00:03:52.580Okay, a couple of interesting things there.
00:03:54.920First, editions of Folk Builders and Kindreds.
00:03:58.840Since the last time we spoke, we had actually just announced today the Nordvester Kindred out of the Seattle area in Washington State.
00:04:09.280We've been very excited to see that for a while.
00:04:11.440Those 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.
00:04:33.040By the way, I really, really like their flag.
00:24:32.440looked into it and it's absolutely something our ancestors used to do. The only way to my knowledge
00:24:43.360that any folk and any religious group has ever been able to be successful and maintain0.99
00:24:48.580a priesthood and maintain Hoffs and temples and do religion has been for the practitioners of
00:24:57.880that faith to contribute a portion of their income or a portion of their wealth towards
00:25:04.000maintaining that. And that absolutely was practiced by our ancestors. That's where we got that term
00:25:10.680Hoftholler, was to maintain their Hofs and their sanctuaries and their groves and their Gothar.
00:25:18.820But that's been a pretty standard way that our people and that all people have maintained
00:25:27.180institutes of, of religion and, uh, adjusting what we do instead of a club membership model
00:25:36.420and to a real religious model to support our temples, to support our go far with this
00:25:42.780Hofftoller is it's made all the difference in the world.
00:25:45.400And, uh, I would, I would ask if you guys like what we're doing, if you support the
00:25:56.000AFA's mission, if you support and believe that we're doing work that glorifies our gods and our
00:26:02.640folk, I'd ask that you consider paying by Haftola. If you'd increase your level of generosity to do
00:26:09.460that, it would be extremely appreciated and it would allow us to do a lot more, a lot quicker
00:26:14.980and a lot more efficiently. So please give it a thought. And if it's something you'd like to do,
00:26:21.060something you feel compelled to do, your local folk builder will be very, very happy to get
00:26:25.580you set up um it may make a hoff tollers as little as one percent and to most people that's
00:26:33.320not even noticeable but to us if all of you guys did it it's night and day so uh please do think
00:26:42.760about that and those who are already paying hoff toller thank you so much
00:26:46.240sorry guys i'm catching up with the chat on the side it's glad i'm really glad to see so many
00:27:10.360guys when they're talking and being able to interact with each other on this i i like that
00:27:14.860feature in this a lot. Good job, James. Please extend our appreciation to that member that
00:27:23.000decided to pay off till the end of the day. Please let him know. Jim, I do them once a month. I'm not
00:27:35.460sure if you were able to make the ones on Facebook, but I like this. We may do it over here now. We'll
00:27:39.580see. But I look forward to doing these chats every month. I really like this conversational
00:27:44.900format with you guys. Yeah, I look forward to them throughout the month. This is special to
00:27:53.340me. I hope you guys enjoy it because I know I really do. We got a question that my lovely wife
00:28:05.500Mandy is sharing with me on here from Facebook about folks applying using fake names and why we
00:28:11.580need people to use their real names when applying. I get it. I get the world that we live in and I
00:28:21.640get with cancel culture and folks doing what they do today that people want a certain amount of
00:28:28.560anonymity. And I think that there's a lot of public settings you can do that. Especially,
00:28:36.060you know, online, there's a lot of instances where you can use a fake name. But when you
00:28:39.680apply to the Astro Folk Assembly, there's a relationship developing of trust, of us being
00:28:48.580able to trust you and you being able to trust us with who you are. This isn't an online cause or,
00:28:55.860you know, an internet group. This is a living church. It's a community. And I mean it when I
00:29:04.020say it's our AFA family. We're all about family. We have people's wives and kids at these events.
00:29:11.620We have at our events now, there's so many children and it's beautiful and we need to know
00:29:16.300who you are. We don't want our families around people that give us some strange name and we
00:29:23.060don't know who they are. Our membership database isn't shared with any government agency. It's not
00:29:29.180shared with anybody outside of AFA leadership. But us having your real name and your real
00:29:34.420information lets us do some kind of checking on you and making sure you're the kind of person
00:29:39.720that's safe to have around families. And that's really important to us. Something very special
00:29:45.580at AFA events. It's like you go back in time a little ways. It's a backwards way to get to it.
00:29:51.980so driving around used to be when i was a kid any neighborhood you were in kids were out in the
00:29:59.660street playing together parents weren't having to hover over them scared something was going to
00:30:04.540happen we've lost that as a society in most of the country and i'm sure that's i'm not sure how that
00:30:12.380factors into our international members but certainly here in the united states it's rare anymore
00:30:17.000What'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.
00:30:25.860And 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.
00:30:35.420That's fair for us, fair for you. We're practicing Ausatru in the daylight and not hiding in a dark room somewhere.
00:30:43.400And 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.
00:31:01.060So the more open and honest you can be, the better.
00:31:03.960Specifically, when you apply for the Oustrew Folk Assembly, we need your real name.
00:31:07.520So we knew who we're entering into a relationship with, and we want you to know who you're entering a relationship with.
00:31:20.160Steve on Frith. Yes, Frith has a huge component of trust and honor amongst our folk.
00:31:26.140Being 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.
00:31:43.900So 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.
00:31:53.480And 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.
00:32:19.600It'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.
00:32:29.140And you do that at all levels from the very, very simple to the very, very close with friends and family.
00:32:42.940George, that's simple and it's complicated.
00:32:47.080So George is asking how I'd encourage our members to act during the next few months if there is a social meltdown.
00:32:56.120That can be a little social meltdown or complete and total chaos.
00:33:00.180The very simple answer, I would encourage our membership to act honorably.
00:33:06.580Sounds silly and it sounds like I'm swerving what you're saying and I'm not.
00:33:10.560But at the core, whatever we do, and there's two things or there's a couple of things to that.
00:33:19.100Maintain 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.
00:33:32.900Behaving honorably is important all of the time when there's nothing going on or when, you know, the poo hits the fan.
00:33:41.180on top of that with acting nobly and honorably i think nobility is a real key there and one
00:33:54.060component of nobility is keeping a cool head and choosing your actions instead of always reacting
00:34:02.660because you're forced to by circumstance or by other other people. If things happen
00:34:10.100that we don't like socially going on, it's going to be really important that we, especially our
00:34:17.060membership, our folk, focus on making clear decisions that are well thought out, thinking
00:34:24.580of consequence before we take actions, and making sure that we're making wise choices and not
00:34:31.460emotional choices. Because when times get hard and times get scary, people react out of emotion.
00:34:38.460And we don't want to do that. I don't mean don't have emotions. And I don't mean don't apply
00:34:42.760emotion to how we act. But choose to be emotional on your terms. Choose to act the way that you see
00:34:52.300best. Don't be forced to act a certain way because you're unprepared or because you got scared or
00:35:29.740And that's a very personal thing to everyone who experiences ritual.
00:35:35.180Sometimes 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.
00:35:48.260Sometimes that's the situation itself.
00:35:51.920Sometimes that's the officiant of the ritual.
00:35:55.120sometimes some things just touch certain people when they don't touch others.
00:36:02.520I've been at rituals where I was deeply moved and it didn't seem like other people were.
00:36:07.860I've been at rituals where I really didn't, I didn't feel like it hit. I didn't feel like it
00:36:11.780was where it should be, but other people were blown away and felt, you know, it changed their
00:36:17.080lives. So I think every ritual hits people a little bit differently. And I wouldn't be worried
00:36:21.580If a particular one doesn't, you know, just completely blow your mind and change your world, because there'll be one that will.
00:36:29.440And 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.
00:36:38.780And every little bit of sight, sound, touch, taste.
00:36:44.240The magic in the ether at that time calculates into how that affects you or doesn't.
00:36:49.900So I wouldn't be worried about it at all.
00:36:51.580you'll have one that really does affect you and it'll it'll shock you when it
00:36:55.840us ah we got a guest say hi she can't really say hi yet this is my beautiful daughter aubrey if
00:37:25.120If you guys haven't seen her before, she's got the prettiest smile in the entire world.
00:37:30.360And I am I'm luckiest dad that there is.
00:37:36.860But 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.
00:37:46.840She's six months old now. So thank you for bringing her by.
00:37:50.640Anyway, I'm trying to find where I left off in this chat because we got so much good stuff going on.
00:38:02.840Yeah, let me catch up here. I apologize. All right. Now I'm back on track.
00:38:08.120FD, I'm glad you're reaching out to Adam. That's fantastic. I hope he's able to help you and get you involved.
00:38:20.640Aynar Nefbrota, yes, we have some Canadian, we've had a number of Canadian applicants
00:38:36.220in the last month, which is really nice to see. When I say that, I don't mean to be ignorant
00:38:42.760when I say Canadian applicants, like you guys are all in one little area, you guys have a massive
00:38:46.720country. And you guys are spread out mostly along this narrow strip to the north of the United
00:38:53.280States. But we've had members kind of across your country signing up. But specifically,
00:39:00.620you mentioned the Ontario area. And that is an area that we've seen a lot of growth. And it's
00:39:05.060very close to our U.S. membership that's in Wisconsin and Michigan and such there. So you
00:39:14.560do have a lot of stuff near you when the borders open and we can go, you know, folks can cross
00:39:19.940easily again. Alex, for my recommendation for people to get married, live outside of
00:39:38.040the U.S. and it's difficult for them to find a gothi to marry them. That's different depending1.00
00:39:46.520on where you're located and depending on the rules in your country. There may be some places
00:39:51.880where you need to be an ordained gothi to perform the ceremony. There's other places where you can0.50
00:39:56.480get by with someone who's not ordained performing it. Yeah, depending on where you were, I may have
00:40:02.860different answers. It depends on your economic situation. Also, if it's important for you to
00:40:11.440have a go-thee there, it may cost travel expenses, but one of our go-thar would probably love to come
00:40:19.060perform your ceremony wherever you guys are at. But that's an expensive option. I'm just throwing
00:40:27.880that out there, it is a possibility. Our people are very willing to do that. But like I said,
00:40:33.360that does become expensive. If there's somebody local that you want to perform the ceremony,
00:40:39.100if you do reach out to one of our Gothar and we can't do it personally, we could help provide a
00:40:47.240ceremony. We could help walk a local officiant through the process. We'd really like to help
00:40:53.300you. If that's something that you want, please do reach out and do what we can to see, to do our
00:41:00.160best to make that happen in the best way that's going to be for you and for your bride and for
00:41:06.160y'all's families. So there's a lot of options. It just all depends on where you are and what
00:41:10.800your circumstance is. Angela, you're about to embark on an amazing journey. The culture of
00:41:20.260the Teutons is awesome. It is a hard read. Be prepared. There's a very, very good read. It's
00:41:26.780one of the only books that every few pages I had to set down and just absorb because it blew my
00:41:31.280mind. It explained a lot of concepts that may be very simple, but it explained them in such a way
00:41:38.700that was so very profound. Can't recommend the culture of the Teutons enough.
00:41:50.260It's an interesting image that you painted for us, George.
00:46:44.740And 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.
00:46:51.900So it really does make a difference and it makes a tangible difference. Everybody knows.
00:47:21.900American neighbor lung. Good. I'm glad that you're thinking about doing that. We may switch0.94
00:47:42.740over to this platform. I'm going to see what everybody thinks, but I really, really like
00:47:46.180it um colton i'm not sure who you're asking if you're asking where i'm located or like where
00:47:54.900something related to the afa is located i'm located in reno nevada but we have afa members
00:48:01.860in 16 countries around the world um there is afa literally across the united states
00:48:09.940and like i mentioned in 15 other countries around the world so we have members chances are pretty
00:48:16.100close to you. James, that's great news. I'm very excited that your kindred is in the
00:48:26.260probationary stages. We'll be really excited to see you guys join, get your flag up in
00:48:31.540the Hoffs and celebrate your kindred as part of the AFA family of kindreds.
00:48:35.460American Nibelung, your focus on obligation is really well taken. And I think that's a symptom
00:48:53.360of the age that we live. But people always focus on what they get from a situation and very seldom
00:49:02.420on the obligations upon them and that's such a key to our concepts of most anything our concept
00:49:10.820of worship our concept of of gabo of a gift for a gift when you exchange something you don't just
00:49:19.540get things there's an obligation when you receive things and it doesn't have to be burdensome but
00:49:26.660it's something to always be aware of always be aware of what you owe and act accordingly
00:49:31.060And 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.
00:49:46.860So that's a really good thing that you mentioned that.