The Forbidden Fruit

Symbol of love, youth, beauty and knowledge.

When you cut an apple horizontally through the centre you will notice that it has a pentagram inside it formed by the seeds, the circle of apple flesh around it makes a pentacle.

Apples are sacred to Venus, Dionysus, Olwen, Apollo, Hera, Athena, Aphrodite, Diana, Zeus and Iduna.

Folk names for the apple tree are: fruit of the gods, fruit of the underworld, silver branch, the silver bough and tree of love.

They are a symbol of immortality in Norse mythology. The gods fed upon golden apples to keep them looking youthful and ensure their immortality.

Celtic mythology, legend and folklore

The apple was the most magickal fruit to the Celts and appears in many myths and legends. The mystical Isle of Avalon was also known as the Isle of apples. Some say that is where apples originated. The silver bough is a mythical object. It was a branch of the apple tree which bore the flowers, buds and fruit of the apple. This magickal object would allow the bearer to enter the summer lands, the lands of the Gods in Celtic mythology. This silver bough was described as being silver in colour and gave forth magickal music. As you shook the branch the apples would jingle like bells and the music would be irresistible. It was also said to have fed the bearer through their journey in the other world. Similar to the pomegranate in Greek mythology, an apple in the story of Conle or Connla was given to him by his fairy lover in fairyland. The apple fed him for a year but also gave him an irresistible desire to stay in fairyland.

In another similar story in the old English balled of Thomays the Rymour, the Fairy Queen tells Thomays not to eat the apples that hung in her garden because to eat the fruit of the dead would insure there would be no return to the world of the living.

Because in Wiccan tradition, apples are thought to be a food for the dead, they decorate their altars with apples in autumn and on Samhain they bury them to ensure that those who are reborn in the spring will have some food for the winter months.

The apple and apple tree in Christian mythology represents forbidden knowledge, sexual desire, temptation and the fall of man into sin.

The apple has long been used in spells of love.

Cut an apple in half and share it with your loved one, this will ensure that you are happy together.

Apples are also often used in love divination. Apple bobbing was a popular Samhain divination game. Whoever got the apple first would be the first to get married.

Apples superstitions

In folklore in Britten an apple tree blooming out of season was an omen of death.

Before eating an apple rub it to get rid of any evil spirits that may be attached to it. Eating an apple without shining it is like making a challenge to the devil.

Apple of discord

In Greek mythology the apple of discord was a golden apple, it grew in a grove of apple trees bearing golden apples guarded by a hundred headed dragon. The 12^th labour of the labours of Hercules was to steel a golden apple from Hera’s garden.

Eris the goddess of discord was angry for not being invited to the celebration of Peleus and Thitis’ marriage, so she got a golden apple and inscribed on it “to the fairest”, Hera, Athena and Aphrodite all fort over it.

The name “apple” is now one fruit, although historically many different fruits were referred to as apples, as late as the 17^th century in Europe any foreign fruits were referred to as apples, other than berries.