Asatru Folk Assembly - September 2021 Live Discussion

00:00:00.000 hello thank you guys for joining me again this month um i'm excited i'm shocked the

00:00:19.960 year's going by as fast as it is but i am excited to spend the evening with you guys

00:00:25.100 here and then a couple hours after i get off here i'm getting on a plane and i'm heading to

00:00:32.140 fall fest in minnesota the first ever fall fest at balder's hof i'm extremely excited about it

00:00:39.260 it's going to be a great event everybody's coming out we're getting you know this probably is going

00:00:44.220 to be our biggest attended fall fest yet so i'm really excited really excited to show off to the

00:00:50.140 people haven't been there are our beautiful new hoff to balder um yeah if you are if you are in

00:00:57.580 the area please reach out please reach out um on here or to any of the area folk builders brandy

00:01:05.180 callahan those people will get you set up if you can at all make it there's still time but uh yeah

00:01:12.300 we'd love to see you guys out there if you can't make it to balder's off or even if you can uh

00:01:18.220 coming up in october we have winter nights in the poconos this will be the 10th winter

00:01:22.700 nights in the poconos it's amazing we love the camp we do it at it's a great time of year it's

00:01:28.060 it's a really great event um looking forward to that as well so if you can or if you can't

00:01:34.540 make it to baldershoff this weekend please do what you can to make it out to winter nights

00:01:40.140 next month. We'd love to see you there in Pennsylvania. Um, so we got a lot of stuff

00:01:53.860 going on in the AFA in the past little bit here. Um, it's been amazing to watch all the

00:01:59.720 pictures. Everybody's fray faxy events. It's been fantastic. Everybody's been really, really

00:02:04.600 active this last month. I'm doing a lot of good things. Something to, I hope you guys caught the

00:02:14.200 interview I did on the Expedition Truth internet radio program. It was a great interview. The host

00:02:21.740 Reverend Ashcraft did a great job. Those people were excellent hosts and it's a neat program if

00:02:27.760 you want to check it out. It's live on Thursdays and they've got, you know, they've got replays

00:02:32.260 whenever you want to listen to it. But I have been invited back on the program. I believe that'll be

00:02:39.560 Thursday, the 23rd of this month. And I'm looking forward to that. Like I said, those people were

00:02:45.440 great last time. It's really nice to do an interview about Ausatru and about what we believe

00:02:51.260 and about our values. And I think this next one is going to focus on Ausatru ethics. So I'm looking

00:02:56.640 forward to talking to his audience. And yeah, stop on by and join us there if you'd like to.

00:03:09.120 So as always, guys, go ahead and pop your questions up in the chat, and I will do my

00:03:15.000 best to get to them and answer them as best as I can. I'm driving Mandy and some other people a

00:03:23.900 little bit nuts. And the reason is because I'm extremely excited about moving ahead with New

00:03:30.820 York's Hoff. And, you know, one thing that always gets asked in these, these live chats is how we're

00:03:37.460 doing on that next Hoff, where that project is at. Well, I am very happy to say that this is moving

00:03:45.500 forward faster than I think a lot of folks thought was possible. We had kind of a three-stage

00:03:53.840 process to getting yours off. The first stage was to pay off the additional loan amount that

00:04:05.060 we had still outstanding for the last two offs. You guys have been extremely generous. We paid

00:04:09.940 that off. Second piece was we needed to make sure that we were making enough every month to

00:04:16.900 to support the Hoffs because there's an initial expense obviously in getting a Hoff

00:04:24.160 but there's all kind of monthly bills that we take for granted and don't think about like

00:04:28.840 insurance and garbage and electricity and heating or cooling and things like that

00:04:37.740 but you guys have been great we've done that too we have one remaining thing and this is

00:04:43.260 this is the big one. Securing the funding with some folks to be willing to either co-sign or

00:04:51.100 loan us money to get the initial payout for putting money down on Yordshoff. We have, I'm

00:04:59.440 happy to say as of this broadcast, actually as of a couple of weeks ago now, maybe a week and a half

00:05:05.040 ago, we have secured from several sources the money to go ahead and move forward. So right now

00:05:13.040 we're in the process of looking at, uh, looking at and doing walkthroughs actually of Hoff

00:05:18.180 properties. So we've done two, uh, say we, our folks in the area have done two walkthroughs so

00:05:25.380 far. And on one of the properties, we've got a contractor slash appraiser going out to, uh,

00:05:33.000 to check that out and evaluate what that looks like a little bit more. So we're moving ahead.

00:05:38.200 We're moving ahead really quickly. The reason that we're able to do that is you guys have

00:05:42.380 been really generous and really enthusiastic in your support. And from the bottom of my heart,

00:05:47.200 thank you very much. I appreciate it. Your AFA family appreciates it. And I know that Njordr,

00:05:55.080 he appreciates it. This is the first Hoff. Certainly it's the first Hoff dedicated to 0.95

00:06:01.860 Njordr in a thousand years. I'm not sure of any archaeological evidence of Hoffs before then or

00:06:11.060 when those might be i'm certain that he had temples at one point but this is the first that

00:06:16.180 we know about it's the first in a thousand years and it's certainly the first in the western

00:06:20.560 hemisphere so this is a huge thing and it's really exciting thing to be a part of and to share with

00:06:25.160 you guys all right well we got lots of folks in the chat does anybody have any questions tonight

00:06:35.920 or anything they want to, I don't know, hear me talk to them about.

00:06:50.080 Trying to think a little bit about what we've got going on.

00:06:57.820 One thing that I uploaded right before this chat tonight, while on the topic of New York's Hoff, we have special limited edition T-shirts that we're selling for $30 a piece.

00:07:13.680 It's not $30 for the T-shirt, it's $30 for the donation to New York's Hoff and making it happen, and then you get a T-shirt.

00:07:21.900 so the idea i know 30 is a lot for a t-shirt but the idea is to to raise a little bit of

00:07:26.620 money to help this project it's a great idea this was given to us by the generosity of

00:07:32.300 uh one of our folk builders tim dumas in ohio this was his baby and uh he wanted to donate

00:07:40.060 these shirts to us so that we could raise some money for for nyorder and for his hof so that's

00:07:45.980 what we're doing we've already sold some of those so get them while they're available because they

00:07:50.300 They are limited edition. Appreciate you guys. It's on the store at www.runestone.org.

00:08:02.460 There we go. Yep, Tim, those shirts went on sale.

00:08:06.380 I want to say 25 minutes ago. We already sold four.

00:08:13.700 there are some lovely shirts indeed Anna I am bringing yours and Jason's up to you when I

00:08:24.280 when I see y'all this weekend at fall fest

00:08:27.440 as of this broadcast this very moment the ask well we got somebody on the side asking how many

00:08:39.700 members the AFA has. As of right now, we have 721 members.

00:08:51.940 Joel, if you put in your order before I leave here, I can go ahead and pack you up a shirt as well.

00:08:57.680 hmm okay we've got a question about when the new hof njords hof happens how's that going to change

00:09:10.860 our current folk building districts for those of you that may not know um we've got the world split

00:09:17.840 up right now into three regions corresponding with each of our three hofs our international

00:09:23.680 members are kind of shuffled in there the best way they can it doesn't always you know work the best

00:09:29.440 for our international folks until we start having some international hoffs but as it is now folks

00:09:34.320 in the west and in the mountain regions of the united states all the way up alaska australia

00:09:39.280 new zealand hawaii as well are in odenshoff region right through the middle of the country

00:09:45.120 up into the middle of canada and all of south america currently are in the baldershoff district

00:09:50.960 and then east of the mississippi and including um illinois our european members and our folks

00:09:59.200 in south africa are in our thorshoff region with njortzhoff going in in florida it's going to

00:10:07.040 change that up a little bit odentopf's going to remain exactly the same um let me look at my map

00:10:13.520 here to lay it out for you on what the new hoff reed our new hoff district i'm sorry we used to

00:10:19.600 divide the af afa but the afa up by region but since we're doing the hoffs it's districts and

00:10:26.880 it takes me a little while to get used to the new nomenclature on it um so new york's hoff will

00:10:34.000 encompass florida georgia alabama mississippi louisiana texas oklahoma and arkansas as well as

00:10:47.280 all of our members in South America.

00:10:54.220 Yep, I just wanted to make sure I was getting that right.

00:10:56.240 So our folks in, I'm sorry, not South America,

00:10:59.420 our folks in South Africa.

00:11:01.120 So anybody in the continent of Africa

00:11:03.240 that joins the Ask True Folk Assembly 0.98

00:11:05.080 will be part of the new Njordshof District

00:11:07.820 and those Southern Gulf states that I mentioned

00:11:11.560 along with Oklahoma and Arkansas.

00:11:17.280 thank you Jason I appreciate that when did the AFA get rolling the AFA got rolling

00:11:40.500 in 1996 i'm sorry 1995 in january at the beginning of the year in 1995 the afa started

00:11:52.900 we just celebrated our 25th anniversary we've been around for almost 27 years now

00:12:03.300 um okay we've got connor asking what's the status on an

00:12:07.300 house true version of of scouts for our kids uh status is we've got kids too far spread out now

00:12:16.100 families in the afa have really taken off i'd say in the last six years we've had just this huge boom

00:12:22.580 of families and new babies being born into the afa trouble is so far geographically we don't have

00:12:29.780 a big enough number of kids in a comparable age bracket to make up something that looks like a

00:12:36.020 traditional scouting structure we're certainly open to that we look forward to that when we get

00:12:40.900 people closer together where that's more of a real thing we have been talking to some of our people

00:12:46.340 about some kind of at a distance stuff you could do but one of the best things about scouting is

00:12:52.820 interacting with the other kids and really getting that that interaction so until we've got the right

00:13:00.660 age range of children in the right areas that's going to be on hold for a little bit but it is

00:13:05.460 something we would love to do in the future when it's when it's a feasible thing

00:13:13.940 um so we got do we have contacts in iceland every now and again we'll get uh somebody that reaches

00:13:20.100 out to us from iceland uh not a ton we certainly don't have contacts in in their official uh

00:13:27.300 aussitur over there uh they are very they're coming from a very very different place and

00:13:34.340 they're very differently oriented than we are but some icelanders who want to authentically worship

00:13:40.180 our gods have reached out to us we have talked to those people we don't currently have any members

00:13:44.580 in iceland but if you're listening and you're in iceland we'd love to have you join our afa

00:13:48.180 family and have you be part of what we're doing that's great that you would like to see a hof

00:13:56.340 in newfoundland we would we would love to see that too we'd love to get a hof in every state

00:14:01.140 and every province um we would certainly need to to beef up our membership there and if you know

00:14:08.740 folks and if you want to be a part of what we're doing we would love to have more canadian members

00:14:13.780 trouble is we get uh population in canada is so spread out that when we get a canadian member

00:14:20.740 and we have some very successful areas a lot of it in british columbia we've got some

00:14:24.580 good folks in ontario but when we get uh canadian members they find themselves alone

00:14:30.660 and then they kind of drift away and if they stuck around and helped us they'd be around when

00:14:35.060 that next guy joins and we could we could build a solid base to grow from so we'd love to see

00:14:39.940 that in canada and yeah as soon as we get a good enough mass of folks up there to support it we'd

00:14:46.420 love to have a hof up there how many members in scandinavia um

00:15:00.020 So, without trying to run a search here while I'm running this with everybody, I'm going to go ahead and say that we have approximately 25, 30 members in Scandinavia currently.

00:15:30.020 Okay, we got, we got Dracula asking, what's the AFA's position on animal sacrifice and

00:15:41.400 why I think that's sacrifices have decreased over time.

00:15:50.100 So fundamentally, the AFA doesn't have a great, a great problem with animal sacrifice.

00:15:57.780 say one of the reasons that folks don't do that in this day and age is because we're very few of us

00:16:07.340 are involved in the raising of livestock back in the time of our ancestors livestock was a was a

00:16:14.300 common profession of of so many of our people and people were very connected to that there was a lot

00:16:19.960 of herdsmanship and that was that was very connected to people's livelihood in their daily

00:16:24.040 life. That certainly has decreased over time. Obviously, in the intervening thousand years of

00:16:31.560 Christianity, we've, as a people, become very unfamiliar with that idea. And when people talk

00:16:38.040 about animal sacrifice, I think they mean a lot of different things. So let me clarify, the AFA

00:16:44.280 is certainly okay with the humane and responsible slaughtering of an animal for a sacred purpose.

00:16:52.160 and as our ancestors always did you take that animal and then you share it in a feast amongst

00:16:57.940 the folk um the difference between that and the dinner that most of us certainly all of us who

00:17:05.660 are are not vegetarians eat is that that animal would be slaughtered in a sacred environment in

00:17:11.580 a sacred way with with holiness to it and then uh shared amongst the folk as opposed to you know

00:17:19.360 know in a factory farm setting like so much of our meat comes from but i think people become very

00:17:24.480 distant from that um just in the past few few generations here in the united states and and

00:17:31.120 in europe few people hunt anymore few people fish so many of us now have very little connection to

00:17:40.000 the food that we consume or to the act of of taking a life so that we can eat and i think

00:17:46.080 that that's made us quite disconnected from you know the the headspace of our ancestors when

00:17:51.600 they performed animal sacrifices got a question about the homeschooling project how's that coming

00:18:02.720 along slowly slowly but surely we've had a lot of great people working on that brandy callahan

00:18:09.440 has made some progress we now have some significant resources certainly for kindergarten age students

00:18:16.080 and we're working on building that up it is going slowly but it is moving forward and i love seeing

00:18:22.280 that i know we've got very many of you interested i know especially in the situation we're facing

00:18:27.240 the world today so many of us don't want to have our children in public schools and are very

00:18:33.120 concerned about that myself included so we're working hard on it and we're going to keep pushing

00:18:38.060 that forward if you want to volunteer you want to help or you want to take part in in those

00:18:42.440 resources please reach out to brandy callahan b callahan at runestone.org she would love to have

00:18:50.600 help and she'd be happy to to share with you what we have so far

00:18:56.440 Okay, we have somebody mentioning that they feel like they're walking on eggshells talking about

00:19:13.320 how's true with Europeans because Europeans tend to be so very liberal. I completely understand

00:19:19.240 that. Europeans tend to be much more liberal, and people who identify as pagans in Europe are

00:19:28.960 extremely liberal often. But our AFA membership that we found are not that way. I've been

00:19:36.000 fortunate enough to travel to Europe twice now with the AFA, once to Denmark and once to Sweden.

00:19:43.440 And the folks we ran into there and our membership there are not like those folks.

00:19:47.480 they tend to have traditional values and be very traditional people. And we've got some great folks

00:19:53.380 over there. It's hard and you got to know where to find them, but there's some great

00:19:57.000 Asitru in Europe and I'd encourage more of them to join us. But yeah, I see what you're saying

00:20:02.940 and it is difficult. We've all probably had negative experience with Europeans that claim

00:20:08.400 to be Asitru and have values quite askew to ours. 1.00

00:20:17.480 Tim, everybody's loving your shirts. They look great. I'm excited. I'm glad you guys are coming out and supporting Yord and getting those shirts. Thank you so much. And thank you, Tim, for making that possible for us.

00:20:31.980 Great. We got somebody in the chat that's going to show up to Baldershoff this weekend.

00:20:46.920 it's a good point so one of our folk builders uh pointed out in the in the chat wanted me to touch

00:21:05.580 on this we live in a really important time we have the ability now to set patterns of growth

00:21:16.480 for the for the future of our folk for our children for our grandchildren for our grandchildren's

00:21:21.600 grandchildren we're in a time now where we're establishing these hoffs we're building this

00:21:27.520 afa and making something truly amazing and we're planting seeds for the trees that are

00:21:33.920 our grandchildren will be able to take shade under sometimes literally that's what we're doing

00:21:38.480 it was a huge thing for me. I had coming into Austertru when I did, been Austertru for about

00:21:49.120 20 years. The dream of having Hoff, a Hoff, one Hoff was this distant goal in the future that 0.91

00:21:57.340 maybe someday we could have. I wanted that so bad for myself. I wanted it for us. I wanted it for 0.95

00:22:04.360 the future. And to be living in a time where we have three, almost soon to be four Hoffs was 0.50

00:22:12.300 really special on this last year to watch my daughter. She's been able to make it to two of

00:22:18.080 our Hoffs so far, but to watch her playing at Odin's Hoff out in the, out in the yard of that

00:22:23.800 property. And it just, it just dawned on me like this, we're living the dream. My daughter grows

00:22:30.760 up in a world, and she'll never know a world that doesn't have Hoffs to our gods. That's a really

00:22:36.260 special time that we're part of, and we're building that for the future, and we're doing it together,

00:22:42.340 and I'm excited to share that with you guys. I'm excited to be part of that with you guys.

00:22:55.000 We do not have a motto locked down for New York's Hoff yet. It's something those guys have talked

00:23:00.140 about. We've had a few, few locals there with some suggestions. If you've got ideas or suggestions,

00:23:05.720 you can reach out to Lane Ashby. He's our point man on it. He's also in the chat tonight.

00:23:13.380 And yeah, he can, he already did respond over there.

00:23:17.040 Henry, I will try to remember to bring your shirt to, to fall fest. If you remember to send me an email about it, you've got a better chance of me remembering.

00:23:33.040 a membrane. Okay, we have somebody asking if there's any thoughts or plans on establishing

00:23:46.680 or preserving groves. Not at this time. Not opposed to that, certainly, and I think there's

00:23:55.660 opportunity for that. I think so far we've, though I don't know of any sacred groves that

00:24:02.860 we've had dedicated in a very long time. Our folk have been able to practice Ausatru in nature and

00:24:10.920 in the woods a lot. And that's great. And I hope folks continue to do that. The real change is for 1.00

00:24:17.720 the first time in a thousand years, we're able to practice with actual temples, with actual

00:24:23.900 Hoffs to our gods. So that's certainly our focus right now. But no, I think it'd be great if people

00:24:30.500 had some groves. And I think there's a lot of beautiful things you could do with a grove space

00:24:35.160 for worship. So there's no plans for that right now, but I don't think that's a bad idea at all.

00:24:42.500 Crystal makes a good point. We do have outdoor worship spaces at some of our

00:25:00.380 Hoffs, and it depends on what we're doing. At Odin's Hoff, we have a great ritual

00:25:03.840 outside, and it's surrounded by beautiful redwoods. I don't know if it doesn't count

00:25:08.780 as a grove per se, but we do have a space out there to worship our gods amongst amazing,

00:25:15.700 amazing redwoods and amongst the trees and in that nature space. And I know a lot of us have

00:25:21.120 come up worshiping the gods out in nature. Certainly when I lived in Alaska, there was a lot

00:25:25.720 of times that we did bloat and ritual outside in just majestic surroundings. And there's something

00:25:33.340 very, very special to that. Roger, thanks for asking. The fires always encroach on Odin's

00:25:50.760 Hoff and they always get close. It seems like every year we've got fires within 10 to 20

00:25:56.160 miles of the Hoff. Fortunately, we've been very lucky. Not only have we been lucky, but

00:26:02.060 believe that we've been blessed and odin's office has been spared and been safe for the fires not

00:26:06.540 only has it been safe for the fires but we have used it as a space when people are forced to

00:26:11.500 evacuate from their homes in california that they can come and take shelter at odin's off

00:26:18.140 it also is a space that the folks there in brownsville have used as a staging area for

00:26:23.580 fighting fires so it's as far as things go in that area it's pretty well well defended

00:26:32.060 But yeah, every one of these summers until California gets it straightened out, we do have fires that get uncomfortably close to our half there.

00:26:53.940 Okay, we got an interesting question over on the side.

00:26:57.280 So when did you guys start doing memberships?

00:26:59.220 We've been doing memberships as far as I know back to 1995. Membership model is what's allowed us to to advance and to grow and to be successful. And then he says, I'm confused about membership. Can we become a member? Just a recognized follower without a monthly payment? Or how else can we be involved? Just asking.

00:27:23.220 um no right now in order to be a member and to be part of what we're doing we do need our folk

00:27:29.600 to contribute um it's not something that a lot of our folk like to hear or that everybody's

00:27:38.000 very comfortable with but money lets us do things it's how we can grow it's how we can have these

00:27:44.880 hoffs it's how we can be a force in the world and it's not just money but a lot of the dues

00:27:49.740 is about commitment we have people putting when there's a value on something and they're

00:27:54.620 contributing to something it's a lot more real and we find a lot higher level of participation

00:28:01.740 but what instead of the standard membership dues model what we've done for the past few years

00:28:07.420 that's very important and been a huge key to our success has been the hoff toller the idea with the

00:28:13.100 hoff toller is that you're paying a minimum of one percent of your income now we have some people

00:28:18.300 paying significantly more than that to help. And it's very appreciated. But if somebody's in an

00:28:24.040 economic situation where the membership dues right now start at $10 a month, and if $10 a

00:28:31.120 month is more than 1% of your income and you're having a hard time, 1% is 1%. 1% of a dollar is

00:28:38.400 a penny. So there's ways to, if you're struggling, there's ways to do things very differently.

00:28:44.680 um but yeah we do we do ask for our members to be contributing members that are that are helping us

00:28:51.000 move forward that way okay Cody's asking how can anyone help with building our fame and our luck

00:29:05.980 um with those who haven't come home yet a lot of things first participating in the AFA and being

00:29:13.840 part of what we're doing, helping us get these Hoffs going is a huge thing to the world to see

00:29:18.940 that we're real, that we exist, that we have a tangible presence here in Midgard. That's huge.

00:29:26.160 If you are known as an AFA member and people associate you with the AFA and with AUSA True,

00:29:31.100 one of the best things you can do is be a noble, good person. Be somebody that we would all be

00:29:39.000 proud of. If you look a little bit better than the guy next to you, if you're a little bit nicer,

00:29:45.080 if you treat people a little bit better, if you say, sir and ma'am, please and thank you,

00:29:49.400 if you have manners, if you do simple things, but if you always try to be your best and try

00:29:56.520 to present yourself the best, it helps all of us grow in our luck and our fame. And it helps bring

00:30:02.060 people on the outside that haven't found ousetree yet. It helps bring those people home because

00:30:07.280 when you're successful and you're happy and you're doing good things and you got a happy healthy

00:30:11.920 family they want a piece of what you have they want to know how you've been able to accomplish

00:30:16.320 that and if you can you know honestly tell them that the austro folk assembly and also true and

00:30:20.960 our gods have have made that a part of your life or allowed you to make that part of your life

00:30:26.800 that's powerful and it's brought so many people home to the austro true folk assembly

00:30:31.520 and the more you do it the more of our folk are going to come home and not only are they going

00:30:35.920 going to come home and swell the AstroFolk assembly, but they're going to have better

00:30:40.000 lives. They're going to have better families. They're going to have better relationships.

00:30:43.900 They're going to feel better about themselves, and they're going to accomplish more.

00:30:47.560 So always do your best and always represent the AFA as best as you can.

00:30:52.520 oh absolutely you can contribute yearly um either through the hoftoller like i mentioned can be a

00:31:08.120 yearly thing or your membership dues can be done yearly absolutely whatever works best for you that

00:31:13.460 way.

00:31:19.400 Os, I hope that you can build a kindred in your town soon too.

00:31:23.780 And thank you.

00:31:24.600 I'm glad that you decided to join us.

00:31:26.520 Glad that you're with us.

00:31:29.860 Speaking of my daughter I was talking about that got to play at the Hoff, here she is.

00:31:34.240 We are very fortunate to be joined today by my beautiful daughter, Aubrey.

00:31:39.580 She's the best little girl in the entire world.

00:31:41.420 look how pretty she is her mom's over there making faces so she's staring at her but she likes the

00:31:48.480 video calls and uh yeah i'm a i'm a very very lucky man and a very lucky daddy um but it's

00:31:58.600 always fun to have her on these and while i'm talking to you guys

00:32:01.520 good we've got some of our folk builders um American Beowulf over in the side some of our

00:32:13.500 folk builders are kind of reaching out they're a great resource to help you get situated and

00:32:17.440 help you figure it out if you've got questions

00:32:19.380 do we have more community service projects in the works

00:32:26.260 yes sort of and why is it important to do those community service things one of the really

00:32:33.980 important and really special things the afa has been able to do is take part in charitable things

00:32:40.500 in the in the communities that that our hops are in and this started uh by doing a food distribution

00:32:46.660 originally it was through the food bank but now we're doing it on our own in brownsville california

00:32:51.300 at Odinsoff with all the fires.

00:32:54.120 And it's a really economically depressed area there.

00:32:56.680 And the food bank reached out to us.

00:33:00.720 And we, for about two years, ran the food bank's distribution

00:33:05.740 in Brownsville and built our reputation with that community.

00:33:09.840 And when the food bank decided to go a different way

00:33:11.860 and do something different, we kept going.

00:33:13.500 And now on our own, once a month,

00:33:17.760 we do a food giveaway to everybody

00:33:19.540 who's struggling who's hungry who needs food and it's made such a positive impact on the community

00:33:27.940 but so a couple of things about that not only is it a great thing for the community

00:33:34.420 and something that really does help people who are in need but it helps us um

00:33:43.140 think in the world that we find ourselves in i think a lot of people feel this way

00:33:47.060 there's there's all these huge problems and in a really big sense there's a lot of things in

00:33:52.100 the world that aren't the way that we want them and there's a lot of things that we're frustrated

00:33:56.660 by that we really don't have an accessible way to fix and so we're stuck with with that

00:34:03.700 need inside to try to make stuff better well when you go and you hand out food to poor people that

00:34:09.060 are hungry you are literally making something better you are doing something and to be part

00:34:15.860 of that and to make their day to help feed their families and their children it's a big thing and

00:34:23.060 you feel good you feel good doing it and it's something for us in a holy context at our hof

00:34:29.300 with our folk with our afa family to be part of that and part of helping these people is an

00:34:34.020 amazing thing it's very important to us to be noble it's what the word arian means is it means

00:34:42.580 shining with nobility it's not just some kind of inner nobility but you're noble and other people

00:34:47.700 can see it you're shining with nobility and for us to help out in our communities and to be good

00:34:53.460 neighbors says something about who we are says something about who we aspire to be and it shows

00:35:00.020 our neighbors that we're a good part of your community that we're good people that do good

00:35:04.980 things and that's been great now um at thor's hoff and at balder's hoff we also do monthly

00:35:12.740 food distributions that's helped both of those hoffs in murdoch and in linden it's helped those

00:35:21.460 communities and families in those communities eat and as soon as we get in york's hoff we're

00:35:26.260 going to do food distribution there as well something else that we do um around yule time

00:35:32.340 we try to have a, we collect toys and give toys away to local children and have them in for some

00:35:39.660 cookies and some hot chocolate and some story time and some Yule things. Unfortunately, there's a lot

00:35:45.920 of kids out there that may not get a present because the families may not be able to afford it

00:35:49.740 or they may, you know, may not get a lot of that Yule spirit. And so we're going to do our part,

00:35:56.080 be the best we can to spread that around and to to cheer up some kids at Yule and give them a present, put a smile on their face, put something warm in their belly.

00:36:05.980 And yeah, we're looking forward to doing that. We also have talk that we may do some fall things this year as well.

00:36:11.220 Some like Halloween harvest time carnival things. So we're looking into that also.

00:36:26.080 So somebody asked if it's an encouraged thing for people to post marketing stuff like flyers

00:36:51.840 and stuff on bulletin boards. Yes, but be very careful. We would love that, absolutely, but

00:36:59.660 make sure you're doing it in a place that it's welcome. We don't want to post things on bulletin

00:37:04.940 boards in places that are not used for that publicly. We certainly don't want to litter.

00:37:09.260 We don't want to become a nuisance, but if there's any spot that's welcome for those kind of community

00:37:13.560 posts, absolutely. We would love, you know, any opportunity that you can, either written or

00:37:18.920 with word of mouth, talk about the AFA, encourage people that should be with us to become here with

00:37:25.320 us, to be part of what we're doing, to become members of the AFA. And yeah, we appreciate

00:37:29.880 a thought on that, certainly. Well, J-Link, you can't buy handsome. So if you got that,

00:37:53.060 you're ahead of the game. Money comes, money goes. As long as you got the good looks,

00:37:57.040 you're ahead of the game on that. Good luck to you, and I hope you make that income to get a

00:38:02.980 woman and some babies, too. Sorry, guys, just looking on the side, catching up with our

00:38:17.220 conversation here, making sure I'm answering everything that I can.

00:38:27.040 Looks like you guys are having a good conversation over there on the side.

00:38:36.220 I like that.

00:38:36.820 I like to see that.

00:38:40.000 Cool.

00:38:40.780 Does anybody else have any questions or things they want to talk about tonight?

00:38:50.120 I'm trying to think of some other stuff we've got going on.

00:38:53.000 As of today, we've got a new apprentice folk builder in eastern Pennsylvania, Jane Malseed.

00:39:01.400 Her and her family have been active AFA members for a long time.

00:39:05.100 They're part of the Lansdale True Folk kindred over in that part of the world, and they're fantastic.

00:39:10.620 Lansdale True Folk has Witten Clifford Erickson, Githya Katie Erickson.

00:39:17.820 It's got the winner of the Folk Building Excellence Award for 2020 in Adam Hudak there.

00:39:24.820 And now it's got folk builder Jane Mousied. So they're doing amazing stuff.

00:39:28.820 If you're in Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey area, she would love to help you get going and make some outs of truth happen there.

00:39:39.820 Can I talk a little bit about Newerther?

00:39:43.820 Sure. So we have every reason to believe that Njord was a very significant god to our ancestors.

00:39:56.360 Not a ton of lore has come down to us, but we have reason to believe, you know, when there's just a few toasts mentioned, he's always mentioned to somebody who's toasted to.

00:40:07.720 Lord is a God of of wealth and of prosperity of success so much of that to our ancestors and to

00:40:18.240 us today comes from the sea and uh he's he's a God of the sea but not not in the deep scary ocean

00:40:26.180 sense but in the in the welcoming sea the shore and the uh the prosperous sea that you fish in

00:40:32.260 and that you extract things from and that you become wealthy from.

00:40:37.480 He's certainly a god of success.

00:40:39.920 He is the father of Frey and of Freya.

00:40:44.120 He's a god of kings.

00:40:47.860 The Yingling dynasty traces their lineage back to Frey,

00:40:51.460 and Yord's Frey's father.

00:40:53.300 I think it's telling that in our lore,

00:40:55.660 Yord's father's Frey and Freya, which literally mean lord and lady,

00:41:00.460 he is he is the father of nobility in that sense so he's really a a great a great god to look to

00:41:11.120 for inspiration for help um and to succeed he also he's part of kind of the the elder generation

00:41:20.040 of gods he is a father of gods and uh in that way he's he's even more venerable and even more

00:41:29.360 special in that sense. He's somebody that, even in, after the high points of our religion had

00:41:39.680 disappeared from Europe, in folk customs, the fishermen and the sailors would still,

00:41:46.480 up to this day, make offerings, you know, with varying levels of sincerity,

00:41:51.800 to Njord for success. We've seen since the rebirth of Alcetru in the late 60s,

00:42:00.320 we've seen many people who live by the coast make Njord a huge part of their worship. There's a long,

00:42:08.760 long tradition in Florida of folks gathering on the beach and worshiping Njord and asking for

00:42:15.980 his blessing and for his success. And I believe that's one of the big reasons we've been successful

00:42:20.460 in that area and we're looking really forward to establishing that uh that hoff for it and

00:42:26.700 i appreciate all y'all's help in making that happen next holiday is winter finding and

00:42:43.820 And traditionally, it is on the fall solstice, or I'm sorry, the fall equinox, rather.

00:42:52.000 The AFA is going to observe that on the third weekend in September.

00:42:57.300 So, yeah, that's what's coming up next.

00:42:59.880 The idea that is the start of winter, the start of the hunting season a lot of places,

00:43:08.980 the start of us bringing our things from the outside in and gathering those in.

00:43:13.820 It's time of the start of that in-gathering process.

00:43:26.060 So, all right.

00:43:30.160 What do I think of the Norena Society?

00:43:36.180 What I think of the Norena Society and what I think of Mark Puryear are two very separate things.

00:43:40.900 I have a lot of respect for Mark. He's always been a great guy. He's been great to me. He's

00:43:48.540 treated me very well. I have a lot of respect for Mark Puryear personally. I'm not a fan of

00:43:54.520 the Norana Society. I think it's a lot of people that would rather criticize and theorize than

00:44:04.120 actually practice Ausatru. In my understanding, the vast majority of those people just sit around

00:44:09.760 and bicker and pick on finer points of obscure lore and don't actually get out and worship our

00:44:18.760 gods and actually get out and participate in things. I found that a lot of their membership

00:44:23.240 are very cancerous, very toxic people that you don't want to be around. And so they'd rather be

00:44:28.960 in their basement or their mom's basement and again, criticize the folks that are out there

00:44:34.180 in the arena doing things. So I'm not a fan of arena society, but I'm a fan of Mark Perry. He's

00:44:39.720 a good guy. He's a swell guy. Hmm. American Beowulf. I'm not sure I understand the question.

00:44:56.500 We do not have a Hoff in Colorado yet. I would love to have one there. I'd love to see that

00:45:01.280 happen. We have Odenshoff in Brownsville, California. We have Thorshoff in Linden,

00:45:07.600 North Carolina. We have Baldershoff in Murdoch, Minnesota. And we're going to have Njordshoff

00:45:15.000 in somewhere in the great state of Florida here sometime very soon. 0.97

00:45:31.280 T-shirts are going to be up until they sell out. What we've got is what we've got. So get yours now while supplies last. They're a limited time special thing to raise funds. So they'll be there until they're not. But yeah, we're going to keep them up until all of them sell.

00:46:01.280 Alright, so somebody is getting a question over on the side about my thoughts on situation

00:46:18.560 in Afghanistan and long term ramifications for our folk who are veterans and then moving

00:46:24.980 forward.

00:46:29.580 Like a lot of folks, I am very frustrated by what I'm seeing in Afghanistan.

00:46:36.760 I'm very frustrated at how a lot of things have been pursued in that entire process.

00:46:48.780 If I were in charge of things, things would be really different.

00:46:54.860 I'm not. I think that when a president, when a king, when a country, when a leader, when

00:47:14.240 a community

00:47:16.180 spends the lives

00:47:20.860 of its young men on something. 0.90

00:47:25.360 That something

00:47:26.560 becomes sacred to a degree.

00:47:30.940 And once you've invested that,

00:47:32.880 once you've invested

00:47:33.860 literal blood

00:47:35.980 into something like that,

00:47:39.940 I think you

00:47:40.520 do your best to honor

00:47:42.820 that investment

00:47:43.660 it by victory by success perhaps by conquest by something but you don't give up on it you don't

00:47:55.540 sacrifice it cheaply um I think in the whole process with both Afghanistan and Iraq our

00:48:07.360 society at large has done a very poor job of honoring and celebrating our veterans

00:48:13.820 and our warriors who've gone and put their lives on the line for that. I don't.

00:48:24.180 We find a lot of charity and a lot of talk out there, you know, almost treating them like

00:48:31.040 there's some poor wretches we need to feel sorry for or whatever. We're not celebrating them.

00:48:37.360 as heroes and we should um and that's really unfortunate all around

00:48:45.520 for our veterans who were involved in the conflict in afghanistan to our folks who

00:48:53.600 were wounded there our folks who lost friends there um

00:48:58.960 It's a very hard time. And it's a very sad time. And I want

00:49:08.500 in perspective, there's something something to be said

00:49:18.820 that our men volunteered to join our armed forces and went and put themselves in harm's way

00:49:31.240 for their country, for things they believe in, for their, you know, their buddy standing next

00:49:40.160 to them, whatever the case may be. A lot of us have never done that. A lot of us will never do

00:49:47.680 that. Those of you who have done that, we honor you and we respect that so much. There's something

00:49:55.620 fundamental to being a man about that experience that you all share that many of us don't.

00:50:04.640 And that matters. The fact that you were there and willing and you stepped up matters.

00:50:15.280 whatever the political situation is down the road what you've done does matter it matters

00:50:25.580 on a spiritual plane it matters to you and the relationships that you've forged through it

00:50:34.640 and the life experience you've forged through it and the life experience that you can share

00:50:39.440 with the rest of us that we can learn and that we can grow but I want you to know that the

00:50:44.740 us true folk assembly honors our veterans um we're there with you guys and if you're a veteran um no

00:50:52.660 matter if you're in the afa or not if you're going through something if you're having a hard time for

00:50:57.540 struggling with things please reach out to us please reach out to our go thar um we've got a

00:51:03.860 number of go thar who are combat veterans who've been through some of the same things that you've

00:51:09.220 been through and can help or can just listen so if you are a veteran you're struggling with

00:51:15.620 all this that's going on please reach out to us and we'd love to have our folks talk to you and

00:51:21.700 if nothing else be a listening ear and if there's something that folks can say to be helpful we'd

00:51:25.860 We'd love to do that, too.

00:51:55.860 Thank you.

00:52:25.860 All right, guys. Well, I have certainly enjoyed talking to you this evening.

00:52:35.360 I got to get packed and get ready to head to the airport here shortly.

00:52:38.700 Is there anything that you guys wanted to ask or any last things that you wanted me to speak on tonight?

00:52:45.440 As always, I love doing this. I appreciate you guys being here.

00:52:49.920 I look forward to talking to you guys like this every month, and I'm going to be back talking to you guys again in October, hopefully seeing a bunch of you guys here in a couple of days at Baldershoff, and hopefully seeing you guys again at Winter Nights in Pennsylvania next month.

00:53:16.360 Oh, absolutely, it's possible to perform blow by yourself.

00:53:19.920 A lot of us started out that way. I would go so far as say most of us did their first offerings, their first rituals, their first bloats by themselves.

00:53:33.040 Once you do bloat with a group. It's not the same to do it by yourself, though, doing a doing a ritual, doing a bloat by yourself.

00:53:42.920 There's a time and a place. Certainly there's personal rituals, you know, little mini bloats that I think we all do in front of our altars.

00:53:49.920 by ourselves or just with our family, but it is profoundly important to us. It was profoundly

00:53:57.600 important to our ancestors together with our community, with our folk, with our AFA family

00:54:03.480 to stand as one before our gods and give that offering. And it's so much more powerful that

00:54:09.660 way when we stand as a people. So by all means, please worship the gods, worship your ancestors,

00:54:16.640 worship our heroes in in bloats by yourself in offerings by yourself but don't let that stop you

00:54:24.000 from being part of the community and worshiping with a group because it's

00:54:27.680 it's hard to describe if you haven't experienced it but uh that's when this becomes really real

00:54:37.000 is when you're able to to be there in that ritual circle with your afa family with your tribe with

00:54:43.680 your folk. It's a really special experience

00:54:45.640 and I hope to see you there with us.

00:54:55.900 All right, guys. Thank you for being here

00:54:57.580 tonight. Hail the gods.

00:54:59.820 Hail the folk.

00:55:01.460 Hail the AFA.

Asatru Folk Assembly - September 02, 2021

September 2021 Live Discussion

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