Asatru Folk Assembly - September 2020 Facebook Live Chat

00:00:00.000 Hello, appreciate you guys joining me this evening got a lot going on we got some some topics I definitely wanted to make sure I talked to you about tonight.

00:00:29.000 about tonight we've got some folks in general that have asked some questions lately that i think we

00:00:33.960 all could uh could maybe use kind of a refresher on or an answer to um and yeah i'm excited to be

00:00:43.640 here and talk with you it seems like august went by very very quickly seems like this whole year's

00:00:48.600 gone by very very quickly but yeah thanks for joining me tonight and uh as my wife just noted

00:00:55.640 We have a special guest, Toaster Strudel.

00:01:01.780 She's a good cat, depending upon who you ask.

00:01:04.960 And maybe she'll chime in if she has some answers for you guys.

00:01:11.860 Ah, thanks, George.

00:01:13.600 I did get a little bit of tan this weekend.

00:01:16.540 I guess that's a good enough place to start.

00:01:18.720 I'd like to share with you guys an experience I had from this last weekend.

00:01:25.640 so um as you guys may or may not have been aware um i think the very closing days of july

00:01:35.960 maybe the beginning of august there was a very tragic marine training accident off

00:01:43.080 the coast of southern california unfortunately a lot of young men just starting out and training

00:01:51.560 lost their lives and uh come to find out one of those young men uh happened to be

00:02:00.360 also true wasn't an afa member um didn't know anything about the kid before uh the family

00:02:08.680 reached out but i'm assuming they found our contact information at runestone.org

00:02:16.040 but however they came across it this young man's family reached out and asked for help

00:02:21.160 and assistance and eventually asked if um if we could supply a gothe to go and perform this young

00:02:29.720 man's funeral and it was a tremendous tremendous honor to be able to do that to do that for him

00:02:36.360 for his memory and for his family so i got in the car and first i waited around a long time

00:02:43.800 for the military to figure it out and kind of being on call there was a lot of unknowns

00:02:48.120 because it was out to see that recover the remains um so there's a lot of things going into it

00:02:55.400 but uh i drove down from reno to san diego this last weekend and was able to do that and perform

00:03:04.520 his service at miramar national cemetery and it was a tremendous honor to be there amongst so many

00:03:12.200 so many very honored dead of our military uh military folks that have lost their lives

00:03:21.620 it was very special it's a very special thing to be able to be a part of um very moving

00:03:28.420 this young man had full military honors uh just just 19 years old but what was really important

00:03:37.060 to me is that the family and this young man took AusterTrue serious enough that they wanted an

00:03:45.140 AusterTrue funeral and not kind of a private pretend AusterTrue funeral for friends and family

00:03:52.260 at a different time but no the funeral for this young man was an AusterTrue funeral and I think

00:03:59.140 that marks a really really special time that we are in to where folks are taking this very seriously

00:04:06.340 and where folks are recognizing the AFA as a legitimate, you know, the legitimate source for

00:04:13.260 that spiritual authority of having someone officiate these kind of events.

00:04:20.100 Just like to say so that his name gets out there, because I think it's important that

00:04:25.000 we always speak the names of the dead, Lance Corporal Chase Sweetwood, and it's my tremendous

00:04:32.880 honor to have been able to be in his service. I hope that his family appreciated it, and I hope

00:04:38.800 that he appreciates it. So that said, it got me in kind of a serious mood this last month,

00:04:50.260 and I think there's time for that. I think it's important that we take note of serious things.

00:04:56.480 One new addition to our website and to our contact page, and something I'll be talking more about throughout this month, is a special emergency contact link to an emergency at runestone.org email address.

00:05:18.460 we have more of our people these days who are as i said taking things very seriously and willing to

00:05:28.640 reach out to the afa when they need help when things go wrong in their life when things are

00:05:34.840 important that they need someone to to help them with and that's really important and our gothar

00:05:40.340 have become very good over the years at being able to counsel people being able to help people

00:05:46.300 and being able to be there for folks and their families but it's always in the back of my mind

00:05:52.400 haunted me you know what if we get a really important message and somebody misses it or

00:05:57.660 somebody doesn't check their email or or something something slips through the cracks and our job is

00:06:05.480 too important for that to happen so on our contact section in red it has for anyone who needs it

00:06:13.440 who's experiencing an emergency, emergency at runestone.org.

00:06:19.800 And that will go immediately to all of our leadership.

00:06:22.960 So, you know, someone reaching out may get too much help,

00:06:27.320 but they're not gonna have to worry

00:06:29.080 about no one hearing them.

00:06:30.680 And it's really important to me.

00:06:31.740 And I want you guys to know it's there.

00:06:33.320 I want anyone listening to this,

00:06:35.040 anyone within the sound of my voice, know that's there.

00:06:38.500 um you know obviously one of those big uh scary things is people who have come to the end of the

00:06:46.580 rope and they're contemplating suicide um september is suicide prevention month and i think it's worth

00:06:52.420 saying right now anyone out there if you're having that struggle in your life um if you're at that

00:07:00.500 point where you feel like that's something you're thinking about and i would ask you please

00:07:06.820 reach out give us a shot to talk to you about it that's not the answer it's not the solution

00:07:15.220 there's always so much more to be done so much more we can do but i would ask anybody to uh

00:07:22.420 please reach out and at least give that a shot um so yeah not to be too too morose but any kind

00:07:29.620 of an emergency if you need the immediate assistance of a gofi or afa leadership

00:07:34.660 emergency at roomstone.org like i said that'll immediately go to all of our leadership so

00:07:40.340 somebody will be getting back to you with a quickness on that i want our afa family to

00:07:45.460 know that there's always somebody there that's really important to me also to mention on that

00:07:54.660 naval veteran and afa member in san diego grayson wilson was a huge help to me

00:08:00.980 uh gray thank you so much i really appreciate your help with the service i appreciate your

00:08:07.620 help with the setup and i also really appreciate you know having having that time having that day

00:08:14.260 on on friday to spend with you and having you with me through that thank you very much it was a huge

00:08:20.340 help and uh and the family noticed that helped too so i mentioned earlier

00:08:30.180 This month went by real quick. And that being said, it's fall fest time. I am really stoked

00:08:39.140 this weekend. We're going to have fall fest. It's going to be amazing. It's always amazing

00:08:45.740 up there. And I'm really excited to see our Northern Plains family and any of the rest

00:08:50.460 of our AFA family that's able to make it up to fall fest. Like I said before, Southern

00:08:56.840 hospitality is a thing but we don't often hear about the hospitality of folks up in minnesota

00:09:03.880 and the dakotas but that hospitality is top-notch it takes a back seat to no one

00:09:09.480 so if you know last minute if you can make it to fall fest sign up get registered and we'd

00:09:15.800 love to see you there this weekend we've got big things going on and it's going to be a very special

00:09:19.800 time i'm gonna check on here anybody have any questions tonight is there anything anybody

00:09:25.960 wanted to uh make sure they heard me talking about or uh yeah got a reaction or a an answer to

00:09:34.760 uh we're gonna do our very best to to answer all the questions but i saw mandy post over here that

00:09:41.240 you know she's having a difficult time managing the questions so uh yeah we're we're looking up

00:09:48.420 we're trying to figure it out and if there's any way to i don't know go ahead and ask anything you

00:09:54.200 want, and we'll do our very best to get to it, and I'll do my very best to answer it for you.

00:10:04.820 Not seeing a massive amount of questions yet, but a couple of things have come up inside

00:10:10.220 conversation over the past couple of weeks, and I think they're, I don't know, worth saying,

00:10:16.920 because I think sometimes people may not know. One of the questions that we get is,

00:10:23.600 how's the afa structured and like how how does the structure of the astro folk assembly work

00:10:29.600 how are things done what does that look like and i'd like to start and this is new this year we

00:10:36.560 changed around how we did our folk builders and our gothar uh used to be those were two very

00:10:41.120 separate systems the folk builders did one thing our gothar did a different thing and they were

00:10:47.200 separate often we'd have folk builders who were also gothar and uh you know in the paths would

00:10:54.640 cross in that way but they're very separate uh separate trees we brought that together this year

00:11:01.360 so i'll start out the the first level of if a leadership is your local folk builders now folk

00:11:09.440 builders start out uh as apprentices people who want to be a folk builder want to uh organize

00:11:16.640 things in their area they want to help manage the afa membership not only just grow it but make sure

00:11:23.360 that those folks are in communication with each other that those folks feel like they're part of

00:11:28.480 the bigger afa picture and really take care of those people locally and see their area thrive

00:11:35.440 those folks start out as apprentice folk builders after about a year or so if it's something that

00:11:41.200 they want to want to continue doing then they'll oath in and become an oath folk builder or just

00:11:47.520 a regular folk builder um it's important to to know that those people aren't just you know some

00:11:55.200 guy that helps connect each other they're not just just an organizer they're they're a level

00:12:02.320 of leadership in our church and what we're trying to do and we appreciate that leadership and what

00:12:07.280 they put out there for our folk um so after that and again new this year we've limited our applicants

00:12:16.640 to our gothar training program to only oath folk builders so once one becomes an oath folk builder

00:12:24.720 if they feel like it's something that they want to pursue if they have that spiritual calling and

00:12:32.320 that relationship with our gods and if they want to serve our folk in the capacity of gothar of

00:12:38.800 priests and priestesses of our faith then they go ahead and they apply for that we look that over

00:12:46.480 and we consider a lot of things on it we consider whether we think those people are ready or whether

00:12:51.600 there's steps that they need to take beforehand maybe some things we'd like to see them work on

00:12:57.680 or some material we'd like to make sure they're familiar with before we we let them in

00:13:02.320 we also have to consider you know um something people also may not know about it our gothar

00:13:08.080 program is done in a mentorship model so when we have students each student has a mentor that

00:13:15.360 instructs them through the through the materials and all the way up until they become a gothean

00:13:20.240 and hopefully keeps helping them and bringing them along after they're after they're ordained

00:13:25.520 but so one of the other considerations when someone applies to the gothar program is

00:13:30.240 how many mentors do we have and and pairing those with the students so a number of those

00:13:35.360 things go into uh go into play if someone's accepted into the gothar program then they

00:13:41.200 have about a year of year of really comprehensive study on uh book learning so they got a year of

00:13:48.480 studying the lore reading different things reading different essays and going through

00:13:54.480 the scholastic portion but this is really important to be a gothi somebody needs to know the lore

00:14:04.000 they need to be well versed in in theories and in in our history and our lore both our ancient

00:14:11.360 history and our modern history but all of the lore knowledge in the world doesn't amount to much

00:14:18.400 if it can't be applied um it's much more important to the astro folk assembly

00:14:25.040 that some you know it's prerequisite you have to be fluent in our lore and know that but your

00:14:30.080 ability to to serve as a counselor to help lead our people to help um yeah to help our people

00:14:38.240 when they're in need and to to provide that counseling um ritual is really important and a

00:14:45.760 And a lot of people, when they want to be a gothi, they want to be the center of rituals and perform those.

00:14:49.880 And that's important. But it's really important to realize that ritual is not about the spotlight or getting out in the circle and doing a performance.

00:15:00.240 There's certainly those elements. But fundamentally, ritual is about connecting our gods and our people.

00:15:07.040 ritual is about the the alu formula it's about connecting the gods through that ritual to the

00:15:14.640 folk and vice versa it's about establishing and maintaining that gift cycle so we make sure that

00:15:21.700 people can really do that so that goes to once you've completed your year-long scholastic portion

00:15:28.180 of the gothar program then there's an indefinite amount of time where that's put into practical

00:15:34.620 application and we guide our gothar through practically applying that and really serving

00:15:39.740 the folk as gothi um so we do that it's very important uh that's something we take really

00:15:50.220 seriously uh historically many more people have joined the uh the gothar program than have graduated

00:15:59.020 but once you make it through there you take a holy oath and you become ordained as a gothi

00:16:04.140 or githya in the astro folk assembly our gothar are the ones that manage our regions and serve as

00:16:10.540 as helpers and as supervisors to our folk builders now above the gothar there's the witten

00:16:21.740 and the witten was established in 2016 and the witten is a group of of wise men that

00:16:30.700 serve as that kind of high council of the astro folk assembly the witten are an advisory panel

00:16:38.220 and i discuss things with them we meet uh we meet through conference call twice a month

00:16:45.260 to make sure we're on top of things but we also are in constant communication back and forth

00:16:50.620 very often several times a day to discuss the issues that face the astro folk assembly and

00:16:55.740 and what we're dealing with right now,

00:17:00.400 any problems that arise,

00:17:01.840 but importantly, planning for the future

00:17:03.700 and where we're going and what we're doing

00:17:05.160 and how to best accomplish those things.

00:17:07.840 So on the Witten, we've got some really great folks

00:17:10.820 who've done a lot for us.

00:17:13.360 Newest member of Witten is Gothi Svahn Harrell.

00:17:17.300 Svahn is the officiating Gothi for Thorshof.

00:17:21.700 He is a very deeply qualified spiritual man. He is an amazing artist and somebody who brings a lot of very wise counsel to the table.

00:17:35.180 We also have Gauthie Blaine Qualls, who's our Gothar coordinator. He manages and leads our Gothar, and he's done a tremendous job on helping structure our Gothar course over the years, on making sure that's up to the high standard that we need it to be, and of leading and taking care of our Gothar.

00:18:00.800 So he is also a tremendous resource. He's also the driving force behind making Fall Fest that's coming up a thing. Blaine really has a knack for getting things done and making things happen.

00:18:13.480 We also have Clifford Erickson. Cliff has done a lot for the AFA, but very specifically, he handles our technical things, website-related, email-related, and all of the ways the AFA interfaces with technology.

00:18:31.920 uh cliff's been doing that for a very long time he's been doing that since before the

00:18:35.600 witten existed he brings an awful lot to the table and he does any number of side

00:18:41.440 tasks for us and cliff runs uh winter nights which is coming up in october and i encourage

00:18:47.040 you guys all to come out to that then after cliff we have law speaker alan turnage um

00:18:54.480 Alan is his counsel is invaluable. Very often, you know, I'll get very passionate and very excited

00:19:04.700 about an idea. And I talk about this a lot. But, you know, sometimes Alan's the wheat side to my

00:19:10.440 frosted side and discussing things with him and getting his counsel and stuff is extremely

00:19:14.660 important. Also, him being a practicing lawyer is very beneficial because he's he's an incalculable

00:19:22.140 help when we have to deal with legal things or, you know, purchasing property and how best to do

00:19:28.200 that, dealing with any of those kinds of issues. He's been amazing. Basically, Alan propels us

00:19:34.820 forward in huge ways on adulting and he's, he's excellent at that. So that's the Witten. And like

00:19:42.440 I say, we, we discuss things constantly. They counsel me and they advise me and do an amazing

00:19:50.480 job of that. And then ultimately, it's my responsibility to make the final call on things

00:19:56.160 and to make the decisions that guide and that direct the OSTU Folk Assembly and that lead us

00:20:02.180 moving forward. And that's kind of how the AFA is structured. Some of you guys may be old hat

00:20:07.620 and you guys know it. Some people may still be curious. So I'm going to go back and see if you

00:20:13.060 Do you guys have any questions? Mandy tells me there's a question about minors coming to events.

00:20:22.060 So in general, for people coming to events, they're for AFA members and vouched for guests. You have to be an adult to be an AFA member.

00:20:31.060 But as far as the vouched for guest category, we would love to have minors there, but we run into we run into some issues.

00:20:39.060 So it's really important that we have that parental consent if minors are going to be there.

00:20:43.440 Minors are welcome to attend if they are vouched for guests, but they do need to be accompanied by a parent or guardian.

00:20:49.940 And if their parent or guardian is with them, then we would love to have minors come to our events.

00:20:54.380 We certainly have all kind of AFA minors and members of AFA families at events.

00:20:58.560 They're very kid friendly, and it's been great to see all the kids there.

00:21:02.840 But minors, if you're interested, please bring a parent or guardian.

00:21:05.880 and don't hesitate to reach out to your folk builder

00:21:08.420 and we'll see what we can do to make that happen.

00:21:11.520 Like I said, if you can get a parent or guardian

00:21:13.160 to go with you.

00:21:17.720 Refresh some stuff here.

00:21:20.700 Make sure I'm getting...

00:21:22.840 It's strange because I have to look at you guys

00:21:25.640 on my phone in order to get the questions

00:21:28.240 and then I have to constantly refresh to get them.

00:21:32.060 So do the best I can to answer these questions.

00:21:35.880 Alan is, in fact, a fine Southern gentleman and a lawyer.

00:21:52.900 He is a gentleman and a scholar, and he brings that to bear for us.

00:21:56.700 Uh-oh, even more special guests.

00:21:59.460 My beautiful daughter, Aubrey, is joining us.

00:22:01.740 she has uh she's she's taken a lot of my attention the past four months but she is she's an amazing

00:22:10.440 little girl this is the future right here I think this is why we all do what we do and why it's so

00:22:16.160 very important so I appreciate her joining us for a second I want to give her back to her mom here

00:22:24.020 um you're always a fan favorite every time Aubrey's on here there's a flood of

00:22:31.640 of heart emojis i appreciate that um

00:22:39.080 so i'm still looking for questions and i'm not finding a lot of them so far

00:22:47.560 that's fine because i'm i'm getting a little bit better at the dead air here and i'll

00:22:51.400 ramble on to you about more stuff if i don't have questions but primary thing on this is

00:22:57.800 to get your guys questions so if you guys have stuff you want to ask please ask if you don't

00:23:01.560 hear an answer please ask again we're doing our best to answer them but yeah well so also

00:23:13.800 one of the uh one of the big accomplishments and one of the big selling points the astro folk

00:23:19.720 assembly is that we've been really successful lately um in our ability to establish hoffs

00:23:27.800 And so, you know, one of the big points is we're able to, you know, hey, if you want to Hoff in your area, get behind the team that's making Hoffs happen.

00:23:39.420 And that's true. And I think it's really important. I think that establishing Hoffs speaks to our ability to accomplish.

00:23:50.360 I think it speaks to our just capacity to get things done.

00:23:54.880 But more importantly, I think it speaks to the fact that we're being blessed by our gods and that what we're doing, at least in the broad strokes, is pleasing to them and is something that they support.

00:24:09.160 And I believe that wholeheartedly.

00:24:12.320 And that kind of brings me down to the point I'm trying to make. 0.98

00:24:14.820 when we get in a in a fervor on hey the afa is your best route to get a hof in your area that's

00:24:20.520 absolutely true but if you're joining the afa in the hopes that you know you can get a hof and

00:24:26.380 that's the whole reason that you missed the point um some people are stuck in an old paradigm and i

00:24:34.000 think there's all kind of also true organizations out there if it's not an organization though we

00:24:40.440 are organized. The AFA is a church. Not only is the AFA a church, the AFA is the church for the

00:24:48.100 Aesir on Midgard. And we do our very, very best to enact the will of our gods and to make them

00:24:57.660 proud in all that we do. And we believe that we have that connection. I think one of the most

00:25:03.140 important things about, you know, reasons to join the Astro Folk Assembly is to be part of that,

00:25:09.560 is to be part of those blessings that we share as a community.

00:25:13.680 Our blessings of the gods have been dealing out pretty heavily to us.

00:25:18.520 And I think that's part of getting in on the gift cycle that's been established.

00:25:23.000 As the Osser True Folk Assembly in its current iteration,

00:25:26.840 our gift cycle of doing our very best to worship our gods

00:25:31.460 and receiving their blessings has been going on for 25 years this year.

00:25:36.660 Pretty soon, 26 years this year is flying by.

00:25:39.560 And that's a pretty, that's a pretty substantial thing. But if you take Steve's relationship with the gods, which ours is based on, which we piggyback on, and I believe we're very much get a certain inheritance from that relationship and all of the things that Steve's done with house.

00:26:00.560 with house of truth uh steve mcdallin has been doing this for 51 years about to be 52

00:26:09.280 that's a long time it's a long long relationship of giving and receiving from our gods and that's

00:26:17.920 the main reasons that you should be involved with the afa a sincere faith in the gods a sincere

00:26:23.840 belief that we are doing the will of the gods to the very best of our ability and a desire to be

00:26:30.080 part of that participate in that and to share in that those are the things that are important and

00:26:36.400 by doing that by doing it consistently and by doing it wholeheartedly and honestly

00:26:43.120 that's how we get those hoffs and those great things that we've been able to experience we've

00:26:47.360 been able to have so i wanted to clear that up too i know a lot of people that's the big sell is hey

00:26:52.960 we should be part of the afa so we can make some hoffs happen and you should but it's a much much

00:26:59.360 bigger thing than that and if you're part of the afa we want you part of the big picture not just

00:27:03.360 the little picture so where's my questions guys help me out here

00:27:29.360 All right. So appears we got some good questions going on. I'll take the ones I've got here

00:27:41.500 chronologically and I'll keep refreshing. If I don't get to yours, please do make sure you're

00:27:45.880 asking. Where do we see ourselves socially during these tense times?

00:27:53.280 i hope i'm getting to the um the meat of what you're asking

00:28:00.480 um i think it's twofold i think there's us as we relate to the world around us

00:28:12.400 in to the the utgard and us as we relate to the inning guard um socially the afa has been great

00:28:21.280 when all the chaos and really extreme things that we see out in the world are going on.

00:28:28.400 The AFA this year has been a refuge where people have been

00:28:32.960 coming together and having some normalcy and being able to experience a life in a world that

00:28:40.560 makes sense when so much around us this year has not made sense in the bigger picture of the world

00:28:47.480 around us. So socially, I think the AFA is doing great by sticking together, by taking strength

00:28:54.060 from each other. When we're in times of stress, taking comfort from each other. I think that's

00:28:59.060 been huge this year. And I think that's never been better. In the world around us, I think the best

00:29:05.120 thing that we can do is try to shine as beacons of sanity, of nobility and right action when so

00:29:14.320 many people around us are seemingly insane and doing crazy things. I think this is a time of

00:29:22.480 awakening of people's eyes opening up. And what we can do is serve as that touchstone and that

00:29:29.120 example of something that makes sense, something that our grandparents would recognize and

00:29:35.980 appreciate, something that has the timeless values that define our folk. And I think that's going to

00:29:42.920 be a very valuable commodity as these times increase. And it's a special thing that we get

00:29:49.520 to be part of that. A lot of folks are waking up and a lot of people want a taste of something

00:29:54.700 normal and something they recognize and something that makes some sort of sense. And I think we are

00:30:00.800 that. And I think that's what we can show to the world. Not sure if I got to your question, George,

00:30:05.320 or not, but hopefully it did. After Fall Fest, can folks go work on Baldershof? You're going to

00:30:13.880 need to ask Goethe Qualls that. I know that some of us are. I know that I am, and I'm very excited

00:30:20.900 to see it and check it out. It is quite a ways from the event site, but if that's something you

00:30:25.800 want to do, I know some folks are going to go check that out and try to see what we can do after

00:30:31.540 So go ahead and talk to Blaine and see if you can get that arranged.

00:30:38.540 What can a family expect from a national event if they attend for the first time?

00:30:54.540 Can't make a promise for everyone, but what I would tell a family to expect is to show up someplace to feel comfortable, to feel welcomed, to over the course of the weekend feel like you're in a place where your children are safe, where you and your family are valued.

00:31:13.980 and by the time you leave to develop friends and to have the feeling of family with the people you

00:31:20.260 attended the event with, with our AFA family. I'm always talking about that AFA family,

00:31:25.340 but that's what I felt from the second I went to a national event way back in 2010, 2009,

00:31:34.940 until now. And it's hard to explain in words when you're not there, but the feeling you get

00:31:43.480 when you meet other AFA members and you connect with them, you make friendships and relationships

00:31:48.100 and last a lifetime. I think it's a safe place for families. I think it's a welcoming place for

00:31:54.460 families. And I think it's a way to develop a bigger, wholesome AFA family. So that's what

00:32:03.220 I would suggest families look forward to expecting.

00:32:13.060 Ash, yes, please bring your 16 year old.

00:32:16.020 I think it's not only appropriate,

00:32:18.100 but we would love to see them there.

00:32:24.280 Yeah, please.

00:32:25.740 If it's your child and you're an AFA member,

00:32:28.000 your children are absolutely welcome.

00:32:29.620 Please bring them.

00:32:33.220 all right so you caught me where is my mule near

00:32:40.980 every month i come on here and tell you guys to wear it outside your shirt i always do but i got

00:32:48.160 rushed getting ready for this tonight and i ended up putting it on underneath my shirt

00:32:52.400 or actually i put this shirt on over top of it but

00:32:57.740 Never leave the house that way.

00:33:03.160 On top of it, here it is, loud and proud.

00:33:06.200 The hammer of Thor. Hail Thor.

00:33:09.620 There you go.

00:33:17.680 Terry, yes, a date has been set for Ostara in the South.

00:33:20.780 um you should discuss with the folk builders in your area about getting that up on the

00:33:28.940 thorshoff website i talked to them about it a little bit but the date is is up and active on

00:33:35.520 the main afa uh i'm sorry on the thorshoff facebook page the main the event is up and on

00:33:43.160 the calendar and in the event section of the afa facebook page right now and you can go take a look

00:33:48.280 at that. I don't remember the days for it off the top of my head, but it's going to be that weekend

00:33:52.840 before the equinox. So go check that out if you want a date and figure out any more information

00:33:58.940 about that. That is going to be held at Thorshof, so please speak to those folks, our wonderful AFA

00:34:05.320 leadership in the Upper South, and anybody who wants to attend OSTAR in the South, they can get

00:34:09.240 you all set up as the months get closer. Got a question about explaining our beliefs to a spouse

00:34:19.320 or significant other. That's an open-ended question, and it's hard to answer because it's

00:34:27.080 not one size fits all, and it depends on where they're coming from. It depends on if they're

00:34:32.520 coming from a different spiritual background, and if so, which one, and it also depends if

00:34:37.520 coming you know maybe from an atheist background if you're dealing with people who don't believe

00:34:43.200 at all i think that one of your best starting points is um ancestors and ancestor worship

00:34:53.360 whether they believe in an afterlife or not your ancestors are real they exist you can show them

00:34:59.760 pictures scientifically it's a given that they exist for you to be here they don't have to

00:35:06.080 contemplate the existence of the gods at that point they can start by certainly acknowledging

00:35:13.760 the existence of of ancestors and then working on that um i think that's always been a really

00:35:20.720 good place to start and a place to honor certainly even if they don't accept an afterlife

00:35:27.200 they can tend to agree that honoring your ancestors is good whether grandma's alive

00:35:32.400 ever dead, honoring your grandma is a good thing to do. And I think that's a really good starting

00:35:37.600 point for people who aren't openly hostile, but who tend to be atheists. I think that's a nice start.

00:35:46.820 I think you go a completely different route for somebody who's got belief, but it's strange.

00:35:53.940 Sometimes you'll run into people that believe in ghosts and other things that way, but won't

00:35:58.980 believe in our gods. And I think that's also a good place to start. I think if they're willing

00:36:04.360 to believe in anything that's, you know, I hate to say supernatural because it's all natural,

00:36:10.680 but if they believe in anything outside the normal or in the esoteric,

00:36:16.000 then I think that's a place you can get to. But one of the things that's really important is get

00:36:22.720 them to an event and get them to see how other people interact with the divine, get them to

00:36:29.240 understand how it's affected you and your life. Something that's tricky but I think is important

00:36:35.800 with atheists is if they can see that your faith, whether it's real or not, is real to you and has

00:36:45.700 made a difference in your life, it opens their mind a little bit to the possibility. And if they

00:36:51.480 see the effect it has on you, they drop their defenses and no longer fight against it. Even if

00:36:57.880 they don't believe in it, they don't feel like it's a bad thing or try to advise you against it.

00:37:03.700 And at that point, it's nice to bring them in and get them involved, get them to a step where they

00:37:09.860 enjoy the community and the camaraderie, even if they don't feel the presence of the gods. And then

00:37:14.280 over time, I hate to use such a crass expression, but I think it's applicable. You fake it till you

00:37:20.400 make it. If they go and they participate and they're there, you'd be surprised because one

00:37:26.880 of the most special things I've been able to experience in Ausitru, both, you know, as a

00:37:33.260 regular AFA member, certainly as a Gophie and as Ausheria Gophie, is when you see somebody's eyes

00:37:42.420 open, when it goes from something that they really want to believe in, that they say they believe in,

00:37:48.340 that they try to live like they believe in to when it just is real and it shakes people to their

00:37:56.100 core some people get angry some people cry some people just stand there they're baffled but when

00:38:02.660 the divine is real to someone very often in a moment of ritual but at other times

00:38:10.020 it's indescribable but there's nothing like it when it happens you know it when it happens

00:38:15.620 and it once your eyes are open you can never close them again so that's what I'd suggest on that

00:38:22.820 bringing the energy of a national event home with you um so I think Ocetree is about doing

00:38:34.280 fundamentally it's about doing things there's so much energy and uh something to think about

00:38:40.880 When people go to national events, especially if it's their first time, especially if it's their first time, they'll be blown away by the energy, by the number of people there.

00:38:54.360 Maybe they've only known, you know, maybe you go to a national event and before that you've only known three or four other Alcetruer, maybe none at all.

00:39:02.160 And all of a sudden there's, you know, 30, 40, 50 at midsummer, 140 Alcetruer.

00:39:08.920 and it's amazing and you want to go right back to where you are and start something and have it you

00:39:15.180 know it's going to be a hundred people and it's going to be a hundred people tomorrow

00:39:17.800 i really appreciate the enthusiasm and i hope that it is i absolutely if you can make that

00:39:24.500 happen please apply to be a folk builder at once because we need you but a lot of the time these

00:39:31.060 national events are the culmination of people putting in months and years of building a

00:39:37.120 community in their area um when i first started it was me and one other guy in his family

00:39:43.200 and there's two groups so it was me and one other guy in his family and then me and uh and two two

00:39:51.140 women who were practicing and the two groups didn't want to get together at first uh this was

00:39:56.680 up in alaska and over time we got you know four or five people maybe and it was great i loved it

00:40:04.020 I went to a national event. Next thing you know, there's, I think that year there were 60 some

00:40:08.440 people there. I was blown away. It's a different thing. So taking that energy and trying to build

00:40:14.880 in your area. Things start to snowball, but you've got to start with that enthusiasm and have it keep

00:40:19.920 you into building something. I always suggest with new folk builders that you try to host moots 1.00

00:40:25.020 at places that you like to go anyway. 1.00

00:40:32.660 If you're single, sure, but even more so

00:40:35.120 if you have a wife or girlfriend,

00:40:37.220 pick someplace that you guys like to go

00:40:39.300 and call that an AFA moot

00:40:41.520 and see if you can get people to show up.

00:40:43.660 And if they show up, awesome, that's a start.

00:40:46.320 And if they don't, then you guys have a great date night,

00:40:49.000 no harm, no foul.

00:40:50.660 Do that consistently for a few months and see what happens.

00:40:54.280 it's a big ask but keeping that up after main after a national event that's how it builds and

00:41:00.200 grows and if you want any advice on how to do that how to do that successfully please reach

00:41:05.000 out to your local folk builder they can all be contacted on the contact page at www.runestone.org

00:41:12.120 and they can walk you through the best way to do that and give you any kind of tips that they've

00:41:16.280 garnered over the years

00:41:23.720 Um, so we've got a question about study material and ways to help make the lore more understandable

00:41:49.000 and more, I guess more understandable when it comes to everyday practice and how it relates to

00:41:59.560 life. I think, I wish I had a great answer for that question that made it all very easy. And I

00:42:12.940 don't think that there is the super easy way. But I think one thing that's really important

00:42:18.460 is to not try to digest all the lore at once.

00:42:24.200 I don't think trying to give you a lore with crutches

00:42:29.420 is the best way to go

00:42:30.660 because I think that you're being able

00:42:32.800 to pick up the beauty of the lore as it is

00:42:35.100 is really important.

00:42:36.620 But I think that when you read, say, the Eddas,

00:42:39.780 read one section at a time and ponder it

00:42:42.440 and also make sure that you're making yourself familiar

00:42:45.820 with the people of that time, what they did, how they act, and our people through the entire

00:42:53.100 span of history become familiar with customs and things we do and always ask the question

00:43:00.020 why we do them. I think that's what comes down to the best way of understanding our lore

00:43:04.660 is not worrying about the what's as much as you worry about the why's. There's some great books

00:43:12.280 on it i think that culture of the two tons is an amazing book but it's not something that's

00:43:17.880 going to make anything easier it's a very very difficult read but an extremely rewarding one

00:43:25.560 i think you're also really well served at asking your folk builder and your gofar

00:43:31.320 what their suggestions are because depending on what you're looking at there's a lot of

00:43:35.800 really good sources

00:43:37.000 I know that's not the best answer that you want, but I think that's going to be your

00:43:43.240 most accessible path to get where you want.

00:43:49.200 Also, Goethe Brian Wilton's written a lot of books that, and his books are always very

00:43:53.980 practical.

00:43:55.280 They're lessons that he's learned out of the lore and ways that he's found to apply lessons

00:44:00.480 in our lore to your life.

00:44:01.500 So I'd encourage those as well.

00:44:02.900 And he's written quite a few books.

00:44:05.180 So I would check that out.

00:44:07.000 Charles in Michigan. I would encourage you to reach out. Hopefully, Mandy will tag James Ault, our folk builder in Wisconsin, for you. He's going to be your best bet for who to reach out. He's a folk builder for your region, and he can get you in touch with our Michigan membership and help you get set up.

00:44:35.000 JamesAult, J-A-U-L-T, at runestone.org is his email, and he'd be really happy to help you.

00:44:44.720 And hopefully, Mandy can tag him in the post, and it'll get to you.

00:44:52.580 What else we got, guys? Do we have more questions tonight?

00:45:05.000 uh tom okay i got your question here about

00:45:18.920 uh yeah i found a couple of extra questions here i didn't get to i apologize

00:45:22.800 tom your question about the hammer right

00:45:25.560 so kind of on the back of what i just said what's most important isn't always the what

00:45:34.520 but the why you're right you do um edrid thorson established our modern hammer right and how we do

00:45:44.420 it i believe he established that protocol back in the 80s can't remember which book of his he

00:45:50.340 describes it in but basically to each of the directions and to above and below hammer in the

00:45:58.380 north, hallow and hold this holy stead. And then doing that to each of those directions above and

00:46:05.100 below. Sometimes people will do it in Icelandic, but that's what it means. And the idea is to

00:46:13.580 separate sacred space from the mundane world. And so often, certainly in that day of Al-Satru, 0.52

00:46:22.460 all of our practice was in places that were for other mundane uses. They were in a park

00:46:29.300 or somebody's backyard or a makeshift area. So it was important to separate that out

00:46:36.200 and twofold. It's important metaphysically to alert the spirits of the place to what you're

00:46:43.000 doing, to cast out the negativity that's there, to welcome and embrace the gods and ancestors to a

00:46:49.760 holy place that you've established. It's really important to cut that area out of time and space

00:46:55.740 and make that area for ritual time. Now, you may have heard your watchtower thing. I haven't heard.

00:47:01.820 I'm not sure where that happened, but I know different people in different traditions come

00:47:07.480 into it. The number of different things. The hammer hallowing is really important. It's

00:47:13.600 traditional in the Ausatru Folk Assembly and in Ausatru, but also there's people who will walk

00:47:20.520 a circle around the perimeter with a torch or with a lantern and hallow it and protect it by fire.

00:47:26.900 The idea is really the same though. You're creating that sacred space and setting it apart

00:47:31.660 and putting forth the idea that it's protected in the hammer, right? You're beseeching Thor

00:47:37.140 through his might to hold that place sacred and protect it and invoking him for that.

00:47:43.600 But the important part is just that you're establishing that sacred space.

00:47:48.900 As a special to me side note, we don't have to do that at our Hoffs anymore, which is important to me.

00:48:00.000 And people still do, and I try to stop them, and I'm like, why are we doing this?

00:48:04.220 Because we live in a day and age where at least at those Hoffs, we have permanent sacred space.

00:48:11.360 We have permanent locations that are for ritual.

00:48:15.880 So we don't need to make new sacred space every time.

00:48:19.400 And that's a really special thing.

00:48:20.860 And it's important mental cue for a lot of us who've done this for a long time.

00:48:25.220 We're in a day and age with permanent sacred space.

00:48:28.100 Not only don't we need to ward off bad juju from the area, but that hollowed ground by a repeated ritual on it year after year as time progresses becomes hard.

00:48:40.780 full of spiritual might in Maine and Megan. It becomes potent spiritually to stand in that

00:48:47.660 place where so many rituals have been performed. So we live in a day where that's a thing. And

00:48:53.640 And I'm really honored to be part of that.

00:49:07.260 Exactly, Will.

00:49:10.440 Exactly.

00:49:12.040 Do we have any more questions tonight?

00:49:13.940 um see george asking about describing that moment where the folk come together

00:49:25.940 uh and the specialness of that moment

00:49:29.700 not sure if i understand exactly what he's trying to get at or get out of me on it but what i

00:49:34.820 want to share with you i guess is a story about that um

00:49:38.340 um we all got our issues with Facebook and how Facebook works none of us think it's the best

00:49:47.160 thing ever none of us agree with their editorial choices on what they they ban and what they don't

00:49:52.560 but it's real useful that's why I'm talking to you guys on it right now and that's how a lot

00:49:58.920 of us have gotten to know other AFA members that live very far away from them um a couple years

00:50:05.520 back, AFA leadership and I were able to travel to Sweden and meet our Swedish AFA members.

00:50:14.300 If any of you aren't aware, Sweden is one of our, well, Scandinavia in general, we have

00:50:19.980 some really great Norwegian members, we got some Danes, and we now have two Icelanders.

00:50:25.120 But the Swedes are the bulk of that Scandinavian membership, and they're one of the most active

00:50:29.580 regions in the Astro Folk Assembly, they've really been great, a huge part of our family

00:50:34.340 for the past few years but these are people that you know we just knew over facebook kind of knew

00:50:39.780 who they were some of us have had some conversations just facebook back and forth with one you know one

00:50:45.300 another but it was one of the most special things in the world and hard to describe

00:50:50.420 when i went when we went over there um got off the plane in oslo because that's where the best

00:50:57.700 flights were and some of our norwegian members met up with us and drove us down just just south

00:51:05.780 into sweden and that's where we met up with anders and his family and our swedish members

00:51:11.700 and then we proceeded to spend about a week with with our membership over there well

00:51:18.180 after just a few hours our connection with these people was so close

00:51:24.980 and we had one group of people that hung out with us day and night for I think about three days

00:51:33.440 there and when we had to and then we so the initial three days we got to see a lot of the

00:51:39.120 sites Andrew showed us amazing things and then we we had the the event over that Andrew's was

00:51:47.320 holding the main event and we celebrated that together but after that we had to separate and

00:51:52.320 went across the country to meet some other members and see some other sites over in the

00:51:56.640 the eastern half of the country when we left that group of people

00:52:03.760 over three days of seeing these people because we were united by our AFA faith and our AFA family

00:52:11.280 these people were my family and we had grown men tearing up and crying not to mention all

00:52:19.120 of the women crying when we had to say goodbye because we'd become so close in such a small

00:52:24.080 amount of time that's what happens that's the sacred moment when the folk come together and

00:52:32.720 i've been beautifully blessed in my life with that

00:52:35.280 many times in the astro folk assembly i hope you guys all have those experiences too

00:52:39.360 I get emotional even thinking about that, because it was such a special thing.

00:52:53.000 Yeah, if you can make it out to AFA events, some really amazing things happen at them.

00:52:58.620 All right, guys, what other questions do we got?

00:53:00.900 I want to make sure nobody leaves here without having their questions answered.

00:53:09.940 and that's a really it's a really big question um we have just about 70 members in sweden norway

00:53:36.020 iceland and denmark and i can't recite all of their names to you right now i would take too

00:53:41.220 much time and probably bore some of our folks and i wish i could but i'm sure that i don't know the

00:53:46.820 name of all 70 of them but uh if you reach out and not to not to laugh too much at the question

00:53:55.860 if you reach out to anders anders nilson uh he's our folk builder for the area and he can get you

00:54:03.300 squared away with some of those folks if you want to make some of those connections or just talk to

00:54:06.900 people over there those members are all part of your afa family too so reach out to andrews and

00:54:12.660 he can get you in touch with some people over there um but yeah some of our most amazing people

00:54:19.700 some of the the people that i've become closest to so i'd encourage you reaching out and getting

00:54:24.420 to know some of those guys

00:54:45.140 oh

00:54:48.340 charles like i say i hope people are getting a hold of you uh james i'd really

00:54:52.580 like you to be able to reach out and talk to james alt you can find him on facebook as soon

00:54:57.940 as we get off here i'm going to try to remember to make sure he gets tagged in your post sounds

00:55:02.500 like you'd really like to get in touch with some folks in your area in the michigan area

00:55:06.180 and james would be the guy to help you with that um but yeah we have folks over there if you're

00:55:12.020 willing to to travel a little bit you know maybe a couple hours we can definitely get you to meet

00:55:16.900 some people if that's what you'd like to do so uh yeah i'm gonna try to make sure james gets tagged

00:55:22.180 But if not, J-A-U-L-T at runestone.org.

00:55:35.120 Terry, I hope people have considered moving closer to Hoffs.

00:55:41.080 Right now, I'm about two and a half hours from Odin's Hoff, but I still make it over there about once a month.

00:55:46.100 um sometimes communities where hoffs are maybe not the best fit for everyone 0.93

00:55:52.620 but we really that's our plan when we get them is to get people to live a little bit closer 1.00

00:55:56.900 uh i know that to be closer to odenshoff i moved out here from florida so i may not be super close

00:56:04.000 but uh two and a half hours is much closer than i think what was about 32 from where we were in

00:56:11.340 Florida. All right, guys. Well, I'm still watching stuff coming in. James, I'm sorry I can't see

00:56:25.240 you on my screen. It's really different what I can see and what I can't. So I only get part of

00:56:29.260 the story. Thank you for jumping in and helping Charles out and helping him get situated.

00:56:36.680 Here's another thing. I've been told that on these, you guys can't see the questions they're

00:56:40.540 getting asked. So sometimes I just jump on there and respond to do it like everybody can see the

00:56:45.280 conversation. I apologize. I'll try to get a little bit better at prefacing who and what I'm

00:56:50.920 responding to. Up until last month, I thought you guys were all seeing the side chat that I was

00:56:56.740 seeing. So we're coming to about an hour here tonight, but I'm not in a massive rush if there

00:57:06.100 are more questions so in the next few minutes here if you guys could figure out anything you

00:57:11.020 wanted to ask but didn't get a chance to um yeah like i said i'd love to answer anything you guys

00:57:19.300 have about the afa about also true um or anything else you guys think that i could be helpful with

00:57:26.260 or you want to hear my take on?

00:57:34.580 Please be assured you guys do have my full attention

00:57:36.840 when I'm looking down here at the phone.

00:57:38.960 I've got to check my screen and the phone

00:57:41.800 just to try to get as many of the questions as I can.

00:57:44.980 Unfortunately, I still end up missing some,

00:57:47.480 but we're working on it.

00:57:48.480 Tom's talking about doing a hunting pictures contest. I'd be really curious to see what you

00:58:01.120 get. I'm not sure what you typically hunt for, Tom. I know I miss it. It's been too long since

00:58:06.400 I've been hunting. One of the really special religious experiences in my life was the moose

00:58:12.220 hunt that i went on in alaska back in 2009 where i got my first moose so so that's neat i'd be

00:58:19.340 curious to see the the hunting pictures that you get gathered george i really don't understand

00:58:35.980 your last question i'm sorry brian you're in south carolina um the person you would like to

00:58:47.500 talk to about joining is daniel young hopefully mandy can beat me to it she already tagged him

00:58:55.580 uh daniel is a great guy a friend of mine i think the world of daniel he'd be happy to help you

00:59:01.740 he also lives in south carolina and i'm not sure where in the state you are but you're very

00:59:06.220 fortunate because in the state right above you we got thorshoff and that's a really special place

00:59:10.940 and i hope you're able to make it out to it but yeah daniel's the man you want to speak with

00:59:21.580 lauren and devon um yes i hope you guys make it out to the next event too

00:59:27.980 i'm not sure where you guys are located i can check the database when i get a chance and try

00:59:32.780 to get you connected but go to that contact page at www.runestone.org and reach out to your local

00:59:41.740 folk builders they're the ones that are going to get you connected and get you set up and

00:59:45.180 make sure you're at those events if you if you're interested

00:59:47.500 All right, guys. Anybody got any last questions for me? If not, I think we'll call this a night and I'll go get myself some dinner.

01:00:17.500 Mary, I have considered Zoom, but it's difficult, and there's payment involved, and it's very hard to accommodate the amount of people that we have on here with Zoom.

01:00:29.820 For smaller calls where everybody can pop up, I think Zoom's a really good resource, and I say that.

01:00:35.040 There may be a way to do this on Zoom that I'm just not an expert on how to do that the best.

01:00:40.880 I could ask Melissa Mills, our folk builder in the Central Corridor region.

01:00:46.340 I know she uses Zoom quite a bit.

01:00:48.300 So I'll ask her about doing it for something of this large of a crowd.

01:00:51.340 Cool thing about Facebook is this pops up and everybody is always checking their Facebook

01:00:56.420 messenger on their phone and everywhere else.

01:00:58.780 This pops up immediately.

01:00:59.960 So people that didn't plan to be here get a little notification and decide to drop in.

01:01:04.860 We get a lot of traffic that way.

01:01:06.340 i want to make sure i can reach as many of my fa family as i can with these things

01:01:11.700 and as it is now facebook is that that solution

01:01:25.780 uh terry i'm not sure about spawn and the iron guard and the calendar creating you'll have to

01:01:30.740 run it by me and i can deem whether it is heretical or not but yeah i'll talk to spawn

01:01:35.380 about that i'm kind of curious he did mention they were doing a little bit something but i'm

01:01:38.660 not sure sure what that looks like but i'm glad you're excited about it and i'll definitely take

01:01:42.420 a look and see what he's up to on it uh preparation so robert asks he says he's going to be attending

01:01:54.740 his first winter nights um i'm assuming you're going to go to the one in the poconos i really

01:01:59.860 hope because that one's spectacular and i'll get a chance to meet you um if that's what we're

01:02:04.740 referring to uh what can you expect is there anything you need to do to prepare

01:02:12.340 yes uh we do a dcr bloat and i'm going to put this out now and i'm going to remind myself and

01:02:16.900 i'm going to remind cliff erickson who's running it bring pictures of your dcr for the dcr table

01:02:25.380 that's a special thing if we remember it because everybody's so excited when they get there

01:02:29.060 sometimes folks forget those pictures but basically your dc or your female ancestors

01:02:35.860 only only folks that have passed not folks that are still living but if you have female ancestors

01:02:40.580 you have pictures of bring those and we can set them up on the dc or table because we honor the

01:02:46.420 dc or that's kind of our focus at winter nights and that's something you can do to prepare um

01:02:51.860 also bring you know bring some nice clothes we try to try to dress our best when we're

01:02:58.980 approaching our gods and when we're practicing our faith nothing to stress over just the just

01:03:04.980 the best you can do you're welcome to show up in whatever you show up in but you might want

01:03:11.620 to make sure you pack the a couple pairs of nice clothes other than that winter nights also can be

01:03:17.060 be kind of chilly that time of year in Pennsylvania. And the cabin and the lodging, you need to make

01:03:22.760 sure you bring something warm to sleep in, a real warm sleeping bag. You may want to bring some hats,

01:03:26.840 some gloves, that kind of stuff for the day because it can get kind of cool. So do make

01:03:30.720 sure you prepare for chilly Pennsylvania weather in October. What you can expect is a spectacular

01:03:36.640 event. Beautiful, beautiful area that we do this at, at Camp Natimus in the Pocono Mountains.

01:03:44.620 that time of year the leaders are changing and it's just a stunning camp it's one of my it's it

01:03:49.960 I can't say that the Hoffs aren't my favorite because there's so much

01:03:55.520 important things on that but as far as properties we don't own that we've done events on this place

01:04:02.140 is by far my favorite a lot of history there with us like I say it's beautiful it feels nice I love

01:04:08.440 there it's also where i met my wife mandy um a lot of special memories there but i know winter

01:04:15.560 nights would be a great time with your folk and people would love meeting you guys so yeah i hope

01:04:20.040 you guys do come out to that yes facebook's interface for this kind of thing is lousy it's

01:04:30.600 just a big enough net that i catch most afa members on there's other services that are much more

01:04:35.480 efficient but i won't get as many of the people dropping in and i'd like to know i mean if you

01:04:41.640 reach out to me privately if you have any solutions to that or ways where we'll get

01:04:45.960 facebook traffic but on a different platform for that and i'd be really interested in hearing it

01:04:51.720 i'm afraid i'm not tech savvy enough to to know that from where i'm sitting

01:05:05.480 All right. Michael asks, what's the best way to address family members who may think negatively of the AFA?

01:05:13.480 Why do they think negatively of the AFA?

01:05:17.480 That's the big question because that's going to affect how you have that discussion with them.

01:05:23.480 Because you mentioned the AFA in specific and not also true, I'm going to take a shot and think maybe because of stuff our enemies accuse us of or if they accuse us of.

01:05:35.360 you know any of the varying insults that get thrown around i'm not sure if the issue is your

01:05:40.400 family has a problem because we're folkish or because maybe rumors that other people have started

01:05:48.160 um i think your best bet on all these things i know i'm repetitive on it is live a noble life

01:05:54.880 and be a good person because at some point if they see someone that they respect that's part

01:06:00.800 of the afa and that vouches for it whether they want to admit it or not instinctively they will

01:06:07.600 um there's a there's a mental thing because you can't picture somebody who you trust implicitly

01:06:12.880 and think really highly of you can't picture that person doing something that's really sinister or

01:06:19.040 really bad i think there's a mental game that comes on that you know well if michael does it

01:06:25.040 and we think really highly of michael but these people say they're you know some evil horrible

01:06:31.680 hateful whatever these people say we are putting those two together it causes a split in their

01:06:38.000 head and it makes them stop and think and give it more of a fair shot i think the next thing i'd say

01:06:43.840 is ask them very openly to tell you what they don't like or what they're concerned about and

01:06:52.400 then answer frankly and honestly and if they bring you questions that you don't know an answer ask

01:06:57.440 your folk builder or send me a message and ask me that's why i do these things is to clear anything

01:07:01.840 up and i think when you address things that they're concerned about don't accept name calling

01:07:08.960 ask specifically what the afa does that they are offended by or ask specifically what the afa

01:07:16.880 believes that they find offensive very often you'll find they're under misconceptions

01:07:22.400 or they're just parroting you know name calling the other folks do so it's really important to

01:07:28.160 get down to specifically what their concerns are and then dispel any that aren't true

01:07:34.400 and try to conceptualize ones that that are true or that are valid but it's a hard question to

01:07:41.520 give you a complete answer on if i don't know exactly what their what their complaint is or

01:07:46.480 what their concern is all right i'm gonna do one more check here to see if i've got any questions

01:07:56.640 and then i've got some pork loin that needs to get eaten

01:08:06.000 apparently word is that spawn likes his calendars i was i was unaware um that said anybody on this

01:08:12.960 call. We are currently in the process of collecting pictures from last year so that we can construct

01:08:18.960 the AFA 2021 calendar. So if there's pictures from events you've been at that are high quality

01:08:25.760 and that are nice, please send those to photos at ronestone.org. And we would love to use some

01:08:32.080 of the pictures of AFA events and AFA gatherings for that calendar okay cool all right so this is

01:08:52.000 what I got last question of the night again with Michael but thank you for clearing up what they

01:08:56.320 ask about um you've got family that are concerned that the afa is a hate group we're not that's the

01:09:03.440 best thing honestly we're not a hate group and i think that you can show that to them we don't

01:09:10.400 talk about hatred we don't spend time wasting our time hating stuff we've got members that hate

01:09:18.640 all kind of things and all kind of people i'm sure everyone does but as a church

01:09:24.160 church where's the hate at I mean I'm tearing up on this thing telling you about the friends

01:09:30.640 I made in Scandinavia I don't think if you listen to any of these live interviews for the you know

01:09:36.580 an hour a month for the two years I've been doing them that you can find talk about all the people

01:09:41.860 we hate and all the stuff we don't like if you expose your if if your family's willing to read

01:09:48.940 material, to listen to things like this, or to attend an event, I think that they would have a

01:09:56.420 very hard time feeling that anything we do or anything we say is hateful. Because quite honestly,

01:10:03.340 we're too busy focusing on the things that we love. I think it's more accurate to say that

01:10:09.720 we're a love group, although that may have weird connotations. But no, the AFA is about all the

01:10:15.760 things that we love. We love our folk. We love our family. We love our gods. It's unfortunate that

01:10:25.580 when someone hears a rumor, especially one that's scary, they react to it very often without clearing

01:10:32.080 it up or asking. You know, I'd even invite next month. I'll be on here and I'll do this very same

01:10:38.620 thing next month. Have your family member that's concerned get on here and ask me something if

01:10:43.140 they're that concerned. I'm taking all questions and I'm happy to, happy to address it. But I want

01:10:49.220 to assure you, it's not just something we say to avoid labels. We're not hateful. We're not hateful

01:10:55.480 people. We love ourselves. We love our gods and we love what we're trying to do. And that's the

01:11:03.380 biggest, it's the biggest thing in our favor is that we're just honest about who we are and what

01:11:09.480 we believe and that we stick to that. And so that's, that's the best I have to really

01:11:14.640 suggest on that. But I would suggest not shutting, especially family, don't ever shut

01:11:20.380 them down. Keep the door open and try to answer, frankly, whatever their concern is. I'd also

01:11:28.260 say this too, as a side note, don't feel defensive and apologize for assumptions that they make

01:11:37.240 about us or spend all your time trying to defend us and make us look perfect. Be honest. If they

01:11:46.500 ask what our views are or what we do, tell them honestly. They may or may not agree, but they'll

01:11:52.240 respect them. And at the very least, they'll respect you for being honest with them about

01:11:57.000 where we're at. And the truth is, honestly, we're not about hate. We're about the things that we

01:12:03.720 love. With that, I love my AFA family. Thank you guys so much for

01:12:08.640 joining me this evening. I look forward to these all month. I

01:12:12.260 hope that I will see you guys at Fall Fest this weekend. And if I

01:12:18.660 don't, I hope you guys have an amazing September. Hope you guys

01:12:21.700 have a really good winter finding. And I'll talk to you

01:12:24.900 guys in October. Hail the gods, hail the folk, hail the AFA.

Asatru Folk Assembly - September 02, 2020

September 2020 Facebook Live Chat

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