Avalon + Apples: Learning to hear your soul

I wanted to name my daughter Apple. 18 years later, I now know why.

My family and I are celebrating my daughter’s 18th birthday today!

I’ve been reflecting on what a dream come true she is.

Brilliant, creative, self-aware, curious, a visionary. She stands for what she believes in and isn’t afraid to march for what is right. She moves through the world with depth and courage and it’s such a gift to witness the woman she is becoming.

And, I keep thinking back to when I got pregnant with her.

I wanted to name her Apple.

Yes. Apple.

Apple Jane, in fact, because how freaking cute.

Photo Credit: Margaret Hallinan, xx love you. Pictured: My daughter’s little face!

The first time I heard the name was when Gwyneth Paltrow named her daughter Apple.

I LOVED IT. It felt so right.

However, everyone said no.

Literally, everyone.

They said it was a terrible, terrible idea.

She would be made fun of. She’d hate it when she got older*.

So, I didn’t.

Recently, though, I learned “why” I wanted to name her Apple.

At the time, I thought it was just adorable. An aesthetic. A Vibe.

I had no idea that it was a symbol and sign of my soul’s calling.

Venus Returns

Every 8 years, when your natal Venus returns to the same place she was when you were born, you experience a Venus Return.

1st Venus Return: Age 8
2nd Venus Return: Age 16
3rd Venus Return: Age 24
And, so on.

Venus Returns often align with pivotal life transitions. They can coincide with moments like marriage, divorce, falling in love, motherhood, loss or profound turning points that reshape your path.

[If you want to map your Venus Returns, here you go.]

These returns are like maturation thresholds within the sacred feminine. As you move through life, you tend to feel them more consciously, meeting each cycle with greater awareness and depth.

You can think of a Venus Return as your personal Inanna initiation; a descent, a crash out (that’s what the kids say these days), followed by rebirth. Each one invites you to embody a fuller expression of your feminine essence and to activate the next evolution of your Venus archetype (your Venus placement).

My 3rd Venus Return was when my husband went active duty in the military. During that time we got stationed in Hawaii so we moved from Florida with a 1 year old (Carter). I was 4 months pregnant with my daughter when we moved to the island. To say it was a massive time in my life was an understatement😅.

But what I really want to highlight is that during my 3rd Venus Return I was wanting to name my daughter Apple.

And, now I know why.

Apple = Divine Feminine

Source: Glastonbury, England aka Avalon. The Tor. I cannot find whom to credit this image. Please comment below if you know.

Avalon, Apples and the Isle Between Worlds

Over the past two years, I have been deeply studying the sacred feminine mysteries of the Magdalenes, often called the Rose Lineage.

Quick note: When I speak about the Magdalenes, I’m referencing a stream of sacred feminine spirituality that weaves together early Christian mysticism and Gnostic traditions, Celtic wisdom and ancient mystery school teachings. In this framework, the Magdalenes represent a lineage of priestesses devoted to the sacred arts, healing, embodiment and spiritual wisdom.

A central thread within this lineage leads to Glastonbury, England, long associated with ancient Avalon and held as a living heart of these mysteries. It is often considered a geographic anchor where myth, landscape and earth based spiritual traditions converge, with many believing the Michael and Mary ley lines meet there.

Avalon symbolizes a liminal threshold where deep healing unfolds. In folklore, it is described as a place between worlds, just beyond the ordinary, where transformation becomes possible.

What truly clicked for me is that Avalon is the Isle of Apples, a name that reveals the deeper symbolism woven through the lineage.

Pictured: The Tor and Glastonbury Apple Trees Source: Somerset Outdoor National Trust

The apple has long been a symbol of the Divine Feminine, associated with wisdom, sovereignty and sacred knowledge hidden in plain sight. Across myth and symbolism, it appears as a sign of knowledge and transformation, woven through stories of feminine awakening.

Without realizing it, I was reaching toward that symbol at a moment when Venus was opening a new chapter of my own feminine life.

While I was carrying my daughter, my female lineage was not only continuing biologically. I believe something far more ancient was moving through me and into her, the current of the Rose passing forward through generations.

I was not just becoming a mother to a daughter.

I was becoming a bridge.

What has truly amazed me is that when you cut an apple across its center, a hidden five pointed star appears in the seeds, mirroring the sacred pattern Venus traces in the sky. ⤵

On the L: “The Rose of Venus” The 5 pointed pentagram formed by Venus
On the R: The 5 pointed star revealed inside an apple when sliced horizontally

“The Rose of Venus” is the five pointed pattern traced by Venus over her 19-month cycle, a reflection of her sacred geometry as she completes her precise 8 year rhythm.

It’s the feminine pattern of descent and return, of stripping and rising, of dying and becoming. It’s an ancient spiral that lives in the sky AND in the body.

So beyond cool, right?

And, while I didn’t end up naming her Apple, I did name her Ayrabella.

Air, aether = between worlds
Bella = beautiful

The beautiful between worlds.

The same energy, just expressed differently.

Pictured: My baby girl and I - 2/22/08, Tripler Hospital, Honolulu, HI. ARE THOSE ROSES on my hospital gown?!

2.22 and the Magdalene Thread

Ayrabella was born on 2.22, a date that many modern sacred feminine traditions associate with Magdalene consciousness.

In 2016, Pope Francis elevated St. Mary Magdalene, our beloved Rose Lineage bearer, by raising her liturgical memorial to a Feast Day on July 22. It felt like a collective moment of restoration, a public honoring of her authority and witness, remembering what was never truly lost and reclaiming the voice of a woman who knew, who saw and who dared to speak what she knew to be true.

The Apostle to the Apostles.

When I look back, I cannot help but see the layers. At the very time this collective honoring of Mary Magdalene was unfolding, Ayrabella was moving through her 1st Venus Return.

Photo Credit: Margaret Hallinan, xx love you. Pictured: Us

THE 19-MONTH SPIRAL

I just want to add a little cherry on top to how cool this whole thing is for me.

My son (Carter - so honored to be raising the sacred masculine!) and my 1st daughter are literally 19-months apart in age.

The exact length of the Venus cycle.
The same time it takes for Inanna’s descent and return.

Those were the literal hardest years of my life, tbh.

Those years of raising two babies so close together, with a husband deployed again and again, on Oahu, with no help. I was stretched thin. Sleep deprived. Emotionally raw.

Nineteen months can change a woman. I see now, that even then, I was shedding illusions about who I thought I was. I was meeting my limits. I was becoming stronger than I knew I could be.

At the time, it felt like chaos.

Now, I see it as initiation.

Photo Credit: Margaret Hallinan. Pictured: Ayrabella and I

THE PATTERN WAS ALWAYS THERE

The apple spark wasn’t random.

It was the Rose calling long before I had language for what that meant.

I didn’t understand sacred geometry or synodic cycles. I only knew something inside me lit up. Something familiar.

Now, at 42, I can see the design clearly. I teach the Venus cycle as the path of the sacred feminine. The cycle that traces a five pointed Rose across the sky every eight years. The same fivefold pattern hidden inside an apple.

I’m drawn to Avalon, to the priestess arts, to the memory of ancient temples.

My life has been moving toward this current all along.

Some call it synchronicity.

Some call it reaching.

Some call it bullsh*t.

I call it remembrance.

Destiny.

The Magdalenes were always calling me.

And the more I look back, the more I see that the things we love are rarely random.

[I wrote about this a few years ago — a must read!]

THE THINGS WE LOVE AS SOUL CALLINGS

The sacred feminine speaks through intuition, symbol, myth, beauty, art and the sky.

I truly believe the passions that follow us throughout our lives are signals. Clues. Threads.

When you trace what has consistently pulled at your heart, you begin to see the design. The calling was there long before you consciously chose it.

At 23, I didn’t have language for any of this.

But my body did.

My soul did.

And now, 18 years later, I can see it all so clearly.

So I invite you to be curious about what lit you up when you were younger:

• How did it shape who you are today?

• In what ways might those early sparks be calling you more fully into your life now?

It’s possible there is something your soul has been trying to show you all along.

Through Her🌹,
Danielle

P.S. Happy Birthday to my amazing Ayrabella Jane. I love you so much, my darling girl.

*P.P.S. Ayrabella is happy I didn’t name her, Apple. 😆 She loves her name.