Latest / Random Heathen Ramblings / Random Heathen Ramblings: S5, EP25 - Heathens In Service To Our People [feat. Hootey Cline of Vágr Slétta]

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Random Heathen Ramblings: S5, EP25 - Heathens In Service To Our People [feat. Hootey Cline of Vágr Slétta] · Random Heathen Ramblings

• 0:01
  Hello everyone, and welcome to the Random Heathen Ramblings
• 0:03
  podcast where we discuss all sorts of things dramatic
• 0:07
  Heathenry related. My name is Jesse, I am your
• 0:10
  host. Let's get into it.
• 0:32
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  Visit our online store at thealvatir.com and discover the
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  beauty of Mountain Spirit. All right folks, welcome back to
• 1:06
  another episode of the podcast this week.
• 1:09
  A little bit of a break in between due to some unexpected
• 1:13
  happenings and my mother passing on Father's Day of this year.
• 1:17
  So thank you all so much for understanding and and still
• 1:21
  coming back here and continuing. To show support.
• 1:24
  You know, that's always appreciated even when things
• 1:27
  like life and, and the occurrences of life happen that
• 1:30
  are unexpected. You know, we have to take care
• 1:33
  of those things when and as they come up.
• 1:35
  So appreciate you, you know, continuing to show support
• 1:39
  listening or watching any content along the way.
• 1:44
  So I'm back this week. I got a chance to spend some
• 1:48
  time up in the mountains with JM Olsen of Fjallwatir Workshop
• 1:53
  Right Spirit Art and. Some other folks up there on a
• 1:58
  on a sort of weekend long retreat slash camp and, you
• 2:05
  know, got a chance to to do some some hiking, some some swimming
• 2:10
  and drumming and healing. Overall, just a just a good, you
• 2:16
  know, long weekend spent with good people doing good things
• 2:22
  for. Good reasons so.
• 2:27
  You know, I feel like that's so important to maintain a good,
• 2:31
  you know, it's kind of like taking care of our physical
• 2:33
  selves. You know, you try to, you know,
• 2:35
  eat well, exercise, get good sleep, you know, drink plenty of
• 2:38
  water, all the things that are good for your physical body to,
• 2:42
  to maintain and, you know, stay, stay in a healthy state.
• 2:47
  And then when you do inevitably have things that come up where
• 2:50
  it's, you know, a sickness or an illness, your body's in a, in a
• 2:54
  prime shape to help, you know, defeat that illness or to
• 2:59
  overcome that illness. And I feel like so much of our,
• 3:03
  our spiritual bodies are, are, you know, are part, a part of
• 3:08
  ourselves that, you know, doesn't require food or
• 3:12
  beverages or things like that to, to be healthy gets neglected
• 3:17
  a lot. I feel like a lot of folks don't
• 3:19
  put enough time or effort into those parts of, of, of
• 3:22
  ourselves, you know, and then when things do inevitably happen
• 3:27
  that are, you know, sicknesses of the spirit or, or things that
• 3:32
  can really, you know, take you down a notch or two where, you
• 3:36
  know, a lot of folks are not, they're not, they're not healthy
• 3:42
  enough to handle those things when they happen.
• 3:44
  You know, So I would just, you know, as a reminder for
• 3:50
  everybody that listens or, or maybe watches this show, take
• 3:54
  care of yourselves in all the ways that you could, that you
• 3:56
  can, you know, don't neglect your spiritual health and
• 3:59
  well-being, because when things do come up and things happen,
• 4:03
  you know, they can be really debilitating.
• 4:04
  They can really, you know, your, your, your spiritual well-being
• 4:09
  can take a, can take a, a hit. So if you're not taking care of
• 4:14
  that part of yourself, those hits when they come can really
• 4:16
  be debilitating. And thankfully, you know, I've
• 4:20
  had a good amount of lessons and, and, and guidance and, you
• 4:28
  know, have been taught ways of taking care of my spiritual self
• 4:32
  and I've. Put a very.
• 4:35
  Strong focus on that. And then when things like, you
• 4:37
  know, the death of a family member or other such things can
• 4:41
  come up that can, you know, be potentially debilitating.
• 4:45
  Yeah, sure. They they still, they still
• 4:47
  have, you know, we still feel those things.
• 4:50
  But, you know, I feel like taking the time throughout our
• 4:53
  lives to, to stay spiritually healthy can, can keep those
• 4:58
  things from when they do happen from being crippling and
• 5:02
  debilitating. So that was part of what, you
• 5:05
  know, the the retreat and the camp this weekend up there in
• 5:10
  Appalachia in the Blue Ridge Mountains was, was for, you
• 5:13
  know, it was to continue and to cultivate healing and to do
• 5:18
  things that, you know, if you hadn't been, you know, guided or
• 5:24
  taught on how to do those things or it provided an opportunity to
• 5:29
  be taught those things. So I'm very thankful for having
• 5:32
  that that chance this weekend of following something so, so sad
• 5:37
  and so, you know, so tragic. So, but we are going to be
• 5:40
  joined here today in just a just a second with a, with a
• 5:44
  gentleman who, as I understand, leads the leads part of the
• 5:49
  heathen community and or at least his Eden community in
• 5:52
  central Illinois. He is both the Chieftain and go
• 5:57
  the of the as I, if I'm pronouncing it correctly, we'll
• 6:00
  get that correct here soon. Hopefully the Vagrasleta tribe.
• 6:06
  And I'm sure we'll get the details as to what that
• 6:08
  translates to from, from this gentleman when he joins.
• 6:11
  But he is again serving his community in the capacity of
• 6:15
  both Chieftain and go the he's got quite an extensive his, you
• 6:21
  know, his in terms of Heathenry, I don't think his, his, his time
• 6:24
  in Heathenry has been very, very long.
• 6:26
  But he's got quite an extensive background in other things.
• 6:30
  He's a business owner in the gunsmith slash blacksmith
• 6:35
  industry. He is, you know, he runs a
• 6:41
  social media page or group for heathen meetups.
• 6:48
  It's called Land of Lincoln heathens.
• 6:51
  So that, that that Facebook group, that Facebook page will
• 6:55
  be LinkedIn, the podcast show notes for those of you that are
• 6:58
  maybe in the central Illinois area looking for a grassroots
• 7:01
  level thing to, to, to check out.
• 7:06
  And he, and he's got, you know, he's got a family and, and kids,
• 7:08
  one of which is, is, is being raised as heathen.
• 7:11
  So I'm really excited to to talk with him today about.
• 7:16
  The. You know, heathens in the
• 7:18
  positions of service and what I mean by that is, you know, the
• 7:22
  service to our people, to other heathens, you know, and maybe
• 7:27
  how it can extend past that. You know, a lot of times we
• 7:32
  think of members of the clergy, you know, so since we're talking
• 7:37
  about both the Chieftain and go the position here, you know, go
• 7:41
  the falls under the category of heathen clergy.
• 7:44
  You know, they are the spiritual leaders of, of, of most heathen
• 7:49
  groups and you know, so I'd like to, to explore the thoughts or
• 7:54
  the ideas of, of how somebody like that, you know, and, and
• 7:59
  whether they're male or female, you say go the Geethia, right,
• 8:02
  Whatever gender role you want to put to it, how they can be of
• 8:09
  service or should they be of service to others outside of the
• 8:12
  immediate heathen group that they're responsible for, you
• 8:18
  know, and how that would, would, would, would kind of pan out.
• 8:22
  There was a, there was a question on the Mid Garden
• 8:25
  Musings Facebook page that wasn't maybe necessarily say
• 8:28
  question, but a but a thought provoking comment that got put
• 8:32
  out there that we're going to see what he has to say about as
• 8:35
  well. He goes online as as as Hootie
• 8:38
  Klein. So we'll, we'll get his
• 8:42
  official, you know, name to be addressed by here once he comes
• 8:47
  on the show. But again, anything that that he
• 8:51
  is a part of that can be connected with online will be
• 8:54
  LinkedIn the podcast show notes. And before we get started, as
• 8:58
  always, I do just want to as I mentioned earlier, you know,
• 9:01
  thank you all for for being here to sit to support the show.
• 9:04
  But a special thanks to my patrons on Patreon that are that
• 9:09
  are watching this on on Patreon, the video versions of this for
• 9:13
  those of you listening on the audio platforms.
• 9:15
  If you do want to watch this show, a great way to support the
• 9:18
  production of it is to pledge a dollar for the access to the
• 9:24
  video versions of the show through my Patreon page.
• 9:27
  So you can go to midgardmusings.com/or sorry,
• 9:30
  patreon.com/midgardmusings links for that's going to be in the
• 9:35
  link tree link as well that is annotated in the show notes of
• 9:39
  the podcast. So the link tree link has a
• 9:41
  bunch of other sites that you can find and support me on all
• 9:44
  of my social medias, merchandise, etcetera.
• 9:47
  But the Patreon page there is linked as well.
• 9:49
  So heading over to Patreon, I do offer several other tiers of
• 9:54
  support. So if you want to, you know, go
• 9:56
  up to $5.00 a month, you can get other perks and so on and so
• 9:59
  forth. But the $1.00 a month Carl Tier
• 10:03
  pledge gets you, you know, in screen credits on my show, you
• 10:09
  your name appears on the on the in screen credit page after the
• 10:14
  show is over and you get video access.
• 10:18
  So if you want to watch the show, you can do that.
• 10:22
  And you know, as always, I'll always be sharing stuff on my
• 10:25
  Facebook, Instagram and YouTube pages, little clips, little
• 10:30
  segments of of of the show. So kind of give you an idea of
• 10:35
  what the video experience is like that that's slightly
• 10:38
  different than just the audio one.
• 10:40
  But anyways, thank you so very much for being a Patreon on
• 10:43
  Patreon. If you are watching this and
• 10:46
  continuing to support the show in this way, it's greatly
• 10:48
  appreciated. So without further ado, let's go
• 10:51
  ahead and welcome in Hootie from the again, the the Wagersletsa
• 10:56
  tribe in central Illinois. And let's talk about what it
• 10:59
  means. To be a heathen in service to
• 11:03
  our people. Let's get into it.
• 11:05
  All right folks. Well folks, we are back here
• 11:09
  joined today for the first time on this show.
• 11:11
  But as I understand a a long time listener or or supporter
• 11:15
  viewer, we got Hoody who is joining us from Central
• 11:20
  Illinois. He is currently the Chieftain
• 11:23
  and Goethe of the Vagersletsa tribe out there in Central
• 11:28
  Illinois. So welcome to the show Hoody.
• 11:30
  Thanks for being here. Thanks Jesse.
• 11:32
  I was happy to get an invite and get a chance to finally meet you
• 11:37
  somewhat in person. Yeah, the the long distance face
• 11:42
  to face kind of zoom treatment, the the, the, the post COVID
• 11:45
  zoom treatment in a way. Technology is amazing.
• 11:49
  Yeah, who to funk it, right? Who'd be out here doing this
• 11:52
  stuff? So yeah, you're up, in or out
• 11:56
  there, up there, whichever however you want to look at it,
• 11:58
  in Central Illinois, the America's heartland, you might
• 12:02
  could say. Yeah, the Vargas left to land as
• 12:06
  it was, but yeah, so our home base is just outside of
• 12:11
  Springfield, IL, which those who aren't familiar with as the
• 12:17
  capital city of Illinois, and it is smack dab in the middle of
• 12:21
  the state. So we're about 3 1/2 hours South
• 12:26
  of Chicago and just over 90 minutes north of Saint Louis.
• 12:36
  Oh nice OK and vulgar slet. My old Norse is a bit rusty but
• 12:43
  it sounds old Norse. Would would you mind giving us a
• 12:45
  translation of that? Yeah, so it's actually a
• 12:48
  combination of Old Norse and modern Icelandic.
• 12:53
  So vulgar is Old Norse for rolling, such as like a rolling
• 13:00
  wave or a rough choppy water. And then there is no Old Norse
• 13:06
  word for Prairie. The closest thing that we can
• 13:11
  come to is with modern Icelandic.
• 13:14
  Sleta means Meadow, but so we say it roughly translates to
• 13:20
  rolling Prairie, as we are in the rolling Prairie lands of
• 13:25
  American Heathenry. Nice.
• 13:28
  I like that you went with a, a name that is, you know, it
• 13:35
  speaks to the the landscape, it speaks to the region, it speaks
• 13:39
  to the, the, the, the spirit of that land.
• 13:42
  I don't know, it's like so many, so many times.
• 13:44
  I and I'm not like bashing, you know, people that, that, that do
• 13:49
  this, but it, you know, so many times you, you, you see like
• 13:52
  groups of, of heathens or whatever and they're, you know,
• 13:54
  they're the, the Odin's wolves kindred or they're the, you
• 13:57
  know, the, the, the, the, the Raven banner kindred or
• 14:00
  something like that. And it's like, OK, but where are
• 14:03
  you like what's your, you know, I, I, I like the approach of, of
• 14:08
  having the, the, the, the kindred or the tribe's name to
• 14:11
  reflect the geography of, of you guys's location.
• 14:17
  No, and I appreciate that. And that was kind of the whole
• 14:20
  idea in the beginning. So I've been heathen for about
• 14:26
  four years and prior to that was raised in a rural farm, you
• 14:34
  know, Christian town. But growing up on a multi
• 14:39
  generational farm, I've always had access to land and I've
• 14:44
  always kind of been tied to the lands here.
• 14:48
  And that's also something that followed through with the rest
• 14:51
  of my kinsmen when we established the tribe because
• 14:56
  our scold and my brother Christopher Miller does
• 15:02
  conservation work for the state. And then my wife is also always
• 15:07
  kind of been tied to the land. She's got a very strong Farah as
• 15:11
  of her. And then our other sister Sarah
• 15:17
  is also very naturalistic in her hearth cult and in her approach.
• 15:23
  So we are very much a land white based tribe and we own that and
• 15:31
  are happy to show it off. That is beautiful.
• 15:36
  I really like that. I'm sorry that I'm I'm I'm for
• 15:39
  those of you like watching or you know, if you're looking at
• 15:42
  me here, I'm like looking off screen.
• 15:44
  I you said a name that stuck out to me and I was trying to figure
• 15:49
  out why is does does the fellow that you just mentioned is?
• 15:53
  Did your skald happen to get a set of runes from me over the
• 15:57
  eclipse? I believe so, I know he got a
• 16:03
  rune set from you but I don't remember which ones they were.
• 16:08
  But yeah, it was probably the Eclipse ones.
• 16:11
  Yeah, no, because it was a, a guy by that name who had 'cause
• 16:18
  you know, like when, when that solar eclipse happened, I had
• 16:23
  come up with the idea to do some, some rune sets to be, you
• 16:27
  know, set out under that, under, under that occurrence.
• 16:32
  And it, it, so Champaign, IL is where they went.
• 16:37
  And so unless there's another Christopher Miller out there,
• 16:39
  that wouldn't be happened to be up in that area.
• 16:42
  So that's interesting. I had I, you know, obviously
• 16:44
  wouldn't have known that that he and you were, you know,
• 16:48
  connected in that way and that, you know, you're his or, you
• 16:52
  know, you're his Chieftain, Gothy.
• 16:54
  He's your skald and you guys are doing things together out there.
• 16:56
  But that's a that's kind of a neat little twist to add to the
• 16:59
  story here. Yeah.
• 17:01
  I don't know if you knew that, but, yeah, there you go.
• 17:02
  He, he ended up with a, a rune set that I made for, you know,
• 17:06
  during the solar eclipse just a couple months back.
• 17:10
  No, that's awesome. So.
• 17:13
  So you guys are very heavily obviously, yes, land focused on
• 17:17
  the land, you know, and, and that's another beautiful thing
• 17:20
  too that I love seeing heathens do is respect and acknowledge
• 17:26
  the spirit of the land that they are in.
• 17:27
  Because you know, while we here in, in the United States, you
• 17:32
  know, all live on the same, in the same country, in North
• 17:36
  America continent and all that, everything is different.
• 17:39
  Wherever you go, you know, the, the, the spirits of the land in
• 17:43
  the, you know, the Rolling Meadows, the rolling Prairie are
• 17:46
  going to be different than those in Appalachia or in the Rocky
• 17:50
  Mountain range or in the Northwestern Pacific areas like
• 17:53
  say Northwest, the Northwoods Kindred or any other place, you
• 17:58
  know, Florida, you know, or, or anything like that.
• 18:01
  So it's, it's great that, you know, you guys are aware of that
• 18:07
  and, and, and putting a focus on that and not just trying to over
• 18:10
  generalize or make it like, well, the Vaitir or just the
• 18:13
  Vaitir, you know, or wherever you go, it's there.
• 18:16
  They are unique and different to just like the people, you know.
• 18:21
  So that's great. I love it.
• 18:24
  So four years, huh? Four years, I would say that.
• 18:28
  And this is no, again, no, no, no, no bash or disrespect.
• 18:31
  But like to me that's you're still kind of in that you're
• 18:35
  you're kind of green in here. I usually tell people like I
• 18:42
  feel like I am starting to grow into like my adolescence as they
• 18:48
  even because it's like finally starting to get a good grasp of
• 18:53
  the basics. Kind of getting into like the
• 18:56
  two O 1 subjects as it were. But kinda also got thrown into a
• 19:05
  Chieftain and go the role very early on just because of the
• 19:09
  lack of heathen or Asatru community.
• 19:16
  In Illinois. We've got a pretty decent Pagan
• 19:21
  presence, but it's mostly Wiccans or Eclectics.
• 19:27
  So there's not a lot of Germanic faith going on here that's not
• 19:35
  folkish because there are a few groups here, but they're more up
• 19:41
  north. But yeah, they tend to be a
• 19:43
  little more on the folkish side of things, which is kind of what
• 19:48
  drove drove me to try to push for, you know, grassroots
• 19:54
  heathenry, as a wise heathen once said, to try and drum
• 20:00
  something up here and see what we can make out.
• 20:03
  Got you. So you you are you, a founder of
• 20:06
  the Vagar Sletsa tribe. Yes.
• 20:09
  So the original members are myself, my wife and then our
• 20:15
  brother Chris, who got your rinse up.
• 20:19
  Nice. OK.
• 20:21
  And and how big is the tribe now, if you don't mind me
• 20:23
  asking? Like how many people would you
• 20:25
  say you have that are? So we have 4 sworn members that
• 20:31
  make up three hards. But we are kind of in a unique
• 20:37
  position because I am divorced with two kids so they are
• 20:42
  growing up in a kind of mixed background of Christianity from
• 20:47
  my ex-wife and then Heathen Reef from me.
• 20:51
  But then my current wife and I have our one year old son and
• 20:56
  then we are also expecting another one.
• 20:59
  So the tribe is already gonna have its second generation of
• 21:03
  kids growing up in heathen. So that's also an interesting
• 21:08
  journey. Well, congratulations on that.
• 21:11
  And that's beautiful. Yeah.
• 21:13
  Yeah. I'm glad to see that our our
• 21:15
  tribe here. You know, recently the Arthul
• 21:20
  his he's in a relationship with the woman who had a son from a
• 21:27
  from a previous relationship. And he's, you know, in he's, you
• 21:31
  know, school age, you know, like middle school aged or so, but he
• 21:36
  maybe even getting close to getting like his first like
• 21:38
  freshman year of high school. He's he's in that kind of that
• 21:43
  age bracket. But they just had their first
• 21:46
  child together, the two of them, you know, just over a month ago.
• 21:51
  And that was kind of like exciting because again, like
• 21:54
  having a child born into the into a tribe.
• 21:57
  It's different than like meeting, let's say a stranger or
• 22:01
  someone from like a like a like a park moot or a meet up group
• 22:04
  or something like that. And getting to know those adults
• 22:08
  or those, you know, people older than than obviously a baby and,
• 22:13
  and kind of getting that relationship established and
• 22:15
  building, you know, connections and then maybe getting them to
• 22:19
  where they are worth or oath into the tribe.
• 22:21
  You know, it's a different process than to have a baby born
• 22:24
  into it. It's it's like that's a huge
• 22:26
  thing to me. So we get to celebrate that as
• 22:30
  well, having our first, you know, child born into the tribe
• 22:34
  and then and everything that comes with, you know, being
• 22:38
  being our tribe, being clearly folk, you know, so.
• 22:41
  Everybody's an aunt and uncle. Yeah, yeah, right.
• 22:44
  Exactly. You know, like, yeah, you know,
• 22:46
  they say it takes a village to raise a child.
• 22:48
  And I, I firmly believe that with, especially with Heathenry,
• 22:52
  you know, if you can have those relationships between the
• 22:58
  hearths, you know, or the clans, whatever you want to say, like
• 23:01
  you were talking about, you know, the, the tribe is made-up
• 23:04
  of several different hearths. That's the way I see it.
• 23:09
  It works best. You know, it's, it's an
• 23:12
  extension of that family. So like you say, everybody is
• 23:14
  like aunts and uncles to the, to, to the kids or whatever that
• 23:18
  that that exists there. Bonus parents, if you will.
• 23:22
  Yeah. Well, and it's also important
• 23:24
  that when you know when you're forming a tribe or a kindred
• 23:27
  that you know there is supposed to be Frith there like these are
• 23:31
  people that you should consider family and people that you
• 23:34
  actually want to spend time with.
• 23:37
  Yep, Yep. Yeah.
• 23:40
  And that can be challenging too, 'cause not, you know, I mean,
• 23:43
  family sometimes can get on her nerves.
• 23:47
  You know, sometimes family gives a, is a, is a, a little pain in
• 23:51
  the butt, you know, But, you know, getting through those
• 23:54
  things and getting past the, the challenges and, and working
• 23:59
  through them together. I think that's a, that's a good
• 24:00
  example of how strong a Frith bond can be, you know, getting
• 24:07
  through those, those little hiccups or through those.
• 24:10
  You know, issues as it were. Yeah, and I will be the first
• 24:15
  one to tell you that, you know, tribes are not always sunshines
• 24:19
  and rainbows, but if you put in the work and actually have
• 24:25
  genuine conversations with people, makes those bumps in the
• 24:30
  road just that bumps. Mm hmm.
• 24:34
  Yeah. And you do.
• 24:34
  I mean, I think it's important to realize that you have to, you
• 24:37
  have to address those issues. You know, you can't just be
• 24:39
  dismissive about it. And I don't know if you've
• 24:43
  experienced this yet, You know, it's when you have, you know,
• 24:51
  again, every clan, every hearth is sovereign.
• 24:53
  You know, they do their own things, their own way.
• 24:57
  And, and then when the tribe is, is together as the tribe and
• 25:01
  everything's done the way that the tribe does it.
• 25:03
  But it's still, it's important, I feel at least to, to maintain
• 25:07
  and to preserve the sovereignty of individual hearths and not to
• 25:10
  infringe on anything like that, not to be like, well, you're
• 25:13
  part of the tribe and you got to do it this way and try to like
• 25:15
  dictate, you know, how things are done.
• 25:19
  But again, it can be a challenge because, you know, the when you
• 25:23
  come together as a tribe, you know, you, like I said before,
• 25:26
  and sometimes family is, you know, not everybody gets along,
• 25:30
  you know, or people's feelings might get hurt.
• 25:31
  And as well, how are we going to deal with, how are we going to
• 25:33
  address this? How are we going to, you know,
• 25:35
  heal this, this thing without infringing on the sovereignty of
• 25:40
  one's hearth? But also realizing that we.
• 25:42
  Have a tribe. Dynamic as well.
• 25:45
  That needs to be considered, you know.
• 25:49
  Yeah, well, and I think that kind of goes back to dynamics.
• 25:53
  So 'cause one of the things that I kind of foresaw for Vogar
• 25:58
  Seleta was it's like, so I'm very tribalist minded when it
• 26:04
  comes to Heathenry. So I do think there needs to be
• 26:08
  a central point of leadership for or snap decisions and things
• 26:13
  like that 'cause not everything can always be up for debate
• 26:16
  every single time. But for normal tribal operations
• 26:22
  and day-to-day stuff like we very much operate kind of
• 26:27
  without titles. We basically have round table
• 26:32
  discussions of, you know, this is something we want to develop
• 26:35
  as Sue or like me as the go, the one of my main jobs was to
• 26:41
  design what our ritual structure was going to be.
• 26:45
  But every month we sit everybody down and I'm basically probing
• 26:50
  them kind of looking for ideas to either keep things fresh or
• 26:54
  like, hey, do you want to try a new Tacita this month?
• 26:57
  Do we want to try blessing, you know, some ritual tools this
• 27:01
  month? You know what?
• 27:02
  What kind of things do you guys want to look at?
• 27:05
  And one of the things that I am extremely proud of is my
• 27:10
  brother, our brother Chris, our skull spearheaded our entire
• 27:16
  ritual calendar and has been working to design us a very
• 27:21
  Germanic animist calendar that is a mixture of lunar calendar,
• 27:29
  heathen traditions, and then also things that are tailored to
• 27:34
  the American landscape. So we've been able to take his
• 27:39
  ideas and kind of toss those into our Thu and our tribal
• 27:43
  mythos. So everybody, you know, everyone
• 27:46
  has a title that they're responsible for.
• 27:48
  But at the end of the day, we're all pitching in, helping one
• 27:51
  another, trying to develop, you know what the traditions they're
• 27:55
  going to be going forward. That's a solid approach.
• 28:02
  And you know, we, we, we, we approach this up this episode
• 28:05
  here with, with a kind of a central topic in mind.
• 28:08
  And that is the, you know, the, the titles or the positions of,
• 28:12
  of leadership that come with having something like this.
• 28:15
  You know, a tribe where there is a Gothi and there is a Chieftain
• 28:18
  and there is a skull or there's a fool or there's a this or
• 28:21
  there's a they all have these names and stuff that go with
• 28:24
  them. And what does that really even
• 28:26
  mean? You know, why have the title?
• 28:28
  Why have the position and for what purpose, You know, and to
• 28:33
  me, you know, these are, these are positions, these are titles
• 28:35
  that carry with them a responsibility or obligation of
• 28:39
  service. You know, this isn't just a, a,
• 28:43
  a fancy mantle or robe or, or, you know, a placard that you put
• 28:46
  on your door and be like, yeah, you will address me as so and
• 28:50
  so, like it's some sort of authoritarian, you know, thing
• 28:55
  that you just get to throw around and, and flaunt.
• 28:58
  It's, it's a, it's a position of service.
• 29:00
  It's something to be, you know, humbled by if you've been
• 29:04
  selected or chosen to, you know, serve in that capacity and, and
• 29:09
  be in that position 'cause there's a, there's a great deal
• 29:13
  of responsibility, as I said, on, on stuff like that.
• 29:16
  You know, nobody should just be I I feel nobody should at least
• 29:21
  be like calling themselves this, You know, like you just wake up
• 29:24
  one day all of a sudden now I'm the go thee because.
• 29:27
  Yeah, IA 100% agree. And unfortunately, like, I'm not
• 29:33
  one to tell people that they're doing it wrong, but I've seen
• 29:36
  more and more, especially since we've kind of formed our own
• 29:40
  thing, the amount of groups that come out basically just so
• 29:46
  people can have these roles. It's not so much about the
• 29:50
  faith, it's about the stature kind of thing, 'cause I know for
• 29:57
  me it was one of those things like I initial.
• 30:00
  So we started off with moot groups.
• 30:03
  So one of the ways that we try and serve the community is
• 30:08
  Vulgar Slept sponsors, the Land of Lincoln's, Land of Lincoln
• 30:14
  Heathens moot group. So we try to do monthly moots as
• 30:20
  much as possible. That actually came first and
• 30:24
  then the tribe came later 'cause we had met Chris a couple of
• 30:28
  times. him and I vibed really well.
• 30:31
  My wife really liked his approach with certain things and
• 30:35
  that's kind of how Vogers Letta came to be initially.
• 30:39
  But then when we were talking about establishing the tribe, I
• 30:43
  was honestly hoping that Chris was going to take the leadership
• 30:46
  role 'cause I didn't want it. Oh, really?
• 30:50
  Yeah, just because I it's complicated because like, I've
• 30:56
  never really seen myself in a position of leadership, but then
• 31:02
  I keep seeming to find myself in those because I'm a Chieftain
• 31:07
  and go the of the tribe. I'm also an entrepreneur with a
• 31:11
  small business that takes, you know, many leadership aspects.
• 31:15
  And then I am also a union steward for my place of
• 31:20
  employment. Oh.
• 31:23
  OK, so develop your understanding of what being a
• 31:27
  leader actually means. Yeah, wearing many hats.
• 31:33
  So that's interesting. You know, I think that I think
• 31:36
  that speaks a lot to a person's character when they say, yeah,
• 31:41
  you know, I was hoping somebody else would do this, but then it
• 31:44
  kind of landed on me to do it. And you, you weren't for at
• 31:48
  least from the sounds of it, you know, you weren't, you weren't
• 31:53
  discouraged or deterred from taking on that role or those
• 31:57
  roles you kind of took. Maybe I don't want to word your
• 32:02
  mouth, but did you, did you see it as like a challenge that you
• 32:05
  had to overcome or some sort of ordeal maybe that you had to go
• 32:10
  through to like prove your worth in that way?
• 32:15
  It was a slight ordeal in the sense of I had the challenge of
• 32:21
  getting, I had the challenge of getting out of my own way in the
• 32:27
  sense of, you know, here was this thing, here was this
• 32:30
  challenge laid at my feet for me to rise to.
• 32:35
  But I looked at it more of this is kind of a challenge that I've
• 32:39
  already accomplished. I don't really want to do this
• 32:42
  again. But then after thinking about
• 32:45
  it, it's a no, you need to do this again because you know,
• 32:49
  it's not about you. And in the future, it's not
• 32:53
  necessarily going to be about just us.
• 32:55
  It's about the, you know, heathen community as a whole.
• 32:59
  Because the people don't genuinely step up and try to do
• 33:04
  things to generate community or make the community better, then
• 33:10
  it's going to stay stagnant or worse.
• 33:13
  We, you know, very well could lose it again, just like our RT
• 33:17
  that ancestors did. Right, yeah, that's the big
• 33:22
  thing, right, 'cause I mean, we, we are existing in here and now
• 33:26
  in, in, in, in the Verdandi, if you will, right.
• 33:28
  What is happening is, is what we're experiencing.
• 33:31
  But we're shaping the future. You know, we're doing things in
• 33:36
  consideration of the next generation or generations, you
• 33:40
  know, the next iteration, the next version of things.
• 33:43
  And that can really, that could be that can be really
• 33:47
  challenging when you think of it on that scale.
• 33:51
  You know, what are we doing that's going to establish
• 33:54
  something that the next generation can carry, carry on,
• 34:02
  you know, when Hoodie is not around anymore or when Chris
• 34:06
  isn't around anymore or anything like that to, to be Vagrasletsa,
• 34:09
  right. Well, what happened to
• 34:11
  Vagrasletsa? Who carries that torch?
• 34:14
  And I think that in the there's a handful of things that should
• 34:18
  be in the back of any tribal or kindred leaders minds,
• 34:22
  especially in the beginning. And no, that is one of the
• 34:25
  biggest ones is that you should build something that does not
• 34:29
  need you. You should be building and
• 34:32
  working towards something that is going to outlast you.
• 34:36
  Because if the whole thing rides on you, then once you're gone,
• 34:41
  that's it. So what are some things that you
• 34:46
  know, in consideration of that, you know, and as A and as a go
• 34:49
  the has a Chieftain. I mean, these are all and I see
• 34:52
  those as different respective responsibilities.
• 34:55
  I think that the the responsibility of a Chieftain is
• 34:58
  one thing, the responsibility of a go the is another.
• 35:00
  And, but I also see a lot of groups like yourself or
• 35:04
  yourselves up here that blend the two together, that, you
• 35:10
  know, mesh the two together. It seems to work in the in that
• 35:14
  capacity for, for the groups that I've seen do it, you know,
• 35:17
  so, So what are some things that you think need to be, you know,
• 35:20
  initially thought of or cultivated to move in that
• 35:26
  direction of, you know, something bigger than just the
• 35:29
  one person or the two people even.
• 35:31
  So the biggest thing for me, the common thing they both share is
• 35:39
  that you need to, as cliche as it sounds, you as a leader need
• 35:47
  to walk the walk and not just talk the top.
• 35:49
  Like you can call yourself a Chieftain, you can call yourself
• 35:53
  a go thee. But if your own tribe or kindred
• 35:57
  are not willing to recognize you as that, then people pick up on
• 36:03
  that. And that speaks volumes.
• 36:07
  And then I am also very much of the mentality of, you know,
• 36:12
  leaders eat. Leaders eat last.
• 36:15
  So I am always trying to, you know, fulfill the needs of my
• 36:21
  kinsmen and those around me first.
• 36:25
  Because if you don't take care of your people, then they are
• 36:29
  not going to take care of you and they're not going to take,
• 36:32
  you know, care of the vision that is laid out as a go thee.
• 36:41
  I think, you know, being a go thee definitely takes a very
• 36:47
  certain kind of person because go thee in itself is an umbrella
• 36:54
  term for many different jobs. As a go thee, you are expected
• 36:58
  to be a teacher. You are expected to be a
• 37:01
  counselor. You are expected to be, you
• 37:04
  know, a public speaker. You are expected to, you know,
• 37:08
  be an empathetic ear. And so these are all
• 37:13
  characteristics that I think that people need to take a hard,
• 37:19
  long look at before they agree to taking on a title such as
• 37:25
  that. If you're gonna do it
• 37:28
  respectfully and, you know, give it its due.
• 37:31
  Mm hmm. What are some things that you
• 37:35
  think a a go the and we'll just, we'll just go with that that
• 37:41
  that particular position or that particular job role.
• 37:44
  You're like, what are what are what are some things that you as
• 37:46
  a go through yourself for your people?
• 37:50
  What are some things that you think are almost mandatory for
• 37:55
  ago they to like you mentioned us being a public speaker and
• 37:57
  empathetic ear. What is it what you know
• 38:02
  specifically to do with like the Germanic or Norse heathen path,
• 38:06
  right? What are some what are some
• 38:08
  almost mandatory things that you think ago?
• 38:11
  They should, you know, have have working knowledge of be
• 38:16
  proficient in that sort of thing when it comes to the specific
• 38:22
  heathen way of doing things or a specific heathen way of doing
• 38:26
  things. Yeah, so as a teacher, I mean,
• 38:30
  you have to read the Lord like that as a given.
• 38:35
  I know a lot of people, you know, no discredit to YouTube
• 38:41
  because they're obviously great teachers and mentors.
• 38:45
  And I'm talking to one of them because you were a great help to
• 38:48
  me when I was first getting started out.
• 38:52
  But a lot of people just stop there.
• 38:54
  They don't read the sources, They don't look at anything
• 38:58
  other than online personalities. And then they get all of these
• 39:04
  random questions that they don't know the answer to.
• 39:07
  Now, I will say the other part of being a go the is if you
• 39:10
  don't know the answer, be honest with people.
• 39:13
  Hey, I don't know because I've never been asked that, but I am
• 39:16
  gonna go research and I will get back to you.
• 39:20
  You know, don't just make shit up.
• 39:26
  Shooting from the hip, yeah. Right.
• 39:30
  And then another thing though, is people, especially newbies
• 39:36
  and a lot more of the like modern minded folks tend to try
• 39:41
  to globalize Heathenry as a whole.
• 39:45
  And that's also kind of a no no. So I would say while you need to
• 39:49
  definitely have your basics down, it is much more important
• 39:53
  for you as a go the of a tribe to have flushed out and down
• 39:59
  your own tribes through or your own tribal mythos or you know,
• 40:05
  the metaphysics behind your rituals and the hows and whys of
• 40:11
  you know. I'm an expert in how vulgar
• 40:13
  Schlete does things. I'm not necessarily an expert,
• 40:16
  and you know how your tribe does things or you know Eric
• 40:21
  Sherbin's tribe, how they do things, even though you know,
• 40:25
  I've talked to him quite a lot, learned a lot from him, but I
• 40:28
  can only be an expert in my own cultic practices.
• 40:33
  Yes. That's the most important thing
• 40:35
  as a go thee because first and foremost that go thee title only
• 40:40
  applies to you within your own tribal structure.
• 40:45
  Outside of that, I'm just hootie.
• 40:47
  I'm just a regular heathen that lives in central Illinois.
• 40:52
  So, but people try to, you know, globalize everything and they
• 40:56
  think they need to know everything about everybody, when
• 40:58
  in reality, 90% of the questions that you're gonna get asked,
• 41:03
  unless you're in like a community teaching role or some
• 41:07
  sort of outreach position, are going to come from your own
• 41:10
  people. So you need to make sure that
• 41:13
  you're knowledgeable in your own practices so that you can help
• 41:18
  your people first and foremost. Yeah, Now I'm glad you brought
• 41:23
  that up because I mean, there's there's almost this or, or, or
• 41:28
  begs a question to ask, you know, to to what capacity should
• 41:33
  a heathen go thee be of service to anyone outside of his or her
• 41:39
  group tribe? You know, it's a position of
• 41:42
  service. Well, how far does that service
• 41:45
  reach? You know, because again, like if
• 41:48
  you have a group of people that maybe has any sort of online
• 41:51
  presence or anything like that. I mean, reputation is a thing,
• 41:55
  obviously, especially with heathens, you know, like your,
• 41:59
  our reputation is, is one of the big focus areas.
• 42:04
  You know, we, we want to do things that are going to build
• 42:09
  a, a strong reputation, a good reputation, right?
• 42:11
  Live honorably, do those things that are not going to bring any
• 42:14
  sort of shame or, or, or disdain or anything on our name.
• 42:20
  And so when that happens, you know, you, you kind of get this
• 42:23
  like your reputation ends up preceding you, you know, so you
• 42:26
  might be, yeah, sure. You might be Hootie right now,
• 42:30
  you know, to anybody that's outside of Vogerslezza.
• 42:32
  But as people hear more about what Vogerslezza is and, and
• 42:36
  hears more about you, you know, you might go outside of Illinois
• 42:40
  or you might maybe already do go other places.
• 42:42
  And people know you by your reputation, by the, the things
• 42:47
  that people have said about you, you know, and it, it begs the
• 42:50
  question, you know, well then you know, when, when people
• 42:53
  outside of your immediate insular group have a question or
• 42:56
  a need or something, you know, as as this go the person right?
• 42:59
  What, what is, what is your opinion on folks like that in
• 43:04
  in, in their capacity to serve outside of that immediate group
• 43:08
  or that close group? Yeah.
• 43:10
  So as you said, reputation Gefrain very big thing.
• 43:14
  You know that's how you know if it wasn't for Gefrain and
• 43:18
  dealing with the Gutengard, you know you would if it was not for
• 43:23
  the Gutengard, you would not develop an in IT guard.
• 43:26
  If it was not for talking to people and meeting people, you
• 43:29
  would not be able to develop Frith.
• 43:32
  It's kind of how I look at it now.
• 43:34
  There are, you know, obviously different levels of obligations
• 43:38
  and I also understand there are different levels of comfort.
• 43:42
  So I will say that you are in and guard and your tribesmen
• 43:46
  should come first. But if you are comfortable,
• 43:51
  there's no reason to not reach out to the community and do
• 43:56
  things in a helpful capacity. Prime example is so one of the
• 44:02
  things that I have kind of positions I found myself into is
• 44:09
  if you're familiar with the Northwoods Kindred on YouTube
• 44:13
  with Goldie Boldvar, I am considered one of the trusted
• 44:18
  sources on his Discord server. So I basically have basically
• 44:26
  been branded as a, hey, he's got a pretty good idea of what he's
• 44:31
  talking about. So I get DMS all the time by
• 44:37
  newbie heathens. I also get a lot of questions
• 44:40
  from veteran heathens because in my tribal and hearth cultic
• 44:46
  practices we are very much a mix of Nordic and Icelandic
• 44:54
  traditions. But then we also lean very
• 44:57
  heavily in Anglo-Saxon and continental Heathenry.
• 45:01
  So air server, being an ASA true server is very heavy in Nordic
• 45:09
  and Icelandic. So I will usually get a lot of
• 45:11
  questions from their people about Anglo-Saxon because a lot
• 45:16
  of them didn't know that was thing, didn't realize how
• 45:19
  different some of the source material is, don't realize that,
• 45:25
  you know, there are different ways to heathen.
• 45:30
  Heathenry encompasses all of Northern Europe, but when most
• 45:35
  people think of Heathenry they own, they tend to only think of
• 45:38
  Nordic tradition. And then you got a small handful
• 45:41
  of people who will think, you know, Anglo-Saxon and more
• 45:45
  reconstructionist, kind of like Robert Sass.
• 45:48
  I know he's been on your show before.
• 45:52
  You know, that is a very small, it's a smaller movement that is
• 45:56
  starting to gain traction. But it's because heathens who
• 46:02
  have knowledge and are willing to speak on that knowledge reach
• 46:06
  out to the community and they share things.
• 46:09
  They get the ball rolling. And that's how we, you know,
• 46:12
  it's how we bring these traditions back.
• 46:15
  Yeah, yeah. And I like to also when you say,
• 46:19
  you know, mixed bag and, and how things are blended a bit, you
• 46:23
  know, we and and it's what's what's also really interesting
• 46:26
  to keep in mind is, you know, you and I are speaking as
• 46:28
  heathens in the United States, you know, in North America,
• 46:32
  specifically in the lower 48. And when we talk about, you
• 46:38
  know, mixed bag of things, you know, we're not, we're not,
• 46:42
  we're not. First of all, we're not in
• 46:43
  Scandinavia. We're not even, we're not even
• 46:45
  in continental Europe of where like Saxon heathenry and all
• 46:48
  that started and then moved up north and everything.
• 46:51
  We're in the United States. We're in Tennessee, you know,
• 46:54
  you're in Illinois. We're American heathens.
• 46:57
  And and how much of then do the, the like we talked earlier about
• 47:02
  the landscape, the geography, how much that shapes our
• 47:06
  heathenry, you know? Yeah, sure.
• 47:08
  We might call the spirits of the land, you know, of eights here,
• 47:11
  which is, you know, a, a Scandinavian term, you know, or
• 47:15
  maybe other groups will, will call them, you know, whites,
• 47:18
  which is a bit more of a, an Anglo-Saxon, you know, you know,
• 47:22
  word for the same thing that, you know, in Ireland, they were
• 47:26
  the Fey folk or something. You know what I mean?
• 47:28
  Like every, every space, every place has a different name for
• 47:30
  it. We call them the name of the of
• 47:33
  the tradition that they that it may be we're, we're, we're
• 47:35
  focused on, but we're also experiencing those beings, those
• 47:41
  those spirits, those spirits that are unseen in a landscape
• 47:45
  and in a space that is not Scandinavia, it's not
• 47:48
  continental Europe, you know, it's America and everything
• 47:53
  behaves differently wherever you go.
• 47:56
  And how much of that has to be considered with our Heathenry,
• 48:00
  right? Like to, to realize it, it, it
• 48:02
  should be something that we're definitely putting focus and
• 48:06
  consideration into when developing our through our
• 48:10
  customs, right? Whatever our respective group
• 48:12
  does or how it's done, the landscape and the and the
• 48:16
  geography should should definitely, I feel play a big
• 48:19
  role in that. Yeah, 100%.
• 48:23
  Well, it's like, so prime example for US, one of the
• 48:28
  things that we have done with our calendar is we have been
• 48:34
  developing a charming of plow ritual.
• 48:38
  OK, traditionally charming of the plow, if you're talking
• 48:44
  Scandinavian culture, would have been February, March.
• 48:48
  Well, we sat down and had the conversation of that does not
• 48:52
  make sense for the land that we are on.
• 48:56
  You know, growing up a farmer's kid, most farmers in Illinois
• 49:01
  don't hit the fields until late March, early April, right?
• 49:05
  So, you know, traditionally, you're getting more in the Seger
• 49:09
  bloat. But there's no reason why you
• 49:12
  can't mix those two together into something that is uniquely,
• 49:17
  you know, your tribe or usually your kindred.
• 49:22
  And it does a better job of honoring the place and time that
• 49:26
  you are now in. Yeah.
• 49:29
  No, that's a great point. I mean, you know, our tribe
• 49:33
  tends to follow the, the the old ways observations of the holy
• 49:39
  tides, right? So we'll, we'll observe three
• 49:41
  major bloats a year being Yul Segarbloat and the winter nights
• 49:48
  Vitor Netter. But our Segar bloat, like we'll
• 49:51
  just use that an example. I mean, Segarbloat was victory
• 49:54
  was a victory bloat. It was it was a it was a
• 49:56
  summertime. It was to welcome the summer,
• 50:00
  but it was, it was 4 victory in raids and war and, and, and, and
• 50:05
  starting to plan things of that nature 'cause that's what they
• 50:07
  were about to go and do. Our tribe, you know, we are not,
• 50:12
  you know, there's nobody in us that are, that are in a war
• 50:15
  band. We're not, we're not about to go
• 50:16
  and, and raid, you know, the neighbors or anything like that.
• 50:20
  Our cigar bloat is not for victory in combat or victory in
• 50:23
  warfare or anything like that. And it's, it's not a bloat that
• 50:27
  we dedicate to Odin for that reason, like maybe the
• 50:31
  historical way it was. It's it's a bloke for victory in
• 50:34
  our lives. And, and we, and interestingly,
• 50:36
  we dedicate it to prayer because we want peace, we want
• 50:39
  fertility, We want, we want, you know, good cultivating of, of
• 50:44
  crops and, and things that way we can be healthy and, and
• 50:48
  strong and, and, and plenteous and, and all that sort of thing.
• 50:51
  So, you know, our tribes celebration of cerebral is
• 50:54
  probably very different than another tribe celebration or
• 50:58
  observation of cigarilla, but that's part of our tribal
• 51:02
  culture. That's part of our food.
• 51:04
  It's part of our custom. That's just how we've done it.
• 51:09
  And and for the reasons why I just stated, you know, it
• 51:11
  doesn't make sense for us to think about, you know,
• 51:16
  performing a victory bloat for war when we're not doing that.
• 51:20
  That's not us. You know we're not a war band.
• 51:24
  Yeah, no, 100%. You got to do what works for
• 51:27
  you. And I mean, we're very similar.
• 51:30
  I will say we do Hale Oden at Segerglow for victory in the new
• 51:39
  year, but it's much more pacified in the sense of, you
• 51:43
  know, hoping to do well in the coming year with, you know, our
• 51:48
  ordeals and our challenges. But then we also hail Frayer for
• 51:53
  the same reasons because I am literally smack dab in the
• 51:57
  middle of nowhere surrounded by cornfields.
• 52:00
  So, you know, we, you know, basically doing what we can to
• 52:04
  help the neighbors crop. But then I also look for it
• 52:08
  because my dad still farms. So, you know, I hail Frayer,
• 52:13
  hoping that my family continues to do well and as you know,
• 52:16
  prosperous in our agricultural endeavors.
• 52:21
  Yeah, yeah. And you know what I mean?
• 52:25
  Like Thor is a big one for us. I mean, our, our, our tribe's
• 52:30
  name is, is Clarity folk. It's the Clarity is another name
• 52:34
  of Thor and some of the, and some of the stories, right.
• 52:37
  But we, we, we generally have a very hyper focus on, on Thor and
• 52:41
  the theme 'cause we, he's around all the time in times when
• 52:44
  technically a thunderstorm should not be happening.
• 52:47
  It's, it's happening Like we've had, we've had snowstorms here
• 52:51
  and it be thundering. We've had Thunder snow.
• 52:54
  Like that's not really something that you would hear about in any
• 52:58
  like Navia maybe or, you know, stuff like that.
• 53:02
  It doesn't, doesn't happen. But here for us in our region,
• 53:05
  you know, like that's it's kind of a thing.
• 53:08
  Yeah, good old Midwest weather. So funny story, actually.
• 53:12
  So Chris is from Texas and had jokingly mentioned one time to
• 53:17
  him about Thunder snow and we were doing something and it
• 53:22
  happened and he's like, what was that?
• 53:24
  And it's like, oh, that's just Thor and Scotty having a
• 53:26
  domestic 'cause we both work with them at different time
• 53:31
  around that time of the year. So at the way Chris has got our
• 53:35
  calendar set up is so we do the three major bloats, winter
• 53:41
  nights, Yule and then Seger bloat.
• 53:43
  But then we try to do bloat monthly with the moon.
• 53:48
  So each moon's kind of got a designation.
• 53:51
  So February is the cold moon, I believe.
• 53:54
  So that's when we bloked Scott. And then March is the worm moon.
• 53:58
  So that's when we bloked Thor, which is also big deal for us
• 54:03
  because we don't necessarily ascribe to the patron and matron
• 54:08
  deity system, but like, if we were going to pick a deity to
• 54:12
  represent Vogersleta, it would most likely be Thor.
• 54:16
  And March also happened to be our birthday month as a tribe.
• 54:22
  So March is a very big deal for us.
• 54:26
  Yeah, which again goes back to the whole, you know, tribal
• 54:29
  mythos and and you're through, it's like that's unique to
• 54:32
  Vogersleta. You know, that's not something
• 54:34
  that anybody else that listens or watches this should try to
• 54:37
  emulate for the same reasons. You know what I mean?
• 54:40
  Like if if you want to bloat every month on a full moon, or
• 54:43
  if you want to do you do something like that and you want
• 54:46
  to adopt that idea, don't do it. Because we're sitting here
• 54:50
  talking about it. And that's, you know, like, Oh
• 54:52
  well, that's the way they're doing it.
• 54:53
  So that's the way we should do it.
• 54:55
  I mean, think about the why, right?
• 54:57
  What's the purpose behind what we're each here talking about
• 55:02
  doing and realize that the why and the purpose have come to be
• 55:08
  due to the work that each group has respectively done.
• 55:13
  You know, it didn't just come up on that first meeting.
• 55:16
  I'm sure you know that you guys were going to be doing it a
• 55:19
  certain way. You know, the, the, the lunar
• 55:21
  months, the the how, the calendar thing.
• 55:23
  Like I'm sure this all took time.
• 55:27
  It wasn't just something that sprang up and be like, now we're
• 55:29
  doing it this way guys, you know?
• 55:32
  No, we are always tweaking. We are always developing stuff.
• 55:38
  Chris has been working on the ritual calendar almost since we
• 55:44
  established the tribe. So calendar has been around for
• 55:48
  about 3 years. We have not had a year where we
• 55:51
  have successfully been able to make it all the way through.
• 55:54
  So we have not been, you know, we have not done every single
• 55:57
  bloat just because, you know, life things happen.
• 56:02
  Had to cancel bloats before because I get sick, you know,
• 56:06
  and so like the rest of the tribe will get together and do
• 56:09
  something, but then, you know, it's doesn't exactly feel the
• 56:14
  same because not everyone's there, you know, in our specific
• 56:19
  roles doing our doing our thing. So, but no, like if you get
• 56:27
  inspired by something, you shouldn't just carve and copy
• 56:32
  it. Like, if you want to pull little
• 56:35
  Nuggets from it, that's one thing, but use that inspiration
• 56:39
  to find your own, you know, find your own mythos, find your own
• 56:43
  stories, and then work to tell that.
• 56:46
  Yeah, yeah, man, that's why, that's why I really keep going
• 56:50
  back to the importance of tribalism and, and why it works
• 56:58
  so well and why it, it is the perfect model for Heathenry.
• 57:02
  There's a lot of people that listen to this show and, and,
• 57:04
  and and stuff that are solitary, that, that have no tribe, that
• 57:08
  have no group for whatever reason.
• 57:12
  And I'm like, man, you're missing out.
• 57:13
  You're missing out so much because you can't experience,
• 57:18
  you can't do like you can have a version of it.
• 57:20
  You can obviously do your own solitary work.
• 57:23
  You can do your own ritual practices, you know, you can
• 57:28
  have your own way of doing things, your your individual
• 57:30
  cultic practice, which everybody, regardless of whether
• 57:34
  you have a tribe or anything you're connected with, you know,
• 57:37
  that's important. You know what I mean?
• 57:39
  Like, I don't ever want to take away from the fact that, you
• 57:41
  know, individual cultic practice your hearth cult, even if it's
• 57:46
  just you in your home, I mean, that's your hearth.
• 57:49
  That's what you do, how you do it in your home is your hearth
• 57:52
  cult. But to but to be like to, to
• 57:59
  consciously avoid or, or to keep away from the, the group setting
• 58:04
  the the, the group approach to things.
• 58:06
  I don't know. I mean, I, I just feel like
• 58:09
  people are, are missing out on so much, you know, if if they're
• 58:14
  consciously avoiding it, you know what I mean?
• 58:16
  Like, oh, there's just, there's there's nothing here in my area.
• 58:20
  I mean, here you're in the middle of bump up nowhere.
• 58:23
  Yeah, you know, and you figured it out.
• 58:25
  You got, you know what I mean? There's people out there that
• 58:29
  want to be a part of something and and even if you can't find
• 58:32
  other people already doing it, then damn it, start something
• 58:36
  yourself and, and start to that. Start that network because the
• 58:40
  people will will come to that. You know, they will eventually,
• 58:44
  as cliche as it sounds, be the change that you want to see
• 58:49
  because no one is going to do it for you.
• 58:52
  Yeah, going back to solo practitioners, well, I do agree,
• 58:58
  like obviously, 'cause I'm a tribal heathen, like tribe is
• 59:02
  where it's at. My tribe is extremely important
• 59:05
  to me. But I also recognize in this
• 59:08
  modern landscape that we have found with American Heathenry
• 59:12
  that you know, there are some good chances that if you've got
• 59:15
  11 genuine solo practitioner doing bloat versus 20 cardboard
• 59:24
  Viking Plagueans who have only started a group in order to get
• 59:28
  wasted on me. Like gods are definitely going
• 59:31
  to pay attention to that one person over the 20.
• 59:35
  But the one I would still highly recommend that you find
• 59:41
  community because you you can't even describe the feeling of
• 59:47
  doing bloat or doing genuine stumble with people until you've
• 59:53
  had that genuine interaction. Yeah, yeah, 100%.
• 1:00:00
  You know, and it's, you know, you found you found Eric and
• 1:00:07
  then by through him, you know, you found me.
• 1:00:09
  And like I learned a lot about starting to do things in in the
• 1:00:15
  way that we've started doing or the way we've doing them through
• 1:00:18
  Eric, you know what I mean? Like he's been a been a huge.
• 1:00:21
  Teacher for for me, but again, not doing it the same way that
• 1:00:26
  they do it right, like learning the ideas or or or taking those,
• 1:00:29
  those concepts, doing the research, finding the answers,
• 1:00:32
  you know, and then and formulating a, a, a, a praxis
• 1:00:36
  for it that that works for me and us in our area.
• 1:00:42
  You got to start with something, you know, and I wonder too, if,
• 1:00:46
  if there's, if, if people just get so like, gosh, there's just
• 1:00:52
  so much to this and they feel like, where do you like, where
• 1:00:55
  do you start? You know, where do, where do
• 1:00:57
  you, what's the first step? You know, because it can be
• 1:01:01
  overwhelming if, if, if people start thinking about, you know,
• 1:01:04
  hearing everything that we're talking about and realizing
• 1:01:07
  that, man, that sounds great. But you know what do I even?
• 1:01:10
  Where do I even start with it? Yeah.
• 1:01:13
  So the advice that I usually give to people on that note is,
• 1:01:17
  you know, the first step. It's taking the first step.
• 1:01:22
  It gets easier the longer you keep walking.
• 1:01:26
  But again, I've only been at this for, you know, four, 4 1/2
• 1:01:30
  years. I've got stuff that I haven't
• 1:01:32
  even touched yet. Room casting.
• 1:01:35
  Everyone's into room casting. Never done room casting.
• 1:01:41
  It's not that I'm not interested in it, it's just it's not at the
• 1:01:45
  top of my To Do List yet so it's not something that I've really
• 1:01:49
  done. I know enough old Norse and
• 1:01:55
  Anglo-Saxon terms to get me through ritual, but haven't
• 1:02:01
  taken the time to learn how to speak it yet just because it's
• 1:02:04
  not at the top of my To Do List. The easiest way to avoid burnout
• 1:02:11
  that I have found is do the things that you're interested in
• 1:02:15
  first. Once you've done the basics like
• 1:02:18
  everyone should read the Eddas, browse through the sagas, you
• 1:02:25
  know Saxo, like you know hit some of the old school sources
• 1:02:31
  1st to get a foundation and then after that look at the things
• 1:02:36
  that interest you. You know Rome, Rome and
• 1:02:42
  Heathenry were not built in a day.
• 1:02:44
  Like it took our ancestors from the dawn of time until, you
• 1:02:50
  know, the end of the Viking Age to build up what they had.
• 1:02:54
  Yeah, well, you brought up a really interesting topic too,
• 1:02:59
  with runes, one might say hearing that, you know that as
• 1:03:05
  as a Gozi, right? Like you would like, I think 1
• 1:03:09
  might argue that, well, man, then how can you be go if you
• 1:03:13
  don't do rune readings or, or, or cast runes or use runes for,
• 1:03:18
  for divination. You know what I mean?
• 1:03:20
  Like one might, one might argue that that's almost a, a
• 1:03:22
  rudimentary basic sort of thing that any go these should, should
• 1:03:26
  be proficient in. You know, we talked earlier
• 1:03:28
  about some of the things that we might think of in terms of
• 1:03:31
  whether what are some of the mandatory or required bits, You
• 1:03:34
  know, you mentioned the lore knowing the lore knowing, but
• 1:03:37
  but more importantly, knowing the, the lore of your tribe, you
• 1:03:40
  know, and the mythos of your tribe, interestingly enough,
• 1:03:43
  right, knowing the runes and all that wasn't part of your list.
• 1:03:47
  And I think that's an interesting observation, you
• 1:03:49
  know, cause again, a lot of people might just assume that
• 1:03:52
  that's any go the every go thee should should, you know, have
• 1:03:58
  their own runes and, and know how to read them and, and and
• 1:04:00
  all this stuff. Yeah, and I would agree to an
• 1:04:04
  extent. So like I know what the runes
• 1:04:07
  are, you know, I have combed my way through what they actually
• 1:04:12
  are, how to pronounce all of them, rune casting.
• 1:04:16
  Just again, I find it interesting, but it's just not
• 1:04:21
  at the top of my To Do List. But as a leader, cause again
• 1:04:26
  going back to ago, the central role is the spiritual leader of
• 1:04:30
  the tribe. So I have this one thing that I
• 1:04:35
  am not super knowledgeable in, but what I have been able to do
• 1:04:40
  is cultivate a sister in the tribe.
• 1:04:44
  Our sister Sarah, she is very identic in her practices and
• 1:04:49
  does room readings and stuff like that.
• 1:04:52
  So it's like while I can be honest enough and humble enough
• 1:04:57
  with myself and others to go, I don't know how to do that, but I
• 1:05:01
  know someone who does is very knowledgeable who will help you
• 1:05:06
  or, you know, help us as a tribe or whatever.
• 1:05:10
  So again, to me the central role of go the goes back to spiritual
• 1:05:16
  leader and teacher. Yeah, yeah, I've seen that also
• 1:05:21
  exist in the like the the the dynamic of the members of of a
• 1:05:28
  group where the go the is like they preside over the ritual.
• 1:05:32
  They do a lot of the the ritual work, but any of the magical
• 1:05:37
  stuff, the divination, like any of the things that that rune
• 1:05:40
  castings and whatnot might fall under, they don't do.
• 1:05:43
  They leave that to, in this particular example that I'm
• 1:05:46
  about to give, you know, that person was the tribes Vulva and
• 1:05:52
  they work hand in hand. The vulva and the Gothi work
• 1:05:55
  very closely when it comes to the, the ritual set up and, and,
• 1:06:02
  and how they're going to do this or that.
• 1:06:04
  But when it comes to any of the, the workings of the like
• 1:06:08
  divinatory work, even the go the in that group didn't dabble in
• 1:06:14
  it. They they they left that to the
• 1:06:16
  to the person who was designated for that type of thing, you
• 1:06:21
  know, so just because of the name, just because the title
• 1:06:23
  maybe invokes certain images or or certain ideas of what that
• 1:06:28
  what should come with that job. Not always the case, you know,
• 1:06:33
  but to have somebody in that position to have that sort of
• 1:06:36
  resource dedicated to that thing right?
• 1:06:39
  That that box gets checked. Those bases are covered.
• 1:06:43
  We've got it when we need it kind of thing.
• 1:06:45
  We. Yeah.
• 1:06:47
  And to me, that is the most important thing.
• 1:06:49
  It goes back to the mentality of, you know, leaders eat last.
• 1:06:55
  What can I do to make sure that my people are satisfied and
• 1:06:59
  taken care of, even if it means having to go outside of yourself
• 1:07:05
  to ask for help? Have you have you run into any
• 1:07:13
  challenges yourself? I know we talked earlier about,
• 1:07:15
  you know, you when you initially got the, the, the responsibility
• 1:07:20
  or the job, right, kind of put on you, you were like, man, I
• 1:07:23
  really just don't want to. I don't want to do this.
• 1:07:25
  You know, this is not what I want to do, but you did it
• 1:07:28
  anyway. Have you ever had any, any
• 1:07:32
  experiences thus far with, with the tribe where you were like,
• 1:07:38
  I'm just not the right guy for this?
• 1:07:40
  Like, have you ever doubted yourself to the point of feeling
• 1:07:44
  like maybe there was a mistake? Oh, every day.
• 1:07:48
  But I also think that's most of us that are in these leadership
• 1:07:51
  roles, lot of us go to bed at night thinking, damn, I could
• 1:07:55
  have done that better or shit, why did I do that in the middle
• 1:08:00
  of ritual instead of, you know, doing this other thing or.
• 1:08:06
  But at the same time though, from what I have learned from
• 1:08:11
  other leadership roles that, you know, I have been in and stuff,
• 1:08:15
  I think as you mature as a leader, that just becomes a
• 1:08:18
  natural part of it to the point that I think I would almost be
• 1:08:23
  afraid to not have that feeling when I go to bed at night or
• 1:08:28
  when I'm in the middle of something.
• 1:08:29
  So it's kind of, you know, it's one of those ways that the
• 1:08:32
  ancestors kind of keep me in check, as it were, you know?
• 1:08:39
  So you should always have that small twinge of self doubt
• 1:08:43
  because that means there's room for improvement.
• 1:08:47
  If you don't feel like there's any more room for improvement,
• 1:08:50
  then that would be at the point where I would say you're doing
• 1:08:53
  something wrong. Yeah, yeah.
• 1:08:59
  And you know. The only other challenge I
• 1:09:01
  really have is like now that you know, we've, we're getting our
• 1:09:04
  feet under us and we've got stuff established.
• 1:09:07
  Biggest challenge I have now it's personal life stuff because
• 1:09:10
  like bloat will come up and it's like I really want to do bloat,
• 1:09:14
  but I got this other obligation that I got to do, you know, in
• 1:09:18
  my personal life for you know, I got XY and Z thing that's
• 1:09:22
  happened and I would rather do tribe time.
• 1:09:26
  But you know, but the thing that you got to recognize as a leader
• 1:09:30
  is you got to lead by example. So when the 5th obligations come
• 1:09:33
  knocking, you know you have to give it its due.
• 1:09:36
  Or, you know, when there's a matter of gefrain or you know, a
• 1:09:40
  community need that might be outside your tribe 'cause you
• 1:09:46
  know, tribal relationships are not just people that you do
• 1:09:50
  bloat with. You know, they are friends and
• 1:09:53
  family and other roots in the community, as it were.
• 1:09:58
  So in order to be a leader who preaches, you know, the value of
• 1:10:03
  Frith and Giffrain and things like that, when a situation,
• 1:10:09
  even if it's not exactly what you want to do, comes knocking,
• 1:10:12
  you have to rise to it 'cause you know your people and other
• 1:10:16
  people are watching you. Yeah, yeah, that's the that's
• 1:10:22
  the thing I've always gone back to, you know, is, is when when
• 1:10:25
  we get put in, you know, when anybody gets entrusted, I think
• 1:10:29
  is a good way of putting it. You know, people are trusting us
• 1:10:32
  to do the thing, right, Be that person, be that and they, you
• 1:10:37
  know, have this idea or this, this notion that, well, because
• 1:10:41
  they have this title, because they're known as such, then we
• 1:10:45
  should trust them, you know, to, to lead in that way, to do the
• 1:10:50
  thing that whatever that person does.
• 1:10:52
  I've, I've used the example before of like, you know, as the
• 1:10:55
  tribe, as the Chieftain goes, so does the tribe go right.
• 1:10:59
  Well, if the Chieftain has no tribe, then they're not a
• 1:11:01
  Chieftain. And if the tribe's Chieftain is,
• 1:11:04
  is slacking, you know, and not doing the thing for the people
• 1:11:09
  to follow everybody suffering in, in, in the interim, right,
• 1:11:14
  They're not able to trust that person, right.
• 1:11:16
  Well, well, what it, why is so and so doing this thing that or
• 1:11:20
  the other? Aren't they supposed to be the
• 1:11:21
  ones that we, you know, can lean on And, and, you know, again,
• 1:11:27
  trust and, and it goes back to Frith.
• 1:11:29
  I mean, because trust is part of it.
• 1:11:30
  There's so many things that Frith encompasses trust being
• 1:11:33
  one of them. But it's a shared trust, you
• 1:11:36
  know, like I'm, I'm entrusted to do this XY thing.
• 1:11:40
  And I'm also trusting that these people are going to follow suit.
• 1:11:46
  You know that we're all on the same page with it.
• 1:11:51
  Yeah, and I would agree with that oddly enough that So I
• 1:11:56
  agree with the core sentiment of everything that you just said.
• 1:12:00
  But being involved with some of these other online communities
• 1:12:04
  and stuff, I have also noticed a drastic, like polar opposite
• 1:12:10
  reaction in the sense of if you have this title or you proclaim
• 1:12:15
  that title to other people, you almost got to work twice, if not
• 1:12:20
  three times as hard to justify why you were trusted with that
• 1:12:24
  title. Because generally, that's why I
• 1:12:30
  don't usually call myself or mention myself as the Chieftain
• 1:12:35
  and Govey of Vogers Letta until someone else does.
• 1:12:38
  If somebody asks me, I just say, you know, I am hoody of the
• 1:12:41
  tribe. Vogers Letta.
• 1:12:44
  Yeah. And then, you know, they'll
• 1:12:46
  usually figure it out after, you know, talking, you know, talking
• 1:12:51
  with them for a while of, oh, this guy actually knows his
• 1:12:54
  stuff. I wonder what he actually does
• 1:12:56
  in the tribe. But I have found that if you
• 1:12:59
  don't leave with that, you usually get better responses.
• 1:13:05
  Yeah, no, I would, I would, I would agree as well because
• 1:13:09
  again, the, the people on these in these online groups, whether
• 1:13:13
  it's a Discord server or Facebook group or whatever.
• 1:13:15
  I mean, if they're not connected to the tribe in any sort of way
• 1:13:20
  or they don't know you personally, then then all
• 1:13:22
  they're going to see is, ah, this Jackass over here thinks he
• 1:13:24
  says something or whatever, you know what I mean?
• 1:13:27
  Thinks he's a chief and thinks he's a goalie.
• 1:13:28
  Well, what makes you think you're this or that?
• 1:13:30
  And then there you go. Right.
• 1:13:31
  Like, well, actually, no, I don't, but the people do.
• 1:13:34
  The people who I'm connected with do and that's why I am
• 1:13:38
  this. So yeah, I I would, I think
• 1:13:39
  that's a good, that's a good healthy approach is to is to
• 1:13:43
  write for for for PR cases or for PR sake.
• 1:13:49
  Like to, to know who the go the is or who the Chieftain is or
• 1:13:53
  who the fool is. Like, OK, you know, but but the,
• 1:13:57
  the more people need to like if you have to go around everywhere
• 1:13:59
  and be like, Oh yeah, by the way, guys, I'm the Chieftain.
• 1:14:02
  This I'm the go the that, you know what I mean, then
• 1:14:05
  something's wrong. You know, you shouldn't have to
• 1:14:07
  be, you shouldn't have to be the one that's Tooting your own horn
• 1:14:10
  here, you know? No, exactly.
• 1:14:15
  And if you are, then again, what what what's really going on?
• 1:14:17
  Are you just, is it just a cosplay thing or?
• 1:14:21
  Yeah, you definitely run into those traps.
• 1:14:25
  Yeah. So how can people find out more
• 1:14:31
  about Vogersleta I I think you mentioned earlier there was like
• 1:14:35
  a, a, a moot group. Yes.
• 1:14:39
  So Vogersleta does not have a social media presence as a
• 1:14:45
  tribe. That's kind of a personal
• 1:14:49
  decision in the sense of we weren't, we, we didn't form the
• 1:14:54
  tribe to get social media attention.
• 1:14:57
  We got the, you know, we formed the tribe to do our thing,
• 1:15:02
  knowing that we also wanted to help the community.
• 1:15:06
  That's why we did the Facebook page for Land of Lincoln.
• 1:15:09
  So if you go to Facebook and you search Land of Lincoln Heathens,
• 1:15:14
  OK, it'll pop up. And then that's our MOOC group.
• 1:15:19
  We try to do things monthly or at least every other month, but
• 1:15:25
  we also run it as a discussion page 2.
• 1:15:29
  So we'll randomly post, you know, topics, questions, you
• 1:15:34
  know, blurbs about the sources and different learning materials
• 1:15:38
  and stuff. So we try to keep it active as
• 1:15:41
  best as we can. Yeah, and I'm sure that there's
• 1:15:44
  people that I mean, like, because we've got, you know,
• 1:15:49
  there's Facebook groups like that for here in Middle
• 1:15:52
  Tennessee. Like we have a Middle Tennessee
• 1:15:53
  heathens group. There's more than just heathens
• 1:15:57
  in that group. I mean, there's all kinds of non
• 1:15:59
  traditional religious folks, whether they're, you know, Pagan
• 1:16:04
  of any sort of variety 'cause you know, you never know just if
• 1:16:10
  you're going to plan something and you want to do it for the
• 1:16:13
  quote UN quote Middle Tennessee heathens.
• 1:16:15
  I mean, you might again, it's kind of like, you know, the the
• 1:16:18
  Ootengard in and guard thing. Well, you're not going to get to
• 1:16:21
  know who your in and guard is until you've explored that Ooten
• 1:16:25
  guard, you know, so make it accessible to people that aren't
• 1:16:28
  maybe not necessarily heathen and then they can come and, you
• 1:16:32
  know, ask questions or, you know, meet the, you know.
• 1:16:37
  Yeah, 100%. And that's how we run our so our
• 1:16:40
  moots are open to anybody. Anyone is welcome to come.
• 1:16:45
  But we are very upfront of we we are only going to present
• 1:16:50
  Germanic heathen topics. So it is a place to go if you
• 1:16:55
  want to learn about Germanic heathenry.
• 1:16:59
  But you don't have to be a heathen to come.
• 1:17:03
  Yeah, Yeah. And that's one of the biggest
• 1:17:07
  things around for us here is, is we are so diverse.
• 1:17:09
  Like the area is so diverse. There's there's so many folks
• 1:17:13
  that are interested in it, but that not to not to the extent of
• 1:17:17
  wanting to adopt it as their belief.
• 1:17:20
  You know, like they're, they're, they're comfortable and they're
• 1:17:22
  happy and they're whatever, you know, eclectic, Wiccan, Pagan,
• 1:17:27
  whatever they are. I mean, but they like hanging
• 1:17:30
  out with all of us. You know, generally the crowd of
• 1:17:33
  people that, that comes out to these meet ups or, or whatever
• 1:17:36
  they have might be considered like every couple of weeks
• 1:17:39
  there's a guy around here, he has, he calls them pianos, like
• 1:17:42
  the Pagan night out pianos, but they're held in like the middle
• 1:17:45
  of the day, usually at like a Dunkin Donut or, or some sort of
• 1:17:47
  like metaphysical, metaphysical shop or, or whatever somewhere.
• 1:17:52
  And so it's like, it's a mixture.
• 1:17:53
  It's, it's, you know, the pagans and the heathens just kind of
• 1:17:55
  take over the space every couple of weeks, you know, and it's a,
• 1:17:59
  it's a nice time for us to just hang out and socialize and, and
• 1:18:04
  meet people. And there's, there's always
• 1:18:05
  usually good blends of conversation, you know, because
• 1:18:08
  there's several of us out there that are heathen.
• 1:18:11
  Well, we always, well, a topic might come up and it's always
• 1:18:14
  looked at through a heathen lens, you know, and so you get
• 1:18:18
  people that are like, I didn't know like that was a thing or
• 1:18:21
  that, you know, you thought about it that way.
• 1:18:23
  So sounds something similar to what you guys are doing.
• 1:18:28
  Yeah, trying to again, it's just trying to find different ways to
• 1:18:31
  kind of open up the community and look for engagement.
• 1:18:35
  One of the things that we are planning to do, we should have a
• 1:18:39
  start advertising the event here soon, is we had the idea to turn
• 1:18:45
  Leif Erickson Day into basically Nordic Saint Patty's Day up here
• 1:18:51
  in Illinois. So we're basically going to turn
• 1:18:53
  Leif Erickson Day into a huge bar crawl in Springfield, IL.
• 1:18:58
  But the reason being is if we can get 50-60 people show up to
• 1:19:02
  this thing, and then over the course of the day they have
• 1:19:06
  heathen conversations with us. You know, if we can get at least
• 1:19:09
  three people interested in actual heathen wreath, then I
• 1:19:13
  feel like I did my job. Yeah.
• 1:19:15
  Yeah, yeah. How, how, how good is the, the,
• 1:19:21
  the, the, I don't want to say turn around, but like the rate
• 1:19:25
  at which your public meet ups generate enough of an interest
• 1:19:30
  that you, you start getting people that are interested in
• 1:19:32
  Wagersletsu, like they want to tie themselves to a group and
• 1:19:36
  and and become part of a tribe. Like how?
• 1:19:39
  How successful has that been? So we are, in that regard, we
• 1:19:47
  are one and two. So we had another hearth that
• 1:19:52
  was interested in joining. We got to a point where we were
• 1:19:56
  comfortable enough with them that we invited them to do bloat
• 1:20:00
  and then they realized it wasn't for them.
• 1:20:02
  So you know, no knocks or hard feelings or anything.
• 1:20:07
  And then the second time that we had worth someone to the point
• 1:20:13
  that we invited them for bloat, was our sister Sarah.
• 1:20:18
  So she came to a couple of bloats and then we owed her in
• 1:20:23
  this past winter's night, which, funny enough, worked itself out
• 1:20:29
  because as Odinic as she is, winter nights was a very
• 1:20:34
  appropriate time to get her in. Yeah, yeah, that's really nice,
• 1:20:39
  man. I'm excited that, you know,
• 1:20:42
  first of all, just to learn about what what's going on up
• 1:20:45
  there in your neck of the woods and and to hear the approaches
• 1:20:50
  that you that you've taken. You know, everybody that we
• 1:20:54
  talked about in terms of mentors or sources of inspiration, I
• 1:21:01
  either vouch for them because I know them on a, on a somewhat
• 1:21:04
  personal level or have observed enough of what they're doing to
• 1:21:08
  be like, yeah, you're, you're you, you, you can learn a lot of
• 1:21:12
  good things from them. You know what I mean?
• 1:21:15
  And I don't want to, I don't want to like discredit people
• 1:21:17
  that have, you know, maybe have, have have become a bit of a, of
• 1:21:21
  a like certain names or certain, you know, sources out here in
• 1:21:27
  modern times, You know, certain, certain names just carry with
• 1:21:29
  them like a stigma. And, and while I understand why
• 1:21:34
  all that is and, and that, you know, they, they tend to get a
• 1:21:36
  bad rap because of the things that they've done or said, I
• 1:21:40
  still think it's important to recognize that you can still
• 1:21:43
  learn from that as well, because you can learn how to do things.
• 1:21:47
  You can also learn how not to do things.
• 1:21:49
  It's still a learning opportunity.
• 1:21:51
  And you know, don't, don't turn away from opportunities to learn
• 1:21:56
  from someone or, or someplace just because of the sour
• 1:22:02
  reputation that they may have. Like you could maybe learn a lot
• 1:22:06
  of what to avoid or, or or whatever.
• 1:22:09
  Like it's still a learning opportunity I guess is what I'm
• 1:22:11
  saying. No 100% and I guess last piece
• 1:22:16
  of advice 'cause I'm sure we're getting low on time for people
• 1:22:21
  would be don't stick with one person for everything.
• 1:22:26
  Oh yeah. 'Cause like, when I got started,
• 1:22:30
  I'm not going to lie, he told all the viewers not to do it,
• 1:22:33
  but I was one of them that did it in the beginning.
• 1:22:35
  I hung and clung to every word Eric said like it was gold until
• 1:22:41
  I started to, you know, mature into my own practices.
• 1:22:46
  But you and Eric especially, I look at you guys as spiritual
• 1:22:53
  mentors because Heathenry is not just religious, you know, it is
• 1:22:59
  religious, it is spiritual, it is cultural community building.
• 1:23:04
  So find mentors in these different aspects cause like,
• 1:23:10
  you know, you and Eric have got a very, you know, you guys learn
• 1:23:15
  more Anglo-Saxon in a lot of areas, which really grabbed my
• 1:23:21
  attention and kind of form the basis of a lot of practices and
• 1:23:26
  opinions that I have developed. But religiously I have found
• 1:23:31
  working with the gods and goddess, I do tend to be a
• 1:23:34
  little bit more Nordic in that sense.
• 1:23:37
  And so go the Bodvar and Gidea Schoogle at Northwoods Kindred
• 1:23:44
  have been very good for that. So I I kind of look at them as
• 1:23:48
  more religious mentors when it comes to the way that they bloat
• 1:23:53
  and interact with the gods and goddesses.
• 1:23:56
  Yeah. So yeah, just put a pin in just
• 1:24:01
  one person and call it a day. Like, you know, build some
• 1:24:05
  community and, you know, actually learn from, you know,
• 1:24:08
  multitude of people. Yeah, 100% It's like the it's
• 1:24:13
  like you, I may be dating myself here, but reading Rainbow Levar
• 1:24:17
  Burton, right. Every time he finished his thing
• 1:24:19
  was you don't have to take my word for it, you know, and it's
• 1:24:24
  in the same way, right? Like please, like we can't say
• 1:24:28
  it enough. Don't don't hang on every word
• 1:24:31
  that your favorite content creator, podcaster, you know,
• 1:24:35
  whatever might say. And it's, you know, it's
• 1:24:38
  flattering. It's, it's nice to know that
• 1:24:40
  what people out here like us are saying is, is, you know, doing
• 1:24:45
  well for people that they're, they're learning and that
• 1:24:47
  they're actually finding answers themselves and they're, they're
• 1:24:50
  finding other resources and they're doing well with it.
• 1:24:53
  Like they're, it's, it's great to hear the success story of
• 1:24:56
  Wagersletsa. I mean, just hearing the story,
• 1:24:58
  the background and, and knowing a little bit more about you
• 1:25:02
  guys. I'm, I'm very excited to know
• 1:25:05
  that, you know, it's, it's happening and however it
• 1:25:08
  happened, however it started, whoever it was that helped kind
• 1:25:11
  of get that ball rolling for you guys isn't as important as the
• 1:25:16
  fact that you're doing it. You know what I mean?
• 1:25:18
  Like that's, it's flattering. It's nice to know that, you
• 1:25:20
  know, but I, I, I just want to always go back to the fact is,
• 1:25:24
  is do your thing. Like do it, take that first step
• 1:25:27
  and mention that earlier, right? Where do I start?
• 1:25:29
  Well, the you start, you start when you start, you start with
• 1:25:33
  that first step. It might be rocky, you might
• 1:25:36
  really not know what you're doing, but hey, at least you've
• 1:25:39
  taken the step and there's plenty out here that you can
• 1:25:42
  find. It's it's not too hard.
• 1:25:44
  Just put in the work and stay with it and believe in it,
• 1:25:49
  right? Believe in the purpose behind
• 1:25:51
  what you're doing. And if you have that vision and
• 1:25:54
  you have that conviction and you're doing it for the right
• 1:25:58
  reasons, good will come of it. Take time, but just write it
• 1:26:03
  out. Be, you know, don't don't give
• 1:26:05
  up. Learn how to get out of your own
• 1:26:08
  way. Yeah, you.
• 1:26:11
  Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
• 1:26:12
  Good, Good, good, good, good. Advice right there.
• 1:26:15
  That's what you had to do, right?
• 1:26:16
  You know, but Hootie, man, this has been great.
• 1:26:21
  And I'm sure that folks that are that are listening to this, that
• 1:26:25
  want to know more. I'm going to link the you said
• 1:26:27
  Land of Lincoln heathens. Yeah, Land of Lincoln Heathens.
• 1:26:31
  I can send it to you too, so that you can publish it with
• 1:26:34
  this. And yeah, the other big place to
• 1:26:37
  find me is I am in Eric's discord.
• 1:26:42
  I know it's little slow going just because he doesn't, you
• 1:26:46
  know, he doesn't have a lot of time to mess with it, but he's
• 1:26:49
  got a Discord server and then the Northwoods Discord server is
• 1:26:53
  another place that I can be found most of the time.
• 1:26:57
  If anybody's, you know, got anything they want to talk about
• 1:27:00
  or any questions or anything like that.
• 1:27:03
  OK, great. Yeah, whatever you got that you
• 1:27:05
  want to send my way that I can add to the show notes here.
• 1:27:09
  I don't, I don't do the discord thing and it's not a slight to
• 1:27:12
  anyone group or whatever. It's just, I've always said this
• 1:27:15
  like it reminds me too much of something that I use at work.
• 1:27:18
  And I'm like, I just, you know, I can't, I can't deal with it.
• 1:27:22
  I can't stand it. The only reason I'm on it as
• 1:27:25
  much as I am is because I'm not admitting it like.
• 1:27:30
  I've. Seen the back door of how that
• 1:27:33
  program works 'cause we were looking at doing a discord for
• 1:27:36
  the tribe and after about a week it was like Nope.
• 1:27:40
  Yeah, yeah, yeah, like I I can relate to that.
• 1:27:44
  But yeah, anything that you've got where people that you'd
• 1:27:46
  like, you know, if they want to connect that you're accessible
• 1:27:50
  on yeah, definitely shoot it my way.
• 1:27:52
  And folks listening watching this, you know, just check the
• 1:27:55
  show notes area or if you want on Patreon watching this, check
• 1:27:59
  the the video description below. And this has been great man.
• 1:28:05
  I again, I appreciate you wanting to be a guest on the
• 1:28:08
  show, looking forward to at least, you know, if we don't
• 1:28:12
  talk again on the on a show, but just knowing that you guys are
• 1:28:15
  doing stuff up there in Central Illinois, that's, that's, you
• 1:28:18
  know, really good stuff And, and I wish nothing but the best for
• 1:28:22
  Vagrasletsa and that you continue to.
• 1:28:24
  Appreciate that buddy, and like I said it was it's good to meet
• 1:28:28
  you. I have watched you for a long
• 1:28:30
  time, so it's good to finally sit down and be able to have a
• 1:28:33
  conversation. We're trying to branch out.
• 1:28:38
  We've been doing some, we did something with an Iowa Kindred a
• 1:28:42
  couple of weeks ago, did a camping trip.
• 1:28:45
  And then Chris has also mentioned an interest in
• 1:28:48
  Shadowmoop. So we are hoping to be there for
• 1:28:52
  that once dates and things kind of get finalized and released.
• 1:28:56
  So yeah, so we're we're wandering the Prairie lands.
• 1:29:00
  We're on the move now. You're rolling out.
• 1:29:03
  You're just rolling. It's like you're living up to
• 1:29:06
  the namesake, right? That's great.
• 1:29:09
  Hang on for just a minute. When I wrap everything up,
• 1:29:12
  we'll, we'll touch base offline so I can give you the
• 1:29:14
  expectations of things. So don't hang up on me just yet.
• 1:29:17
  But is there any other parting words that you'd like to give to
• 1:29:20
  people before we we before we sign off here?
• 1:29:24
  Not other than. Just remember, especially for
• 1:29:28
  the newbies. This is called a journey for a
• 1:29:31
  reason. You know, it takes a long time
• 1:29:36
  to cultivate the knowledge and the practices that come with
• 1:29:40
  being a heathen and you are not going to do it all in a week or
• 1:29:44
  even a year. So, you know, enjoy the journey
• 1:29:48
  of it. Absolutely.
• 1:29:51
  Yep. Good reminder.
• 1:29:54
  Well, thank you very much again, Hootie for being my guest this
• 1:29:57
  week and thank you all for the listeners and and the viewers
• 1:30:00
  out here that are catching this. If you did enjoy it, you know,
• 1:30:03
  engage with the platform that you're catching this on in any
• 1:30:06
  way that shows that platform that you did enjoy it.
• 1:30:10
  You know, so if you upvote it, download it, whatever, do all
• 1:30:14
  those things and we appreciate your support as always.
• 1:30:17
  Check the show notes for the link tree link for all the ways
• 1:30:20
  you can support the podcast and follow me on all the socials.
• 1:30:23
  You can buy merchandise, become a Patreon, Patreon, all of
• 1:30:25
  that's in that link tree link that you'll see annotated and
• 1:30:29
  then anything that you see that can connect you with Hootie here
• 1:30:33
  in the show notes or the description area.
• 1:30:36
  Do be sure to check all that out as well.
• 1:30:38
  So thank you once again for everybody that is listening and
• 1:30:41
  watching for your constant and ongoing support.
• 1:30:44
  It's greatly appreciated. And until we talk to each other
• 1:30:48
  again, may the gods continue to notice you and may your
• 1:30:52
  ancestors smile upon you. We'll see you in the next one.