Monday, 6 December 2010

21 Days of Yule day 6: The Holly King and The Oak King

Last Year was my first year on Youtube, and I got into the ful swong of things by sharing about Yule, with several videos giving lots of details and also sharing some crafts. One of my favorites was (ans still is) my 
Oak King and Holly King I made

Now there are many stories about the origins of the legends of the Oak King and Holly King, and I had a great discussion on one of the videos, but had to take it down to error in editing and lost all the info Annika and I were sharing. The legend of the Oak King and Holly King(Patty from Pagan.about.com's take on the story) is most certainly Wiccan in nature (get in "nature,"oh I crack myself up). Solstice is seen by many as the night of the great battle between the brothers, it willl soon become the Oak King's domain again, as he rules from Yule to Midsummer, where they meet up and once again do battle, but the Holly King wins and rules until Midwinter.
If you noticed the picture I used for the blog party, it's last years altar, with both the Holly, Oak Kings and Santa. here I will add the videos of painting them. 
Funny story before we go, my Mom signed herself up to help her church out at a garage sale they were having last year, unfortunetly for her she double booked.O_o (I still think that story is a little hooey) Anywhoo, I got talked into going for her, when I got there it was almost over and they didn't need me so I went walking around the room to see what was there, boy did they have a lot of stuff, some I kept telling myself I should get I need it, but I would walk on. "Remember Aisha you promised to live simply, no buying something you don't absolutely need right this second". I came up on a box filled with wooden toys, and pulled some out to have a looksee, and saw these cut out wooden frames, that made me immediately think Santa.
 Of course, I snapped up three, that's the number that popped into my head had, no idea what i would do with the other two and went looking for a price, No one knew what the price was,. the guy who had control of the table swears he didn't even Know (goosebumps just remembering) those where there, unfortuneltly I only had a fifty and they didn't have change for it, but I knew they were mine and I made and offer, I had a dime, "10 cents for the lot??" As you can see they went for it. And now on with the show: 
Holly King with baby Oak King
Ohh the pictures that I used were from Bing.com/images, also the Oak King came with a knot in the wood that declared that wood as his, (it went thru on both sides), and each piece of wood seemed to know exactly what they were meant form even before I drew the first line. These woods were perfect, so many years of practicing and finally I now have representations of the Gods that I love, see you don't have to buy them all at once (wink wink newbies) they find you. The faces seemed to appear as I drew them, and the Oak King;s wand was already drawn in for me. (These pieces knew what they were no?)
small knot in the Oak King's head



and here is show number two, 


I hope you enjoyed the view of mine my loves, have you created any of your own Yule Kings or any Yule altar pieces? Please show me, can't well you tell me all about it. I would love to hear all about them. 
Blessed Be
Aisha