BIRCH
BOTANICAL NAME: Betula alba
BOTANICAL FAMILY: Betulaceae
COMMON NAMES:
Lady of the woods, Birk, White Birch.
Bouleau. Berke. Bereza.
NATURAL HISTORY:
The common or silver birch is a graceful native tree, found throughout the British Isles. It has thin, dark purplish-brown twigs which often droop. They carry alternately set, dark scaled buds which open in April. The leaves are long stalked and vary in shape, sometimes being triangular, oval or diamond shaped, although they always end in a pointed tip. They are tinged brown when they first open but soon change to green and then yellow before falling in October. The branches develop a thin, white covering of fresh bark which peels off in thin strips. Near the base of old trees dark knobbly bark appears. The trees grow well on the poorest of soils, but they need plenty of light. They can often be found on pastures, fallow land and forest clearings. The birch grows to a height of up to 80 ft. with a girth of around 12 ft. It is not a very long lived tree, often rotting from the inside after only sixty years growth. Male and female catkins are produced on the same branch, the male being long and pendulous and showing yellow anthers, the female shorter and erect. It is one of the earliest trees to put out its leaves, often as early as late March, although its branches do not harden until later. The birch was one of the first trees to follow the retreating Ice Age north.
Cultivation:
The Birch will grow in moist situations, but requires good drainage, and so seems to flourish best on light soils. In planting it, probably it will be best in any case to secure some dark evergreen background or contrast, effective both in spring and autumn, such as Scotch firs.
PRACTICAL USES:
Birch trees of the genus Betula produce close-grained wood of uniform texture that is used in furniture, flooring, plywood, and veneers. Birch beer, once popular, is derived from the sap. The bark of B. papyrifera, paper birch, was used by North American Indians to build canoes. Oil of wintergreen, once derived from the bark of B. lenta, is now manufactured synthetically.
LORE:
One of the main associations of the birch is with purification. In nearly all Indo European tongues the word for birch derived from a root word 'bharg' meaning 'bright' or 'shining'. In general white trees being used to drive out negativity and winter.. Birch twigs were used throughout England for the beating of bounds and the flogging of law breakers with the aim of driving out evil spirits. Birch rods are used in country ritual for the driving out of the old year.
At Imbolc bride dolls were made from straw and decorated with flowers. They were brought to the door by women who would call out ‘Let Bride come in.’ the doll was set down in a cradle with a white wand of birch, broom or willow beside it to represent the bride’s consort. Brighid is often depicted carrying a white rod.
The maypole was probably Celtic in origin. They were made of birch, associating the birch with the May Day sexual revels of sympathetic fertility magic. Sometimes, as in Wales, a living birch tree would be dressed and birch twigs used to light the Beltane fires of oak. The May-pole custom was called ‘raising the birch’, Codi’r Fedwen, in south Wales, and ‘the summer branch’ in the North and the dancing around it, ‘the dance of the birch’. The May-pole was painted and decorated with flowers and ribbons. In Glamorgan the birch was erected on St. John’s Eve [midsummer eve] rather than on May Day and was called y fedwen haf or ‘summer birch’. It was surmounted by a weather cock with gilded feathers. (The cock was a sacred bird among the Celts, and a bird of the sun. The cry of the cock at sunrise indicates the end of the darkness and the start of the day.) Sometimes one village would try to steal another village’s pole, and it was considered very unlucky and a disgrace to lose one in this fashion, and the bereft village was not allowed to raise another until they had succeeded in stealing another from elsewhere and the poles were guarded all night by groups of youths and men. In Carmarthenshire the branches of the summer birch were not trimmed off to make a pole but were decorated with garlands and wreaths of flowers. The may pole represents the phallic fertilising power of the God, thrust into the womb of the Earth Mother, and also functions as an cosmic axis or world tree, joining the worlds of Gods and men in the ritual cycle. The shamans seven stepped pole (used as an axis mundi or world tree) for his journeys to the otherworld was also made of birch, particularly as the fly agaric grows beneath it.
Roman lictors carried birch rods at the installation of a new consul which took place shortly after midwinter. There were 12 lictors assigned to each consul, making 13 in all.
The Baltic sun maiden visited families’ hearths six times a year. On some summer nights she could be seen as a small flame beside birch trees [St Elmo’s fire]. This gave rise to a myth about the origin of fire. A young girl saw a flame by a tree. When she looked more closely it became a beautiful young woman wearing a crown. The woman said that her lover had been driven from heaven and her mother, Saule had exiled her as well. Now she would live among humans in the fire. The girl took a spark home, which she never allowed to go out.
This tree, or iron post stands beyond the hill of the sky next to a grey stone. Two horses stand by the post. in Baltic lore when the axis is a tree, it usually oak or birch with silver leaves, copper branches and iron roots, note the white/red/black colour scheme. Alternatively, in Balkan lore, the World tree may be a linden or an apple. The sun goddess, Saule rests in it, hanging her belt up and sleeping in the crown. At dawn, when she rises, the belt turns red. The Balks considered the apple tree to be feminine and closely linked to Saule, who owns an apple orchard from which tumbles a red apple at sunset that is the red sun of twilight. Linden trees are also feminine in Baltic lore and according to some myths, it is in the linden that the sun Goddess Saule sleeps, hanging up her belt.
Amongst the Slavs, a traditional part of a bride’s trousseau is a red embroidered handkerchief, typically showing a woman with lines radiating from her head, holding the reins of two horses with their riders facing outwards. The riders often had birch branches twined in their hair. This represents the sun goddess with the twin horses that pull the sun’s chariot and the background is often filled with other solar symbols such as cocks and firebirds.
Birch bark is durable and was used by ancients for writing purposes before the invention of paper.
Birch is also a protective tree, believed to guard a man or woman who carried it and to keep livestock safe when attached to their barn or shelter. In some parts of England a birch was hung with red and white rags and leant against stable doors at Beltane (May Day) to prevent horses being 'hag-ridden', i.e. being taken out by spirits or witches and ridden.
Lovers used to give their sweethearts sprigs of birch.
The importance of the birch as a fertility totem survived until recent times in agricultural folklore. In Scandinavia the appearance of leaves on the birch marked the beginning of the agricultural year and the farmers took it as a sign to sow their spring wheat
In some parts of Sweden on May Eve the boys went about with bunches of leafy birch twigs, following the village fiddler, dancing and singing songs which prayed for fine weather and a good harvest. They visited houses where they wee given gifts of eggs etc. and in return they stuck a leafy twig over the cottage door. In the district of Pinsk, the prettiest girl would be elected by her fellows and enveloped in a mass of birch and maple and carried through the village, a custom similar to the election of the May Queen in Britain.
In little Russia a stake was driven into the ground, wrapped in straw and set alight. As the flames rose the women would throw birch bows onto the fire saying "may the flax be as tall as this bough". This was to give the fertilising power of the birch to the growing crops.
In Britain the association of the birch with sex and fertility survived into the 19th century, when navvies and their ladies considered themselves to be properly married if they had jumped across a birch broom.
In Westphalia on 1st May, heifers are struck with a rowan branch with a charm that says as the sap comes into the birch and beech, so will milk come into the udder. The branch is then hung over the byre all summer.
In Russia the forest spirits are called Lieschi and were considered to be always present in clumps of trees, particularly the tops of birch trees. To invoke them young birches were cut down and placed in a circle with the points to the centre. Then one enters the circle and invokes the spirit which immediately appears. The magician should then stand on one of the tree stumps, face the east, look between their legs and say, Uncle Liechi, ascend thou, not as a grey wolf , not as an ardent fire, but as resembling myself. The leaves then tremble and the Liechi arises in human form and agrees to give the service for which he has been invoked providing the magician promises their soul.
In Somerset, a female spirit called ‘The one with the white hand’ flickers from birch copses, pale and gaunt as the trees to ambush young men. If she brushed his head with her spidery hand, he would go mad. If she touched his breast he would fall dead
MAGICAL USES:
Magically the vibration of the birch is the power of new beginnings, of leaving behind the winter and negativity, cleansing and purification in preparation for the summer and new creative opportunities. The white trunk of the birch represents the shining light of purity and freshness and may be used as a totem to rid yourself of things that must be left behind. Birch may be used as a clearing and purification incense at the turning of the wheel, and birch rods may be used to beat the boundaries of the circle to empower them, and to banish the winter at the start of the summer, Beltane. The besom has birch twigs and it is used to seep the circle or temple clear of any negativity before ritual begins.
The Beltane may pole should be made of birch, to bring its fertilising power to the earth at the time of the sacred marriage of the Lord and Lady. The priest, representing the young God should plunge it into the ground, as a fertilising phallus into the womb of the earth, crying "Life to the earth".
When the tree is opened to extract the sweet sap the essence of the tree is released to give its power to the waxing year and the strengthening sun at the vernal equinox. When the light begins to gain on the dark. This can form part of the ritual of Ostara. Honour the Sun God with birch sap wine the following year.
The birch is also a tree of protection, and protective amulets can be made for the house and temple at Beltane, by making a four armed cross of birch twigs (representing the four directions and the fourfold balance), bound with red thread. Hang them at the highest point of the house.
Birch is sometimes known as 'the lady of the woods', and legend says that the Lady will become angry if you take the bark. It is also held to be an honoured tree of the God Thor, and to take the bark you must wait until Thor has marked the tree with lightning.
MEDICINAL:
An infusion of birch can be used to heal mouth sores and to help break up kidney stones. It also has sedative qualities which make it a valuable sleeping aid. Birch tea, made from the leaves, is to be recommended for rheumatism and gout. The leaves have diuretic and disinfectant qualities and are used in herbal infusions for urinary infections and kidney stones as birch does not irritate the kidneys.
Parts Used: The bark and the leaves.
READY REFERENCE
Planetary ruler: Venus
Element: water
Bird familiar: pheasant / golden eagle,
Colour: white
Gemstone: topaz / rock crystal / red sard
Runes: beorc
Festival: Beltane
Station: south-east
Magical tool: staff
Associated deities: Brigantia, Brighid, Earth Mother, The Lady of the Woods, The Summer Goddess, Thor,
RECIPES :
BIRCH SAP WINE
Collect the sap early in March by boring a hole the width of a plastic tube. You can collect 4 pt. in 24 hours. Take sap from fully grown trees only and be sure to cork the hole tightly afterwards or the continued loss of sap will kill the tree.
8 pt. fresh sap
1/2 lb. chopped raisins
2.5 lb. sugar
juice of 2 lemons
yeast
Boil the sap, add the sugar and simmer for 10 minutes. Put the raisins and lemon juice into a fermentation bin and add the sap. Cool to lukewarm and then add the started yeast. Ferment for three day, then strain into a demi-jon. Fit an air-lock and leave to ferment out. When fermentation has finished rack into a clean demi-jon and leave to clear. When clear bottle and keep for six months before drinking.