APPLE TREE

(© Violet)
 

Malus sylvestris, Malus domestica

Ancient English: aeppel; Ancient  German: aphol, apfal; Breton: avalenn; Welsh: afallon, afallach, Scottish Gaelic: abhall, fallach, Ancient Irish: quert.

Identification and therapeutic properties

Apple tree is a small plant, belonging to the Rosaceae family, and generally it doesn't rise more than 10 meter. It grows in bushes with long branches and it can be found in clearings and  sunny groves. Apple tree is cropped very easily and  a lot of archaeological proofs demonstrate it was used and grown  since Stone Age.

Its bark is rough and slightly grey, the wood is hard and characterized by beautiful grain. For this peculiarities  wood artisans  appreciate it.

Both leaves and flowers, formed by five white-pinkish petals, sprout in Spring, between April and May, while fruits ripen throughout the Summer and they are harvested in late Autumn. Fruits differ from apple-tree species: wild tree fruits are small, hard, greenish and slightly sour taste; cultivated tree fruits are bigger than wild apples, they also are coloured, tender and very sweet. There are more   than 1000 kind of cultivated type of apple trees.

Fruit is the most used part of the apple tree in medicine and in herbalism. Apple is considered for excellence the fruit of healing and health because of its innumerable properties.

First of all it stimulates and strengthens metabolism, helping fat elimination. Apple purifies the whole body, it removes  toxins andseasonally illnesses because it acts as febrifuge and is rich in vitamins that the body needs. Apple, indeed, is composed by 85% of water and by  13% of glucose, organic acids, pectin, tannin and many vitamins (A, B1, B2, C, PP and E).

Apple encourages blood production and digestion, it's relaxing for the nervous system but it would be better not eat it in the evening, because it could ferment inside the stomach during the night and give some problem.

The whole fruit is refreshing and thirst-quenching; parings contain the good essences that give to apple its intense and sweet scent and they help kidney and urinary bladder because they are purifying and diuretic.

If apples are eaten uncooked they are astringent and invigorating: they calm diarrhoea and make firm wrinkled skin and breast. If apples are eaten cooked, instead, they help in case of constipation and they placate the sore throat. Both uncooked and fried  apples are diuretic and purifying, they stimulate  activities of kidneys,  liver and urinary bladder.

Although apples have a lot of beneficial properties, their seeds are toxic and if eaten profusely  (a full cup) they can be mortally.

As fruits, the whole plant has a lot of healing properties. Bark is  invigorating, it constricts blood vessels and body tissues and it is stimulating and febrifuge; buds and flowers are diuretic and they are a good treatment for cystitis and kidney stones.

Healing (and greedy!) recipes
(In the event of allergy a doctor must be consulted)

The easiest and most immediate recipe is to eat apples in any way: uncooked, cooked and fried. They always release their miraculous properties and the body can use them.

Reinvigorating apple treatment:

Choose very ripe apples, better if they are just picked and grate thinly them in a capacious bowl.

Let them darken in  air and eat them (1kg or 1 ½ kg daily) for one or, better, two days, without sugar or other food and drink a lot of water. Third day add some light, genuine and low fat food. Fourth day restart to eat normally (healthy). Thanks to this treatment,  to follow annually, stomach,kidneys, liver and blood are going to completely regenerate.

Apple infusion to purify the body:

In 1 l of hot water infuse one or two handfuls of apple flowers and leaves ( also bark or buds or both). Drink two or three cups per day . Alternatively prepare a decoction. Put apple tree portion in 1 l of cold  water and bring to boiling, let it to boil  for 10 minutes.

Apple juice to stimulate and tone up the body:

Whisk apple as much as you like adding some sugar or honey. Drink during the day, without overdoing, otherwise spread on breast and body to obtain elastic and firmed skin.

Since ancient time, cider can be prepared with apple, a low alcoholic drink obtained from apple juice fermentation. Cider and mead (mead is prepared only with honey) were  holy drinks for Celts and northern people. This drinks are considered a divine nectar.

Apple tart:

Ingredients: 150 g of flour, 100 g of sugar, 2 eggs, ½ glass of milk, 1 lemon peel grated, yeast, 1 hg of apples.

In a capacious bowl shake eggs with sugar, add sifted flour, lemon peel, milk and yeast. Work until you obtain a soft and velvety dough, without lump. Grease a baking pan with butter (or use greaseproof paper) and pour the dough. Slice up apples and coat the whole dough area, then brush it with melted butter and sprinkle sugar on it. Preheat oven to 200°C and bake apple tart for 50 minutes.

Myths, traditions and magic uses.

Apple is the Great Mother tree, the woody image that reflects the mysterious Woman secrets.

In the draws of its rough bark, on the engraved pages of its leaves, never lost memories are preserved of far divine dwellings, whispered echoes  of magic kingdoms, that silent blow along misty paths.

Its perfect fruit contains mysterious clues, that guide towards the Border, towards the luminescence of a lost Kingdom.

Ancinet Celts considered apple tree as the tree of Knowledge and Magic for excellence, the depositary of Wisdoms  from the Soul.

The apple, indeed, was one of the most important symbol of the Otherworld. Apple, also, attracted the heart to rejoin the Otherworld and it was the spiritual nourishment, which could heal every wound, alleviate every pain and lead to particulary conditions where you could experiment and live in communion with the Gods. 

Many are the myths in which it appears as a magical emblem of the enchanted Worlds , donated by women from far islands, yet achievable in a single beat of eyelashes. The Celtic tradition, especially , retains a profusion of stories in which the main character, usually a man, with bright heart and spirit, must face an arduous journey in search of exotic islands with miraculous apple orchards.
These powers recall what can be achieved with the elevation of Soul and the cancellation, even temporary, of personality, or what, according to legend, could cause one bite of apple. The eternal Nourishment, the perception of songs and music which are able to enchant, the complete Healing of body and mind, and the acquisition of Sight, namely the ability to "open the Illusion’s mists" are just some of them, which could be enough to live without suffering the weight of Life itself for eternity.
That is why we say that the apple brings  Eternal Youth and Immortality.
Through its gifts, which could ease the perception of our Ancient Soul, the existence loses its apparent emptiness, time loses its importance and  life looks like what could be in reality: a small and short  breath, a heart beat preceded and followed by many others, the ring of a long chain of light and a magical Way, whose goal, perhaps, is to achieve this awareness.
The closeness between the apple and the Otherworld is even clearer in Arthurian literature, which tells the royal departure of the great Arthur. He, laid down by  Morgan le Fay and her sisters on a dark boat, is led to Avalon, sacred place where  Women wisdom is used to treat life-threatening injuries and regenerate the spirit. Here, the king is lovingly cured so that he can return among men when he will be needed.
The Avalon Women are Holy Feminine priestesses,  and Morgan le Fay, the most wise, is often called the Lady of Apples. As the apple, she cares and poisons, knows the power of life and death, embodies the white and black and shares the divine fruit power.
The very name Avalon derives both from Gaelic Emhain Abhlach, both from Welsh Ynis Afallach or Ynis Afallon, as well as from Breton Avalenn and the Scottish Fallach or Abhall; all names that literally mean "Island of Apples", "Island of Apple Orchad", "Land of Apples," or simply "Apple". Since the apple is the Guide of the journey and its resolution, the meam and the realization , the journey towards Beyond and at the same time, its vibrant Essence.
This Way is always made through the waters, as traditional legends tell; waters that the Wayfarer must cross to reach the Sacred Island. And this magical connection between the magical realms and water repeats strangely among the water itself and the apple. The union of these two elements, indeed, is capable of producing very intense and penetrating energy waves that seems to affect emotions and the fibres of the body, recalling details and pleasant being state. That is why the apple orchards grown close to watercourses should be crossed with an open heart and infinite respect, because between the gentle curves of the trees the magic could occur powerful, unusual encounters could happen unexpectedly and the Otherworld could be much closer of what you think.

Particular features of apples, considered sacred by the ancients, are the symbols that appear when you recide them into two halves. Cut horizontally, in fact, they reveal in the centre, a five-pointed star, or a flower with five petals, depending on how you want to consider it. Cut vertically, instead, the heart of the fruit reveals the divine aidoion muliebre, the shape of a vulva, the sacred flower for Women.
Like other fruits that resemble this delicate drawing with half-closed sweet lips and clearly visible  seeds (the fig and pomegranate), the apple hides the feminine essence and it is a reminder to women because they find the full awareness of its archaic bond with the Mother. It is the fruit of the Goddess as Woman, and of the Woman as human reflection of the Goddess.
This could be the reason why it is always offered by female figures, Fairies and Queens of Unknown Worlds.
The scarlet surface, the sweet honey flesh, the round and sensual shape of apple, were also an old invitation to love, a voluptuous gift that the woman offered to her lover to invite him, into the body and fiery spirit, to join her.
In apple there are the eternal muliebre beauty, the sweet and warm flame, the languid desire that comes alive in the sacred belly .
And the thrill of the young chosen, enchanted, as he nodded and bit the fruit.

Considering the apple red, it is clearly visible the presence, in a single fruit, of three sacred colours of the Triple Goddess : the sweet white of pulp, which refers to the Maiden in flower, the vermilion  skin, effigy of the Mother, and the black seeds, which are tools of death and regeneration and belong to the obscure Witch.
Among Ancient Celts these colours symbolized the Goddess Sovereignty, which held between her hands a wand or a branch to which three apples  were hung. She gave this precious object to the Sacred King or to the man who, for spirit nobility and harmonious intent, was chosen to lead the kingdom in respect of the Ancient Traditions.
A golden apple was also the gift that the Great Mother, like a beautiful Maiden on a black horse , offered to poets. It was the bearer of divine Inspiration and of deep enchantment, essential elements for the settlement of poetic works.

The bond between the Otherworld and the apple capability to facilitate contacts between the two dimensions, made this fruit particularly aligned with the feast of Samhain, when the proximity between the two worlds is at the apex.
The apple was considered a Magic Door  through which you could go beyond the veil of visible, to meet spirits and magic entities  and listen to their secret messages. Apple was considered a fruit of Death, both for its capability to poison and regenerate, both because it was a magic symbol and an instrument of Initiation. The knowledge that it offered, in fact, required a sacrifice, even temporary, and the  testing of death itself (think of the wonderful fairy tale of Snow White).

During the night of Samhain apples were cut in a cauldron full of water  which represented  life and death, the transition from one to another and spiritual regeneration.
In Scotland, during the apple harvest, some apples were left on the trees, because the not-yet-come babies could be nourished during their journey which led them from the Otherworld to their mother’s bellies. And for the same purpose apples were placed on the graves of the deceased, despite their journey would have brought them in the opposite direction, to the Otherworld.
In the Celtic tradition, the Apple was one of the  most loved trees and It was one of the five Master Trees . Apple wood was one of the nine timber used for the sacred fires, but it was cut and burned rarely because the fall of an apple tree was considered a heinous act, which, in profane contexts , involved the liable  killing.
In Britain two apples could placate the most violent storms; it was enough to contemplate them inside a box, intoning hymns and litanies to enchant the wind, and then pass them from hand to hand among those present at the ritual.
Because of their powers related to love, to woman seduction and to languor and erotic desire, apples were the fruits sacred to the beautiful Goddess Aphrodite and they were also used by witches in their amorous rites and for their talismans that they would pack to propitiate the long life and joyous interior youth.

If in ancient time the offering of an apple to a man by a woman could symbolize the gift of divine Wisdom, of Immortality and Love, with the coming of Christianity it took decidedly negative connotations, because it was precisely this gesture, made by Eva, which caused the original sin and all the ills of humanity.
In fact, the Bible doesn't speak explicitly of an apple, but only of the "Forbidden Fruit". Nevertheless, the symbolism of the apple, which is a source of divine knowledge, looks congruent to the events narrated in the Old Testament, and  it is also interesting to note that the Latin origin of the word "apple" is "pomum," literally meaning " fruit "; this could be the reason of  the association and overlap with the mysterious biblical fruit.

What transpires from the apple is something that mere words can't describe, but that the spirit clearly perceives.
It is the Initiatory Way to the contemplation of the Divine. It is the magic Key thanks to which you acquire the archaic Wisdom of Women.
The whole Wayfarer journey is inside of apple, as well as the different stages of his life, again represented by its three emblematic colours.
Biting the apple, crossing the red and white, you meet the death-carrier core, but this black nucleus is merely a seed,  the promise of new life after death, the regeneration after the annulment.
Buried safely in the dark and damp earth, it changes into sprout. And in the quiet warmth a new and splendid apple tree rises from darkness.
Similarly we cross the layers of the apple and run along the Path towards its pulsating centre.
And in the sweet love that gladdens us, we look deep into our Origin, the vivid almond that has generated and, through it, the reunion with the sacred womb of the Goddess.

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The research was conducted partly in the forum L'Isola Incantata delle sorelle della Luna.
I thank in particular Acqua and Niviene for some of their insights that were useful in the drafting of the article.

Article of Violet. Reproduction is forbidden without author permission and without mentioning the source.

Traduzione a cura di Abigail_derwen