Asatru Folk Assembly - June 2021 Live Discussion

00:00:00.000 hello everybody hope you guys are having a great summer so far um things just started

00:00:14.840 to get hot out here where i'm at so uh hopefully y'all having a good time and staying cool

00:00:20.880 so to start off tonight i just want to put out a plug it's getting very very close

00:00:30.540 here in about nine days we're going to celebrate midsummer at odin's off

00:00:36.500 midsummer is typically our biggest event of the year in the afa it's kind of our flagship

00:00:42.260 national event a lot of great people come out for that it's really special time it's a real

00:00:49.340 historic time to come celebrate at Odin's Hoff, our very first Hoff, and be part of that. So any

00:00:56.780 of you guys that can join us, please make sure you go to the website www.runestone.org and register.

00:01:04.840 And I look forward to seeing all you guys out there. It's going to be a very great time and

00:01:08.340 I look forward to it all year. Looking over in the side, thank you so much for all you guys

00:01:17.680 joining me. Please feel free if you've got questions, go ahead and post them in the side.

00:01:23.500 Happy to answer anything you guys want about the AFA, about Ausitru, about you name it. So

00:01:30.560 if you guys do have questions, please go ahead and let me know over on the side.

00:01:38.220 Excited to talk to you guys once again.

00:01:40.800 um trying to think of what all has happened since our our last discussion had an amazing

00:01:50.900 lc christensen event in wisconsin that was fantastic to get a chance to be a part of that

00:01:56.820 um james alt and his kindred up there did an amazing job hosting it was absolutely fantastic

00:02:03.500 and i look forward to it i think he's gonna try to put that on yearly or at least try it again

00:02:08.500 next year it was a great event met a lot of really good people got some good quality time

00:02:13.540 with folks so that was awesome um yeah since last time we spoke uh githya brandy callahan was

00:02:22.340 elevated to the whitten of the os true folk assembly we are very honored to have her on the

00:02:26.900 whitten and excited about all the amazing things she's done for us she's doing for us and that we

00:02:32.900 know she's going to do for us in the future so congratulations to brandy also we've had

00:02:40.740 sam ramsey step up as an apprentice folk builder in arizona and we've had jesse parton

00:02:49.300 step forward as an apprentice folk builder in tennessee so those guys are going to do

00:02:53.940 great things for us and we're very excited to have them on board and have

00:02:58.100 really great energy with us going forward on that

00:03:00.820 um also since last time we spoke we were able to do our very first food uh food distribution

00:03:10.660 at Baldershof and that was an amazing success that was run by Dothi Jason Plurd he did an

00:03:18.980 amazing job it was fantastic I loved seeing the pictures from all I've heard from everyone who's

00:03:24.420 there it was a good time it was a great chance to meet and interact with folks in the community

00:03:29.700 we had uh great interactions with our neighbors in murdoch and so that was a really really special

00:03:36.580 thing and i'm very glad that we're doing that that's going to be a monthly occurrence there

00:03:40.020 at baldershoff it's a monthly occurrence at odenshoff and uh i'm very hopeful that

00:03:46.660 starting this month it'll be a monthly occurrence at thor's hoff as well

00:03:50.260 well. Tonight, I'm going to have to make sure this one ends promptly at seven because I do have

00:04:03.580 my Witten call this evening. We've got a lot of exciting things to discuss for kind of the coming

00:04:10.220 planning year. AFA year typically runs from June until June. So we're kind of starting a new cycle

00:04:17.480 and we've got a lot of exciting things in store over the next year things to talk about over the

00:04:22.280 next year yeah so we got a lot of a lot of really good stuff going on the other thing is with spring

00:04:30.840 ending and summer cranking up here we've had a lot of work put in by our volunteers at all of our

00:04:37.480 Hoffs a lot of work to make sure we get so some of you may know we had to get a conditional use

00:04:44.760 permit to use our our facility at Baldershof well in order to do that there was a number of projects

00:04:51.720 that needed to get done we have an extension or we had an extension until June the 1st to get those

00:04:57.080 projects done so that means a lot of our folks spent a lot of time and effort making sure we

00:05:02.200 made that deadline and had that success and I appreciate all their efforts we've had a lot of

00:05:07.720 of our folks here in the AFA Odenshof region go out to the Hof and work on the grounds,

00:05:17.640 work on the Hof itself, put in effort to make sure that we're at our best for hosting Midsummer

00:05:23.440 here in about a week and a half.

00:05:28.060 Really appreciate all the people that put in that effort to make that a really special

00:05:33.100 place for our folk together for midsummer and a place worthy of honoring the all father

00:05:43.180 ah okay we got somebody asking on an update on the fourth half

00:05:47.500 um so we're running some numbers to see where we're at and how close we are we have to

00:05:57.340 we're doing very well and you guys have been extremely generous

00:06:01.660 we got some projects we need to get in order here to financially be in a place to

00:06:06.780 go ahead and and make the fourth half happen the fourth half is going to be njordshoff

00:06:11.980 to honor the great god of the the benevolent sea of fishing and of fair waters and of of abundance

00:06:22.220 and prosperity and we want to honor him with amazing off we're looking at locations right

00:06:28.380 now that would be suitable before that happens we need to pay off the loan that was involved to get

00:06:34.940 the Thor's Hoff and Baldur's Hoff and we're getting very close to paying that off we also

00:06:41.260 need to build a war chest to be able to put down a down payment on New York's Hoff and we need to

00:06:46.940 secure our back-end finances enough to make sure we've got really good footing to not only get the

00:06:53.420 hoff but to maintain it and take care of you know any and all repairs that need to happen

00:06:58.300 so that's where we're at with hoff number four right now i'm excited about it i want to really

00:07:03.980 start up fundraising for making that happen here around midsummer and yeah that's something i want

00:07:11.020 to really try to get as close to as we can because i'm very excited and i know you guys are to get

00:07:16.620 an amazing Hoff to honor New York. Well, thank you, Nathan. I appreciate that.

00:07:28.060 So what kind of questions do we got this evening? What do you guys want to hear about?

00:07:32.540 What would you guys want to know a little bit more about?

00:07:36.220 Anything I can answer or anything I can help make a little bit clearer for anybody?

00:07:46.620 While I wait for some questions on the side, I want to mention something.

00:08:02.600 Our current social media channels are not the greatest format for what we'd like to do and for the discussions we'd like to have amongst our folk and our church.

00:08:11.280 um we have a lot of discussion going on on telegram i really appreciate all of the

00:08:19.680 enthusiasm and all of our wonderful people that want to have steady conversation on those telegram

00:08:25.100 groups it's great to see that they're lively and that they're you know energetic and we have a lot

00:08:30.700 of good stuff going on one thing that i want us all to be really mindful of and guard against

00:08:36.980 and I've seen this happen a lot and this is this is nothing new but I think telegram lends itself

00:08:43.480 to it a little bit more than some of our previous social media platforms when things are going

00:08:50.740 really good and we don't you know we look around and we don't have enemies to go after all too

00:08:58.640 often we turn on each other and we find the smallest bits of theoretical minutiae to get

00:09:06.560 into big protracted arguments about and it's silly and it's very easy for folks to get roped into

00:09:14.640 you know i've done that myself in the past but we need to guard against that we need to protect

00:09:20.400 the frith of our our house true folk assembly family and also just the brotherhood and the

00:09:27.600 family that is you know if we agree 95 then we're on the team we're we're allies we're brothers

00:09:37.600 we're together let's focus on the 95 that that make us make us together that make us part of

00:09:44.960 this afa family and not the five percent that's going to cause any kind of bickering

00:09:49.680 and what happens in those groups all too often we only focus on the guy we're going to bicker with

00:09:55.040 unfortunately we got a whole bunch of other people that are watching that that argument 0.98

00:09:59.680 and they watch when it gets petty and they watch when it gets stupid and unfortunately it doesn't 0.92

00:10:05.840 really encourage especially out of new people to get involved and want to be part of stuff

00:10:09.920 so please be mindful of that please don't fight amongst yourself over little tiny things let's

00:10:15.360 celebrate what brings us together instead of you know pulling it threads that that are going to end

00:10:20.320 up cause and strife amongst us. So please keep that in mind.

00:10:29.000 Hmm. All right, we got somebody wondering how to attract more

00:10:33.760 folks in their area. And they are asking this from Southern

00:10:37.780 Idaho. That's different because it's a different answer

00:10:43.600 depending on where you're at and what resources you have

00:10:45.740 available. Not sure what you got available to you in Southern Idaho. I don't have a great answer

00:10:58.880 on how to cast that big enough net that's going to bring people in. I think that if you're in a

00:11:03.960 small enough place, your reputation, folks knowing you as an Ossetruar and a member of the Ossetru

00:11:10.600 folk assembly is going to help pique their interest and bring them bring them in um i would

00:11:16.840 say wear your hammer out publicly and engage people in conversation when they ask about it

00:11:22.200 the uh the answer that i have this i think i do have something a little bit better to offer on

00:11:27.400 is what to do once you have somebody interested make real sure that when you set up an event

00:11:33.480 it suits the people that you want to have at it if it's you know a bunch of single guys

00:11:38.440 maybe going to a bar is just fine um but if it's families maybe you want to make sure you have it

00:11:43.560 at a place that's family friendly maybe you want it at a park maybe you want it at some place that

00:11:48.040 people feel comfortable bringing their families to think about that when you're doing it also think

00:11:53.480 about who you who you have coming to it if you know you know a certain demographic of folks that

00:11:59.880 you have are a little bit rowdier maybe introduce the families to some of your female members and

00:12:06.600 some of your calmer members you know maybe work on those dynamics of who you have in the group

00:12:13.640 because what you want to do is structure structure your group around what you want

00:12:20.360 that's going to be most healthy for the growth of our afa family you want that to outnumber the

00:12:26.440 people that aren't quite there yet because if you get more of the folks that aren't quite there yet

00:12:31.480 and you get the the folks that you really want these folks tend to push these folks away so what

00:12:37.720 you'd like to do is have most of the people where you're at where you want to see it go

00:12:42.040 and these outliers over here they can see this and then they can decide to want to become part of

00:12:47.320 this the the group suppose peer pressure sounds like a dirty word but in this case you know

00:12:54.200 wanting to conform to the way the group is is going to bring these people in instead of having

00:12:59.720 a lot of folks that aren't quite there yet making the people that are there uncomfortable. So think

00:13:04.760 about that dynamic when you get those people together. I found that's helpful during my time

00:13:09.960 as a folk builder. What's the best way to get in contact with Arizona members? Reach out to our

00:13:25.000 arizona folk builder sam ramsey s ramsey at runestone.org he would be happy to try to get

00:13:32.680 you connected and build those connections and make sure stuff gets going in arizona

00:13:37.160 and i would love to see more things happen in arizona

00:13:43.320 update on the afa forums uh that's a good question for cliff i know he's looking at options and he's

00:13:48.600 planning it out um it's a it's a time consuming process he's doing that all himself i know one of

00:13:55.320 the things he's looking at though is to make sure the forums have the capability for all the things

00:14:00.200 we want so we don't have to rebuild the forums every couple of months so he's looking for the

00:14:05.480 best solution that will grow with us so i know that he's actively looking for that and doing the

00:14:10.920 best he can. Yes, Rob, the video has started.

00:14:28.360 Jared asks, is somebody discovering Ausatru, where's the best place to get an overall understanding

00:14:35.680 of the lore and the mythology it depends because there's no one-stop answer there's a lot of things

00:14:44.860 that can help you distill it I think the nature of our lore is often fragmentary and so it's not

00:14:59.980 like a one-size-fits-all, everything's perfectly aligned. We don't have one holy book like the

00:15:06.560 Bible. We have many different pieces of lore from different places in different time periods.

00:15:12.780 I would suggest that you read the prose and poetic edits, but in doing so, you really need

00:15:18.760 a context to be able to fold that into and a lens to see it through. So I would encourage you to

00:15:24.960 simultaneously take a look at the culture of the Teutons by Bill Helm-Groenbeck.

00:15:30.460 And I think that those together will give you a good understanding of the basics of the mythology.

00:15:38.300 But as soon as you can, I would encourage you to see how that's practiced in a modern context,

00:15:43.660 to be in contact with your local AFA folk builder, and to ask questions to your local AFA Gauthier

00:15:49.580 githya and i think that you know those three pieces combined are going to give you the best

00:15:55.980 overview of what ausichu is what that mythology is and how it how it connects in a in a real and

00:16:02.700 practical way in 2021 uh yeah we've got tim asking if i could give folks some thoughts on

00:16:23.420 the importance of practicing house true in the modern day as opposed to uh recreationism so

00:16:32.700 and I think that a lot of us go through this stage. I know that this was, you know, a stage

00:16:39.180 I went through. I know that in a, in a bigger sense, it was a stage the AFA went through.

00:16:44.600 There's a tendency when we discover Ausatru to celebrate all things ancient and to idealize

00:16:52.580 bygone periods. Very often that's the Viking age. And those things are super cool. Don't let

00:16:58.320 anybody tell you that Matt said Vikings aren't cool. Vikings are awesome, but we're not Vikings.

00:17:03.500 And Vikings aren't the be-all, end-all of our faith. 0.87

00:17:07.800 Alcetru and greater Aryan religiosity goes back to our birth as a people.

00:17:14.360 It goes back at least into the glacial period.

00:17:17.680 The sacred sites in Scandinavia aren't from the Viking Age.

00:17:22.460 Most of the sacred sites are from the Neolithic period.

00:17:26.560 Our faith spanned literally, you know, hunters and gatherers killing mammoths to the present day and is going to span well into the future.

00:17:38.200 And so relegating in our mind that to a certain time period or a certain costuming to to look like people of the Viking age.

00:17:47.860 it it sounds like it may be more fun and may connect you but what it really does

00:17:56.140 is disconnects you from reality in the world that you live in and it subconsciously makes

00:18:04.660 you associate what we do with a bygone age instead of what we're doing right now

00:18:10.060 um living out so true believing in our faith and living and making it relevant to your existence

00:18:18.960 in 2021 and to your children's future that's the key to this being an actual religion and an actual

00:18:27.060 faith which it is which it's been practiced now for you know almost 55 years in the modern period

00:18:34.980 by devout religious people that have found meaning and value in their in their modern

00:18:40.280 current lives. So being aware of that's really important. It's important to acknowledge the past

00:18:47.800 but to spend spend so much time revering crumbling and decaying relics of times gone by

00:18:55.900 is a disservice to the amazing things that we're building right now. Being part of what we're doing

00:19:01.860 is is exciting we have an opportunity now that one day in the future people are going to have 0.88

00:19:07.540 a similar nostalgia to looking back upon and seeing the golden age of of the afas becoming

00:19:15.220 and growing and you get to be part of that we all get to share and being part of that together

00:19:19.460 and that's one of the most significant things we can do one thing that uh i i've often said in the

00:19:25.540 last you know a couple of years especially as i've had my daughter my daughter and you know

00:19:32.580 all of us with children you know five years older or less those children will never know a world

00:19:40.100 without temples to our gods in it and that's amazing especially coming from somebody who

00:19:45.220 found us a true 20 years ago the idea of us having a hof was you know a distant dream

00:19:52.380 Now we have a generation of children that will never know a world where we don't have temples to the gods.

00:19:59.260 And that's a special thing that we all get to be part of.

00:20:02.300 So take advantage of that. Be part of what we're doing.

00:20:21.700 see there you go we got another guy in southern idaho that would love to meet up if you guys could

00:20:28.300 go ahead and talk to each other in the side chat that would be fantastic if not um lucas houston

00:20:35.000 is our folk builder in idaho and he would love to help get you guys connected and foster what

00:20:39.820 you guys are building l houston at runestone.org and lucas would love to help you guys out

00:20:45.240 Okay, we've got Goethe Plurd asking the importance that I place on folks using their real names

00:21:05.740 and their real identities.

00:21:08.380 I think it's hugely important.

00:21:10.120 um I understand all of the reasons that people have that are uncomfortable with it and you know

00:21:19.060 some very serious concerns and some of the concerns I think are quite a bit overblown

00:21:24.580 I've noticed something that's true and you're gonna have to weigh the pros and cons in your

00:21:31.300 own life and for your own family but especially in the groups where we talk and where we interact

00:21:36.940 the folks with the outrageous fake name and the fake picture of you know a viking or some

00:21:43.880 historical figure or a cartoon character those people speak to you and speak to each other

00:21:51.340 in a way that they would never speak if their real picture and their real face was attached to it

00:21:56.920 and it's not because they're saying something that's you know so edgy or so politically

00:22:02.660 incorrect. It's because oftentimes they're just flat out rude. And one of the things that the

00:22:09.180 computer age that we're in, and I think we've all seen this over the last, you know, 10, 15, 20 years.

00:22:16.560 When you're behind a computer screen, you say stuff to other people that you'd never say in

00:22:20.820 person. And oftentimes when we say that, you're like, yeah, say that to my face. And, you know,

00:22:25.580 that's not it it's not of a fear of violent reprisal just basic human decency when you say

00:22:33.560 something to another person looking them in the face and you see in their eyes the effect that

00:22:38.660 your words and your demeanor have on them it's an entirely different thing so we want more of that

00:22:47.420 kind of interaction that you do when you know someone that's open-handed that you raise the

00:22:52.220 visor on your helmet and people can see each other face to face. We want more of that and less of the

00:22:58.100 anonymous internet interactions. And when we see that, when we require that of folks,

00:23:05.480 the quality of discourse and the frith is greatly increased. So I think it's extremely important.

00:23:13.640 One of the mission statements in our declaration of purpose is the banishment of alienation and

00:23:21.180 the building of of togetherness and bringing our folk home you can't do that with a fake name and

00:23:28.780 a fake picture and anonymously that can only be done by heartfelt real interactions by real people

00:23:34.500 with their real face their real name and their real identity and as jason points out only with

00:23:40.020 your real name and your real identity can you build your fame can you build your worth amongst

00:23:44.820 your folk which was so important to our ancestors and so is so important to us today so i think it's

00:23:50.980 extremely important. Sorry, guys, I'm reading over in the side and I want to make sure I get to all

00:24:18.880 of your great questions. I don't mean for there to be dead air. I'm just reading on the side and

00:24:23.300 seeing what folks are asking. How would be the best way to bring someone from a universalist

00:24:28.480 mindset towards the Asatru Folk Assembly? I was going to say something joking.

00:24:42.180 I think one of the best things isn't really something that you can do, but something that

00:24:49.140 life does. What I've seen is the most effective single thing at bringing universalists over to

00:24:56.760 our side is for them to have children. All the theories about acceptance of all kind of deviant

00:25:04.520 lifestyles and all the things that politically correct, you know, you get the cool social credit

00:25:09.960 for all those things are put in a very very different context the second you have children

00:25:16.360 and the second you need to worry about those children's future you need to worry about those

00:25:20.360 children's safety all of a sudden it hits universalists it hits all of us as new parents

00:25:27.960 in a way of like wow now we have a whole different responsibility but universalists

00:25:32.760 Because I've seen them, especially universalist mothers, do a complete 180 because now they have to go on on real things, not theories that, you know, make the politically correct crowd, give them give them cool points.

00:25:48.260 They have to worry about legitimately. Are their children safe when they turn their back and they're at an event with people with, you know, those kind of alternative lifestyles that are so embraced?

00:26:01.140 Does that make your child safe? Is that going to make your child successful?

00:26:05.820 You know, if you're in the extreme feminist crowd and all of a sudden you have a little boy, you know, what's your son's future going to look like? 1.00

00:26:13.220 And it changes the way that universalists and people just on the socially non-traditional spectrum really forces them to rethink that.

00:26:23.820 So much of universalism and leftist thought in general is about today and making everyone feel good right now.

00:26:33.300 But when you have children and you have a family, you're not just thinking about what's cool in 2021.

00:26:39.580 you're thinking about what kind of life your son or your daughter is going to have in, you know,

00:26:44.100 in 2060. And it really changes stuff and it brings a lot of folks around. So as life happens

00:26:50.320 and folks mature and they develop families, that's what brings universalists towards where

00:26:54.780 we're at. I don't think any logical argument is going to do it because they're so dead set on a

00:27:01.460 certain mindset. I think their experiences in life and like I say, the really important one

00:27:07.240 having a family that's what's going to bring universalists our way

00:27:18.680 does the afa have any kindreds in oregon that we know of not yet but we got one in the

00:27:24.360 probationary period you want to reach out to joe rozenich i'm a folk builder in the portland area

00:27:32.520 jrosenik at runestone.org maybe mandy can type that in the side for us there joe would be really

00:27:40.760 happy to let you know how that's progressing he's uh in charge of that kindred that's forming so

00:27:46.520 he'll be able to to give you the rundown on what's going on there and he'd be very happy to make

00:27:51.000 contact with you um joel asks is it true that camp natimus will not be open for winter nights

00:28:01.960 i don't believe so this is the first i've heard of that joel maybe you want to send me an email

00:28:05.960 on the back end and we can investigate that but uh no this is the first i've heard of that

00:28:10.440 so hopefully that's not true if not we'll figure out an alternative

00:28:31.160 Thanks, Mandy.

00:28:35.040 The link for Joe's email address is up on the side.

00:28:41.440 Still checking it out over on the side, seeing all the questions, I appreciate so much participation

00:28:45.520 tonight.

00:28:46.520 A lot of good comments on the side about Culture of the Teutons.

00:28:51.120 I love that book.

00:28:52.440 It can be very academic, it can be dry, and it repeats itself sometimes, but it's one

00:28:56.580 of the few books that I've read that every few pages I had to sit it down and just, it was

00:29:01.940 mind-blowing. Not that, not that the concepts were so, you know, so original you'd never thought of

00:29:08.460 them, but they were put in a way that was so succinct and so straight to the point that it

00:29:14.960 made everything coalesce in a, in a much clearer way than it had ever done before. It specifically

00:29:21.940 did that with the idea of frith to me. It explained frith in a way I'd never heard before,

00:29:27.340 and that has made all the difference to me ever since.

00:29:45.660 Still looking on the side.

00:29:47.300 And we appreciate you using your real name, and you always have, Mary.

00:29:54.160 I think that's a credit to you and your dignity.

00:30:17.300 All right. We got folks asking again about midsummer. I started off the show talking about

00:30:34.380 it, but I will gladly talk about it again here. Not this weekend, but the following weekend

00:30:41.200 is midsummer at Odenshoff. Biggest event of the AFA year typically. Our longest running national

00:30:48.260 event. It's going to be spectacular. Last year's was the highest attendance we'd ever had in an

00:30:55.940 AFA event. We're so proud of Odenshoff, our very first hoff. Our folks out at Odenshoff have put in

00:31:03.060 a lot of effort to make it really special for you guys this year. I'm looking forward to it. It's

00:31:08.300 going to be a great time. And if you guys want to sign up, please make sure you register at

00:31:13.100 www.runestone.org so that we know how many people are coming so that we can make sure we have enough

00:31:18.680 food and enough, you know, enough seating and enough things figured out. So please do let us

00:31:23.920 know in advance and we would love to see you guys there. Something else to let you all know about

00:31:30.140 homeschooling. The AFA has taken the first baby steps. Please don't expect more than is there,

00:31:36.720 but we're taking our first baby steps into consolidating and organizing we would like to

00:31:43.840 build a homeschool program for the australia folk assembly our first steps are figuring out

00:31:51.200 resources and requirements to help parents with the homeschooling process one of our biggest things

00:31:59.280 that we acknowledge about homeschooling and parents you guys are going to make your best

00:32:06.000 decision on what you want to do with your kid's education and what you're able to do and what

00:32:10.780 your family's, you know, economic reality is to do that. But if you can homeschool, we really

00:32:16.300 recommend it and think it's a great thing. And I think a lot of us would like to. And one of the

00:32:20.040 biggest hurdles is just the unknown and a fear of how do I get started and what do I do and what

00:32:26.360 does homeschooling look like? And so we're trying to gather resources to make that easier on parents

00:32:32.080 to where they know what to expect, to where they have resources, to where they have networking,

00:32:37.440 and to where we can help hold our folks' hands all the way through the homeschooling process

00:32:42.540 so that if we're able to, we can raise our kids and educate them in a healthy, beneficial

00:32:50.580 environment so where they grow up to be the men and women we want them to be.

00:32:55.100 And so we're working hard on that.

00:33:02.080 No, Joel, you raise a good point. And that is a concern with all of the various reactions to

00:33:15.340 COVID-19 and the lockdowns and things, the business impact on Camp Natimus is what we're

00:33:22.220 worried about maybe has affected them on not being able to have us. We are looking into it. Like I

00:33:27.300 said, I haven't heard that, so we want to check and make sure. I will ask the Ericsons tonight.

00:33:32.220 They will know a little bit better, but yeah, that's the only concern. Camp Nenimus has been

00:33:37.400 fantastic to the AFA. They know who we are, and they've dealt with us for many years now, and we

00:33:43.200 have a very good relationship with them, so hopefully their business is staying afloat

00:33:47.120 through the really hard economic times, especially for camps like that.

00:33:57.300 Jared, the AFA has absolutely performed marriages, funerals, and all kind of religious ceremonies.

00:34:06.820 I'd say the ones that we typically do are marriages, funerals, and baby namings.

00:34:12.220 And I have been overjoyed to have officiated four weddings now and countless baby namings.

00:34:27.300 and overjoyed isn't the right word but deeply honored to have uh been able to do four funerals

00:34:34.820 now um for fallen australia so we our clergy absolutely are both are perform weddings funerals

00:34:43.380 and you know many other religious functions and we are legally recognized our our weddings are

00:34:49.780 legally binding and yet we've done that for many years now got a visitor aubrey wants to say hi

00:35:11.940 to you guys tonight it's my beautiful daughter aubrey we got her a nice new dress today because

00:35:18.580 it's hot out so she needed some summer clothes but i always love having her on here uh to talk

00:35:23.540 to you guys and to show off my little girl because she's amazing and this is you know it's a big part

00:35:29.620 of why we do this and uh yeah mandy thank you for bringing her up here to to visit folks tonight

00:35:40.340 all right so jason was asking why why i think somebody else sure tend to be hesitant to pursue

00:35:46.260 success in today's world. And I think it's a complicated issue. I think folks that have been

00:35:54.500 around this sphere, folks that have been aware of troubles aimed at our people for many years

00:36:04.000 have gotten very used to a mindset of losing. And so, well, if they're going to lose,

00:36:10.600 they might as well lose in a in a big dropout catastrophic way. And it's really unfortunate, 0.98

00:36:16.460 because I think we've sacrificed a lot of success to those low expectations.

00:36:23.340 One of the other things I think we see more with young men, especially in our faith today,

00:36:30.700 is a growing sense that young heterosexual white men are no longer wanted, that they no longer,

00:36:39.280 You know, it used to be when I was growing up, we were told you could be anything that you wanted to be.

00:36:44.720 You know, if you put your mind to it, you can be whatever you want to be.

00:36:47.520 And I think more and more with hiring preferences and scholarship preferences and things like that, more and more young men are finding that young ladies, too.

00:37:02.140 But I think young men, it hits the hardest, are finding that they're they're unwanted in a lot of these places.

00:37:09.280 and that doors that were once open were closed to them and seeing that's devastating and I think it

00:37:15.760 it knocks them down and unfortunately some of them don't have the strength to get back up

00:37:20.840 and I want us all to lift those guys back up I want us all to be successful just because one

00:37:28.060 door closes there's so many that are open and there's so many paths to success I think when

00:37:34.600 we encounter failure we dwell on it instead of our opening our eyes to the opportunities that

00:37:40.360 are before us and uh you know rather than focusing on the things we don't have there's still a lot

00:37:46.840 of opportunity for success and uh we'll never be anything if we don't try we'll never accomplish

00:37:53.480 what we don't risk to to achieve so i think that what we can do is to lift each other up

00:38:01.640 to tell each other that we can and to find ways to support and help each other if you have a

00:38:07.080 business or an opportunity bring in members of your afa family to be part of it bring in your

00:38:13.320 brothers and sisters and help offer them a piece of the success that you've found share your success

00:38:21.240 with those around you share your success let's share our success with each other and i think

00:38:26.360 that's how we pull those people up and if they see you do it then it's much more conceivable

00:38:31.960 for them to see themselves doing it. So share success.

00:39:01.960 Jason, I'm going to disagree. I think that it does take wealth to have a lot of success. And I think you can define wealth differently. I don't think wealth is just dollar bills, but a lot of it, a lot of it is.

00:39:20.980 We may not like it, but money is necessary in the world that we live in.

00:39:26.320 And we shouldn't be afraid of it or treat it like a bad thing.

00:39:29.980 And we shouldn't be made uncomfortable or dislike money if we find ourselves in a spot where we don't have it.

00:39:39.360 In the world that we live in, currency matters.

00:39:43.080 That's how you buy the things that you need to be successful.

00:39:45.800 And it's how you provide the life for yourself and your family that you want.

00:39:50.160 I know that that may not be optimal and we may not like that, but it's still very true and truth is one of our virtues. I think that as long as we tell ourselves that money is not important, that leads to that situation of failure.

00:40:08.160 I think that wealth and abundance has always been extremely important to our ancestors.

00:40:13.840 I think it's extremely important to us now.

00:40:16.320 And I don't think it's just about stockpiling cash, but it's about what you can buy and what you can do with it.

00:40:22.080 You can use that to provide a better life for you and your family. 0.77

00:40:25.480 You can use that to support fellow Ocetor that are down on their luck.

00:40:30.240 If you have an abundance of it, you can use it to, you know, help us get yours off.

00:40:35.700 you can use it to contribute to things that matter to you um currency is important and i think we're

00:40:40.900 doing ourselves a disservice when we uh when we act as though it's not or when we tell ourselves

00:40:46.820 it's not because the reality is it's very important uh the afa does uh our members do interact and

00:40:58.100 worship um land spirits and house spirits very often that's done in a private way on people's

00:41:06.100 property um in their home or in their yard or on the land that they have we often honor them i know

00:41:12.100 that we honor the land spirits on the hof land that we have at all three of our hofs one of the

00:41:19.140 important things to us is to get to know the history of the land those hofs are on not just

00:41:23.860 since we've had it but to know a little bit about the place and where it comes from and what it's

00:41:28.260 been through because the spirits of the land are very important and we occupy space with

00:41:32.660 them and we want to have a good relationship with them

00:42:02.660 got a lot of good talk over on the side i'm all for encouraging folks to buy and barter product

00:42:15.540 within the afa if you can if you have goods and services that you want to exchange with other afa

00:42:21.220 members for goods and services i think that's a great way to keep our resources in our community

00:42:27.220 which is always a really nice thing to do and a really preferable thing to do if we can

00:42:32.660 mary mentions that we have a lot of skilled tradesmen in the austro folk assembly

00:42:37.380 unfortunately that kind of relies on proximity but the afa is is spread all across the united

00:42:44.900 states and in many countries around the world it's worth looking into if you have somebody

00:42:50.260 in the trades in your area that that can help you with uh with the jobs you need done because

00:42:55.140 we've got a lot of great people in the afa with a lot of great skills so it's definitely worth

00:42:59.060 looking into what else do we got this evening what else would like folks like to have answered

00:43:17.940 or i guess would folks like to hear me talk about

00:43:22.500 i know we got a lot of stuff going on um

00:43:25.060 Um, summertime, we've got a lot of busy people.

00:43:30.280 Um, we have a pretty good ongoing conversation on the side about wealth and about money.

00:43:36.500 And you're right, Jason, money does come and go and success is more permanent than that.

00:43:45.160 But that said, and there's many verses in the Have Them All in our lore about being able to own your own home, being able to not have to beg for your next meal.

00:43:55.060 being able to have things, even if it's humble. Financial success sets you up for bigger successes

00:44:03.000 in your life. Because of lack of financial success, we've seen all those things that we

00:44:10.880 value much more than money. We've seen a lot of those go by the wayside. One of the leading causes

00:44:17.840 of divorce in the United States is money. Economic times get tough. People can't afford things.

00:44:23.840 people start going without and whether we like it or we don't it breaks up families

00:44:30.320 so many people have had to give their children up for adoption because they didn't have the means

00:44:35.360 to support them financial success builds a foundation that we can build all those other

00:44:42.640 much more important successes on but if we don't have the ability to to provide for those basic

00:44:48.800 needs with finances all those other things we we find all of a sudden they're out of our grasp um

00:44:59.200 yeah it's unfortunate but financial success is is extremely important

00:45:03.280 and we do ourselves an extreme disservice when we act like it's not

00:45:06.720 as far as mandy's research goes looks like camp natimus is doing fine and it looks like and we

00:45:20.960 are guaranteed this year now i make no guarantees about next year i'm not sure you know all their

00:45:26.080 economic conditions but at least as far as this november we're locked in and we should be good

00:45:36.720 Yes, Crystal, there are othings and presentations planned for midsummer.

00:45:41.720 The specifics of those, I think we're getting a little bit dialed in.

00:45:46.720 Some of those othings are going to be a little bit spontaneous this year,

00:45:51.720 but we definitely have some folks getting oathed in and it's going to be a really special event.

00:46:06.720 I hope I'm understanding the question on the side about Dr. Flowers and his works.

00:46:25.260 Can you elaborate a little bit more?

00:46:27.220 I think we got James over there.

00:46:28.640 What exactly are you asking about Dr. Flowers' works?

00:46:36.720 All right, well, in the meantime, I will give you my little spiel about Dr. Flowers, also known as Edred Thorson and his works.

00:47:06.720 so he is one of the one of the innovators of modern altitude and his contributions have been

00:47:15.440 extreme um his work on germanic studies and specifically on the runes since i believe the

00:47:25.680 early 1980s has been you know groundbreaking to say the least and as far as i know he is

00:47:33.200 the most knowledgeable source on the runes on all the runic systems of anyone that i know about

00:47:41.280 certainly and you know with his access to information i wager he probably knows more about

00:47:47.040 the runes and the systems associated with them than perhaps anyone who's ever lived

00:47:54.560 he's certainly a controversial man he has lived a very interesting life if anybody is curious

00:48:00.960 the history of the rune guild is a very honest you know brief autobiography of

00:48:07.840 of stephen flowers dr stephen flowers and it's a very interesting read he's led a very interesting

00:48:14.080 life um the afa doesn't endorse all of his views on things or all of his religiosity or his morality

00:48:23.280 or how he internalizes right and wrong.

00:48:31.580 That's not to condemn the man,

00:48:33.100 but it is to say that his way of doing things

00:48:35.780 and his way of living is certainly different

00:48:37.700 than ours or what we would endorse.

00:48:40.100 But his knowledge on the runes

00:48:42.040 and on runic magic is untouchable.

00:48:45.580 It is the best that's available out there.

00:48:48.320 And we do ourselves a disservice

00:48:49.660 if we're not willing to take a look at that

00:48:51.500 and learn from the work that he's put in.

00:48:55.800 Some of his books that I think are the most important

00:48:59.340 and I hope you guys take a look at,

00:49:02.240 Futhark is always the go-to one.

00:49:05.800 It's ironic because he looks back on that

00:49:07.920 as one of his earlier works

00:49:09.060 as something he's not particularly proud of

00:49:11.380 and he thinks he's done much better things.

00:49:13.120 But Futhark is certainly fundamental to a lot of things.

00:49:18.400 Rune Might is another good book

00:49:20.400 that talks about, you know, operative runology. Alu talks again about the runes. It talks a little

00:49:27.240 bit more about the Anglo-Saxon Futhork. And it talks a little bit more about practice and things

00:49:34.000 that you can do with it in a magical context. And I think that's really important. I also really

00:49:41.980 like his Mysteries of the Goths. You don't hear about it a lot, but it was very, very informative

00:49:49.300 to me it talks about a subject of our our lore that that's often overlooked and i think that's

00:49:55.460 a very good book if you can find it so those are my favorite things that dr flowers has uh

00:50:00.420 has written again the guy's not a saint i'm not telling you guys you need to go out and

00:50:05.140 live like dr flowers and you don't need to follow all of his you know rather eccentric

00:50:11.940 esoterics but those things are very valuable and his nine doors of midgard is a very valuable book

00:50:18.420 as well i learned a lot from that i think we're all better off if we you know go through that

00:50:24.340 book and take the things of value from it lane's asking for updates on the new book of blowtar

00:50:34.900 we're not really going to name it the book of blowtar but it's going to replace the current

00:50:38.500 afa book i say current the outdated afa book of blowtar that's circulating which the afa no longer

00:50:44.660 endorses uh no unfortunately lane that project is taken quite a while we are working on it

00:50:52.500 uh we've got some good people working on it but i i don't have a good update for you and i wish that

00:50:56.580 that I did. All right, last couple of things, and I do have to go here shortly for my Witten

00:51:17.500 meeting. Jason's asking about what I think the importance of diet, exercise, and basically

00:51:23.960 physical health is um to your soul complex and to your practice as an outsider um it's

00:51:31.600 extremely important i talked to uh steve mcnalen a number of years about ago about this and

00:51:37.320 we both agreed that um issues of of being in shape have huge spiritual relevance and

00:51:46.660 you know everybody's got all different degrees of where their starting point is or maybe

00:51:52.460 even where their genetic, you know, what they can and can't accomplish. But I think to all of us,

00:51:58.280 we should be better a month from now than we are now. We should be a little bit stronger,

00:52:03.440 a little bit faster, a little bit leaner, a little bit, you know, more muscular, a little bit

00:52:08.180 better physically at whatever we're trying to do. And I think we can always make improvements.

00:52:15.880 One of the keys to our faith is that it's a holistic faith. The idea of wholeness and

00:52:21.060 completeness is at the very root of holy and the things that we find sacred. And to be a complete

00:52:27.020 man or woman, having that physical health intact is a huge reflection of that. And your degree of

00:52:34.140 how in shape you are is a powerful testament to your willpower, to your determination,

00:52:40.420 to your discipline. Those things are extremely important. I think that also how we are in shape

00:52:48.320 affects how others see us. It affects our fame and it affects our presence when we're amongst

00:52:53.640 people and how they perceive us. And I think that we owe it to ourselves, to our AFA family,

00:52:59.500 and to our actual family, to our ancestors. We owe it to the gods to be the best version of

00:53:05.620 ourselves we can. And being in good shape is a huge part of that. So it's always been important

00:53:11.860 to me. It's important to the Astro Folk Assembly to see all of our people be in as good a shape

00:53:16.720 as they can. It's healthy. It keeps you free from a lot of so many of our people suffer from

00:53:23.440 problems that come directly with obesity. And that's a shame. And that's something that's very

00:53:29.640 in the scheme of things, easily fixable, easy in the sense that we can identify what's wrong

00:53:36.200 and how to fix it. And the steps to do it are logical and make sense. The willpower to do it

00:53:42.020 another story and that can be very difficult but the most we can do to keep ourselves from obesity

00:53:50.100 to help our fellows bring themselves out of obesity and then not only to not be obese but

00:53:55.940 to try to achieve our goals physically and athletically those are the hallmarks of things

00:54:03.380 that our ancestors certainly used to notice as marks of nobility you see that a lot in greek

00:54:09.540 and roman culture you certainly see that in germanic history and culture the ability to do

00:54:16.260 to achieve and to excel at sports and competition is was a way of testing that and encouraging it

00:54:22.900 so physical excellence is extremely important and i hope that we all do our best to be a little bit

00:54:27.860 live better tomorrow than we are today.

00:54:57.860 Well, Melinda, I hope that we don't become a bunch of snobby fit folks, but I hope we

00:55:07.800 do become a bunch of fit folks, because I think that's, we should shoot to be the best

00:55:12.920 we can be.

00:55:13.920 And though some of us aren't there yet, in truth, all of us aren't there yet.

00:55:19.100 The closer we can get to it, and the closer we can get each other to it, the better off

00:55:23.360 we are and the better off our descendants are.

00:55:26.860 I want us to be as fit and as great as we can be. But no, we don't want to be snobby about it.

00:55:31.140 You're absolutely right. I don't know if it's a serious question or not, but I'll touch on the

00:55:38.980 alien thing. There's a lot of strange things out there. I think that folks need to realize that

00:55:43.740 unidentified means just that. It doesn't always mean alien or little green men. Sometimes it

00:55:48.520 means stuff we just don't know what it is. I am aware that there's been some recent things with

00:55:54.460 the Navy and some disclosure stuff about UFOs. That's fascinating. I don't have any huge position

00:56:00.660 on it. Um, I think most people, if you ask them if aliens exist somewhere in the universe,

00:56:06.200 they will say yes. If you ask if they currently visit us and, you know, come around and bother

00:56:13.300 people and abduct people, they would say no. I think there's probably some in between there,

00:56:19.160 but I have no position on aliens. Another thing a little bit, and I hope that I understand the

00:56:31.620 question. Can I talk a little bit about the divine intervention in our natural world

00:56:37.480 and how that contrasts with Judeo-Christian philosophy?

00:56:44.380 I don't know if this gets to it or not. If it doesn't, I apologize. I hope it gets a little

00:56:48.640 bit closer. One of the biggest ways that the divine interact with the world around us is

00:56:57.480 through synchronicities, through spiraling levels of coincidence that are beyond reasonable

00:57:08.840 probabilities. I have found in my own life, in the life of the AFA, in the life of other people,

00:57:15.680 the more following the uh the rhido rune of right action in the right time the more they get their

00:57:24.880 lives right before the gods the better things start happening the more opportunity presents

00:57:32.660 itself to them the more things subtly begin to go right for them and they become in the flow

00:57:39.620 of nature and in the flow of good and right action around them. The more we deviate from that,

00:57:46.340 the more we become disconnected from that flow. And the harder things are. I believe there's all

00:57:52.500 kind of ways that the gods, our ancestors, and the spirits around us interact to make little

00:57:58.080 things happen in life better than they would normally, or different than they would normally.

00:58:04.560 And I think we tap into that when we become spiritually potent ourselves. And I think we tap into that when we develop a better relationship with the divine. And I think one way we do that is being part of the AFA.

00:58:19.160 I think together, our collective work that we do for the Aesir yields sync, uh, syncretic

00:58:27.500 benefits. I've seen that in my life. I know that to be true. And, uh, a lot of people

00:58:33.140 who've been in, in the AFA for a long time have, uh, have noticed that to be true in

00:58:37.900 their lives as well. So I think synchronicity is the most potent or the most common way

00:58:43.600 that the divine interact within the world around us. I hope that gets to what you're

00:58:47.820 asking. All right, guys. Well, I appreciate you being here tonight. I appreciate, I look forward

00:59:12.440 to talking to you guys every month. It's one of my favorite things that I get to do. I hope you

00:59:17.160 guys are having an amazing summer. Hope you guys all have an amazing midsummer. I hope I see all

00:59:22.400 of you out at Odenshoff to celebrate midsummer with me. If I do, fantastic. I'd love to shake

00:59:28.380 your hand and give you a hug in person. If not, I hope I see you soon in another AFA event.

00:59:33.940 Meantime, have a great summer with you and your family, and then get out and meet other AFA

00:59:39.060 members. Interact with your AFA family. But I've got the Witten meeting to go to, so I've got to

00:59:43.720 Call it a night this evening.

00:59:45.540 With that, hail the gods, hail the folk, hail the AFA.

00:59:49.340 Good night.

Asatru Folk Assembly - June 03, 2021

June 2021 Live Discussion

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