The Faeries’ Oracle – Gloominous Doom

The Faeries‘ Oracle Gloominous Doom. (Photo credit: Brian Froud)

“What do I have to say to you today?” That was my question for my Faeries’ Oracle deck. It’s the practice that I mentioned when I revealed my first one-card reading. This is how we open up the lines of communication with the Faery world. If you read my entry yesterday, you’ll remember that, while I’m enthused about communicating with the Fae, I just wasn’t feeling as excited as I normally do. My question felt half-hearted.

“You have to tell me what’s really wrong.” Came the reply when I revealed my top card. Staring at me was a small, slouched Fae with large eyes and a deep frown. His wings looked heavy and tired as he stood atop another creature that carried him while critters around him shared his expression of… malaise. This is how Gloominous Doom introduced himself. By mirroring how I felt on the inside.

The notes on Gloominous Doom reveal that he represents our phases of self-pity, self-defeat and self-destruction. He also makes it his job to show us that we need to make time to take care of ourselves. Gloominous Doom watches at how we internalize everything that bothers us or how we make excuses for our behavior. When we’re in a state of self-pity, we’ve already given up on protecting ourselves from the negative thoughts we create. We essentially go through a stage of cursing ourselves until we wake up enough to fend off the negativity.

The book also draws a lot of similarity to the Soul Shrinker, which had been the card I picked that made me feel the most uncomfortable. I haven’t allowed myself to read any of my three personality cards, however Gloominous Doom plays opposite sides to the same coin as Soul Shrinker. Soul Shrinker is “ugly” as the book says, whereas Gloominous Doom has an appealing nature to him. We might reject the outward appearance of the Soul Shrinker, but take a look at Gloominous Doom. He looks pitiful in the sense that you want him to smile or cheer up. You want to take care of him. You’re essentially saying I want to foster my pity for myself.

We should be mindful of when we’re pitying ourselves because we want to be sad and lazy with our attitude. It’s easy to look at Gloominous Doom and see a sad creature that deserves an “aww.” It’s harder to take a real look at him and wonder “what’s wrong? Why is he so sad? Is he always like this?” That’s what we need to do with ourselves. When we’re feeling down on ourselves, thinking that we fail at life, we need to halt the process and figure out what we can do at that moment to feel better.

Since reading about Gloominous Doom, I’ve realized that’s what I do every winter. I let winter tell me that I can’t do anything or go anywhere. I let my dislike for the cold prevent me from taking care of my mind and body, saying instead that it’s okay to watch winter from a safe, warm distance. The more this happens, the more I end up feeling lazy, sick and useless. What I should be doing is finding what will motivate me and do it. Not what I wish I could do and mope because I won’t.

I may not do things such as complain and nag at people, but I certainly do it to myself throughout winter for my decrease in activity. Gloominous Doom is watching and showing his disapproval to this familiar, vicious cycle. What I need to do, and what we should all do when we’re feeling self-pity/defeat/destructive, is consider how we can be supportive to ourselves and do our best to show positivity. Be the change that you want to see in yourself.

With that said, I think I’ll brave the cold and enjoy winter in person this year.