It Started with a Necklace

The story of a pendant that set me on my path.

Back in my sophomore year of college, my dear friend Stephanie gave me a small ceramic pendant on a black silk cord. Inscribed on it was a symbol—a letter I somehow recognized as a Rune, though I didn’t know its name or meaning. Stephanie said she chose it because it reminded her of me, that it represented something I embodied. But she wouldn’t tell me what it meant. She said I had to find out on my own.

This set me on a quest, but it was 1992. There was no internet, and certainly no books on runes in our private Christian college library.

What was the rune? What did it mean? I’ll tell you in a bit.

I wore that necklace for a week before I finally made it to a bookstore and asked the clerk for help. They handed me a rune gift set that came with the small tablets and a book. It was a popular set at the time, and I used it for years—though I don’t recommend the book now. The author diluted the runes with Christian overtones that stripped them of their depth. Still, that book set me on a path—a journey into the Elder Futhark that has enriched my life ever since.

Runes are letters from the old Germanic alphabets, each tied not just to a phonetic sound but also to a powerful concept. According to Norse myth, Odin discovered the runes as a gift of knowledge while hanging on the World Tree, Yggdrasil. He sacrificed his right eye in exchange for this vision—a story I’ve been thinking about a lot lately as I recover from eye surgery.

Stephanie was thrilled with my enthusiasm about learning the runes as a divination system. The priestess in her had foreseen that I would take to them. She explained that the runes were a part of her ancestral bloodline. And ever since she learned her grandmother cast the runes, she’d wanted to learn them too. However, her religious parents didn’t approve of them and made the grandmother never mention them around her. 

So we studied them together, making our own rune sets out of stone, leather, and even tree bark. It was messy, magical, and deeply creative. I highly recommend it. We had already become a coven of two by this time, celebrating goddesses and casting spells together. Thanks to her prodding, I also researched the runes—and learned they were part of my family tree too.

I’ve been thinking about Stephanie a lot lately—and reflecting on the runes more than usual—because I just finished teaching a private, two-year class where we studied one rune each month. Every class included a talk (plus a handout), journaling prompts with discussion, and a closing meditation I wrote. I’m still in awe that my students stuck with me the whole way. It was an incredible journey

I chose each month’s rune intentionally, not following their traditional order. I did this for two reasons: First, to keep myself curious and engaged. The element of surprise helped me dive deeper. Second, I wanted to see if the runes I chose each month would mirror what we were all going through. And they did. Uncannily so. The alignment was astonishing. You wouldn’t think you could be surprised like this over and over, but I think perhaps that’s the best part of being human. We keep forgetting that everything is connected and it can be really fun to discover it all over again.

I’m so grateful to Stephanie for gifting me that rune necklace all those years ago. It gave me a powerful tool to ground myself, and a language to commune with my ancestors. I was very touched when I learned the meaning of the symbol Stephanie had said represented how she saw me. 

It was Wunjo. The rune of joy.

It looks like a “P” but drawn in three straight lines, no curves. Most folks pronounce it “Wuhn-yo,” but some say “Won-joe.”

Wunjo is the rune of pleasure, joy, and well-being, bringing a deep sense of harmony within oneself and within society. It represents the fulfillment of wishes, shared identity, and effortless ease. Wunjo strengthens bonds, fosters fellowship, and encourages the alignment of personal will with communal and divine purpose. It is the rune that transforms alienation into connection, sorrow into joy, and struggle into shared triumph.

How beautiful. 

It’s one thing to be told that you embody joy. And it’s quite another to be given a language to help you foster it, and thereby reveal the connections between us all. So many gifts in one act of kindness. 

I send out my gratitude to Stephanie, my Rune Circle, and to You for reading this. I thank my ancestors for weaving this story for me, and I thank the Runes themselves for their guidance. 

Go forth in joy!