TEUTONIC MAGIC - Awaken Video

WUNJO
Galdr-sound: wwwwwwwww (a deep buzzing w, rather like a U with lips almost closed)
Letter: W, V
(Joy) is had
by the one who knows few troubles
pain and sorrows
and who to himself has
blessedness and bliss
and stronghold enough.
— Anglo-Saxon Rune Poem
The rune wunjo, “joy,” rules the virtue of cheerfulness, which is as necessary to the Teutonic hero
as strength or generosity. A cheerful mind through all hardship was seen as a great part of courage, as
Sigurdhr, the greatest of Teutonic heroes, tells:
Ever the fearless, but the fearful never
will fare well in a fight.
To be glad is better than of gloomy mood
whether all fall fair or foul.[1]
This gladness showed forth the strength of will to endure all the sorrows and hardships of a time
much more beset with bodily struggles and threats than our own. For the vitki, it is a sign of the ability to
maintain her/his enthusiasm for the work in spite of all the disappointments, discouragements, and strife
within that come in the process of learning magic. Wunjo is the first rune of the will itself, as well as the
rune of a balanced, integrated personality. To reach the goal of wunjo, you must be able to keep your
pains and sorrows from looming too large in your life, yet you must know a few troubles in order to
understand how to deal with problems when they do arise.
The last line of the rune poem is especially meaningful, when seen in the setting of Germanic
thinking in general and Anglo-Saxon thinking in particular, in which the world-view seems to be
gloomier than that of most of the Germanic peoples. The only place where you may find happiness and
fellowship is the stronghold or byrg of the rune poem. An ordinary person without “stronghold enough” is
doomed to sorrow, as the poem “The Wanderer” tells in such wrenching words. Life itself, even in the
Christian writings of Bede, is compared to a sparrow which swoops from the dark unknown into one door
of the hall, bides for a little while in the warmth and light, and flies out again into the stormy blackness.
Being within the stronghold means both warding against sorrow and experiencing the joy of being with
your kin and friends-the only cure for the loneliness which was such suffering for the outcast. Wunjo is
the rune of fellowship and the bindings of kin, as distinct from the “social contract” of gebo.
For the vitki, wunjo is the rune which melds the different sides of your own being into a whole,
relieving tension and binding the sides of the self together as the kinsmen in the hall are bound. The
reference to “fortress enough” hints that the vitki is never truly set apart from his/her base of power but is
able to keep the unwavering brightness of outlook which is her/his strength through all trials, because
there is no weak spot in him/her which would be in danger of crumbling under stress.
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