🍎Pomona, Roman Goddess of Apples🍎 (Patreon)

Let’s talk about Pomona, Roman Goddess of Apples! Since apples are a symbol of Mabon, it would be great to learn more about this goddess. Here are two great resources that give us more information about Pomona provided by Learn Religions and Occult World.

Pomona was a Roman goddess who was the keeper of orchards and fruit trees. Unlike many other agricultural deities, Pomona is not associated with the harvest itself, but with the flourishing of fruit trees. She is usually portrayed bearing a cornucopia or a tray of blossoming fruit. She doesn’t appear to have had any Greek counterpart at all, and is uniquely Roman.

The Romans were responsible for first domesticating wild apples, transforming sour fruit into today’s sweet, juicy apples. Presumably Pomona taught them the secret.

Pomona is not just a gardener or orchard keeper. Apples were considered sacred fruit, associated with love, magic, and death: all are under Pomona’s domain.

Pomona is a goddess of the harvest and also of enchantment. The eve of her feast day coincides with Halloween. Many scholars believe that at least some of the harvest-related aspects of the modern holiday are vestigial remnants of her old Roman feast.

Pomona is a solitary goddess but she is as tempting and desirable as her apples. Many sought after beautiful Pomona, including Pan, but she rejected them all, preferring to remain independent. She was finally wooed and won by Vertumnus, male spirit of the shifting seasons, now her consort. Vertumnus represents the year in its guise as shape-shifter. Pomona initially rejected him, too, until he gained her trust by approaching in the form of an old woman—a classic bit of ancient Halloween masquerading, or was it? Some theorize that Pomona prefers the love of women and Vertumnus prefers to be whomever Pomona desires. Pomona and her husband do have a festival they share together on August 13.

Pomona is petitioned to transform the bitterness of existence into sweetness. She may be invoked to ensure the success of the many love spells utilizing apples.

Despite her being a rather obscure deity, Pomona's likeness appears many times in classical art, including paintings by Rubens and Rembrandt, and a number of sculptures. She is typically represented as a lovely maiden with an armful of fruit and a pruning knife in one hand. In J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series, Professor Sprout, the teacher of Herbology -- the study of magical plants -- is named Pomona.

Sources:

https://occult-world.com/pomona/

https://www.learnreligions.com/pomona-goddess-of-apples-2562306