WHITE BIRCH DIETS
HEALING // BALANCE // RENEWAL // DEVOTION
WHITE BIRCH
White or Silver Birch comes from the ancient European word Bhereg, meaning to shine. Unequivocally known as a mother tree by nearly all cultures living within her stead, she is thought to be one of the first trees to sprout after the last ice age and is known to lead the regrowth of forests after fires. She purifies and regenerates ecosystems and is the exclusive host of the medicinal, chaga mushroom, as well as a common shade tree for the psychotropic, Aminta Muscaria mushroom.
Like the delicate balance of ecosystems she guards, White Birch has the capacity to help us harmonize mind, body, spirit and soul.
Her soft touch moves our emotions and guides our awareness into the cracks and crevices of the unconscious, teaching us to sooth and nurture our core wounds, revealing the strength and beauty in healing.
Traditional cultures across Europe & Asia drew upon the White Birch for both her spiritual power and her medicinal gifts. People all over the world drink her tree water as a tonic for the kidneys, and she is still erected every Spring in communal rituals as a maypole.
The Norse rune, Berkana, is a symbol of the Birch spirit and an emblem of The Great Mother, represented by the Goddesses Freja (life) and Hel (death). Likewise, the first letter in Celtic Ogham is Beith, the Birch, indicative of her position as an altar of the Divine Feminine Creator God, represented by beautiful Brigid who guards the Sacred Fire of knowledge.
THE PROTOCOL
STUDYING LEGAL SACRED PLANTS, WITHOUT PSYCHEDELICS
Deep study with plants connects us to the wisdom of the natural world in a way that is grounded and real. The most powerful way to engage this work is through sober, focused containers, while sitting in shamanic meditations with our plant teachers. To facilitate this enduring and traditional form of study, we turn to the ancient technology of tobacco.
1. Open the body with Shamanic Tobacco.
2. Connect to the spirit of our Master Tree.
3. Meditate, cultivate, weave in.
Three complimentary forms of tobacco work together to balance us while we connect to our Master Tree in shamanic meditations. Tobacco Tea is snorted into the sinuses like a neti pot and represents Water, working to purify and open the body. Tobacco Paste is swallowed into the stomach like a food and represents Earth, grounding and nourishing the medicine process. The Tobacco Pipe creates smoke, which acts as a bridge to our Master Tree, helping us discern the teachings, and represents Fire and Air.
1L of White Birch Tea is consumed each day. The medicine slowly builds inside the body, restoring the adrenals and nourishing the kidneys, soothing the mind and relaxing connective tissue.
Through our shamanic meditations with tobacco we connect with the White Birch Spirit emanating from her tree, cultivating resonance within.
WHAT TO EXPECT
THE VIBES OF A TREE DIET
Sacred Tree Diets are spaces for quiet remembrance. Processes are private, individual, inward, gentle and spacious. Medicine is served twice per day and an afternoon meditation divides breakfast and lunch.
Noble silence will be observed in common areas throughout the day. Each night, we will sit by a fire and process; weather permitting. The land is spacious and accommodates for daily sunbathing, yoga, and journaling while contemplating the sunset against the mountains. All meals are traditional plant diet preparations and are hand prepared, clean and simple: saltless oatmeal and boiled green plantain in the morning and vegetable soup in the late afternoon.
Medicine processes are typically gentle but can include physical purging (vomiting), the processing of strong emotions, and the onset of physiological changes. Our space will be cared for by highly adept space holders. Safety, privacy and cleanliness are the highest priorities.
This diet can also be undertaken as a complete fast, without food.
The following restrictions will be held with strict discipline: Sex, masturbation, drugs, alcohol & other medicines, phones & screens, cosmetics & scents, soap & toothpaste, salt, meat, sugar, oil, spice and talking (outside of sharing circles.)
THE SCHEDULE
DAY 1
1 - 4pm - Check-in
5pm - Opening Circle
6pm - White Birch Medicine Harvest
7pm - Medicine Cook
8pm - Opening Tobacco Ceremony
DAY 2 - 8
7am - Tobacco Prayer
10am - Breakfast
1pm - Meditation
4pm - Dinner
7pm - Fire & Tobacco Prayer
DAY 9
7am - Closing Prayer
9am - Breakfast
12pm - Depart
Check out a podcast with menswork facilitator Mikaal Bates after his 8-day tree diet with White Birch.
“This ‘tree’ has been working me from the inside out for months now. Even now, as I put words to page, I can ‘feel’ her splitting open the hardened parts of myself as water innocently seeps into cracks in the rock before the freeze to split the strongest stone. It is this being split open that has taken me lovingly by the hand and shown me how hard I have become in some of my softest places.” -Mikaal Bates
