Asatru Folk Assembly - Matt Flavel on Expedition Truth July 22, 2021

00:00:00.000 we call it expedition truth and we know you're gonna love it you ready now somewhere among the

00:00:12.320 many competing voices in the world truth is just waiting to be discovered so sit back open your

00:00:20.640 mind to a world beyond your imagination a world where truth never fears questions

00:00:30.000 Welcome to Expedition Truth with your host, Jack Ashcraft.

00:00:36.020 And welcome to tonight's program. I'm glad you decided to join us.

00:00:40.200 And I hope you've had a good week so far.

00:00:43.180 We're here on Friday Eve, and hopefully you've been able to avoid as much of the politics as you can.

00:00:51.800 It can really be disconcerting.

00:00:55.260 So it's always good if you can spend some time with your family, unplug from the political mess that our world is in today and focus on what is important, family and faith.

00:01:09.680 our guest tonight is I hope it's going to be an interesting program because I think

00:01:16.420 that the topic we're going to discuss tonight is one that there really isn't a lot of

00:01:23.560 solid information out there on and I think even what information is out there tends to be

00:01:30.580 misunderstood, misconstrued, and abused for various purposes. And so I wanted to have my

00:01:40.280 guest on because he is the, I'm going to guess the top authority that we could tap into regarding

00:01:53.800 this topic. My guest tonight is a successful leader of the Alshatru Folk Assembly and he has

00:02:08.360 opened what are called Hoffs, two of them under his leadership, one in North Carolina and one in

00:02:15.860 Minnesota. And along with Odenshof in California, those temples stand as the first of their kind

00:02:23.720 dedicated to the, I'm going to try this again, so if I mispronounce this, I apologize to

00:02:31.780 everybody who is an adherent to this faith, as well as my cast.

00:02:38.620 It's the first of their kind dedicated to the Aesir in North America. With him at the helm,

00:02:45.120 the AFA has boasted not only drastic increase in membership numbers, but also the number and

00:02:50.500 quality of national events throughout the United States and Europe, giving folkish al-shatruar

00:02:56.860 opportunities to gather in worship of their gods and fellowship with communities where there had

00:03:02.560 been none before. My guest tonight is Matthew Flauble. Matthew, welcome to the program.

00:03:09.860 Hey, thank you so much for having me on tonight. Now, Matthew, I don't want you to think I'm

00:03:16.460 trying to disrespect you by not using your clerical title. I just wouldn't be able to

00:03:22.660 pronounce that to save my life. Not at all. It's the title I got, not one I made up. So I apologize

00:03:28.960 if it's difficult. It's Alsharier Gothi, which basically means the head Gothi or the Gothi

00:03:35.240 above the other Gothar. And a Gothi is a priest in Ausatru. Okay. So sort of like a high priest.

00:03:43.480 sort of? Yes, sir. Okay, okay. I just didn't want to butcher that because I undoubtedly would have.

00:03:53.160 So, Matthew, tell me a little bit about yourself. What's your background? Were you raised a

00:03:58.820 Christian or what? And how did you find Halsha True? Well, so I was born and raised in Anchorage,

00:04:06.980 Alaska. My family, I guess, if asked, would have said they were Christian, but there wasn't a lot

00:04:14.040 of Christian raising in my home. We didn't go to church. I think you got to check a box, and that's

00:04:19.580 kind of the box that most people check, or I guess that my grandparents perhaps on both sides were.

00:04:25.140 But so we're nominally Christian. I was always a very spiritual person. I felt very spiritual,

00:04:31.220 but i didn't know what to do with that um so i uh my aunt and my cousins were very involved in

00:04:40.580 being a jehovah's witness that was a big part of what they did and i spent time with them

00:04:45.060 growing up and i kind of got drawn into that when i was just getting out of high school

00:04:51.140 and i read my bible several times through and jehovah's witnesses seemed to have a good grasp

00:04:55.700 for what was going on. So I pursued that for a little bit. But I would say it was about

00:05:02.900 about 19, I'd say. I had kind of a hard break with that. The teachings in there didn't resonate

00:05:11.700 with me. And at some point, I didn't want to be a hypocrite. And I didn't want to claim to 0.93

00:05:14.980 believe something I didn't. So I rejected that. And I was still left with this spiritual need.

00:05:21.140 And so I started to think, okay, well, you know, what did my people have before Christianity came to Europe?

00:05:28.140 And knowing about history and knowing about things, I started, I guess, practicing my own proto-Ausitru because I didn't know it was a thing.

00:05:35.140 I didn't know it was an option. I thought I was just by myself.

00:05:38.140 But a pretty quick Google search trying to figure out how to do things.

00:05:43.140 And I thought I was just going to get, you know, historical treatises on these things.

00:05:47.140 But I found Stephen McNallan in the Asa True Folk Assembly.

00:05:51.260 There were real people in this day and age practicing this faith.

00:05:55.520 And I was hooked ever since.

00:05:58.180 So did you find yourself going through, I guess, what they would call New Age or Neo-Pagan ideas and groups before you found Asa True?

00:06:10.140 Well, I didn't.

00:06:11.160 And it was a little bit different time.

00:06:12.780 And this is around 2000, 2001, and there was a little bit more middle ground. 0.96

00:06:17.480 But people who tend to refer to themselves as Pagan, certainly that's a fine term.

00:06:24.140 But that camp seems to be pretty progressive and far left in their values.

00:06:30.840 And that's polar opposite to where I'm at.

00:06:33.460 So none of that really resonated with me.

00:06:37.200 The Astro Folk Assembly was kind of markedly different from that, which I found really refreshing. 1.00

00:06:42.780 Yeah, I would have to agree with you. 1.00

00:06:44.720 Everything that I've seen when it comes to things like Wicca, for example, most of those people are very much far left. 0.84

00:06:54.820 Progressive is a nice term.

00:06:56.200 I would say most cases outright Marxist.

00:07:00.200 And I did a study probably 10 years ago now looking into the people who are attracted to Wicca and I found a study that a university professor had done and I can't remember his name right now.

00:07:22.980 But in that study, he determined that somewhere upwards of the high 70 odd percent of those involved in Wicca were also autistic, somewhere on the autistic spectrum.

00:07:40.760 And I think that's probably very likely as well.

00:07:45.340 At least that's been my experience of meeting people in Wicca.

00:07:49.940 what are the people like that you met in Alshatru? I mean, you're probably not attracting

00:07:59.420 the same kind of person. No, not at all. But I think there for a time, we did get some overlap

00:08:05.380 in the sense. And the statistic that you pointed out was really interesting, because there's a

00:08:11.860 phenomenon that used to happen in this kind of alternative religions, I guess you'd call it,

00:08:17.240 to where people didn't join because they were Ausitru or they were Wicca. 0.66

00:08:24.200 They joined because they weren't Christian. 0.71

00:08:26.740 And so they were joining out of a rejection of the one 0.63

00:08:29.400 and not really a positive embracing of the other.

00:08:32.440 And that's really changed around specifically within the Ausitru Folk Assembly.

00:08:36.500 We have people who are joining it because they are positively Ausitru.

00:08:40.940 And that's a different kind of folks.

00:08:42.440 I'd say politically, Alistair and the AFA tend to be conservative, socially conservative, traditional-minded.

00:08:52.980 I know it may sound odd to say traditional, but traditional in a big sense.

00:08:58.400 Yeah, capital T.

00:09:00.100 Yeah, and we have people from all walks of life.

00:09:02.980 I'm really happy to see it.

00:09:04.140 We have people of all ages, a lot of children, all the way up to senior citizens.

00:09:09.160 And there's not really one, you know, line of work or other connecting factor.

00:09:15.340 There really does seem to be reflections of all our folk across the spectrum of jobs and economy and whatever else.

00:09:24.260 I would imagine then that family is very important to adherence of your faith.

00:09:32.420 that? Yes, sir. Family is one of the most fundamental things about who we are, how we

00:09:38.620 relate to our gods, and our group is always in a family sense, always in a relationship way,

00:09:46.100 and it's talking about our ancestry in a way as true as ancestor worship. So our family is

00:09:52.940 extremely important. Yeah, I mean, I'm a Christian, but I would say that honor and respect for our

00:10:01.500 ancestors should be very much a part of our consciousness as Christians. I don't think

00:10:09.800 that we can ignore the contribution of our ancestors because they bequeath to us

00:10:19.060 anything good in our culture that we have. And I think we need to be constantly reminding

00:10:26.620 ourselves of their contribution to our good. And I'm sure that's something you would agree with.

00:10:33.680 I could not agree more with that. And I think that the veneration to a degree of our ancestors

00:10:39.760 is something that can appeal across the board to people. No matter what your faith is,

00:10:44.880 you have generations of people that came before you that have allowed you to be here and have the

00:10:50.280 success you have in your life. And whether you believe they live on and in whatever way you

00:10:54.780 believe they live on it's the fact that they did exist and that you do owe them quite a bit

00:10:59.280 what form does um honor of the ancestors take in house you true um most uh house you are having an

00:11:08.860 altar in their house usually a space they set aside that you know often has pictures of their

00:11:13.500 ancestors some of them have a special altar for the gods and one for their ancestors but a lot

00:11:19.320 that uh comes with with you know making prayers to your ancestors little offerings of you know i

00:11:26.520 don't know a shot of whiskey or some incense or one thing that's common at meals especially on

00:11:33.480 on feasts or special meals is to set aside an ancestor's plate some people will even

00:11:38.440 set a special place at the table to be kind of an honorary seat for the ancestors wow that's

00:11:45.400 interesting um what do you see as the well let me rephrase that are the gods literal beings who

00:11:58.680 exist in another realm or are they symbols because you know you talk to neo-pagans and i and i'm not

00:12:07.960 trying to classify you as an ego neo-pagan i understand you're not i think that uh i think

00:12:13.880 you would classify yourselves more as uh heathen maybe correct? Yeah but you know when you get in

00:12:20.520 semantics it all depends on where you're at. I think in different parts of the world it probably

00:12:24.040 means different things. Okay all right I yeah I don't want you to feel like I'm classifying you

00:12:28.360 as neo-pagan. I wouldn't do that to my worst enemy. But um you know you talk to neo-pagans and and

00:12:36.840 you'll get anything from, you know, their archetypes to symbols to real beings.

00:12:46.920 What is the altitude position on that with reference to the gods?

00:12:50.920 Our gods are absolutely real. They are real beings. They exist. I think that people have

00:12:58.440 a misconception that that must mean that they exist in a physical form exactly like is laid

00:13:04.360 out in the Eddas. I don't think that Thor is a really, you know, really muscular guy

00:13:11.680 with a red beard. I think that tells us, communicates to us truths about Thor. But when I do bloat

00:13:19.460 to Thor, I absolutely know that he hears me and receives that and gives me blessings.

00:13:27.660 I believe very much in our gods.

00:13:30.280 Okay, I'm glad you mentioned the appearance of Thor, for example, and you said that it

00:13:36.740 tells you things about them.

00:13:39.540 What does it tell you about them specifically?

00:13:43.360 I think it depends on the god that we're talking about.

00:13:47.140 But one thing in myth, and I think this often gets confused, in the Abrahamic faiths, it's

00:13:54.480 very, very literal with, you know, the divine word of God in their sacred texts. And that's,

00:14:01.960 you know, that is the truth. Ours, myth teaches truth, but it teaches truth through story and

00:14:11.840 through things that exist in mythic time and, you know, not necessarily in chronological time.

00:14:17.760 So, the image of our gods tells us that, like Thor, for example, his strength, his power, his fury in the storm is symbolized by his fiery red beard and by his flashing eyes and his muscular appearance of power.

00:14:36.120 But that teaches us about that power that's inherent in the god Thor, not drawing a picture of him in a way that our minds can conceive.

00:14:45.220 Yeah, you know, I think that there is, at least in Eastern mythology, there is, for some of the peoples in the, well, the Middle East anyway, Mesopotamia, places like that,

00:15:09.640 you would find that the gods were considered to be

00:15:13.000 the ancestors of the rulers of those peoples.

00:15:18.820 And so is there anything like that in Alshatru?

00:15:22.500 Is there any sense in which these gods are considered also to be ancestors?

00:15:29.040 Absolutely. And that takes a different form.

00:15:31.860 I'm not necessarily suggesting that in the beginnings of time,

00:15:37.080 there was some kind of a physical mating that happened. But what I do say is they're absolutely

00:15:43.760 our ancestors and they're the progenitors of our folk. We approach them in that way. One of the

00:15:50.480 reasons I said at the top of the program that family is so important to us is that's how we

00:15:55.400 link back with our gods in that sense. It's also important, the ruling houses of Europe,

00:16:01.780 But even into the Christian period, their kings would often trace their lineage back to Odin.

00:16:08.680 And so, you know, in a sense, Odin is the progenitor of royalty in Ausatru as well.

00:16:15.520 But in a bigger sense, our gods are all our deepest ancestors.

00:16:20.400 Okay. Now, you've used the word folk a few times.

00:16:23.660 and and I I'm sure that some of my listeners are they if they're from Kentucky like I am that word

00:16:32.140 doesn't mean what I think you mean by that word what does the word folk actually mean for you

00:16:39.580 if folk means race it's it doesn't set off as many you know alarm bells in certain people's

00:16:47.820 mind because so many words today have these connotations to them and presumptions about them

00:16:52.820 It's one of the reasons I try to use the word folk instead, but folk means race.

00:16:57.620 Yeah, well, in philosophy, we have the word ethnos, and it's the same thing and basically means,

00:17:06.100 you know, your ethnicity, your background, the people of your common heritage.

00:17:11.780 Yeah, and I can understand why using the word folk might be less incendiary for some, especially in our current climate.

00:17:27.180 Who are the principal gods of Al-Shatru?

00:17:30.600 Well, you mentioned earlier the Aesir are our principal gods. So that list can be very large, but probably the top of that or the most frequently worshipped are Odin, Thor, Frey, Freya, the goddess Frigga.

00:17:53.160 We have one of our, one of our Hoffs is dedicated to Balder.

00:17:57.400 The god Tyr is also very commonly worshipped.

00:18:00.980 But we have quite a few gods and goddesses that we give worship to.

00:18:05.960 Is there a hierarchy of gods?

00:18:12.900 I suppose in a very simple way.

00:18:16.860 Odin is the chief of the gods.

00:18:19.540 So in that way, he's at the top of that hierarchy.

00:18:21.760 He's also the father of the gods.

00:18:23.520 He's the all father.

00:18:25.360 But below that, there's not really a structured hierarchy between the other gods that sit in this council.

00:18:33.960 Now, again, I'm coming at this from a Abrahamic theological construct, because that's where my education lies as an Anglican priest.

00:18:46.140 But we have the concept of God being eternally self-existent, eminent and transcendent, omniscient, et cetera.

00:18:58.740 All of the omnis. 0.98

00:19:00.180 Is it the same for the Iser? 0.97

00:19:04.180 It's not.

00:19:05.220 And I think that's one thing that adds a different dimension to Ausitry than maybe other people are used to.

00:19:12.500 Our gods struggle.

00:19:14.140 So much of our mythos is played out in the struggle between order and chaos, the struggle between the gods and the giants.

00:19:24.380 So our gods have to, and a lot of our symbology represents this, but our gods have to stay in motion.

00:19:30.940 They have to stay vigilant because there is the possibility that chaos overtakes.

00:19:36.700 So they always have to stay one step ahead.

00:19:38.540 We don't believe in all of the omnis, as you put it.

00:19:45.420 But that being said, our gods are immensely more powerful than we can conceive.

00:19:50.720 And by saying that, I don't mean to put any limitations on them.

00:19:54.280 But there is a sense that they do have to struggle and contend with things.

00:19:59.220 But are they eternal beings?

00:20:02.300 Yes, and they're inherently connected to us.

00:20:04.900 And I think that in a way, as long as our folk or our race exists, those gods exist and they live through us.

00:20:12.160 I assume that they exist even if we don't, but that severing between us and them would be a fundamental break with their existence as we know it.

00:20:21.780 And is there a supreme God or a prime God, one from whom all the others proceed? 0.63

00:20:36.820 I mean, like I say, in a way, in a time before the Aesir, there's the primal giant Ymir, and he's broken up into parts and restructured and reshaped into our world. 0.63

00:20:53.280 and he's that's done by odin um but there's a source of power beyond that that would be 0.62

00:20:59.280 genunga gap which is the the yawning void it's described as from which creation and in that

00:21:05.840 sense magic comes from and so there's there is that source but not as a not as a as a as a deity

00:21:14.480 yeah not it's not a conscious being then no okay okay um well then is is uh the material world a

00:21:26.800 a creation of the aesir or uh is it uh like uh atheistic evolutionary theory teaches

00:21:36.560 is just the process of natural forces, accident.

00:21:42.000 I think it's shaping order from chaos.

00:21:46.400 I think there is a natural occurring, you know, random element,

00:21:50.680 but that element has been taken and shaped by our gods

00:21:54.880 into the order and beautiful world we have around us.

00:22:00.520 So is there, and I'm sorry if these questions seem simplistic to you,

00:22:05.520 But that would that would that would imply that there was pre-existing matter that would that pre-existing matter come from this yawning void then that you mentioned?

00:22:22.520 Yes, as far as as far as our law indicates and as far as we can figure.

00:22:26.520 figure. And our God's shaping that into reality that we know is one of the big themes and something

00:22:34.200 that really affects our conception of the world, is taking disorder, taking chaos, and bending it

00:22:41.900 to our will and shaping it into the things that we want in life. I see what you're saying. So

00:22:47.100 That would mean that it would be your responsibility, for example, to inculcate and protect, preserve culture.

00:23:00.300 Absolutely.

00:23:01.600 Okay, well, I've got to take a break here.

00:23:04.740 My guest is Matthew Flavel.

00:23:06.440 We'll be back with more about Asha Truth.

00:23:11.580 You're listening to Expedition Truth with Jack Ashcroft.

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00:27:49.280 Now, back to Expedition Truth with Jack Ashcraft, where the truth never fears questions.

00:27:56.760 Welcome back to the program.

00:27:58.160 If you just joined us, we've been talking with Matthew Flavel.

00:28:01.560 He is the current leader of the Alshatru Folk Assembly, and he's been helping us to understand more about the faith.

00:28:09.260 Before we get back into the conversation, I want to remind my listeners that this program is dependent on your generosity to stay on the air.

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00:29:24.240 we continue to bring you quality programs and quality guests like today's guest if you're

00:29:30.240 listening on youtube please if you like the program hit the thumbs up button and share this video so

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00:29:43.600 you haven't already consider subscribing all right let's get back into the program matthew

00:29:48.800 i i understand during the break we have uh quite a few people who like what they hear from you and

00:29:54.480 in our chat room well i'm glad to hear it yeah so you're you're apparently uh pushing the right

00:30:01.200 buttons so um so let's let's get into some of the specifics of of perhaps some of the ritual

00:30:10.480 um if there's something you can't disclose i'm not going to ask you to do so

00:30:15.600 but what are the central rituals of al-shatril um there's there's two main ones aside from

00:30:25.440 Feasting is important. We like to have, you know, feast days for our heroes. We like to have, eating a meal is very important to any of our gatherings, but that's kind of understood. The other two would be bloat and sumble.

00:30:41.760 So, bloat is our interaction with the gods, and most all of our interactions with each other and with the gods is about gift-giving.

00:30:57.460 So, in bloat, and it depends on the space you're in, now that we have hoffs, it's a little bit different, and sometimes these are done indoors,

00:31:05.080 But when they're done outdoors, which up until very recently, that's what we had, typically people will stand in a circle.

00:31:15.160 And I guess the fundamentals of it are the gothi or whoever's officiating will address the gods and invite them to hear us and to be with us.

00:31:27.360 We'll take a horn of usually mead and we'll take it around the circle and people will,

00:31:37.360 we like to say from heart to hand to horn, they'll imbue that with their love, with their

00:31:43.360 thanksgiving, with their loyalty, with whatever good feelings inside that they want to infuse

00:31:51.360 infuse into that horn. And we pass that around the circle and pour that out often to the fire

00:31:57.600 as an offering to the gods. And then we'll ask that if, and it depends on who we're worshiping

00:32:05.360 at the time, but we'll ask if the gods appreciate what we're, you know, if they've seen into our

00:32:10.660 hearts and they like what they've seen, if they accept our offering, then would they please

00:32:15.460 pour out their blessings on us

00:32:18.460 and usually the Goethe will hold aloft a bowl or a horn

00:32:22.540 of mead, a second one

00:32:24.200 and that will then be distributed around

00:32:28.560 the circle. If it's a small group, people will have a drink

00:32:31.580 if it's a large group, we'll a spurge

00:32:34.380 but yeah, basically we

00:32:37.520 offer them something of us, our energy

00:32:41.820 our power and we ask that in return

00:32:44.360 they give us their blessings or share that with us. And that's the fundamental worship

00:32:51.560 ritual of Ausitru. The other ritual is a sambal, and that's a formal sharing of the horn of mead

00:33:00.760 ritual to where toasts are made. And usually in a high sambal, there are three rounds.

00:33:07.640 So the first round would be the round to the gods. So everyone in the circle would,

00:33:13.000 when the horn comes to them, make a toast to one of our gods. The second round is a round for the

00:33:19.880 ancestors, so people will then make a toast to, sometimes, you know, communally our ancestors are

00:33:28.280 a great hero of our ancestors from the past, but in general people will raise a toast to one of

00:33:33.480 their personal ancestors, very often a parent or a grandparent that's passed and tell a little story

00:33:39.560 about them so we remember them collectively and speak their name collectively and then the third

00:33:44.760 round is the round for the heroes and it's kind of a freestyle round often that's a round where

00:33:49.720 people will recite a poem that they've made for the occasion or sing a song or just make a toast

00:33:56.680 to somebody who's you know deserves to be acknowledged the point is that we're acknowledging

00:34:03.000 people in a ritual context, there is a group to where their name is said and celebrated.

00:34:10.200 Yeah, that's what I was thinking as I was listening to this. This seems to be very much

00:34:17.000 folk-oriented. Ancestors, the people who are present, it sounds very community-minded,

00:34:28.120 which is good I think that's a good thing

00:34:31.680 unfortunately I think that's something that is 0.99

00:34:34.920 missing in Christianity

00:34:38.900 especially evangelicalism

00:34:42.440 it has become such an expression

00:34:47.020 of independent spirituality

00:34:50.840 my relationship with God

00:34:53.640 that there's no corporate aspect to spiritual life.

00:35:02.020 But it sounds to me like you very much value

00:35:04.540 the corporate aspect of spiritual life.

00:35:08.280 We do.

00:35:08.560 I think it's, if anything,

00:35:09.760 it's moving the opposite direction

00:35:11.920 that we've seen Christianity move that way.

00:35:15.200 Initially, when I first became involved in Assetree,

00:35:17.920 there was a lot of focus on the individual.

00:35:21.260 And there still is.

00:35:21.840 The individual is important.

00:35:23.640 but we really increased the focus on the group and and part of that is we believe there's a

00:35:30.760 synergy that happens that when you when you interact in a ritual space you become worth

00:35:37.320 more than the sum of your parts so by us celebrating in that sample all together

00:35:42.600 if there's 50 people there the impact of what we're doing is much more than 50 individuals

00:35:49.080 50-yard group the value is is much greater yeah certainly the collective intention

00:35:57.160 is something that i think most traditional cultures have recognized as an important

00:36:02.680 component of their indigenous religions i mean you see that in shinto and buddhism and you know

00:36:11.800 a whole host of other indigenous religions. So I'm not surprised to see that perennial

00:36:19.760 principle in Alshatru. I'd be surprised if it wasn't there, to be frank. So let's talk

00:36:28.920 a little bit about the cultural aspects. How does Alshatru inform the culture of your members?

00:36:40.960 And by that, I mean daily life and perhaps social and political principles by which they

00:36:50.400 live.

00:36:51.640 How does it inform those?

00:36:53.740 Well, in a lot of ways, one of the things that we very, very much believe in Ausatru,

00:37:01.380 and I think that all faiths believe this as a general rule, but because it's not segregated

00:37:07.400 to one day of the week. It's not just something we do when we're at the Hoff. We're very aware

00:37:13.880 that we're also true in how we present ourselves. We're also true in, you know, we're an also true

00:37:19.240 employee. We're an also true employer. We're an also true husband, an also true father,

00:37:24.200 an also true brother. We're also true no matter what we do in our life. So we're very aware of

00:37:29.960 that and the implications of our actions on the Astro Folk Assembly, on our family directly,

00:37:36.760 And in a bigger sense, it reflects on our gods. So we're really aware of that when we do things.

00:37:44.120 Another thing is we embrace the world. We feel that the world is good and that we should

00:37:52.120 accomplish and do. So we don't look for our gods to do the things for us because we think

00:38:06.600 that pride is a virtue in Ausitru. We want to stand proudly before the gods, being more worthy

00:38:14.680 of standing in their presence. We want them to be proud of us, so we try to do good things to

00:38:21.160 accomplish more. With Sambal that I mentioned earlier, so much of what we do is about our

00:38:27.880 legacy and about how we're remembered, so trying to do things worthy of being celebrated after we

00:38:34.600 pass is a very important component to us. Culturally, I also say that we tend to embrace

00:38:43.580 tradition in that sense because it was so important to our ancestors. With the extreme

00:38:48.800 left today, they would have to believe, according to them, that everyone prior to their parents'

00:38:55.980 generation were the most evil humans in the world. And we don't believe that at all. I would

00:39:02.060 hope that my you know great great however many greats you want to go grandfather would see what

00:39:07.820 i'm doing and and appreciate it in some way or be proud of me and be proud of the man i've become

00:39:13.420 and we're always aware of that and that's true yeah i i also think the uh the the current

00:39:20.540 marxist push for uh those of us of uh western european heritage to uh hate ourselves

00:39:29.420 is a disgusting turn of events.

00:39:34.620 In Christian terms, I would call it a sin. 1.00

00:39:38.460 I don't know what you would call it in Al-Shertru, 1.00

00:39:41.160 but I think it's destructive 1.00

00:39:44.020 and I think it does nothing

00:39:48.480 to help the world as a whole.

00:39:52.760 How would you view that particular topic?

00:39:57.760 Well, you know, I'm trying to think of the also true equivalent of a sin and what we have is

00:40:04.560 honorable things and dishonorable things. And I think that it's to disrespect your ancestors and

00:40:10.720 disrespect those who've come before you is one of the heights of dishonor. And it is disgusting. 0.93

00:40:20.240 And unfortunately, in the world that we live in today, certainly here in the United States,

00:40:24.400 It's directed only at us, but not at other groups.

00:40:30.280 It's embraced by these other groups.

00:40:31.720 And I say that not negatively.

00:40:33.400 I think that's fantastic for them.

00:40:35.580 I just wanna have the same rights and consideration

00:40:39.220 and the same celebration of my ancestors.

00:40:44.100 Yeah, I would agree with that.

00:40:45.640 I don't think that pride in one's ethnos,

00:40:50.640 in one's ethnos, one's heritage, one's homeland and traditions and ancestors is somehow evil

00:41:03.400 or wrong. 0.75

00:41:05.360 I think it's good.

00:41:08.640 And like you said, it's honorable.

00:41:11.220 But even within Christian circles, there's this fear of the dreaded R word when it comes

00:41:19.060 to that.

00:41:19.600 and I think it's really a meaningless word in modern parlance and I'm not afraid of the word

00:41:27.100 so I think we would agree on that that we should be about preserving our heritage and you know my

00:41:40.800 I think there are three principles that inform my own spirituality and they've broken down into

00:41:46.640 faith family and tradition all those with capital letters um and i think that's really where you

00:41:53.600 come from as well isn't it well it's interesting that you say that um a previous house true

00:41:59.040 organization their their motto was faith folk family and it you know pretty much is exactly

00:42:04.960 what you just said those components are so essential to uh to what house the true is

00:42:11.520 and to our existence within it and I do think that's that's common amongst all our folk no

00:42:17.440 matter what uh what religion they find themselves in those core values are traditionally so important

00:42:22.480 to our people. I also think it's uh there's an interesting connection if we look at human history

00:42:31.600 there is an interesting connection between homelands, the land of our origin and our faith

00:42:41.360 and our culture. And that the further we have moved from our homelands or been removed from them,

00:42:50.240 the quicker both family and culture begins to erode, especially if we introduce 1.00

00:42:57.840 foreign elements into it that don't respect them. Would you say you would agree with that 1.00

00:43:03.600 or disagree? It depends. I think it's a double-edged sword on the first point.

00:43:08.640 I think that you do start to, you miss those touchstones and you don't have

00:43:15.760 those ancient places that you're used to that have informed, you know, our mythos. So much

00:43:21.840 of our Ausatru mythos is written down in Scandinavia and the stories revolve around

00:43:27.600 that landscape and it's harder to put yourself in that when you're in a different place when

00:43:32.880 you're across the world but precisely because of that distance it makes people that are further

00:43:39.680 from their homelands try harder it's something that in anthropology they call the zealotry of

00:43:46.400 the fringe so the further out the the satellites of that root culture are the more desperately they

00:43:52.480 hang on to those traditions because that's all they have and i think that happens but your other

00:43:58.080 point of when you infuse that culture with foreign elements especially foreign elements that are

00:44:05.920 hostile to it yeah it's very easy to wash that away especially when people are far from their

00:44:10.880 online. Do you think there's such thing as ethnic memory? Absolutely, and that's true, we call that

00:44:20.260 the folk soul. Okay, can you tell me a little bit about that? Sure, there's, so as part of us

00:44:31.100 individually, as individuals, we're connected, and a piece of all those who have come before us lives

00:44:37.320 on within us and through us so we're connected to our family line back to the beginning those

00:44:44.520 parts of those memories parts of that existence come to us in our very dna

00:44:49.160 but because we have commonality and because we are we're all connected as part of this

00:44:54.280 this family this folk family we have this

00:44:57.480 this bigger folk soul that connects us all. We have a shared commonality, a shared ancestral

00:45:10.120 memory. It's funny because one of the ways that we see the folk soul manifest is when

00:45:18.840 seemingly spontaneously at different places, but at the same time, our people come to a

00:45:25.640 similar understanding of something. When Alcetru reawoke in the late 1960s, there were four

00:45:37.080 people very involved with it, all of whom in different parts of the world with no communication

00:45:41.640 with one another, but all felt at that time that the need to reconnect with our gods was,

00:45:48.360 you know, the time is now to seize it.

00:45:50.760 You know, there are times when I have watched videos on the history of the Anglo-Saxon peoples.

00:46:01.440 My ancestors have done a significant amount of genealogy work and had the DNA tests, et cetera, done.

00:46:12.440 And I'm definitely Anglo-Saxon.

00:46:14.400 And there are times when I watch films or TV programs on the history and et cetera, and they'll show ancient places associated with that history.

00:46:25.660 And it awakens, I guess you would call it a yearning to return to that place or that country.

00:46:34.920 Do you know what I mean?

00:46:35.960 Is that part of this folk soul that you mentioned?

00:46:41.340 It is.

00:46:41.820 It's part of that.

00:46:42.580 It's part of your ancestral memory.

00:46:44.220 It's part of your folk soul drawing you back to those things.

00:46:46.980 And those places have power, especially if you see ancient, you know, ancient holy places.

00:46:51.940 These places have been used as ritual sites for, you know, sometimes thousands of years.

00:46:58.100 And there's an immense power there. I've been fortunate.

00:47:01.380 I've gone to Europe twice with the Astro Folk Assembly, once to Denmark and once to Sweden.

00:47:05.660 And I've had the I've been able to stand in these ancient stone circles and visit these dolmens.

00:47:11.980 and it it's it's hard to describe if you haven't felt it but yeah it's it's your folk souls calling

00:47:17.660 you home that's you have an ancestral memory of that place and that power i you know i've

00:47:23.980 not visited any of those places but there have been times when i've been in um like a forest

00:47:31.820 where you can feel there's a there's something different about the place it's it's not just

00:47:40.060 what it looks like or that you're in a fort but there's a there's something um something different

00:47:46.620 about the place you just feel it that's all the only thing i can the only way i can express it

00:47:51.340 um it's is that really is that what you're talking about is that same sort of yeah there's a there's

00:47:57.660 a power there and you feel it in you know we'll notice if you go into a room or people have

00:48:02.300 remarked when they visited our hoffs and we've only you know been there for a year in two cases

00:48:07.020 in six years in another case but people can walk in and they feel there's a spiritual energy there

00:48:12.540 they feel that there's something in the room with them when they're there or when they're out in one

00:48:16.060 of our uh our ritual circles so we absolutely believe in that and how long have you been

00:48:24.300 involved with asha true uh since the early 2000s i think since 2001. so about 20 years that's

00:48:31.420 significant. Yes sir. Excellent. Are you a married man then? I am. Yeah. Children? We've got our

00:48:38.460 just about one year old she's 15 months a couple of days ago my daughter Aubrey. Congratulations.

00:48:44.700 Thank you. That's great. I always love to to hear when somebody's starting a new family. It's a

00:48:52.940 beautiful thing. Are there a lot of families in the assembly? Yes it's overwhelming and that's

00:49:00.700 been a relatively a relatively new thing but in the past five years the families have been we've 0.64

00:49:07.060 had this baby boom within the afa and and we've got so many kids we can hardly go to any event

00:49:12.360 anymore to where there's not not only children but pregnant ladies um babies in arms and kids 1.00

00:49:19.200 all the way up into their teens that's good to see especially since they're discouraging birth

00:49:25.340 um so yeah it's good to see do you have really quickly here we've probably got about three

00:49:31.420 minutes left do you have uh family specific rituals i mean you know beyond uh marriage

00:49:38.840 uh beyond matrimony i mean like in christianity there's christenings and

00:49:43.380 uh things like that do you have similar things yeah and they come from a common root so we have

00:49:48.680 uh our baby namings when a child's born and they're nine days old and it's about it's when

00:49:54.560 can get family and friends together but typically traditionally nine days old um we'll take them

00:49:59.840 before the gothi and assembly assembled family and friends and uh do affix their name to them

00:50:06.720 and by fixing their name to them we're giving them we're completing their soul at that point

00:50:11.840 we're giving them that component from our family to them and acknowledging them and accepting them

00:50:17.360 as part of our family as part of our group and giving them that name that's very often passed

00:50:22.880 out for their ancestors. So that's a real special one for us. We've got about two minutes. Is there

00:50:29.760 anything you want to say to our listeners? Yeah, if you are an ethnically European person

00:50:37.840 who is traditionally minded and interested, please check us out at www.runestone.org.

00:50:47.440 Read up, see what we're about, and please feel free to contact anybody there if you find it

00:50:52.160 interesting or if it speaks to you. Are there any good books they can read?

00:50:56.720 Actually, our founder Stephen McNallan wrote Aousatru, A Native European Spirituality. And I

00:51:02.800 think that's the best get to know about Aousatru in the modern sense. That's available on our

00:51:09.680 website or certainly on Amazon or a number of places. Fantastic. And if listeners didn't get

00:51:15.680 that information, you can go to the KCRradio.com website, go to the Expedition Truth page down

00:51:21.360 there toward the bottom i think it is you'll find a tab to click on matthew flavel's

00:51:28.720 biography and there are links to everything you're going to need there to make contact with

00:51:33.760 the australia folk assembly including their youtube channel so uh matthew thank you for

00:51:38.960 being with us and that's it for tonight's expedition

00:51:42.800 you've been listening to expedition truth hosted by jack ashcraft it's time to believe

00:51:54.460 in the unbelievable live every thursday night 4 p.m pacific 7 p.m eastern exclusively on the

00:52:02.600 kcor digital radio network for more information on jack ashcraft the show as well as his guests

00:52:11.980 please visit his website at www.paleoorthodoxy.com.

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Asatru Folk Assembly - July 23, 2021

Matt Flavel on Expedition Truth July 22, 2021

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