Asatru Folk Assembly - March 2021 Live Chat

00:00:00.000 Hello. Hope you guys are doing good tonight. Seems like this year's going by really fast.

00:00:18.200 It's hard to believe it's already our March call. Yeah, I appreciate you guys joining

00:00:25.660 me this evening. I wanted to, I guess, mention a couple of things before we started off the night.

00:00:35.580 We, February, saw the first Charming of the Plow national celebration for the AFA in Washington

00:00:43.900 State. Now, Charming of the Plow has been a real big deal up there now. This is the third year it's

00:00:49.740 been a big deal, and I attended last year. It was fantastic, so we decided to give it a shot this

00:00:54.420 year. Let's turn it into a national event and see how we do. And those guys put on an amazing event.

00:01:02.460 The heroes portion goes to folk builder Joe Rosenich. He put a lot of heart into it,

00:01:10.260 making sure that the event was spectacular. It was probably the nicest facility the AFA's ever

00:01:19.040 had a national event. Beautiful cabin up a little ways away from Leavenworth, Washington.

00:01:27.400 A gorgeous cabin, plenty of space for everybody. A really, really nice venue for the event.

00:01:34.040 As I mentioned, I went up there, had an amazing time. I really appreciate all those guys I got

00:01:39.040 to spend some time with, get to know a little bit better, and good friends of mine that I hadn't

00:01:43.840 seen in a little bit that I got to, you know, see again. So what an amazing time. Anybody who did

00:01:49.800 not make it, please, please consider going next year because it was fantastic. Yeah. So I wanted

00:01:58.400 to mention that and a big thanks to, to Joe Rosinick and the AFA leaders up in that area

00:02:05.360 for hosting a fantastic event and for, you know, building a fantastic area. So thanks guys. You

00:02:12.060 did great. It's like we got a lot of folks rolling in. I'm glad we got a good deal of

00:02:19.580 participation tonight. Other news, I guess, before we get started. For those of you who

00:02:27.920 have not registered, here in a little less than two weeks, we have Ostara in the South,

00:02:36.340 this time for the first time ever at Thorshof in Linden, North Carolina. If you're at all

00:02:42.020 able to make that event, please do. We would love to see you there. Our folks at Thorshof have

00:02:49.200 worked really hard to plan a really spectacular event for us. It's going to be really nice.

00:02:54.520 Thorshof is amazing. It's been too long since I've been back there, so I'm very excited to go

00:02:59.400 spend some time at Thorshof again. So I'd invite all our AFA members on the call to try to make it

00:03:05.440 there. Like I said, that's going to be on the 13th, coming up here in just less than two weeks

00:03:14.200 in Linden, North Carolina. So if you can make it, please do. It's going to be amazing. We're

00:03:18.920 going to have a lot of great folks there. So I'd love to see you guys there. Something else to

00:03:24.860 mention, we're getting very, very close to the official dedication of Baldershoff in Murdoch,

00:03:31.620 Minnesota. Now, those of you may have been following it, it has been quite the journey

00:03:36.760 with Baldur's Hof to get this Hof off the ground, to beautify this Hof, to make it a place of

00:03:44.760 worship worthy of bright Balder. And our folks in the area have really put so much love, so much

00:03:51.520 blood, sweat, and tears into making that place amazing. Looks absolutely beautiful. I'm so

00:03:56.180 excited to go up there and be part of the dedication of that Hof. And that's going to be

00:04:00.740 coming very soon as well. AFA members will receive information on that, I believe this evening or

00:04:09.700 tomorrow, as far as dates and times and things. But if that's something that you can make it to,

00:04:17.160 we would love to see you there. It's quite a spectacular thing. This is only the third half

00:04:24.460 of its kind to our gods in North America. And as far as I know, the third half of its kind to our

00:04:31.300 gods in a thousand years. So if you want to come up and be part of that dedication, you should be

00:04:37.440 receiving an email and know a little bit more about that here very soon.

00:04:45.000 Welcome everybody who's just joining. Alan, I'm glad you got your membership pin. We'd love to

00:04:50.540 have you with us. Glad to have you on board. We've got our apprentice folk builder Tidge Rudd

00:04:57.940 joining us all the way from Australia tonight. Glad to have you here, Tidge.

00:05:10.880 Excellent. So we've got really good people joining for this call.

00:05:13.820 um we had a gentleman email me prior to this with some questions and I figure a good way to start

00:05:22.620 off the night is to uh go over some of his questions that he had and some of these are

00:05:28.360 things we've talked about before but some some of you may be hearing it for the first time or maybe

00:05:32.480 we'll address it in a little bit different way than we did uh previous so um question comes up

00:05:41.820 And the cemetery at Odenshof, I've mentioned a lot about cremated remains being interred there. And members asking if that implies that full burials of uncremated remains are out of the question.

00:05:59.880 For now, they are. We've looked into it and we've got it situated to where perhaps we could do a full uncremated burial at some point.

00:06:15.280 But right now, what we're looking at and planning for was cremated remains.

00:06:20.360 Cremated remains put us in a much safer area as far as any kind of concerns about environmental impact or any other concerns that folks might have in Yuba County there.

00:06:32.980 But we're on really good ground to have have cremated remains entered there.

00:06:38.320 That's what we have so far.

00:06:39.820 we have we have two folks that have their ashes there right now and yeah that is at this time

00:06:47.040 that is only for cremated remains and we want to make sure that the cremated remains are put in a

00:06:52.080 very secure you know non-biodegradable urn there and that's important also but it's a good question

00:07:00.800 any of our members that would like to be interned at Odenshof please don't hesitate to reach out

00:07:08.720 that's certainly something we'd be honored to have with with you being one of our members if uh

00:07:14.880 you know if and you know when it's your time to pass away we would love to have you there with us

00:07:19.920 also please consider um we're going to have a similar burial area at thorshoff as well in

00:07:25.360 north carolina if that's more appropriate for visitation by your family or just some place that

00:07:31.280 you would like to see your remains go, please let that wish be known. As something, I'll bring

00:07:39.060 it up again, I've talked about it the past couple of months. It's been a big push in the AFA lately

00:07:43.880 to get folks to really get their final will and testament dialed in. We found an amazing website

00:07:52.760 that does it for free in a very, very easy way and in a way that is legally binding and applicable

00:08:01.160 to all the states in the United States.

00:08:04.380 If you get with me a little bit later,

00:08:05.960 international members,

00:08:07.060 I can work on finding you guys something.

00:08:08.940 I was able to find one of our members

00:08:10.740 in Northern Ireland,

00:08:12.760 something that's a workable one for them.

00:08:16.460 It did cost them a little bit of money,

00:08:17.860 but not very much.

00:08:19.360 Not only do we want you to make sure

00:08:21.080 you get your will done,

00:08:22.420 especially in these times

00:08:24.080 where so many of us aren't raised

00:08:27.000 in an out-of-true family

00:08:28.200 with out-of-true parents,

00:08:29.420 out to true brothers and sisters, out to true family members that are going to take your faith

00:08:35.280 extremely serious when you pass. If you are, that's fantastic. But very often we have folks

00:08:40.900 that find themselves in a spot where that's not the case. So we want you to make sure that you

00:08:46.740 write down your will, that it's signed, that it's legally valid. But we also want to make sure that

00:08:51.980 a signed legally valid copy gets mailed to our law speaker, Alan Turnage, so we can have that on file.

00:08:58.480 That doesn't matter what you want for your final will and testament. That's completely up to you. Whatever it is, we want to know. We want to have it on file. We want to have a record of it so that we can help ensure that your will is done after you pass.

00:09:14.940 It's extremely important. I've watched too many people pass away without having this in place,

00:09:20.660 and their remains and their assets are not handled in the way that they would have wanted.

00:09:27.760 And that's unfortunate, and it's very easily avoidable, and we'd love to help be part of

00:09:32.200 the process of you getting what you want and what you deserve. Another question that comes up.

00:09:39.340 uh folks hear me using the term church and there's always questions about it um this comes up with

00:09:48.540 you know is that the word we should use for a house of worship or did our ancestors have a

00:09:54.380 different word um we don't tend to uh refer to our houses of worship as churches sometimes that

00:10:02.140 ends up happening in the community that we are in and i'm not offended by that i don't think

00:10:07.340 that's wrong if people in the local area want to call us you know the house of true church that

00:10:12.640 doesn't hurt my feelings i don't think it's bad um but no what we what we call our house of worship

00:10:19.480 is a hof that's what our ancestors referred to the temples of our gods as and that's what we

00:10:26.040 currently refer to the temples of our gods as we have odin's hof thor's hof and balder's hof

00:10:31.680 and many more to come. But when I use the word church, what I'm referring to is the entirety of

00:10:39.860 the Asatru Folk Assembly as an institution. And our ancestors didn't really have a word

00:10:46.560 for that in terms of, you know, archaic Asatru. It wasn't necessary because

00:10:51.260 the church of the time was the tribe. It was incorporated into the way of life and there

00:11:00.020 wasn't a need for a special body that way. It's the closest word in English-speaking countries that

00:11:06.500 says who we are and gives the gravity to what we're doing that other faiths enjoy. And that's

00:11:13.820 why we use that term. And it's not a Hebrew term or anything. It's absolutely a European term.

00:11:23.820 And a lot of folks think that it has roots in Kirka and it's the root of the word circle,

00:11:29.400 because our ancestors so often would worship our gods in a circular formation as many of us still

00:11:35.220 do today. So that's why I use that word because folks know what it means and it immediately lifts

00:11:41.380 what we do from, you know, just some kooky hobby to a serious faith that it is and a faith that's

00:11:48.320 worthy of our gods. So that's why using that term is, is important to me and something we've been

00:11:54.320 doing? Let me look back at the questions here for a second. There was a couple others here.

00:12:07.660 Another question about terminology is what's the difference between paganism and heathenism?

00:12:13.920 One of the reasons that I use the word Ausitru in relating to that. So

00:12:19.940 also true is a form of paganism um linguistically it is it is heathen neither of those words are

00:12:31.620 linguistically wrong for what we do but both of those terms are the other describing us

00:12:40.280 whereas Ossetru is us describing us. 0.60

00:12:46.980 Pagans or heathens are what the Christian church

00:12:50.840 or the Romans would call the people out in the heath, 0.99

00:12:56.840 the people out in the weird peasantry out in the woods 0.80

00:12:59.980 doing their backwards religion.

00:13:04.320 And if it wasn't meant outright insulting, 0.99

00:13:07.800 which I think it was,

00:13:08.780 It certainly was a way to describe something other and something different.

00:13:14.700 We're not describing ourselves as other and different.

00:13:17.700 We're describing ourselves by who we are.

00:13:20.640 It's really important to us in the AFA to talk a lot about what we are and not what we aren't.

00:13:26.200 And so we're not defined by our not being Christians.

00:13:30.000 We're defined by us actively worshiping and being loyal to the Aesir.

00:13:35.220 That's why we are Ausatru, and that's why I use that term.

00:13:38.780 But to the question that Roy asked, the difference between pagan and heathen is just a linguistic difference to basically mean the same thing that implies the people out in the sticks who worship other things than the Christian God.

00:13:56.660 And we technically fall into those categories.

00:13:59.640 But in the AFA, we always like to use the term Alcintree.

00:14:02.780 other question is and we and we run into this every now and again and very often this is a

00:14:10.100 theoretical question but sometimes it's a it's a sincere one that folks have and it's also one of

00:14:16.980 the hardest hardest ones to to answer in a way that's satisfying to everybody and this question

00:14:24.620 is what if a mixed race person wants to practice aussitry what if they feel

00:14:30.100 particularly called to the Germanic aspect of their mixed race. And sometimes it's a misnomer

00:14:41.100 and people mean something very different by it. If there are other white people that are part

00:14:48.160 Celtic and part Germanic and feel that that somehow is a mixture, it's not. We are all part

00:14:56.380 of the Aryan branch of humanity. And that's not a different thing for folks that are something

00:15:05.220 completely different for someone who's, you know, half black and half European. That's the real 0.66

00:15:10.720 meat of that question. And first and foremost, genuinely, I'm sympathetic for the confusion that

00:15:20.040 people find themselves in when that's their situation. That's got to be extremely confusing

00:15:25.620 them very difficult. I know that a lot of those people are in a spot where it is hard to fit in

00:15:30.320 and hard to figure out where they fit. That's really unfortunate. I wish that I had a spectacular

00:15:36.180 answer for them that helps, you know, helps that situation. I think the best that I have though

00:15:44.020 right now is, you know, the question comes about, are they welcoming the AstroFolk Assembly?

00:15:47.980 And the answer is no. There's a couple of reasons for that. But it's mainly for the integrity of the group and what we're doing. It's so rare that we get an opportunity to just be us and just celebrate that that we have in common.

00:16:08.980 And it's so essential to how we practice our faith to who we are and to the families that we want to raise to carry on our legacy as our tradition, our faith, and also our genetics. 1.00

00:16:22.100 Someone who is significantly mixed that way would take something that's homogenous and would make it no longer homogenous. 1.00

00:16:34.280 And it would spoil a lot of that togetherness and that bonding that we have. 1.00

00:16:38.980 And so it may be very unfortunate for that individual, but the need of our group, the need of our folk is much more important than the need of any one individual, certainly an individual on the outside that's pondering, you know, what would happen if they joined.

00:16:53.040 The good news for those people is there's plenty of faiths out there that I'm sure they'd be very welcome to join and be a part of.

00:17:01.280 And I think that if they're honest with themselves, there's probably plenty of faiths that they'd feel much more comfortable in. 1.00

00:17:06.480 But no, to the question, folks who are of mixed race would not be welcome in the Austro-Folk Assembly. 0.98

00:17:16.780 Last question I've seen from this gentleman who sent me those questions was...

00:17:26.960 No, never mind. I think you got it. I just answered them out of order.

00:17:29.960 There's one more email of questions, and I'll get to that, and then I'll get to the ones over here on the side.

00:17:36.480 Ah, OK. And this is a this is an interesting question, and it may sound strange, but I've heard this from a lot of people who are new.

00:17:50.920 And they're wondering about the physics of the gods interacting with the giants and with the dwarves.

00:18:01.840 And they're wondering, you know, what the physical dimensions of the giants are, like how giant are they if they're, you know, mating with the gods in some way?

00:18:12.320 How is that possible when the gods are, you know, human size and the giants are giant sized?

00:18:20.920 It may sound funny, and I think a lot of us who've been in it for a while may find that to be an odd question, but I think some people who join us and who are new take a much more literal approach to understanding our lore.

00:18:36.820 First, I don't think our lore reads like that. When we're talking about the gods and the giants, I don't think we're talking about, you know, Thor as some really buff dude with a red beard and a hammer that rides a chariot with physical goats.

00:18:51.440 And I also don't think that we're thinking of giants in terms of, you know, some really huge human shaped guy. I think those are creative and vivid ways to describe spiritual forces and spiritual beings in a way that makes sense to people and draw a picture.

00:19:12.600 Giants are gigantic in terms of their age, their very ancient and primal forces of chaotic things within nature and within the world around us.

00:19:29.480 This is not at all to say that I don't think these things exist.

00:19:32.540 certainly they do but they exist as as spiritual beings that aren't confined to our physics of

00:19:39.500 understanding the the height and weight and food consumption of a giant or of a god for that matter

00:19:46.300 i don't think those those beings live in a physical way in that sense and so to answer

00:19:52.700 that question i certainly think that they are the image of them being giants is a a

00:19:58.620 It's a colorful way of describing ancient and chaotic forces of unchecked nature, of the devouring force of chaos.

00:20:09.880 Very often they're referred to as etians or devourers.

00:20:18.560 So, yeah, I would say that in terms of that question.

00:20:22.300 But I appreciate that question being asked.

00:20:24.580 I want people to feel really free to ask questions, no matter how different or silly they may seem.

00:20:30.980 I think there's probably people out there who are constantly interested in these things and maybe don't step up to ask.

00:20:36.780 So I really do appreciate that. And keep that in mind, guys.

00:20:39.740 I really appreciate that this guy sent me questions beforehand.

00:20:43.920 Please always feel free. Whenever these chats pop up as scheduled events,

00:20:48.400 You can go in there without it being live and populate it with questions that you have,

00:20:54.860 if that you want to get answered. And that helps me out. It helps me fill time. And it's

00:20:59.100 a really helpful thing to do. And it makes sure your question gets answered. So please feel very

00:21:03.980 free to do that or to email me questions. And thank you, Roy, for emailing me those questions.

00:21:10.380 All right, guys, over to the side. Are there any events planned for Pennsylvania? Yes, absolutely.

00:21:16.320 There are absolutely local events all the time, mostly held by Lansdale True Folk Kindred in Pennsylvania.

00:21:26.080 But if you get in touch with Cliff or Katie Erickson, they'd be very happy to get you set up.

00:21:31.280 Or Adam Hudak would also be very happy to get you set up.

00:21:34.980 And hopefully my wife will populate those names over in the comments section and the email addresses that go along with them.

00:21:41.960 But for the big thing, in Pennsylvania, once a year, in October, we have our National Winter

00:21:49.380 Night Celebration. And I believe this year is the 10th annual National Winter Night Celebration in

00:21:55.440 Poconos. It's one of my favorite events. I look forward to it all year. It's the event that

00:22:00.720 in 2014, I met my wife, Mandy, at. So we would love to see you at that event if you could make

00:22:07.400 Also, Cliff, Katie, or Adam would be really happy to give you information on that.

00:22:12.400 um vincent over on the side afa groups you were connected with on facebook disappeared they did

00:22:39.640 not disappear. They were removed by Facebook in an act of

00:22:43.600 religious persecution against us, unfortunately. And I'm sad

00:22:47.700 that's caused you a problem on being able to interact with us. 0.98

00:22:51.400 You mentioned about being in touch with a Hoff in Lancaster,

00:22:54.480 South Carolina, I'm not sure what you're referring to exactly.

00:22:58.960 But if you're trying to get in touch with folks that we have in

00:23:01.360 link are in South Carolina, generally, who you want to talk

00:23:05.400 to is Heather Young, hyoung at runestone.org. And she would be really happy to try to help

00:23:12.260 reconnect you with the folks that you've lost touch with. I appreciate you coming here tonight

00:23:16.620 and asking about that. And I'm sorry for anybody that the great Facebook purge has, you know,

00:23:23.060 affected and made it more difficult for you to get in touch with the AFA. We want to make sure

00:23:27.460 we rebuild those bonds and get you back dialed in.

00:23:33.540 Okay, next question.

00:23:35.720 Are Odinism house true and forms say they're the same or are there differences between

00:23:41.080 them?

00:23:42.040 And to what degree and what are they?

00:23:47.400 It depends who you ask.

00:23:50.000 That is why I try to be really, really consistent and always calling what we do house a true.

00:23:57.460 I want to build, you know, quote unquote, brand integrity to where the word means something.

00:24:03.120 The word means what we do in the AFA.

00:24:07.980 Linguistically, Odinism, Ausitru, and Forn Sather, or the old way, those are the same thing.

00:24:17.880 And there's a lot of people practicing all of those things that would like to call what they do that,

00:24:24.140 that do the same thing and worship the same gods in a very, very similar way.

00:24:28.860 But there's also, unfortunately, a lot of people that are involved in those things that would

00:24:34.280 define it differently. And on top of that, to make it even more cloudy, there's various different

00:24:39.540 groups of people who are very different organizations that would describe themselves

00:24:44.280 as Odinists or as Alcetru or the organization Fornseider, I believe, is active in Scandinavia.

00:24:52.560 I know that's an organization that's active in Denmark for certain.

00:24:58.840 So those are things you want to be careful of.

00:25:06.120 There's such a thing as folkish and universalist in people that practice, you know, our faith.

00:25:14.940 The folks that would define themselves as universalist are not actually practicing

00:25:20.200 Ausatru, but they feel that they are, and they'd probably argue with me, but they would be incorrect.

00:25:26.600 I say that to say this, most anybody who's describing themselves as an Odinist is probably

00:25:32.120 going to be very folkish. Most people in this day and age that describe themselves as Ausatru are

00:25:39.180 also folkish. Very often when people describe themselves as heathens, they tend to have more

00:25:46.960 overlap with the universalists. That's not to say that everybody who describes themselves as a

00:25:51.760 heathen is a universalist. Far from it. But you see more of a mixture there in that label.

00:25:58.700 Forn Sather, I usually only hear that in terms of Scandinavian groups. And the groups in

00:26:04.180 Scandinavia that I know that use that term do tend to be universalists. I hope that's helpful.

00:26:12.140 And it's kind of a misnomer. You say at the bottom that it seems Odinism places more of an emphasis on Odin.

00:26:19.280 Yes and no. I think that ends up happening to a degree, but not specifically.

00:26:24.400 I think very often, whereas linguistically, that would make a lot of sense.

00:26:28.720 It's not really that way. I think you'll find people who are Odinists that certainly worship all of our gods, that worship our goddesses.

00:26:37.260 It's not like it's certainly not necessarily an Odin centered monotheism by any means.

00:26:45.580 But both the word Odinism and Alcetru have very long, very storied histories.

00:26:50.700 And I think we're kind of championed by some different groups back in the 1970s and 80s.

00:26:56.220 I think the distinction has largely evaporated amongst a lot of people in this day and age.

00:27:06.380 hey george i appreciate your compliments on the beard trying to sculpt it make sure it's

00:27:15.280 not unruly i think it's coming in all right i appreciate it um

00:27:20.720 sorry guys i'm just reading all the comments catching up on the other side looking for any

00:27:39.060 of your questions. All right, Vincent, as I said a few minutes ago, the AFA groups are disappearing

00:27:53.900 from Facebook because the social justice warriors that run Facebook have decided that we have

00:28:00.500 committed wrongthink and they are literally religiously persecuting us and removing us

00:28:06.120 from their platform. I want to assure every single person here during the time of the purge or any

00:28:14.740 time recently, the Astru Folk Assembly has not in any way violated Facebook's terms of service

00:28:20.680 or any of their community standards other than our existence. The fact that we exist as a ethnic

00:28:28.660 faith and that we happen to be white, those two things are not allowed on Facebook, apparently.

00:28:35.560 Other than that, that is the only thing that in any way we violated their community standards.

00:28:40.980 But unfortunately, many of us personally, our main group and many of our groups have been removed from Facebook.

00:28:48.280 We apologize for that. We're working hard on making sure we have a presence on VK.

00:28:52.660 We have a presence on Parler. I know it's taking Parler a while to get back up.

00:28:57.180 We have folks trying to make sure we have a presence in other places as well.

00:29:01.360 We do have an active Twitter account, and we're doing the best we can to make do with what we have.

00:29:08.360 We appreciate you guys' patience in that.

00:29:22.880 Vincent, Hoff, nearest you, you'd have to tell us where you are located, and we will get you squared away.

00:29:29.360 It's funny that you bring that up. So now that we have three functioning Hoffs honoring our gods, we've changed it up a little bit of how the AFA sorts its membership.

00:29:43.580 and a lot of this has to do with our folk builders and our gothar and which members they're serving

00:29:51.560 and how but to you our members it's really relevant too so we've split we've split Midgard

00:29:58.320 into our three Hoffs as Hoff districts we have Odin's Hoffs serving the west coast of the United

00:30:05.740 States, all the way inland to Montana, Wyoming, into Colorado, New Mexico, and extending outward

00:30:16.220 all the way over to our folks in Australia. That whole area is the Odenshof district. Odenshof is

00:30:23.460 your Hof, and we really want you folks to take pride in that. As we get more Hofs, we'll separate

00:30:30.740 further, but right now we really want that area and that part of the world to bond around Odenshoff

00:30:37.460 and to build some community that way. In the middle section there into Canada and encompassing

00:30:44.560 any members that we have in Central and South America, we have Baldershoff. Baldershoff runs

00:30:50.940 from the edge of the Odenshoff district all the way over to the Mississippi River and just east

00:30:57.500 of it in the course of it also has Wisconsin and Illinois involved.

00:31:05.940 East of that is the Thorshoff district and that takes pretty much all the American South,

00:31:12.880 all of the American East Coast, and our folks over in Europe and South Africa.

00:31:17.880 We'd really like to see all those folks bonding together around Thorshoff and building that

00:31:23.480 community over there.

00:31:25.180 And it's, like I said, a lot of the time, it's an administrative thing behind the scenes.

00:31:29.700 But I think it's an exciting way to kind of have people associate with their Hoff.

00:31:35.120 We've been joined by a special guest.

00:31:37.040 This is my beautiful daughter, Aubrey.

00:31:39.220 I love her very much.

00:31:40.380 She's getting awesome.

00:31:41.420 She's walking.

00:31:42.240 She's doing good things.

00:31:45.720 She's up a little bit late tonight.

00:31:49.940 She's making noise.

00:31:51.040 She's happy to see you guys.

00:31:53.040 I'm always happy to show her off because I love her.

00:31:54.900 He's beautiful. But yeah, here's Aubrey's. All right, guys.

00:32:18.940 Okay, so Vincent, you're in Charlotte, North Carolina. Excellent. You're very close to

00:32:22.840 Thorshoff. Thorshoff is in Linden, North Carolina. Please get a hold of Daniel Young, dyoungatrunestone.org.

00:32:32.140 He's the man you want to talk to. He can get you set up. He can get you involved. I'm not sure

00:32:38.180 exactly how far Charlotte is, but I don't think it's more than a couple of hours. So you're very

00:32:46.740 close to a hoff in your area. Matter of fact, you should ask Daniel about coming to Ostara 1.00

00:32:53.100 here in a couple of weeks. If you could, that'd be great, and we'd love to meet you there.

00:33:10.180 I lost my place over on the side here. All right, hold on. Getting back to where I should be.

00:33:16.740 All right, we got Lane, a folk builder in Florida, asking about the Deesir, and sometimes

00:33:32.460 the term is referencing female ancestors while other times it's referencing certain goddesses.

00:33:40.120 One really notable thing about the goddesses is Freya, known as the Vanadis, or the Deesir

00:33:46.140 of the Vanir. So, Desir implies like a priestess that watches over something. And just as our

00:34:00.080 Desir maintained the holiness, the integrity, and watch over our families from beyond,

00:34:06.100 so these goddesses protect our folk and protect the Aesir, and in Freya's case, the Vanir,

00:34:13.720 and look on as priestesses maintaining that sacrality.

00:34:21.860 These ladies bind the frith that connects us all, 0.89

00:34:28.220 and they do that here in Midgard. 0.87

00:34:30.220 They certainly do that within our families.

00:34:33.360 And as our goddesses show us, they do that amongst the gods as well.

00:34:38.560 So these connective forces, these ladies that look on and that keep things together and that keep things holy and keep things sacred, that's kind of the root of what the desir mean.

00:34:53.280 And like I said, just as our ancestor, you know, our female ancestors do that for us and for our families, these goddesses do that for the gods in the heavenly realm as well.

00:35:08.560 Corey, we do have a presence on Gab that the reach on Gab is very small, but we do have a small

00:35:25.100 presence there. And our social media guy is going to try to make that Gab presence a little bit more

00:35:30.640 active here. Instagram is connected to Facebook and the good folks at Instagram decided to get

00:35:39.580 rid of the Astro Folk Assembly just a few short days after Facebook did, which is really unfortunate.

00:35:45.200 We were having a lot of success on Instagram and reaching a lot of folks. It's a really good

00:35:49.280 platform because we have so many pictures of our beautiful folk getting together and celebrating

00:35:55.280 our gods. And that was a really good way of displaying those pictures. But now we got to

00:36:00.120 find different ways to do that. We're already working hard, like I said, on VK, on Twitter,

00:36:06.540 on Parler, and there's a couple others we're putting it out there on as well.

00:36:13.220 We're working with what we got, and we're always looking for a way to do it better.

00:36:30.120 okay ox is the list of gods set and listed and what do we do about gods that are unclear to add

00:36:39.260 or subtract not sure about the last part of your question but yes the list uh is can be found in

00:36:45.460 the poem the gilfaggening in there it talks about these are the iser that are beneficial for mankind

00:36:54.020 to worship. And it lists 12 gods. And those are the 12 gods 0.99

00:36:57.960 that the AFA focuses on. 0.69

00:37:11.460 Appreciate folk builders over on the side. I see they're actively

00:37:14.240 jumping in, trying to get in touch with you guys and get you all connected.

00:37:17.680 I'd love to see that.

00:37:24.020 Does the AFA believe in rune divination or is that considered to new age?

00:37:32.820 Yes, the AFA believes in rune divination.

00:37:37.000 And yes, it's very often to new age.

00:37:40.660 It really depends on who's doing it.

00:37:43.420 And I think we've all seen this in our lives.

00:37:46.000 The credibility of something depends very heavily upon who is doing it and who's talking about it.

00:37:52.480 And there are some people that will talk about one thing and it'll sound completely silly.

00:37:57.960 There's another person who'll talk about the same thing, but you can see in their eyes and in the way they carry themselves that it's deadly serious.

00:38:06.280 We absolutely believe in the principle of runic divination.

00:38:09.300 um we certainly believe in the practice of runic divination by qualified people by people with

00:38:20.760 experience by people with a genuine connection to the divine um but very often it is very new

00:38:28.380 agey and there's a lot of people with very little context that you know i don't necessarily believe

00:38:36.560 in the efficacy of their runic divination. I think to do runic divination well, you need to

00:38:43.400 have a relationship with the gods. You need to have an understanding of the runes and you need

00:38:49.560 to have a certain amount of intuitiveness about people and a wisdom about life in general in order

00:39:00.200 to connect those pieces in order to correctly read the runes and read the runes for the situation

00:39:05.580 that you're working on so um yeah i would encourage a good deal of skepticism on runic

00:39:12.300 divination but i know it works i've seen it work tremendously and i do believe in the concept of it

00:39:18.780 it's just you got to be very careful with uh with who you're trusting and how much you're

00:39:23.340 trusting in their interpretation of those rules.

00:39:46.140 Any events in the Midwest?

00:39:49.040 Absolutely, there's events in the Midwest.

00:39:53.340 So matter of fact, in the Midwest, we have events all of the time.

00:39:58.340 We have had a huge uptick in pub moots and get togethers all throughout the Midwestern part of the United States.

00:40:05.760 The good folks over in Ohio are doing a tremendous job with lots of meet and greets and pub moots.

00:40:13.100 Folks in Wisconsin are doing a great job with that.

00:40:15.780 We had recently had a good pub moot and get together in Pittsburgh.

00:40:20.080 So the Midwest part of the United States is doing great. Coming up in May, we have, for the first

00:40:26.640 time ever, a regional event in the Midwest in Wisconsin to celebrate the folk mother, Elsie

00:40:31.700 Christensen. Those of you who don't know about Elsie, you should get to know about her. She did

00:40:39.240 so much for our cause, for the development of our faith, and for the betterment and the getting

00:40:44.860 together of our folk, especially a lot of our young men. She was known as the folk mother and

00:40:52.760 her contributions are remembered and are celebrated. And I'm very excited that our folks

00:40:57.880 in the Midwest are putting on an event to honor her. I think that's a really special thing. And

00:41:03.760 I'm not sure if there's been a similar event in our history. So I think that's going to be a

00:41:08.940 really nice thing. And I'm very excited about that. And like I said, that's coming up in May.

00:41:14.860 Okay, got a question. Recently, a lot of folks are bringing up elements of Hinduism into

00:41:27.660 Al-Satru. Is that valid? And if so, to what extent? 1.00

00:41:34.120 Can it be valid to a degree? And your question on extent is well taken.

00:41:39.680 um Hinduism and Ausatru have a very have a common root but that common root is very very old

00:41:49.100 um it's difficult sometimes with Ausatru and with our lore to get as full of a picture as we'd like

00:41:58.880 because unfortunately the sands of time and uh just circumstances in history have created a

00:42:07.140 situations where our folks haven't practiced Ausatru for, you know, there's about a thousand

00:42:15.260 year gap there that it wasn't a thing. The information that we have from that elder Ausatru

00:42:23.120 period is limited to a degree. On the other hand, the Hindus have been practicing a version of 0.96

00:42:30.160 their Vedic faith, you know, for a very, very long time and relatively uninterrupted

00:42:36.640 and still today practice. So I think it's really interesting to watch how the roots that we shared

00:42:45.180 developed and took root in their culture over time. I think a lot of their principles are

00:42:51.560 really sound that we can look into. I think using some of that to inform some of your also true

00:43:00.240 practice is valid, but the deviation from our common root occurred very long ago there.

00:43:10.080 The mixture of their people genetically and of their culture with the Druvidian folk that were

00:43:17.180 in, you know, that occupied that area is ancient. And a lot of non-Aryan elements 0.99

00:43:25.380 affected their ritual practice, affected, you know, how they see their gods and how they do

00:43:31.780 things. So I think it's a fertile ground to take ideas, but I think you don't ever want to take

00:43:37.980 those ideas whole. You want to balance those ideas against what you know avows are true

00:43:46.980 and incorporate the things that you see have commonality and that you see are beneficial

00:43:52.100 and reject those things that are, you know, aberrations and that go against the things

00:43:58.660 you know avows are true. And that requires a little bit of discernment on your part.

00:44:02.860 It's certainly challenging with modern Hinduism. But the further back you go in their very ancient Vedic literature, the more it becomes very relevant to what we do.

00:44:13.860 We are not wrong thinkers, but the foe would accuse us of wrong think and label us that way.

00:44:35.560 But you are correct. We do not think wrong. It's them who think wrong.

00:44:43.860 I appreciate you folks on the side expressing your views about Facebook, Facebook and the

00:45:01.080 folks who run it truly, Facebook as an organization and the folks that run it are very toxic and

00:45:08.320 And they are very much opposed to us, to our interests, to the things that we value in this world.

00:45:14.520 It also is a very effective tool for getting together socially and interacting with folks.

00:45:19.540 And an extremely effective tool for getting the message out there.

00:45:23.680 I think that's why it is so important for the other team to make sure that we're not there.

00:45:29.380 But unlike some other groups, what's really important about the AstroFolk Assembly is we exist in the real world.

00:45:35.340 Social media is really important for advertising, and that's great.

00:45:39.240 And it's really handy to get in touch with members here and there.

00:45:42.780 And I don't want to paint it all with a broad brush or speak badly of it.

00:45:47.400 But Ask True happens in the real world where actual people get together and worship our gods and celebrate with our folk and build their families and build relationships and friendships in real life.

00:45:58.960 That's what the Ask True Folk Assembly does.

00:46:01.720 That's what we do that so many others don't.

00:46:05.340 Just about every weekend, there's an AFA group somewhere gathering, worshiping our gods, celebrating with our folk, you know, enjoying with our families and building relationships and connections.

00:46:19.000 That's where it's real. House of True doesn't exist online. House of True exists in the real world.

00:46:25.120 And nothing folks on Facebook want to say or do can prevent us from doing that.

00:46:35.340 uh vincent the parallels that you might see with um

00:46:56.540 ragnarok and the return of the gods the return of the god's children and the return of balder

00:47:01.580 after Ragnarok, any familiarity that sounds like with Christian myth, I think is because so much

00:47:08.400 of Christian mythology is borrowed from other sources. And unsurprisingly, many of the other

00:47:14.620 sources of a solar deity being reborn after a period of crisis, they come from outside of

00:47:25.580 christianity they come from arian sources very often and so i don't think that the uh the

00:47:31.720 similarity should be shocking but i think that in our case it's genuine and comes from a genuine

00:47:37.460 root whereas i think in christianity it was co-opted and overlaid onto um various other

00:47:45.600 mythologies in order to create their narrative uh and i also think when you have when you have

00:47:52.100 poets working with the work and working with cultural touchstones that they're familiar with

00:47:56.820 you come with a lot of that but no in no way do i think that that balder in some way represents

00:48:02.980 jesus in in any case that that might sound similar i think it would be jesus being a copy

00:48:10.620 of balder instead of the other way around um but no balder is a hero and a warrior and he is a son

00:48:20.000 of the the war god and the god of god of victory and of death um i don't think he has commonality

00:48:28.220 with christ at all other than the fact that he returns from the land of the dead as so many

00:48:33.060 deities do especially solar deities and so many great heroes tend to do um so you know there's

00:48:40.440 certainly similarity there but i don't think it flows the direction that would be implied

00:48:44.380 um althea we are trying the best we can to protect aubrey from all the degeneracy that

00:49:04.140 is out there in the world i don't think that we can shield her completely or totally

00:49:08.220 but we try to do the best we can in monitoring stuff that she's getting exposed to

00:49:13.180 of making sure there's context and we're going to make very sure that

00:49:18.140 that i homeschool my daughter and make sure that i'm taking care of her education at home

00:49:35.100 there you go somebody popping up some points of information on the side charlotte north

00:49:38.780 Carolina is about two hours and 50 minutes from Linden. So in about the same time it takes for me

00:49:44.460 to get to Odin's Hoff, you can get over to Thor's Hoff and celebrate with our amazing people over

00:49:51.100 there. In the scheme of things, that's not very long to be able to go to the only the second

00:49:58.540 Hoff of its kind ever in the United States or ever in North America as far as I know,

00:50:04.540 in the Americas, as far as I know. And the second Hof that's been established in the last

00:50:09.940 thousand years to celebrate our gods. So I would encourage anybody within, you know,

00:50:15.740 three hours of Thor's Hof to go check that out, be part of it, and to go join us for Ostara.

00:50:21.640 what can you do as far as volunteering for the afa reach out to your local folk builder

00:50:36.360 we have a contacts page at www.runestone.org and let them know what skills you have to contribute

00:50:43.160 As we grow, as we succeed, as we're blessed, we have a lot more opportunity and a lot more

00:50:52.500 demand for things that we need to do and we need to accomplish. And we need great people and great

00:50:57.280 volunteers to do those things. So you may not think it's relevant, but we have a need for so

00:51:03.840 many different things in the AFA. If you have a skill set that you want to volunteer, please let

00:51:08.800 your local folk builder know and we will we will do our best to find some way to to put that to

00:51:14.200 use and to to get you get you dialed into some of the stuff that we're doing ah marble mountain

00:51:26.240 thoughts on the Rune Guild. I really like the concept of the Rune Guild. I really like a lot

00:51:42.200 of their foundational materials. I have a tremendous amount of respect for Edred Thorson

00:51:49.880 as far as his knowledge of the runes. Not just knowledge of the runes, but knowledge of

00:51:56.080 magical workings with the runes. I talked about runic divination earlier, and it all depends on

00:52:01.340 who's doing it, on whether I take it serious or not. I take Edred very seriously when he talks

00:52:06.620 about runes. The guild is another story. There's a lot of people involved in there. There's some

00:52:18.320 really great people. The rune guild's come out with some really, really good works. In fact,

00:52:23.260 my favorite rune book for beginners is The Runes Workbook by Leon D. Wilde. That was put

00:52:32.020 out by a Rune Guild member. They have some really amazing members. They have some very

00:52:36.560 knowledgeable members, some excellent writers. They also have some people that I don't put a

00:52:44.500 great deal of confidence in. I think they also tend to get an awful lot of basement wizards

00:52:50.100 and a lot of folks that you can tell by their life

00:52:56.740 that their powerful rune magic has not been able to yield them a lot of success

00:53:02.140 and things that you would think mighty rune wizards would be able to succeed at.

00:53:06.540 And I think, I don't say that rudely,

00:53:08.840 but I think that the real world is a proving ground for your magic and your esoterics.

00:53:13.740 um basement wizardry is a joke and makes people who really practice esoteric things

00:53:25.500 look bad if you are a great runic wizard it should show in your life it should show in your

00:53:32.460 success it should show in success in your your endeavors and in your person and in your carriage

00:53:39.140 in the way you carry yourself. I think the Rune Guild is a very good academic institution in a

00:53:47.400 lot of ways. I don't necessarily put a lot of faith in the magical potency of the practitioners

00:53:54.660 of that guild, but it's a mixed bag. They've got some amazing people and they've got some

00:54:01.460 lackluster folk. I also have been told that the Rune Guild is not a folkish organization

00:54:08.380 And that there are a lot of, I say a lot of, but that some people of very different backgrounds from ours are using our sacred, our sacred magical knowledge and our sacred religious expressions in order to do whatever they're doing in a way that's completely unconnected with our folk and our spirituality.

00:54:30.580 And I find that kind of offensive.

00:54:33.600 But it's a mixed bag.

00:54:35.400 I don't have one unilateral thing.

00:54:37.360 I neither love nor hate the Rune Guild. I think there's definitely good things to come out of there, but I would encourage anybody to look at that with a skeptical eye, because not everything you get from it's going to be the same.

00:55:07.360 um vincent i'm sorry you're so concerned about the roots of norse mythology being affected by

00:55:17.600 the christianization of northern europe i think that christianity was far more affected by northern

00:55:23.740 europe than northern europe was affected by christianity and far as far as you know the

00:55:28.700 development of each of those each of those things or each of those mythos um of course there's

00:55:35.360 similarity in Cataclysm and there's going to be similarity in Adam and Eve and Ask and Embla.

00:55:43.340 I think in any creation story, there's going to be a first man and a first woman. And I think

00:55:50.680 that's kind of where the similarity ends in that one. But like I said, I'm sorry that you're having

00:55:57.300 concerns that way. I hope that you can work through it. It sounds like you and Heather are

00:56:01.100 talking. Maybe she can get you in touch with some material that'll help you have a little

00:56:06.700 bit different understanding of the roots of our lore. I'm hopeful for that.

00:56:21.040 All right. We got our folk builder, George Schindler, over there saying that he's a

00:56:24.920 Afro star. He's going to get going with having gatherings up there. If you're anywhere near

00:56:29.200 Massachusetts. Everything's kind of scrunched in the northern part of that coast, so even if you're

00:56:34.740 a couple of states away, you can probably make it, be on the lookout. We'd love to see you together

00:56:39.200 with those people. George is fantastic. His kindred, the Stoneship Hearth, are great guys.

00:56:45.600 I look forward to seeing most of them here soon at Ostara, and I hope you guys have the pleasure

00:56:50.120 of getting together with them up in New England.

00:56:59.200 A lot of folks asking questions tonight.

00:57:07.800 I appreciate you guys fully participating this evening.

00:57:11.520 It always makes the conversation go a lot better.

00:57:29.200 all right we got a question about uh astro cosmology and the relationship between

00:57:59.200 the Aesir and the pantheons of other gods.

00:58:04.180 And if there's like a justice league or of order gods versus chaos forces.

00:58:13.380 No.

00:58:14.060 And that's kind of a deep and a little bit messy question.

00:58:16.640 Cause I don't think there's a perfectly clean answer.

00:58:20.280 Our gods, 0.74

00:58:21.960 the Indo-European or Aryan gods all go back to a very similar route.

00:58:26.680 And I think that you have, you know, you have new gods that are developed over time by the, you know, in relation to the subgroups of that original folk.

00:58:42.080 And I think that you've got many of our great and mighty gods that go back to that same root and that exist as the same entities.

00:58:49.720 When you deal with other Indo-European pantheons, it's very, very clear that many of those gods are the same with different names.

00:58:59.880 But there's also, you know, many gods that are different and that sprung from that subsequent grouping of those folk.

00:59:09.840 And so I don't think that it really works that way.

00:59:12.700 I think that the overlap between gods is much greater beyond the veil than we understand, certainly the gods of our folk.

00:59:24.640 So I don't think it's quite as clean of an answer as maybe folks would like.

00:59:29.820 But I do think that that's the true answer.

00:59:32.740 We in the Austro Folk Assembly worship our gods by the names given to them by the Norse because it's easy.

00:59:40.440 It lets us know with a point of commonality who we're talking about.

00:59:46.640 And at that level, that's where we have the latest and the most complete and arguably the most successful compilation of lore and mythos and understanding of those gods in that way.

01:00:03.700 So that's that's our point of reference.

01:00:05.840 That's our point of commonality that we use.

01:00:08.120 But I think there's a lot of overlap on other Aryan pantheons in a way, and yes, it does theme around order versus chaos, always order versus chaos.

01:00:20.760 That is a fundamental theme to our existence, and we always stand on the side of order.

01:00:38.120 I'm sure. Ryan S. Can we talk about the constant campaigns of anti-white sentiment from major

01:00:45.480 corporations and stuff we can do to combat it in an effective, positive way? We can, but I really

01:00:51.520 don't like to spend a lot of time talking about negative stuff that we all get. I think we all

01:00:57.040 understand major corporations have found that it is economically in their best interest to take an

01:01:03.740 active role to be against us and pro everything that's not us and everything that rejects

01:01:10.520 tradition. And it's really unfortunate. And I think not only is it unfortunate, it's very

01:01:17.420 mean-spirited. What can we do to combat it in an effective way? I wish I had a great

01:01:23.620 answer for you. I think in small ways, we can choose where we spend our dollar and try

01:01:30.380 to spend it as least as possible with corporations that are the most overt in their stance against

01:01:38.500 us. I think we can try to support the folks that are pro us, or at least are not against us.

01:01:49.300 But unfortunately, with the way demographics work and our numbers, I don't think that's going to

01:01:56.280 make a massive difference to their bottom line. But I still think it's important that we do it.

01:02:02.120 And if enough people are outraged about it, enough people don't spend their money on,

01:02:08.080 you know, and in this world that we live in, stuff is so overlapped. You can't, if you're,

01:02:14.680 and I say you can't, if you're a homesteader out in the middle of nowhere, maybe you can. But for

01:02:19.180 most of us, the lifestyle that we have, it's very hard to maintain and keep all of our money away

01:02:24.660 from any corporation that takes political stances that demonize us, our race, our faith,

01:02:31.720 our values. But every little bit we do that we can helps. Every little bit we choose to spend

01:02:39.280 over here instead of over there is a positive step in the right direction. And I think, you know,

01:02:46.720 having that discussion within your family of what you're going to support and what you're not

01:02:52.000 is really important. I would just urge you, we do need to ride the tiger. Don't get carried away

01:02:57.380 and cut your nose off to spite your face. You sacrificing a lot of things that you and your

01:03:02.560 family really enjoy and really use in order to stick it to big corporations. They don't care.

01:03:09.460 They're going to be doing just fine one way or another. But in ways that you can try, especially

01:03:15.880 in local businesses. I think that's one of the keys too. The more you can spend your money locally,

01:03:21.340 the more you can get it to people that are sympathetic to our values even if they're not

01:03:26.220 also true and even if they're not white they may be good people that aren't actively trying to hurt

01:03:32.860 us and i'd love to support any good people that are actively you know in solidarity with with us

01:03:39.740 and our world views um so yeah i know it's not a great answer but it's kind of what i got for right

01:03:46.220 now. That is a great point on one of the differentiations of what makes Balder special

01:04:05.240 is that Balder has a family. Balder lives a masculine, manly existence. He's a warrior.

01:04:12.620 He's a family.

01:04:13.480 He has a family.

01:04:14.400 He's a husband.

01:04:15.820 Those things are really important and very virile.

01:04:18.340 And I think they're very different than the figure of Christ.

01:04:42.160 uh crystal if that was directed to me i cannot bend a penny between my fingers

01:04:46.640 i think only stainless steel can do that uh but no i cannot do that i'm not that mighty

01:04:54.240 an afa book list okay some folks have asked for that and i think it would be worthwhile to come

01:05:15.320 up with one of those um you're not the only person that's asked it and i think it would

01:05:20.800 be a worthwhile thing to have. Yeah, let me ask some folks about that tonight. As a matter of

01:05:27.400 fact, one of the things we were going to do to put out, we already have it, but to release to

01:05:32.720 our internally was a prerequisite reading list for our Gothar program. And I think we could expand

01:05:39.220 on that a little bit with some AFA recommended reading material. So I'll talk to some folks and

01:05:44.080 see if we can come up with that list. Any folks on the side, bug me about that. Any AFA leadership

01:05:50.100 on the side. Make sure you bug me about it. We can get one of those put out.

01:06:00.860 Yeah, Corey, anything on runes? Absolutely. Edred's work is phenomenal. He is the foremost

01:06:08.700 rune master in modern times, perhaps of all time. He really, truly is. His scholarship is amazing.

01:06:16.140 his gravitas in the field is amazing um i think that there's a lot of things on practice and a

01:06:23.920 lot of things on uh i don't know on a number of stuff that me and him probably don't agree on

01:06:29.540 but i absolutely trust his scholarship on room work and uh i trust his scholarship in general

01:06:35.820 um so yeah stuff by edward thorson especially concerning the runes i think is very valuable

01:06:41.080 Thank you.

01:07:11.080 All right, guys, if I miss any questions tonight, we're getting a lot on the side.

01:07:19.120 So don't don't mind me. It's certainly not intentional.

01:07:27.640 Yeah, I appreciate you all participating so much this evening.

01:07:31.760 so we do have two new kindreds in this last month to uh to announce if you guys

01:07:42.740 haven't already heard about it from our social media down in texas we have the frither folk

01:07:49.000 kindred um those guys have been doing really great things uh goethe kevin long has been

01:07:54.760 setting that up. Him and our folk builder, Lori Wadsworth, are doing really great things there.

01:08:02.960 It's really exciting to see us take off in Texas. It's an area that we've struggled having a

01:08:08.180 presence in the past, and Texas right now is on fire doing amazing things. So we're very excited

01:08:13.740 to see that. And then very recently, we've got our first kindred in Wisconsin. We've got

01:08:19.540 Vetter Fulner clan. And that's headed up by our folk builder in the area, James Alt.

01:08:28.140 Those guys are fantastic. For an AFA kindred, it's a very large kindred. I know they're putting

01:08:34.860 a lot into the Midwest event, honoring Elsie that I mentioned earlier. And I'm very excited to

01:08:40.560 see the results of that and see the stuff they're doing. They also have a really amazing flag. I

01:08:45.700 don't know if you saw, but I think it's one of our coolest flags, certainly one of my favorites.

01:08:50.260 Some folks use the term kindred or tribe or clan for their grouping of AFA worshipers.

01:08:58.200 We have a question on the side of what the difference is.

01:09:01.720 I'm sure that if you asked any of those people, there's probably a good reason in their mind that they chose the word they chose.

01:09:07.900 But as far as the AFA concern, there's not a difference.

01:09:11.580 It's a grouping of AFA members united by faith in our gods and by closeness together to stand before our gods and before our church, the Ask True Folk Assembly, as as one family of people worshiping our gods, one congregation of AFA members.

01:09:26.960 And we love seeing that wherever we got those folks.

01:09:30.360 So if you're part of a kindred, you want to start a kindred and have it be an official AFA kindred, please reach out to kindreds at loonstone.org.

01:09:38.100 We always love seeing our kindreds thrive and grow and supporting them.

01:09:43.300 We take a lot of pride in our kindreds, so that's something to think about.

01:10:02.880 So something happens when I scroll.

01:10:05.220 um it's like it shoots down to the bottom and then i gotta scroll back up to find stuff so i

01:10:10.820 hope i'm not missing anybody in that struggle but all in all this is a much better live medium than

01:10:16.500 facebook is okay we got another question about kindreds i kind of follows on to what i just

01:10:26.840 said, but a little bit better. If you want to start an AFA kindred, minimum is you need to have

01:10:36.480 three AFA members. You need to get together, talk to our kindred coordinator. He'll get you set up

01:10:44.140 and try to help you in the process of developing your kindred. And then your kindred needs to spend

01:10:49.480 a six-month period in probation to get to know each other, make sure that you guys are all

01:10:55.040 committed to the AFA, committed to our gods, committed to one another. And at that point,

01:11:00.880 once you've been in for six months, we would love to welcome you as an official AFA kindred

01:11:05.680 and get you set up with a flag and get your kindred flag displayed in our hafs so that

01:11:13.040 every time we gather in one of our temples to worship our gods, something representing,

01:11:18.020 powerfully representing you and your kindred is there with us, part of that sacred space that

01:11:23.460 we're occupying. Because ritually, when we get together at these hops with all of our kindred

01:11:27.820 banners around, we're all standing united together before our gods. And that's really kind of a

01:11:33.480 beautiful and a special thing. Mitchell, I wish that I knew any good books on sacred trees or

01:11:50.380 sacred groves. I guarantee you there is. I just not off the top of my head do I have one to

01:11:56.720 recommend. Maybe somebody on the side will have a good answer about that. I'd be interested in

01:12:03.180 what they come up with if they know a good book about that. Sorry about that, Mitchell.

01:12:06.300 Corey, you are correct. Beware of lefty Alistatru books out there. There are very few Alistatru books

01:12:24.140 written by modern folks that I would put stock in. I think a lot of Edred's books are very good. I

01:12:30.540 think some of his newer books are less so. Certainly, Alistair True, A Native European

01:12:35.460 Spirituality by Steve McNallan is one I would recommend everybody get.

01:12:48.060 Can't say there's too many other books out there on modern Alistair True that I think are

01:12:52.300 fantastic for you to have. By all means, read what you guys would like. But other Alistair

01:12:58.100 books that are modern, I'd take with a grain of salt and really make sure you get some context

01:13:02.880 for and run them by some folks that have done this for a while.

01:13:11.920 We're going long tonight. You guys have had a lot of questions and I'm

01:13:15.220 really happy to answer those.

01:13:21.260 Looking for any final ones over here before I say goodnight to you guys.

01:13:25.620 uh folk builders uh mitchell the folk builders are absolutely listed on the website um minnesota

01:13:33.460 you would want to reach out to jason gallagher at j gallagher at runestone.org or nathan erlinson

01:13:42.840 in erlinson at runestone.org hopefully somebody on the side can throw you up a link to those

01:13:49.580 they are absolutely listed on our website uh they're amazing people they're the folk builders

01:13:55.080 there and they can get you set up and let you know about what's going on at Baldur's Hoff.

01:14:11.160 Good point of interest that pennies from 1982 and older are easier to bend.

01:14:17.560 It's the news you could use in case you're looking to bend pennies.

01:14:25.080 Um, well, Jason,

01:14:53.520 that's a really complex question um i'll take a stab at it in modern first world culture

01:15:00.160 what element should we embrace and harness in our personal development uh pursuit of success

01:15:07.040 and growth versus replicating and repeating the methods of our ancestors methods our ancestors

01:15:14.080 used to employ um trying to hit the meat of it i think i understand the question

01:15:20.240 we need to be successful in the world we live in in that sense it's absolutely what our ancestors

01:15:28.000 did they took the very best technology of their age no matter what age that was and they employed

01:15:35.020 it for the furtherance of their will and their goals be that architecture be that farming be

01:15:42.840 that conquest be that you know anything they were doing they took the very best modern methods and

01:15:49.320 made them work towards what they were trying to do. And in that sense, I think we would always

01:15:53.960 want to make sure we embrace technology in a healthy way to meet our ends and make sure that

01:15:58.560 we are directing the technology towards what we want instead of being directed by the technology

01:16:04.680 towards something we don't. But I think that our ancestors and our gods would want us to be

01:16:12.600 supremely successful and efficient at what we do. And we do that best by using the best tools at

01:16:19.840 our disposal and not by being anachronistic in our practice or being unduly focusing on the good

01:16:27.520 old days rather than the times that are sitting right before us. Opportunity is now. Opportunity

01:16:33.580 is not in the past. And if we always have our eyes on the past, and I love history as much as anyone

01:16:38.820 else. But if we're always looking behind us, we were blind to the opportunities before us.

01:16:45.880 And our future is in the future, quite literally. So that's where I think a lot of our focus should

01:16:52.420 be. All right, guys, we're getting late. I want to hit the last couple of questions here because

01:16:59.480 we're a couple that came in. Is there any relationship between the Norena Society

01:17:09.960 and are they also folkish? All right. So no, there's no relationship with the Norena Society.

01:17:21.080 Recently, the AFA has tried to distance ourselves from the Norena Society.

01:17:26.260 uh are they folkish i believe so um

01:17:34.980 all right and i believe this really fundamentally also true is about doing it's about active it

01:17:41.620 literally means loyalty to the isir and that's built through activity it's built through

01:17:47.300 worshiping the gods through engaging in a gift cycle back and forth with the gods

01:17:52.660 from getting together and practicing Alcitru. Alcitru is not a study project. Alcitru is not

01:18:00.340 a theory. And the Norana Society approaches Alcitru as some sterile petri dish thing to study

01:18:13.440 and to poke at or to criticize or to have endless theories about how it ought to be done and to

01:18:20.300 criticize those who've done it. It's very important to know how our ancestors practiced

01:18:27.820 Ausitru, but it's more important for us to actually practice Ausitru. And a lot of the

01:18:35.820 folks involved in the Norana Society have been, have shown their character or lack thereof

01:18:42.940 within the Ausitru Folk Assembly and have left on bad terms because they were not quality

01:18:49.760 individuals, and they've pooled there as a collection of individuals of low quality.

01:18:57.440 I would advise people to stay away from the Norena Society and their material.

01:19:03.820 Is it all bad? Of course not. Are they all bad? Of course not. The guy that founded the Norena

01:19:11.500 Society and is a large part of the Norena Society, Mark Puryear, he's a genuinely good man. He's

01:19:16.900 always been very friendly to me. I genuinely like him as a person, but I don't think he nor the

01:19:23.060 Norana Society have built the relationship with the gods or the credibility to tell others how

01:19:29.140 they ought to practice how it's true. I think that's built through accomplishment, through doing

01:19:35.000 and not through academics and navel gazing. I don't say any of that to be mean. I just say it

01:19:43.980 be very direct. All right, guys, I got to cut this off at some point, but it's going good,

01:19:58.860 and we get really good questions. We have one about what I think about the individual versus

01:20:05.540 the community uh also true we need to reject the dichotomies um very often it's either the

01:20:14.900 individual or the community in also true it's both the community is is vitally important your

01:20:24.980 community is the definition of who you are is your value to others who are in your circle

01:20:30.680 The value in the interaction you have with your friends, with your family, with your folk, that's essential to life.

01:20:39.560 And it's very, very important.

01:20:41.580 But in order to do that well and effectively, you need to be a strong individual.

01:20:46.780 We need strong communities made up of quality individuals trying to be the very best they can be.

01:20:52.400 But to intentionally be a solo practitioner of Ausitru, and there's times where someone finds themselves alone.

01:20:59.260 Maybe they live in the middle of nowhere.

01:21:01.160 Maybe they're a homesteader.

01:21:02.560 Maybe they're locked up.

01:21:05.120 I get that.

01:21:06.820 But if you live out in the regular world with the rest of us, if you're practicing Alistair

01:21:11.960 as a solo practitioner, you're doing it wrong.

01:21:14.460 And I would invite you, I'd challenge you, practice Alistair with a group.

01:21:18.980 Join up with other people because that's when this gets real.

01:21:23.840 And Alistair was never meant to be practiced by solo individuals.

01:21:28.400 It was always meant to be practiced by a community, by a family, by a group.

01:21:37.640 All right, last thing, last one, last one.

01:21:42.940 Question, significance of Ostara and how her name in that ritual survived.

01:21:53.300 that's one of the it's one of the real hallmark things that survived of pagan european practice

01:22:02.340 throughout all of the christian age up to this day um in the christian calendar i know there's

01:22:07.620 a lot of emphasis put on christmas but the most sacred day in christianity is easter

01:22:13.380 and easter literally linguistically is the name of one of our goddesses

01:22:19.140 um depending on you know in the anglo-saxon or in the german maybe it's ostra or ostara

01:22:26.140 but easter is the you know the anglican the anglicanization of that word without any

01:22:35.120 deviation or any change the eggs and the you know the fecund bunnies and uh all the the baby

01:22:45.220 creatures in the springtime that has nothing to do with jesus and everything to do with the goddess

01:22:52.020 of fertility and of the dawn um it's amazing that she was so powerful and that that holiday

01:23:00.980 and that uh understanding of of the divinity of new life in the springtime was so essential to

01:23:09.380 our people that the Christians could not kill it. They couldn't stop it. They couldn't even rename

01:23:15.700 it. The best they could do is draw a picture of Jesus in with the lambs and the eggs and the

01:23:24.260 bunnies. But I think the symbol of Easter is not a risen Christ. It's the Easter bunny. And the

01:23:30.340 Easter bunny was absolutely a pagan symbol of the fertility that comes in that time of Easter or in

01:23:38.640 the time that we call Ostara, named after our great goddess of the dawn. All right, guys. Thank

01:23:44.440 you so much. This has been a great talk tonight. I appreciate everybody's participation. I really

01:23:51.180 appreciate you guys joining me on these live chats. I appreciate you guys being a part of this

01:23:56.960 and being in our great big Ausatru Folk Assembly family. I love you guys. I hope you guys have an

01:24:07.520 amazing Ostara. I hope I see you in Ostara the South of Thorshoff. Yeah, until we speak again,

01:24:15.380 hail the gods, hail the folk, hail the AFA.

Asatru Folk Assembly - March 02, 2021

March 2021 Live Chat

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