The Birch tree was sacred to the shamans who lived in Siberia.

When ones goes thorugh initiation rights to become a shaman, they first do it through a birch grove. Birch trees are cut, replanted, and arranged in a special pattern (See below)



The 3 at the top trees in the front are the most important ones. They must be at least 5 metres tall. The left, esege is the 'father tree' and the right, eche is the 'mother tree' The center one bridges to the spirit world, and the shamans goes to it by climbing the tree while in trance.

There then follows a group of nine tree called dirbilge, or 'wings' At the bottom of the dirbilge there is one lone tree called a 'sirge' This is for the shaman to tie his spirit horse on his return.

The 9 tree which form a 'dirbilge' and the 'sirge' are about 1.7 metres tall.

3, 9, and 13 are all sacred numbers to the Shamans, odd numbers are male, even numbers are female.

- 9 is the most sacred number (Number of 'wings')
- 13 is the 2nd most sacred number (9+3+1=13)

The initiate is then to run around this grove for a length of time, in the article I read, the person Bair ran for 2 days and 2 nights without stopping.

For ever higher level of iniation, 9 more wings are planted for each level (The highest number of trees being 9*9+3+1)

After the ceremony the trees are then burnt.