^{Pyrus Malus
Fruit of Love
Tenth month of the Celtic Tree calendar, August 5th - September 1st
Tenth consonant of the Ogham alphabet - Quert}

Planet: Venus

Element: Water

Symbolism: Love & Trust, Health, Garden Magick

Stone: Emerald, Rose Quartz

Birds: Grosbeak

Color: Yellow-Green, Pink

Deity: Demeter, Hera, Pomona, Frigga, Freya

Folk Names: Fruit of the Gods, Fruit of the Underworld, 

Silver Branch, The Silver Bough, Tree of Love

Medicinal properties: 
Eat peeled and grated unripe apples only for one or two days to help
relieve illnesses involving diarrhea.  Eat some apples whole for a laxative.
Apple wine was an ancient cure-all second century A.D. and
make sure the wine is at least two years old.
Apples are an excellent source of potassium, iron, vitamins A and E,
which are found more abundant in the peel than in the flesh of the apple.
They help the body detox, they are beneficial to the brain, liver, and bowls.
They are used to treat headaches, gout, rheumatism, high blood pressure.
Apple with honey has been a remedy for heart problems since ancient times.

"An apple a day keeps the doctor away"

When baked they can be applied as a warm poultice to sore throats
and skin inflamations.

Magickal properties: 
Apple is a great wood for a magickal wand. It is a favorite witch tree.
The fruit is used at Mabon and Samhain, and for love spells.
Eating an apple opens the gateway into other realms, most often faeryland.
It provides illumination and the gaining of knowledge. 
Dreaming of apples symbolizes prosperity and the good life.
At Samhain, winning the game of bobbing for apples meant that
you would be blessed by the Goddess for a year.
Since apples were symbols of Avalon, capturing one from the water
represented crossing to the holy isle.
The apple is also considered one of the foods of the dead,
so they are often piled high on Samhain altars,
for Samhain is sometimes known as the "Feast of Apples."

In 19th Century Lower-Saxon Germany, the first bath water used
by a newborn baby was poured over the roots of an apple tree
to ensure that the child would have red cheeks, and if it was a girl,
large breasts!

The Fairy Bible

by Teresa Moorey

Apple Fairy

The apple fairy is extremely beautiful and frequently seductive. Apples were considered the fruit of the gods in Celtic lore, and the apple tree has many associations with magical creatures. The unicorn lives underneath it and in spring the sweet apple blossom offers home to may flower fairies who spread an atmosphere of love and happiness.

The gifts of the Apple Fairy are everlasting youth and beauty, although sadly such matters often give rise to strife....  The apple fairy invites us to enjoy sensuous pleasures of all descriptions, in the knowledge that there is plenty to go around, and that nothing that is truly ours can ever be taken away from us.

Apples and apple blossoms are symbolic of love, healing and
immortality. Burn the blossoms as incense, wear as a perfume,
and make them into herb candles for a handfasting.

Spell for Love

Use a crabapple, or a cultivated apple if you don't have crabapples available.
If possible, use one that you have hand picked.
Carve the initials of the one you love and desire, and your own initials,
in a ring around the apple. Bury it in the ground, or commit it to a body of water.

adapted from Whispers from the Woods, by Sandra Kynes

A secret way to let someone know that you are a witch 

is to cut an apple crosswise to show the formation of
the seeds in a star shape.

LESSON OF Apple

from The Wisdom of Trees by Jane Gifford

The apple teaches the lesson of love and faith, generosity and gratitude.
Love not just between man and woman but as the driving force behind
our existence and the relationships that we share with others;
faith both in ourselves and in others; and generosity and trust in
the understanding that a heart that is open to give and receive is both
the gateway to personal happiness and fulfillment and the key
that unlocks the secrets of the Otherworld. The generous apple
satisfies body, mind, and spirit, and warns against miserliness,
for like attracts like. What we give will be the measure of all we receive.

Tree Magick

by Gillian Kemp

Do not look for love because love will find you, just as Adam and Eve found love under the Apple tree in the Garden of Eden. Someone you are about to meet, and perhaps already know, will have a great influence in your life if you cultivate him or her. You have done a great deal of good by helping others to find their own good fortune, and prosperity. Whether the fruits of love and indulgence of your desires bring utter despair or heartfelt happiness depends upon your view. Your thirst for knowledge nourishes your earthly desires that increase your pure spirituality. For this, your  sweet nature will be rewarded. Like an apple that is round, events are cyclic.

There is an old Scottish custom of eating an apple on
Samhain night while looking into the mirror. 

Legend says that you will see your true love reflected there. 

A Victorian Halloween card states the following verse:

On Halloween look in the glass,

Your future husband's face shall pass.

A modern adaptation of this charm could include standing
before the mirror at midnight on Samhain. 

The new charm will help you to recognize a future or potential love. 

Slice the apple crosswise to expose the star-shaped arrangement of seeds inside. 

Light a tea-light candle and place the apple slices and the candle before the mirror. 

At midnight, say the following charm three times:

As this Samhain night rushes past,

Reveal to me a love that shall last.

May I know them when next we meet

May our love be both strong and sweet.

Allow the candle to burn out, and the next morning leave the apple pieces outside 

as an offering to the nature spirits. Pay attention and see who you "meet"
within the next thirty days.

from "Garden Witchery" by Ellen Dugan

THE CELTIC TREE ORACLE 

by Liz and Colin Murray

This apple card represents a choice of beauty, the beauty of life and youthfulness. Linked to this is Avalon, or the magickal "Apple-land." Glastonbury is set within the Celtic Applelands. From the Welsh poem "Avellenau" we learn that the Bard Merlin secretly revealed to his lord the existence of this orchard. It was borne from place to place by the enchanter on all his journeying. The ignorant, however, must not eat of its fruit, for within the Apple is contained a Pythagorean pentagram. Cut it width-ways and its secrets are revealed in the shape of its pips. This gave beauty in the judgment of Paris, to Aphrodite. 

The Great Goddess

Pomona

 
This month, this season
we will gather under the apple tree
as Autumn dawns upon the earth
to pray under the apple tree
so dear to Pomona's heart.

Dear and wise Pomona, we invoke thee
in the sacred month of your apple tree
to bring forth your fertility.
Fill our minds with creativity,
our hearts with love and compassion
as you bless your dear apple tree
with her harvest's sweet fruition.

She profusely blooms white in Spring,
attracting many friendly bees
which pollinate her flower.
With your divine grace and joy,
you reward them with your nectar.
Let it be to you as nectar
this prayer to you that we offer
in praise and supplication
with our purest love and great affection.

You shall clothe her leaves in colors
as the Autumn nights get cooler.
This apple tree we gather under
will display your loving nature:
red, orange, gold
and mixtures thereof.
With reverence and with love
we honor you, our Lady Pomona
this apple tree month...
and adoringly forever.

"Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces,  I would still plant my apple tree."
- Martin Luther (1483-1546)

Wassailing - the practice of wishing good health and a bountiful harvest for fruit trees - is a centuries old English custom still practiced in some cider orchards today. The largest apple tree in the orchard is selected and then celebrated by throwing cider on its trunk.

The Legend of Johnny Appleseed

Leaves in Myth, Magic & Medicine by Alice Thoms Vital

Born in America in 1774, John Chapman, later called "Johnny Appleseed,
" was a dedicated, eccentric nurseryman with a compelling mission.
Raising, planting, and distributing apple trees was his life's passion.
Many Believe that he only "gave" away his trees, but actually,
he charged a "flip penny bit" (six cents) for a sapling or
sold them for uncollected promissory notes;
he also accepted used clothing as payment.
When poor farmers couldn't pay, he then gave away his trees.

The seeds for these trees he collected from cider presses in Pennsylvania,
transporting them westward in bags on his back, on horseback,
or sometimes in canoes. While roaming the Ohio River valley,
he planted more than thirty-five orchards in Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois.

His generosity, uncouth appearance and odd clothes all have contributed
to this apple-tree legend. In addition he was uncommonly kind,
cheerful, friendly with the Native Americans, knowledgeable about
herbal medicine - and a religious Swedenborgian.

In 1845, after years of exhausting walking - ill clad, ill shod, poorly protected
from the weather, often sleeping under the stars - Johnny Appleseed died in
Indiana, presumably of exposure. The words on his gravestone read -
"He lived for others