I have been struggling this past week trying to find something that started with the letter A and everything I started just didn't seem right. Then earlier tonite a friend told me to pick a word that started with A and go from there. So I simplified and went to one of the basic's of my path, The Apple.
The apple is commonly called the "fruit of knowledge", it's simple but complex at the same time.
In the kitchen:
(where I find myself the most) the apple can be cooked or eaten fresh. I have made apple pie, apple cake and hubby's favorite, escalloped apples in sugar, cinnamon and butter over icecream or pound cake. The apple is so simple and versatile there are hundreds of ways for a chef or cook to use them. They can be made into applesauce, apple butter, apple jelly just to name a few. Apple blossom's can be dried or even used fresh in tea's, tincture's and salve's depending on quantity and quality. Apples have been used for the ever present, Apple cider vinegar which has so many uses in itself. Unexpected company? Pull out some apple's, they go great when served with cheese and crackers as an appetizer with a glass of wine or add peanut butter and milk for a child's snack.
In the garden:
the apple was spoken of in the Garden of Eden in the Bible. It was referred to as the forbidden fruit, when Eve bit into it then offered it to Adam they were shortly thereafter sent from the garden for "their eye's were opened to the truth of knowledge". The apple in the everyday garden has many names and shapes today, in fact wikipedia says " There are more than 7,500 known cultivars of apples". The apples that you can find in your local fruit vendor or store are the most common for your area.
Apples appear in many religious traditions, often as a mystical or forbidden fruit. One of the problems identifying apples in religion, mythology and folktales is that the word "apple" was used as a generic term for all (foreign) fruit, other than berries, including nuts (ie the hedge apple). In Norse mythology, the goddess Iðunn is portrayed in the Prose Edda as providing apples to the gods that give them eternal youthfulness. In Greek mythology, the Greek hero Heracles, as a part of his Twelve Labours, was required to travel to the Garden of the Hesperides and pick the golden apples off the Tree of Life growing at its center.
Today and also shown in some ancient writings the apple is common for those not just wanting to eat or cook with them but in Pagan paths.
The apple is considered to be a simple but effective tool in protection when used with a bay leaf or sage leaf. Cutting an apple in half crosswise you will see a pentagram, placing a bay leaf or sage leaf over the pentacle is the common use for protection. The sabbat Mabon is connected with the apple harvest. There are many rites written for use on Mabon using apples and apple blossom's. Samhain is another traditional sabbat connected to the apple. In some belief's the appleseed is the fruit for the dead. It's even used in a form of divination.
Then there are all the craft's that can be done with apples for the sabbat's as well as just for the heck of it. Taking an apple and carving a face into it then dipping in apple cider vinegar to then let it air dry can be used as a poppet. Cutting the top off an apple, digging a little of the meat of the apple out and placing a votive candle makes a great smelling candle holder for a sabbat or any special occasion. Cutting an apple in half then cutting or carving designs you can make a stamp to dip in ink and decorate anything.
Apples can and have been with us showing us just how much knowledge there is for us to learn and use. So long, that as long as we as steward's of this wonderful world are careful enough to maintain this wonder we call earth, Gaia, Mother or any of the other many names, the apple will continue to show us the path to knowledge and the wonders of that knowledge.
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