Berkano

Birch, birch-goddess. Birch — birth, growth, the gentle mother.

Birth, fertility, and nurturing growth. New beginnings emerge gently. The birch tree energy supports healing and maternal care; the first tree to leaf after winter.

Stifled growth and family discord. Nurturing energy is blocked or smothering. A new beginning is resisted; the green shoot is pinched off too early.

Past: a beginning that nurtured you. Present: care for something tender. Future: birth, literal or symbolic. Pairs warmly with Ingwaz (gestation), Wunjo (joy of the hall) and Jera (the season).

The birch was the first tree to colonise the icy north after the glaciers retreated. Its rune holds that pioneer green — and the maternal goddess Berchta who watched over hearth, birth and the unborn.