Berkano (ᛒ) — Birch, New Beginning, Nurture

Berkano (ᛒ), eighteenth rune and second of Tyr's ætt, is the rune of the bjarkan — the birch tree, first to reclaim burned or cleared ground in the northern forests. The Old Norwegian Rune Poem says: 'Bjarkan er laufgrønstr líma' — the birch is the greenest-leaved of branches. In the Germanic world, birch boughs were used in purification rites, fertility ceremonies, and the marking of new boundaries after land clearance. Berkano governs all forms of new beginning — birth, nurturing, the mother's protective enclosure — and is associated with the goddess Berchta (or Frigg in her nurturing aspect), guardian of the threshold between the unborn and the living.