Apple – Creation

The Apple is a tree significant to both the end of the old year and the beginning of the new. There is a richly sustaining aspect to this fruit, yet it needs to perish for the seeds to perpetuate the line of the tree. The love we have for others can change our life in an instant. Entering into a marriage is the end of one phase of life to open another. Saying goodbye to our ancestors is till we catch the glimpses of them in our children, then the heart is warmed again.

The wild apple is the native fruit and can be a little tart. The Romans added new varieties to plant and when they began to colonise Britain. It was the Medieval monks who created the types we would recognise now. Grown from graftings to perpetuate the fruit, the seeds of a tree will produce a new variety again.

The tree and the fruit are associated with the Pagan Festival of Samhain. Halloween in the Christian calendar is the modern equvilant that has been adopted and turned into a ghoulish feast. Marking the end of the Celtic Year it was also to celebrate the commencement of a new year. Light and dark, Life and death, the relevance of this was not lost on the occuly community.