Latest / Random Heathen Ramblings / Random Heathen Ramblings: S4, EP41 - Returning To Fire On The Mountain 2023

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Random Heathen Ramblings: S4, EP41 - Returning To Fire On The Mountain 2023 · Random Heathen Ramblings

0:01
Hello everyone and welcome to the Random Heathen Ramblings
0:04
podcast where we discuss all sorts of things Germanic heathen
0:07
re related. My name is Jesse, I'm your host.
0:11
Let's get into it. Well, well, well, well, well,
0:38
well. Welcome back everybody.
0:41
Good to be back here. Good to see you all here again,
0:44
a special thanks to you folks here on Patreon who are watching
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this content right now. Thank you, thank you.
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Thank you for your support in this manner, to keep the video
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podcast out and live for the world to see to whatever degree
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for all of you listening on the audio platforms.
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If you want to catch what I do here in video format, you'll
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You can sign up for just a dollar a month and you don't
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If you get you know to where you saw want to see one episode and
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You can do it as frequently or infrequently as you'd like and
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that's the beauty of choice. You can choose whatever works
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month or it's just a dollar at a time to watch.
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What I do here and so much of what I do is, is more than just
1:42
audio. You know I share expression.
1:45
I I I have videos and stuff that I often times share like I'm
1:47
going to be doing today. So you know if you're not
1:50
watching this podcast, all you'll be able to capture is the
1:53
audio of the video and leave things open to your imagination.
1:57
But for instance, in this week's episode, I'm going to be sharing
2:00
with you guys sort of a summary of the fire on the mountain
2:07
retreat that myself, my tribesmen and other dear friends
2:14
and who have now become brothers all embarked on in in the
2:18
mountains of Appalachia and in in the Blue Ridge Mountains of
2:23
of North Carolina. So we are going to be talking
2:29
about that today, or at least I'm going to be sharing with you
2:30
guys kind of a summary of it. We do have some things planned
2:37
for the future. To have all of the attendees of
2:40
fire on the mountain together on one platform, at least on one
2:44
video rather, is probably the best way to put it.
2:48
Not necessarily like a you know a physical platform where we're
2:51
all sitting together like a panel, but a digital panel, a
2:54
virtual panel, as it were. There are plans to have at least
2:58
one of that to happen. Got some.
3:01
I got a cool idea courtesy of my wife who helped me think up of
3:06
what I wanted to do with regards to this particular topic, the
3:10
content, the fire in the mountain, everything about it.
3:13
So we're in talks of it where we're just making sure that the
3:16
ideas are unanimously agreed upon and that we have all of the
3:21
gears and and stuff in motion and the and then all our is
3:26
dotted and TS crossed before we announce anything official.
3:28
But today you guys are going to get a summary of Fire on the
3:34
mountain which is going to include a very special video
3:37
that was made by one of the attendees of Fire on the
3:41
mountain. You guys should know by now if
3:43
you've been listening to my stuff for any length of time.
3:45
You know who Sid Rider of Inter Demon Media is.
3:49
He's got the talking with Heathens show with Papa Olufsen
3:52
who helps host the fire on the mountain retreat.
3:56
And so Sid was there with all of us and he, you know compiled
4:01
this really awesome video that contains photographic like still
4:07
image and video footage of of of the things that we did along the
4:12
way. So and then playing over that,
4:17
you know, over that content, right, is an audio track that
4:21
was captured during a drum circle that involved all of us,
4:25
seven of us. You know, we we got the drum
4:31
under the night sky, under the stars and we captured some
4:35
audio. Sid did and so did Zeb from
4:38
Skoger Moore. He I think he might be doing
4:41
something. I can't say yes or no, I
4:44
probably just said too much. But anyway, we got audio of the
4:47
drum circle and this video that you guys are going to be seeing
4:50
today. For those of you here on Patreon
4:52
and listening, for those of you everywhere else that are
4:56
listening to this on the audio platforms, what you're going to
4:58
be hearing is the drum, the results of the part of the drum
5:03
circle. You know, it wasn't recorded
5:05
from start to finish, but we got a really nice clip of what it
5:11
sounds like when all of us get together and drum together.
5:17
So that's what we're going to be talking about today.
5:20
But before we do that, I do just want to get into something real
5:22
quick. As most of you know, November
5:26
11th was my birthday. The month of November is my
5:28
birthday month. And I've had this, you know,
5:32
thing where I have an Amazon wishlist, people that send me
5:35
stuff, I give you guys, you know, shouts out on my social
5:38
medias while I open the product. And usually it's in like short
5:41
form content. And I just want to say a very
5:43
special thank you to everyone who's listening and watching
5:46
this right now. If you've contributed to that
5:49
towards my birthday month by going on to my Amazon wish list
5:53
and picking out anything on there and sending it to me,
5:56
thank you, Thank you. Thank you so very much.
5:58
I've got some really cool things already this month.
6:01
And yeah, it's, it's still up there.
6:04
So check it out if you want. But I do want to call special
6:06
attention to a gift that I got that was not from something.
6:09
Well, it might be from something on my wish list, but it doesn't
6:12
come via the wish list. So this gift that I've got here
6:21
in my hand, I haven't opened it yet.
6:23
I I I know what it is. I don't know who it came from,
6:27
but I've refrained from opening it yet.
6:28
I wanted to do it here on the podcast because who this came
6:31
from. Billy McKinney, you are an
6:35
awesome friend and you've supported this podcast for a
6:38
very long time. For any of you guys who are new
6:41
to this and you're watching this, this the banner that you
6:44
see behind me was a gift to me from Billy McKinney.
6:49
And it's been in my long form content videos, my podcast for a
6:55
very, very, very long time since almost the very beginning of my
6:59
of my channel. So Billy has been a friend for
7:03
for quite some time. We've met in person, we've hung
7:05
out a little bit in person and he knew that I was looking for a
7:09
book and I and he told me that he had an extra copy of it.
7:13
And so Billy McKinney is also currently a Chieftain tier
7:17
patron on Patreon. So big shout out to Billy
7:20
McKinney for that kind of support as well.
7:25
But I do, I want to open this in front of everybody here on the
7:28
podcast today. So for getting those of you
7:31
listening, it's just a brown paper wrapping this as whew.
7:35
I'm stuffed with big deals if I if this is the book that I think
7:40
it is and yeah it's a big deal. So here we go opening it now and
7:51
Yep, exactly what I thought it was and it's it's it's either a
7:56
brand new copy or or he took really good care of this.
8:01
So what I have here is the Tradition of Household Spirits,
8:05
Ancestral Lore and Practices by Claude Le Coutu.
8:11
I don't know if that's the correct pronunciation of it, but
8:16
Claude le Coutu or Le Coutu? I don't know.
8:18
It's French. This is one of the books that
8:23
I've I've gone through. I've read through.
8:25
I've read excerpts out of a good friend of mine.
8:29
Another fellow brother, Greg Strong of the Raven Moon Hearth
8:31
Kindred, had a copy of this. He loaned it to me.
8:34
Read through most of it, and this is one of those books that
8:39
I always recommend to people when they look for suggestions
8:43
on reading material. You know, I have a a short
8:48
laundry list of content. You know, sometimes it's a maybe
8:53
a video if it's hard to find the actual physical book copy, Maybe
8:58
it's like an audiobook or something.
8:59
But I have a long a laundry list of of source material and things
9:04
that I recommend to people ranging from all types of stuff.
9:07
This is one of those books. Thank you, Billy.
9:11
Thank you so much for sending me this Immaculate.
9:13
I mean, the thing just looked like it came straight out of
9:16
like it hasn't, like the pages aren't even furled, you know
9:18
what I mean? So if if this was a brand new
9:20
copy, Billy, I don't know. But I mean, if it wasn't, you've
9:23
had it and have taken really good care of it.
9:27
And I'm very, very proud to own a copy of it myself now.
9:30
So thank you so much, Billy McKinney.
9:35
So anyways, guys, what I think I'd do, or what I thought I
9:39
would do is I could just jump right into this, you know,
9:42
podcast talking about what what the fire on the mountain retreat
9:45
was like. And then if I showed you the
9:49
video after it would, it would, it would, it would almost be
9:53
like going in reverse, you know what I mean?
9:55
I think that when the video plays for you, you'll have a
10:02
visual idea of some of the things that I'm going to be
10:05
talking about. And so when I talk through the
10:08
story in the summary and retell it for you, you'll have those
10:12
moments where you remember in your mind, I remember seeing
10:15
that on that video, you know? So what I thought we would do is
10:21
I'll just go ahead and play the video for you now, which again
10:26
was a bunch of content, you know, whether it was videos or
10:30
pictures that we took. You know, Sid compiled all of
10:33
this stuff together, you know, So it's not all of his original
10:36
content spliced together into a video.
10:39
It's a it's a combination of different people's photos and
10:43
videos that were compiled by Sid together in this really awesome
10:46
video. So Sid did the the hard part.
10:50
He he he went into the studio, as it were and and put
10:53
everything together on this really awesome video for us.
10:56
So you guys, please be, please be sure to follow Sid on Inner
11:00
Demon Media. He's got a Facebook page and a
11:03
YouTube channel and and he's really great guy but this is
11:07
what Sid put together. So this is about 5 1/2 minutes
11:11
of different video and audio or sorry video and photo from Fire
11:16
on the Mountain with the audio of our drum circle playing.
11:19
And I hope you all enjoy it and we'll be back to talk more about
11:22
it when it's done. Enjoy None.
12:11
The None
13:16
None. The
14:13
the None,
15:18
the. The.
15:59
The Well, I hope you all enjoyed
16:47
that. You know, for for me, watching
16:53
that video is like taking me back to each of the moments that
16:57
you saw and remembering everything that kind of led up
17:02
to those moments happening, the things that happened in those
17:07
moments, and then the things that happened following those
17:12
moments. You know, now clearly there's,
17:15
you know, 5 1/2 minutes or so worth of of footage that was
17:20
shared is barely scratching the surface of all of the stuff that
17:25
took place. A lot of things weren't
17:27
documented for obvious reasons. And you know there's there's
17:36
probably even more stuff that you guys will hear about in in
17:39
the near future, hopefully from the rest of us, you know from
17:42
the rest of the guys that were that were in attendance there
17:45
that will add layers to the story that I'm going to tell
17:50
you. So I think what I'll do is I'll
17:54
just start from the beginning, as all good stories and tales do
17:58
start from the beginning. So we arrived, Some of us
18:06
arrived there late Wednesday afternoon and the majority of us
18:12
arrived on Thursday afternoon. So that's when Thursday
18:18
afternoon is when myself and my tribe and Patrick Walsh who rode
18:23
with us arrived and we got ourselves kind of settled in to
18:30
our respective living arrangements for the for the
18:35
duration. You know that you saw some
18:40
pictures of this like circular Hut in in in in one of those you
18:48
also saw Papa sitting on a stump kind of grinding up some things
18:51
right that where all that stuff was right where the where the
18:55
stumps were the out outside fire pit and then the Hut is all in
18:58
the same area. So that was kind of our home
19:00
base camp for the retreat. And when we arrived and got
19:06
ourselves all settled in to where our respective you know,
19:09
where we had to put our luggage our our ritual supplies and all
19:13
of the things that you come to something like this with you
19:16
know Papa Olson and and and his clan his, his tribe was very
19:20
accommodating to all of us. So I just want to say very
19:24
special thank you to to Papa Allison.
19:29
Everything was wonderful. Accommodations were the best
19:33
that they could possibly be. I can't think of anything that
19:36
would have made it better. And so when we arrived and and
19:40
got ourselves all settled in it was pretty much straight to
19:46
fellowshipping. You know some of us who arrived
19:50
there had never met one another in person, you know, so there
19:53
was a lot of, there was a lot of reuniting of of friends and
19:56
brothers. But then there was also this
19:59
moment to get to know people in person on a on on that type of
20:04
level, you know, because some of us have only known each other
20:07
long distance through social media.
20:09
Obviously you know Sid and well for me at least you know the
20:14
only one that I hadn't met in person there was Sid.
20:18
But you know, Patrick and Sid hadn't met.
20:21
Patrick hadn't met Papa or Zeb from Skogamore, you know, So
20:26
there was a lot of, you know, getting to meet one another and
20:30
just having fellowship, you know, sharing and drinks, having
20:34
really delicious food. There was smoked sausages and
20:38
meats of of an exotic variety. There was bison, there was
20:41
reindeer. There was top shelf, cheeses,
20:45
bread, crackers, delicious beverages, you know, beers,
20:49
whiskey, Mead. It was a feast.
20:52
It was, it was a campsite feast with with some wonderful,
20:57
wonderful people and that that arrival and that just getting a
21:01
chance to sit down and relax and not having to worry about like,
21:04
OK, well what's when we start the work, when do we get into
21:06
business? It was just a nice gradual segue
21:09
into the way the weekend was going to start.
21:14
So at one point you know we we come up and and and meet some
21:19
more of the the people involved mainly like Papa's wife's in
21:25
they they run the Fialvetir workshop together.
21:28
You know being reacquainted with with her and the family and just
21:32
you know again just reuniting and getting that done.
21:37
So when we, when we got all of our, you know, hellos and
21:39
welcomings and stuff in, we get the feasting and and then we get
21:44
to talking about the first part of the retreat was to perform an
21:52
opening ceremony and to welcome in individuals who have come
21:57
from afar and give everyone a chance to have their words to be
22:03
heard. They can introduce themselves,
22:05
speak. Everyone that came from my tribe
22:08
had a task to do right, like we had speeches that we had to
22:13
write or prayers or respective things and I'll get to that in
22:17
just a moment. But you know, we we, we started
22:21
off the whole thing after our fellowshipping and feasting,
22:23
right. We started the the retreat off
22:26
by a land sort of land blessing land howling ceremony where the
22:34
previous year's fire on the mountain ritual and and
22:37
everything that we did with fire on the mountain last year the
22:40
previous location that it was held was on a different part of
22:44
the property than where it was held this year.
22:48
So the ritual the opening ceremony was to carry fire from
22:52
the old campsite, the old ritual site the whole the old fire on
22:56
the mountain location carry fire from there to the new location
23:01
to the new campsite to our new headquarters.
23:06
Ritualistically you know again rekindling the flame from the
23:11
last year and and ritualistically carrying it
23:15
forth to to to light our new location and it was done in a
23:21
procession sort of way where we gather together we lit fire.
23:26
It was a very specific order in which things were done who went
23:30
first excuse me you know who was in the front, who was in the
23:36
back. There was very specific methods
23:39
of of, of of that, you know, and so we get to the new, you know,
23:46
we get to the to the to the campsite where we were initially
23:49
feasting and we light the fires and and then at that point it
23:54
was time to really get into the ritual headspace of things.
24:03
Not going to go into detail about everything about what that
24:06
was. Because again there are certain
24:07
parts of this that I'm going to omit for reasons that need to be
24:12
need to be done. We need to keep certain things
24:15
private because this was a private and enclosed off and
24:17
invite only sort of event. But what I what I feel like I'm
24:22
going to be sharing is is is sufficient because you saw
24:25
footage of things and we were given permission by our hosts
24:29
that you know when we when it's appropriate to record things
24:31
when it's not appropriate to record things.
24:34
And anytime you see footage of things being shared here it it
24:39
was done with permission already being granted to do so so and
24:44
some of the slide photos that you saw you saw folks I think my
24:49
I think I had a picture of 1 and I think who else was it might
24:57
have been off. There were pictures of people
25:00
like face paint where it's like dark paint and white paint or
25:04
dark face and white paint mark with markings on it right on
25:06
their face. And that was that was part of
25:10
after the the the fires were lit, everybody was going to get
25:16
their face blackened with charcoal.
25:18
So like and you saw in the beginning of that video that I
25:21
shared, you saw Papa sitting on a stump and grinding something
25:24
up in like a pestle and mortar. He was preparing the the coal
25:31
that we were going to have our faces marked with and smudged
25:35
with, literally coal from the fire that he started on
25:39
Wednesday before we got there, because Wednesday was the day
25:42
that the land was blessed and the lid and the tear were
25:45
welcomed in and altar, an altar was placed.
25:48
You guys saw some pictures of bowls and cups in this really
25:51
pretty out outdoor altar that was all done before we got there
25:57
on on Thursday. So the coals from the fire that
26:00
were lit Wednesday night, the coals from that fire were taken,
26:07
broken down and then added a binder too.
26:10
Like, whatever I forget he uses. I think he might use oil but and
26:17
as I'm talking and I'm taking sips of water, you guys will
26:19
have to forgive me, there's the the way the weather has been
26:23
going. It's like this constant tickle
26:27
in the back of my throat. So anyway the the charcoal was
26:30
to blacken our faces and then that was that was done by Zeb.
26:35
He he blackened all of our faces.
26:37
And then once he blackened our face with the charcoal and
26:40
smudged our entire face, we were we were told to go to to Papa
26:47
who was going to paint our face with certain markings to
26:50
represent the the spirit the the nature spirit the animal spirit
26:57
that was going to kind of be there with us throughout this
26:59
whole retreat. So the the ceremony of of you
27:05
know, putting shadowing our faces, right.
27:06
Darkening our faces to conceal our identity, our physical form
27:11
or our outer shell that that that sort of the Homer maybe you
27:16
want to call it that, that physical form kind of shadowing
27:19
it, concealing it and then going to, you know, the shaman to be
27:24
painted in a way that the animal spirit was revealed.
27:28
So if you see more footage or something else pops up and you
27:32
see other people's, you know, face blackened and and and
27:36
markings on their face, you'll know what I'm talking about.
27:40
And and and what that was for. Oh, I'm, I'm actually going a
27:48
bit ahead of myself. So I mentioned earlier on.
27:50
So we'll come back to this section and and pick up from
27:52
there. So I'm going to rewind a little
27:54
bit. I mentioned early on that
27:58
everybody in my tribe had a charge or or task to do right.
28:03
So my Gozi had a was was given a task to write an opening prayer
28:10
or blessing, you know, something that falls under the category of
28:15
what a spiritual leader would do for any such thing.
28:19
So he he had to write and and recite a prayer to everyone or
28:24
or a blessing of some sort, right.
28:28
My fool. His name is Patrick.
28:32
Also not not Patrick Walsh. But he is kind of like the, you
28:38
know, as the fool one of his, one of his tasks, one of his
28:40
duties within the tribe is to kind of be that speaker of law,
28:44
you know, and to be and to know what the tribe's laws are and to
28:50
ensure that law is being held and maintained right that are
28:54
through and our laws are being adhered to and and not violated.
28:58
So his task was to write 3 laws that we were all bound to for
29:05
the event when he did that. So he had to write and recite
29:08
all three laws and he did you know and he did that.
29:10
And then my charge was to write a welcoming speech and take
29:17
oaths from all attendees as a Chieftain, right.
29:24
It was. It was my job to to write an
29:26
oath that I was binding everyone to and myself to included.
29:32
So. And then lastly but not least
29:37
the Patrick Walsh who I mentioned his he was tasked to
29:43
write a victory speech and I just got to say everybody's
29:48
charge everybody's task but they were given from my tribe And
29:52
then people who came in that that flew under our banner under
29:55
our under our staff, you know and and that came in with us did
30:00
a phenomenal job. Everybody was very eloquent,
30:04
very well written very well put together very well or rated
30:06
right very well said. So I'm really proud of literally
30:10
folk for for being such a a strong represented
30:14
representation of our tribe and being able to you know be given
30:18
a task, take it seriously, you know, and deliver and and it was
30:24
really great to see that and experience that.
30:28
So when that happened before this ceremony that I'm thinking
30:35
happened before the ceremony, if I'm remembering the sequence of
30:37
order of things, I'm pretty sure we were not painted up yet.
30:45
Yeah, we weren't. We weren't painted up yet.
30:46
So it happened before the painting of the face and the and
30:49
the painting on of the spirit. OK.
30:52
So now that you know that that happened and and what we did,
30:54
that was done inside of the Hut, the, the, the video or the
30:57
pictures that you saw of that round structure.
31:01
That was the Hut where we all assembled sat in the circle.
31:03
Right. So it wasn't like who sits at
31:04
the head of the table? Who sits here?
31:06
Where there. Oh, it was circular.
31:08
We met in a circle. Everyone were, you know, equal
31:13
to in that. Right.
31:16
And so then it was after that that we started going and doing
31:19
the the face painting of things. So then after our our so, so now
31:24
we got that part done. Fast forward back to the point
31:26
where I left off that our faces are all painted.
31:28
We all have been marked with these markings and so we all
31:33
retired to the to the Hut to start in a drum circle, a drum a
31:40
drumming sort of thing. So again we're still we're still
31:44
feasting you know the feasting continued on we're we're we're
31:47
drinking we're feasting. We're just really enjoying one
31:49
of those company and then we go into drumming and that was a
31:53
whole lot of fun because you know as you can imagine there
31:55
was music sometimes being played sometimes there wasn't.
31:57
I remember one particular point in time I think somebody I don't
32:00
know who I'll when we when when hopefully we have a follow up to
32:05
this episode with everybody else on this on the on the next show
32:09
somebody will own up and tell us who it was it did it but
32:12
somebody put on DMX and and and I'm like I remember hearing I'm
32:17
just like let's go you know and I'm just you know we all start
32:19
drumming along to DMX. So whoever that was, we figured
32:24
out, you know, that does that'll hopefully be revealed in the
32:28
future episode or any future episode.
32:30
But yeah, all right. So we get into more stuff
32:36
Thursday night. The rest of the stuff that I'll
32:41
just admit again it wasn't stuff that was shared on the video.
32:44
So it won't be anything that I share now but the next morning.
32:50
So Friday, the next day you guys saw some pictures and video of
32:57
all of us in the water, in in in swing trunks and or or you know,
33:03
lounge pants or whatever, right. We're all pretty much down to
33:06
nothing but our skivvies in a sense to get wet and get cold.
33:11
That was the day that we took and we did our immersion ritual.
33:15
So we we we went first to. I think it was widow.
33:23
Widow Creek Falls was that the same day.
33:32
Might have been the night before that might have been that might
33:35
have been Thursday night for Thursday afternoon.
33:39
But we ended up going to a spot where not far from Widow Creek
33:42
Falls where you know so where we're all like swimming and
33:48
jumping in the water and splashing around and sitting in
33:51
the water that was that was down the road from Widow Creek Falls.
33:54
Don't remember the name of the exact location but we'll we'll
33:57
get to it on the next episode that when we talk about this
34:00
stuff. But anyway, that was our
34:02
immersion ritual. And you know, a lot of people,
34:06
you know, if you know, you know, you know, cold water immersion,
34:09
you know, ice baths and all that stuff, it has known physical
34:13
health benefits. It also has really good benefits
34:18
for, for your, you know, cardiovascular health, your
34:21
organs, just overall physically good for you to get cold like
34:26
that. But so much a part of what that
34:29
immersion rich you know the immersion ceremony the immersion
34:32
into cold was a as a it was a a a way of shocking your body you
34:40
know in the into that sort of hyper awareness of of things and
34:44
and and but it also has a has a deeper meaning for us too.
34:47
You know like we were all there with one another doing it those
34:52
who participated right or those who got cold and it was this
34:55
there was again there was this shared experience of you know
34:58
yeah this this. It's definitely not easy because
35:00
you know when we went and did it it was probably in the in the
35:05
upper 40s air temperature the the the water temperature had to
35:11
be probably around the same. I know you know wasn't like
35:16
there was ice floating around on it but it was it was it was very
35:19
cold you know but you know sharing in that moment together
35:24
and and I'm going to be excited to talk to to everybody you know
35:28
on this about it and and and hear what their experience was
35:31
and what it means to them. But again that that that feeling
35:36
of of fellowship that feeling of I'm I'm I'm going through this
35:40
ordeal with you. I'm going through this adversity
35:45
with you. I'm I'm I'm suffering in a in a
35:47
way in this moment with you. Right.
35:50
You're not doing this alone. You're not by yourself.
35:52
You need a hand getting up or a hand getting in.
35:54
Right. I know on the video you guys saw
35:57
you know arms being extended support literal physical support
36:01
being offered to help brace you know people's stances.
36:07
It's it's it's it's like an exercise of showing you that you
36:09
you know we're here for one another.
36:11
We're here to support one another not let each other fall.
36:16
If if you need help you've got someone there that's going to
36:18
come and get you and then if they need help you've got other
36:21
people that are coming for to to aid you as well.
36:27
And that was, that was the constant thing about the whole
36:32
retreat, you know, is that you know you're not doing this
36:35
alone. You don't be.
36:37
Don't be afraid of things. Don't don't fall victim to
36:40
despair, doubt or fear because you're not doing any of these
36:45
things alone. You know you have your tribe in
36:50
this moment. You have the people near and
36:52
beside you to, to help you through and to experience these
36:56
things with you, you know. So Friday that was late morning,
37:04
early afternoon because there was some rain that came through
37:06
and then once the rain passed, you know, we got a dry spot and
37:11
it was still over overcast, kind of cloudy, but it had stopped
37:14
raining. That's when we went and did
37:16
that. So obviously we're all soaking
37:18
wet now and the plan was as I was told at least was to go back
37:26
to the to the to the retreat area get get into a dry change
37:31
of clothes and then go for a short hike in this one location.
37:36
I can't remember where exactly they said it was, but they were
37:38
like it's about it's about a 40 minute drive from here.
37:43
But we'll if we leave now, we'll be able to make it before, you
37:46
know be able to we'll be able to get out there what hike around
37:48
it's not very long before it gets dark, you know and then we
37:52
can come back and have a really good dinner that was that's in
37:56
prepared for us. So Friday afternoon was going to
37:59
be a hike come back eat right. Well we get to we get into the
38:03
vehicles and we're heading out there and realized that at one
38:09
point almost 5 minutes away from the no no it wasn't even 5
38:13
minutes we had arrived in in Lenoir, Lenoir, NC and I'm in
38:19
the vehicle with with with with Papa Olsen Cindy and their and
38:24
their two kids. Anyway so we we get into kind of
38:28
this like downtown area of Lenoir Main Street whatever the
38:31
name will probably not Main Street but it's like again it's
38:33
like a small town and we're on the main Main Street and he said
38:39
so got a confession to make as he says you know we lied to you
38:42
we're not going hiking we're we're actually going to have
38:46
some drinks here at the moon Joy Meadery.
38:49
So you guys saw some photos of the Moon Joy Meadery from the
38:53
outside and then a bunch of us at a table inside sitting around
38:57
drinking Mead. And that's what we that's what.
39:02
That's what the plan was all along.
39:04
It wasn't a plan, was not to go hiking at all.
39:09
This was like a birthday celebration for me because I had
39:12
so much kindness shown to me, right?
39:15
People were buying me flights of of Mead.
39:19
Patrick Walsh ended up buying me a bottle of Mead.
39:21
Think Zeb got me a hoodie like just it was so it was such a you
39:28
know I was definitely not mad. Trust me.
39:30
I wasn't like oh man, I wish we were going hiking.
39:32
I'm like hell yeah, this is great.
39:33
You know meet in the afternoon, right.
39:37
Get to meet some new folks. Get to meet the people Daniel
39:39
and Rebecca who who own the meadery and are are they are
39:43
fantastic Mead makers. Let me tell you guys and and I'm
39:46
just going to let everybody know this meet is the best meet I've
39:51
ever had. And I've tried a lot of
39:53
different Meads. A lot of really good Meads.
39:56
They their Mead takes the cake. They don't use any
40:00
preservatives. Their flavors that they use are
40:03
from all natural, like when they are when their Mead has like,
40:06
let's say, strawberries in it and it says it on there that it
40:08
has strawberries this, that, and the other like it tastes like
40:11
actual strawberries. Not like that fake strawberry
40:14
flavoring crap that's in the like, other stuff.
40:18
No, it tastes like you're just biting into a strawberry.
40:20
Anything that their Mead flavors say.
40:26
You you're going to taste it. And if you're not in the Lenore,
40:30
North Carolina area, that's OK because you can go to their
40:33
website and get their Mead shipped to you, at least in the
40:39
United States. I don't know exactly the the
40:42
rules and and stuff of of everywhere else, but I'm going
40:44
to be linking their website in the show notes of this podcast.
40:48
So for all you video watchers, it'll be in the description area
40:52
for you. All those on the audio platform,
40:54
just check the show notes of the podcast.
40:57
I highly encourage you to get some of their Mead.
41:00
They'll ship it and it's it's probably going to be some of the
41:03
best Mead you've ever tasted. I would be willing to bet bet
41:08
that much. So I'm glad that we got a chance
41:11
to do that because I've been you know I've had some of the
41:14
Moonjoy Mead before at Papa's and it's I really liked it.
41:20
But I got to try so much more than I've ever tried before.
41:24
And I'm like, yeah, this is a this is a problem, but a good
41:27
one to have because I'd be like, I'm going to be ordering some
41:29
meat from you guys like once a month, at least now.
41:35
So again, a good problem to have great people.
41:40
Daniel and Rebecca, you guys do a wonderful job and I wish you
41:43
all the best of luck continuing in your business.
41:48
Don't stop what you're doing, please.
41:49
It's it's amazing. So we we we stay there in
41:54
Lenoir. After we leave the meadery, we
41:56
go down the street to this really cool antique store called
42:02
Dead, Dead, Dead People's Dead Person's antiques or something
42:05
like that. Anyway, they got like all kinds
42:08
of cool, like old. Well it's an antique store so
42:11
it's got you know old stuff but also like bones and and antlers
42:15
and taxidermied items and all kinds of neat stuff like that.
42:21
So we we spent some time there and then we headed back to the
42:25
retreat location and had a delicious bison meat Stew that
42:34
that that Cindy made. It was I was called 3 Three
42:38
Sisters, Three Sisters Stew but it had bison meat in it and it
42:44
was like again, just the the time of year that it is and and
42:47
up in the mountains when it's kind of colder due to the
42:50
elevation than it is further down, man, it just, it hit the
42:56
spot, you know to be eating that good hearty food right.
43:03
So after dinner, that was Friday.
43:09
After dinner we did say we did a cymbal.
43:13
So we we feasted. We did a cymbal around the
43:17
dining area, not in the Hut. This was, this was again, this
43:22
was up above the campsite and so we in the dining hall there we
43:27
had, we had our, our feast, we had sumble and again that's
43:30
where all that need got passed around, you know.
43:33
So the bottle that I ended up getting gifted to from Patrick,
43:37
I was my plans was to to to have it and take it back home, right,
43:41
to enjoy here in Tennessee. But sumble was called, right.
43:45
And I'm like all right well at one point we finished like a
43:49
round or two of sumble and we still had more to go and the we
43:53
were running out of meat So I'm like pop that bad boy and let's
43:56
go So the the dark horse flavor Mead that I that that Patrick
44:02
Walsh got me went into the the sumble rounds So Friday night
44:10
was was spent a lot of with with drinking and and just more there
44:17
was more you know ritual stuff done to you know more things
44:20
that weren't necessarily documented but they they
44:27
happened so Fast forward right Saturday morning Saturday
44:35
morning I was a bit hungover I'm going to I'm not going to lie we
44:38
had a long we had good long rounds of stumble and then
44:42
afterwards there were other things other I had picked up a
44:47
whiskey and brought some whiskey up with there with me and some
44:50
single malt Scotch you know and so yeah so I was I was I was I
44:56
was a little bit little bit hungover on Saturday not going
44:58
to lie but Saturday was our big hike to to Stone Mountain up
45:01
Stone Mountain. So the pictures that you saw in
45:05
the video where Olf is kind of like standing there with his
45:08
with his arms outstretched looking up at the sky and Zeb
45:10
is, is is kind of playing a rattle, you know that was when
45:13
we reached the height or the summit of of our of the trail
45:19
going up Stone Mountain, This is Stone Mountain, North Carolina
45:21
by the way not Stone Mountain in Georgia.
45:26
And so we what was cool is that the we it was it was everybody
45:31
but one of us. We were broken up into two
45:34
groups. So I was with Wolf and Zeb and
45:37
then Papa Patrick and Patrick, the two Patricks were in the
45:41
second group. Their plan or their their, their
45:45
direction that they were going in was to hike up a shorter
45:47
stretch of the mountain to the summit, but it was a much
45:52
steeper, much more difficult path.
45:54
And then Zeb, Wolf and I were going to take the slightly
45:58
longer but less difficult path. And so we get to you know we're
46:06
about maybe 1/4 of the way through the trail and off you
46:12
know admittedly he was having a tough time.
46:16
He had he had been he's been dealing with a an infection on
46:20
his leg from a from a tattoo and it's it's been causing him a lot
46:25
of pain. Right.
46:27
Well his regular doctor checkups and said you know it's it's it's
46:32
like 70% seventy something percent healed.
46:34
You know, you're good to do stuff, you know, just don't get
46:37
it wet. But from all The Walking, the
46:41
added blood flow plus some of the other things that he's got
46:43
going on, just his, you know, medical conditions and whatnot.
46:45
It was it was starting to tax him just 1/4 of the way through
46:49
the last three quarters of that hike is going up these really
46:54
sharp switchbacks up, up, uphill, you know, up the
46:57
mountain. And so we get to the to the base
47:00
of that before we go up and you know, we're stopping.
47:03
So we'll get a breather. And he's just looking up ahead
47:05
of himself and he's like, I don't think I can do this.
47:09
I don't know if I'm going to be able to do this, you know.
47:14
So we just kind of pause there. And Zed was great, you know,
47:16
because Zed was kind of the one leading the the hike in a way.
47:19
And he's like he said, look man, he said don't worry about it.
47:24
We're going to get to the top and we're going to take as long
47:27
as we need to take. We're going to take as many
47:29
breaks as we need to take. We're going to stop when we need
47:33
to stop, sit down where we need to sit down and we're but we're
47:37
going to get there and we're going to be there with you.
47:40
You're not going to be left behind.
47:43
We're not going to go ahead of you and wait for you.
47:45
We're going to be right here with you.
47:46
And guess what? We were and he made it to the
47:52
top. And that that, that pose where
47:54
you see him with his arms outstretched, just looking up at
47:56
the sky, was it was such a powerful moment, not only for
48:01
him, right? For having not giving in to fear
48:05
and doubt, not giving in to, you know, I I don't know if I can do
48:12
this. I don't think I can do this
48:13
right. The easy thing to do would have
48:15
been to give in to that, and had it not been for his brothers
48:21
beside him, he would have, he would not have gone and done
48:25
that. But we encouraged him and we
48:28
told him when we reassured him that we would be right there at
48:32
his side going along pace with him being there for him,
48:38
checking on him right. And it was it was part of the
48:42
lesson that was again continues through the through the retreat.
48:47
And Bella agrees because you won't stop barking.
48:51
But anyways, yeah, so he he, he didn't give up.
49:00
He got to the top and and so he felt that accomplishment.
49:03
You know and then and then all of us seeing him get there was
49:09
we we had that satisfaction knowing too, like he he did it,
49:12
you know and we were there to witness it.
49:16
Not giving in to fear and doubt, not allowing that uncertainty,
49:20
that, that worry to lose sight of the goal.
49:28
And that was a lesson again, that I said it was repeated
49:30
throughout the retreat multiple times, but that was probably one
49:32
of the most profound times that we got to see it in action,
49:38
right? Because he did.
49:38
He had that moment of, I don't think so, man, I don't think
49:42
this is going to, this is going to happen.
49:45
Guess what, boy, It's not an option.
49:48
This is going to happen, but it's going to happen at your
49:52
pace, you know. And I think that's another thing
49:55
that is important to realize is, you know, you can encourage
49:57
people to do things that they don't want to do and not be a a
50:01
jerk about it, you know, Because guess what, had we had we been
50:05
different in our approach? Had we been like, man, shut up
50:09
wuss, you know, man up put your big boy panties on.
50:14
You know, if we had made fun of them or if we had been like, you
50:19
know, trying to make him feel guilty or bad about not wanting
50:24
to do it, it wouldn't have gone that way.
50:27
I don't think he wouldn't have. He certainly wouldn't have felt
50:31
empowered, you know, to be able to do it.
50:34
I think he would have. It would have if if he did it,
50:37
it would have, it would have been a a begrudging thing.
50:40
He wouldn't have gotten the satisfaction out of it maybe.
50:44
But I just, I think, you know, it's important to think of the
50:47
the approach that we take with people.
50:48
You know, it's fine to feel like you can't do something.
50:52
It's fine to think that you're not going to be able to make it.
50:57
You know, it's fine to to doubt yourself and it's going to
51:00
happen. But you have the ability to
51:02
really dig deep and and especially when you have your
51:05
people nearby, they'll be the ones to to encourage you and to
51:09
and to push you lovingly and it and it paid off.
51:13
You know, he made it to the top, you know, made it down.
51:18
Sure he felt it. Sure it was.
51:20
You know, he's like my legs are killing me this, that and the
51:22
other, you know, he's like, but I'm so glad that I saw this
51:25
through and that I did this. You know, he learned a lesson.
51:30
We all felt it too. We all learned a lesson.
51:32
It was something that we experienced together.
51:35
So when we got back Friday, oh, no, sorry.
51:38
Saturday. When we when we got back
51:41
Saturday, that was when some really heavy duty ritual stuff
51:47
took place. None of none of that stuff will
51:51
be shared. There was no, at least not by me
51:54
in this. Like not, not not right now at
51:56
least. I'm not going to say it'll never
51:58
be shared, but I'm just going to say that because it wasn't
52:01
shared through the video. I'm not going to talk about what
52:06
happened Saturday night and the rituals and all that that took
52:10
place, the ceremonies that took place, the lessons that took
52:13
place. Profound stuff, but we completed
52:19
all that. We retired at various times of
52:22
the night. Some people went to retire
52:24
earlier than others. But then Sunday was our
52:29
departure day. You know we, we, we we got up we
52:32
tore down our camps you know respectively packed up all of
52:35
our stuff, loaded up our vehicles and and started making
52:39
the trek back to our where we where we where we live.
52:45
You know all of the stuff that you guys saw in the video the
52:49
the the views from the mountain, the the waterfalls, the the
52:55
river immersion where we're all like kind of like chest deep or
52:58
waist deep or lower in in frigid, frigid cold water.
53:03
The face painting, you know and the music, the music that you
53:07
heard the drum beating, That's one thing I'm going to say is
53:10
that that was that was that was Saturday night.
53:15
Yeah, that was Saturday night. Because Saturday night was when
53:18
we got to have some delicious meat pies made made from
53:22
reindeer. Reindeer meat.
53:25
Oh man, was it? No, it was it was either
53:27
reindeer or elk. I think it was elk.
53:30
I could be wrong. Yeah, it was right.
53:31
Yeah, it was elk because reindeer meat was the sausage
53:33
elk. It was elk meat that the that
53:36
the meat pies were in made from. So we had dinner there in the
53:41
feasting hall, same place we had sumble the night before.
53:44
And we all went, we all went outside with different drums and
53:48
drummed under the clear starlit sky.
53:53
For, I don't know, I'd say it was probably about all in total,
53:57
you know, maybe 20 minutes, 1520 minutes.
54:02
But some of the noise, some of the some of the noise, some of
54:04
the music that you heard, you know, the the singing, the
54:09
growling, the humming, the howling, you know, that was,
54:14
that was a magical moment, you know, just being there and and
54:18
being, you know, being given the chance to drum together with
54:20
people. If you've never been a part of a
54:24
drum circle, it's it's such a beautiful experience, you know,
54:28
you feel so connected with with one another without having to
54:33
like, 'cause you don't know what you're going to be playing like
54:35
you don't know the beats ahead of time.
54:37
It's not like, all right, Johnny, I'm going to lead off
54:40
with A 123123 and you come in with A11O1, right?
54:47
Nothing like that. It's not it's not choreographed,
54:49
it's not orchestrate, it's not planned out.
54:51
It's just what you feel, you know, we complement one another.
54:55
We we, we get in rhythm, we get in line and we we follow that
54:59
rhythm and we all weave ourselves into that tapestry.
55:04
And that's what it was about. That was what it was.
55:07
It was a weaving of weird. It was a tying of of luck and it
55:16
was looking at the world through the eyes of of the ancients.
55:22
It was experiencing that that life that that that ancient,
55:28
ancient forces of nature that is literally some of the oldest
55:34
energy in the world. Appalachia, where we were that
55:38
is that is all of that land out there is is billions and
55:41
billions of years old, older than the Rockies again just some
55:44
of the oldest soil, rock, mountain, air, land, water,
55:48
everything is this. It's some of the oldest in the
55:50
world and we were there. We were there doing some
55:54
incredible things and feeling some incredible ways you know
55:58
for for three days, 3-4 days. And so I I watched this video
56:08
with you guys and while you may be seeing it for the first time
56:11
or it's it's been circulating on social media since this week
56:15
when Sid initially posted it and shared it around.
56:21
But so this, you know this may be another time that you're
56:25
seeing it but if you're coming on here now and you're not on
56:29
some of those other platforms, rewatch it as many times as you
56:33
want. Just, you know, know where it is
56:35
in the episode and just go back and watch it as many times as
56:37
you want. I know I will be.
56:42
I'll be rewatching that thing for I I downloaded and I saved
56:46
it myself because I'm like, I want to go back and watch this
56:50
as many times as I want. Might upload it on YouTube.
56:54
I don't know. So if you guys are listening and
56:57
watching, you subscribe to my YouTube channel, it might find a
57:00
place up there that you can go back to and watch it.
57:02
We'll see. But yeah, so you guys stay
57:08
tuned. If you have any questions and
57:11
want to know something specific, I would say that it would be
57:14
good for you to let me know. You can comment down below.
57:19
You can write into the podcast, Midgard Musings, tn@gmail.com.
57:26
You can call into the podcast, leave a voicemail.
57:28
That number is 615, 671-9832. You can comment on a on a post
57:36
so you can DM me on any of my socials, Facebook, Instagram or
57:41
Twitter or whatever, X whatever it's called now.
57:45
But yeah, if you have questions and you want to know something
57:47
specific, please let me know when in whatever way works best
57:52
for you. Because when we talk about
57:56
getting everybody else on on a sort of panel again and I say I
58:01
had a had an idea actually my wife had the ideas is is better
58:05
to be better because she came with she came up with the idea
58:08
and I want to before I announce it here to to the world right.
58:10
I want to make sure that the idea is something that everyone
58:13
is cool with and that we we wanted to do.
58:15
I'm pretty sure that it'll it'll be something that everybody's
58:18
fine with doing. But at the very least expect one
58:22
more episode with with everybody on here and maybe something
58:26
special else thereafter. So more to come on that.
58:31
But in the meantime, I hope you guys enjoyed this little summary
58:35
recap reliving of a fire on the mountain.
58:40
Let me know if you have any questions and thank you again to
58:43
my patrons on Patreon. Thank you to Billy McKinney
58:46
specifically for the for the book.
58:49
I think you had mentioned to me at some point that it was either
58:52
a birthday or birthday slash Yule gift.
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I couldn't wait. I knew what it was and I'm like,
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I got to open this now and I wanted to do it here.
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So I'll count it as a birthday present.
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Appreciate it my man. Thank you so very much.
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For everybody else that's out here listening, check the show
59:08
notes for the link tree link that has all of the ways that
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you can support me. As a reminder, I am running a
59:14
Yule special on all of my merchandise.
59:18
So if you go to midgardamusingstore.com,
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anything that you buy is 50% off.
59:23
When you use the code Yule 23, that's Yu LE2 3AT checkout and
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you get 50% off. So there's hoodies, there's
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T-shirts, there's hats, there's other various things.
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Now's the time to get something if you want to get it for
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yourself or for your friends or family.
59:44
You want to get them something for Yule or the holidays, what
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have you. But all that stuff's in the link
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tree. Be sure to check it out.
59:51
And again, thank you all so much for for tuning into this week's
59:53
episode. If you do like it, give it an
59:55
upvote on whatever platform that you're on and until we talk to
59:59
each other again at the gods continue to notice you and may
1:00:03
your ancestors smile upon you.