The Year of Aun & Unn
A small part of an international grassroots effort
to reanimate an ancient octennial Nordic world renewal ritual
to help restore good relationship with the world and to be better ancestors.
THE NEXT AUN YEAR | 2031
Check out the book that details this larger international effort:
AUN: Cannibal Kings, Cosmic Healing, and the Recovery of a Nordic Tradition by Rune Hjarno Rasmussen of Nordic Animism.
Storytelling as Ritual Offering
The Year of Aun & Unn 2023 Storytelling & Oath Taking Project is a small part of a international grassroots effort to reanimate an ancient Nordic world renewal ritual that has not been performed for 1000 years, until now.
My version of this ritual offers up two stories to invoke the ancient ritual and move us forward on a new path, and then lays an invitation at your feet become an active participant in the ritual by taking two oaths.
The Stories – In Brief
1) The Story of Aun tells a tale of a king who sacrificed his own children, so that he could continue to live an unnaturally long life. He breaks bonds of kinship.
The Year of Aun 2023 - initiated and grown by Nordic Animism
2) The Story of Unn is twofold.
The Year of Unn 2023 - expanded and grown from the Aun Year by Heathen Women United
Unn is a daughter of the sea goddess, Ran. Each of Ran’s 9 daughters are a wave of the ocean. Unn is the froth wave who is a decomposer. She breaks things down the into parts and pieces so they can be remade into new shapes.
Unn, the human woman, is chased from Norway and then Ireland by one of Aun’s descendants, but she is cunning, and by weaving a vast web of kinship and she finds herself a founding mother of Iceland. Unn is a weaver creating bonds of kinship.
The Oaths
1) The Oath of Release - make a sacrifice. Give up some way in which you break kinship with the world (we all do it) and make space for something new
2) The Oath of Reciprocity - make an offering of physical or relationship tending and reciprocity to the animate world
This video tells the stories of the oaths. New to oath taking or need inspiration? See the DIY Oath Taking & Inspiration Sections Below.
While such oaths will not “solve” the world’s problems, it is an act of relationship and trust building. Our oaths and their physical enactment are an energetic promise made manifest; they work to mend, build, and bind our commitment to good kinship; it is a promise we keep to rebuild trust and good will between us and all our relations.
The reanimation of this ritual can help us reclaim good relationship with the world; it helps us remember first, how to be in relation, and then, how to be a good relation.
Live & Virtual Events Held in 2023
May 27, 6-10pm @ Utopia Tattoo, Auburn, CA, - The Year of Aun & Unn: Rituals of Reciprocity: An Evening of Art, Music, and Storytelling
Music - Sammy Fielding & Battle Hag Storytelling - Tova Fleming
By donation
August 12, 8pm @ Northern Delights Cafe, Hayfork, CA - The Year of Aun & Unn: Rituals of Reciprocity: An Evening of Music and Storytelling
Music by Sammy Fielding & Feral Season, Storytelling Tova Fleming
Resources
Virtual & DIY Oath Taking
Intention for this Ritual | The call to action for this ritual is to take an oath to 1) make a sacrifice that releases some way in which we break kinship or do damage to the world and then to 2) fill that space with an offering of physical and relational tending and reciprocity 3) then physically manifest the promise for the specified time
Both oaths should be very specific about what will be done, when it will be done, and how long the oath will be held for.
Important Considerations
It is better to under commit and overdeliver when it comes to making promises to Spirit. Make this very doable for yourself and if you feel like doing more than that’s great, just don’t do less.
If you cannot keep your oath for whatever reason, you must renegotiate it or it could come back to bite you in the ass, or worse, break trust rather than repair it. To renegotiate your oath, create or repeat your ritual in which you renegotiate the oath, clear away the old vow & replace it with your renegotiated promise.
Again, be specific about exactly what you will do, when, and for how long.
Approach this process with care and deep humility
Preparing for the Vow Taking Ritual
To Take Your Vow
We are most powerful at the community level. This is true for ritual work as well. I will be setting up virtual opportunities to share and witness vows in small groups throughout 2023. If you would like to participate in one of those community vow taking evets, email me at info@ignisursa.com
DIY Oath in your own space and time
Set your space & create a safe container for the work
be grounded and centered, call in your known and trusted powers, clear your space, set your boundaries in place, speak your intention with humility and gratitude
Offer your promises to the Earth
Write it on a piece of paper and burn it or bury it
Whisper it to a Stone or a River
Sing it to a Seed, tend the Plant and watch kin grow
Or whatever speaks to you
Offer gratitude, clear your space, close the container.
Again, if you need to renegotiate your oath, recreate this ritual: add the intention to renegotiate, make your new offering in the same way.
Learn more about the Year of Aun 2023
Want basics on the Year of Aun?
This blog post from Pagan Kids is a great place to start
Want to go deep?
Check out Nordic Animism’s Aun Project which started this whole beautiful adventure
Join Year of Unn Activities
Request to join the Heathen Women United Facebook Group
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Contributors
Utopia Flyer Art by Phoenix Vonne
Header Photo & Video by James Bratt
Year of Unn Rune by Hrafnsunna Ross
Music by Karl Cordtz of Feral Season
Utopia Tattoo Shop, Auburn CA
Northern Delights Cafe
Kane & Audrey
Sammy Fielding
Battle Hag
Feral Season
Inspiration
Hollow, Listen, and Sing Back to the World
by Pauline Pitchford and Jenn LeBlanc
Click to listen and view the video
Seismic Resonance
Unnr is one of the 9 daughters of Aegir and Ran, rulers of the vast sea. During this sacred year of change and transformation, she offers us regeneration through decomposition, feeding new life as we churn, bubble, and stew. Becoming that which not only feeds ourselves but our human and non-human communities as well.
The self to the self.
The self to other beings.
The self to the wave of change.
The self to all sacred communities.
Where do you end, and they begin?
Hræsvelgr (Hresvelgr), an eagle shaped Jötunn, sits at the northward end of eternity. His beating wings produce the wind and, in turn, the waves at the surface of the water.
We can harness the resonance between Unnr and Hræsvelgr through sound and vibration. If we are moved to engage, simply hum, sing, or tone with us and invite their regenerative powers to find a home within your corporeal form.
Slipping between each cell and throughout your viscera, let them find the morsels of encrusted and mummified fetters that limit our connections.
Let them be consumed.
And feel the waves fill the relieved space they reveal.
Vocals: Pauline Pitchford and Jenn LeBlanc
Written components: Jenn LeBlanc
#yearofunn
Learn to Make Sacred Fire with Nordic Animism
This ritual and this year is all about re-building relationships with the animate world all around us. The practice of making sacred fire allows you to build your relationship with the elements that birth fire and Fire themselves. It’s not easy and it shouldn’t be! Watch Nordic Animism’s YouTube video for more and consider supporting their work on Patreon
SF in Bloom | Guerilla Gardening - Plant through February!
Need inspiration for tending action in February? Get your guerilla gardening on! Check out SF in Bloom and get plantin’! Extra points if you wear a bee suit.
Also, their Instagram page is really worth a gander: @sfinbloom
This vow taking is inclusive of ALL who wish to bind and mend relationship with the world. This means there is no space here for racist, homophobic, fundamentalist, misogynist or other types of bond breaking hate-filled bullshit. So, don’t be a an asshole.