What is a Curse?
- Jeffrey Rich
- 3 days ago
- 4 min read
Updated: 2 days ago
Are Curses Real?
What is a Curse?
Simply, a curse is an energetic packet that gets put together and packed with volatile energies and emotions, which is then launched at something or someone. Think of it like a little sticky bomb which has a specific trigger; once it lands, it can go off immediately, or it can lie in wait to be set off by a specific event.
What Is The Purpose of a Curse?
Curses are created to gain leverage in some way. They are generally crafted to limit or diminish their targets
I’ve been unraveling curses since my first curse unraveling training in 2011. Curse unraveling has been a mainstay of my practice ever since. I’ve unraveled hundreds, if not thousands, of curses, large and small, for clients in this lifetime and beyond. Here are some client misperceptions that I’ve encountered in those fifteen years:
Common Misconceptions about Curses
“Curses are forever; some curses cannot be broken.” False: a curse is a made thing. Anything made can be unmade, deconstructed, and neutralized.
“Curses dissolve when their maker dies.” Also false: a curse contains its own bank of potential energy. That energy does not automatically return to sender once the maker dies. A curse can also be thought of like an alarm clock: if it is wound up, the clock’s mainspring does not unwind just because the person who wound it up is no longer living. That potential energy will remain until something comes along to release it.
“Curses were things of the past.” False! In most parts of the world, cursing, especially professional cursing, is alive and well. One has only to go to any market in the Andes to be able to buy both blessing ingredients and cursing ingredients. They are usually sold side-by-side. I’ll talk about this part a little more in this post.
“Curses can’t hurt me if I don’t believe in them.” False. You can still be run over by a truck even if you don’t believe in them. Belief has little to do with whether a curse will land or not.
“I can just break a curse with this spell I found.” Maybe, maybe not: ‘breaking’ or ‘uncrossing’ a curse may provide some relief. If not completely unraveled, however, there will likely be potent and toxic energies that are still active, which can bear down on you in different ways.
“Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” Maybe, maybe not. Words by themselves may not have any effect. However, the emotions and other toxic energies contained in a curse packet certainly will.
A Curse is a Packet That is Created
I like analogies. From my 15+ years of experience in examining and unraveling curses, what I can say with confidence is that a curse is very much like an old-timey ‘joy buzzer’, a little toy with a spring inside it that was wound up and concealed in one’s hand. It had a button on it that got depressed when a hapless patsy shook your hand with the buzzer in it. In a split second, all of that potential energy in the buzzer from the winding would get released, making an unnerving buzzing sensation.
Just like the joy buzzer, a curse is created and put together, and then it is ‘wound up’ with volatile energies. Even Shakespeare knew this when he wrote Macbeth five hundred twenty years ago. In Act I, scene 3 of Macbeth, the three witches construct a curse to harry the sailor husband of the woman who wouldn’t share her chestnuts. The curse includes winds, words, awful sentiment, emotions of harangue, and a pilot’s thumb (“wracked as homeward he did come”). In their frenzied agitation, the witches add all of these ingredients to craft the curse. At the end, they say “but peace, the charm’s wound up,” meaning it’s armed and ready to deploy on the hapless sailor. In the play, we don’t know exactly how the deployment part happens. Here are some more historical examples of bindings, a type of curse, at the Museum of Witchcraft and Magic in the UK.
Curses Warp the World Around Them and Change What Is Possible
“Energy follows mind.” The way we think about our world shapes it and shapes what is possible within it. The intentions put into a curse, whether calculated or simply rageful, are what shape the possible outcome of the working.
The effects of active curses often look something like this
repeating patterns of ill luck or bad fortune, especially across generations
inexplicable events, such as repeating catastrophic events on a person, a family, or a generation
inexplicable inability to improve one’s conditions, even through very hard work
Cursing is Alive And Well In Most Parts Of The World
Cursing is not just an ancient practice. We have only to look at our own modern syncretic practice of HooDoo folk magic in the Americas to see that cursing is alive and well today. Just do a cursory web search for “hoodoo curses” and you’ll get way more than you bargain for. As I mentioned above, cursing supplies are readily available in most markets in the Andes. In specialty shops in Cusco, blessing supplies are on one side of the store and cursing supplies are on the other. Obeah, Santeria, Hoodoo, and other ways have lively, active cursing traditions.
Other Energetic Constructs Can Look and Act Like Curses
Spells, oaths, vows, and promises, especially oaths, vows, and promises taken in ceremony and before witnesses, can act like curses. They, too, are packets with energy and focused thought. Sometimes they begin to behave strangely or at cross purposes to their original intentions over years or lifetimes. Think of marriage vows: these usually begin with joy and love. If things sour in the relationship, wedding vows can begin to look like a hateful binding between partners: “the old ball and chain.”
This Is Only An Introduction
There is a LOT more to curses, oaths, spells, and vows. I could go on for both pages, and for hours on this topic. This explanatory post can only scratch the surface of what there is to know about curses and curse packets.
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