Legend- Apple

Please see the Introduction To Rabbit Hole Legend A-Z post for information about sources and purpose.

Apple: A green apple has become the brand logo for the Beatles productions through Apple Corps Ltd. Also, green apples were found throughout the film, The Yellow Submarine.

 "Infamous as the fruit that Eve gave to Adam, a symbol of sexual awakening." (ISS)

"The apple is identified as the 'fruit of knowledge', whether of good and evil, as in the Garden of Eden, or of life, wisdom and immortality, as in the Greek myth of the golden apples of the Hesperides. The Celts saw the apple tree as the 'otherworld' tree, the doorway to the fairy world. Celtic kings and heroes such as King Arthur took refuge on the legendary Isle of Avalon, the 'apple orchard'.

New symbolism evolved around the apple in the early 19th century, when Johnny Appleseed pursues his dream of a land of blossoming trees where no one went hungry, by planting apple tree seeds throughout America. The great metropolis New york City is known as the "Big Apple". (CESS)


"After the glory of the blossoms, come the fruit of the apple. Druids recognized the powerful transformative qualities experienced when consuming the apple. It was thought the fruit could transport the eater to other worlds, typically of a paradise-like ilk. Further altered states could be induced by pressing the apples and allowing them to ferment over time, thus producing a “hard cider.”

Apples were highly valued by the ancient Celts because of their ability to keep over a long period of time when stored in a cool dry place. This was symbolic of the presence of love, even long past the time of peak ripeness. In other words, when the waves of passion subside, love lingers even afterwards when simple companionship is the prime comfort.

Celts recognized all of the features of the apple tree and viewed it as pleasing in every way. It was even a symbol of creativity (as well as creation) and was an emblem of art and poetry. The meaning of apple trees is also associated with virtue, and the tree (as well as the fruit) is a symbol of purity and motherhood." <Follow link for internet source> 

"Ethnobotanical and ethnomycological scholars such as R. Gordon Wasson, Carl Ruck and Clark Heinrich write that the mythological apple is a symbolic substitution for the entheogenic Amanita muscaria (or fly agaric) mushroom. Its association with knowledge is an allusion to the revelatory states described by some shamans and users of psychedelic mushrooms. At times artists would co-opt the apple, as well as other religious symbology, whether for ironic effect or as a stock element of symbolic vocabulary. Thus, secular art as well made use of the apple as symbol of love and sexuality. It is often an attribute associated with Venus who is shown holding it.[...]

"

Though the forbidden fruit in the Book of Genesis is not identified, popular Christian tradition holds that Adam and Eve ate an apple from the forbidden tree in the Garden of Eden. This may have been the result of Renaissance painters adding elements of Greek mythology into biblical scenes. The unnamed fruit of Eden thus became an apple under the influence of the story of the golden apples in the Garden of Hesperides. As a result, the apple became a symbol for knowledge, immortality, temptation, the fall of man and sin." <Follow this link to internet source>

"The apple has long been associated with immortality, as exemplified by its role in the tempting of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. The mystical Isle of Avalon, famed place of eternal rest for Celtic heroes including King Arthur, is literally "the apple land" or "apple island." In Scandinavian legends, the North-European gods and goddesses were fed an apple every evening by Iduna, the goddess of spring and youth who nurtures an apple orchard in Asgard." <Follow link to internet source>  

Robert Fraser gave Paul McCartney this painting by Rene Magritte. It was one of Magrittes last paintings;  he died in 1967. Paul was introduced to Magritte by Fraser in 1966.