AFA UPDATE

A PROJECT OF THE ASATRU FOLK ASSEMBLY

Issue 146

July 11, 2011

Contact email: afa@runestone.org

Please tell your friends about AFA Update and suggest they subscribe!
They can do so by going to:

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WHERE TO FIND THE ASATRU FOLK ASSEMBLY ONLINE:

AFA website - http://runestone.org

Asatru Rising podcast - http://asatrurising.podbean.com

Our videos on You Tube - http://www.youtube.com/smcnallen

The AFA blog at - http://asatruupdate.blogspot.com

AFA MySpace at - http://www.myspace.com/asatruupdate

Follow the AFA on Twitter - http://twitter.com, username AsatruAFA.

The AFA mission statement: "to practice, promote, and further evolve
the religion of Asatru, thus forging it into a powerful and effective
tool for building a better world."

STEPHEN POLLINGTON CONFIRMED FOR AFA "MIDSUMMER IN THE SIERRAS!"

We received an email from English author Stephen Pollington, our special
guest for Midsummer. He wrote, "I have bought my travel insurance for
the trip and started to prepare the talks and powerpoint shows. They are
based on what you saw last time [at the Florida Moot several years ago]
but I have revised some of the ideas and had a few new insights..." This
is great news, not only because he's definitely "on" but because I've
seen the presentations to which he's referring, and you're going to love
them!

Another treat - Stephen is having limited copies of his very latest (as
in, "not out until later this summer") book printed here in the United
States, to save the weight and risk of bringing them across the
Atlantic. As an attendee, you'll be able to purchase them at Midsummer
and get them autographed by Stephen himself. The book title is Elder
Gods: The Otherworld of Early England - just the sort of thing to
interest AFA members.

You can visit Stephen's site at http://www.stevepollington.com to learn
more about him and his books.

If you haven't signed up for Midsummer in the Sierras 2011, go to the
AFA web site and fill out the application! You won't want to miss this year!

NEW FACEBOOK PAGE SET UP FOR "MIDSUMMER IN THE SIERRAS"

We've set up a new Facebook page for the AFA Midsummer event, and it's
already getting a lot of traffic! You can get in on the excitement by
going to Facebook and searching for "AFA Midsummer in the Sierras." (You
may find the old site still up, as well; we migrated it to the new
"groups" format and the latter is the one you want.)

Check this new page for the latest on who's coming, what's happening,
and of course more on why you should be there, yourself!

AFA CLERGY PROGRAM CHANGES HANDS!

Stefn Thorsman, who helped create the AFA's Clergy program and who has
led it since its inception, has stepped down citing personal obligations
and life-priorities. Ed Lebouthillier, long-time AFA and Clergy Board
member, will assume the role of acting Clergy coordinator.

In his letter to the AFA Board of Directors, Stefn wrote: "I'm very
proud of what's been accomplished so far with the AFA's Clergy program,
and I sincerely hope that forward progress continues and that the Clergy
program continues to grow and serve the Folk. Having the Folkbuilders
work hand in hand with the Clergy members can only benefit the Folk at
large and spread AFA inspired Heathenry across the US. I plan to remain
an AFA member and a member of the Clergy but will do so in a much less
visible capacity." His letter was signed "In kinship, honor, and
solidarity!".

Ed Lebouthillier is a highly-qualified successor. Along with Stefn and
others, he was one of the creators of the Clergy program and is renowned
for his dedication to the AFA mission and for his incisive analytical
skills.

The Clergy program has been one of the AFA's great successes. It has
created a corps of highly-qualified men and women capable of providing
religious services, giving spiritual guidance, and speaking to issues of
morals and ethics. Our Clergy have raised the standards of scholarship
and dedication for all who seek to serve the Gods and the Folk.

We sincerely thank Stefn for his tireless work and inspiration, and for
his vision, which ultimately gave birth to the program he headed for so
many years.

HAD TROUBLE WITH THE AFA ONLINE APPLICATION?

A number of you who have tried to join the AFA using the online
membership application have reported having trouble lately. We think we
have the bugs fixed - so please give it another try! If you still have
problems, please email us at afa@runestone.org!

We have been making a lot of improvements to the AFA web site over the
last few weeks, to include the membership section. As is so often the
case, progress comes at the price of glitches that have to be worked
out. Thank you for your patience!

Recent changes include new membership levels, and a monthly payment plan
- you don't have to come up with your dues in one lump sum! To learn
about this new system, and to see where your dues go, visit our front
page at http://runestone.org, then to "About the AFA," then to "Join the
AFA." Or simply go to http://tinyurl.com/6y9vfgj.

AFA MEMBERSHIP - If you like what you see here, and agree with the
Declaration of Purpose as found on our web site at http://runestone.org
...send us a membership application!

FORMER MEMBER who just failed to renew your membership? Had something
come up that caused you to drop out? Miss us? Come on back...We're still
here for you! Send in a new application today!

VISIT THE ASATRU FOLK ASSEMBLY'S CAFE PRESS SHOP

For a long time, members have been requesting more AFA merchandise such
as mugs and shirts. To expand our offerings, we now have a Cafe Press
shop (Runestone at Cafe Press) featuring five designs and product lines.
We've come up with a delightful Midsummer graphic (Thank you, Lars, for
the inspiration!) but there are other classic designs that would be
perfect for Father's Day. Go take a look!.

Hugh of Asgard Studios will be tweaking the site, but for right now,
click on an image and you'll get the product list that goes with it. If
you want an item that's not listed, just let us know.

If you have a graphic that you'd like to "donate" to the AFA, we invite
you to send it to us for our consideration.

www.cafepress.com/AsatruFolkAssembly

EUROPEANS, WORLD-WIDE, AS INDIGENOUS PEOPLE

When we hear the phrase "indigenous people," we think of Amazon tribes,
pygmies in Africa, the Australian aborigines, and other groups around
the planet. There are probably hundreds - thousands? - of such
societies. Their plight is well-known. Indigenous peoples in Africa,
Asia, and Latin America come to our attention through television
documentaries, articles in National Geographic, and many other sources.

We automatically think of indigenous peoples as looking like the ones we
see on television - technologically primitive, living in tribal
structures, and tucked away in remote corners of the Earth. And of
course they all have dark skin. We unconsciously draw a sharp
distinction between them and ourselves. We'd never think of First World
peoples as indigenous.

But why not? Neither technology, geography, nor race have anything to do
with the definition of "indigenous" - "originating in, and
characteristic of, a particular region or country; native"

Consider all us European-descended people, for example. My ancestors
came from Germany, Ireland, England, and Scotland quite recently, where
they lived since the last ice age. According to geneticist Brian Sykes,
85% to 90% of the European genome can be traced back to the original
hunter-gatherers who migrated in as the glaciers receded. If that
doesn't make us indigenous, I don't know what does. What arguments could
there be to the contrary? That we're technologically advanced? That we
have white skin?

To deny indigenous status to the peoples of Europe would be biased at
best - and racist at worst. We are indigenous Europeans!

From our European homeland, we've migrated around the world -
especially to North America, Australia, Canada, and South Africa, with
smaller presences in almost every nation on Earth. But no matter where
we roam, we are still us: the people of Europe. We have not changed our
essence, we have only changed our location.

We must recover our sense of roots, our awareness of ourselves as a
people. Sure, we are not all of one tribe. There are the Germans, Slaves
and Celts, all of whom are descended from the Funnel Beaker People.
Below that are our modern-day nations of origin, and then come our
tribal roots, which are largely lost to us. But, notwithstanding this
diversity, we remain Europeans. Genetically and culturally, we are
sharply defined from the rest of the planet. Similarly, Native Americans
may be Lakota or Cherokee or Maidu but still identify as Native Americans.

Once we understand that we are a definable group, with roots in a
particular place since time immemorial, our perspective has to change.
We have our own unique characteristics, our own cultural heritage, our
own way-of-being in the world. Likewise, we have our own set of
closely-related native religions. The largest of these would break down
into Germanic, Celtic, and Slavic groups, but even then the similarities
are much more pronounced than the differences. Indeed, the whole point
of H.R Ellis Davidson's Myths and Symbols in Pagan Europe was to
demonstrate that the Celtic and Scandinavian religions were branches of
a common European belief and practice.