When Winter Greens
sweet birch and healing
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Betula lenta
Today, I’d like to introduce you to one of my favorite tree companions, Betula lenta, better known as birch, black birch, cherry birch, or sweet birch, the source of wintergreen oil.
Trees can be such lovely friends. They have many lessons to teach, and I’ve found their presence calming, balancing, and stabilizing. When emotional, spiritual or physical upset enter my life, walking among the trees and visits to some of my particular favorites provides a kind of relief that I can find nowhere else.
Trees can also offer deep healing, especially when grief strikes. I’ve found solace in groves of trees and know that many of my clients have also found healing in the presence of trees over the years.
The fact of trees.
How they are;
their particular presence.
Saves me from separating into parts.
Bits that could float apart
or burst outward at some seam.
Bolting off in opposite directions away from center; from core.Marjorie Moorhead
If you find yourself in any distress, discomfort, or depression as the spring season arrives, let me point you toward Birch so that you may find some relief and comfort.
Some of you may be familiar with the Druidic Ogham, a secret hieratic (literally priestly) alphabet in which every letter had as its name that of a tree, plant, or natural element. This tree alphabet also corresponded to time, with the thirteen months of the Celtic calendar named after thirteen of the letter names.
Birch (Beith in the original tongue) corresponds to the first month in the Celtic calendar, November. In our modern calendar, the first month is January, but in older agrarian cultures in Europe and other places, it was likely March, the month that holds the spring equinox. That feeling lingers on; who doesn’t feel a sense of newness and new beginnings as if the year is actually and genuinely beginning when spring arrives?
The fascinating thing about symbolic systems is that there can be correspondences, cross references, and laying one system on top of another to reveal wisdom that might otherwise be missed. Our own experiences also add a layer of knowledge that is important as well.
Growing through the Seasons of Life
The variety of birch trees I am most familiar with is the black or sweet birch betual lenta. I think of it as the first tree, which corresponds not to November but to the first spring month, March. Yet, there is an interesting reason why this tree can easily correlate to spring or fall, March or November. It produces green female catkins in the spring, and in the late summer/early fall, they turn brown and shatter to release their ripened seeds. The male catkin is green and formed in the late summer or early autumn. It hangs down from thin twigs in the winter and opens in the spring to release pollen. So, Birch has a significant showing in both spring and fall. Male and female catkins modulate their energies in a rhythm that perfectly encapsulates the tree's energy and symbolic meaning: new beginnings, new growth, renewed vitality, and then in autumn maturity, ripening, gathered wisdom, preparation, and legacy.
Birch is not only about tender new green cones, beginnings, and fragile new dreams. Its lessons are more significant and speak to growth and change as well. Like Birch, the promise of spring is never simply about newness; it’s about the potential and the actual unfolding and manifesting of growth, maturity, and, most importantly, continuation. An eternal spring like the puer or puella aeternus archetype (the eternal child) is unsustainable. (Read more about the Child Archetypes here.)
The birch trees’ most important lesson is that one must continue. You cannot remain in the first flush of anything, not romance, grief, calling, vocation, creative project, relationship, career, or anything else. There is a course and pattern that you must follow; the unfolding of the journey is imperative, or you risk being stunted, diminished, and cut off from your soul’s purpose. Birch strengthens and encourages you to keep going, embrace what you are dealing with, and know that it will not always be as it is now.
The second important lesson is that the totality of who you are, your fully integrated anima and animus (the feminine and masculine within the soul), are necessary to make progress throughout your life. This is another reason why Birch is a perfect fit for working with at the spring equinox. Birch embodies balance within.
Wintergreen
A characteristic feature of the black birch twigs is their strong wintergreen aroma when broken.
At one point, the black birch was the only source of oil of wintergreen, an essential oil known for its antibacterial, antifungal, antiviral, insecticidal, and antioxidant properties. The wintergreen oil (methyl salicylate) is distilled from the wood of the black birch. Today, the use of black birch for essential oil has declined as synthetic oil products have gained popularity. ~
Wintergreen is an excellent fragrant oil for therapeutic use in many ways.
Psychologically, wintergreen promotes willpower, courage, self-confidence, stability, and integration.
Spiritually, wintergreen helps release patterns of family and personal karma at a spiritual level. Use it to help you relax and release during special healing sessions and regression therapy.
Mentally, the oil clears your mind to help release repetitive negative thoughts, mental conflict, and misperceptions.
Emotionally, the oil's energy helps remove pain.
If you are fortunate enough to have sweet birch nearby, you can respectfully ask the tree if you may snip a new twig to inhale the pleasing and healing fragrance if you need inner healing. Use a sharp, clean knife, like an exact-o craft knife, to peel back some of the bark to release the most fragrance. Allow sweet birches’ healing scent to calm and ground you as you work through your ills, discomforts, and pains. The demeanor of the birch tree is every bit as sweet as its name implies, and you may find a profound sense of relief and healing knowing that you are working with a tree helper who offers natural medicine for the soul.
I am not affiliated with Hopewell Essential Oils, but as I was looking around the internet, I found that they offer Adirondac Birch Essential Oil which is made from birch trees and not a synthetic.
You can also make or purchase birch tea if you’d like to go more deeply into the healing benefits of betual lenta. I found this article from Healthy Green Savvy very helpful.
The third lesson we may take from Sweet Birch is that nature is here to help us in tangible ways. Tree medicine can be as simple as walking or sitting among the trees. It might extend to inhaling fragrance or imbibing a tea. It might incorporate bringing part of the tree into your home, altar, or sacred space. It may become an object of your meditation and contemplation. Finally, you may make the leap that brings you into communication with this other-than-human being, and you may begin to learn its secret wisdom that can have far-reaching effects on your being.
Berkano, the Birch Rune
The Norse Rune Berkano holds the energy of the birch grove, a secret sanctuary in times of need. Flee to her gentle branches and sweet fragrance when you require comfort, respite, and renewing energy.
The birch is the first tree to awaken in spring where I live and in many other places. Berkano points to the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth. Healing on all levels is amplified through this Rune. You will find ample energy for recuperation, rejuvenation, purification, detoxification, and regeneration.
Berkano also holds the secrecy of what is silently developing within the womb; thus, it is particularly tied to pregnancy and motherhood. As we have seen, the Birch tree produces male and female catkins, ensuring fertility and pollination by uniting masculine and feminine energies.
But the heart may also serve as a womb growing and birthing healing within, uniting the principle of creativity with healing.
Berkano, the birch, is a life-giving rune. Call upon its powers to assist life, heal, and protect.
If you are in distress, discomfort, or depression as the spring season arrives, seek Birch in person or through the Ogham, the Runes, tree oracle cards, wintergreen oil, or birch tea.
What is your experience with trees or birch specifically? How does being among the trees bring you solace? Has there been a time that you found profound healing through working with nature in general or trees specifically?
The comments section is a safe and welcoming space to share your insights and experiences.
Comments and conversation are always appreciated and enjoyed, so feel free to let your voice be heard. I read them all and try to respond to each one.
March Tarot Offerings
In March, I am offering Spring Equinox Tarot Readings, drawing pairs of cards to explore balance and imbalance in your life. This reading is very flexible and can be personalized to your concerns and situations.
45 min. Spring Equinox reading ~ $99
Paid Hedge Mystic Subscribers ~ $79
Other types of readings are available; learn about them HERE
Housekeeping
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How wonderful to be reintroduced to sweet birch! Though native to my state, I rarely see it up close. More often, what I find here, including in my front yard, is the river birch which lacks the delicious fragrance. I love learning that the species reminds us of the need to keep moving forward in the fullest expressions of ourselves we can offer. And to ask for help when we need it. My once robust collection of essential oils (I used to have a friend-connection with Oshadhi oils -- https://oshadhi.com/products/birch -- that made them accessible and affordable) has dwindled over the years, and among the fragrances I miss most is birch! I think I will seek out a replacement soon. Thanks, Jan.