November 1–November 28
First Lunation, November
Ogham: Beth, Beith (beh), B: 
Keywords: Endings and new beginnings, death and rebirth, cleansing and purification, releasing old patterns, overcoming difficulties, pliability, reestablishing boundaries, renewal, shedding unhelpful influences, resolution of conflict, returning to innocence and seeing with new eyes, letting go of judgment
Totems: Snake, phoenix (Greek), eagle, and falcon
Guides and Deities: The crone aspect of the Goddess; the mother, crone, and cauldron-keeper Cerridwen; the Cailleach; the hag; the medicine woman
Practical Guidance: Begin again. Make a new start. Clean up your clutter. Make amends and let go.
Beith/Birch Month Ceremony
Holiday
The Celtic New Year is November 1.
Purpose
To honor the portal of Birch. To let go of the old and begin a new cycle of life.
Preparation
Buy some apples, leaving one whole to cut in the ceremony, and gather seeds from the others so you have enough for your participants to plant.
Welcome and Greetings
Welcome to our Birch month ceremony. Introduce yourself and go around the circle, having each participant share their name and why they came to the circle. Have them close their eyes and share a moment of silence to prepare for the ceremony.
Call the Directions
Call in Birch tree energy (beginnings) and the totems, guides, and deities of Birch (snake, phoenix, eagle, and falcon). Call in the Crone Goddesses that we honor at this darkening time of year. Call in the Celtic New Year and set the intention of letting go of that which is no longer needed as you open to the new. Take a moment to consider new dreams and possibilities.
Teachings
Share about the themes of the Birch month: beginnings and endings; elimination and regeneration; letting go; reinvestment in your own spiritual truth; resolution of conflict; giving thanks for your own pliancy in recovery after a trauma; weeding out thoughts, feelings, and actions that impede your own growth; returning to innocence; giving up judgments and prescribed expectations; letting in magic. Release the need to judge, compare, and analyze; in other words, give the left brain a rest. Seek a higher vision.
Sing
Choose songs that have to do with fall or the beginning of winter. Any song that honors the Goddess is appropriate.
Chant
What is the teaching of the Birch? Let go.
Our freedom comes from not holding on.
Behold! We die and the crone births us again.
And we are free to create our new year.
We seek a higher vision.
What is the teaching of the Birch? New beginnings.
Guided Meditation
Close your eyes and focus on your breath. Allow yourself to slow down and let go of your daily concerns. Allow yourself to rest easy and relax. Follow each breath. Be in this quiet place for a few moments.
Imagine yourself standing within a grove of lovely Birch trees. It is November, so you are bundled up and cozy within your warm cloak or coat. Notice the slender white bark of these trees and their whispering leaves as the branches dance with the cold wind. Allow yourself a moment to close your eyes and see, sense, feel, know, or imagine this moment of stillness, accept the whisper of the moving leaves and branches of these trees.
In this very moment, you shape-shift, and you magically find yourself becoming a slender Birch tree. You have entered this tree and now have an opportunity to communicate with the dryad of this tree family. Take a moment to feel this experience … (pause)
Notice your graceful branches as they reach up toward the light and then gently bend down with the weight of your many heart-shaped leaves that rustle in the wind. Notice your pliant yet strong white and silver trunk, and your root system that extends down deep into Mother Earth … (pause)
As you experience the stance of this tree and its special way of moving and being, give it your gratitude. In the silence of this November day, feel the grace of this tree. Feel its energy move up toward the light. Listen to the whispering leaves. They have a message for you …
Think of this tree’s ability to shed its skin. Allow yourself to drop habits and ways of thinking that are limiting in the same way. See your old “bark” simply blowing away. As an eagle flies to the very top of your tree, allow yourself to see with the eyes of the eagle. View your problems and concerns from a higher perspective. What can you learn from your situation? What can you forgive in yourself and others? What stubbornness, grudges, resentments, or need for revenge can you let go of? What judgments about yourself or others no longer serve you? Simply let go, let go, let go …
Allow your participants to sit quietly and reflectively in the dark while you play some soft, uplifting music.
Take a moment to give your gratitude to the spirit of Birch.
Sharing
Call your participants back into the room. When everyone has returned from their journey, have each person share something from their experience. They may have revelations to share about letting go of judgments. They may have an intention of seeing things in new ways without negativity.
Activity: Planting Apple Seeds
Next, we honor the powerful crone energy of this portal. Have each participant share the names of their mother and grandmothers and elders as a means of paying them homage. Example: “I honor my mother, Marjorie, my maternal grandmother, Hannah, my paternal grandmother, Jane, and my maternal great-grandmother, Clare, and her sisters, Maude and Ruth.” After all the names have been called forth have your group give gratitude to the ancestors and the energy of the elders, crones, and female lineages.
Cut an apple through the middle and pass it around so that everyone can contemplate the symbol of the pentacle. Say: “Just like the seeds form a pentacle in the center, so is there a pattern of perfection for each person within themselves.”
Then pass out apple seeds to each person and ask them to plant their seed within a pot of soil at the center of your altar. As they plant their seed have them speak out loud their intentions for the Celtic New Year.
Ending
Give gratitude to the Birch tree for its teachings. Take a moment to stand like trees, feel rooted in the earth, with arms spread outward to the skies. Tone together. Have them notice how the group carries the energy of the grove. Have them place their hands upon their hearts and connect with and experience their own inner knowing so that they may walk the month and the new year in a good way. Release the directions and all the helpers and guides and open the circle.
A Birch Story: A Higher Perspective and Healing
Three white Birch trees stand proud and strong right across the street from where I sit and write. I see them through my large picture window every day as I sit down to write from my dining room table. They are slender and graceful. They reach tall and as they sway and rustle in the wind, their bending limbs and bountiful leaves remind me of ballet dancers. In fall they look like fire with leaves of gold and red. In winter, depleted of their leaves, their branches bend and struggle with the storms. In spring, their delicate green leaves dance with the breezes.
I am reminded of their help in disputes as I view them today. They add reconciliation and peace in times of disruption and distress. I took Birch energy from these three trees with me to a circle I attended whose members were in turmoil over our differences. I remembered that one of the teachings of this tree is to drop judgments and preconceived ideas about what will happen. I dropped my fears and agenda. Birch offered me the presence of mind to consider that there is always the possibility of a miracle. When we don’t know but we show up, there is room for what seems impossible. Magic can appear. I cleared my mind and set my intention for the highest possible outcome for all involved. I resolved to trust the process and call in the power of the Birch. I was amazed that my group moved from terrible distrust, agitation, and fear to a peaceful and graceful resolution. I learned a lot about the grace of Birch that day!
I watch these trees through the seasons. Now in fall, some of their bark unravels and their leaves of gold fall onto the grass below. They look like golden flames against the sky. Last winter when there was an incredible ice storm, the trees were frozen in a thick transparent covering of ice. The limbs of each tree drooped with the weight of the ice, and on one of the smallest trees, a branch leaned way out from the tree and looked like it would break. We all held our breath, but the branch never broke, even as it moved closer and closer to the earth. As the ice melted, the branches of each tree returned to their original position, showing their pliancy and ability to recover. The only branch that remained dangerously low and out of position was the one smaller branch. My family all feared the tree would lose that branch. We watched it all winter and spring, but it wasn’t until summer that the traumatized branch regained its symmetry to the tree. The branch held the memory of pliancy in its healing, but it took its own sweet time. What a lovely lesson about the process of any recovery.
The whiteness of these Birch trees is so fresh, their upward stance so lovely. I am reminded of the endings and beginnings of this every year. This new year could not start well until the old one had been finished and the unwanted and unhealthy influences sent back into the ethers for their own higher transformation. Birch helps me to leave the confusion of the tangled and thick underbrush of my own overthinking, to look up, out, and beyond for clarity. I remember the open sky and the expansiveness of the air above. I can reach up for the light. I can count on Eagle to provide me that higher overview as she lands on Birch’s highest branch.
Allow yourself the time you need. Let go of that which is impeding your progress. Allow the eagle to show you a larger perspective, a higher view. Forgive if you can. Forgive yourself. Birch offers you a new beginning. She encourages you to turn the page and begin your story from this fresh new perspective. It is a new year, it is a new day. Every change comes from a decision made each moment. Birch encourages you to take the higher road. She offers you regeneration and clarity.
How can you apply her teaching? How does the Birch’s story of taking her time to heal apply to you? What does she teach about patience and endurance? Is there a controversy or difficulty that you are experiencing that you can apply her wisdom to?