November is National Pomegranate Month

I found out that November is National Pomegranate Month a while back, and that is something worth celebrating. While the holiday is probably a lobbied holiday to sell more fruit, pomegranates are pretty awesome. Here are the reasons this Witch loves them:

The red seeded fruit is healthy! A pomegranate a day will supply you with a rich dose of heart-healthy antioxidants, help reduce blood pressure and the risk of blood clots, fight dental plaque, and may help prevent cancer.

Pomegranates have represented fertility for eons- because they are a sac with blood-red seeds and ooze a liquid like blood when juiced. In Chinese, the name is a pun for fecundity as well as the fruit! They are on the Emperess card in the tarot for a reason!

They have been associated with most goddesses across the world where they have grown, including Aphrodite, Kore/Persephone, the triune predecessor of Hera as well as Hera, and the Virgin Mary (which symbolizes her power of life over her son). It's not the only supernatural gift this fruit imparts: According to Wikipedia, Isfandiyar (Persian mythology) eats a pomegranate and becomes invincible, and in "The Persian War" Herodotus mentions golden pomegranates adorning the spears of warriors in the Persian phalanx.

That's quite a fruit- one of truly mythic proportions- after all, pomegranates may well have been the fruit of the tree of knowledge in the Bible, not an apple as most people think. After all, it makes sense that the forbidden fruit of Persephone is also the forbidden fruit of Eve.

According to this website, In ancient Syria, the god Rimmon (whose name means "Pomegranate") was akin to Jesus & Tamuz & Baal Hadad, a sacrificial divinity who passes temporarily through death, and whose resurrection is either instigated by or attended exclusively by women, nymphs, or goddesses. Many biblical personages and locations were named for this very god, who seems to have continued to be worshipped in the lands aportioned to Simeon and Zebulun. Rimmon seems for a while to have been a national deity overseeing lamentations for the death of Israel's kings. That is some history and mythology I had not learned before.

I make a pomegranate wine and look forward to making a pomegranate mead when I have bees of my own. I also use pomegranate juice for scrying, and pomegranates are offerings to Hekate and are on my money altar!

Do you use pomegranates in your Craft?