𒀱 With The Trees
𒀱 With The Trees
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Seven trees, and what a Lithuanian healing tradition understood about each of them - through medicine, poem, folk song, charm and the heat of the pirtis. Drawn from folk archives and primary sources, most of it never translated into English.
Seven sessions · Pre-recorded · June — December 2026
Curated and taught by Silvija Šuliokaitė
Watch Session 0 Free
Session 0 explains what this series is, where the material comes from, and why I made it. It's free and it's the best way to see whether this is for you.
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About This Series
Most people who use a sauna have whisked with birch at some point. Fewer know why it's birch. Or what changes if you use oak instead. Or when you shouldn't use either.
That knowledge existed. It was specific and it was detailed — which tree, what it does, when to reach for it, when to hold back. Most of it has quietly gone.
There's a Lithuanian word for what's left when that happens. Forma — form. The shape of a practice without the reasoning inside it. What's missing is the esmė. The essence.
This series goes after the essence.
Seven sessions, seven trees. The botany, the folklore, the healing charms, and how to actually work with each one. Drawn from Lithuanian folk archives and primary sources, much of it never translated into English.
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How each of the seven trees behaves in heat, and what that means for the body in front of you.
When to gather each one, and how to make a whisk that actually holds its function.
Healing charms from the Lithuanian folk archive, in the original language, and the logic underneath them.
Which trees pair, in what order, and why the sequence matters more than the technique.
When to hold a tree back. This is the part that gets skipped and it's the part that keeps a session safe.
The cosmology beneath the practice — the gods, the gender of trees, and why the pirtis became the last place this tradition could survive.
How to build a session that has an arc, rather than a series of rounds that happen to follow each other.
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The charm — a healing charm from the Lithuanian folk archive. Spoken in Lithuanian first, then translated. Where it came from, how it was used, and what it tells you about the tree.
The tree — the species, where it grows, when to gather it, how to make and prepare the whisk, and what it does once it's in the heat.
The cultural layer — the folklore and the documented practice. You can't work with a plant properly without knowing how the people who used it understood it.
The practical — how to bring this tree into a session. Sequencing, technique, what to pair it with, and when to leave it alone.
Each session runs 35–45 minutes.
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Who This Is For
Sauna practitioners and guides wanting to go deeper into the cultural and medicinal layer of the trees they work with.
Herbalists and plant practitioners curious about the pirtis context.
Anyone who has sat in the heat and wanted to understand what they were sitting inside.
Those reconnecting with Lithuanian or Baltic heritage, wherever in the world they are.
Anyone drawn to the tradition for reasons they can't quite name yet.
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"Deeply settling and the story of Kotryna and her charm stayed with me."
— Emma
"Wonderful to listen to. I'm still feeling into which tree draws me."
— Tara
"Whole heartedly thank you for the knowledge you are sharing in the course. I am enjoying it so much.
— Louise
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The Trees
Available individually, or as the full series.
ᛉ Birch — Beržas
The First Tree · Healing and Correcting · The Month of June
Released 15 June 2026 · £44
The charm of Kotryna Gailiuvienė, put on trial in the sixteenth century. Where to gather and when. Why birch always opens a session. Trees that once spoke, the gender of trees, Laima's cuckoo, and the rune that carries birch's name.
ᛉ Oak — Ąžuolas
It Will Not Comfort You · Perkūnas's Whisk · When to Hold Back
Released 14 July 2026 · £44
Three charms — the snake, the hidden women in the oak nest, and the moon that can never meet the giant. Gathering in August and why. Tannins, the six-hour cold soak, and the whisk that behaves like a puzzle. Romuva, the destruction of the groves, and how the pirtis became the last sacred space.
ᛉ Linden — Liepa
Laima's Tree · The Nervous System · The Art of Timing
Released 12 August 2026 · £44
Let it be soft as the linden leaf. The two-week gathering window. Why the leaf whisk and the flower whisk are different medicines. Phytohormones and the women's whisk. Laima, goddess of fate, and the whisk left on the bench for her after every session.
ᛉ Pine — Pušis
Clarity · The Airways · Orientation
Releases 11 September 2026 £44
ᛉ Juniper — Kadagys
Purification · Protection · Interruption
Releases 10 October 2026 £44
ᛉ Hazel — Lazdynas
Discernment · Boundaries · The Practitioner's Tree
Releases 9 November 2026 £44
ᛉ Maple — Klevas
Completion · Turning · Your Own Voice
Releases 9 December 2026 £44
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Or take all 7
Every tree, released one at a time from June through December. Everything stays available afterwards, so there's no rush and nothing expires.
£199
Saving £109 against buying individually.
Once payment goes through you'll get an email with your access details and password within 24 hours.
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Your teacher
Silvija Šuliokaitė — Pirtininkė & Herbalist
I was born in Jonava, Lithuania, and trained at the Baltic Pirtis–SPA School and Perkūnija Sauna School.
I work with the trees, plants and healing charms of the Lithuanian pirtis tradition. Most of what I draw on comes from primary sources and folk archives, and a lot of it has never been translated into English. I hold private rituals, women's gatherings and group sessions in the UK and Lithuania, and facilitate at festivals and retreats across Europe.
I made this series because I wanted to go further than technique. I wanted to know how people actually related to these trees — through song, poem, charm, prayer, everyday life. What they said to them. What they asked of them. What they understood them to be.
Every pirtininkė has her own way of working. There's no single correct version of this tradition and I'm not offering one. This is just where the research took me, and how I've come to hold it.
Taught from inside the tradition rather than adapted from it.
© Birch House Rituals 2026. This series carries knowledge that has been held carefully across generations. Please treat it with the same care — these sessions are for your personal practice and are not to be shared or redistributed.