Berkana

Traditional meaning: birch

Meanings when upright:

• a warm reassuring hug from a lover
• new beginnings and opportunities
• conscious manifestation
• pride in one's creations/actions
• relief from pain

Meanings when inverted:

• blurring of self-consciousness
• don't allow yourself to be subsumed into Sablade
• sterility/stagnation

Berkana can be useful for:

• gentle healing
• getting one's energy flowing
• creating a solid foundation
• blessing children or a household
• concealment

Anglo-Saxon rune poem:

Beorc byþ bleda leas, bereþ efne swa ðeah
tanas butan tudder, biþ on telgum wlitig,
heah on helme hrysted fægere,
geloden leafum, lyfte getenge.

The poplar bears no fruit; yet without seed it brings forth suckers,
for it is generated from its leaves.
Splendid are its branches and gloriously adorned
its lofty crown which reaches to the skies.

Norwegian rune poem:

Bjarkan er laufgrønstr líma;
Loki bar flærða tíma.

Birch has the greenest leaves of any shrub;
Loki was fortunate in his deceit.

A modern rune poem:

Lethe Berkana Beltane.
From this rune
I took my middle name
in hopes of carrying with me always
the warmth of an early spring day,
a gentle impassioned hug from my wife,
the promise that soon all will be okay
and together we'll build a kinder life.

Berkana makes things grow,
even after the storms have thrown
all down
in shambles onto the ground.
The seedling that blooms after wildfire,
alone amidst the ashes.
Blaze
razed
down the treetops, and now sunlight
through the skeletal branches
passes.

"Keep going, Lethe,"
my wife to me beseeches.
"You have every right to take pride
in how long against everything you've survived.
Stand strong and steal what you can from this world of men
and I promise you I'll make it worth your effort in the end."