by Kay Broome

Easter Wreath (Web photo)

We are coming up again to Lady Day which, in the Christian calendar is held on March 25th. This is the celebration of the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary, when an angel came from God to tell Mary she was pregnant with Jesus, the Messiah.  But to pagans, Lady Day was originally sacred to Eostre or Ostara, an eastern Teutonic goddess of spring. The first of two spring sabbats, Lady Day is held on the equinox which falls around the 21st of March, the day of the maiden’s return to the upper world.  Interestingly, March 25th was originally around spring equinox in the old Julian Calendar.

Although March is not as glorious as the spring months that follow, it has a charm all its own.  Among March's beiges, fawns and ochres,  the yellow and violet crocuses and tiny white snowbells with their bright green centres appear all the more significant in their humble charm. In this tentative landscape, the pale bark of the birch (Betula) renders the tree an ethereal, almost visionary quality.

Otherworldly Birch (Web Photo)

Tree of Radiance

Whether the stark white of European silver birch; the papery wisps of yellow and of white; or the smooth silver-grey of cherry birch, it is the trunk of the tree one first notices. Birch prefers full sunlight, making it a solar tree, while the luminosity of its bark pays homage to the full moon. A pioneer tree, birch is one of the very first to grow on barren land, readying the soil to make way for a new forest.

Birches tend to copse, that is, to divide into two or more trunks. For this reason, the tree embodied community and kinship to the Baltic and Germanic peoples. The leaves are somewhat triangular and slightly toothed, usually a light green with, in some species, silvery undersides.  The branches tend to droop, the long male catkins and leaves in spring suggesting the appearance of gentle spring rain.

Birch in early Spring (Web Photo)

A Very Helpful Tree

Birch sap is an elixir of youthful vigour. Save for sassafras and perhaps maple, no other tree gives off such an aura of aliveness at this time of year, possibly because at some level, while standing in the woods, we can smell the sap running. Indeed, much of birch’s efficacy lies in the oily sap contained in wood and bark. This oil helps to keep water out, thus the tree’s traditional use in making canoes and containers. This same sap renders the wood easily burnable, even when green or damp, and the papery bark makes superb kindling.

Birch Woods (Web Photo)

Being very tough and able to withstand the cold of the Boreal winter, Birch belies its ephemerality. An examination of the remains of Otzi, the “Iceman” in the Austrian Alps near the end of the 20th century proclaimed birch to be instrumental in the survival of early northern peoples. When Otzi’s partly mummified body was found, close by were two birch bark containers. They were falling apart, but after 5,000 years, still in surprisingly good condition.  These were likely used to carry kindling, which probably included birch bark. Otzi would no doubt have known that the sap of birch makes a good vulnerary, a salve for sore muscles, and an excellent general tonic. His people would have learned about the Chaga and Polypore fungi that lived on older birches. These are very helpful in eliminating parasites, clearing up infections, and building immunity. Perhaps Otzi had even, on occasion, ingested the fly agaric, a white flecked red mushroom, frequently found growing beneath birch trees. We know for certain that these mushrooms, which cause hallucinogens and perhaps, visions, were eaten by the Siberian and Saami peoples, mainly for religious purposes. Fly agaric is commonly associated with the fairies and was most likely used in the witches’ flying ointment. Perhaps this, along with birch’s purifying quality, is why witches made their brooms from birch.

Birch Bark Container found with Otzi the "Iceman" (website of South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology)

In North America, First Nations people, especially those of the eastern woodlands, greatly depended  upon birch. They used the bark to make clothing, containers for food, wigwam tarps, paper for writing pictographs and of course, for their famous birchbark canoes. Among the Ojibwa, there is a tale of Nanabush, the trickster, who stole fire from the Thunderbird.  He asked Birch to protect him from Thunderbird’s lightning. Birch tree did so, but was repeatedly struck with lightning bolts from the great and angry bird. As a result, from that time forth, the birch tree has numerous black horizontal streaks on its trunk. These streaks are the lenticels, which are breathing pores on the trunks of trees. These lenticels allow gases and water to filter to and from the tree, working much like our own skin pores. Lenticels can be spotted easily on most smooth trunked trees, but are especially noticeable in birches.  This Ojibwa tale elucidates another characteristic of birch – the ability to survive being struck with lightning, again thanks to its life-saving oily sap.

Birch Trees showing Lenticels (Web Photo)

In northern and western Europe, birch was known as the Lady of the Woods, a secretive spirit in feminine form, seen as beguiling and perhaps perilous. Certainly, the tree has an alluring, feminine quality.  The whiteness of the trunk along with the delicate green of the leaves in later spring could very easily give the lost wanderer a feeling of being watched by the Queen of the Otherworld.

Ostara (Johannes Gehrts, 1901)

The Birch was associated with many goddesses in western Europe and in the Slavic countries.  We have already mentioned Eostre/Ostara of the Teutonic peoples. Most of us pay unwitting homage to her when we paint hen’s eggs and talk about the Easter bunny. Eggs are symbols of the new life to come forth in spring and the rabbit includes the hare, whose rut begins in March and April.

Frigg Als Ostara (Carl Emil Doepler 1882)

In the Ogham runic system Beith, is associated with Birch, as well as with the Lady of the Woods and the Fairy Queen. In Celtic mythology, the birch tree was affiliated with Arienrhod, an alluring maiden goddess who gave virgin birth to Llew Llaw Gyffes, a Welsh congruent of the Irish warrior/solar god Lugh. Among the Norse, Birch was sacred to Freya, the Vanir goddess of love, magic and fertility as well as to Frigga, mother goddess of the Aesir. The Norse Futhark also has a birch rune. Called Berkana, it is associated with female nurturance and motherhood.

Celtic Ogham Beith Rune                                Norse Futhark Berkana Rune