00:00:00.000Hello. Hope you guys are doing good tonight. Seems like this year's going by really fast.
00:00:18.200It's hard to believe it's already our March call. Yeah, I appreciate you guys joining
00:00:25.660me this evening. I wanted to, I guess, mention a couple of things before we started off the night.
00:00:35.580We, February, saw the first Charming of the Plow national celebration for the AFA in Washington
00:00:43.900State. Now, Charming of the Plow has been a real big deal up there now. This is the third year it's
00:00:49.740been a big deal, and I attended last year. It was fantastic, so we decided to give it a shot this
00:00:54.420year. Let's turn it into a national event and see how we do. And those guys put on an amazing event.
00:01:02.460The heroes portion goes to folk builder Joe Rosenich. He put a lot of heart into it,
00:01:10.260making sure that the event was spectacular. It was probably the nicest facility the AFA's ever
00:01:19.040had a national event. Beautiful cabin up a little ways away from Leavenworth, Washington.
00:01:27.400A gorgeous cabin, plenty of space for everybody. A really, really nice venue for the event.
00:01:34.040As I mentioned, I went up there, had an amazing time. I really appreciate all those guys I got
00:01:39.040to spend some time with, get to know a little bit better, and good friends of mine that I hadn't
00:01:43.840seen in a little bit that I got to, you know, see again. So what an amazing time. Anybody who did
00:01:49.800not make it, please, please consider going next year because it was fantastic. Yeah. So I wanted
00:01:58.400to mention that and a big thanks to, to Joe Rosinick and the AFA leaders up in that area
00:02:05.360for hosting a fantastic event and for, you know, building a fantastic area. So thanks guys. You
00:02:12.060did great. It's like we got a lot of folks rolling in. I'm glad we got a good deal of
00:02:19.580participation tonight. Other news, I guess, before we get started. For those of you who
00:02:27.920have not registered, here in a little less than two weeks, we have Ostara in the South,
00:02:36.340this time for the first time ever at Thorshof in Linden, North Carolina. If you're at all
00:02:42.020able to make that event, please do. We would love to see you there. Our folks at Thorshof have
00:02:49.200worked really hard to plan a really spectacular event for us. It's going to be really nice.
00:02:54.520Thorshof is amazing. It's been too long since I've been back there, so I'm very excited to go
00:02:59.400spend some time at Thorshof again. So I'd invite all our AFA members on the call to try to make it
00:03:05.440there. Like I said, that's going to be on the 13th, coming up here in just less than two weeks
00:03:14.200in Linden, North Carolina. So if you can make it, please do. It's going to be amazing. We're
00:03:18.920going to have a lot of great folks there. So I'd love to see you guys there. Something else to
00:03:24.860mention, we're getting very, very close to the official dedication of Baldershoff in Murdoch,
00:03:31.620Minnesota. Now, those of you may have been following it, it has been quite the journey
00:03:36.760with Baldur's Hof to get this Hof off the ground, to beautify this Hof, to make it a place of
00:03:44.760worship worthy of bright Balder. And our folks in the area have really put so much love, so much
00:03:51.520blood, sweat, and tears into making that place amazing. Looks absolutely beautiful. I'm so
00:03:56.180excited to go up there and be part of the dedication of that Hof. And that's going to be
00:04:00.740coming very soon as well. AFA members will receive information on that, I believe this evening or
00:04:09.700tomorrow, as far as dates and times and things. But if that's something that you can make it to,
00:04:17.160we would love to see you there. It's quite a spectacular thing. This is only the third half
00:04:24.460of its kind to our gods in North America. And as far as I know, the third half of its kind to our
00:04:31.300gods in a thousand years. So if you want to come up and be part of that dedication, you should be
00:04:37.440receiving an email and know a little bit more about that here very soon.
00:04:45.000Welcome everybody who's just joining. Alan, I'm glad you got your membership pin. We'd love to
00:04:50.540have you with us. Glad to have you on board. We've got our apprentice folk builder Tidge Rudd
00:04:57.940joining us all the way from Australia tonight. Glad to have you here, Tidge.
00:05:10.880Excellent. So we've got really good people joining for this call.
00:05:13.820um we had a gentleman email me prior to this with some questions and I figure a good way to start
00:05:22.620off the night is to uh go over some of his questions that he had and some of these are
00:05:28.360things we've talked about before but some some of you may be hearing it for the first time or maybe
00:05:32.480we'll address it in a little bit different way than we did uh previous so um question comes up
00:05:41.820And 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.
00:05:59.880For 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.
00:06:15.280But right now, what we're looking at and planning for was cremated remains.
00:06:20.360Cremated 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.
00:06:32.980But we're on really good ground to have have cremated remains entered there.
00:08:29.420out to true brothers and sisters, out to true family members that are going to take your faith
00:08:35.280extremely serious when you pass. If you are, that's fantastic. But very often we have folks
00:08:40.900that find themselves in a spot where that's not the case. So we want you to make sure that you
00:08:46.740write down your will, that it's signed, that it's legally valid. But we also want to make sure that
00:08:51.980a signed legally valid copy gets mailed to our law speaker, Alan Turnage, so we can have that on file.
00:08:58.480That 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.
00:09:14.940It's extremely important. I've watched too many people pass away without having this in place,
00:09:20.660and their remains and their assets are not handled in the way that they would have wanted.
00:09:27.760And that's unfortunate, and it's very easily avoidable, and we'd love to help be part of
00:09:32.200the process of you getting what you want and what you deserve. Another question that comes up.
00:09:39.340uh folks hear me using the term church and there's always questions about it um this comes up with
00:09:48.540you know is that the word we should use for a house of worship or did our ancestors have a
00:09:54.380different word um we don't tend to uh refer to our houses of worship as churches sometimes that
00:10:02.140ends up happening in the community that we are in and i'm not offended by that i don't think
00:10:07.340that's wrong if people in the local area want to call us you know the house of true church that
00:10:12.640doesn't hurt my feelings i don't think it's bad um but no what we what we call our house of worship
00:10:19.480is a hof that's what our ancestors referred to the temples of our gods as and that's what we
00:10:26.040currently refer to the temples of our gods as we have odin's hof thor's hof and balder's hof
00:10:31.680and many more to come. But when I use the word church, what I'm referring to is the entirety of
00:10:39.860the Asatru Folk Assembly as an institution. And our ancestors didn't really have a word
00:10:46.560for that in terms of, you know, archaic Asatru. It wasn't necessary because
00:10:51.260the church of the time was the tribe. It was incorporated into the way of life and there
00:11:00.020wasn't a need for a special body that way. It's the closest word in English-speaking countries that
00:11:06.500says who we are and gives the gravity to what we're doing that other faiths enjoy. And that's
00:11:13.820why we use that term. And it's not a Hebrew term or anything. It's absolutely a European term.
00:11:23.820And a lot of folks think that it has roots in Kirka and it's the root of the word circle,
00:11:29.400because our ancestors so often would worship our gods in a circular formation as many of us still
00:11:35.220do today. So that's why I use that word because folks know what it means and it immediately lifts
00:11:41.380what we do from, you know, just some kooky hobby to a serious faith that it is and a faith that's
00:11:48.320worthy of our gods. So that's why using that term is, is important to me and something we've been
00:11:54.320doing? Let me look back at the questions here for a second. There was a couple others here.
00:12:07.660Another question about terminology is what's the difference between paganism and heathenism?
00:12:13.920One of the reasons that I use the word Ausitru in relating to that. So
00:12:19.940also true is a form of paganism um linguistically it is it is heathen neither of those words are
00:12:31.620linguistically wrong for what we do but both of those terms are the other describing us
00:12:40.280whereas Ossetru is us describing us.0.60
00:12:46.980Pagans or heathens are what the Christian church
00:12:50.840or the Romans would call the people out in the heath,0.99
00:12:56.840the people out in the weird peasantry out in the woods0.80
00:13:08.780It certainly was a way to describe something other and something different.
00:13:14.700We're not describing ourselves as other and different.
00:13:17.700We're describing ourselves by who we are.
00:13:20.640It's really important to us in the AFA to talk a lot about what we are and not what we aren't.
00:13:26.200And so we're not defined by our not being Christians.
00:13:30.000We're defined by us actively worshiping and being loyal to the Aesir.
00:13:35.220That's why we are Ausatru, and that's why I use that term.
00:13:38.780But 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.
00:13:56.660And we technically fall into those categories.
00:13:59.640But in the AFA, we always like to use the term Alcintree.
00:14:02.780other question is and we and we run into this every now and again and very often this is a
00:14:10.100theoretical question but sometimes it's a it's a sincere one that folks have and it's also one of
00:14:16.980the hardest hardest ones to to answer in a way that's satisfying to everybody and this question
00:14:24.620is what if a mixed race person wants to practice aussitry what if they feel
00:14:30.100particularly called to the Germanic aspect of their mixed race. And sometimes it's a misnomer
00:14:41.100and people mean something very different by it. If there are other white people that are part
00:14:48.160Celtic and part Germanic and feel that that somehow is a mixture, it's not. We are all part
00:14:56.380of the Aryan branch of humanity. And that's not a different thing for folks that are something
00:15:05.220completely different for someone who's, you know, half black and half European. That's the real0.66
00:15:10.720meat of that question. And first and foremost, genuinely, I'm sympathetic for the confusion that
00:15:20.040people find themselves in when that's their situation. That's got to be extremely confusing
00:15:25.620them very difficult. I know that a lot of those people are in a spot where it is hard to fit in
00:15:30.320and hard to figure out where they fit. That's really unfortunate. I wish that I had a spectacular
00:15:36.180answer for them that helps, you know, helps that situation. I think the best that I have though
00:15:44.020right now is, you know, the question comes about, are they welcoming the AstroFolk Assembly?
00:15:47.980And 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.
00:16:08.980And 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
00:16:22.100Someone who is significantly mixed that way would take something that's homogenous and would make it no longer homogenous.1.00
00:16:34.280And it would spoil a lot of that togetherness and that bonding that we have.1.00
00:16:38.980And 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.
00:16:53.040The 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.
00:17:01.280And 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
00:17:06.480But no, to the question, folks who are of mixed race would not be welcome in the Austro-Folk Assembly.0.98
00:17:16.780Last question I've seen from this gentleman who sent me those questions was...
00:17:26.960No, never mind. I think you got it. I just answered them out of order.
00:17:29.960There'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.
00:17:36.480Ah, 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.
00:17:50.920And they're wondering about the physics of the gods interacting with the giants and with the dwarves.
00:18:01.840And 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?
00:18:12.320How is that possible when the gods are, you know, human size and the giants are giant sized?
00:18:20.920It 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.
00:18:36.820First, 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.
00:18:51.440And 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.
00:19:12.600Giants are gigantic in terms of their age, their very ancient and primal forces of chaotic things within nature and within the world around us.
00:19:29.480This is not at all to say that I don't think these things exist.
00:19:32.540certainly they do but they exist as as spiritual beings that aren't confined to our physics of
00:19:39.500understanding the the height and weight and food consumption of a giant or of a god for that matter
00:19:46.300i don't think those those beings live in a physical way in that sense and so to answer
00:19:52.700that question i certainly think that they are the image of them being giants is a a
00:19:58.620It's a colorful way of describing ancient and chaotic forces of unchecked nature, of the devouring force of chaos.
00:20:09.880Very often they're referred to as etians or devourers.
00:20:18.560So, yeah, I would say that in terms of that question.
00:20:22.300But I appreciate that question being asked.
00:20:24.580I want people to feel really free to ask questions, no matter how different or silly they may seem.
00:20:30.980I think there's probably people out there who are constantly interested in these things and maybe don't step up to ask.
00:20:36.780So I really do appreciate that. And keep that in mind, guys.
00:20:39.740I really appreciate that this guy sent me questions beforehand.
00:20:43.920Please always feel free. Whenever these chats pop up as scheduled events,
00:20:48.400You can go in there without it being live and populate it with questions that you have,
00:20:54.860if that you want to get answered. And that helps me out. It helps me fill time. And it's
00:20:59.100a really helpful thing to do. And it makes sure your question gets answered. So please feel very
00:21:03.980free to do that or to email me questions. And thank you, Roy, for emailing me those questions.
00:21:10.380All right, guys, over to the side. Are there any events planned for Pennsylvania? Yes, absolutely.
00:21:16.320There are absolutely local events all the time, mostly held by Lansdale True Folk Kindred in Pennsylvania.
00:21:26.080But if you get in touch with Cliff or Katie Erickson, they'd be very happy to get you set up.
00:21:31.280Or Adam Hudak would also be very happy to get you set up.
00:21:34.980And hopefully my wife will populate those names over in the comments section and the email addresses that go along with them.
00:21:41.960But for the big thing, in Pennsylvania, once a year, in October, we have our National Winter
00:21:49.380Night Celebration. And I believe this year is the 10th annual National Winter Night Celebration in
00:21:55.440Poconos. It's one of my favorite events. I look forward to it all year. It's the event that
00:22:00.720in 2014, I met my wife, Mandy, at. So we would love to see you at that event if you could make
00:22:07.400Also, Cliff, Katie, or Adam would be really happy to give you information on that.
00:22:12.400um vincent over on the side afa groups you were connected with on facebook disappeared they did
00:22:39.640not disappear. They were removed by Facebook in an act of
00:22:43.600religious persecution against us, unfortunately. And I'm sad
00:22:47.700that's caused you a problem on being able to interact with us.0.98
00:22:51.400You mentioned about being in touch with a Hoff in Lancaster,
00:22:54.480South Carolina, I'm not sure what you're referring to exactly.
00:22:58.960But if you're trying to get in touch with folks that we have in
00:23:01.360link are in South Carolina, generally, who you want to talk
00:23:05.400to is Heather Young, hyoung at runestone.org. And she would be really happy to try to help
00:23:12.260reconnect you with the folks that you've lost touch with. I appreciate you coming here tonight
00:23:16.620and asking about that. And I'm sorry for anybody that the great Facebook purge has, you know,
00:23:23.060affected and made it more difficult for you to get in touch with the AFA. We want to make sure
00:23:27.460we rebuild those bonds and get you back dialed in.
00:24:07.980Linguistically, Odinism, Ausitru, and Forn Sather, or the old way, those are the same thing.
00:24:17.880And there's a lot of people practicing all of those things that would like to call what they do that,
00:24:24.140that do the same thing and worship the same gods in a very, very similar way.
00:24:28.860But there's also, unfortunately, a lot of people that are involved in those things that would
00:24:34.280define it differently. And on top of that, to make it even more cloudy, there's various different
00:24:39.540groups of people who are very different organizations that would describe themselves
00:24:44.280as Odinists or as Alcetru or the organization Fornseider, I believe, is active in Scandinavia.
00:24:52.560I know that's an organization that's active in Denmark for certain.
00:24:58.840So those are things you want to be careful of.
00:25:06.120There's such a thing as folkish and universalist in people that practice, you know, our faith.
00:25:14.940The folks that would define themselves as universalist are not actually practicing
00:25:20.200Ausatru, but they feel that they are, and they'd probably argue with me, but they would be incorrect.
00:25:26.600I say that to say this, most anybody who's describing themselves as an Odinist is probably
00:25:32.120going to be very folkish. Most people in this day and age that describe themselves as Ausatru are
00:25:39.180also folkish. Very often when people describe themselves as heathens, they tend to have more
00:25:46.960overlap with the universalists. That's not to say that everybody who describes themselves as a
00:25:51.760heathen is a universalist. Far from it. But you see more of a mixture there in that label.
00:25:58.700Forn Sather, I usually only hear that in terms of Scandinavian groups. And the groups in
00:26:04.180Scandinavia that I know that use that term do tend to be universalists. I hope that's helpful.
00:26:12.140And it's kind of a misnomer. You say at the bottom that it seems Odinism places more of an emphasis on Odin.
00:26:19.280Yes and no. I think that ends up happening to a degree, but not specifically.
00:26:24.400I think very often, whereas linguistically, that would make a lot of sense.
00:26:28.720It'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.
00:26:37.260It's not like it's certainly not necessarily an Odin centered monotheism by any means.
00:26:45.580But both the word Odinism and Alcetru have very long, very storied histories.
00:26:50.700And I think we're kind of championed by some different groups back in the 1970s and 80s.
00:26:56.220I think the distinction has largely evaporated amongst a lot of people in this day and age.
00:27:06.380hey george i appreciate your compliments on the beard trying to sculpt it make sure it's
00:27:15.280not unruly i think it's coming in all right i appreciate it um
00:27:20.720sorry guys i'm just reading all the comments catching up on the other side looking for any
00:27:39.060of your questions. All right, Vincent, as I said a few minutes ago, the AFA groups are disappearing
00:27:53.900from Facebook because the social justice warriors that run Facebook have decided that we have
00:28:00.500committed wrongthink and they are literally religiously persecuting us and removing us
00:28:06.120from their platform. I want to assure every single person here during the time of the purge or any
00:28:14.740time recently, the Astru Folk Assembly has not in any way violated Facebook's terms of service
00:28:20.680or any of their community standards other than our existence. The fact that we exist as a ethnic
00:28:28.660faith and that we happen to be white, those two things are not allowed on Facebook, apparently.
00:28:35.560Other than that, that is the only thing that in any way we violated their community standards.
00:28:40.980But unfortunately, many of us personally, our main group and many of our groups have been removed from Facebook.
00:28:48.280We apologize for that. We're working hard on making sure we have a presence on VK.
00:28:52.660We have a presence on Parler. I know it's taking Parler a while to get back up.
00:28:57.180We have folks trying to make sure we have a presence in other places as well.
00:29:01.360We do have an active Twitter account, and we're doing the best we can to make do with what we have.
00:29:08.360We appreciate you guys' patience in that.
00:29:22.880Vincent, Hoff, nearest you, you'd have to tell us where you are located, and we will get you squared away.
00:29:29.360It'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.
00:29:43.580and a lot of this has to do with our folk builders and our gothar and which members they're serving
00:29:51.560and how but to you our members it's really relevant too so we've split we've split Midgard
00:29:58.320into our three Hoffs as Hoff districts we have Odin's Hoffs serving the west coast of the United
00:30:05.740States, all the way inland to Montana, Wyoming, into Colorado, New Mexico, and extending outward
00:30:16.220all the way over to our folks in Australia. That whole area is the Odenshof district. Odenshof is
00:30:23.460your Hof, and we really want you folks to take pride in that. As we get more Hofs, we'll separate
00:30:30.740further, but right now we really want that area and that part of the world to bond around Odenshoff
00:30:37.460and to build some community that way. In the middle section there into Canada and encompassing
00:30:44.560any members that we have in Central and South America, we have Baldershoff. Baldershoff runs
00:30:50.940from the edge of the Odenshoff district all the way over to the Mississippi River and just east
00:30:57.500of it in the course of it also has Wisconsin and Illinois involved.
00:31:05.940East of that is the Thorshoff district and that takes pretty much all the American South,
00:31:12.880all of the American East Coast, and our folks over in Europe and South Africa.
00:31:17.880We'd really like to see all those folks bonding together around Thorshoff and building that
00:34:30.220They certainly do that within our families.
00:34:33.360And as our goddesses show us, they do that amongst the gods as well.
00:34:38.560So 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.
00:34:53.280And 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.
00:35:08.560Corey, we do have a presence on Gab that the reach on Gab is very small, but we do have a small
00:35:25.100presence there. And our social media guy is going to try to make that Gab presence a little bit more
00:35:30.640active here. Instagram is connected to Facebook and the good folks at Instagram decided to get
00:35:39.580rid of the Astro Folk Assembly just a few short days after Facebook did, which is really unfortunate.
00:35:45.200We were having a lot of success on Instagram and reaching a lot of folks. It's a really good
00:35:49.280platform because we have so many pictures of our beautiful folk getting together and celebrating
00:35:55.280our gods. And that was a really good way of displaying those pictures. But now we got to
00:36:00.120find different ways to do that. We're already working hard, like I said, on VK, on Twitter,
00:36:06.540on Parler, and there's a couple others we're putting it out there on as well.
00:36:13.220We're working with what we got, and we're always looking for a way to do it better.
00:36:30.120okay ox is the list of gods set and listed and what do we do about gods that are unclear to add
00:36:39.260or subtract not sure about the last part of your question but yes the list uh is can be found in
00:36:45.460the poem the gilfaggening in there it talks about these are the iser that are beneficial for mankind
00:36:54.020to worship. And it lists 12 gods. And those are the 12 gods0.99
00:37:43.420And I think we've all seen this in our lives.
00:37:46.000The credibility of something depends very heavily upon who is doing it and who's talking about it.
00:37:52.480And there are some people that will talk about one thing and it'll sound completely silly.
00:37:57.960There'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.
00:38:06.280We absolutely believe in the principle of runic divination.
00:38:09.300um we certainly believe in the practice of runic divination by qualified people by people with
00:38:20.760experience by people with a genuine connection to the divine um but very often it is very new
00:38:28.380agey and there's a lot of people with very little context that you know i don't necessarily believe
00:38:36.560in the efficacy of their runic divination. I think to do runic divination well, you need to
00:38:43.400have a relationship with the gods. You need to have an understanding of the runes and you need
00:38:49.560to have a certain amount of intuitiveness about people and a wisdom about life in general in order
00:39:00.200to connect those pieces in order to correctly read the runes and read the runes for the situation
00:39:05.580that you're working on so um yeah i would encourage a good deal of skepticism on runic
00:39:12.300divination but i know it works i've seen it work tremendously and i do believe in the concept of it
00:39:18.780it's just you got to be very careful with uh with who you're trusting and how much you're
00:39:23.340trusting in their interpretation of those rules.
00:39:49.040Absolutely, there's events in the Midwest.
00:39:53.340So matter of fact, in the Midwest, we have events all of the time.
00:39:58.340We have had a huge uptick in pub moots and get togethers all throughout the Midwestern part of the United States.
00:40:05.760The good folks over in Ohio are doing a tremendous job with lots of meet and greets and pub moots.
00:40:13.100Folks in Wisconsin are doing a great job with that.
00:40:15.780We had recently had a good pub moot and get together in Pittsburgh.
00:40:20.080So the Midwest part of the United States is doing great. Coming up in May, we have, for the first
00:40:26.640time ever, a regional event in the Midwest in Wisconsin to celebrate the folk mother, Elsie
00:40:31.700Christensen. Those of you who don't know about Elsie, you should get to know about her. She did
00:40:39.240so much for our cause, for the development of our faith, and for the betterment and the getting
00:40:44.860together of our folk, especially a lot of our young men. She was known as the folk mother and
00:40:52.760her contributions are remembered and are celebrated. And I'm very excited that our folks
00:40:57.880in the Midwest are putting on an event to honor her. I think that's a really special thing. And
00:41:03.760I'm not sure if there's been a similar event in our history. So I think that's going to be a
00:41:08.940really nice thing. And I'm very excited about that. And like I said, that's coming up in May.
00:41:14.860Okay, got a question. Recently, a lot of folks are bringing up elements of Hinduism into
00:41:27.660Al-Satru. Is that valid? And if so, to what extent?1.00
00:41:34.120Can it be valid to a degree? And your question on extent is well taken.
00:41:39.680um Hinduism and Ausatru have a very have a common root but that common root is very very old
00:41:49.100um it's difficult sometimes with Ausatru and with our lore to get as full of a picture as we'd like
00:41:58.880because unfortunately the sands of time and uh just circumstances in history have created a
00:42:07.140situations where our folks haven't practiced Ausatru for, you know, there's about a thousand
00:42:15.260year gap there that it wasn't a thing. The information that we have from that elder Ausatru
00:42:23.120period is limited to a degree. On the other hand, the Hindus have been practicing a version of0.96
00:42:30.160their Vedic faith, you know, for a very, very long time and relatively uninterrupted
00:42:36.640and still today practice. So I think it's really interesting to watch how the roots that we shared
00:42:45.180developed and took root in their culture over time. I think a lot of their principles are
00:42:51.560really sound that we can look into. I think using some of that to inform some of your also true
00:43:00.240practice is valid, but the deviation from our common root occurred very long ago there.
00:43:10.080The mixture of their people genetically and of their culture with the Druvidian folk that were
00:43:17.180in, you know, that occupied that area is ancient. And a lot of non-Aryan elements0.99
00:43:25.380affected their ritual practice, affected, you know, how they see their gods and how they do
00:43:31.780things. So I think it's a fertile ground to take ideas, but I think you don't ever want to take
00:43:37.980those ideas whole. You want to balance those ideas against what you know avows are true
00:43:46.980and incorporate the things that you see have commonality and that you see are beneficial
00:43:52.100and reject those things that are, you know, aberrations and that go against the things
00:43:58.660you know avows are true. And that requires a little bit of discernment on your part.
00:44:02.860It'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.
00:44:13.860We are not wrong thinkers, but the foe would accuse us of wrong think and label us that way.
00:44:35.560But you are correct. We do not think wrong. It's them who think wrong.
00:44:43.860I appreciate you folks on the side expressing your views about Facebook, Facebook and the
00:45:01.080folks who run it truly, Facebook as an organization and the folks that run it are very toxic and
00:45:08.320And they are very much opposed to us, to our interests, to the things that we value in this world.
00:45:14.520It also is a very effective tool for getting together socially and interacting with folks.
00:45:19.540And an extremely effective tool for getting the message out there.
00:45:23.680I think that's why it is so important for the other team to make sure that we're not there.
00:45:29.380But unlike some other groups, what's really important about the AstroFolk Assembly is we exist in the real world.
00:45:35.340Social media is really important for advertising, and that's great.
00:45:39.240And it's really handy to get in touch with members here and there.
00:45:42.780And I don't want to paint it all with a broad brush or speak badly of it.
00:45:47.400But 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.
00:45:58.960That's what the Ask True Folk Assembly does.
00:46:01.720That's what we do that so many others don't.
00:46:05.340Just 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.
00:46:19.000That's where it's real. House of True doesn't exist online. House of True exists in the real world.
00:46:25.120And nothing folks on Facebook want to say or do can prevent us from doing that.
00:46:35.340uh vincent the parallels that you might see with um
00:46:56.540ragnarok and the return of the gods the return of the god's children and the return of balder
00:47:01.580after Ragnarok, any familiarity that sounds like with Christian myth, I think is because so much
00:47:08.400of Christian mythology is borrowed from other sources. And unsurprisingly, many of the other
00:47:14.620sources of a solar deity being reborn after a period of crisis, they come from outside of
00:47:25.580christianity they come from arian sources very often and so i don't think that the uh the
00:47:31.720similarity should be shocking but i think that in our case it's genuine and comes from a genuine
00:47:37.460root whereas i think in christianity it was co-opted and overlaid onto um various other
00:47:45.600mythologies in order to create their narrative uh and i also think when you have when you have
00:47:52.100poets working with the work and working with cultural touchstones that they're familiar with
00:47:56.820you come with a lot of that but no in no way do i think that that balder in some way represents
00:48:02.980jesus in in any case that that might sound similar i think it would be jesus being a copy
00:48:10.620of balder instead of the other way around um but no balder is a hero and a warrior and he is a son
00:48:20.000of the the war god and the god of god of victory and of death um i don't think he has commonality
00:48:28.220with christ at all other than the fact that he returns from the land of the dead as so many
00:48:33.060deities do especially solar deities and so many great heroes tend to do um so you know there's
00:48:40.440certainly similarity there but i don't think it flows the direction that would be implied
00:48:44.380um althea we are trying the best we can to protect aubrey from all the degeneracy that
00:49:04.140is out there in the world i don't think that we can shield her completely or totally
00:49:08.220but we try to do the best we can in monitoring stuff that she's getting exposed to
00:49:13.180of making sure there's context and we're going to make very sure that
00:49:18.140that i homeschool my daughter and make sure that i'm taking care of her education at home
00:49:35.100there you go somebody popping up some points of information on the side charlotte north
00:49:38.780Carolina is about two hours and 50 minutes from Linden. So in about the same time it takes for me
00:49:44.460to get to Odin's Hoff, you can get over to Thor's Hoff and celebrate with our amazing people over
00:49:51.100there. In the scheme of things, that's not very long to be able to go to the only the second
00:49:58.540Hoff of its kind ever in the United States or ever in North America as far as I know,
00:50:04.540in the Americas, as far as I know. And the second Hof that's been established in the last
00:50:09.940thousand years to celebrate our gods. So I would encourage anybody within, you know,
00:50:15.740three hours of Thor's Hof to go check that out, be part of it, and to go join us for Ostara.
00:50:21.640what can you do as far as volunteering for the afa reach out to your local folk builder
00:50:36.360we have a contacts page at www.runestone.org and let them know what skills you have to contribute
00:50:43.160As we grow, as we succeed, as we're blessed, we have a lot more opportunity and a lot more
00:50:52.500demand for things that we need to do and we need to accomplish. And we need great people and great
00:50:57.280volunteers to do those things. So you may not think it's relevant, but we have a need for so
00:51:03.840many different things in the AFA. If you have a skill set that you want to volunteer, please let
00:51:08.800your local folk builder know and we will we will do our best to find some way to to put that to
00:51:14.200use and to to get you get you dialed into some of the stuff that we're doing ah marble mountain
00:51:26.240thoughts on the Rune Guild. I really like the concept of the Rune Guild. I really like a lot
00:51:42.200of their foundational materials. I have a tremendous amount of respect for Edred Thorson
00:51:49.880as far as his knowledge of the runes. Not just knowledge of the runes, but knowledge of
00:51:56.080magical workings with the runes. I talked about runic divination earlier, and it all depends on
00:52:01.340who's doing it, on whether I take it serious or not. I take Edred very seriously when he talks
00:52:06.620about runes. The guild is another story. There's a lot of people involved in there. There's some
00:52:18.320really great people. The rune guild's come out with some really, really good works. In fact,
00:52:23.260my favorite rune book for beginners is The Runes Workbook by Leon D. Wilde. That was put
00:52:32.020out by a Rune Guild member. They have some really amazing members. They have some very
00:52:36.560knowledgeable members, some excellent writers. They also have some people that I don't put a
00:52:44.500great deal of confidence in. I think they also tend to get an awful lot of basement wizards
00:52:50.100and a lot of folks that you can tell by their life
00:52:56.740that their powerful rune magic has not been able to yield them a lot of success
00:53:02.140and things that you would think mighty rune wizards would be able to succeed at.
00:53:08.840but I think that the real world is a proving ground for your magic and your esoterics.
00:53:13.740um basement wizardry is a joke and makes people who really practice esoteric things
00:53:25.500look bad if you are a great runic wizard it should show in your life it should show in your
00:53:32.460success it should show in success in your your endeavors and in your person and in your carriage
00:53:39.140in the way you carry yourself. I think the Rune Guild is a very good academic institution in a
00:53:47.400lot of ways. I don't necessarily put a lot of faith in the magical potency of the practitioners
00:53:54.660of that guild, but it's a mixed bag. They've got some amazing people and they've got some
00:54:01.460lackluster folk. I also have been told that the Rune Guild is not a folkish organization
00:54:08.380And 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.
00:54:37.360I 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.
00:55:07.360um vincent i'm sorry you're so concerned about the roots of norse mythology being affected by
00:55:17.600the christianization of northern europe i think that christianity was far more affected by northern
00:55:23.740europe than northern europe was affected by christianity and far as far as you know the
00:55:28.700development of each of those each of those things or each of those mythos um of course there's
00:55:35.360similarity in Cataclysm and there's going to be similarity in Adam and Eve and Ask and Embla.
00:55:43.340I think in any creation story, there's going to be a first man and a first woman. And I think
00:55:50.680that's kind of where the similarity ends in that one. But like I said, I'm sorry that you're having
00:55:57.300concerns that way. I hope that you can work through it. It sounds like you and Heather are
00:56:01.100talking. Maybe she can get you in touch with some material that'll help you have a little
00:56:06.700bit different understanding of the roots of our lore. I'm hopeful for that.
00:56:21.040All right. We got our folk builder, George Schindler, over there saying that he's a
00:56:24.920Afro star. He's going to get going with having gatherings up there. If you're anywhere near
00:56:29.200Massachusetts. Everything's kind of scrunched in the northern part of that coast, so even if you're
00:56:34.740a couple of states away, you can probably make it, be on the lookout. We'd love to see you together
00:56:39.200with those people. George is fantastic. His kindred, the Stoneship Hearth, are great guys.
00:56:45.600I look forward to seeing most of them here soon at Ostara, and I hope you guys have the pleasure
00:56:50.120of getting together with them up in New England.
00:56:59.200A lot of folks asking questions tonight.
00:57:07.800I appreciate you guys fully participating this evening.
00:57:11.520It always makes the conversation go a lot better.
00:57:29.200all right we got a question about uh astro cosmology and the relationship between
00:57:59.200the Aesir and the pantheons of other gods.
00:58:04.180And if there's like a justice league or of order gods versus chaos forces.
00:58:21.960the Indo-European or Aryan gods all go back to a very similar route.
00:58:26.680And 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.
00:58:42.080And 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.
00:58:49.720When you deal with other Indo-European pantheons, it's very, very clear that many of those gods are the same with different names.
00:58:59.880But there's also, you know, many gods that are different and that sprung from that subsequent grouping of those folk.
00:59:09.840And so I don't think that it really works that way.
00:59:12.700I think that the overlap between gods is much greater beyond the veil than we understand, certainly the gods of our folk.
00:59:24.640So I don't think it's quite as clean of an answer as maybe folks would like.
00:59:29.820But I do think that that's the true answer.
00:59:32.740We in the Austro Folk Assembly worship our gods by the names given to them by the Norse because it's easy.
00:59:40.440It lets us know with a point of commonality who we're talking about.
00:59:46.640And 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.
01:00:03.700So that's that's our point of reference.
01:00:05.840That's our point of commonality that we use.
01:00:08.120But 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.
01:00:20.760That is a fundamental theme to our existence, and we always stand on the side of order.
01:00:38.120I'm sure. Ryan S. Can we talk about the constant campaigns of anti-white sentiment from major
01:00:45.480corporations and stuff we can do to combat it in an effective, positive way? We can, but I really
01:00:51.520don't like to spend a lot of time talking about negative stuff that we all get. I think we all
01:00:57.040understand major corporations have found that it is economically in their best interest to take an
01:01:03.740active role to be against us and pro everything that's not us and everything that rejects
01:01:10.520tradition. And it's really unfortunate. And I think not only is it unfortunate, it's very
01:01:17.420mean-spirited. What can we do to combat it in an effective way? I wish I had a great
01:01:23.620answer for you. I think in small ways, we can choose where we spend our dollar and try
01:01:30.380to spend it as least as possible with corporations that are the most overt in their stance against
01:01:38.500us. I think we can try to support the folks that are pro us, or at least are not against us.
01:01:49.300But unfortunately, with the way demographics work and our numbers, I don't think that's going to
01:01:56.280make a massive difference to their bottom line. But I still think it's important that we do it.
01:02:02.120And if enough people are outraged about it, enough people don't spend their money on,
01:02:08.080you know, and in this world that we live in, stuff is so overlapped. You can't, if you're,
01:02:14.680and I say you can't, if you're a homesteader out in the middle of nowhere, maybe you can. But for
01:02:19.180most of us, the lifestyle that we have, it's very hard to maintain and keep all of our money away
01:02:24.660from any corporation that takes political stances that demonize us, our race, our faith,
01:02:31.720our values. But every little bit we do that we can helps. Every little bit we choose to spend
01:02:39.280over here instead of over there is a positive step in the right direction. And I think, you know,
01:02:46.720having that discussion within your family of what you're going to support and what you're not
01:02:52.000is really important. I would just urge you, we do need to ride the tiger. Don't get carried away
01:02:57.380and cut your nose off to spite your face. You sacrificing a lot of things that you and your
01:03:02.560family really enjoy and really use in order to stick it to big corporations. They don't care.
01:03:09.460They're going to be doing just fine one way or another. But in ways that you can try, especially
01:03:15.880in local businesses. I think that's one of the keys too. The more you can spend your money locally,
01:03:21.340the more you can get it to people that are sympathetic to our values even if they're not
01:03:26.220also true and even if they're not white they may be good people that aren't actively trying to hurt
01:03:32.860us and i'd love to support any good people that are actively you know in solidarity with with us
01:03:39.740and our world views um so yeah i know it's not a great answer but it's kind of what i got for right
01:03:46.220now. That is a great point on one of the differentiations of what makes Balder special
01:04:05.240is that Balder has a family. Balder lives a masculine, manly existence. He's a warrior.
01:07:11.080All right, guys, if I miss any questions tonight, we're getting a lot on the side.
01:07:19.120So don't don't mind me. It's certainly not intentional.
01:07:27.640Yeah, I appreciate you all participating so much this evening.
01:07:31.760so we do have two new kindreds in this last month to uh to announce if you guys
01:07:42.740haven't already heard about it from our social media down in texas we have the frither folk
01:07:49.000kindred um those guys have been doing really great things uh goethe kevin long has been
01:07:54.760setting that up. Him and our folk builder, Lori Wadsworth, are doing really great things there.
01:08:02.960It's really exciting to see us take off in Texas. It's an area that we've struggled having a
01:08:08.180presence in the past, and Texas right now is on fire doing amazing things. So we're very excited
01:08:13.740to see that. And then very recently, we've got our first kindred in Wisconsin. We've got
01:08:19.540Vetter Fulner clan. And that's headed up by our folk builder in the area, James Alt.
01:08:28.140Those guys are fantastic. For an AFA kindred, it's a very large kindred. I know they're putting
01:08:34.860a lot into the Midwest event, honoring Elsie that I mentioned earlier. And I'm very excited to
01:08:40.560see the results of that and see the stuff they're doing. They also have a really amazing flag. I
01:08:45.700don't know if you saw, but I think it's one of our coolest flags, certainly one of my favorites.
01:08:50.260Some folks use the term kindred or tribe or clan for their grouping of AFA worshipers.
01:08:58.200We have a question on the side of what the difference is.
01:09:01.720I'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.
01:09:07.900But as far as the AFA concern, there's not a difference.
01:09:11.580It'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.
01:09:26.960And we love seeing that wherever we got those folks.
01:09:30.360So 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.
01:09:38.100We always love seeing our kindreds thrive and grow and supporting them.
01:09:43.300We take a lot of pride in our kindreds, so that's something to think about.