Ogham letter: Q Quert (Kyehrt)
English: Apple (Bakys sykvestrus – crab apple.)
Australian: Rice Flower, Pimelia
Ogham Astrology: Venus
Element: Water
Beauty – Love – Generosity. Tree of eternal life, Wholeness, trust, abundance, integration, regeneration, vitality, fertility, and health. The Druids recognized its powerful transformation qualities. The Celts believed the Apple Tree a beacon of fertility. It’s wood burnt during fertility rites and festivals carried out in the winter months. Its wood and bark are used for tanning.
Quert, as the wild crab apple with its thorny branches and abundance of sour fruit, naturally grows solitary, reminding us that we each walk our own path and the deeper our journey, the more we are alone. She is also the tree of illusions, of trickery and temptation and helps us see through our joy and sorrow to the thorny, sour wildness of nature.
Apple says a choice to make
Of equal beauties, which to take?
Medicinal Uses
‘An apple a day keeps the doctor away.’ Or – ‘To eat an apple going to bed will make the doctor beg his bread.” Following are just some of the medicinal uses of an apple tree. Raw peeled apples – anti-diarrhea (add a little cinnamon).
Baked apple poultice – a sore throat, inflammations, fever, Replenished intestinal flora – After a course of antibiotics leave a dish of apple sauce and let stand overnight and consume the next day.
Apple peel – heartburn. Crushed apple pulp – inflammations or small flesh wounds. Grated apple – aids digestion, and reduces acidity in the stomach. Apple seed – chew for lung complaints.
Apple Tree Spiritual Meaning
Around the globe, there are countless mythos telling of the symbolism of the Apple tree. Called the fruit of the gods. Quert is one of the seven noble sacred trees of the grove, the others being Birch, Alder, Willow, Oak, Holly, and Hazel. Felling an apple tree was punishable by death. The name Avalon is derived from the old Irish word meaning “the place of apples.” Apple is also used for divination and love magic.
The apple tree blossoms are included in a love sachet to attract love, and to bring forth happiness in our relationships. Magicians like Merlin and Taliesin carried a silver bow from the apple tree hung with bells and ripened fruits which allowed them to cross into other worlds and return safely. Olwen, the laughing Aphrodite of Welsh legend, is always connected with the wild apple.
When an apple is cut in half we see the pentagram which must have inspired the ancients to associate the tree with magical powers. The petals of the blossom are also five. It is no accident that the Apple tree is closely associated with the knowledge of truths (Tree of life ) found in places like the Garden of Eden and Avalon. Adam said to have eaten from the tree of ‘evil’ – given to him by Eve of course – this meant, of course, being instantly banished from Eden. Naughty woman! © by Druid Priestess Jyoti Eagles