Runes

Berkano

Also known as: ᛒBerkano rune*berkananBerkananBerkana

Berkano (ᛒ) is rune 18 of the Elder Futhark; its modern keywords are growth, beginning and nurture.

Berkano is rune 18 of the Elder Futhark — the runic alphabet used roughly from the 2nd to the 8th century — and rune 2 of Tyr's ætt (an ætt is one of three groups of eight runes). It writes the sound "b", and in the Unicode block "Runic" it is ᛒ. The shape is like the letter B with two angular bowls.

The name *berkanan means "birch". The Old English poem (beorc) describes a tree without fruit but with beautiful branches; the Icelandic poem (bjarkan) a branch full of leaves. The names of the Elder Futhark runes are reconstructions by linguists, and the rune poems — Old English, Norwegian and Icelandic — were written many centuries later and describe later alphabets. They tell us about a tradition, not about a certain original meaning.

In modern reflective practice Berkano is linked above all with growth, beginning and nurture. Berkano is today the rune of the birch: a new beginning, gentle growth and care. It encourages tending what is only starting to develop, patiently and tenderly.

As the rune of the day in Cards of the day, Berkano has two short texts. The first: "Berkano is the birch, the first tree to turn green in spring. Tend something today that is just beginning: an idea, a relationship, a habit." The second: "Growth needs time and gentleness. Berkano invites you to treat yourself as tenderly as you would a young tree." A question worth staying with: "What that is just growing do I want to tend today?"

In AstroSensus runes are a tool for reflection, not a prediction. There are no reversed runes and no "blank rune" — the latter is a 20th-century idea, not part of history. In a spread of three or five runes, Berkano is always read together with its position and the other runes. The rune can also be your avatar on social media, with the bio line "ᛒ Berkano — I tend what is growing in me" as a reminder of your own intention.

RUNE OF THE DAY