New AFA Website Up and Running

The Asatru Folk Assembly has a spectacular new web presence! Erik had been working on the project for a long time. Jenna helped organize our efforts. Herbert took our comments and Erik’s input and produced the look we wanted - warm, inviting, family-friendly, non-intimidating, relevant to real people in today’s world. Terry and Ignacio found software to pour the contents of the old site into the new mold, and then proceeded to do so. We are really proud of the result. Drop in to http://runestone.org and take a look!

Theme for Winter Nights - Awakening the Folk Through Ritual

Winter Nights in the Redwoods will be October 18-22, in Nevada City. This year we will investigate the use of ritual - from individual rites to mega-rituals at our large gatherings - to empower the Folk Within and to awaken the Folk Without. What’s more, we’re going to have exclusive use of a brand-new mountain lodge to conduct our activities! Due to space limitations, this year’s Winter Nights will be open to AFA members only - get your memberships, and your reservations, in while there’s still room!

The Runestone to be Unveiled at Winter Nights

Our new journal in book format, The Runestone, will be available for the first time at Winter Nights. Afterwards, of course, you will be able to purchase it from the AFA or from online book services such as Amazon. Our thanks to Juleigh Hobson, and to Dave, who has spent many hours almost every day on this project, and to Tina, our art director! Our thanks, too, to all the many writers who have contributed articles for this momentous first issue. Well done!

The Runepebble Available for Children of AFA Members

As if publishing The Runestone was not enough of a task, Juleigh and Dave also turn out our children’s magazine, The Runepebble. It is available free of charge to children of AFA members, and the children themselves produce most of the content. At this time, there are no plans to extend The Runepebble beyond the AFA community.

The Grove to Be Relaunched

For years, one of the most popular features of the AFA website was a networking page called The Grove. We’re relaunching The Grove on the new site, but will limit it to AFA members due to the considerable work that goes into updating all the listings. One more good reason to join the AFA!

The Folk Within and the Folk Without

The term “folk” can mean many things. It can be the people assembled for a particular Asatru event or the attendees at a specific ritual. On a larger scale, it “folk” can refer to any tribe or nation (in the original sense of the word, referring to those descended from a common source). The Goths and the Vandals were each a distinct folk - and the totality of people of Germanic descent also constitute a folk, of a higher order.

As we have come to understand the connections between the native European peoples, we see that they are members of the Greater Family - bound together by blood and by a general culture that is overwhelmingly Indo-European. This larger family, too, is a folk, and we often capitalize it as “Folk” to point out its overarching position.

But there is more. In the notice on Winter Nights found elsewhere in this issue, I write of the “Folk Within” and the “Folk Without.” The first of these is made up of those of European heritage who have returned to our native religion…primarily Asatru, but also those other related European tribal religions such as those of the Celts, Balts, and Slavs. The “Folk Within” are the ones who have returned to the old faiths of their ancestors.

The “Folk Without,” on the other hand, is the large majority of men and women who share our ancestry and our general culture, but who have not “come home” to one of the religions native to Europe. While we are not bound to this group by troth to the Holy Powers, we nevertheless are bound to them by ancestry. They are still our kin, and we must honor our obligations to them.

One of those obligations is to make the Folk Without aware that their native religious traditions still exist and are relevant in the present age. We must keep the door open for that day when they may decide to seek out the elder paths of their ancestors. A related obligation is to awaken their identification with the Greater European Family as a whole - to remind them that we are indeed bound by ancestry and tradition.

At Winter Nights, we will study ways in which ritual can further our own personal evolution, serve our immediate religious community…and help us awaken our brothers and sisters of the Folk Without.

Our People and Our Culture - LInks

We are a people - Germanic people, part of the Greater Family of European peoples, following the ways of our ancestors.

Only when we realize we are a river will we stop drowning in puddles.

Icelandic art exhibit on the “hidden people” of Iceland - A well-known Icelandic artist continues her themes on the elves and trolls of her native land.

http://icelandreview.com/icelandreview/daily_news/?cat_id=16539&ew_0_a_id=287091

Drought in Norway reveals Viking graves - Dry weather near Trondheim is responsible for showing traces of about 120 previously unknown Viking graves as well as several structures, one of which may be a prominent chieftain’s hall.

http://www.aftenposten.no/english/local/article1911815.ece

Bronze Age man unearthed in England - A site that has given up many Bronze Age artifacts over the years has finally exposed the remains of a man who lived 3,500 years ago.

http://www.peterboroughtoday.co.uk/ViewArticle.aspx?sectionid=845&articleid=3071435

When this village was inhabited, there was no English Channel - Archeologists have found a settlement in England that was occupied 8,000 years old, when what is now England and France were connected.

http://www.scenta.co.uk/Engineering/1702155/stone-age-site-surfaces-after-8000-years.htm

Another blow to the “out of Africa” interpretation of human evolution - A recent article in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences indicates that populations out of Asia had more influence on the genetics of Europe than those from Africa. Now, I’m writing from memory, but this seems to substantiate work many decades ago stating that Caucasians and Mongoloids split off from each other long after separation from Africans. Whatever terminology you choose to use, the emerging pattern is that “out of Africa” is “out of touch” with reality.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070807/ts_alt_afp/usscienceorigins_070807015957;_ylt=Al1F34xFDNqGRzNpCq_iapfPOrgF

Freedom and Asatru - Links

Our Western traditions of freedom under law derive overwhelmingly from the culture of Northern Europe. (Both words, "freedom" and "law," have Teutonic roots.) It is our task to maintain this gift from our ancestors. In Asatru, freedom is a religious issue!

British cops authorized to build vast DNA database - Samples will be taken not just from suspects in major crimes, but for those suspected of “minor offences such as littering, speeding or not wearing a seat belt.”

http://www.guardian.co.uk/humanrights/story/0%2C%2C2139674%2C00.html

Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, the surveillance state continues to grow - Here’s a summary of some of the latest encroachments on liberty.

http://harpers.org/archive/2007/08/hbc-90000742

China implements vast high-tech system to track its people - At least you expect something like this from China!

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/12/business/worldbusiness/12security.html?_r=3&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1186942636-iBwTpwaNvGw3+ZFcSlOd1Q&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

The Environment and Asatru - Links

The Earth is our mother, called variously in our mythic lore Frigga, Nerthus, and Jord. As the most intelligent species on the planet, humans end up making many decisions for all the other forms of life that live here - so let us choose wisely.

Coral reefs disappearing at an unprecedented rate - According to one authority, we have already lost half the planet’s reef-building coral. The reasons are rising sea temperatures and man-made pollution. The impact on the fishing industry is expected to be great.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2007/08/08/eacoral108.xml

Arctic sea ice the lowest ever recorded - And there’s still a month to go before the usual low point is measured. The second lowest amount of ice was observed in 2005.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070810/ts_alt_afp/arcticwarmingice

Earth warming rate drastically increasing - The global average temperature is likely to increase by 0.3 degrees within the next ten years. Can 0.3 degrees be any big deal? It is when you realize that the world’s average increase since 1910 was only 0.8 degrees…

http://news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=1256092007

“Building integrated” photovoltaics - Here’s a California-based company that produces tiles, shingles, and glass with photocells integrated into them, allowing for more aesthetic designs. They also offer a lot of other solar power-related services…more traditional solar designs, assessments, systems maintenance, and more.

http://www.ipowercorp.com/our_products.htm

Power from space - Being pro-environment doesn’t mean being anti-technology. The link below updates an idea that’s been bouncing around for decades - beaming solar power down to Earth from huge “powersats,” or power-generating satellites, in space. They can be part of the solution to the problems of clean energy and climate change. We need Asatru scientists and engineers to help us open the space frontier!

http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/technology/solar_power_sats_011017-1.html

AFA in Growth Mode

The “policies and procedures” manual for the AFA’s clergy program has been finalized and a limited number of copies have been produced for Clergy Board members and for the next wave of candidates. The Board will be selecting several applicants in the near future, each one of whom will work directly under one of the several individuals who have already completed the course and who are ordained AFA clergy. This procedure limits the number of candidates at any one time, but ensures close supervision and the highest quality of instruction. Applicants must have been members of the AFA for at least one year before being considered - another reason to be an AFA member!

Clergy Manual Completed

The “policies and procedures” manual for the AFA’s clergy program has been finalized and a limited number of copies have been produced for Clergy Board members and for the next wave of candidates. The Board will be selecting several applicants in the near future, each one of whom will work directly under one of the several individuals who have already completed the course and who are ordained AFA clergy. This procedure limits the number of candidates at any one time, but ensures close supervision and the highest quality of instruction. Applicants must have been members of the AFA for at least one year before being considered - another reason to be an AFA member!

Why We're Not Eclectic

Most of the generic Pagan and Wiccan subculture in the United States is highly eclectic - that is to say, its adherents feel no hesitation in taking bits and pieces (to include Gods and Goddesses) from any pre-Christian religion and culture, anywhere in the world. Thor of the Germans and Shango of the Nigerians may be invoked in the same breath. Isis and Freya may be thought of as “the same,” and the beliefs of different peoples mixed in whatever fashion meets the needs of the moment. African techniques of possession appear right alongside our own seidr.

We of the AFA strongly disagree with this practice, to the consternation and confusion of many Pagans. Several eclectics have asked me to explain why we are so determined to remain inside one specific pantheon and its specific cultural manifestation.

There are two huge reasons. One is that all native, pre-Christian systems are perfectly complete in and of themselves - for the people from whose soul that system sprang. The religion which gave the people of West Africa the deity Shango is whole and integral…for the people of West Africa. Asatru, the belief system containing Thor, is likewise a complete and balanced entity. Neither the West Africans nor the Germanic peoples need reach outside their native and ancestral spiritual heritage to rob elements from another group. In fact, adding outside elements could only disrupt the equilibrium of the original system.

Consider the balance and richness of Asatru: We have the Aesir and the Vanir, with their very different foci. We have Gods and Goddesses. Our worldview is populated with a multitude of alfar, disir, valkyires, giants, and dwarves. Otherworldly beasts run through our tales - the World Serpent, supernatural wolves and horses and boars, and more. The system is a complete expression of the Germanic worldview and, therefore, we need not borrow from outsiders. To do so is not only unnecessary, it is rather insulting to the Gods and to our ancestors.

There is a second reason: We desire to follow no Gods or Goddesses except those of our European ancestors. Ancestry and spirituality go together. The best spiritual system for us is the sacred Way followed by our own physical antecedents. No creed born among strangers can be as good for us as the one that springs from our own lineage. Would anyone suggest to the Sioux, or the Cheyenne, or the Shinto that they should mix invocations to Odin or Freya into their religion? Should they cast runes in the sweat lodge? Of course not; the very idea is ludicrous. One could not take any of these peoples seriously if they deliberately adulterated their ancestral heritage.

So it is with us. We, too, are a people who have been given a spiritual inheritance. To dilute it with the ways of other peoples would be a grave offense against our Gods, and a slap in the faces of our ancestors.

Others, of course, will believe differently. There will always be eclectics. But as for us, we will stay true to Those who gave us the gifts of life and wit, Those whose representatives in Midgard we are.

Our People and Our Culture - LInks

We are a people - Germanic people, part of the Greater Family of European peoples, following the ways of our ancestors.

Only when we realize we are a river will we stop drowning in puddles.

Saving Chicago’s Viking ship - The Raven, sailed across the Atlantic from Norway for the Chicago World’s Fair in the late 1800’s, awaits the day when funds will be found to save it from eventual destruction by the elements. Will The Raven survive a changing America that cares less and less about the Norsemen and all they represent? Or will the Awakening come in time?

http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/couriernews/lifestyles/477446,3_5_EL22_VIKING_S1.article

Demonstrators arrested at Tara - Activists protesting the building of a motorway through ancient Irish sites near the holy hill of Tara have been arrested amid conflicting reports of injuries. Irish nationalism is not just about “Brits out” anymore; it revolves around the preservation of the very history and cultural life - and ultimately the physical existence - of the Irish people.

http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/breaking/2007/0718/breaking46.htm

Large Viking treasure trove found in England - A massive collection of more than six hundred silver coins, a golden arm ring, and other artifacts have been unearthed in northern England. The find has been described as the most significant Viking treasure discovery in 150 years.

http://www.javno.com/en/lifestyle/clanak.php?id=63521

For an excellent collection of photographs of this treasure, go to http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/6906482.stm

Free sagas online - The sagas of Olaf Tryggvason and Harald Hardrada are available for download in PDF format.

http://manybooks.net/titles/sturlson2209322093-8.html

Living with elves - more accounts of modern Icelandic belief in the “hidden people.”

http://www.icelandreview.com/icelandreview/daily_life/?cat_id=16539&ew_0_a_id=285669

The ultimate Viking museum? - This site in Norway features not one but three reconstructed Viking ships, a chieftain’s farm, smithy, boathouse…and loads of ongoing projects! Keep this in mind as a vacation destination and as a learning resource.

http://www.lofotr.no/engelsk/

Did all humans originate from a single source in Africa? - Not necessarily, according to Dr. John Hawks, of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

http://www.livescience.com/health/070718_africa_origins.html

Here’s a related link we ran recently -

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/06/26/healthscience/26human.php

Papal aide warns of “Islamicization” of Europe - And so he should; the current Islamic immigration into Europe means minority status for native Europeans within a very short period of time. But it is ironic…since Christianity itself invaded Europe and displaced the religion of our ancestors. The Church refuses to see that the deepest roots of Europe are pagan, not Christian, and that only a resurgence of our ancestral religiosity can staunch the tide from North Africa and the Middle East.

http://news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=1171152007

For a discussion of how quickly Europe could become a Muslim (i.e., North African and Middle Eastern) continent, see

http://conswede.blogspot.com/2007/06/catholicismbirth-control-and-birth.html

Freedom and Asatru - Links

Our Western traditions of freedom under law derive overwhelmingly from the culture of Northern Europe. (Both words, "freedom" and "law," have Teutonic roots.) It is our task to maintain this gift from our ancestors. In Asatru, freedom is a religious issue!

To chip, or not to chip? - The controversy over implanting humans with chips continues to heat up. Has our resistance to such an invasive procedure been eroded by the time-honored procedure of making a repugnant idea familiar? Have we, once again, decided to exchange liberty for convenience?

http://rense.com/general77/verichip.htm

Big Brother in action - To see one proposal for using RFID (radio frequency identification) in a retail setting, watch this video. This system does not actually seem to be in use anywhere, but it is only one of a number of serious proposals. It could enable the state to track the movements of individual citizens (subjects?) with ease.

Needless to say, I do not accept the “if you’re not doing anything wrong, you don’t have anything to fear” argument. I am not the property of the government. I am a free man, a member of my Folk, and kin to the Gods themselves!

To see the video, go here:

http://www.spychips.com/RFIDclothingstoredemo.html

Detectors peer into British homes for unlicensed televisions - I had no idea TVs were licensed in Britain, but apparently they are, and the government is on the prowl for unauthorized sets. It’s pretty sad when you have to pay to get propagandized!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=468466&in_page_id=1770

Privacy, anyone? - Here’s a collection of online electronic privacy resources, courtesy of the Electronic Privacy Information Center.

http://www.epic.org/privacy/privacy_resources_faq.html

The Environment and Asatru - Links

The Earth is our mother, called variously in our mythic lore Frigga, Nerthus, and Jord. As the most intelligent species on the planet, humans end up making many decisions for all the other forms of life that live here - so let us choose wisely.

Global warming not caused by sun’s output, new study says - According to one recent study, the sun’s output has been dropping since the 1980’s, yet heating is as great or greater.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6290228.stm

Ethanol no replacement for oil - There are a number of reasons why ethanol is no answer to our dependence on petroleum, and this article hits most of the major points.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0726/p12s01-usgn.html

Does saving the environment mean giving up advanced technology? - Space exploration and the protection of Earth’s environment are two complementary ideas. Being “green” doesn’t mean turning our backs on our destiny in space.

http://www.firstscience.com/home/articles/earth/going-green-on-earth-and-beyond_8042.html

Want to stay cooler for less money? - These tips can help you save on your cooling bill this summer - good for your pocketbook, and good for the environment.

http://www.emagazine.com/view/?3794

Farming with a difference - Interested in alternative (sustainable, organic, etc.) farming? Take a look at the Alternative Farming Systems Information Center’s web site.

http://afsic.nal.usda.gov/nal_display/index.php?tax_level=1&info_center=2