Apples

I recently aquired this awesome book. (For title information, see comments - there, I'm not plagerizing!) In reading it, I've learned all sorts of fascinating things. For example, did you know that the Apple Tree was once considered a holy tree, sacred to the god Apollo? I sure didn't, but there's more! It was also a sacred tree to the Celts - perhaps not as surprisingly since the Isle of Avalon draws its name from the ancient Welsh name for apple (afal).

Believe it or not, that's still not what really blew my mind though. What I found so incredible is that, if you slice an apple in half, across its mid-section (ie horizontally), the seeds of the apple form a perfect pentagram.

And the pentagram, of course, is one of the oldest symbols known to mankind. It's thought to date from over 6000 years ago to the region around the Tigris river, and was created as a result of astronomical research. It's probable that this shape was concieved from observations of the planet Venus, which actually moves in the pattern of the pentagram over the course of four years and one day.

Pythagoras held that it was the symbol of mankind, and that it represented the five divisions of the body and soul. 5 is also the sum of 2 and 3...2 is the feminine number without which we cannot have all the dynamics upon which we base everything we know. For example, if there weren't two of something, we could not have a good one and a bad one, we could only have one. We couldn't have light and dark, big and small, ugly and pretty, etc...all this makes two the number of balance and conflict, and of split personality (maybe this is why it is the symbol representing women! - just kidding ladies). 3, on the other hand, is the masculine number, for what's probably fairly obvious (physical) reasons.

Anyways, when you combine 2 and 3, you get 5, which then makes 5 the number of marriage, and of joining the two genders!

What's so neat about this is that in Christian teachings, of course, Eve gives Adam an apple (the bible itself just says its the fruit of the forbidden tree - never states it's an apple, but it certainly fits the symbolism).

So this begs the question: What was that wisdom that we were not supposed to know?

Of course, Adam and Eve suddenly realized they were different, and sought to cover themselves (with fig trees, which also have pretty cool symbolism, but I'll save that for another day). Was it that we have free choice? Or was it the discovery of sex?

Regardless of what that wisdom, or secret knowledge, that was gleaned all those centuries ago - the fact that all this powerful symbolism can be rolled up into one simple fruit is pretty amazing.

So don't forget - an apple a day, keeps the doctor away!