Asatru Folk Assembly - October 2021 Live Discussion

00:00:00.000 Hello, hope you guys are having a good evening, and I hope you guys are having a good October

00:00:14.800 so far. It's been a busy month for me, so that's why we're doing this a few days later

00:00:21.060 than we normally would. Specifically, we just had Witten Svahn Harrell come out and do a beautiful

00:00:32.060 and amazing mural of the Allfather at Odinshoff. Something we've wanted to have Svahn do for a

00:00:39.040 while. He's done a mural of, you know, the focused God of each of our three Hoffs so far,

00:00:47.120 and he really outdid himself this time it amazes me what he can do and the skills that he has and

00:00:55.860 there's something something very magical that happens when Svan paints a mural

00:01:00.780 at our at our hof and puts an image of our god in that hof

00:01:05.820 there's a sense of completion there's a sense of

00:01:12.380 manifesting that God's presence in that building, in that space, in a way like no other.

00:01:24.000 So we are very, very thankful. We're excited to have Svan, and we're very excited about

00:01:29.940 the new image of the All-Father at Odinshoff.

00:01:41.660 Looks like we got a lot of folks in the chat over on the side joining us so far.

00:01:46.420 That's great.

00:01:47.660 Thank you for everybody that has taken the time this evening.

00:01:50.560 uh since last i talked to you um i had a really really nice interview with reverend ashcraft at

00:02:02.740 expedition truth and if you guys haven't checked that out please stop by our youtube um and take

00:02:10.520 a look it was uh the second time he's had me on his program and both times they've been amazing

00:02:18.080 They've been great hosts, wonderful questions.

00:02:23.060 It's really nice to do an interview where we're talking about House of True and about our faith instead of just the mundane political issues that reporters and things like to talk to me about.

00:02:33.680 So it was really nice to do, and I really appreciate them having me on.

00:02:37.400 Also, the folks at Full House had me on their podcast since last we spoke, I believe.

00:02:43.820 And that was really nice, too. Those guys were great. And we had a lot of interest from that. So that's that was a really good opportunity that we're appreciative that we had.

00:02:54.100 And like I say, both of those are on our YouTube channel.

00:03:04.860 So I'm thinking of where to start tonight. There's been a couple of questions that we've been getting over the last month.

00:03:11.500 And I appreciate it. If you guys have ideas for questions that you'd like to hear me address on the podcast or not podcast, I'm sorry, on my live discussions each month, please feel free to email those to me.

00:03:25.020 I will do my best to remember them. The closer to the show, the better chance you have of me remembering them when the show comes around.

00:03:31.800 um but we have a have a couple that are interesting first we've we're very proud of our

00:03:39.360 food charities that we do at each of our hops we've had a lot of questions about those lately

00:03:43.780 one of the big questions was where does that food come from how do we get the food where does you

00:03:50.280 know money and supply come for the for the food that we're able to give out and that's a little

00:03:55.760 bit different in each of the cases, but that's all donated food that various businesses and

00:04:02.460 I think it all comes from various businesses. But like out in California, for example,

00:04:09.920 there's an interfaith food distribution place that is kind of a warehouse that services

00:04:15.120 different houses of worship that want to do food charity. And they're very, they've been great

00:04:21.620 working with us. They're very happy to work with us. Odinskopf is in an area that's not very well

00:04:26.300 served by the current food charities, so we're able to really make an impact in that community

00:04:31.520 and really help the folks out. But like I say, in Thorshof and Baldershof, those come from

00:04:38.960 different local grocery businesses, and people have been really generous businesses in the

00:04:47.260 community helping us out with donating that food. But that is all donated by these businesses and

00:04:52.080 we certainly appreciate them working with us and helping us to make sure that hungry folks get to

00:04:56.960 eat. I'm sorry guys, I keep looking over the side. I want to make sure I'm not missing any questions

00:05:10.180 or anything anybody's asking over there. Another question I got, I believe I got just this morning

00:05:16.180 that somebody wanted me to address. They were really distressed about a lot of the political

00:05:21.600 things we see in the world today. And it got him thinking about evil. And he wanted me to speak a

00:05:28.380 little bit about the concept of evil within Alcetru and what evil means to us. And

00:05:37.400 i think there is a misunderstanding out there that also true doesn't have a concept of evil

00:05:46.560 because we tend to not frame things in terms of good and evil in the same way that some other

00:05:53.280 faiths do in australia we very often frame it in terms of order and chaos and that duality

00:06:00.140 Um, I would say that succinctly evil is the intentional destruction of the right order

00:06:14.580 or the order that's been ordained by our gods.

00:06:17.560 Um, when forces of chaos and people who are beholden to that lifestyle and that ideology

00:06:25.620 deliberately do things to hurt the structure and order of how the world should be, of how

00:06:34.300 politics should be, of how the family should be, of how these institutions should be. The people

00:06:42.480 that are intentionally trying to destroy those and bring those down, that's kind of our definition

00:06:47.200 of evil. And we also, along with order and chaos, we have a duality between honor and dishonor and

00:06:56.360 acting nobly and acting ignobly. And if you habitually act ignobly or without honor, I think

00:07:04.140 that borders on the evil as well. So much of what we do is based on trust and relationships. And

00:07:11.920 you're a person who is defined by the breaking of trust or destroying of relationships by not

00:07:19.440 honoring your word by not honoring commitments then that that also is is certainly in the realm

00:07:26.320 of evil if that's you know you're defining characteristic but i think that's that's our

00:07:30.960 best concept of of evil is those that are intentionally out to destroy to break down

00:07:39.600 good things and things ordered the way that they should be

00:07:50.560 appreciate that mary thank you um i kind of like to do this sometimes i like to grow my beard from

00:07:57.600 equinox to equinox so yeah i just started on a while i don't have a lot to show for it yet

00:08:03.600 but uh you know we'll trim it up when it starts getting getting a little bit too unruly but

00:08:07.520 But, yeah, probably going to have a beard till the springtime.

00:08:12.000 That's always something enjoyable to do.

00:08:14.060 I can keep track of watching the gray come in.

00:08:20.020 So something to point out, our members also personally have donated both money and food items with the specific intent of giving them away at our food shelves.

00:08:29.360 Brandy pointed that out to me, and I think that's important.

00:08:32.080 so all of the uh point being the food that's supplied at the food shelves doesn't come out

00:08:40.960 of membership dues it comes out of directed donations from individuals and from uh from

00:08:47.280 businesses in the community and most often the bulk of it is from businesses in the community

00:08:52.000 that want to want to support what we're doing and help us out and we're really thankful for that

00:09:01.440 All right. I hope you guys all hear that on the side. Mary admonishes menfolk out there.

00:09:16.800 You're supposed to have beards. So that's the voice of one of our ladies on it, guys. 0.62

00:09:22.340 another

00:09:24.340 trying to think there was another okay another question that comes up and this one

00:09:31.820 I don't like our answer to it but it's honest and we do value truth um we have a lot of people

00:09:40.080 all around us I think it's no secret that are very concerned about the COVID vaccinations

00:09:45.040 and the mandates where businesses and other things are forcing people to take those in

00:09:51.940 to stay employed a lot of people have asked us if we can provide a religious exemption to prevent

00:09:57.540 them from having to get the vaccine unfortunately i have to say no that we don't provide that

00:10:05.300 it's been a concern of mine as well i want you to know i haven't taken the vaccine i have no

00:10:09.620 intention of taking the vaccine i don't have a great deal of faith in it personally i don't

00:10:17.540 necessarily buy into all the conspiracies on it but i also don't believe that it's particularly

00:10:22.260 effective and i you know i'd rather not risk whatever's in store and the other thing is i

00:10:26.740 really don't like how it's being forced on everybody but that said i've talked to our

00:10:32.180 law speaker about it and using choosing when to use religious exemptions is really important

00:10:38.660 to maintain the legitimacy of our church and of what we do and we can't just throw those out

00:10:44.260 willy-nilly um talking to him in order to have a legitimate um religious exemption for it we'd have

00:10:52.420 to be anti-vax generally now some of our members may be the afa and also true as a whole we have no

00:11:00.660 no anti-vax stance most of us who have an issue have an issue with this particular vaccine

00:11:09.060 against this particular pandemic uh under this particular governmental medical regime and

00:11:19.460 in that circumstance we can't pick and choose religious exemption on this vaccine but not on

00:11:24.580 that vaccine so unfortunately um you know i'd like one for myself also but we're not able to do that

00:11:31.860 maintain the integrity of of any exemptions that we do offer by offering them out in a

00:11:38.900 case that's not legitimate that we can't stand by so that's that i know it's not what a lot

00:11:44.180 of folks want to hear but it is the honest stance and i know a lot of people have questions about

00:11:48.100 that okay we have gothi jason plurid asking what sort of self-development self-mastery techniques

00:12:04.580 would i suggest for our folks so that they can ascend and become more than they are i think the

00:12:10.580 answer to that question is really different for every person because we all excel and are deficient

00:12:16.500 in different areas um one thing that i do want to point out is your physical state

00:12:24.980 that's one of the easy easy is not the right word but it's one of the simplest

00:12:30.020 and most accessible things we can fix about ourselves so all of excuse me all of us

00:12:38.580 can be in better shape tomorrow a month from now a year from now than we are today

00:12:45.300 all of us can get a little bit faster a little bit stronger a little bit fitter a little bit

00:12:51.860 healthier we all can do that and that permeates all of what we do because it's on such a fundamental

00:12:58.740 level having a sound body helps you to have a sound mind and a sound spirituality the one is

00:13:04.640 a reflection of the other so I definitely say you know hitting the gym having you know fork

00:13:11.560 discipline as it were you know control over what you eat and when you eat and eating because it's

00:13:17.320 fuel or eating because you choose to and you want to and not because you feel compelled to

00:13:23.960 i think that's a big one that's very accessible and we can all do that i think certainly

00:13:30.200 figuring out things you know both things that you do know a lot about and have an interest in and

00:13:35.320 learning more about those but also things that you may not know much about that you know that

00:13:40.200 you should or you'd like to those are easy things to break off a little chunk and be a little bit

00:13:44.920 smarter a little bit wiser uh tomorrow than we are today and those are you know perhaps somebody

00:13:50.120 who excels physically maybe they need to focus a little bit on on their book learning um and i

00:13:56.280 think that all of us would do well to increase our participation in ausitru that can be as simple as

00:14:04.120 attending events being active within the afa being part of things going to our hofs just being part

00:14:11.800 of our community what we do but also taking the time out of your day and out of your family's day

00:14:19.160 to come to your altars to bless your meals to honor your ancestors personally in your home

00:14:25.400 and those are all things that are very easily accessible we all could do a little bit better at

00:14:30.840 then another one that i think is often overlooked is financial health

00:14:36.520 our people could always find ways to be more financially solvent to chip away a little bit

00:14:44.200 here and there at their debt to you know learn a skill or be involved in something that's going

00:14:51.720 to put them in themselves and themselves and their families in a better financial position

00:14:56.680 And I think that's something that our people tend to tend to overlook a lot and seems harder to harder to tackle.

00:15:02.820 But I think it's a very important thing. That's what I got on that.

00:15:20.420 I'm sorry, guys, just looking for some more questions over here. I know we got some.

00:15:26.680 All right, so Brandy asks about this month's Day of Remembrance.

00:15:38.900 On the 9th of every month, we celebrate an Ausitru hero.

00:15:45.120 And this month, we celebrate Runemeister Guido von List.

00:15:50.440 those of you who don't know about Meister von List I would suggest that you read up on him

00:15:58.360 he's a fascinating individual and somebody that's very uh seminal to what we're doing today and to

00:16:06.920 the rebirth of a faith in our gods and embracing of our esoteric history and our metaphysical history

00:16:15.920 um maestro von liszt came about during the germanic romantic period and

00:16:23.060 you know he was the pioneer of note in runic work and in understanding the runes

00:16:31.280 um re rediscovering how to make use of those runes and a native germanic esotericism involving

00:16:41.940 runes and symbols of our past and of our history. Um, he was, was blessed by the Allfather with

00:16:50.920 the Armanin runes, which were granted to him when he had a vision, when he was, uh, blinded from a

00:16:56.920 surgery. And it inspired him to knowledge of those runes and their correlation to, uh, the runes in

00:17:04.440 runatal odin's special rune songs that come at the end of the have them all

00:17:10.200 um very important person and like i say one of the early modern founders of um

00:17:18.680 of i guess proto-ausitru in in the modern world so somebody we certainly celebrate uh

00:17:24.600 it means a lot to me personally and ways that you can do this with your family um

00:17:30.360 Um, what I suggest, I mean, first talk about it, learn about our heroes as a family, you

00:17:39.840 know, husband and wife may have never heard of these people as well, but certainly get

00:17:44.480 your kids involved, teach your kids who these people are, have their names be familiar around

00:17:49.620 your house.

00:17:51.140 Um, I suggest every month, it's a nice time to have a special dinner in honor of these

00:17:56.040 people.

00:17:56.480 So a good excuse to get together and do something else, a true, is to celebrate these people with a dinner.

00:18:01.820 I'm going to have a dinner at my home this Saturday that I'm excited about in honor of Meister Von List.

00:18:07.700 And we are going to have a crazy sounding but delicious dish that's, I forget the word, it's a Dutch word for sauerkraut and bananas.

00:18:16.720 It's like a shepherd's pie, but it's delicious.

00:18:19.440 Trust me, you got to try it.

00:18:21.660 I'm going to make some chai white Russians and some cream cheese swirl pumpkin bread.

00:18:29.120 And it's going to be delicious and we'll see what everybody else brings.

00:18:31.540 But this is a good excuse to have people over and to share a meal and to raise a horn.

00:18:36.500 And those are simple stuff you can do as a family that's very accessible to any AFA member.

00:18:41.320 But the more we do that, the more we, the more we honor, the more we celebrate, the more we posthumously raise these people's fame beyond the veil.

00:18:53.360 And I have to believe they look on and appreciate, you know, so many years after they've passed, many of them, that we're still celebrating them and doing them honor.

00:19:12.280 um as a christian looking into ausitru what is a good place to start and or study materials

00:19:29.080 as far as study materials go i'm certainly a good

00:19:34.200 i think a good primer on ausitru and just

00:19:36.680 just why we do what we do and how we got here is Stephen McNallan, our founder's book,

00:19:43.220 Ausatruh and Native European Spirituality. I think that will help a lot with you get kind

00:19:48.620 of a basic understanding of modern Ausatruh and why and how. Certainly, I think that after that,

00:19:57.840 you want to read The Culture of the Teutons by Wilhelm Groenbeck. And you'd like to read

00:20:03.560 the prose edda and the poetic edda. And I think that as a Christian, you need to go into it under

00:20:10.780 the understanding that it's not like a Bible. Every word of our myths are not divinely inspired

00:20:17.060 by our gods. They are not meant to be literal truth. They're meant to explain truth to us in

00:20:25.560 a way that our ancestors understood and made a picture that they were able to wrap their minds

00:20:31.020 around and to ponder on. So there's so much truth in them, but don't read them as if they're literal

00:20:36.260 truths because that's not how myth is intended. So I think that's important to reflect on those

00:20:42.000 stories. What I think is more immediately important to somebody that wants to check it out

00:20:49.740 is to see what else your truth does, how it's practiced. I think the best things I can suggest

00:20:56.080 to do that or going to www.runestone.org, checking out our old issues of the Rune Stone.

00:21:04.560 You can see, you know, it's kind of our monthly newsletter that shows what people are doing and

00:21:09.040 how they're getting together and how they're honoring our gods. Also looking at our YouTube

00:21:13.460 videos, not just me yapping on here, but we have, after each of our major national events,

00:21:19.580 We've been doing these like video slideshows of what goes on there.

00:21:25.160 I think watching those and seeing what it's really like will give you a lot of context to look at our high mythology and familiarize yourself with.

00:21:40.020 So that's what I would suggest is a good place to start.

00:21:42.220 as far as worship goes coming from a christian background one thing that's always a really good

00:21:49.420 entry into practicing also true fundamentally also true is ancestor worship and we see our gods as

00:21:55.340 our most ancient ancestors so honoring your immediate ancestors that you knew that have

00:22:02.060 passed your grandparents your great-grandparents and working on that connection will help bring

00:22:07.740 you closer to a relationship with our gods

00:22:32.220 daughter of the west that is a really good idea as far as 0.75

00:22:35.500 stuff people can do for personal advancement she advised over in the in the side over there

00:22:40.540 to always sit down and have a look at yourself and figure out the one thing or or a thing that

00:22:46.780 is holding you back or preventing you from having what you want one thing that i learned out of the

00:22:52.780 nine doors of midgard which is a foundational document for the rune guild but whether you

00:22:59.020 want to be involved in that or not it's got a really good techniques in it one of the ones that

00:23:04.540 really stuck with me was they want you to to sit down over the course of a few nights and be

00:23:09.660 brutally honest with yourself make a list of your strengths make a list of your weaknesses

00:23:15.580 don't show them to anybody else and just be scathingly honest and be unashamed and unabashed

00:23:22.460 of singing your praises but be brutal on the things that you know you need to fix about yourself

00:23:28.140 keep that list and consult it i'd say consult that list you know every month and see if you

00:23:33.740 You can take things off the bad list or add things to the good list.

00:23:38.280 That really put a lot of stuff in perspective for me, and it's something I find myself still

00:23:42.000 going back to that list that I made so many years ago and seeing how I'm developing on

00:23:47.640 that and where I'm coming and if I'm making the progress that I want.

00:23:50.900 So I'd advise folks to do that.

00:23:52.420 That's a really good idea that I learned, and you spurred that on the side of the West.

00:24:00.740 sorry guys I don't I wish I had some cool like background music for you while I'm reading over

00:24:17.540 here on the side I know dead air is not not cool but I do got to be able to read the read the

00:24:23.140 questions um okay one of our folk builders cody reynard asks if i could explain about

00:24:31.940 the blessings of the meals and what is said to bless the meal

00:24:38.180 so different people do it different ways

00:24:41.940 meal blessing is it's saying grace before a meal it's you know we could act like it's

00:24:47.620 something special or different, but I think that any reverent people, when they get sustenance,

00:24:56.860 offer thanks to their deities that they believe in. Certainly our ancestors would do that. They

00:25:04.460 would very often do it with a sign of a hammer, either with a ritual hammer or in a modern

00:25:11.440 context. I believe this was started in the late 1970s or the early 1980s. And I think it was

00:25:19.780 innovated by Edred Thorson, Dr. Stephen Flowers, Edred Thorson being his pen name.

00:25:26.200 And he'll make the sign of the hammer. And what we like to do, what Steve McNowan has always done,

00:25:31.460 and I kind of start my blessings as, is in the sign of the hammer and the holy names of Odin,

00:25:36.500 balder fray and thor may this food be blessed

00:25:41.220 may these folk that share this food be blessed and then if we're in uh in one of our hafs i ask

00:25:50.120 that that sacred place be blessed um oftentimes if we're doing it on a specific occasion i'll say

00:25:57.280 a word about the occasion and uh and that's it it can be that simple and at the end hail the gods

00:26:05.480 or hail whichever God you're thanking. The point is to take a moment of reverence with you and your

00:26:12.260 family or whoever's sharing your meal with you, to acknowledge your blessings, to acknowledge all

00:26:17.360 the good things that you've, you know, that you have, and to give thanks to our gods for being

00:26:23.380 there for you, for their support and for their blessings. Our gods tend to help us in a lot of

00:26:28.960 ways that are so subtle that sometimes we don't stop and give thanks. And being pious and reverent

00:26:34.880 enough to take a moment to acknowledge that and give thanks really helps center your life and

00:26:41.120 focus you on spirituality rather than on the mundane. And fundamentally in our faith, sharing

00:26:46.860 food with one another is one of our most ancient and our most special rituals. We do that at every

00:26:53.360 AFA event. You do that every day with your family. Sharing food around your table with one another

00:26:59.020 is a sacred act in and of itself, and starting it by a meal blessing puts that in a sacred context.

00:27:29.020 got a question on the side any militant practices can you give me more about what you're asking i'd

00:27:48.060 like to answer your question but i'm not sure exactly what you're asking me so if you could

00:27:51.740 could clarify that I'll do my best. Okay, one of our folk builders, Tim Dumas is asking if there's

00:28:10.680 anything I want to say to the folk that are considering joining the AFA that are but are

00:28:15.260 hesitant. Yeah, come on home. Don't be hesitant. Give it a shot. Sometimes you've got to take a

00:28:27.600 leap of faith and dive in. I appreciate if you're spending your time on the back end, you know,

00:28:32.160 thinking about it and contemplating whether it's it's really something for you. But fundamentally,

00:28:37.020 if you read our Declaration of Purpose, you read our Statement of Ethics,

00:28:42.000 and you agree with those things, give it a try. Come on home, be part of what we're doing.

00:28:49.720 And I think you'll be very happy with it once you do. If you want to really see who the AFA is and

00:28:56.360 what the AFA is about, I'd suggest looking at our event slide shows on YouTube. Yes, I plug those a

00:29:03.160 lot, but I make them myself and I'm really excited and proud of them every time I get home from an

00:29:06.960 event. And you'll see our folk, what we look like, what we do. You'll see smiling faces and hugs and

00:29:16.060 children and reverence and beauty and all the things that are such a special part of the things

00:29:22.500 we do. And I think that that's a really good representation of who we are and what we do.

00:29:27.640 So I'd suggest you do that and just give it a shot and see what happens. But we'd love to have

00:29:35.760 you when you're ready. And yeah, I would encourage you to take a leap of faith and you'd be surprised

00:29:43.380 how well rewarded you are for it. All right. Brandy is asking me with the upcoming Winter

00:29:57.120 Nights celebration. For those of you who don't know, our big holiday this month is Winter Nights.

00:30:02.420 um i hope that you celebrate it no matter where you are but here in

00:30:08.820 it's getting close here in about a week and a half our big winter nights gathering in uh in

00:30:18.920 the poconos is going on this will be the 10th year we do that and that's a really special event

00:30:23.600 So Brandy asks how we celebrate our desir and why. For those of you who don't know, desir, des translates into a form of priestess.

00:30:45.980 And it's a priestess that looks after something because Freya served that function for the Vanir.

00:30:53.540 She was known as the Vanadis. But for our families, the women that preserve our our kin group,

00:31:01.080 that preserve our families, that look on and take care of their loved ones after death.

00:31:08.060 Those are our desir. Those are your personal desir.

00:31:11.440 one of the fundamental components to honorable womanhood for our folk has always been a devotion 0.99

00:31:21.860 and a care for their families for their children for their husbands for for their families making

00:31:29.440 sure that their home is cared for that they're raised well that they're fed that they're comforted

00:31:35.400 that they have what they need and we are under a sincere belief that they do that after they

00:31:41.020 pass beyond the veil as well. The great and celebrated women of your line look on from

00:31:49.080 beyond and care for you still. In the fall and the winter, we believe we enter a time

00:31:55.880 period where it's a liminal space where the veil between the worlds is thinnest. When

00:32:06.080 things slow down and the air gets thin and things contract we're more aware we're closer to the

00:32:14.800 spirit world we're closer to the world beyond our ears and our minds and our hearts are opened to

00:32:22.160 those who've who've passed on and we're much more receptive and it's we find it's easier at that

00:32:27.120 time of year to to interact and to communicate both ways between us and our past loved ones

00:32:34.960 and between our past loved ones and us. And the de-seer are a huge part of that. So we do

00:32:41.780 de-subloat at winter nights and we speak to our ancestral mothers and we interact with them in a

00:32:56.820 very tangible way. I'll say them, and I mentioned this on the Full House interview I did, but

00:33:03.380 The most powerful ritual I've ever been a part of was a de-sear bloat. It was officiated by Agithya at the time, Patricia Hall. And the smell, the feel, the tangible presence of my grandmother in that ritual was beyond words that I could describe.

00:33:24.700 and i think that's because our dc are especially ones that maybe we've known in life that have

00:33:30.060 passed that connection is so strong the further back you go and if you go all the way back to our

00:33:36.940 gods they have millions of folk to care for but your grandma only has a few grandchildren

00:33:45.980 and that connection is so much more more powerful and more more visceral than some of these other

00:33:52.460 connections we have often so take time to to honor your female ancestors this winter nights

00:33:59.340 and to uh to thank them and to welcome them into your heart and your home

00:34:15.740 um all kind of stuff we got somebody asking what kind of activities go on at winter nights

00:34:20.780 winter nights in the poconos a lot of activities it's chilly it's in the you know the hills in

00:34:25.500 pennsylvania there um we have bloats we have talks we have assemble um we're gonna be othing

00:34:38.220 in some members of leadership in different capacities we're gonna share meals together

00:34:46.060 there's activities set up for the kids i know kids are bringing costumes and they've got a

00:34:50.780 kind of halloweeny thing they're going to be doing um it's a really really great time with

00:34:56.860 your folks at a really beautiful camp we've done it at the same camp every year now for 10 years

00:35:02.780 it's a really special place it's where i met my wife mandy

00:35:06.540 um a lot of really good memories for us there so i hope that you come out and

00:35:10.860 I'm looking forward to seeing you there. Nick, you would not be the only one. I can't go into

00:35:28.760 that story about that ritual I was in with my grandma to where I don't tear up a little bit

00:35:34.060 too. Winter nights, I'll say this, and I've seen plenty of grown men, myself absolutely included,

00:35:40.020 brought to tears by a lot of powerful rituals but i would say that the de-sear bloat at winter nights

00:35:46.180 has had the most people just crying like little kids because they were so moved

00:35:52.580 so it can be a really really powerful experience

00:36:02.660 if you are coming to winter nights please bring warm things warm sleeping bags warm stuff the

00:36:08.740 cabins are not heated it's a beautiful camp it's a lovely camp it's a wonderful time but

00:36:13.540 do make sure you bring stuff to stay warm what else do we have tonight what else would you guys

00:36:20.100 like to speak about i figured i could uh update you guys a little bit on

00:36:31.700 big thing we've been focusing a lot of attention on is getting our fourth half new york's off

00:36:38.740 And you all have been extremely generous in donating to and trying to support that effort.

00:36:45.220 And I want to thank you guys so much.

00:36:47.080 We're moving forward on it.

00:36:48.600 It's always kind of a process when we get to this stage, but it's a good place to be in.

00:36:54.220 We're kind of working on a deal right now.

00:36:56.560 We have a proposal going out to a financial backer tomorrow, and hopefully that all goes very well.

00:37:02.640 we're in a very good situation and can't promise anything but we're we're making efforts that if

00:37:11.380 they pay off the way that we would like to we could see ourselves getting that off very very

00:37:16.220 soon and I'm looking forward to that day if not we'll keep moving forward we'll keep moving on

00:37:22.080 to the next thing and we will get one relatively soon regardless but we've got a really really

00:37:27.620 nice prospect right now that we may have one very soon so i thank you guys so much for contributing

00:37:33.940 to that and helping move that forward it's the only way we can do things like that and like i

00:37:39.780 I say you guys have been very generous. Thank you so much. What else do we got guys? Anything

00:38:01.480 else been on your guys mind? One thing that's, okay, so somebody asked, and this is a, this

00:38:15.620 is a thing I'm doing, and it's, it's a really special, special to me, at least, way that

00:38:21.260 I can contribute to making your talk happen. One thing that some of our members, they'll

00:38:30.520 referred in Yord as Yordir as the blood priest. And that that comes about because in

00:38:38.600 the I believe the Yingling saga, it talks about Odin in a in a in a sense historically passing

00:38:50.120 on the right to Yord to be the priest that presides over the sacrifice. And he was a

00:38:56.940 sacrificial priests, a bloat gothi. And fundamentally, and I know that most often 0.91

00:39:03.740 today we use mead for our rituals, but the sacrifice in those days was very much a blood

00:39:11.900 sacrifice. And it's the root word of that word bloat. And so I got the idea and I thought it'd

00:39:18.340 be interesting. I could raise some funds for Njordzhov with donating plasma. So I'd never

00:39:25.980 done that before, but I went in this last month and I've gone in four times now. I'm probably

00:39:32.020 going to go in again tomorrow and donated plasma. I'm shocked at how well they pay for a little bit

00:39:38.360 of time there. The plasma goes towards helping people who need plasma for medical treatments

00:39:45.500 and for research purposes and other things. And every time I've gone in, I've raised at least

00:39:52.000 $100 for New York's Hoff from it. So it's a special way that I feel like I'm able to

00:39:57.120 make that sacrifice to help make the Hoff happen. I mean, it's a little bit different than stuff we

00:40:04.000 do normally. I certainly don't want to push anybody to do it. But it's something that me

00:40:08.380 and some of our other guys down in Florida are doing as kind of a pact between us. And if you'd

00:40:14.900 like to be involved, reach out to Lane Ashby, our folk builder down in Florida, lashbyatrunestone.org,

00:40:22.540 or you can find him over here on the side, and he can tell you a little bit more about that if

00:40:26.220 that's interesting to you. But yeah, it's kind of outside the box, but it feels very special

00:40:33.520 and very spiritual to me for a way for me to contribute.

00:40:44.900 okay um nate asks has there been any confusion or complications trying to integrate people with more

00:40:56.340 regionally ethnic ways of interacting with the gods the gods names and characteristics overlap

00:41:04.660 a little bit the more you you go from the the scandinavian which we often use those names and

00:41:10.340 those relationships to our gods to other germanic peoples that are next to them such as the anglo

00:41:15.620 saxons the continental saxons the prussians the more you the more you go between those areas

00:41:24.260 there's linguistic differences and there's you know there's a little bit of different

00:41:28.260 traditions and those traditions are special they're a neat way to personalize your relationship

00:41:33.620 with our gods to a way that's more connected with you and your family but no we haven't had any any

00:41:39.780 big problems with that whatsoever. I think most of our people are able to understand that we're

00:41:46.280 worshiping the same gods under slightly different names and in slightly different costume, but

00:41:51.900 it's the same spiritual forces. And though in your house, you may like to use different names

00:41:59.820 or different terms. When we share that commonality together as the AFA, it makes our intent that much

00:42:05.680 stronger on what we're doing we insist on using the um the norse names because new people and

00:42:13.040 everyone who comes in they're they're familiar and they know what's going on it's great to use

00:42:18.320 different linguistics to make a point here and there but it's really essential whenever we do

00:42:23.920 things that we have full intention of what we're doing and that everybody participating even new

00:42:29.840 people that they know what they're doing and why they're doing it that way they can pour themselves

00:42:34.960 into it and really commit to the things they're doing. And that's essential to a good ritual.

00:42:51.120 Austin, I appreciate you making that statement. And I don't question it. But I would like to say,

00:43:08.160 I think there's probably a lot of people that would say that they would die to fight for the

00:43:14.000 advancement of our people on the battlefield. And I think that it's a whole different story

00:43:19.120 when people are actually facing that.

00:43:22.860 But it would be really nice

00:43:24.220 if everyone had that level of devotion

00:43:26.240 and commitment to our folk and to our gods.

00:43:36.640 Menstrual, we have tons of people in Pennsylvania.

00:43:39.040 Pennsylvania is where we're doing our big winter nights

00:43:40.940 here in a week and a half.

00:43:42.180 And we've got some of our best folks there.

00:43:45.200 so adam hudak a hudak at runestone.org is our folk builder for the area

00:43:51.840 um also jane malseed j malseed at runestone.org is another folk builder in pennsylvania and they

00:43:59.680 would love to help you get involved if it's something you're interested in

00:44:02.640 minister we do not have a hoff in pennsylvania yet that the pennsylvania ohio area over there

00:44:17.260 is a very very attractive place for us to perhaps get our fifth off we are very interested in that

00:44:23.460 we go to the other side of the state um in the east up through new york new jersey pennsylvania

00:44:29.800 there and even a little bit further we have a lot of folks there that could be a potential place

00:44:34.360 for a fifth hof as well um but yeah i think it's sooner rather than later you will see a hof

00:44:41.400 uh either in pennsylvania or very close to it

00:44:46.360 It's okay, Joel. I'm not going to run out of plasma. I keep renewing my vital forces.

00:45:04.600 They only let you do it twice a week. And you have to be at least a day between those two and

00:45:11.980 only two times a week. But so far, so good. And I feel like I'm helping out. And I feel like I'm

00:45:17.860 able to donate in a special way to help make it happen.

00:45:29.840 It's great to see so many Pennsylvania people on here, especially with winter nights coming up.

00:45:34.340 I hope our folk builders over on the side are seeing that and can help reach out to you folks.

00:45:38.380 um guys as always if you're trying to reach out to a folk builder and something just doesn't work

00:45:43.600 out and you you need to get a response from someone please feel very free to email me as well

00:45:48.100 matt flavel at runestone.org it's flavel f-l-a-v-e-l matt flavel at runestone.org

00:45:56.920 I'd love to hear from you and I'll do my best to answer any questions that y'all might have

00:46:00.400 um joe has uh one of our folk builders our apprentice folk builders uh joe drotos

00:46:09.180 has there been any talk of reintroducing guilds in the afa so way back when in the early days

00:46:16.460 the afa there was a lot of guilds and uh i think it was much more of a an idea to manifest than

00:46:25.900 something that really worked out in reality, but it was, there was a warrior guild and an aerospace

00:46:32.960 guild and a computer technology guild, a magic guild and a brewing guild. And there was all

00:46:40.620 kinds of these guilds. Very often these guilds were just, you know, just two people, sometimes

00:46:44.980 just one people or one people, sometimes just one person with a dream and with wanting to make those

00:46:51.860 reality. And I think at that point in the AFA, we just didn't have enough people. I know now we

00:46:57.160 probably have a lot more people who are interested in some of those things to fill those kind of

00:47:00.940 interest groups. I don't think we have had any real talk about recreating those guilds, but as

00:47:07.380 we get people with common interests, I think we're open to different ideas and different visions on

00:47:12.220 how to do that because we'd love to get our folks who have those common interests together to pool

00:47:17.020 resources to pull ideas and to pull ingenuity to make those things happen aubrey did not get a hold

00:47:29.820 of the keyboard but here she is special guest um those of you who don't know this is my beautiful

00:47:42.700 baby girl aubry she is just about 18 months old now she is she is absolutely amazing i am a very

00:47:52.700 very blessed man and a very very proud daddy and she's being good right now i think she's gonna

00:47:59.980 go to bed here after a while but she had a really long nap today so she may be up for a little bit

00:48:05.500 but i appreciate you bringing her up to join us

00:48:12.700 James, I can tell you a little bit about Feast of the Einherjar.

00:48:25.500 So for those of you guys who don't know or are new to Asatru, Feast of the Einherjar is...

00:48:29.500 um okay so in our in our belief um there's the idea that that chosen fallen warriors

00:48:44.300 uh because of the nature of their sacrifice and the nature of their

00:48:50.540 their warrior prowess and uh

00:48:55.340 i guess ability to risk that of themselves on the battlefield

00:48:59.500 after death they ascend and get to get to feast in odin's hall in valhalla and they're known as

00:49:07.140 the einherjar um so our feast to the einherjar was decided to to be celebrated on november 11th

00:49:15.840 um i'm not sure exactly what weekend we'd have to look on the side anybody who has that information

00:49:21.480 if you could post it on the side for me of when our missouri feast of the einherjar is going to be

00:49:26.720 we've got a couple of great people hosting that and starting to run that one of those guys is

00:49:33.080 Nathan Erlandson and he's the guy to reach out to so hopefully some people will help me out

00:49:39.560 some of my guys will post it on the side but uh yeah it's our Veterans Day celebration and

00:49:46.940 And yeah, that's really, I'm trying to think of the best way to describe how that event's

00:50:06.380 going down.

00:50:09.300 It's going to be new this year.

00:50:10.580 We haven't really done that as a national event yet on that kind of a scale.

00:50:18.800 Any of our members are certainly welcome and invited to attend that, but many of our members

00:50:25.400 on that that are going to be there, it's going to be very special for our veterans.

00:50:31.240 Some of our Gothar who have seen combat and who our veterans themselves are going to be

00:50:36.160 there to speak and do ritual.

00:50:38.040 um I'm going to be there to to honor uh those who've served

00:50:42.540 it's gonna be a lot of good things or like I say there's plenty for you if that's not

00:50:48.060 a path you've walked in life I've I've never uh I've never been in the military myself

00:50:53.100 but it is something that in Alistair True we want to celebrate our warriors and celebrate

00:50:58.440 our veterans and it's a very close thing to a lot of people's hearts so it's going to be really

00:51:04.200 all of our events are great. All of our events are very heartfelt. This one, there's some

00:51:11.240 brave and amazing people that are putting a lot of their self and a lot of their heart

00:51:18.320 into making this special. So it's going to be a really good event if you can go to it.

00:51:34.200 Thank you.

00:52:04.200 Um, Nate, Noah, he asks if using symbols of our gods under regional names is discouraged on the Hoff grounds or at gatherings.

00:52:19.480 That's really never come up first. No, our gods are our gods and celebrating them at our Hoffs or in any of our holy spaces is a great thing to do.

00:52:28.740 When you ask the question, it makes me wonder, you know, if there's a specific thing you had in mind.

00:52:33.900 But no, if it is legitimately one of the gods of our folk, absolutely, our gods are our gods are welcome.

00:52:41.740 What I will say is in in Alcetru, we we worship the gods of order and we turn away from the forces of chaos.

00:52:49.240 us. So if it's a malevolent Jotun or if it's Fenrir or if it's Loki, then absolutely not.

00:52:57.240 We don't honor those deities or I don't even know if you'd call them deities. We don't honor those

00:53:02.600 spiritual personages in any of our holy space. We keep chaos out of what we're doing in that way.

00:53:19.240 10th noble virtue, Cody's asking. In the AFA, we like to talk about the 10th noble virtue,

00:53:27.040 and that is victory. And a lot of people don't initially conceptualize victory as a virtue,

00:53:35.600 but it very much is. To our ancestors, a person's luck, a person's ability to win,

00:53:41.640 to accomplish, and to do was vitally important, and it was a reflection of their spiritual gravitas

00:53:48.360 on their value as a person it's very easy to talk a big game it's very easy to believe stuff it's

00:53:55.400 much harder to do stuff um we are known by our deeds in house the truth we're known by our

00:54:03.080 accomplishments and so going out and winning victory is fundamental to our virtues and it's

00:54:11.240 meant by what a virtuous man was to our ancestors. Certainly winning and achieving victory and

00:54:19.420 conquering and making things happen is at the very root of the word virtue. The Latin root of

00:54:27.660 virtue means manliness. And that was what was thought of being a good man, was a man who's

00:54:33.540 capable of accomplishing and of doing. So victory is essential to what we do in the AFA. We have

00:54:40.340 taken this to heart, and we've been able to accomplish so much by focusing not on all the

00:54:45.500 things we can't do or wish we could do, but on the things we can do and the things we can accomplish.

00:54:50.880 And by viewing things with what's possible, what can we do? We've been able to do a lot,

00:54:57.140 and there's no end in sight to what we're doing. So victory guides us to great things,

00:55:02.680 and victory builds upon itself. You build layers of victory that gets you to the bigger victories.

00:55:10.340 So as long as you are worshiping Aryan gods, the gods of our folk, I think that's completely appropriate.

00:55:26.140 I think that you mentioned the Celtic deity. The Celts and the Germanics are the same people.

00:55:35.700 the defining characteristics are overlapped very

00:55:39.720 very often they're overlapped our founder Steve McNallan wrote a really good article about the

00:55:48.040 Germans and the Celts and I'm trying to think I know that it's available in our library on our

00:55:54.480 website but it'd be worth looking into and it talks about a lot of those similarities but yes

00:56:00.460 The Celtic conception of our gods is absolutely welcome because those are the same divinities.

00:56:07.480 They go back to the same root and the same spiritual source of our folk.

00:56:10.820 Nate that's absolutely welcome um another another Frisian uh goddess that that I did a

00:56:36.180 I did a paper on in my, when I was going through my ordination process was free agave.

00:56:46.400 There's tons of local deities to our folk and honoring those in AFA Hoffs or an AFA event is absolutely acceptable.

00:56:55.320 um i have i have booked the same i've double booked tonight a little bit and the witten has

00:57:04.620 been been kind enough to postpone our meeting for an hour but i do got to end it rather promptly

00:57:10.960 here because i have that meeting to go to um i had really good questions tonight i'm glad everybody

00:57:20.580 has joined us if there's any last minute questions please go ahead and get those in in the next few

00:57:25.300 minutes and I will answer them to the best of my ability. I thank you guys for being here. Thank

00:57:30.020 you guys for asking questions. Please feel very free to ask anything you want. I know that often

00:57:37.080 a question, you know, may seem impolite or whatever, but please feel free to ask me anything

00:57:45.080 you want. And if you don't want to ask it publicly, you can always email me mattflavell

00:57:49.500 at runestone.org and I will do my best to get you an answer on it. But I do want you guys to know

00:57:54.940 my door is always open and i'd love to hear from you guys and if like i say if you have questions

00:58:00.220 or concerns please let me know um just because i don't necessarily do what you want on acting on

00:58:06.460 them doesn't mean i don't care and it doesn't mean i don't want to listen i absolutely care

00:58:12.540 look forward to these every single month i am

00:58:17.980 excited that you guys are showing up and let's see i think we got a couple of last things here

00:58:24.940 Is the AFA involved in community outreach?

00:58:32.300 Yes. How to do that, I think, is an interesting question, I suppose.

00:58:39.680 AFA is involved in community outreach. We try not to shove ourselves down people's throats or to be obnoxious.

00:58:45.600 We don't have a door-to-door ministry like the Jehovah's Witnesses or the Mormons.

00:58:50.040 But we do specifically in the communities where we have our Hoffs try to interact with those communities and build a good name for ourselves as good neighbors in those communities.

00:58:59.520 We also do that in a number of different ways with beach cleanups, with adopt a highway cleanups and with groups of AFA, with kindreds of the AFA and other groups of AFA members participating in charities and other things in their community to build a good name for us.

00:59:19.940 and to build our reputation as good neighbors.

00:59:22.800 So we certainly do that.

00:59:26.600 All right, guys.

00:59:27.780 Well, I have got to go to my Witten meeting.

00:59:29.760 Like I said, I appreciate you guys all being here tonight.

00:59:32.740 We've got exciting things this month,

00:59:34.380 and I look forward to talking to you guys in November, if not sooner.

00:59:38.740 Hail the gods.

00:59:40.040 Hail the folk.

00:59:41.580 Hail the AFA.

Asatru Folk Assembly - October 07, 2021

October 2021 Live Discussion

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