00:01:50.760so this is complex and there's a lot that goes into it and i've seen
00:02:03.400it's baffling and and interesting to see how people have taken the value of oaths uh in my
00:02:13.400time and also true oaths are extremely important your word is very much your bond and when you
00:02:19.960formalize it in a ritual context with making an oath it's very powerful and very important
00:02:31.000and there's consequences for breaking oaths i've seen what i was going to say what i was leading
00:02:37.240off with i've seen situations where people feel that there is a conflicting oath that goes on
00:02:46.360or that there's conflicting loyalties and it seems and i know that some of this is human nature
00:02:53.400but our people are particularly susceptible to choosing the oaths that are most convenient for
00:02:59.800them and go and ride or die with those oaths but the oaths that they don't like they find
00:03:06.840a convenient way to weasel out of and it's completely unacceptable for you to ever break
00:03:12.440an oath with them but they can break an oath to you at whim because reasons um i think our folk
00:03:20.600have a very unreasonable imbalanced view of of othing um like i've seen people with their uh
00:03:28.840their kindred oaths always supersede their afa oaths for some reason and that reason is convenience
00:03:38.040because it's easier not to hurt your feelings, the feelings of your friends than to care about
00:03:42.920people that are distant from you. Oaths don't work like that. Another misconception about oaths.
00:03:50.040Okay. So I've seen other people that have taken profound leadership oaths and break those at the
00:03:56.520drop of the hat, like they're nothing, but sacrifice lots of things for very small,
00:04:05.080in cons or would seemingly less consequential oaths to uh kindred members or dude they came up
00:04:14.600with um so i think one thing about oaths is very important is make sure your oaths are
00:04:21.080not conflicting or done in such a way that if there's a conflict
00:04:25.480there's a resolution path and that leads me to the other thing i want to say about oaths
00:04:29.880oaths are a contract between two entities and there's typically terms on both sides of that
00:04:42.120if the other side of your oath violates the terms of the oath then it's completely appropriate to
00:04:49.740to address that and if in irreconcilable it no longer binds you to your portion of it if that's
00:04:57.580agreed upon. I think it's very reasonable to get the people who've chosen to enter into oaths to
00:05:03.360dissolve those oaths if the fundamental situations of life have changed. And there's
00:05:09.620honorable ways to try to do that rather than just running off and breaking your oaths.
00:05:14.780It's worth the time to renegotiate and come up with an equitable and appropriate solution rather
00:05:24.140than to just abandon one's responsibilities. And I think, you know, I think as grown adults,
00:05:30.380the older we get in life, we see more and more occasions in life where we're unable to continue
00:05:35.600with perhaps oaths that we've made that we shouldn't have made. I think one of the most
00:05:39.720obvious ones of those is divorce. And I think a lot of us, myself included, have been involved
00:05:44.760in divorce that were, you know, oath to be till death do us part and then didn't quite work out
00:05:51.420that way and it's unfortunate but it's still serious and there's still a debt on those i think
00:05:58.460another oath a lot of us have engaged in is uh baptism i know that's one that i feel bad that i
00:06:05.580i broke that oath so i think that we need to be realistic that there is consequences but it's not
00:06:14.460one and done and you're worthless for the rest of eternity if an oath is broken but they're
00:06:19.180very important and they need to be considered in the extreme before they're made. And I'd also
00:06:25.320venture to say they should be made sparingly so that they don't conflict and so that you can focus
00:06:31.140your seriousness on maintaining the commitments that you have made. And I think you also bring
00:06:36.180up the valid point of getting released from the oath, which is if the agreement is mutual,
00:06:43.420You know, certainly divorce is an example, but also, you know, I'm getting ready to move to somewhere where we can't be together as kindred anymore.
00:06:52.600I would like to be released from this oath that we have together. Absolutely.
00:06:56.420You know, and you know, you know, or I my life circumstances has changed and I cannot fulfill my oath as a folk builder.
00:07:03.180You know, I don't have time to do it. I would like to be released from the oath.
00:07:06.100You can be released from an oath in an honorable way.
00:07:09.380Um, but what you, what you don't want to do is slink away from it because again, you leave that
00:07:16.300piece of your soul behind and it's not, uh, you know, it's not coming back. Yeah. It's a finite
00:07:21.960resource. Um, the other thing that I want to say to that is, and I mentioned this a lot on this
00:07:30.500program and please don't take this, that this has come easy for me or that I'm perfect at this in
00:07:38.480my own life, we all have things that we're afraid of or make us uncomfortable. But courage is
00:07:46.680really, it's essential to the practice of Ausatru. It's essential to all of our virtues.
00:07:53.640And it's something that our folks specifically are very, very lacking in today. And we're working
00:08:02.200hard to rebuild that but when we think of courage as you know there's people with bar fight courage
00:08:09.480and that's the courage that so many of our men think about you know courage in battle and that's
00:08:15.000that is a important courage and in times where it's necessary that is a truly profound and one
00:08:25.320of the greatest courages but on the day-to-day in 2022 a courage that we often lack is a social
00:08:32.840courage to say something that may hurt feelings or to say something that may cause people to
00:08:40.360make you feel uncomfortable and so rather than taking the courage of a 20-minute phone call to
00:08:48.360honorably ask for release and dissolve an oath in an appropriate way we would rather send an
00:08:56.600angry email and just abdicate our responsibility because we feel it's easier and it may be easier
00:09:03.800in the moment but it's not easier in the long run and i challenge you guys to stand up and have
00:09:10.520social courage as best you can that's a challenge for all of us that's a challenge for me i don't
00:09:15.240like letting people down or hurting people's feelings or having awkward conversations with
00:09:20.600people like i get it but it's important that we rise to that it's important that every time we
00:09:25.640realize the only thing holding us back from something is fear that we conquer that fear
00:09:31.560and that we don't allow that fear to dictate our actions that we live up to the odenshof motto
00:09:37.080of do right and fear none so i'd encourage you guys to do that
00:09:40.600Finn says what if we have broken oaths in the past I'm gonna let Alan get to this I think he's
00:09:48.160probably got some more meat on it but I want to just throw out there try to fix it the best we
00:09:54.640can do we don't forgive and erase that's not real there's an actual damage that is caused when you
00:10:01.600violate an agreement to the best of your ability try to fix what you broke if there's a way to
00:10:08.860compensator to fix a party that you've wronged. Do that first. Yes, take responsibility and
00:10:15.680apologize. That's great. Ask forgiveness. That's great. But fix what you broke as close and as
00:10:23.800best as you can. That's the first step in those things. And then try to counterbalance them by
00:10:30.500worthy deeds from here on out for the rest of your life. You can't take that away, but you can put in
00:10:37.860good over top of the bad and make a better make a better product at the end it's not a one and
00:10:45.080done proposition this life is as short as it is it's long too um and you've got a lot of years
00:10:52.520that you can try to right wrongs that you've done and try to you know overcome that balance
00:10:58.100and end up in the you know end up in the black instead of in the red as it were alan what do
00:11:04.760got i like how you go i'm gonna let alan take this and then you take every then you say everything i
00:11:09.560was going to say um but it's uh you know it is a fundamental precept of the way that we uh recognize
00:11:21.560the debt that we owe each to each other um and that's that's behind the concept of paying where
00:11:28.440guild or shield um when you break an oath and because and there's a long boring story i'll tell
00:11:38.980some other time um but the but but it is about the difference between the horizontal relationship and
00:11:45.000the and the i did that backwards vertical relationship versus horizontal relationship
00:11:49.660the you know the the thing that we see out there in a lot of the world right now is only god can
00:11:56.040judge me because and that is you know one of christian precepts is that your holy relationship
00:12:01.120is only vertical you know it's up that you know on that axis but for us the holy relationship is
00:12:07.160between each other the bond that we share as a folk is uh you know is also holy um and and when
00:12:15.900that bond is broken then you have to do something to heal it um and and it absolutely is to go back
00:12:24.580and try to fix what it is. And it can be simple things. Yes, you apologize. And you talk about
00:12:33.900something that takes courage. Go to somebody that you've wronged and say, I admit what I did was
00:12:40.720wrong. What can I do to make it right? And accompanied by some sort of outward act.
00:12:50.100you know here's here's a bottle of your favorite bourbon let me wash your car here's some eggs that
00:12:56.860my chickens laid you know that i will give to you to try to make this right um so
00:13:03.200healing that broken relationship heals your soul too because you know when you break off that oath
00:13:10.760you break off your soul and that's the only way to restore it is to you know just to dig down and
00:13:16.320make it right. It's tough. Take some courage. Most things that are worthwhile do. Finn also asks,
00:13:30.720is an oath we make for ourselves important too? If we say, if we say, I swear an oath to myself
00:13:38.860and I will do this or that to improve myself, is that important? What are your thoughts on?
00:13:46.320Yes, it is absolutely important. And it certainly can be a mechanism to help you manifest that intent. You have to be careful about what penalty you impose on yourself.
00:14:05.240You know, I'm sure, Matt, you may be thinking the same example that I'm thinking of, you know, but I will do, you know, I will be able to do 100 sit-ups by December 31st or else I will, you know, cut my ponytail off or something like that.
00:14:28.540I mean, you know, so you just if that helps you generate the energy that's required to manifest that in yourself, then absolutely it is.
00:14:38.520It can be a critical motivator. But what you also have to do and that's and that is that second component, what you should what I would stay well away from is like the penalty free oath.
00:14:52.060I swear by all that is holy that I will do thus and so, and then if you don't do it, you know, you're just out in the ether.
00:15:01.960You know, I swear that I will do this or else I will, you know, never drink beer again.
00:15:11.840Okay, that will help you make that happen, but you have to either fulfill the oath or engage the penalty.
00:15:22.940that's what i'm trying to get around to so something important with that is not only is
00:15:27.020it a motivator for you to follow through with your oath but it's a way for you to even out the cosmic
00:15:34.060penalty for you not doing it if the oath you know if there is a this or that and you accomplish one
00:15:42.060of those then you're not losing out uh with your weird or your orlog um the other thing i'd say
00:15:49.820is it really depends one of the things that separates oaths from just saying something
00:15:58.060is you tend to formalize it um if you make an oath in front of the gods or you invoke powers
00:16:04.620to witness your oath then it's no longer just an oath within yourself it is something that's played
00:16:10.300out with the you know interest of other parties and in that sense absolutely it's binding
00:16:18.940so i i think that don't do it lightly you know you don't want to you don't want to just do it
00:16:25.860on a whim because you don't want to attract that attention in a negative way absolutely