by Kay Broome

(Web photo: Rodion Kutsaiev)

September always heralds a sense of moving onward.  There is a golden glow about this month, yet also a lingering melancholy. These are the last of summer’s lazy days before the mass retreat to work or school. In this month, parents, weary of sibling rivalry and mischief, breathe a sigh of relief, entrusting their children for yet another year to teachers. School children, depending on their school spirit or scholastic abilities, either dread or warmly welcome the first day back.

            Young Beech Tree with Nuts (photo: Kay Broome, West Toronto)

Motherhood Issues

As a thinking woman, I am forever grateful to feminism for all it has given us, both men and women. I do however believe that the second wave feminism of my day fell short on the issue of stay-at-home mothers. This is partly understandable, as women had until the 1970’s, been restrained to the role of rearing children. For most of history, a woman’s only other viable option would have been a nunnery. Until the second world war, few were allowed careers outside the home. And although mothering and mentoring are crucial to the development of future generations of people, in today’s western countries at least, stay-at-home moms are not held in high regard. Home caregivers generally receive no appreciable salary for their crucial work, save at the sufferance of their husbands. Working mothers who would like to have a maternity leave lasting until their child’s kindergarten, consider themselves lucky indeed if they have just one year’s paid mat leave.  In the U.S., poor single parents are often forced to work two or even three jobs just to keep their children housed and fed. This is becoming all too common in Canada as well.

(Web photo: Manuel Schinner)  

Education Issues

In western culture teachers too are treated with contempt. A difficult job at the best of times, teaching is crucial to building future generations of engaged, intelligent people. But North America has had a long tradition of hating on teachers:  “those who can’t, teach”. From the 1950’s onward, terms such as “Egghead” and “Poindexter” were used to mock high-achievers in the sciences and academia. Education has long been a class issue, with schools in poorer neighbourhoods underfinanced and lacking the necessary personnel and teaching aids. The advent of neo-capitalism and dismantling of social programs in the 1980’s only exacerbated the issue.

(Web Photo: Yannis H.)

Being a teacher carries a great deal of responsibility and power. There is the potential to strengthen and encourage, but also the danger of corruption and brainwashing. It is worse when the whole system is decaying. Due to poor curriculum planning in the 21st century, teachers are forced to sacrifice basic subjects such as reading, writing, arithmetic and other skills necessary for individual autonomy. Only lately have schools finally taken the initiative of not allowing cell phones inside classrooms, due to their disruptiveness. In some cases, public school children are taught not about reproduction, but sexuality – something that is way beyond their ken and for which they are not ready. There are problems also for teachers who only want the best for their students. There is the issue of being fired for refusing to go along with absurd demagoguery – whether woke or creationist. And then there is the manifest danger of being threatened and bullied by troubled students, never mind the increasing reality of school shootings.

Yes, other countries have problems with their education as well.  In Japan and other Asian countries, there are legitimate concerns of students being overstressed, sometimes to the point of self-harm, in order to keep up with their studies. And overbearing “tiger” parents are certainly no help to any child's journey toward adulthood. But it is a fact that in Eurasia and increasingly, parts of Africa and Latin America, students surpass their western counterparts, particularly in fields such as history, political science and the STEM subjects. This may be due in part to schooling and teachers in those countries being held in much higher regard than here. Generally, education at all levels in Asia and mainland Europe at least, is more rigorous and based on more consistently reliable data than in North America.

Gods Going Back to School

It should not really be surprising that of all places, China's mythology makes a big deal of formal learning and boasts various gods who govern education. They even have a god of examinations!  In the first country known to have invented the printing process, it is fitting that Kui Xing was only one of five gods of literature. He is often portrayed as holding a ladle in one hand and running with one foot on a turtle or fish’s back, the other foot balancing a Chinese character or ao of his name.

Kui Xing depicted as Chinese Ao Characters (Photo: Hunter Amor, Wikipedia)

Two other noteworthy Chinese Gods are the husband and wife team of Fu Xi and Nüwa. Fu Xi was, among other things, god of learning, cooking, domestication, schooling and of course, examinations. Some myths mention him as having brought the Taoist religion to the Chinese people. Nüwa, his sister-wife, ruled fertility and the natural world. She created humans from mud or clay and repaired the pillars of heaven after a war between the gods had destroyed them. Snakes were sacred to Nüwa and Fu Xi, who were frequently portrayed with their serpent-like lower bodies entwined. The picture below, illustrating Nüwa holding a compass and Fu Xi a carpenter's square, only enhances their STEM cachet.

Nüwa (left) and Fu Xi (Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region Museum, China)

This Chinese dyad is oddly reminiscent of the two great Rada Loa of Haitian Vodun: Damballah and Aida Wedo, also often visualized as two snakes intertwined. Here too is featured a god of wisdom and a goddess of fertility. Paired, they represent the union of opposites and all things balanced and reconciled, again echoing a major theme also found in Taoism. We find further iteration of the snake motif in the Hebrew tale of the serpent in the garden of Eden, who encouraged Eve to eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge. It is interesting how themes cross continents and cultures.

Vodun Vévé – Symbol of Damballah and Aida Wedo (Wikipedia, Open Source)

Mother Beech

The beech tree, in some countries called Mother of the Forest, is a strong contender to be Europe’s tree of knowledge. With its historical tie to literacy, beech would have been an appropriate symbol for Fu Xi and Nüwa. Sadly, although native to China, the tree was not especially honoured there. However, in Japan, beech trees were highly regarded as holders of the forest and water ecosystem.

In western culture at least, beech is closely associated with learning and writing. This is partly due to its smooth bark, which frequently compels people to etch words and messages on it.

Beech Tree with Writing on Trunk (Photo: Kay Broome, High Park, Toronto)

Beech the Teacher

The German word for beech, Buche, is very close to Buch, their word for book. Certainly, Germanic tribespeople found the smooth, fine-grained wood of beech perfect for the making of runes. Johannes Gutenberg is believed to have created the first European printing press after he left letter stamps whittled from beech wood wrapped in paper and inadvertently left out in the rain.  He found it curious that each wet stamp left an imprint on the paper and the rest is history.

The god Ogma gave the Celts the Ogham runes, called fews. His purview includes speech and eloquence. There is no Ogham few named for Beech but one of the Forfedha, named Emancholl (meaning twin of Coll or Hazel), is often attributed to the beech tree. The Forfedha were five extra symbols later added to the basic 20 rune set. These extra fews were meant to represent phonetic sounds not native to the Gaelic language. Some Ogham diviners do not use the Forfedha at all. Others make use of them in readings, not as runes per se, but as symbols for five of the more familiar otherworlds of Celtic mythology.

Emancholl, one of Ogham's Five Extra Fews, called Forfedhas

Beechnut Fortune Teller

The paper fortune teller, charmingly referred to in some parts of America as a “cootie catcher”,  is a paper origami folded into four sections. There are numerous sites on the internet showing how to create this simple yet intricate device. In short, four colours are allocated to the top outside of the oracle and the numbers one to eight to the other side, along with pre-written fortunes within the device. The user sticks thumb and fingers of both hands into the four pockets on the back of the completed oracle in order to manipulate it to choose responses. Although origami, the fortune teller seemingly originated in Europe and not Japan.

Paper Fortune Teller or "Cootie Catcher" (Photo and Artwork: Paul Blais, Wikipedia)

With its four sides, the cootie catcher resembles a dogwood flower or the opened husk of a beechnut. It is not a true oracle in the sense of using symbols to give direct results to a question. Perhaps the paper fortune teller was originally used much in the way that die are used in Mah Jong, or yarrow sticks are tossed to create I Ching hexagrams; that is, as a means of generating random choices for choosing a pathway to an answer.  It might be best to use the cootie catcher to create an environment from which an answer can be found, much as the Emancholl Beech and other Forfedhas in the Ogham are sometimes employed.

Mother of the Forest

Pink Beech Hybrid in Spring (Photo Kay Broome, West Toronto)

Beech is a member of the family of the same name, which includes oaks and true chestnuts. Like its relatives, it is massive of trunk and branch, with thick leathery leaves.  But where other members of the Beech family have deep roots, beech’s massive root system is quite shallow, often exposed above ground. Where oaks usually have lobed or pronged leaves, the oval leaves of beech are only lightly toothed. While other members of the Beech family have ridged bark, beech is immediately identifiable from its pleasing, smooth grey bark that begs to be written on. The flowers of beech trees, arriving in mid-spring, are yellow catkins similar to those of oak or birch. The nut is small, encased in a furry husk that later breaks open into four equal sections, displaying two or three oblong nuts called mast.

Beech Nut splitting into Four Sections to show Mast (Photo: Kay Broome, High Park)

Beeches are common to the temperate and southern Boreal forests of the northern hemisphere. In the Carolinian forest of North America, they have a special relationship with maples. Young beeches thrive under the shade of older maples and then mature to become the main forest, with young maples eventually overtaking them in the cycle. Beech trees often sucker, with many young saplings in their shade, but these do not grow very large if too close to the mother tree.

 Mature Beech Tree (photo Kay Broome, High Park)