Asatru Folk Assembly

The interlaced horn design from the Danish Snoldelev stone was adopted as the official symbol of the Ásatrú Folk Assembly in October 2006.[1][2]

The Asatru Folk Assembly, or AFA, is a US-headquartered, but international folkish[3] Ásatrú organization, with chapters worldwide, founded by Stephen A. McNallen in 1994.

The AFA is recognized as a 501(c)(3) non-profit religious organization, or church[4][5] and is headquartered in Grass Valley, California.[6][6][7][8] McNallen believes in an "integral link between ancestry and religion, between biology and spirituality," and according to Jeffrey Kaplan the organization was founded in part to counteract rumored "universalist" tendencies he discerned in Ring of Troth.[9]

History

The Asatru Free Assembly has its roots in the Viking Brotherhood which was founded by McNallen in 1972. McNallen was one of the earliest advocates of reconstructing Germanic Paganism in modern times. The Viking Brotherhood later evolved into the Asatru Free Assembly.

A group called the Asatru Free Assembly founded by McNallen and Stine in 1974 was disbanded in 1986, splitting into two successor organizations, the "folkish" Ásatrú Alliance, and the "universalist" The Troth.[10] In 1986 the Asatru Free Assembly ceased operations, due to burnout and disputes within the membership. McNallen says that despite reports to the contrary, it was not due to racial politics, but that he worked as a peace officer in Stephens County Texas sheriff's office jail and Sheila kept books for an oil company, and both were logging around sixty hours and forty hours per week, respectively, on Asatru-related matters. Both knew that they could not continue putting out this effort without financial compensation, which would allow them to cut back on these mundane jobs. When they approached the membership, the general reaction was negative. Some accused them of trying to "establish a priesthood" or of being "money hungry." Surprised and bruised by this rejection, they tried cutting back on membership services to make the job more manageable. This, in turn, caused more complaints among members. Realising this was a losing battle, both at the end of their financial and emotional resources, the AFA was disbanded, with the ashes turned over to Valgard Murray, leader of the Arizona Kindred, who used them as the foundation for the Asatru Alliance.[11]

McNallen took a sabbatical for several years, resuming publication of The Runestone in 1994 and forming the Asatru Folk Assembly in 1995. McNallen intending it to be the successor organization to the Asatru Free Assembly. The defunct Asatru Free Assembly is sometimes distinguished from the newer Asatru Folk Assembly by the usage of "old AFA" and "new AFA", respectively. From 1997-2002, the AFA was a member organization of the International Asatru-Odinic Alliance.

In 1999, the assembly almost acquired land in northern California, aiming to base a communal project with room for agriculture and religious worship.[7] However, the organization never held legal title to the land. Upon promises that the subject piece of land would be donated, some members of the AFA built a simple Hof on the land, after which the actual owner of the land chose not to donate it.

In the late 1990s, the assembly got involved with the protracted fight over the remains of the Kennewick Man: they claimed that these were the remains of a European ancestor and were allowed to approach, but not touch, the coffin holding him.[12] Later testing found that the Kennewick Man was genetically similar to Native Americans and Ainu people.


In early 2017, the Asatru Folk Assembly updated its Declaration of Purpose. The primary change in the document was "Northern European Folk" being changed to "Ethnic European Folk" with an indication in text of that meaning white people.[13]

Activity

Since 2013, the AFA has owned rights to many of Edred Thorsson's books.[14]

In August 2015 the AFA acquired a former Grange Hall in Brownsville, California, built in 1938, to be used as a hof and community center under the name Newgrange Hall Asatru Hof.[15][16][17] It was previously the Youth Center of the Mountaintop Christian Academy of CA,[18][19] and at another time the Marge Moore Youth Center.[17][20]

References

Notes
  1. ↑ The Asatru Folk Assembly's Symbol
  2. ↑ The Meaning of the Asatru Folk Assembly symbol.
  3. ↑ Gardell 152, 261.
  4. ↑ https://member.asatrufolkassembly.org/
  5. ↑ http://www.taxexemptworld.com/organization.asp?tn=1401194
  6. 1 2 http://www.theunion.com/article/20031108/OBITUARIES/111080040
  7. 1 2 Gardell 261
  8. ↑ http://www.asatrufolkassemblyblog.org/2011/04/ostara-in-oklahoma-with-asatru-folk.html?m=1
  9. ↑ Kaplan, Jeffrey (1997). Radical religion in America: millenarian movements from the far right to the children of Noah. Syracuse UP. pp. 31–32. ISBN 978-0-8156-0396-2. Retrieved 30 January 2012.
  10. ↑ Strmiska, Michael (2005). Modern paganism in world cultures: comparative perspectives. ABC-CLIO. p. 133. ISBN 978-1-85109-608-4. Retrieved 30 January 2012.
  11. ↑ Stephen A. McNallen, "Three Decades of the Ásatrú Revival in America", in Joshua Buckley & Michael Moynihan (eds.), TYR: Myth - Culture - Tradition, Volume 2 (Atlanta: Ultra, 2003-2004), p. 208-9.
  12. ↑ Bay-Hansen, C. D. (2002). Futurefish 2001: Futurefish in Century 21: The North Pacific Fisheries Tackle Asian Markets, the Can-Am Salmon Treaty, and Micronesian Seas, 1997-2001. Trafford. p. 214. ISBN 978-1-55369-293-5. Retrieved 30 January 2012.
  13. ↑ http://www.runestone.org/about/purpose.html Declaration of Purpose
  14. ↑ http://www.asatrufolkassemblyblog.org/2013/05/asatru-folk-assembly-obtains-rights-to_20.html
  15. ↑ http://thecrowdfundingcentre.com/?page=project&id=DF87D4
  16. ↑ https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/newgrange-hall-asatru-hof#/story
  17. 1 2 http://realestate.nevadacounty4sale.com/idx/details/listing/a276/20151469/8408-La-Porte-Road-Brownsville-California%5B%5D
  18. ↑ https://www.google.com/maps/place/8408+La+Porte+Rd,+Brownsville,+CA+95919/@39.4528474,-121.2945609,3a,23y,162.72h,81.14t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sy7v32wC1gG4YFq7ONaNJww!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo0.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3Dy7v32wC1gG4YFq7ONaNJww%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dsearch.TACTILE.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D181.52048%26pitch%3D0!7i13312!8i6656!4m2!3m1!1s0x809ca2e8fbdbf335:0x81ea0efcd3198bcd!6m1!1e1
  19. ↑ http://mls.calhomenet.com/idx/4036/details.php?idxID=313&listingID=20151469
  20. ↑ http://www.mystore411.com/store/view/24273314/Jazzercise-Classes-Brownsville
Bibliography
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