Happiness and conclusion are strong themes today. Happiness/joy is the meaning of Wunjo, the source of today’s affirmation and the eighth and final rune in the first aett (or rune “family”) of the Elder Futhark. It’s also nearly a full moon, and I started this series just after the new moon. (It’s fascinating how present cycles are in our lives, and how it takes only a little silence and stillness to see them.)
The Anglo-Saxon rune poem, Verse VIII, as translated by B. Dickins in Runic and Heroic Poems of the Old Teutonic Peoples:
(bliss) he enjoys who knows not suffering, sorrow nor
anxiety, and has prosperity and happiness and a good
enough house.
The poem says bliss comes from “not knowing suffering, sorrow, or anxiety.” How is it possible to live daily life without experiencing these emotions? Maybe the answer isn’t avoiding these emotions or pretending they don’t exist, but rather choosing how you will allow them to affect you. Abraham Lincoln said it best: “People are just as happy as they make up their minds to be.”
Does the “prosperity and happiness” in the second line come from material things and other people, or is it found within us? The answer is found in the wise words of another icon, the 14th Dalai Lama: “Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions.”
Being happy isn’t about what or who you have in your life, it’s about deciding to have joy now, and settling for nothing less. Many of us spend immense time and energy chasing things and people we think will eventually make us happy, meanwhile robbing ourselves of joy in the present. The typical list titled, “what I need to be happy” is usually long: the “perfect” partner, family, career, house, car, and on and on. What’s even more unpleasant than the burden of these unrealistic expectations is the inevitable realization that, regardless of what we do or accumulate, perfection does not exist.
You know that feeling of satisfaction that comes from successfully completing a project you’ve invested a lot of time and energy in? And how that feeling is colored with joy when you stand back and look at what you’ve created? These feelings are the essence of Wunjo, and describe one road to honest and sustainable happiness – a road that begins inside you.
Wunjo affirmations:
I am living my higher purpose as I do what brings me joy.
I am joyful right now.
(Look for Day 9’s affirmation the first week of October.)
About these affirmations: if the words presented above don’t ring true for you, change them! The words don’t do the work on their own…it’s words + repetition + personal intent and emotional connection that make affirmations such powerful catalysts for positive change. Feel free to create ones that feel good and reflect who you are.
Click here to see other affirmations in this series.
Source material: Oswald the Runemaker and Living with Joy
Affirmations by Orin and Sanaya Roman
I’ve been a runology student for 20 years. See the About page or click here to learn more about my work with the runes.
24 Days of Runic Affirmations: Day 9, Hagalaz
Posted in 24 Days of Runic Affirmations, tagged Affirmations, Asatru, Chaos, Deepak Chopra, Heathenism, Imogen Heap, Intentional Living, Law of Attraction, Living with Joy, Neo-Paganism, Northern Mysteries, Orin, Paganism, Positive Thinking, Rune Lore, Rune Meanings, runemaker.com, Runes, Sanaya Roman, Social Commentary, Spirituality, The Occult on October 13, 2012| Leave a Comment »
“So let go…it’s alright, ’cause there’s beauty in the breakdown.”
–Imogen Heap, from the song Let Go
“All great changes are preceded by chaos.”
–Deepak Chopra
Do you feel like a storm is brewing? If so, get out the candles, stoke the fire, and prepare to wait it out.
The first rune of the second aett (or rune “family”) in the Elder Futhark is all about challenges that delay and disrupt your plans. In situations like these your choices are usually few, but clear. Do you face the storm with courage, then pick up the pieces and rebuild after it has passed? Or do you deny the storm is raging around you, then stare with disbelief at the damage it leaves behind? Worse, do you spend your valuable time and energy demanding the Universe “make things the way they were before,” instead of moving forward?
It’s hard watching something we’ve spent time and energy building come crashing down around us, especially when we feel powerless to stop its collapse. But nature’s cycle of birth, growth, and death is something neither we nor anything we create can escape. At best, some of the forms we create – friendships, intimate relationships, careers, beliefs about ourselves and others – eventually stop helping us grow. At worst, these can become stifling to the point of making us feel imprisoned. Whatever the case, old forms that no longer enliven and empower us have to be shed to make room for different opportunities that bring renewed freedom, inspiration, and joy. By holding on to the old instead of embracing the new, we rot ourselves from the inside out and become what compassionate spiritual warrior and well-known medium Faye The Tattooed Psychic calls “the walking dead.”
If you’re not ready to face the challenges in your life, ask yourself why. If you’re ready for the peace that comes from accepting things as they are and would like help mustering the courage to move on, try these affirmations by Orin and Sanaya Roman, from the book Living with Joy:
About these affirmations: if the words presented above don’t ring true for you, change them! The words don’t do the work on their own…it’s words + repetition + intent and emotional connection that make affirmations such powerful catalysts for positive change. Feel free to create ones that feel good and reflect who you are.
Click here to see other affirmations in this series.
Additional source material: Oswald the Runemaker
I’ve been a runology student for 20 years. See the About page or click here to learn more about my work with the runes.
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