Wu (fortuneteller)

"earth"

- I'll tell you a little secret, young airbender. Just as you reshaped those clouds, you have the power to shape your own destiny.

Aunt Wu was an old woman who was able to tell people's fortunes. When she was old enough, she studied with other fortunetellers, learning different methods like reading bones and clouds. Aunt Wu spent many years traveling the Earth Kingdom, telling people's fortunes in each town she visited. When she arrived at Makapu Village near the active volcano Mt. Makapu twenty years prior to Avatar Aang's visit, she knew this was where she was meant to be - the people in this town needed her, as everyone started to rely on Aunt Wu's fortunes. The people of Makapu were so confident in her abilities that they abandoned going up the volcano to check if it will erupt, rather relying on Aunt Wu's predictions. Well-regarded for her free and accurate readings, every prediction she made was taken as gospel by the village at large. Her methods of divination ran from palmistry to oracle bones and cloud reading. She was also helped in her hut by her assistant, Meng.

History
When Aunt Wu's cloud readings predicted the nearby volcano would not destroy the village, Katara and Aang accepted the reading, while the more skeptical Sokka grew frustrated with the populace's blind faith to the fortuneteller. After an expedition to the volcano proved that the volcano had become very active, the three found the only way to convince the villagers of the impending danger was to manipulate the clouds through waterbending and airbending, deliberately shaping them to elicit a more accurate reading according to Aunt Wu's book of clouds, who had been given to the Avatar by Meng when he tried to steal it. After the villagers were convinced the town was in danger, they helped Aang and the others to successfully protect the village from the volcano's fiery lava. Since the town was not destroyed just as Aunt Wu predicted, the villagers believed in Aunt Wu's fortune telling all the more, much to the displeasure and frustration of Sokka.

Unlike her brother, Katara became enthralled by the mysticism of fortune telling and the notion of knowing her future. Her reading predicted that she would one day marry a powerful bender, which sent an eavesdropping Aang into elation. Sokka later noted on the immensity of Aang's bending power as he saved the village, which caused Katara to make a connection between Aang and her fortune.

After they saved the village, Aang returned the book to her. She seemed angry at first, accusing them of playing with the clouds, but she then told them that this was very clever. Surprisingly, Aunt Wu freely admitted that she did not believe in any kind of predestination, claiming that her predictions would come true only if a person wished them to.

A short time later, June, Prince Zuko, and Iroh visited Makapu village in search of the Avatar. Aunt Wu thought Iroh was handsome, and asked if he wanted his fortune told.

Trivia

 * Wu may be written in Chinese as 巫, a rare surname meaning "shaman" or "sorceress". Shamanism was widespread in ancient China from the Shang dynasty until the Han. During the Shang and Zhou dynasties, their preferred divination techniques was the reading of oracle bones- which Aunt Wu demonstrates in the show.
 * Aunt Wu's prediction of Katara marrying a powerful bender came true, since Aang and Katara ended up marrying and having three children.
 * Perhaps coincidentally, "woo" is also a slang term used by skeptics to describe superstitious nonsense such as astrology and fortune telling.
 * Aunt Wu's headpiece is an inverted Mark of the Wise, the symbol Sokka earned after successfully completing the Southern Water Tribe's traditional rite of passage of Ice dodging.
 * She also appeared to find Iroh attractive (as many older women tend to do).