00:02:40.100linguistics studying the lore is super important and it can do so much to inform your practice
00:02:47.940to help you build a better relationship with the gods to help you build a better understanding
00:02:53.780but if it ends there you're not connected to our gods in a relationship
00:03:03.220you're a weird stalker like i made this analogy before and it may sound silly but i think it's
00:03:09.380absolutely the truth you know if my wife had a strange stalker that dug through the trash
00:03:15.620and you know dug up old records on essays my wife wrote in high school he would know certain
00:03:22.260things about my wife that i don't know i will give him that but he doesn't have a relationship
00:03:28.020meanwhile we're married and she's the mother of my child and every day i have a relationship
00:03:32.980with my wife the minutia of details that you get when you go through the dumpster doesn't
00:03:39.380doesn't make a relationship. A relationship is made through interaction. Brandy made this point
00:03:45.340with the gifting cycle. A relationship is made with our gods when you stand before them and you
00:03:52.580offer them your sincere worship or something from your heart when they receive it and when they give
00:03:59.420you their blessings in return. And when you do that, it's a cycle. When you do that cyclically,
00:04:04.860It doesn't just go in a circle, but it spirals upwards to even better and stronger things.
00:04:10.180And we see that the longer we're engaged in that gift cycle with our gods.
00:04:16.320You know, something I say to our detractors, but it's also something I say to our members and anybody listening to this.
00:04:22.260The biggest thing I can recommend you do is go out there and practice Ausitru with other Ausitru art.
00:04:29.900Go and open your heart, open your mind to our gods and and see, give it a shot and see what happens.
00:04:37.540It's the hardest thing to argue with some of these people, because we can argue about different ancient texts.
00:04:43.340But I can't talk to them in a way that's going to make sense about religious experience if they haven't experienced it.
00:04:51.160But the people who have experienced it, once you do, you can never go back and you can never not know and never not have that.
00:04:57.980But the folks that won't take that first step of participating, they miss out on that and they'll never know that joy.
00:05:05.060And that's really unfortunate. So I can't encourage you more than more to go out and be part of that gifting cycle and be and do Ausatru.
00:05:17.080For those, you know, for a lot of people that are just starting out and they are just feeling that first spark of pull to the ACR, the question is always, where do I start?
00:05:27.980And we can give you a few good books to start with.
00:05:31.780But one thing I want you to really think about and really start with before you get too deep into quoting any books is I want you to find a nice, quiet place in your home that's going to be undisturbed.
00:05:44.740Get some candles, some incense, get a bowl for an offering.
00:05:48.780decide who it is that you want to start that gift cycle with whether it's the aesir
00:05:54.440whether it's a specific god or goddess whether it's what i would recommend also is your ancestors
00:06:00.960that have passed on leave a gift for them on this space it doesn't have to be fancy wording
00:06:07.100you don't have to have on a special cloak made of crushed velvet or anything like that
00:06:11.520find a quiet place talk to your gods talk to the heroes and talk to your ancestors
00:06:18.160and leave them a gift. And the more you do this, and the more you build that relationship,
00:06:24.200the more that you're going to see these gifts return to you. And that's how you start the
00:06:29.400cycle. It's not memorizing a book. It's something from the heart. Start the cycle. Everybody says,
00:06:36.620where do I start? Start there. Doesn't have to be anything fancy. Start with what you got.