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Post by Senbecc on Apr 18, 2006 2:27:10 GMT -5
The tree-letter Beth, Beith, Beithe (pronounced BEH) it's sound is the same a "B". Birch. To Morainn mac Moín (a word ogham) Beth is of faded trunk and fair hair. Cú Chulainn's "word ogham" means Birch or Beth equals browed beauty which is worthy of pursuit. To Oengus Birch is most silver of skin. So the what shall we visualize when we visualize Beth? We see the spirit, or Goddess of Birch as the "Birch goddess of Birth" who is enshrined within the trunk of Birch stretching her arms up as though she flies through the trunk. In ancient times the young goddess of Birch was known as the "Mother tree" because it was Birch who gave birth to new and fresh environments for all the trees, and plants to thrive who didn't have the same power of birth and the spirit of a pioneer that Birch has. After all long long ago, when the glaciers of the last ice age withdrew to the far North, Birch was the first tree to heal the empty plains and valleys of their barrenness. Like those barren plains, Birch is the beginning, and our entrance into the Ogham grove of ever-hidden meaning. It is an Ogham letter of beginnings. It tells of what is to come, and embodies the changes and growth taken from these new experiences. It means that we should expect the unexpected, for older, or out-grown concepts or perhaps a phase is coming to a close and the newer, more useful concept or phase is ready to manifest. Magically, it seems worthy to note the Birch has always been used to clear out the old, purify the space, and in "birthing" the new. Now while several of the Oghams signify the death of the old, Birch strongly signifies the circle of some bright new element from the death that came before. This tree letter embodies what is dawning in your life at this particular time, and unless the Ogham is reversed in a casting probably embodies a joyful element. Beth is a gentle Ogham, yet is strong and firm, as well as it must be as "birth" seldom comes without some measure of pain. Beth doesn't necessarily relate to childbirth, but moreover embodies the birthing of some new project, phase, or relationship. Birch teaches us the cycles of self propagation, and teaches the myriad cycles of continuous manifestations of the new from old barren soil. Beths lesson is how we can handle as harmoniously as possible the constant transformations that these processes bring. Change is the basic order of nature. What does Magic entail if not change? I've heard it said that a person who cannot accept change has no magic, and never will until they learn to accept change. The quicker we can accept these changes, the sooner we can be happy. Finding the Ogham reversed, means that your are stuck in the soil of old concepts. If you cling to the dead wood of the past you will begin to wither becoming stale to life and it's sweet flavors and it's many flowing gifts. Let the past be the past, as holding onto worn out, out grown, or outmoded thoughts, concepts, ideas, or relationships is standing in the way of your growth. I hope to hear the thoughts of our young Celts on the subject of Birch. May we each research and study the blessings of Birch together, and unfold its many hidden meanings within it's lore and scientific facts. -Senbecc
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Post by episcopagan on Apr 18, 2006 21:49:10 GMT -5
I was taught that Birch represents responsibility - especially responsibility for ones own actions. Birch - I am a stag of seven tines, or I am a boar of seven fights.
I was also taught, and so I do I also beleive that Birch is one of the very few trees that takes on the energies of the other trees, as the year progresses. In the tradition I learned, Birch is the first lunar.
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Post by Senbecc on Apr 18, 2006 22:23:58 GMT -5
I was taught that Birch represents responsibility - especially responsibility for ones own actions. Birch - I am a stag of seven tines, or I am a boar of seven fights. I was also taught, and so I do I also beleive that Birch is one of the very few trees that takes on the energies of the other trees, as the year progresses. In the tradition I learned, Birch is the first lunar. With a Birth of any kind comes many responsibilities, Responsibility for one's own actions would definitely be one of these. Though I actually think we may be talking about R. Graves Lunar tree calender here, is that right? Most of what I show and study myself is taken Auraicept na N-Éces, and or the studies of old Irish Ogham. What Graves did was re-work the Ogham to construct his tree calender. Don't get me wrong, Graves work is as valid as anyone else's, as the Ogham is undoubtedly an entire grove of hidden knowledge and light. It's interesting to me that you've interpreted Beth to embody responsibility alone though. Heres a link you might be interested in reading: www.maryjones.us/ctexts/ogham.htmlIdentifying Birch with the birth of new things actually comes from many of the trees characteristics. Within nature Birch grows the most abundantly on the forest's edge, and is often the tree one will see first upon entering the woods of northern Europe. Birch is also one of the first trees to leaf in the spring, as Birch marks the seasonal change within the green world. Most importantly the tree has both male and female catkins, showing the principals of life arising out of life. I'll get into your question in more detail in just a bit. I have a problem where some of my members don't see the banner so I must try to deal with that, but I promise you we will discover how birth of the new and responsibility coincide. -Senbecc
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Post by wren on Aug 3, 2006 18:42:32 GMT -5
"Birch teaches us the cycles of self propagation, and teaches the myriad cycles of continuous manifestations of the new from old barren soil. Beths lesson is how we can handle as harmoniously as possible the constant transformations that these processes bring."
I'm doing a lot of reading and mediation on the Ogham recently and have begun to work on the individual trees and the lore associated with them. I love this particular image of Birch because the tree continues to send out new growth, even when it appears old and withered. This reminds me of the changes I'm experiencing with my studies and my 'growth' despite my age. It also produces both male and female catkins, being self-propagating. I think this could show we are all faces of both the male and female aspect.
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Post by wren on Jan 8, 2007 14:26:30 GMT -5
Natural Characteristics
The identification of the birch with the birth of the new stems from several of the tree’s features. In its natural habitat, birch grows most readily on the forest’s edge, so it is often the tree first encountered as one enters northern European woodland. One of the earliest trees to leaf in the spring, birch marks the seasonal return of the life force in the Greenworld. Moreover, this is a self-propagating tree that has both male and female catkins, illustrating the principal of life arising out of life.
As it ages birch may well be described as being ‘of withered trunk’, but it is a tree of prolific growth which provides a fruitful environment for fungi, including the hallucinogenic fly agaric mushroom, and it also paves the way for a host of other woodland dwellers. Ecologically, it embodies self-sacrifice.
The silver birch when in full vigor, its white trunk ‘most silver of skin’, also marks the tree as a type of entrance to the Otherworld, for in Celtic myth animals and objects connected to the Otherworld are often white. Birch is a feminine, Faery tree known in the folklore as the Lady of the Wood, and like the fair-haired, otherworldly women of Celtic myth, it carries the call to adventure for the questing hero. Where the birch points, there one must follow, for its branches hold the key to the unfolding of destiny.
Storylines
The birch’s most important appearance in Irish literature is in a Fenian Cycle romance preserved in a seventeenth-century manuscript, the contents of which may nonetheless date to as early as the tenth century. In the Tóruigheacht Dhiarmada Agus Ghrianne (The Pursuit of Diarmaid and Gráinne), the themes of withering, fair-hair, and the ‘beauty spot’ all fall together in a meaningful whole. Gráinne is one of those fair heroines of Celtic myth; described time and again as inhabiting a ‘sunny house’, she has clear solar associations. As the daughter of the High King and fairest woman in the land, she parallels the many otherworldly women who lead heroes on the path of adventure in Celtic myth. But the maiden is to be married to the aging hero, Finn. When she first meets him she recoils at his gray-haired and hoary appearance. Gráinne thinks resentfully to herself how it is not fitting that she should be wedded to ‘a man that is older than my father’.
Instead, she becomes enamored of Finn’s nephew, Diarmaid, literally a ‘browed beauty’, for the hero has a love-spot on his forehead that causes maidens to fall helplessly in love with him. Our heroine pursues this Celtic Adonis relentlessly, forcing him to flee with her by invoking a geas (ritual bond) that states he may not refuse the request of a lady. Honor-bound to offer her loyalty and protection, he reluctantly agrees. On the run, they couple come to a place called Doire-dá-Bhoth (the Wood of the Two Huts) and there Diarmaid performs a strange and magical ritual involving birch:
And Diarmaid cut down the wood round them, and he made a fence having seven doors of woven twigs, and he set out a bed of soft rushes and of the tops of the birch-tree for Grania in the very middle of the wood.
The ‘tops of the birch tree’ that Diarmaid uses to house Gráinne form ‘bundles’ of twigs known in folklore as witches’ knots, thus creating a kind of protected circle within which the couple sleep. The entire episode is highly symbolic, with its theme of the withering of the old king, representing the old order, in favor of the new, symbolically within the compass of the birch bundle. This is replicated across a number of Celtic tales: it is a fabula or archetypal story line. The drama of the young lover taking the place of his aging liege – the King is dead, long live the King! – is found most notably in the romances of such celebrated lovers as Mider and Etáin and Tristan and Yseult and, of course, in the lovers’ triangle of Arthur, Guinevere and Lancelot.
The birch has also been linked to the great sorcerer of Welsh tradition, Gwyddyon, nephew of Math (although ash is his primary tree). He appears in the Welsh poem the Cad Goddeu (see the Welsh Recon board), as ‘Gwyddyon the birch, according to the Celtic scholar and poet, Jean Markale. The birch here is apparently the ruler of a troop of otherworldly trees who act as soldiers in the strange battle the poem describes. The birch’s role over the other trees is, as Markdale puts it, that of ‘transforming their withered aspect and bringing them back to life’. This accords perfectly with the theme of life emerging from the soil of the old that we have been following.
Folklore and Magic
Birch garlands were often used as tokens of love in folk custom, and birch wands were used in love magic. Birch, or Beth, may still be used in love magic today, although you must be careful about what you bring into reality. The maypole itself was often made of birch, connecting the tree with fertility and regeneration themes. Dancing around the maypole is a wonderful affirmation of the great powers of procreation and a joyous celebration and is undergoing a revival in many Pagan communities.
Until comparatively recently, there was a custom of ‘birching’ prisoners that reveals the link between birch and purgation. The offender was soundly whipped with branches of birch. This form of corporal punishment has roots in festive practices of ritual flagellation in which birch wands were used to drive out the old and prepare for the coming of the new. The use of birch for this purpose further underlines the tree’s purifying and revivifying qualities.
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