Latest / Random Heathen Ramblings / Random Heathen Ramblings: S5, EP9 - Stop Hoarding Knowledge! (feat \. David Klen)

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Random Heathen Ramblings: S5, EP9 - Stop Hoarding Knowledge! (feat \. David Klen) · Random Heathen Ramblings

• 0:01
  Hello everyone, and welcome to the Random Heathen Ramblings
• 0:04
  podcast, where we discuss all sorts of things Germanic
• 0:06
  Heathenry related. My name is Jesse.
• 0:09
  I'm your host. Let's get into it.
• 0:32
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• 0:48
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  the beauty of mountain spirit. Good evening, good afternoon,
• 1:07
  good morning and hello to 1:00 and all from wherever you are
• 1:14
  catching this in Midgard. Thank you so much for coming
• 1:16
  back here on the random Heathen Ramblings podcast and catching
• 1:19
  what we've got to talk about here today.
• 1:22
  We've got a guest lined up who is a sort of neighbor of mine.
• 1:26
  Come to find out, they live here in the Middle Tennessee area, as
• 1:31
  it were, just a bit South of where I live.
• 1:34
  And so much as I'm able to determine at this point in time
• 1:38
  without digging too deep into their background, they are a
• 1:43
  self-proclaimed newcomer to Heathenry.
• 1:46
  And the topic that we are going to be talking about today I
• 1:49
  think is one that is probably going to strike a nerve for a
• 1:52
  lot of folks that are on different stages of their Pagan
• 1:58
  journey, if you will. We're going to be talking today
• 2:00
  about this ever lingering issue or this ever lingering thing.
• 2:06
  Sometimes it could be a problem, I guess of sort of gatekeeping
• 2:10
  or you know, having people that no more refraining from teaching
• 2:18
  right or or they're reluctant right.
• 2:20
  They don't want to share information or share knowledge
• 2:24
  or at least that's what my guest today is experiencing or at
• 2:28
  least has experienced being a newcomer into the, you know,
• 2:33
  Heathen Path. His name is David David Clinn
• 2:37
  and he is again here just a little bit South of where I am,
• 2:40
  I believe in the Columbia, TN area.
• 2:43
  So we're going to be wrapping with him a bit today and just
• 2:46
  kind of getting his take on things.
• 2:47
  And I'm going to share some of my own thoughts on it too
• 2:49
  because I do have some of course.
• 2:51
  But before we get started, you guys do be sure to check out the
• 2:55
  show notes or description area if you're a patron on Patreon
• 2:59
  watching this for all the ways that you can support the
• 3:03
  podcast, support, Midgard musings, the link tree link
• 3:06
  that's down there is your one stop shop.
• 3:08
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• 3:13
  website, the Patreon page, all of it is in that link tree link,
• 3:17
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• 3:20
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• 3:24
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• 3:30
  who are shelling out the coin as it were, right to to be here on
• 3:36
  the video platform and to watch the video versions of the
• 3:39
  podcast. If you're listening to this on
• 3:41
  Spotify or any of the other audio sites, realize that the
• 3:46
  video version is available. It's just one dollar on Patreon.
• 3:50
  You don't have to pay it monthly if you don't want to.
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  If you just want to, you know, pay the dollar, watch a few
• 3:56
  video episodes and then not paid again, then that's entirely up
• 4:00
  to you and you're free to do that.
• 4:03
  All right. So now that we got all that
• 4:04
  stuff out of the way, we'll go ahead and welcome in David, who
• 4:08
  again, as I understand is a newcomer or relatively newcomer
• 4:12
  to Heathenry. We're hopefully, hopefully going
• 4:14
  to get a chance to learn a bit more about that and see what his
• 4:19
  experience has been with others who seem to be sort of
• 4:24
  gatekeeping information and not being so willing perhaps to
• 4:28
  share knowledge. Let's get into it.
• 4:33
  All right, folks. Well, I'm joined here today with
• 4:35
  like I mentioned earlier in the intro, a relative neighbor to
• 4:38
  where I am in Middle Tennessee. This is David.
• 4:41
  He is located in the Columbia, TN area.
• 4:43
  Welcome to the show, David. Well.
• 4:45
  Thank you, Jesse. Yeah.
• 4:48
  So you. Hey, it's good to have you.
• 4:50
  It's it's always nice to find other Heathens in in the the
• 4:54
  neighboring areas where I am, you know we've I've been in,
• 4:58
  I've been in the the Middle Tennessee, Murfreesboro, TN area
• 5:01
  now for about 8 years. But I've been in Tennessee the
• 5:04
  state you know for close to 20 almost 20 years now And you know
• 5:11
  coming into this part of the state obviously I haven't been
• 5:15
  coming up on 10 years being heathen and so finding other
• 5:19
  people in the neighboring areas you know that share similar
• 5:24
  ideas or or or world views is is refreshing.
• 5:27
  So yeah. And you I I, I may have
• 5:31
  inaccurately portrayed how long you've been a Heathen.
• 5:35
  When I like offline with you, I do like an intro.
• 5:37
  And I told people he has, he's kind of a newcomer.
• 5:40
  I don't think, based on what you told me offline, that that's
• 5:43
  entirely accurate. So if you don't mind, just
• 5:45
  introduce yourself. Let the people know kind of how
• 5:48
  long you've been on this path and what you got going on in in
• 5:51
  your heathen ways, if you don't mind.
• 5:54
  Sure, sure. I'd say somewhere around
• 5:58
  20/17/2018 when I started started.
• 6:02
  This path came from a Catholic background long time ago.
• 6:08
  Varied off of that to multiple denominations.
• 6:12
  Didn't feel home there and I can't really explain anything
• 6:18
  other than I had a real vision more than a dream and it just
• 6:23
  drew me in. I saw an upwards arrow as a
• 6:27
  symbol in my dream and I didn't know what it meant and it turned
• 6:29
  out to be tear and that just started me on the on my path.
• 6:35
  Wow. And that was you say about
• 6:37
  20/17/2018, so 5-6, yeah, 5-6 years ago give or take.
• 6:44
  So, so not a newcomer. I would say you you've got some
• 6:46
  miles under the tires you've you've made it through some of
• 6:49
  those. As I like to say, you know that
• 6:52
  the baby heathen phases, right, where everybody's like skull
• 6:56
  till Valhalla and all that kind of stuff, right?
• 6:58
  Like it's the over romanticized side of things.
• 7:01
  Like when you first discover something, you know you're
• 7:03
  really heavily into it and maybe aren't quite.
• 7:05
  You know, you don't have all the the idiosyncrasies figured out.
• 7:09
  I mean, it's a lot. It's an ongoing learning
• 7:11
  process. I'm sure you know right It's you
• 7:14
  haven't figured it all out. I followed the I did a vanilla,
• 7:17
  what I call a vanilla experience, where I just went
• 7:20
  with what felt right with what I felt.
• 7:23
  Personally, my personal connection with here in my
• 7:25
  military background maybe just felt right to do with ritual or
• 7:30
  with setting up an altar. And I didn't read a lot of
• 7:33
  books. I just went with what felt right
• 7:35
  for a long time, and then I just started reading.
• 7:38
  Like I said, I read. I didn't.
• 7:40
  I read to have them all for the first time a year ago and just
• 7:44
  started doing things like that because I wanted to see what the
• 7:49
  writing said because everybody has their own opinion.
• 7:51
  And I realized what a what a free path we are, what what
• 7:57
  we're on. Everybody's path is different.
• 7:59
  No one path is right for everybody.
• 8:01
  And that's one of the biggest things that I've noticed is the
• 8:04
  individuality of our path. And till Valhalla was never, I
• 8:11
  never really embraced that because I read what Valhalla was
• 8:14
  about, how you got there. And in my in my own personal, my
• 8:19
  me own personal self, I don't see myself going, having all
• 8:24
  these battles and earning my way into Valhalla.
• 8:27
  I don't think that's reality. Yeah, yeah.
• 8:31
  And that's interesting too especially you coming you
• 8:34
  mentioned you're a military veteran.
• 8:37
  So thank you for your service to just to start off with that.
• 8:40
  Appreciate you for that. And it's interesting to to hear
• 8:44
  you say like the Valhalla thing doesn't feel like something that
• 8:49
  you would fit that they didn't didn't work for you doesn't feel
• 8:51
  right for you. And I've and I you know I think
• 8:55
  that becomes a pretty common thing that we that we see across
• 8:58
  you know combat or or or military circles right.
• 9:02
  It's very war band type structure you know like the the
• 9:06
  the sense of brotherhood the the the loyalty the honor and all
• 9:10
  that stuff that is inherent with the warrior class.
• 9:17
  You being a a a military person yourself, don't don't
• 9:21
  necessarily feel that particular attention towards that idea of
• 9:26
  of going to Valhalla. True.
• 9:29
  True. Yeah.
• 9:30
  So that's interesting. So you're you're not a newbie
• 9:35
  you you got again you kind of in that intermediate stage.
• 9:38
  I think like a lot of folks now that I've talked to relatively
• 9:42
  in my in my area, you know they're not brand new.
• 9:44
  They haven't been doing this for decades.
• 9:47
  I myself am coming up on about 10 years of practicing and you
• 9:52
  mentioned you came into this from you were you were Catholic
• 9:57
  before that? What what what was the like?
• 9:59
  What was the for you? If you don't mind talking like,
• 10:01
  was that a big jump, A big like culture shock maybe?
• 10:06
  Or something to go from Catholicism into Heathenry?
• 10:10
  I I was raised Roman Catholic, last of eight children.
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  Everybody in my family was Catholic.
• 10:16
  I was forced to go to church until I left home and went to
• 10:19
  the military. And that sometimes all you have
• 10:23
  when you're in the middle of the ocean, in the middle of nowhere
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  is your faith. And and I tried to embrace it as
• 10:29
  much as I could. But as time wore on I just felt
• 10:36
  I don't know how to explain it. Like a lack of attachment to it,
• 10:42
  I guess. Didn't feel like anybody was
• 10:45
  listening. Everything was going wrong and I
• 10:51
  started just going and checking out other Abrahamic faiths,
• 10:56
  Methodists and whatnot. Yeah.
• 10:58
  Still never really found a home and when I had this thing with
• 11:03
  Tear, I'm going to call it a vision and people can argue
• 11:07
  whatever. Sounds like it.
• 11:10
  I've found, I felt like somebody found me, like he picked me up
• 11:15
  and said this is where you belong.
• 11:18
  I'm going to give you a path and it just, I felt such a deep
• 11:22
  connection with it that I know this is where I'm meant to be.
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  It took a long time to get here. I'm 5053 years old so took a
• 11:30
  long time to get here, but I feel like this is where I'm
• 11:32
  going to be for the rest of my life, so.
• 11:35
  That's great. What branched in the military?
• 11:37
  Of the military? Were you in?
• 11:39
  I was in the US Navy at the end of Desert Storm.
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  In the beginning of provide Comfort, I was squattering
• 11:45
  attached ship base to USS Forestall 210 days at sea, five
• 11:51
  of months. That was in a combat zone and I
• 11:53
  turned 21 on the way home. So.
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  Also, and how many years did you serve?
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  I just did my four. It was wasn't a life plan for
• 12:02
  me. Yeah, OK.
• 12:05
  No, I mean that's what I mean to be that young and to to to I'm
• 12:08
  sure have witnessed the things that you did and just be be in
• 12:11
  that environment. You know be you know be put
• 12:14
  through some of the ordeals that you were put through that's
• 12:17
  that's that's life changing. You know, I don't, I don't think
• 12:21
  I wouldn't say any less that that it's life changing for
• 12:24
  people, you know. Oh, it is and it's, it's.
• 12:28
  Everybody's got a unique story. I was raised on a farm in
• 12:31
  Colorado and then I went into the military.
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  So I went from 99% white to the military, which is I was about
• 12:41
  5050. So I almost no exposure to
• 12:45
  anything but white people until I went in the military and then
• 12:51
  I'm, you know, after that I've moved around and been to places
• 12:54
  lived 10 for 10 years outside of Las Vegas.
• 12:57
  I lived in Virginia Beach, VA. I've been in Tennessee since
• 13:01
  2009, but it's it's been the biggest culture shock for me was
• 13:09
  that was going from being a farm kid to, you know, like all these
• 13:15
  people. I didn't realize the diversity
• 13:18
  of humankind until you see it, experience it yourself.
• 13:22
  Then you step ashore for the first time in Haifa, Israel, and
• 13:27
  there's people there that you know, again, they're different
• 13:30
  and they speak a different tongue or they have a different
• 13:33
  accent and they treat you like you're a hero because you're
• 13:37
  there protecting them and but you're just doing your job, man,
• 13:41
  you know? So yeah, it's a it's a big
• 13:44
  thing, I bet. Yeah, yeah.
• 13:46
  I can't imagine a lot of us have come.
• 13:49
  A lot of heathens I've talked to have you know stories similar in
• 13:53
  that they you know they were brought up in a faith that they
• 13:56
  didn't feel at home in. They have a similar or you know
• 14:02
  they have their unique story like you say where everybody has
• 14:04
  their story of of what kind of brought them into to Heathenry
• 14:08
  or what what kind of you know what was the thing that I don't
• 14:13
  know woke them up or or allowed them to discover this.
• 14:17
  For me, it was like the TV show Vikings.
• 14:23
  I I had a mule near tattooed on my arm long before that show
• 14:28
  ever came out. It was one of my first tattoos
• 14:31
  that I'd gotten and the reason I'd gotten it is because of my
• 14:35
  ancestry, you know, like I knew I have a lot of Dutch, German,
• 14:38
  you know that that part of Europe ancestry.
• 14:44
  And I got it as like an homage to to my ancestors, you know.
• 14:47
  And I knew I didn't know exactly what it meant.
• 14:49
  I just knew that well this is something that meant something
• 14:53
  to them. It was, you know, a symbol of
• 14:54
  strength and all these things. That's what I thought when I was
• 14:57
  really young and that's why I got it.
• 14:59
  And then years after the fact, you know, I was, I was kind of
• 15:04
  in a phase of my life where I was trying to figure out, you
• 15:06
  know, Christianity wasn't speaking to me.
• 15:09
  You know, I I I didn't feel a draw or a pull or or I didn't
• 15:12
  feel at home with it anymore. I didn't explore other like
• 15:16
  religions, but I did puddle jump a bit from different
• 15:20
  denominations. You know, so like Baptist,
• 15:22
  Catholic, Methodist, Pentecostal.
• 15:25
  Like I've been through so many different church services and
• 15:28
  and Catholic Mass is one of them that none of it felt right for
• 15:31
  me. And then the when, you know,
• 15:35
  when I, when I was like, oh wow, you know, this this Thor's
• 15:38
  hammer. You know, and all this this is,
• 15:40
  this is, this is more than just a symbol.
• 15:41
  It's actually associated with a belief that is old.
• 15:46
  You know, it predates Christianity in that part of the
• 15:49
  world at least. And so what's that about?
• 15:52
  And then when Vikings came out, I'm like, well, this is cool,
• 15:55
  you know, like, 'cause they're, you know, they they make,
• 15:57
  obviously some things about the gods in in the show.
• 16:00
  But I learned very quickly with that that that's not an accurate
• 16:04
  portrayal of Heathenry. You.
• 16:07
  Know what I mean? But it was one of the seeds that
• 16:11
  was planted that started me on that, on that path and on that
• 16:15
  journey. So where I am now is not
• 16:18
  obviously the same person I was when I started.
• 16:20
  And I'm sure for you you're the same thing.
• 16:23
  You know, you're not the same heathen now that was as you were
• 16:26
  when you started at, you know, 5-6, however many years ago.
• 16:28
  And one of the things that we wanted to talk about today with
• 16:33
  you and when you had reached out to me was people that and maybe
• 16:40
  you've had some experiences with this that you want to talk
• 16:42
  about. But people who know more than
• 16:46
  the the rest of us, you know or or that have more miles under
• 16:49
  their tires, more knowledge more you know more experiences that
• 16:53
  are not so willing or or free to share those bits of information.
• 16:59
  Right. Gatekeeping you, I think you
• 17:00
  had, you had a you had a turn in my life to really knowledge.
• 17:03
  Hoarding after hoarding their treasure, that's.
• 17:07
  That's how I I viewed it because they're it's not all it's
• 17:12
  nothing's 100% for anything or anybody.
• 17:14
  Obviously there are some people that have been around that don't
• 17:16
  mind helping, but with me, when I first started, I didn't have a
• 17:22
  lot of extra money and I didn't have support at home.
• 17:24
  I was married to a Christian woman and didn't really care
• 17:28
  about this at all for me, even though it was my own personal
• 17:31
  thing that would have helped me. And so I really couldn't go and
• 17:35
  buy to have them all and I couldn't go and and do things to
• 17:38
  research this. So all I had was people that
• 17:42
  were on path and I'd ask questions and it was, well, go
• 17:45
  look at this book or go look at that book.
• 17:46
  It was not even a breadcrumb. Look it up, do the work
• 17:49
  yourself. And it was instead of, like with
• 17:53
  me, somebody new to the path. I'll talk to him a little bit
• 17:57
  and I'll be like, OK, well here's my piece from my
• 18:00
  perspective, but it's a personal path.
• 18:02
  So you knew, need to do some work, but I will help you when I
• 18:05
  can because in my mind, we need to grow and do it as a
• 18:11
  supporting community where we can continue to rely on each
• 18:14
  other down the road. And that's how we're going to
• 18:15
  grow and grow in strength instead of every separate way.
• 18:21
  Yeah, that's a good point. I think one of the, one of the
• 18:25
  one of the things about, you know, paganism in general is it
• 18:29
  it is very, you know, individualistic.
• 18:33
  I think, you know there's a lot of do what feels right to you
• 18:36
  and you know that may not feel right to the other person but
• 18:39
  that's OK because what it, you know what feels right for you
• 18:42
  may not feel right for them vice versa, you know.
• 18:45
  And so I think that type of like I think there's there's it's a
• 18:51
  double edged sword is what I'm trying to say right.
• 18:53
  You can you can be so individualistic about a belief
• 18:57
  system and everybody does it their own way.
• 19:01
  That to me is, is it's going too far in One Direction right.
• 19:05
  Like there's there's a lack of structure at that point.
• 19:07
  There's no order. There's no understanding of
• 19:09
  well, how did the ancient Germanic people or Scandinavian
• 19:13
  people or whoever. However we're going to
• 19:15
  direction, we're going to go in right.
• 19:16
  How did these people potentially think or believe or view the
• 19:20
  world, you know, without without establishing some sort of
• 19:23
  structure, without building that community, without having that
• 19:29
  that group of people that that can share world views, that can
• 19:33
  share thoughts and ideas with one another.
• 19:34
  There's you might as well just everybody be doing their own
• 19:38
  thing and then it's how that that's not a community that's
• 19:42
  it's kind of withdrawn from that.
• 19:43
  So while I think there is that, that that's one of the beautiful
• 19:48
  things about Heathenry is is you know a person's hearth cult, how
• 19:52
  what they do right their their personal practices, their
• 19:54
  individual cultic beliefs. No one can there.
• 19:59
  There's no dogma about that, right?
• 20:01
  It's there's no, well, this this verse in this edit says you
• 20:05
  can't do it that way or nothing dogmatic like that.
• 20:10
  So that's like one of the things that I loved about discovering
• 20:13
  Heathenry and learning more about it was.
• 20:16
  I'm really. I'm supposed to figure my own
• 20:18
  way out. Like I'm supposed to have my own
• 20:20
  Harth cult. I'm supposed to do things my way
• 20:24
  myself, and I need to figure that part out.
• 20:26
  I need to establish that because without it, how am I going to
• 20:29
  have a relationship with other like minded people?
• 20:33
  How are we going to have a group, A clan, a kindred, a
• 20:36
  tribe, whatever we want to call it?
• 20:39
  If I don't first know really, how do I connect with, you know,
• 20:43
  my ancestors? How do I connect with the gods?
• 20:45
  How do I connect with the the local spirits of the land around
• 20:49
  me if I haven't first taken the time to, you know, figure that
• 20:52
  part out? Right.
• 20:55
  It's like with my I'm part of a candidate in in in Columbia
• 20:58
  called Kindred of Asgard, based out of Asgard Brewing Company.
• 21:02
  And with us, you know, there's there's guys that that we'll say
• 21:08
  that Odin's your main guy or that Broggie is one of their
• 21:11
  main people and and there's, you know, some people that put Freya
• 21:15
  first. And I'm the only one that puts
• 21:17
  Tear first. I'm basically the only person
• 21:19
  I've ever met that puts Tear on the top.
• 21:23
  But we all get along because we all understand where it's based
• 21:26
  from. And when we decide to bring in a
• 21:29
  new member, we give them an OS ring, and it's an OS to each
• 21:33
  other and to our ancestors to be honorable and to help each other
• 21:37
  out when we need. It's very simple, but it's it's
• 21:41
  giving our word like the old days when used to handshake on
• 21:44
  something, that was your bond, that was your contract.
• 21:47
  And that's kind of what we do with each other.
• 21:49
  Mm hmm. There has to be that.
• 21:52
  There has to be a a, a sense of obligation, like responsibility
• 21:57
  to one another. You know like you know the the
• 22:00
  oath is is nothing to be taken lightly.
• 22:05
  Yeah. You know like that's and and so
• 22:09
  much I think of what has arisen with like newcomers and and and
• 22:15
  stuff is they they they want to be a part of something but they
• 22:17
  don't. They don't want to put the like,
• 22:20
  they want to be a part of something.
• 22:22
  But it's almost like they want things to just be handed to them
• 22:26
  in the process. Like do this for me.
• 22:28
  Like tell me how I should do this.
• 22:30
  Tell me how I should tell me what I should read.
• 22:32
  Tell me, you know what I should do how I should do it.
• 22:35
  Just tell me, tell me, tell me. And like that's that's not how
• 22:38
  this really works. You know, like sure there's
• 22:40
  going to be nuance to things and there's going to be similar
• 22:45
  structured. You know if you go from tribe to
• 22:47
  tribe or kindred to kindred or clan to clan, whatever, like
• 22:49
  there's probably going to be things that look and feel and
• 22:52
  appear similar in a lot of different ways.
• 22:55
  But. But ultimately you know if if
• 22:58
  you feel drawn or connected and and want to be a part of one
• 23:03
  specific group, then you're you're you're kind of obligated
• 23:08
  to to do things how that group as a whole does it.
• 23:11
  Not how one person or another person as of the group does it,
• 23:14
  but as the group of as a whole does it.
• 23:17
  And then and without that understanding of of
• 23:19
  responsibility to one another, being able to rely on one
• 23:23
  another, there's no Frith that can be established, right?
• 23:26
  They can't. You can't lean on somebody else.
• 23:28
  They can't lean on you, right. You're just like, and I think
• 23:34
  some of that takes work. You know, when we talk about
• 23:38
  like gatekeeping or knowledge hoarding, have you, have you,
• 23:42
  have you had, you know, personal experiences of that where people
• 23:46
  where you ask questions and people are like, do it yourself?
• 23:49
  I'm not telling you nothing like.
• 23:50
  It was and I don't remember the website because I I I got off of
• 23:55
  it when I first was learning. I joined a couple of them trying
• 23:58
  to glean information and glean some help.
• 24:01
  And there was people I'd ask, I'd be like, hey, I'm new to the
• 24:06
  path and I'm just wondering about how I would do about doing
• 24:09
  this or how I'd go about doing that.
• 24:11
  Setting up a setting up an altar was one of them.
• 24:15
  And they're like, you know, well, you need to look at this
• 24:17
  book or you need to go do that or everybody.
• 24:20
  Everybody's different, which is true.
• 24:21
  Everybody is different but the fact is just zero zero interest
• 24:27
  in helping. And and I wasn't asking, hey
• 24:29
  don't I'm not asking you to tell me exactly how to set up but
• 24:32
  some things I need or some things that are common would be
• 24:36
  nice. You know and I ended up doing
• 24:39
  what felt right. And in the end, when I started
• 24:42
  looking at books and what was appropriate or what would what,
• 24:46
  what are some of the things that we use, I'd already bought those
• 24:51
  and I'd already put them on there without reading the book.
• 24:54
  It was just something that felt right.
• 24:56
  So no. And and then another person I
• 25:00
  had been not read anything and I'd just been doing things about
• 25:03
  how I felt and I had was saying something about a bind room that
• 25:08
  I didn't understand because I didn't understand bind rooms.
• 25:10
  I hadn't learned rooms yet. And they said, well, why don't
• 25:14
  you, you need to go look at a book instead of sitting here
• 25:16
  voicing a pen. You know nothing about ruins.
• 25:18
  And I'm just like, dude, I'm just giving you my two cents.
• 25:21
  I don't know. I'm just, I was asking because I
• 25:24
  knew that the assimilation of ruins in a certain order changes
• 25:28
  their meanings. I knew that much.
• 25:30
  And he's like, well, I've been doing Ruins for 20 years and
• 25:32
  like, it was a stupid question, don't ask kind of attitude and
• 25:38
  you know. I've I've experienced my own
• 25:42
  forms of of you know stuff like that as well and like one of the
• 25:49
  one of the things that I've talked at at different times
• 25:53
  about that I experienced at one point in time.
• 25:55
  There was a book that was published years ago and it's
• 26:02
  called We are Our Deeds and it's the the the author's name is is
• 26:06
  Eric Waldening and the Wodenings is it's Eric and Swain.
• 26:13
  They're brothers. I don't know a lot of much about
• 26:16
  them. Now I I know one of them has
• 26:20
  renounced Heathenry. They're no longer heathen.
• 26:22
  The book itself is a collection of of ethics and morals of you
• 26:30
  know pre Christian Germanic Heathens, right.
• 26:33
  Arch Heathens beliefs like so a lot of words that we use in
• 26:39
  modern times the context in which they were they were
• 26:41
  understood back then. You know it's so it's it's it's
• 26:45
  very studious type of read. It's not a long book to read
• 26:48
  it's it's not it but it's it's it's it leans more into the
• 26:52
  academic side of things. So if you're the type of person
• 26:54
  that doesn't absorb a whole lot of useful information by reading
• 26:58
  academic work, then it's, you know, you might struggle by
• 27:02
  getting through it. But it was one of the books that
• 27:04
  people told me when I was starting out.
• 27:06
  Like, this is kind of like a must read thing because it's
• 27:09
  going to help you form your worldview, right?
• 27:12
  Especially if you're coming into this path from, like,
• 27:16
  Christianity. So much of how you view the
• 27:19
  world as a Christian is different from how the world was
• 27:25
  viewed by Arch Events Point. Reason why I was bringing it up
• 27:29
  is I when I started my like YouTube channel, the Midgard
• 27:33
  musings thing and all that, it all started as me wanting to
• 27:38
  analyse and and and study the the stanzas of the have them
• 27:41
  all. So I would read like 9 stanzas
• 27:43
  at a time and I would talk about each stanza in each video, kind
• 27:49
  of dissect it, get my like share my understanding or my
• 27:53
  interpretation of the stanzas, you know.
• 27:56
  So it was like I'm learning but I'm sharing with the people what
• 27:59
  I'm learning in the process. Right after I, after I finished
• 28:03
  all of that, after I made it through the Hava Mall, I'm like,
• 28:07
  well now what can I do? And I was like, oh I'm going to,
• 28:09
  you know kind of do the same thing with we are our deeds and
• 28:14
  one of the one of the people who was associated with the Kindred
• 28:19
  or the IT was called a thayed because this was AI don't know
• 28:23
  if you've ever heard of Thayed Ish Heathenry.
• 28:28
  But Eric at the time you know he was he was with this group
• 28:32
  called the White Marsh Thayed and it's a what what what fayeds
• 28:36
  tend to be are are Anglo-Saxon groups of of of heathens.
• 28:42
  You know they they they are continental Germanic of views on
• 28:46
  things they're not like in far north of Scandinavia.
• 28:49
  So anyway the guy who reached out to me he's like no you can't
• 28:53
  do that. First of all you have you you
• 28:56
  haven't you haven't been on this path long enough to have a an
• 28:59
  educated idea of of the work that was put into this book.
• 29:04
  You have no business doing what you're about to do publicly.
• 29:11
  You don't have our permission, all that sort of stuff.
• 29:13
  And I got to tell you like at first I was like what Who do you
• 29:18
  tell me what I can or can't do? Right.
• 29:20
  You know it was it was one of those things I'm like what are
• 29:23
  you trying to do like prevent me from learning.
• 29:25
  You know you're trying to and and I I learned quickly that
• 29:29
  that's that's you know one of the ways that some people can
• 29:32
  come across is you know when they when they tell you have no
• 29:35
  business doing what you're about to be doing.
• 29:36
  Kind of like what you when you just mentioned like this guy
• 29:40
  who'd been you know studying rooms or whatever for 20 years
• 29:43
  and you had a question you you gave your thoughts on it and the
• 29:46
  and their response was you know that's a stupid question don't
• 29:50
  ask. You know, and it's like, is it
• 29:53
  really a stupid question or is it stupid thing to say when all
• 29:55
  you're doing is just sharing, trying, trying to share what you
• 30:00
  think it's an opportunity of maybe?
• 30:03
  Coaching or correcting or whatever, like, hey, you know
• 30:05
  you're kind of off the mark here on that.
• 30:08
  You know you're not, you're not quite there.
• 30:10
  Let's let's kind of shift things a bit and let and let's.
• 30:14
  You know that that's, I think the better way of going about it
• 30:16
  instead of just like doing a hard.
• 30:18
  Right, in my opinion, like now and then I have been studying
• 30:23
  rooms. I'm I'm still ways off from
• 30:25
  getting great with them. But where I'm at if somebody
• 30:28
  asks me about the rooms I'll be like OK, I can help you with
• 30:31
  what I know. And this is the book that I use
• 30:34
  to learn them and this is what the path you need to do to learn
• 30:37
  them so you can use them with instead of just being like that
• 30:41
  saying, well you know just saying send your speed you know
• 30:45
  don't worry about it. And I think that's the approach
• 30:47
  difference that I've taken in life.
• 30:50
  Maybe it's because I've I've raised 4 kids and and stuff but
• 30:53
  I don't know. But there's a difference in the
• 30:56
  teaching method. My nephew who's just turned 13,
• 31:00
  I just gave him his first Moanier with permission from his
• 31:04
  parents. And I just had, we had a
• 31:06
  ceremony. He had his first drink comedian.
• 31:08
  He's been studying the pathway for a year and a half and he's
• 31:11
  got that child mind. Just absorb stuff.
• 31:15
  It's so fat. He read the entire Halvamal book
• 31:18
  I have in an hour and I'm. He retained 90% of it and I'm
• 31:23
  going. I've read this book five times
• 31:25
  and I can't retain what he retained in the hour.
• 31:28
  So it's incredible to see how fast he learns and how much he
• 31:33
  absorbs things and takes things and you know, and I'm, I'm very
• 31:37
  happy that they let me do this because it's their kid you know.
• 31:42
  So that that means a lot to me. But they're it's my
• 31:44
  sister-in-law and a future sister-in-law and brother-in-law
• 31:47
  and and this kids amazing and the experience of being able to
• 31:51
  do that at my stage in life where I'm teaching another
• 31:54
  future heathen, hopefully a future leader love to heathen
• 31:59
  people makes me feel good. That's great.
• 32:03
  I'm glad to hear that. First of all, that there's, you
• 32:05
  know, youth out there that are are expressing an interest in
• 32:10
  that. It's not just, you know, oh, it
• 32:12
  looks cool. You know, which I mean sure
• 32:14
  there's there's definitely an aesthetic to two things.
• 32:17
  I mean I think you and I were talking offline about some of
• 32:19
  the stuff that your that your that your group does down there
• 32:24
  publicly like you guys have you'll events where you're on
• 32:28
  this Viking ship thing or something right like a float.
• 32:31
  On the holidays, on Christmas Parade and Mule Day.
• 32:35
  Mule Day is a thing For those who don't know Columbia, TN.
• 32:38
  It's famous for mule sales back in the 1800s.
• 32:41
  So the first weekend in April they have a big mule Day thing.
• 32:45
  They have a rodeo and they have this big parade on Saturday and
• 32:49
  we have a Viking ship that we get towed down Main Street it's
• 32:54
  on and we're the eight or nine of us.
• 32:55
  Or sometimes we have Our Lady friends and guests on board and
• 33:00
  so we go down there, but we're the everybody gets really loud
• 33:03
  when we come down. We're well embraced here.
• 33:06
  Everybody screams and hollers. It's it's a blast.
• 33:08
  It's a lot of fun, but it's a good message.
• 33:11
  It's a very positive message for us.
• 33:15
  And then during Yule and certain other times of the year, we walk
• 33:19
  down Main St. in the square and we're fully garbed out, fully
• 33:26
  got all our weapons on. And the police don't bat an eye
• 33:29
  because they all know us, they know we're a positive force in
• 33:33
  the community and and everybody just comes up and says hi and
• 33:37
  takes pictures. And I think it's great because
• 33:40
  it generates interest on everybody, you know.
• 33:44
  And I that's I'm not about, I don't care how many, I couldn't
• 33:47
  tell you how many people's photo albums I'm in and I don't care.
• 33:50
  I'm here to generate interest in what we're doing.
• 33:54
  Cuz maybe that'll get somebody spark, hey, I wanna be learn
• 33:58
  this and then they'll maybe get brought into that to our belief
• 34:02
  system. And that's why I do it.
• 34:04
  Yeah, no, I think that's important to have a positive
• 34:09
  image for the community because when like it and it's a tragedy,
• 34:14
  you know when when so much of of how this path has been portrayed
• 34:19
  over the years is, is, is skewed because of misappropriation of
• 34:23
  of symbols of of of different things.
• 34:27
  You know people, one person, and that's all it takes.
• 34:29
  You know, one person to skew something incorrectly and and
• 34:34
  bastardize it and then that one person.
• 34:38
  It gets into the eyesight of the public and next thing you know
• 34:41
  it's like well, anybody wearing a hammer is you know racist or
• 34:43
  or or anything like that. You know what I mean?
• 34:46
  It's a terrible thing that that that's happened.
• 34:48
  So it's great to hear that, you know, there's folks like you
• 34:51
  guys that are welcomed in the community that that that people
• 34:56
  are you know that enjoy what you do and and know that it's a you
• 35:01
  know. It's a peaceful thing.
• 35:03
  It's a it's a fun thing. It's we we we want to help.
• 35:05
  We want to educate. We want to be that, you know,
• 35:08
  positive image. It's a drastic thing and I don't
• 35:12
  mean to to interrupt, but if you want to talk about a symbol that
• 35:14
  was twisted and I did the research, if anybody out there
• 35:18
  wants to do the research, I don't want to get all too far
• 35:20
  into it. It's just how twisted the
• 35:22
  swastika came because originally it was peace, love, hope, and he
• 35:27
  twisted it into where you can't use that ever again because of
• 35:31
  what he did. So that's that's a classic
• 35:34
  example of me. I really blaring one of taking
• 35:37
  symbols like, I don't know, I'm not trying to get political on
• 35:41
  this post. But everybody that invaded the
• 35:44
  Capitol on January 6th when Biden got elected, and there's
• 35:48
  that guy in the Norse tattoos everywhere and then and I was
• 35:52
  just literally, I was so upset that, you know, the out there
• 35:57
  doing that. Yeah, yeah, it's.
• 36:01
  It you know cuz again that's what gets you know the media's
• 36:04
  attention and then the media doesn't know anything other than
• 36:06
  to just ratings you know write a story and and get ratings and
• 36:11
  all that stuff. So you know it it is it's like a
• 36:14
  it's a it's a tough thing and I think and I wonder if if so much
• 36:18
  of the the knowledge hoarding or the gatekeeping that we're that
• 36:22
  we're kind of talking about today.
• 36:24
  I I, I wonder if some of the reason why people are reluctant
• 36:28
  to share information comes from a place of not trying to be a
• 36:33
  jerk so much as it is trying to protect and safeguard things
• 36:37
  from people that aren't really serious about it.
• 36:40
  Right. Like, oh, you know, you like it.
• 36:41
  Yeah, So what? If you like it, then go do your
• 36:43
  own research. It's almost like, in a way of
• 36:46
  testing this person out to see, well, if you're really into
• 36:49
  this, then you're going to do your research and then you're
• 36:51
  going to come back and you're going to learn more.
• 36:53
  And then we can have these discussions and we can, you
• 36:55
  know, maybe further some things. What do you think?
• 36:57
  Do you think that there's any? Well, yeah, I'll give you an
• 37:02
  example with my brotherhood. If you hang around Asgard where
• 37:07
  we hang around and then usually after amount of time it depends
• 37:11
  on the person, they'll talk, start talking to us and
• 37:15
  eventually they see what we do and they see what we're about
• 37:17
  and they'll say, hey man, I was wondering if you would like
• 37:21
  consider me as a as a member. We then say OK well you're going
• 37:26
  to be a we'll call you a hang around where you can hang
• 37:28
  around. You come around you show you're
• 37:29
  interested. You show you, we'll show you
• 37:31
  what we're about. You show us what you're about.
• 37:35
  And then in time you'll become a prospect which means you'll be
• 37:39
  invited to our rituals that are not held in public and and some
• 37:44
  of the things that we do as a private group.
• 37:46
  And once you view those as a guest, not you won't be invited
• 37:51
  into the actual circle where we do our stuff or anything.
• 37:54
  But you can watch if that's still OK with you and you still
• 37:59
  show interest then down the road.
• 38:01
  So it's like, you know, year two years probably before we finally
• 38:05
  pull the trigger and say OK, if you're still good, we're all
• 38:08
  still good, everything's good, we're going to bring you in.
• 38:11
  So it's not just an instant. Oh, you like us?
• 38:14
  Great. Come on.
• 38:15
  No, that's not how it works, you know?
• 38:17
  So I'm glad you brought that up. Because when I when I talk to
• 38:21
  people about things like, you know, gatekeeping knowledge,
• 38:24
  hoarding or whatever, this almost always is part of what
• 38:27
  the conversation goes towards is the idea of Worthing and why.
• 38:33
  We do it as heathens. Why is why is this such a
• 38:37
  Because I'm not the only one. You guys obviously aren't the
• 38:39
  only one that believe that allowing time and company to be
• 38:45
  spent. And and and lapse between people
• 38:48
  is a necessary part of building a strong kindred tribe, clan
• 38:53
  group. Whatever you know, name you want
• 38:54
  to put to it, it's in. It's necessary.
• 38:56
  You can't. You can't be successful
• 38:59
  otherwise if if you're just you know taking memberships left and
• 39:03
  right every time they come through the window.
• 39:06
  What kind of a strong orderly this you know group are you
• 39:10
  going to have to establish. You're not because nobody
• 39:13
  understands the assignment, nobody understands you know the
• 39:15
  reasons why things are done, the the the purpose behind it the
• 39:20
  the the kind of the the the severity of things right.
• 39:23
  So I'm glad that you mentioned that you know you allow for the
• 39:26
  people that are interested to hang around and kind of get a a
• 39:29
  chance to observe and then from there you.
• 39:32
  Allow them to be kind of present to watch.
• 39:37
  Certain things, they're not a part of it intimately, and
• 39:40
  there's this Worthing process that takes place.
• 39:43
  They have to know that you're worth their time, and you need
• 39:46
  to know that they're worth your time.
• 39:48
  There's this reciprocity thing that happens.
• 39:50
  I I I hate to say this to myself, but it's the truth is,
• 39:54
  as most of my brotherhood will say, I hate they.
• 39:57
  They probably do more work with me than they'd have anybody.
• 40:00
  Not that I didn't show interest, and not that I I wasn't worthy
• 40:03
  of the situation is I had. A lot of hang ups from the way I
• 40:07
  was raised one of the biggest things is accepting brotherhood
• 40:13
  love freely that we love each other just because we love each
• 40:17
  other and I was raised where that had to be earned and then
• 40:21
  you had to keep earning it or or why did you deserve this where
• 40:24
  this is just something we do because we're brothers if that
• 40:28
  and it was a hard transition for me and it took a lot of work on
• 40:33
  the guys to get that barrier broke down for me to where now
• 40:37
  it's it's all good you know. Yeah, well, what it what's
• 40:40
  interesting to me is, you know, you talk about this brotherhood
• 40:43
  and and you know the sense of kinship, right.
• 40:45
  But obviously there there's not, well maybe there are you know
• 40:49
  some blood relations or even like marriage relations you know
• 40:53
  where people's families get woven you know into the others
• 40:57
  through marriage and stuff like that.
• 40:59
  But mostly I think what ends up happening is when we get these
• 41:03
  tribes and kindreds forming it's it's they're they're mostly with
• 41:07
  non relations you know non family not blood kin.
• 41:11
  But we we we formulate these family units out of the tribe,
• 41:16
  right. Like the the the tribe is an
• 41:18
  extension of the family, that's what.
• 41:20
  I like to put it so when we talk about things like kinship
• 41:24
  brothers, sisters of the of the unit.
• 41:28
  And and what you were talking about you know where you know
• 41:30
  you love each other just because there's there still has to have.
• 41:34
  I think at least there's still there's something has to happen
• 41:37
  in order for that to be made manifest.
• 41:39
  Right. Why do I, why do I call this
• 41:41
  person brother? Why does he or she call me
• 41:43
  brother or sister, right. What happened between the two of
• 41:47
  us or between all of us that secured that bond between us
• 41:54
  all. I mean that, you know, it wasn't
• 41:55
  just you like Odin and I like Thor, and we both wear hammers,
• 42:00
  right? Right.
• 42:01
  And it's it's hard to explain for me and it's well, boy,
• 42:11
  that's a hard one to put a it's hard to put a price on time.
• 42:15
  That's what I'll say on that because it's not it wasn't
• 42:19
  instant. Yeah, we liked each other.
• 42:21
  We had a lot of common stuff, and it took multiple times of us
• 42:26
  trying to figure out what works as a whole and what brings us
• 42:29
  spiritually together. When we have these gatherings,
• 42:32
  that's what leads to the brotherhood, the the bond and
• 42:36
  the love is having these gatherings where we feast and we
• 42:40
  give thanks to the gods for the food or whatever we do.
• 42:43
  And then we give. We have a bonfire and we have an
• 42:47
  actual ritual circle with stones and statues and we sit there and
• 42:51
  we have a session in there where we, you know, we do our things
• 42:56
  and it's that experience. When you experience that
• 43:00
  together as a group, that's very bonding.
• 43:03
  That's a massively bonding experience.
• 43:06
  Yeah, I I, I 100% agree with that and I think it's the the
• 43:12
  the backbone of what makes Heathenry what it is.
• 43:16
  You know, it's that, it's that it it doesn't happen online.
• 43:19
  You know, like there's I'm sure you've seen me talk about or
• 43:23
  heard me talk about and you probably have experienced it to,
• 43:26
  you know, yourself to a degree is, you know this this kind of
• 43:30
  false sense of kinship that happens online where people
• 43:34
  think just because they're in an online group together, they've
• 43:37
  never met each other physically in person.
• 43:39
  They've never, they've never done ritual together.
• 43:41
  They've never put their boots on the ground with each other in
• 43:45
  real time together. And they're just like firing off
• 43:48
  brothers and this and that, left and right to to one another,
• 43:51
  yeah. I and I disagree with that as
• 43:53
  well with that that that theology.
• 43:56
  I've been following you on Facebook.
• 43:59
  I think I friended followed you for about eight or nine months
• 44:03
  ago and just because the Midgard museum drew me that that that
• 44:07
  drew me to you. And I like the way you talk
• 44:10
  about things and and some of the way you present stuff really
• 44:13
  enjoy the content and that made me interested when you put out
• 44:18
  the thing for for having a guest.
• 44:20
  Now I I know you're 70 miles from me and and would I like to
• 44:24
  go have a beer with you sometime.
• 44:25
  Absolutely. And you are a kindred spirit but
• 44:29
  that doesn't make you a brother and that's one thing I've I've
• 44:32
  that's how I associate now is is yeah you might think like I
• 44:36
  think but you're just a kindred spirit you're not a brother.
• 44:39
  There's difference between an OS brother and somebody who just
• 44:42
  thinks the same way. Yes.
• 44:46
  And I'll tell you what too. I've I've, I've been friends
• 44:48
  with people online long distance for years who I still don't call
• 44:53
  brother. They still don't call me
• 44:54
  brother. For that reason.
• 44:56
  We love the hell out of each other.
• 44:57
  We're good friends. Right.
• 44:58
  We got we we you know we we talk on the phone we we we've got
• 45:01
  each other's phone numbers. You know, we've talked about
• 45:04
  some heavy duty stuff, but we also know like, well, we're
• 45:09
  really good friends. Doesn't make us kins, you know,
• 45:11
  kinsmen to one another. We think a lot of the same ways
• 45:14
  and and that's just it. There's there.
• 45:15
  And then there's also been only a small handful of occasions
• 45:21
  where the friendship that started as long distance over
• 45:26
  the Internet, you know, online, that sort of thing.
• 45:29
  What started off as that lasted and has lasted long, as long as
• 45:35
  it has because we eventually got to the point where we have to
• 45:39
  meet in person. We got to do even stuff like we
• 45:43
  got to be in the same company together to to further our
• 45:47
  relationship. If we're going to continue
• 45:49
  being, you know, as close to one another as we want to be, then
• 45:52
  we need to really get to know one another at the grassroots
• 45:57
  level. And it's only happened a small
• 46:00
  number of times. But out of those small number of
• 46:02
  times, even smaller than that, those friendships have blossomed
• 46:06
  into kinships. You know, I call people brother
• 46:10
  now that years ago I would never have just off the off the cuff,
• 46:16
  at least shared that title with, you know.
• 46:19
  And it's only because it ain't because it's been, you know, six
• 46:22
  or seven years of being online friends on Facebook.
• 46:24
  It's been because we've travelled hundreds of miles to
• 46:27
  be with each other and spend time with one another and do
• 46:30
  things of meetings with one another.
• 46:33
  That proved to each other our worth.
• 46:35
  You know it's like we had to do that we had to make that that
• 46:39
  that next step before we could rightfully and comfortably say
• 46:44
  we're we're brothers to one another right.
• 46:46
  And and with that title comes responsibility right You, you
• 46:50
  know you you rely on your brother and and as a as a
• 46:53
  military you know combat person there you know where the things
• 46:56
  that you've seen like you know I'm sure you know more than
• 46:59
  better than anybody what that means.
• 47:01
  You know when you need your brothers in combat like that's
• 47:05
  life and death type stuff you know what I mean?
• 47:09
  And and so maybe he doesn't get that as visceral with this type
• 47:13
  of stuff that we're talking about here today.
• 47:15
  But at the same time, it's like I know that if my brother,
• 47:18
  right? Even though he's not my blood
• 47:20
  brother. But if my brother calls me,
• 47:22
  doesn't matter if it's one in the morning or whatever, I'm
• 47:25
  going to answer. And if he needs me, I'm going to
• 47:27
  be there for him. That's the type of thing that
• 47:30
  can't happen by just, you know, believing in something similar
• 47:33
  or having same or similar, you know, ideologies or whatever.
• 47:38
  Like there has to have something has to happen.
• 47:41
  Right. Like well we use an example when
• 47:43
  we talk to people when they're. When we're we're vetting people.
• 47:46
  It's it is the example we use is hey man, you know I'm moving.
• 47:52
  Can you help me? And no man, I've I've got stuff
• 47:56
  to do around the house. That's not an excuse.
• 47:58
  No, man. My kids in the hospital, that's
• 48:01
  an excuse. You know, don't.
• 48:02
  Don't just blow me off because you want to blow me off.
• 48:05
  If you have a good reason, fine, you don't.
• 48:06
  It's it's not expected, man. But if you got nothing, you're
• 48:09
  doing nothing else. Come on, man.
• 48:13
  And just what we try to do. Yeah, yeah, I've had, I've had
• 48:18
  something, something happen with and I don't know, you know,
• 48:22
  we're getting into that really like visceral type stuff.
• 48:26
  You know, we're talking about blood, you know, brothers and
• 48:28
  and kinship and all that. I've had things happen where I
• 48:32
  did things and and and things were done between myself and
• 48:36
  others that secured a feeling of brother brotherhood, you know
• 48:39
  what I mean? We we were brothers to one
• 48:41
  another. And then there was betrayal.
• 48:42
  There was, you know, Frith was damaged to the point where we
• 48:48
  had to, you know, go our separate ways.
• 48:51
  Have you ever experienced anything like that?
• 48:54
  Yeah, I'm not going to, I'm not going to get into names to my
• 48:57
  brothers that are I I told everybody to watch, so hopefully
• 49:00
  they'll TuneIn. But there there was one of one
• 49:04
  particular member that he just beat feet, disappeared, left
• 49:09
  town. Not going to get into specifics,
• 49:12
  but that without saying anything that was timidly, mildly
• 49:18
  hurtful. But then he posted online, he
• 49:21
  bought we all get oath rings when we become members and he
• 49:26
  posted online he bought himself an an oath ring for an oath to
• 49:31
  himself. Basically saying that was more
• 49:33
  important than the oath we had to each other.
• 49:36
  And that's what got us burnt on the situation where he's he's no
• 49:41
  longer one of us. We won't deal with it.
• 49:43
  Not just because of betrayal he did in the 1st place betrayed
• 49:47
  us. He betrayed his wife, he
• 49:49
  betrayed his stepchild, and then he double double dipped by
• 49:53
  posting publicly that he was basically lonely an oath to
• 49:56
  himself. And that that's you know, I'd
• 50:01
  I'd hate to be completely rock solid, unforgiving.
• 50:04
  I do not hold hate, That's one thing I've worked my whole life.
• 50:08
  I will not hold hate towards an individual regardless, but
• 50:12
  doesn't mean I have to have anything to do with them.
• 50:15
  Right. Yeah.
• 50:16
  No, I think there's there's there's absolutely a reason, you
• 50:19
  know, good reasons to have boundaries established for
• 50:22
  things like this. Because what happens when we
• 50:25
  share knowledge, when we when we when we share time, when we
• 50:28
  share ritual with people, What are we doing?
• 50:31
  We're exchanging our energy with each other.
• 50:34
  We're we're giving some of our self.
• 50:36
  They're giving some of their selves and we're we're in this
• 50:38
  sort of dance this this reciprocal exchange with one
• 50:42
  another. And when when when that sort of
• 50:47
  thing gets you know, disregarded or slighted or disrespected in a
• 50:53
  way it it's a it's a it's a heavy blow to the to the web
• 50:57
  that we've become interwoven in that this this web of weird
• 51:01
  right. My weird your weird, his weird,
• 51:02
  her weird is is now interwoven with one another.
• 51:05
  And you know hopefully that web becomes stronger with all of
• 51:09
  those threads that are that are interwoven and tied with one
• 51:11
  another. But when when somebody goes in
• 51:14
  and just really rocks the house and tears it apart from within
• 51:21
  that's that's you know that's that's critical hits and you
• 51:25
  know you really I think that's the reason why we we take the
• 51:28
  time that we do for like you say you know Worthing vetting people
• 51:33
  and and making sure that they are the right fit for us and we
• 51:37
  are the right fit for them. It's not a one way St.
• 51:40
  We have to make sure that we work well together because
• 51:42
  that's ultimately what it comes down to is we're A-Team.
• 51:45
  We're a unit, we're a tribe, we're a kinder, we're we're
• 51:46
  collective, you know, we're not just, you know, one person
• 51:50
  steering the ship. This isn't, you know, it's not
• 51:54
  Jesse's tribe, it's not David's tribe.
• 51:56
  It's it's everybody. It's our tribe.
• 51:59
  It's our unit, you know. Right.
• 52:01
  And and I understand vetting and and I do get what you're saying
• 52:05
  where you don't just give everybody everything.
• 52:09
  If you give it on a silver platter, it's not appreciated.
• 52:12
  And I do understand that point, but I do think that attitude is
• 52:18
  was a problem. I I don't associate with those
• 52:21
  people that gave me those problems.
• 52:23
  And I've actually had some of those people come back and talk
• 52:27
  to me or try to talk to me and realize how much I have grown in
• 52:31
  my path, how much I've changed. And now we're cool.
• 52:35
  But I don't want to be cool with you because what, that's how
• 52:38
  you're going to treat people. That's not how I treat people.
• 52:40
  So now you know it just you've ruined everything from the get
• 52:43
  go because all you had to do was leave some bread crumbs.
• 52:47
  It's it's all it's all I'm saying really on that is you got
• 52:49
  to you don't have to you can do do whatever you want.
• 52:53
  But me, I'm going to leave bread crumbs.
• 52:55
  I'm going to leave a trail to have knowledge, to have self
• 52:58
  discovery in it so that you continue to grow in it.
• 53:01
  Yeah, I I think that's a good way of doing it.
• 53:05
  You know, I mean because if if somebody is is hungry and and
• 53:09
  looking for the way or looking for a way they're going to need
• 53:14
  some some coaching and some guidance.
• 53:15
  You know and and sure, you know, do it.
• 53:18
  Figure it out. Right.
• 53:19
  Go go jump in the deep end. You know, flail around for a bit
• 53:23
  if you have to to figure out if you can swim or not.
• 53:25
  But if you can't, I'm not going to let you drown, right.
• 53:28
  I'm going to. I'm going to be here to yank you
• 53:30
  back out and say, OK, what do we what now do we need to figure
• 53:33
  out? What do we need to learn before
• 53:36
  you get to? That point again, obviously
• 53:38
  going head first into that this thing didn't work out right.
• 53:42
  OK, so let's let's analyze it. Let's figure out what we need to
• 53:46
  do to to get you to that point. And you know I think if if if
• 53:51
  we're more like that and less like this, I'll just here's a
• 53:55
  book, go read about it, right. Not really caring.
• 53:58
  I think we're going to see a better result in the long run.
• 54:01
  We're going to see people wanting to continue.
• 54:05
  You know, you mentioned earlier your was it your nephew that you
• 54:09
  gave the hammer to? You know, like this is our
• 54:11
  these, these is our future, right.
• 54:13
  None of us are getting any any younger, obviously.
• 54:16
  So you know if if we're not guiding and teaching the youth
• 54:21
  and giving them a reason to want to keep going it, you know it.
• 54:25
  It'll be a tragic repeat of history where you know the old
• 54:27
  ways get forgotten and. Right.
• 54:30
  And we're not. We're growing faster than I
• 54:33
  think. I think any other religion, I'm
• 54:35
  not sure but I know it was close or spiritual belief system right
• 54:39
  now in the world and as from my research that I did we've we're
• 54:44
  now more than well, I think it was Presbyterian.
• 54:48
  We outnumber Presbyterians. Oh.
• 54:50
  Really, That's a good thing. It's a good thing that we have
• 54:54
  grown this much. And now I don't know the
• 54:57
  factuals obviously, but like in the military, they've changed,
• 55:01
  where now you can put Norse mythology as you're following,
• 55:05
  as your as your religion. Yeah, right.
• 55:07
  N Pagan or Austin or something. Like that and some vocations in
• 55:14
  the military let you grow a well kept beard now because it's part
• 55:18
  of your religious and they that's the first time beards
• 55:22
  have been allowed since like the 1700s I think.
• 55:26
  So this is the things that we have changed by becoming a
• 55:32
  stronger, bigger group that now we're recognized by the
• 55:36
  government and now you know the military recognizes us and and
• 55:41
  that's what we need to keep that positive circle going.
• 55:47
  There's an interesting thing too, I see.
• 55:49
  I see a lot of groups that become five O1, 3C or 5O31,
• 55:56
  whatever that is. You know non profit religious
• 55:59
  org. So that way they can you know
• 56:04
  receive funding for building things for their people right.
• 56:08
  Whether it's like a a temple hoof or or you know of a you
• 56:13
  know like a Grove or or buy land or or or something.
• 56:16
  You know what I mean Like you know it's such a it's such a
• 56:21
  different world than it used to be you know you know back in the
• 56:24
  day it was you know you owned the land or you inherited it.
• 56:28
  It's so tough nowadays to to secure stuff like that without
• 56:33
  government assistance, you know, without having that thing.
• 56:37
  And I think I wonder, you know, if that's one of the big reasons
• 56:40
  why we're seeing an increase in a growth.
• 56:43
  And it's because what other way are we going to have the things
• 56:49
  that our ancient ancestors had without going down this path to
• 56:52
  do it? You know, like I'm, I'm one of
• 56:55
  those types that are, I don't have anything necessarily
• 56:59
  against national orgs. I just don't think that that's
• 57:02
  really where Heathenry is shining.
• 57:05
  It's it's it's like one of those weird places.
• 57:09
  Like, again, I don't have anything against big national
• 57:12
  orgs, but at the same time, I don't want to.
• 57:14
  Have it to be where like? Every person that joins a
• 57:16
  national org is like, oh, I'm part of the tribe now and like,
• 57:19
  this is not. It's like a federation almost,
• 57:21
  in a way. And I don't.
• 57:23
  I don't. That's just a personal thing to
• 57:25
  me. I don't, I don't push it one way
• 57:27
  or the other. I just think that it's it works
• 57:29
  better with the smaller units. Than it does on this big.
• 57:32
  Federation I I I couldn't agree more when we and as far as I
• 57:36
  know we last time we discussed numbers.
• 57:40
  When we first started this, we discussed numbers of total,
• 57:43
  total numbers of actual members in the clan and the Kindred.
• 57:49
  And we and the main guy that started it discussed that.
• 57:55
  We don't want to get to a point where I don't know who it is I'm
• 57:58
  talking to. And you've got your member.
• 58:01
  We don't want so many members. We don't know who you are.
• 58:05
  So we kind of put a temporary, like an ideal cap for us is 20.
• 58:11
  We would like no more than 20. That's a tight, big enough group
• 58:14
  to be noticed. Tight enough to know each
• 58:16
  individual and and have a big enough group to make an impact.
• 58:20
  Like hey, let's let's go hand out food for Thanksgiving and
• 58:24
  and do a thing for the poor. And we get together and we hand
• 58:29
  out food for thingsgiving big enough to be noticed, but not
• 58:32
  giant, you know? And I think that's that's where
• 58:35
  we are with that. So if you don't mind I was like
• 58:39
  you know hearing you talk about what you guys are you know the
• 58:42
  the fun stuff that you do obviously to to to put a
• 58:44
  positive light on the on on Heathenry you know that that's
• 58:48
  all great. But if you don't mind I'd like
• 58:50
  to hear a bit more about what you guys are doing for the non
• 58:54
  heathen or the non Pagan community.
• 58:55
  Are you talking about assisting the the less fortunate with food
• 59:00
  and stuff like that? Like how does that usually work
• 59:04
  for you guys? What do you we're just.
• 59:06
  Starting. We're just starting that part
• 59:08
  right now with trying to. We have different members
• 59:13
  looking at different things to do two different stuff.
• 59:16
  One of our guys has a he calls it the fight ministry.
• 59:22
  He does stuff and I want to say Franklin or something where they
• 59:27
  they do Thanksgiving and we're just looking at other ways to do
• 59:31
  it. One of our members is the Better
• 59:35
  Half Works with a shelter for battered women.
• 59:38
  So we try to we we promote Oktoberfest here in Columbia
• 59:44
  which all the sales for the tickets go to that house.
• 59:48
  So by us promoting it we get more people that gives them more
• 59:52
  money and I think last year was I want to say 14 or $15,000 just
• 59:59
  in ticket sales that went. So that's some of the things we
• 1:00:04
  do and we obviously that's that's non non faith-based
• 1:00:09
  stuff. Right, exactly.
• 1:00:12
  And I don't. I'll have a conversation and I'd
• 1:00:14
  be nice to anybody. I don't really care what anybody
• 1:00:17
  believes, that you're nice to me.
• 1:00:18
  I'm nice to you, but a decent. Human being.
• 1:00:21
  It's the fact of we we're trying to now start really building our
• 1:00:28
  presence in Columbia as other than just a bunch of guys who go
• 1:00:31
  out and have fun on a float and go to Asgard and throw down a
• 1:00:35
  few beers and and hang out with people in in crazy outfits with
• 1:00:39
  swords and axes. We're trying to do more positive
• 1:00:42
  stuff, but those those feet are just starting to really hit the
• 1:00:46
  ground. We've only been a Kindred or
• 1:00:50
  whatever you want to call it a clan for about 2 1/2 years.
• 1:00:53
  So we're new around that and it's just it takes time to get
• 1:00:57
  things like that started. Yeah, absolutely.
• 1:01:00
  Believe me, I know because our small collect, you know our
• 1:01:04
  small group, our small tribe, you know the was you know
• 1:01:09
  birthed I guess you could say the on the like January or
• 1:01:13
  February of 2020 and then COVID hit you know somewhere like well
• 1:01:17
  shit you know they had to pump the brakes on on any sort of
• 1:01:21
  public gathering of things because of of the pandemic.
• 1:01:24
  And things changed even within a year of that happening with the
• 1:01:30
  group initially you know members you know coming or going and and
• 1:01:33
  this and that. And it's just been a, it's been
• 1:01:35
  a gradual slow growth sort of thing which I don't mind I I I
• 1:01:42
  definitely don't think that stuff like this should be
• 1:01:45
  happening overnight because again you can't you can't have a
• 1:01:48
  strong foundation without roots being allowed to to settle in.
• 1:01:53
  You know what I mean? I'm just I'm really glad to hear
• 1:01:56
  that you know we've got something so close in our area.
• 1:02:00
  You know you're a little bit South of me and there's people
• 1:02:03
  that are a bit north of me and we're kind of in the middle
• 1:02:06
  here. So we like we got this really
• 1:02:08
  good network of of people that from what I can see are are
• 1:02:13
  didn't are in it for the right reasons.
• 1:02:14
  You know they're not in here to to try to convert or persuade
• 1:02:18
  people. It's like, hey, if you feel like
• 1:02:20
  this is your home, then come and hang out.
• 1:02:22
  Talk with us, get to know us, we'll get to know you and let's
• 1:02:24
  just see if it works out for you now.
• 1:02:26
  We have a newer prospect that drives from Linville to come, so
• 1:02:30
  oh, wow, that's a drive, you know, and we're the closest
• 1:02:34
  thing he thinks that he feels comfortable.
• 1:02:37
  So you know, it's you're welcome, you know, come on down.
• 1:02:41
  And it's, it's what you make of it just like everything else.
• 1:02:45
  So you know. It really is, you know, and I've
• 1:02:50
  seen people drive from, you know, an hour, hour and a half,
• 1:02:55
  two hours sometimes just to to make it to an afternoon park
• 1:03:00
  moot, you know what I mean? Because they, they know that the
• 1:03:03
  people that are going to be there are their people.
• 1:03:05
  You know, they want to be around their people.
• 1:03:07
  And it, you know, the distance really makes me think of one of
• 1:03:10
  those stanzas from the Hava Mall.
• 1:03:11
  You know, that basically talks about the road between, you
• 1:03:15
  know, good friends is is is not a long one despite the distance
• 1:03:20
  because you know, or something like that.
• 1:03:22
  It's paraphrased. It's not exactly that, but I
• 1:03:24
  think you know what I'm talking about.
• 1:03:27
  But you know, the meaning of it behind it is that, you know, if
• 1:03:32
  you got the, the people that you that you know are are your
• 1:03:36
  people and they and you're their people, they're your people,
• 1:03:39
  right? Reciprocity being the thing,
• 1:03:42
  then the distance really is not an issue.
• 1:03:45
  You're willing to make that that trip.
• 1:03:47
  They're willing to make the trip to be with one another and put
• 1:03:51
  in that time. Well, it's just like just to use
• 1:03:55
  an example, my, my fiance lives in Michigan and I live in
• 1:04:01
  Tennessee. So we we get to see each other a
• 1:04:05
  weekend every six weeks or so and sometimes a little bit
• 1:04:09
  longer. When I'm out out of work on
• 1:04:11
  shutdown, I work at one of the manufacturing plants for vehicle
• 1:04:15
  manufacturing. And so when when we're off for
• 1:04:18
  two or three weeks, go and see her that, you know, it's
• 1:04:21
  something that matters to us. So yes, we're making it work and
• 1:04:24
  it's not going to be forever. Eventually she will move down
• 1:04:27
  here, but it's something that if you're, if you you really want
• 1:04:32
  to be make it work, you can. It's not easy, but it can work.
• 1:04:38
  Yeah, well they, you know, the the, the, if it was easy then
• 1:04:41
  everyone would do it and it would take some of the, IT would
• 1:04:45
  take the, you know, the value out of it.
• 1:04:48
  I think if it was so easy there was no work to be put into
• 1:04:51
  anything. If if there wasn't a thing, if
• 1:04:53
  there was no ordeal about it, then what worth is it?
• 1:05:00
  You know, ordeal and adversity. Those are the things that that
• 1:05:04
  breed worth in all of us. You got to go through that
• 1:05:08
  suffering to know how you know, to appreciate it, you know?
• 1:05:18
  So if you, if you had to, I don't know.
• 1:05:20
  Like this is kind of one of those things where I like, I've
• 1:05:22
  been asked this a few times and I like to ask people this,
• 1:05:26
  right? And it doesn't matter how long
• 1:05:28
  you've been doing this for, right?
• 1:05:29
  So it's 567 New Years, whatever it's been.
• 1:05:32
  But we're talking about, you know, withholding things,
• 1:05:34
  hoarding knowledge, you know, the gatekeeping issue that that
• 1:05:41
  seems to exist. If you had three things that you
• 1:05:47
  would want to impart to somebody that's brand new to Heathenry
• 1:05:52
  and it could be read this book, do this thing, watch this,
• 1:05:56
  whatever. I don't know, it could be
• 1:05:58
  anything. What three things do you think
• 1:06:00
  you would that you would tell a newcomer, a baby heathen, that
• 1:06:06
  was interested in in pursuing this as a like a as a as a
• 1:06:10
  religion, as a faith, as a as a spirituality?
• 1:06:16
  Reading I would say they have them all and the pros are poetic
• 1:06:22
  at us would would give you some guidance there and and as much
• 1:06:29
  as it's been persuaded on for and against make sure you have a
• 1:06:34
  value system set up where you know and for me personally honor
• 1:06:42
  is a big thing so you have to have that self honor and that
• 1:06:46
  every path is individual. You're not going to follow Joe
• 1:06:50
  or John or Greg or anybody specifically.
• 1:06:55
  You might have little pieces of them, but your path is your
• 1:06:59
  path. And I use myself an example
• 1:07:02
  because nearly every heathen or father that I come in contact
• 1:07:07
  with Odin is their primary or very much close to their primary
• 1:07:12
  person that they talk about or that they associate with.
• 1:07:16
  And I'm your first, Thor 2nd and Freya 3rd.
• 1:07:20
  And people look at me kind of strange because I don't mention
• 1:07:24
  ODA, Odin in the first three gods that I really follow.
• 1:07:29
  And I go, well, I don't have to follow him specifically or even
• 1:07:32
  in in in because Freya's related to him, stars related to him and
• 1:07:37
  tears related to him. So he knows.
• 1:07:38
  I believe. I don't have to specifically
• 1:07:41
  talk to Odin to be a heathen. I can believe in what and follow
• 1:07:45
  who I want to believe, 'cause these are the ones that most
• 1:07:48
  impact my life, that talk to me, that I want to follow, I want to
• 1:07:52
  imitate and that give me the strength I need in the areas
• 1:07:55
  that I need it. Nice.
• 1:07:59
  I like that. Yeah, like don't, don't follow
• 1:08:02
  what somebody else is doing. And I I talked to, I was talking
• 1:08:06
  to a friend of mine, another brother of mine.
• 1:08:10
  And we were talking about like imitation, you know and or or
• 1:08:14
  imitating others, right? Inspiration over imitation or
• 1:08:20
  something. I can't remember exactly what it
• 1:08:22
  was that we were like talking about specifically, but it's
• 1:08:26
  like you can be inspired by a person to want to like be like
• 1:08:33
  that person or be like that you know you know physical or or or
• 1:08:38
  spiritual aspects of that of that individual you know And
• 1:08:44
  that can inspire 1 to behave act and and what not a certain way
• 1:08:51
  but don't try to be that person you know like don't do it their
• 1:08:55
  way do it your way and maybe their way is going to inspire
• 1:08:58
  you in your way but ultimately you've got to be yourself.
• 1:09:01
  You got to know what it is you're doing.
• 1:09:02
  You got to have your own cultic practice.
• 1:09:05
  You got to have your own way of doing things.
• 1:09:08
  And and sure, you're going to find inspiration from other
• 1:09:12
  places and other people. But don't don't try to be, you
• 1:09:19
  know guys. Don't try to be, David.
• 1:09:20
  Don't try to be me. You know what I mean?
• 1:09:23
  Like. What I what I would also tell
• 1:09:25
  people is and and I get. This is a question I've seen a
• 1:09:29
  lot and I asked it myself was the altar question.
• 1:09:32
  How do I set up my altar? You gotta do what you gotta do
• 1:09:36
  what feels right to you. And that's where it's like, well
• 1:09:40
  how do I start? Where do I start?
• 1:09:41
  What do I do? And I'm like, look man, I can
• 1:09:43
  tell you this clear off a spot, top of your dresser, top of a
• 1:09:47
  desk. Just clear off a spot and make
• 1:09:50
  that your spot and then put things that you think you should
• 1:09:54
  be there that means something to you or that you think would
• 1:09:56
  connect you to what you're following.
• 1:10:02
  I I made a braided rope necklace and I don't wear it much, but
• 1:10:08
  when I was when I did make it, I worked for a while and then I
• 1:10:12
  used that as the centerpiece. So I have the braided leather
• 1:10:16
  braided rope, you know not necklace that was the
• 1:10:20
  centerpiece and it's grown from there.
• 1:10:22
  And I have a statue of tear now and I have a statue of thorn out
• 1:10:25
  of statue of Freya now and I have I have your gazelle and and
• 1:10:29
  this and that and it just grows and the the thing that I'll say
• 1:10:36
  is when I looked up what are common things to put on your
• 1:10:41
  altar if you follow tear it was braided leather and pieces of
• 1:10:48
  leather and associations with your would like a beard bead or
• 1:10:52
  something like that And that was already all on there when I read
• 1:10:56
  this it was I'd already done it. That was the thing that spoke
• 1:11:00
  true to me the most is that don't always get it in a book.
• 1:11:03
  Sometimes you have to, you have to go with.
• 1:11:07
  Yeah, that's a big thing too, I know.
• 1:11:08
  Especially for folks that have come in into this way from
• 1:11:11
  Christianity. You know that that worldview is
• 1:11:15
  like, well, what's in the book, right?
• 1:11:16
  What does the Bible say? And.
• 1:11:18
  I'm going to do whatever the Bible says, right.
• 1:11:20
  Or I'm going to try to do whatever the Bible says.
• 1:11:22
  You know, it's different, way different.
• 1:11:25
  With Heathen Read, there is no Bible.
• 1:11:26
  There is no book. Yes, sure.
• 1:11:28
  The have them all is great for, you know, good common sense
• 1:11:31
  moral ethics and this and that type of stuff.
• 1:11:33
  And there's other good, you know, things to to to read about
• 1:11:39
  things like that. Yeah.
• 1:11:40
  Obviously the Eddas are, you know, going to be a primary
• 1:11:43
  source for the mythology side of things, the lore, you know.
• 1:11:47
  But then you got the sagas too. I mean, there's like, what, 700
• 1:11:51
  different sagas that you could read.
• 1:11:54
  And I mean by what I'm saying, like there's literally that,
• 1:11:57
  like hundreds of different ones. And they're all interesting.
• 1:12:02
  They're all, they all have a value to them.
• 1:12:04
  But if all you're doing is just reading about it and you're not
• 1:12:06
  finding a way and you're not doing of the thing, if you're
• 1:12:09
  not actually practicing it, then and and if all you're doing is
• 1:12:12
  doing it because of what a book says, like, oh, have I read it
• 1:12:15
  about it in here? Well, why was it in there to
• 1:12:17
  begin with? That was that person or or that
• 1:12:20
  collective or whatever probably their way of doing it and it
• 1:12:23
  worked for them. Are you copying that because it
• 1:12:27
  says it or are you being inspired to do it because it
• 1:12:32
  speaks to you and it speaks to the way you want to to be here.
• 1:12:36
  You know, express your your your religion or your faith or your
• 1:12:38
  folk way. And and like when it comes to
• 1:12:41
  the altar thing, you know, I'm sure your altar has has evolved
• 1:12:45
  and changed over the years. Mine has you know, mine doesn't
• 1:12:49
  look the same as it did when I first started my path.
• 1:12:51
  And I'm sure it won't look the same again in the next, you
• 1:12:56
  know, 10 years down the road when I'm still kicking, you
• 1:12:58
  know. So that's the beauty of it.
• 1:13:01
  It's it grows with us. We're it.
• 1:13:03
  This is a, this is the thing that it is ever growing, it's
• 1:13:06
  ever changing. Where it's it's kind of like
• 1:13:08
  nature, you know, the cyclical nature of existence of life is
• 1:13:12
  that we reach a certain point and then it goes away for a time
• 1:13:17
  and then it comes back in a new form and so on and so forth.
• 1:13:21
  So yeah, I think that's good advice.
• 1:13:24
  I like, I like the, you know, your approach is, you know,
• 1:13:27
  yeah, here are some books that you can read.
• 1:13:28
  But also, don't don't neglect actually doing something, and
• 1:13:34
  don't think that you're doing it wrong if you can't find it in a
• 1:13:37
  book somewhere you know. Right.
• 1:13:41
  Some people, I think get that, get hung up on that well if I
• 1:13:44
  can't find a source. I think, and I was probably one
• 1:13:48
  of those that for some reason I was able to make the transition
• 1:13:52
  easier than others. I've seen that was raised in the
• 1:13:55
  Abrahamic belief systems where the Bible is the center and the
• 1:13:59
  Bible is, you know, you follow the Bible, you follow the Bible
• 1:14:01
  file Bible. And that's hard to break for a
• 1:14:05
  lot of newer people. Like we don't have AI, don't
• 1:14:09
  have a set of instructions for you, man.
• 1:14:11
  You're you have them. You have your own set of
• 1:14:13
  instructions. You just got to figure out what
• 1:14:15
  those are and it'll come to you in time.
• 1:14:17
  What what? What works and what doesn't, you
• 1:14:19
  know? Yeah yeah absolutely.
• 1:14:23
  You know the that you know people that like to I, I I have
• 1:14:28
  AI have a a chat with this this one individual on the side here
• 1:14:32
  lately who you know they're constantly showing me pictures
• 1:14:37
  of you know articles or or Reddit posts and things and
• 1:14:43
  they're like is this correct is this right And I'm like dude
• 1:14:47
  you've got to get away from is this right is this correct like
• 1:14:52
  and that's all you ever think of There's there's way more nuance
• 1:14:56
  to to this than you're realizing you know if all you're going to
• 1:15:00
  be looking at is well it has to be what was written down
• 1:15:03
  thousands and thousands and thousands of years ago.
• 1:15:06
  I mean, if that's the way you want to go about doing it and
• 1:15:08
  that's what makes you happy, then I guess go on with it.
• 1:15:13
  But for me, I don't know, it's just like if you come, if you,
• 1:15:16
  if you stay too root bound into that aspect of it and you're too
• 1:15:21
  stuck in that well, that's the way it was done thousands of
• 1:15:24
  years ago. So that's the way we've got to
• 1:15:25
  do it now. Mentality.
• 1:15:28
  Yeah, I don't think it allows very well for growth.
• 1:15:31
  It's something too root down doesn't grow well.
• 1:15:36
  Right. And it's just an example.
• 1:15:38
  And there's obvious reasons. First of all, it's illegal to
• 1:15:41
  sacrifice animals, but that's they did a lot of that and it's
• 1:15:47
  like, no, well, we really can't do that.
• 1:15:49
  So you have to make do with what you got.
• 1:15:51
  But sometimes it's a better practice.
• 1:15:53
  In one of the things, like one of our gatherings, I happened to
• 1:16:00
  have a friend of mine that gave me a deer.
• 1:16:02
  And so I took a chunk of that deer and I saved it specifically
• 1:16:05
  for us. And one of our members smoked
• 1:16:07
  it, and that was part of our thing.
• 1:16:09
  But that's kind of the the that was the ritual sacrifice, so to
• 1:16:12
  speak. Quick, This is what we're doing
• 1:16:14
  for the gods. And we each took a piece of
• 1:16:17
  meat. We each took something from the
• 1:16:18
  dinner and put it in a bowl and set it out in our ritual area.
• 1:16:21
  And he left it overnight for the gods as our are owed to them or
• 1:16:26
  are are offering to them. And that's that's symbolic.
• 1:16:30
  That's what that's what that's for.
• 1:16:33
  Where, you know, like they used to do it with real animals.
• 1:16:36
  It's like you can't do that nowadays.
• 1:16:39
  You've got to buy, you've got to go with the times or you're not
• 1:16:42
  gonna make it, you know? Yeah, right.
• 1:16:45
  Yeah. There has to be the a healthy
• 1:16:46
  blend of you know our our you know the big thing on the on you
• 1:16:50
  know mid garden musings is you know we're practicing old ways
• 1:16:52
  in modern times because it makes sense practically in in modern
• 1:16:57
  times for you and your apartment to have a you know God pole in
• 1:17:02
  your living room. Probably not you know what I
• 1:17:04
  mean you obviously you don't have a yard like in in in a lot
• 1:17:08
  of these places like apartments and stuff you don't have a yard
• 1:17:10
  for you to have a sacred Grove in you know or or what have you.
• 1:17:15
  So again, you have to, like you said, you know you have to kind
• 1:17:17
  of grow with the times and apply things that or maybe archaic or
• 1:17:24
  ancient when they're where where it fits, you know and if it
• 1:17:27
  doesn't fit and quit trying to fuck, quit trying to force the
• 1:17:29
  square peg into a round hole, my guy, you know like it just if it
• 1:17:34
  doesn't fit, it doesn't fit. And find another way.
• 1:17:38
  You know be creative in that way.
• 1:17:39
  And that's a that's a good homage to our ancestors too,
• 1:17:42
  right. Being innovative and being
• 1:17:43
  creative and figuring it out, you know it doesn't work this
• 1:17:47
  way. Well, how else can I accomplish
• 1:17:48
  this? So it's all, it's all part of
• 1:17:52
  it. It's all part of the learning.
• 1:17:54
  So but this has been a this has been a really fun episode here.
• 1:17:59
  David, do you think you covered well?
• 1:18:01
  Do you think we covered well enough the the gatekeeping
• 1:18:04
  knowledge? Hoarding.
• 1:18:07
  Thing. Bringing it up brings light to
• 1:18:09
  the subject and I said my two cents and and you know you said
• 1:18:13
  you're two cents. And I'm hoping that people that
• 1:18:16
  watch and will get this and realize that people are asking
• 1:18:22
  you questions because they're interested.
• 1:18:23
  Don't. I'm not telling you to open your
• 1:18:25
  book of dark secrets and give them everything but leave bread
• 1:18:29
  crumbs. That's my biggest thing is leave
• 1:18:30
  bread crumbs for these people. Don't just don't deal with it.
• 1:18:34
  You know, that's my point. No I think that's a good.
• 1:18:38
  I think that's a good bit of advice and I think that anybody
• 1:18:40
  that listens and watches this knows that's kind of where I
• 1:18:43
  come from that's the angle that I take to or or I wouldn't be
• 1:18:47
  doing this. I don't you know I don't like to
• 1:18:50
  talk to hear myself speak. I like to have people on here
• 1:18:53
  that can share their perspectives and bring up topics
• 1:18:56
  of interest and and we can talk about it.
• 1:18:58
  So yeah leaving those break I like that analogy.
• 1:19:02
  You know they have something they can come back to they have
• 1:19:04
  a you know they know where they know where it came from and they
• 1:19:08
  know where they can go back and you're and you're making
• 1:19:09
  yourself accessible. So like Speaking of
• 1:19:12
  accessibility is there for anyone that listens and watches
• 1:19:15
  this that's in the relative area of Columbia, TN Is there
• 1:19:19
  anywhere that they can find out more about your group and and I
• 1:19:25
  know Asgard Brewing Company that's going to be a thing that
• 1:19:27
  we add to the to the show notes because you guys are.
• 1:19:31
  That's where we gather every almost every first Friday of the
• 1:19:34
  month. They have a big thing downtown
• 1:19:36
  in Columbia and so we are usually there the 1st Friday of
• 1:19:39
  every month. At least some of us on any given
• 1:19:43
  Friday or Saturday usually catch a couple of us down there.
• 1:19:47
  My our Kindred doesn't that I know of.
• 1:19:49
  Nobody has a real specific site for our Kindred.
• 1:19:52
  We just kind of share it within ourselves.
• 1:19:54
  But we're down there. If you go to Asgard and just ask
• 1:19:57
  if one of the Vikings is there, I mean, I hate that term, but
• 1:20:00
  that's how a lot of people know us.
• 1:20:03
  Then they'll say, hey yeah, he's down there or this person's
• 1:20:06
  here, come talk to us. We're all personable.
• 1:20:10
  OK, good. We'll put that in the show notes
• 1:20:13
  of the podcast and in the description of the video for the
• 1:20:15
  folks that watch it on Patreon because I don't know, I know, I
• 1:20:18
  know there's some folks that watch the videos and especially
• 1:20:20
  that listen that are like North Alabama, of course all over
• 1:20:25
  Tennessee. So you know, Columbia is like
• 1:20:29
  kind of halfway between like me and and like Northern Alabama.
• 1:20:33
  So somewhere in the middle. It's a good it's a good meeting
• 1:20:35
  point middle ways to get to get together.
• 1:20:39
  So we'll we'll we'll put the Asgard Brewing Company's stuff
• 1:20:41
  down there, hopefully they don't mind getting some attention on.
• 1:20:46
  I know the boss, I know the owners.
• 1:20:48
  I told them. I'm like, I'm going to be doing
• 1:20:49
  this, so I'm going to put you out there, so.
• 1:20:52
  Oh, cool, Right on. And I would, I got to make, you
• 1:20:54
  know, I got to, I got to get up off my ass one of these weekends
• 1:20:57
  or something and just head on down there because it ain't that
• 1:21:00
  far. I mean, you know, I go to, I go
• 1:21:02
  to a few times a year, I go up to Springfield, which is about a
• 1:21:08
  5050 or 60 mile trip from from where I live for like Raven Moon
• 1:21:13
  Hearth. They're they're a heathen group
• 1:21:17
  that, Yeah. I've talked to one guy from
• 1:21:18
  there and we still have to arrange a meet up and.
• 1:21:23
  Yeah man. You know, if you know who they
• 1:21:27
  are, then you know that they do public gatherings different
• 1:21:31
  times of the year. They got the Shadowmooth thing
• 1:21:32
  every fall. They got something in the summer
• 1:21:36
  called Sunobloat. Those are all public events that
• 1:21:39
  you know people can come to and it's it's well worth it.
• 1:21:43
  So if we don't meet each other you know in person at at the
• 1:21:46
  brewery or or something beforehand, then maybe we'll
• 1:21:49
  we'll link up at at one of their events.
• 1:21:51
  But we're all we're all in a relatively close proximity to
• 1:21:54
  one another. So we'll make it happen.
• 1:21:56
  We got to all right. Sounds good.
• 1:21:59
  Yeah. And so everybody that listens
• 1:22:01
  and watches this, you know, do be sure to check out all that
• 1:22:03
  information. If you want to try to link up
• 1:22:05
  with, as David puts it, one of the Vikings down there in
• 1:22:08
  Columbia, then you know how to, you know how you know how to
• 1:22:11
  keep track of them. Just just follow them on
• 1:22:13
  Facebook at Asgard Brewing Company And yeah, follow the
• 1:22:18
  podcast up, vote it, share it around, do all the things you
• 1:22:21
  know to show your support. And thank you again, David, for
• 1:22:24
  for being here, if you don't mind.
• 1:22:25
  Just hang on real quick when I stop the recording and I'll sign
• 1:22:28
  off with you there offline. But yeah, thank you again for
• 1:22:32
  being my guest. It's been great talking with you
• 1:22:34
  and for everybody else, sitting here listening, watching
• 1:22:38
  wherever you are in Midgard and hope you enjoyed it if you did
• 1:22:41
  support in any way that you can. And until we talk to each other
• 1:22:44
  again, may the gods continue to notice you and may your
• 1:22:48
  ancestors smile upon you. We'll see you in the next one.