Asatru Folk Assembly - The Striker： Asa-Þórr, Part 1 (from VNS Episode 17)

00:00:00.000 witness fawn would you like to give us a brief

00:00:13.040 i don't know a brief rundown on what folks that might be a little bit less familiar than others

00:00:20.160 need to know about thor and his place in our holy pantheon yeah well first off uh i think too i

00:00:28.400 I got comments now on my screen.

00:00:32.100 I don't think that was – people realized that wasn't huge on my end.

00:00:36.260 So now I can actually see some of the comments and see some of the people coming in,

00:00:40.080 and I just wanted to say hi to everybody.

00:00:41.440 It's really awesome to see everybody saying hello to everyone

00:00:44.900 and getting to see people's names and link to the questions and stuff like that.

00:00:49.520 So it's really, really nice to see.

00:00:51.020 um yeah this this uh and i i think the folks at home don't realize that like our our show is really

00:01:02.180 organic naturally based we don't really have a a sit down or anything like this it's kind of like

00:01:10.880 a brief hey we're doing this you're ready we're ready and then we just go and it's kind of uh

00:01:17.520 organic that way. So I think it's really fun, uh, in that regards. Um, so when we're talking about

00:01:25.800 Thor, one of the most poignant things that I would say is the clarity in which Thor

00:01:34.800 relates to humanity is one of the most beneficial, powerful, wonderful things about Thor.

00:01:43.960 that anybody that's coming into the faith

00:01:47.920 can immediately attest to

00:01:49.680 or can immediately start to have a feeling towards.

00:01:52.520 There's a reason why Mjolnir is our symbol.

00:01:56.540 It has a strong and poignant anchoring.

00:02:01.400 There's a reason why it's on every temple at the Hoff,

00:02:05.220 you know, a symbol on every sign at the Hoff.

00:02:07.300 I think that's really important

00:02:08.820 that we always continue to bring about the base of our faith around he who is the most clarified

00:02:20.320 of the tripartite. He is the striker. In every European, Proto-Indo-European,

00:02:27.460 Aryan tradition of branches, the striker is clear, clean, and bold, bright, shining, strong.

00:02:37.600 There's no mincing words about him. I think that the only mystery behind the striker is that a lot of people have a tendency to confuse him, especially in the stories. Now, bear in mind, I'm not talking about Thor in any sort of – I'm not trying to be unpious.

00:02:56.960 What I'm really going for is the stories are stories of how our ancestors and how the ancient stories were related, and they have changed over time.

00:03:07.780 So when we see certain things of, like, the late Nordic period, we can see Thor in relation to the way our ancestors saw him.

00:03:16.520 But Thor is not in stasis in the Edas.

00:03:20.820 He's not in stasis in the stories.

00:03:22.720 he's a very dynamic uh god or what i would call a the catalytic god he's the god that really

00:03:29.800 breaks through thresholds he's the god that once he gets involved everything starts rolling he

00:03:36.820 ruptures the barriers he breaks things down so that everything can flow again and so you know

00:03:43.560 if you're dealing with a lot of personal issues in your life i think um garnering from the stories

00:03:49.860 Looking at him in that lens when you're reading the stories can kind of inspire you to also become a catalystic switch in your own life that you can cut through, break through barriers.

00:04:03.260 And the only way you can do that and the only way you can really kind of go against the tide of flow of weird or of Orla is to do drastic action.

00:04:13.800 So he, in a way, represents, I think, divine will.

00:04:16.900 um he is the will of the gods and in a way like us our soul is going in through the tide of weird

00:04:29.220 and through orlock the what you have to do in order to break the the the cycle to to really

00:04:35.520 start anew is to willfully project yourself into something throw yourself in wholeheartedly

00:04:42.580 whole-headedly, with all your might, and stand up in a moment, even sometimes against yourself,

00:04:51.280 and you can then begin to grow. And if you are blessed by him, he will allow that path to be

00:05:00.540 seen. You'll make it. You'll have to make it. He's not going to make it for you. But once you

00:05:06.580 do see that path you know at that time the strength that you're you're that he's with you

00:05:12.320 that he is pushing forward with you and um and he wants to see you succeed um and i think that's

00:05:21.280 one of the biggest powers that comes from him so if you're a new beginner and and you've come back

00:05:26.240 to the faith of your people and you want to really start to tackle the divine because i often tell

00:05:33.520 people like the first thing that they should do is really start to understand about giving bloat

00:05:37.060 to your ancestors, giving bloodings to your ancestors and to the land spirits, because

00:05:41.540 those they're directly around you and connected to you. But when you really start to wrap your

00:05:46.900 head around how the gods play in the world, and we might have preconceived notions from other

00:05:52.940 religions or just the lack of clarity on things. Sometimes the best start is to kick literally

00:06:01.040 everything right straight down the middle, go straight for the throat. And Thor, Donner, 0.94

00:06:09.360 Thunaraz, he is the catalyst that breaks that, that makes the gateway. And so I would say like

00:06:17.480 in learning to pray, it's about asking him to bear witness to the moment and then throwing

00:06:28.100 yourself in completely and wholeheartedly. Um, and I know that's, it's kind of a weird thing.

00:06:33.920 I'm not, I'm not coming from a lore angle. Uh, lore is good. Lore is fine and it's wonderful.

00:06:39.380 And it has lots of value. And I would even say eternal seeds that were planted by the gods

00:06:44.140 themselves for us to find again and to work through. But when we're talking about real

00:06:50.760 tangible faith thor is one of the closest gods that you can physically see when he shows up in

00:06:58.900 storm when he's there you can feel him in the air as the air literally ionizes you can feel him there

00:07:07.100 and it it doesn't take it isn't very hard for a person who's new to suddenly just cross over

00:07:15.360 that threshold wow i'm dealing with a real willful being that's not biological in the way that i know

00:07:25.680 it but he's here and i know he's here i can feel him that that has a tendency to throw people off

00:07:32.640 and i i and in a sometimes in a good way again catalyst throws them off changes things up and

00:07:38.800 then all of a sudden they grow so if you're new to the faith the first house that i would recommend

00:07:46.320 you um give gift to give worship to give piety to and give give exchange to would be thor 100

00:08:00.720 thor is known as the the friend of man and as the protector of midgard and i think in that sense

00:08:08.800 He really is one of the most approachable as far as if you're starting out to build that kind of, to start building that gift cycle and start building that relationship with.

00:08:24.580 um in the lore uh when his eyes flash he can be terrifying and you know a frightful thing to

00:08:37.100 behold but also you know he's a god that has a joviality about him a sense of humor and known

00:08:45.960 like i said as the as the friend of man in that way and i find that that's a lot of people's first

00:08:53.120 interaction or first approach to Ausatru is through a better understanding of Thor. And that

00:08:59.000 was the case, you know, certainly when I got involved in Ausatru, I think that building

00:09:06.000 relationship with Thor was, was the first, the first Ausa that I was able to, to build that with

00:09:15.460 and grow from there. So I certainly think that's the case. A lot of stuff about Thordernite. Again,

00:09:23.940 so many of, especially the first gods that we're going to go through in this cycle are

00:09:29.420 gods that people are generally familiar with. But we're very happy in the course of the broadcast

00:09:36.540 to discuss smaller elements or more obscure things or interesting questions. We'll kind of

00:09:44.160 take the conversation wherever you guys want to take it. I'm

00:09:47.520 gonna go ahead and start hitting some of our questions here.

00:09:50.640 But

00:09:52.560 I wanted to piggyback on something you just said, though,

00:09:54.780 before we do I during I do a little prep and start

00:09:59.780 research, you try to gather some things. And one of the things

00:10:02.400 that are was the the heighty of Thor. Ah, do you do a dupe

00:10:09.240 huger huger is how it said dupe huger and it means deep-souled or deep-minded like

00:10:18.940 not necessarily it's about being quick-witted it's more about having ancient wisdom wisdom that

00:10:27.280 is applicable in a way that is sometimes subtle like it's it's uh the understanding of like when

00:10:35.460 you see someone who's very large, very big, you look at them and you automatically face value

00:10:40.260 their strength. But what you don't account for sometimes is how deep-minded they are,

00:10:46.500 how applicable wisdom they have, and that can make them extremely a formidable force. And I

00:10:53.780 think that that high detour towards Thor really applies, is that the idea that he is filled with

00:11:01.920 deep wisdom and applicable wisdom. So I wanted to share that

00:11:07.860 because I found that one was kind of a off. And I hadn't run

00:11:11.840 into it in a long time. So, so you know, I want us to get to

00:11:16.500 your experiences with the mural, but we're going to hold on

00:11:19.440 that just a second, because I see one of the questions in the

00:11:22.360 queue is about that. So let's start hitting a couple of these

00:11:25.560 fin asks, Do you think when lightning strikes something

00:11:28.720 specific, that could be an act of Thor. What do you think, Svon?

00:11:37.120 So, I would say first and foremost, I have usually taken it that way, yes,

00:11:45.200 so I'll say that first, but that actually could be an argument or a debate. In some sense,

00:11:53.920 Our ancestors knew that when the striker strike things, it was a furious moment.

00:11:59.060 And so they did not necessarily always see the strikes that he was, you know, lamenting upon the forces of chaos in the sky as just being purposeful, but more like a thrashing out so that things could happen.

00:12:18.200 Fires could be started.

00:12:19.400 And this is always seen in a lot of the lore stories, you know, when they when like when Ruska and Thialfi, when they first get taken into service by Thor, the idea that he's extremely hot tempered and his eyes are glaring and his beard is bristled.

00:12:38.740 And so there's always a sense of fury that's tempered by a cooling down and a love for the folk.

00:12:46.660 So I think that this in the stories is really talking about the nature of and the power of lightning or the power of storm in the idea that our ancestors always viewed the striker as you didn't want to stand in his way or be anywhere really around him when he was raging because there was no control.

00:13:08.740 And so with that, there is the argument to say that our ancestors saw and understood that when things were going crazy, it wasn't a personal vindictive slight against you.

00:13:22.340 It was, you know, considerable all the way around.

00:13:25.500 It's the same as when he gains the whetstone under his helm.

00:13:31.040 As he strikes, Thrym, he hits the whetstone and it goes under and constantly agitates him, even to the point where Arendelle's wife, he tells her, you know, I brought him home.

00:13:48.640 She leaves and thus leaving the whetstone in his head.

00:13:51.460 And so there's this constant state of agitation. And so I think that, again, is another emphasis on how, depending on the fury of the situation, it may not be willfully done.

00:14:07.280 However, like what I said is I do believe that it can be willfully done.

00:14:12.800 I think that perhaps there is a sense of control in it as well because I've seen some – sometimes – I'm actually probably the only person I've ever known that has a friend that's been struck by lightning three times.

00:14:26.120 He's not even ousted.

00:14:28.800 I met him in the Marine Corps, and I don't know if he's – his name is JJ.

00:14:35.080 I'll just say JJ.

00:14:36.420 And he lives up in up in Montana. And he's been I actually was there for one time when he was struck on a on a rifle range in Hawaii.

00:14:45.060 Terrifying stuff, especially considering that there's not a lot of thunderstorms in Hawaii.

00:14:51.580 So I've I've often wondered this as well. Could it be done personally? Could it be done willfully?

00:14:57.780 Could it be done with intention? And I think I'm not going to say that gods can't do anything.

00:15:03.100 so my go is yes it can be willful and yes it can be purposeful but also too it can also be

00:15:12.580 random it could be furious it could be an emanation of power that isn't necessarily

00:15:18.160 linked to a purpose and i think that's also important for us to understand because the gods

00:15:24.800 do act in the world and there is weird from it and i think that when they when thor looses himself

00:15:32.620 from heaven into the middle world, it's known that what's going to happen is going to cause

00:15:40.000 Orla. So that's my answer on that one. It's kind of a political answer, a yes and a no,

00:15:46.720 but I don't want to say that they can't do anything because I don't know. I couldn't be

00:15:53.020 that mouthpiece, but I do feel that I've seen instances where it seems purposeful. And then

00:15:59.380 And I've seen instances and reading from the lore where it seems to be that our ancestors knew in the wisdom that just don't be around because it's going to get bad.

00:16:12.560 You know, you mentioned that was kind of a political answer or whatever.

00:16:17.560 The answers to a lot of these questions aren't clean because life's not.

00:16:22.120 There's so many variables in reality. And I think that we'd be doing a disservice if we were to pretend that, you know, there's only one right answer to any of these questions.

00:16:37.600 There's so much overlap and there's so much depth to our faith.

00:16:41.320 And I think that's one of the rich things about it that add value and truth to it is that we're honest in that.

00:16:48.980 um our gods and their interplay with nature is fascinating and i think we

00:16:57.860 i think we need a deeper understanding of our gods than just thor equals lightning and thunder

00:17:05.640 um odin equals ravens like i've said on the on the right odin and ravens thing yes odin

00:17:12.680 chooses ravens to communicate signs to people often ravens also exist and do raven stuff

00:17:20.240 completely unrelated to the alpha um lightning and weather patterns and weather stuff happens

00:17:26.980 right um that stuff happens regardless of thor willing it to because it's natural and it happens

00:17:37.680 But certainly, like Svahn said, Thor, if he wants to, can direct lightning to hit something.

00:17:44.700 I think there's plenty of times that that has happened in the course of the history of our fault.

00:17:51.120 But every lightning strike isn't a directed wrath of Thor.

00:17:58.800 But some are.

00:17:59.580 um and that's that's the the gray area that people aren't comfortable with but it's true

00:18:06.820 and it's real um being able to determine those things is an art in and of itself to be able to

00:18:12.880 interpret when something is a meaningful synchronicity and when it's just natural

00:18:19.760 stuff happening and is it meaningful just because it speaks to you in a particular way or is it

00:18:27.600 Meaning, you know, is it meaningful from within to without or is it meaningful from without to within?

00:18:34.300 And I think that sometimes it's both of those things. Sometimes it's neither. Sometimes it's one or the other.

00:18:40.040 But, yes, certainly could it be? Absolutely. I'd never rule out that possibility.

00:18:44.700 I think that the idea of Thor and the storm, Thor and thunder, Thor and lightning, we need to not forget.

00:18:53.720 there there is a literal relationship but there's also a a figurative and an illustrative relationship

00:19:03.160 the power and the directed might of the storm that rumbling of thunder and that

00:19:11.080 shockingly powerful crack of lightning that strike that that tears down and destroys and

00:19:17.480 is one of the most powerful things in nature that shows us the might that is thor the directed

00:19:24.440 rage and wrath of that very powerful one of our gods and that imagery is very important

00:19:33.800 and i think that the the actual interaction with the phenomenon is is important as well but there

00:19:39.560 it's not an exact equation. Thor equals thunder and lightning is a poor understanding of a very

00:19:48.800 deep and a very profound God. And I think that if we simplify him just to that, we miss some of the

00:19:59.560 point i did want to um state too openly that i from here in the whetstone not three that's that

00:20:10.440 is the uh the theft of the hammer um i wanted to you know bring that up and say they're the list

00:20:16.360 of his opponents is long and so a lot of times we can very well i you know get the stories confused

00:20:24.200 And so I just wanted to clarify, it was Frongnir that when he, you know, fought him, he struck the whetstone while he was standing on the shield and that piece got in there.

00:20:35.940 I think it's, yeah, it is important to understand that when we were talking about mythos being coiled up, we were talking about how the gods represent themselves in multifaceted of existence.

00:20:50.200 So Thor, or at least a fraction of his might, or a piece of him, or a willful part, or perhaps simply just the presence itself, can manifest in Storm, is part of Storm, but is not always simply just Thor in the clouds or in the cloud.

00:21:16.620 I think that that would be more of a, I would say, like a mythological and a more of a, I would even say to a point where when we see our children, you know, they really correlate with the direct notion that Thor is in the cloud.

00:21:31.320 But they might not realize that it's more or less a reflection of the power of the god in his material place.

00:21:41.740 And he has many places.

00:21:43.100 so when he's interacting with the material world it's often through the manifestation of storms

00:21:49.840 and again the question is what what's purpose do storms have and really what storms have is about

00:21:57.280 bringing equilibrium of of uh you know pressure up and down um there there's a too much of a

00:22:05.100 tipping point something's going too far up or too low down into the area and it needs to be

00:22:11.180 re-equalized and oftentimes what happens is that equalization process is is is beckoned with a

00:22:21.760 storm so you know understanding that the gods have place in the physical world to to be able

00:22:28.120 to do things but they also have a an essence or a power that pervades in the physical world

00:22:34.060 And it may be acting on its own or as an extension of the god, not necessarily with his will behind it, I think is important.

00:22:44.700 And I really think that the gods do this through the well of Earth.

00:22:48.560 But, you know, getting into the concept of Thor not being in every storm is a part where people are a little apprehensive and where they want everything to have meaning, much like the Etruscans.

00:23:06.840 You know, they felt like everything was absolutely done, you know, with purpose.

00:23:13.940 And I think that the Romans talked about the Etruscans, you know, and the difference between them is that the Romans seemed to have a concept that the will of the gods could be interplayed on the rolling of time, whereas the Etruscans felt like every single thing was intimately connected to the gods.

00:23:32.780 and um you know i i i don't know to what if there's folly in that i mean i think there there

00:23:41.140 is in the sense that we'll take everything and understanding being so a drastic omen but like

00:23:48.600 you said ravens do things sometimes that aren't very you know delightful or like something that

00:23:56.580 you would think that oh then sending you a message when you you know see them ripping apart trash or

00:24:02.320 trying to survive and live so i was gonna say growing up in alaska where the ravens are are

00:24:08.220 very prominent in the winter time you can't drive by a mcdonald's without a a murder of ravens

00:24:16.460 hanging out at the dumpster eating whatever they find in there that's not necessarily them them

00:24:23.860 communicating from the all father that's them being hungry and scavenging because they're scavengers

00:24:28.300 um the storm is very often a chaotic force and a force of destruction to our ancestors 0.91

00:24:37.080 we're seeing the interplay between natural forces that are associated with the yotnar versus

00:24:42.920 their association with the gods is also a very fine line as well um but i'll tell you this and

00:24:51.580 for anybody that you know thinks i'm maybe being too cynical every time i hear thunder i feel it

00:24:57.020 my soul and i i i say a little prayer of of hail to to thor um so i mean it's don't don't lose that

00:25:07.420 wonder just right be critical in your thinking if everything is a divine miracle of the gods

00:25:14.060 communicating something to you then the real ones get lost in the static if everything's at volume

00:25:21.020 tin, then there's no such thing as an exclamation. So some things have to be mundane in order for

00:25:28.140 certain things to be sacred. If everything's sacred, then nothing's sacred.

00:25:33.260 Yeah, I think our ancestors at the Teutonic mindset is to meet everything with a sense of

00:25:41.740 measure, try to measure it, merit it, give it some pause don't I mean, it's even talked about

00:25:48.220 in the halvamal about not making these kind of like rash decisions on things it trying to gain

00:25:53.900 the scope of awareness is important um and again you you hit the nail on the head there is if

00:26:00.300 everything is a message from the gods then how can you divvy out that from the din katla asks

00:26:09.500 why do you think our ancestors chose to wear uh the mjolnir rather than a symbol of the all-father

00:26:16.140 what are your thoughts on that spawn i i just saw that cutler uh sorry there's a song in

00:26:23.900 iceland from the raven song cutlet and up nasin is and so i saw it and i was like whoa um

00:26:30.540 that is a great question i think that first and foremost it's understood that um thor

00:26:38.300 is the culmination of two polaric forces when we talk about the gods of order and we talk about

00:26:45.980 the the isir or the asas uh as a whole we see them as uh heavenly uh filled with light with fire

00:26:56.140 with air with um dominion and with the idea of of cosmic order the creation of something that's

00:27:03.900 different and with the intention of building it within antagonistic forces to continue on beyond

00:27:10.780 layers so we see this this overarching cosmic order but what we also know is that from the

00:27:17.780 gods we also see natural law be brought under yoke or well in reality there was an exchange there

00:27:24.600 there had to be a there had to be a fight and that fight was costly but once those alignments

00:27:30.180 were made natural law and cosmic order joined forces to build the center and i think that

00:27:38.240 There is no other Asa that really exemplifies that union than the son of Rothen and Yorth, of the sky, of the wind, and of the earth, and of the water.

00:27:55.180 These two forces come together, and I think that that wasn't lost on our ancestors.

00:28:00.440 Thor is the culmination of those deep, powerful parts coming together in alignment, and there is a literal union, and from that union there is sprung the power of the divine that is coming from natural law and the earth and coming from cosmic order and the sky, and it exemplifies in Thor.

00:28:26.480 So Thor is the conduit. He is the catalyst. I've talked a lot about the thrones of power in which the gods, it seems culturally Aryan groups have different thrones or different premises of thrones in which the gods seat themselves for them.

00:28:44.200 But one of the things that really talks about the Catalystic Throne is that the conduit between the heavenly and the material.

00:28:54.620 You don't see the striker as a chthonic figure.

00:28:58.840 You never see the striker as some sort of figure that delves into the underworld or deals with the dead.

00:29:05.620 In essence, he is always moving from the middle out and checking the edges.

00:29:14.000 He's riding the edges of the middle world, and he's up above riding the edges of heaven.

00:29:20.660 And so he's this conduit between the living man, the living soul of mankind and folk and the gods themselves, and he moves in between those.

00:29:32.800 So I don't think there's any loss in that.

00:29:36.000 If we look at striker comparativenesses, like when you look at the Hellenics and they talk about Hercules, Hercules is seen as half mortal, half godly.

00:29:48.060 And for us, that comparison is not ever really made mortal.

00:29:53.820 In essence, the natural law and the cosmic order are the sense of what is here in the material and what is also above, and he's in between that.

00:30:03.460 So we never really take him into the material world. And that seems to be done even post-Christianity. But the striker being a representation of the gods themselves, the defense of the gods, things hinge on his ability to move from heaven into earth and his correlation of keeping the forces of chaos at bay in this world.

00:30:31.240 and allowing us to keep stasis.

00:30:35.740 I talk about that a little bit when we were referring to ice ages

00:30:40.160 and we were talking about how we saw weather patterns

00:30:43.820 and the ups and downs, extremes ups and extreme downs of our weather patterns

00:30:50.260 up until about the first and second ice age,

00:30:52.940 and then all of a sudden it equalizes out.

00:30:55.860 And I think that if we were to look at kind of a sense of when Thor

00:31:00.320 really starts to calibrate the earth is right around there.

00:31:04.900 And we noticed that even though we think our weather is erratic and constantly

00:31:08.740 changing, it's dreadfully still comparative to before then.

00:31:14.340 So I think that our ancestors saw Thor as a warder and a protector and a

00:31:22.640 conduit between the earth and heaven.

00:31:25.380 So when they had the hammer coming out, I think it was probably already established beforehand with Bronze Age axes or axe-style amulets and things. 0.80

00:31:38.580 But when there was an actual outside force coming in via Rome or, you know, in the Middle East and Christianity itself, the antagonistic nature of that religion culturally attacking, the hammer became an equivalency to the cross.

00:31:58.040 And it was known where you stood. 0.81

00:32:00.120 Lines were being drawn.

00:32:01.060 And, you know, we have molds where it shows where crosses and hammers were being made, often by the same people.

00:32:09.060 And that, you know, I guess telling in the opportunistic nature of the time. 0.88

00:32:15.060 But, you know, we have this clear distinction between the people that follow the old way, the foreign said, and the other and that are true to the Alsa.

00:32:26.060 And then there are those who are not, who are turning against their ancestors or turning against their people, who are backing with the side of then the money of the Frankish Roman church.

00:32:41.100 So I think that that's one of the reasons why they chose the hammer as a symbol of it, because it means standing up against antagonism. It means courage. It means moving forward, not backing down.

00:32:54.900 And I think that the hammer exemplifies that and exemplified that for our ancestors as well. Because that's really when the hammer became, truly took off. I think it was there before, but it really took off once we, our ancestors realized there was a force coming in that was going to destabilize things and really start to affect the very soul of the people.

00:33:17.300 You know, I think at this point, anything that we that we say is speculation on why our ancestors chose a specific thing, but there's a lot of things to keep in mind, because you specifically asked why Mjolnir as opposed to something more symbolic of Odin.

00:33:36.440 everything's Fonset certainly as an amulet of protection Thor is the defender of Midgard he's

00:33:47.920 the friend of man he goes out into into the other and battles the giants of chaos to protect and

00:33:56.380 keep us keep us safe and protected he's the very emblem of that protection against outside chaotic

00:34:04.600 forces oppressing on the Ennengard. So I think that that stands out as probably the best reason

00:34:13.820 for it. But as specific as a reason, you know, perhaps rather than a symbol of the Allfather.

00:34:24.700 Svan talked about these thrones or these seats that the gods find themselves in. And

00:34:30.800 And the lore that comes down to us, we tend to look at it as an ordered hierarchy, but the apex of that hierarchy has fluctuated over time.

00:34:42.600 You find in the temple at Uppsala with Odin, Thor, and Frey, you find Thor in the central position, in the position of prominence.

00:34:54.360 it's as things ebb and flow the relationships between different groups of people and our gods

00:35:03.420 they place different emphasis on gods that have a more special interaction with them

00:35:09.780 and so I think that could have factored obvious and what I would go with is certainly

00:35:14.860 that talisman of protection and the more that the Christians would wear a crucifix it became

00:35:21.800 you know it just became part a symbol of the times to wear an amulet of thor as the you know

00:35:29.440 this compared to that and i think it's the same today when people ask well what if i don't want

00:35:34.400 to wear a mjolnir what if i want to wear a symbol of random other one of our gods that they have a

00:35:40.600 more personal relationship with nobody knows what that means and it doesn't have the immediate

00:35:46.220 recognition of that's Mjolnir, that person is also true. And I think that worked the same

00:35:53.700 then as it does now. Another really important thing about the use of Mjolnir, not just as an

00:35:59.640 amulet, but ritually, was they would use these hammers oftentimes to bless weddings or to

00:36:06.240 sanctify things. The idea that Mjolnir can be used as a tool of sanctification is very special in

00:36:14.080 and of itself as a symbol of holiness. And I think that's why it's a fitting symbol for our faith

00:36:19.160 in general. They would use this at weddings to ensure fertility. They'd use it in different

00:36:23.980 rites to sanctify. Thor would use it to resurrect his goats after he got done eating them the night

00:36:32.260 before. It being a magical tool of sanctification is also very significant. It's why when

00:36:39.620 Argothar in a strange place that's not holy ground and want to sanctify a ritual spot.

00:36:48.180 It's done in the sign of the hammer. 0.86

00:36:50.380 It's done with perhaps a ritual Mjolnir to sanctify and to set it apart.

00:36:57.340 Bruce says, Matt and Svan, can you tell us your favorite stories about Thor?

00:37:03.460 Svan, what is your favorite story about Thor?

00:37:06.000 oh um i mean the theft of thor's hammer i think has been one of my favorites uh mainly because

00:37:19.460 of its contestment in i guess in in times and when i was doing a lot of storytelling uh early

00:37:26.900 on after i'd come back from the marine corps i i had done some storytelling uh local library

00:37:31.900 here in Virginia. And I, you know, I got a chance to tell the stories of the gods,

00:37:39.340 you know, just to young kids and really got a chance to kind of hone some of my storytelling

00:37:45.360 skills there. And that story really does seem to balance out a perfect amount of comedy.

00:37:53.280 There isn't a lot of necessity for lore to understand what's going on, but at the same

00:37:59.020 time it builds the the the dichotomy between uh you know the the the kinslayer at a time in in the

00:38:09.820 in the evolution of arc of the stories where he and thor are kind of counter pollating each other

00:38:16.080 around a central mission or a central idea and also it really does show uh some connections

00:38:24.960 culturally, like with the blessing of the hammer on the lap, showing that myths and our stories

00:38:32.660 are like ropes. They have a lot of different tendrils that wrap around to express certain

00:38:38.260 things. There's some levity in it, and I think that's something that a lot of people don't,

00:38:43.620 they lose, like how you had mentioned with Odin about Gladstein. There is a levity that we have

00:38:48.800 with our gods that I don't think should go into um like a sense of uh unpiety or or just where

00:38:57.060 it's abashedly kind of rude but there are some of the stories that I see have survived that have a

00:39:02.560 lot of levity and happiness with the with the gods but then at the end Thor is Thor and he's

00:39:10.800 terrifying. He's scary. And I think that the children realize that Thor doesn't take too

00:39:19.740 kindly to his hammer being stolen, that this conduit, this central force of power being

00:39:27.800 stolen from the gods, places them in great danger. And Thor takes it upon himself to

00:39:34.880 retrieve it and he has to go through all kinds of terrible stuff to get there but he does it

00:39:42.280 because he needs to reconnect to it immediately because of the imminent threat that is placed so

00:39:47.700 i i would say that that the of thor's hammer is one of my favorite stories um and it really does

00:39:55.120 i think it's my favorite because it garners such a a great uh range of emotions and reactions from

00:40:01.420 from the children when i talk about it and i say the story and i said it just talked uh did a

00:40:07.020 reciting of it at uh winter nights for for the for the kids and a lot of the adults that after the

00:40:12.940 auction came out some of them were coming out and they got they caught that story or at least half

00:40:17.260 of it and seemed to really like it as well so that's my favorite you know i don't i don't know

00:40:22.780 if it's my favorite but it's the one that strikes me when i saw the question i really like the story

00:40:27.180 in the alvis mall where thor um has this very clever exchange with a dwarf that's trying to

00:40:37.500 trying to get the hand of his daughter and it's it's a really good um first if anybody hasn't

00:40:43.900 read it they should it's it's neat it's informative but it also shows a dimensionality

00:40:50.860 to thor that i think a lot of people who like to compartmentalize our gods don't get

00:40:57.180 Thor, big, strong, not smart box. And that's, that's a disrespect. Thor is a god. Yes, he is amongst gods. He is the strongest. But he's a god, nonetheless, because, because, and I've, you know, as a side note, a little bit of a tangent here.

00:41:16.980 life's not fair um people like to equalize as if we're some kind of video game character or

00:41:28.340 something that you've got a certain number of points to distribute and if somebody's really

00:41:32.780 strong then they have to be dumb or they have to be slow or if somebody's really smart then they 0.65

00:41:38.020 can't no our gods are the best of all things um the the least smart god is much wiser and 0.96

00:41:47.940 much smarter than the smartest man that's ever existed um and it's really i don't know i think

00:41:56.900 it's special to see thor you know exercise that uh that cunning in that way and so i really like

00:42:04.340 Yeah, that's that deep-minded wisdom. And again, too, when we talk about Odin being the god of Skalds, one of the interesting things about Odin is that it is a poem to help Skalds learn the Haiti and some of the different names that they could utilize in poetry, but it's used through the medium of Thor, not Odin.

00:42:31.340 Um, so it's, it's a very interesting thing that kind of, it really does shine. That's a great story as well. And I think that one of the first stained glass, um, window pieces that we are going to do is going to be Thor standing in front of Alvis while the sun is coming up, his impending doom on the horizon.

00:42:51.200 I think that's a great idea. Freyr, I've heard Thor also being a god of gravity,

00:43:00.160 and Mjolnir is not his weapon, but from what the lore tells us, different as Thor being

00:43:05.780 protector of our ancestors. What is your opinion on his powers? Svan, go ahead and take a swing

00:43:12.880 at that okay um yes to both of them again when i when i see uh when we talk about the idea of

00:43:22.500 placing our gods into boxes or or perhaps setting up a throne for them to sit in for our for our

00:43:29.980 people if as long as it's done with reverence the idea that this is how we culturally see

00:43:35.640 the gods or we can again move that tripartite and and see thor at the high seat for the functions

00:43:43.900 that we need from him is is good and important but when we start talking about the multiplicity

00:43:50.380 of powers i would say yes to all i mean in in regards to when we talk about thor like let's say

00:43:58.640 if we were to talk about Thor in a metaphysical sense or metaphysics or in a, I guess, yeah,

00:44:07.060 metaphysics. So we're looking at metaphysics and we're talking about the power of Thor and his

00:44:11.800 symbology. And I think that since the gods have told these stories to our folk, there was a point

00:44:19.020 in which somehow, some way there was a bridge between the gods and man and man received these

00:44:24.640 stories, there are hidden truths in them that are even beyond the scope of understanding at the time

00:44:29.960 that they were even being spoken. So when we talk about Thor and Mjolnir, Mjolnir being the

00:44:36.740 catalystic switch, being the point of connection, seeing the hands, the gloves, the right and the

00:44:44.340 left, the polaric powers that need to be placed on the hands in order to hold the switch, to see

00:44:50.040 the girdle of power placed around the waist, to see the iron rod placed within that girdle

00:44:56.000 is all kind of just a gentle nod to that power that I think on a metaphysical and even very,

00:45:04.300 very pliable physical level is understanding that Thor is of the earth and the sky.

00:45:11.300 And we know now scientifically there are powers that are between those that we can't see.

00:45:17.600 And one of them in particular is magnetism. And so we understanding Earth power, understanding something that was barely understood or was even just being gleaned at.

00:45:31.460 But then scientifically, we can look at these things and see them very, very carefully.

00:45:35.520 And all of a sudden it makes perfect application with the symbology that was already in place.

00:45:41.940 So seeing Thor in connection to magnetism, in connection to electricity, in connection to the electron of the atom, yes, I see it.

00:45:53.320 And I think that's when we start to really stop seeing the gods as just simply literature characters and start seeing them as bigger, more powerful things, the scope of understanding how far divinity reaches and how powerful they are.

00:46:11.180 Then we go back and look at the symbology and we're like, oh, we start to see like a hidden picture going on.

00:46:19.520 We approach the gods from a different place than they approach us.

00:46:24.060 And I think it's worth worth noting.

00:46:26.340 um we start out and when i say we i mean i mean our race is as as people start out as children

00:46:38.440 who are ignorant of all the things around them and over history uh we as a people have learned

00:46:44.240 all these different things but some of this is included in the in the idea when i use when i say

00:46:50.480 you can't out science truth truth exists and science brings us closer to understanding those

00:46:58.880 truths in a way or to quantifying them or to getting like how stuff exists but the gods aren't

00:47:06.240 beholden to stone age science as science evolves i think it's no surprise that we find more and more

00:47:14.560 really interesting correlations between our ancestral lore and and our gods um our gods

00:47:22.720 interact with us with a full knowledge of science at least sciences as we understand it in uh in

00:47:29.600 the physical world and so them communicating and showing truth to our ancestors in these in these

00:47:38.480 ways it's nice as we get closer and closer to a more full understanding of science and how things

00:47:45.520 work that it builds even even stronger or more bonds to understanding these images of our gods

00:47:54.880 and how they showed themselves to our ancestors and that's kind of a beautiful thing and it's always

00:48:01.840 it's always important and i know that the nature of how we do anything as humans is uh

00:48:08.480 I don't know if empathy is the right word, but we see everything from our lens and from the depth of our experience.

00:48:20.980 But it's important to know that we're approaching the gods from an infantile place, and our gods are reaching down to us from the realm of the gods.

00:48:35.600 And so realizing that power, that wisdom differential and how that plays in, I think, is a fascinating way of just contemplating our faith.

00:48:46.920 We all got we all got time that we do some navel gazing and just contemplating on these things.

00:48:51.360 And as long as it doesn't get in the way of actual accomplishment or actual relationships, I think it's it's something we all do.

00:48:58.220 And it's it's a special way. And if done right, it brings us closer.

00:49:04.760 We'll be right back.

Asatru Folk Assembly - December 13, 2023

The Striker： Asa-Þórr, Part 1 (from VNS Episode 17)

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