Asatru Folk Assembly - January 2021 Live Chat

00:00:00.000 Hello. Good evening, folks. I appreciate y'all joining me. To start, I hope everybody

00:00:17.780 is having an amazing 2021. Seems like 2020 went by awful fast, even though it was a very

00:00:27.660 different year. So, yeah, I hope you guys had a great Yule. Hope this year's off to a really good

00:00:35.180 start. I know we got a lot of good things going on, a lot of great things to look forward to.

00:00:44.220 It says it before, but it's worth saying again a little bit at the top of the session tonight.

00:00:49.820 2020 was a really special year for the AFA. We spent all of last year celebrating our 25th

00:00:58.960 anniversary. And in that celebratory year, hosted the largest gathering we've ever had

00:01:07.140 for the Astro Folk Assembly. And that was midsummer at Odenshof at 143 individuals there,

00:01:14.380 which was absolutely amazing. In 2020, we got two beautiful new Hoffs to honor our gods,

00:01:23.740 got Thor's Hoff in North Carolina, and we got Baldur's Hoff in Minnesota.

00:01:29.820 We also saw the birth of 37 AFA babies, which is huge for any year in the AFA. It's absolutely

00:01:37.660 amazing. So we had a lot of really good things happen last year.

00:01:45.180 Thanks, Rob. I think I'm sitting about a week in. Started it at the solstice.

00:01:56.200 We'll see if I keep it for a little bit here. I got used to growing them in the wintertime,

00:02:01.160 and this year, for whatever reason, got distracted and didn't, so giving it a shot.

00:02:05.720 Hey, guys. Looking on the side, there was a couple of folks reaching out. We had one

00:02:13.760 gentlemen a little ways up mentioned they're in Pennsylvania wanting to know if we had folks there

00:02:18.340 we absolutely do we have two amazing a lot of amazing people actually in Pennsylvania but our

00:02:24.140 folk builder Adam Hudak is who I'd recommend you you reach out to hopefully uh my lovely wife will

00:02:30.460 send you a message on the side letting you know how to get a hold of Adam we also have uh Witten

00:02:35.420 Clifford Erickson and his wife Githya Katie Erickson in Pennsylvania and so we've got a

00:02:40.100 really good group there, and I encourage you to reach out to them. I noticed before I got on,

00:02:47.180 we had a couple folks talking about some technical details that can help these broadcasts be a little

00:02:52.540 bit better. I make no claims of being an expert at these. I just really enjoy doing them, and it's

00:02:59.100 been a really beneficial way, I think, to interact with our AFA family. You guys seem to enjoy them,

00:03:06.180 And I know I really look forward to them.

00:03:08.060 So if anybody wants to help us, you know, tighten these up or do them a little bit better, we we'd always love to help.

00:03:18.120 Looking over on the side.

00:03:26.220 All right. Looks like we have a couple of people from Brazil reaching out.

00:03:29.500 That's great. It's good to see you guys here.

00:03:36.180 Cool. All right. Well, one thing I did want to mention, AFAA has gotten a lot of attention

00:03:47.320 this last month. We ended off the year in a really great way. Some of you may or may

00:03:55.420 not be aware of some of the challenges of Baldershof in Minnesota. The property that

00:04:00.840 We got there, beautiful, beautiful property for our hoff,

00:04:04.900 but in order for us to operate it as a hoff

00:04:08.820 in the way that we want to,

00:04:10.500 we needed a conditional use permit from the city

00:04:13.080 to operate the building in a residential zone

00:04:15.660 the way that it is.

00:04:17.240 And we were very glad that the city of Murdoch

00:04:19.940 granted us our conditional use permit

00:04:22.740 and we're excited about meeting all those couple

00:04:26.420 of conditions we got to open the doors

00:04:29.060 and uh getting that going but that was very encouraging and i appreciate everybody who

00:04:33.940 supported us through that um people who are also true people who are of our folk and people who

00:04:39.700 weren't a lot of really great people reached out to support us and we appreciate the the

00:04:45.060 city council making a very fair decision for us folks in wyoming we do have a couple of people

00:04:55.460 in Wyoming. Not going to lie, we don't have a massive community in Wyoming, but we'd love to

00:04:59.220 see that grow. If you're interested in Wyoming, you should reach out to Jason Gallagher. He's

00:05:11.140 the folk builder I'd send you to. Again, hopefully my wife on the side can send you that contact

00:05:15.620 information? Yes, Mary, it really is exciting to see all the new little babies getting born into

00:05:27.200 the AFA. And I'm fortunate enough that in 2020, my beautiful little daughter, Aubrey, was born.

00:05:34.260 And she's absolutely amazing. So 2020 was a really special year that way for babies.

00:05:38.360 um yes that's kind of wrap up of of how things went down at the end of 2020 something else you

00:05:47.280 guys may notice there has been a massive influx in apprentice folk builders lately and that is

00:05:54.020 that is absolutely intentional um we have a lot of stuff to do a lot of opportunities

00:05:59.920 um as our afa family grows we have we always have more projects and more really special things that

00:06:07.340 we want to do, but it takes volunteers and it takes committed men and women to reach out and

00:06:12.800 want to participate in that and want to be a part of it. So we've kind of opened up some folk

00:06:17.360 building opportunities to folks that really wanted to step in and volunteer. And we wanted to harness

00:06:21.840 that enthusiasm and that commitment while it was fresh and give those folks an opportunity to

00:06:28.060 really show what they can do. And I anticipate a lot of really great things from that and a lot

00:06:32.800 of growth for the afa coming in 2021 and i am pretty excited about that we've got some really

00:06:37.720 great people uh stepping forward for that and as a matter of fact right before the broadcast tonight

00:06:43.420 we had two more individuals in the afa's upper south region that want to help folk build in

00:06:47.960 coming months and years so that'll be really good

00:06:50.720 hello to our oceania people we got uh peter walker i think from australia could be from

00:07:04.360 new zealand but hi to anybody joining us from that area um you guys are awesome we appreciate

00:07:09.360 I'm glad you joined us tonight.

00:07:10.360 We have a Brazilian, looks like they're talking to us in Portuguese, and I'm sorry I can't

00:07:22.900 quickly translate that on here.

00:07:25.660 So I'm not ignoring you, but I don't speak Portuguese and I can't see, there's no translate

00:07:31.420 option for me real quick, so please don't feel ignored.

00:07:36.360 Alan, great to have you here. I'm excited. Those of you, Alan says he's a new member

00:07:45.280 and he's about an hour and a half away from Baldershof. Look forward to having you come

00:07:49.200 out to raise a horn to celebrate Balder. And yeah, welcome to the Astro Folk Assembly.

00:07:55.200 All right, guys. Well, so I guess to start off the Q&A portion, does anybody have any questions

00:08:08.780 for tonight or anything you guys want me to talk about or anything y'all want me to answer?

00:08:25.200 All right, while we wait on a couple of questions here, I guess I'll start off by a couple of

00:08:34.480 things we got coming up. If you are able to and you're anywhere close, we have Thorfest coming on

00:08:42.400 on the 23rd of this month in the Denver area of Colorado. So if you guys can make that,

00:08:53.400 If you're anywhere close, we'd love to see you out to that.

00:08:57.100 And after that, in the month of February, we have for the first time as an AFA national event,

00:09:03.400 we have Charming of the Plow in the Pacific Northwest, and that's going to take place in Washington State.

00:09:08.380 If you're able to come out to that, it's going to be amazing.

00:09:10.820 Charming of the Plow has been great the last two years there, so we decided to give it a whirl and make it a national event this time.

00:09:17.000 We're expecting a really nice turnout.

00:09:19.000 We've got a very nice location rented out.

00:09:20.900 So, yeah, if you can make that, we would love to see you guys there.

00:09:38.580 Marble Mountain Woodworks.

00:09:40.640 How long does the permit for Baldershof last, and is there a danger of the city revoking the permit?

00:09:44.800 I can't forecast the future accurately, but the verbiage and the way the permit reads

00:09:51.100 is no, the permit is yearly. It gets renewed every year, but it's an automatic renewal,

00:09:57.600 assuming that we hold to our ends of those conditions. And I think that it says that we

00:10:02.200 hold up to them substantially or that we don't violate them substantially. We have every intention

00:10:08.220 of following those conditions, being great neighbors and living up to any of our obligations

00:10:15.680 there. Can't say what people will or won't do, but according to our law speaker, Alan Turnage,

00:10:23.640 and according to our understanding of any of the legalities, no, we should be fine. And as

00:10:29.100 long as we hold up our end that permit should renew every December. John I have

00:10:38.580 no idea what a Rumble account is so I can say we are not looking into getting

00:10:42.120 a Rumble account but if you have information on that you think it's

00:10:45.060 something we ought to get please reach out to us on the side and it's something

00:10:48.060 we may want to consider.

00:10:59.100 Okay, we have a question on the side about doing some reading and there was

00:11:06.700 Forn Sather and Vanatru.

00:11:13.660 First, I'll do the last first and the first last. Vanatru, I'm unaware of any organization or

00:11:20.860 structure that calls themselves that. I know that as a, I guess an idea or a category of

00:11:28.620 of groups or belief, that's a thing. From what I've heard in my interaction with people that

00:11:34.060 claim that is what they do, it's much more of a primal nature focus. Obviously, by the name,

00:11:44.460 they focus more on the Vanir gods instead of the Aesir. This paints with a very broad brush,

00:11:54.940 So no offense to anybody this doesn't apply to. They tend to embrace a lot of what I would describe as primitivism. Also, a lot of a lot of very overt sexuality in Vanitru, I'd say.

00:12:10.760 it tends to be people that are focused very on

00:12:16.920 on the chthonic and much less on the astral um that's what i'd say about vanatru and i don't

00:12:27.760 think there's a lot of of adherence i think that's a an other category that a lot of things

00:12:32.320 end up having overlap in uh forms say there are a lot of people use that as a generic

00:12:38.020 word that means the old way or the old practice and so i think a lot of people consider themselves

00:12:44.500 that or use that as a term but i also when i think of that i have to consider the organization

00:12:49.140 in scandinavia uh specifically in denmark that's the official organization foreign sailor

00:12:56.180 um they're kind of a catch-all over there of ouster troop practitioners we have some afa

00:13:02.260 members that are part of that umbrella organization. I think that functions as kind of a tax

00:13:08.320 delineation for governmental religious funds over there. So I think that encompasses all

00:13:14.880 ALSATRU is some extension or has some involvement in that organization, whether or not everyone in

00:13:20.740 that organization has much in common other than claiming ALSATRU, I'm not sure. I know there's a

00:13:26.340 lot of universalists involved, but again, any focused practitioners that want to be part of

00:13:31.740 what's going on in Denmark. I think they do have to interact with that organization.

00:13:36.220 So I think that's more of a big umbrella thing over there than a specific religious creed.

00:13:43.260 But that's the most I know about it to give you right now.

00:13:48.480 Can I explain how the AFA leadership model is structured? Absolutely. So let's start with this.

00:13:58.140 I mentioned the folk builders, the apprentice folk builders volunteering lately, which is a

00:14:02.300 really good thing. That's kind of the entry level of our leadership situation. You'll have volunteers

00:14:10.520 that step up wanting to be an apprentice folk builder, and they'll usually be in that spot for

00:14:15.780 at least a year. Give them an opportunity to see if they want to continue to folk build with us,

00:14:21.100 if the job is something that, you know, that they want to do, and if it's something that works out

00:14:26.660 with their life and their family and their situation. Also a time that we can see if they're

00:14:31.540 a good fit, if they're people that we want in that position. Assuming we want them and they want to

00:14:36.100 keep doing what they're doing, then about a year in, they get an opportunity to oath as an oath

00:14:42.340 to folk builder. And that's when AFA leadership really starts. They are the local face of the

00:14:50.200 House True Folk Assembly, they are, so they're the face of leadership to our membership in

00:14:57.740 their area. And they're also the face of their membership to the rest of leadership. It's

00:15:03.440 their job to build and to maintain and care for the needs of our membership in that area

00:15:09.820 and help make sure everybody's squared away. They have a lot of admin duties behind the

00:15:13.620 scenes, but they have a lot of just gathering people together and answering questions and

00:15:18.180 facilitating meetings. A lot of folks, when they reach out, they think that we have some AFA genie

00:15:27.500 out west somewhere that, or maybe I sit here in this chair and cast some hocus pocus and

00:15:32.820 make stuff happen. The stuff happens by dedicated men and women who are willing to step up and do

00:15:39.280 things. And the first rung of that is our folk builders. So yeah, as of last year, so we're a

00:15:48.220 year into this now, we've combined our Gothar and our folk building programs into one unified

00:15:52.720 leadership structure. So if you are a folk builder, you have the opportunity once you're

00:15:59.660 oathed to apply to our Gothar program if you want to continue up the ladder. And if being a priest

00:16:06.600 for our gods and our goddesses is a call to you if that's something that you feel you want to

00:16:10.960 dedicate your life to. If that's the case, you go through about a year-long training process

00:16:17.980 again to a year to two years. And the idea is not only to do the book studies that are involved in

00:16:27.380 that, but more importantly, say more importantly, but also importantly, to learn counseling,

00:16:34.280 to learn leadership skills, to really become a functioning spiritual leader for our groups.

00:16:41.680 And all of our regions, they may have multiple folk builders, but all of our regions are under

00:16:49.120 the leadership of an AFA Gothi or Githya. Sometimes there's multiple of these in an area,

00:16:56.180 but our Gothar, the Gothis and the Githyas, are the ones that manage the folk builders underneath

00:17:03.500 them. And then above that, we have the AFA Witten. This is made up of wise and time-tested men that

00:17:12.440 have put in the years, put in the effort, put in the dedication to the Austro-Folk Assembly.

00:17:20.060 And our Witten forms an advisory council. The Witten oversees the Gothar. And the Witten and I

00:17:27.900 discuss the important issues of the AFA. We talk all of the time, but we have two formal meetings

00:17:35.380 a month that we make sure we meet on and discuss pressing matters. They advise me on things and

00:17:42.860 they help me administer the Astro Folk Assembly. And then above the Whitten is me. As the Al's

00:17:48.860 Harrier go, the decisions and the spiritual well-being of the AFA ultimately rest with me

00:17:55.820 the buck stops here. And that's kind of how we're structured. It's how we've always been

00:18:02.780 structured and that hierarchy works really well for us. I hope that answers your question. I think

00:18:11.180 I think it may answer a couple of questions here.

00:18:13.040 I'm scrolling back up.

00:18:26.540 Marble Mountain, you are not going too fast

00:18:28.760 with heavy questions.

00:18:29.600 I appreciate any questions you guys wanna ask.

00:18:31.820 Marble Mountain, I don't think the question is really convincing locals.

00:18:44.380 I think the controversy with Baldershoff has been fake news.

00:18:49.640 We've had a lot of locals reach out and support.

00:18:51.940 I think there's probably a lot more locals that really don't care.

00:18:56.180 The longer we're there and the less we're hassled by the fake news,

00:19:01.240 the better we'll be. We're good neighbors. We're good people. We're going to be a very good asset

00:19:06.740 to that community. We're going to treat people well. And they'll see that. I don't have any

00:19:11.360 doubts about that. The folks that come in, the outside agitators and the people that want to

00:19:17.940 create problems where one doesn't exist, they're the ones causing an issue. They're the ones who

00:19:23.720 have trouble. And hopefully they're the ones that are going to disappear. But we'll see. Time will

00:19:27.600 tell um yeah I've never heard of rumble as a social media platform it's

00:19:35.580 something we'll look into I appreciate all the social media platforms out there

00:19:40.260 that are trying to support free speech one of the troubles we won't run into

00:19:43.440 is there's so many different ones and everybody has a pet platform that's

00:19:48.280 that's their baby that they really like thing is with something like Facebook it

00:19:52.840 reaches billions of people some of these others reach hundreds of people and as far as people

00:20:00.200 who are our audience or people who we want to get our message to maybe tens of people

00:20:05.080 so it's hard to figure that out in a way that's going to be the best use of resources

00:20:09.320 and it's going to reach the most people we're trying to reach

00:20:22.840 got a question about thor's hammer pendants um asking if they get a bull if there's a blessing

00:20:34.280 right for new wearers and if there's any preferred design or vendors um

00:20:43.880 the blessing for a new hammer or for a new person wearing a hammer is a very unique thing and i know

00:20:49.160 a lot of people depending upon where they come from and where they found house are true have

00:20:53.000 different traditions with that we have no specific unified afa tradition on how to bless hammers we

00:20:59.400 know a lot of people do a private right when they get a new one um there have been times when we'll

00:21:05.000 do a uh usually a wayfarer's bloat in an afa event where people take off their hammers put them all

00:21:11.160 you know onto a stone onto the altar and have uh have them blessed at that time but as far as a new

00:21:18.360 one. It's a really individual thing that a lot of folks do, but I know a number of people have

00:21:23.220 individual blessings that they do with that or when they put their hammer on. I know Steve

00:21:27.720 McNallan does that. He's got a personal one that he does. I've done them before. I've done them

00:21:33.660 individually for new ones for individuals. So I think that is something that's done, but I wish

00:21:39.420 I had a really good layout for you. And I think we may provide one of those coming up soon.

00:21:42.980 preferred designs or vendors? No, not really. Sky's the limit. I think that the scope of

00:21:54.520 different hammers in our ancestors' day was vast. Many, many different styles and shapes and sizes

00:22:03.400 were used in the past, and we're not stuck in the past. There's many different shapes and styles

00:22:09.920 used today and some are very beautiful um i know that uh you know ladies especially are always

00:22:17.120 searching for nice feminine hammers to still represent thor to still represent our faith 0.94

00:22:22.400 but to have a hammer that that complements them and that complements their femininity

00:22:26.480 and we're seeing some more really cool designs that way um

00:22:31.200 all kind of different materials i tend to prefer a prefer a silver hammer

00:22:39.920 But yeah, I don't have a particular vendor to send you to. There's a lot of really good places to get them. Way back when I got my first one in Anchorage, Alaska back in 2001, I got it at the museum store. And I'm not sure if that was in the malls down other places where people may be at, but it's a place that sold, you know, replica swords and fancy chess pieces and all kind of little knickknacks in the mall.

00:23:09.520 But it also had a section of pendants and a number of Thor's hammer pendants.

00:23:13.600 And I got one very much like this, but I got it in brass.

00:23:18.180 And I still have that here at the house.

00:23:21.220 I gifted it to my daughter at her naming ceremony.

00:23:24.320 And that was my first hammer.

00:23:34.800 Azathoth, okay, your information is newer than last I had.

00:23:38.640 If Forn Sather in Denmark has outlawed AFA members in their group, then that's news to me.

00:23:47.020 The intel I had from that was about 2014, so things could have very significantly changed since then.

00:23:54.240 It's unfortunate if they do, because they miss out on the very best followers of Ausatru in that case.

00:24:08.640 Justin, I've been part of AUSA Troop since 2001 and I've been a member of the AFA since

00:24:35.960 2009. But I was a big fan of Steve McNallan and the House of Truth Folk Assembly when I first

00:24:45.740 joined. Finding Steve's videos are one of the things that brought me to House of Truth and

00:24:50.480 helped me realize that it was a real thing that existed in our day and age. And so, yeah,

00:24:57.620 I've been involved since 2001. Good books to read in 2021. That's a huge question.

00:25:04.620 any kind of topics that you want me to suggest book-wise?

00:25:19.860 Anti-Antifa. Yeah, where to start online is www.runestone.org. That is our website.

00:25:29.840 You mentioned that you've noticed a lot of groups online dissolve fairly quickly and

00:25:35.240 come and go. That's one of the very special things about the Astro Folk Assembly. We are

00:25:40.900 celebrating. We are into our 27th year now. We've been around a long time and we will continue to

00:25:50.320 be around. I wouldn't worry about, I suppose that's easy for me to say, but I wouldn't worry

00:25:57.200 about other groups and things. I would focus on the Astro Folk Assembly. I think that we are

00:26:02.400 doing something that pleases the gods and pleases our ancestors. And yeah, I think we're the best

00:26:10.380 thing going that way. And I encourage you to reach out on our website, take a look. And if you have

00:26:14.640 any questions to contact one of our folk builders, or you're welcome to contact me personally.

00:26:18.660 brandy could i speak about our days of remembrance for each month and why we celebrate those heroes

00:26:30.660 yes general generally no i'm not going to itemize all of them right at this second but

00:26:36.400 our days of remembrance we want to celebrate our heroes that have have um at great sacrifice to

00:26:47.600 themselves, some of them sacrificed their very lives, taking a stand for our gods and our faith

00:26:53.860 and avows true. Some of our heroes that we celebrate with our days of remembrance are

00:27:00.020 from the very distant past. We have one who was, you know, a king of the Gothic tribe

00:27:09.240 who was encountering persecution at the hands of the Roman Empire and some of his own people

00:27:16.280 during the conversion. We have numerous people from the Viking Age in Norway on there. We have

00:27:24.280 an Icelander. We have a Frisian. And more recently, we have some of our modern heroes that brought

00:27:33.120 Alcetru to us. We have Elsie Christensen. We have Alexander Rudd Mills. We have Maestro Guido von

00:27:41.380 list. These people are just as much heroes of Asatrua as these figures from the ancient past.

00:27:48.500 In fact, these people built and shaped and paved the way for what we have and what we're doing

00:27:52.660 right now in this very podcast. I suppose it's not a podcast, it's a very live stream.

00:27:58.980 So it's really important to remember those that have paved the way. It's important to celebrate

00:28:02.500 them. Our faith has always been one that celebrates the cult of the hero and exalts

00:28:10.020 those people who have shown heroics and who have raised themselves above and those people who have

00:28:16.700 ascended. And we believe that these people were so special, so heroic, and so important that by

00:28:22.120 continuing to celebrate them, continuing to honor them and give them worth and worship, that we help

00:28:28.220 them ascend. We help their existence in the afterlife for them to have more and to be more

00:28:33.200 and to build that reputation. The reputation of the people that we care about and people that we

00:28:37.980 celebrate doesn't stop at death. It goes on, you know, across the world. It goes on beyond the

00:28:44.380 veil. And it's very important we remember those people. It's also extremely important that we

00:28:48.560 see their example and that we can show their example to our children, that we ourselves can

00:28:53.580 be strengthened and learned by their example. And it's also just important that we remember,

00:28:59.580 we honor the dead. We honor those who've come before us. We honor history.

00:29:03.620 we're people that are thankful for the things that others have done for us and the path that's

00:29:10.040 been laid out and we want to celebrate that we want to strive to be those people that in days

00:29:19.540 and years and centuries to come perhaps they'll have days of remembrance and celebrate us so

00:29:24.900 that's why we celebrate our days of remembrance

00:29:26.880 Thank you.

00:29:56.880 Vox. We're very, very on board with doing some of that. We need volunteers to help us

00:30:03.280 with it though. Admitting and providing content and overseeing dozens of social media platforms

00:30:11.360 takes some committed people who are willing to do it, not just today, but do it for the

00:30:15.360 long term. So when we get the volunteers who want to help with those different social media

00:30:19.760 outreaches, we'd be very happy to expand there. I think doing as much in as many places as we can

00:30:25.760 is probably the best approach.

00:30:27.480 It's just a matter of having the people to do it.

00:30:49.720 Vox, you're going to have to talk to me on the side

00:30:51.520 about some of these things.

00:30:52.640 I don't even speak the language you're speaking,

00:30:54.200 but i really would like to make these better and help with them so uh yeah if you have suggestions

00:30:59.080 and ideas please do reach out um justin don't be sorry i appreciate you trying to send brandy to

00:31:11.080 our website i think that's great i would like everybody to go with questions and check out

00:31:15.640 our website because we do try to answer them there and give them good information

00:31:24.200 Sorry, guys, I'm looking on the side trying to see, you know, what questions I got a little bit long winded. So there's a lot of a lot of stuff to catch up on.

00:31:31.880 Books about Germanic religion. Eli, I would recommend, and I recommend everybody this,

00:31:52.500 I think it's really important, is The Culture of the Teutons by Wilhelm Groenbeck.

00:31:56.780 uh culture of the teutons it's one of those books that i it's one of the few books that i've read

00:32:02.600 i've had to just you know almost just about every chapter certainly in the first half of the book i

00:32:07.600 had to set the book down and just absorb what i read it literally just blew my mind the way things

00:32:13.680 were uh were expressed in it um some of the concepts i think we all kind of know in a general

00:32:19.880 sense but the way it was encapsulated and the way that groenbeck put it in the book i think is

00:32:25.500 really profound and has very important implications on how we do what we do.

00:32:32.940 So I think that's a really important one I would suggest reading.

00:32:37.820 I always suggest Steve's book, Also True, A Native European Spirituality. I think that's

00:32:44.940 really important. And it tells a lot about Steve and the life he's led and the

00:32:53.900 the reasons of his case for Alcetru and why it is what it is and why it is so important.

00:33:00.060 And I think that's a really, really good one to read if you haven't read it.

00:33:04.540 So that's the first two I'd recommend.

00:33:06.380 white homeland question um i have not seen a viable situation where that's that's a thing

00:33:26.680 right now what i do think is a thing and what's really really important with the afa and and i

00:33:32.260 and I think is really important for us to focus on, is building that culture within the framework

00:33:38.320 that we have. Maybe there will come a day where there's some independent, you know,

00:33:44.520 independent white homeland somewhere, and that's a discussion to be had at that time.

00:33:48.400 But in the meantime, we live in the world that we live in. What I think is great is creating

00:33:53.400 our own golden age within the Astro Folk Assembly that exists within the wolf age that the rest of

00:34:01.760 world's in. And we've seen that. One of the really nice things this year, when everybody else has

00:34:07.540 been, you know, locking down and hiding indoors, the AFA has gathered, we've done things, we've

00:34:12.880 celebrated our gods, no masks, hugging, sharing a horn. We've had these islands of normalcy and of

00:34:22.420 wholeness and of how things are supposed to be in a world that's very, very out of whack.

00:34:29.840 And we've had that at AFA events. We've had that at AFA Hoffs. And we're building that within the shell of the world we have around us. And I think that's really important. We're providing a place folks can go to be with our people, to celebrate our culture and our gods, and to do it together and make each other stronger.

00:34:52.820 and we have that and we're chipping away at it. It may be a few little islands here and there,

00:34:58.340 but it's much more than we had when I got involved, and it will be much more than it

00:35:02.820 is now in the years to come, and hopefully you want to be a part of that.

00:35:16.340 Sally, we absolutely could for each of our Days of Remembrance. As a matter of fact,

00:35:19.940 Witten Svon Harrell is working on that as we speak. He's working on that and Githya Katie Erickson already has the first two articles for our Days of Remembrance set up. Hopefully we'll get those on the website sooner rather than later. Matter of fact, when we get done with this very conversation, I'll see about, you know, getting at least the first couple up there.

00:35:49.940 Harry, I'm glad you're with us tonight.

00:36:13.760 I hope things are going good.

00:36:15.020 I hope you had a really good Yule.

00:36:19.940 Justin, I'm glad you've been around Asitru for quite a long time joining in or being involved in Asitru since 2007. That's great. And I'm glad you're joining us tonight.

00:36:37.940 Can I talk more about our AFA family back in the old countries and prospects for growth in the future?

00:36:42.940 the future? Sure, it's hard to accurately forecast prospects for growth in Europe. There's so many

00:36:52.460 different things and it all really depends on where you're at and what country you're in.

00:36:56.700 But we've seen over the past few years amazing growth for the AFA in Europe. We've seen

00:37:04.620 very significant growth in Norway, in Italy, and most recently in Ireland and the United Kingdom,

00:37:12.780 We have our very first Irish kindred in December that we pack a McTierre and they're headed

00:37:21.120 up by our folk builder for Ireland, Fiona Edgar, and she's doing a great job.

00:37:27.600 They've got a fine group of people and they're doing great things.

00:37:30.220 I think we'll grow significantly in Ireland and the United Kingdom in the coming years.

00:37:35.040 We're doing great in Sweden.

00:37:36.980 I was saving Sweden for last because they're currently our brightest shining star over

00:37:42.080 there as far as how AFA is doing in Europe. But Anders Nilsson, our folk builder in Scandinavia,

00:37:49.160 he is doing an amazing job in Sweden. Got a fantastic membership over there, a very active

00:37:56.740 membership over there. We had the honor of visiting them a couple of years back, and it was really

00:38:03.440 amazing to meet those folks. They're doing some great things, and Anders is a really special man,

00:38:08.400 so they're very lucky to have them over there. I think that'll grow and get better. I'd like to

00:38:13.340 see us do some more AFA events in Europe in the coming years. It's hard right now to know what's

00:38:18.100 what with various lockdowns. We were fixing last year to do one in Italy, and the COVID situation

00:38:24.860 made that not work out for us this year, but hopefully soon. And perhaps we're in the talks

00:38:30.260 of maybe 2021 doing another event in Sweden ran by Anders, and that would be amazing. I look

00:38:38.020 forward to going back over there and seeing those folks again. Some of the most amazing people I've

00:38:42.260 met. Yeah, Bodie mentions that folks would be surprised just where all we have members.

00:38:53.380 We have members right now in 15 countries around the world. We have membership throughout the

00:39:00.300 United States. I think you'd be really surprised. Chances are where you're at, there's AFA members

00:39:07.440 close to you that you may not even know about anybody who's interested i would highly encourage

00:39:14.080 you reach out to your local folk builder you can find that list at www.roomstone.org

00:39:21.920 we have afa members near you and if for some reason we don't we would like to if you want

00:39:26.640 to join up and help us make that happen we're always looking to do that

00:39:30.000 i appreciate you guys helping me out with questions that i might have missed um looks

00:39:41.680 like i missed one earlier about what's the best way to talk to christians that tend to agree with

00:39:47.280 with us but are uh are christian and may live in the bible belt part of the country

00:39:52.560 um i think the key there especially getting conservative americans is letting them know

00:39:59.200 about our values more than our deeper metaphysics. I think that a talk about the gods is more towards

00:40:11.120 the end of the conversation and not towards the beginning. I think getting those Christians to

00:40:16.640 understand the commonality we have with traditional family values, traditional gender roles,

00:40:21.640 you know the the things that we all very obviously agree on about the traditional

00:40:29.020 western culture getting those figured out and then going from there i think something else that

00:40:36.580 bible belt christians tend to know and appreciate even if they don't express it express it in the

00:40:42.660 same terms is our sense of history and our sense of reverence for the dead and reverence for those

00:40:48.060 who come before us. We may use it in more idolatrous terms than they're comfortable with,

00:40:55.180 but the reverence for dead loved ones and for our ancestors is something that's so fundamental to

00:41:01.000 our people. Very few Christians really shun that. They just find different ways to play

00:41:07.280 mental gymnastics to make it okay with them. So I would focus on our social value, our social

00:41:15.920 traditional Western values. I think that would bridge some of that gap. I think talking about

00:41:23.300 our ancestors would be good. And then I think it opens the conversation when we talk about our

00:41:29.220 gods to make it a little bit more palatable to those Christians that maybe haven't considered

00:41:33.340 it before. The other thing is separating us from what they may have in their head about pagans.

00:41:39.140 very often, too often in the history of the United States, the idea of paganism has been

00:41:46.180 associated with degeneracy. It's been associated with a bunch of weirdos doing crazy stuff,

00:41:53.460 dressing up silly and, you know, turning everything into some kind of weird orgy. 0.92

00:41:58.340 And that's not what we're doing. I think the Bible Belt folks would like to know that we're 0.97

00:42:03.500 about healthy families. We're about family values. We're about structure. We're about order and not

00:42:11.560 about chaos. And I think that if they see that from you, not just hear it, but if they see that

00:42:17.100 from you and they see that in your life, they'll make that mental separation between you and

00:42:22.980 whatever they have in their head that they think pagans do.

00:42:39.600 James, it took me a second to realize that was you on there. I appreciate you being on here,

00:42:43.700 James. I am all for everybody switching to Hoftholler in 2021, but I'm certainly not going to

00:42:49.220 going to strong arm anybody into it, but I will mention what it is, and I appreciate you bringing

00:42:54.620 it up. Our people have always been very uncomfortable talking about money.

00:43:04.580 But whether we like it or we don't, you need money to do things. We need money to be successful. We

00:43:10.320 need money to have nice things. We need money to open up Hoffs. We need money to throw events. 0.91

00:43:14.620 we need money to be a real and legitimate church that we are. And we've been able to do what we

00:43:21.360 have so far by the generosity of our members. And we've got some people that have given in very big

00:43:26.900 ways and contributed quite a bit. And we're very, very appreciative of it. Hoftholler is something

00:43:33.640 that was introduced in, I believe this time in 2019, and it is a percentage-based giving.

00:43:42.320 So rather than a membership dues of $10 or $25 a month, it's based on a minimum of 1% of your

00:43:48.960 income. And if you want to join as a family, it would be 1% of your household income.

00:43:55.400 And that would mean, you know, all of the adults in your house being AFA members on that,

00:44:00.380 if you'd like to do a household Hofftoler. Hofftoler is how religions work. You know,

00:44:09.340 many religions call it different things, but percentage-based giving is how every successful

00:44:16.720 religion that I'm aware of is able to function, able to have houses of worship and able to do

00:44:22.200 their mission. So we're very appreciative for our members that have started paying that way.

00:44:27.240 And that's very much a really great trend that we're seeing that's helping us accomplish more.

00:44:31.760 I'd say Hoftholler is one of the big reasons that we were able to get two Hofs in 2020.

00:44:35.760 money. So yeah, it doesn't have to be tricky. A lot of people sign up for the Hofftoller and they

00:44:41.340 get it figured out with their payroll department at work and the money comes out 1% or however

00:44:47.580 much they'd like to give, but a minimum of 1%. And no harm, no foul, that goes out of their

00:44:54.160 paycheck into the account and fuels us for doing great things. But it's as easy as you guys want.

00:44:59.600 It's the honor system. Nobody's chasing you guys down and trying to piece through anybody's tax

00:45:05.340 returns. If you're willing to say you're giving us 1%, then we're happy to make that as easy as

00:45:11.580 possible. And like I say, that type of giving is what really changes the game and really moves us

00:45:18.340 forward. So anyone who would like to, please reach out to your folk builder or please reach out to

00:45:25.040 me and I can get you squared away. Thank you so much to our members that do currently pay by

00:45:30.780 Hof Toler, we really appreciate you. And one of the great things about Hof Toler is we rise and

00:45:36.820 fall together. If you're having a hard time and you make very little, that 1% is very small.

00:45:42.560 If your ship comes in and everything's great, then we all rise and that 1% becomes quite a bit

00:45:49.000 better. Hopefully we make each of our members better. We make each other better. And that

00:45:54.860 percentage ends up being a much bigger sum because we're all doing so great. That's what I'd like to

00:45:59.440 And I really hope that comes for us in 2021.

00:46:11.380 Dan, yes, absolutely.

00:46:14.800 Reach out to Brandy Callahan and she can help you with some of our parenting groups.

00:46:21.640 We don't have a huge homeschooling curriculum thing figured out yet.

00:46:26.180 I would love to see that.

00:46:27.400 i would especially love to see that as my daughter grows so that i can be part of helping make that

00:46:32.360 happen um and we can utilize those resources something we're working on but brandy is is

00:46:38.920 kind of cutting edge on what we're doing as far as those kind of ideas and how to help educate

00:46:44.840 our kids so i'd reach out to brandy callahan maybe on the side she can get in touch with you

00:46:49.800 or mandy can link you guys up how many people does it take to create a kindred and what's

00:46:56.840 involved with its creation so Jeff one thing that's involved is reaching out to our kindred

00:47:03.000 coordinator Clifford Erickson and I guess our kindred coordinators Clifford Erickson and

00:47:09.880 Jason Gallagher they're both heading up that program

00:47:14.760 they're doing good things for us and they can kind of help guide that creation if it's something

00:47:18.760 you're thinking about. The minimum requirement is three adult AFA members.

00:47:25.880 An AFA kindred is made up exclusively of AstroFolk Assembly members with the understanding that

00:47:32.200 it's a local outgrowth of the AFA and so it's loyal to the AFA and its members are loyal to the AFA.

00:47:40.520 That loyalty is extremely important and it's what makes us effective and it's what

00:47:46.600 what binds us together. It's what our ancestors and what we call frith. And it's essential.

00:47:53.740 But yeah, that kindred would be three AFA member adults at least. The idea is to have you guys

00:48:02.800 close geographically. There's no specific rule on how far apart you guys can be, but the idea is to

00:48:07.760 get you guys close together. And it takes, we have a probationary period so that you guys can figure

00:48:14.900 out whether you want to be an AFA kindred, whether you work well together, and we can make sure that's

00:48:19.840 a good fit. It's about a six-month probationary period for new kindreds wanting to join us.

00:48:26.360 With that frith comes the AFA really wants to support you and help your kindred any way we can

00:48:30.580 and be there for you guys, and we'd love for you guys to be there for us too. So, if you're

00:48:35.400 interested, reach out on the side. Again, Mandy can probably get you squared away with Cliff and

00:48:39.900 Jason's contact info. Or we've made it easy. I forgot about that for a second. You can email

00:48:45.580 kindreds at runestone.org. That'll also get you answers.

00:48:58.260 Justin, I have never described myself as a tribalist in any way. And I think that term's

00:49:05.240 always been kind of nebulous on what people mean a lot of people use the term tribalist and mean

00:49:10.440 different things and a lot of people when they say tribe try to reduce tribe down to them and

00:49:16.920 their five buddies in their backyard and that's not a tribe in my understanding to our ancestors

00:49:23.560 when they talked about a tribe it's tens of thousands of people so i think it all depends

00:49:29.960 on scale and what it means to be tribalist. I very much believe in being part of the Astro Folk

00:49:36.980 Assembly, in us being a unified church, and our church is international in scope. I think that

00:49:43.660 we build a meta tribe, as Steve McNallan has called it. We build a big structure within the

00:49:50.660 framework. And I think that's how we become, I think that's how we maximize our impact on the

00:50:00.140 world. Whenever I see tribal, and again, tribalism means real different things to real different

00:50:06.340 people depend on what they're saying and what they mean. So I don't think this speaks for

00:50:10.980 everybody that describes themselves this way, but there's a really destructive tendency of our folk

00:50:17.240 to want to break everything down to their most smallest little local unit. And that taken

00:50:26.040 ad infinitum ends up being just you and your family and your house and everybody else isn't

00:50:30.760 part of your tribe. The more we break up into little small groups, into little small clans,

00:50:37.240 into little small segments of our folk, we become increasingly insignificant. When we stand together

00:50:43.080 as a united folk because united people we see this in our history we stand united we've done

00:50:48.360 great things so i really do believe in that bigger picture ah got a vip joining us

00:50:55.800 this is my daughter aubry this is one of those amazing beautiful 37 babies that we've had in

00:51:01.080 the afa this year and i'm very lucky to have this one i appreciate uh appreciate you joining us

00:51:09.960 tonight obs but yeah in short i don't describe myself as a tribalist but that's one of those

00:51:15.240 words you got to be careful because different people mean different things

00:51:28.440 i'm sure mandy can provide you links to folks in iron guard and stonewall and help you get in touch

00:51:34.760 if you're looking to some fine people there some of our very best people

00:51:39.960 My daughter's trying to mess with our live chat. Hopefully she doesn't reach the keyboard. 0.88

00:51:50.120 Orion, I don't know what you mean when you talk about being white separatist. No, a big point of

00:51:54.360 the AFA is not to break away from the society that we live in. We are where we are and we live where

00:51:59.960 we live. And I'm not addressing the politics of that as good, bad, or otherwise. I'm just

00:52:05.800 addressing what is our big goal like i said is to practice our faith with each other celebrating our

00:52:12.680 common culture our common gods and our common faith we're part of the communities that we're

00:52:17.560 in and it's also been really important that while we're in the situation that we're in that we be

00:52:22.360 good neighbors and good members of the communities that we're in um so we we want to get involved in

00:52:29.240 our communities. We want to interact with people. We have no big tenets about not interacting with

00:52:36.140 other types of folks that are in our community. But there's a big difference in what we do in

00:52:42.620 our church and in our religious practice and how we relate to our gods than how we choose to

00:52:48.500 interact or not to interact with other groups of people. And that's entirely up to you. Like I'm

00:52:53.160 saying, I'm not taking any great position on that one way or another, but we're in communities. We'll

00:52:58.640 kind of folks and we've always strove to be good neighbors and to be good parts of that community

00:53:04.320 and something we do sincerely believe in and that and another thing that's really important to us

00:53:09.680 is behaving nobly and interacting nobly with folks so no matter who we come across we want

00:53:15.200 to interact like noble people we want to extend uh fair treatment and decency to whatever kind of

00:53:22.640 of folks we come across assuming that they're treating us decently and being decent to us.

00:53:29.560 That's part of the world we live in, and I think that's something that defines us as being good

00:53:34.520 people. And at the end of the day, we're good people, despite what other people may want to say.

00:53:52.640 American Viking, that is really unfortunate. If you've reached out to these people on email and

00:54:03.180 something's not working, please let me know. You can reach out to me at mattflavell at runestone.org

00:54:09.240 and I will try to get you squared away and connected with folks in your area.

00:54:13.800 Please do reach out and we'll make it work. Also, I see Rob put his email out there.

00:54:18.060 He's part of the region that you're talking about and he can help you out too.

00:54:22.640 Oh, wow. It looks like a lot of our folk builders are stepped forward. So it should be able to get you nice and connected.

00:54:28.220 yeah dan's asking about our position on loki he says that he's mentioned our general position

00:54:46.700 of not venerating loki to a heathen and they said it was very christian get a lot of folks

00:54:55.260 that think Ausatru is defined about how not Christian it is.

00:55:00.780 And that's missing the point. 0.98

00:55:02.980 And I think it's, I suppose, ignorant. 0.96

00:55:08.620 I think juvenile is maybe more stink on it than I mean. 0.92

00:55:12.740 But we don't define ourselves by what we aren't.

00:55:16.400 And I'm not Ausatru by virtue of how not Christian I am.

00:55:21.420 We're Ausatru as an independent faith.

00:55:24.600 Mousetru is not like another more evolved word for for Satanist or devil worship.

00:55:31.520 We reject that entire worldview and instead we worship our religion fresh and on its own merits.

00:55:38.420 Mousetru means troth or loyalty to the Aesir.

00:55:42.580 Loki and all of our legend is the one that goes against the Aesir so often.

00:55:48.480 He's the one that leads the forces of chaos at Ragnarok.

00:55:53.660 he's the one that does harm to the Aesir, he's the one that orchestrates the killing of Balder,

00:56:00.620 the killing of Odin's son. No, we don't venerate Loki, that's not a Christian thing.

00:56:07.740 That's a civilized, noble Aesir thing. That's a loyalty to the Aesir thing.

00:56:15.420 There is no concept in Aesir that we reject good and evil. We tend to name it order versus chaos

00:56:21.820 rather than good and evil but there's absolutely good and bad and loki's on the bad side um and no

00:56:27.980 we don't bring forces of chaos into what we do we don't celebrate the gods of chaos we celebrate

00:56:34.780 the gods of cosmic order that's what the acr are um so that's that's absolutely what we do and you

00:56:41.980 know dan mentions that he notices a lot of non-folkish heathens are into loki first i don't

00:56:48.060 like to use the word heathen i use the word also true heathen is a derogatory word used by outsiders

00:56:54.060 to describe us also true is a dignified word that we use to describe ourselves we describe it based

00:57:02.540 on our loyalty to the aesir secondly i don't think there's any non-folkish heathens i think

00:57:08.300 that if someone's non-folkish then i don't find that faith to be sincere and i don't find it to

00:57:15.340 to be legitimate. And I think that people who, there's a basket of things that all go together

00:57:20.920 with non-folkish degeneracy as part of that. Chaos, they all go hand in hand. When you look

00:57:26.460 at people who practice a certain way or who champion certain gods, and there's commonality

00:57:31.640 there, I think that speaks to that faith. And I think that speaks to those deities.

00:57:36.100 So I think the fact that you notice a lot of non-folkish heathens worshiping Loki

00:57:40.680 paints a pretty good picture of why we don't do that.

00:58:00.820 You're right. The Christians do call it tithing. I'm not trying to insult anybody's intelligence

00:58:05.380 or pretend it's anything different other than I think tithe means 10% and we're only asking for

00:58:10.720 one. If your grandfather and other good Christians are very, very willing to give 10% of their

00:58:19.020 increase to make their church successful and glorify their God, I think that if we can do

00:58:26.620 just at least one-tenth of that, how much further ahead would we be and how much great things would

00:58:31.300 we have. They may call it tithing, but other non-Christian, non-Abrahamic faiths also do

00:58:40.400 percentage-based giving. And looking it up, that's my understanding of how Shinto do their shrines

00:58:50.420 and their priesthood. That's how the Hindus are able to function. We didn't just come up with the

00:58:56.640 word hoftoller is actually a word that our ancestors used and it was a tax that was used

00:59:01.280 to support the gothar and the hofs that our ancestors had so you know there was also taxes

00:59:08.400 and uh and percentage-based giving that was given in various branches of aryan spirituality

00:59:15.940 and the greco-roman faiths and it's extremely important that we're willing to contribute that

00:59:22.520 way or that some folks are willing to contribute that way because that's how we have nice things

00:59:26.280 like I said earlier on a different comment we're not trying to be as not Christian as possible

00:59:33.820 and just because the Christians do something doesn't mean we shouldn't do it we're rejecting

00:59:40.600 that idea entirely and starting fresh and saying what should we do as a faith that stands on our

00:59:45.860 own and what should we should we not do and giving a percentage of what we bring in to support

00:59:51.540 our gods, to support our gothar, to support our, our Hoffs, to support all the things we're trying

00:59:57.520 to do. That's the key to success or failure. Um, so Zachary, I'm not sure if I understand your

01:00:15.580 question, if there's any member login to pay sooner, pay more, or anything to do that with

01:00:21.520 payment options. There's tons of options, especially if you want to pay by Hoftholler.

01:00:26.400 And if you reach out to your folk builder, they can get you squared away with the way that's

01:00:30.320 most in line with what you feel compelled to do and what you'd like to do. And what's going to be

01:00:35.100 easiest for your situation. So they'd be very, very happy to help you with that. And thank you

01:00:38.940 so much for donating in that way.

01:00:45.580 No, Justin, I don't think respect towards the Jotuns or to Loki is necessary at all.

01:00:53.820 I think that whatever blood brotherhood is supposed by one line, one passage, one place

01:01:00.740 is superseded by the murder of Odin's son.

01:01:05.740 And I think that leading the forces of chaos at Ragnarok kind of disqualifies Loki and

01:01:12.260 those Jotunar involved from any sort of, you know, respect or worship practices.

01:01:19.460 It's not about, one of the really important things I feel about Asatru

01:01:24.340 is it's about relationships with real and living deities. And if you treat them like mythic elements

01:01:33.840 in an ancient story, then I could see some kind of abstraction where it's okay to honor those

01:01:42.240 forces but if you're in a gifting cycle with living deities with actual gods

01:01:51.600 then to support those forces that seek to destroy and kill them and seek to destroy midgard

01:02:00.320 and forces that 0.67

01:02:03.680 sought to kill and murder balder

01:02:05.760 that would be extremely shameful and there's no part of me that feels that that odin who spoke 0.86

01:02:14.080 to his son on the funeral pyre uh those those words that none know but him would support in

01:02:20.180 any way uh any ostrich or honoring honoring loki or or the forces of chaos and i think that's what's

01:02:28.340 important is building relationships with our gods and any kind of a frith relationship with the

01:02:33.240 seer, I think that speaks

01:02:35.240 for itself.

01:03:03.240 now I'm just getting to the part of the conversation where you guys saw my cat

01:03:22.560 she's so used to helping me on these things that I don't even notice

01:03:26.160 sometimes when she crawls up here

01:03:33.240 Vox, obviously you and I view our gods differently, but your point of restraining, the point

01:03:55.120 that you talked about, about adrenaline and chaining it up to prevent problems.

01:04:03.240 And I can't tell tone, so I hope it's a serious point, but one thing I think is worth mentioning in this regardless that comes up is when we mention the idea of order over chaos, there's chaotic elements in life.

01:04:17.380 But one of the keys to what the Aesir did and what the Aesir do, and what we do as noble people, is take chaotic things and shape them to our will.

01:04:28.900 Chaos exists. As a matter of fact, the Ganunga gap is chaos itself. But what's telling about the Aesir and about Odin is that Odin took chaos and broke it down and shaped it into our reality, shaped it according to his will.

01:04:49.220 And that's what we want to do is we want to take chaotic things and and bind them and shape them and utilize them with control.

01:04:59.060 We want to bring order to chaos. And I think that's a maybe a better way to put that order chaos relationship for what it's worth.

01:05:19.220 Oh, Vox, as I continue to read your posts, I think that's really important too.

01:05:34.640 One of the things we want, we don't want to come, and again, I take this out of the Loki thing.

01:05:39.160 We reject Loki totally. But the idea of ordered cosmic forces versus more primal forces, we don't want to disregard the primal elements of ourselves, but we want to shape them and guide them with our will and guide them with astral force of order with the Aesir.

01:06:03.300 We want the Aesir to guide those more primal parts of ourselves and bring that primal strength in line with our divine will.

01:06:15.200 Alan, we do, we have, we tip a lot of our regions and I forget exactly where you're located. A lot

01:06:35.980 of our regions are doing video calls regularly. Certainly they're doing conference calls. So get

01:06:43.500 in touch with your folk builder and they can get you squared away on on any kind of video

01:06:48.060 calls or conference calls in your region because those do absolutely go on anti-antifa follow

01:07:09.020 up your question earlier and i think i'm a little bit behind on the comments you said

01:07:12.140 what if they aren't noble to us? I'm not asking anybody to treat people who have treated you

01:07:17.300 poorly to treat those people. Well, I think they have them all instructs us when people treat us

01:07:22.360 poorly to, to treat them back in kind. So I wouldn't ask for you to, to behave nobly to

01:07:30.740 people that don't. Well, I say that I wouldn't ask you to treat people well, who treat you poorly,

01:07:36.060 But there's a certain bearing carrying yourself with that is noble, even when you're in open opposition to a different person or a different group of people.

01:07:47.580 How you behave in the nobility in which you carry yourself, even to the point of combat, speaks really highly of you and the group that you're a part of.

01:07:56.940 And it's on display for your ancestors, for the gods, and for those around you to see how you behave.

01:08:03.600 So I think you should act noble all the time.

01:08:06.740 I think we should treat other people who treat us well.

01:08:09.320 I think we owe those people treating them very well.

01:08:12.200 And I think people who treat us poorly, we don't owe that too.

01:08:15.480 But like I told you, your politics are your own,

01:08:17.880 and I'm not in any way trying to criticize them

01:08:20.360 or buy into them and agree with them.

01:08:23.560 But that nobility, I think, is very key to what we do.

01:08:33.200 I'm sorry, I'm just catching up on the conversation over here on the side. I appreciate you guys

01:08:54.260 asking so many questions tonight and being here. I look forward to these every month. I really

01:09:00.480 enjoy speaking with y'all and answering questions from new people or people I haven't heard from.

01:09:30.480 Bodie, I appreciate you fighting the good fight over there in the chat.

01:09:38.100 I fully support and endorse the things that my good friend Bodie is saying to you all over there.

01:09:43.780 If he's answering or shedding light on something in a different way than I am,

01:09:47.920 looks like he's being pretty squared away in how he's responding.

01:10:00.480 daniel that is awesome that is profound and explaining things if you guys didn't read it on

01:10:11.900 the side dan daniel mentions how our ancestors hailed the fire in the hearth and they didn't

01:10:18.820 hail the forest fire fire is useful the fire out of control and under the direction of chaos

01:10:25.480 destroys, but fire under the direction of order, it cooks, it cleanses, it smelts, it heats.

01:10:34.200 So I think that's very useful.

01:10:38.060 One. So another one of our recent apprentice folk builders, Tim Dumas asks what I would say to people that are Christians, agnostics and so forth that want to be involved with the AFA.

01:11:02.640 um depends on what involved means first christians agnostics whatever they may be

01:11:11.900 if they wish us well and want to you know i guess help us out and be nice to us and give us kindness

01:11:17.400 then that's fantastic and we really appreciate it you know one of the nicest things that we heard

01:11:22.040 from a non-ousetre in this whole uh situation with baldershoff and you know a number of people

01:11:29.280 that you know the social justice warriors are out there decrying what we did we heard from a black

01:11:34.720 man a minister uh minister farrakhan muhammad of the nation of islam and he he was he reached out

01:11:41.840 and he gave us a you know he appreciated what we were doing he looked at our website he appreciated

01:11:47.040 us trying to make our people noble and live to their highest standard and he wished as well

01:11:53.120 and what we do with that is we say thank you i appreciate it um depends on how much more they

01:11:59.040 want to be involved i think that there's room for christian well i say that

01:12:07.360 if people are interested then sure share with them what we do if they're genuinely interested

01:12:13.600 in their friends and family they're welcome to uh if they're vouched for attend an event

01:12:18.800 and see what we're about if they are christians that are wavering and questioning their christianity

01:12:25.120 then by all means show them what we have to offer and show them what we believe and hopefully

01:12:29.620 they'll come our way if they're agnostics um and i noticed you said agnostics and not atheists but

01:12:36.460 either way they can come to a knowledge of our gods come to an understanding one of the easiest

01:12:41.380 things to do is it well i say easiest things to do one more easy avenue for agnostics and atheists

01:12:47.740 is an understanding of our ancestors, because whether it's easy or not for people to perceive

01:12:55.700 of the gods, certainly our ancestors exist, or at the very least they existed. If they didn't,

01:13:03.300 we wouldn't be here. That's common sense. It sounds silly to even say out loud, but it's the

01:13:08.220 first step sometimes for agnostics and atheists to understand what we do and to want to be involved

01:13:15.260 in it be part of it one of the things i've noticed as far as belief goes um

01:13:23.500 there's levels in belief a whole lot of people say they believe

01:13:30.220 but one of the most beautiful and amazing things that i've experienced as a gothi

01:13:35.740 is watching people's eyes when they thought they believed but all of a sudden it got real

01:13:44.300 and you see that at events you see that during ritual and not for everyone all at once no it's

01:13:49.900 very special to different people there's some rituals that you know really touch particular

01:13:55.580 people and there's some that are you know don't connect as well with them that day but to see

01:14:01.660 when all of a sudden it's real not just you think it is not just you believe it is but you know it

01:14:07.980 is that's really special and it comes to people at different times so i would encourage christians

01:14:14.780 agnostics i say that christians who have questions and are curious and want to know more um i'd

01:14:22.780 encourage those people to come around if they can't fully support our faith enough to be a member of

01:14:27.660 the afa which i respect then there's other ways they can contribute if they want to donate that's

01:14:32.780 great if i and not just not just money i mean i'm not gonna lie money money makes stuff happen

01:14:38.540 but if they want to donate effort um labor if there's stuff they want to do to help you know

01:14:44.220 with a project at our hof or a project we're involved in we would love to help um if they

01:14:49.420 just want to help get our message out there to folks that would be interested we appreciate that

01:14:54.300 um there's a lot of stuff that they can do but you do need to be also true to be a be a member

01:14:58.860 of our church because we are a religion that's what we what we believe in but no please don't

01:15:03.980 discourage christians agnostics anybody else that wants to help out as long as there are folk we

01:15:08.700 would love to have them involved in what we're doing in a way that's appropriate to their current

01:15:13.180 spirituality uh dan i think that's an interesting question i think how closely rooted you are to an

01:15:27.980 individual, non-Germanic, but clearly Indo-European pantheon will dictate how you

01:15:35.680 approach them during ritual. In the AFA, so that we're unified in our practice and unified in our

01:15:41.620 worship, we use the Norse names for our gods and goddesses. But I do believe that our gods and

01:15:51.080 goddesses are Pan-European. And they have different name and some different stories

01:15:59.740 depending upon that branch of our Indo-European family. But I think that the divinity is the

01:16:05.360 same. And I think that by worshiping our gods under their Norse names in their Germanic context,

01:16:13.240 we honor those gods that are Pan-Aryan. And that's really important in our practice,

01:16:19.280 especially in the United States, when, as you mentioned, so many of us are from very different

01:16:25.900 backgrounds within that common racial structure. And I think there's more that ties us together

01:16:32.240 than that separates us by far. But yeah, I don't think there's any conflict between our folk that

01:16:40.860 have slavic baltic celtic or other indo-european backgrounds celebrating and worshiping our gods

01:16:50.700 in the australian excuse me in the australian folk assembly and i would encourage all those

01:16:55.820 folks to join us and join with what we're doing.

01:17:25.500 Viking, we're glad you're here listening. I'm glad you guys have all joined tonight. We've got a lot

01:17:29.240 of people in the room tonight, a lot of comments on the side. Thank you for putting up with my little

01:17:33.760 time I take here to read the questions on the side. I want to make sure I don't miss anybody.

01:17:39.260 I also appreciate you guys that are calling me on it if I do miss something, because I'm not

01:17:43.820 ducking any comments, but I may not catch everything, especially because there's so many of you guys

01:17:47.600 tonight.

01:17:55.500 looks like y'all are having a good discussion by yourselves over there that's cool too i

01:18:07.740 appreciate it i'm just glad you guys are interested and everybody's having a good conversation um

01:18:12.940 There we go. Okay, cool. Yes, Zachary, if you want to become a Gothi in the Ostrou Folk Assembly,

01:18:39.420 you need to first go through being a folk builder. And there's a couple of reasons for that.

01:18:46.540 A lot of folks, when they conceptualize what being a gothi is, and I'm not saying this is

01:18:53.820 your case at all, you may not be like this at all, but I know I was when I first started.

01:18:58.220 You picture someone leading ritual and you picture maybe somebody with a lot of lore knowledge.

01:19:05.740 and that's a much more abstract idea of what a gothi is at its fundamental level level a gothi

01:19:16.520 is a leader of our people they're also a bridge between our people and our gods between our gods

01:19:23.560 and our people i think that they are the living embodiment of the alu formula um

01:19:30.560 but the duties of a gothi are much much more about organizing our church about helping our

01:19:42.160 members with real life questions as a gothi i do a lot more counseling with people asking me

01:19:48.580 you know hey i had a tragedy in my family can you help me um you know hey i'm having this

01:19:54.700 struggle with my child. Can you give me advice? Hey, there was, you know, one of my loved ones

01:20:00.940 died. Can, can you help me through this process? You know, Hey, what do I do? My life's falling

01:20:06.920 apart. What do I do? I've, you know, had a bad relationship go wrong, or I've, I've come back

01:20:12.860 from a deployment and I'm having trouble or, you know, dealing with the sickness of a parent.

01:20:19.200 I deal a lot more with that than I ever deal with, you know, Matt, what's the name of the

01:20:24.360 eagle that sits atop the world tree. Lore knowledge is important, but being a Goethe is much more

01:20:32.020 about actually helping our folk with the needs that are relevant in their life. And that's a

01:20:37.980 skill that's learned as being a folk builder. As a folk builder, you do the hard work. You put in

01:20:43.780 the time, you put in the effort, you get to know our members, you get to know their families,

01:20:48.400 you get to know our AFA community and what we do, and you become familiar with that. And you're

01:20:53.920 willing to put in all the behind-the-scenes work that's not fun, that's not you standing in a circle

01:20:58.360 and hollering. And those fundamentals need to be in place before it's appropriate to have you lead

01:21:06.540 our folk and lead our folk builders as a Go-Thi. So yes, we do have you go through that stage of

01:21:13.400 becoming an Oath folk builder before you're eligible to apply for our Go-Thar program.

01:21:17.880 Justin, I have never done a bloat in full or Old North. I'm sorry, Old Norse. I'm not fluent

01:21:39.480 in Old Norse, although being with this as long as I have, there's certain things I pick up.

01:21:44.740 um the times that i have recited things in old norse i will tell you for me and this isn't

01:21:51.860 speaking for everyone um i don't feel that it's fantastic i think that using certain old norse

01:22:00.100 names uh for things and for concepts or maybe a phrase is great i think that fully trying to

01:22:07.700 memorize or speak something in old norse when when you're not familiar with it is less desirable

01:22:14.740 Because when you're in bloat, it's not a show you're performing.

01:22:20.660 It's a very literal communing with the gods.

01:22:24.940 When I do bloat, I like to speak directly from my heart, from my soul, to our gods or whoever we're giving bloat to.

01:22:35.920 I need to do that in a way that's very authentic and very real to me and not in a way that feels put on or feels acted out.

01:22:44.740 So it's really important to me to say things in a way that's natural, in a way that I know and communicate precisely in a way that I'm comfortable with.

01:22:55.480 If I was a, you know, if I was extremely fluent in Old Norse and very conversational in it, then that may be a great thing.

01:23:03.500 The other thing that I mentioned, Agothi being a bridge between the gods and our folk.

01:23:09.420 If the folk present don't speak Old Norse, you know, our gods are smart enough.

01:23:14.220 I believe they understand any of our languages.

01:23:18.260 But our folk sure don't. No, I don't.

01:23:21.880 While I would appreciate the beauty of somebody performing a bloat in a foreign tongue to me or one that's not foreign, but ancient, I don't speak.

01:23:29.220 what means more is that they're speaking words that resonate with me that they're speaking words

01:23:36.720 that i can agree with or can feel moved by while they're communicating with the gods and that when

01:23:44.220 they're communicating with us to build that bridge that it's a way that i can connect with

01:23:49.360 and i can be a part of and feel connected to um so you know i hope that answers your question no

01:23:57.880 I have not done a bloat and old moose.

01:24:08.680 Y'all Knudsen, I do not have a relationship with

01:24:13.340 or any contact with Hellenists or other Indo-European groups.

01:24:20.660 Not opposed to it.

01:24:22.200 I'd be very happy to interact with those folks.

01:24:24.620 I haven't seen a lot of those people that are performing that religion in a very modern context.

01:24:37.580 There's a lot of very reconstructed groups trying to do that.

01:24:44.060 I suppose my interaction has been I've liked some Facebook pages of certainly some Roman reconstruction groups that look kind of cool.

01:24:54.620 and I'll mention this, I'll put it out there.

01:24:57.460 One of the things that I've found trouble with,

01:24:59.380 with Hellenist, with Roman groups,

01:25:03.200 with more Celtic oriented groups is an imbalance.

01:25:11.480 I think I've seen in those groups,

01:25:13.580 I say, I think I see,

01:25:14.360 and I know that I've seen in a lot of those groups,

01:25:17.440 especially the Celtic, a huge emphasis on, 0.84

01:25:21.300 matriarchy and feminism and girl power all the time. And I think that's certainly a distortion

01:25:31.900 of our values and of what I think is really beautiful about women.

01:25:39.560 I've noticed in a lot of the Hellenic groups, almost exclusively in the Hellenic groups and 0.94

01:25:45.480 in the Roman groups, a huge push towards the orgy and towards homosexuality. I know in certain 0.93

01:25:54.400 historical practices that some of that existed in Roman and Hellenic groups way back in antiquity. 0.73

01:26:03.920 But the second they start doing Hellenism, all of a sudden it starts getting really gay. And

01:26:10.120 I find that to be contrary to our values and extremely unbalanced and disrespectful to the gods as they were expressed to the Greeks and the Romans of the day.

01:26:40.120 I appreciate Bodie on the side flexing his knowledge about the eagle at the top of the

01:26:52.500 world tree that I briefly mentioned. Thank you, Bodie.

01:26:55.540 Joe asks what my thoughts are on combating divisive mindsets, people who say Celtic bloodline shouldn't be admitted as an example.

01:27:17.860 If Celtic blood should preclude you from being part of the Astro Folk Assembly, I think Steve McNallan would probably probably dislike that.

01:27:28.580 I think that our church certainly is founded by a man that's very significantly Celtic. 0.88

01:27:35.840 I think that's silly. I mentioned it earlier. 0.72

01:27:38.780 There's a tendency within our folks and especially within a lot of our people today to do the purity spiral.

01:27:46.920 and everything has to be the most pure possible expression and when we do that well no we can't

01:27:53.560 be pan indo-european we have to be just you know just northern europe okay we can't be just northern

01:28:00.760 european we have to be just germanic can't be just germanic we have to be just prussian can't

01:28:06.040 be just prussian you have to be in danzig can't be just in danzig you have to be on the the east side

01:28:12.360 of you know kaiserstrasse in danzig or else you don't count we have to be on you know in building 0.99

01:28:19.400 a not building b you can carry that to the most stupid extreme and i don't think everyone does it 0.87

01:28:25.800 out of silliness but we have this chaotic tendency to eat our own and to find silly stuff to squabble 0.98

01:28:36.200 over. Just take a look at the world around us. And, you know, what we do, the AFA is doing amazing.

01:28:45.420 We're doing the best we've ever done. But our membership is the tiniest fraction of our folk

01:28:52.920 out there in the world. Yet we squabble and we need to parse it down more and more into irrelevancy.

01:28:58.820 Every time a group of people of our fold get together and start being successful and start winning, you get people, you get egos individually that always feel the need to try to tear it down.

01:29:15.060 We get crab in the bucket syndrome, and everybody wants to break it up and balkanize it into the most tiny, insignificant group imaginable.

01:29:23.800 We are strong together.

01:29:26.180 We are strong as a unit.

01:29:28.820 We're strong when we stand as one, as one people, as one race before our gods.

01:29:35.140 When our people stand together, we have a strength.

01:29:39.940 When we become growingly insignificant by being, you know, we take a group of hundreds,

01:29:45.520 divide it into groups of 10, and then that group of 10 is going to come into, you know,

01:29:49.940 two groups of five.

01:29:51.340 Then that group of five, we've seen this in the very early days of House of Truth.

01:29:55.700 That group of five people ends up being five guys in their backyard arguing over who gets the big piece of chicken.

01:30:05.520 And we lose all the progress we got.

01:30:07.600 So those divisive people, they're welcome to go on their way and build up whatever little group of people they want to do the best way they want to do it.

01:30:16.220 But cut them out like cancer because we don't want to lose all the progress we've made so that we're five fat dudes in the backyard arguing over the big piece of chicken.

01:30:25.700 all right guys well i think it's about a half an hour longer than the longest previous one

01:30:45.920 of these we've done i appreciate you guys being here with me tonight appreciate all of the

01:30:50.560 interaction, all of the great questions. I appreciate our champion Bodie going into the

01:30:56.600 list over there on the side. We appreciate that. No, this has been great tonight. I've

01:31:02.920 had a really good time talking with you. Is there any last questions or final stuff that

01:31:07.520 I didn't get to that you guys wanted me to address tonight? Anything?

01:31:20.560 Rob, it's a thing. I don't even think I exaggerated very much.

01:31:31.300 It's a thing. And I think that you would know from the theodsman that I'm a little bit closer

01:31:38.140 to home than other people may realize on that. All right, guys. Well, I really appreciate it

01:31:47.060 tonight. Like I said, I look forward to these every month. You guys have been great. Thank you

01:31:51.220 so much for all the participation. I hope you guys, you know, I'm going to talk to you throughout

01:31:58.100 the year, obviously, but I hope you guys have a really great start to 2021. I'm very, very proud

01:32:03.740 to be part of the Auschwitz Folk Assembly. I'm proud to be here with you at the cusp of this new

01:32:07.720 year. And I'm very excited about all these things we have ahead of us. We've got some really amazing

01:32:13.100 things going on this year so uh stay tuned i look forward to talking to you guys if not sooner uh

01:32:19.980 next month for our next live chat here thank you all so much um we appreciate you have a good night

01:32:27.180 Hail the gods, hail the foe, hail the AFA.

Asatru Folk Assembly - January 03, 2021

January 2021 Live Chat

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