My moon with Birch

My personal Lunar Tree Calendar begins with the Birch – a pioneer tree and tree of new beginnings.

This Birch Moon I decided to create a new series of blog posts reflecting on my relationship with each tree, along with the gifts and learning I receive each moon as we travel the year of the Celtic Trees.

I also decided to create some new beginnings with the Birch tree itself. Since moving to Scotland, I have been slowly forming new tree relationships, after over 13 years of deepening connections to the trees of Exmoor.

It has been an interesting process – not just because they have a different ‘accent’  but also because their habitat, here on the West Coast of Scotland near to the Atlantic Ocean, is very different to the windswept high moorlands where we lived before.

In my work with the trees, they have presented themselves to me through their links to the elements. Obviously, all trees have all the elements contained within them, but as I have been walking my personal lifetime pilgrimage with them, they have shared their elemental strengths with me offering a unique perspective on their physical and spiritual properties.

In this system the Birch is one of the Fire Element Trees, having Fire as its dominant element; its secondary element is water.

I am very lucky to have two large Birch trees right outside the window of the room I use as an office and to have many more in the wild woodland I can see beyond our garden fence.

However, this moon I decided to go further afield and work with a grove of Birch trees I found last year on whilst out wandering and wondering in the local landscape.

Down on the shore of the local sea loch I came cross this rather special group of trees in a sheltered del set back about thirty feet from the water’s edge.

The energy of these waterside trees immediately felt different to me, here the water element aspect of their make-up felt much stronger than the fire.

As I spent time here over the moon sitting with these lovely gentle standing ones, I began to understand a different energy of new beginnings was being offered to me for this spiral of the tree year.

A beginning focused on a gentler clearing and releasing, a washing through, rather than the more transformative energy of fire clearing.

A beginning that drew on the depth of my previous experiences, that drew on the power of sitting in stillness, allowing things to arise from those depths and feed into the creation of new patterns and thought processes.

This moon, the Birch has taught me to tune into the ebb and flow of the energy all around me.

To notice that nature is cycling through an almost daily pattern of rest and awakened awareness, mirrored in the natural world all around us, even in the weather patterns moving across the land and the wider world.

She has reminded me of the importance of weaving winter rest into my daily routines, that it is still a time to carry my hopes and dreams for the year to come, bundled in my shawl, the time has not yet come to pick through them, and decide what needs my energy to grow.

For now, I am preparing the ‘land and the soil,’ tending it gently, feeding it and keeping it wrapped, so that it can slowly awaken and warm up, ready to plant seeds in the spring.

The ‘land and the soil’ are me, we are nature; so, I nurture myself too for the future, for the year ahead. I am still composting the fallen leaves of last year, creating a rich and nourishing mulch in which to plant my dreams.

The Birch has held me here in this place of release and renewal this moon, of slow returning to wakefulness whilst still allowing stillness and rest and I give her my heart felt gratitude for the gifts of her medicine blessings and her loving healing embrace.

How has your Birch Moon been, have you felt her influence in your life – feel free to comment below!

If you would like to explore the tree year with me, or deepen your connection to one or more of the Celtic Trees then take a look at some of my tree offerings – just follow the links below

Journeys in the Sacred Grove

The Celtic Tree Journey