Asatru Folk Assembly - Let's Discuss the Allfather (from VNS Episode 15)

00:00:00.000 Let's discuss the All Fathers. Svahn, where do you think is a good place to start a discussion

00:00:13.520 about Odin? Oh, that's a big, broad chunk of a lot of things. I think first and foremost,

00:00:23.600 we should talk about how the nature of divinity amongst the Assetra Folk Assembly.

00:00:31.080 I think that it's important for us to establish first and foremost that when we talk about the gods,

00:00:35.940 we're not talking about the gods as some sort of a profile.

00:00:38.900 We're not digging through bits of lore with the intentions of fitting them into things that we need to fit,

00:00:49.380 that we we we hold um first and foremost gift cycle and that we see the divine as

00:00:58.420 uh truly living and willful uh moving and and dynamic especially the all father so um you know

00:01:08.980 establishing that and making sure that people understand that when we talk about the lore and

00:01:12.900 we talk about things that we read and when we look at comparative things whether it's uh you know uh

00:01:19.380 So pan-Germanicism, pan-Aryanism, specifically, or even pan-Nordicism, if we're talking about the differences between, say, like the pro-Zetas and the sagas, or like when we paint pictures of Odin in Grimnismaur versus like the Volsunga sagas and the way that he's perceived.

00:01:46.220 uh you know sometimes we have to understand that these these stories are meta-narratives but also

00:01:54.460 narratives still and uh with with an intended audience and with an intended purpose to speak

00:02:00.840 the stories and to um portray things so i think that first and foremost seeing the gods um

00:02:10.020 And firstly, with how we have interacted with the gods is most important. And then moving into lore and things like that. And of course, right now, I'm a big believer right now that Odin is on the wild hunt right now.

00:02:27.600 So I'm a big believer on the idea that at the equinox begins the starting of the wild hunt, and it doesn't end until, you know, towards Yule tide.

00:02:37.320 Or I would say if you're Anglo-Saxon or Theode, you know, if you're doing only three days, they might consider it at Yule.

00:02:45.060 But it's generally right around the full moon or in the middle of Yule that I view the wild hunt ends.

00:02:53.520 so you know it's very auspicious i think we had a very auspicious moment that happened

00:02:59.760 at winter nights and so um seeing the gods as living real willful dynamic and all-encompassing

00:03:11.120 their abilities to move in and out and above and through weird itself um is first and foremost

00:03:18.820 And then we move into other things like where does the where does Wodhanaz as a name come from?

00:03:27.560 Where does it come from for our people and what does it establish?

00:03:30.740 And I think that it's pretty much well agreed upon that Wodh or Vodh and most likely would be Wodh with a W.

00:03:40.020 The V sound seems to be a later addition or a transition in the 10th century to 12th century in Europe, especially in Germany.

00:03:53.760 but woe seems to have a root towards fury and the idea of furious mental state furious uh maybe even

00:04:03.140 a climate state or um even a state of of psychosis within certain situations whether it's in poetic

00:04:12.760 or singing of runic songs or being in battle and experiencing that kind of sense of uh fury and

00:04:20.800 inspiration and or confusion mixed in the two, I think. A kind of a moment of clarity

00:04:27.680 so focused that everything else seems to disappear. So you become, I shouldn't say

00:04:36.000 confusion, but maybe unawareness of the big picture and a hyper focus on the moment or the

00:04:42.820 central focus of time. And it seems to be that from expanding from that, we have the idea of

00:04:49.840 consciousness in humans uh within you know the folk as he is the god of hyper consciousness

00:04:59.440 um so when we when we talk about wothe in that hyper conscious state we're referring to that

00:05:07.600 deep focus um yeah so i mean when we're we talk about woldenaz uh there's differences in the

00:05:18.640 possibility at the end there i know that woad obviously seems to be connected to fury and

00:05:23.660 inspiration it survives in uh old norse's odr or odr and it's it that means furiousness um

00:05:31.640 if uh if you see somebody who's older like in icelandic it's like somebody with a fist and

00:05:38.000 they're hyper ready to go um and you know there's a sense of caution to the word too

00:05:45.480 So, I mean, this could relegate to the idea of both hyper-focus and hyper-consciousness on memorizing poetic, singing rune songs, or also all the way down and into the Berserker or the Ulfhiedner and their preparations for battle or the battle itself.

00:06:07.460 So I think that that part is covered when we think of Wothe, but the Anas part, too, is interesting.

00:06:15.980 There's been some theories as to, like, whether the A-S or A-Z, most likely the farthest that I can go back is the A-S, like, suffix of the Goths, the Gutens, excuse me.

00:06:31.740 the Gutens were more, uh, they, they, um, often put an AS at the end. So, um, correlating the

00:06:39.760 differences between masculine and feminine seem to be correlated in that. Uh, and also to the idea

00:06:46.560 that, um, people have proposed that the AS or AS at the end is kind of where we get the word

00:06:52.760 Aus in the late Nordic period. So Wolven Aus or Wolven Aus kind of being led to that as a

00:07:02.820 the furious divine one. So, I mean, name structure, I think, is important because we understand and

00:07:14.320 begin to relate to him through our language first and foremost. And when we start this,

00:07:21.220 we have our branch, the Germanic branch, and we need to try to understand everything about it

00:07:27.860 in correlation to him through our language. I think that's important. I think that's one of

00:07:33.760 his highest functions. So when we talk about sounds and we talk about runes or the symbols

00:07:39.080 of sounds, language is probably the first place to start with trying to build relationship with

00:07:46.640 him. All right. So let's, let's pause for a second. I think it was

00:07:52.640 a very good idea to start with our understanding of what a God is and what a God isn't.

00:08:05.720 And I think is a really good second step is understanding the name and the implications

00:08:11.280 of the name. But on that first step, I'm trying to think of the best way to start it. With so much

00:08:23.020 of the conversation tonight, it's difficult to know where to start. And I think that's an issue

00:08:28.920 with how to choose a faith in general. It's so all-encompassing that it's hard to pick a

00:08:33.420 good starting point and work from it as far as what the gods are they are the source of our

00:08:43.000 existence and in that sense they are our most ancient of ancestors but what i think is fundamental

00:08:52.380 to our practice is that the gods are our beings they exist they have personality they have will

00:09:01.820 They have emotion. They have the things that make a person have person-ness.

00:09:08.800 And the fundamental on that isn't the silliness of needing Sky Daddy.

00:09:16.600 The fundamental of that is the participation in a gift cycle.

00:09:22.760 And the gift cycle is the very root of our ritual structure, be it within our social group, be it involving our ancestors, and ultimately and perhaps most profoundly in our relationship with the gods.

00:09:38.460 In order for, if the gods were just some kind of psychic function or archetype or something devoid of personality, then the gift cycle lacks meaning.

00:09:57.120 And at that point, it becomes a science project.

00:10:00.440 When we're dealing with beings and persons who have personality, then the gift cycle is fundamentalism and is everything.

00:10:10.480 Building bonds through relationship, through devotion, through making offerings and through receiving offerings and blessings is at its very core what Arian faith is and what it's about.

00:10:23.620 And so the discussion is, we don't have a point to discuss unless we can establish that fundamental, that the perspective we are coming from is that our gods are real and exist, and they exist as persons with personality and with will.

00:10:45.760 And I think that's extremely important. And I just wanted to make sure we hammer that home

00:10:50.000 a little bit before we get a little deeper into what Odin's name is and what that means.

00:11:00.000 Svahn, in the most simple breakdown, how would you explain what the name Odin translates to?

00:11:09.120 I would say it translates to fury projected into mankind, his consciousness, his soul,

00:11:30.680 and the willful manifestation of action and fury within the cosmos.

00:11:41.120 Seeing the dynamicism of Wothen leads me to believe that that function,

00:11:46.300 that root word Woth, that is what he greatly represents as he functions through these.

00:11:57.400 whether we're looking at stories whether we're looking at personal um events things that people

00:12:04.160 have had happen to them or uh their workings with certain things i would say would always

00:12:09.520 kind of denote that there is a sense of fury but the fury isn't necessarily something i would say

00:12:17.820 it would be akin to um the the furious motion of falling suddenly the kind of this quick and

00:12:25.040 absolute rush of power um whether it's internally in the mind or whether it's externally

00:12:32.240 as as he moves and does things i think it's fundamental when we're talking about this that

00:12:39.400 folks let we run into this a lot that language and certainly language as it's come down to us today

00:12:50.020 lacks some of the depth and breadth required to express metaphysical or deeply spiritual

00:12:58.720 things. In this context, for everybody listening, fury is synonymous with ecstasy, is synonymous

00:13:08.940 with overwhelming inspiration. Everything that Svon said is absolutely correct.

00:13:16.580 um I when when asked myself to translate I take Odin's name to mean the uh the master of inspiration

00:13:29.120 or the master of the fury the master of that ecstasy and I think that that points to the will

00:13:36.640 that Svan talked about the will the fury so when I talk about mastery mastery implies

00:13:42.620 command of or willful execution of. And so I think those are our fundamentals in understanding

00:13:51.120 the All-Father and in starting on the right page of that understanding.

00:13:56.280 And it seems that the ecstasy seems to also correlate to the idea of speed. That may be

00:14:03.420 why it means furious. Furiousness is a suddenness, a great and overwhelming quickness of a sudden

00:14:11.120 inspiration or a sudden realization of action that needs to be done. And that correlates pretty

00:14:18.840 clearly with Odin's aspect as, you know, the chooser of the slain. When we're talking about

00:14:26.420 these moments of battle, that would really, you know, the sudden and quickness of things,

00:14:32.120 how things happen. But it can, it applies, I think, more so to, yes, consciousness and that

00:14:38.820 suddenness and there's a certain notion of speed so i think that's why fury it does get

00:14:44.780 misconstrued but it also fits it's ecstatically fast moment of either a mental or physical

00:14:53.720 initiation or um uh inspiration slash uh willful manifest to do something

00:15:05.200 all coalescing in it in perfect timing i it's kind of hard to explain that but to say like the

00:15:12.500 furious god people could take that in a lot of ways and there are there's a lot of lore that

00:15:18.300 would suggest fury just as in the power and anger uh fury as it denotes in our in our language

00:15:25.660 could apply but it's deeper than that all right well and so i assume that most of our audience

00:15:32.760 has a familiarity with Odin already. So I don't think that any of these shows that we do on Our

00:15:37.400 Gods are going to be comprehensive, but they're a good starting point to see where the audience

00:15:44.280 is going to take us and what questions might come. Sarah asks, Odin has many different names.

00:15:51.240 Can you speak on this and what perhaps the reason is for that? Do you have ideas on that Svon?

00:15:57.000 Oh, absolutely. First and foremost, when we're talking about the late Nordic period, we have to remember that the scalds, the schulds of the Anglo-Saxons and the scalds of the late Nordic period, it's worth noting that I think the biggest and most pivotal thing for them was the understanding of the divine inspiration that was given from Odin.

00:16:27.000 through kvassir's blood or kvassir's blood and um so when you have that connective point

00:16:36.200 and it is seen culturally that when they're speaking they're speaking in a divine sense

00:16:42.040 the higher and the better that they speak they have this power over the the audience they have

00:16:47.660 this kind of pinnacle sense and they are more than just mere entertainment in the hall um it's

00:16:55.840 it's pretty well understood that not only are they pulling from lore,

00:17:02.300 but they're also committing to memory these names.

00:17:06.520 So I'm not saying that the Scalds created the names entirely,

00:17:09.660 maybe some of them for sure,

00:17:10.860 but they commit them to memory with great reason because in a lot of ways,

00:17:15.800 their poetic sense was a devotional act in and of itself.

00:17:21.360 and so having the committed memory of all of the haiti of odin is i think incentive it's they have

00:17:31.760 motive um and in a lot of things i mean i've even heard of people committing to like saying all of

00:17:38.960 the haiti as a meditative form of like almost like a mantra in which they recite out the names of

00:17:45.360 and all the names and haiti of Odin.

00:17:50.460 So, and you can see this in the Skel-Drapismal,

00:17:54.960 where they talk about the different names of the gods,

00:17:57.320 and clearly, and in Grimnismal,

00:17:59.840 where they talk about Odin in specifics,

00:18:02.240 having multiple haitis, multiple names,

00:18:05.700 and all of them diluting to,

00:18:07.720 or not diluting, but alluding to different functions,

00:18:11.500 whether it's oski which means the wish or the word wish or to give of wishes or um

00:18:18.860 even yig uh y-g-g-r where we get yigdrasil you know it's terrible um or belver bolverk you know

00:18:28.540 bail worker all these names um seem to have both syncretic function in the story or they're listed

00:18:37.260 And they're committed to memory because the Skalds are devoting their mental space to memorizing these Haithi and showing the different aspects.

00:18:50.200 And knowing how high he had a place within the poetic circles, it would give reason as to why they were known more than, say, perhaps other Haithis.

00:19:01.020 So when you look at names like Odin's high in poetry, but not high in names. Thor is high in names. When you see the folk, they name their children Thorstein or Thorpjarn or something of that nature.

00:19:20.020 There's a lot of usage of Thor in children's names, but there isn't a lot in Odin's name.

00:19:27.600 And perhaps maybe they make allusions to other hypties, but the only one that comes to my mind right off the bat is Odindis, which was a woman's name and saying she's a maiden of Odin.

00:19:39.380 It's not used a lot.

00:19:40.620 So we can look at poetic names, physical names, and place names.

00:19:46.420 And I think that's important.

00:19:47.340 And there's a lot of place names dedicated to Odin that would show application and popularity, perhaps, in the Old Norse.

00:19:55.760 But the reason why it's crystal clear in the poetics is because the Skalds are one of the top-tier devotional folks of Odin, the followers.

00:20:11.300 I think they were the premier cult of Odin at their time.

00:20:14.580 And there may have been other cults of Odin previously. And when we talk about like hound cults or wolf cults and things like that, or battle cults, and we could go into that. But we know at the time, especially with later Nordic periods and the things that Snorty was pulling from, it was the skulls that were probably the last and final true strong cult of any of the gods of the folk.

00:20:44.580 I think that when we deal with the names of our gods, when we deal with the imagery that attends our gods,

00:20:59.680 and when we deal with all of the other names our gods are known by,

00:21:05.680 that's very much a story of the relationship of our folk to our divinity.

00:21:12.400 and what that looks like words are all about communication and what that evokes and over the

00:21:26.220 lifespan of the Aryan race of man our people have encountered Odin in

00:21:36.460 a myriad ways at different points in their life in different circumstances. It's one of the things 0.87

00:21:44.340 when Svan was talking to us a little bit about the name that was implied in it was the dynamic

00:21:51.120 dynamicism was all of the diverse facets that make up this just amazing and mysterious and

00:22:02.220 fascinating god um he is each of those things and he is all of those things and he shows one face

00:22:11.140 to his friends and one face to his foes um i would further posit that at no point in time did he

00:22:20.620 appear in the flesh before you know ancient haplogroup ancestor of ours and say hi my name's

00:22:29.620 Ovin. I think that us referring to that God by that name is part of that process of how we know

00:22:38.260 him and what we know of him. And so I think that says a lot about the relationship our ancestors

00:22:45.200 had with him and the role he played in their life and in their cultures.

00:22:53.580 It's kind of random. I don't know if it really relates to the question, but one of the things

00:22:57.900 that I think is a particularly profound aspect of our relationship with Odin is that he is

00:23:07.620 the god of kings. And we have other gods that in different parts of Europe serve a similar

00:23:15.180 function, but I would say more royal houses than any other trace that lineage back to Odin as the

00:23:22.340 the sire of that line, and do so even well, well into Christian times.

00:23:30.480 Very late, the kings of Spain would trace their lineage back to Oven. For all I know,

00:23:39.960 the current House of Spain might as well, I'm not sure, but it's really surprising at the

00:23:46.360 the breadth of that and how long that lineage kept on even after our gods the worship of our

00:23:53.160 gods has fallen out of fashion so i think that's worth mentioning um brandy says have either

00:24:01.540 the alzharia gothi or witten harrell ever had a personal experience with odin in bloat or

00:24:08.960 personal circumstance that they would be willing to share it's fun step up to the plate what

00:24:16.340 you got for us? Oh, a personal experience. Okay. This one is kind of hard for me in the sense that

00:24:28.800 I've always brought a sense of trying to logically reckon the situation I'm in. It's a habit. It's

00:24:40.360 sometimes a bad habit i think uh because it doesn't allow me to open up fully um i've had

00:24:46.680 a couple of experiences uh in runic things um uh receiving um auspices during runes runic things

00:24:56.720 like that um i think also to having a visual i've had one moment of a visual something i was very

00:25:03.840 young and i i was scared half the death of of an of something standing across a lake from me

00:25:10.880 uh that was very tall and and dark shadowed and just clearly made of cloth or something

00:25:17.200 moving across the way but there was nothing over there there would be no reason for anything man

00:25:21.120 made to be over there and there wasn't there when the light was on like the sunlight and everything

00:25:25.600 was, was out, uh, suddenly there was this, um, presence, but I can say both, uh, through a dream

00:25:36.620 and also an interesting thing that happened quite recently. Um, uh, firstly through the dream when

00:25:43.500 I was very, I was, I was young as a teenager, mid-teens, 16, 17, I had a dream, uh, in which

00:25:50.740 I can remember quite vividly. I was little in the dream. I was a young child. And I remember

00:25:57.160 because I looked down upon myself and saw a shirt that I had worn when I was little. And I mean,

00:26:03.620 perhaps that's an echo of the time looking down at that shirt when I was a child. But in the dream,

00:26:08.340 it was pretty clear. And that's what indicated to me that I was a child. And I was standing upon a

00:26:15.000 road and the road was enclosed with branches that kind of formed almost like a roof along the road

00:26:21.360 and I couldn't see the end of the road and suddenly as soon as I kind of began to digest

00:26:28.660 that I was a child and that I was standing on this road then I understood that there was a presence

00:26:33.900 next to me um and I saw a hand an older or an elder hand um and I remember it very clear and

00:26:41.740 as i looked up i couldn't make out a face um and just the sense of like an older wise

00:26:53.340 very powerful presence and uh there was a voice and the voice said are you ready and i said yes

00:27:02.240 and then i was kind of urged to walk the road it was kind of like a hand grabbing my hand and

00:27:11.180 just going to to move down the road wasn't walking with me was just kind of an initiation of it like

00:27:18.480 okay begin and then that was i woke up from that and that was one dream um and then recently i i

00:27:25.580 held uh bloat to odin and this is a more roundabout because there's no direct presence but i was i was

00:27:33.120 asking Odin that if I am to go in a direction, if I am on this road, and I've referenced this

00:27:45.560 dream often when I talk to Odin in prayer, if I'm on the correct path, if I could get some

00:27:53.940 kind of lending of the idea of whether I'm going in a wrong direction or a right direction,

00:27:59.160 confirmation, if you will, anything. Uh, and I left myself open for it and I wasn't

00:28:04.880 demanding anything. And, um, so I left my, my shop and, uh, in the parking lot in the middle

00:28:12.420 of the summer and the wind is out and all of these things, I find three black feathers in

00:28:18.700 the parking lot. And, um, I thought that was pretty interesting and I didn't quite get to

00:28:24.440 the blue time i just oh there's these feathers and i picked them up and they were all from the same

00:28:31.140 bird and i i i didn't fully know but i i have a website that i go to to to uh identify feathers

00:28:38.600 and um i looked it up and it seems to the uh crow american crow corvid and i was i was like wow this

00:28:49.260 is amazing three and they're in the middle of the parking lot they're right next to my car

00:28:52.720 But the story got even deeper than that. I was visited by my wife earlier that day and she had a story of her own when I showed up with these three feathers. She was the one that threw those feathers into the parking lot.

00:29:07.960 And that's because she was house sitting for a dear friend of hers and she's a naturalist and she has a, um, an actual crow's nest in her backyard on a waterway, um, in the Chester Bay.

00:29:23.460 And this crow had taken residence there and was known to, you know, groom and sell for herself and drop feathers.

00:29:31.440 And, and when, um, when she was talking on the phone with this woman, she, the woman said, uh, yeah, you know, if you find any feathers, you can give them to Smaon and, uh, maybe he'll like them. So she went out there and she picked up three feathers that, that, uh, she never expounded on whether there were any more, or if these were just the best looking ones, but she picked up three feathers.

00:29:51.060 And and then she left from the house sitting and suddenly there was a series of kind of miss or unfortunate events, not to my wife, but surrounding people that she knew.

00:30:05.920 uh there was you know there was um a fatality had happened and there was all of these things

00:30:13.900 kind of hitting her communication wise where she was finding out a series of kind of strange events

00:30:19.300 and suddenly it kind of hit her by the time she got my shop that maybe i shouldn't give these to

00:30:25.320 smog maybe there's some sort of correlation of like an ill omen and so she had picked up the

00:30:30.560 three feathers and threw them out into the parking lot um aiming for the grass and hoping that the

00:30:37.000 wind would just kind of scatter them and let them go but they didn't they were right next to the

00:30:40.860 driver's side of my car and when she told me this and how they came to be there and how they were

00:30:47.200 absolutely crow feathers and she had come across them i i um and of course the number three being

00:30:53.720 very significant for me in correlation to odin i took this as an auspicious sign um that i i had

00:31:03.000 been in the right direction she i don't know if the the feathers correlated to the ill omens that

00:31:10.200 she received but the feeling was was there for her and she kind of just let them go but they found me

00:31:15.080 anyways so yeah i appreciate you sharing uh sharing those with us um it's

00:31:30.280 there's a reluctance oftentimes to share spiritual experiences

00:31:36.600 and i want folks to understand that if you encounter that in the afa

00:31:41.560 it's not due to a lack of experiences or due to um you know the afa doesn't do that kind of stuff

00:31:51.440 it's much more an issue of reverence and a fear of being impious um we don't want to ever be

00:32:01.000 overly casual about those things and we don't want we're very careful or we try to be not to

00:32:10.280 unjustifiably put words into the mouth of the gods and take liberties in that way,

00:32:19.280 especially our gothar who have responsibilities in that regard and who are listened to. 0.88

00:32:24.580 We don't want to misuse that spot to, I don't know, to try to,

00:32:31.520 I don't know. We don't want to ever use the gods as a tool to legitimize things.

00:32:39.220 So we want to be very careful with that. I have had numerous pretty powerful experiences, I feel, in bloat to Odin.

00:32:55.520 um the subtle there are a lot of subtle things a lot of animal sign um bird sign and whatnot

00:33:09.600 a lot of things that way um a couple of of recent things and then kind of my

00:33:18.680 my little bit bigger deal one um a number of of bloats i've done at odenshoff

00:33:28.680 uh i believe all to oden when this has occurred have had

00:33:36.600 a blue energy that's only captured on people's cameras from lots of different cameras at

00:33:50.160 different moments that is around me and amongst me and interacting with me during the bloat.

00:34:00.080 I don't know what that is. I don't know. I don't know any of the number of things that might debunk that, but it seems very significant in its timing and in what it's doing during those times.

00:34:17.940 And I take that to be really significant.

00:34:19.880 um this last charming of the plow in washington um

00:34:27.140 we're doing it at a at a rented camp so it wasn't you know there was no permanent uh worship space

00:34:35.360 there so we had to find a flat spot that was kind of in a you know rough parking lot area

00:34:41.240 and uh it was icy and we go out there and the winds howling and whipping around and stuff's

00:34:47.840 going on and so we proceed to uh to start oven bloat um and right as i start the bloat

00:34:58.640 um i'm looking around and realizing the need for a time to a spurge with an evergreen

00:35:10.720 sprig to a spurge with. A gust of wind picks up and rips off the perfect size

00:35:18.900 sprig of evergreen that floats down and lands right at my feet at that moment. And it was,

00:35:28.580 it felt very significant to me. And I think other people in the circle had a reaction to that as

00:35:33.720 well. And then the most profound experience like that, weird in the appropriate use of the term

00:35:48.060 experience like that, that I had was at Ostara 2017. I officially became the

00:35:59.260 I was Harry Gauthier of the Astru Folk Assembly at midsummer of 2016.

00:36:04.140 But unofficially, my time leading our church started around Ostara of 2016.

00:36:13.260 And a lot of that was behind the scenes things to structure a smooth transition when it was time.

00:36:20.220 But that's when I really took the reins of things.

00:36:24.100 And. I was under a lot of pressure at that time, and I don't I don't say that for pity or for sympathy, you know, that pressure was because I'm literally the most fortunate man in the entire world and the most blessed man in the entire world.

00:36:41.060 So I don't begrudge any of that, but it was still a lot of pressure. It was a lot of responsibility. And I was at a at a moment in time where there was very real fear and concern that with that transition, the AFA might crumble.

00:37:00.820 that all of this that I think at that point, 21 years were put into it, it could all come crashing

00:37:10.260 down if I didn't do the right things or if I, you know, made one false move and the whole thing

00:37:17.140 might collapse. And so I was feeling a lot of that weight and a lot of that responsibility.

00:37:21.800 And I was trying. I was trying with every ounce of myself to do the right thing, to keep this up, to be to be worthy of the gods, worthy of leading our folk, just not to screw anything up and to do the right things.

00:37:40.960 And so this is marking the kind of complete year cycle of this that I was going through.

00:37:46.980 And, you know, numerous people were there that were very close to me that I felt supported me on this.

00:37:55.020 As a matter of fact, I just got done getting a haircut from Svan here.

00:38:00.360 And I walked out to the circle and people were ready for us to do Sambul.

00:38:06.680 and so i was you know collecting myself and getting my thoughts together and i was standing

00:38:13.180 up to bless the horn and someone put their hand on my shoulder and you know i think we're familiar

00:38:20.800 with that feeling of somebody putting their hand on your shoulder and like just kind of reassuring

00:38:24.640 a little reassuring squeeze shake your shoulder you got this and it was really well timed and i

00:38:31.440 And it meant a lot to me. And at the time, I assumed it was Alan. And I turned around and was going to, you know, give him a nod and thank him for that because it was a really, really appreciated gesture.

00:38:45.600 But there was nobody in arms reaching me. There was nobody anywhere close to behind me.

00:38:52.100 At that moment and to this day, it is my sincere belief that that was the hand of the Allfather.

00:38:57.340 um I don't mean it was like a hand was on my shoulder or it felt like a hand was on my shoulder

00:39:06.220 or I sensed with every fiber of my being a hand was on my shoulder I felt every bit of it just

00:39:15.980 like you know like I said I'd assumed it was Alan um but to this day I believe that was the

00:39:23.980 all-father and I feel very very blessed for that experience um king of cheese Matt Svan I've heard

00:39:35.920 that Odin is the sort of God you don't want the attention of that having his uh him actually

00:39:43.000 focus on you is disastrous how true do you think that is what are your thoughts Svan

00:39:49.900 well that definitely has merit um if we're talking about the lore if we're talking about

00:39:59.820 the the sagas uh and we're talking about uh our ancestors and the way that they portrayed

00:40:07.540 especially in the late nordic period their relationship with odin it most certainly held a

00:40:15.500 dangerous element, if you will. I mean, there's plenty of, um, you know, examples of this. Um, 0.99

00:40:23.480 and I was looking at the question earlier and I wanted, I was kind of rifling through my notes.

00:40:27.720 Um, there's a lot of examples of this and I think it comes from first and foremost,

00:40:35.320 it is Odin who is the swiftest to claim the price of his blessings. And that's a really important

00:40:43.400 thing to focus on. The blessings are given. The blessings are received. But oftentimes,

00:40:51.660 if there is a reclamation, it is swift. And again, we bring back to fury. We bring back to

00:41:00.280 the suddenness of dynamicism and movement in his name. So it wouldn't be far off to understand that

00:41:07.560 that swiftness could be easily directed at us or of that nature. And so that can be a bit

00:41:14.040 terrifying. And there is a lot of accounts in which that is, you know, said, even in the Havamau.

00:41:21.940 In the Havamau, in 110, I know that Odin swore a ring oath, but who can trust his troth? He 1.00

00:41:32.780 swindled Suttungur and took 1.00

00:41:35.240 Sambalmead from him

00:41:36.460 and left Gunloth to

00:41:38.980 weep. So

00:41:40.500 there

00:41:42.740 is a sense of the idea that there is

00:41:44.900 a price

00:41:46.980 oftentimes associated.

00:41:49.260 Again, Sigurd's

00:41:51.340 father, and

00:41:53.140 in the

00:41:54.560 time of his reclamation

00:41:56.880 in which he, it's

00:41:58.580 in the story is said that he

00:42:00.480 you know, he sees Odin on the battlefield and he attempts to, to block him and it shatters his

00:42:06.080 sword. Um, and, and then he is taken and he, he, it takes a while for him to die because he does

00:42:12.200 have a conversation with his wife, uh, in order to beset the next part of the legacy with, with Sigurd.

00:42:18.760 Um, uh, there's also, uh, King Vicar and his, his, uh, uh, his mother, um, uh, Gerhildr, he says to her, you know, that, um, you know, I want what's in between your bernie, your armor, and your body.

00:42:40.120 and it was kind of alluded to the idea that that he wanted her dress but that was not the case she

00:42:46.300 was full with child and so he wanted her child and there there's an air of kind of mystery and

00:42:53.100 and a little there's that sense of fear in relation to I think um oh then when we talk

00:43:01.100 about his attentions uh for the longest time I know um people that you know especially in early

00:43:07.260 I was not sure the idea was not to place a Valknot on your body with reckless abandon, but that would, in essence, bind you or fetter you to the machinations of what Odin had in store for the folk in order to stave off the end, the doom of the gods and the doom of the folk.

00:43:27.880 So this put you in a precarious situation, and there had to be a precept that you were willing to give yourself up to that.

00:43:37.620 And so there's a lot of people that have talked about the Valk not having the significance that we place upon it, but the symbols and the significance have absolute validity within the time frame that they're used.

00:43:53.200 And so I take that as a high mark.

00:43:57.880 And so, you know, seeing how the Christians dealt with Odin amongst the folk and demonizing him and even kind of in the transitionary stages between the elder and the foreign faith that was coming from Rome and ultimately beyond that, 0.59

00:44:16.260 they they they they greatly kind of extended the concept that he was a a god of ill omen

00:44:25.220 and um was not to be spoken of i have met many theodish practitioners who don't speak of him

00:44:32.580 um openly uh and again this has connections to the idea of hammingya and of our connections to

00:44:41.900 luck and to weird. And, and I think to our ultimately to our fate or our dooms and the

00:44:46.760 judgment of his ability to, you know, call on that price. And so I, that, that era mystery there,

00:44:55.900 I think is important as a, a dynamicism of our relationship with him is that the, the,

00:45:02.420 the reclamation can be swift. And oftentimes when we see his machinations, we wonder

00:45:07.600 the goodness in them because we can only see the emotional investment of the moment without seeing

00:45:14.960 the grand picture which is what makes odin so powerful is that his perspective is from the

00:45:20.280 grand to the micro and we are often of the micro and missing the grand so um as far as uh understanding

00:45:29.520 too that he's not always seen as a boogeyman that uh he's oftentimes seen and it is worth noting

00:45:36.220 know joyous the wish giver uh and is happy with the folk and the gods when they attain things

00:45:43.580 and speak gloriousness of the gods and of the folk or attain deeds so not entirely but it is

00:45:50.940 certainly there in my my opinion of it all so i think uh this approach is another fundamental

00:46:04.300 that's really important for us to understand when talking about our gods and our relationship to

00:46:09.660 them um and that's what counts and what doesn't in a authoritative sense

00:46:20.940 our as i said earlier our our lore is a story of our people's ancient relationship

00:46:34.940 with the gods and how the gods were revealed to them

00:46:39.620 and the collective knowledge of our folk soul as relates to these gods

00:46:44.540 um it's very important to realize that as a living faith we are still adding to that corpus

00:46:56.680 we are still part of that developing saga of the relationship between us and our gods

00:47:05.280 um there's a tendency to

00:47:11.680 place disproportionate amounts of stock in ancient lore at the cost of modern lore and

00:47:24.280 modern experience. And I don't want to discount ancient lore at all. Certainly it's sacred and

00:47:30.780 It's immensely valuable to us.

00:47:34.820 But I just want to say that we have no belief that, you know, Odin rode down on Sleipnir and handed some tablets to some guy in the desert that wrote down his divine commandments.

00:47:50.520 That's not our God. That's not how that works.

00:47:53.020 At some point, this lore was codified and put down by the Gothar and the elders of our ancient ancestors, and they used their collective knowledge.

00:48:09.120 Now, some of that could have come from many things. I don't discount that some of that could have come from visions or from divine inspiration, certainly. But the interpretation of that and the codifying of that was done by the learned men and the priests of the time to encapsulate this wisdom and the stories for us.

00:48:30.240 And we're still part of that today. If we believe that the Gothar of 700 had the authority to codify these stories and to offer insight into the nature of the gods,

00:48:54.280 then certainly our gothar today have a similar authority to to do similar things to add to that

00:49:03.620 continuing story if if our relationship with our gods stopped at some proto-viking period

00:49:10.120 that would be a tragedy for all of us and all of our descendants and i don't believe that so

00:49:16.680 i believe we have a living relationship with our gods it's a long-winded way of saying this

00:49:21.880 no i don't think we want to avoid odin's gaze but what i do think perhaps more than any of

00:49:32.120 our other gods you want to be cautious and odin is less likely to suffer fools or suffer the arrogant

00:49:42.680 um being a patron god often of kings and of heroes you have this theme and you have this

00:49:52.820 theme throughout much of Arian myth cycle of of hubris of people having excessive pride or

00:50:00.920 you know over overextending their authority or overextending their their station and those are

00:50:08.580 the moments when very often something comes back to bite them. So I think that any and all of us

00:50:17.560 should be hyper reverent and respectful and cautious when we approach the throne of the

00:50:23.480 All-Father to speak and to certainly to ask of him. And I think this is the case with all of

00:50:31.220 our gods. I don't think we want to over ask. We want to be careful of what we're putting out and

00:50:38.380 what we are, what we're asking the gods for. And I know I'm, I'm meandering and I tend to do that

00:50:44.300 when we talk about spiritual things, but, um, I think it's useful when we pray out loud

00:50:54.740 and we hear ourselves. And I think it's a good time to check ourselves. And like,

00:50:59.700 does the high god of Aryan consciousness that breathed the breath of life into our ancestors 0.97

00:51:08.760 that dismantled Ymir, is it really an appropriate thing to ask him to help you on your math test? 0.97

00:51:21.660 There's things that are just beneath the gods for you to bother them with. 0.60

00:51:29.700 And again, if you're seven and that's what you ask, then maybe that's, you know, I think the gods also have a certain amount of grace when dealing with, you know, the mentally impaired or the youthful or people in that kind of a place. 0.58

00:51:46.100 but in all seriousness what are you asking of the all father and this this goes back to something

00:51:53.620 else i think it is dangerous to over ask from odin but i think it is the height of what one who

00:52:03.140 would be a hero would aspire to do is to get the attention of odin and to be worthy of odin

00:52:11.540 looking at you with a nod of, you know, approval, or hopefully, and this is a huge hope.

00:52:24.680 But the idea that you would do something that would make the All-Father proud of you,

00:52:32.100 I can't think of a higher thing to aspire to. And so I would never want somebody to hold back

00:52:39.260 from that i think that's fundamental um but i think that's part of the relationship with the

00:52:45.020 all father it's not about asking it needs to be about offering and about displaying before him

00:52:53.500 your merit and your worth not because you are worthy but in the hopes that you might be worthy

00:53:00.780 if you did enough and i think that if you approach with a level of piety i don't think

00:53:09.260 You want to avoid his gaze. I think we, again, the idea of Odin looking at you and with pride is everything.

00:53:20.300 Another thing we think of Odin in this very grim aspect, and I think that when a lot of our lore was written down in the elder times, death was close by through starvation, through war, through disease, through many things.

00:53:35.680 And I think that it was a grimmer period of time. But if you recall, Odin, he makes his his residence in glad time in the home of gladness.

00:53:46.160 And I think all too often we only focus on on, you know, the spooky and not and not the joyous and the celebratory in his hall.

00:53:58.280 There's feasting and merriment and joy.

00:54:01.180 um and i think that's that's important to notice there's great dualities with odin i think uh

00:54:11.740 dr stephen flowers uh edrid thorson said um he described odin as the the lord of light and the

00:54:19.580 drayton of darkness and i think that that duality really speaks to to some of the fundamentals

00:54:25.820 about uh victory father um danny asks maybe dumb it's not dumb at all what is the perspective

00:54:37.020 on odin and other gods in terms of omnipresence many monotheist uh religions believe that god

00:54:45.420 can commune anywhere with anyone at any time what is the afa's perspective

00:54:55.820 all right so i want your thoughts on this first spawn because i kind of like to encapsulate and

00:55:03.840 close things up but i go in second i don't mean to put you on the spot but where are you at with

00:55:08.380 um i think that uh when we first talk about like the omnipresence of of the fabric of creation

00:55:18.520 and of all things interacting whether it's the movement of atoms the movement of cosmic

00:55:23.500 um you know matter itself moving around um all the way down to our intentions and our ability to

00:55:33.420 willfully see ourselves in a in a different place to even be able to express that we see

00:55:40.360 our consciousness in a different state uh in an undisclosed future um is a really powerful thing

00:55:48.060 And I think that when we talk about that omnipresence, we talk about, and especially amongst in the AFA, is the sacredness of Orla or weird kind of being all pervading.

00:56:04.280 But there are some things to consider when we talk about the stories and we see Ovin giving his eye to Mimir and to place his eye in the well, the well of memory or the well of the past or the well of that level of the ever-expanding sense of weird.

00:56:30.920 Whether it's all of the past or the cosmic sense of all things that had come to pass was a great need to attain that for purpose.

00:56:44.900 But I think in Ausatru, when we consider the divinities and we consider the gods, because you did say and other gods, one of their connections to weird, the fact that they are tied into things, I think all humanity is deeply and intrinsically tied to Odin through breath and through a state of consciousness and the ability to communicate our consciousness.

00:57:14.900 However, it lacks dynamicism if it's all pervading and everywhere, and I think that a lot of monotheists don't understand from our perspective of the idea of there needing to be a movement, there needs to be a tying, there needs to be an outer presence, an inner presence that can transition and move.

00:57:44.900 and that it's not all just a sense of relativism, that everything is just either connected or

00:57:53.560 disconnected. This brings about a lot of problems. When people have this concept of relativism,

00:57:59.780 they then see things happening and don't understand why. And if all things are intrinsically

00:58:07.520 tied and omnipresent, then why do these things happen? Again, it could be macro to micro

00:58:13.500 in our perceptions, but we see dynamicism as a form of movement, that there is an ability to move

00:58:22.140 closer in and farther out, and it ties heavily to the gods. We see the gods interacting with

00:58:30.680 the material in ways to maintain order, but we also see them interacting with, you know,

00:58:37.100 humanity and the folk through prayer. We see, um, you know, we see them, uh, interacting through

00:58:47.140 signs and other things. And sometimes we perceive them as interacting through

00:58:52.800 weird itself. Um, perhaps, you know, through like, uh, others well, and the idea of the ability to

00:59:02.160 interact with the with multiple layers of of time and all of those massive the the movements um

00:59:09.720 but to say omnipresence i would i would say no i don't see the gods as having this um

00:59:18.540 over-pervading omnipresence where the the the willful and the conscious directive is

00:59:25.680 so relative that it's in all things at all times. I think it certainly has the

00:59:35.840 ability to move, the ability to transfer, to go up and down through the veils of

00:59:44.440 separations of reality and plain existence and higher existence, lower existence, primordial

00:59:51.420 existence um having this ability to move is very very important in our lore and in our perceptions

00:59:59.180 of the way we give gifts and and looking upwards and and looking downwards or having directions

01:00:06.780 and things like that these correlate to the ideas of movement and i think it's really important for

01:00:11.900 us to have that with our our structuring of divinity um we don't see it as just simply being

01:00:19.580 being relative or simulatory where, you know, it's just, you're inside some sort of

01:00:25.900 projection, uh, or, or, or concept or, uh, you know, these things are, I think are detrimental

01:00:32.900 to people, uh, where you end up getting this kind of sense of solipsism. And I think that,

01:00:40.400 uh, the gods are showing that in their movements, that there isn't this sense that the only thing

01:00:48.920 that is real as my consciousness and everything else is kind of relative and everywhere and all

01:00:53.840 things and no instead we are dynamically moving with each other we're interacting with each other

01:00:59.020 we're interacting with the gods we're interacting with our ancestors there's a sense even like now

01:01:03.920 with the veil is thin there's this sense of movement the idea that the veil is thin now

01:01:09.180 then it may be thicker some other time so there's a sense of presence and that presence is always

01:01:15.820 preluded with movement and that i think shows that omnipresence is is a kind of a

01:01:25.420 a detrimental mental state when we talk about the relativism of man of of man and the gods

01:01:34.940 and all things that are interacting with each other and we can see this in nature

01:01:39.100 we can see this in cosmic sense in space and in time um so that's that's my take on that

01:01:46.540 as far as like omnipresence so there's two parts in the way that you asked that question

01:01:53.100 or at least as i understand it there's are the gods present everywhere at every time across

01:02:03.900 existence and i think spawn covered that really well the idea of movement of travel is time and

01:02:12.380 again spoken about in every single facet of our lore the gods are traveling to you know to this

01:02:21.180 place or to that place or jotunheim or or whatever they're doing they're going across the rainbow

01:02:26.620 bridge they're coming back they're taking a seat of council they're doing things and they're moving

01:02:34.780 that sense of moving is fundamental um the rotational sense is seen throughout our symbols

01:02:42.460 it's so no the gods have to move um but the other thing was omnipresent in the sense that they can

01:02:53.660 hear anyone anyplace at any time and i think you know my latin is not good so i don't know latin

01:02:59.020 for hearing uh omni or i think there's an or root anyway omni hearing perhaps and i think that's uh

01:03:11.500 that comes to a fundamental so some of the things are like are the gods everywhere are

01:03:15.260 they in this place or that place are fascinating and important to talk about but to a degree

01:03:21.340 aren't relevant to our human existence what is relevant is can i interact with the gods

01:03:27.900 everywhere or at any time and i have to say the answer to that in some way is yes but

01:03:37.660 with the caveat that there are times where that connection is more powerful svan mentioned as we

01:03:44.220 go into this fall period of the year it talks about the veil being thin we often refer to that

01:03:51.100 in a sense of interacting with our ancestors but it's it's the veil between worlds generally so i

01:03:57.500 think in a spiritual sense of interacting with the gods this time of year is that's easier or

01:04:05.100 better in some way. I think at certain holy tides, the gods take more notice,

01:04:14.680 or your spiritual interaction with them is heightened. I think there are places that are

01:04:20.260 charged with energy that draw more notice. I think that your communication is improved with

01:04:31.680 the gods if you're in front of an altar doing your work as opposed to walking along the side

01:04:39.220 of the road. I think that at one of our Hoffs, I think certainly in like a ritual circle,

01:04:45.300 there's power there and that's a more direct conduit to our gods than, you know, at some

01:04:51.480 other random mundane location. Certainly in our Hoffs, that is a much more direct way to interact

01:05:02.980 with the gods. And some of that, and I'll mention that in a second, goes to the idea of that

01:05:07.200 omnipresence. I think that the power of a mighty

01:05:18.740 spiritual force, a mighty hymenia, a mighty magical force in a person who's developed

01:05:27.060 that to a high degree has more ability, communicates clearer, communicates louder,

01:05:34.700 communicates more effectively with our gods than someone who has a less developed spiritual

01:05:39.660 gravitas. And I also think that communicating with the gods in ritual where you have

01:05:47.880 numbers of people enhances, you know, how much focus the gods give that when hundreds of their

01:05:59.520 followers are in one place, simultaneously chanting their name and offering them gifts,

01:06:06.460 then I think that's more impactful than just just a singular person. But on the issue of

01:06:12.720 omnipresence, one thing that happens when one does ritual, you invite the gods. And if you do it

01:06:22.320 right, and it's auspicious, and the gods will it to be so, people can notice and feel a presence

01:06:30.280 manifest there. You're calling the gods in, you're inviting them. And sometimes they take you up on

01:06:38.420 that i think very oftentimes they hear you but sometimes in a very tangible way they show up um

01:06:49.300 and i've i've had that happen several times in in pretty meaningful ways to people who are there

01:06:57.860 of all of a sudden there was a presence in the world um that's also something that's been

01:07:04.180 experienced when Svan paints the murals of our gods in their hafs. Something happens when that

01:07:15.800 mural is there and when it is completed that that god resides there. There is a presence that exists

01:07:27.420 there. And I don't think that the gods, you know, I don't think Odin hangs out at Odin's

01:07:33.200 off rather than in Asgard. But I, and again, we're trying to find human experience words to

01:07:44.300 relate to concepts that are so far beyond our language and our understanding, it doesn't fit

01:07:50.580 perfectly. But perhaps that's a window, perhaps that's some kind of a conduit of something.

01:07:57.500 but Odin exists in that mural he also exists other places but he definitely exists there

01:08:07.640 and you feel that when you're in that room um if that if that answers your questions one of

01:08:14.860 the other things we want to refrain from doing is limiting our gods um

01:08:20.900 our gods have the the might and the power they have whether we express it or acknowledge it or

01:08:29.860 not and we never want to project our own limitations upon them and their will and what

01:08:37.920 they want to do our gods are gods of will and they they can do what they want unless opposed

01:08:43.160 by some other spiritual force is certainly greater than us so i think that uh trying to

01:08:53.720 trying to box in limitations of what our gods are is also a dangerous thing that i would resist the

01:09:01.960 urge to do something i wanted to mention and it i guess was more fitting for an earlier question

01:09:08.360 but I didn't get to it. Uh, something really important about modern lore and about, uh, about

01:09:13.880 Odin. Um, Odin was the God of our folk that, that Stephen McNallan first connected with in, uh,

01:09:25.960 in 1968. And to this day, he is the God that Steve is, is totally devoted to. And

01:09:35.080 And that relationship is now 53 years old.

01:09:43.480 And a lot of things have come from that.

01:09:46.340 The relationship that Steve built with Odin is why we're here.

01:09:51.280 It's why we're having this discussion tonight.

01:09:53.780 It's why y'all are listening.

01:09:55.560 It's why this exists.

01:09:57.300 It was forged out of that.

01:09:59.360 One of the things that I think is true about Steve is that all of modern Alistair is either because of, or I should use the air quotes, all of what is claimed as modern Alistair is either because of Steve McNallan or in reaction against Steve McNallan.

01:10:27.940 but he is that point of definition that it is defined by. And a lot of that, so much of that is

01:10:37.420 revolving around his relationship with Odin. There's, you know, leftists, communists,

01:10:48.980 people on the other team, the forces of chaos, like to speak ill about Steve McNall and every

01:10:55.660 chance that they get and i listened in one of his most vocal opponents on a uh a lefty podcast about

01:11:03.340 steve through disparaging him and talking about what a terrible guy he is or whatever

01:11:10.220 they scoffed offhand that you know odin will work with anybody if it gets his mission accomplished

01:11:17.660 in just that casual that casual barb

01:11:22.060 this creature admits

01:11:27.140 that the god of Aryan consciousness that shaped Aryan man that shaped our existence

01:11:36.880 that is the father of kings the lord of battle the lord of victory

01:11:42.280 has some sort of partnership relationship with Steve McNallan

01:11:47.840 and that he chose to be in that partnership with steve i can't imagine a higher praise

01:11:56.960 than that that odin would find you worthy to in some in some sense team up with to accomplish

01:12:04.380 big goals for his people what high praise from our foes um unknowingly so and i think that that

01:12:13.860 just bears reflecting on. Another thing to talk about personal relationships, and Steve,

01:12:21.780 or personal experiences with Odin, and Steve has told this story a number of times, but I don't

01:12:25.820 think everyone's heard it. I don't think it's a secret, so I'm venturing to tell it. But this

01:12:33.360 really struck me, and it was, I think it was the first time I met Steve back in 2010. He told a

01:12:39.440 story of how one time Odin turned him invisible. And it sounds fanciful, and it's perhaps a fanciful

01:12:45.940 way of putting it, but Steve did a lot of traveling in war-torn portions of Africa that

01:12:51.600 were going through revolution. And I think this happened in the, in Congo, or Central African

01:13:00.220 Republic, or whatever one of those things that changes names every couple years, and especially

01:13:04.640 back then did he was airborne flying into this place when a government change took over

01:13:09.840 and they were looking for and just recently an American had gotten shot because his papers

01:13:16.960 weren't didn't match the papers they were looking for at the time and they pulled him off and

01:13:21.860 blasted him with the AK as was going on in Africa at the time um and Steve was like oh what am I

01:13:28.940 going to do? My past, you know, my stamp is for the country, you know, my authorization or my

01:13:34.080 visa or my papers are for this country that used to exist, doesn't exist anymore. Uh-oh, it's about

01:13:39.420 to get real. And he's in this line and soldiers are on the runway, lined everybody up, went through

01:13:47.080 every single person to a man checking papers. And he's like, uh-oh, you know, it's coming,

01:13:53.780 it's coming and they meticulously checked everybody and the way steve describes it they

01:13:59.280 checked the man in front of them and as if they looked straight through him they went immediately

01:14:04.200 to check the guy behind him and here's you know a middle-aged or younger middle-aged white dude

01:14:11.700 sticks out like a sore thumb on a you know a congo tarmac and it's as if they completely looked

01:14:18.280 through him it's not that they looked at him and chose to look away or nodded him through or

01:14:23.880 it's as if for a moment he didn't exist and they went right to the guy behind him

01:14:28.040 and nothing else was said of it and uh that was fun to understand the story correctly that was

01:14:35.480 certainly after the uh the free assembly days but that was before the founding of the house true

01:14:40.200 folk assembly if that occurrence had not happened that way and if that miracle had not occurred

01:14:47.560 then the AFA wouldn't have happened. And we may very well not be here doing what we're doing

01:14:55.620 today. So I think that's an important footnote about the All-Father that needs to be mentioned

01:15:01.900 tonight. Now for that, Daniel asks, speaking of etymology, are Odin and Odor related? Yes,

01:15:11.360 Daniel, they absolutely are. But I think Svan's going to have a more comprehensive something to

01:15:16.480 say etymologically on that? Well, when we talk about Odin, and you see the terms like

01:15:26.560 Odr as inspiration, you see it in Odrir, the cauldron, and you also see it mentioned by Hindla

01:15:39.580 when she speaks to Freyja about her searching ever long for Odr.

01:15:48.520 When we see this, and there's accusations in the sagas that are levied at Freyja

01:15:57.140 in regards to her linking with Odr or searching for Odr

01:16:05.240 And then linking with other gods and they're, you know, I guess in, in respects to the story, they, they can seem to be, well, they are jibes.

01:16:17.900 They're clearly jibes from an antithesis force.

01:16:21.040 But I think it's important to understand that Odor as an inspiration, Odor as a sense of power in beauty, I would say, in relation to Freyja, the idea of her inspiration,

01:16:45.980 Her, that which drives her forward, that which presents to her, her inspiration, like much like a poet. The question is whether or not Odr is Odin.

01:17:03.200 um there doesn't seem to be a direct correlation uh all that is seen as leaving and then she weeps

01:17:14.500 tears of gold um or the gold of the north being amber falling to the earth and and and there's a

01:17:21.320 great lament and a longing um however most people do see a correlation that uh perhaps there there

01:17:31.660 is a connectivity between them and there is references to them uh being together or

01:17:39.420 intertwining together uh whether we you know we talk about that in like it perhaps in a physical

01:17:44.860 sense in the stories but if we're talking about gods and the encapsulation encapsulation of their

01:17:52.940 coming together um i would say that there's a there's a high likelihood that

01:17:59.660 Odr is perhaps a movement of Odin into Freyja's domain or dominion. Perhaps there is an interchange

01:18:14.660 there, but that interchange could not be seen as finite and or forever. And so there is a movement

01:18:22.480 in and a movement out. And so the lament is that movement out. And so there's a regret or a longing

01:18:30.840 for it to remain, but there is not. And so whether that could be in the form of inspiration,

01:18:39.360 whether it could be read as the Asa and the Vana, when we see cosmic order affecting natural law,

01:18:49.900 there's this interchange between the two between the assas and nirvana or the icr and the vanir um

01:18:56.940 we see this correlation happen over and over again in which the two sides end up

01:19:03.980 melding through various situations or ideas or cosmic powerful interludes of uh where they

01:19:15.340 come from how they how they affect the universe the known universe so if there is this connection

01:19:22.780 and there is this uh referencing to the idea that uh freya learns from odin uh

01:19:32.460 and the barbs kind of denote that it's it's um sexual in nature and i think it's important for

01:19:39.900 us to know that in these stories especially towards the later periods uh much like the

01:19:44.380 the philosophes of Greece, they were really talking about the gods in a mundane sense,

01:19:51.240 or sometimes even in a, they were, they were, you know, antagonizing and very, very, I would say, unpious.

01:20:02.920 But I take that moment as if there was an interconnection between cosmic order and natural law,

01:20:11.780 and that being the isir and the vanir then there is this moment where there's this overlapping in

01:20:16.740 which basically the wise and the dynamic of the vana are meeting the wise and dynamic of the asa

01:20:27.060 there is this moment of great inspirations moment of deeply powerful uh transitioning between two

01:20:35.060 gods that has a deep powerful thing it's intimate it's extremely wonderful and when it then goes

01:20:43.300 away um there would be a lament so uh but it's worth noting as as far as structure goes

01:20:53.140 other is mentioned and not all in um and again there's a lot of things that even right down to um

01:21:00.900 um the idea that there might be uh like for instance a hero of of of uh freya is otter

01:21:08.820 and some people have wondered if there may have been some sort of connection there as well

01:21:14.260 i don't take it as that other is a physical man or a worshiper freya but that in essence there

01:21:22.100 is this moment of intercharging between two very dynamic gods in polarization between

01:21:31.700 that which is cosmic and that which is uh more cyclical and there's this transfer of knowledge

01:21:36.580 this this unification um and in that power once it's like a tide once it recedes there's a there's

01:21:45.460 a lament because it may never come back that it it wasn't always to be that way so i take it as that

01:21:53.860 that um yes in reference in short it is odin but also that odin represents inspiration in a new

01:22:06.580 dynasty of of interaction that freya has with the cosmos um and i think it's deeply poetic

01:22:13.380 that they have this interaction. And I think it's also possible that the gods do have these

01:22:19.500 interactions with each other. It's just clearly the masculine feminine and the placement of the

01:22:26.860 stories, it really does have a wonderful poeticism to it. But you see this kind of

01:22:34.920 dynamicism when the gods interact with the Jotuns, when the gods interact with men, 0.60

01:22:41.740 whether they're their heroes or the lineage of them or the kings of nations.

01:22:46.740 There's these interactions that happen.

01:22:49.240 And I think in this case, it's a reference to the longing of a recession of it.

01:22:54.260 There's this moment where it's deeply close, deeply there.

01:22:58.020 We see it again, too, with Odin and Sauga and their correlation.

01:23:02.920 Or with the gods in Ayr and Raon, this movement of them coming to the primordial ocean,

01:23:10.280 the blood of emir and um and then returning again so these movements some of them are very cyclical

01:23:16.520 and and constant and i don't think this case was the case this case was like a one time a moment

01:23:23.400 of interaction that was going to transfer a deep and profound amount of godly knowledge

01:23:29.880 and then it was going to uh re-amplify itself back in its polaric forms so that's my take on that

01:23:40.280 And the etymology, Odr and Odin both come from that ecstasy of inspiration.

01:23:50.100 Yeah.

01:23:51.260 Brandy says, could you speak to us about the gifts given to us at the creation of Ask and Embla?

01:23:58.780 I know that Svan has a lot of thoughts on this. Svan, enlighten us.

01:24:04.160 That's actually a great question because one of the things that's worth noting is in the Nordic, in the Old Norse, it is said that Ond is given by Odin and Odr is given by Hjöner.

01:24:18.500 Again, Odr is mentioned as a wit.

01:24:21.560 But the triplication of Odin to me is a dynamic part of my theological, I guess, understanding of the dynamicism of Odin.

01:24:34.760 And I often refer to the 1R3 and the 3R1, a trinity within itself, and I speak of the three with great importance as much as I do to the one, and I see them as inseparable, and I see them as that the triplication is a symbol of dynamicism and interaction.

01:25:00.180 But it's worth noting. I mean, on is the spiritual breath. It could be the prana. If you're talking about in the Eastern context, there's even kind of a scientific force that that was referred to when in reference to on talking about the Odic, O-D-I-C, the Odic force. 0.91

01:25:21.580 And a lot of ways of conceptualizing that this may have connection to electromagnetic presence and maybe auric presence.

01:25:30.800 And I see a connection there.

01:25:36.360 But, you know, what we're deeply talking about is the breath, the animation of the transference between the first step and nothing, which is a huge step.

01:25:50.320 And so when we talk about ask and embla, it says they're unrooted and unfated. So that breath is going from not being rooted and not being fated to being rooted and fated into the material.

01:26:09.160 And so I think that that is very important in understanding. I think some people see the shaping of the wood in somewhat of a literal sense, and I think that there's obviously deep poetic allegoric connections between wood and humanity or flesh.

01:26:31.040 And there's lots of kennings in reference to this, in which, like, Odin's oaks are oftentimes referred to, or Odin's ashes are, speaking of the ash tree, or speaking of possibly the spears that the menfolk are holding.

01:26:47.120 But there's a lot of references to the idea of the shaping of wood.

01:26:50.520 And I think especially amongst the Norse, the idea of shaping of wood was highly important, especially in shipbuilding and lots of other things.

01:26:58.200 I mean, even to this day, we look at the Nords, you know, as shapers of wood, especially like in references to architecture and things.

01:27:07.080 So there was a deep connection there.

01:27:10.000 So once Bodin gives on, he takes from unfated and unrooted to rooted and faded.

01:27:20.100 And they have within them that divine spark, that animation of life.

01:27:25.220 and that's deeply powerful and what makes dynamicism of a god very powerful is the ability

01:27:32.860 to broach between cosmic and material and you don't see it manifest very often i think that

01:27:42.300 um when we see it in the stories you know if it's thor as the storm father and we see his

01:27:48.060 interaction with as energy uh in in the storm uh this this physical management this this is powerful

01:27:55.020 um but when he gives on he gives breath and he gives animation and he then proceeds to move them

01:28:05.900 into the fated state the ability for humans uh to understand their animation um is first and

01:28:15.300 foremost i think important but then other other is kind of translated as wit or an intellect or

01:28:21.560 an awareness i often like to conceptualize that along with the idea of the rush of of

01:28:27.920 consciousness there is also a sense that makes us different from animals in the sense that

01:28:33.740 we can now mentally project ourselves into a state that we don't exist yet that we don't seem

01:28:42.000 to see that very often amongst um like we can't we it's hard for us to conceptualize that or or

01:28:48.140 scientists are even looking for it in other animals for their ability to project themselves

01:28:54.520 into a place that they've never been or uh that that's the communication that they might be having

01:29:00.180 with say an elder animal might be telling them based off of their experience in the past so now

01:29:06.720 we can project ourselves into a forward movement into a place that doesn't exist i can conceptualize

01:29:14.140 myself being somewhere or interacting with something though i've never been there and i've

01:29:20.820 never interacted with those things and those things might not even exist when i get there

01:29:25.480 but i can conceptualize that maybe they are um so that's an interesting thing when we talk about the

01:29:31.960 other and the the sudden rush of consciousness so i i think that's where uh that fury of of other

01:29:40.680 and then lastly is lau and uh hyonur gives lau or or or vey and when you look at the the two um

01:29:49.880 differences between like say the pros aidas and the aidas is that the the references to

01:29:54.200 Odin, Vili, and Vey. Odin, of course, fury, or the sudden rush, and Vili being will,

01:30:04.840 the ability to project into, and Vey, holiness, or wholeness, and how those two words deeply

01:30:13.740 correlate with each other. And so holiness and wholeness are one in the form of the body.

01:30:22.000 And I think it's important that when we look at wellness and wholeness, we see when there is dis-ease or when there is something wrong with something, it is not whole.

01:30:33.180 And so we see a paragon of health as being wholeness.

01:30:37.320 So when Hyonur gives Lao, he gives shape, color, and the wholeness of body, the wellness of being.

01:30:49.760 and um so or in essence the shape of and so i've always taken that when we look at odin villi and

01:30:58.180 ve and ve being the holy space or the wholeness of space um it's very very you know poignant

01:31:06.780 that the the as they are given that's the the order that they are given in so we see this kind

01:31:14.700 of grand connection to weird this grand connection to the cosmos the grand connection of fate

01:31:19.660 and to be rooted in things and then we see intellect and body and shape and color added

01:31:29.240 next the the truly powerful dynamic part of Odin being able to take a piece of himself and make

01:31:38.420 from that which is not into something that is um taking a kind of piece of himself is

01:31:48.780 is deeply important and and that takes in our stories in the form of the breath you cannot see

01:31:55.580 it but it is clearly something that was is within you and then comes from without it comes through

01:32:01.340 your through your mouth or as as other than as in the anglo-sex and rune poems like the mouth of the

01:32:06.700 river um that which flows from him and then suddenly the vessel is filled it is shaped it is

01:32:14.700 given intellect and it is given color and movement in the in the entirety of it all so

01:32:22.300 i think that's that's my take on the three gifts that are given

01:32:29.660 there we go i think that was comprehensively so christine asks

01:32:35.980 um what do you suggest for those seeking the wisdom of odin um i would

01:32:44.700 You know, steal an answer from Odin, from the have them all and say that it's it's best for man to be middling wise.

01:32:54.400 It's really easy for. 0.90

01:32:58.200 People new to our faith or.

01:33:01.880 Younger people or whatever, to jump right in and say, I want to be wise like Odin.

01:33:08.260 I don't think people calculate the cost before they want to embark on such an endeavor.

01:33:14.700 you see odin's um his quest for knowledge and his quest for that are are harrowing they're painful

01:33:25.500 they're um difficult and they involve great sacrifice and some of the sacrifices that you

01:33:34.700 can't unknow things i think that most of us whether we admit it or not don't really want

01:33:40.220 to know everything there's a piece in not looking behind the curtain too much there's a piece

01:33:48.540 in not gleaming the cube and i think that

01:33:54.940 most people probably don't really want to have that kind of odenic wisdom um if if we're past

01:34:04.620 that point and we've decided we do want to pay that cost and we do want that burden that comes

01:34:10.600 with great wisdom, then I would suggest it's hard because as a starting point, I don't know.

01:34:24.940 Wanting to know the mysteries of the universe, there's any number of places you can start. But

01:34:29.780 What I would put special attention towards is things outside of your comfort zone, things that are uncomfortable, things that are outside of your area of expertise, things that perhaps you do need to pay a cost in order to learn or to understand.

01:34:46.140 And I think learning things in those realms and from those places, learning things in uncomfortable places is probably a sure path to odinic wisdom than just focusing on, you know, the stuff you're already very comfortable with.

01:35:06.300 But those are just some thoughts on it.

01:35:07.920 Svon, what are your thoughts on the subject?

01:35:09.940 I think you're hitting a lot of truth to it.

01:35:13.980 First and foremost, the middling wise is a good place sometimes to be because knowing much brings a lot of sorrow or a lot of trouble, a darkness in the mind sometimes, I think.

01:35:31.700 And sometimes it can apply wisdom, and I think the Odinic sense of wisdom, for a long time people talked about it in a Faustian sense, the idea of sacrificing a piece of one's self and one's intellect in order to gain a higher understanding.

01:35:53.700 understanding, but that higher understanding isn't always necessarily, I think, a bigger or

01:36:01.560 broader understanding of things, but perhaps a honing or an application of that which exists,

01:36:09.900 as opposed to going from a puddle to a river. Instead, maybe looking at it as like from a

01:36:18.200 bucket of water to a pressure washer. The water is still the same, but the means in which it is

01:36:26.800 being transferred is drastically different. So you can find great wisdom in someone who knows

01:36:34.480 perhaps very little about many things, but knows a great deal about one thing. And so I think that

01:36:43.600 the interactions that odin has with others uh other forces he interacts with them understanding

01:36:52.320 this the application in which they project wisdom the application in which they apply their wisdom

01:36:58.520 the app uh the uh the presence of of where it comes from and what they're intending to do with

01:37:04.540 it uh i i had a friend and i always remember this is you know like the you know truth isn't like

01:37:11.900 some eternal flame it's it's a pizza this is what my friend said it has to be delivered

01:37:18.700 at the right time and so the idea is that like when people are hungry for things

01:37:24.080 and you give it it's readily consumed you place it down at the wrong time and nobody and everybody

01:37:31.600 ignores it and we can see that sometimes when we see we have this truth or we have some concept

01:37:36.660 or a lesson that we've learned, I've learned many great lessons in my life.

01:37:41.960 And if I meet somebody, the only thing that really initiates me to even speak upon it

01:37:46.060 is perhaps there's some sort of similarity that the person I'm talking to

01:37:50.060 is experiencing something very close to the thing that I experienced.

01:37:54.720 So the initiation of knowledge and the interaction of knowledge is, I think,

01:38:00.200 also deeply odinic.

01:38:01.420 And so it doesn't necessarily always mean the quantity as it does mean the delivery, the timing, and the application of that wisdom.

01:38:12.660 You know, if I'm struggling with something on my car and I have a neighbor who's really, really good at being a mechanic, I go to him and I ask him for help.

01:38:23.320 And I learn. I want to learn. I don't just, you know, hand him money and say, here, fix this.

01:38:29.260 That's not the way it works.

01:38:30.580 And so I understand the nature of our interaction.

01:38:33.020 And I understand that once I leave this place, I'll have some more knowledge about something.

01:38:37.300 And I try to pay attention to the way he transfers that knowledge.

01:38:41.620 And some people that you go to meet and want knowledge from, they don't transfer it well.

01:38:47.060 That's not necessarily bad.

01:38:49.640 Some people even covet their knowledge and don't want to spread it out and use it as some sort of an application for their furtherance.

01:38:58.420 in the world. But so understanding what wisdom is, how it is applied, and where it comes from,

01:39:06.980 and having the perception or the ability to observe those things before the onset

01:39:13.120 is deeply odenic too. There's more than just the wisdom itself. So much more about going in and

01:39:20.480 coming out and then again reapplying sometimes it requires you to uh the part of the odinic

01:39:28.880 part of this is the cycles of it to to to apply to go back to refrain to um be sometimes you're

01:39:38.480 you're scarce or they're scarce and then you come back at the right time and all of a sudden you and

01:39:44.800 you're you say the same thing you told them maybe a year ago but now it has a totally different

01:39:50.120 meaning or it has so much more of a prominent meaning it's the same with like books when we

01:39:54.680 read books and we're digesting a book for the first time and there's concepts we get and some

01:40:00.920 that we don't and we gloss over and then we go back and read it a year later and all of a sudden

01:40:05.000 it's just hitting things again and again and again so i would say the cyclical application

01:40:12.520 of understanding wisdom and how it's to be applied is deeply odinic and that's one of the mysteries

01:40:18.840 of approaching wisdom, not as a static thing, but a dynamic thing.

01:40:27.760 What's Odin's purpose in hosting Loki within the halls of Asgard? How would you expound upon the

01:40:35.420 connection between them? If Odin knows the consequences of the relationship, why does

01:40:40.840 he keep the oath? What are your thoughts on this, Svan?

01:40:48.840 from a from a material standpoint when we talk about like loki and when we talk about the

01:40:57.040 continentals or things like that like there's a there's scance record of of loki as um and

01:41:06.080 like revelation to or relevation to the people of the continent there's it's a stretch in some

01:41:13.200 sense of the word but clearly it's very very much there amongst the nordics and i would say

01:41:19.080 that loki is a component and i would say more so a catalystic component that teaches us many

01:41:30.280 lessons myths are perennially perennial excuse me perennially am i saying that right perennial

01:41:38.920 perennially truthful took me a minute to get that out there um so that the consistency of

01:41:47.120 truth is always applicable in a cycle of of movement and motion um so when we see

01:41:55.440 and understand the catalystic moment in which uh if we're taking

01:42:02.400 things outside of the circular.

01:42:06.080 The balder is dead.

01:42:07.460 Balder is amongst the gods and balder is

01:42:09.420 returning or has returned.

01:42:11.320 We see things cyclically

01:42:13.080 and compounded, much like a spring.

01:42:16.880 But if we're going to take

01:42:17.440 a section, we're going to pull it out and we're going to look

01:42:19.440 at it to understand the perennial truth of it.

01:42:21.900 See that? It just came out

01:42:23.000 like that.

01:42:24.780 The idea

01:42:26.500 of

01:42:27.980 Loki

01:42:31.020 and Oven and, like, say, the relation of Balder,

01:42:36.160 knowing the ultimate outcome of this situation,

01:42:43.320 the idea of the seed.

01:42:46.480 We have the Lord of Light, Balder, 1.00

01:42:49.280 being slain by the darker half,

01:42:53.140 the dark side of it, of the light of the soul,

01:42:58.260 and guided by a treacherous and foreign hand now oftentimes we call loki the kinslayer because if

01:43:05.560 the oath is a lot of people think like odin kept an oath with loki well loki kept an oath uh with

01:43:10.620 and to kill your own blood brother's son makes you a kinslayer but do you expect anything less

01:43:18.780 from a treacherous one so again are we to be surprised and then this this comes to the idea

01:43:26.480 of whether or not the application of wisdom is that he understood that there needed to be a

01:43:32.680 force of that treachery in order to enact the eternal and perennial truth that the light must

01:43:42.220 be must recede into the darkness before it can be born again before it can rise again is this solar

01:43:49.840 myth? Yes. Is this perennial wisdom about consciousness and darkness and about the value

01:43:58.920 of that of the outer guard coming into the inner guard? Yes, it's all there. And how you digest

01:44:06.100 that, I think, can apply in many different ways. If Balder is encapsulated, living, and risen,

01:44:15.440 then so too is Loki enacting, bound, and released.

01:44:24.360 Myth works in a very difficult concept outside of logic.

01:44:30.000 And I think it's important that we understand those truths to apply in those various levels.

01:44:37.120 If we know the stories, if we know that Ragnarok is coming,

01:44:41.180 does it change our our fate does it change the things that we do or do the things that we do

01:44:50.380 ultimately facilitate the event the inevitable anyways and i think in a lot of ways that's the

01:44:55.320 way that the dynamic of the stories with loki and odin and balder and holder are all played out

01:45:02.120 And so to say that there's some sort of folly in knowing that this is to come or some of the lessons that are learned throughout the entirety of this whole arc, it all has great wisdom.

01:45:20.580 And I think it's important to understand that encompassing knowledge and that things do happen that predecess good things. Darkness does come before light rises.

01:45:36.660 um so you could take this in many many different ways um is it good to honor that which is event

01:45:45.280 we know is inevitably going to be a kinslayer is going to be um malicious and uh degenerative

01:45:53.860 uh you know we see this in the story of the gods and we should learn from these lessons we should

01:46:00.060 see what the gods how they interact with this and knowing like um you know like with scotty

01:46:07.980 looking upon loki and she's an outsider and he's an outsider but she's brought in she's synthesized

01:46:17.500 he's not he's not synthesized he's intertwined but he's not synthesized and he never is and um

01:46:25.100 there's many testaments to there being a link but there's never a full synthesizing of

01:46:31.980 him into the ice here and i think that's because he is a catalyst

01:46:35.980 of dynamic force that's outside of the gods and outside of cosmic order and he initiates a deep

01:46:46.060 reaction that needs to happen and um it's not good shouldn't be seen as good it shouldn't be

01:46:52.700 oh well if you know if odin knew that it was going to happen then you know he's not really that bad

01:46:57.100 no the end result is still the same kinslayer guiding the hands um taking advantage of the

01:47:04.620 situation um these are all you know ill things that are laid out in order for us to take that lesson

01:47:12.300 so so when we get overly literal with the stories of our gods

01:47:24.360 we miss bigger truths because of a hyper focus on on story truths

01:47:33.280 um the narrative in our mythos isn't intended to be literal it's intended to teach us lessons

01:47:43.840 um it's intended to convey bigger truth to us in a way that's digestible um

01:47:52.720 and also it's it's frigga that knows all these things and and keeps silent about them as opposed

01:48:02.620 to odin knowing all things he doesn't know every single thing and the outcome of every single thing

01:48:10.700 or else his uh wisdom quests wouldn't wouldn't be of value sending out hugan and munan wouldn't be

01:48:18.620 necessary um his wisdom of past things from mimir is is immense but even in a story sense that's

01:48:28.300 stretching the things that he knows uh too far um but the the theme of chaos being

01:48:42.300 uncontrollable at some point and poisoning order the theme of people that you let in

01:48:50.620 mistreating your hospitality and betraying you these themes are extremely important for us to

01:48:56.940 understand and are fundamental to our existence and i think some of that is what's played out

01:49:01.900 on a grand scale in the particulars of that story understanding that we talked about

01:49:12.140 some of that is part of odin's knowledge quest we talked about that earlier it's best for man

01:49:16.700 to be middling wise you don't want to know about the betrayal that happens from a friend that you

01:49:22.940 let in i think that's one of the more tragic things that we realize in our own lives as we

01:49:29.740 grow to maturity is the the full knowledge of betrayal is one of the heaviest burdens to to

01:49:36.860 bear so i think that the tale about the consuming nature of of loki that chaos and letting that

01:49:45.500 chaos in and the consequences of letting a little bit of chaos in uh teach us very valuable lessons

01:49:51.660 for the future and i think that that's a necessary plot element to tell the stories of our gods in a

01:49:58.780 way for people to wrap their heads around you need villains interacting in order for a story to have

01:50:06.620 an arc that has meaningful um meaningful depth and lessons to be drawn from it

01:50:13.660 what or who is the being we call odin to you um

01:50:21.660 Hmm, it's a big question, and I'm trying to think of the best way to encapsulate that.

01:50:32.720 um odin is one of our most regal uh gods he is a god that inspires and has been

01:50:48.800 fundamental to afa success for ever um

01:50:54.640 he's the god we dedicated our first hof to and whose hof i very often get to worship at and

01:51:05.440 officiate at he is a god i look to for approval and for guidance as a as a leader and seek to

01:51:20.200 to understand better or to make sure that the things I'm doing are in line with

01:51:27.280 things he would approve of or things he would be proud of,

01:51:30.980 things he would want for his folk and for his AFA.

01:51:41.320 He is one of, I'd say,

01:51:44.040 a driving force in inspiration and in

01:51:47.780 pushing us forward to accomplish and to win and to be victorious.

01:51:59.200 And he is a God that certainly looked over the Astru Folk assembly since our very beginning. 0.86

01:52:04.100 And that in no way encapsulates all of who Odin is to me. But he's also the God that

01:52:10.580 put his hand on my shoulder at Ostara of 2017, a God that I've engaged in countless ritual

01:52:22.900 to and for and with, and a God that I think that I've been,

01:52:32.360 I feel like I've been successful in connecting our folk with Odin and connecting Odin with our folk

01:52:44.200 in ritual. I hope that I have. I feel like that's one of the best connections I've been able to make

01:52:54.280 and I'm consistently able to make during ritual. Again, like I say, I don't want to assume too

01:53:00.780 much, but I feel that that's a real thing. It's probably the best I've got on that.

01:53:11.240 How does Odin personally show himself to you in your life?

01:53:18.140 Okay. I suppose it's a little bit of a follow-up of the previous question.

01:53:21.420 And I answered some of it, but Odin shows himself in my life through blessings that he bestows upon us as the AFA.

01:53:39.740 Sitting at the at the helm of the AFA. So often people ask, you know, Matt, how are you doing?

01:53:46.960 And the only answer that I know to give is, well, the AFA is doing great. Well, the AFA has got this going on. Well, we're doing this in the AFA. The separation between myself personally and the Astro Folk Assembly, those lines are irrevocably blurred to where it's one equation.

01:54:05.240 So I see Odin's interaction with me in the way that he interacts with the Astru Folk Assembly.

01:54:14.040 He interacts with me often because I have the blessing of being able to officiate ritual towards him frequently and presiding over things at his Hof very often.

01:54:25.580 And so in the feelings and the blessing and the inspiration that occurs during those things, he interacts with me in that way.

01:54:37.760 And he serves as a constant reminder of duty and of need to win and need to achieve as I approach him on my altar.

01:54:49.920 So I think that's a way that he reveals himself in my life.

01:54:52.960 Odin. In different traditions, they describe it differently, and sometimes they even describe different leaders of the wild hunt.

01:55:05.960 But the idea of Odin leading ghostly souls through the the cold and windy winter woods in search of of people who are out when they shouldn't be and hunting and reaping.

01:55:24.260 um some of that i think is a very profound way of expressing that furious energy of of odin that

01:55:37.720 furious raging through the woods and knocking down anything in his way like a powerful wind

01:55:45.960 that idea that we talked about at the top of the show of an overwhelming frenzy or an

01:55:54.960 overwhelming inspiration, an overwhelming ecstatic state. This is a time where Odin

01:56:03.060 rides free through the wilderness and through the woods and through the dark places and through our

01:56:08.660 minds and through our hearts. When Odin is on the ride in his furious glory through the darkness

01:56:16.480 of winter, it is a magical time. But again, as the stories show, it's a time to be very respectful

01:56:24.480 and not nonchalant about going out into the world and letting things happen. It's a time to be very

01:56:33.300 reflective and very careful. But it's also one of the most sacred times of the year. It's when

01:56:38.240 were closest to our ancestors it's when we have our our highest you know times of celebration

01:56:44.520 it's literally come down to us as the holiday season um but yeah there's that that other

01:56:52.380 that draws closer out in the world and out in the woods

01:57:08.240 We'll see you next time.

Asatru Folk Assembly - November 07, 2023

Let's Discuss the Allfather (from VNS Episode 15)

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