Sunwait – Week 3: Sunna and Thurisaz

I feel like we’re getting into a nice rhythm with our Sunwait rituals. I’m really loving this gentle and ritualized progression toward Yule, and as I said the other night to a friend, I’m really, really glad that we decided to incorporate Sunwait into our hearth cultus this year. Since we decided to do our rites on Fridays, it’s also a lovely way to cap off the week (a particularly significant transition since we tend to immerse ourselves in ritual and devotional work over the weekends). 

So, last night, as is our norm, we began by bearing fire around our space, chanting the fire cleansing song that I learned more than twenty years ago, and asking Thor to cleanse, purify, and bless our space. I wrote about Thor before here. He may specifically be invoked as “Guardian of the Shrine” before rituals to consecrate the space and rite. Thor is awesome. Then, I explained the purpose of the ritual – we all knew, as we’d agreed as a household to do this, but stating that intention was one more way to center our minds and allow for a smooth transition into the appropriate headspace for reverent veneration. After that, I offered the following prayer to Sunna and lit the three candles (the candles for weeks one and two are only about half way burned down):  

Prayer to Sunna
 
Force and fire, that is what You are, 
Swift precision as You plough across the sky, 
Driving back pollution, and cleansing the path
that Day must tread.  Force and fire,
bringing the light that restores our souls,
bringing Your glorious brightness to our world. 
You are force and fire, gleaming and fierce.
Battle ready, You are indomitable. 
There is no obstacle You cannot surmount, 
No enemy You cannot conquer. 
You drive forward the rhythms of the world. 
You smite malefica, wickedness, evil, 
and all that stands against the order created by our Gods. 
These things You obliterate with the force and fire 
of Your passing. That order is Your order, 
blessed and structured by Your holy hands,
and always will You defend it. 
Teach us, oh Sunna, to stand courageously
no matter how afraid we might be,
in defense of that order too. 
Hail to You, Glorious Goddess of the Sun,
May You grant us bravery in our devotions,
as You move across our world 
leading us to Yule. 
 

After this, I galdred thurisaz which came so joyously (there’s really no other word for it). It was like the force of a storm wind hitting the house. That’s how it felt to galdr this rune. He came immediately and with such a tremendous kinetic energy that it left me wired for hours afterwards. We passed a horn filled with sparkling apple cider and hailed Sunna, Her family, Thor, Odin and the runes, our ancestors, and more. After this, we sat down in sacred space, in holy space, and brought out our divination materials. We had been talking earlier about the small asteroid orbiting the moon, and had wondered if it was a physical representation that Mani had had a child. We meant no impiety by divining, but if He had, we wanted to know how or even if we should include that child in our veneration of the House of Mundilfari. We stumbled into epiphany and mystery and I am still shaken by it. 

Sunna wanted this story told or I would not speak it. 
The holy order of the heavens will not fall. 
She and Mani were joyous and the rune that fell was wunjo:
Joy, perfection, a blessed gift. 
They had a child, star of heaven, Himinstjarna,* 
A glorious daughter (fehu tells us how to honor Her:
Song and beauty, art that elevates the soul, 
Land and life and glory, freeing the world of its disorder). 
I thought it lovely and we were moved to tears,
Then I realized what a terrible omen it was, 
but what a powerful hope too. 
The sun and moon will not fall:
Their continuity is ensured by Their child. 
She will bring Them back from the darkness.
A magical gift, hope for our world. 
Mani prepares to go to war. 
Taking up His scimitars again, 
For He was a warrior in days of old. 
But the holy order of the Gods will endure. 
Himinstjarna: praise Her.
 

We closed the div session and then sang Sigdrifa’s Prayer, which is our way of closing almost every ritual. After that, we staggered off to get food, because after the spiritual work that was done, we were ravenous. So, that’s where we are and I think the House of Mundilfari will play a far larger role in our devotions from here on out. 

Mani by V. Hardy

*this is Her name to the best that we could translate with divination, and an ON grammar.