Apples. They’re the symbolic gift to educators, the theme of the beloved children’s game Apples to Apples, and often one of the first words we encounter on language learning platforms. They’re the fruit that supposedly “keeps the doctor away” and even a way we express affection, like calling someone the “apple of our eye.” Among other familiar stories: they’re the object that poisoned Snow White, the presumed catalyst for the Trojan War in Greek mythology, and an icon of original sin and moral choice from the Garden of Eden. Apples appear in religious and spiritual contexts both past and present—from orthodox texts and recurring festivities to folklore and esoteric traditions like divination.
It is some of these more occult uses that we’ll explore here. Food, after all, can be magic in the way it transforms individuals, hunger, and desire into bonds and satisfaction. While not the only focal point of magical knowledge, premodern Spain was one of the dominant spaces known for the creation and circulation of esoteric practices. As such, it is a wonderful case study for premodern magical uses of apples—one of history’s most iconic foods—for fortune or love across six centuries. Some of these texts you might have heard of, while others remain understudied.
Let’s begin with the Picatrix, the famed astral magic text commissioned for translation by the thirteenth-century Castilian King Alfonso X from the earlier tenth-century Andalusi Arabic compendium Ghāyat al-Ḥakīm (Goal of the Wise). Both the original and its later translation blend theory and practice, offering solutions to a worthy learned practitioner for concerns like heartache, bad luck, conflict, and financial woes. While originally translated from Arabic to Spanish, its Latin version—derived from the now-lost Spanish—is the one that spread throughout Europe, greatly influencing later Christian Renaissance thinkers.
For example, Chapter 10 of Book 2 details stones and figures associated with each planet and instructs the user on what images to make for certain results. Among the many images, the personified planet Venus as a beautiful woman is almost always depicted holding an apple. Carrying such depictions—created under specific planetary alignments—granted the bearer the ability to be “well received and esteemed by all” or the good fortune to “always be laughing and cheerful.” Another such image, when created and given to children with food, presumably cures them of colic.
Picatrix manuscript from the 15th century – Wikimedia Commons
Let’s fast forward to the fifteenth century with the Sefer Ahavat Nashim (Book of Women’s Love). This is the only extant copy of a likely earlier text preserved in a larger codex on Practical Kabbalah from Cataluña or Provence. It is in Hebrew script, mostly in Hebrew, with some words in Old Spanish among other languages. Essentially, unlike the earlier astral magic focus of the Picatrix, this text is a women’s health guide with magical solutions woven in, circulating among the Sephardic communities in the area.
The first “formula” listed requires the practitioner to write certain words onto an apple along with the name of the creator of the spell. While preparing the earlier images required attention to celestial movements, that is not the case here. The sole condition of this formula is that the spell be created by the intended user—no one else could create it on their behalf.
After inscribing the formula on the apple, one has to give it “to a woman to eat, and she without a doubt will immediately do everything you wish,” and it continues to clarify that, according to sages, “even if the woman just smells the apple, the man who gave it will be loved passionately [by her].” The effects of this spell can be undone with herbs and another incantation.
The apple – in British Library MS Royal 10 E IV f. 210v
Another one pulls on the practitioner’s multilingual familiarity. It instructs them to take “a red apple and write on it with blood from your thigh: ‘hermosa’, give it to her to eat, and immediately your love will be plunged into her heart and nobody will be able to extinguish it.” Notice the Spanish term hermosa among entirely Hebrew instructions. Granted, the practitioner did not necessarily need to understand this term, as formulas often pulled from multiple sources using varied terms or references—sometimes translating them and sometimes not. Still, if we choose to, we could easily tie this term to existing associations between apples and beauty, like the earlier images of Venus as a beautiful young woman holding apples. Regardless, unlike those images, these “love” spells use apples as the canvas for agency-robbing enchantments rather than attracting fortunate circumstances.
Let us look at one more source from a century later: the Libro de dichos maravillosos (Book of Marvelous Sayings), written entirely in Arabic script but phonetically a fluid mixture of Arabic, Spanish, and a handful of other languages. This sixteenth-century manuscript was kept hidden and served as a reference point for Moriscos or New Christian converts, many of whom were likely crypto-Muslims. Much like the Sephardic spells above, this collection of practical solutions—requiring limited astrological competence—provides numerous love spells, one of which, as you might guess, involves an apple.
According to the instructions, one would “write on an apple these ‘hawātimeš’” and feed it to whomever one wants. While no actual words are written on the apple like the earlier examples, notice the unusual term hawātimeš in the instructions. Here we have the Arabic plural form for sigils or seals, hawātim, and the ending used to make something plural in Spanish, the “-es.” What this tells us is that the Morisco who wrote this—and perhaps the Moriscos using these folios—had a weaker grasp of Arabic but could, albeit rockily, move between the two. While the use of hermosa in the earlier Sephardic spell could or could not denote multilingualism among the practitioners, here, the code-switching implications are stronger.
The apple recipe on folio 59r in Libro de dichos maravilloso – http://simurg.csic.es/view/990012275320204201
In both cases, considering their religious backgrounds and familiarity with Abrahamic stories of the Garden of Eden, the choice of using apples as the vehicle for magic is not accidental. It may not state it explicitly, but the allusion to original sin and temptation would not be lost on the premodern practitioner.
Furthermore, among the three sources described here, we see a trajectory of occult knowledge. Despite being translated for a presumed larger audience, the Picatrix shows us learned magic that was still gatekept for the worthy pupil familiar with astrology, astronomy, and other sciences. There was an implied recognition of the celestial bodies and their many correspondences. The later two examples circulated clandestinely among marginalized groups of Iberia: Sephardic Jews and Moriscos. The first of these, while seemingly accessible to anyone with the linguistic capacities, held deeper truths only attainable to those trained in Kabbalah. The last contains the most straightforward formulas that the typical Morisco could perform should they have access to the manuscript.
In picking examples across centuries, we also gain a glimpse of the apple’s lasting role within magical practices. As one of the oldest symbols with ties to education, health, beauty, and temptation, it’s no wonder we have so many idioms with this iconic fruit. So the next time you see an apple—whether it be on a dining table, in museums, or even on a tarot card—think about its many connections across time. While at first glance all these different references may feel like “comparing apples and oranges” (pun intended), close inspection connects them in some way, showing that perhaps “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree,” after all—wink, wink.
Veronica Menaldi is an independent scholar and vice president of the Societas Magica. Previously she served as an assistant professor at the University of Mississippi. She is the author of Love Magic and Control in Premodern Iberian Literature. You can visit Veronica’s YouTube Channel or follow her on Instagram or TikTok.
Libro de dichos maravillosos: misceláneo morisco de magia y advinación. Edited by Ana Labarta. CSIC, 1993. Digitized version here (apple spell on folio 59r).
By Veronica Menaldi
Apples. They’re the symbolic gift to educators, the theme of the beloved children’s game Apples to Apples, and often one of the first words we encounter on language learning platforms. They’re the fruit that supposedly “keeps the doctor away” and even a way we express affection, like calling someone the “apple of our eye.” Among other familiar stories: they’re the object that poisoned Snow White, the presumed catalyst for the Trojan War in Greek mythology, and an icon of original sin and moral choice from the Garden of Eden. Apples appear in religious and spiritual contexts both past and present—from orthodox texts and recurring festivities to folklore and esoteric traditions like divination.
It is some of these more occult uses that we’ll explore here. Food, after all, can be magic in the way it transforms individuals, hunger, and desire into bonds and satisfaction. While not the only focal point of magical knowledge, premodern Spain was one of the dominant spaces known for the creation and circulation of esoteric practices. As such, it is a wonderful case study for premodern magical uses of apples—one of history’s most iconic foods—for fortune or love across six centuries. Some of these texts you might have heard of, while others remain understudied.
Let’s begin with the Picatrix, the famed astral magic text commissioned for translation by the thirteenth-century Castilian King Alfonso X from the earlier tenth-century Andalusi Arabic compendium Ghāyat al-Ḥakīm (Goal of the Wise). Both the original and its later translation blend theory and practice, offering solutions to a worthy learned practitioner for concerns like heartache, bad luck, conflict, and financial woes. While originally translated from Arabic to Spanish, its Latin version—derived from the now-lost Spanish—is the one that spread throughout Europe, greatly influencing later Christian Renaissance thinkers.
For example, Chapter 10 of Book 2 details stones and figures associated with each planet and instructs the user on what images to make for certain results. Among the many images, the personified planet Venus as a beautiful woman is almost always depicted holding an apple. Carrying such depictions—created under specific planetary alignments—granted the bearer the ability to be “well received and esteemed by all” or the good fortune to “always be laughing and cheerful.” Another such image, when created and given to children with food, presumably cures them of colic.
Let’s fast forward to the fifteenth century with the Sefer Ahavat Nashim (Book of Women’s Love). This is the only extant copy of a likely earlier text preserved in a larger codex on Practical Kabbalah from Cataluña or Provence. It is in Hebrew script, mostly in Hebrew, with some words in Old Spanish among other languages. Essentially, unlike the earlier astral magic focus of the Picatrix, this text is a women’s health guide with magical solutions woven in, circulating among the Sephardic communities in the area.
The first “formula” listed requires the practitioner to write certain words onto an apple along with the name of the creator of the spell. While preparing the earlier images required attention to celestial movements, that is not the case here. The sole condition of this formula is that the spell be created by the intended user—no one else could create it on their behalf.
After inscribing the formula on the apple, one has to give it “to a woman to eat, and she without a doubt will immediately do everything you wish,” and it continues to clarify that, according to sages, “even if the woman just smells the apple, the man who gave it will be loved passionately [by her].” The effects of this spell can be undone with herbs and another incantation.
Another one pulls on the practitioner’s multilingual familiarity. It instructs them to take “a red apple and write on it with blood from your thigh: ‘hermosa’, give it to her to eat, and immediately your love will be plunged into her heart and nobody will be able to extinguish it.” Notice the Spanish term hermosa among entirely Hebrew instructions. Granted, the practitioner did not necessarily need to understand this term, as formulas often pulled from multiple sources using varied terms or references—sometimes translating them and sometimes not. Still, if we choose to, we could easily tie this term to existing associations between apples and beauty, like the earlier images of Venus as a beautiful young woman holding apples. Regardless, unlike those images, these “love” spells use apples as the canvas for agency-robbing enchantments rather than attracting fortunate circumstances.
Let us look at one more source from a century later: the Libro de dichos maravillosos (Book of Marvelous Sayings), written entirely in Arabic script but phonetically a fluid mixture of Arabic, Spanish, and a handful of other languages. This sixteenth-century manuscript was kept hidden and served as a reference point for Moriscos or New Christian converts, many of whom were likely crypto-Muslims. Much like the Sephardic spells above, this collection of practical solutions—requiring limited astrological competence—provides numerous love spells, one of which, as you might guess, involves an apple.
According to the instructions, one would “write on an apple these ‘hawātimeš’” and feed it to whomever one wants. While no actual words are written on the apple like the earlier examples, notice the unusual term hawātimeš in the instructions. Here we have the Arabic plural form for sigils or seals, hawātim, and the ending used to make something plural in Spanish, the “-es.” What this tells us is that the Morisco who wrote this—and perhaps the Moriscos using these folios—had a weaker grasp of Arabic but could, albeit rockily, move between the two. While the use of hermosa in the earlier Sephardic spell could or could not denote multilingualism among the practitioners, here, the code-switching implications are stronger.
In both cases, considering their religious backgrounds and familiarity with Abrahamic stories of the Garden of Eden, the choice of using apples as the vehicle for magic is not accidental. It may not state it explicitly, but the allusion to original sin and temptation would not be lost on the premodern practitioner.
Furthermore, among the three sources described here, we see a trajectory of occult knowledge. Despite being translated for a presumed larger audience, the Picatrix shows us learned magic that was still gatekept for the worthy pupil familiar with astrology, astronomy, and other sciences. There was an implied recognition of the celestial bodies and their many correspondences. The later two examples circulated clandestinely among marginalized groups of Iberia: Sephardic Jews and Moriscos. The first of these, while seemingly accessible to anyone with the linguistic capacities, held deeper truths only attainable to those trained in Kabbalah. The last contains the most straightforward formulas that the typical Morisco could perform should they have access to the manuscript.
In picking examples across centuries, we also gain a glimpse of the apple’s lasting role within magical practices. As one of the oldest symbols with ties to education, health, beauty, and temptation, it’s no wonder we have so many idioms with this iconic fruit. So the next time you see an apple—whether it be on a dining table, in museums, or even on a tarot card—think about its many connections across time. While at first glance all these different references may feel like “comparing apples and oranges” (pun intended), close inspection connects them in some way, showing that perhaps “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree,” after all—wink, wink.
Veronica Menaldi is an independent scholar and vice president of the Societas Magica. Previously she served as an assistant professor at the University of Mississippi. She is the author of Love Magic and Control in Premodern Iberian Literature. You can visit Veronica’s YouTube Channel or follow her on Instagram or TikTok.
Further Readings:
Book of Women’s Love and Jewish Medieval Medical Literature on Women: Sefer Ahavat Nashim. Edited by Carmen Caballeros-Navas, Kegan Paul, 2004.
Libro de dichos maravillosos: misceláneo morisco de magia y advinación. Edited by Ana Labarta. CSIC, 1993. Digitized version here (apple spell on folio 59r).
Picatrix: A Medieval Treatise on Astral Magic. Translated by Dan Attrell and David Porreca. Penn State University Press, 2019.
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