Birch Dieta
/ Quest

A journey to connect, open up and receive the teachings of the Birch

Nordic Dieta & Quests with Birch in the Swedish wilderness

Connect to the plant wisdom of the earth!

Join us for a deep dive into nature for a Nordic Dieta or Quest guided by the powerful Birch tree. Together we will venture into the Swedish wilderness on a quest to open ourselves up to receive the deep wisdom of nature - within and around us. 

Guided by the Birch, this Dieta/Quest is an opportunity for self discovery and taking a step deeper into sacred plant medicine and channeling plant energy. The Birch is a powerful gateway into connection, a Nordic Master Plant growing right outside our doorstep. It can lead you through your shadows, light and everything in between the dark winters and bright summers of the north. A truly profound and wise teacher.

PlantQuest & Plant Dieta are all about forming a deep connection with a specific plant by asking it to be a teacher and guide, to heal and to share its (spiritual) medicine with you - to become allies by sharing this medicine with the world. 

May it support a deep healing process, personal growth or bring more awareness about our way. The plant will treat us, teach us about it’s medicine and how to work with it in treatments. It becomes our close friend, partner to build a bridge between the spirit and human world.

We connect, learn and receive medicine from the plants not to keep the healing for ourselves but to share it with the world.

Learning to open up, receive and connect

For us it is all about learning to open ourselves up to receive, channel and connect to great spirit, the higher self, goddess, source or whatever you call the universal power of love, connecting us all. Let it be Nature itself, as it is already connected and one with source - so is the birch and so are we, even though we might have forgotten.

The Birch Dieta / Quest is all about allowing nature and especially the Birch to initiate and guide your way back home.

It is a way of learning from nature (within and around us) by going into meditation and solitude, while fasting, minimizing stimuli and being fully emerged in nature. May it be through a Nordic Dieta, Birch Quest, a traditional north American Vision Quest, the Shipibo Plant Dieta, the Nordic Udesidning - like the Yogis and monks in the Himalayas. The direction is the same: connection to spirit (in all its names), deep insights and growth.

Enriching and conscious relationships with plants

We all have (more or less conscious) relationships with plants: be it the veggies that we eat or the potential plant medicine ceremonies we attend.

We wish to support people on their path of developing conscious, intentional, rich, respectful, meaningful and spiritual relationships with plants/trees. It is our experience that the more these connections and relationships unfold the more wisdom, guidance, flow, transformation and healing the plants share with us.

  • Evening at the lake

  • Ceremonial tent

  • Participant's camp

  • Another participant's camp

  • Quest food

  • Cooking

“Thank you. I have recently experienced/been on a dieta with Eva and Stephan and words cannot describe what it has done to me. I don’t even want to try but one thing I can say is that I stand naked now and closer to my true essence. It’s all about integration now. It takes time and I’m also “just” a human trying to do the best I can. But I’m on my way cleaning out of attachments and extracting hardness from strength. I stand stronger now with more authority towards myself. But it’s now easy but who said it should be easy. I thank you for your words and I thank you both for the devine work you do. See you next year “
Birch Dieta 2022 - Nicole

Birch Dieta or Birch Quest?

Both are about cultivating a deep relationship to one plant (at a time), having it as a teacher & spiritual guide in your life and work. The plant supports you in your life journey and also shares it’s teachings, (spiritual) medicine and energy with you - for you to share and help others.

The major difference between a Plant Quest and a Plant Dieta is that a Dieta follows the structure, system and tradition of the Shipibo - in our case the Mahua-Lopez lineage. A Dieta comes from a tradition and it is (for us) important to honor that tradition, culture, heritage and people that it comes from. That also means that we only calls it a Dieta with permission from our indigenous Shipibo maestro Don Rono Lopez.

The Dieta is meant to be used to carry medicine and wisdom within us to share with others. It is through this deep practice that one study the path of becoming a curanderos/as (plant shaman / healer). Therefore the process comes with more commitment while the focus is on gathering the healing energy of the plant.

A Plant Quest is Nordic in it’s core but is also a practice that draws deep inspiration from a Plant Dieta. It is taught to us by the Birch tree, thus has a different heritage and energy than a traditional Dieta. We do not facilitate Nordic Dieta shorter than 7 full days of Dieta, whereas the Quests can be down until 3 days.

If you will go into a relationship with a plant through a Quest - you’ll marry it in the Dieta!

Nordic Birch Dieta

What is a Dieta?

Dieta is Spanish for “diet” or “dieting” but in the Shipibo healing tradition it refers to more than just restrictions of food…

A Plant Dieta refers to the spiritual connection a person cultivates to a master plant/tree such as Noya Rao, Bobinsana, Birch etc. It can be seen as a deep personal meditation where one enters into a relationship with a master plant, to form an alliance, a partnership for life. It is a process of creating, cultivating and receiving this special spiritual connection/medicine. It refers to a certain period of time where the student complies with very specific Dieta rules and restrictions regarding isolation from other people, sexual abstinence, dietary restrictions on food such as salt, sugar, fat, oil etc., and daily ingestion of the plant that the person is dieting. Through dieting one heals their connections, body, mind and soul with the help of a powerful teacher-spirit.

After a successful end of the Dieta (of a certain time period), the word Dieta also refers to the now created spiritual connection to the master plant itself, through which you will be able to help yourself and others. This special, spiritual medicine will be with you in your simple presence, practices and work.

The Dieta can be seen as the education of curanderos/shamans/plant doctors, where the students receive knowledge and teachings directly from the plants.

We do not only diet plant for our own sake - we do it to share the healing, wisdom and medicine with the world.

Plant Dietas are the cornerstone of the Shipibo healing tradition of curanderismo (shamanism). The Shipibo-Konibo are indigenous people from the Amazon rain forest in Peru. They are also called “the masters of Ayahuasca” and are known for their profound and ancient healing traditions of plant medicine. The Shipibo say, that their knowledge of healing and plant medicine comes from the plants themselves, especially though dieting master plants.

Birch Dieta in Scandinavia

With the permission of our maestro we are facilitating Birch Dietas here in Scandinavia. It is with much excitement but also seriousness and humbleness that we offer Dietas with the amazing Birch tree. It comes with a big personal commitment for us, therefore we will only offer these Dietas to people that we know well - that have been sitting with us in ceremony or have either been on a PlantQuest or a Plant Immersion with us first.

Birch Quest

A Birch Quest can be seen as a mix between a Plant Dieta and a Vision Quest, a deep inner journey in union with the powerful Birch tree. Emerged in nature, with all the support you need to concentrate and mediate, to receive wisdom, visions and healing.
Through deep meditation, fasting, plant medicine, ceremonies and shamanic training, participants are connected to the plant wisdom of the earth. This is a deep transformative and healing journey in union with nature where one specific tree - in this case, the Birch tree - becomes the teacher for the duration of the program.

It provides the opportunity for profound healing, insights, transformation and connection to a powerful master plant – the Birch. A chance to reach deep within your roots and to (re)connect with nature, your inner light, love and path in life.

“The Birch Quest was a great adventure (deep, tough and rewarding) with two dedicated and authentic facilitators who together — with spirit in their hands — created a space where two very special and meaningful weeks of my life unfolded.”

- Hannibal

The program

The program will be tailored individually for each participant as we all are in different stages of our lives and have a different way to connect with nature within and without. That also means that the amount of ceremonies as well as the rest of the program will vary from Quest to Quest or Dieta.

You will have days of solitude, silence and contemplation in your own shelter in the woods (your hammock, tent or build a shelter). Plant guided meditation ceremonies in a group to connect you deeply to the Birch. Teachings and medicine songs, treatments with Birch extracts, sharings and coachings along the way to support you through your process.

It changes from program to program but usually a Birch Quest is around 8 days and a Birch Dieta around 14 days in nature with shamanic knowledge in combination with good old and solid scout’s cleverness.

Overall the programs include

  • A full day of preparation and landing in the forest

  • Some programs include treatment- and preparation days.

  • Talks and sessions

  • Plant-guided meditation ceremonies

  • Plant treatments with Birch

  • Local, clean organic food (no salt, no oil, no sugar)

  • A full day of integration in the forest

  • Shamanic lessons and treatments

  • Personal icaros (medicine songs) and icaro-lessons

  • It can include a handcrafted, personalized ceremonial tool

Emerged in nature, we hold space for deep introspection and connection to earth’s wisdom

Through this deep inner journey we will support your connection and healing through plant guided meditation ceremonies, talks and Birch treatments. In the longer programs we will write an individual icaro (medicine songs) for you, have shamanic lessons and give you tools to support and strengthen your connection to the Birch.

Plant Wisdom Quests can be seen as deep personal meditations where one enters into a relationship with a master plant, to form an alliance, a partnership for life. By fasting, drinking the plant’s extract, meditation and plant medicine ceremonies the spirit of the plant will be our teacher during the program and will share its wisdom, medicine, light, love and protection. It will transform old structures and connect you towards love, light and nature.

Medicine songs (Icaros) learned in this time, will help you to reconnect to that sacred space at any time.

8 or 14 days Quest or Dieta?

Check out the next Programs to see what we offer in May or August in the year you wish to attend.

Preparation/integration

In order to support your process through the Birch Quest (before, during and after) in the best way possible, we want to have a deeper meeting with you before the Quest. That means that you at minimum will have to have attended a retreat, a workshop, a ceremony, had individual sessions with us or similar before attending a Birch Dieta or Quest.

Furthermore, to support and strengthen your work with opening up, grounding and integrating wisdom and healing from your experience with the quest, we offer the opportunity to go a step deeper and include preparation and/or integration sessions.

The sessions can become a reflective room, a breathing space for you to reflect on your journey, dive deeper into your current state and support your direction in life - bridging the magic of the forest and the quest with everyday life.

Our main sessions are 3hr shamanic nature Journeys or cacao ceremonies. These sessions will either be made as shamanic drum journeys or as therapeutic nature walks – as the outer nature mirrors our inner nature, we deepen our understanding of ourselves: our shadows as well as our light. They will be a creative and therapeutic process in nature diving deeper into your personal development and using nature as a space for introspection. 

If you cannot meet in person before / after the Dieta or Quest we can see us in a 3h online-ceremony with cacao.

We also offer “short and sweet” 1hr online sessions to support your process before and after a retreat. Here we focus mainly on the practicalities of the preparation/integration process as well as supporting you in whatever you need at that moment.