The Asatru Folk Assembly is proud to welcome home the Hagvirkr Folk Kindred of Northern California as a official Kindred of the AFA.You are proof that hard work and diligence bares fruits and rewards.Putting the keyboard down and meeting face to face creating bonds in the real world.We thank you for stepping up and leading by example and helping to bring our folk home.

Hail the Doers!
Hail the Kindreds of the AFA!
Hail the Asatru Folk Assembly!!!

Jason Gallagher 
Kindred Coordinator
Asatru Folk Assembly
[email protected]

This month we raise a horn in honour of the Folkmother, Else Christensen. Born in Denmark in 1913, Else never felt at home in the church of her parents. For her there was always a pull from her ancient ancestors and from the forests of her native land. Else and her husband emigrated to Canada after WWII in search of better job opportunities. There they quickly got in to touch with Alexander Rudd Mills’ wife in Australia and, using Mills’ writings as a starting point, they began a small Odinist study group with some of their friends. This study group eventually morphed into the Odinist Fellowship. Founded in 1969 or ’70, it was one of the first Odinist/Asatru groups in North America. In 1971 the first issue of The Odinist was published as the official newsletter of The Odinist Fellowship. The Odinist Fellowship grew quickly with Else at its head, her tireless correspondence with Odinists across the world helped to build contact between many disparate believers in the Gods of our Folk. There is a story out there attributed to Stubba, one of the founders of the Odinic Rite, about how when he and Hoskuld were first wanting to create an Odinist group in England they wrote to Else and she gave them contact information of 3 more Odinists near them; from those humble beginnings the Odinic Rite arose. Over the years Else also recognized the potential of those men and women in prison who would one day return back to the free world. She was among the first Odinists to reach out to prisoners and even went so far as to volunteer inside the prisons of Florida to help teach the ancestral ways behind the wire.
Else never faltered from her dedication and devotion to Odinism, right up until her death in 2005 she continued publishing her newsletter and corresponding with people all across the globe. She lived the value of Perseverance and with her passing Odinism/Asatru lost a great voice that promoted our ways.

Hail the Folkmother, Else Christensen!

Blaine Qualls
Gothar Coordinator,
Asatru Folk Assembly

Karen, an AFA South Africa member has her own weekly show. Karen has invited me to be a regular guest on the program and I am thrilled to have the opportunity. If you can, give it a listen, Wednesdays at noon Pacific Time.

https://tunein.com/radio/Radio-Alterra-s257277/
www.play.alterra.co.za

Matthew D. Flavel
Alsherjargothi,
Asatru Folk Assembly

The Asatru Folk Assembly is proud to welcome home the Grim Raven Tribe of Kentucky as an Official Kindred of the AFA.Everywhere you look our folk are coming together building communities,building Kindreds and a future for our people.Now there is a foundation in Kentucky that will continue to grow and grow!If you’re in that state or in the area contact them and say hello.

Hail the Grim Raven Tribe!
Hail the Kindreds of the AFA!
Hail the Asatru Folk Assembly!!!

Jason Gallagher
Kindred Coordinator
[email protected]

The Asatru Folk Assembly would like to wish all our Folk a very happy May Day. As the ladies filled the world with magic last night on Hexennacht, so today our men shape that magic into form and structure. Today we set things in motion and begin building the world we want to see and the lives we want to live. Hail Lord Frey, God of abundant fecundity! Build, create, achieve.

Matthew D. Flavel
Alsherjargothi,
Asatru Folk Assembly

The Asatru Folk Assembly would like to wish our folk a very magical Hexennacht. Tonight is a night of mystery and magic. Tonight our women summon up the arcane forces of power and fill the world with potent magical and spiritual energy. We raise a horn to Lady Freya the Vanadís. May we all celebrate this special time and may we all see our lives full of magic, of wonder, and of bubbling potential. Embrace the mystery…

Matthew D. Flavel
Alsherjargothi,
Asatru Folk Assembly

On Thursday May 2nd, I will be doing our monthly Facebook Live Q&A session. These are the perfect opportunities for folks to ask me anything, about where the AFA is at and where we are headed, or any other questions that you might have. If you ask a question and I don’t see it during the live broadcast, no worries, I will go back and attempt to address all questions in the days following. I am looking forward to talking to my AFA Family. Tune in at 6 PM Pacific.

Matthew D. Flavel
Alsherjargothi,
Asatru Folk Assembly

On April 9th we honour Haakon Sigurdarson, popularly known as Jarl Haakon. Haakon became the ruler of Norway in 975 and held rulership there until about 995. He was always a friend to the Gods and a staunch defender of the Ancestral traditions. In 975 he was forcefully converted to christianity by Harold Bluetooth in 
“repayment” for his loyalty and help in fighting Emperor Otto of the holy roman empire. Haakon did not take this treatment very well and when the time came to leave Denmark with the priests Bluetooth had forced on him, Haakon sailed out away from the shore and promptly ordered every priest overboard. He bade them swim or drown as they saw fit while he sailed on to his homeland of Norway. This rebuttal of the new faith made an enemy of Bluetooth, but allowed Norway to remain free of foreign taint and devoted to the elder ways for a number of years to come.
Haakon’s actions led to his people remaining true to their own Gods for a number of years….. often times we are faced with impossible decisions ourselves. Decisions that will definitely change the course of our future for the foreseeable future. In those times we would do well to remember Haakon and his actions and then weigh our own choices against what is ultimately good for the Folk and the future of the Folk. Each of us can greatly affect the future of Asatru with our choices….. Each of us can build Asatru with our choices. Let us always strive for the decision that will gain the most advantage for ourselves and our Folk. Let us always have the courage to make those hard choices, let us always have the courage of Jarl Haakon.

Hail Jarl Haakon!!!

Blaine Qualls
Gothar Coordinator

Yesterday was a very productive day at Odinshof. A dozen AFA volunteers and a half a dozen children opened the hof for our monthly food drive. 230 individuals and 85 family’s received food and some projects including our ritual area expansion and some floor work were done. Midsummer is right around the corner so we are busy getting everything ready!

Marc MacLeod
Folkbuilder Coordinator,
Asatru Folk Assembly

March was absolutely amazing.  AFA Ostara in the South was a smashing success.  Mandy and I were very glad to get the opportunity to see our Southern members and get to meet some of the best people we have in our AFA family.  Thank you so much to Folkbuilder Paul Hester and his lovely wife Kelly for hosting this event.  If you were unable to attend, please plan early and we would love to see you there next year.  

I am very excited for all the great things we are doing and will do in 2019.  Spring is a time of renewal and awakening of our energy and spirit, I hope you are all feeling charged up as well.  What are your plans for this year?  What do you want to achieve for your self? For your family? For our Church?  Lets go out and make it happen.

As you all may have noticed, we live in very interesting times.  The more we succeed and achieve, the more attention we attract, which is great and gains us more wonderful members and brings our folk home exponentially.  This same growth causes increased negativity from the decaying souls around us.  Through the good news and the bad, we would all do well to remember that we are Aryans, NOBLE people and we should hold our heads up and carry ourselves as such.  Havamal 15 tells us:

“The son of a king | shall be silent and wise,
And bold in battle as well;
Bravely and gladly | a man shall go,
Till the day of his death is come.”

As the year unfolds, I would remind you all of the last part, be brave but also, be glad.  Let us all remember to be GLAD because we get to live in the age of Asatru’s rebirth.  We get to live in a time where our folk are coming home and Hofs are being established.  We get to be apart of this amazing church and family that is the Asatru Folk Assembly, that makes me glad to my very bones.  Life is good and we are building the golden age right now.  In our hearts.  In our homes. In our church.

Hail the Gods!
Hail the Folk!
Hail the AFA!

Matthew D. Flavel
Alsherjargothi 
Asatru Folk Assembly