Apple’s Initiation ~ Persephone’s Teaching

Allow yourself to enter the story and receive Persephone’s gifts.

I have learned quite a bit from standing under our Gravenstein Apple Tree. She is a stately home for many birds and insects. She wears garlands of pink blossoms in spring and in Autumn her fruit offers deep nourishment.

Apple is the guardian of the gateway to the underworld, her fruit an offering to the Dark Goddess. We took our first step into the underworld at Autumn Equinox. We are now on the inward journey to our source and center. What will we cast off? What belongings are too heavy to carry on this journey? What will we bring along? What strengths and gifts will nurture this dark journey? And who will be our helpers?

I used to have a difficult time in fall. I carried a great deal of emotional baggage. I felt sorrow for myself as the season’s turned toward the dark. That is when I discovered Persephone. This dark maiden has helped me navigate the inner realms, teaching me how to feel deeply so that I don’t need to carry so much on my back.

I offer Persephone an apple. She in turn offers me a necklace. Persephone tells me that this necklace will help me find my inner treasures. Each time I encounter a difficulty, return and connect to the necklace of jewels and see this hardship as a treasured gift. As I walk the inner spiral, I encounter many beings. Persephone teaches me that they are here for me for a reason. She says, imagine a mirror held up as you encounter each being. Look into the mirror and ask, “Who am I?”

The gift of apple is an initiation. When we acknowledge and embody the act of nourishng ourselves, we can fully incorporate its gifts. Apple increases the vibration of the inner realms. She stimulates our cells into vibrant aliveness. Connecting, listening, harvesting, crafting and eating apple will set these vibrations in motion so that you may fully experience this journey through the inner realms.

A shamanic exercise with Apple to increase vibration:
• Find a favorite apple tree.
• Put your hand on her trunk.
• Notice your breath and breathe in and out three times.
• Now as you breathe imagine the breathe, the oxygen of this apple tree filling your lungs.
• Breathe out and offer your breath to apple tree.
• Do this 7 times or more.
• Ask apple tree, “What have you for me?”
• Listen.
• Harvest apple, asking permission before you do and offering gratitude when you are complete.
• Cut up apples and cook them in a heavy pot with a lid. Put just a little bit of water in the bottom so they won’t burn. Don’t peel the apples as this removes the vibrancy.
• Stir often. Smell the aroma of apples and again breathe this into your lungs and breathe out offering your breath. Again ask, “What have you for me? and listen.
• Now eat the cooked apples and once again breathe in the vibration of the apples and breathe out offering. And again ask, “What have you for me? and listen. Allow your vibrancy to expand as you eat apple.
• Offer Gratitude for this whole and holy nourishment.

May it be in Beauty