00:00:42.040at the height of the pandemic situation we were in.
00:00:50.120We had our biggest midsummer ever last year
00:00:53.220at 143 people at Odenshoff for Midsummer, which was spectacular for us. But this year,
00:01:03.060this year I was blown away. We set a new record at Midsummer this year. We had 152 people at
00:01:11.220Odenshoff to celebrate the height of the year and the start of, I guess in a way, the start of the
00:01:19.120AFA year. It was amazing. We had an amazing time. Thank you so much to all of the people that worked
00:01:28.040so hard to put on Midsummer at Odenshoff. Give you Sheila McNallan, folk builder Sierra Chapman,
00:01:35.400and folk builder Crystal Bailey. She did an amazing job in the kitchen.0.99
00:01:41.980Also, also special thanks goes to Victor for keeping things straight, but we had an amazing
00:01:48.200event. It was spectacular. The most, it's easy to say this, I guess, because it was our biggest
00:01:54.240event, but the most children we'd ever had in an AFA event. And I believe the biggest percentage
00:01:59.420of children in an AFA event, so many kids running around. It was beautiful to see. It was beautiful
00:02:04.320to watch them play together. We had folks from all over to come and celebrate and worship at
00:02:11.440Odin's Hoff. And so it was fantastic. And hopefully you guys can join us next year.
00:02:16.460um if you guys missed it if you guys see the pictures and you guys are wishing you were at a
00:02:22.080at a national afa gathering next one up is going to be in september at baldershof fall fest um
00:02:29.240always a spectacular time we would love to see you guys there you know clear your calendars now
00:02:35.760make the travel arrangements ride with a friend do what you got to do but i would love to see
00:02:40.920you guys there it's going to be a great event thank you so much for joining we got the
00:02:46.260chat on the side blowing up here with people, people popping in, which is always great to see.
00:02:57.920Excellent. So a couple of, a couple of really good things, I guess, since last we talked,
00:03:05.640maybe not, but I don't know if I mentioned it last time, and it bears repeating.
00:03:10.780We've started our food distributions at Baldershof, which is a great thing.
00:03:15.940Goathe Jason Plurt has been heading that up, done an amazing thing.
00:03:20.780It's been great to interact with our community in that way and help out.
00:03:24.860It's been really nice to meet people in that community and have that interaction with the neighbors there.
00:03:31.820Love doing that. And I'm really excited that that's up and that's running.
00:03:35.080If you are listening to this and you're in Murdoch, Minnesota, and you're hungry, once a month we distribute what we can for food for folks.
00:03:44.640So if you're in need, go check it out and get some food and meet our people.
00:03:54.740I'm trying to think of other stuff to start us out here today.
00:04:01.740Um, something that we started talking about last month, and I guess the first time I'm speaking to you about it on on these chats, is our next big push. So having a having a Hoff was a dream for us for such a very long time.
00:04:22.240I go back and I've read, you know, ancient rune stones from the 1970s talking about how any day now we're going to have a Hoff any day now we're going to have, you know, sacred ground, we're going to have this Hoff and it's going to be amazing.0.78
00:04:38.240any day now, any day now, into the 80s, any day now, into the 90s, any day now, we're almost there,
00:04:44.360any day now, it took until 2015 for us to get our first Hoff. We got Odin's Hoff and it was a
00:04:52.580spectacular achievement. When I first got involved in House of True, the idea of us having a Hoff
00:04:58.660was this distant goal that maybe someday if we worked hard enough we could get to and it's
00:05:03.840amazing to live in a time now where we've accomplished that. We have a Hoth and we have
00:05:08.800Odin's Hoth. And then last year in 2020, we added, we have Thor's Hoth and Baldur's Hoth. So now we
00:05:17.900have three Hoths to honor three of our Aesir. And that's fantastic. So our next big, next big
00:05:26.420adventure together as the AFA is to establish a beautiful and
00:05:31.860amazing Hoff to honor New York. We're committed to that. We're
00:05:38.660we've started fundraising for that we've started planning for
00:05:41.660that. To break it down for you guys a little bit, it's going to
00:05:46.560be a three phase project to make that happen. First phase is to
00:05:52.480pay off the debts that we've incurred for Thor's Hoff and
00:05:55.740for Baldershoff. We found an amazing lender that helped us out on that when we needed it.
00:06:02.140And we've paid that down significantly. As of today, we owe just a little bit over $11,000 on
00:06:09.120that. So we need to whittle that down and clear that debt. Our next goal is to raise our monthly
00:06:17.020income that's not earmarked for other specific causes to a level that can sustain four halves
00:06:25.840and sustain it comfortably while still maintaining a good operating budget to handle all the other
00:06:31.200things that we need to do. We're well on our way towards that. We're working on a monthly average
00:06:38.280there, but we've exceeded that the past two months. So we're looking very favorably on that.
00:06:45.040And then the third step is to actually find a property and to secure, hopefully, a couple different sources of financing just so we're real square we can get it.
00:06:56.740Now, in the meantime, with your generous donations, and we appreciate that so very much, we are building up a war chest for either a down payment or eventually to buy it outright if it takes that long on finding the spot in the process.
00:07:12.240But this is something we want to move forward and accelerate quickly.
00:07:16.040We put out the call last month to start donations for Njordshoff, and those have been rolling in.
00:07:22.640You guys have been impressively generous, as always.
00:07:41.420um if you guys are interested we have a donation link at www.runestone.org to help make that happen
00:07:49.180if you go under support we've got a spot that says donation it's also available as an item in our
00:07:54.620store if it's easier to get to that way but we appreciate all the help you guys can do
00:07:59.580let's see what we got over in the chat for tonight
00:08:02.380yes we still have a store it's uh at roomstone under the support section of the menu it's only
00:08:13.840so many things we can put on that menu bar but under support we have donate we have join and
00:08:18.800we have our store and that's where you can go and and help support us in any or all three of those
00:08:25.180three ways. We have an event in Pennsylvania every single year. We have winter nights in
00:08:35.240the Poconos in October, and that's always an amazing event. That's our kind of the second
00:08:41.720big event that we started doing years back, and it's been amazing. It's always got a great
00:08:46.600crowd. I'm looking forward to it this year. Oh, we got somebody on the side saying it's blurry
00:08:56.900on their end. I hope it's not blurry on everybody else's. Folk builder James Alt has donated camera
00:09:05.460equipment and a cool ring light to step my game up here. And I hope that helps. I'm really
00:09:11.960pleased with the quality of it. So I hope it's good on your guys's end. If you guys have any
00:09:16.980questions or anything you want to talk about on the side, please, you know, go ahead and mention
00:09:23.080that or ask and I'll get to them. We have somebody who emailed me a question the other day, and I
00:09:29.000want to get to that. And the question they've asked, I've heard this come up a couple of times
00:09:32.980over the years. What is the, something to the effect of what is the appropriate Ausatrice
00:09:39.580stance on the quote-unquote paranormal. They mention specifically near-death experiences,
00:09:48.140ghosts, things like that. I'm always very careful with those topics.
00:09:57.980A lot of people who talk about that are lunatics and say really crazy and embarrassing things.0.73
00:10:04.780um just because some of those people are crazy does not mean everybody is0.96
00:10:11.880and you know i challenge us to to stop and think on it a little bit if we believe in our gods
00:10:19.380if we believe in our ancestors if we believe that we speak to them at ritual if we believe
00:10:27.580that there's an interaction there when we go to our altars then certainly we believe that there's
00:10:33.240degree of afterlife for uh parts of our soul and our spirit that live on after death i think that
00:10:41.000it's very appropriate to believe that things such as ghosts exist and are are out there and interact
00:10:47.720i think we have a lot of different forces that are unseen that we know exist like the land spirits um
00:10:55.240so you know i think we the appropriate stance on that is to be cautious and not accept you know
00:11:03.240any lunatic getting carried away. But I have met a few people in my life that have a genuine
00:11:09.480second sight, if you want to call it that, that can see glimpses of those things in certain places
00:11:17.120at certain times. And so I really believe that's a thing. I think an important house of true stance
00:11:24.420and I've, I don't know, something that I've had a thought on the subject. I think that if you
00:11:29.760interact with those things. There's a tendency to interact in fear and to act hostile. I've
00:11:38.520always thought it much more appropriate to be respectful and to be hospitable when interacting
00:11:44.640with any spirits, be they living, dead, in Midgard, or otherwise, because I think having that attitude
00:11:50.980towards all that we approach is a good way to start. But that's my take on it. Trouble is,
00:11:58.740you get people in the paranormal field, and they're the same people that believe in every
00:12:04.940possible crazy paranormal thing indiscriminately. And that gives a lot of people a bad name,
00:12:10.660and it takes away a lot of seriousness. So I would always advise caution when dealing with
00:12:14.580those kind of things. We absolutely have stuff in Georgia. One of our folk builders lives in
00:12:21.680Georgia. I'm sorry, I'm reading stuff on the side. We have a gentleman asking about if we
00:12:24.560anything in georgia uh folk builder trent east lives in georgia he lives in uh north
00:12:31.920northwest georgia we've got stuff going on there we've got quite a few members
00:12:36.560uh reach out to trent east t east at runestone.org and he'd love to connect you with our georgia
00:12:41.920membership. Okay. My recommendation for the top three books and what is the Ausitru Bible in my
00:13:05.500opinion? There's not really an Ausitru Bible. I think that concept will always fall short and so
00:13:10.640hesitate to call anything that i think the prose and poetic eddas are the most concise source of
00:13:19.200our primary lore but i would never look at them like a bible in the sense that you know every
00:13:25.040aspect is divinely inspired and you know as if the gods wrote a book i think that mythology and
00:13:30.960lore is very different from that and i would never try to put it in that box it was never intended to
00:13:35.760be. Top three books about Ausatru that I'd recommend. Ausatru and Native European Spirituality
00:13:43.360by Stephen McNallan, our founder and the first Ausheri Goethe of the Ausatru Folk Assembly.
00:13:49.120I would also recommend The Culture of the Teutons by Wilhelm Groenbeck and
00:13:56.640And it's hard to have to pick a third one.
00:14:14.920That's one of those questions I overthink quite a bit, but.
00:14:26.640I would say to get some of our runic understanding, I'd recommend Futhark by Dr. Stephen Flowers.
00:14:40.720If you want something that's more historical, I think that I'm Skringla would be a very good
00:14:48.280thing to read or the Saga of the Icelanders, which is kind of cheating because it's a whole
00:14:52.440bunch of different volumes in one book. That's what I'd recommend to start out with.
00:15:06.960Ease up, Githya. Don't talk poorly about Zach Bagans. I'm a Zach fan from way back.
00:15:17.020Tell Bjorn I said hi and hope his teeth are doing good.
00:15:22.440OK. So we've got a question about Sigur Bloat. Why we're doing it? How do we celebrate it?
00:15:34.520Kind of what's the deal? Sigur Bloat means victory bloat. It is just that. I think that it is a bloat to
00:15:42.640ask for victory. It's a bloat to empower ourselves to be victorious. And it's a bloat to
00:15:52.960celebrate victory. So I think it's a bloat to do all three of those things. I would recommend the
00:16:00.560the God that most often comes to my mind to celebrate victory is is Odin. He's known as
00:16:07.860the victory father, Sig father. And so I would, I would celebrate Odin. But that said, all of our
00:16:17.920Aesir are abundant in victory and are perfectly fine to celebrate a Sigur blow to in honor of0.99
00:16:26.040or in celebration with. I think there's no real bad choice amongst our Aesir about that.1.00
00:16:32.380Um, one thing that I think is, is important in a Sigger bloat depends what you're doing. If you have a specific mission or goal you're trying to accomplish, talking about that, asking for favorable outcomes, asking for inspiration to empower you to achieve those victories.1.00
00:16:52.460But what else I think is really important is to to celebrate your victories in that holy context.
00:17:01.980If you're doing your ritual with some kind of an altar, if you're not, I'd suggest you set something up, maybe a table.
00:17:09.380But to lay out tokens of your victories on that, to celebrate those in front of your folk, in front of your gods and to.
00:17:17.980to celebrate your accomplishments, what you guys have done together, what you've done
00:17:23.540individually. The element of bragging has more to it than we would think of in a modern context.
00:17:32.700It's not just that. It's justifying and displaying your worth amongst our folk and amongst our gods
00:17:38.440to say, here I am. Here's what I bring to the table. And if you're bringing great things to
00:17:43.340the table, we should all appreciate them and celebrate it with you. And if you notice that
00:17:46.800you're not bringing that much, then at your next bloat, hopefully you can bring more tokens of
00:17:50.760victory. But that's what Sigur bloat's about. It's appropriate to do at any time. Our Viking
00:17:56.140ancestors would often do it before raiding season, before they would go out and need to score
00:18:01.800victories. But in our modern age, we go out looking for victory at all times of the year.
00:18:07.380So there's never really a bad time to celebrate a Sigur bloat. So that's what we're going to be1.00
00:18:12.020focusing on in the month of July, and I encourage you guys to get together with your AFA family
00:21:31.140I appreciate you guys helping out over in the chat on the side.
00:21:58.640Okay. Our folk builder, Zach Cato, wants me to explain to you guys the imagery and the
00:22:07.840mottos that we have on each of our three flags. First flag that we have is behind me over here.
00:22:17.880it's our odin's hof flag and odin's odin steed slepner is is there rampant um
00:22:28.520looking looking glorious looking victorious um the horse of odin it was important to us
00:22:38.200when we got our first hof to establish horse heads on the on the cross beams as they would do
00:22:44.840in the hoffs of the anglo-saxons and i think that evolved into us celebrating the the stallion and
00:22:52.040then further evolved into us celebrating at odin's hof his stallion slepner um so that's what what
00:22:58.840that symbolizes the motto to do right and fear none uh fear no one is really important it's
00:23:07.480something that's been said many times it's a it's a german proverb um to erect and show you nemen
00:23:15.480i believe and it's something that our founder steve mcnallen has always said as a as kind of
00:23:22.680watch words for us to to gauge things and to not be distracted if you spend your focus on doing the
00:23:29.640right thing and not living in fear then really great things come to you and i think the afa has
00:23:35.080certainly seen a lot of that um the next one is the uh the rampant black bear on the thorsof flag
00:23:48.200and so when we choose these um kinfilia or these these spiritual animals to represent
00:23:57.400our folk in these areas uh we leave that largely up or we have a discussion with our local
00:24:03.720um gothar in the area on what they feel is appropriate what they feel represents their
00:24:07.920region what they feel is is special or significant in their area and uh the bear has always been a
00:24:16.320mighty animal it's always you know there's been associations with bears and thor for a long time
00:24:22.560um the black bear in that region is a you know a respected animal and uh and something that our
00:24:30.340folk in the area wanted to draw strength from and take pride in so that's why we have the black
00:24:35.040bear on there and then the motto words are wind deeds are iron that's a motto that comes from one
00:24:41.700of our foundational kindreds in the region um as the kindred that uh witten spawn harrell is part
00:24:49.680of or was part of and founded is the iron guard kindred and that kindred kind of evolved into
00:24:55.580that hoff and was absorbed into that hoff and to respect that legacy and where that came from
00:25:01.580we have the uh we have their motto emblazoned on the flag the third one is uh waldershoff and the
00:25:10.460the the white wolf of baldershoff with the north star shining above and uh the motto guided by true
00:25:22.540north. And the idea behind that, we've had wolf symbolism up there with our folk for a long time.
00:25:32.180The fact that wolves are a pack animal and they work together towards their goal. They're also
00:25:38.600an important animal in the north lands, in the snowy plains. And the north star being having
00:25:48.580a constant guide something that's steady something that's true and that doesn't waver
00:25:53.620through the waves of fashion through the waves of political correctness through the waves of
00:25:59.220you know good times and bad times focusing on what's true focusing on what's eternal
00:26:06.020and not losing your way and that's the point of that model or that motto and that's what we do
00:26:11.220in the austral folk assembly and it's what the folks in that region have seen them through
00:26:16.260a lot of adversity to get where they've gotten. And because they kept their eye on true north,
00:26:21.940they've been extremely successful. So that's the idea behind that.
00:26:37.540There any diets or exercises I recommend for the folk?
00:26:41.620Yes, I recommend diet and exercise for the full. I don't just say that to be flipped because almost anything that's serious works if you're consistent with it. I think it's extremely important for our folk to be healthy and to be whole. I think neglecting our physical self is missing out on a huge part of our soul complex and a huge part of who we are.
00:27:05.480So I would encourage everyone out there, no matter what level of fitness you're currently at, you can be better than that a month from now.
00:27:13.800Seek to do that. If you're elite, get elite-er.
00:27:18.000If you're struggling with obesity or health concerns because of your physical shape, let's try to get a little bit better.
00:27:24.240The AFA has done a great job in the last six years of coming together and supporting ourselves and supporting each other to achieve our goals physically and to keep our spirits high as we're doing it because it can be challenging to do diet and exercise.
00:27:38.240I know working out and watching watching how I eat's been hugely important to me in my life and
00:27:44.600has helped me be successful. It's helped me externally with how other people react to me
00:27:49.680and how I get along with the world. But it's also helped me internally with confidence in myself,
00:27:53.960with feeling good, with representing myself the best way I can or the best way I've been able to
00:28:00.040so far. But I'm always trying to be better. And I think we should all try to be better with
00:28:03.720good dieting and exercise. And one thing I'll say about dieting that works very well for me
00:28:09.460is the concept of if it fits your macros, counting your macros and trying to hit your
00:28:16.460macronutrient goals, I think is really important. And I, other people may disagree with this,
00:28:21.800but I like to keep a running tally. So if I go over, I can, I can accommodate for it the next
00:28:26.940day by going a little bit under and balancing those things out with a running tally over time
00:28:32.140in case I don't hit them spot on. I think that's really important. I certainly am a big fan of
00:28:38.280weight training as far as exercise goes, but honestly, I'm a fan of exercise. Whatever your
00:28:44.240sport, whatever exercise you get excited about or appeals to you, go out and do it. The biggest
00:28:51.720thing is to stop thinking about it, to stop having paralysis of analysis, to pick a diet plan,
00:28:58.080pick an exercise plan and get out there and go. Get outside, go to the gym,
00:29:03.140do what you got to do and stick with it and be consistent.
00:29:22.680Sorry, guys, just reading over here in the chat to see if there's any questions going on or any
00:29:26.360ideas of stuff folks want me to talk about this evening alan absolutely the parts in uh cultures
00:29:36.120of the culture of the teutons about frith was just mind-blowing to me when i first read it
00:29:40.920it solidified that concept in a way i'd never heard or never understood before
00:29:44.920and it's stuck with me ever since i think that chapter alone is reason enough to get that book
00:29:56.360If, Sierra, if you're asking if this is recorded, yes, all of these are recorded every single
00:30:23.560month and should be up for viewing after we get done with the live stuff here. Sierra has stepped
00:30:30.440up to be our Hoff historian at Odins Hoff. We're excited. She's been on the job for 24 hours and
00:30:38.200she's already doing amazing things so we really appreciate that
00:30:55.080does the afa have a stance on homesteading homeschooling preparedness or self-reliance in
00:31:02.120general yes um as far as like a stance on each of those things individually or like a doctrine for
00:31:12.360all of it certainly self-reliance is important um being prepared is important
00:31:21.240homesteading is a good thing i want to talk about homeschooling separately but the idea of
00:31:27.160preparedness and uh and self-reliance i think that all of us take that at a different level
00:31:35.400there are people out there that spend all of their time and all of their resources
00:31:42.760in a little bit of a fanciful or maybe a paranoid situation where they prepare for some great
00:31:50.920calamity and the people that were doing that in the 60s and 70s some of who've already passed
00:31:56.520have wasted a lot of their life and a lot of their things that they could have done better
00:32:00.920things with or enjoyed a lot more with what i think is perhaps over preparing but i think that's
00:32:07.560a spectrum and i think every family has a different idea where that is i think a lot of us saw last
00:32:14.120year just on a small scale when a lot of things shut down sometimes you don't have the things that
00:32:19.960you take for granted and the things that that you need are the things that you want and i think
00:32:25.320certainly i would advise small steps and the afa always supports people taking steps to make sure
00:32:30.440that they are prepared for disaster but also prepared for regular things in life to where
00:32:35.720they can take care of stuff to where they can take care of themselves and their family but also
00:32:39.720to where they can reach out and take care of our folk who are in need or who are in trouble
00:32:43.960so i think a responsible level of preparedness is very important homeschooling is a little bit
00:32:48.920different story um i think that we've all it's self-evident um schools are not what they used to
00:32:57.880be and the things that they teach our children are not what they used to be um i say this with no
00:33:05.160you know institutionalized malice towards you know towards the educational system my mother was a
00:33:10.360teacher for 30 years um i think that there was a time i would have been very comfortable having
00:33:17.480my daughter go to public schools but i think that time's long since passed all of us have to do the
00:33:23.880best we can we all face different circumstances there's nothing here about judging harshly any
00:33:29.080parents that can't but the afa stance is if you can homeschool your children you should homeschool
00:33:35.720your children the best we can do to have more of our children learning the values we want instead
00:33:42.280of the exact opposite which is often taught in public schools these days is great keeping them
00:33:49.240out of what i believe is a very unhealthy environment is also really good thing so we1.00
00:33:54.600really encourage our parents to homeschool when they're able and uh to that effect the astrofolk0.99
00:33:59.960assembly is in the very very early stages of developing homeschool program homeschool curriculum
00:34:07.400and certainly resources for parents who are homeschooling one of the biggest things that
00:34:11.720holds people back from homeschooling is they don't know how it works and they're scared of it because
00:34:18.120it's unknown how do you homeschool what what what are the rules what do you do what resources do
00:34:23.720you have it can be overwhelming so we're trying really hard to narrow down resources rules per
00:34:30.360state in the united states to make that process easier and make parents more confident in their
00:34:37.320ability to homeschool so again afa doctrine on homeschooling is if you can do do the very best
00:34:45.400you can for your children and not looking down on anybody if they can't things are what they are
00:34:51.640but the more of our children can be homeschooled we think that's a very good thing
00:35:07.320Okay, we've got a question about bands.
00:35:21.600Somebody was wondering if the AFA had ever in the past or if we would consider having bands play either at an event or at a separate time during the year.
00:35:29.400of course we would consider that um we have had that in the past uh afa events we used to very
00:35:36.840often um before my time as alzheimer goethe very often we would i say very often every
00:35:43.560national level event we would have bands at um sometimes just one sometimes two or three
00:35:50.840the selection we had to choose from was very limited at the time or the selection that we
00:36:02.380were choosing from and often it just we ran into an obligation to have them at events
00:36:09.860and it really increased the events overhead and didn't necessarily add a lot of value or a lot
00:36:14.980of enjoyment but it's something that we were just doing because we were in the motions of continuing
00:36:19.180to do it. Um, I would very much consider that it would all depend on the logistics of how to make
00:36:25.340it work. And if it's something that's good for our folk, we would certainly prioritize having,
00:36:30.420you know, also true bands or also true musical artists, even if it's, you know, one person up
00:36:36.360there doing an acoustic set with, with whatever, um, you know, we would certainly encourage it.
00:36:42.700If we have AFA members that just want to come bring their stuff and play, we'd love to set
00:36:47.460aside time for that if it's bringing in a special band or doing a special concert i'd certainly be
00:36:54.260willing to consider that but absolutely we're certainly open to that we love our folk doing
00:37:00.340things and we'd love to support our folk that are musically inclined
00:37:03.540that would be amazing james if you can get a polka band up at the the next lc christianson event
00:37:31.240So because I talked about the flags, Zach's also asking if I could talk a little bit about the AFA flag itself and the trihorns, why that's our symbol.
00:37:41.300So a lot of you have been around would assume that's been our symbol for forever in the
00:40:05.860We had a piper at a couple of different AFA events, and that's always turned out very well.
00:40:29.520So this comes up again, the idea of, you know, intentional community or multifamily plots in the homesteading and homeschooling idea.
00:40:45.380Not opposed. I think it's a really good idea. It was an idea I was, you know, in on in the past.
00:40:50.780and I even had a number of guys I was going to go in on some property with. But I have seen
00:40:57.260almost everybody wants to do that in theory. But in my time in Ausitra, I've never seen that
00:41:04.060actually work out. I've seen a whole lot of people plan that, but it never quite works out.
00:41:09.720It's always much more difficult than people think. It's much harder to do in the world that we live
00:41:15.460than you would think it is. A lot of people who talk about homesteading really aren't really
00:41:20.860aren't about that life. And the other thing is, when you get successful people that are successful
00:41:26.780in life, successful in their families, they typically have good things going on. And it's
00:41:31.240much harder to get them to pick up the life that they've built and move to your homestead project.
00:41:37.540Unfortunately, it's much easier to get folks that aren't successful. A lot of time, the reason
00:41:42.220they're not successful is because of their own inherent qualities as people. So sometimes the
00:41:47.960people you really want won't come out. And the people that probably shouldn't come out there
00:41:52.680with you are the ones first in line. And so that hasn't worked out well in the past. If you've got
00:41:57.820a good plan and you and some of your friends are going to do that, we think that's fantastic. I'd
00:42:01.960love to hear how that goes. And yeah, it'd be wonderful if you can accomplish that.
00:42:12.220Um, just as a, in response to a side comment I've seen, yes, tons of teachers are retiring.
00:42:32.660Um, that profession is becoming very different than it once was, uh, with the new, um, radical, extreme, liberal, uh, nature of, of current education and its inherent prejudices towards, against all of the things that we believe in.
00:42:53.120a lot of teachers are leaving losing the good teachers and getting folks that I really wouldn't
00:43:00.460want teaching our kids in there unfortunately but it does mean people with a lot of experience
00:43:04.760are going out in the homeschool market and helping to inform the evolution of homeschool programs
00:43:09.460and that's a really good thing and it's certainly advantageous to us to look into those things
00:43:42.380Ryan brings up to make sure that your kids get socialized, because that's the one thing public schools, you know, that's the argument that I've heard, you know, since I was in elementary school, as far as homeschooling goes, is that homeschool kids don't get socialized as much.0.90
00:48:02.860Nicole depends on where you're at, I would reach out to your
00:48:05.680local folk builder, and they can get you in touch with the folks
00:48:09.960that do event coordination for our local events. It all
00:48:13.640depends on what part of the country you're in and what
00:48:15.940you're what you're looking to do um but i think as a default a really good person to reach out to
00:48:22.740is witten clifford erickson c erickson at runestone.org and he'd be a he does a lot with
00:48:31.700helping to organize uh our events and helping to make sure that that costs are reasonable and we
00:48:36.980get that where we need it so i think he'd be a really good guy to talk to about any potential
00:48:41.020you know, having a band at an event or a concert that you want to see about putting on or having
00:48:47.380us help sponsor or whatnot. So that's the guy I recommend you reach out to. And I appreciate you
00:48:53.120wanting to help. That's great. And I'm glad you got a good idea. And I don't think it's a bad
00:48:56.980idea. I just think we need to work out the particulars.
00:49:11.020um we have had afa uh convoys go to different concerts i know we had a number of different
00:49:31.020afa groups go when highlung was touring and so getting a group of afa members to go together
00:49:38.700to concerts is is already a thing you should look to your local afa and see see what's coming to
00:49:43.740your town and i'm sure you can find afa members to go with you to house true specific concerts
00:49:49.020to traditional cultural european concerts and probably to any other concert you can figure out
00:49:53.740of good music um okay uh gothi plurt is asking how important i think it is to build a relationship
00:50:10.540with local land spirits when you go someplace or before you move someplace
00:50:15.420I think it depends. I think it depends on where you're going and how what spirits occupy that
00:50:25.320place and how, I don't know, I guess how crowded with land spirits it may be.
00:50:35.900I think being good neighbors applies not just to human beings in the area. I think it implies
00:50:43.640being good neighbors to the spirits of the land uh being respectful to the wildlife that's there
00:50:51.480within reason um i think establishing a good relationship and making offerings to land
00:50:57.640spirits is always a good thing to do i think it's always a noble and a hospitable thing to do when
00:51:02.600you're in a new area and uh as far as levels of importance i suppose it's not the most important
00:51:10.760thing in the world, but I think things will go better for you if you do and won't go as good
00:51:16.020for you if you don't. So I would encourage folks to reach out to land spirits in the area and leave
00:51:21.420little offerings and just make that gesture of goodwill. A little bit of a gesture that way goes
00:51:28.240a long way. It goes a long way with people and I think it goes a long way with all spirits as well.
00:51:32.700We all need more money than we actually have.
00:51:39.700I'm not sure what that comments in reference to, but absolutely we do.
00:51:46.700The more means we have to accomplish success, the more we can apply those and the more we can do successful things.
00:51:55.700All right. I've got a question. Which God do I resonate most with and why?
00:52:14.160I try really hard not to not to do that. I know a lot of people do. And it's it's important to a lot of folks to have like one God that's that's their main go to.
00:52:25.700And I don't think doing so necessarily takes away.
00:52:31.540When I first started out and I first got involved with Al-Satru, the god that I was, you know, felt most drawn towards was Thor for a number of reasons.
00:52:54.100I focused a lot on Thor. I think the more I've been involved in leadership in the Austro Folk
00:53:02.760Assembly, I've had a lot of interaction, a lot of preference with the Allfather, with Odin.
00:53:11.960I've shared in some very powerful bloats to Odin. I feel like there's a really important
00:53:17.560connection there. My ordination bloat that I gave, I want to say maybe 2012 was a bloat to Thor.
00:53:28.400But I try very hard to be open and to have to build relationship with all of our gods the best
00:53:36.620I can. And I'm hesitant to try to pick one and say I have a better relationship with them than
00:53:42.980with others. I'd rather not view it in that terms. And the last thing I'd ever want to do is
00:53:49.960disrespect one of our gods by leaving them out or by not building a relationship that I could or
00:53:56.860should with them. So, you know, it's a little bit taboo for me to want to claim one over the others.
00:54:12.980I think that's a really good point. We have somebody talking over on the side about how maybe it's a better idea for families to move close together than to go in on communal property. I've always thought that's a great idea. And that's not just about homesteading. Certainly you can do it in a homesteading model, but you can do that in an urban model.
00:54:33.300I know it's not our ideal. I know everybody here wants to talk about raising a barn and slopping hogs and homesteading.
00:54:41.620Realistically, a lot of us want air conditioning and nice stuff and computers and live in town and whatever else.0.96
00:54:49.300And you can do the model of families moving closer together. You can do that rurally.
00:54:54.720You can do it in an urban environment.
00:54:57.240What I think a lot of people overlook is, shoot, how great would it be if we had a whole bunch of
00:55:02.000AFA members that moved into the same apartment complex? It'd be a great step up than what most
00:55:07.420of us have now as far as closeness. So you could do that model in a number of different ways. It
00:55:12.280doesn't have to be on a farm, homesteading somewhere, but it certainly can be. And it's
00:55:17.580a much easier buy-in model than the whole group ownership property. For multiple families to
00:55:24.160happen to buy houses in the same neighborhood. Shoot, at this stage, houses in the same town,
00:55:29.860maybe even houses in the same county would bring us a lot closer together. So I think that it's,
00:55:34.980I would encourage you not to get caught up in the waiting until you buy communal land. And in the
00:55:41.140meantime, just move closer to other AFA members and build that community where you have it. Don't
00:55:46.940let perfect be the enemy of good. And there's a lot we can do no matter where we are to move
00:55:51.740closer together in general that said just a plug for any of you guys out there mandy and i would
00:56:00.300highly encourage you to move to reno nevada because it is a wonderful place and we are in love with it
00:56:05.660we love it out here it's fantastic and we would love more community out here so keep that in mind
00:56:10.460All right. I don't know if there's any magical room working that's going to get you a job,
00:56:23.220but I think there's probably room working you can do to help you acquire a job.
00:56:31.680I think that FAHU is your best bet for getting circulating income, getting circulating
00:56:39.640prosperity and for getting generating luck in general um i would recommend galdering and doing
00:56:48.120meditation on fehu and keep that as a as a lens that you see your life through and that you focus
00:56:53.880on and help that guide you in your quest for a new job i think that would be the most helpful
00:57:09.640Just catching up on chat over here, seeing if there's more questions coming up.
00:57:38.080It looks like you guys are having a good discussion
00:59:52.120a drink offering, an offering of mead or of, you know, honestly, of any alcohol, I think mead gets
00:59:58.620overused. I think an offering, you know, a shot of whiskey or a shot of rum or whatever else is
01:00:04.780a great idea. A lot of people do baked goods. I see what you say about bears. Maybe you want to
01:00:10.440leave your offering further out. I think that that interaction of the animals honestly is part
01:00:16.040of that gifting cycle with the land spirits i've always felt that leaving and it may not be
01:00:23.480responsible where you're at so i'm not saying everyone has to do this depending on the predator
01:00:27.080situation or if you're farming or whatever else but i mean even leaving uh like bird food out in
01:00:33.240a bird feeder or a bat feeder i think those are a nice way of reaching out to the spirits that
01:00:39.720occupy your land i think there's a connection with the animals there in the you know the the more
01:00:45.560mystic land spirits um i think you can certainly leave little little tokens that are that are also
01:00:56.280nice i think burning incense again if it's not going to set something on fire is a nice way
01:01:01.560to make a little offering but typically people do use food or drink
01:01:15.560Okay, this is a good one. Wow, look at the time. It seems like time's flying, but we still got
01:01:26.340people asking good questions, so I'll keep going for a little bit here. Somebody asked what I have
01:01:32.280to say on the issue of forgiveness. I think that our approach to justice in general is very different
01:01:42.300than the Abrahamic approach. It's kind of a big topic, and I may get about it in a roundabout way.
01:01:52.040The idea of justice to our ancestors was to fix what you broke. So if you're repaying a debt,
01:02:02.420if there's an honor feud or whatever else, the idea is that someone took from you.
01:02:07.500They took a kinsman. They took your livestock. They took some of your reputation. They took some of your good name. They took some of your dignity. And the way of fixing that was paying that back. So I think our idea of forgiveness is forgiveness through repayment.
01:02:27.260our criminal justice system, we talk about paying a debt to society, but that really doesn't get
01:02:33.860done in most cases. In most cases, it's just, you know, putting people in very, very extended time
01:02:39.360outs. What's really important is that the person who's been wronged be made right and made whole
01:02:46.860again. Now, there's some things you can't replace, there's some things you can't give back. And in
01:02:51.780those circumstances, trying to give something of equal value. But the idea is you've taken value
01:02:59.180away from someone and to repair the value you've taken is the first core thing about getting
01:03:06.420forgiveness. And maybe you can't, maybe that's too overwhelming, but the more you try and the
01:03:12.140more you make an honest effort to make right what you broke, that's key to our people. In a Christian
01:03:18.340context often forgiveness is some pious act of the forgiver and you rush out to forgive people
01:03:27.140as fast as you can without them having to make it right we don't have any such obligation in house
01:03:31.620of truth now what we do have though and what i think is really important as aryan people as
01:03:38.580noble people is the ability to forgive and the ability to extend grace to people um
01:03:48.340And sometimes in the right context, if somebody can't fix it and is genuinely sorry, you have the ability to let some slide, you have the ability to spot them this time, you have the ability to to let some of that happen.
01:04:04.020And in the context today, you can let it happen without it costing you face or costing you honor.
01:04:12.900I don't suggest that you sacrifice your dignity in that way, but you add to your dignity a lot of the time when you can be the bigger person.
01:04:21.440Now, the key is that's your right. That's up to you to choose when you want to forgive or when you don't.
01:04:28.960And in our faith, there's no obligation for you to forgive someone who's wronged you.
01:04:33.480There's plenty of things that are unforgivable and you shouldn't forgive and you look bad if you do forgive.
01:04:40.480So to make those decisions as an informed and as a noble and dignified person and to choose when you want to extend your good graces and forgiveness to someone and to choose when you want to hold a grudge.
01:04:52.480I think that's very definitive of our people in our faith in that matter.
01:05:03.480Jason, I don't understand your question. Hopefully, this will get to it. He's asking how important I think it is to build frith in something deep and meaningful as opposed to something like politics or common strife.
01:05:25.700Um, I think he's meaning the the thing that bonds that frith together, meaning bonding over something that extends beyond mundane politics.
01:05:37.700politics. I think it's really easy to say that we should all be bigger than that and bond over
01:05:48.580bigger things. But I think mundane politics or a common foe are a good start to building frith.
01:05:57.580But if you build a negative frith about, you know, banding together against something you
01:06:02.800don't like, it burns up really quick and then you've got nothing. When the foe disappears or
01:06:10.220when you win, then you lose that frith you had. What I do think is really important is if you
01:06:15.660build your frith over the things that you love, the things that you cherish, the things that are
01:06:21.080important and speak to your soul, those things don't go away. So you maintain that frith and
01:06:26.480you maintain that connection, whether you're losing, whether you're winning, you know, when
01:06:31.700when your stocks are up or when they're down, you still have those core values that the mundane
01:06:38.100political situation can change and take away at a moment's notice. Or a common foe can be defeated
01:06:44.540and then you don't have that frith anymore. So bonding over positive things as opposed to
01:06:51.180bonding over negative things is really important. Negative things are fine. They exist. Bonding over
01:06:57.740them is fine but the bond over a positive things and the outlook and the focus on the positive is
01:07:03.820what's going to be enduring that's what's going to move you to accomplishing things as opposed to
01:07:08.700tearing down things and accomplishing and building is superior to tearing down even though tearing
01:07:16.060down may be necessary sometimes we want to focus on what we can build and what we can build together
01:07:20.620That's a really important part of Frith.
01:07:38.560We're getting some good ideas over here on the side as far as things you can do to honor land spirits that aren't edible.
01:07:47.220um people talk about shiny things and it may sound funny but all of us like shiny things
01:07:53.260i think shiny things are are nice and i think they draw attention and i think it's a nice gesture
01:07:58.420the point isn't that the land spirit needs some new bling the point is the gesture that you're
01:08:06.120making and that they recognize you're giving them something from the heart i think the idea of making
01:08:11.660And fairy houses, for lack of a better term, making little symbolic structures to represent that the land spirits have a have a home on your land is also a very nice thing to do.
01:08:24.120And that's something that that our ancestors have done and that many people do.
01:08:27.660That also probably is not going to attract bears. So those are some good ideas.
01:08:32.400And I appreciate guys on the side for throwing those out.
01:09:04.700if I have any advice or tips to present Ausatru to extended Christian family with the intent to0.97
01:09:11.400bring them back home. Yeah, I get asked this a lot. And the most important thing that I can say
01:09:18.220is be the example, be a good person. If your family sees what you do, and they see your life
01:09:26.120make a positive change because Ausatru, they see you have a successful family, they see you have
01:09:31.380career success. They see you be happy. They see you make yourself a better person. Your family
01:09:37.780has some context. They've seen you. They know where you've come from. And if all of a sudden
01:09:42.300you're succeeding and you're doing well and you attribute it to your faith and house is true,
01:09:47.420that means a lot. It's a powerful testimony to those people. And that goes a long way.
01:09:52.940You trying to preach to Christian family about the gods doesn't necessarily work the best.
01:09:59.260But when they see you've been successful and they come to you and ask, like, hey, what is your secret? Why are you doing so good? How are you, you know, your family's doing amazing. What's happened? Hey, I reconnected with our gods and I joined the Astro Folk Assembly and my life turned around.
01:10:16.380That means a lot. And it's very powerful in bringing families in when they see, you know, they don't hear. It's not so much that they hear your words, but they see the results in your person and in your life and in your family.
01:10:26.660that's what I'd recommend the most as far as actually having discussions with them about it
01:10:32.580I think talking about venerating our ancestors is the best way whatever they believe or don't
01:10:40.100in supernatural things your ancestors existed if they didn't exist you wouldn't be here
01:10:45.520honoring where you came from and these people that absolutely did exist is very tangible to
01:10:51.620grab hold of and most people instinctively know that there's something beyond this life that those
01:10:57.700ancestors interact from beyond the veil in some way and i think that um a christian or an atheist
01:11:06.060or other people that aren't also true connect with that ancestral connection and you know not
01:11:12.160your ancient ancestors but grandma grandpa great grandpa that is the way to start that and if they
01:11:19.980believe that there's life beyond that veil and that they can interact, then it
01:11:25.300makes them much more ready to believe in our gods and in our bigger cosmology.
01:11:49.980um okay we got a question somebody who says they are of both germanic and celtic ancestry and want
01:11:58.140to know if that's welcome um yeah you notice the similarity between celtic um spirituality and and
01:12:11.340norse spirituality and religion i think that's because there is the or i know that's because
01:12:16.380there's the commonality of faith between all aryan peoples their faith comes from a root faith
01:12:22.700and also true is is how we tie into that faith and how that faith has best evolved for our people
01:12:29.020um in the astro folk assembly we are proudly pan-aryan we welcome all of the the ethnically
01:12:35.500european peoples to come home to also true uh you're being part celtic and part germanic is
01:12:41.980absolutely welcome it's you know probably what most american practitioners in the afa
01:12:49.020have in common is is both celtic and germanic ancestry we certainly have slavic ancestry in
01:12:55.260there so you know any of the sons and daughters of europe we welcome into the
01:12:59.820of the Astro Folk Assembly as part of our greater Aryan family.
01:13:15.420Okay, we have a question about what the AFA's view on related European pantheons is.
01:13:21.420I think some of that I touched on in my last answer, but all Aryan faiths are from a common
01:13:28.120base and have a common beginning and a common common themes and i think that the way that
01:13:35.560evolves to fit particular people in particular region regions is different over time
01:13:42.360i think that our our biggest and most ancient gods go back into ancient times and are known
01:13:49.320in different places by different names and represent the same divinity in that same divine consciousness
01:13:58.120I think there's a lot more overlap than most people are comfortable with. And I think it makes your brain hurt to try to figure it out cleanly because I don't think it ever works out exactly cleanly. I think very seldom is, you know, the form in the name of God is known by in, you know, Greece, the same that it is in, in Scandinavian regions.
01:14:23.300I just it never is quite that clean and it's more complicated than than we can describe.
01:14:29.660One of the things to know about our gods is they're they're beyond us and they're beyond our comprehension.
01:14:34.680A lot of things in our fragmentary lore doesn't fit, but we do the best that we can with them.
01:14:40.480We build that relationship and over time and consistently the consistency with the gifting cycle with our gods,
01:14:47.300with making offerings and with opening ourselves up to their inspiration and their blessings.
01:14:51.940we come to see that a little bit clearer and appreciate it a little bit more.
01:14:55.800But I do believe that the Native European pantheons are all related
01:14:59.280and all different reflections of that Aryan divinity that we all worship
01:15:04.060and those gods that look over all of us as their children.
01:15:21.940Um, Melinda, that's a good point. Not forgiving something doesn't equate to holding a grudge necessarily, but it can. And it's good for you to point that out. You can just not forgive it and go on with your life and not make it something that weighs you down or something that you focus on. But if you've been wrong, you're very entitled to hold a grudge. If you're owed something, you are entitled to want to collect on that debt and to feel that pain.
01:15:49.860Now, you're poorly served if you let that eat you up and there's no way for you to recoup that debt.
01:15:55.140If you focus only on what you lost, and I think this is true in general, if you only focus on a negative outcome or on a failure or on a loss, you become myopic and you look at one little thing and you're blind to all of your opportunities for success and all of the things that you have.
01:16:13.220And it's very easy not to appreciate all of the things that you have. If you're focused angrily at one thing someone took from you way back in the past over here, you don't appreciate all these great things you have here. And I think that short changes yourself. So you can hold grudges. You don't have to hold grudges. Either is fine, but they need to be in their place and you need to not be weighed down because that's someone who's victimized you continuing to take from you.
01:16:41.580The best thing you can do when you find yourself in a hole is to stop digging.
01:16:45.360And so I think that's meaningful that way.