Asatru Folk Assembly - May 2019 Facebook Live Discussion

00:00:00.000 hey Jason hey Rob good to see you guys tonight giving it a couple of minutes let folks show

00:00:27.540 up and see who's gonna join us all right guys well a happy belated hex and

00:00:41.300 knocked and a happy belated Mayday to everybody good to talk to you guys

00:00:49.920 guys again. I guess one thing I'll start off plugging tonight, and I'll probably plug it a

00:00:59.560 few times here, is Midsummer at Odinshoff. Got a little bit over a month away, June 21st to the

00:01:08.740 23rd in Brownsville, California, if you guys can make it out to Odinshoff. That's the AFA's biggest

00:01:14.900 kind of flagship events of the year going to have a lot of people joining us from across the country

00:01:22.540 and we have at least one guy internationally that's going to be joining us so i'm looking

00:01:27.200 forward to seeing everybody there if there's any way you can make it if you got friends around you

00:01:31.860 if transportation's an issue carpool get you guys together grab a friend and take them to

00:01:38.340 odenshaw for midsummer so if you guys can make that we'd love to see you there also another

00:01:44.160 thing I figure I'll mention, we're coming up at the end of this month. If any of you

00:01:48.300 all are planning on traveling to Sweden at the end of this month, we'd love to see you

00:01:51.980 at Ultima Tula. That's going to be fantastic. I know Anders has put a lot of work into making

00:01:58.640 that a successful thing. I believe a lot of our European members, not just our Scandinavian

00:02:04.560 members, are going to show up for that one. So if anybody can make it, we'd love to see

00:02:08.240 you guys there. Hey guys, hope everybody's doing good tonight. We'll just jump right in. Does anybody

00:02:19.480 have anything they want to talk about tonight or anybody have anything they want to hear me talk

00:02:23.360 about tonight. Oh, thank you. Thanks, Jason. I appreciate your opinion of my beard. Majestic

00:02:37.540 is what I'm going for. Hopefully it stays that way. Hey, Johnny. Hey, Janet. Good to

00:02:47.600 see you guys tonight. So does anybody have any questions or comments or things they'd like us

00:03:00.960 to make sure we discuss tonight and we can jump right in. McCory, I'm sorry to hear about your

00:03:10.940 beard situation. It's unfortunate. I figure I'll let you guys know if any of you are fans of the

00:03:16.820 Pressure Project with Master Chim. I did an interview with him the other day, actually

00:03:21.580 yesterday. I think that went well. He was a very nice host, and I had a good time doing it.

00:03:28.740 Hello, Kindred of the Sun. Good to see you on tonight. I also had an interview with Karen,

00:03:37.120 one of our South African members. She does a radio show in South Africa, and I'm trying to pull up

00:03:41.620 here the address if folks want to tune into her show. Matter of fact, I'll have Mandy remind me

00:03:48.940 and I'll put it in the comments section, but one of our very own members in South Africa has her

00:03:52.920 own radio show there. I'm not sure if it's a terrestrial radio. I think it's internet radio,

00:03:58.100 but I think they get a decent amount of listeners. It was really nice to talk to them. A lot of

00:04:02.240 enthusiasm with our South African members, and from what I can tell, there's a lot of enthusiasm

00:04:07.300 asking about the AFA right now

00:04:08.780 and the South African pagan world in general.

00:04:12.460 I think that's really nice to see,

00:04:13.900 I'm very excited about that.

00:04:15.840 So I'll get that for you and you guys can check out her show,

00:04:18.360 give her a little bit of support.

00:04:20.040 She records it on Wednesdays.

00:04:26.480 Hey Lane, good to see ya.

00:04:34.200 So does anybody have questions

00:04:36.080 anything they want to talk about tonight it's kind of a user driven content show

00:04:42.380 so if you guys have stuff that you want to talk about let's make sure we do if

00:04:47.060 anything comes up be sure to ask here in the chat if anybody asks anything the

00:04:50.640 chat that I don't get to I think this is the fourth month now and we're still

00:04:54.920 still playing with it every now I go in after it every time and I see comments

00:05:00.140 spread throughout that didn't show up in my feet on the side so if you ask

00:05:04.100 something and I seem to ignore it I'm not ignoring you I promise I'll go back

00:05:08.000 through later tonight or tomorrow and I'll look through the comments and try

00:05:11.000 to answer anything I may have missed because I do appreciate y'all's

00:05:14.860 questions I'm certainly not ducking them so hmm well oh Joe I'm glad you like the

00:05:31.400 AFA store. If anybody does not know we have a store, if you go to www.roomstone.org, we do have

00:05:39.160 a store. We sell a lot of nice things. Sean Sandon is managing that and he has been for years. He does

00:05:47.880 a fantastic job of getting good items in the store, selling those, getting them out to you guys. While

00:05:53.880 I have you guys, and Sean asked me to say this to you, so I'll go ahead and put it out there.

00:05:57.800 this day and age we've become very spoiled by Amazon Prime Amazon Prime is fantastic I love

00:06:05.380 Amazon Prime it's amazing you can order something and it gets there in two days

00:06:09.060 unfortunately the AFA store is not Amazon Prime it's a guy who is a dad and works regular job

00:06:19.120 and you know tries to do what he can with our store and he does a very good job with it

00:06:25.320 But he's just a regular guy.

00:06:26.700 He can't get you stuff in two days.

00:06:29.000 He does the best he can.

00:06:30.300 He diligently gets stuff.

00:06:31.660 And if you guys have any questions, he'll take care of you.

00:06:33.740 So please do bear with him and realize it's a volunteer operation.

00:06:37.500 You know, we don't have a massive AFA warehouse with AFA robots and AFA drones that can drop you off stuff.

00:06:43.480 Maybe one day, but that day is not today.

00:06:46.180 So thank you, Sean, for what you do.

00:06:48.460 And guys, please stop by the store.

00:06:50.120 See if there's anything you want.

00:06:51.280 and if you have any suggestions

00:06:54.680 of things you'd like to see on the store

00:06:56.200 if you send that to Sean S. Saindon

00:06:58.580 S-A-I-N-D-O-N

00:07:00.540 at runestone.org

00:07:02.700 he'd be happy to

00:07:04.020 hear what you guys have to say and give some thought

00:07:06.500 to any of your

00:07:07.280 any of your suggestions

00:07:10.280 that you guys might have

00:07:11.520 also Steve McNallan's book

00:07:14.120 Also True, Native European Spirituality

00:07:16.300 is currently out of print 1.00

00:07:18.280 but I'm assured that that's going to get

00:07:20.340 fixed quickly as soon as it does we will restock the store with it and make sure we have plenty

00:07:26.100 of access to that for for years to come i suppose it's kind of you know it's unfortunate that that

00:07:31.540 we don't have access to it right now but it's a nice thing that it is selling so well and so many

00:07:35.380 people want it i think that's fantastic it's a great book and it's great that the word on focus

00:07:40.340 Child's Truth is getting out there to such a big audience.

00:07:48.840 Any questions tonight, guys?

00:07:50.520 Any questions, anything on anybody's mind?

00:07:53.420 Anything they want to make sure we discuss?

00:07:56.660 No, I've asked it a couple of times.

00:08:01.560 Oh, have I checked out Mark Currier's new book?

00:08:03.620 I have not, but I've noticed a lot of people

00:08:05.460 have gotten that in the mail this week.

00:08:07.260 So as far as thoughts on it, hopefully I will read it here at some point and be able to generate some for you,

00:08:14.900 but I know a lot of people are very excited about it, and I know that Mark's put a lot of work into it.

00:08:19.760 Mark does, he does a lot of research.

00:08:23.760 He has spent a long time really going through the lore and studying it and putting a lot of hard work into the stuff that he does.

00:08:31.080 So I'm sure it's a very interesting book, and I'd like to give it a shot and see what it's about.

00:08:37.260 words of encouragement for the folk I always have words of encouragement for

00:08:44.280 the folk um you guys are awesome the AFA is awesome and we're winning and we're

00:08:53.460 doing great to let you guys know just this last month we were reaching the

00:08:56.820 highest member numbers we've ever had for the AFA we're growing we just got a

00:09:01.320 new kindred i'll go ahead and announce the uh grim raven tribe so the afa's newest affiliated

00:09:08.600 kindred and that kindred's in kentucky um anyone interested about that please go ahead and give

00:09:15.480 them a shout if you're in the area and try to connect with them that means that at present

00:09:20.040 we've got 25 loyal afa kindreds afa proud across the country and around the world it's really

00:09:28.360 amazing to stop and think that we have 25 of these kindreds and you know just less than three years

00:09:35.480 into our kindred program which is fantastic i'm so proud of our kindreds and all the work they do

00:09:40.200 and and really practicing house of true and making it a real thing in their area it's fantastic so

00:09:46.360 that's hopefully that's encouraging i know i find it very encouraging also encouraging so you guys

00:09:53.160 know we now have uh afa members in south africa distributing relief effort things to the camps

00:10:01.000 our very own members with uh volk vaxton kindred they're distributing stuff they know people they

00:10:09.000 have contacts in camps in both johannesburg and cape town and they're making really sure to get

00:10:14.760 those contributions where they're needed the most and to help people who really need our help

00:10:18.680 They don't just need our help physically, but spiritually and just emotionally to know that we're over here and we care.

00:10:26.260 People are really excited about that.

00:10:28.080 Talking to the South Africans this last week, they were so excited that people over here in the AFA in the United States

00:10:34.500 know what's going on over there and care about them and care about their people.

00:10:38.380 And that means a lot to those folks.

00:10:41.200 And sometimes that's certainly one thing we can do.

00:10:46.460 Everybody wonders what we can do and what we accomplish.

00:10:48.420 we can at least let those people know we're here we care about them and we're doing that

00:10:51.460 and they really do appreciate it

00:11:09.460 okay we got jason asking about the afa and its association with the alt-right apparently some

00:11:14.900 people think that we are some sort of political outlet for the alt-right. Let me tell you that

00:11:21.000 is not the case. The AFA is a church. We have members that I'm sure are involved in the alt-right.

00:11:28.880 We have members that are involved in all kinds of different political parties in different places

00:11:33.400 around the world and all kinds of different things. I certainly hope that everybody's religious

00:11:38.880 beliefs informs decisions they make in all aspects of their life, including in their politics.

00:11:43.480 The AFA is a church, and our focus is on the spiritual betterment of our people.

00:11:49.260 And we look for all ways to do that and to help our people grow and be successful and be spiritually fulfilled.

00:12:01.320 We're going to have people that are hypersensitive to politics.

00:12:03.980 We live in a world that is becoming extremely polarized all around us.

00:12:08.240 That's just the world we live in at the time we live in.

00:12:10.540 is what it is the AFA is not a political organ we're not part of any political party or any

00:12:18.780 specific political movement I'm sure that our views coincide with other people's views at

00:12:23.740 different times who do political things and I would never encourage you guys not to be

00:12:27.580 politically active go out there and help make your world a better place in the ways that

00:12:30.940 you think are right by our gods and by your conscience I hope that clears up the

00:12:36.760 misconception a little bit. Yeah. And no, Rob, New Kindred is not that far from Virginia.

00:12:46.300 You should go up and give those guys some support and maybe go to one of their events.

00:12:50.820 Maybe they can come down to see you guys and go to one of y'all's events.

00:12:56.940 We got kind of an infusion of folks joining us. Welcome everybody who's just showing up.

00:13:02.460 hope y'all are doing good tonight um anybody have anything they want to make

00:13:09.060 sure we talk about or anything they wanted to ask about I know I'm saying

00:13:17.880 that a lot but I do want to make sure I get to anybody's questions I think

00:13:20.880 people always have stuff on their mind or things that they wonder and sometimes

00:13:25.200 they you know don't want to ask I think it'd be impolite to ask or you know 0.99

00:13:30.020 I think it may be a stupid question, 0.99

00:13:31.740 and I'm not gonna tell you there's no such thing 1.00

00:13:33.920 as stupid questions, but even if you got one, 0.99

00:13:36.920 I'm happy to try to answer it, 1.00

00:13:38.660 as long as it's a legitimate question.

00:13:40.780 Hey Mark, good to see you joining tonight.

00:14:00.020 Ah, update on HOF 2.

00:14:04.180 So it is progressing.

00:14:09.920 One thing right now, we're trying really hard to look for the best possible spot at

00:14:13.480 the best possible deal.

00:14:15.780 And at the level we're at, sometimes that means looking into things more non-traditionally

00:14:21.620 as far as the mortgage situation or properties of the listed and whatnot.

00:14:26.440 So we've been chasing down some things that look really good.

00:14:29.700 We haven't found the perfect thing just yet, but we are looking and we are very prepared

00:14:33.400 to put money down and make that happen as soon as we find the right spot in the right

00:14:37.320 place.

00:14:38.320 It's a big deal to establish that second half and it's a whole lot of your guys' hard-earned

00:14:44.560 money and effort and just energy that you're putting into it and we want to make really

00:14:50.520 sure that we make the right decision on that spot.

00:14:52.660 But we are looking at it, we're set, we're ready, it's going to happen, it's just a

00:14:56.300 matter of finding the right property in the right spot and that's that's a process that we're

00:15:01.420 currently engaged in so i wouldn't be surprised if that happens very soon

00:15:05.420 um we have a real estate broker helping us try to find the right spot so we're very actively

00:15:11.180 doing that that's that's coming uh lane i have not heard of the effort to start a pagan credit

00:15:22.300 union uh do we know who's heading that up that's kind of an interesting idea i wonder who all is

00:15:28.620 involved with that and how many folks they've got what kind of just kind of what kind of

00:15:32.860 financial backing and what that deal is about i'd be interested in hearing who's doing that

00:15:42.060 hmm

00:15:42.380 what else do we have tonight guys anything else y'all are wondering about anything else on folks

00:15:54.060 mind no around here spring has has gone into full speed and it's it turned from uh late winter into

00:16:02.140 summer all in a matter of about two weeks so it's been nice to watch everything blossom and as i

00:16:08.460 I look around, I look around AFA stuff,

00:16:10.380 it seems like people got a lot of energy.

00:16:13.240 Everybody is doing stuff, they're excited.

00:16:16.580 Something I did want to mention to you guys

00:16:18.320 that may not know, sometimes folks don't see

00:16:21.400 some of the things that aren't going in their region.

00:16:23.100 When I'm talking about energy,

00:16:24.080 I was Sheila McNall and Stephen, Sheila and I,

00:16:26.880 and Mandy, we all had dinner last night.

00:16:29.960 And she is really fired up.

00:16:32.340 If you guys don't know, Sheila has volunteered

00:16:34.580 to help us with some folk building efforts.

00:16:37.360 She's our folk builder at large right now,

00:16:39.500 and she's currently helping us do folk building

00:16:41.820 in South Central, which is Texas and Louisiana.

00:16:45.960 And she's also helping with Australia and New Zealand.

00:16:49.100 But she was all fired up and got all kind of energy,

00:16:51.400 so she's helping us a lot of different places with it.

00:16:53.820 And it's cool to see such enthusiasm,

00:16:56.440 and she's absolutely amazing. 0.76

00:16:58.600 She's great at building our folk.

00:17:00.780 She's been doing it for 25 years now.

00:17:03.480 So we're very excited to have her helping us out

00:17:05.440 in a full building capacity.

00:17:20.460 All right, so, and Jason's asking a question here,

00:17:22.960 and I think it's something really important to talk about.

00:17:28.160 I'm not sure how this works,

00:17:29.020 and if you guys see this real time,

00:17:30.240 but Jason says, over the years he's observed

00:17:33.200 In the Astru communities,

00:17:35.400 a lot of people seem either hardheaded, prideful,

00:17:38.080 or ashamed to lean on their folk during hard times

00:17:41.240 and will either lash out or vanish altogether.

00:17:43.960 How would I address this

00:17:46.000 and the value in standing in solidarity with folk?

00:17:53.240 This is always a really hard thing that I see

00:17:57.040 and I do notice it.

00:17:58.640 When we have folk that have hard times,

00:18:01.420 very very often they keep to themselves and they hole up and they make their world very very small

00:18:10.140 and that's the natural thing to do to protect yourself when things are rough and when you get

00:18:15.260 scared or when you're overwhelmed one thing with the afa being a church i know it's counterintuitive

00:18:22.780 but i want anybody who can hear this to fight that as best you can when you're feeling the

00:18:29.340 pressure the world around you don't close off don't become small open up open up to the afa

00:18:36.060 we are your church we are your family we want to be here for you um

00:18:42.700 when times are hard is when you need your spiritual community the most it's when you need your folk

00:18:48.540 and your tribe the most and also and i guess maybe this is selfish on our part but we all want to

00:18:54.620 help we all so much want to be there for our people and help them when they're having hard

00:18:59.660 times we can't help if we don't know and people can't help if you don't ask if you ever feel

00:19:05.820 uncomfortable you know coming to a group or or anyone that way please reach out to a gofi

00:19:12.300 i promise you that is what we are here for that's why we started being go thar that's exactly why

00:19:20.140 we're here is to help people if they're having hard times and it's some of them you know most

00:19:24.940 meaningful thing in my life if i can help somebody who's down if i can help one of our folk that

00:19:30.300 needs someone to talk to that can maybe say the right thing to them at the right time or be there

00:19:34.700 for them when they're having a hard time um there's nothing more in this world that i would rather be

00:19:41.180 doing than doing that and i think the same can be said for all of our gothar so please uh if you do

00:19:46.300 have hard times or if you know somebody that does send them to a go-fi keep them involved in the afa

00:19:51.900 have them come out to an afa event the whole world always looks better no matter whether it's hard

00:19:56.700 times you're good when you're standing with your folk in an afa event i know that's the case in my

00:20:00.940 life i've been to afa events when i was down and having a hard time and it lifted me right up and

00:20:05.500 i've been to afa events when i was on the top of the world and it just accelerated it made it better

00:20:10.380 get out there and be with your folk especially when times are tough i can't say it enough

00:20:14.380 and I can't say it passionately enough.

00:20:17.880 You need your folk.

00:20:20.280 And let your folk be there for you.

00:20:27.440 Hey, Mark, thanks.

00:20:29.760 Mark Puryear just announced that he sent an edition of the Aus True Etta

00:20:34.940 for us to auction at Midsummer.

00:20:37.160 So that's awesome.

00:20:38.540 Thank you so much for the donation, Mark.

00:20:40.360 We really appreciate it.

00:20:44.380 hail the givers indeed a couple more people joining us hope everybody's doing good tonight

00:20:55.640 hope everybody's enjoying enjoying summer wherever they're at sounds like some of our

00:21:00.440 folk in the dakotas aren't really aren't really feeling summer just yet but uh it's on its way

00:21:06.220 Okay. So speaking of the auction at Midsommar, I'll plug it again for those of you who weren't here at the top of the show.

00:21:19.180 If you guys can make it, if there's any possible way you can make it, Midsommar at Odinsoff, June 21st through the 23rd.

00:21:30.000 It's the AFA's premiere event every year. It's kind of the official start of the AFA year.

00:21:35.540 we kind of go midsummer to midsummer with some of the things that we do and um i can't say enough

00:21:42.420 if you haven't been to the hof there's something extremely holy about being in our sacred space

00:21:50.340 um i've said this before but we always you know when you when you start doing af or when you start

00:21:55.940 doing astro rituals in general one of the big things you do is you've got to create sacred space

00:22:00.900 and so often we have a ritual to do that when we're in a public space like a park

00:22:05.540 or you know somebody's backyard and it's so special to have space that is sacred that stays

00:22:11.780 sacred and that builds and becomes more sacred through years of use and dedication um if you

00:22:17.700 guys haven't been there we'd love to have you out there uh again carpool get together with your

00:22:22.740 friends make it work we'd love to see you out there uh midsummer at odinsoff please if any

00:22:28.420 way possible we'd love to see you there make it happen if you can i can't say it enough that was

00:22:34.340 my first event uh my first afa event was a midsummer back when we were doing them at camp norga and

00:22:41.620 something so different when you only practice also true in your own local area or maybe with

00:22:47.060 a couple of you know close friends when you go to a national event and you're there with a hundred

00:22:52.580 other ostrich who are praising our gods and celebrating our folk you build connections that

00:22:57.780 last a lifetime i know i got hooked and if i wouldn't have gone to that first midsummer i

00:23:02.820 I wouldn't be where I am today.

00:23:04.160 It changed my life, and I hope it can change yours.

00:23:06.580 Love to see you guys there.

00:23:21.200 Yeah, Katrina, I think everybody thinks it'd be really nice to have Hoff right next to them.

00:23:25.780 And you know what?

00:23:26.400 That is the mission.

00:23:27.900 That absolutely is the mission.

00:23:29.500 As soon as we get Hoff 2 and that gets up and running and paid for, Hoff 3 is on the way. 0.79

00:23:34.580 As soon as we got Hoff 3, there's Hoff 4 and 5 and 6 and 7 until there's a Hoff near all of our folk. 0.97

00:23:41.120 If we can get communities of people that are dedicated to taking care of the Hoffs, 0.97

00:23:45.960 to building a faith community around those Hoffs, we will keep making them happen. 0.97

00:23:50.860 I'm very devoted to doing that. 1.00

00:23:53.520 It blows my mind that we paid off Odin's Hoff in such a short amount of time, 0.54

00:23:58.480 three and a half under four years and within three or four months we're already looking for 0.98

00:24:03.920 that second hoff location already ready to put down on it so they'll happen we'll get a hoff

00:24:08.240 close to you sooner than you think well lee we're really glad to see you at ostara i'm glad that

00:24:19.040 glad that you and your family had a good time there um hopefully you can make it up to um

00:24:23.680 Winter Nights in the Poconos.

00:24:26.040 We'd love to see you up there.

00:24:27.040 That camp's awesome.

00:24:28.300 That's a beautiful place that time of year.

00:24:31.400 So yeah, any of you guys on the East Coast

00:24:33.720 or wherever you're at, if you can make it to Winter Nights

00:24:35.700 in the Poconos, it's a fantastic event.

00:24:38.920 I love it, look forward to it every year.

00:24:41.060 It's the event that I met my wife at.

00:24:43.260 It's kind of a special one to us, so.

00:24:51.440 Does anybody else have any questions or anything

00:24:53.540 they want to I don't have me have me comment on or anything they're

00:24:58.940 wondering about I'm very happy to answer anything anybody's got Joe I hope you do

00:25:04.580 we would love to see you there come to events bring your family would love to

00:25:09.800 have them there just look over here at the comments trying to see if I missed

00:25:24.680 anything or if anybody does have anything they want to touch base on

00:25:28.920 tonight one thing wanted to talk about a little bit while I got you guys here is

00:25:35.800 is the juxtaposition between Hexanocht and Mayday.

00:25:41.460 And I don't know if I made it clear

00:25:42.600 in the little posts that I made.

00:25:44.140 I assure you the Mayday post, if you saw it on Facebook,

00:25:46.340 it had a picture on the thing we showed on the website.

00:25:48.600 There was some technical malfunction

00:25:50.600 to where it didn't show up with a picture,

00:25:51.800 but I did pick out a beautiful picture

00:25:53.300 and you can see it at moonstone.org.

00:25:55.560 Anyways, one of the sacred things 1.00

00:25:59.960 that the Ostrovokal Assembly believes women do

00:26:03.560 and women contribute

00:26:05.340 is they are conduits for power they bestow power they create sacrality with things it's one of the 1.00

00:26:16.540 reasons that we have or it's the reason that we have the women take the horn for ritual and they 0.99

00:26:20.700 take it off by themselves and they imbue it with potent spiritual energy into potent magical power

00:26:27.900 they imbue that and they prepare it and they make it ready and then the gothi goes out there

00:26:32.780 and then puts it into action one of the cool things about hexamnacht is the sacred that the

00:26:40.060 divine feminine prepares the world and fills it with magic fills it with potential and fills it

00:26:47.180 with that energy to be shaped and all of that potential and makes the air thick with potential

00:26:53.900 on that night and the magic of mayday is the masculine then can take all of that potential

00:27:01.340 and shape it and direct it with will and put it towards things um i think it's important to note

00:27:08.460 that in our creation story odin villian vey the the father of inspiration with sacrality

00:27:17.820 they and with will villi through will and sacrality the father of inspiration created

00:27:25.580 mankind created our folk with those things he created our universe and that's kind of one of

00:27:34.760 the mysteries of mayday that i think is important is taking all of that magic and all of that power

00:27:40.160 and harnessing it and directing it towards a purpose and let's think about this that this

00:27:45.780 time of year with all the life that's budding around us all the magic of springtime and early

00:27:50.520 summer what can we do with that energy what can we do with that vibrance and that vitality what

00:27:55.880 can we shape how can we make our world better how can we make our family better how can we

00:28:01.320 make the afa better what can we build what can we accomplish and if we put our put our shoulder to

00:28:07.320 that we can the sky's the limit there's nothing we can't do so i'm excited to see where that brings us

00:28:13.560 this year. Yeah, Trent, sorry we missed you at O-Star this year. Hopefully we'll see you

00:28:23.980 next time and hopefully you can make it up to winter nights. We'd love to see you guys

00:28:26.880 there. What to expect during midsummer? You can certainly expect the folk. You can expect

00:28:49.200 probably, last year we had about 130 people there, so it's a lot of folks. It's people

00:28:55.420 from all over um it's a beautiful spot it's kind of off in the hills so don't expect to have good

00:29:02.460 cell service there but do expect to be sounded uh surrounded by beauty and the folk um expect

00:29:08.860 to have some good talks some powerful rituals some time to build relationships with people

00:29:16.700 that maybe you've only talked to online and to renew relationships with people that you've

00:29:21.020 actually met before. If you're planning on staying at the Hoff expect to bring

00:29:30.520 some bedding that would be a good idea for you to bring. Expect a really

00:29:38.940 powerful weekend with some great people. It never ceases to amaze me how special

00:29:44.380 those events you are and it keeps getting better every year. Something else to

00:29:47.400 expect is heat. It is California in the literal middle of summer so it's going to be very warm.

00:29:54.260 Please make sure that you bring stuff appropriately and that you're prepared for it because it does

00:29:58.080 get kind of toasty. Also there's a really cool swimming spot just up the road that folks like

00:30:03.180 to go to so bring some swim gear if that's something you're interested in. Scott, I'm sure

00:30:11.800 Cliff would be very glad to hear that you like the website.

00:30:15.720 I absolutely love it.

00:30:17.000 Cliff put tons of effort into making that nice for us.

00:30:22.540 I think it's a beautiful website

00:30:24.240 and I'm glad that people are going to it.

00:30:26.180 I kind of geek out on looking at the analytics

00:30:28.760 on how many people go to it

00:30:29.960 and from what countries and what they're looking at.

00:30:32.680 If anybody has any ideas of things I'd like to see

00:30:34.920 on the website or see us do with it,

00:30:36.640 please let me know and we'll see what we can do.

00:30:38.900 We're always looking for ways to make that better.

00:30:44.620 We like being able to direct folks there

00:30:46.360 because it's ours.

00:30:47.140 We have control of it.

00:30:48.120 We have control of what we put there.

00:30:49.940 There's no worry about censorship.

00:30:51.400 It's our spot.

00:30:53.160 So yeah, Scott, thank you.

00:30:54.480 And I'm glad that you like the site.

00:30:57.000 As far as what's the next celebration within the AFA?

00:31:01.700 Well, we've got our Days of Remembrance.

00:31:03.260 And the next one coming up is on the 9th,

00:31:05.840 we have the Day of Remembrance for Elsie Christensen.

00:31:08.660 This is going to be the second year that the AFA celebrates that.

00:31:12.020 If you don't know about Elsie, look her up.

00:31:14.480 She is one of the seminal figures in modern-day Alistair True

00:31:19.180 and in the growth and development of our people back when this was just starting out.

00:31:24.120 And she put a lot of blood, sweat, and tears in getting people together 1.00

00:31:27.760 and writing letters to folks and knitting together a community. 0.99

00:31:31.200 That's why she came by the title of the folk mother

00:31:34.360 because she did so much to build our folk initially.

00:31:37.240 So I encourage you to look her up and raise a horn to her on the 9th.

00:31:49.240 Ah, Lane wants me to talk a little bit about the growth of having women and families around.

00:31:54.240 It's one of the best things we've seen in the AFA recently,

00:31:58.240 has been just the massive surge of women, of families, children.

00:32:04.240 A lot of us, when we started out, I've been involved in Massachusetts since 2001, and certainly at that time, it was a lot of guys.

00:32:15.840 It was a whole lot of single guys, or it was guys that wouldn't bring their family out.

00:32:20.300 They'd get together and didn't really trust it, and they could get together with the guys and have a backyard barbecue and throw back a few beers, and it really, they didn't bring family around.

00:32:31.280 and it's been amazing to watch the growth of people who are comfortable bringing their families

00:32:36.720 around we've got kids everywhere at these event kids getting together and playing with each other

00:32:43.040 and making friends out of just out of nowhere never met each other before and by the end of

00:32:47.200 the weekend they're their best friends and it's beautiful to see that you know cliff was asking 0.98

00:32:52.960 me a while ago that was the last time you saw a group picture with you know without a pregnant

00:32:59.040 woman or a baby in arms and i can't think of one it's been that long we've always got uh babies

00:33:06.480 mandy and janet when they were going over uh baby blankets for our baby break baby blanket project

00:33:13.200 that our ladies are are involved in 17 so far this year that we know about 17 new afa babies

00:33:21.120 so women and children are at all of our events at least half if not more of the participants

00:33:28.480 the events or women and children it's been amazing because that's absolutely our future

00:33:33.760 and it's beautiful to watch that and those kids are going to grow up with this being

00:33:37.760 what they were raised in unlike those of us who found this later in life

00:33:41.840 and that's a really special thing to be a part of and a special time to be also true

00:33:49.760 need for physical fitness among our folk uh physical health equally important versus

00:33:55.280 spiritual strength yeah i think that one of the things that characterizes also true is it's

00:33:59.600 holistic it's not just about you know being a cleric in a tower somewhere reading ancient

00:34:05.600 tones austral informs action and informs your life and how you live and how you do things

00:34:11.520 being physically fit is a big part of that um to be truly healthy to be whole to be hail is to be

00:34:18.240 healthy in all aspects of your life mentally spiritually physically and it's really important

00:34:27.180 it's been very important to me to try to help our people get in better shape i think no small part

00:34:32.080 of that is what people look good you feel good when you look good when you have good health and

00:34:37.360 when you present yourself well you're able to hold your head up and stick your chest out and be proud

00:34:42.180 of who you are and people react to that when they see you i want our folk to recognize our excellence

00:34:48.020 at a distance i'd like everything we do to shine with excellence and our physical health is a huge

00:34:53.060 part of that and it's a big problem in the united states and i think around the world where we have

00:34:58.020 we have our folk is we've succeeded so well that we have abundance and abundance has created an

00:35:03.380 an epidemic of obesity and and diseases and things that come along with it so i'd love to

00:35:08.660 see all our people look their best feel their best and be able to live and have longevity for

00:35:13.780 a long time i think one of the really inspirational things is to watch steve mcnallen he's you know

00:35:20.500 he's over 70 now and he's always out trying to go to the gym or go hiking or go do something

00:35:25.860 when i think about my grandparents at his age they were they were old you know my grandparents

00:35:30.660 hit about 55 and they stopped being able to do things it's great to live in a time where we know

00:35:36.180 better than that and folks can get out there and stay active it's one of those things and

00:35:40.020 And I encourage all of our folk to stay active and some Mandy and I always talk about is

00:35:44.700 wanting to make sure that we do stay active as as we do get older.

00:35:47.640 So physical fitness is hugely important and I think it speaks volumes about the commitment

00:35:52.920 of folk and of people when they hold themselves to that standard and try to pursue physical

00:35:57.900 excellence. Thanks, Rob, I'm glad you like the Odin bloat.

00:36:06.120 I always love doing that.

00:36:07.360 I feel, I really feel very connected when I do that,

00:36:11.940 and I'm really glad you appreciate it and you like that.

00:36:15.820 Maybe it's absolutely that hot.

00:36:17.620 You being from Florida, your opinion of the heat doesn't count.

00:36:26.000 Ah, Stephen, that's a good idea.

00:36:28.160 Ask Cliff about that.

00:36:29.200 We'll check in and see what the guys running Votons Wolves want to do

00:36:34.500 and see if we've got content to make that section on runestone.org.

00:36:37.980 It's really nice to see what the distals have built with that.

00:36:41.780 I love what they're doing.

00:36:43.120 So, yeah, we'll check into that.

00:36:44.460 Thanks for the idea. 0.99

00:36:53.760 Yeah, Joe, sugar's a killer.

00:36:55.800 I got a sweet tooth.

00:36:57.040 I know the struggle.

00:36:57.740 But that's one quick thing to help people with their physical fitness issues

00:37:03.040 if you if you consume a lot of sugar cutting out the sugar will get you get

00:37:07.540 you a long ways towards where you want to go well Katrina if you want a hiking

00:37:24.800 retreat in Minnesota with the folk to make that happen let's do it let's do

00:37:29.260 it let's get that going hiking is fantastic minnesota's kind of flat for the hike and i'm

00:37:34.300 used to i like going up hills but yeah if you want to see people hike there get them together

00:37:39.260 and get them to go hiking i'm sure we got plenty of people in minnesota that'd love to go hiking

00:37:43.020 with you i know it's always cool if we get people out here to go hike the sierras being so close is

00:37:48.460 really nice because we get some really beautiful hikes up there but yeah if you've got an idea and

00:37:53.020 you want to see see a hiking retreat in minnesota get together with jason your folk builder there

00:37:58.380 and get that set up.

00:38:01.040 He'd love to make it happen, and I'd love to see it.

00:38:07.880 Hey, Karen, good to see you on the chat tonight.

00:38:14.740 Got anything else folks are thinking about

00:38:16.760 or want to make sure we talk about tonight?

00:38:28.380 just looking over chat trying to see if there's anything I I missed that folks

00:38:39.960 may want to be talking about or hearing about or sharing with us plans on

00:38:52.020 educating young children of our faith um so first and foremost and and it may be a small effort

00:38:59.860 right now but it's a labor of love and it's something that uh carrie overton puts a lot of

00:39:04.020 time and effort into uh scott if you get the wound pebble i hope everyone on this that has children

00:39:10.100 or is just interested in it checks out the rune pebble we have some old issues of the room pebble

00:39:14.900 on runestone.org but it's a publication just for afa kids and with a little educational things

00:39:23.300 and coloring things and ideas for stuff for for kids to do and families i really want to see that

00:39:29.220 develop as as our young families do grow and as we get more people especially closer together

00:39:35.060 involved in helping each other raise their families um scott if that's something that you

00:39:41.140 have ideas about um or specific things you'd like to see or ideas uh heather clinkenbeard a folk

00:39:49.460 builder of ours down in southern california would love to help get you in touch with carrie or with

00:39:54.180 her and move some of that forward because we'd always love to see things like that so you can

00:39:59.780 reach heather at h clunkenbeard at runestone.org and i'm sure she'd love to help you with that and

00:40:05.700 if you don't get a copy of the room pebble um also heather can get you on that list

00:40:10.820 clifford erickson can get you on that list and i invite you to go to runestone.org and check out

00:40:16.100 the previous issues i can't say it enough carrie overton puts in the lion's share work on those

00:40:21.620 and she has done an absolutely beautiful job with them so Jason wants to know how I would

00:40:41.480 measure right and true actions going into our personal wells versus raising a horn every day

00:40:49.220 hailing one of our gods in regards to spiritual growth why don't you do both i think it's really

00:41:00.660 important that we characterize what we do by right action and consistent right action

00:41:06.580 i think laying down um a history or a a track record of right actions and noble behavior

00:41:16.100 and how we deal with people and how we conduct ourselves and how we hold ourselves is huge on

00:41:20.180 our spiritual development and if we all do it it's huge for the development of our folk

00:41:25.940 but i think maintaining the connection with the divine and maintaining a relationship with our

00:41:30.180 gods and our ancestors is also extremely important and here's the thing we can do both

00:41:36.660 we don't need to put ourselves in these tiny little little pigeonhole spots we don't need

00:41:41.140 to either be strong or be smart or be people who who think or people who do we need to think we

00:41:48.580 need to do we need to be strong we need to be smart we need to do action and we need to have

00:41:53.940 contemplation we need all of those things so i think both are essential and i think that

00:41:59.700 a lack of any is is regrettable so do the best with what you can and try to be well-rounded

00:42:05.060 there's nothing holding us back from being from not only doing all of the things but excelling

00:42:09.700 at all of them. I like looking at the little, I don't know what you call those, if they're

00:42:26.380 emojis or not, that you see popping up little smiley faces. Every now and again, I'm seeing

00:42:30.220 a little angry face pop up. I don't know who's angry or what's got them vexed, but yeah,

00:42:37.380 I really like this format, I like getting to talk to you guys like this, I hope you

00:42:42.380 guys enjoy it, this is something I look forward to every month, it's really nice to be able

00:42:48.820 to just interact with all the folk from everywhere, I know there's not really a time that I can

00:42:54.540 pick that all of our international members and everybody can get on at the same time

00:42:59.080 perfectly, but I appreciate you guys coming out, I appreciate you guys being here and

00:43:02.940 asking questions so anything folks have that I haven't talked on or that you want to make

00:43:08.660 sure we get to tonight or anything at all you want to ask me because now's the chance

00:43:15.380 now is the perfect time if anybody has anything they want to know or talk about I am here

00:43:22.680 and more than happy to.

00:43:32.760 Just had some folks joining us.

00:43:35.320 Hi, Letitia, hi, Andy, good to see you guys here.

00:43:45.760 Well, I do wanna, while I got you guys,

00:43:47.520 let you know about a couple of things on the site

00:43:49.660 and things we're currently trying to do

00:43:52.520 that you guys can help with if you feel so inclined or if you got rich friends they can

00:43:57.340 help with too. One thing that we do need right now, we're running a little bit low on our

00:44:02.700 folk services account. And this goes with what Jason said earlier about people in hard

00:44:07.480 times. If any of you guys fall on hard times or you know any other members that do, I would

00:44:13.960 suggest that you guys look into our folk services and talk to your folk builder about it. It's

00:44:19.260 program that we started a number of years back and something i'm very proud of we get a fund together

00:44:26.380 from donations to help people that have hard times happen to them you know somebody loses a job or a

00:44:33.260 natural disaster happens or there's an illness in the family or somebody just falls down on their

00:44:38.460 face and needs help getting back up one of the really special things that we're able to do with

00:44:43.260 the number of members we have and the generosity of the members that we have is we're able to help

00:44:48.700 some folks and we can't fix everything we can't you know buy a new house or you know buy a yacht

00:44:54.860 or anything but if folks are having a hard time we can we can help them with a meal we can help

00:45:00.060 them with a place to stay for the night we can help them with some things to help get them back

00:45:04.780 get them back to where they're okay and that's really important um i'm very proud of that program

00:45:10.860 and if anybody has the resources or wants to donate to that um on the donate page at

00:45:17.500 runestone.org you can do that we really appreciate it like i said our folk services money is is lower

00:45:23.580 than i'd like to see it so if folks can help out with that that would be fantastic

00:45:28.220 um as always we're still taking money for our south africa relief efforts as i was saying

00:45:33.660 earlier in the call now we have our own afa members and afa kindred in south africa that's

00:45:40.220 distributing that relief personally so we don't need to rely on an outside organization to do it

00:45:46.620 we have afa members doing afa things over there helping to take care of it

00:45:50.780 um so that's a really nice thing we're able to do um anybody who wants to donate towards that

00:45:58.300 again runestone.org we take donations on that all the time and talking with our south african members

00:46:04.940 an american dollar goes a long way over there it goes much further than you think it does

00:46:09.820 so even a little bit does a lot to help the people over there and you know they're having a hell of

00:46:13.980 a time with it so thank you for that and as always anybody who wants to help out with hoff too

00:46:19.660 always need funds to make that happen again donate but we're ready right now to put down

00:46:26.060 and make it happen like i say we're looking for the right property in the right spot but

00:46:29.900 we're narrowing it down we are looking and that's going to happen very very soon i promise you that

00:46:34.540 looking at the chat here for a second

00:46:42.780 yes Jason makes a point about letting the divine into your life it's extremely important to

00:46:56.860 approach the gods and our folk with an open heart let them in let us in let them affect you let

00:47:04.520 Let them build something special in your life and in your heart.

00:47:08.020 It sounds real touchy-feely, but I can tell you personally, it makes all the difference.

00:47:15.560 Jason comments, it looks like we're going to have an amazing year ahead of us.

00:47:18.760 So far, it's been fantastic, and I'm imagining wonderful things for us.

00:47:23.520 So, yeah, we got good things ahead.

00:47:34.520 Hmm, I think somebody's asking a question that we're not seeing.

00:47:47.080 That's good.

00:47:48.080 I think Mandy's got my back on some of these questions, so that's great.

00:47:53.820 Like I said, if you guys are on here and you're answering anything or you're asking anything

00:47:58.200 that I'm not getting to, I'm not seeing it on my end and I will go back over these comments

00:48:03.840 after the call or after the chat, and I will answer them, and I'll do what I can to get

00:48:08.240 everything answered, because I do appreciate you guys coming and asking questions, and

00:48:12.720 you guys deserve answers.

00:48:19.700 Yep, Corey, we certainly do need to get more growth going in Massachusetts.

00:48:24.040 We've got a lot more in Massachusetts this time this year than we have ever before, though,

00:48:28.140 I'll tell you that, and it looks like that's doing well.

00:48:31.740 um but yeah get out there cory if you got folks that you know get them involved let's build

00:48:38.300 something there um one of the one of the things about austria and about the afa is it doesn't

00:48:43.160 just magically happen it takes folks to go out and do it so cory i'm sure that cliff your folk

00:48:47.900 builder would be really happy for any help you want to give in making your area grow and thrive

00:48:52.540 book of blowtar two we are absolutely working on a new book of blowtar um that's something that

00:49:00.420 Blaine and I have been trying to do for a while now. We've got that in the works. I can't give

00:49:06.580 you any definite timeline on when it'll be out, but we are hard at work on that. We do know there

00:49:11.080 needs to be an updated one. So we are trying to make that happen. And hopefully that'll happen

00:49:18.380 sooner rather than later. All right, guys. It's been almost an hour with you guys. Does anybody

00:49:27.660 have any last minute things they want to make sure we talk about or make sure that I respond

00:49:33.500 to. Like I said, I love talking to you guys. I look forward to it. But I don't want you

00:49:42.360 just sitting here staring at me. So if you guys have any questions, I'd be really happy

00:49:47.500 to answer them. I'm very excited for what we've got ahead. I'm super excited about midsummer

00:49:54.280 next month and i'm very excited about seeing our swedish family at ultimatula this month

00:50:02.760 that's going to be fantastic like i mentioned earlier this is the second international afa

00:50:08.200 event that we've had the first one was a number of years back in denmark and this one andrews is

00:50:13.320 hosting in sweden he has put in a lot of work the last few years to build something over there and

00:50:18.840 to make something really special we have three afa kindreds in sweden and they're over there

00:50:25.400 doing great for us and i'm so excited to go get to meet them all in person to celebrate to raise

00:50:31.960 a horn to our gods and our ancestors and spend time with with my afa family in sweden so hopefully

00:50:38.520 our other european members come out to it and if any of you guys are able to and you want to

00:50:43.320 surprise us and show up over there we'd love to see you guys there too well if anybody else has

00:50:51.800 any last minute questions questions going once questions going twice all right guys thank you

00:51:00.360 so much for joining me tonight um i enjoy doing it it's been a pleasure talking with you guys

00:51:07.240 and i look forward to talking to you guys next month if i can see you in sweden great if not

00:51:12.680 please do what you can to make it out to midsummer we would love to see you there love to see out at

00:51:16.920 odenshoff for that matter if you ever do make it out you know near odenshoff and you want to check

00:51:22.520 it out let one of us know and we can get somebody up there to show you and to take you up there

00:51:26.680 there's events up there once a month so if you do make it out anywhere close and you want to

00:51:31.160 take a trip by it please let somebody know and we'd love to show it off to you guys

00:51:35.640 all right thank you all very much you guys have a great night

00:51:38.680 Hail the gods, hail the folk, hail the AFA.

Asatru Folk Assembly - July 01, 2019

May 2019 Facebook Live Discussion

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