Celtic Days of the Apple - Summer Solstice

The Days of Apple

'Health and Immortality'

Guardian of the South

Briatharogam ~ 'Cert' ('Bush', or 'Rag')

'shelter of a hind (or lunatic), 'force of the man', 'dregs of clothing'.

Auraicept na n-Éces (The Scholars Primer) ~ has it as 'Aball' (Apple); 'Shelter of a boiscill [wild hind, female deer] is queirt an apple tree'.

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The days of Apple span the time of the Sun travelling from 21 degrees Gemini to 9 degrees Cancer; this year (2023) that is from Monday 12th June until Saturday 1st July; Gregorian calendar.

Monday 12th June ~ Hazel to Apple day.

Tuesday 13th June ~ First full day of Apple.

Sunday 18th June ~ New Moon in Apple.

Wednesday 21st June ~ Summer Solstice.

Saturday 1st July ~ Apple to Vine day (Zoom session for Vine).

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The star-lore of Apple is that of the cusp between Gemini the Twins and Cancer the Crab – more simply, the Summer Solstice. The secondary intrigue is that of the asterism known as the Summer Triangle; in Brythonic lore the 'Adar Rhiannon' (Birds of Rhiannon) – more on this in the days ahead.

SUMMER SOLSTICE ~ Apple holds the position of Summer Solstice, in the Ogham Grove, the brightest part of the year; and it also governs the Rose Family Pentagram that interlaces with the Evergreen Pentagram, locked in a perpetual balance just like yin and yang.

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THE APPLE TREE & YEW TREE LOVE STORY

(Traditional Gaelic Bardic lore)

This story tells of the love between Yew and Apple (and of wooden tablets being used to record relationships and memoirs of love, by ancient Irish bards and poets).

In the Ogham Year Wheel, Yew and Apple are directly opposite each other and govern the two interlaced pentagrams. In this old story the Yew tree is masculine and of Ulster (Northern Ireland) and the Apple tree is feminine and of Leinster (Eastern Ireland, but geographically south of Ulster – the north and south polarity, of winter in the north and summer in the south, is of importance here).

This intrigue dates to almost 2000 years ago.

'About the commencement of the first century of our era, two lovers, Baile mac Buain, an Ulster chieftain, and Ailinn, a Leinster Princess, died suddenly of grief; each having been deceived by false tidings of the other's death. Out of the grave of Baile a yew tree presently sprang up; and from the grave of his beloved Ailinn, an apple tree. In seven years, the two trees grew large, with leafy heads bearing a resemblance to the two lovers whose graves were over-shadowed. They were then cut down by the poets, and each was made into a tablet (tabhall filedh). In one were written the Visions, and the Espousals, and the Loves, and the Courtships of Ulster: in the other tales of like import relating to the kingdom of Leinster. In the time of Art, King of Ireland, that is, about a hundred and fifty years afterwards, these tablets, being brought face to face, flew towards each other of their own accord, and became joined so firmly that they could not be separated. They were thenceforth preserved amongst the precious things kept in the treasury at Tara, till the palace was burned in the year 241.'

The above quote comes from Hermathena, vol. 3, n.d. (1932) by Charles Graves – I found it quoted in Caitlin & John Matthews' Encyclopedia of Celtic Wisdom.

It is fascinating to me that in the Ogham Grove, Yew and Apple, are so interlocked as yin & yang type pentagrams, and in the above story the two tablets 'became joined so firmly that they could not be separated'.

The Sword of Avalon

In 'Star-Lore Basics and the Rites of Ceridwen' (a free pdf in this group's 'files' section) we looked at a Romano-British sculpture from Hadrian's Wall; of Mithras surrounded by the signs of the zodiac. In the sculpture Mithras points with his sword to the position of Summer Solstice (the cusp between Gemini and Cancer – the Days of Apple).

I sometimes refer to the Days of Apple as the Summerlands (because Apple corresponds with the Summer Solstice and also because I lived in Somerset for the best part of twenty years – a land known as the Summer Land, and connected with apple orchards and the mythology of Avalon. My own Apple stake is actually from Avalon Orchard on the east side of Glastonbury Tor.

Avalon is first mentioned by Geoffrey of Monmouth in his fictional History of the Kings of Britain (1136 AD) in which he describes King Arthur's sword Excalibur as having been forged in the isle of Avalon. I find it interesting that both Mithras' sword and Arthur's sword correspond with an Apple-realm (Avalon literally meaning a place of apples).

There is another sword that corresponds with the Summer Solstice also – in the surreal Arthurian romance, The High History of the Holy Graal (circa 1200 AD) Sir Gawain has to quest for the 'Saracens Sword' that was used to decapitate John the Baptist. This may be new to many readers but John the Baptist also corresponds with the Summer Solstice.

Briefly... after a solstice there is a period of 'three days standstill' before there is a noticeable difference in the length of day. Cutting a long story short, in Christian mythology Jesus is celebrated on the 25th Dec (after the three days standstill of the Winter Solstice) and John the Baptist is celebrated on the 24thJune (after the three days standstill of the Summer Solstice)... but stranger even than this, in the Arthurian Mysteries, there are four so-called Grail Hallows; two belonged to Jesus (the Winter King) and two belong to John the Baptist (the Summer King). The four Grail Hallows are, with Jesus – the spear that pierced his side and the cup that caught his blood; with John – the sword that decapitated him and the dish/platter that his head was placed upon.

As strange and as garbled as the medieval Arthurian Mysteries may be, they are clearly an adaptation, or continuation, of pre-Christian Celtic Mysteries. In Ireland there were the four sacred treasures of the Tuatha De Danann,

The Sword of Nuada

The Spear of Lugh

The Cauldron of the Dagda

and the Lias Fail (Stone of Destiny).

Could the four hallows and the Celtic treasures correspond with the four arms of the Sun Cross (the solstices and equinoxes – Ash, Apple, Elder, and Yew?) Something to ponder during theses days of Apple.