Wanderer, Weaver, Guide & Spirit Keeper of Birch
Tree Cycle: Birch
Birch Tree Cycle Dates: November 1st - November 28th
Key Words For Birch: New Beginnings, Fresh Start, Birthing, Support, Strength, Acceptance, Solitude, Encouragement, New Journey, Release, Relief, Rest, Cleansing, Rebuilding, Self-Respect, Forgiveness, Deity, Gift, Serpent.
Lunation: 1st
Souls Evolution Stage: Deity
The Council of Trees - Hidden Tree Cycles: Oak & Holly
The Council of Trees - Hidden Tree Cycles Date: May 1st - May 28th
Key Words of The Council of Trees: Oak - Long Term Goals, Growth, Fixed, Rooted, Strength, Protection, Keeper of Memories, Nostalgia, Optimism, Development, Plans, Beauty. Holly - Protection, Security, Grip, Mountain, Healing, Hope, Strength, Loyalty, Commitment, Reason, Resilience, Discernment, Regeneration, Action, Focus, Purpose, Observation, Trust, Abandonment, Challenge.
Spiritual Weather: Wounds, Weaknesses, Vulnerability, Fatigue, Loss, Impotence.
Celebration: The Celtic New Year 1st November
Animal Guide: Snake Mother
Birch Tree Cycle
November 1st - November 28
Wanderer of Birch
week 1
East-Air-Spring-Birth-Sunrise-Swords
Passage Through Acceptance
The Wanderer of the Birch Tribe meets us as we step onto the path of the Birch Tree Cycle and informs us that we are birthing a new form of ourselves, our purest essence of being, seen yet in this life. There is delicacy here. We have something new inside of us, something wild, something ready to feel things, see thing, sense things from our new awakened sensing being. The Wanderer of Birch smiles upon us and we feel bold and courageous. Whatever it is that we are venturing into we do so with a fresh found confidence, a self acceptance and a felt-sense of strong rootedness in our life.
The Wanderer of Birch's seat is in the East, the dwelling of the Spirits of Air. With the east winds under our wings we are lifted, spiritually elevated. We feel closer to Deity, Spirit, Oneness, whatever this may look like, feel like, for us individually. We feel closer to our hopes and dreams, we see pathways of manifestation for them. We may even feel a quiet confidence, a sureness that things will work out. The Wanderer of Birch asks us to find a place to rest a while. Spend time in contemplation of the present moment and then visualise a little on how our hopes and dreams will take form and find shape in our life. Sensing into our own unique presence, as we find ourselves included in the allness or everything, will allow our hopes and dreams to knot into the fabric of aliveness as each new moment is being woven into being.
As Birch Wanderers we are inspired to start a new journey of a kind. This new journey may call upon us to show up in ways that we have become unfamiliar with. We may be out of practice, feel uncomfortable, or after a time of inactivity feel less than able. We may have lost sight of what we are capable of and feel less than confident in our abilities. This journey therefore, for many of us, will have a bumpy start. We will need to trust in the process of integration. Trust that we are becoming included, and a part of something wild and natural. Trust that we are being guided by our soul fire to wander and to live our best life.
Journal prompt or something to contemplate:
What is gnawing at our soul? There is something, that for a long while has been niggling at us. We know what this is. But for this reason, or that reason we shy away. We turn away. We show our back, to ourselves. Let us for a few moments fathom what could be, if we chose this uncertain path. If we are being revisited by an idea, an inspiration, a possible future, why not give it a go, what's the worst that can happen?
Weaver of Birch
week 2
South-Fire-Summer-Youth-Midday-Wands
Passage Through Duality
The Weaver of the Birch Tribe joins with us as we continue on our path. The Weaver of Birch sings the song of the new. The song that heralds the dawn of a new day, a new pathway, a new vision of the future. And The Weaver inspires us to draw this newness down into our roots to become grounded, rooted, knotted. The Weaver of Birch encourages us to turn our awareness towards threads of conversations that we share with others, and of the dynamic power of the genesis of an idea between conversing with others. That which we weave, can come from many origins. The richness of soil and salt can come from a close and trusted friend, from an aging family member, from a young innocent child or from a complete stranger in the passing. During a recent conversation on duality with a tribe sister, an idea was born. The wise friend said 'pick one reality, and try to manifest that, make that reality'. We all hold within us many versions of ourself, often dualities in being. We can seek these soul skins out and try them on for size.
The Weaver of Birch's seat is in the South. the dwelling of the Spirits of Fire. The Weaver of Birch reminds us, that we need never be fixed in place. Being present, grounded and aware is an attitude, a value. A knowing of our connectedness to each moment and the aliveness around and within us. But we must notice if we are consciously or unconsciously weaving into our life fixed roots. Fixed roots lead to us becoming fixed within our spirits dwelling space. Our dwelling space includes the stable parts of our life that offer us shelter, rest and comfort but is not exclusive of our physical living space, such as our house, or cosy bed. Our dwelling space can also be known as the constructs we build around our feelings, our physical appearances, our thoughts and needs. The Weaver of Birch asks us to examine relationship with our Dwelling of Spirit, the home of our emotions, thoughts and identity and identify what has become fixed, rigid and restraining. What has become our prison. Remind ourselves that to be free is to be flexable and open, to be ready to embrace newness, we must loosen those fixed roots.
As Birch Weavers we are in the presence of light and warmth. To change our life. we need only notice we have the thought of 'newness'. We are weaving our present self in every moment. We do not need to change today, to affect tomorrow. Understanding that the very birth of change can be right now in this second is a powerful realisation. A realisation that empowers us to feel anew in the present moment. Instead of waiting for a tomorrow that may never arrive. There is no better time that the present moment. It is the present moment, that the idea is raring to go, desperate to be beheld, a bolt of lightening ready to strike.
Journal prompt or something to contemplate:
'Pick one thing and make that happen'. We are often conflicted inside our being. Conflicts can arise from within any area of our life and represent two or many arguing parts. We may even have dualities that are so very different from each other yet equally strong and true to us. Chronic 'arguing' parts of continual push and pull dynamics within us can cause inflammation of our delicate sensitive tissues, physical, emotional and spiritual membranes become aggravated and fatigued. This can inform and amplify our everyday mood and motivation for our life each day. It may support us to contemplate and identify our inner dualities. We can then pick one and actively unfix them, make them pliable, and play with how we can soften the conflict and draw one of those parts closer to us, giving it life to grow and become alive within us.
Guide of Birch
week 3
West-Water-Autumn-Maturity-Sunset-Cups
Passage of The Soft Body Through Exile
As we continue through the Birch Tree Cycle we encounter the Guide of the Birch Tribe. The Guide of the Birch Tribe reminds us of our soft body. Our soft body is the realm where those parts of us, that need comfort belong. We all need comfort. To feel supported and at times held. Often the Soft Body lays for days, weeks years out in the cold. We may not have realised this, but we may have exiled the Soft Body, pushed it away and hardened ourselves. We do this as a means of self preservation of protection from further cuts. The Guide of the Birch Tribe stands beside 'our' Soft Body, wherever it may be laying and bathes it in a warm comforting glow. And says 'here, here you lie'. The Soft Body needs to be brough back home, into our being and gently warmed. Once warmed, our Soft Body needs nourished and hydrated both physically and spiritually. We may have become hard over time but to move forward into a new journey we must bring all our parts, no-one is left behind. We go together, not in pieces.
The Guide of Birch's seat is in the West, the dwelling of the Spirits of Water. We are reminded of the story of a Selkie. A seal who can shapeshift by removing her soul skin and become a woman on land. She can not return to the sea without her skin. There are many itterations of the Selkie's tale. Some in which she chooses to stay on land and she hides her seal skin away, she meets a man and falls in love, she has a children and stays on land to be with them, but her heart and soul will always belong to the sea. Other tales tell the story of how her soul skin was stollen from her and she is held captive on land, always longing to return to the sea. Hers is a story that speaks of each of us finding ourselves exiles from our true form, our true environment or identity. However, both can be true, and exist in the same space within us. We may feel at times alien to our surroundings, our life, unidentifiable as our self. At other times that same existence can feel true, real and wholesome. The difference in the two versions of the story highlighted is that in one life we are willing and the other we are not. And in both, we are longing for our soul skin and to return. If we are always longing to return, how will we ever stop searching and notice that we are in it, our actual life, or that we are within our soul skin now?
As Birch Guides we have the capacity within ourselves to embrace fully and love completely ourselves in any physical form we take. We know that this is the real journey, that of self acceptance and trying to live as our best self. We know that we can always move towards this direction, of wholeness within self and oneness with all. This road is far from straight, it has many twists and turns and bumps along the way. This road does relent, there are passing places where we can rest a while. As Birch Guides we enjoy these rests. They offer us opportunity to clear and replenish our energy, our focus. Sometimes it is good to rest a long while. But a too long rest can start to feel like stagnation. We begin to become disillusioned and loose sight of where we are going. We instead begin to see this place that we have rested our spirit upon as a permanent and fixed state. We need to wake up. If we feel uncomfortable here, if we feel a lack of inspiration, of movement, of flow, then we have become sedentary in our life and on our spiritual path. It is time to get moving again. And if we aren't sure what direction to go in. Pick one of those many paths and try one out. If the path is not right for us, it will turn us around onto the right path, but at least we are moving.
Journal prompt or something to contemplate:
Comfort is not a feeling that is exclusive within relationships. Comfort is often absent within relationships for a time or completely. When we seek comfort from a certain other. We are relying on receiving comfort when we need to feel relief from our uncomfortable feelings. Many things outside of ourselves can also bring us comfort, however brief. Comfort food, comforting films or television programs. Friends, The Waltons, David Attenborough, chicken soup. Our spiritual practices can also bring us comfort, these little things that we do each day that we know our mind body and soul need to feel at rest and relieved from tension or pain. Let us contemplate for a moment. How are we relieving any pain, distress or uncomfortableness for ourselves? Further more where in fact do we lay that responsibility? How can we foster comfort for ourselves?
Spirit Keeper of Birch
week 4
North-Earth-Winter-Death-Night-Pentacles
Passage Through The Serpent
At the end of the path The Spirit Keeper of Birch awaits are return home. The Spirit Keeper of Birch speaks to us of curling, coiling, spiralling and knotting, and of how the woodland animals curl in their dens and burrows, how the vines spiral around trees, how roots knot up with other roots and mycelium. How we all intuitively curl in on ourselves is a protective instinct. These forms protect our internals, create strength and warmth and these forms radiate comfort from our core within, and out through our body. The Spirit Keeper of Birch tells us a story of the World Snake Mother and how she coils around the Earth, protecting the earth as though it is the cosmic egg of the universe. An egg that will soon hatch and new life will spring forth from. If she constricts the Earth to tightly, the cosmic egg she will crack and the fragile life inside will die before it is born. If she relaxes her hold of the Earth to much, the egg's temperature will become cold and the life inside it will die. The Spirit Keeper of Birch shows us that like Snake Mother, we all need to pay attention to the way in which we curl, coil, spiral and knot ourselves and that which we are in relation with. We may need to dismember old unkempt, or weaker forms and from them create new healthy strong forms that support our overall balance and wellbeing. Because these are holding something precious within them that we need to intentionally tend and care for.
The Spirit Keeper of Birch's seat is in the North, the dwelling of the Spirits of Earth. The Spirit Keeper of Birch shares with us that opportunity comes in the most unlikely of places. All Birch trees know that roots will grow in any environment and so there need not be so much focus on the perfect place, the perfect moment, the perfect time. Birch trees will grow in rubble and loose unstable ground, along railway lines or lining pathways. They are bold and accepting, they are happy to be cropping up all over the place. They often path the way for other trees to grow in time, trees that need more settlement and structure. The Spirit Keeper of Birch asks us 'what perfect moment are you waiting for?'. That perfect moment may never arrive and in the mean time we are waiting, waiting, waiting. The Spirit Keeper of Birch asks us to take a chance on this moment. See the beauty of imperfection. Choose to start of messy. And see how that feels. If there is something we have been waiting to start, we might as well start now.
As Birch Spirit Keepers we are learning to find and express our coil. There is so much wisdom that we can learn from this journey, to embody the coil is to align with our DNA, our ancestral memory and our coding for our most alive and vibrant expression of ourselves in this life. Just as the acorn embodies the oak tree so to, do we hold within us all the we will need to become fully grown into our truest form. We must first identify how we curl, coil, spiral or knot, what is our way? how do we wear our hair, how do we hold our bodies, how do we exercise, stretch, move or listen to our felt senses, which of these ways are representative of curls, coils, spirals and knots? We can identify these forms and patterns in our everyday lives if we look a little deeper. Focusing a little intention into these forms and patterns will support us in noticing glimpses of our truest self.
Journal Prompts or things to contemplate:
How healthy is our relationship with creation? To create is to start something that we can not know the outcome of. It is to give life to something that will at a point take on its own aliveness and go in its own direction. To create is to give birth to something and then learn to let it go. To create is to go on a journey, one that may change us in ways, offer us many gift or require certain sacrifices along the way. It may be a good time to explore our relationship with creation and identify what if anything is holding us back.
Please Read
Wanderer, Weaver Guide and Spirit Keeper are laid out into four weeks of guidance through each tree cycle. These four sections while acting as weekly guidance, can also be experienced in any iteration. These weeks 1-4 are meant as a guideline only. We must trust in how the energies of the Birch Tree Cycle manifest for each of us individually along the path of the tree cycle.
Disclaimer: In my writing I describe situations in a metaphorical way. These metaphors are intended to open up imagination and be interpreted by the reader in an intuitive way. It is the readers responsibility to interpret my writing in a healthy and safe way. Any choices made by the reader as their own.
For further reading on the Birch tree cycle, please see blog post The Wild Wisdom of Birch, which focuses on Birch and the Council of Trees.
For Further reading on The Council of Trees in general follow the link to my website.
For all links to all The Wild Wisdom of Celtic Trees please see this blog post.
For Tarot of the Tree Whisperer please follow the link to my website.
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