or off in the
00:31:49.680middle of nowhere they're not it's not sterilized like you see in America where
00:31:54.500everything is worked off and under three layers of plexiglass and removed from
00:32:01.480removed from the people and moved kind of from the real world right and
00:32:06.980certainly we visited lots of places in Denmark back in 2013 that would meet
00:32:11.180that description you know that that one that one place out in the middle of the
00:32:15.440of the of the field you know with that little hillock with the tiny little
00:32:20.480entrance and crawling inside that and the the death moths or whatever they were
00:32:24.980that flew out you know this she would disturbed and it was like something out
00:32:28.460of a freaking horror movie or something you know excuse me obviously I've got a
00:32:34.820little bit of lung problems today as well but I was just looking over at her
00:32:38.900and laughing because that was kind of remarkable.
00:37:46.400Our gods are with us, and we need to erect temples to honor them.
00:37:50.840Wherever our folk are present, wherever we gather, wherever we raise our voices in praise to our gods,
00:37:56.440we need to raise buildings and things to honor them and to gather in and we're very committed
00:38:00.920to doing that we're going to do them one after the other after the other after the other after
00:38:06.440the other we're going to build success upon success uh we're still within the first year
00:38:11.080of paying off that uh first you know odin's off and we're you know we're talking to realtors and
00:38:18.040very much in the process of that second one and as soon as that one's paid off we'll be in the
00:38:22.120process of that third one as far as why here in the u.s and why in the you know northern central
00:38:28.280part of the country that's that's an easy question i want people who are listening out there who are
00:38:34.840curious and afa members that are curious in order for us to decide on the spot where it needs to be
00:38:40.920i mean certainly we need to find a place where the economics are right and it's something we can
00:38:44.600afford to do but most importantly we need a vibrant afa community in the area we need something that0.59
00:38:52.760has some longevity some proven success under their belt that they're going to stick it out for the
00:38:57.400long haul uh with volunteers that reliably step up to help out and ideally multiple volunteers
00:39:06.680to where there's redundancy building a building a temple to our god someplace is something we take
00:39:12.280extremely, extremely seriously. And we wouldn't want to put that much blood, sweat, tears and
00:39:20.280devotion into something and then find out we couldn't use it. So we need a solid community
00:39:25.640that has stick-to-itiveness and dedication to make it happen. Fortunately, it's a good problem
00:39:32.000to have. We have multiple places to choose from and we get to choose the best of great options,
00:39:36.540which is really a blessing in the AFA so right now there's not a not a shortage
00:39:41.820of those areas but if you want to hop in you if you want an AFA off in your area
00:39:46.200get your AFA community functioning throw yourself into volunteering to help make
00:39:50.880it happen build that community make it steady and we'll get to you yeah there
00:39:56.180you go and I guess I can certainly testify it makes a huge difference
00:39:59.760having a place like that you know it's it's not that people haven't done
00:40:03.900things and other circumstances you know people have had their sacred circles on their own land
00:40:09.280or whatever for age you know for years and years they kind of come and go as people drop in or drop
00:40:14.460out and you know there have been houses that that were used wholly or partly for for also true
00:40:22.260services and I get that but what the AFA did was a whole different order of magnitude and I'm not
00:40:29.280being critical of the people who came before because everything starts off small I mean gosh
00:40:33.360some of us remember the very early days of Alistair in this country and the
00:40:42.860difference between then and now is just immense immense this is a whole
00:40:47.180different ballgame this is not the Alistair of 10 years ago or 15 years ago
00:40:52.620or even 20 years ago it's it's it's a whole new and very exciting situation
00:41:00.980as it's promised and we're moving on that I think with all deliberate speed
00:41:06.900as they say I think got another question Jack that I'd like to say about it you
00:41:12.140mentioned earlier that you know we talked about the sacred places over in
00:41:17.160Europe that I was able to go visit and you said you know Odin's Hoff is our
00:41:21.440first step at building that here and that's an important point you made you
00:41:26.280talked about some of the the transient areas like somebody's backyard and then
00:41:32.280they sell it and I'm not faulting on people selling their property I mean up
00:41:36.360in Alaska at the house I had up there we had a place that we did ritual and
00:41:39.660unfortunately that had to get sold when we sold our house the idea with building
00:41:44.400AFA Hoffs those are meant to be there forever those are meant to be sacred
00:41:49.800places that build that might over you know over years over decades and over
00:41:55.340centuries. The tangibility of that is crucial, and while we've done an amazing job here building
00:42:02.780the intangible, building the spiritual, building the community, and building concepts here in the
00:42:08.940United States, it's a really special time that we get to be in where we're now building the tangible
00:42:16.460very real reach out and touch them monuments to the divine and places for our people to
00:42:21.980benefit from our spiritual the spiritual might that we're putting in those places
00:42:26.860our children our children's children will get to feel that power and that's a special thing
00:42:32.300yes absolutely very special got some more questions coming in uh for from chat um in
00:42:41.900regardless to uh to dress for bloat uh the question as at least as sheila transcribed it is
00:42:49.420it was did you dress formally for bloat like you do here uh how did they dress for bloat
00:42:55.340uh and is there any traditional ritual garb that they used um
00:43:03.340so yeah i at first i absolutely i dressed uh formally like i do here as did quite a few of
00:43:09.900our members um i think that some of them do that out of practice i think some of them probably did
00:43:16.060it out of respect, knowing that's something that I think is, you know, an important thing
00:43:19.880to do. We had some other folks dressed a little bit more casually. We had two gentlemen that
00:43:26.660were dressed, I guess, a little bit more in what you call traditional garb, but not in
00:43:33.860a silly way. It didn't look reenactory. It was more a custom made tunic for that purpose
00:43:42.380and not you know renaissance fair clothes um but yeah that was that was what i observed
00:43:51.300not sure what they do in different circumstances i think that you dress for the occasion but for
00:43:57.240what we were there part of and anybody who'd like can go on and check our pictures i encourage you
00:44:01.620because it was a lot of fun and i want you guys to share them but take a look at the pictures
00:44:05.300anything where we're in that uh viking looking hall is during our ritual time and that you'll
00:44:11.440get an idea of what folks were wearing excellent excellent I haven't seen all
00:44:16.820of those but I'm looking forward to getting a little more time to go over
00:44:19.420some of them I think that's an important thing to discuss I'm glad to see it
00:44:25.360that's that's taking place in terms of say their opinions of our practices did
00:44:32.980do they have any preconceptions about what we do or what we don't do are the
00:44:37.380things that we do that mystify them or puzzle America in worst case scenario0.97
00:44:42.320offend them you know what what do they think about those crazy Americans and
00:44:47.940the way they do things this is this is less exciting but I think is a really0.87
00:44:54.600special thing I didn't get me to that there wasn't culture clash we had AFA
00:45:01.080members who are AFA family in Sweden and one of the good things it's very easy to
00:45:07.360black pill about social media but the afa has tried really hard to use it right and so we've
00:45:13.360built relationships with these people over the course of years and we felt immediately at home
00:45:19.360with them and you know within four days we felt like family uh there wasn't a lot of oh you crazy
00:45:25.520americans what are you guys doing this is odd um we knew these people these were our brothers and
00:45:32.080sisters and there was none of that culture clash awkwardness i didn't pick up on any of that the
00:45:39.120afa we have here in the united states are always really emotional and we feel amazing with the
00:45:44.960people that we meet this is the first afa event that when we were leaving and we had to break up
00:45:50.720the event and everybody go their separate ways i can think of seven people off the top of my head
00:45:57.040that were weeping about it because we felt so close to each other in such a short amount of time
00:46:05.040so uh that was really a special a special thing from the second we got off the airplane we felt
00:46:10.080like we were family and had known these people forever and i i hope they felt the same way about
00:46:15.200us um i'm sure they can sure they did and you know i think that's something that is very special
00:46:21.920indeed you know the the our deeper culture just totally supersedes you know
00:46:27.360the little national differences between you know Sweden and the United States
00:46:30.800you know we were bound by deep culture we're bound by blood we're bound by
00:46:35.920practices in various interpretations that go back for millennia so yeah I
00:46:42.680think that that's what you're telling me is proof of that and and it's it's a
00:46:49.540wonderful thing Sheila you have something else for me yeah she was
00:46:57.340over there doing all the work I'm just hanging out here chatting um you know
00:47:01.700when we were when we were in Denmark in 2013 we saw a lot of use of the old of
00:47:06.640the ancient Sun Sun wheel you know the one fellow that came out to meet us and
00:47:16.720do ritual with us you know had his staff with the sun wheel on top and they you know and he used that
00:47:22.240ritually for for blessing things and pouring things through it and so forth then it was
00:47:27.520obviously a big deal with the danes um is is that particular variation of the sun wheel something
00:47:32.880that that gets i mean obviously it was there and and you know but this does it get that kind of
00:47:38.960recognition uh ritually or in any other way in uh in sweden um you know ritually i i'm not sure
00:47:47.840it's certainly there and you certainly saw it on a lot of the rock carvings because it's very
00:47:52.960ancient uh symbol um you saw a lot of what looked to be solar symbols on the ancient uh the ancient
00:48:01.760rock carvings though like i believe rock carvings tons of souls everywhere and you saw that
00:48:07.920particular version of the Sunwheel very often and yeah I can't like a real
00:48:19.260specific use of it that I saw done ritually they're certainly not like
00:48:24.040gentleman with with the end of his staff pouring the meat through it but I think
00:48:27.840they all have a little bit different way of doing things Anders Odin ritual was
00:48:32.460really nice because he created a really really beautiful blow bowl to to pour
00:48:38.820offerings into and then he has a statue of Odin he puts in the middle of it
00:48:44.700spoons meat spoonfuls of meat on top of it so I think that the way they the way
00:48:51.720they pour and distribute the libation I think is very important over there
00:48:55.860apparently it wasn't Andrew's ritual as well as it seemed to be with the Danes
00:48:59.580some we're there okay all right and oh this is a this is a good one are they creating modern rune
00:49:13.900stones i have no reason to believe that they are um i didn't see a ton of rune stones when i was
00:49:24.140there certainly not like we did in denmark there was a lot of rune stones i guess in sweden that
00:49:29.580were torn down and incorporated into buildings we were at a random street corner in downtown
00:49:35.740stockholm and there was a rune stone fragment in some of the rock walls constructing it
00:49:41.500which i guess somebody gone in and repainted the red over it so you could see like the runes in it
00:49:46.220but that was really interesting a lot of the rune stones we found were from the christian period
00:49:52.140Certainly the ones they have on display in downtown Uppsala were just right after the conversion.
00:50:00.040So you saw a lot of crucifixes and things, but you still had a dragon motif around it with the runes in it.
00:50:08.860Right. And of course, you had some of the very earliest runic revival in Sweden, as I recall.
00:50:15.520you know, a lot of the scholarship was lacking, but there was still a real connection. And,
00:50:22.040you know, back in the 1600s, you know, that a lot of the things that had been suppressed
00:50:25.740were being reinvestigated and opened up and worked with. So, you know, they've obviously
00:50:33.200got... When we were in Denmark, they didn't really incorporate the runes ritually. Certainly,
00:50:39.740and I say this, we met a handful of Danes and I met a handful of Swedes. This may not speak for
00:50:44.700entire country but the danes that we met used the runes for writing and certainly understood the
00:50:50.780younger futhark as far as writing but they didn't really incorporate them into esoteric practice
00:50:57.100the swedes certainly did our swedish members over there were very you know very much used the elder
00:51:03.020futhark in uh in spiritual practice and it wasn't really you know something they were using a lot
00:51:11.740for writing i'm sure they understand old viking writing with runes but they used it much more
00:51:17.820esoterically okay yeah that was going to be my next question actually yeah uh j so they used
00:51:25.500mostly um younger futhark rather than older as far as as far as i saw they can use elder futhark
00:51:33.900Okay. 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.
00:51:50.600have they considered also true burial locations like the danes and like us
00:51:58.880considered yes accomplished not that i'm aware of we did talk about that a little bit i spent a lot
00:52:06.940of time in in and around burial like mass grave multiple burial mound areas and we spent a lot
00:52:16.400time just in in modern uh modern graveyards over there as as we saw that scandinavians really make
00:52:23.920a nice cemetery um but no and they mentioned the area that the danes have that we got to go see
00:52:32.160they mentioned that as as a thing or something to consider to talk about but as far as i know
00:52:37.200they haven't figured out any of any of that uh for themselves yet we did discuss it at one
00:52:46.400um i think certainly that's something that we've all considered to one extent or another
00:52:52.320um and you know the question of how to do that in a modern setting you know with laws restrictions
00:52:59.520whatever whatever some ways it sounds rather like it's a considerable obstacle and then you know
00:53:04.640other other things that i've run across indicate well no it's not that big an obstacle and it could
00:53:08.880be overcome so uh i i think all that's going to happen eventually it's just a matter of time
00:53:15.600If they can do it over there, we can sort of do it here.
00:55:17.380They're actually, in the past, when we've collected monies as the AFA to help all folks in South Africa,
00:55:22.340we've relied on third parties to distribute the relief.
00:55:25.020Now, 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.
00:55:41.020And 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.
00:55:51.340and uh it's it's a really nice thing and we can know exactly where our donations are going and
00:55:57.020how they're being distributed um but yeah christo's our new folk builder there since announcing him on
00:56:02.060the page it's blown up with interest of people that want to contact him and get involved so
00:56:06.260that's a beautiful thing uh kindred's doing amazing um if a kindred program is less than
00:56:13.780three years old we've got 25 active kindreds i talked to jason gallagher our kindred coordinator
00:56:20.380earlier today. He told me of four more kindreds that are in the works to become AFA kindreds.
00:56:27.940And that being said, we don't accept all kindreds. You can have plenty of kindreds that involve AFA
00:56:33.040members that don't want to take that next step of loyalty to be an official AFA kindred. So these
00:56:38.240aren't just all the kindreds involved in the AFA. These are the elite kindreds that define
00:56:43.180themselves by AFA loyalty. And we've got 25 of those right now. Other cool things going on. We
00:56:49.960got midsummer coming up on the 21st through the 23rd at Odenshof. That's kind of our premier event.
00:56:57.200It's usually the biggest one of the year. It's going to be spectacular this year. And if you're
00:57:02.220an AFA member, we would love to see you out there. If you're not an AFA member and you want to come,
00:57:07.180please do contact one of the folk builders at www.roomstone.org, and we can see about getting
00:57:12.460you vouched for and getting you at the event. After that, our next thing we've got going on is
00:57:18.640fall fest number four in minnesota fall fest has very fast become an amazing phenomenon with some
00:57:27.520of the best members you will ever find it is a fantastic event this is going to be the fourth
00:57:32.680one it has grown and become better every year this will be no exception we'd love to see you
00:57:37.800guys there again if you're a member cool come on out uh if you're not you should become a member
00:57:43.660and barring that you should contact the folk builders in that region and see about getting
00:57:47.760vouch for and get you to come. If you come, probably going to become a member afterwards
00:57:51.860because it's an amazing event and we really do show our best there.
00:57:56.580Right. Always good to meet new people. So I'm looking forward to
00:57:59.680meeting a lot of new AFA members in the coming weeks and months.