Wunjo: Joy and Hope
As the light breaks in: A look at Wunjo as a Rune for light half of the year.
By Mictlán MoonShadow.
Wunjo
( Pronounced Woon-Yo)
Wunjo is a beautiful Rune from the Elder Futhark to symbolize the beginning of the light half of the year. It is so because it embodies so much of what we associate with the growing light in the world at this time of the year. Wunjo is a Rune that symbolizes joy, triumph, harmony and, celebration.
As such Wunjo is the perfect Rune to bring about in our own minds the return of the light to the world. Most of us understand what it can be like to go through difficult times in the dark half of the year, the darkness is deep with introspection and shadow work for most Pagans. When Imbolc comes around and we see the promise of the coming spring around the corner. Something deep within starts to stir in us. Something that is very simple yet primal in human nature: Joy.
Wunjo as the Rune of Joy can easily symbolize the light at the end of the tunnel. Not only on the changing seasons, but our internal landscape. In many Wiccan traditions Imbolc is a time when we set our goals and intents for the rest of the Wiccan year. We do not want to do this out of darkness and introspection. That work is done in the dark half of the year. In Imbolc we tend to the seeds that are our dreams. We do so because the work of the dark half of the year has been done. We have looked within and understand what our true needs and desires both are. It is powerful magic to come out of a place of shadow into light, seeing what we need to manifest in the coming year. It is powerful magic tending to our lives as a garden (Sometimes quite literally in the case of those who mix gardening with magic )
Wunjo is Imbolc because we don’t drag our feet into the turning the wheel of the year. But we put all of our hopes, dreams, as well as our happiness and joy into our magic. Imbolc and Wunjo are the awakening world, it is the planting of the seed into Mother Gaia.
You don’t have to be a practitioner of plat magic to work with this energy, we carry our own magic with us! Wunjo is a change of mentality, leaving behind what held you back in the past year to be triumphant in fresh new start. I love how fresh starts are also endings. The Promise of the coming spring and the return of the light bring forth a full revolution of the cycles of nature. We start our own cycles with the rebirth of nature and the light with the coming of each spring at Ostara, in the ATC WISE tradition of Wicca Ostara is the Holiday associated with the Root Chakra. With each Sabbat we go through one of own energy centers. Ending the cycle with Imboc. In Imbolc we enter the energy of the transpersonal chakra a bit above the crown of the head. Which symbolizes ecstatic spirituality and connection to external divinity itself. Our transpersonal chakra in Imbolc is the Soul Star. It embodies Ecstatic spirituality and universal consciousness. It embodies the Joy of not only connecting with the divine like in the crown chakra. But being at one with it and doing so with all creation.
As such it is befitting that in along with that energy in Imbolc, we deal with the energy of Wunjo, after all it is the Rune that embodies Joy in its purest form. Harmony and Community are also aspects of Wunjo. Both of which can come about with the universal consciousness of the Soul Star Chakra.
Wunjo is also the clear sky in at the end of constant winter. It is the moment when all of our magical work for the wheel of the year comes together in order to empower us into a new beginning in our own magical path.
With the presence of Joy in the heart of the Witch, we can manifest great things. My own personal meaning to Wunjo is a happy memory. I remember a time when I felt very judged and rejected by mainstream society. At that time, I pointed that to one of my own Elders in my spiritual path. She great deal of wisdom looked at me and said with a beautiful smile: “Honey sometimes, just sometimes. You got to let your freak flag fly!” That elder is now in the arms of the Goddess in the afterlife but her wisdom echoes through my head every time I see Wunjo! As the Rune of Joy and Harmony, Wunjo will forever be linked to my own proverbial freak flag. And in memory of my friend and elder I will forever fly it with pride. I fly my own freak flag as symbol of defiance against hard times. I will never surrender my joy that is my magic, and that is the magic of Wunjo.