Know as 'The Lady of the Woods', birch signifies new beginnings. The Celtic calendar starts the new year with the month of the Birch Moon, a time of renewal. It sheds it's bark, suggesting further links to renewal. Birch wood is believed to ward off evil, banish fears and build courage. Stripped of it's bark, birch is the traditional Yule Log. Witches brooms were made of birch twigs and cradles were made from birch to protect babies and young children. Birch sap is a traditional drink in Northern Europe, Russia and China where the sap is bottled to make birch syrup. The Ornas birch is the national tree of Sweden where the sap is collected in the spring and drunk for it's medicinal qualities. The bark can be soaked in water and formed to make a cast for broken limbs. The ancient Siberians hailed the birch as sacred, calling it the ladder spanning the gap between heaven and earth.
"I'd like to go by climbing a birch tree,
And climb black branches
Up a snow-white trunk
Toward heaven..."
Robert Frost, Birch Trees.
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