Birch

by Anna Fraser

Betula species

Family : Betulaceae

Names

Silver Birch - Betula alba, Betula pendula
Common Birch, Hairy Birch, Downy Birch - Betula verrucosa, Betula pubescens
N.B. The Silver Birch and the Hairy Birch hybridise freely,
so it can often be difficult to identify precisely.

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The Mother Tree

A long time ago, when the glaciers of the last ice age withdrew to the far North, Birch was the first tree to heal the empty plains and valleys of barrenness.

The ancient people called Birch ‘the Mother Tree’, because it gave birth to a new habitat for all the trees and plants which do not possess the same powers of endurance and pioneering spirit. The 17th century naturalist and diarist, John Evelyn, summed it up: the land where it will grow “cannot well be too barren; for it will thrive both in the dry, and the wet, sand and stony, marshes and bogs; the waterfalls, and uliginous parts of forests that hardly bear any grass, do many times spontaneously produce it in abundance whether the place be high or low and nothing comes amiss to it.”
Birch is able to establish a foothold on traumatised or inhospitable terrain and its roots are bringing up otherwise inaccessible nutrients. Through the yearly leaf fall in the autumn, these become part of the topsoil and that will feed the next generation of living creatures. Even the wood of Birch’s beautiful body is soft, so when the tree dies, after about a hundred years, this too will disintegrate quickly to help bring the soil in good heart.

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Mood

Birch is one of our most beautiful and graceful forest trees and there are few places, which are more calming, peaceful and uplifting than a Birch wood. The foliage has a beautiful soft green colour and it is not dense, so it will let plenty of light through. The light fairy leaves respond to the slightest touch of the wind. In cloudy weather, the trees create a pale green healing glade to walk in. After rain, the birches exude a fragrant odour to feast your sense of smell.

It is truly a tree of both the Sun and the Moon. No other tree can make the sun dance so playfully and make the whole forest come alive with joyous, golden twinkles. No other tree reflects the moon-light so magically from its silver bark. Where lower branches have been discarded, we often find black marks on the trunk, which look remarkably like human eyes.
Its tiny winged seeds are true adventurers and can travel endless distances flying in the wind or floating on the water.

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Imagine

To the people of the North, Birch represented the spirit of Freya, the Great Mother Goddess of Scandinavian mythology, and it was said that nothing could be lucky without her presence.

Imagine a world before the event of electricity, super-markets, telecommunications and all the other life-supports systems we’ve come to depend on in our age. Imagine a world, when we were totally dependent on what we could find in our immediate environment. Here we learn to see more of the nurturing qualities of Birch......

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Amazing Bark

In the long dark winters of the Northern hemisphere Birch was a wonderful comforting friend. The ancient people sometimes called the tree “the shining one”. Maybe this loving nickname was given, because of the bright silvery bark, or the way the sunlight dances in the leaves or its radiating spirit. But the fact that its wood burns easily and the bark is full of surprising properties must also have contributed.

The rolled-up bark makes useful torches, due to the presence of volatile oil. For the same reason, a few scraps of bark make excellent firelighters.

Birch bark is amazing stuff.. It separates into very thin, satin like material, that peels off easily. Yet, these layers are wonderfully tough, long-lasting and water- and rot proof. It was used to make buckets, baskets, bags, bottles, plates and many other containers. In Russia and Siberia it has even been used as footwear. Another big bonus in cold climates is that a layer of bark laid in the sole of the boot, keeps your feet warm, due to its medicinal properties, which stimulate blood circulation.

As a roofing material, it made houses impervious to rain. It provided the skin of the beautiful canoes of North American native tribes (with cedar as a frame, larch roots for tying things together and pine resin for sealing the seams).
The layers of bark were also used for writing and drawing in a similar way to parchment.

The oil from the bark and buds keeps away insects and gnats, which are plentiful in the Northern areas. This same oil is also useful as a lotion for eczema and psoriasis and due to its anti-septic properties, it has been used in the manufacture of medicated soaps. Another wonderful fact about Birch is that it contains natural aspirin-like chemicals, which helps to explain why Birch bark will ease muscle pain, if it is applied externally, putting the fresh, wet internal side of the bark against the skin. For the same reason a decoction made from the inner bark has been used successfully in relieving fevers. Birch bark was even used as a nourishing food. Some tribes ground up the inner bark and mixed this with their oatmeal.

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Birch cultivation

Sow seeds you have collected the previous autumn in trays in March. The seeds appreciate a bed of very fine earth. Care should be taken not to bury the seeds too deeply. A leaf-thin covering is sufficient. If no fine earth can be found to do this, it may be better to merely press the seeds into the earth to stop the wind from blowing them away and not cover them at all. Keep the seed bed weed free, since Birch is used to a pioneering situation, where the ground is usually barren. Its seeds are designed with the strength for filling up emptiness, rather than with the strength to compete with vigorous weeds. The tree needs plenty of light and likes a cool climate.
Hairy Birch is much better adapted to cope with wet and marshy conditions than Silver Birch.
Once the seedlings are large enough to handle, they can be planted in nursery rows outside. After about two or three years they may be planted out to their permanent positions. This is of course best done when the plant is dormant in the autumn or the winter. The Birch is not fussy where it is planted.
The Birch tree coppices well. In Scotland and the North of England, Birch coppices were once a common site to supply the insatiable need of the Lancashire textile industry with bobbins.
The versatility of the tree also makes it suitable for creating hedges when these are needed on poor thin soil in a high altitude. The Birch stands pruning well and is said to make a fair and permanent hedge when properly trained and kept in.
It is a good tree to plant on wounded patches of earth such as quarries.

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Birch Wood

In spite of being a deciduous tree the wood of Birch is soft, much like that of evergreens. Especially before the event of steel tools, this was in many ways a great advantage, making it easy to shape into a great variety of useful objects for use in daily human life: cups and bowls, broom-sticks, furniture, barrel staves, bobbins, clogs, toys and so on. Because of its Mother spirit, Birch was also the wood of choice to make cradles from. Traditionally besom-heads are made of Birch branches, being thin, tough and pliable. And so Birch has for thousands of years swept away the dirt, dust and dross in households in the Northern hemisphere.

The wood burns very easily with a cheerful bright flame. The other side of this is, of course, that it does not last a long time, so you have to add logs frequently, but where Birch grows naturally, it is usually abundant. So supplies were plentiful.

Many nomadic folk, such as the Saami people (formerly known as Laplanders, a name they dislike), used birch branches as a mattress. The Saami survive cold nights, in a tipi-type tent within the arctic circle, by stacking the lacy branches about a foot high around a pile of stones in the centre of the tipi. A fire is lit on top of these hearthstones, reindeer skins are rolled out as a bed on the branches. By the time the people fall asleep, the stones have been heated up by the fire and radiate warm air amongst the branches all night long , thus softening the cold, rising from the frozen ground.

Many 20th century people learned that the Romans invented under-floor heating and that electric blankets were the latest novelty in nightly comfort.......

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Birch Medicine

Apart from its use as medicine for fever, skin complaints and bark for rheumatic and arthritic pain, already mentioned, Birch has yet more to offer for the family medicine chest. A tea brewed of the fresh or dried leaves was extensively used as a spring tonic, much needed in a season when fresh vegetables were not available. Birch tea contains some vitamin C and flavonoids as well as cleansing properties. It kills off harmful bacteria in kidneys and the urinary tract, lowers blood cholesterol and stimulates bile flow. People have used it with success for urinary infections, gout and as a ‘blood cleanser’ in degenerative diseases, such as arthritis and rheumatism. Very strong brews were used as disinfectant lotions for skin diseases, such as herpes, facial spots, and so on.

It was common practice in Scandinavia and northern Russia to tap mature Birches around the end of March or the beginning of April. This is roughly the time when the dormant tree has ‘woken up’ and the sap starts rising. A small hole was bored into the bark and a tightly fitting straw inserted. A container, originally also made of Birch bark, was placed underneath and over the course of the next few days several gallons of thin, sugary tree sap would slowly be collected. (Please close up the hole carefully afterwards with wax, if you like to try this yourself. The hole is a wound, through which infections can enter the tree.)
The sap has similar, some say superior-, medicinal properties to the leaf tea.
During Napoleon’s ill-fated attempt to conquer Russia, his surgeon-general was so impressed with the efficacy of Birch sap, that he called it “a universal panacea for peasants and gentry alike”.
The carbohydrates contained in this tonic juice were also a valuable addition to the spring diet when food was often extremely scarce in the cold Northern climate. Some of the sap was preserved by the addition of yeast and made into beer, wine or vinegar. In an area where the sole other source of sugar might be the occasional find of honey, this was often the only way to stock up the larder with good cheer.
To ‘top it all’ the sap has often been used in the preparation of hair tonics or simply as an alternative for shampoo.

The vibrational BIRCH remedy of Mother Nature's Celtic Tree remedies has the following indications:
Keyword: Regeneration

For awareness which has forgotten how to remain new. Aids in all new starts and beginnings: Birth, Initiations, New love affairs, New projects, New homes, etc. Regenerates barrenness and infertility caused by trauma.
Cleanses the old to make way for the new.
Eases troubled minds with its spirit of grace, beauty and renewal.
Birch is a great aid in cleansing emotional residues. It is particularly helpful, when our emotional life feels like a barren wasteland and the pain of this numbs our spirit and makes us unresponsive. It will encourage us very gently to start experiencing beauty and tenderness again.

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Medium and Messenger

Birch has been a friend and provider to human beings on many levels. Some are easy to comprehend for modern people, but some spiritual aspects may be more unfamiliar to us.
Almost all the tribal people in the northern hemisphere, from Canada to Siberia, and including the clans in the British isles had, what we now call ‘Shamans’. The word comes from a Siberian tribal language.To us, it may be a slightly confusing term, because shamanic practitioners could be either male or female. They were specially gifted or trained people, which were entrusted with the well-being and health of the tribe.
One of the ways they did this was by traveling to the ‘Other World ‘ or the ‘Spirit world’.
Birch was often used to provide the necessary link with the Spirit world. For example, the shaman might climb the Birch, or sometimes a trunk with 7 or 9 notches, symbolising the ascent through the planetary spheres to reach the All-compassing Spirit. Such journeys were made, when the tribe needed to make an important decision or when the Shaman sought help to restore harmony and health to people, who were ill.
Scientific rationality dismisses these old practices usually as superstition or just historic curiosa, but many healings were accomplished in this way. It is encouraging that there is a renewal of interest in these ancient healing techniques as we are gradually discovering the limitations of rational science and medical technology.

There are many other examples of the great respect in which the Birch, as a spiritual presence, was always held. Here are just a few:
Arianrhod, the Celtic Star Goddess, in charge of the ‘Silver Wheel of the Heavens’, who was said to have her “caer” (= throne) within the Corona Borealis (the Northern Lights), was invoked through the Birch for her aid in births and initiations. Eostre, the Anglo-Saxon Goddess of the Spring and fertility, was invoked and celebrated through the Birch.

Venus, or her local equivalents of the Goddess of love, was contacted through the Birch to bestow her qualities of love and beauty on relationships.

In Wales a man would make a garland of birch to give to the woman he loved. If she felt the same, she would respond by making and giving a garland in return. Many awkward words may well have been saved by this custom!

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New Beginnings

The spirit of Birch is truly one of inception and regeneration. For this reason it is the first consonant letter of the ancient Celtic tree alphabet: B. (N.B. The vowels in this alphabet were set apart from the consonants, because the vowels were regarded as symbols of more intangible vibrations).

Similarly Birch owns the first month of the Celtic tree calendar, from Dec. 24 - Jan. 20. Birch gives birth to another year. During her month, the days will start to lengthen again and we know that the Sun has ‘turned around’ and is on its way back to regenerate all of Nature.

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Great Giver

Birch has brought many gifts to people’s lives: An environment to live in, warm fires, light to see by, shelter, furniture, containers and other household objects, footwear, cradles and beds, tools and toys, boats to travel in and use for fishing, paper, food and drinks, medicine, beauty and spirituality. The Birch Mother has nurtured us since our early beginnings, even swept the floor for us. Birch has been messenger, medium, provider, healer, regenerating presence for millions of ancient souls in the past and she will do the same for us if we open up to her Spirit.

Birch tree, we honour thee!