The Faeries’ Oracle – The Glanconer

The Glanconer (Photo credit: Brian Froud)

Meet the Glanconer, or Smoothe Harry as he would like to be called. The Glanconer is part of the Faery Challengers. The entire deck is made up of five types of Faery. The Faery Challengers test us when we seem to be fumbling or our spirits are too high to realize what’s going on around us. The Faery Challengers often play tricks that allow things blow up in our faces, just to see if we’re taking life too seriously or if we’re not listening to the wise words of their softer-spoken peers.

When I drew the Glanconer, I read Brian Froud’s description of the Faery and halted before getting to what his reading entails. He’s a Faery that may seem to cause delusions or make us experience illusions of intense desire, but really he walks about with a mirror held up to his face. It’s his way of saying he’s doing nothing more than showing us what we want to see, that we are, in effect, casting illusions on ourselves. If desire is strong within us, we will chase down what we want and it’s the Glanconer’s job to let us chase desire until we either listen or we take a hard fall.

After reading the small description, I followed the rituals outlined in the book and asked the Glanconer “what do I have to say to you today?”

As I sat there, open and listening with my whole body, an image came to me. The friends I have who practice Left Hand magick and suggested S. Connolly’s books appeared. At first, I thought that maybe it was just residual energy from my intense week diving into Demonolatry. The more clear the image became, the more I realized this was the communication I had been looking for.

I thought of the Glanconer’s duties and felt pulled toward his tendency to let us delude ourselves and giving us the chance to see what we’re actually doing. This, combined with the image of my Left Hand friends, left me with a crisp realization. While I work on being open-minded, there comes a point where openly accepting everything you’re unfamiliar with isn’t only reckless, it can be disrespectful.

I am not of the Left Hand path. I do not practice dark arts, nor do I make it a point to connect with demons. That’s not to say that I disagree with the people who do, but for me to jump in without doing the careful research and soul-searching that Demonolators go through was extremely disrespectful of me. I turned a serious practice into a week-long romp without giving it the consideration it deserved.

Upon reading the rest of the Glanconer’s entry, I see that a reversed Glanconer is trying to tell us that someone is pretending to be someone they’re not. This fits in with the feelings that I experienced and the realizations that hit home during our conversation. I had tried to play at being a Demonolator when it was not my place to do so. Not only do I have a deeper respect for my Left Hand peers, but I have a new, profound understanding of my role in my own path.

Thank you again, Smoothe Harry. My first step to connecting with this deck was, indeed, moving and appreciated.