Asatru Folk Assembly - October 2020 Facebook Live Chat

00:00:00.000 hey guys i hope this is working it's working a little bit funky on steam's end or uh i'm sorry

00:00:20.240 on uh facebook's end yeah i hope you guys can see me i'm not really seeing anything in the

00:00:28.160 comment section where it usually tells me who's on um but yeah i am happy to join you again it's

00:00:36.480 shocking that it's already october um a lot going on this year 2020 has definitely been interesting

00:00:44.800 so far and not only interesting but it's been really good for the astro folk assembly

00:00:52.320 so i'm setting up something here on my phone because i think maybe i'll see the uh there we

00:00:56.480 go now they're coming in hey guys thanks for joining me tonight um again if you see me looking

00:01:03.840 down it's i'm trying to get this uh set up here on the phone because sometimes we get a lot more

00:01:09.600 questions this way or at least i can see the questions better well since last time i talked

00:01:18.000 with you guys we had a really phenomenal fall fest up in minnesota at the first beginning

00:01:26.160 of last month and that was it's always a great time up there this year fall fest because of

00:01:31.840 covet restrictions and whatever else we ended up going back to the very first place that we

00:01:36.320 hope that we held a fall fest it was neat to go back and you know see how we change see how we've

00:01:42.160 grown since we were we're staying in that location uh five years ago so yeah it's been uh it's been

00:01:51.280 nice been a cool month when i was up there i also had the the honor and the great experience of being

00:01:59.120 able to go check out balder's hof and to kind of help do some some demo work and part of that uh

00:02:05.840 part of that hof that's getting remodeled and help those guys get some things set up our amazing

00:02:12.160 folks in the northern plains are doing a tremendous job with taking care of that place and getting it

00:02:19.440 ready and working on it so that it can be the uh the shining temple the balder and a place for our

00:02:25.360 folk together that it's that it's destined to become so that was really great to be able to

00:02:30.320 be a part of that and to be able to put in some put in some labor there with my afa family making

00:02:36.400 that making that place really special

00:02:47.440 so um sorry i was looking at an odd facebook

00:02:51.760 interaction on the phone they keep updating their system and it's always a

00:02:54.720 little bit new for me um so october's here here in just about

00:03:04.320 just about two weeks we're going to be celebrating winter nights in the poconos

00:03:08.480 this is winter nights number nine um it's still open to register if you guys are able

00:03:16.240 this is kind of eastern pennsylvania um it's an amazing event a very special event

00:03:23.120 this event is where i met my wife six years ago um

00:03:27.760 it's really a special place it's beautiful this time of year as fall progresses here to see the

00:03:35.320 leaves change Christmas in the year it's a really nice spot I look forward to it every year the camp

00:03:41.080 that we use is is a great camp I believe was built in the 1930s and it's it's a special place for us

00:03:49.240 so hopefully if anybody's hearing this and can make it it's going to be 15th 17th and 18th

00:03:57.520 and you get a hold of cliff erickson c erickson at runestone.org if you guys are interested in

00:04:04.320 registering yet and set up we would love to see all of our afa family there like i said it's a

00:04:10.320 really really special event so something i always look forward to um also thinking about october

00:04:23.280 and stuff we have coming up on the 9th we have our uh our day of remembrance for guido von list

00:04:33.600 and uh grito guido von list is probably the earliest figure in kind of the proto revival

00:04:40.080 of alsatree that we talked about um certainly in the romantic period in germany

00:04:45.360 rediscovering our history parts of our lore and most importantly rediscovering magical work with

00:04:55.800 the runes and he was gifted a very special insight into the runes during an operation

00:05:02.520 and he was gifted this insight into what became the Arminen rune set and those runes correspond

00:05:08.880 with the runes that the secret runes that Odin spoke about in the Runetal at the end of the

00:05:15.840 Avon Hall. So Meister von List was extremely important. Without a lot of the foundations

00:05:22.620 he laid down, some of the people that came after him and took up the torch wouldn't have been able

00:05:26.780 to. So we're very thankful to all that he has passed down to us, and we celebrate him on the

00:05:33.200 night of this month. So I'd encourage you guys all to get together with your local AFA family to

00:05:39.160 study up and talk about Meister Von List, talk about the runes, and raise a horn in his honor.

00:05:49.620 Also important days and special things coming up in October. On the 15th is the birthday

00:05:57.760 of our founder, Stephen McNally, and like our AFA family to make a special point of celebrating

00:06:05.260 that. Make sure to wish him a happy birthday. Make sure to raise horns in his honor. Get together,

00:06:10.720 have a meal in his honor. Steve McNally laid the family. Without Steve McNally, we would all not

00:06:15.960 be here, and also true would not be what it is, certainly in the United States, but that's my

00:06:22.080 firm belief throughout the world. We owe Steve more than we could ever repay him, and I encourage

00:06:28.460 you all to celebrate his birthday this year on the 15th. One of the other things that's really

00:06:39.140 special about October, and something that we celebrate at our winter night celebrations,

00:06:44.280 we celebrate a de-sear blue. And bigger than that, this is the time of the year that the

00:06:51.420 bales between our worlds are dense.

00:06:54.640 It's a time that the land of the dead and the land of the living come very close and

00:07:01.260 touch.

00:07:02.060 It's a really special time of year to worship and honor our ancestors, to reach out to them,

00:07:10.340 to interact with them, and for them to be able to interact with us if we leave ourselves

00:07:14.960 and our hearts open for that.

00:07:17.120 So I think that's a special thing to think about this year and the crispness of the fall.

00:07:22.240 Take some time to remember and to honor your ancestors.

00:07:26.360 In the AFA, with our de-sear bloat tradition at Winter Nights, it's a special time to honor your female ancestors that have passed.

00:07:34.960 That love and that caring that so many generations of our women have put into their families, that doesn't just stop when they pass.

00:07:44.820 It doesn't just stop at death.

00:07:46.220 our female ancestors continue that love for their family on into the next world.

00:07:51.640 They continue to look after us.

00:07:56.380 Kind of a random side note relevant to this.

00:08:01.100 At Winter Nights in the Poconos, I want to say four years ago,

00:08:08.480 it was a desirblote that was the most powerful ritual I was ever a part of.

00:08:13.100 um at that time githya pat hall did a uh a de-seer bloat and the connection that i made

00:08:22.220 during that bloat with my grandmother was one of the most profound spiritual experiences i've ever

00:08:27.900 had for a moment in that circle my eyes closed i could feel my grandmother i could feel hugging her

00:08:37.380 I could feel leaning down and just the smell, the feel, the sound of her voice.

00:08:44.920 My grandmother was with me in that circle.

00:08:47.320 And if you haven't experienced something like that, it's very hard to fully capture hearing words.

00:08:53.140 But there was a lot of folks, myself included, that wept like little kids because that blood was so special.

00:09:01.480 So it's neither here nor there.

00:09:03.340 It's just a really special memory I have of October and of winter nights coming up.

00:09:09.600 So this is kind of a Q&A thing.

00:09:12.820 I see we got a lot of people who have joined us.

00:09:15.400 Do we have any questions tonight or any things that you guys would like to talk about or that you guys would like to have me talk about?

00:09:21.980 i am looking and i see a whole lot of people saying hi

00:09:34.500 hi to all you guys but as of yet i do not see any questions

00:09:40.100 all right well

00:09:52.420 trying to think of what I got for you guys in lieu of questions one thing

00:10:03.140 also that you guys may want to know or that's been significant in this last month since I've

00:10:08.280 talk to you guys. I'm not sure how many guys have, you know, for our international audience

00:10:12.900 especially, but even nationally, if you guys aren't close to the West Coast, but there's been

00:10:17.880 the worst fires as far as I know ever in the state of California during this last month and some

00:10:26.720 really, really destructive fires in California and in Oregon. We still, I mean, there's still

00:10:33.020 a lot burning over there. We still have smoke where I am over here in Reno, but one of the

00:10:37.420 things that's always scary is those fires come very very close to Odin's Hoth. The town that

00:10:42.880 Odin's Hoth in was actually evacuated because the fire was so close and burning things in the area

00:10:47.960 and we were you know we were concerned we were doing what we can to be diligent we were being

00:10:52.460 prayerful we were trying to you know hope for the best on that and Hoth is safe. We actually had

00:11:01.360 people for the first time go up and evacuate special items out of the Hoth and take the

00:11:06.120 God holds down and make really sure that none of those precious things were lost should something

00:11:11.520 terrible happen. But we've been very fortunate. The gods have smiled upon us. The land whites have

00:11:17.820 taken care of it. And the hoffs or the fires have missed our hoff. And it was really nice to go up 0.99

00:11:24.540 there and kind of celebrate that this last weekend and spend some time with our AFA family up there

00:11:30.280 our Hoff. It's always an important reminder of how special those things are when fires come through

00:11:37.560 and get that close and threatened. One of the really nice notes about that, for those of you

00:11:42.360 who haven't been able to make it out to the Hoff yet, is that Odin's Hoff is positioned right near

00:11:47.960 a small airfield that local fire prevention uses for some of their fire mediation things.

00:11:55.080 it's pretty close to that staging area they've also in the past used the hoff parking lot as

00:12:01.080 a staging area for four things so i think that that puts it towards the top of the list as

00:12:08.520 areas that are going to kept be kept uh kept safe from the fires at least that's our hope

00:12:13.560 and so far that's that's worked out pretty well for us

00:12:16.120 So, what do we got going on? Yes, you all have any questions or anything you'd like to talk about this evening.

00:12:37.120 Guess also, since last time I talked to you, a son of all the kindred in northern California became an official AFA kindred.

00:12:45.120 That candidate includes Stephen Sheila McNallan, which is really special.

00:12:51.120 So it's always nice to have another AFA Kendrick with us.

00:12:57.120 Since last time we spoke, Ben Cooper has become an apprentice bulk builder in Idaho in the Northwest region.

00:13:07.120 So we appreciate you stepping up, Ben. We look forward to the good work you're going to do there.

00:13:13.120 i think what else looks like we got a got a special guest that joins me from time to time

00:13:23.460 hopefully she doesn't throw up on me tonight if you guys haven't seen her this is this is my

00:13:30.200 daughter aubry and she's beautiful and she's amazing and she's being good right now which

00:13:35.700 is always always better than the alternative

00:13:38.560 come on guys you got to help me out with some questions but thank you for joining us thanks

00:13:51.260 for bringing her up mandy appreciate that off screen is my lovely wife mandy uh thank you

00:13:57.040 mandy for all the stuff that you do she is super helpful behind the scenes and she does a lot both

00:14:04.260 specifically for the AFA, but also to help me have the time and the space to do the AFA things

00:14:13.640 that I need to do, which is tremendously important. So, I appreciate that.

00:14:21.040 So, let me think of what else. While I got you guys here, I'd like to give a congratulations

00:14:28.920 to two folks that took their oaths and became official oathed in AFA Folk Builders, Brandy Callahan of North Dakota and Zach Cato of Indiana.

00:14:43.300 They took their oaths at Fall Fest, and that was a very nice thing and a special thing to be there to be a part of.

00:14:58.920 Come on, guys.

00:15:01.120 Got to help me out a little bit with some questions.

00:15:05.460 Looking over here on the side to see if I've got something.

00:15:21.540 Michael, I see that you said Assyrian.

00:15:25.540 And I don't know if that's a typo, if you had a question or something interesting that you want to talk about, about the Assyrians.

00:15:33.040 I assume it was a typo, but I'm not sure.

00:15:34.840 It may be an interesting topic of conversation.

00:15:47.120 So what else?

00:15:48.480 One thing that I suppose I could talk to you guys about tonight, and I don't usually do this.

00:15:55.540 This is an unintentional plug for the other team, but there's something out there.

00:16:04.400 If you're interested in the history of Austatru and you're kind of a history buff, certainly on our modern history, there's something called the Heathen History Podcast.

00:16:15.960 Now, these folks are not the kind of people that I have anything in common with, not the kind of people that agree with me on much of anything.

00:16:25.540 But the people who do a lot of really interesting and in depth research on some interesting topics and because their worldview is so shockingly opposite to mine, often intending them as insults, they give us some really interesting compliments, but they do a good job of talking about.

00:16:43.960 um some of the origins of modern alsatru and they do a good job of talking about

00:16:50.600 some really seminal figures in alsatru and i think that's really uh interesting and worth your time

00:16:57.400 i think some of the history on on steve mcnalen and the afa there is interesting to look at

00:17:02.520 uh and their shows on showing the identic right their show on alexander rudd mills and the show

00:17:10.600 and lc christensen are really kind of interesting to stop and take a look at if you can sort through

00:17:15.960 all of the kind of communist garbage that they've got going on there the the pearls of information

00:17:22.280 are really valuable that's something i've been you know paying attention to lately because history is 0.91

00:17:26.680 very important to me i think that we have a tendency very often to look at history as

00:17:32.920 you know some ancient thing in the in the distant past and i think that history is

00:17:40.600 Folks never know that history is happening until it's too late and it's already happened.

00:17:49.600 Any of the great figures of history, very often they don't realize they're doing something historical.

00:17:55.600 It's only after the past that it was.

00:17:57.600 So I think it's important now that we pay really close attention to modern Ausatru, to our history, and try to keep that preserved.

00:18:05.600 preserved it's something very important something we're working on a behind the scenes project

00:18:09.600 about the afa's history and it's been really important in this last year we've established

00:18:14.880 historians at each of our hoffs to keep track of that history and the history of those places

00:18:20.560 so i'm excited with what they come up with and the work that they do

00:18:23.680 you apologize this month for being kind of kind of late on reminding you guys this was coming up

00:18:38.680 so that's on me um i hope that uh i'm glad that so many people so many of you have come

00:18:47.600 watched it'd be nice if there was some questions because i feel like i'm just kind of kind of

00:18:52.600 rambling, but that's okay. If I need to, I'll keep shooting from the hip. Um, yeah, I haven't

00:19:03.780 even seen anything pop up new on the side for a little bit. So I'm hoping that's, uh,

00:19:08.580 hoping that's working still. Um, it was really nice this last weekend to see so many, so

00:19:17.620 many different afa winter finding celebrations um it's really uh something that i hope everybody

00:19:27.060 who's listening to this is aware but afa events aren't just our national events and afa gatherings

00:19:33.780 don't just happen at our hops just about every weekend and in 2020 the code 19 restrictions

00:19:41.860 and stuff made this more iffy than normal but just about every weekend around the united states and

00:19:49.940 around the world we have afa members getting together to celebrate to have moots to have bloats

00:19:57.060 to have meals sometimes just to to raise a horn or even just raise a glass in a

00:20:03.460 local pub or a bar to talk about afa things and get together with their afa family and that's

00:20:08.020 a really special thing if you you know if you're listening to this and you don't take part in that

00:20:13.060 you're really missing out and i would encourage you to talk to your local folk builder

00:20:16.900 and get set up because as true happens in the real world we can connect this way from behind

00:20:24.900 the computer and that's that's valuable and it's special and it's great that we live in a time that

00:20:29.460 we can do that over such great distances but if we don't take this and make it happen in the real

00:20:36.420 world with people people next to us we don't get together and raise a horn with somebody bloat with

00:20:44.260 somebody uh have a hug or a handshake and celebrate ritual with somebody then we really miss out on so

00:20:52.900 much of the richness of practicing house troops i'm hopeful that you guys all have good groups

00:20:57.620 of people that you get together with and if you don't i hope that you reach out to your local

00:21:01.940 folk builder because they would love to help you get set up with that that's literally all

00:21:06.500 of what they do is try to build that um

00:21:16.340 just trying to think of what stuff to come at you with tonight we have yet to have a single question

00:21:22.260 which is an anomaly but that's okay um

00:21:26.020 Um, so one thing that's, now we have, now we have one of our folk builders, Rob Stam at random say

00:21:41.980 unicorn. It's like, maybe I'm missing something. Maybe there's comments going on that I don't see,

00:21:47.340 But I saw that. What else has gone on? With our hops coming in and with a lot of the artwork that's come in, something internally we've talked about over this last few months has been really working on doing

00:22:17.340 more art doing more aesthetic things adding more beauty to a lot of the stuff we do

00:22:23.100 we've worked really well so far in the astro focus simply on building community and on

00:22:31.820 spreading the message of aussitrue and gaining members and practicing aussitrue

00:22:37.100 we'd also like to fill some of that with some art and some beauty we're now getting

00:22:41.340 to a stage with these hops that we're able to and to that end

00:22:47.340 Goethe's Fawn Harrell of the Witten, he is going to take up kind of coordinating that

00:22:53.960 and helping make sure we have thriving, I guess, art and beauty at our Hoffs and in

00:23:01.500 some of the things that we do.

00:23:03.000 Because we're at a point where that's becoming a real big thing, and that's really nice to

00:23:07.980 see.

00:23:09.160 If you guys haven't checked it out at Thor's Hoff, there is a beautiful mural that Svawn

00:23:14.040 and it's um sorry looking at the comments i'm not sure if there's technical difficulties tonight or

00:23:27.000 just what's going on but if you haven't seen that mural it is literally awesome in the very

00:23:33.480 truest meaning of the word if you go in there and you see it it it strikes you with awe and

00:23:41.480 the effect of that's really important and i want that at all of our hearts

00:23:46.120 and i want that experience for our folk to honor our gods and to to inspire others with with what

00:23:54.440 we do um so what else is going on tonight guys does anybody have any questions or anything at

00:24:06.520 all they would like to talk about i hope you guys still like doing these once a month

00:24:12.520 i know i do it's something that i look forward to doing um something else until until folks

00:24:21.880 start helping me out with a couple of questions here i'd like to talk about um about texas

00:24:29.080 recently an afa gothe kevin long and his family moved to central texas and we've we've had some

00:24:36.360 struggles in texas as far as getting some things going and really establishing things there

00:24:41.240 and one of the reasons is we haven't had somebody that's really wanted to step up and take a lead

00:24:44.920 there and organize um we have an apprentice folk builder in southern louisiana that's kind of

00:24:50.920 covering the region michael foley and he's doing a great job but he's only been on the team for a

00:24:55.800 few months but uh just this last weekend um gothy kevin long had a uh had a really nice looking

00:25:04.600 gathering in central texas and he says there's many more to come that he has planned so i encourage

00:25:10.120 you if you're in texas going to go through texas reach out to him at kalong at runestone.org

00:25:18.120 because the afa has got big things coming in the state of texas with him down there

00:25:21.960 there. And that's a really nice thing to see. Well, I appreciate you guys taking the time

00:25:38.400 this evening. I had hoped we'd get a couple of questions at least.

00:25:51.960 But so far, we have not.

00:26:00.880 Okay, I'm getting some input in that some things need to be done on Facebook to fix some things in the comments section.

00:26:10.940 That's why we're not getting stuff, and that makes me feel a little bit better.

00:26:16.500 James, thank you for asking.

00:26:18.860 First question of the night that I've seen.

00:26:24.620 Okay, now we're getting a couple of questions coming in.

00:26:27.700 So, how important are moots?

00:26:32.000 Moots are very important.

00:26:33.200 As I spent a little bit of time saying.

00:26:38.220 All right.

00:26:39.240 So, I got a problem that I will fix after we're done with this conversation.

00:26:44.520 I appreciate you bringing it to my attention.

00:26:47.080 mandy if you're seeing this on the side if there's any way you can go in on the back end and

00:26:53.800 fix that blacklisted questions i'll finish the question about the moves though first

00:26:59.240 it's really important i talked about it i'll choose about doing and getting together in the

00:27:03.320 real world it's i think so often people get caught up in research and in planning and scheming and

00:27:10.840 thinking and pondering that they spend a little bit of less time doing and that's unfortunate

00:27:16.200 how's true happens in the real world and getting out and meeting people and interacting

00:27:20.740 is the core of what we do. And so I encourage you guys all to do that. Some of which are very

00:27:26.120 important. What it sounds like people are telling me on the side as an editing tool to thank you

00:27:35.180 very much, Mandy. Mandy says she fixed it as an editing tool to prevent crazies from blowing up

00:27:43.180 the AFA page with a bunch of comments that we don't want, we had gone in and made very

00:27:49.440 restricted blacklisting on who could comment on things.

00:27:52.560 We'd have to approve comments with new Facebook algorithms that has apparently just recently

00:27:59.380 made the commenting on the side in these videos very difficult.

00:28:03.800 So I apologize for that.

00:28:04.820 Hopefully got it squared away.

00:28:06.520 Makes me feel better.

00:28:07.720 I thought you guys were just sitting there dead air, not wanting to ask anything.

00:28:11.240 And that was that was that didn't make me happy. So I'm glad that there was some kind of a technical reason for it.

00:28:21.300 Folkbuilder Jason Plurd asks, will I be at Thorfest again this year?

00:28:26.960 Barring some sort of emergency? Yes, I look forward to that every year. I'm excited to go out there and see you guys.

00:28:33.000 And this year. Anna says there might be cookies, so all the more reason.

00:28:38.340 And I'm definitely looking to come out there. Hopefully I can bring Mandy and Aubrey with me.

00:28:43.340 Is the AFA still publishing the Runestone magazine?

00:28:47.340 The AFA has not published a physical Runestone magazine since 2000.

00:28:54.340 But as of last year, the AFA does the Runestone as our monthly email newsletter every single month.

00:29:02.340 And that's filled with content about what we do, gatherings, get togethers, announcements.

00:29:09.200 But yes, and if you're an AFA member, those get mailed to you every month unless you've selected, or emailed to you rather every month unless you've selected otherwise.

00:29:17.440 If you're not receiving them, check with your folk builder and we will try to get that squared away for you.

00:29:28.000 Shelter accommodate, how does shelter accommodations work at winter nights?

00:29:33.140 Winter nights in the Poconos, they are cabins.

00:29:41.300 I believe there's tent options available as well, but there's also cabins.

00:29:46.740 Cabins are drafty and it's cold. It's cold this time of year, so make sure that you are prepared and that you bring warm things because it does get chilly in those cabins.

00:29:55.820 It's something you may want to have an electric heater for as well, if you're really, if you're concerned about that, or maybe you have small children or elderly folks.

00:30:05.620 But yeah, there's cabins. It's kind of rustic. It's a really nice camp. It functions as a Girl Scout camp most of the year.

00:30:12.580 So think Girl Scout camp when you're thinking about those accommodations.

00:30:18.220 Stephen Jacob asks, is there any Q&A groups or somewhere we can get together with other AFA members to learn the tenets and history?

00:30:33.100 Sort of. Yes, there's always room for more of that.

00:30:37.220 It's Q&A time right here if you want, but specifically, if you're an AFA member, you should be added to a local AFA Facebook group to where these kind of discussions can happen.

00:30:46.260 I think very often they're underutilized. I know that some regions have a telegram group or maybe a group on a different application. I think your local folk builder can talk to you a little bit better about what that is.

00:31:02.320 um but yeah if you're if you're an afa member there's several groups out there that would love

00:31:07.440 to have these conversations with you best places if you can get together folks in person but if

00:31:12.320 that's not available to you right now we do have those local groups for these conversations to

00:31:17.120 happen and if you can't find that stephen go ahead and reach out to me again send me a message or

00:31:22.000 something and i will try to get you directed to the right spot okay um rob asks can i tell you

00:31:33.440 about the calendar of holy days and how do we calculate when they occur yes

00:31:42.880 calendar of holy days you need to get the afa calendar and we have our holidays listed in that

00:31:49.440 calendar um i will have to look and see if we have it posted somewhere else if we don't i can get

00:31:57.200 that up or do something uh to help facilitate that i've made sure on our physical calendars that we

00:32:02.400 sell that we do have it but it'd be nice to have that listed somewhere rob if for some reason we

00:32:07.040 don't um how do we calculate when they occur so there's a couple of couple of things um

00:32:19.440 We factor in, you know, astrological things like the solstices and the equinoxes.

00:32:30.500 We factor in ancient history of things that our ancestors practiced in different areas at different times.

00:32:38.780 We also focus on modern house true history and things that have come to us.

00:32:42.860 there's certain things that are are based on very ancient traditions and there's certain things that

00:32:48.860 are brand new it's important that we get together once a month to celebrate so sometimes we we find

00:32:55.920 reasons to that you know aren't aren't viking reenactment they're modern enacting of our faith

00:33:02.660 and we come up with a reason to get together at least once a month so that's kind of why we have

00:33:07.080 the number and the spacing of some of our our holidays that we do uh our ancestors certainly

00:33:14.360 for equinoxes and solstices and things of the like were very very specific on when they practiced it

00:33:20.200 if you have a local kindred or your family i would encourage you to be specific at those moments

00:33:25.240 the moment of equinox the moment of solstice when i was in alaska i was with the kindred

00:33:30.840 And we would get together.

00:33:39.660 We were really good about it.

00:33:41.280 We would get together.

00:33:42.260 You'd have the solstice falling in the middle of a storm at 3 a.m. on a Tuesday.

00:33:49.180 And we would make sure we were out there celebrating at that time.

00:33:52.360 But the restraints of the modern world, sometimes when we celebrate as a group, we try to place that as the weekend as close to that as we can.

00:34:02.360 I know for national events, when they come next to a very specific day's holiday, we try to do the national event the weekend previous to it so that kindreds can get together locally and celebrate on the day of if that's important to them.

00:34:19.360 But that's kind of how we try to structure that.

00:34:24.220 Bodhi asks, can I talk about what happened to Maestro von List that caused his revelation about the Armin and Rune robe?

00:34:34.160 Yes.

00:34:38.120 He was blinded.

00:34:40.200 And while blinded, he was gifted by the Allfather with runic knowledge and wisdom to share with the world.

00:34:46.400 That sounds fanciful, but I do believe that that's true.

00:34:51.040 But he was undergoing, I believe, cataract surgery, and for a period of time, he was

00:34:55.060 temporarily blinded.

00:34:57.900 Before that, he had been an avid enthusiast in trying to study about our history and the

00:35:05.040 history of our folk, specifically his Austrian history and the history of our folk in Austria.

00:35:11.160 I remember going and, you know, he went into this ancient site that used to be a temple to our gods, and he was so inspired by it, he left an offering, offering us wine bottles, I believe, and he vowed that one day he would build a temple to Wotan.

00:35:29.500 And while physically I don't think that ever came to fruition, that's something that we

00:35:38.180 plan to honor him specially at Odinsof now that we have a temple to Botan.

00:35:44.360 But yeah, during that surgery, he had a revelation that brought things together with these runes.

00:35:53.600 Now very many of these runes have cognates in the other systems that would be very familiar

00:35:57.640 to you.

00:35:59.060 his reasoning, he connected them. He was given this connection between those runes and the

00:36:05.200 runes that Odin speaks about in the Havamal, in the Runetal portion. And yeah, during that period,

00:36:14.180 he had that revelation and those runes were full of power and they inspired so many people and a

00:36:21.280 generation of folks. And that was practiced often underground to this very day. We've met

00:36:28.980 some older people that um their parents and their grandparents uh their grandparents specifically

00:36:34.660 were around during during von liszt's time and they continued practicing some of his

00:36:39.220 some of his runic uh his runic ideas and his runic uh his esoteric runic practices up to this day

00:36:46.260 so it's a little bit on on meister von liszt

00:36:52.820 cody are any shirts going to be sold at winter nights i don't know i need to figure that out i

00:36:57.460 don't think we have the availability to get new ones made i do have some and i hope we can see

00:37:04.420 if they can get there but that's uh that's kind of a question mark we've gone through

00:37:09.860 excuse me one of the changes we've gone through this last year is how we do some of our merchandise

00:37:14.340 and we're getting some good stuff it's getting shipped out really quick but getting it uh

00:37:18.500 getting inventory has been has been slow and i'm working on that as best i can but it's one

00:37:23.460 of those things that we've got some other things that take uh take priority on it

00:37:31.860 there's an updated ouster true yearly holidays and bloke books still in the works

00:37:36.260 yes brad it is absolutely still in the works it is taking much longer than i had hoped

00:37:43.460 um we've got some good people working on it it will happen can't give you a date that it's

00:37:49.380 going to happen but um but it will absolutely happen and hopefully we maybe can release some

00:37:56.020 of that material early so that that can help some of our fault but it absolutely will happen and

00:38:00.020 we're working on it so robert asked how to handle work restricting him wearing his valk nut because

00:38:13.140 it is uh because it is a it's a racist symbol it's not a racist symbol um

00:38:21.700 trying to think of your best path i'm not sure if you've spoken to your hr department

00:38:26.580 i think a couple of keys on how to handle that and i can't give you guys one solution that's

00:38:31.940 going to fix everything but um in kind of broad strokes

00:38:43.780 it is very offensive when bosses or you know anyone for that matter tries to tell you that

00:38:51.220 you can't wear a sacred symbol of our of our faith and it's easy to get upset it's

00:38:58.180 even easier when you see other people freely being able to wear symbols of their faith or other

00:39:03.700 groups treated differently and it's really easy to get angry that's the wrong way to handle it

00:39:09.060 and i'm not saying that's how you have or how you plan to but just for anybody anybody listening to

00:39:14.180 this when you talk to your hr department you want to make sure that you use words they understand

00:39:21.540 say no this is a symbol of my religion you know what's your religion my religion is also true

00:39:28.740 when you describe it the afa the afa is your church the afa is your spiritual group of whatever

00:39:38.260 it's all going to go in one ear and out the other the afa is your church they know what that means

00:39:43.700 what else true is your religion they know what that means you don't ever want to talk about how

00:39:49.220 not racist you are how not this or how not that you want to be proud of who you are and talk

00:39:54.740 positively like there's no problem if you go in there defensive and trying to defend yourself

00:40:00.180 against something and you look super guilty you need to go in there proud because you are doing

00:40:04.980 nothing wrong practicing your faith oh yeah this is a symbol of of my faith this is my religion

00:40:10.100 sounds true you know oh yeah well tell me about this house are true and tell them positive happy

00:40:15.220 things talk about it like it's something that you're proud of doing not like some secret

00:40:19.700 and that's going to help the way they perceive it a lot um i mean i think that depending on where

00:40:24.820 you work and the requirements they have of other people if other people are wearing religious

00:40:28.900 symbols i think there are some legal situations you can get into but that's always a very difficult

00:40:34.580 and very expensive route so i would say first and foremost be very polite be very proud of your

00:40:40.420 faith talk about it in terms that they understand and that they respect um and that you know your

00:40:47.060 christian co-worker next to you talk in the same terms he would use to explain using his crucifix

00:40:52.820 if if your boss understands the one he's much closer to understanding the other if you use the

00:40:57.780 same kind of kind of language

00:41:07.700 matt um the afa does not celebrate leaf erickson's remembrance um there was a time in the past that

00:41:14.100 we did uh but leaf was and then there's a reason for that leaf was a first generation person to

00:41:21.940 denounce Ausatru and convert to Christianity. While he was certainly a member of our folk that did 0.51

00:41:30.580 great things, the points of our Days of Remembrance are for heroes of Ausatru,

00:41:35.220 folks that practiced Ausatru and folks that were part of our faith. Unfortunately,

00:41:41.780 Leif was one of those first generation of people that rejected Ausatru, and so the

00:41:47.060 So the Astro Folk Assembly doesn't any longer celebrate a Day of Remembrance.

00:41:56.920 All right, this is a really interesting question.

00:41:59.240 Thank you for asking this, Michael.

00:42:00.980 What path would you recommend for a Christian pastor seeking to learn and practice ausiture?

00:42:06.860 um a couple of comments on that that i again that sounds like a very unique situation

00:42:17.420 i'm assuming that it's someone who was a christian pastor and not one that's currently

00:42:25.020 a christian pastor um i would think that goes without saying but in the day and age that we

00:42:31.820 live and I can't be sure that that's the case. I would encourage anyone coming from Christianity,

00:42:41.420 but specifically someone coming from Christian clergy, I would like to reassure them they don't

00:42:48.160 need to throw the baby out with the bathwater. There is a tendency, and there certainly was in

00:42:53.100 the first generation of modern house of truth, to reject anything that Christians do and try to 0.56

00:42:59.340 define ourselves by how not Christian we are. That's, I understand that. I understand why that 0.97

00:43:06.460 happened, but that doesn't need to happen. We need to define ourselves by who we are.

00:43:13.460 One of the things with, and it depends on what denomination this pastor comes from and where

00:43:18.860 his background is, but very often Christianity in the West is practiced certain ways because

00:43:27.660 that's how white people practice religion, not because it has anything to do with Jesus.

00:43:33.460 So I would encourage him not to think of it as some, you know, has to change everything he does

00:43:39.640 or everything he's comfortable with. He does need to look at it through a very different lens. He

00:43:44.360 does need to reject the dogma and the Bible stories and the things that he's used to and

00:43:50.020 replace that with our stories, replace the faith that he once had with faith in our gods who are

00:43:56.240 very, very different. But the practice doesn't need to be completely different. He doesn't need

00:44:02.540 to go out and grow long hair and grow, you know, a long beard and start howling at the moon or

00:44:06.860 anything. He really doesn't. So I would encourage him to figure out what made him reject his

00:44:16.780 Christian faith that obviously he was so very active in. What was missing there? What holes

00:44:23.100 didn't feel right and then explore those within the context of Ausitre because I think that

00:44:30.220 there there's probably a lot of good there and a lot of valid things that he's built being a person

00:44:35.820 of faith that he could apply to Ausitre once he had the proper lens the proper understanding of

00:44:42.140 our Lord so I think that's a really interesting place to come from and I think it's a really

00:44:46.780 powerful testament to Alcetru, to where we've developed as a faith, and to our gods, that a

00:44:53.320 Christian pastor would want to reject that and embrace Alcetru. Robert Kelsey asked, when will

00:45:07.480 the directions to Winter Nights be sent out to those of y'all having registered?

00:45:11.360 um cliff uh hopefully mandy is seeing this and she can tag cliff erickson in your post i'm not

00:45:22.160 sure if we're keeping those details secret this year or just what but uh we can make sure those

00:45:27.920 get out to you if we tag cliff in this post we'll make sure those get to you

00:45:32.300 Thank you for asking and being concerned about our members who've been around the fires. You asked if any AFA members have lost homes due to the fires. Yes, one member did did lose his home as far as I understand in the state of Oregon right now is folk builders trying to talk to him about what he might need.

00:45:48.020 one member did did lose his home as far as i understand in the state of oregon

00:45:54.020 um right now as folk builders trying to talk to him about what he might need

00:45:58.740 we absolutely could do a fundraiser to help them out and we have some some resources and

00:46:03.220 folk services to do that sort of thing um hopefully mandy can remind me after this call

00:46:10.180 and we can look into that and see how that's progressing but yes and i'm glad that you're

00:46:15.140 thinking about our family that way um hopefully we can figure out something to do to help that

00:46:20.420 gentleman news on next hoffs and gods and goddesses to be honored and why these choices

00:46:33.460 uh so don next hoffs we are going to

00:46:37.460 We're in a really nice spot because we were in a situation where we can establish Hoffs much quicker than we could a long time ago, but we don't want to outpace ourselves.

00:46:51.460 We want to make sure we take care of the needs of the house we have before we acquire new ones.

00:46:58.460 ones. So we're looking and we're contemplating. We have a loan that we've taken out that needs

00:47:04.600 to be paid off before we start on the fourth Hoff. And the fourth Hoff is going to be dedicated to

00:47:11.300 New York. The reason that we're doing the gods that we're honoring with these Hoffs and then 0.98

00:47:17.540 the order that we're honoring them is we're going off of the the Hoffs as they're listed or the

00:47:26.660 gods rather as they're listed in the edict poem the gilfegane and in that poem the gods are laid

00:47:33.940 out and he lays out that there are 12 gods that are beneficial for mankind to worship

00:47:41.700 uh and he lays it out in kind of a cryptic way but those are the 12 the 12 gods that we're going with

00:47:49.620 and we're going in that order so if you want to look up that poem and go through there that's

00:47:55.940 that's how that's working we're absolutely going to move on on the next hops we haven't lost steam

00:48:00.420 on it but we do want to make sure there's a lot of work to be done certainly at balder's

00:48:04.580 hoff there's some work that needs to be done at thor's hoff too and we want to make sure

00:48:08.500 we have that all squared away and taken care of before we move on to the next project

00:48:13.220 but those hops should be in store certainly relatively soon

00:48:17.060 rex following on to his question we're already looking we always have our eyes open but like i

00:48:28.260 said we do want to pay off the uh the loan that we have for the office that we have currently

00:48:32.500 before we start getting into another hoth project and we want to make sure that

00:48:36.740 major major work on those is all taken care of before we move on to that

00:48:41.620 Tyler, so some of you, okay, hopefully, Mandy can tag Cliff in this too. If not, I'll try to go.

00:48:55.540 Tyler, you want to talk to Cliff Erickson? See erickson at runestone.org and confirm that

00:49:01.540 you're still on the list to get runestones. I don't know if something may have changed with

00:49:07.920 your email preferences but no they've come out every single month so if you haven't been getting

00:49:12.540 them then that's something that we got to get figured out but they have been out there and

00:49:16.720 okay maybe you're looking at the afa library if you're looking at the library on our website

00:49:25.460 there has been several months that we haven't gone back and uploaded them we were looking for

00:49:30.140 volunteers to help and one of their jobs is going to be to upload rune stones so if that's what

00:49:36.520 you're referring to, I will try to get to the bottom of that and help those get uploaded

00:49:40.520 if that's where you're looking at them. But yeah, I believe that was probably back in May.

00:49:49.480 Sarah asks, how's work progressing at Baldershof? Work is progressing great. We've got people

00:49:56.540 putting in a lot of hard work with a lot of skill and a lot of know-how to make Baldershof special

00:50:00.560 and set and ready um the date for the dedication in november is very tentative we have some stuff

00:50:08.400 in the community we need to get figured out first and we have some some regional shake-ups there that

00:50:13.840 we're working on and we don't want to make promises on that date until we're 100 sure

00:50:18.720 that's what we're shooting for that's what we're trying for but there's a lot that needs to get done

00:50:30.560 Andrew, you're right. The only calendar in the store is 2020. We do not have the 2021 out yet,

00:50:38.000 but we are working behind the scenes on that, and I'm hoping that can be out relatively shortly.

00:50:44.000 The 2020 calendar does have those dates we were talking about earlier,

00:50:48.480 but I understand why in October of 2020, you probably don't want to purchase that calendar.

00:50:53.840 We are getting a new one though made for 2021, and hopefully that'll be up soon.

00:51:00.560 Yeah, Tyler I see I see your your comment now and yes it's just we haven't had somebody upload them on there.

00:51:26.560 We had some volunteer situations with that fall through, but I'd like to get those up there.

00:51:32.820 I don't want to get that figured out for you, and you're right, it has been since May since we've got them up on the website.

00:51:37.300 But if you're not receiving them in your email, that's something that your folk builder and Cliff can help you get fixed.

00:51:52.460 Lane, any issues of celebrating Yule in January?

00:51:55.420 Yeah, it's weird.

00:51:56.560 Um, I don't, I believe really strongly in our faith that intention and will are fundamental to all that we do. And, you know, I don't think, you know, from my perspective, I don't think that our gods are greatly offended at you if you celebrate Yule in January.

00:52:20.680 I have. If you look at the history of our people and all of the things that all of the different branches of our people did for thousands of years, I'm sure you will find outliers.

00:52:35.740 But celebrating you all around the time of the solstice was always very important to our people, certainly fundamental to how we practice how to true today.

00:52:44.100 um you can celebrate yule whenever you want and i don't think it hurts anything

00:52:49.320 but your best bet for celebrating yule is during yuletide uh at the at the end of december there

00:52:56.520 with the rest of us when you celebrate yule at the same time the rest of us are and it's different

00:53:01.240 if you're in a different hemisphere but if you celebrate yule when everybody else is celebrating

00:53:05.820 you build that uh you build up that magical energy with everyone around the world celebrating

00:53:13.580 and connecting with each other at a special time for a special purpose and the further you are

00:53:18.940 away from that the more you miss out from that that synchronicity of our folk

00:53:22.520 so lane yeah i would i would i would urge you to celebrate yule at the time the rest of us

00:53:36.760 celebrating yule from uh excuse me from uh the 21st on through the new year

00:53:48.440 or the 20th rather for uh through the new year

00:53:57.640 james alt says this but yes absolutely ask your folk builder about the hoff toller

00:54:02.120 So now that he brings it up, something that has helped us, we got a couple questions about when's the AFA going to do our next Hoff and excitement about that. The reason we've been able to do that is because you guys have stepped up your generosity in really important ways.

00:54:20.520 started last year with folks paying, paying instead of their typical membership dues of,

00:54:28.700 of, you know, $10 a month or $25 a month, they've started paying the Havtoler, which is based on a

00:54:34.400 percentage of their income. And that's a minimum of 1% of your income. And that has really enabled

00:54:42.360 us to make a huge leap forward in what we're able to accomplish. You guys being generous

00:54:48.400 makes all the difference because it it takes money to do things it takes money to buy hoffs

00:54:53.520 it takes money to advance and you guys open it up your opening up your wallets helping out by

00:55:00.720 giving us that hoff toy percentage if we share that percentage of each other's success

00:55:07.280 it really moves us into the big leagues where we can accomplish some really amazing things

00:55:11.440 and that's the reason we've been able to to establish stores off and now balder's off

00:55:18.400 Elaine if you're looking to submit things for possible inclusion in a new bloat book

00:55:46.480 i would recommend sending them to spawn that's spawn's helping out tremendously with that

00:55:53.760 project so i would try to get those to go through the spawn herald um

00:56:03.120 any thoughts on stephen polington's work on the lore and on runes other than his work being

00:56:08.000 expensive his work is very expensive james and i wish that it wasn't because i wish more people

00:56:14.800 had access to it. I think Stephen Paulington is a huge expert in his field. I actually got to

00:56:23.060 meet him and give him a ride one time. He came to AFM Midsummer, I want to say 2010, maybe 2011

00:56:33.160 in California. And he was a great guy. He was a great guy to meet. I don't believe he's ousted

00:56:41.260 true but he's certainly open to it and talks with on friendly terms of a lot of people who do

00:56:46.380 practice house the truth i think his work is really good his his english warrior is really

00:56:55.360 good and his his meat hall book is very good um also elder gods is very good they're just very

00:57:01.340 expensive i i was younger back then and i missed out on getting the ones he brought with him that

00:57:08.500 sold at a very reasonable price i thought i'll just i'll be able to pick that up when i get home

00:57:13.140 i'll order it on amazon and uh yeah the price was kind of shocking so i wish that there was

00:57:17.700 a way that those were a little bit less because his work is very very good

00:57:22.500 Zach Kato asks, what do I think of the Norena Society?

00:57:42.280 All right.

00:57:42.960 So this is why we do Q&A things.

00:57:48.860 I don't want to trash anybody, but I do want to be very honest.

00:57:52.500 Mark Puryear, who started and runs the Naranis Society, or certainly is a big part of running the Naranis Society.

00:58:01.500 I have a lot of respect for him personally. He is a great guy. He's a gentleman. He has always been extremely nice to me.

00:58:10.220 He and I have a pretty good relationship, I think. And so I wouldn't want to say anything bad about Mark.

00:58:17.000 There's a lot of members and people involved in the Norena Society that I have less respect for.

00:58:25.120 I talked earlier in this discussion tonight about outstreet being about practice.

00:58:38.000 um i think the norena society does a really really good job of researching obscure things

00:58:48.220 and documenting those obscure things and writing materials and

00:58:54.840 those are all really important things and it's very easy when i get so passionate about

00:59:02.620 practicing also true to not give due to uh to research because without research we would miss

00:59:11.660 out on so much of the richness of what we do in our practice but i think there's a fundamental

00:59:17.180 difference between learning about also true or coming up with theories and ideas about how you

00:59:24.300 think outside truth should be practiced and actually being a part of and practicing house

00:59:33.580 And I don't feel the narrative society puts their emphasis in the right place when it comes to that.

00:59:42.920 As far as a group of people that research Alcetru, I think that they are really good as a part of, well, I say, as a group of people that research historical practice involved in ancient Alcetru, I think they do a very good job.

01:00:00.100 But as far as people who are involved with or contribute to the modern practice of Ausatru, I think that they don't do very well at that.

01:00:12.380 But like I say, I have all the respect in the world for Mark Perrier, and I know he puts his heart and soul into what he does.

01:00:18.600 I don't mean to disrespect that at all.

01:00:20.660 But I think that I've seen a lot of people that have not found success practicing Ausatru in the real world gravitate towards the Norena society so that they can endlessly pour over obscure bits of ancient archaeology rather than actually get out worshiping our gods and being part of a group of people worshiping our gods.

01:00:45.000 Fundamentally, that's what Ausatru is about.

01:00:46.680 It's about gathering with a community of your folk to honor and build a relationship with the Aesir.

01:00:53.580 That's always been important.

01:00:55.200 It's been important to all of our ancestors since the Ice Age, since Hyperborea, since Ymir was deconstructed in order to build the universe that we're in.

01:01:09.340 So, yeah, those are my thoughts on that.

01:01:12.420 And like I say, all respect to Mark Burrier.

01:01:26.660 It is hunting season.

01:01:28.480 Hail Uler.

01:01:29.180 That's one of the things I miss about being in Alaska is I used to love to go hunting.

01:01:33.940 It was great when we'd hunt for moose, but it was even great just to go hunt for ptarmigan

01:01:39.540 or, or grouse or rabbit and get out there. I miss that a lot. So good luck to all our hunters out

01:01:46.640 there. I hope you guys bring home plenty for your, for your family and for your folk, especially,

01:01:52.020 and I'm jealous for you guys out there hunting moose. Moose meat is delicious and I hope you

01:01:56.920 guys get plenty. Oh, okay, Michael. Well, that's, that's really fascinating. Thank you for sharing

01:02:06.680 your story i i didn't realize that it was you personally who was that christian pastor who left

01:02:12.460 and joined the afa that's that's really special and it means a lot that you did that um and i

01:02:22.440 think that means a lot to our gods too that you would go from that to embracing what we do um

01:02:29.560 And yeah, if you have any specific questions about that, please reach out to me, send me an email or just reach out to me here on Facebook.

01:02:40.040 I'd love to talk to you about that. That's really fascinating. Thank you for sharing that.

01:02:59.560 Mario, I think that's a really interesting thing that you have and that you understand

01:03:07.200 there. 0.84

01:03:08.200 Mario says, as a former Roman Catholic, a lot of heathenry and Ausatru feels very similar

01:03:11.840 to him, but much more fulfilling. 0.97

01:03:15.320 The reason for that, in my belief, is that European Christianity developed based on our

01:03:22.240 Ausatru roots. 0.79

01:03:24.480 That's why the European Catholic Church is so very, very different from the Middle Eastern

01:03:29.320 Christian churches is the, you know, especially if you read the Germanization of early medieval Christianity, you understand that so much of that was built upon us, our folk, our folk customs, our hero worship, and our honoring of the gods and our ancestors.

01:03:47.120 So much of that was co-opted into Roman Catholic tradition, and I'm glad that you see that.

01:03:59.320 Oh, and Donna note on that in regards to your, you're asking.

01:04:29.320 why why the scheme of honoring those 12 gods with these with these first hoffs uh in the

01:04:36.520 gilfagening poem that's something that myself i actually talked about with uh brad taylor hicks

01:04:42.840 that was kind of a mentor of mine a very important person in the afa at a very important time and

01:04:48.920 that was something that he and i had kind of kind of worked on and talked about together

01:04:53.640 when we didn't have hoffs and and something that i thought was a really important thing

01:04:59.000 and something that I wanted to carry on into a day and age when we did have our Hoffs.

01:05:04.120 So he was, in a way, he was the genesis for that idea.

01:05:13.920 Mario, has 2020 seen a surge in membership outside the U.S.?

01:05:18.500 Just wondering.

01:05:20.060 Yes, it has, but in a different way.

01:05:22.540 Before 2020, we had a big surge of people, specifically in Scandinavia.

01:05:27.120 Specifically, the groups that Anders, our folk builder over there, Anders Nilsson was building, and he has a great group over there. They're still doing very, very well.

01:05:37.120 But we have seen an increase recently in 2020 of people in different areas around the world.

01:05:44.120 We've seen some folks in different parts of South America who've joined.

01:05:49.120 We've seen some activity that we haven't seen in a while in some isolated parts of Europe.

01:05:55.120 Certainly we've seen a boost in our membership in Italy.

01:05:58.120 And we have a new folk builder in the United Kingdom, but in Northern Ireland.

01:06:07.120 So she's she's on the island of Ireland over there.

01:06:10.120 So kind of in two worlds that way we have.

01:06:15.000 yeah we've had some international growth that's just been in different areas than

01:06:18.120 we've traditionally seen up to this point and that's really an exciting thing

01:06:29.080 um

01:06:32.360 what else we got

01:06:44.120 Looks like is waxing poetic about the synchronicities of of 12 as a recurring theme and what we're doing.

01:06:54.440 It's certainly part of of the solar resurgence vows to true and a focus on.

01:07:00.500 On a lot of the solar principle, and I think it's kind of beautifully put by.

01:07:05.480 by Goethe's Fawn there.

01:07:15.440 Where is the store?

01:07:16.400 The store is at Runestone Gifts.

01:07:20.720 There's a link at our website.

01:07:22.260 If you go to www.runestone.org,

01:07:25.320 there is a link on there for the AFA store.

01:07:27.740 And there you can find the things that we do have in stock.

01:07:30.900 And Mandy is also correct

01:07:33.560 when she says it's in our garage.

01:07:35.480 Because that's where the stock is being held until I take it to the post office.

01:07:48.480 Andrew Johnston, if you, if you want to volunteer to help with the website, reach out to Clifford Erickson, see Erickson at runestone.org. Cliff definitely needs some help.

01:07:59.480 He's going to need to kind of see where your skills lie and what we can do and how that works. But he's the man you want to talk to. And yeah, thank you very much for offering that. And hopefully we can find some stuff to put your work on and do that. Thank you for offering.

01:08:14.660 Robert, I'm not sure if you saw me or if you heard me earlier, but go to www.roomstone.org

01:08:27.120 and click on the store link and it'll take you right to our store.

01:08:33.040 There we go.

01:08:40.600 All right.

01:08:41.200 It looks like some folks have posted a link for that for you.

01:08:43.500 You guys are getting to it before I answer. Appreciate that. We've got some great people looking out. I appreciate having the backup on that.

01:08:58.480 Thorfest in January is a regional event. It's going to be held in Colorado. It's always a good time. It's a nice time of the year to go do stuff in Colorado. It's nice and cold and wintry. I miss that.

01:09:09.200 So, yeah, if you guys can make it out Thorfest in January, I will be there and our folk builder, Jason Plur puts in a lot of work to make a really nice event. I've been there for the first two. I plan on being here for the third one this year. It's a good time and I hope you guys do register.

01:09:26.500 Yes, Will, absolutely. Our leadership in the AFA Upper South is doing amazing. We've got some of our very best and very brightest building that region and making it shine. That is the region that hosts Thorshof, and we're very fortunate to have you guys there working so hard making that such a successful area for us.

01:09:56.500 you're welcome Zach like I say I don't want to talk about about anybody that's not

01:10:12.100 not my meaning but I do want to answer answer questions frankly when I can

01:10:17.080 Robert, I appreciate you buying that book.

01:10:28.180 Robert just bought the Astru book of Blotar and Rituals by the Astru Folk Assembly.

01:10:33.120 The book's very outdated.

01:10:34.520 We're working on putting a new one.

01:10:35.920 A lot of that book doesn't reflect the...

01:10:39.920 Arguably, it didn't reflect the AFA very well at the time.

01:10:44.200 It certainly doesn't reflect the AFA very well now.

01:10:47.080 I would look for any rituals in there by Alan Turnage. Alan is still a very strong member of the AFA. He is on the Whitten. He is, you know, he's absolutely one of our best guys and his stuff is very solid.

01:11:01.060 I think when you're looking in there, if you look for anything that's just, it's been forever since I've read the table of contents for that book because we've been trying so hard to replace it.

01:11:11.000 But anything in there that talks about the D-seer or the D-seer bloat, that's what I would look into.

01:11:18.980 That will be really helpful.

01:11:20.620 The other thing, Robert, if you want to, I would suggest that you reach out to Katie Erickson.

01:11:26.720 um katie will be able to help you really well and i think that that she can give you some

01:11:33.440 really good guidance on winter nights in general and on uh on the dc or and on a dc or bloat

01:11:40.340 um katie erickson and it fails me you guys may notice that on our uh our runestone situation we

01:11:50.100 we have our first initial and our last name is our runestone address well since cliff and katie

01:11:56.020 both uh got married see erickson is already taken so hopefully mandy can hear me and mandy can link

01:12:02.740 you to katie's email address and i will make sure i get better on knowing exactly what her email

01:12:07.540 address is um but yeah robert that's who i'd suggest you reach out to and like i said hopefully

01:12:13.460 somebody who's hearing me talk that's an afa leader can go ahead and link you to katie

01:12:36.420 um okay so

01:12:38.580 So, Jason asks, how do I feel about Proto-Indo-Europeans and their attitude towards women?

01:12:49.540 I think it's very hard to authentically say what the attitudes of the Proto-Indo-European

01:12:55.700 peoples were towards women in ancient Indo-European aria-varta times.

01:13:03.260 I think that a couple of things of note about that was recognizing the sacrality of women

01:13:11.240 in their proper roles as women. I think that was very relevant to the Proto-Indo-Europeans

01:13:21.780 and has come down to us in a lot of traditions. I think that in modern paganism, there has been

01:13:28.120 far too heavy of an emphasis on the horse goddess and far too little emphasis on the cow goddess

01:13:34.840 one thing about the proto-indo-europeans and the relationship to women that i think is really

01:13:40.160 important and i think for our people to make note today that you could transition a horse goddess

01:13:47.480 towards becoming a cow goddess but you couldn't go the other way and go backwards and so i think

01:13:53.920 there's something to be spoken about, about our women transitioning to those different phases of

01:13:59.420 life and to celebrating goddesses of motherhood, of family, of order, and of frith weaving.

01:14:07.060 And I think all too often the focus has been too much on the wild abandon and the sexuality

01:14:13.380 while taking away from and not emphasizing the motherhood and the order and the structure and

01:14:21.880 support of Proto-Indo-European society that women were so much a part of.

01:14:40.000 Zach, I'm not sure what you're asking. Zach asks, where one may find most of the heroes for our

01:14:44.620 days of remembrance outside of list Rudd and Christensen um where you can find a list of

01:14:52.180 what those days are Zach or where you can find information of those people I'm not exactly

01:14:58.640 sure the question you're answering or you're asking and I apologize for that Michael your

01:15:10.940 Your journey sounds very interesting.

01:15:12.820 I appreciate you sharing with us.

01:15:14.180 That's fascinating.

01:15:15.180 Brian I'm doing it again and I apologize I keep I keep thinking that you

01:15:45.060 guys seeing it in a see it in a scroll on the side of the screen or if you're watching it on

01:15:49.940 facebook in a little or i obviously you're watching it on facebook or if you're watching it on your

01:15:55.620 phone in a little chat section underneath it i forget that you guys if you're watching it on

01:16:00.980 your computer can't see the questions i'm trying to get better about reading the question out loud

01:16:08.260 obviously i still have a ways to go on that but i'm sorry about that

01:16:15.060 Oh, and Mandy kind of answered the question, too, if that was a different route you were taking.

01:16:18.820 I have to look down and look at my phone because I get different questions on my phone than I do here live for whatever reason.

01:16:45.060 Yeah, Brian, it seems like Facebook's always trying to, and whatever our issues with Facebook, I think that they try really hard to keep their system up to date and flashy with the newest and the best things.

01:16:55.480 But sometimes the updates they do don't really make the user experience better.

01:16:59.860 And sometimes it just confuses some of us that are used to doing it one way and we've got to figure out the new system.

01:17:05.220 I know that's a struggle for me often.

01:17:10.660 Mario, we will definitely work on that.

01:17:12.500 Mario says there isn't a Yule bloat in the Book of Blotar.

01:17:16.060 In our new book that describes our bloats and our ritual and why we do what we do, we will make sure to have one in there. 0.99

01:17:29.100 Make note, if you're in the Midwest, we've got our apprentice boat builder who is in Wisconsin but travels around the region talking about October moots.

01:17:38.640 They have set up for Ohio, for Illinois, Wisconsin, and Michigan.

01:17:42.500 and they're going to be listed soon those folks would love to help you get involved we have a lot

01:17:46.180 of members in that area and we're building something really special there so if you are

01:17:49.860 in that region please reach out those guys would love to help brian yes there are plans on printing

01:17:57.780 more thorshof shirts there's plans on printing up more shirts for just about everything

01:18:02.420 unfortunately we're running right now kind of one shirt set at a time i'm about to put some

01:18:07.300 women's afa shirts on the website as soon as i get those unpacked and sorted um that'll be our next

01:18:13.780 thing so i'm not sure when we're going to shuffle around to more thorshoff shirts but we absolutely

01:18:18.420 want to have more of those um it's just a matter when we can get to them and i'm trying to roll

01:18:23.140 through that as best I can. Sorry, guys, I'm trying to catch up on the questions and things

01:18:49.920 over on the side, running a little bit overtime tonight, but I spent 20 minutes flailing and

01:18:54.880 fumbling thinking you guys weren't asking questions. So I figured I'd go a little bit

01:18:58.960 longer and try to make sure I could answer more and talk to you guys a little bit more and a

01:19:02.700 little bit better. Henry asks, is the structure and bylaws of the AFA readily available?

01:19:12.400 um no not really um if you had questions i would email witten at runestone.org and we could get those answered for you um it just takes them running around or finding them for you but we could get that that squared away

01:19:27.400 Um, Mario, I think that you're responding to where we came up with the origin of the days of remembrance outside of those ones that Zach mentioned.

01:19:51.400 mentioned. Most of those have historically been something that I believe was instituted in the

01:19:58.220 Astru Free Assembly way back in the 1980s, I think was the first time they started celebrating those

01:20:04.700 days of remembrance. Very often those are Norwegian martyrs for our faith that were listed in poems

01:20:16.420 in the hymn Skringla, but we wanted to expand that a little bit to take into account some other

01:20:22.620 heroes of, heroes of Alcetru, certainly modern heroes of Alcetru like von List, like A. Rudd

01:20:29.100 Mills, like Elsie, but also I wanted to, to celebrate Athenaric of the, of the Goths because

01:20:40.000 he was a very proud proponent of our faith and was at a time where his tribesmen were weighing,

01:20:48.420 keeping their old faith with embracing the Christianity that they found in Rome. And so

01:20:53.480 I think that's an important story to be told. We also have some other outliers such as Herman

01:20:58.040 and such as Radbot of the Frisians.

01:21:04.180 So they've been extrapolated over our time of Alcetru becoming

01:21:10.640 and looking back to history at folks that stood for our faith against opposition.

01:21:16.640 And now they've evolved to include modern heroes

01:21:20.880 that have been so important to the resurgence of Alcetru in our time

01:21:25.060 and in the time of our parents and grandparents.

01:21:28.040 Thank you.

01:21:58.040 uh james we will happily we always make two x's um we don't currently and it's just not a not a

01:22:13.900 reasonable thing for us to do to have three x's in stock but having two x's is something we always do

01:22:19.940 um that may be one of the sizes that goes quick it seems like every time we try to stock shirts and

01:22:24.660 We sure to sell out of one size, we stock heavy for it, and the next go around, it's a whole different size that seems to be the big seller.

01:22:31.840 So that's always a tricky thing to figure out what works right.

01:22:40.460 So Brian asks, what I would recommend for somebody interested in becoming a Goethe in the future, study-wise.

01:22:49.340 As folks may or may not know, and I know this isn't the question, but I think it's an important preamble.

01:22:56.340 Folks that want to become a Goathe in the Astro Folk Assembly need to first go through their time being a folk builder for a number of reasons.

01:23:04.340 It gets you very well versed in the very real membership struggles and hard work that goes into being a Goathe behind the scenes.

01:23:16.340 And it gets you very familiar with the AFA and how we do things.

01:23:22.180 And I think that's really important.

01:23:23.840 As far as study materials for Gothar, we have a list of Gothi prerequisites that Gothi Spahn can get you and get you squared away with if you ask him.

01:23:34.840 I think that's the best, you know, do that because that's the reason that list exists.

01:23:40.320 And as I said, Goethe Spahn can get those for you if you reach out to him at sheral, s-h-e-r-u-l, at runestone.org, or if somebody could tag him in your message there.

01:23:54.800 Yeah, off the top of my head, what I think would be a very valuable thing for you to read and study is the culture of the Teutons.

01:24:01.220 I always recommend it, but it's very, very important.

01:24:04.140 So that's something that I would recommend you make a study of.

01:24:10.320 Hmm. All right. We have Jason asking, spiritually speaking, why is loyalty so sacred?

01:24:27.040 Trying to think of the best approach. Trust is fundamental to accomplishing anything.

01:24:35.080 if you can't trust people standing next to you then you can't focus on your goal ahead you always

01:24:41.020 have to be looking over your shoulder loyalty is very important because our ability to commit

01:24:46.660 to each other our ability to commit to our gods and our ability to commit to a goal or to a cause

01:24:54.100 is the only way that we move forward and we find success when we are atomized when we're only out

01:25:02.080 for ourselves we're scattered we're easily defeated and we make no progress as a people

01:25:09.440 sometimes we make individual progress but you've got everybody all around you looking to take that

01:25:14.800 progress from you and there's not loyalty having loyalty in those bonds that it makes

01:25:23.360 there's the practical you need people on your team to accomplish things you need to be able

01:25:28.160 to trust the man next to you, but as we see when we gather for ritual and as we see when we share

01:25:34.060 a horn for sumble, having a group of trusted people who are united by loyalty is worth more

01:25:42.340 than the sum of those parts. The bond and the brotherhood built by loyalty, loyalty within

01:25:48.540 the AFA, loyalty to our gods, loyalty to our cause of Ausatru, it amplifies all of those

01:25:58.340 individual pieces and makes us each worth more than we would be as a collection of individuals.

01:26:05.320 Loyalty is kind of an X factor that allows us to do great things. We've seen in the past when

01:26:09.980 our folk are united, strong bonds of loyalty, they are almost unbreakable. But when they're

01:26:18.040 Loosely kind of confederated in a very loose bond, and there's not that loyalty. We're easily defeated by any force that wants to defeat us. Loyalty is the key to victory.

01:26:29.920 Oh, Brian, I would reach out to folk builder, Trent East T East at room stone dot org as far as I know, he was 1 of the people who was heavily involved in the A. F. A.

01:26:58.920 in the AFA Duolingo group. I'm not sure if that's still very active or not, but I know I still use

01:27:04.040 Duolingo. I think it's a really good resource and I hope folks are using it.

01:27:15.800 I'm Don Ricardo. You've always disliked proselytizing and you want to know my ideas

01:27:22.440 on how best to share our faith by example and how do we see the astro faith progressing over the

01:27:29.080 years um i think that proselytizing is a loaded term that means different things to different

01:27:35.400 people i think going out and talking to people about your faith is important and is a really

01:27:41.240 powerful tool i think we don't want to go door to door and bother people i think that's obnoxious

01:27:47.720 and i don't think that's well received and i don't think that's going to be successful

01:27:50.840 But I do think that sharing our faith and in a convicted way that we believe this is important, we have conviction in it, is really important.

01:28:00.720 And we should want to share that with people.

01:28:03.860 By example, certainly.

01:28:05.580 People always ask, and I think the most important thing that we have to show our faith and to spread and give fame to Ausitru is by being great examples of it.

01:28:18.640 If you look good, if you behave good, if you are successful, if you have a nice family, you have success in your life, people will see that and they'll wonder what you have and how you were able to do this.

01:28:32.900 And if you're able to explain that you're able to be the person you are because of your faith in House of Truth, that's a powerful testimony that nobody can, nobody can look bad at.

01:28:43.360 So example is certainly the best way I would recommend to share our faith.

01:28:49.660 The more we have Hoffs, the more we grow our membership that way, but specifically when we have real world things, we're going to garner a lot more attention from people over the years.

01:29:01.840 That's going to be a very real thing.

01:29:04.900 Hopefully that brings a lot of people to what we're doing.

01:29:07.920 One thing I've noticed that we've in a way that we've been progressing, and I hope I hope that we continue progressing this way is that also true has has grown up in a lot of ways.

01:29:22.920 We've changed from defining ourselves by what we're not.

01:29:29.920 not now we define ourselves by what we are about what also true is we've stopped um focus on biking

01:29:39.440 reenactment and focused on living out so true today and dressing like modern people and existing

01:29:45.920 in the world that we live in and making it better we've also moved from being you know very closed

01:29:51.440 off and very secretive to practicing also true in the in the light practicing also true in the

01:29:56.400 the daylight, being proud of who we are. And, and I think that's helped a lot. I think we've

01:30:03.140 initially got a lot of people that had a lot of struggles, a lot of fringe people. Initially,

01:30:10.280 I think we've seen over the last, you know, five years, certainly 10 years beyond that,

01:30:16.620 have seen a growth in Alistair True of, you know, more run of the mill people,

01:30:21.460 more people in the middle, more people who are successful people in life.

01:30:27.600 We had a lot of people early on come to Oustertrue because they didn't find success in other places.

01:30:32.360 Now we're seeing people that have normally been successful that choose Oustertrue not from a place of weakness,

01:30:39.020 but from a place of strength. And that's been a really big advancement.

01:30:42.660 So I see us progressing more that way. I see us getting more young families,

01:30:46.540 more people that are successful, more people that are less from the fringes, and more normal folks wanting to return to the religion of their ancestors. That's where I see us progressing.

01:31:16.540 So Joe asks about those 12 Aesir, and he mentions some different questions in the edit. If you read the Gilfagginan poem that I mentioned, he lists 12, but he lists them in a very strange way. He actually lists 14, but two of those he makes mention, it's not good to worship, or we wouldn't want their name spoken.

01:31:39.440 so deciding on that is one of the tricky things and hoder is one of those so um and yes certainly

01:31:48.320 frey was accepted and is one of the aesir he was he was brought into the you know the tribe of the

01:31:52.640 aesir and he's mentioned in the poem that i mentioned as one of the 12. uh if i remember

01:31:57.600 correctly he's who the fifth hoff will be dedicated to

01:32:09.680 apparently i passed zach's test i'm i'm glad um yes the stories in the heimskringla were

01:32:17.760 where most of the original days of remembrance um heroes are from also as a matter of fact the heim

01:32:26.640 screen limit was the first it was the first bit of our lore that i read way back 20 years ago now

01:32:35.840 and i found it really fascinating that was something i was reading when i was recovering

01:32:39.360 from a splenectomy that i went through random random factoid but something that always comes to

01:32:46.000 mind uh mario i would suggest if you have legal questions that you consult our law speaker alan

01:33:01.280 turnage a turnage at runestone.org alan is a lawyer um he practices in florida so i don't

01:33:10.640 know how much he can help you with canadian issues but he at least speaks that language

01:33:15.280 and if you had some specific questions I'm sure he'd be very happy to try to do what he could to

01:33:18.880 help you. Is there an effort to unify FOLKISH organizations from the AFA? There is always

01:33:31.280 an effort by the AFA to bring all of the FOLKISH Ausitruer under the trihorns and to have them all 0.94

01:33:36.880 join the Ausitru Folk Assembly. That's what I strongly believe in. I think that is the most

01:33:42.480 effective thing to unify focus house true organizations when you say that i'm not really

01:33:47.440 sure who these other focus house true organizations are so i think there's a couple of questions that

01:33:52.640 need to be asked there but yes in in in that sense we certainly would love to organize or

01:33:59.600 to unify folk shouts to true all as part of the outstreet folk assembly

01:34:29.600 okay um so okay a little bit more on your question there um as far as other groups

01:34:59.600 You mentioned, I've got to say, I'm not familiar with the PNWWP as far as the Australia Alliance is concerned, what they do and what we do is very different.

01:35:16.600 I don't feel that in large part, we're on the same page and I'm sure that we are on the same page with members of the Alliance.

01:35:23.600 the alliance there's a lot of members on the alliance that are very far in other directions

01:35:29.040 that aren't in alignment with us i don't believe that that group is inherently folkish in this day

01:35:35.040 and age i think that it very much was when it was founded and i think it's gone a real different

01:35:39.120 direction um but you know folkish members of the astro alliance that would like to be part

01:35:47.520 of what we're doing i would love to see them join the astro folk assembly as far as what you're

01:35:52.240 saying george with uh the odinic right there's a lot of things about the odinic right in their

01:35:58.400 literature that i really like there's members that i've met that i really liked it's very hard to find

01:36:04.320 odinic right members that aren't incarcerated i've only met or interacted with a few here in

01:36:10.640 the united states that are not that are not incarcerated um the metzgers up in oregon um

01:36:17.680 I don't know him very well, but I know I met Himla and she seems like a very nice lady. 1.00

01:36:23.680 I'm sure she's got some good things going on, but I don't, the Odenic right is kind of keeping 0.99

01:36:30.160 very much to themselves as far as I can tell. They are very much out of the limelight. I think 1.00

01:36:37.520 they have a very strong prison outreach here in the United States, but outside of prison,

01:36:41.840 I really haven't seen that they have a lot going on.

01:36:47.680 um henry that's a good question you say under you said what about equals i'm unaware of any

01:36:55.360 other folkish organization that could claim equality with the astro folk assembly and i

01:37:00.320 don't say that rudely but what i always find when people ask those questions or want unity of focus

01:37:05.840 organizations is they take groups of 10 people and want those to be treated equally with groups

01:37:12.000 of hundreds of people and in also true and in any of the groups you've mentioned we talk about how

01:37:19.440 we don't believe in equality and how equality is a false god we we believe in in merit

01:37:29.200 we believe in accomplishment and we do believe in hierarchy um i'm not opposed to working with

01:37:36.160 another folkish group that had somewhat similar to what the austral folk assembly has in scope

01:37:42.880 or in membership or things of that nature but i don't think that really exists or i certainly

01:37:49.200 haven't seen that here in the united states i think there may be some organizations like that

01:37:53.600 in europe that we don't know about and again if situations comes up with groups that are equal to

01:37:59.600 the astral folk assembly i'd be happy to work with them under that uh under that agreement

01:38:05.600 but i don't see any groups here domestically that

01:38:09.280 are frankly at the same level the astrofolk assembly is currently and i don't mean that

01:38:14.000 that insultingly at all all right guys do we have any more questions um

01:38:40.400 Henry, no, the AFA is not interested in building other organizations. We have our plate full building the Astro Folk Assembly and are very successful. In the past, where I've seen, you know, desires for the AFA to help other groups, it's always other groups of very few people standing on the shoulders of what the Astro Folk Assembly has built.

01:39:06.520 and it's not building what we're doing we're much stronger if we work together going forward

01:39:11.880 and the astro folk assembly is that way forward and i'd encourage those other groups to join

01:39:17.640 if they don't they're welcome to do what they're doing on their own i think they would find much

01:39:22.840 more success and i think we would all do much better if they would join the astro folk assembly

01:39:36.280 Looking to see if I missed anything here real quick.

01:39:41.100 I appreciate you guys very much for bearing with me tonight.

01:39:45.020 I know there was a portion of this conversation that I couldn't see.

01:39:48.300 So I thought you guys weren't asking stuff and you were.

01:39:51.160 But I appreciate you guys hanging in there.

01:39:56.860 Checking the last stuff here.

01:40:05.560 Mario asks for a laugh, but my thoughts on the usage of our gods and political movements,

01:40:22.320 for example, the soldiers of Odin, I think our gods are important to inspire our people

01:40:27.160 to do things.

01:40:28.780 And I think that our people being active politically and inspired by our gods is is in keeping

01:40:34.780 with that um i think one needs to be really really careful though when they try to overtly

01:40:43.660 put our gods on the face of their politics because while i think that there's room certainly

01:40:50.140 for religiosity in someone's political actions that's always been the case with our folks since

01:40:54.780 the dawn of time i think that it becomes very arrogant when we

01:41:04.780 when we use the gods for our ends rather than using ourselves for the gods ends

01:41:12.100 when we put words or ideas into our gods mouths especially those that are extremely foreign you

01:41:20.360 say for a laugh and you mentioned some right-wing groups but i've seen a lot of left-wing groups

01:41:26.480 um with the unis putting our gods on all kind of very strange and very deviant political messages

01:41:34.060 that have zero commonality with anything that our Lord tells us about our gods

01:41:38.960 or that our tradition tells us about our people and our values.

01:41:43.340 So I would be very, very careful with the use of our gods for political things,

01:41:49.300 and I would keep that as limited and as complete good faith with our tradition as possible.

01:41:58.780 George, my thoughts exactly.

01:42:04.060 there is some of ashley asked if there's any official afa literature available for purchase

01:42:14.060 on our website in our store there are a couple of things we are working on getting some more

01:42:18.700 literature out there that's been something we focused a lot on building on establishing hoffs

01:42:23.900 on building community and on doing as far as that but on producing literature that's always

01:42:31.260 been something that we've wished we were better at and that we just haven't had the right people

01:42:35.340 in the right places with the right skill set to do that as well as we should we're working on

01:42:40.060 it behind the scenes we have some good projects in the work we'll definitely get some more afa

01:42:45.580 literature out there uh zach cato asked the symbolism of the afa flag and the afa trihorns

01:42:57.500 The spinning horns are the horns of Odin and Odin's inspiration.

01:43:07.020 They're Bowdoin, Son, and Odrurir are the names of these horns. These horns carry the meat of

01:43:14.140 inspiration, inspiration to the All-Father, inspiration from the All-Father to us, and

01:43:19.580 spinning in that spinning motion that's so common to the motifs of all Aryan peoples in our tradition.

01:43:25.340 This symbol was specifically found on the Snotalev stone in Denmark, and it's accompanied by other symbols of that solar energy, of that spinning, of that inspiration, this being the most recent in the series of three that were on that stone.

01:43:47.740 But that's what that's from. The blue represents the cloak of the All-Father and the mystery of the night sky. The white and the orange represent purity, purity of our purpose, purity of our spirits.

01:44:03.600 And that gold is also purity, that symbol of value, of timeless value. It's not like shiny gold. If you go try to get that gold made somewhere, it's very often referred to as ancient gold or old gold.

01:44:17.740 Um, my thoughts on the arm and soul and its place in modern office.

01:44:26.740 Um, the arm and soul symbols kind of controversial. I don't really have a dog in that fight too much.

01:44:35.740 The symbol itself has never been something that I have, I don't know, felt that drawn to certainly not opposed to it.

01:44:46.740 think the concept of that world pillar is extremely important. I take nothing away from the meaning of

01:44:51.600 the arm and soul. But as a symbol, it's very easily confused. It's very easily confused with

01:44:56.400 the cross. It's very easily confused with the T. And the symbol that we have, there's a lot of

01:45:01.440 different theories on how that came about. And some of it is, like I said, it's not something

01:45:09.840 huge that I think of very often, but that's fine. I would love to have something of that

01:45:16.280 symbol at modern Hoffs if that's if that's relevant. I think that it carries on in things

01:45:21.960 like the maypole or things like trees often that we've been arrayed. If there's some great tree

01:45:27.320 on Hoff property, I think that would be a great way to incorporate some of that symbolism.

01:45:31.720 Brian, I'm going to real quick click on that link and try to give you an answer.

01:45:51.200 All right. Not a fun answer. Brian asked if I'm familiar with a book called Odin's Chosen.

01:45:56.560 No, unfortunately, Brian, I am not familiar with that book, but I'm kind of curious now.

01:46:01.160 So I may take a look.

01:46:20.560 Perfect, Joe.

01:46:21.480 Joe looks like he's gone through and done the look at the list that I mentioned earlier of the gods to be honored by our first 12 AFA Hoffs.

01:46:31.160 so you guys can take a look at that if you're curious over on the side if you can see it

01:46:35.640 if not he's got the order like this don't hold me to it because i would need to check it but it

01:46:39.480 looks right uh odin thor balder njord frey tier bragi heimdall viler valley uler and forsetti

01:47:01.160 rob that's what i was getting at but i was trying not rob mentions that there's a

01:47:26.600 there's a theory that the common representation of the ermine soul is based on the palm tree

01:47:32.440 i'm not saying i agree or i don't agree but i see what they're saying

01:47:36.360 um but you said it not me rob but that that is one of my concerns when we talk about using it a lot

01:47:44.680 so all right guys this is almost twice as long as i usually do these but i have had a really

01:47:49.960 good time talking to you guys tonight thank you so much for everybody who was on here thank you

01:47:53.880 for you guys who had patience while we were figuring out the system and thank you so much

01:47:59.080 for everybody who asked questions i really appreciated it if you can make it out to winter

01:48:04.520 nights in the poconos please do reach out to cliff erickson see erickson at runestone.org and get you

01:48:09.880 registered other than that i hope you guys have an amazing winter nights an amazing rest of this

01:48:16.520 October, and I will talk to you guys again in November. Hail the gods, hail the folk, hail the AFA.

Asatru Folk Assembly - October 02, 2020

October 2020 Facebook Live Chat

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