00:05:13.740You had the Angles, the Saxons, and then they would later become the Anglo-Saxons, a dual race and a combination of the tribes.
00:05:21.580Well, and in fact, we've undergone kind of that recombination here in the so-called New World, too, haven't we?
00:05:28.080I mean, I'm a bit Irish. I'm a lot of Anglo-Saxon from my English ancestors.
00:05:34.840I've got ancestors from continental Germany.
00:05:37.500It's sort of a re-blending or a combination of closely allied tribes.
00:05:43.640Some people say, oh, well, I'm a mutt.
00:05:46.220You know, I've got Norwegian and English and Scottish.
00:05:50.580Well, first of all, our ancestors weren't dogs, and it denigrates them to call ourselves mutts.
00:05:57.040And secondly, all of those peoples are so closely related that it's just, it makes no point at all to quibble amongst them.
00:06:04.520Yeah, I agree. And just to give a term to the latter group, that would actually, they would be called in literature the Norman Anglo-Saxons, correct?
00:06:12.760Well, the Normans were Vikings that settled in, of course, Normandy in northern France.
00:06:20.280So they are largely Scandinavian, and then they came over into England, and, of course, over time intermarried with the people there, and also into Ireland, as the Irish are acutely aware.
00:06:36.120And so, again, that's sort of a recombining of our ancestral elements.
00:06:41.560What do you feel, Stephen, is the reason that, you know, in the past, we used to honor our ancestors.
00:06:47.980We'd all have our rights and our tribes.
00:06:50.280And over time, over the last 2,000 years, of course, with the advent of religion, Catholicism, the Judaic religions,0.76
00:06:57.660they basically, the powers that be, wanted to wash away these ancient teachings and make us forget.
00:07:05.080What do you feel would be the main reason for this to occur?
00:07:09.540Was it for us to unite as a people and stop having separate tribes and have one tribe?
00:07:15.080Or was it something else, do you feel?
00:07:17.220Well, I think it was several things, Mo.
00:07:18.740So I'll preface this by saying I have no personal gripes against people of the Christian faith.
00:07:25.540I was a Christian for many years until I changed my path.
00:07:29.000My recent ancestors, whom I revere and honor, were Christians.
00:07:33.540But that said, Europeans have been Christian for only 1% to 2% of our existence as a people.
00:07:39.720So Christianity is really a very new phenomenon in Europe.
00:07:42.960I believe that the reason that the Christian establishment, and it was both a religious and a political establishment, wanted to get rid of the old ancestor cults is because it was a competing factor.
00:07:56.540I mean, if your loyalty is to your ancestors, it's not likely to be to the priest or to the bishop or to the pope.
00:08:03.540So it was a divisive thing as far as they're concerned.
00:08:07.040And also by eradicating the lines between the tribes
00:08:09.860and just bringing everyone into the, quote, communion of saints,
00:08:12.840as Catholic liturgy says, they have easier control.
00:08:17.660It is a matter of basically getting allegiance,
00:08:20.520keeping that allegiance, exercising control over the people.
00:08:24.140Do you believe that those powers, you know, the religious elite,
00:08:28.440are still in control even though they're not as much in the forefront as far as the Pope and the
00:08:33.960Vatican, that they're still secretly pulling the strings of royalty across the world? You know,
00:08:39.700I really don't have an opinion on that. I think that certainly their obvious power has waned
00:08:47.940because the Church itself has over time become degenerate and not carrying out its original
00:08:55.980mission, I think. It's become modernized, liberalized, diluted in many respects. We do
00:09:04.600live in a rather degenerate age, and I think that they have suffered from that effect as much as we
00:09:09.040have. Why do you feel it's important that we follow the ways of our ancestors? To me, the way
00:09:16.420of the ancestors, our particular ancestors, is the one that is unique. We are a product of those
00:09:24.520people. We are, as in fact, your own writing says, we are our ancestors. I've been saying
00:09:32.580literally that for years, and I'm quite aware of all sorts of metaphysical wriggle room in there,
00:09:39.660but nevertheless, we have that connection. We are the latest expression of our ancestors
00:09:45.480in this little slice of space and time, and we owe them the gift of life. They passed to us
00:09:54.360that torch from generation to generation, despite famine and wars and everything else,
00:10:00.820they gave us the gift of life. Our bond with our ancestors, for me, is one that transcends space,
00:10:09.080transcends time, transcends mortality. I wholeheartedly agree with you, Stephen. I'm
00:10:15.420big in also connecting with my ancestors as well. And over the course of the last four years,
00:10:21.640I've done various DNA tests, and that actually helped me connect with them because I wasn't
00:21:24.000I think there's other things that happen there, and it gets a little complex depending on people's situation.
00:21:29.520But I think that there is evidence of that.
00:21:32.440Now, you can always just rationalize that and say, oh, well, people noticed that because there are hereditary traits that this is so-and-so back.
00:21:40.680I think there is a deeper truth there.
00:21:43.240Now, in the Germanic world, there's the idea that what we think of as the soul is actually a composite structure, that there's different aspects.
00:21:53.000And so one can always ask, well, are these particular qualities and soul components the ones that are reborn or not?
00:22:01.220And, you know, one can go chase that idea around forever and ever.
00:22:04.760But like I said, the short answer was yes.
00:22:08.220Yeah, and I feel where it can be complex, you know, we do know today via DNA and, of course, through history that several of the tribes and races have mixed over time.
00:22:19.240So I'm under the belief, based on my studies of genetics, DNA, and of course history, that a lot of us are multiple tribes in one being.
00:22:28.680And I feel sometimes that this can also confuse us when we're reborn and reincarnated into this world.
00:22:35.640If we come possibly from two distinct separate races and tribes, which I believe that I'm made of based on my DNA tests,
00:22:44.180that we're a little bit confused to what I would say this internal gnosis until we are awoken to
00:22:50.500it as well. But these other beings that I feel that have the different races and different tribes
00:22:55.740in them, they can also connect with both of the tribes. And, you know, I have this theory that
00:23:01.680the powers that be were trying to mix us even though we don't know it. And that's kind of what
00:23:07.680we're seeing here in the West and, of course, the United States of America with the, you know,
00:23:13.320pretty much open borders and where tribal identity, race identity is actually frowned upon.
00:23:18.860And it seems like that is also happening in Europe and, you know, all across the world. But in the
00:23:24.420East, we see the exact opposite, where whole nations can be considered what we call here in
00:23:30.320the West racist, or what would be deemed racist. You know, the Chinese are definitely, they frown1.00
00:23:37.060upon mixing with other cultures and other races. You go to the Arabic countries, almost every0.57
00:23:43.120single one of them the same thing they frown upon mixing with people from the west or european
00:23:48.800descent and that's pretty much you'll find that carte blanche in all those countries but when you
00:23:54.300come here it's more of a free-for-all why do you feel that there's these two distinct teachings on0.53
00:24:00.600race where in the east and in those countries and asiatic countries hey we stay with our own kind
00:24:05.820but here we're just having a free-for-all love fest with the different tribes well mo i don't
00:24:12.400want to get too political here, but my own thought on that is that we have been conditioned
00:24:17.760to break down that in-group loyalty, that the phenomenon has been encouraged by the
00:24:25.900powers that be. And again, I think that could be largely a control factor. It seems really
00:24:34.180that everyone is allowed to express pride in their ancestors and their people, except0.96
00:28:56.260Yeah, I have another non-profit beside the Alsatru Folk Assembly in which I oppose elephant poaching.
00:29:04.640And I'm very much willing to take my soldiering skills from the past and to take those into the field, fighting alongside Africans to maintain the existence of an incredible species we call elephants.0.60
00:29:22.120And to me, that's only fair. It doesn't mean I honor my people any less. Quite the contrary.
00:29:27.520your actions speak more than your words so it's great that you're doing that and you're showing
00:29:32.980that by the way you live steven because i know people out there they might construe you know
00:29:38.720your organization or other organizations out there and always seems to be you know more of the nordic
00:29:43.820type organizations that get cornered or pigeonholed as being racist but there's of course all types of
00:29:49.400different organizations out there that are loyal to their ancestors or their groups you know you
00:29:54.540of the the Jews and the different other races but when it comes to the Nordics
00:29:58.300they start getting cornered or pigeonholed in there with you know Nazis
00:30:02.880or skinheads but that's not the case correct I absolutely agree with you I
00:30:07.920absolutely agree in the declaration of purpose which is the guiding document
00:30:14.820for my organization the also true folk assembly we our first primary purpose is
00:30:21.540is obviously practice the religion to honor the holy powers and so forth.
00:30:25.620The second one is to support the existence of our people
00:31:29.280Actually, we've got a fraternal organization that has adopted that name, not we.
00:31:34.900It's not a part of the AFA, but they're friends of ours.
00:31:37.800It has adopted that name just to continue the lineage, and that's kind of cool just to keep it alive.
00:31:44.180And that was in August of 1972 that we received our little letter from the Internal Revenue Service saying,
00:31:50.120yes, you're a tax-exempt religious organization.
00:31:53.820So I think that's probably a first of some sort.
00:31:56.840And then in 1976, the Viking Brotherhood became the also true Free Assembly,
00:32:02.380and it carried that name for a few years.
00:32:05.020Then I took a sabbatical for about five, six years, and I wandered the world,
00:32:09.280and I wrote for military magazines and I reported from third world hell holes, places you can't drink the water.
00:32:16.620And then in 1994, 1995, I reestablished what we currently have, which is the Asatru Folk Assembly.
00:32:25.280So it's been a long 45 years. What can I say?
00:32:29.420When you look at what we're allowed to do here in the States and, of course, many other Western countries,
00:32:34.880We're essentially allowed to honor the ways of our ancestors as long as we honor the laws of the land.
00:32:42.380And you personally have not been persecuted or been gone after by any kind of conspiracies or anything like that.
00:32:49.680Do you feel over the last 45 years because of your beliefs?
00:32:53.820Well, there have been a few things that were bothersome.
00:32:56.960And back just around, just before the year 2000, there were some law enforcement people that, frankly, wrote up a bunch of trash about us, but it was all nonsense, you know.
00:33:11.220And there have been other people who tried to pin the racist label on us or subversive label or whatever, whatever.
00:33:17.880But upon closer investigation, all their claims evaporate into thin air.
00:33:24.920So we've had minor problems, but basically it's been an easy ride.
00:33:31.300In the last 20 years or 15 years, I'll say, there's been absolutely no problems.
00:33:37.480We are made up of people who are good citizens.
00:33:41.920We have many people of a military background or a law enforcement background.
00:33:46.760I've been both a soldier and a corrections officer, so I've worked both ends of that.
00:33:53.580And, you know, in all those years, I've received, you know, several different security clearances, never had a problem.
00:34:03.040And I was also a public school teacher for years where you live a transparent life.
00:34:08.480And there was never any sort of an issue with my behavior, my beliefs, or my affiliations.
00:34:14.960So decades ago, yeah, it was problems from time to time.
00:34:19.420And a lot of the watchdog organizations kind of feed that frenzy a little bit sometimes.
00:34:25.960I mean, they've got to get their money from somewhere.
00:34:28.360And I'm sure these security clearances also deal with FBI files that I feel many of us in the alternative research and truth movements,
00:34:37.760and of course with movements such as yours, you're going to have some files done on you and research.
00:34:44.040And if you come out clean and you're respecting your ancestors, but you're also not persecuting other races or other beliefs and so forth,
00:34:52.700that they allow us, the powers that be, the rulers of law, to go ahead and do this as long as we respect others.
00:35:00.280Well, you know, it's a little hard to nail me as a racist when I'm willing to fight and bleed alongside African men to save their environmental heritage.
00:35:13.160And I've similarly worked with, as I mentioned, Tibetans, the Karen people of eastern Burma, and so forth.
00:35:23.880I've walked that walk, not just talked that talk.
00:35:27.540In researching you before you came on the show and over the last several months, Stephen, I agree wholeheartedly with that statement.
00:35:35.060I am not a big supporter or a believer in racist organizations that condemn other races or believe they're superior to others, which I do not get one inclination or one percentage of that from you or your organization.
00:35:49.780It's actually the opposite. It's just honoring your ancestors, and that's what you guys are about.
00:35:54.700Do you make sure that you screen people a little bit before they come into the organization
00:35:59.220to make sure that that's not their intentions and that they're not doing that out there on the streets
00:36:05.480that could possibly damage your reputation?
00:36:09.080Well, we do. We do, to some extent, a little background investigation.
00:36:13.100Nothing really in-depth because that requires some considerable resources.
00:36:16.920But, you know, we look at people's Facebook pages.
00:36:19.400Is this really the kind of person we want in our organization?
00:36:22.380Does this person understand that this is not a racist organization?
00:36:28.020And yet, on the other hand, do they understand that we are ancestry-based?
00:36:31.420You know, there's a spectrum in there, and we need people who get that,
00:36:35.500who get it about ancestors, who get it about heritage,
00:36:38.940but who are not out to do anything disrespectful in regards to other groups.
00:36:45.820We screen for sexual predators, things like that.
00:36:48.980We look people over, and we always tell them, read our Declaration of Purpose.
00:36:54.960The Declaration of Purpose is what drives the Ossetree Folk Assembly.
00:36:58.660That's our guiding document, and it's very balanced and very fair,
00:37:03.600and people can find that online and take a look at it.
00:37:06.700It's amazing the kind of background searches we could do today
00:37:10.080without the help of law enforcement or some expensive background check.
00:37:14.660Just checking people on Google through their Facebook pages and through the statements they make tells a lot about that person.
00:37:22.420And there's a whole field called open-source intelligence that even the system uses.
00:37:28.420The stuff that's on the deep web and things like that.
00:37:31.980I'm sorry. I'm just going to say, yeah. And in terms of being looked at, the word I'm hearing is that anyone who has ever used Tor or even gone to a site describing how to use Tor is on the watch list. So basically, they're everywhere. They're everywhere.
00:37:52.820What is that? Would I explain what that means? Tor?
00:37:55.440Oh, Tor. I don't remember what it stands for.
00:37:57.620Basically, it's an unrouter kind of thing.
00:38:00.020It's a way of surfing the web anonymously.
00:47:16.280And I think that that often happens with our recent ancestors, newly deceased,
00:47:22.460And it happens with those from much farther back, I believe.
00:47:26.280Some scientists did a study once, just a couple of years back.
00:47:29.540I don't even remember the institute or anything of that sort.
00:47:34.340But they interviewed people who had recently experienced the loss of a relative or someone very close to them.
00:47:42.180And in the majority of cases, greater than 50% of those cases, people reported that after that person died, they felt some sense of contact, some sense of their presence, and so forth.
00:47:59.940Of course, the scientist's concern was, gee, why do people have this hallucination?
00:48:04.440Well, that, I'm afraid, is the shortcoming of the scientific method.
00:57:46.260Of course, you've got this get-together in October that's going to be magnificent
00:57:49.840because we've got some awesome people up in the Northeast.
00:57:53.440We're taking a new approach to our local and regional organizations
00:57:57.960in terms of tying people together in different ways that are supportive
00:58:04.160and that will further both the revolution and the permanence
00:58:09.280and the beneficial effects of the AFA.
00:58:14.260I'm, of course, heavily involved in all of that,
00:58:16.180I'm also involved in the elephant project. I have a nonprofit called Forever Elephants, and currently we are attempting to tie down a proposal to go into Congo and train park rangers to fight poachers.
00:58:32.840I've got infantry skills, and I know lots of people who have infantry skills, and our goal is to train the poachers, to give them a little bit of a leg up, because in general, they're outclassed in terms of physical equipment and things of that sort.
00:58:50.360but also they don't necessarily have the kind of small unit training that's necessary
00:58:54.960to deal with what is not just a criminal activity, but virtually a military activity.
00:59:01.540Poaching is a very sophisticated thing now,
00:59:04.880driven by a billion-dollar industry and with high tech
00:59:09.340and with a cartel-type network that extends from the bush in Africa