Asatru Folk Assembly - March 2022 Live Discussion

00:00:00.000 hello it's been a month already it's good to talk to you guys again tonight

00:00:19.480 i was reading uh first thanks so many people have lined up already for uh

00:00:25.680 for this evening's discussion and i'm sure we've got more coming in i appreciate you guys showing

00:00:29.840 up early king of cheese i look forward to you applying don't hesitate uh go to our website and

00:00:35.360 apply right now it'd be great to see your application when we get done with this

00:00:42.720 i'm just going to start with stuff i've seen populate over here and i have a couple things

00:00:46.400 i'd like to like to talk about off uh off the beginning here um

00:00:55.120 gigasquid what do i think about video games and have i ever played skyrim

00:01:06.280 yes i have absolutely played and defeated skyrim um i think video games have their place i think

00:01:15.240 it's really easy to take some really hard stand one way or another i think that video games

00:01:19.480 ought not become a lifestyle choice but they're fun i've played plenty of plenty of video games

00:01:26.080 in my time kind of go through spurts i know one thing they do is if you're antsy and you got a

00:01:31.380 lot of nervous energy and you need something to focus on because you're waiting on something

00:01:34.820 video games are kind of a kind of a cool way to cool way to work with that um

00:01:42.280 but yeah i don't i don't think there's any one size fits all video game answer other than don't

00:01:47.940 let your life suffer due to some huge amount of video game plan um even man glad you're able to

00:02:00.340 make it here tonight i try to you know i mix it up on the days and times a little well i say times

00:02:05.000 mix it up on the days at least a little bit so we can get the most people available to be able to

00:02:09.820 get a chance to come on here i look forward to talking to all of you guys um something i'm sure

00:02:16.500 on a lot of people's minds and i already saw some some talk about it in the chat

00:02:21.460 is everybody's hoping to hear some great things about florida and about new words off

00:02:27.300 one more month one more month and hopefully i'll be able to tell you something better

00:02:31.620 a couple of really cool things though um

00:02:38.660 since last month actually since the end of uh since the last week of january

00:02:43.620 we have had a huge amount of support with people stepping forward and being generous both in

00:02:49.360 straight up donations which have been amazing in straight up donations since we started raising

00:02:55.200 money for New York's Hoff just here's some money for the Hoff we have raised

00:02:59.660 just over 70,000 um but as far as asking for people to lend a lot of AFA members I say I've

00:03:12.380 Out of AFA members, we have an offer to lend of just north of $300,000, like I think $330,000 due to AFA members just wanting to lend.

00:03:27.540 And we have another about $300,000 on top of that of friends of members and just friends in the overall community that would like to help.

00:03:37.380 And a lot of that is no interest loans.

00:03:39.620 So we have a lot of people who stepped up. Money is not our problem right now. We're currently working on some stuff. We've got about four different irons in the fire right now on planning. I hope you guys respect I can't go into super detail on it or else, you know, there's people out there that would like to muck it up for us.

00:03:59.500 but we are working on it, working hard on it. And as I promised way back when we started this,

00:04:05.140 and I think we started the New York's off push June or July of last year. And I know it's been

00:04:11.480 a long time, but we're going to get there and we're not going to stop until we get a Hoff

00:04:14.520 from your there. We're going to honor him with his own Hoff in the state of Florida. And that's 0.85

00:04:19.060 going to happen. We're just going to keep pushing until something falls through. And we've got some

00:04:22.340 really, we got some really cool options that we're working on right now that I'm excited about. But

00:04:27.100 The good thing is you guys have stepped up.

00:04:29.040 You guys have been super generous, super supportive.

00:04:32.640 And we're very, very thankful.

00:04:34.880 And it's my sincere belief that Njorther is appreciative of your guys' generosity in this.

00:04:41.560 We're going to make it happen.

00:04:42.320 I promise.

00:04:51.440 Looking on the side here.

00:04:57.100 So I've got a question about what a thula is, or oftentimes it'll get pronounced in different

00:05:14.820 circles as thial. And I think it's because it's spelled that way in Old English, but

00:05:18.480 makes a little linguistic sound different point being um it's i guess a bailiff when it comes to

00:05:27.600 assemble it's somebody who's empowered at assemble to judge the words that are spoken and to speak up

00:05:35.600 for the luck of the people participating in assemble those of you who may not have been

00:05:40.640 part of a symbol. Basically, a symbol is one of the major rites of Al-Satru, and it is a

00:05:49.520 communal toasting event that happens. And in a high symbol, there's usually three rounds. 0.91

00:05:57.200 There's a round to our ancestor, or I'm sorry, there's a round to the gods.

00:06:01.120 Second round is to our ancestors. And the third round is kind of a freestyle round. We call it

00:06:07.180 around to the heroes, but often it's things that you'd like to raise a horn to that you haven't

00:06:11.160 gotten a chance to say in the first couple of rounds. Raising a horn out of respect to someone

00:06:16.020 that you admire, somebody who's done something really worth noting. It's also a time people will

00:06:21.540 make oaths. It's a time people will recite songs or poetry maybe. It's really important that,

00:06:31.960 But I think the best way to describe it, Sambal is basically a microcosm of our macrocosm

00:06:39.780 with the world tree being fed by the well of earth.

00:06:44.040 So our actions and our deeds fill this well and it shapes our reality.

00:06:49.260 It shapes the world tree.

00:06:51.220 In a Sambal, the people gathered there are sharing their luck.

00:06:55.760 They're sharing their hymenia for that ritual.

00:06:58.760 and the words that are put into that well, the well being the horn, we all share and something

00:07:05.280 magical happens. If we all put in good words, we benefit more than the sum of our parts.

00:07:11.860 But if we speak poorly over the horn, or importantly, if we make oaths that we don't

00:07:18.080 fulfill over the horn, then everybody there bears some of that burden and takes a little bit of that

00:07:23.700 hit. So, um, especially because some involves drinking and sometimes people get a little bit

00:07:30.500 overanxious and stuff they want to say, or have a brain fart and say something they shouldn't.

00:07:38.940 It's important to have somebody there who's clear thinking, who represents the luck of the

00:07:43.380 folk gathered there. And who can say, Hey, stop. Um, we're going to refill the horn. We don't,

00:07:48.940 don't accept that toast and protects the luck and the decorum of things going on in sumble it's

00:07:54.700 also folks are getting a little bit rowdy or folks are having a problem then we can

00:07:59.900 we can deal with that and there's somebody empowered to do so so they're not just standing 0.97

00:08:03.580 up being a jerk it's their responsibility that whoever's officiating the sumble bestows on them 0.95

00:08:09.420 to keep track of the luck of the group and to protect that by monitoring what's getting set 1.00

00:08:13.580 over the horn um ghost nasty uh you live in the capital of california and you want to take your

00:08:33.660 family up to uh the main location so it's not really the main location but it is certainly

00:08:40.940 our first Hof, and it's one of our very important locations, Odin's Hof up in Brownsville. And if

00:08:47.820 you're in the capital, if you're in Sacramento, that's about a little bit over an hour from you.

00:08:55.680 No, it's not generally open to the public. It is open to people who are interested

00:08:59.860 when we have people up there. The trouble is it's not like we've got a guy on site where it's open

00:09:04.900 all the time. We've got several folk builders, and hopefully our folk builders or my wife Mandy can

00:09:10.620 put up the contact information on the side of the people in california you should talk to

00:09:14.700 who can let you in and let you guys see what's going on and hopefully if you talk to these folks

00:09:20.160 maybe you and your family could come up for an event and see what it's like you certainly don't

00:09:23.760 have to be a member but because we're going to be around our families we do want you to you know

00:09:28.120 have somebody who's talked to you and and who can you know invite you there so a good one to talk

00:09:35.120 to be Sheila McNallan, Sheila at runestone.org. Another good one would be Sierra Chapman, a folk

00:09:44.060 builder of ours in the area, schapman at runestone.org, and those people would love to help

00:09:49.360 you, and it'd be great to have you and your family come check the Hoff out. John Cleason

00:10:00.300 in Fallon. Hey, John, where you at? Are you a member? If not, you should be. I'm not far from

00:10:09.000 you. I'm over here in Reno. So, yeah, that's interesting that you're so close.

00:10:18.060 All right. Gigasquid, what is... So, you asked what my position is on the current Russia-Ukraine

00:10:29.280 situation i don't know if you're asking me as me or if you're asking me in the afa but i'll i'll

00:10:36.960 say this in general and i understand that the world doesn't work this way and unfortunately

00:10:43.600 a lot of our conflicts we have end up being with other other white folks um in general and as best 0.75

00:10:54.000 as we can we don't want to see any more brother wars there's been too much blood spilled by folks

00:11:00.560 that are so very close in our ancestry and that are that are related and we'd like to see as

00:11:07.040 little of that as possible i know geopolitics doesn't always work that way but the closer we

00:11:12.960 can the less dead russians and less dead ukrainians we can see that's the best outcome and that's my

00:11:19.760 position on that other thing is i'm not going to claim to be an expert on eastern european politics

00:11:27.760 i think it's really important for us to remember that most often in every conflict

00:11:33.840 it's not just good guys and bad guys it's different groups of people with different

00:11:38.560 interests that you know sometimes are very important worthy for them to fight for on each

00:11:43.440 side so it's not always a good guy bad guy thing and i think those are important things to think

00:11:49.200 about you know if you're out there and you're you know of russian extraction or of ukrainian

00:11:54.720 extraction you have family and loved ones over there i'm sure you may have a very passionate

00:11:58.720 opinion on it and you may be right um but either way i think it's important to realize that there's

00:12:07.840 there's good people that are our extended kinfolk on both sides and i hope that can get resolved

00:12:14.000 with a minimal loss of life and that's really where I'm at on it sorry guys just catching up

00:12:35.840 on the chat on the side um all right Robert Lee how is the architecture for the Hoffs decided so

00:12:46.960 as of yet we have yet to construct a Hoff each of the Hoffs that we currently have are we have

00:12:55.440 purchased an existing building and converted it to our purposes Odin's Hoff used to be a Grange Hall

00:13:03.600 it was used for a number of charitable purposes so the zoning was right

00:13:07.840 it's also set up really good for what we were trying to do it had served as i think a youth

00:13:14.640 retreat it also served as a community center and as a church for a time and so that's that's our

00:13:21.760 our first Hoff there. Thors Hoff. I don't, I don't want to misspeak on what congregation

00:13:34.000 it was before. It was a former church. I think it was a Methodist church, but I'm not certain.

00:13:40.880 And I believe that Balders Hoff was originally a Lutheran church. And we've repurposed both of

00:13:47.900 those. In the future, I think that a lot of Hoff architecture is going to come from, I mean,

00:13:58.360 we want a building that's beautiful. We want something that glorifies our gods and our folk,

00:14:02.180 but I think that in the day and age that we live in, a lot of that at the stage that we're at is

00:14:07.860 going to be about getting the best building for our dollar, for what we can afford, getting

00:14:14.020 something that is a going to meet our needs going to look and feel nice going to be a nice respectful

00:14:22.580 temple to our gods but also something that we can afford and that we can build on and uh you know

00:14:28.820 make better as time goes on and so we have some ideas on what that would look like in the future

00:14:33.860 it kind of is going to depend on the location um but i'm really curious to see how that develops

00:14:39.220 as we do start being able to build our own structures.

00:15:09.220 All right. Got a question about the hearth cult and domestic familial worship.

00:15:23.580 Ancestral veneration and your home religious practice is extremely important.

00:15:30.740 And I think it's something that if you haven't done it before can be confusing as where to start.

00:15:38.060 I think a lot of people assume they have to do something very elaborate or don't know quite where to start.

00:15:43.980 Honestly, a picture of your ancestors and lighting a candle is a good place.

00:15:48.940 Leaving out a shot or, you know, a plate of food and saying some words to your ancestors is a really nice place to start.

00:15:58.740 A lot of people have, you know, a section in their house that has the pictures of their ancestors or maybe artifacts,

00:16:05.240 things that used to belong and have a connection to one of your ancestors.

00:16:09.400 I'll go and light incense, light a candle there, make an offering,

00:16:13.000 and importantly, bring their children, bring their wife,

00:16:17.340 bring their family in front of that regularly to connect with our past,

00:16:22.480 to connect with the spirits that watch over us, that watch over our household.

00:16:27.160 And that ancestral veneration, part of the question was how that plays out

00:16:31.720 in the broader Ausatür folk assembly or in the broader Ausatür practice, it's really the center

00:16:37.920 of what we do. Ultimately, our gods, the great gods of our folk, are our most ancient ancestors.

00:16:46.000 So they're an extension of that ancestral piety. I think that us being respectful and coming before

00:16:54.900 the altar of our grandparents and great-great-grandparents and folks that we may not have

00:17:00.240 even met but have contributed to us being here and we believe that they watch over us as their

00:17:05.460 as their descendants our respect for that should translate over in a general respect for family

00:17:12.660 broadly for the sanctity of someone's household when we go in there's an altar space there there's

00:17:20.500 a section of the home that's sacred the home itself is sacred so when we're a guest in other

00:17:25.380 homes it should transfer to that as well and it should also and i think this is really important

00:17:31.140 and often overlooked today a respect for it's very easy for us to after someone passes put up a

00:17:42.820 picture and treat them with respect it's a different story when they're still here and i

00:17:48.660 think that we need to i don't know the hearth cult ultimately should help us be more respectful

00:17:54.900 to our elders more respect for to everyone's elders to the elders of other families and

00:18:01.620 specifically to the elders in our own families um and that's what i that's how i think that the the

00:18:09.540 home hearth cult affects the broader outs of true practice at least that's the short version

00:18:14.820 heathen man i'm glad you like uh glad you like the book i recommended culture of the two times

00:18:27.280 by vilhelm groenbeck is one of the one of the best resources on

00:18:34.520 how our ancestors conceived of alsatru and of values in their time and i think it speaks a lot

00:18:42.840 to how we can conceive of these values in our time um z moon does the afa have a manual or a code of

00:19:04.040 conduct to follow during our meetings no not really um I talked to Whitten Brandy Callahan

00:19:14.920 last night about this as a sorry I'm a day off I talked for Monday night about this

00:19:22.920 I think over time something to a degree that way will get closer what we do have and you can find

00:19:31.320 this on our website www.runestone.org we have a statement of ethics we have our declaration of

00:19:38.200 purpose and then we have the law of the hall and i suppose the law of the hall is the code of

00:19:42.760 conduct that you're looking for as far as how to behave within the austro folk assembly to other

00:19:48.360 members to each other we certainly have an understanding of what those values are but

00:19:54.440 i don't think it's quite as codified or in a manual form like perhaps you do at other services

00:19:59.560 um i know that in catholic services there's a lot of callback and very scripted

00:20:07.480 um very procedural interactions and very specific prayers it'd be nice to have a little bit of that

00:20:16.900 but we don't ever want to take the heart and soul out of vows to true practice and so much of what

00:20:22.540 we do have to offer our gods is being able to speak in a heartfelt way to them when we're in

00:20:29.480 prayer or when we're interacting in those environments. So we don't want to overly

00:20:36.440 script that and take that out of it, because that's a big part of what we offer is that

00:20:41.040 ability to speak from the heart. So we're working on that. But I think the closest thing to a code

00:20:45.960 of conduct that you talked about, take a look at our law of the hall.

00:20:52.540 The Solutrean. It's a good question. For the folks living in countries like Russia, Italy,

00:21:05.540 and Greece, could they worship their own pantheons and still be a part of the AFA?

00:21:10.840 So that becomes a little bit complex because some of those places are further outside of

00:21:17.440 the afa is pan-arian we always have been we certainly always will be

00:21:25.140 um the religions of each of those places that you mentioned harken back to a root spirituality that

00:21:31.200 we all have in common so yes people in those countries should all join the afa and yes they

00:21:37.360 can venerate the deities that are native to their area but in the afa as official afa practice

00:21:43.880 we honor those deities under the names the attributes and the identities that we know them

00:21:49.140 in the germanic culture because that's what's come down to us and it unifies us in our worship

00:21:54.780 but we do believe those are all reflections of the same same root deities and yes there's

00:22:01.900 obviously some variants especially when you get into greco-roman pantheons there's some mixing

00:22:07.500 and matching and things that doesn't always translate the most comfortably or the most

00:22:12.140 easily i think when you see russia and you see slavic deities it translates a lot more

00:22:19.420 a lot more one for one a lot a lot easier of a of an understanding

00:22:24.700 but absolutely i would love for us to have an increase in our members

00:22:27.980 in those places we already have several members in italy i'd love to see more of that

00:22:31.980 oh Robert if there's not on our website I'm going to okay so Thorshoff apologize Robert

00:22:45.900 asked to purchase a Thorshoff flag we have flags in stock on our website I know we're running very

00:22:51.420 low in the Thorshoff ones I'm making another flag order here very soon and so check back in

00:22:57.260 um i think we may have a couple of left so if you haven't already please check our store again

00:23:04.220 at runestone.org and uh hopefully we can get you one we'll make one happen for you eventually

00:23:09.940 though regardless

00:23:10.780 imperium press i'm glad you can make it tonight i try it's tricky one of the really nice problems

00:23:25.700 to have is literally the sun never sets on the ask true folk assembly we've got members from

00:23:33.540 i don't know south africa italy sweden other places further west in europe all the way over

00:23:43.380 to australia and new zealand and it's just not possible to have a perfect time where everyone

00:23:48.660 can make it so i appreciate you guys that you make the effort to show up i love getting the

00:23:53.220 the opportunity to talk to you and those that haven't yet I hope to talk to you in the future

00:23:58.080 and I'm glad this worked out for you.

00:24:23.220 Melinda, I think I understand what you're asking as far as home properties and such.

00:24:42.540 Stay tuned.

00:24:43.920 I don't have anything really cool to tell you right now, but I may very soon.

00:24:47.760 A lot of what you're talking about, about the idea of intentional communities float around.

00:24:52.800 There's been a lot of discussion behind the scenes and check back with me when we're on the other side of the Nuretoff purchase and we may have something really interesting to talk to you about.

00:25:22.800 Gigasquid. That is a very loaded question. Are we Germanic peoples superior to other races?

00:25:32.100 You hear something to the effect of there's an idea of equality but separate and everybody

00:25:38.720 should be proud. Well, here's the thing. You root for the home team. Of course, I am the most

00:25:44.220 excited about and I think my team's the best. I'm sure people on the other team say that about

00:25:50.020 there is, and I hope they do. One thing the AFA does not ever believe in, there is no such thing

00:25:56.100 as equality. No two races are equal. No two genders are equal. No two people are equal.

00:26:03.480 No two anything is equal. Everything has its own strengths, its own weaknesses,

00:26:09.660 its own objective values. I'm not in a position to tell everybody that I'm better than them.

00:26:15.060 I don't think it's productive, and I don't think it does anything. I'm certainly the most proud of

00:26:19.660 my people. And I think we have a tremendous amount to be proud of. I think that when we

00:26:25.440 start rubbing it in people's face that we're better than them or that they're better than

00:26:29.520 someone else, it's not productive. And all it does is bring, I don't know, unneeded controversy.

00:26:40.080 But I think everybody likes their team the best. And I think we certainly got a tremendous amount

00:26:45.700 of things to be proud of. And I think we all know that. But I have no interest in telling other

00:26:51.040 groups of people how much better I think I am than them or whatever else, or comparing and

00:26:56.380 contrasting, because it really doesn't matter. Regardless of where anyone is on that ranking of

00:27:01.260 value, we want to be the best. We want to be the best that we can be. And even, you know, there's

00:27:08.220 no end to how great we want to make our people. So we always want to strive for the best, no matter

00:27:13.280 where we find ourselves on that scale but no there's no such thing as as equality that doesn't

00:27:18.160 exist and it penalizes those that are successful and it limits the expectation of those that maybe

00:27:24.800 aren't that successful yet.

00:27:54.800 Thank you.

00:28:24.780 a question from heathen man he says he's never been inside a hof but he's noticed all the

00:28:29.260 beautiful murals he wants to know if there it was common to have carved statues inside temples in

00:28:36.300 the past i'm sure it was um we have a couple examples of that we have very little literature

00:28:42.140 on what it was like all together but certainly throughout all arian religiosity carved statues

00:28:48.700 have been a thing um those are difficult they take a lot of skill i would love to have carved

00:28:57.180 statuary at our hops and that would be a fantastic thing we've seen a lot of that on a small scale

00:29:03.420 i think we'd all love to see big carved statues right now it's amazing to watch the murals that

00:29:10.700 we have when they go up um whittens von harrell has done all of our murals so far and

00:29:21.900 it's hard to describe exactly i know he puts a lot of himself into that he puts a lot of devotion

00:29:28.860 you know doing those as an act of worship and devotion to our gods doing those those murals

00:29:34.220 and i've watched and even at odenshoff and we didn't odenshoff we got six years ago and we

00:29:42.000 didn't have that mural up until last year but something really special and really magical

00:29:47.560 happens when one of these murals is painted and it's been experienced in a lot of different ways

00:29:54.300 but in a superior way in an enhanced way the god that that temple is devoted to

00:30:06.900 occupies that space more there is a power there in those murals when you look into the eyes

00:30:16.300 of Odin, of Thor, of Balder in those murals, that god is present in those hoffs. And Witten's

00:30:26.700 Fawn facilitated that by his amazing art and his art that I believe is truly, truly inspired.

00:30:33.060 It'd be cool to have statuary in there, but what we've got is beautiful and amazing,

00:30:37.340 and we're so very honored to have that in there.

00:30:46.300 um z moon are there chapters coming to alabama we have a lot of alabama members

00:31:04.300 we have alabama members that are part of kindreds in surrounding states i think one of the things

00:31:11.900 is right now and this is way better than it's ever been and you know every every month that

00:31:16.540 gets by this gets even better but got to be willing to travel a little bit to meet up with other folks

00:31:21.900 but um very close to you uh like a state over in florida we're having a hoff here very soon

00:31:31.100 we've got kindreds um trying to think of what's close to you we've got one in tennessee

00:31:36.220 right now. We've certainly got one in Florida, one in Tennessee, got a kindred in South Carolina.

00:31:48.500 We've got kindreds close to you and we've got a lot of activity close to you. So don't let

00:31:52.260 that hold you back. There's plenty of great AFA members in your area. And if you want an AFA

00:31:56.020 kindred, join up, link up with a couple other AFA members, and we'd love to see one get founded in

00:32:01.460 Alabama. Matthew Gordon, that's great to hear about your brother. I always love hearing about

00:32:14.460 people's family getting involved. Or brother-in-law, rather. I'm sorry.

00:32:31.460 Sorry, guys, I'm catching up on the side.

00:32:52.840 It's awesome that we've got so much chat and so much activity.

00:32:55.580 um so we had somebody ask me to talk about something tonight that I haven't gotten to

00:33:03.720 yet and I want to go ahead and get to it before I forget about it um

00:33:07.240 a couple few things and I mentioned earlier when we talked about the the hearth cult how important

00:33:17.300 ancestral worship and veneration is and I think that goes hand in hand to the appreciation that

00:33:23.400 many of us have with history and we always look back to these you know bygone ages and great

00:33:29.320 things that people of the past have done and i think it's really important that sometimes we

00:33:35.960 stop and realize that history is happening now um we can't just rely on the achievements of the past

00:33:43.800 to inspire the future we want our children our children our grandchildren our great-grandchildren

00:33:50.120 people 100 years from now, 200 years from now, are going to look back to this time

00:33:55.240 and see what we did. And I think we're in a really special time for that. We are their ancestors

00:34:02.500 right now. And we want to make sure that we leave them the things to be proud of and that we do

00:34:08.820 great deeds to be celebrated in the future. And we are. You know, decades from now, centuries from

00:34:19.320 now people will be able to look back and say this is when our our faith was reawakened this was when 0.99

00:34:25.640 hoffs came back to our gods and they were re re-worshipped in temples this is when you know

00:34:33.080 new life was was breathed into to also true and it's going to be a really special thing these

00:34:39.580 first few hoffs are already tremendously important and i think they're going to be

00:34:45.880 even that much more important in the future. So think about that. We are all ancestors of

00:34:53.080 our descendants, and we want to do stuff now that makes them proud and that inspires them

00:34:58.240 to be great and do great things. And I'm really excited to be part of that. And that follows up

00:35:04.240 with another thing I was asked to talk about a little bit. And I've said this before on our

00:35:08.480 lives, but I think it bears repeating. How it's true is about doing. It's not about study. It's

00:35:14.420 not about the best of intentions. It's not about theory. It's about practice. Now, those

00:35:21.060 theory and study and intention is really important. But if it doesn't involve practice,

00:35:29.060 then it really is a very little value. The value is in doing. We've become very accustomed over

00:35:35.900 the past 30 years to say we are our needs. But we need to be really, you know, it needs to not be a

00:35:42.560 catchphrase, needs to be something we internalize. We are what we do, not what we wish for, not what

00:35:48.740 we want, not what we hope, not what we dream, but what we build, what we accomplish, what we're able

00:35:55.600 to say we've brought to the table for our gods and for our folk. And I'm really proud to be

00:36:01.180 sharing this with you all. We're in this time where we're actually accomplishing, we're doing.

00:36:06.620 The AFA has officially now reached a new record in membership. We are bigger than we have ever been.

00:36:12.560 We have members more places.

00:36:14.900 We have three Hoffs, soon to be four.

00:36:18.460 We are doing powerful things for our folk and for our gods.

00:36:24.640 And that's really something special.

00:36:26.720 And every now and again, we need to stop, sit back, just take that in and appreciate it.

00:36:32.780 Because not long ago, we didn't have those things.

00:36:35.360 And it's amazing that we have them now.

00:36:37.120 We have been very blessed.

00:36:38.920 And a lot of people have worked very hard for the great things that we're able to enjoy.

00:36:42.560 wild wolf yes there's tons of stuff for you to join in florida we have an amazing kindred in

00:36:55.320 florida um american crow kindred headed up by folk builder and soon to be gothe lane ashby

00:37:02.040 um they're doing amazing things they've been the tip of the spear on getting yordshoff

00:37:07.280 established. That's coming around very soon in the state of Florida. So there's awesome stuff

00:37:12.620 happening in the state of Florida. Reach out to L. Ashby at runestone.org if you want to get

00:37:17.220 involved and Lane would love to help you get started.

00:37:19.700 I notice all our Florida people on the side are welcoming you into the fold right now.

00:37:40.840 That's really great to see. Thanks, guys.

00:37:42.440 the salutrian um we've talked about he asked if the afa gives medals to people to its membership

00:37:56.040 for doing doing good things uh he mentions from others having multiple children and uh for long

00:38:03.360 time membership? Yes and no. For those things, no, but I would certainly consider those things

00:38:14.620 and things that have been talked about. We give out to folk builders that are excellent. We give

00:38:19.520 out a folk building excellence medal every year to folk builders that have done a really great job

00:38:23.860 that year. We also give out AFA honor rings to people that over the course of time have put in

00:38:34.280 exceptional amount of work for our AFA. And that doesn't have to be somebody to any particular

00:38:38.620 level of leadership. It's people who, as members of the AFA, have really gone above and beyond for

00:38:46.400 their folk. And only a very few of these have been given out. But we do give those out. And

00:38:52.400 And then we, you know, once you are ordained, our gothar have special rings for that.

00:38:58.060 In the future, we'd love to give medals, though, for those kind of things that you mentioned.

00:39:01.220 I think that's always a special thing to acknowledge people that have gone above and

00:39:04.860 beyond.

00:39:34.840 We're joined by the most beautiful little girl in the entire world, my lovely daughter, Aubrey.

00:39:41.200 Appreciate you joining.

00:39:42.700 A lot of these people tune in just to see you.

00:39:45.760 GigaSquid.

00:39:46.460 Yes, I do recognize that you've been asking questions for a long time on here.

00:39:50.360 I appreciate you showing up and asking.

00:39:52.860 Do I remember your username?

00:39:54.880 Yes, I do.

00:39:56.460 And what do I think of the name GigaSquid?

00:39:58.100 I really have no point of reference to have any real thoughts about it one way or another.

00:40:04.840 but I do certainly appreciate you being on here and asking so many questions.

00:40:08.120 I think a lot of your questions have been insightful

00:40:10.680 and have been useful to other people hearing the answers on them.

00:40:13.000 Oh, so one of our folk builders, Zach Cato, is asking if I can, I don't let you down, baby,

00:40:41.320 is asking if i can tell you guys a little bit about the black sun and about the um

00:40:48.040 bloat space that we have at odin's hof so some of you may have noticed that we

00:40:54.040 utilize the black sun a lot in our imagery um the solar

00:41:04.520 solar imagery is super important to our folk and it always has been

00:41:08.840 the idea of the sun wheel generally has always been very sacred to our people

00:41:15.320 archaeologically there are just the the equal equal angled cross sun wheels in ancient gothi's

00:41:23.400 staves it's always been a symbol of sacrality for our people the black sun harkens back to ancient

00:41:33.480 Alamannic bracelets and other jewelry. Also, I forget what they're called, but the

00:41:49.100 fasteners to cloaks and things that way. It's always been an important symbol to our people,

00:41:57.540 and it's evolved the design but the 12 spoke sun has a lot of a lot of solar imagery and the idea

00:42:04.820 of things orbiting that central um unmoved moving point and that perpetual motion of us moving

00:42:12.500 forward has always empowered our folk in the afa the black sun is a symbol of that sacred gift

00:42:18.740 cycle and of divinity and it's ever moving ever churning nature so we use that in our ritual

00:42:28.740 circle at odenshof we use that same movement that ritual circular movement to enter our sacred space

00:42:35.860 and to leave it we also use the black sun very prominently as a halo around the heads of our gods

00:42:43.220 and around our heroes a special gold color being around the heads of our gods and divine figures

00:42:48.740 We have that in all of our murals to show that they shine with that that solar divinity.

00:42:56.600 And that's what we use the black sun for in the Austro-Folk Assembly.

00:42:59.740 Courtney, not having seen the art piece, it's hard for me to just blanket say yes,

00:43:21.840 but I'm inclined to. We would love to see a devotional piece of art for Jorgzhoff. I'm

00:43:28.660 sure what you had in mind or what space requirements there are but um i think we'd be very very open

00:43:34.820 to that not only open but extremely appreciative of uh of art so you may want to reach out on the

00:43:41.620 side to l ashby at runestone.org lane is kind of heading up the the njordshoff project for us down

00:43:49.620 there and uh yeah i'm really curious what you have in mind on that i think that would probably be

00:43:55.060 Like I said, very much appreciate it.

00:44:13.880 So as far as we got a question about, is there any rituals or ceremonies regarding the birth of a child?

00:44:19.760 The one that comes to mind, and so a number of our ladies perform womb blessings to an expecting mother and the child while the child's in utero.

00:44:32.260 But once a child's born, nine days after they're born, we perform a baby naming.

00:44:38.220 And yes, there's historical examples where in the literature I can't point out right this second.

00:44:42.700 but the idea is um affixing the name and the luck that goes with that and pieces of that

00:44:52.540 ancestral folk soul to that child and introducing that child to the gods and the folk as a member

00:44:59.320 of our afa family and the baby namings are one of the one of the most special things that we get to

00:45:05.100 do as gothar one of the most special rituals that we get to perform um and we've done that

00:45:11.520 and been evolving that ritual over time.

00:45:13.680 And like I said, it's one of the most special things.

00:45:16.020 It's really hard.

00:45:17.600 If anybody who's been at one that I've done,

00:45:19.280 it's hard to keep a dry eye when you're doing it.

00:45:22.700 But it's a really special ritual.

00:45:24.880 And I hope you get a chance to see one.

00:45:26.780 And yeah, that's our big baby being born thing

00:45:36.840 that we do at our Hoffs and with our Gothar.

00:45:40.220 And like I said, it's very special.

00:45:41.800 And it ceremoniously and in a holy way introduces and integrates that child into their family, into their ancestral inheritance, and into our community.

00:46:00.040 Ghost Nasty. 0.85

00:46:01.260 Yes, Ostara is our next event at Odenshof.

00:46:04.820 I believe without looking at the calendar, that's going to be on the 19th.

00:46:10.220 Well, thank you, Robert.

00:46:34.720 I appreciate it.

00:46:35.420 um all right guys I am I always feel bad I don't I don't like having the dead air but I got to

00:46:45.080 read over on the side and I can't can't do them simultaneously I appreciate everybody's

00:46:49.700 participating so much over there um that's fantastic and I can't stay super late tonight

00:46:56.160 I have a Witten meeting directly after this we have some important stuff to talk about

00:46:59.580 so at top of the hour I'm going to be having to having to let you guys go and wait another

00:47:05.420 Another month.

00:47:17.020 Aristos.

00:47:17.760 Absolutely, I do.

00:47:19.360 I think that those 12 Aesir, and you go beyond that number when you talk about the Aesir after that, and we want to honor our goddesses as well.

00:47:29.180 But the 12 Aesir in the poem, The Gilfagening, and what we're basing the order of our Hoffs on, I think there's absolutely a solar symbolism between that, between the months of the year, and between the rays of the black sun.

00:47:42.060 I think there's absolutely something there.

00:47:59.180 Oh, so we have had a number of people donate items to Baldur's Hoff in the last little bit here.

00:48:15.500 um last month people have donated all kind of items that our folk there need

00:48:20.860 that venerate and honor balder that help our folk to be able to gather to celebrate

00:48:25.560 utility items beautiful items art items ritual items thank you so much everybody who has donated

00:48:32.860 things to baldershoff um and anyone anyone who's interested in doing that or helping

00:48:38.780 And with stuff like that, please reach out to folk builder Cormag Elaine, C-A-L-A-I-N-N at runestone.org.

00:48:53.900 Hopefully somebody will post a link to that over in the side.

00:48:56.420 Also, Witten Brandy Callahan is over in the side chat, and she can direct that too.

00:49:01.300 But thank you so much for the folks that have donated.

00:49:03.400 You guys have been so generous in so many ways.

00:49:05.920 Thank you.

00:49:08.780 um question how does your physical health inform your spiritual health

00:49:15.740 so something that is essential to our concept of the soul is the connection between your physical

00:49:24.620 your physical body and your appearance and your soul and the one is a reflection of the other

00:49:30.780 to a degree our faith is holistic and we believe that things that go on internally things that go

00:49:38.200 genetically and things going on physically are all all create are all related rather there's a

00:49:45.000 there's a synchronism to those um

00:49:51.960 taking care of yourself and being physically healthy now again we've got to play the hand

00:49:57.720 that we're dealt and some of us have uh conditions beyond our control all of us can be healthier than

00:50:04.120 we are today all of us can be a little bit fitter a little bit stronger a little bit faster a little

00:50:12.840 bit prettier a little bit more handsome we can all be a little bit better than we are always

00:50:19.320 and the better we are physically it helps us be better spiritually i think in turn the more sound

00:50:25.880 we are spiritually the more apt we are to look good to present ourselves well to hold our head

00:50:31.960 high and to be in a better physical condition. The two are very, very intricately related.

00:50:37.920 One of the other things I'll say to your physical health, and like I said, there's plenty of

00:50:43.220 exceptions to the rule, but so much of your physical well-being is within your control.

00:50:48.180 And it's a literally on the face of it testimony to your willpower and to the strength of your

00:50:59.100 will that strength of your will is is the your fundamental spiritual power having the will to

00:51:05.900 get in shape to be in shape to keep yourself healthy to look good to present yourself well

00:51:13.420 those things are all an exercise and will and one of the cool things about those

00:51:18.620 no matter where you are they're an easily accessible thing now when i say easy it doesn't

00:51:23.660 mean it's easy to achieve those things but it's not confusing it takes a lot of willpower but

00:51:31.340 it's something that you can start right now you can start tomorrow and make progress on your

00:51:37.740 physical condition and so i think they are intimately related and i think the one speaks to

00:51:43.580 to the other very much.

00:51:55.540 Zach, please have, I am very sorry to hear that.

00:52:00.600 Please have the expecting mother reach out to Argothar,

00:52:07.220 specifically to have them reach out to Githya Katie Erickson,

00:52:10.780 And she can help get her in a situation where where we can do what we can to help her have the best odds and to to put as much blessings as we can into the success of her pregnancy.

00:52:29.900 Excellent. King of cheese. I'm very glad to hear that.

00:52:40.780 All right. So Zachary Clary asked an interesting question about the odenic right.

00:52:54.860 Now, I don't want to speak out of turn on this. There may be somebody in the side chat that

00:52:59.880 knows some things I don't. I'm asked what the difference is between the AFA and the odenic

00:53:05.520 right and you know it's identified that one is is uk based and one is u.s based i think that would

00:53:12.560 have been an okay thing to say 20 years ago when i first got involved in also true the odenic right

00:53:20.640 was was relatively active and the afa was was less active than we are now um i will say this

00:53:29.440 i have not seen any activity from the odenic right certainly not from the odenic right europe and

00:53:35.200 over a decade um i've seen some odinic right members i know there's some guys in texas that

00:53:42.320 are very active that are part of the odinic right and i know there's a couple in oregon that are

00:53:46.720 very active that are part of the odinic right outside of that maybe six people i have not seen

00:53:52.560 any odinic right action in a very long time i've heard that they're very active in the prison

00:53:59.440 system as far as prison outreach and i heard there's a number of kindreds in correctional

00:54:04.240 facilities that are odinic right affiliated i have heard and seen nothing of their leadership

00:54:11.920 in my entire time one of the one of the things that i do appreciate the history of the odinic

00:54:16.800 right very much that i did when i became australia goethe was to reach out and send a letter to a

00:54:22.960 heim guest and try to uh try to form some kind of a relationship with them and i didn't get much

00:54:31.440 anything back i spoke to again that one member in portland and that's all i can tell so i don't

00:54:38.400 when i talk to folks in england when people apply every now and again i ask and they don't

00:54:43.600 seem very familiar with the odentic right at all i think the odentic right has a really important

00:54:48.400 history uh way back but like i said it's been well over a decade since i've seen or heard them

00:54:54.240 do much of anything so i don't really think they're much of an active concern these days

00:55:00.320 Again, somebody may know more and I'm in no way trying to say anything disparaging. I've just looked and I haven't been able to find it.

00:55:08.320 Um, do I have any knowledge on the deity Leshy or Sfiat, Sfiat boy?

00:55:37.180 No, I'm sorry.

00:55:37.960 I've never heard those names before.

00:55:39.440 I have no idea what you're talking about.

00:55:43.460 I'll have to look that up when we get off the call or get off of this and see, because this is the first I've heard of what you're talking about.

00:55:51.840 I'm sorry I can't be more help with that.

00:55:53.300 well i'm glad you appreciate these heathen man i love doing them i look forward to them every month

00:56:08.880 i love talking to you guys and uh like i said i'm really glad you guys appreciate these because i

00:56:14.820 sure love doing them. Tracy, I know what you mean about hearing somebody else pronounce something

00:56:27.680 that you thought you had the right way and they pronounce it different. And it's always, it's

00:56:33.160 always odd to hear things that have become familiar to us one way get pronounced differently.

00:56:37.740 And, you know, sometimes we're right on it. Sometimes we're wrong, but it always sounds

00:56:42.200 It sounds strange when you hear it different.

00:56:57.080 Ozzy Moon, who determines each location's flag design?

00:57:03.380 It depends. 0.92

00:57:04.380 Typically, the Gothar in that area.

00:57:07.660 When we get a new Hoff, we carve out what's called a Hoff District, and those are the

00:57:11.380 states and areas that are connected to that hof administratively and usually the the gothar in

00:57:18.180 that region closest to the hof they get together and talk about those things and decide on it

00:57:24.580 um i'm fortunate because i kind of get to put ideas out there and i get a little bit of sway

00:57:28.980 with it but it's really important that the people there who are officiating who are are putting so

00:57:36.260 much of themselves into those hafs into those temples have that say and get to express themselves

00:57:42.820 in those flags and that they're meaningful to those folks so those are the folks that get to

00:57:46.900 decide on those and i know that some of those you know people talk with other members of leadership

00:57:52.420 in their area and other members that are maybe particularly involved in it but usually that

00:57:57.940 decision is up to the the local gothar in those areas um kruger yes i have experience with the

00:58:16.740 ermine folk odinus community um my experience is very negative with those folks

00:58:26.180 I think that those folks tend to be very negative. I think they tend to be dishonest and I think that 1.00

00:58:36.260 the leadership of that group is very dangerous and I would stay very far away from that.

00:58:42.940 I have no idea who all their members are. They're very secretive. They may have some amazing members.

00:58:49.040 I can think of at least one of their members who's a great guy,

00:58:52.160 But there's other members there that I would very much stay away from and I would not trust.

00:58:58.720 hey king of cheese so many people i think the other team doesn't realize

00:59:20.400 so many people have come to the afa by listening to other people criticize us and by checking it

00:59:26.720 out for themselves. The people that spend their time hating on what we do and making so much

00:59:32.320 noise about how much they don't like us have done us a great service by sending so many great people

00:59:37.140 to us. Okay, guys, I'm gonna have to wrap it up real quick. I'm gonna try to answer the things

00:59:47.760 that I see still on the screen.

00:59:56.780 How would I initiate relationships with gods

00:59:59.520 that you don't always have a lot of familiarity with?

01:00:04.580 I think that overthinking it is to our detriment.

01:00:10.660 These gods are connected to us by blood

01:00:13.320 and by who we are.

01:00:15.580 and i think that the best and first step is just make an effort the simple act of opening up coming

01:00:24.120 before your altar and saying hey i'm here i want to know you better here i poured you out a shot

01:00:30.920 and i lit a stick of incense and i'm just going to sit here and open myself up and if you want to

01:00:37.460 if you want to reach out i'm here and i'm listening that sounds so very simple maybe even

01:00:44.840 sounds childish, but I have found that that's profound. That is the root of the relationships

01:00:50.660 that I've tried to build with our gods. That's exactly how I started out when I first became

01:00:56.440 also true on trying to establish a relationship with the gods. And I could not recommend that

01:01:02.820 more. Just keep it simple. Come before your altar. Say, hey, I'm here. I'm listening. I'm open.

01:01:09.580 here's a shot. That's what I'd recommend.

01:01:13.420 David,

01:01:40.740 it your question on how we should describe the afa and what it is and what we're about when you're

01:01:47.620 trying to explain it to family and non-members i think the best thing that you can do and i would

01:01:52.360 really really encourage this is to get them to watch our youtube channel anything on it they can

01:01:58.840 come here and listen to me talk for an hour that's great if they want to but what i think is really

01:02:04.000 really good to do and usually it's small enough you can get folks to do it and get them to watch

01:02:08.880 our videos of events. Get them to watch the thing I made of the AFA year 2021. Seeing the pictures

01:02:18.840 of who we have at our events, of the families, of the children, of folks looking nice, folks happy,

01:02:25.840 involved in community and worship and food distribution. A picture is worth a thousand

01:02:33.220 words and I think showing them those things is very, very helpful. If they're not going to sit

01:02:38.740 down and you know even watch a couple minutes of a little video clip i would describe us in words

01:02:44.500 that they can use the more you describe us as a folk way or an ancestral path or you lose people

01:02:52.100 that way they don't know what you're talking about we're church we're a church we're a religion

01:02:57.060 dedicated to the indigenous gods of europe that's how i would describe it i would go on after that

01:03:06.020 to talk about our community and our families but that's the first steps that i would do and again

01:03:12.660 i think that those videos of what we do is a great first step forward also

01:03:17.700 you could send them a copy of the runestone you could email that forward one of our runestone

01:03:21.620 copies to them and they could you know see and read that and see what we're about i think that

01:03:27.060 all of those things are a great way to introduce us and they put our best of us our best foot forward

01:03:36.020 All right, guys, last thing.

01:03:55.160 All right, guys, thank you so much for being here tonight.

01:03:57.640 I'm about four minutes late to the meeting I got to be at, so I do have to let you guys go.

01:04:01.340 I hope I can see you all at Ostara coming up here in just a little bit over a week

01:04:07.240 at Thorshof. I'm looking forward to seeing my AFA family there. If I don't see you,

01:04:13.040 I hope you guys have an amazing Ostara and I will talk to you guys again next month.

01:04:17.660 Hail the gods, hail the folk, hail the AFA.

Asatru Folk Assembly - March 03, 2022

March 2022 Live Discussion

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