At a glance

• Sound: b
• Place: rune 18 of 24, the second rune of Tyr's aett
• Also known as: Berkana, Berkanan, Bjarken
• Keywords: growth, birth, new beginnings, nurturing, renewal, motherhood, spring, birch tree, feminine energy, family, home

Lore and history

In the old rune poems, Berkano was tied to the birch, leafy and green, one of the first trees to show life after the cold months. As the eighteenth rune of the Elder Futhark, the second rune of Tyr's aett, and carrying the sound of b, it sat among runes that Norse and Germanic carvers read as markers of the natural order and the turning seasons. The Old Norwegian rune poem praised the birch as the greenest of branches, and in the same breath told of Loki and his deceit, a pairing that gave this gentle rune an undercurrent of old Norse myth. For the people who first cut it into wood, bone and stone, Berkano held the image of a tree bending back toward life, a small but certain sign that growth returns.

In a reading

In modern rune practice, Berkano is one of the most welcomed runes to draw, a sign of growth, birth, and new beginnings arriving in their own time. Many of us turn to it when something tender is just starting, a project, a relationship, a change of season in our own lives, and it reminds us to nurture that beginning rather than rush it. When it is drawn or comes up in a casting, it is often read as encouragement to tend what is young and still finding its shape, trusting that patience and care will let it take root and flourish.

A little more

The Old Norwegian rune poem pairs the birch's green leaves with an unexpected line about Loki and his trickery, a reminder that even a rune of gentle growth carried a thread of mischief in the old poems.

Keep exploring

• Before it: Tiwaz
• After it: Ehwaz
• All 24 runes