Autumn Tree Magic: Apple - Tree of healing, love and the Otherworld.

The Apple tree is often referred to as the tree of Avalon. With so many mystical and healing associations, I felt it was a good time to share some Apple love.

The magic five pointed star within the heart of the Apple.

“A seed hidden in the heart of an apple is an orchard invisible."
- (A Welsh proverb)

Beautiful Crab Apples delighting in a rain shower in a ‘wild’ orchard I love to go to in Frampton on the River Frome. Crab apples are very tart/bitter and small compared to domestic apples but the tree is so wise and wonderful to spend time with.

I started this post last weekend, apologies for the delay in sharing it with you. Autumn Equinox is almost upon us. I will be sharing a post linked to a few of my Equinox wanderings on Sunday/Monday, so look out for that.

To start with and to give a little context to the tradition I learn and work from, I am going to share a little about what the Irish Ogham and the Celtic Tree Calendar are first and then I will offer up some Apple Lore and suggestions for rituals with Apples in the second half of this post.

There is a guided healing meditation at the end of the post linked to connecting with Apple Tree Spirit ally (for paid subscribers).

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The Irish Ogham and the Celtic Tree Calendar

The Celtic Tree Calendar links to the Ogham (oh-am) alphabet - an ancient Irish alphabet used during the 5th to the 9th Centuries and is considered a significant part of Irish Culture. The alphabet consists of twenty characters or feda (old Irish for tree), formed by parallel strokes on either side of or across a continuous line. The letters are called feda ("trees") or nin ("forking branches") because of their shape.

To write a word in Ogham script, you start at the bottom of a vertical line and work up. Or they can also be written from left to right along horizontal lines on occasion. There are hundreds of inscriptions to be found carved into stones in Ireland and also some still in Pembrokeshire, Wales. Ogham was also carved into trees. There is much debate as to what the purpose of these inscriptions are for but there is evidence that they were to mark boundaries connected to land ownership, to mark burials or graves and to mark pilgrim routes.¹

Ogham script was first recorded in the following texts: The Book of Leinster in the 1100s, The Book of Ballymote circa 1391 and the Book of Lecan in 1416. The Ogham is referred to in these texts in terms of how the Ogham alphabet was used. The deeper connections between the Ogham and trees cannot be strictly proven but there are numerous theories as to how trees relate to the Ogham characters or symbols.

This image shows the 20 letters grouped into four aicmí, or "families" or "tribes", of five letters each. The only exceptions to this are the markings for the beginning and end of text, and the letter "p", (which was developed later). See the trees in brackets beneath the letters.

On the Trees for Cities website:

It’s thought that this association with trees played a role in Gaelic language education. Like runes, each ogham symbol has a name: the letter ‘b’ is called beithe, ‘birch’ and the letter ‘c’ is coll, ‘hazel’. Bardic students learnt these basic names and used the ogham sequences to create lists for memorisation.

and further on -

Trees were a hugely important part of their everyday lives and played a key symbolic role leading to this ingenious alphabet. We catch a glimpse of their world when we see which trees were chosen for the alphabet.²

The Celts were known to worship trees and believed that the spirits of loved ones often remained within trees after their passing.

The Celtic tree calendar as it is widely known today was devised by the poet and author Robert Graves in in the 1940s. So it is based on his interpretation of the connections between the Ogham alphabet, trees and the seasons. The trees represent the flowing seasonal energies rather than ‘months’ to mark time across the year. The trees included are linked to the lunar cycles so there are 13 months rather than the 12 Roman ones.

There are a number of variations as to which trees are included or excluded in the calendar and many academics and Pagan writers disagree with Graves’ interpretations.

However I suggest we use our intuition and develop our relationships with the tree spirits through our walks, rituals and other magical practices to ensure we are hearing their messages and wisdom as best we can. There are always limitations with research of any kind. I do like the Celtic Tree Calendar because it feels to me that it provides a respectful and creative approach to navigating the seasons and moon cycles. You can work with any tree at any moon cycle ofcourse and you can decide to create your own calendar that works for you and your personal practices.