Asatru Folk Assembly - November 2020 Live Chat

00:00:00.000 hello gonna try something new tonight due to no fault of our own Facebook has decided that for

00:00:18.120 the time being we can't do live videos I know some of you have wanted us to do videos on this

00:00:24.960 platform for a while now and we have yet to try it. So necessity kind of forced our hand on that

00:00:33.340 a little bit. And tonight we're going to give this a shot. It looks like it's pretty good setup.

00:00:40.440 I see you guys chatting over on the side. Hopefully this will be a little bit easier

00:00:44.860 to follow and hopefully I don't miss anybody. Welcome. It blows my mind that it is already

00:00:54.720 November. It seems like this year has gone by very, very quickly. Yeah, it's surprising.

00:01:05.220 It's nice here, though. It's starting to get cold at night at least, crisp during the day,

00:01:10.160 which is nice. Yeah, thanks for everybody who is coming out tonight. Hopefully, we get a lot of

00:01:17.980 folks involved. I know it's kind of short notice. We just realized today that we wouldn't be able

00:01:22.740 to do this in our usual way. So, excellent, excellent, excellent. A lot of stuff going on.

00:01:35.140 First and foremost, I'd like to give a thank you to Clifford and Katie Erickson and his kindred,

00:01:44.080 Lansdale True Folk, for hosting an absolutely fantastic winter nights this year.

00:01:49.640 I love winter nights in the Poconos I think it's a beautiful camp it's such a homey place to us

00:01:57.560 this was our ninth year celebrating at Camp Natimus and it was fantastic it was an amazing

00:02:04.860 time had by everyone the event went off really well thank you so much for the ladies who spent

00:02:11.260 time in the kitchen preparing meals and the gentlemen that spent their time taking care

00:02:16.840 everybody's dishes and doing stuff that way all that behind the scenes stuff makes it so much

00:02:23.080 nicer for everyone else and oftentimes those people don't get the thanks that they deserve

00:02:28.100 so thank you so much yeah if you guys didn't make it out to winter nights in the Poconos a lot of

00:02:33.800 you did but if you didn't make it out come out next year you're missing out I say this a lot

00:02:39.400 but you're absolutely missing out it's an amazing amazing event good time had by everybody

00:02:45.340 And, yeah, that's a real special one to look forward to.

00:02:55.360 Roy, I'm glad you joined us tonight on the call.

00:02:57.560 It was great meeting you there.

00:02:59.580 I'm looking forward to seeing you again next year at Winter Nights, if not sooner.

00:03:04.120 And, yeah, it was fantastic to get to meet you and talk to you.

00:03:09.600 Hmm.

00:03:14.400 So right off the bat tonight, does anybody have any questions or any things that are on their mind they wanted to talk about this month?

00:03:33.200 And also I am aware it seems like there's about an eight-second delay with this program, so working with that also.

00:03:44.400 Yes, that's something.

00:03:52.580 Okay, a couple of interesting things there.

00:03:54.920 First, editions of Folk Builders and Kindreds.

00:03:58.840 Since the last time we spoke, we had actually just announced today the Nordvester Kindred out of the Seattle area in Washington State.

00:04:09.280 We've been very excited to see that for a while.

00:04:11.440 Those of you who may not know, AFA kindreds typically go through a six-month-long probationary period before they become official, and so we've been really excited about these guys, heard nothing but great things, and we were waiting for that time period to be up to go ahead and announce them as an official AFA kindred, and today we were proudly able to do that.

00:04:33.040 By the way, I really, really like their flag.

00:04:34.860 It's very striking.

00:04:35.560 as far as folk builders hope i don't leave anyone out that may have started out earlier in the month

00:04:45.660 but that i know about we have laurie wadsworth in texas stepping up to folk build texas has

00:04:52.700 really taken off for us in the last couple of months we've had a lot of interest there

00:04:58.780 gothi kevin long has moved down to texas and has hit the ground running with building our folk

00:05:04.040 there. So we've got amazing stuff in the future down there in that area, and Lori's going to help

00:05:10.060 us build that. Also, we have Will Magala in Tennessee helping us out. Huge action in that

00:05:20.500 region of the country, but that far west, it's really nice to have someone in that area building

00:05:25.640 in the Kentucky, Tennessee area. And Will has been a very, very active volunteer, so we're pretty

00:05:32.240 excited about that. We've got a question, was Jesus real? I don't know. I tend to think that

00:05:42.180 there was a real person named Jesus in that part of the world at that time. I think a lot of that

00:05:49.120 story seems to have some, I don't know, fairly on the face of it elements that were borrowed from

00:05:55.960 other things. I don't believe in the divinity of Jesus, but I do think there was probably a man

00:06:03.020 named Jesus that that story is based around. Is Odin real? Absolutely, 100% Odin is real.

00:06:15.120 I would not be doing this if I don't believe that with all my heart.

00:06:19.000 things are going great uh so i think on this platform you guys are able to see stuff on the

00:06:26.800 side somebody give me a heads up if you're not able to see the running chat on the side everybody's

00:06:31.700 watching this i don't know if it's different on phones or uh on desktop laptops but assuming you

00:06:38.640 guys are anyways uh steve wants to ask how things are going with the new hoffs things are going

00:06:44.340 great with the Newhofs. We got a great team of people working at both Thorshoff and Baldershoff,

00:06:50.300 doing really good work there. Been great having people out and doing things. I think things will

00:06:58.740 heat up a little bit more and be a little bit more active once we're past this COVID situation. But

00:07:05.160 in the meantime, Thorshoff has been doing amazing. They've been hosting events every month and that's

00:07:10.680 going really, really well. Baldershoff is still taking a lot of work to getting the remodel stuff

00:07:15.600 done that we need to do, but that's going really well. We've had some very, very dedicated volunteers,

00:07:22.440 some of them, and specifically want to give thanks to our apprentice folk, our full folk

00:07:28.260 builder now. That was last month in September. She took her oath. Brandi Callahan, she is driving down

00:07:34.340 seems like weekly from North Dakota to put love into that place and make it something truly worthy

00:07:41.780 of our folk and of our gods. So we're really excited about that. Should be doing a grand

00:07:47.260 opening for Baldrish Hoff here relatively shortly, but we're waiting on a couple of things to come

00:07:52.540 through for us before we get too solid on that. FD, I'm sorry that you can't travel. Hopefully,

00:08:01.180 I'm not sure where you're located, but hopefully we can figure out something for you that's in

00:08:04.300 your area. George, I absolutely experienced a nice feeling for weeks after. I'm still feeling good

00:08:18.100 from winter nights. Every time I'm with my AFA family for an event like that, the feeling is so

00:08:23.700 good. And it lasts and I take that home with me. And it's really a special feeling. And I hope

00:08:29.740 everyone who was there and shared that weekend with us had that same feeling when they went home.

00:08:34.300 Well, Joe, you were missed, but having to stay home because of a new four-month-old

00:08:47.080 is a pretty good reason.

00:08:48.760 So congratulations very much on your child, and we'll see you next year at Winter Nights,

00:08:54.320 if not sooner. 0.54

00:08:55.320 Okay, INR is asking me to tell you a little bit about Folk Builders and what they do. 0.99

00:09:22.400 uh folk builders are very much the tip of the spear folk builders make all of this happen

00:09:31.300 they put in the hard work on the ground and behind the scenes to build and to maintain our

00:09:40.200 membership um folk builders host local events and try to gather people in their area they help

00:09:48.180 Folk members feel like they're part of our family, even though we may be spread out.

00:09:54.060 Folk builders maintain that contact between, you know, the International House True Folk

00:09:58.860 Assembly and the members in their region, and they represent those members to all the

00:10:05.040 rest of us, and they represent the AFA to those members.

00:10:10.980 Folk builders spend time and effort reaching out to those people, making sure they have

00:10:15.280 access to things they might need from the Astro Folk Assembly, making sure that they're able to

00:10:20.580 gather, that they're able to worship together, and help them with any problems they might have.

00:10:26.220 And we're so very appreciative of our folk builders. I was once for a long time the folk

00:10:32.300 builder for Alaska and portions of Canada. It was my honor to eventually become the folk builder

00:10:38.380 coordinator before becoming the Alice Harry Gothi and folk building is is absolutely essential to

00:10:46.460 what we have going on and those people do a lot for us and they don't get the recognition

00:10:51.900 that they deserve folk builders we really appreciate you guys

00:11:03.100 sounds like some folks are liking this interface better than facebook live

00:11:08.220 If this works well, we might just start doing it over here. We'll see how that works.

00:11:28.220 Thanks, Steve. I'm glad that you like the pictures of those new hops. They are absolutely

00:11:31.900 beautiful and they will get get more so as our people are there for for longer time and able to

00:11:37.900 put more love into those buildings it's very important to us to take care of those those

00:11:42.860 Hoffs they're temples to our gods and they're the first temples of our gods of their kind in

00:11:50.220 thousand years that's a really special thing to be a part of and our Hoff managers

00:11:55.580 our Hof, Gothar, and our members at those places are very aware of that, and they put in so much

00:12:03.300 love and effort on those places. I know we've had a tremendous amount of love and effort put in over

00:12:07.920 the years at Odin's Hof, so I'm very excited to watch as Thor's Hof and Baldur's Hof develop to

00:12:14.000 be even greater than they are today.

00:12:25.580 George, I'm not sure what spring caretakers event you are talking about.

00:12:44.440 You speak in riddles, sir.

00:12:49.360 FD is in New Jersey.

00:12:51.640 You are very, very close to our event that we just had in the Poconos.

00:12:55.580 Um, when you say you can't travel, I'm not sure how far that means you can't travel,

00:12:59.960 but, uh, your local folk builder, uh, Adam Hudak should be able to help you.

00:13:05.900 Um, hopefully we can, not sure how we, how we cross link it here with Facebook.

00:13:11.160 That was a really nice thing we had on, on the other end, but, um,

00:13:16.220 I'll see if there's a way to get you his contact information.

00:13:20.120 If you're listening to this, a Hudak at runestone.org.

00:13:24.500 Adam would love to help you get connected to people in your area and and see what you can do in New Jersey.

00:13:30.820 Because we have a lot of members very close to you.

00:13:33.320 Hey, Derek, it's always great to see you guys.

00:13:57.400 Yeah, I was glad so many of y'all came down to Winter Nights.

00:14:00.300 It's great to see you guys every time we get a chance.

00:14:07.380 Shannon, you need to be talking to James Ault.

00:14:10.240 He is our folk builder in your area.

00:14:12.980 I know he's up in Wisconsin, but he has made a huge effort to get events and things going in Ohio.

00:14:18.820 I know James would be really happy to help get you connected to other Ohio things.

00:14:24.040 He really wants to put the work in to bring our Ohio members closer together than they are.

00:14:30.300 this is nice we're getting we're getting a lot of good feedback on the side about

00:14:44.100 about doing it here on YouTube and I like it better on my end too I got to be honest

00:14:48.020 Jim, for those of you who may not know, recently,

00:15:01.940 I think it was sometime in September, we acquired a piece of property almost about an acre

00:15:07.860 next directly adjacent to Odenshof. We have wanted that property for a long time. It was

00:15:14.500 basically an abandoned lot for most of the time that we've owned Odin's Hoff and unfortunately

00:15:20.420 in recent years it had been a pretty sketchy homeless camp where there was drug use and

00:15:29.460 other things going on and a really unfortunate situation right there that close to the Hoff.

00:15:34.340 Fortunately we've been able to purchase the property and local AFA volunteers were able to

00:15:40.500 clean up a literal mountain of garbage and other things in a very very short amount of time and now

00:15:49.060 it is a beautiful beautiful addition to odenshoff beautiful uh stretch land there uh jim wants some

00:15:55.540 kind of a you know uh a hint as to what might happen with that land as of now i don't know

00:16:03.060 it's just a really nice space for our place to have and to expand um people need to pitch a tent

00:16:08.340 that's a good spot for it spot for our kids to play a spot for people to get together and do

00:16:14.020 things that's a little bit removed from our ritual area so there's more space to focus on on sacred

00:16:19.860 things by the ritual area and people who are setting up tents and such can be over on that

00:16:24.420 other side of the property so that's what i'm thinking right now but got so many things we

00:16:28.740 we can do with that spot in the future all right Daniel asks if I can explain

00:16:48.660 the concept of frith and its importance when I was just getting involved in

00:16:54.420 also true as a young man uh frith very often would get translated directly as as peace

00:17:02.260 and you know when i was all young and fired up and vikings yay peace doesn't sound that exciting um

00:17:12.260 but peace is a noble concept if uh within itself and i think is a good thing but i think it's also

00:17:19.380 a misnomer to translate frith directly as peace because it meant something very different to

00:17:24.340 our ancestors frith wasn't just peace it was the peace that comes from kind of a mutual defense

00:17:34.340 pact amongst people who you had a relationship with there was peace because i agreed to have

00:17:41.540 your back and you agreed to have my back so we can sit together together in frith knowing that

00:17:48.580 you're taking care of me and looking out for me and i'm taking care of your interests and looking

00:17:53.380 out for you. That idea of much more of a defensive pact or an alliance with Frith really added a lot

00:18:00.940 to it and a big layer to it. What opened my eyes to that was reading Culture of the Teutons

00:18:07.280 by Wilhelm Groenbeck. And that's a reason that I recommend that a lot here, almost for that

00:18:13.820 chapter, because that blew my mind and it added so much to just not hippie peace, but peace through

00:18:22.480 taking care of one another peace peace through trusting that i could have my back to something

00:18:27.440 because you're watching behind me and so that's a that's a really important layer to that that

00:18:33.120 i wish more people understood and i hope people grow to learn uh angela uh maybe sooner than you

00:18:45.600 think new new england is certain an area certainly an area that we've uh looked at for hoffs coming

00:18:52.640 up in the future no guarantees on on exactly which one and exactly when but that's certainly a nice

00:19:01.120 area for our folk we have a lot of membership in new england uh that are clustered fairly close

00:19:06.720 together i think geographically it would be a really great place to have a hoff and i guarantee

00:19:12.880 We'll have one there at some point. But I could see us having one there, you know, relatively soon in the progression of things.

00:19:20.940 excellent james thank you for jumping right on that i'm glad you're here tonight to help

00:19:39.020 get our uh our midwest folks organized and straightened out so they can be at the events

00:19:43.780 there. Rob, you really can almost see New Jersey from the Winter Knights location. It is that

00:20:01.800 close. There's a lot of books that are good to read, George. It all depends on what's your point

00:20:16.020 of interest in. There's a lot I could recommend if people had more, you know, kind of a more

00:20:20.860 specific point of interest they were going at. George, as far as your, your, your caretakers

00:20:33.640 event, if you're looking to help out at Thorshoff, be sure to talk to those guys. We have a number

00:20:38.400 of them on, on the chat tonight, and I'm sure they would appreciate all the help they can get

00:20:43.520 if we've got somebody with, you know, some goodwill and a set of hands. There's a lot of

00:20:49.720 stuff that can be done to make Thor's Hoff even, even better than it is. And I'm sure they would

00:20:55.000 love the help.

00:21:10.780 Tyr Einherjar, your point about the Hoffs also being a sanctuary, especially in the environment

00:21:19.080 minute today. I want to kind of share something that's been really important to me in this last

00:21:26.520 year. It's been said to death about how, you know, 2020 is such a crazy year, and it is.

00:21:37.120 So many of the things that have been crazy about it, specifically with the masks thing,

00:21:45.140 and specifically with the social distancing thing have been very dehumanizing and it's taken a lot of

00:21:55.380 it's taken away a lot of connection that people have and uh people have been pushed apart they've

00:22:01.700 been isolated something beautiful about the astro folk assembly is at our events

00:22:07.300 specifically at our properties at our huffs we've been able to gather together

00:22:12.340 as if nothing else were going on when we're in that sacred space when we're in our odal land

00:22:20.920 our othala we hugged we shook hands we shared a horn there was no distance there was just the

00:22:33.340 love of the folk and i think everyone needed that this year i know i did and that's been a beautiful

00:22:39.880 thing happening at all of our Hoffs and at smaller gatherings and homes of AFA members.

00:22:45.240 It's been a place where people could be normal and embrace and have their family

00:22:51.160 and their folk with them and that's been a really special thing.

00:22:58.280 All right, Brandy got a question about if I could explain the Hofftoller

00:23:03.320 and what kind of that was to our ancestors and how important it is.

00:23:08.040 um hoftoller is huge it for those of you who don't know in a modern sense

00:23:16.040 last year the astro folk assembly introduced the idea of the hoftoller which as opposed to

00:23:21.960 membership dues was an option for our members to give a portion of their income a percentage

00:23:30.280 to the astro folk assembly so that we could maintain our operations so that we could acquire

00:23:36.840 and maintain new Hoffs so that we could do more charitable work, so that we could have more

00:23:41.880 events, so that we could do all of the things that we do. And, you know, with just a few people

00:23:48.380 doing it, starting out and watching it take effect, it's catapulted forward our ability

00:23:55.320 to do things, our ability to accomplish. That principle of that generosity to where

00:24:02.440 When our members are doing well, we all do well as a church and as a folk.

00:24:08.880 And when we have hard times, we all adjust to those hard times.

00:24:13.860 A percentage of income really does that.

00:24:17.740 And people being generous with that has helped us in countless ways.

00:24:23.520 And I'm so very, very thankful to every one of our members that decided to pay by Hof Toler.

00:24:30.440 That's been a huge thing.

00:24:32.440 looked into it and it's absolutely something our ancestors used to do. The only way to my knowledge

00:24:43.360 that any folk and any religious group has ever been able to be successful and maintain 0.99

00:24:48.580 a priesthood and maintain Hoffs and temples and do religion has been for the practitioners of

00:24:57.880 that faith to contribute a portion of their income or a portion of their wealth towards

00:25:04.000 maintaining that. And that absolutely was practiced by our ancestors. That's where we got that term

00:25:10.680 Hoftholler, was to maintain their Hofs and their sanctuaries and their groves and their Gothar.

00:25:18.820 But that's been a pretty standard way that our people and that all people have maintained

00:25:27.180 institutes of, of religion and, uh, adjusting what we do instead of a club membership model

00:25:36.420 and to a real religious model to support our temples, to support our go far with this

00:25:42.780 Hofftoller is it's made all the difference in the world.

00:25:45.400 And, uh, I would, I would ask if you guys like what we're doing, if you support the

00:25:56.000 AFA's mission, if you support and believe that we're doing work that glorifies our gods and our

00:26:02.640 folk, I'd ask that you consider paying by Haftola. If you'd increase your level of generosity to do

00:26:09.460 that, it would be extremely appreciated and it would allow us to do a lot more, a lot quicker

00:26:14.980 and a lot more efficiently. So please give it a thought. And if it's something you'd like to do,

00:26:21.060 something you feel compelled to do, your local folk builder will be very, very happy to get

00:26:25.580 you set up um it may make a hoff tollers as little as one percent and to most people that's

00:26:33.320 not even noticeable but to us if all of you guys did it it's night and day so uh please do think

00:26:42.760 about that and those who are already paying hoff toller thank you so much

00:26:46.240 sorry guys i'm catching up with the chat on the side it's glad i'm really glad to see so many

00:27:10.360 guys when they're talking and being able to interact with each other on this i i like that

00:27:14.860 feature in this a lot. Good job, James. Please extend our appreciation to that member that

00:27:23.000 decided to pay off till the end of the day. Please let him know. Jim, I do them once a month. I'm not

00:27:35.460 sure if you were able to make the ones on Facebook, but I like this. We may do it over here now. We'll

00:27:39.580 see. But I look forward to doing these chats every month. I really like this conversational

00:27:44.900 format with you guys. Yeah, I look forward to them throughout the month. This is special to

00:27:53.340 me. I hope you guys enjoy it because I know I really do. We got a question that my lovely wife

00:28:05.500 Mandy is sharing with me on here from Facebook about folks applying using fake names and why we

00:28:11.580 need people to use their real names when applying. I get it. I get the world that we live in and I

00:28:21.640 get with cancel culture and folks doing what they do today that people want a certain amount of

00:28:28.560 anonymity. And I think that there's a lot of public settings you can do that. Especially,

00:28:36.060 you know, online, there's a lot of instances where you can use a fake name. But when you

00:28:39.680 apply to the Astro Folk Assembly, there's a relationship developing of trust, of us being

00:28:48.580 able to trust you and you being able to trust us with who you are. This isn't an online cause or,

00:28:55.860 you know, an internet group. This is a living church. It's a community. And I mean it when I

00:29:04.020 say it's our AFA family. We're all about family. We have people's wives and kids at these events.

00:29:11.620 We have at our events now, there's so many children and it's beautiful and we need to know

00:29:16.300 who you are. We don't want our families around people that give us some strange name and we

00:29:23.060 don't know who they are. Our membership database isn't shared with any government agency. It's not

00:29:29.180 shared with anybody outside of AFA leadership. But us having your real name and your real

00:29:34.420 information lets us do some kind of checking on you and making sure you're the kind of person

00:29:39.720 that's safe to have around families. And that's really important to us. Something very special

00:29:45.580 at AFA events. It's like you go back in time a little ways. It's a backwards way to get to it.

00:29:51.980 so driving around used to be when i was a kid any neighborhood you were in kids were out in the

00:29:59.660 street playing together parents weren't having to hover over them scared something was going to

00:30:04.540 happen we've lost that as a society in most of the country and i'm sure that's i'm not sure how that

00:30:12.380 factors into our international members but certainly here in the united states it's rare anymore

00:30:17.000 What's beautiful is that our AFA events, kids make instant friends and they're off playing and you can trust the other adults are looking out for them.

00:30:25.860 And that's so special. And so we've got to safeguard that. When you apply, we need your real name so we know who you are.

00:30:35.420 That's fair for us, fair for you. We're practicing Ausatru in the daylight and not hiding in a dark room somewhere.

00:30:43.400 And by us doing that and being forthright with who we are, the more proud we are and the more open we are with what we do and with our practice, the better groundwork we lay for everybody who comes after us to have pride in what they do and to not hide things.

00:31:01.060 So the more open and honest you can be, the better.

00:31:03.960 Specifically, when you apply for the Oustrew Folk Assembly, we need your real name.

00:31:07.520 So we knew who we're entering into a relationship with, and we want you to know who you're entering a relationship with.

00:31:20.160 Steve on Frith. Yes, Frith has a huge component of trust and honor amongst our folk.

00:31:26.140 Being able to trust in that frith and holding up your end of frith is fundamental to the concept of honor in general and specifically to your honor and the honor that is placed on you by members of your folk.

00:31:43.900 So that frith is really a key and frith isn't something you owe everyone, but it is something to people who you enter in a relationship with.

00:31:53.480 And that relationship and that level of frith scale up to very close, very intimate relationship between, you know, a man and a woman or between, you know, to our ancestors, between the Lord and retainer, between you and your goathy, between those things, those frith level is much higher, but you have a certain level of frith when you enter into a business transaction with a member of the folk.

00:32:19.600 It's that initial trust that you're going to look out for their interest, that their honor is maintained, and that they're going to look out and see that your honor is maintained.

00:32:29.140 And you do that at all levels from the very, very simple to the very, very close with friends and family.

00:32:42.940 George, that's simple and it's complicated.

00:32:47.080 So George is asking how I'd encourage our members to act during the next few months if there is a social meltdown.

00:32:56.120 That can be a little social meltdown or complete and total chaos.

00:33:00.180 The very simple answer, I would encourage our membership to act honorably.

00:33:06.580 Sounds silly and it sounds like I'm swerving what you're saying and I'm not.

00:33:09.440 I'll get to the more complicated.

00:33:10.560 But at the core, whatever we do, and there's two things or there's a couple of things to that.

00:33:19.100 Maintain your dignity and your honor and how you treat other people and how you take care of yourself, how you take care of your family and how you confront any challenges or any hostile people, hostile forces that you encounter.

00:33:32.900 Behaving honorably is important all of the time when there's nothing going on or when, you know, the poo hits the fan.

00:33:41.180 on top of that with acting nobly and honorably i think nobility is a real key there and one

00:33:54.060 component of nobility is keeping a cool head and choosing your actions instead of always reacting

00:34:02.660 because you're forced to by circumstance or by other other people. If things happen

00:34:10.100 that we don't like socially going on, it's going to be really important that we, especially our

00:34:17.060 membership, our folk, focus on making clear decisions that are well thought out, thinking

00:34:24.580 of consequence before we take actions, and making sure that we're making wise choices and not

00:34:31.460 emotional choices. Because when times get hard and times get scary, people react out of emotion.

00:34:38.460 And we don't want to do that. I don't mean don't have emotions. And I don't mean don't apply

00:34:42.760 emotion to how we act. But choose to be emotional on your terms. Choose to act the way that you see

00:34:52.300 best. Don't be forced to act a certain way because you're unprepared or because you got scared or

00:34:59.740 or because you feel pressured to.

00:35:01.780 Make the choice to act nobly.

00:35:14.940 Hairbrush pictures.

00:35:16.980 I'm not sure who I'm talking to,

00:35:19.000 but not feeling the DC-er at this year's winter nights.

00:35:24.680 It's really, so that's,

00:35:29.740 And that's a very personal thing to everyone who experiences ritual.

00:35:35.180 Sometimes if you don't feel the metaphysical magic happen in a ritual, sometimes that's you and your headspace at the time or something that you're bringing with you into ritual space.

00:35:48.260 Sometimes that's the situation itself.

00:35:51.920 Sometimes that's the officiant of the ritual.

00:35:55.120 sometimes some things just touch certain people when they don't touch others.

00:36:02.520 I've been at rituals where I was deeply moved and it didn't seem like other people were.

00:36:07.860 I've been at rituals where I really didn't, I didn't feel like it hit. I didn't feel like it

00:36:11.780 was where it should be, but other people were blown away and felt, you know, it changed their

00:36:17.080 lives. So I think every ritual hits people a little bit differently. And I wouldn't be worried

00:36:21.580 If a particular one doesn't, you know, just completely blow your mind and change your world, because there'll be one that will.

00:36:29.440 And that's a really complex interface between you, between who's performing the ritual, between the gods and between the folk you're in ritual with.

00:36:38.780 And every little bit of sight, sound, touch, taste.

00:36:44.240 The magic in the ether at that time calculates into how that affects you or doesn't.

00:36:49.900 So I wouldn't be worried about it at all.

00:36:51.580 you'll have one that really does affect you and it'll it'll shock you when it

00:36:55.840 us ah we got a guest say hi she can't really say hi yet this is my beautiful daughter aubrey if

00:37:25.120 If you guys haven't seen her before, she's got the prettiest smile in the entire world.

00:37:30.360 And I am I'm luckiest dad that there is.

00:37:36.860 But yeah, 2020 has has been special for a lot of people, but it's been a huge blessing to me and my family because we got this beautiful little girl with us.

00:37:46.840 She's six months old now. So thank you for bringing her by.

00:37:50.640 Anyway, I'm trying to find where I left off in this chat because we got so much good stuff going on.

00:38:02.840 Yeah, let me catch up here. I apologize. All right. Now I'm back on track.

00:38:08.120 FD, I'm glad you're reaching out to Adam. That's fantastic. I hope he's able to help you and get you involved.

00:38:20.640 Aynar Nefbrota, yes, we have some Canadian, we've had a number of Canadian applicants

00:38:36.220 in the last month, which is really nice to see. When I say that, I don't mean to be ignorant

00:38:42.760 when I say Canadian applicants, like you guys are all in one little area, you guys have a massive

00:38:46.720 country. And you guys are spread out mostly along this narrow strip to the north of the United

00:38:53.280 States. But we've had members kind of across your country signing up. But specifically,

00:39:00.620 you mentioned the Ontario area. And that is an area that we've seen a lot of growth. And it's

00:39:05.060 very close to our U.S. membership that's in Wisconsin and Michigan and such there. So you

00:39:14.560 do have a lot of stuff near you when the borders open and we can go, you know, folks can cross

00:39:19.940 easily again. Alex, for my recommendation for people to get married, live outside of

00:39:38.040 the U.S. and it's difficult for them to find a gothi to marry them. That's different depending 1.00

00:39:46.520 on where you're located and depending on the rules in your country. There may be some places

00:39:51.880 where you need to be an ordained gothi to perform the ceremony. There's other places where you can 0.50

00:39:56.480 get by with someone who's not ordained performing it. Yeah, depending on where you were, I may have

00:40:02.860 different answers. It depends on your economic situation. Also, if it's important for you to

00:40:11.440 have a go-thee there, it may cost travel expenses, but one of our go-thar would probably love to come

00:40:19.060 perform your ceremony wherever you guys are at. But that's an expensive option. I'm just throwing

00:40:27.880 that out there, it is a possibility. Our people are very willing to do that. But like I said,

00:40:33.360 that does become expensive. If there's somebody local that you want to perform the ceremony,

00:40:39.100 if you do reach out to one of our Gothar and we can't do it personally, we could help provide a

00:40:47.240 ceremony. We could help walk a local officiant through the process. We'd really like to help

00:40:53.300 you. If that's something that you want, please do reach out and do what we can to see, to do our

00:41:00.160 best to make that happen in the best way that's going to be for you and for your bride and for

00:41:06.160 y'all's families. So there's a lot of options. It just all depends on where you are and what

00:41:10.800 your circumstance is. Angela, you're about to embark on an amazing journey. The culture of

00:41:20.260 the Teutons is awesome. It is a hard read. Be prepared. There's a very, very good read. It's

00:41:26.780 one of the only books that every few pages I had to set down and just absorb because it blew my

00:41:31.280 mind. It explained a lot of concepts that may be very simple, but it explained them in such a way

00:41:38.700 that was so very profound. Can't recommend the culture of the Teutons enough.

00:41:50.260 It's an interesting image that you painted for us, George.

00:41:57.700 Thank you for that.

00:42:08.100 Dark Star is mentioning my backdrop.

00:42:11.300 it is an afa flag and a uh icelandic sheep pelt that uh law speaker of the astro folk

00:42:24.740 assembly my good friend mr alan turnage gave me as a gift

00:42:40.340 Thank you.

00:43:10.340 Michael, I'm glad you're able to find us over here too. I hope that most people have found us

00:43:37.240 with the move over to YouTube tonight.

00:43:39.660 I know it was really short notice

00:43:41.080 and I hope those folks didn't miss it

00:43:43.520 or the ones that did miss it,

00:43:44.600 I hope they can watch a replay of it later.

00:44:04.660 Roy, we are very, very appreciative

00:44:06.580 that you feel that way and that you are so generous to give the Hofftoller the Astro Folk

00:44:13.020 Assembly. That's a huge thing. It makes a huge difference, and we really, really appreciate it.

00:44:26.340 Andrew, absolutely. Speak to your folk builder, and they can get you set up with whatever

00:44:30.500 adjustment to your membership level you need to do. They'd be very happy to help. And as always,

00:44:36.040 if something doesn't go right or whatever, you're welcome to reach out to me personally

00:44:40.020 and I can help get you squared away.

00:45:01.840 Good night, Derek. Glad you were here for a while. It was always good talking to you.

00:45:06.040 well rob i'm glad to hear that it means a lot that you would have been doing it for the last

00:45:16.260 11 months but you know today and so uh if you reach out to your folk builder they can get you

00:45:21.780 set up and uh we need to clearly we need to do a better job of talking to people about it

00:45:26.460 it's one of the things um for a long time in also true people have been very uncomfortable

00:45:31.440 comfortable with money and with donations. It's not an easy subject for folks to talk about. I

00:45:39.040 think our folk builders, and I know for myself, it's not comfortable to come with your hand out

00:45:44.660 asking people for money or worse pressure in people for money, but money makes things happen.

00:45:53.500 Money keeps the lights on and it allows us to do what we do. I think that's one of the

00:45:57.800 Um, one of the mysteries and the special things about the Fehu room, um, because it's about

00:46:07.700 that wealth, but it's about the circulation of energy and the circulation of those, of

00:46:15.160 your liquid assets, be that money, but be that devotion, be that magical energy, be

00:46:21.300 that giving of yourself, keeping that in circulation is such a huge thing.

00:46:26.540 But like I say, people are uncomfortable to ask for money.

00:46:30.160 So I think we don't do it maybe as often as we could or as often as we should.

00:46:35.460 But also, you know, nobody wants to be that guy always sweating people about money.

00:46:38.900 That said, we do appreciate your donations.

00:46:42.520 They make a huge difference.

00:46:44.740 And it's not a coincidence that all of a sudden people started paying Hofftoller and all of a sudden we got two Hoffs in one year.

00:46:51.900 So it really does make a difference and it makes a tangible difference. Everybody knows.

00:47:21.900 American neighbor lung. Good. I'm glad that you're thinking about doing that. We may switch 0.94

00:47:42.740 over to this platform. I'm going to see what everybody thinks, but I really, really like

00:47:46.180 it um colton i'm not sure who you're asking if you're asking where i'm located or like where

00:47:54.900 something related to the afa is located i'm located in reno nevada but we have afa members

00:48:01.860 in 16 countries around the world um there is afa literally across the united states

00:48:09.940 and like i mentioned in 15 other countries around the world so we have members chances are pretty

00:48:16.100 close to you. James, that's great news. I'm very excited that your kindred is in the

00:48:26.260 probationary stages. We'll be really excited to see you guys join, get your flag up in

00:48:31.540 the Hoffs and celebrate your kindred as part of the AFA family of kindreds.

00:48:35.460 American Nibelung, your focus on obligation is really well taken. And I think that's a symptom

00:48:53.360 of the age that we live. But people always focus on what they get from a situation and very seldom

00:49:02.420 on the obligations upon them and that's such a key to our concepts of most anything our concept

00:49:10.820 of worship our concept of of gabo of a gift for a gift when you exchange something you don't just

00:49:19.540 get things there's an obligation when you receive things and it doesn't have to be burdensome but

00:49:26.660 it's something to always be aware of always be aware of what you owe and act accordingly

00:49:31.060 And if both parties, the giving and the receiving, are aware of what they owe in exchange for the gifts they receive, it's got this upward spiral of nobility that it produces and that it sustains.

00:49:46.860 So that's a really good thing that you mentioned that.

00:50:01.060 Now I got to go back and find stuff.

00:50:27.400 If that's one thing with this interface

00:50:29.020 that we're working on is once I scroll down,

00:50:31.960 it's hard to go back up and find where I left off.

00:50:36.680 But it's great that there's so many comments

00:50:38.480 and so many questions that I'm having trouble sorting them all.

00:50:41.020 That's awesome.

00:50:52.680 Jarl Knudsen.

00:50:54.160 um oh i see your real name over on the side i'm sorry uh john um first thank you i'm glad that

00:51:04.080 you're appreciating the art and the architecture we're really trying to develop the aesthetics of

00:51:08.800 the afa um we're at a stage where some really beautiful things are happening um we don't ever

00:51:15.840 want to stifle creativity and we want to leave the openings for that but we do want to kind of

00:51:20.080 of try to mesh it and keep it harmonious um as far as some kind of approved style or iconography

00:51:27.400 guide we we don't have that but what we do have is uh whitten's fun uh harold he's our

00:51:38.180 forget what we ended up calling him but basically he's the guy that ties our art and aesthetics

00:51:44.340 together and is trying to help us evolve that and swan and iron talks about that because

00:51:49.600 I geek out on that stuff it's really important to me and I think it's really

00:51:53.160 I think it's really cool but it's also very significant to develop religious art that way

00:51:59.380 but it's something Spahn and I talk about several times a week and he's really working hard not only

00:52:04.740 is he a good artist he painted that beautiful mural of Thor in Thorshof but he's who I would

00:52:12.900 reach out to if I had questions or thoughts and he can be reached a lot of different ways but

00:52:19.480 His email address is sheral, S-H-E-R-U-L, at runestone.org.

00:52:26.520 And he would love to talk to you about that.

00:52:46.840 So we're getting some interesting questions here.

00:52:49.480 Um, so when I get, it's really hard to tell tone when we get questions on here.

00:53:00.740 And sometimes we get, uh, questions from people that may not be familiar with us.

00:53:06.080 So I'm going to try really hard to treat questions of face value.

00:53:10.640 Um, we have someone ask on the side why God gave their daughter cancer.

00:53:14.720 we don't believe that and in that system so i think it's a it's an odd question for us to have

00:53:25.600 here um but i think that's one thing to talk about that's useful for us to speak on is uh

00:53:32.700 it's one thing that separates our belief in in our gods with um an abrahamic concept of god

00:53:41.940 We don't believe that our gods inflict cancer on people and inflict those kind of things on folks.

00:53:53.340 A lot of things are just bad circumstances that happen.

00:53:58.900 Our gods exist within a cosmos where there's opposing forces.

00:54:03.680 There's good and benevolent forces, our gods, and there's also forces of chaos and destruction.

00:54:08.300 um but no our gods don't claim complete omnipotence over all things of the universe and

00:54:16.040 inflict cancer on children we don't believe that um

00:54:20.880 but i do think that there's a certain amount of of hymenia that gets laid down i think that

00:54:28.340 there's an orlog rather orlogs the word i should have used that affects the cards that you're

00:54:35.020 dealt when you come into the world. And I think we optimize those by living the best life we can

00:54:42.140 to where we pass on a good or log to those who come after us. I think that does manifest in

00:54:47.700 health concerns or in good health a lot of the time. I think it comes into luck, but not luck

00:54:55.280 in a mundane sense, luck in a very spiritual sense that comes with a history of a family line

00:55:03.480 being building a very strong luck for themselves or sometimes you have a family line that hasn't

00:55:08.600 built that strong luck and are more susceptible to those kind of things but uh we we don't believe

00:55:15.640 that that our gods inflict disease on children um and i'm very very sorry that your daughter

00:55:23.480 is going through that and i wish her the best health um main player character uh does honor

00:55:33.160 dictate that so this is another interesting question and it's something that people who are

00:55:37.400 brand new to house the true sometimes get into the logical process of and it is the fallacy with that

00:55:44.440 book the culture of the two tons that i point out so main player character asks does honor dictate

00:55:49.320 that we engage in every fight and conflict we are confronted with that's a serious question for a lot

00:55:55.640 of folks. And if you read that book, it would imply that you should. But we need to follow

00:56:03.580 the All-Fathers example and employ some wisdom and some strategy in how we live our lives.

00:56:10.960 And like I said earlier about nobility, we need to choose when we get into a confrontation. We

00:56:16.800 need to choose the actions we take. If it can derail you from everything good in your life,

00:56:22.740 for you to rise to every challenge with every person who wants to pick a fight with you over 0.99

00:56:28.260 every stupid thing, you will literally never not be fighting. And depending on the scale of those 0.98

00:56:36.500 fights, be they physical fights or whatever else, if you take the bait to every fight you are ever

00:56:42.780 challenged to and every affront to your honor that ever happens, that'll be all you do. And you

00:56:48.880 will sacrifice decades of freedom, decades worth of time that you could have built something

00:56:55.680 beautiful for our gods and for our folk, that you could have built a beautiful family. You'll

00:57:00.780 sacrifice all of that because some dude scuffed your shoes or looked at you funny. And no,

00:57:09.200 I think that honor dictates that you choose when to engage in those situations and when not to

00:57:14.280 based upon circumstance, based upon the laws and the repercussions in your area,

00:57:19.200 and based upon the scale to which that affront to your honor affects your life and your ability to

00:57:25.800 do things. One of the reasons that during the time of our ancestors, when those kinds of fights

00:57:34.080 happened, your reputation for martial prowess was your currency in that time in those warrior

00:57:41.660 societies. It's not the case anymore. It's not like you go down the road and you apply for a

00:57:46.160 job and they say, hey, you know, Cleetus over there, he called you a name six years ago and

00:57:51.000 you didn't beat him up. So we can't hire you. That's not the world we live in now.

00:57:55.520 So you need to make smart choices for you and for your family, because ultimately adding the

00:58:00.580 most success and the most benefit to your family, to your folk, and to your gods, that's much more

00:58:08.360 important than you, you know, not tolerating somebody calling you a name or looking at you funny.

00:58:38.360 sorry guys still reading on the side here catching up because we have a lot of good questions

00:59:01.200 rights.

00:59:10.920 guys thank you for bearing with me I'm really looking for all these questions on the side and

00:59:38.040 know there's a lot of dead air and that's that's less exciting than it could be um

00:59:47.480 uh colton asking about steve steve mcnallen is who you learned about house true from and you

00:59:52.280 mentioned that he hasn't updated his site in a while i will mention that to him next time i talk

00:59:56.280 to him i don't know how uh how often he updates that kind of thing but he's been very active um

01:00:03.400 I saw him at our last AFA event. He was at winter nights that we've been talking about

01:00:08.840 so much this broadcast. Actually, he and Sheila traveled with me. It's always a lovely time to

01:00:14.760 travel with them and spend time with them, but they're both doing well and I will hassle him

01:00:20.680 about trying to update his site. Shannon, there's absolutely still an AFA youth program. Brandy runs

01:00:33.320 that brandy is pouring blood sweat and tears into making that work uh getting a hold of her she can

01:00:39.680 get you all set up but yeah brandy's done amazing things with that this last year and uh it's a very

01:00:45.560 exciting time to be a part of that and to be part of what we're building with the afa youth program

01:01:03.320 John, small world. Yeah, it's cool to run into somebody who used to live here.

01:01:17.480 We've been out here for about three years, my wife and I, and we absolutely love it here.

01:01:22.460 Reno's fantastic. I would encourage you all to move to Reno, Nevada. It's magical. It's a

01:01:33.300 this place, it's amazing.

01:01:48.720 Roy, I'm not really sure I understand.

01:01:53.300 Consider entropy for questions.

01:01:55.880 Ah, I think I get what you're saying.

01:01:57.940 And I think we may be getting to that point.

01:02:03.300 as a thoth um if you want to get a hold of the seattle guys i would encourage you to either

01:02:16.820 reach out to kindreds at runestone.org and our kindred coordinator can get you set up with those

01:02:22.260 guys to talk to them or you can reach out to any of our folk builders in the pacific northwest

01:02:27.380 and they can get you connected um we'll put that kindred up on the website we just don't

01:02:32.500 have them up on the website yet because we just announced them today but kindreds

01:02:36.500 at runestone.org i think it's going to be your fastest route to talk to those folks

01:03:02.500 all right guys well it has been great talking to you tonight um are there any final questions you

01:03:20.460 guys have uh before we close down i want to make sure i answer anything so nothing's out there

01:03:25.860 lingering until next month let's give it a couple of minutes for last questions to come in and then

01:03:31.080 I will wish you all a good night.

01:03:41.900 Andrew, it's great to reach out to your local folk builder and follow the chain of command

01:03:47.720 that way to get stuff up to me.

01:03:49.060 But if you have a question or comment or anything you want, you're always free to email me.

01:03:55.240 MattFlavell at runestone.org.

01:03:59.560 And I look forward to it.

01:04:01.080 You can feel very free to email me if you if you have suggestions or things that you need to talk to me about.

01:04:07.560 I'm Ashley.

01:04:31.460 All right. So you're asking about the official response to us being pegged as a white supremacy hate group.

01:04:43.140 The official response is that we're not. We are not a hate group. We have not done anything hateful.

01:04:50.160 We do not do anything hateful. There's no instances of us being hateful, acting hateful.

01:04:57.360 it's just not what we're about, not who we are. Our response is that's wrong and just grossly

01:05:04.700 untrue. In a better way, what I like to respond when people resort to name calling, and that's

01:05:12.060 what that is. Using buzzwords like white supremacy and hate group are meant to their

01:05:19.080 name calling, their name calling for an emotional response. I would ask, what do we do that you

01:05:26.280 don't like or that you find offensive what do we do that you take issue with and i would address

01:05:34.280 those things very specifically unfortunately people don't accuse us of actions or of specific

01:05:42.280 things they like to use name calling because in 2020 unfortunately that's what's most common to

01:05:50.360 to resort to. But that's the closest I have to an official

01:05:53.120 response on that. We're not. So that sounds like a fairly

01:05:59.820 small response, but it's the best that I have. And I'm very

01:06:02.980 happy to go into very specifics. If there's a concern, a fear,

01:06:08.300 an objection that people have, I'm happy to respond to those.

01:06:12.060 But it's very hard to just respond to name calling other

01:06:14.360 than no, no, we're not. But unfortunately, it's the best we

01:06:18.920 have uh bran yes there's actually a batch going out this week i just spoke to uh crystal bailey

01:06:43.400 who is our folk builder out here one of our folk builders in the afa west region

01:06:48.200 and she is in charge of mailing those out and she assured me that there's a new batch going

01:06:52.200 out here this week um tom there's a there's always a chance uh if people would like these

01:07:06.040 done more regularly i would love to do them but i also don't want to oversaturate the market with

01:07:11.720 me sitting on here and and running in my mouth so we'll see what people would like

01:07:16.760 but yeah i'm open to doing it bi-monthly if people would like we'll see what people want

01:07:25.800 angela i'm glad that works i don't usually advertise these on instagram and i think

01:07:29.480 that's probably an oversight so i'm glad that it got your attention i'm glad that it got you over

01:07:33.560 here

01:07:41.720 Sure, James. Membership in the AFA does not automatically entitle you to be part of a

01:07:59.340 kindred. That's not really how the model works. Our kindreds are absolutely local representatives

01:08:04.940 of the AFA in an area, but that's a deeply personal choice on who people want in their

01:08:09.800 kindred and on who's going to be a good fit. So if you find yourself in an area and you're a member

01:08:15.140 and it's not a good fit for that kindred, feel very free to link up with other AFA members in

01:08:22.620 your area and form your own kindred. That's one of the special things about kindreds is you can

01:08:26.780 have a special group of people that you really click with. So do keep that in mind.

01:08:39.800 All right, guys.

01:09:04.440 Well, thank you so much for joining me tonight.

01:09:06.660 We got really good attendance here tonight.

01:09:09.080 Everybody's been really active asking questions, only had a couple of trolls over there, and I don't think it derailed us too much.

01:09:17.560 Yeah, thank you guys so much.

01:09:19.680 I hope you have an amazing November.

01:09:24.680 Hope you guys have have great things this month.

01:09:30.340 Because I probably won't have another stream like this until December, I want to say thank you to all of our veterans.

01:09:36.820 I want to hail the Einherjar. We're going to celebrate Feast of the Einherjar coming up this

01:09:43.040 month. And I hope you guys focus when we get into Thanksgiving. And I know that different,

01:09:50.220 you know, we have an international audience here, but we celebrate Thanksgiving at the end of this

01:09:53.780 month. And I hope folks take stock this year of all the things that they're thankful for.

01:09:59.400 I know I'm very thankful for a lot this year. I know the AFA is extremely thankful for many things,

01:10:05.540 not the least of which is you guys. Thank you for being here. Thank you for being part of my

01:10:10.300 AFA family. Thank you for making these things work. So I appreciate it. And I will talk to

01:10:16.460 you guys again next month. Hail the gods, hail the folk, hail the AFA.

Asatru Folk Assembly - November 02, 2020

November 2020 Live Chat

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