betula alba
betula lenta
betula pendula Roth & B.
Betulaceae
Betula species
AKA
Beith
white birch
black birch
mountain mohogany
ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Capricorn
INVOCATORY: Aino, Thor
PLANET: Sun and Venus
POWERS
Fertility
Love
Protection
Magical
Religious
Plants and their magickal properties
Protection, Exorcism, Purification and Cleansing
LORE OF THE BIRCH TREE
Aino is a major goddess in the pagan culture of Finland.
Wainamoinen, much older but a very powerful hero
(one of the three heroes of Kalevala),
desires her hand in marriage.
He enters a contest with her brother, Youkahainen.
During thier fight, Aino escapes by swimming away
to sit safely upon a large rock, removed from the storm
created by the contest between the men.
The storm becomes so intense that it shakes
the rock and she tumbles into the sea.
She is transformed into nature itself.
Her flesh is transformed into the fish, her blood
becomes the water, her hair gives birth
to the seaweed and her ribs to the willow.
After her death, the animal world was so sorrowed
that the cuckoos took refuge in a mountain forest
of birch where their song of love and sorrow
lasts throughout the ages.
Because of this, the birch is sacred to the goddess Aino.
Graves writes of a custom in rural Britan
in which a girl offers her desired partner a piece
of birch as a sign that he may now begin wooing her.
In Graves' system of finger divination, birch is used
to "bring him news of love; Loud the heart knocks."
Birch is sacred to Thor.
One is never to take the bark from this tree unless
it has been kissed by Thor, stricken with his lightning.
Once Thor has claimed the tree's spirit,
then its bark is available for human use.
In the old lore of Siberia, it is believed that the birch
is the axis upon which the Universe turns and is an
intricate part of a shaman's journey.
It may be considered a Tree of Life.
Frazer writes in
The Golden Bough:
On the Thursday before Whitsunday the Russian
villagers go out into the woods, sing songs, weave
garlands, and cut down a young birch-tree,
which they dress up in women's clothes, or adorn
with many-coloured shreds and ribbons.
After that comes a feast, at the end of which they
take the dressed-up birch-tree, carry it home to their
village with joyful dance and song, and set it up in one
of the houses where it remains an honored guest.....
Robert Graves presents a system in which the months
are corresponded with the sacred trees of Europe.
"Beth, the birch-tree; a tree of inception and the driving
out of evil spirits" corresponds to the time period
when the Sun moves through Capricorn.
Birch is the letter B in the tree alphabet.
Graves corresponds the birch
with the Sun and with Sunday.
Frazer informs us that in Russia a bonfire of birch
brings fertility with which to bless the flax harvest.
"
Lady of the Woods"
OSTRE
Mythology and Folklore
Source(s)
Special Thanks
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