Latest / Random Heathen Ramblings / Random Heathen Ramblings: S5, EP24 - How Heathens Adjust Their Practices In Shared Space [Patreon Request]

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Random Heathen Ramblings: S5, EP24 - How Heathens Adjust Their Practices In Shared Space [Patreon Request] · Random Heathen Ramblings

• 0:01
  Hello everyone, and welcome to the Random Heathen Ramblings
• 0:03
  podcast where we discuss all sorts of things Germanic
• 0:06
  Heathenry related. My name is Jesse and I'm your
• 0:10
  host. Let's get into it.
• 0:32
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• 0:43
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• 0:46
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• 0:48
  your spiritual journey or looking to expand your
• 0:51
  collection with a custom drum, we have everything you need.
• 0:55
  Visit our online store at the all they hear.com and discover
• 0:59
  the beauty of Mountain Spirit. Hail, hail.
• 1:06
  Hello everyone. Welcome back this week to the
• 1:08
  podcast. Hope you're all doing well and
• 1:11
  enjoying life as best you can and finding ways to stay true on
• 1:15
  your path, whatever it might be. I've had a really good week this
• 1:23
  past week. Not that I like to talk all
• 1:27
  about myself, but just wanted to share with you folks here.
• 1:30
  I got the chance to be, you know, invited to one of the
• 1:36
  elders of our community. Invited me and several other
• 1:40
  people out to their property, which is, I think he said it's
• 1:45
  about 15 or so minutes from Fall Creek Falls.
• 1:48
  It's Dunlap, TN, but up in the mountains a bit about an hour
• 1:54
  and 20 minutes or so from where I live.
• 1:56
  So nice little, nice little getaway.
• 1:59
  It's kind of heading towards Chattanooga area, you know, the
• 2:03
  southeast of us. He's an elder of our community,
• 2:09
  been heathen most of his life and he's in his 70s.
• 2:13
  You've heard me talk a bit about him before on other episodes.
• 2:15
  I met him last year at Shadowmoot.
• 2:17
  He's an, A really interesting fella and, and has a lot of
• 2:22
  really, you know, of course, years of experience, but just a
• 2:26
  wider range of, of, of knowledge and stuff to learn from.
• 2:32
  But he's got property out there in Dunlap and that's a lot of
• 2:36
  property and being he's up in, in the age that he is, where his
• 2:40
  property is, is quite remote. You know, it's, it's literally
• 2:45
  on the side of a mountain with a, with a steep grade that goes
• 2:50
  pretty much uphill for like, I don't know, man, like 7-8
• 2:57
  hundred feet up into the woods. But it's, it's so there's a lot
• 3:01
  of work that needed to be done. There was some, there was some
• 3:04
  land clearing that needed to be done.
• 3:06
  There was a, there was a lightning struck red oak tree
• 3:08
  that had fallen in his property that he was wanting to help get,
• 3:11
  you know, get help cutting up. And I got a lot of items
• 3:16
  retrieved from from that red oak say a lot, but a small handful
• 3:22
  of items for some people. So very special, you know, items
• 3:30
  to be carried out. And I got a chance to take with
• 3:32
  me this weekend. A young man, you know, a young,
• 3:36
  a young, he's a kid man. He's he is, he's.
• 3:40
  And Kevin, if you if you hear this, you know, you are a good
• 3:46
  young man. And I'm glad to have brought you
• 3:50
  with me up there to, to, to Wolf's this week.
• 3:52
  And so I did. I got to bring this young fella
• 3:55
  who's been like brought back into my wife's life and of
• 3:59
  course now my life as well. But she has a lot of history
• 4:03
  with this young man and his sister.
• 4:05
  And it's just been really great having him around.
• 4:09
  And although, while he is not heathen, you know, he, a lot of
• 4:13
  the things that I do and that I talk about and that I, that you
• 4:18
  know, how, how my life and my worldviews are informed by our
• 4:22
  heathen. And he's very interested, you
• 4:25
  know, and it's, it's, it's a, it's a neat thing to be in a
• 4:28
  position to have someone so young and so hungry to kind of
• 4:33
  mentor and teach and guide, you know what I mean?
• 4:39
  So that's a huge blessing. And I got a chance to spend the
• 4:42
  weekend with him in gun lap, primitive camping, clearing
• 4:46
  land, helping this one of the elders of our community and
• 4:50
  meeting new faces, new people of the community as well.
• 4:53
  And you know, sharing in meals with drumming around the fire.
• 4:58
  It was just one of the again, just I love experiences like
• 5:01
  this. They are the most enriching
• 5:04
  experiences that that that one can be blessed to have.
• 5:07
  So I am rested and and recuperated.
• 5:13
  There's a there's there's some things that I won't talk about
• 5:15
  on this podcast about some things that happened while we
• 5:20
  were camping out there that might find itself on another
• 5:23
  podcast in the future. But to to say that I am rested
• 5:29
  and recovered covers both physically and spiritually.
• 5:33
  So I'll just leave it at that for now.
• 5:35
  Most back mostly back to 100% on, on the, on the spiritual
• 5:39
  side of things, because there were some again, there was some
• 5:41
  heavy duty activity that took place that yeah, I'm, I'm, I'm,
• 5:49
  I'm getting back to my normal self as as normal as, as I can
• 5:52
  get, but fully rested, fully recovered on the physical side
• 5:55
  of things, rejuvenated to start the week and, and, and get this
• 6:00
  podcast going. So this week's show, for those
• 6:03
  of you wondering, is another Patreon request.
• 6:07
  I believe this came to us. I believe it was Michael
• 6:13
  Thacker. And he had asked on Patreon if
• 6:20
  I, if I said that wrong, then I will have it up here on screen.
• 6:25
  And actually, you know what, before I go further, for all of
• 6:30
  you folks that are listening to this, you know, you, you wonder
• 6:32
  what's this on screen? Well, because I'm a one man
• 6:35
  production and I've got to, you know, do all of this myself.
• 6:39
  I can't be like, hey, you know, Jimmy or hey, Dave or hey, you
• 6:43
  know, whoever be like, you know, look this up for me doesn't work
• 6:52
  like that. Why is it goodness gracious?
• 6:59
  All right, never mind. So I believe it's Michael
• 7:04
  Thacker. If I'm wrong, it'll be on screen
• 7:06
  for those of you listening. Michael, if you're just
• 7:09
  listening to this, sorry buddy, but you're a patron on Patreon
• 7:11
  so I'm sure you'll see. But but the the question was is
• 7:15
  how as how as heathens should we adjust our practice in confined
• 7:21
  spaces? Example sharing a hotel slash
• 7:26
  motel room with a group or a dorm room with people of
• 7:29
  differing beliefs. Question crossed my mind meaning
• 7:34
  his. As I was starting to pack for a
• 7:37
  road trip with friends to our to tour Tennessee at the end of
• 7:41
  July. I had started on making a travel
• 7:45
  altar box, theoretically questioning the mix of energy,
• 7:53
  mix of energy in the space and possibly of the use of incense
• 7:56
  and candles during my daily practices.
• 8:02
  So I believe it's Michael here. He's got a he's got a trip
• 8:04
  coming up at the end of the month or sorry, not at the end
• 8:08
  of this month, but the end of next month.
• 8:10
  And he's wanting to get some feedback on how this should go
• 8:16
  and how this should work. So I'm not going to be the only
• 8:19
  one talking about this today. So my guest this week is going
• 8:23
  to be a guest who was on a previous episode of the Random
• 8:27
  Heathen Ramblings podcast. His name is goes by Shandy
• 8:29
  Sampson. So Shandy will be returning to
• 8:32
  talk with me about this today because he also has, you know, a
• 8:37
  voice in this kind of topic or whatever because he shares space
• 8:43
  regularly, as I understand it, with someone who is close to him
• 8:47
  but is also not a, a heathen by label or or whatever.
• 8:51
  So we're going to hear more about that.
• 8:52
  We're going to take, we're going to hear his take on it because
• 8:55
  again, a lot of this type of stuff is very unique to the
• 9:00
  individual practicing, especially when you're talking
• 9:02
  about, you know, an individual mixing or, or tying or sharing
• 9:06
  their Weir or sharing space with other individuals, whether
• 9:09
  they're heathen or not. I don't think we're going to, I
• 9:13
  don't think there's anything that is quite so, you know, set
• 9:17
  in stone or dogmatic even that would say, you know, all heathen
• 9:21
  should do this exact way as much of heathenry is right.
• 9:24
  It's it's, it's, it's very unique to the tribal practices,
• 9:28
  to the tribal customs, to the regional nuance, whatever.
• 9:33
  So Shandy will be coming on here in just a moment.
• 9:36
  We're going to hear from him and and get his take on it.
• 9:40
  Before he comes on here, though, I do just want to let all of you
• 9:42
  know that all of my contact information, all of my social
• 9:46
  media stuff, you know, if you check the show notes down in the
• 9:48
  in the show notes area of this podcast, you'll find a link tree
• 9:52
  link. Follow me on all my socials and
• 9:55
  and if you want to get any merchandise, it's there on the
• 9:57
  spring store that's linked. Become a Patreon Patreon if you
• 10:00
  want to watch this content. If you're still listening to
• 10:03
  this on the audio platforms. Again, all that stuff is
• 10:06
  completely voluntary, but it is down there.
• 10:07
  If you want to to peruse and kind of virtually window shop.
• 10:12
  You can also, if you want to get in touch with me, you can
• 10:15
  contact me through the best way to get in touch with me is
• 10:18
  honestly through e-mail. If you send me a message on
• 10:21
  Facebook, especially if you send it on Instagram, it might take a
• 10:25
  day or two for me to respond. If you send me an e-mail, I will
• 10:28
  definitely respond, even though it might take a day or two, but
• 10:31
  it'll be a much more, you know, concise response.
• 10:34
  I try to get back to folks within 24 hours of even them
• 10:37
  emailing me unless it's over a weekend and I'm and I might have
• 10:40
  other things going on, but generally speaking, I get back
• 10:43
  to people within a 24 hour window for the most part.
• 10:46
  So that e-mail is midgardmusingstn@gmail.com.
• 10:50
  Alternatively, you can call me and leave a voicemail on the
• 10:53
  hotline for the podcast. So you can leave a short message
• 10:57
  there and voice your question or your thoughts on a topic of an
• 11:02
  episode of a previous episode, whatever.
• 11:06
  You can remain anonymous. So if you dial in and just, you
• 11:08
  know, say a name that you want to be known by or, or or has to
• 11:12
  be remain remain anonymous. And I will do so because your
• 11:15
  audio will be played for the future or a future episode of
• 11:18
  the podcast where we hear the audience hears and we all hear
• 11:21
  and listen to what you have to say.
• 11:23
  But anyway, that number is 615-671-9832 and you can call
• 11:29
  anytime day or night and leave your voicemail there and it
• 11:31
  could be featured on a future episode of the podcast.
• 11:34
  All right, so there's all your housekeeping stuff again, check
• 11:37
  it all out if it's something of interest to you.
• 11:39
  Thank you for your support. And let's get into this topic of
• 11:45
  discussion this week with Shandy about sharing shared space with
• 11:51
  people, people that perhaps are not heathen.
• 11:55
  So let's get into it. All right, folks.
• 12:00
  And we are back here. And as I mentioned in the intro,
• 12:02
  we're joined with a return guest.
• 12:04
  This is Shandy Sampson from or out in the East Tennessee area.
• 12:09
  I remember from the last time you came on the show.
• 12:11
  You're not technically from there.
• 12:13
  You've kind of been around, but you're back in the East
• 12:15
  Tennessee area. So welcome back, Shandy.
• 12:17
  Thanks. For being Thanks, I appreciate
• 12:19
  the opportunity. Glad that this topic kind of
• 12:21
  came up so. Yeah, yeah, I'm glad that you
• 12:24
  reached out. It's, it's always nice to see
• 12:26
  people that you know, that have been on the show before that
• 12:29
  kind of know the the landscape a little bit.
• 12:31
  When they see something pop up and they want to, they want to
• 12:33
  jump in and say something too. I, I always, oh, I'm always glad
• 12:37
  to see people eager and willing to, to talk about things.
• 12:40
  So. Oh, absolutely.
• 12:42
  How, how, how have you been? What's what's life been like out
• 12:45
  there in East Tennessee for you? Oh, you know, it's been great.
• 12:49
  Like I told you before we even started this, I'm getting
• 12:51
  married. So that was a secondary bonus to
• 12:56
  or the big bonus. The the main focus now, I guess
• 13:01
  with everything, just because you know, I came out here for my
• 13:04
  kids and all of that and then she came along and here we are
• 13:08
  getting married. Fantastic.
• 13:11
  Well, congratulations on that just officially.
• 13:13
  So thank you. Appreciate you both the best.
• 13:16
  Oh yes, you have a date set yet. Do you know like when you're
• 13:19
  supposed to be making it official or?
• 13:22
  So here was the thing. So we actually, we had it set
• 13:26
  for next year. OK, But with everything going on
• 13:32
  and all of this stuff, we're actually getting married on the
• 13:34
  20th. Of like this month, yeah.
• 13:38
  Oh, OK. Like next week basically or we
• 13:41
  can. Have week Thursday.
• 13:43
  Yep, we're getting married next week Thursday.
• 13:46
  Yeah, yeah, All right. Wow.
• 13:48
  Hey, you know, like when, when it when it when, when you gotta
• 13:50
  go, You gotta go. That's kind of the way we looked
• 13:53
  at it. I mean, it's not just that.
• 13:54
  It's like, you know, we know we want to be together.
• 13:57
  We know that it's just going to benefit everything that's going
• 14:00
  on anyways in our lives if we're completely unified in
• 14:05
  everything. Fantastic.
• 14:08
  Yeah, When you so when you know, you know.
• 14:10
  And so congratulations once again, and I wish the best for
• 14:14
  you both and the family, everybody.
• 14:16
  Yep. That's great, man.
• 14:20
  But yeah, so I mentioned like at the beginning of the of the show
• 14:25
  kind of what this topic was about.
• 14:26
  I talked with you also away from the listeners and the viewers,
• 14:29
  just gave you a rundown of what it was.
• 14:32
  And you had kind of, it was like a call to action on my, I think
• 14:36
  it was Facebook that you responded on.
• 14:38
  You're like, I'll send an e-mail, you know, because it was
• 14:42
  like, Hey, we got this topic that came up as a question from
• 14:46
  one of my patrons on Patreon. And it sounded like to you that
• 14:51
  this was something that was like completely something that you
• 14:53
  feel comfortable rambling about for a bit.
• 14:57
  So for the listeners and for the viewers, once again, I'm going
• 15:00
  to just repeat it and, and put it kind of in the forefront of,
• 15:04
  of both of our minds. And then we'll go on into the
• 15:07
  thing. Because I know, like I talked to
• 15:08
  earlier before you came on and a little bit with you that, you
• 15:11
  know, we're going to be, you're going to be speaking from your
• 15:15
  side of experience of things. I might be speaking from my
• 15:17
  side. We might hear similar things, we
• 15:19
  might hear different things. And there's that's the beauty of
• 15:22
  it. There's there's really no
• 15:23
  probably it's safe to say there's no like one, you know,
• 15:26
  dogmatic or or one official answer for everything situation
• 15:30
  kind of. Yeah.
• 15:33
  But great, great that you have the, a real life experience that
• 15:36
  you can speak to on this. So the, the, the topic or the
• 15:40
  question rather, was how as heathens should we adjust our
• 15:45
  practice in confined spaces? With the example being sharing
• 15:51
  a, a hotel slash motel room with a group or a dorm room with
• 15:56
  people of different beliefs. And I think the, the, the main
• 15:59
  focus was that of differing beliefs because we could, we
• 16:02
  could lump in, you know, relationships, partners,
• 16:06
  roommate situations, whatever people that aren't heathen, you
• 16:10
  know, that are sharing spaces with heathens.
• 16:12
  And the reason this question crossed their mind was is they
• 16:16
  were starting to pack and get ready for a road trip that
• 16:20
  they're preparing for or going to, I guess, Tennessee somewhere
• 16:24
  at the at the end of July. Yeah.
• 16:27
  So just in, you know, about about a month and 1/2.
• 16:29
  So I don't know where in Tennessee they're going, but
• 16:30
  apparently they're going to Tennessee at the end of July.
• 16:33
  Well, there we hey, both of us know the area pretty well.
• 16:35
  So, yeah, yeah. You know, so I mean, Michael,
• 16:37
  when you hear this or, or watch this man, just, you know, let,
• 16:40
  let, let, let us know where you're coming and what you need,
• 16:43
  if anything. And there's plenty of people in
• 16:45
  the state that we both know that I'm sure it would.
• 16:49
  You know, if you need shelter or whatever, you know, there's,
• 16:52
  there's options out there. So.
• 16:53
  Yeah, they're, and then they're. So their final thing was, you
• 16:56
  know, it came up because they were, they were preparing to go
• 16:59
  on this trip with people that are, again, not of the same
• 17:05
  belief. So they're probably going to be
• 17:06
  sharing hotel space together. They're going to be in the same
• 17:09
  vicinity, you know. And so, you know, he does things
• 17:13
  with, I guess, incense candles and he's just wondering, you
• 17:15
  know, like how how should heathens adjust our practices
• 17:20
  when we're sharing space with folks who aren't heathen or of
• 17:24
  any different faith for that matter?
• 17:26
  So my biggest thing with that in general is be open about what
• 17:30
  you do and what you're doing. Because the thing with that is,
• 17:35
  is when you have differing beliefs, it will.
• 17:38
  Take my fiance for instance. OK, when we first started
• 17:42
  talking and she saw that I'm heathen, her initial thought was
• 17:48
  devil worship. Oh no.
• 17:52
  So it it and it's, it's funny because she's she's amazing,
• 17:57
  right? She goes and asks the question,
• 17:59
  well, what exactly do you mean by your Norse Pagan?
• 18:05
  And so I explained it to her and just gave her in depth of what I
• 18:09
  do, what I believe, how I follow my practices, all of that stuff.
• 18:14
  And so in that situation, since you have time and since this is
• 18:19
  a specific person asking, since you have time to sit there and
• 18:24
  discuss it with them, discuss it with them.
• 18:27
  You don't want your practice hindered.
• 18:29
  And you also, in the same context, don't want to, you
• 18:32
  know, irritate the people that you're going to be in a car with
• 18:35
  for hours and hours and hours on end and then also in a hotel or
• 18:39
  motel for multiple days. So that can create a very
• 18:44
  uncomfortable situation. So I would suggest like,
• 18:47
  obviously talk to them, talk to them, talk to them, be open,
• 18:50
  honest. Hey, this is what I initially
• 18:52
  packed. Anybody allergic to this
• 18:55
  particular thing in my incense or anything of that nature,
• 18:59
  Because that's another big thing with incense is people can be
• 19:02
  allergic to it. There's some that even I can't
• 19:04
  handle and it just bothers me. Yep, that was.
• 19:08
  It's funny you say that. I was actually at an event, I
• 19:11
  say event, but it was more it was like a work detail, but
• 19:14
  along those lines, it was on someone's personal property.
• 19:17
  And with the work detail that we were there to do, there was
• 19:21
  going to be, you know, we were going to be eating together.
• 19:23
  We were going to be primitive camping.
• 19:24
  We were going to be doing drum circles.
• 19:26
  We were going to be doing all of this fun stuff too.
• 19:28
  So it was like a camping, working, learning, just nice
• 19:31
  event for the weekend. And the, the host and Hostess of
• 19:36
  the property, the, the property owners, she is very sensitive to
• 19:41
  certain chemicals and things like citronella or incense or
• 19:45
  even tobacco and vape fumes can, can really irritate her.
• 19:51
  So we were outdoors, you know, and there was this announcement
• 19:54
  made like, hey, whatever you do, it's fine.
• 19:56
  Just be aware of the direction that the wind is blowing and the
• 19:59
  vicinity that you're into to her and refrain or or or or be, you
• 20:04
  know, be aware of that and and adjust accordingly.
• 20:08
  You know, so it's about respect. Yep.
• 20:10
  Affecting other people's space too.
• 20:12
  Because you are sharing it. It ain't, it ain't yours alone,
• 20:14
  You know what I mean? And.
• 20:15
  Yeah. Yeah.
• 20:17
  Exactly. And obviously there's a lot more
• 20:21
  to it too, because it's like it depending on obviously it's
• 20:24
  Tennessee that he's going to. So outdoors take your little
• 20:31
  kit, have it in a little bag that you can take outdoors and
• 20:34
  go do your own thing. Because one thing that at least
• 20:37
  for me, I find better practice when I am in nature.
• 20:42
  So obviously, like I the night of our wedding, I'm holding the
• 20:46
  Midsummer blow. So I'm going to do that at our
• 20:49
  campsite that we're going to be getting for our wedding night
• 20:53
  slash camper. Different situation there, but
• 20:57
  we are going to be outside in nature and that's where I prefer
• 21:01
  to do my blokes. You know, it's, that's my
• 21:04
  personal preference. But again, it's Tennessee.
• 21:07
  You don't want to be crammed in that little space.
• 21:09
  And I understand like we all need our practices that help us
• 21:13
  in our paths, in our lives and everything else.
• 21:17
  So you want to find that time, you want to take that time and
• 21:20
  it's just, you know, find something that works for you in
• 21:23
  that aspect. You can take it outside or if
• 21:25
  everybody's cool with it, then great, you're fine.
• 21:28
  But that's a personal preference type deal too.
• 21:31
  And where it's getting pretty hot here in Tennessee now, like
• 21:35
  I can see being outdoors, is that going to be really
• 21:37
  comfortable or really uncomfortable?
• 21:40
  Yes, yeah, Can confirm, 'cause even like, I went to a place in
• 21:45
  Tennessee that's about an hour and 20 minutes southeast of me,
• 21:49
  but it's up in the mountains. So you gain elevation, but
• 21:53
  you're going South. So go figure, right?
• 21:55
  It's like towards Chattanooga. Go ahead.
• 21:57
  We're so we're we're in a higher elevation in the mountain.
• 22:01
  And sure, it was warm because of the sun, but the humidity was
• 22:05
  way lower up there than it is down here, like near the river
• 22:09
  and with all this pavement in the city, it's incredible.
• 22:12
  The climate change is different, you know.
• 22:14
  So like like he's saying, yeah, I mean, sure, it's it is summer
• 22:18
  and it's summer in Tennessee. So, you know, almost anywhere
• 22:22
  you go, it's going to be warm during the day.
• 22:24
  But whatever man like. Hey, we had an amazing fog this
• 22:30
  morning. It was so thick it was hard to
• 22:31
  drive to work. Yeah, because you're, I forget
• 22:35
  you're East Tennessee, but you're like, NE, right.
• 22:37
  Yeah, I'm in the Tri-cities area, so Johnson, the Johnson be
• 22:42
  Kings, Fort Bristol and I'm on the southern point of that at
• 22:44
  Johnson City. Yeah, gotcha.
• 22:48
  I am going to be swinging kind of through your area in just a
• 22:52
  couple of weeks actually at the same week of your wedding.
• 22:55
  I'll be I'll be heading to Appalachia just a couple of days
• 22:58
  thereafter. Oh, OK, yeah.
• 23:05
  Yeah, yeah, I also think, huh, Wait, what's that?
• 23:07
  I just said very nice, you're good.
• 23:09
  Oh no, yeah, yeah, yeah, thank you.
• 23:11
  But I also think too, you know, transparency, right?
• 23:17
  You said being honest, being open and, and letting people
• 23:20
  know like, because that could be a thing too, right?
• 23:21
  Depending on how big this person's travel kit is.
• 23:24
  Like I, I used to take a little, I call them pocket alters, but
• 23:30
  it was really just, it was a small wooden carved hand carved
• 23:35
  God pole. You know what I'm saying?
• 23:36
  It was like, you know, 2 1/2 inches, maybe 3 inches tall, you
• 23:40
  know, very small fix in your pocket.
• 23:42
  And, but I was traveling with my wife and she's OK with whatever
• 23:48
  I do. So I could, I mean, I could
• 23:49
  have, I could have brought my, my whole altar if I wanted to,
• 23:53
  if I had the space and put it up somewhere and it wouldn't have
• 23:55
  been a deal or an issue. But at the same time, I've also
• 24:01
  stayed, like when we were traveling to New York, for
• 24:05
  example, I would, we, we had our destination that we were
• 24:08
  arriving it and it was not a hotel room.
• 24:10
  It we, but we were staying in the, the home of a long time
• 24:16
  friend of, of my family and, and a mentor of mine, right?
• 24:19
  Somebody who I've known since I was a little kid.
• 24:21
  And she is obviously not, she's, she's not Pagan or heathen.
• 24:24
  She doesn't fault me for being so.
• 24:26
  However, I'm not going to go into their space and set up camp
• 24:31
  as though I'm doing my heathen stuff in my home or even in
• 24:35
  nature. It would be disrespectful to do
• 24:38
  that. So I think you know, we, we, we,
• 24:39
  we mentioned things like hotels, motels, Those are kind of common
• 24:43
  areas that people go in and out of all the time.
• 24:45
  Yeah. There's a lot of energy that
• 24:48
  comes in and out of there and there's nothing really I think
• 24:51
  too much to be concerned about because it's more of like, yeah,
• 24:55
  sure, it might be a shared space with the people that you're
• 24:57
  with, but it's more of a common area, if that makes any sense.
• 25:01
  Like there's again, you're going to leave tomorrow and somebody
• 25:04
  else is going to be there. Exactly.
• 25:06
  But in the interest and in the, in the consideration of the
• 25:08
  people that you're with, kind of like when you go into somebody
• 25:11
  else's home, you know, be, be respectful, you know, and they
• 25:16
  should as well. I feel like it's a, it's a two
• 25:18
  way street, right? If you're, if you're traveling
• 25:20
  with people that aren't heathen, maybe they don't understand it,
• 25:24
  but at least, you know, like you say with your transparency and
• 25:27
  your honesty, hope for the same thing in return.
• 25:29
  Be like, OK, well, I don't jive with that.
• 25:30
  That's not my thing. But you do you.
• 25:32
  You do whatever you're happy with, what you know, that sort
• 25:36
  of thing. Yeah.
• 25:38
  And then you get into situations like I'm going in chronological
• 25:42
  order for me here. So get into situations like me
• 25:45
  where I had roommates. And so I had my very small room
• 25:53
  at first and it was I could barely fit my bed in it.
• 25:56
  So I found a little corner that I could make my small little
• 26:01
  altar that I had at the time and put that there still like
• 26:07
  forewarned everybody that was there.
• 26:08
  Hey, if you smell any smoke like that's my incense.
• 26:13
  Right. Don't call the fire department.
• 26:14
  I'm not burning the house down. That house is not burning down
• 26:17
  and I'm not the one you have to worry in this house anyways, but
• 26:23
  that's, you know, that's a little bit more doable.
• 26:25
  I mean, you just kind of do the space that you have available
• 26:29
  too. So and that goes with the travel
• 26:31
  kit and also just in your own home.
• 26:34
  So going now chronologically to where I'm at now, the first
• 26:39
  thing I did was talk to her. So back to the transparency.
• 26:43
  Hey, I would really like to set up an altar for me to have up in
• 26:49
  my beliefs. So I'd really like to start
• 26:50
  setting that up and gain some things back after the move and,
• 26:55
  you know, just kind of slowly get it going.
• 26:58
  So of course, we talked about it a lot like, Oh, well, yeah,
• 27:02
  that. And eventually it was.
• 27:04
  And it wasn't even that long. She had said, yes, I'm 100% OK
• 27:08
  with that, not an issue. And I, I, there's one thing that
• 27:12
  I remember that she may not remember.
• 27:14
  And if you see me looking off this way, it's because she is
• 27:17
  literally sitting over there. But she said something along the
• 27:24
  lines of just no blood sacrifices.
• 27:27
  Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, and it was.
• 27:30
  Deal breaker. OK, she knows everything.
• 27:33
  I mean, we've spent hours upon hours discussing these things
• 27:38
  and she's found a lot of stuff that she jives with really well,
• 27:42
  but then other stuff that she doesn't, you know, there's a tit
• 27:47
  for tat with that. And this is going into the
• 27:50
  serious relationships, spousal relationships, husband, wife,
• 27:55
  partners, whatever. You have to have that discussion
• 28:01
  and an understanding before you get married.
• 28:06
  Oh yeah. Because if we didn't have this
• 28:08
  discussion until literally next week, Friday the 21st, I'd
• 28:13
  probably be getting in trouble real fast.
• 28:16
  Yeah, be like, I've known you for this long.
• 28:18
  How is this now just the thing, you know, like, Yeah.
• 28:21
  Yeah, exactly. And so obviously we discuss
• 28:25
  things to the effect of the future, which she's really good
• 28:30
  at. I'm pretty try to live in the
• 28:33
  moment type deal, but she's really amazing at looking to the
• 28:37
  future and going OK, cool. So since we're going to let you
• 28:41
  have have an alter here, it's just got to be small.
• 28:43
  Obviously one for space 2 for it's got to be like slowly grown
• 28:48
  into, right? And then we discussed about
• 28:52
  certain things that we want to do as far as purchasing or
• 28:55
  building a house. And one of the things that I had
• 28:59
  said was I just I want a man room, not a man cave.
• 29:02
  I want like my library, my study.
• 29:06
  And she's of course like no, go have your man cave as long as.
• 29:11
  You get away. Too.
• 29:15
  And. Yeah, exactly.
• 29:17
  But it kind of turned into almost a, Hey, this is where you
• 29:23
  could put your full altar and then we can have another one
• 29:28
  that incorporates both of us to combined in like the main common
• 29:33
  area. So, and that because it's
• 29:37
  Christian and everything. In fact, I, you know, I've been
• 29:40
  doing bind runes and everything and really, really diving deep
• 29:44
  into them just because I'm like, OK, what can I create through my
• 29:47
  meditations, through, you know, people, places, things,
• 29:51
  whatever, right. And one of them that I decided
• 29:54
  to do was combine a bind room for us.
• 29:58
  And that was for a couple of reasons.
• 30:01
  And it's turned out amazing because it actually doesn't
• 30:05
  include some Christianity, a Christianity symbol of the cross
• 30:10
  in it because it flows with a binder.
• 30:13
  And I'm like, this works great. I love it.
• 30:16
  And that's what I started with because I'm like, I need to
• 30:19
  incorporate her. Like, I can't just overtake this
• 30:23
  into myself because this is for us.
• 30:27
  And it just worked out so well. I mean, it took a long time for
• 30:32
  me to even come up with it to the point that I was racking my
• 30:36
  brain as much as I could. Some of my sleepless nights was
• 30:39
  because I was meditating on our bind room.
• 30:44
  So it's, it took a lot and it just kind of clicked finally.
• 30:51
  So it all worked out and it's it, it, it all came down to us,
• 30:55
  you know, being an understanding of each other and kind of coming
• 30:57
  to a head on that. As far as the spousal, spousal
• 31:01
  relations, she also happens to love incense.
• 31:04
  So that helps out a lot because I love incense.
• 31:08
  Yeah, you got common interests and, and that definitely helps
• 31:11
  with it. Of course.
• 31:13
  Yeah, that's cute, man. I'm, I'm glad that that you've
• 31:16
  found a, a way to, you know, approach your relationship
• 31:22
  beyond the 'cause there's a lot of couples I know that it's like
• 31:28
  that. There's a wall that comes up
• 31:31
  between like, well, he does his thing, she does her thing.
• 31:34
  They don't do anything really together.
• 31:38
  And again, not, not place in judgment, but you know, it feels
• 31:40
  like, well, when, when you're in a relationship and there's,
• 31:42
  there's, you can definitely be yourself and, and they can be
• 31:45
  themselves. And there's, there's definitely
• 31:48
  the individuality of the people that needs to be preserved and
• 31:53
  maintained because we are our separate selves, but we're also
• 31:56
  sharing lives together. And, and I think that's one of
• 32:00
  the things that I mean, admittedly, I have a hard time
• 32:03
  sometimes remembering is what do we do together?
• 32:06
  You know, how do we share and how we tie our weird together?
• 32:08
  And I'm using terms that are relative to my beliefs, right?
• 32:11
  The the, the tying of weird thing.
• 32:12
  Yeah, the same thing, right? Like sharing and experiences and
• 32:16
  making our hearth cult, the things that we believe in in
• 32:20
  this home unique to us, right. And you've done that?
• 32:27
  I love that because that's, yeah, that's exactly what we've
• 32:30
  done. And really just that I I love it
• 32:34
  when you say her thing, you know, are combining are weird
• 32:38
  and everything else because she hears me say things like if it
• 32:45
  be well, by the Norns or anything to that nature, right?
• 32:48
  And it's like, is she's like, and she actually finds it cute
• 32:53
  when I do it. And we kind of bounce off of
• 32:55
  each other that way, 'cause, you know, she'll say, oh, thank,
• 32:58
  thank God for this blessing or whatever that's going on.
• 33:03
  And I'm like, it's been willed. It's, it's part of everything
• 33:08
  that needs to happen right now. And so we just kind of bounce
• 33:12
  off of each other that way. And that's, I know that there's
• 33:15
  a lot of people that struggle with that.
• 33:19
  Yeah, especially when, you know, again, especially when because
• 33:22
  it is a unique situation, but I don't think it's too uncommon
• 33:25
  that you have, you know, a coexisting lifestyle, right.
• 33:29
  So partners, spouses to be engaged, whatever that that
• 33:33
  dynamic. And you know, one or both are
• 33:36
  not of the same belief and and finding that.
• 33:41
  And that's what I that's what I keep coming back to, right your
• 33:43
  Harth cult. It is, it is absolutely yours.
• 33:46
  So nobody can nobody can sit here listen to this or watch
• 33:49
  this or, or or whatever and go back and be like, well, that's,
• 33:53
  you know, Shandy, you're doing it wrong.
• 33:55
  Well, no, you're not because that's, and that's none of their
• 33:57
  business. It's not their hall, not their
• 33:59
  call, to quote Eric Sherpon, you know what I mean?
• 34:01
  And it's your hearth cult. And that's what people are not
• 34:05
  doing. Like they're typically pointing
• 34:07
  fingers at what other people are.
• 34:08
  Well, you can't do that because of XY and Z Bitch, what are you
• 34:11
  doing? You know, like, mind your
• 34:14
  business, stay in your lane kind of thing.
• 34:16
  You know, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're being
• 34:19
  open and honest enough for whatever it took to come on a
• 34:21
  podcast and talk about some little intricacies of your
• 34:24
  hearth cult. Yeah, that's a big deal in and
• 34:26
  of itself. First of all, to, to say these
• 34:29
  types of things to to people. So.
• 34:32
  Yeah, and it's kind of one of those things though 'cause it's,
• 34:35
  it's like I was talking to a Co worker actually a little while
• 34:39
  ago about this and how it was difficult for me to find people
• 34:44
  in common out here and things of that nature at first.
• 34:48
  And he was just like, you know, we don't even like, in my group,
• 34:53
  all the people that I hang out with, we don't even discuss
• 34:55
  religion at all. That's off the table because
• 34:58
  you've got a Southern Baptist over here, you've got a
• 35:01
  Pentecostal over here, an atheist over here, maybe a Pagan
• 35:05
  that's hiding. Creeping up behind the bushes,
• 35:10
  whatever. Yeah, exactly.
• 35:12
  And he's like, we just don't talk about it because we're just
• 35:15
  friends. We're hanging out, we're
• 35:16
  enjoying food together or a game together or whatever.
• 35:20
  And that's where I think some people kind of look at it and
• 35:25
  go, well, why, Why would you do that?
• 35:29
  Just like time you and I had, we're on the podcast, it was we
• 35:34
  talked about both of us having someone during some bull hailing
• 35:39
  Christ. Oh yeah, yeah.
• 35:42
  Her, for one, she did that and all that, right?
• 35:47
  And some people, I'm sure there was quite a few people that may
• 35:50
  have listened to it, or at least a few people that listen to it
• 35:53
  and go why? Why did?
• 35:57
  You allow that. Yeah.
• 35:59
  And it's like, why do you not? But again, that's not my place
• 36:03
  to say your, your heart, your hall, not my hall, not my call.
• 36:07
  I mean, which I'm going to use that a lot now.
• 36:12
  Credit to where credit's due. Eric Shervin, the Ravens call
• 36:15
  Word Weaver Productions. If you ever, if you haven't
• 36:18
  checked his stuff out on YouTube, go and check this stuff
• 36:20
  out. And he was, he was on last
• 36:23
  week's episode. We went into a deep dive on the
• 36:25
  heathen soul complex. He's been heathen for pretty
• 36:27
  much his whole life. He just, I think the majority of
• 36:31
  his life he's been heathen, but it's only been in the last like
• 36:33
  20 years or so that he's known what to call it because it
• 36:37
  didn't have a name. It was just the way he was
• 36:39
  brought up. Yeah.
• 36:40
  Very old traditional Norwegian family, but the that's his,
• 36:45
  that's his, that's his phrase. Not my home, not my call.
• 36:49
  I'll always give credit to where credit is due.
• 36:51
  Check his stuff out and and enjoy if if you're into
• 36:55
  Heathenry, he he's got a good, he's got a good thing going.
• 36:59
  Nice. But yeah.
• 37:01
  Oh, but it's back to it. It's just weird when I hear
• 37:06
  people say like you shouldn't be doing that.
• 37:09
  It's like, well, my question is always why?
• 37:12
  Why do you feel that way? Why should we keep things
• 37:16
  separate or whatever? It just doesn't make any sense
• 37:19
  because like again, doing these bind runes, I had a guy out here
• 37:25
  who's he goes, he works at one of the clinics I go to.
• 37:29
  He him and I have become really good friends.
• 37:32
  Kind of we're getting there, but he's he asked me to create a few
• 37:38
  bind runes for him. So I did and then I showed him
• 37:42
  ours and at first he was like, well, what's this one in the
• 37:45
  middle? I'm like, that's the cross.
• 37:48
  He why like, why do you want to know?
• 37:51
  And he's like, well, it just doesn't make any sense to me.
• 37:54
  I'm like, well, that's because it's for me and her.
• 37:56
  It doesn't have to make sense to you.
• 37:58
  Yeah, yeah. And you know, look, I, I, I'm,
• 38:03
  I'm the type of person where there, I think at least within
• 38:07
  my heathenry, you know, the way I heathen, OK, is that there are
• 38:14
  certain things and there, there, there, there comes a certain
• 38:16
  point in time that, you know, you kind of need to keep again,
• 38:19
  with the whole like staying in your lane thing.
• 38:22
  Oh yeah. If you're going to call
• 38:24
  something a certain thing, if you're going to execute an
• 38:28
  action and use the word to describe it as such, then know
• 38:33
  at least what the traditional context of that word is.
• 38:38
  Will you float or will you sumble as examples?
• 38:41
  You know any of those particular things.
• 38:43
  If you're going to call what you're doing any one of those
• 38:46
  things, at least know what the historical, traditional meaning
• 38:52
  of those words are before you start using these terms all
• 38:55
  Willy nilly like. Exactly.
• 38:57
  And then once you're informed, if that information helps inform
• 39:03
  you of your worldview and you progress and you and you develop
• 39:05
  your own worldview of things, then fine.
• 39:09
  Like that's again, your hall, your call, you're doing it.
• 39:11
  You're, you know, you're figuring it out and it's your
• 39:14
  journey and it's your path. The thing that I have a problem
• 39:17
  with is is when people are like, oh, well, we can do sumble
• 39:20
  outside. No, you technically can't.
• 39:23
  It's not sumble at that point from a traditional historical
• 39:26
  point of view. You can call it something else.
• 39:28
  You just can't call it stumble. It'd be like if the Italians
• 39:31
  watched somebody put, you know, a recipe of, of making carbonara
• 39:36
  and they're adding milk to the carbonara.
• 39:39
  That ain't carbonara at that point because the traditional
• 39:41
  recipe for carbonara doesn't call for milk.
• 39:44
  Like stuff like that is what I'm getting to, you know, all of the
• 39:47
  idiosyncrasies, the intricacies, the the various ways of of
• 39:50
  things like, you know, creating a binding room that incorporates
• 39:52
  a Christian cross in it. That's going to set, that's
• 39:55
  probably going to like trigger some people.
• 39:57
  How dare you. OK, but when do you see, like,
• 40:01
  look at some other look at the Icelandic charms.
• 40:04
  Look at this thing behind me that I get shit on from people
• 40:07
  all the time about. That's not a Viking symbol.
• 40:09
  Yeah, I know. I know that it appeared in like
• 40:12
  the 16th century or 17th whenever it was in the Icelandic
• 40:15
  Galdebrook. And I know that it did, you
• 40:17
  know, charms of Solomon or Solomonic symbols and all this
• 40:22
  in the vague this year. I I know that.
• 40:24
  That's not why it's up here. It's up here because this was a
• 40:27
  gift to me from a friend who's been a supporter from the very
• 40:32
  beginnings of what I do on on social media.
• 40:35
  It's up here because they gifted it to me.
• 40:37
  Is it historically heathen? No, but you've also got elder
• 40:41
  food art rooms around there. So it's it, it's a blend of old
• 40:45
  and new, you know what I mean? So like when, when, when people
• 40:50
  look at that and they're like, well, did you know about I'm
• 40:52
  like, how about you turn your eyes off and open your ears and
• 40:54
  listen to what we're talking about on these shows instead of
• 40:57
  looking at what's in my background?
• 40:58
  Because this is not as important as what's going on with what
• 41:01
  we're talking about here, you know?
• 41:04
  Right. Oh, yes.
• 41:08
  Oh. Yeah, I went on a rant there so.
• 41:10
  Oh no, I love it because it's like, and that's the thing.
• 41:12
  It's and I know I sparked it because of that, but and that's
• 41:17
  the that's where I look at that though, at the same way.
• 41:20
  It's like I understand that it's why it's not for everybody like
• 41:26
  it is AI. Guess at that point you can call
• 41:30
  it a sigil instead of a bind room if you want to get
• 41:32
  technical. Yeah, 100%.
• 41:35
  They're sigils. Yeah, yeah.
• 41:38
  So it's and it's like, OK, I understand your point.
• 41:42
  It's just like a conversation I've had before with people or
• 41:46
  with a particular individual is he's going like just way off
• 41:52
  radar and I'm, I'm sitting there going.
• 41:55
  But where's the personal practice in it though too?
• 41:58
  Yeah, yeah. Why?
• 42:00
  Practice. Yeah.
• 42:03
  Why are you contesting it so much?
• 42:05
  Is it because you think that you're not doing that, or this
• 42:08
  person, or that they're not doing it because of the way a
• 42:12
  book says it should be done? Right.
• 42:15
  Who cares? Yeah.
• 42:17
  You know. I'm going to apologize right
• 42:20
  now. Apparently we've got children
• 42:21
  fighting upstairs. Oh, enter and it's the
• 42:25
  Thunderdome. That's right it.
• 42:27
  Really. Fight Club.
• 42:31
  How old are they? All right, so it's actually her
• 42:34
  friend's daughter who is 3 and our son who is five.
• 42:42
  Oh man. Yeah, so.
• 42:44
  They're up. It's a mini tornado.
• 42:46
  Yeah, exactly. It's pretty much tornado.
• 42:50
  But anyways, it's, you know, if you want to get technical,
• 42:55
  great. That's your choice.
• 42:57
  If that is your personal path, that's your personal path.
• 43:00
  For me, I like to take a weird wide range approach with a lot
• 43:05
  of historical in there. It's it's forging my own path.
• 43:11
  It's not I'm not forging my path for anybody else.
• 43:14
  I'm. Going forward and expanding.
• 43:16
  Myself so. That maybe.
• 43:20
  Something can pop out of nowhere and go hey, this might help you
• 43:25
  if you are coming to me with an issue later on in life, yeah.
• 43:30
  You know one of the things that I thought.
• 43:32
  Of with this whole shared space you know, and adjusting
• 43:38
  accordingly. Did you?
• 43:40
  This has been shared so many times on on Facebook and, and
• 43:44
  probably other platforms too. And, and it's, and it's not
• 43:46
  even, I think it might have been like a, either like a Tumblr
• 43:51
  post or a Reddit thread or something.
• 43:53
  But did you ever hear this story about the the person who's.
• 44:00
  Grand great aunt. Grand aunt, as they call them.
• 44:05
  Their grand aunt had died and they thought she was Catholic,
• 44:10
  devoutly Catholic, and they ended up going into her house
• 44:12
  and cleaning out a closet and finding an altar to Braggy.
• 44:15
  Do you know this story? No, I do not actually.
• 44:19
  All right. You want to hear it?
• 44:20
  I would. Love to.
• 44:22
  So this is what this is. With like in regards to shared
• 44:25
  space and those of differing faiths you know.
• 44:29
  So the original post is that. Let's see here.
• 44:35
  Let me find. The hold on, let me find the
• 44:38
  start of it. OK so the post starts off as do
• 44:45
  you know much of a God named Braggy.
• 44:50
  My family has been cleaning out the house with my grand aunt.
• 44:55
  Who recently died of lung. Cancer and previously believed
• 44:59
  to be a very devoted Catholic. We found basically a shrine to a
• 45:05
  God named Braggy with poems and sheet music.
• 45:08
  She appears to have written herself dedicated to him.
• 45:13
  We found the hidden shrine when we smelled something rotting.
• 45:16
  It turned out to be apples left on the shrine.
• 45:19
  Is he associated with apples? Family is a bit freaked.
• 45:23
  Sorry to bother you. Right.
• 45:26
  To which one person responds and says Braggy.
• 45:28
  He's the son of Odin and the God of music and poetry, and I'm
• 45:32
  laughing my absolute ass off that your aunt kept that a
• 45:36
  secret until she died and feels like an ass for laughing.
• 45:41
  I'm sorry for your loss. But yeah, your grand aunt was a.
• 45:46
  Let me try to find your grand aunt was a was a heathen.
• 45:52
  And I may have to fight I. May have to light a candle for
• 45:55
  her because damn. Oh they say they respond to
• 46:00
  their own post. They reply, they said, oh, As
• 46:02
  for the apples, Raghi's wife is Iduna, who tends.
• 46:08
  The golden apples. That grant the gods ageless
• 46:10
  immortality. Your grand aunt was hella Pagan,
• 46:14
  they said. And they go they.
• 46:17
  I still, I they go. I still.
• 46:18
  Can't get over this. This woman, this woman fooled
• 46:24
  her entire family and the people at her church into thinking that
• 46:27
  she was devoutly Catholic. Meanwhile, I almost out myself
• 46:32
  as heathen approximately every 10 seconds if I have to sit
• 46:35
  through even one Christian service for a wedding or funeral
• 46:39
  or whatever. What AF and legend?
• 46:44
  You know, and then somebody says you know in.
• 46:45
  A way this kind of makes me sad knowing that she could never
• 46:48
  come out about her religion, but an absolute legend.
• 46:53
  If you think the fact that you know she lived a life that she
• 46:59
  knew if she mentioned this, you know she knew.
• 47:04
  Probably that if she had brought this up or spoke about this to
• 47:07
  her Catholic family and and associates that it would have
• 47:11
  been life changing if she would have been.
• 47:14
  Ostracized. She probably.
• 47:15
  Would have been excommunicated. There would have been so many
• 47:17
  things that would have ruined the life that she had.
• 47:22
  And in the interim, right what, What did she do?
• 47:24
  She kept her practices, her Harth cult, private, and so much
• 47:30
  so that nobody knew about it until after she had passed.
• 47:35
  You know. And so like how?
• 47:36
  Should we as heathens to the to the question that was posted,
• 47:39
  you know, how should how should heathens adjust their practices?
• 47:46
  Maybe you don't have to adjust, maybe you.
• 47:47
  Just keep it on the on the down low.
• 47:50
  Maybe you just go along with the thing that's your, you know, if
• 47:54
  it's a road trip, how long is that going to be?
• 47:56
  You know, a week, maybe two weeks, I don't know, maybe maybe
• 48:01
  the whole thing is, yeah, you can.
• 48:03
  You can take it. The angle that you're saying
• 48:05
  about being open and being transparent, saying this is what
• 48:07
  I am. But if you know these people and
• 48:09
  you know that it may cause a rift, you can be like, I'm going
• 48:12
  to just, I'm going to keep my. Hammer tucked in my.
• 48:15
  Shirt I'm going to keep my stuff secured in my suitcase and then
• 48:19
  I'm going to find a time and a space away from them away from
• 48:23
  people to do my devotions, do whatever it is that their harth
• 48:27
  cult is and nobody's none the wiser nobody cares nobody needs
• 48:31
  to know it it it's kept sacred it's kept private in that
• 48:35
  context too, right. It it's wholly to them Oh yeah.
• 48:39
  So there's there's two ways of going about it again.
• 48:41
  You can take that angle you can take that approach about.
• 48:43
  Hey, I'm on this road trip with people for X amount of time.
• 48:47
  I need to tell them. I I have to tell them.
• 48:49
  OK. But do you do you know them well
• 48:51
  enough? Is it gonna be well received?
• 48:53
  Do you think it gonna it could cause a problem with the just
• 48:57
  the coexistence of these various people?
• 49:00
  Again, we don't know those details.
• 49:02
  Yeah, and we don't. And that's a wonderful thing to
• 49:06
  bring up because I mean, for there are.
• 49:10
  Probably plenty of people. That were, as I call them,
• 49:13
  closet heathens. It's because of all of that
• 49:19
  potential, like you said, completely ostracized or
• 49:25
  excommunicated from their community or anything to that
• 49:28
  nature that could really devastate and change their lives
• 49:32
  for the potential worse. So yeah, if you've got to.
• 49:37
  Keep it close in, then keep. Just don't give up on it.
• 49:43
  Keep it close in and that's respectable.
• 49:50
  It can. It's.
• 49:51
  Because sometimes you're just stuck in that situation, yeah.
• 49:56
  Unfortunately. Right.
• 50:00
  Yeah. And and you know it.
• 50:01
  It's I'm probably not going to get guests on this show that are
• 50:05
  again, like actually, I've talked to people before, not
• 50:08
  even on this show, but I've, I've interacted with people
• 50:12
  before who, you know, they want to remain anonymous even at
• 50:20
  public events, you know, like I've gone to public events with
• 50:26
  and they're, they're, they're advertised.
• 50:28
  They're, they are known to be Pagan or heathen events.
• 50:33
  And I go. There and then.
• 50:34
  Other people are there and we get to get to know them.
• 50:38
  And they're like, you know, my, my, my mom or my dad or my this
• 50:44
  or my dad, you know, they don't know what I do.
• 50:46
  They don't know what I'm about. And I'm here.
• 50:48
  And if they found out, it could be bad, you know, and it's, you
• 50:52
  know, it's crazy, you know, to, to talk about that in the 21st
• 50:57
  century in North America, in the United States, you know, but
• 51:01
  I'm, I'm sure this happens elsewhere in the world too,
• 51:04
  that, you know, these alternative religions, you know,
• 51:09
  these, these. These old.
• 51:10
  Ways, lifestyles, whatever, if if you want to call them that,
• 51:14
  are still. So what's the word?
• 51:18
  I'm looking for the the enigma enigmatic.
• 51:22
  Is that the word I'm looking? For.
• 51:23
  They're looking. You got the right word.
• 51:25
  Yeah, such an enigma for them to be around.
• 51:28
  Yeah, and. And it's and it's seen as such.
• 51:32
  And so but they still come to these things.
• 51:34
  But they're like, if you please don't, if you're going to take
• 51:36
  pictures, I don't want to be in them.
• 51:39
  Or if I am like blur me out of it kind of thing because I don't
• 51:42
  want this to. Leak on.
• 51:43
  Social media or the Internet and have my family verifying.
• 51:46
  I'm like, that's so like, it's sad, you know, that, that, but
• 51:52
  it's brave also in the same way that that people are coming out
• 51:56
  to these things and they're doing these things in a way,
• 51:58
  kind of like what the story that I just told was, is in, you
• 52:01
  know, in a way, they're they're still preserving their beliefs.
• 52:05
  They're still being true to their beliefs.
• 52:07
  They're staying true to their heart and they're staying true
• 52:08
  to what speaks to them without having to blab about it.
• 52:15
  And, and, and, you know, break cover or, or whatever the case
• 52:19
  may be. And you know, I think you know,
• 52:23
  there's a. Degree of honor.
• 52:25
  You know, to that, like there's skill that has to be exhibited
• 52:28
  there. There's tact.
• 52:29
  You know, you got to be kind of yeah, you got to be tactical.
• 52:34
  And I think the gods and your ancestors and, and, and, and
• 52:37
  everybody that is associated with your practices, whatever
• 52:40
  you see or however you see the world, whatever your informed
• 52:43
  worldview is, recognize that, you know.
• 52:47
  They would. They would see that.
• 52:48
  As you know, there's no shame in that.
• 52:51
  Exactly. Well.
• 52:53
  Especially, I mean, if you're an like I am really close with my
• 52:57
  ancestors and everything, they would totally understand,
• 53:01
  especially around that time that the Roman Catholic Church was
• 53:06
  coming through and just decimating people that would not
• 53:10
  convert, you know? One of the big.
• 53:13
  Spots where we have to remember that a little bit and it's not
• 53:17
  so much, you know, anything like, oh, call to action or
• 53:21
  anything like that. I mean, you do you.
• 53:24
  But for me it's like I I remember it just because in
• 53:29
  certain. Situations you need.
• 53:30
  To be a little bit more careful coming into the Bible Belt, for
• 53:36
  instance, I. Was very.
• 53:40
  Reserved at first, sure. And there's.
• 53:44
  Some people that we. Still have some heated
• 53:47
  discussions that happen just because of our differing beliefs
• 53:53
  or them asking a question, me giving them an answer to my best
• 53:57
  abilities. And that's exactly what I tell
• 53:59
  them. Hey, this is what I've
• 54:00
  researched as far as this answer goes.
• 54:04
  I'm probably gonna do some more on it just because you asked.
• 54:06
  But it's it they become heated because they're they're very,
• 54:12
  very, very devout. They are very devout to the
• 54:16
  point where even listening to high Lung, for instance, they
• 54:21
  don't do it even though they like it because it would be a
• 54:24
  sin for them. Oh yeah, and.
• 54:27
  Things of that nature. And it's like that I, I respect.
• 54:31
  That. That's fine, but then why are
• 54:33
  you even talking to me? Yeah, yeah.
• 54:36
  No, I. Grew up.
• 54:37
  I grew up in an environment as a kid in, in, in, you know, again,
• 54:42
  an informed Christian worldview of things.
• 54:45
  You know, you don't watch certain movies, you don't listen
• 54:48
  to certain music, you don't absorb certain media, you know
• 54:55
  all that type. Of stuff because it's.
• 54:56
  You know it's evil or, or. Or whatever.
• 55:00
  So I like. I remember being brought up to
• 55:03
  think that way. So there's an echo or a memory
• 55:06
  of hearing what you just said and being like, I get that it's
• 55:10
  bullshit. It's it's like, you know, like
• 55:12
  that's if you want to just get down to nitty gritty tacks about
• 55:15
  it, like, I'm sorry, but how in the world?
• 55:19
  Is that evil? Like what?
• 55:21
  What is the music doing that is just inherently evil?
• 55:24
  Wrong. Like So what if we're singing
• 55:25
  about, I don't know, whatever, like even Slayer or or or heavy
• 55:30
  metal, right where it's like satanic themes like but it's
• 55:34
  ironic. It's they're not talking about
• 55:35
  literally doing those things like it's and even a lot of
• 55:39
  them. They're not even satanic at all,
• 55:43
  or even bad. No, no.
• 55:46
  At all. They're not angry.
• 55:47
  They're not I eat babies or anything like that, you know,
• 55:52
  Not literally, you know, it's it.
• 55:53
  Yeah, sure, there's a shock value to it or a shock factor
• 55:56
  about it. Yeah, especially when you get.
• 55:58
  Heavier stuff, but a lot of them do the same thing that we as
• 56:02
  heathens do. We talk about, you know, morals.
• 56:07
  Yeah, you know where they bring. Out.
• 56:09
  Feeling and emotion and things of that nature, because that is
• 56:12
  exactly what music was designed to do.
• 56:16
  Yeah. Invoker response.
• 56:17
  And can and connect emotionally, you know exactly and so.
• 56:22
  It's doing its job. That's what it's supposed to do.
• 56:25
  Now if you're fearful of it because it's screamo, OK, that's
• 56:30
  fine. It's not your cup of tea.
• 56:32
  Just like. With what?
• 56:34
  I'm talking about OK, that's fine, it's just not your cup of
• 56:37
  tea. You know you said that the
• 56:40
  Bible. Belt and and coming here, like
• 56:44
  obviously when I came to Tennessee, I was not heathen at
• 56:48
  the time, but it was a culture shock because I'm from New York
• 56:52
  and the way that the Northeast people are is way different than
• 56:56
  the way that the South is. But then when I started figuring
• 56:59
  out like what they mean by the Bible Belt, do you ever, do you
• 57:03
  ever get a have you ever, have you ever worn a belt that was
• 57:08
  too big for you? Yes.
• 57:10
  And you know you. Got that Like.
• 57:11
  Flappy piece that you got to like tuck into you or whatever.
• 57:14
  Yep, that that flappy piece of the belt is is Tennessee.
• 57:21
  We're the flappy piece of the belt.
• 57:22
  Of the Bible Belt. We're just like.
• 57:27
  Oh no, slapping everything out. Here it's it's, you know, it's.
• 57:30
  Everybody's business. We're just, we're just flapping
• 57:32
  around and, and, and quite honestly, we would like for most
• 57:35
  of it to just be tucked away and forgotten about because it we
• 57:37
  don't need you. We don't need all this excess
• 57:40
  garbage out here, right? Exactly.
• 57:43
  Exactly. But I mean, at the same time
• 57:46
  with the floppy and just kind of tuck it away, it's like they're
• 57:50
  kind of just hanging out. Like, you know, we are in the
• 57:53
  Bible Belt. We have our differences, but a
• 57:55
  lot of us just hang out anyways. We're part of the belt too, damn
• 57:58
  it. You know, yeah, exactly.
• 58:00
  We're we're part. Of it too but slowly not yeah
• 58:05
  yeah, like you're just. You're you're extra in case we
• 58:09
  gain some weight or something. You know, Oh yes, but.
• 58:15
  No in in all reality, I love it out here.
• 58:18
  I really do. I mean, it's been a lot of new
• 58:21
  experiences and everything else and everything's just going
• 58:25
  perfectly the way it should at this moment in time.
• 58:27
  So it's great. But I mean, I guess back to the
• 58:32
  whole shared space again, it's. You're also sharing your.
• 58:37
  Space at like work now it is communal.
• 58:39
  Like you said it's communal. But like for me, I mean I work
• 58:43
  in in a factory, so obviously the hammer goes in the shirt for
• 58:49
  safety reasons. Yeah, for safety reasons and.
• 58:52
  Everything but when we're just chilling in the office or we're
• 58:55
  doing a shutdown, it's out and I and it's it's a communal area.
• 59:00
  But so when someone asks me, well, why do you wear that?
• 59:03
  I'm like, it's for me to explain it in your best best ability to
• 59:10
  understand is it's just like you wearing your cross right now,
• 59:15
  like. That's the easiest, simplest.
• 59:17
  Way that I can explain it because I, I tried with this one
• 59:20
  guy and he's just just completely over his head for
• 59:25
  what the what the mule near symbolizes for me and what I
• 59:29
  have put into it and everything else it's, it's separate.
• 59:33
  It's, it's my personal thing, but that's my easiest way to
• 59:36
  explain it to people. Have you ever?
• 59:41
  Have you ever come across people that are wearing a mule near
• 59:44
  that are not heathen? Yes.
• 59:47
  And they're. Wearing it just because it
• 59:49
  looks. Cool.
• 59:49
  Or they like you know. And also I watch Vikings.
• 59:58
  So. I've run across people like that
• 1:00:01
  too. Interestingly enough, there's,
• 1:00:05
  there's a band from our area and their lead singer has a huge
• 1:00:10
  like King's chain with a mule near on it.
• 1:00:12
  And I mean, that's a that's a bold statement.
• 1:00:15
  Not only that, but his the the the the headstock on his guitar
• 1:00:20
  has runes on it hit the body of his guitar has a has a an eggy
• 1:00:24
  siommer, you know. And I'm like you're using.
• 1:00:27
  All this imagery and iconology that is very dramatic.
• 1:00:33
  He then, you know, like and and or Scandinavian, even late, you
• 1:00:36
  know, later late stuff. But so I was like the practice,
• 1:00:41
  you know, Oh, no, no, I just think, you know, I like what it
• 1:00:44
  stands for like that it represents.
• 1:00:45
  I think it looks great. You know, I was like, oh damn,
• 1:00:50
  you know, OK, you know, like I'm not the type of person like and,
• 1:00:54
  and, and I and I struggle with this too a little bit.
• 1:00:56
  You know, when I hear that, I'm like, it stings just a little
• 1:01:02
  bit if I have. To be honest, it stings.
• 1:01:06
  Just a little bit like my emotional response and I've
• 1:01:09
  learned it and I'm, I'm learning still.
• 1:01:11
  I'm, I'm learning to this day to not respond out of emotion
• 1:01:16
  because my initial remote emotional response is, well, if
• 1:01:19
  it's not your practice, then what business do you have
• 1:01:21
  wearing it? Why would I wear a cross or a
• 1:01:23
  crucifix if I'm not a Christian or a Catholic?
• 1:01:25
  You know why? Because I think it looks cool,
• 1:01:28
  because I think it means something to me, blah, blah,
• 1:01:30
  blah. Me personally, I'd be like,
• 1:01:32
  well, no, because it's not my practice.
• 1:01:33
  It's not my, it's not my religion, it's not my faith,
• 1:01:36
  whatever. Then I'm not going to, I'm not
• 1:01:37
  going to adopt the symbol of that faith because to me, in my
• 1:01:42
  perception, it seems a bit of a slight or a disrespect to the
• 1:01:45
  people that it does mean something to.
• 1:01:47
  Yeah. You know.
• 1:01:49
  So I see that. And I hear that that person's
• 1:01:51
  response and I go, you know, again, that emotional knee jerk
• 1:01:56
  reaction to me wants to do that is be like, well, then why are
• 1:01:59
  you wearing it if you don't believe in it?
• 1:02:01
  What I instead try to do is be like, OK, well, it does mean
• 1:02:06
  something, you know, like you like what it stands for, you
• 1:02:08
  like what it represents. You think it looks cool,
• 1:02:10
  whatever I'm like, there is that.
• 1:02:12
  And, you know, if you ever want to learn more about something
• 1:02:16
  beyond that, here's. My information Watch my videos.
• 1:02:20
  Listen to my podcast, whatever you know, and try to inform or
• 1:02:23
  educate. It's like not push it on them
• 1:02:25
  because that's the last thing I want to do.
• 1:02:27
  But at the same time like, well, hey man, you might meet other
• 1:02:29
  people that are like me that may come across in a different way
• 1:02:32
  that may say something about it or.
• 1:02:37
  You know again. It's one of those negative
• 1:02:39
  things too that gets misappropriated, you know, so
• 1:02:43
  you might get seen by somebody else as, oh, you're.
• 1:02:48
  You're you're, you know, you're a.
• 1:02:49
  Nazi or whatever you know and you don't know no better because
• 1:02:52
  you're just wearing something 'cause it looks cool.
• 1:02:56
  You see what I. Mean like you see where?
• 1:02:57
  The problem can arise and that's why I get a little like
• 1:02:59
  emotional about it is like, you don't know any better.
• 1:03:02
  Well, what if the wrong people see it exactly?
• 1:03:06
  Because I kid you not. I was actually right around this
• 1:03:10
  time last year, I was flying back to Utah and I from seeing
• 1:03:17
  my kids and I had to stop in Atlanta.
• 1:03:21
  I'm a bald white. Man with.
• 1:03:24
  This tattoo, those tattoos and those tattoos and yeah, they're
• 1:03:30
  probably, and of course my neck too, but they're, they're all
• 1:03:34
  mean, bugging me 'cause they're like you racist punk.
• 1:03:38
  Yeah, like. In Atlanta, what you.
• 1:03:41
  Say right now. Or we're gonna jump you.
• 1:03:44
  Right. Yeah.
• 1:03:47
  And that's that's. That's again one of the big
• 1:03:49
  reasons. Why I get kind of emotional
• 1:03:51
  about it. I'm like, you know, you think it
• 1:03:53
  looks cool, and that's, yeah, sure it does.
• 1:03:56
  But again, at the same time, what if somebody comes up to you
• 1:03:58
  and says something about it? You're uninformed.
• 1:04:00
  You have no basis behind any of this, so you're going to you're
• 1:04:05
  going to be literally caught with your pants down in a.
• 1:04:09
  Potentially bad. Situation and I just, I would
• 1:04:12
  hate 'cause I would hate for that to happen to anybody, but
• 1:04:16
  especially to somebody who just doesn't know any better.
• 1:04:19
  Exactly. Your ignorance is not.
• 1:04:21
  An excuse. Yeah, you know, so especially.
• 1:04:26
  Where it is being. A.
• 1:04:29
  Lot, if not all of our symbolic items, letters, anything to that
• 1:04:37
  effect have been misappropriated in one way, shape or form at one
• 1:04:42
  point or another in time. There's so much of that out
• 1:04:45
  there and and. Anybody with a computer and an
• 1:04:48
  Internet connection can Google, you know, white supremacy
• 1:04:53
  symbols or Nazi symbols or whatever, you know, and they're
• 1:04:55
  going to see some of the stuff that is pictured here or, or on
• 1:04:59
  us or, or, or tattooed or that we're wearing.
• 1:05:03
  And that's the problem is because it's, it's, there's so
• 1:05:06
  much misinformation out there that people just don't know any
• 1:05:10
  different. And we're in like you mentioned
• 1:05:13
  before. We're in this.
• 1:05:14
  The Bible Belt, so especially people in the South, you know?
• 1:05:20
  There's. Well, that's like.
• 1:05:21
  We're we're we're up against the.
• 1:05:22
  Wall on on two fronts here you know we got this this extremism,
• 1:05:26
  you know extreme way of of seeing things nationally and
• 1:05:30
  then you got this extreme way of seeing things regionally Yep so
• 1:05:35
  you know we got we're. We're we're fighting.
• 1:05:37
  Two uphill battles in a way, exactly because I mean, there's.
• 1:05:41
  Still plenty of people that are here that are the way that they
• 1:05:48
  are per that they are trying to view us as right.
• 1:05:53
  You know the. And so those.
• 1:05:55
  Guys use these symbols too and I have to wonder if.
• 1:05:59
  When somebody that is traveling, you know, maybe not in the same
• 1:06:04
  context as what we're hearing about now, you know, as as to
• 1:06:09
  Michael's question on, you know, how heathens adjust, I have to
• 1:06:13
  wonder, you know, is that something that needs to be
• 1:06:16
  considered too? Who are the people that you're
• 1:06:18
  traveling with? You know, are they gonna be able
• 1:06:23
  to listen to the voice of reason?
• 1:06:24
  Understand, like, hey, this is these are symbols.
• 1:06:26
  These are things that are associated with an actual
• 1:06:30
  religious belief, a faith, a folk way, whatever.
• 1:06:35
  It's not what you know, the yes, some of these symbols do appear
• 1:06:39
  in other imagery that were misappropriated at a very bad
• 1:06:43
  point of history that we, you know, but that's not me.
• 1:06:46
  But so again, it goes back to like, how should heathens
• 1:06:49
  adjust? Well, man, again test the
• 1:06:51
  waters, right? Who are you with and where are
• 1:06:53
  you going and what are you doing?
• 1:06:55
  Do you even want to be recognized and known as a
• 1:06:58
  heathen or is it gonna again like gonna do something that
• 1:07:01
  could be detrimental or damaging and and considering.
• 1:07:07
  The time frame of. Things, OK, well, I'm going away
• 1:07:09
  for a week or two. Does it really matter if these
• 1:07:11
  people know who I am or what I'm doing?
• 1:07:14
  Or can I just keep things on the down low enough and just kind of
• 1:07:17
  fly under the radar and be private about it?
• 1:07:19
  Again, not, not being shameful of your belief, not trying to,
• 1:07:23
  to hide behind a curtain or whatever, not to be cowardice or
• 1:07:28
  cowardly, but to be tactical about it and to realize in the
• 1:07:32
  time that we are in the way the world is, you know, you don't
• 1:07:36
  have the time, the kind of time in, you know, in a short period
• 1:07:39
  of, of, of, of a window of time to explain all of this stuff to
• 1:07:42
  people. They're just going to see
• 1:07:43
  something in many cases and they're just going to respond
• 1:07:46
  out of emotion. Yep, exactly.
• 1:07:49
  So like, and this is where I say that I am extremely lucky for
• 1:07:57
  the situation that I'm in right now.
• 1:07:59
  And I don't even say lucky. I'm this was fated to happen.
• 1:08:07
  We've woven into the threads. Woven into the Threads, 100.
• 1:08:11
  Percent and her weird my weird combined and it had to be this
• 1:08:18
  way. And this is where I feel so
• 1:08:20
  amazing about our we're getting married and everything else too,
• 1:08:24
  is because her family, yes, the majority are Christian, but then
• 1:08:30
  there's another faction of the family over here that's a little
• 1:08:34
  bit. They've basically paved the way
• 1:08:38
  for me to be woven into their weird.
• 1:08:44
  Because of the fact that it made it easier.
• 1:08:46
  For, say, her mom to listen a little.
• 1:08:51
  Bit more about what? I believe and kind of do what
• 1:08:54
  she said when we were talking about the big, big wedding next
• 1:08:58
  year, which was, well, you know, God will protect me wherever I
• 1:09:04
  am, so I'm going to be there to support you guys instead of
• 1:09:09
  saying, well, you're gonna do this and this.
• 1:09:13
  Yeah, no, I'm out and. That's that's where.
• 1:09:19
  I'm so grateful for that and it's, it worked out for me.
• 1:09:22
  So that's sometimes you get in that situation and sometimes you
• 1:09:29
  don't. So it, like you've said about, I
• 1:09:32
  don't know, probably 10 times already, using that tact to
• 1:09:35
  understand your situation and where who you're with, where
• 1:09:40
  you're going, the type of people that are going to be around,
• 1:09:43
  even the public and just random people walking by.
• 1:09:48
  Being tactful of all of those things and still holding true to
• 1:09:54
  yourself and your path will just make it all the worthwhile.
• 1:10:03
  Yeah, yeah, there's another. Thing another word that comes to
• 1:10:07
  my mind is, you know, cunning. Cunning to be cunning.
• 1:10:11
  And and and you know when. For, for heathens, right?
• 1:10:14
  Like one of the things, What's the first thing that you think
• 1:10:17
  of when I say the word cunning? Who, what's, what's one of the
• 1:10:20
  first figures that comes to mind?
• 1:10:23
  I have two of them that pop up every time.
• 1:10:26
  Odin and Loki, you know. Odin.
• 1:10:31
  Especially. Yeah, and Loki.
• 1:10:33
  Too, Because he comes up with these, you know, I, I, I screwed
• 1:10:37
  the pooch on this one, but I'm going to do something else to
• 1:10:40
  unscrew the pooch or whatever, you know what I mean?
• 1:10:42
  Like there's, there's, there's cunning, there's wiliness,
• 1:10:44
  there's this, there's this wit, there's this tact again, you
• 1:10:49
  know, like you said, it's, it's been repeated more times than we
• 1:10:52
  can probably count. Take a shot every time you hear
• 1:10:54
  the word tact, tactful or whatever, you're going to be
• 1:10:57
  dead on by the end of this episode.
• 1:11:00
  That's a perfect drinking game you might want to add.
• 1:11:02
  That to the beginning, yeah, right.
• 1:11:07
  For a warning, if you listen to this episode and you want to
• 1:11:10
  play a drinking game, listen Word.
• 1:11:14
  Tact, yeah. It's like, was that are you?
• 1:11:17
  Old enough to remember Pee Wee Herman.
• 1:11:19
  Oh yes, the word of the day or whatever, the letter of the day,
• 1:11:23
  whatever is tact. And then every time they said
• 1:11:25
  it, everybody goes crazy and stuff, you know?
• 1:11:28
  Yep. Oh yes, I am all for that.
• 1:11:33
  But it's. Saying like same thing right?
• 1:11:34
  But we can. Relate to that, you know, So
• 1:11:38
  there's, there's that cunningness.
• 1:11:42
  You know, and and and it's for the.
• 1:11:44
  Good. It's for the overall good, that
• 1:11:49
  Lady. That we were talking about that
• 1:11:51
  story where she, you know, she. Was supposedly a devoted
• 1:11:53
  Catholic her whole life, but she had this private shrine alter
• 1:11:57
  dedicated space to Bragi. You know, she became a poem in
• 1:12:00
  and of herself, considering that Braggy is a God of poets, you
• 1:12:04
  know, and the skulls and stuff and he has runes tattooed on his
• 1:12:07
  tongue and all this other, you know, stuff that you hear about
• 1:12:09
  in the lore. Like she became a poem in and of
• 1:12:12
  herself when you when you hear this story, she exhibited a
• 1:12:16
  great. Amount of cunning.
• 1:12:19
  To to keep her practices private and and and and and not.
• 1:12:25
  Have that. Diminish or, you know, subtract
• 1:12:31
  from her honor in any sort of way.
• 1:12:32
  If anything, it, it boosted it, it, it, it expounded upon it.
• 1:12:36
  I think you know, and so for for you know, how should heathens
• 1:12:40
  adjust our practices? I think I mentioned even before
• 1:12:44
  you came on and then during the beginning of this episode, you
• 1:12:46
  know, your response is going to be one way.
• 1:12:48
  My response is going to be another way.
• 1:12:50
  I'm sure everybody that hears this or listens to this watches
• 1:12:52
  this whatever is going to probably come up with another
• 1:12:56
  twist to to this themselves, but we're hearing things from two
• 1:13:00
  different people right now and and covering so many different
• 1:13:03
  angles about this. So to say.
• 1:13:05
  Well, well, here's how he heathens should do it again.
• 1:13:09
  No, no dogmatic universal answer here.
• 1:13:14
  No, it's situational. You know, absolutely.
• 1:13:18
  And that's. That's kind of where these
• 1:13:20
  questions can be hard to answer in this format because it's your
• 1:13:27
  situation and your situation alone.
• 1:13:30
  We can only speak on our own experiences.
• 1:13:33
  Take what you can and leave the rest.
• 1:13:36
  Yeah. Have you ever had?
• 1:13:41
  As we get to like thinking about wrapping this up, have you ever
• 1:13:43
  had an experience where it was a again, we've talked about like
• 1:13:49
  the. Work thing and.
• 1:13:50
  And and all that, but like, have you ever had an experience or a
• 1:13:53
  situation where that you were in that your heathenry had to be
• 1:14:01
  hidden? For the better for the.
• 1:14:03
  Better or for the good of the whole situation, Yeah, So when?
• 1:14:08
  I first started down my path of Heathenry.
• 1:14:13
  It was when I was still masking as a member of the Mormon
• 1:14:18
  church. I kept.
• 1:14:23
  It hitting hidden. I would do certain things when I
• 1:14:27
  went camping with my kids, such as, you know, being a nature and
• 1:14:31
  doing my meditations in nature 'cause that's part of my path.
• 1:14:35
  I would do a lot of reading of different books that I could
• 1:14:40
  find on it and everything else and that was kind of how I would
• 1:14:44
  do it. There was also they'd just be
• 1:14:46
  mixed in with the rest of my books, my incense.
• 1:14:51
  Lighting. Well, that's.
• 1:14:52
  Easy, because it's. Hey, I just want the house to
• 1:14:56
  smell good. Yeah, you know.
• 1:15:00
  And it was a lot of. That and it was for the fact.
• 1:15:07
  That I was. Trying to at the time keep my
• 1:15:10
  family together by. Doing the things that I was.
• 1:15:15
  Expected to do, but also keeping my own personal path so that I
• 1:15:19
  could at least attempt to stay as sane as I could and.
• 1:15:27
  Yeah, did. Things go the way that I, you
• 1:15:29
  know, at the time, didn't want them to.
• 1:15:32
  Yeah. But in the long run it worked
• 1:15:35
  out because keeping it hidden and keeping it close to me
• 1:15:41
  helped me figure things out a little bit more.
• 1:15:48
  And then when everything ended, it just opened up the world for
• 1:15:53
  me. And OK, now I can start reaching
• 1:15:56
  out and trying to do more with my ethenry and be a little bit
• 1:16:00
  more open about it because of everything that.
• 1:16:03
  Happened and how? Everything is lining up and
• 1:16:07
  again, with that being said, I wouldn't be in this situation
• 1:16:11
  with my fiance either where everything is being cohesive and
• 1:16:18
  easy to deal with each other. In that aspect, we have an
• 1:16:22
  understanding, we have a firm hearth for ourselves that's.
• 1:16:27
  Good. Yeah.
• 1:16:31
  I'm also like, whenever I read questions like this and talk
• 1:16:34
  about stuff like this, I, I can't help but wonder, you know,
• 1:16:37
  where the the questions coming from, you know, why, you know?
• 1:16:41
  So yeah, that's a question, right?
• 1:16:43
  How should heathens adjust for, you know, shared space scenarios
• 1:16:48
  and stuff? A question to the question comes
• 1:16:52
  to me is why are you asking this?
• 1:16:57
  Why does it matter? What's the big deal?
• 1:17:01
  I mean, I can go, I could, I could get invited to something
• 1:17:05
  that is a non heathen event, like a 100% non heathen event.
• 1:17:10
  I could get invited to something right now and go.
• 1:17:14
  And do it. And nobody would know that I'm
• 1:17:18
  heathen, but I could still. But I would still be heathen.
• 1:17:21
  I would still find my heathenry in the activity.
• 1:17:26
  Or in. The retreat or in the whatever
• 1:17:29
  the heck it was, you know what I mean?
• 1:17:31
  I, I would still, because it's within me.
• 1:17:33
  It, it, it is my world view. I, I live it, I, I practice it
• 1:17:38
  daily in, in various ways. Sometimes at some points of the
• 1:17:43
  year it's elevated because I have tribe that's involved,
• 1:17:47
  right. But on my day-to-day stuff like
• 1:17:49
  it is my life. So to go anywhere with anybody,
• 1:17:56
  I don't have to turn it off. No, I just OK.
• 1:18:02
  Well, I don't have to, you know, it's.
• 1:18:04
  You know, and this is like one of those, it's for anybody
• 1:18:06
  that's vegan out here. I'm probably gonna trigger some
• 1:18:08
  people. It's like just cuz you're vegan,
• 1:18:10
  right? You don't have to like walk into
• 1:18:11
  them and be like, hey, everybody, I'm vegan and start,
• 1:18:14
  you know, announcing to the world about it.
• 1:18:16
  You know what I mean? Like, right, you don't have to
• 1:18:19
  make such a big deal. Just do your thing and respect
• 1:18:23
  everybody else's thing. It's, you know, it ain't that
• 1:18:27
  big of a thing and it's not a big of a deal, but why are we
• 1:18:30
  asking these questions? Where is it coming from?
• 1:18:31
  What's the need to think that we have to adjust?
• 1:18:35
  Like just just just pivot, you know what I mean?
• 1:18:39
  It's just the thing. Yeah, exactly.
• 1:18:42
  And so. For me with that too, I'm still
• 1:18:45
  learning how to navigate it a little bit more tactfully and
• 1:18:49
  things of that nature. Like I still, and a lot of this
• 1:18:53
  is for me is trauma. We'll be honest about that.
• 1:18:59
  A lot of it is trauma for me where when her family has an
• 1:19:04
  event and it happens to be held at the church building, I'm a
• 1:19:08
  little like, and that's my trauma though, that that's my
• 1:19:12
  own personal thing where it's like, I know I'm heathen and I'm
• 1:19:16
  kind of hiding it because I'm not sitting here going by the
• 1:19:19
  way, I'm about to burn it hot in here.
• 1:19:23
  Yeah, it's I'm. So.
• 1:19:27
  Closed off with it. Though that because of that
• 1:19:30
  trauma, I'm I just don't want to even talk to the people there.
• 1:19:35
  But that's a whole different. Thing.
• 1:19:37
  That I'm dealing with on my own. And that's kind of what you were
• 1:19:41
  just saying is it's your situation.
• 1:19:44
  Know yourself. Enough.
• 1:19:47
  Or find someone that'll tell you about yourself a little bit and
• 1:19:51
  actually listen, because that's what I had to do.
• 1:19:54
  She told me a lot, but it's one of those things that you have to
• 1:20:01
  really be in your own self and actually have that strength to
• 1:20:05
  say, OK, cool. You know, I actually kind of
• 1:20:08
  like what they said there. And this coincides with this
• 1:20:11
  over here that I know and follow on a regular basis.
• 1:20:19
  I like what you mentioned about, you know, finding people.
• 1:20:22
  To talk to and connecting with 'cause I mean, ultimately you
• 1:20:28
  can be a great heathen that that is solitary, that practices by
• 1:20:31
  themselves. And if that's you're, if that's
• 1:20:34
  where you're comfortable and, and whatever, then great.
• 1:20:40
  I I also will always maintain and and advocate the fact that
• 1:20:46
  Heathenry shines when other people, other heathens can get
• 1:20:52
  together and experience things in the same, you know, space in
• 1:20:58
  the same way, if you're gathering with other heathens,
• 1:21:05
  there's. A bond.
• 1:21:06
  There's a thing that happens you.
• 1:21:08
  Know that you're not going to experience by yourself or with
• 1:21:11
  any other people for that matter, but it's you know that
• 1:21:16
  it is definitely where Heathenry truly shines.
• 1:21:20
  Absolutely. It's we have.
• 1:21:23
  Talked about it before going back to the tribe right at
• 1:21:28
  hearth. And really?
• 1:21:31
  Combining. Ourselves together.
• 1:21:32
  In that aspect, and that's something that I am trying my
• 1:21:37
  hardest to do out here with at least a few people that I've
• 1:21:40
  been talking to. And actually they continue
• 1:21:42
  talking to me and it's it's difficult for some people to do
• 1:21:48
  it, but it's a slow go process. Yeah, it is.
• 1:21:53
  And again, it can be a huge. You know, adjustment,
• 1:21:55
  transition, you know, talking about adjusting to this and
• 1:21:57
  that. I mean, if you've been private,
• 1:22:00
  solitary, isolated most of your life for whatever reason, and
• 1:22:04
  then now we're finding heathenry and are hearing what we're
• 1:22:07
  talking about and going, well, you got to find community.
• 1:22:09
  It really shines. It's going to be better for you
• 1:22:11
  if you get into community, but you're naturally or, or just
• 1:22:15
  kind of gravitate towards a bit of an isolated or, you know,
• 1:22:22
  away from everybody kind of type of personality.
• 1:22:25
  That is a huge adjustment. That is a huge thing to grow
• 1:22:30
  into. Don't rush it like.
• 1:22:32
  Just realize that, hey, you know, go at your own pace.
• 1:22:35
  Yeah, if there's plenty of other people out.
• 1:22:37
  Here that have. Gone through the same thing and
• 1:22:39
  that are willing and and and happy to be there for you
• 1:22:44
  throughout that you don't have to feel alone that it's just
• 1:22:48
  your own like there's, there's plenty of people that have gone
• 1:22:50
  through that process themselves that are that are eager and
• 1:22:54
  willing and wanting to be like, hey man, I'm here too.
• 1:22:58
  You know, like when you're feeling right, when you're
• 1:23:01
  feeling like it's your thing, like you want to talk whatever,
• 1:23:03
  like hey, I'm here or they're there right.
• 1:23:06
  It's definitely. Exactly.
• 1:23:10
  And that's. The beauty of it.
• 1:23:11
  Though too because and if you are wanting to find that group
• 1:23:18
  of people to join in and become part of the hearth in that
• 1:23:24
  aspect, take your time with that too.
• 1:23:29
  Don't rush into oh this is the first ones that invited me to
• 1:23:32
  something because they may not align with you either and they
• 1:23:37
  may actually be detrimental. Yep, yeah, don't get.
• 1:23:41
  Don't get caught up in the romance of, oh, I went to AI
• 1:23:45
  went to a park mood or I went to a a gathering or whatever.
• 1:23:47
  And even if it was like a big kind of auspicious thing, right,
• 1:23:50
  A lot of a lot of Pagan groups will have things hosted for
• 1:23:53
  celestial events, right? So we got, you know, the summer
• 1:23:56
  solstice coming up there. There's other types of non
• 1:23:59
  heathen things that that heathens might go to, right?
• 1:24:02
  Don't just like, think that the first thing you go to is like,
• 1:24:06
  all of a sudden they're all your people.
• 1:24:08
  Yeah, it's a step in the direction, right?
• 1:24:10
  It it. Could be a seed.
• 1:24:12
  That's planted and you made the step in kind of navigating those
• 1:24:18
  waters or, you know, testing it out or whatever.
• 1:24:21
  But yeah, definitely that's good advice, right?
• 1:24:24
  Don't take. The first.
• 1:24:25
  Thing that's don't don't bite the first hook that's dangled in
• 1:24:29
  front of your face exactly and you can go sample.
• 1:24:33
  It for sure go hang out with them, talk with them, go to the
• 1:24:37
  a lot of the ones that I personally know of and have been
• 1:24:41
  to a lot of times, they have what they call open events and
• 1:24:45
  it's you just go and you hang out, you eat, you drink, you
• 1:24:49
  chat and you kind of get a feel for each other and you get into
• 1:24:53
  the deeper things such as ritual and everything else.
• 1:24:57
  It's that's where you may find that Oh well, these guys don't
• 1:25:03
  really align with my practice or you're.
• 1:25:07
  Talking to them face to. Face and they.
• 1:25:09
  Happen to say that hey, I'm a racist and I don't think anybody
• 1:25:12
  this that or the other thing well, that might be open and,
• 1:25:15
  well, honest too and you're like, you know, this ain't right
• 1:25:17
  for me either. Yeah, yeah, at least you'd let
• 1:25:20
  let. At least you told.
• 1:25:21
  Me right up front about it, you know?
• 1:25:22
  Yeah, yeah, yeah, 'cause there's so much to this.
• 1:25:25
  Stuff too that that. You know, ritual and and, and
• 1:25:29
  sharing ritual with people, like being in a ritual space with
• 1:25:33
  people. I personally feel like like that
• 1:25:36
  is the type of stuff that needs to happen way down the line.
• 1:25:40
  Yes, way down the line. Like first of all, get to know
• 1:25:43
  each other on a personal level. Yep, get to, you know, like,
• 1:25:48
  hey, can I? Come over and eat.
• 1:25:49
  At your house, right? Or or that sort of thing.
• 1:25:52
  Right. Like, Yep.
• 1:25:53
  Yet familiar with one another on a more personal level before you
• 1:25:57
  start being like, Oh yeah come on over here and you know, we're
• 1:26:00
  going to you know have bloat or we're going to do ritual or
• 1:26:04
  whatever like that's heavy duty stuff and there's a lot of
• 1:26:07
  energy that gets mixed in with those types of activities and if
• 1:26:11
  you're not giving the. The the participants.
• 1:26:16
  And the attendees the appropriate amount of time to
• 1:26:22
  familiarize. Themselves.
• 1:26:24
  You. And them and everybody else, I
• 1:26:25
  mean, like that could again, that can really, that can, that
• 1:26:28
  can, that can be a recipe for disaster if you're not careful.
• 1:26:31
  Oh, absolutely. And that's why like.
• 1:26:34
  For, like I said, for our wedding night and everything
• 1:26:37
  being Midsummer, the solstice itself, it's, you know, I'm
• 1:26:42
  going to be doing it. But I only invited a few select
• 1:26:46
  people and it was 3. Total people, but I.
• 1:26:51
  Have conversed with these guys, I have sat in front of them, had
• 1:26:55
  drinks with them, ate with them, joked with them, laughed with
• 1:26:59
  them, You know, heck, one of them, we've pretty much probably
• 1:27:03
  cried together over text messages, mind you, but you
• 1:27:07
  know, in in mourning and we've seen each other at those
• 1:27:11
  positions and in those ways. And I'm like, OK, this is where
• 1:27:15
  I feel more apt to bring you guys into this, my personal
• 1:27:20
  space of Rich and invite you into my family, essentially.
• 1:27:25
  And they are both like, hey, that's great.
• 1:27:29
  I appreciate that. You know, I'm one guy in
• 1:27:32
  particular may not make it. And that's quite all right.
• 1:27:35
  One guy, I'm pretty much expecting him to make it.
• 1:27:38
  And it's just one of those things where it's like, hey, I
• 1:27:41
  would love for this to happen and I want you guys to partake
• 1:27:44
  in this with me. We've gotten to that.
• 1:27:48
  Point, yeah. That's been quite a while to
• 1:27:53
  even get to this point and it. It it takes time because.
• 1:27:58
  Like you said, mixing energies and everything else in between,
• 1:28:03
  it's you can either get the most beautiful thing you've ever seen
• 1:28:09
  in your life or you can get the this was a disaster.
• 1:28:17
  Especially if you rush it and. You don't know the people that
• 1:28:19
  you're being involved with. Yeah, yeah, don't get caught up
• 1:28:25
  in the romance of. The feeling, the emotion, you
• 1:28:28
  know, give it time. Everything happens in.
• 1:28:32
  Time the. Good things that that are meant
• 1:28:34
  to happen happen in their right time, you know, and that's
• 1:28:38
  that's we see that in nature, you know, the seed plants at a
• 1:28:41
  certain point in time. And sometimes, you know, I can't
• 1:28:47
  remember what it was specifically who or who I was
• 1:28:52
  talking. To it was it was over.
• 1:28:53
  This past weekend, but they were talking about some sort of fruit
• 1:28:58
  bearing tree or so or whatever. And it's like, yeah, you know,
• 1:29:02
  we had to wait. We, we planted it, but we had to
• 1:29:05
  wait, you know, five or six years or whatever it was before
• 1:29:09
  we could enjoy the, the, the, the fruits of, of it coming
• 1:29:14
  forth. I think strawberries are one of
• 1:29:16
  those things where you can plant it, but you have to wait like
• 1:29:17
  six or seven years. You have to wait a while for
• 1:29:21
  most. Berries actually.
• 1:29:23
  It's like just because you plant the seed doesn't.
• 1:29:25
  Mean that you're going to get to enjoy it the next season.
• 1:29:28
  There's time that takes place and understanding what those you
• 1:29:30
  know. Some trees are different than
• 1:29:31
  others. Some plants are different than
• 1:29:33
  others. It's again same thing we see in
• 1:29:35
  nature. Not everything in nature grows,
• 1:29:39
  responds, blooms at the same points in time exactly.
• 1:29:43
  I mean for us. As human beings, it takes us 25
• 1:29:47
  years to have a fully developed brain.
• 1:29:53
  I, I, I, I mean things. Take scientifically, Yeah, yeah,
• 1:29:58
  I think, I think some. People miss that memo?
• 1:30:00
  Yeah. I mean, it's, it's scientific.
• 1:30:02
  It's. Technically, nature in that
• 1:30:03
  aspect as well, if people want to bring that a little bit
• 1:30:07
  closer to home in that aspect because.
• 1:30:09
  There are some things. That you plant, they bloom,
• 1:30:12
  they're beautiful and they do it over and over and over again
• 1:30:16
  regularly, such as orchids. I mean, they bloom throughout
• 1:30:21
  the. Entire.
• 1:30:22
  Year it's not it's a basically never ending situation, right,
• 1:30:27
  but a lot of times with these situations of these
• 1:30:32
  relationships and. Being able to.
• 1:30:36
  Be open about your beliefs. If it's a non similar belief
• 1:30:42
  relationship it takes time. It's going to be more like the
• 1:30:49
  strawberry or an apple tree or citrus trees.
• 1:30:53
  Yeah citrus tree. They take forever after getting
• 1:30:57
  planted. It's just it.
• 1:31:00
  Takes time. And it's OK to be patient with
• 1:31:04
  it. Yeah, please do, right?
• 1:31:06
  Don't rush it. Yeah.
• 1:31:12
  Dude this is so much fun I had had a great time.
• 1:31:14
  Talking about, you know, our, our respective individual
• 1:31:18
  experiences and and hopefully shedding a light, you know, for,
• 1:31:21
  for Michael who asked this, but for others that I'm sure have
• 1:31:27
  encountered a similar experience or, or or situation, you know,
• 1:31:32
  yeah, this has been great. I appreciate.
• 1:31:34
  You coming on? Here and sharing your your angle
• 1:31:37
  on it, you know, Oh, absolutely I again.
• 1:31:41
  Like you said, I jumped on the opportunity and sent you an
• 1:31:44
  e-mail as soon as I saw it. Yeah, yeah, it was quite fast
• 1:31:48
  and in a hurry. As I say, you know I was.
• 1:31:49
  Like, well, I guess we got it locked down now, you know, which
• 1:31:52
  I appreciate, you know, 'cause I, I could talk about something
• 1:31:54
  like this for myself, but it's always, it's always more
• 1:31:57
  enriching to, to get another person's perspective.
• 1:32:01
  Oh, absolutely. And that's the thing about
• 1:32:03
  anything. It's.
• 1:32:05
  That's why I want these guys involved in things and getting
• 1:32:08
  other people around to have those different experiences
• 1:32:12
  shared or those thoughts shared or ideas shared.
• 1:32:16
  I mean, there's been times where it has been as simple as well.
• 1:32:20
  I remember reading this and I'm like, where did you read that?
• 1:32:23
  Because now I'm curious because it's the complete opposite of
• 1:32:26
  every other thing that I've read.
• 1:32:28
  I'm turned or curious, you know, and it's, it's that way where
• 1:32:33
  it's like, oh, I didn't realize it was that way.
• 1:32:36
  I must have read it in something that had it completely wrong.
• 1:32:39
  And then they pull up their search history and it's usually
• 1:32:42
  Wikipedia, you know? And things of that nature.
• 1:32:46
  And so I go, OK. Cool, here's a book.
• 1:32:51
  Like here's. A book.
• 1:32:53
  I'll be exactly what we were discussing.
• 1:32:56
  Go do your thing. And figure it.
• 1:32:58
  Out on your own type deal, but obviously I'll be here to bounce
• 1:33:01
  ideas off so. Yeah, it's been awesome.
• 1:33:06
  I love. Doing these conversations, I'm
• 1:33:08
  going to have to jump on some more.
• 1:33:09
  I'll come up with some topics for you.
• 1:33:12
  Oh yeah, absolutely. I mean.
• 1:33:13
  You're you're now the you. Know the the second return
• 1:33:16
  guest. I have several people that have
• 1:33:20
  come back on the show after their initial, you know,
• 1:33:23
  appearance. So as far as I'm concerned,
• 1:33:26
  anything that you think of, you know, and you want to come.
• 1:33:31
  On here and and talk. About it even if it's something
• 1:33:33
  that I've never thought of before be like hey I don't know
• 1:33:35
  if you thought of this but boom here's the thing right well
• 1:33:38
  let's let's schedule something right I'll do some research I'll
• 1:33:41
  I'll look into it myself if that that maybe whatever yeah let's
• 1:33:45
  ramble about it yeah definitely anything that comes across your
• 1:33:49
  mind that you want to talk about just let me know and we'll
• 1:33:52
  figure out a a spot to to have you back on here about it
• 1:33:56
  absolutely I'll come up with a few I'm.
• 1:33:58
  Sure, right. I appreciate.
• 1:34:01
  That and I'm I'm. I'm excited for you too.
• 1:34:03
  Again, congratulations on the upcoming nuptials.
• 1:34:08
  I think is a is a good way to, to, to, to say it and best of
• 1:34:13
  luck for, for you and the family and everybody involved.
• 1:34:16
  Absolutely. Thank you very much.
• 1:34:18
  So yeah, no worries, man. Anything else you want to say?
• 1:34:22
  Real quick as as parting words, I'll I'll touch base with you
• 1:34:25
  when I stop recording. But for the listeners and for
• 1:34:27
  the viewers, anything else you want to say before we close it
• 1:34:29
  out? Just a final reiteration of.
• 1:34:32
  Be patient. Depending on the situation,
• 1:34:36
  either be open and honest or be tactful.
• 1:34:43
  Very, very well said, Sir. And for everybody else that's,
• 1:34:47
  you know, listening and watching, if you have thoughts
• 1:34:49
  or ideas or input that you want to add to this, you know,
• 1:34:54
  there'll be a there'll be a poll, there'll be a question
• 1:34:56
  answer thing. For those of you who are
• 1:34:57
  listening to this on the audio platforms, feel free to engage
• 1:35:00
  there. But if you are a patron on the
• 1:35:03
  Patreon page here on Midgard Musings and you're watching
• 1:35:06
  this, head down into the comments section and add your
• 1:35:09
  thoughts as well. And we'll respond and always
• 1:35:13
  appreciate it. So a special thanks to the
• 1:35:15
  patrons on Patreon that continue to come back each month and help
• 1:35:19
  support the video productions of this show.
• 1:35:22
  It is greatly appreciated. And thank you, Shandy for being
• 1:35:25
  my guest this week. It's a pleasure.
• 1:35:27
  Look forward to having you back in future episodes for other
• 1:35:29
  topics as well. Absolutely.
• 1:35:32
  It was my pleasure. And for all the listeners.
• 1:35:35
  And viewers out. Here that are listening and
• 1:35:37
  watching. Thank you so much for your
• 1:35:39
  ongoing and constant support. And until we talk to each other
• 1:35:42
  again, may the gods continue to notice you and may your
• 1:35:45
  ancestors smile upon you. We'll see you in the next one.