This section is about magic, which is done with the intention to harm or destroy another person. Curses can be called a variety of different things: hexes, jinxes, banes (although this is usually a poison), the evil-eye, bedevil, malediction (specifically spoken curses) and even a, whammy (yes as in “double whammy”). All these words have different associations based on the practice and culture they come from, but essentially they are all methods of magical destruction of one’s enemies. (I’ll try and leave beguilements, glamour and charms to another post as the process is very different.)
My aim is to explore what curses are and how they are often done. I won’t talk too much about the morality behind them other then in the section below entitled “knock-on effect”. It is not my purpose to judge you. I trust that you are capable of making your own decisions. I’ll come clean and say “I have no issue using magic for personal gain”, but I rarely have had any need to curse anyone. I generally don’t get involved in curses. That’s not because I think there’s something wrong with it, just that I don’t really have the need to do so. I don’t generally end up in a situation where I think a curse would benefit me and sometimes it has an additional knock-on effect that I wouldn’t want to occur.
A lot of the content of this article is a fleshing out of my notes from a talk I attended in Toronto given by a Ryan Murry in 2011, a long with my own practice notes as I tried out some of the advice given (for things other than curses). I believe it was put on some OTO YouTube channel, so you might be able to find it there. I will see if I can find it. I am going through and organising my notes into information rather than history so this seemed a good way to lay it out.
Knock-on Effect
Curses do have the knock on effect, but it’s not the bounce back that everyone talks about. Generally people are connected to their surroundings. If you damage your surroundings, that damage is something you have to live with. If you do something that reduces or damages a person’s resources, then its going to affect all the people they are connected to as people share resources with those around them. For example, I HATE Boris Johnson right now, but I don’t think he should be cursed. I think he is destroying the country by dissolving our international arrangements. That is really taking the UK off the international map and isolating us from the rest of the world reducing our access to food, clothes, books and entertainment. He is putting poor people’s tax money into wealthy pockets. I think his decisions with regard to Coronavirus have already unnecessarily killed an additional 30,000 people and encourage the recent mutation of the virus. The Conservative Party’s austerity policy (which he has quoted in the past) is estimated to be responsible for 120,000 deaths. If you go out and kidnap your neighbour and chop them into little pieces, you’re still way behind on the damage achieved by Boris Johnson. So if anyone is deserving of some kind of magical punishment… it’s him! But what would happen if we cursed him? Well if he doesn’t die straight away, then he has all this bad juju creating stuff that he would worry about. So he spends less time worrying about the country. So he starts throwing money at all his stock investments since they would probably be all failing, meaning he has less money to spend on international engagements, cue additional public funds going to his meetings with international representatives and business leaders. Also his wife and some of his children experience a tightening of the purse strings. His relationships start failing, so he spends more time trying to sort them and less time focusing on fulfilling his role as PM. The spells stop him being able to sleep or concentrate and then he negotiates trade deals with France poorly because he is so tired… So if he were cursed well, he suffers, but so does the UK, and his friends and family. So the affect of cursing someone often has a big knock-on effect to the things and people around them. If you can’t deal with that then don’t curse them.
A lot of people like to talk about cursing as if it doesn’t work. It does. There’s literally 1000s of years of evidence of curses from nearly all cultures in the world. In fact there’s 3 types of spells which are more common than any other treasure/money, love and curses. If none of these spells worked then we probably wouldn’t have magical techniques so readily available today. I don’t mean to brag, but I own a large property on the edge of London and I although I don’t have a committed partner, I have many lovers… I don’t think I got there with my own mundane charm.
Wiccans like to quote something that comes out of early Gardiner groups, which was entirely made up by him as a way to control people, which they call “the rule of 3” or the “Wiccan Rede”. The idea of this magic is that whatever you do to curse other people comes back at you with 3 times as much force. Try to make someone else poorer and you end up broke. Heal other people and you end up healed.
If you believe in this when you do a curse you’re going to probably make a thought-form that does come back to you. It’s as simple as that. Believe it, you make it so. There is a long history of cursing through witchcraft it appears in a lot of the stories which surround European conjure and it appears in the grimoires. In all these stories there is rarely any record of anyone experiencing it become back at them. When you think about people they love a good story about “just desserts”. So they love a story where the curse come back to bite the person that threw it, so this type of story should actually exist more because people love telling it, however it is rare before 1900. Nowadays these stories get circled a lot by people who are about as magical as the Dursleys. Such stories are frequently used by people trying to control other magical practitioners. Those are the least magical of people. Consider the law “Do What Thou Wilt”. Magic is fundamentally about freedom and recognising the universe has having no moral laws beyond this. The repressors are working in an old Aeon mindset and are no better than church ministers who use stories like “and because she disobeyed, god turned her into a pillar of salt” to control people.
But what about karma? I’ve heard it’s an Indian thing that you must respect… Generally I find 90% of the white people who talk about karma do not understand what it is. It’s not as simple as bad events for bad actions. Karma is about trying to fulfill your purpose in life and is tied in with the Dharma that you are expected to learn in your life. It is actually closer to “Do What Thou Wilt” then you’d realise, but based in a system where they thought they could predict what a person’s Will was going to be. Dear White People, avoid using foreign words you don’t really understand. If you keep doing this you will further obscure the truth for future initiates and damage the heritage that belongs to Magic. There are literally thousands of short theses on karma, 32 are accessible via the British Library’s Ethos system. Read just one which focuses on the meaning of the word to people who speak an Indian language and live in an Indian culture since this is where the word comes from. Then having read it, if you understood it you’re welcome to make a comment. For moral reasons it is your duty to learn before you spread misinformation.
Cursing was a very popular form of magic amongst the ancient Greeks and there are many components of spells left over from ancient Greek curses. If cursing was so popular then you think they would have noticed that it comes back to bite you in the bum if it did, but no-one did notice any curses having that effect. Not until Wicca wanted to be accepted by the mainstream religions did this idea come about. But why then?
Suddenly where there was accusations of evil aimed at the participants of Wicca and while their leaders sought better control over their initiates this idea was born. I believe that the concurrence of these two things, at the same time, was not a coincidence.
I think it was designed as a response to say to people of other religions when practitioners of Wicca were accused of doing something evil. Someone says “she’s a witch she might hex you.” The Witch responds “actually young man if I were to do that I would find myself hurt, us witches aren’t as bad as Christianity likes to make out, you see!” Suddenly the rule of 3 appears in the 1940s and soon after it takes a central role in initiation ceremonies into Witchcraft.
In truth I whole heartedly agree with Peter Grey in his Apocalyptic Witchcraft that in trying to make ourselves accepted to other religions, we have lost the very liminal heart of our practice. Any Thelemite should consider Liber Lege Libellum (150) where the first chapter deals with the first principle of the Law of Thelema… Do what thou Will. Not to the will of the other religious leaders. Not to make yourself acceptable in their sight. In practicing “and it harm none” you have made yourself harmless and therefore can sit at the tables with the other religions, because you are no longer a threat since you have been divorced from your very power.
As a rule when you practice make you are trying to create change in conformity with your Will. If you are aware of your Will it becomes inevitable that someone will eventually become an obstacle to your Will. You have choices at this crossroads. Option 1: Give up on your dreams because there’s a hurdle. Disobey the gods that said “Do What Thou Will”. Avoid living according to your Will and cry about it. Cry to everyone… draining them of their capacity to listen or care. Option 2: Get rid of the obstacle directly. This can include cursing. Option 3: Try to find a way to negotiate with them. Occasionally negotiation will halt when you realise that you can’t both have what you want and you end up wasting your time and energy, theirs too, and eventually falling back to Option 1 or 2. Sometimes Option 3 will work, but most people that always jump to Option 3 end up being a push over and get trampled.
Human beings are naturally aggressive and competitive animals. We can curb those aspects of our personality and make ourselves into people who are better able to get on with other people. Often hiding and supressing the less appealing aspects of our personality leaves us in denial of them and in denial of ourselves. To do magic powerfully we need to accept and embrace all aspects of our personality that includes the parts, which we are told by society are “ugly” or “unacceptable”. This means sometimes crushing an enemy even if we crush them by showing them how above fighting them we are. Often very “moral” people will attack another person, but use politeness so to do it in a socially acceptable way. Then the victim is left hurt but cannot complain because it is socially accepted that they be treated like that. Be aware of this and recognise that human beings aren’t all love and light. Sorry lightworkers…
Dion Fortune expressed particularly well that sometimes you need aggression. I can’t see it right now, but I believe it was in Mystical Qabalah maybe at the section about Geburah where she said that there comes a point where being so nice you’re a push over just allows and abets evil.
It would be a stretch to define curses as moral. A lot of people don’t like them and they won’t like this article. Get over it peeps. You’re not going to like everything in the universe and I try to accept and reflect everything in the universe. We like to live in a moral society and for the sake of getting on with those around us. We create rules for conduct so we feel safe that we can walk down the street and not be attacked. People get upset when others break the agreed rules because it makes them feel unsafe. So if you’re in a community where cursing is one the taboos, then it’s probably a good idea not to go around hexing and cursing or at least not a good idea to be open about it. However the spells are not going to come back to bite you in the arse. They will however bite other people in the direct sphere of the target so be careful.
Creating the Magic Link
So an important part of cursing a person is to make sure the magic actually connects to them. This is more important than when we are doing some basic astrological theurgy or something, because you are summoning up some potentially bad events you want make sure they don’t hang around and they go where they’re meant to more than other kinds of magic.
That is often done by what Eliphas Levi calls the Astral light and Crowley calls the magic link.
In my experience with energy this link can be created by a strong exchange of energy with the target and by pushing the energy created in heightened down the link to the target. But remember that energy work is not the only paradigm through which magic works so I like to incorporate something else when I am doing a spell.
If you were targeting a person you could create a link by using a hair or nail of theirs. I often keep things that people give me and use that as the link. It looks weirdly sentimental, but in my head I am like that toy car belongs to that person even though it is in my possession so it helps. Another common option is a picture of them. It is not unusual for people to put photos of people in the freezer to reduce the power of their actions.
It is advisable to focus on the thing that helps form the magical link for sometime. Let’s imagine it was a printed photo of them, the printer had no knowledge of what it was drawing and did it dumbly. That image might look like the target physically but that image might not actually exist in any mental realm, but by looking at the image it is formed through belief on the astral plane.
A common action is to form it into a humanoid form (if the target of your curse is indeed a human). This might be done with rope made into a doll or a root that looks like a human figure or placing it in moulded clay. This often helps the ritual action. This human form is often called a poppet. Many people call it a Voodoo doll, which is actually a misnomer, because it is not a part of Voodoo culture.
Then leave it some where on their path. It would be more successful to leave it in a place where they are vulnerable, like their bedroom or where they eat. These actions can increase the connection.
To conclude there needs to be a link which can have an energetic or physical component or a bit of both. There are ways to intensify this connection. This is particularly important in curses to prevent the cursed energy from hanging around.
Ritual action
For a curse there is usually a ritual action which generates the negativity, which you want to send to the target. This is often a dramatic ritual action which affects the item containing the physical link, but it could also be some sort of entity or deity being summoned over the link item.
The ritualist can take some action to destroy the item that represents the target. This would involve physically destroying the item containing the magical link. The more dramatic the more it will effect the magician and in my experience the more negative psychic energy that will be sent to the target. It could be screwing it up, freezing it, driving pins through it (which is part of European magic not Voodoo), throwing darts at it, pissing on it, shitting on it, burying it, boiling it, placing it upside down, drowning it in water, covering it in poisonous herbs such as stringing nettle, putting poisons or poisonous herbs inside it, wrapping it in thorns, tidying it up / binding it and more. Often this process is said to be therapeutic whether or not the magical link takes the negativity to the target.
When summoning negative entities or energy to the target often with a deity the magician calls the deity into themselves and lets the energy flow into the magical link item through their arm and hands. Magicians will rarely summon demons in themselves so often in this instance they will have the poppet / magical link outside of a magic circle (assuming they are using one) and in the place into which they intend to summon the demon. This is often the triangle in modern practice.
There are many ritual actions designed to create the negative energy which is sent to the target by doing the action to the magical link object or imbuing it with a summoned energy. These actions are extremely varied and often therapeutic.
Demons
Often people like to involve demons to deliver a curse. Since the nature of a demon is essentially antagonistic or not necessarily focused on fulfilling some divine will they might be sympathetic to some magic which might be considered sinful to other spirits.
Remember however that demons will have their own agenda. Working with you might help them or harming you might fit closer to their agenda, so you need to be careful. To make it safe, it is often recommended that you do not stray from the instructions in the grimoire.
I will not give instructions here on summoning demons. That’s a long article itself. If you really want to do that you can get a copy of the Lemegeton or another relevant grimoire. A lot of people are against the Goetia by Aleister Crowley and Samuel Mathers saying it is inaccurate, however in my experience it is a popular system that is easy to do at home and works. Also
The Heptameron of Pietro de Abano is another easily accessible method.
Remember when involving any kind of entity, there should always be a price. If you don’t pay your demons, they will try to take whatever payment they think is due. Many people believe that when you summon demons you should force and constrain them to do your bidding. In my experience they will do your bidding, but in some way that gets back at you. What I often call “aggressive compliance”. So if you demand money or a new car and you force the spirit to make sure you have these things, it will do as you say but by the most aggressive method possible, for example a relative will die and you will inherit what you demanded.
They will often ask for things like jewels. Remember you can negotiate, but why would a spirit do something for nothing? Some spirits might want you to do something for them, like donate to charity in their name (although that’s more common for saints), put their sigil on a few notice boards to get them attention or setting up a meal (that’s more common for dead spirits). Sometimes they would like you to tell other occultists about their incredible powers, so other people are more likely to summon the same demon and their can increase their influence.
One of the advantages of working with demons is that the summoning process either works or it doesn’t. You don’t physically see the spirit you have summoned, but its presence is still hard to miss. There is something there and you have to practice some serious denial to convince yourself otherwise.
Involving demons can work much better at times because they have a more experienced touch when it comes to direct manipulation of fate. Also success is often more obvious. However they have their own view and objectives so, helping you achieve a curse might not be a big concern for them.
You can summon demons to help you in this process, but it is not always helpful or safe. This is not an action that you should be doing in a curse, unless you have experience summoning demons already. If you’re going to do it, I recommend you stick to the instructions in the grimoire and make sure you pay the price to keep it safe. Remember although they can help they can also hinder the process.
Deities
You can get a god or goddess involved in your curse. In this case however we are talking about force of nature god as opposed to a transcendental entity. You might assume that a deity wouldn’t like the idea of being involved in something you see as morally repugnant as a curse, but in which circumstance you’d be wrong. They do get involved and if you have a connection to one they will often help.
Often people get this strange idea that deities are all nice and fluffy. That comes from the Hebrew God and has had huge influence on the West via Christianity.
Off to the side of pagan Mesopotamia, there was once born this idea that one could worship the gods of the beyond; the gods that directed fate. Until that time the gods worshiped were simply the forces of nature and acted in morally ambivalent ways. The cult of the highest god grew in popularity and became that early form of Judaism. I explore this idea more in my article about the Metadivine. Until this point there was never a claim staked that the gods acted in a particularly moral way, but that changed for the cult of highest god.
Think about what you know about the Greek gods for example. Eris (or Discordia) throws and apple into a party labeled “for the prettiest”. Then 3 other goddesses end up arguing that the apple was meant for them. This display of vanity and obsession with triviality is not a considered a good trait. Also think about the number of times Zeus raped someone. Sometimes though when you read the Hebrew texts the jealousy and pride displayed by the Hebrew God can make you question whether he is moral. I have considered a few times that the scriptures that say he is a moral god are really just intended as flattery rather than an accurate description.
You often need to appeal to the god to have them help you. Many gods are pure ego, so flattery will get you everywhere, but you need to learn the particular flattery that works with them. If you ask a god to help you do something that is contrary to their nature then the god is more likely to enact a curse on your. An example Ryan Murray gives is that giving Loki justifiable reasons isn’t exactly going to encourage him, but suggest it as an apt form of mischief and he is more likely to help you curse someone.
Often I find researching how they were celebrated in their respective cults is helpful to the process. Also reciting their mythology can help in the invocation process. This is very unique from deity to deity so I leave it to you to do the research.
So deities can often be a friend that will help you and guide you put a curse one someone. Just make sure it is consistent with their desires too. Protecting their worshipers is often consistent with demonstrating their pride.
Why didn’t it work?
Okay sometimes a curse or spell doesn’t work. It’s worth being complete skeptical and saying maybe magic doesn’t exist at all that explains why. But also there could be a good other reason.
By exploring the reason why a spell or curse did not work, you can often help you develop your practice and promote consistency.
How it Manifests
You need with these sorts of things to be content with some sort of manifestation of your aim. In the same way that water flows downstream, magic will always manifest in the easiest way it can. A spell for love won’t suddenly result in in a cupid spirit shooting an arrow into someone who instant loves you no matter what… it will try and do it the easiest way. The person you are suited to might end up delayed and need to spend more time around you, and that might give you more of a chance to get to know them. Think of this as flowing through the path of least resistance. It certainly explains why we often can’t manifest floating spaceships at the drop of a heat … such a spell would need to change the laws of nature to work… not a least resistance scenario.
You might seek the destruction of an enemy only to find the enemy has become your friend and then they are therefore no longer the enemy you were experiencing before. So effectively your enemy has been destroyed since you do not have an enemy anymore.
Remember when your spell enters another person’s sphere then their Will with have an effect on its manifestation as well. There is a principle in martial arts where if a force is far a way from you it is harder to control, but when it is close to your chest it’s easier to push aside. If you have your Will focused on manifesting the life of your choosing then someone’s spell comes and tries to disrupt that, then you’re not in territory where their spell is interfering with a lot of your Will, but actually it’s only a small part of their sphere which is affected so your Will is essentially better suited to affect the result of any curse thrown at you. However a person who is only doing their Will and nothing else will often have more available energy to put use to put to the curse cast. Just remember if you’re just fulfilling your Will you can defend against curses more easily and manifest a better life for yourself much more easily.
I like to think of it finding the easiest way to manifest. It’s a bit like the force of fate in the final destination movies. It doesn’t manifest into the Angel of Death and kill them with a magical sword, instead it uses the dangers immediately around them and finds the easiest way to ensure their deaths. Sometimes it’s very smart about it and makes sure there is a few dominos set up ready to fall in such a way that they will end up dead. The manifestation of curses is much the same.
Your curse will take the easiest way to manifest. If you want some thing where there is no possible way to manifest it then it might not work at all. But if a few slips in reality make it possible then it will happen, but it will happen through the easiest way possible.
Conclusion
Curses work. They’re easy to do. They’re not acceptable to many magical practitioners, but there is no karmic response form the universe. Sometimes the target of a curse is so affected by the curse they affect the people around them. You need to make sure there’s a magical link to connect the curse to the target. Some ritual action, demon or deity is required to bring negativity on the link for it manifest on the target. Precautions need to taken to make sure it is safe to perform particularly if some entity is used.