Curse

A malevolent Spell or intent to punish, harm, or kill. Curses are part of all practices of Magic and Sorcery since antiquity. Catholic priests are empowered to curse. The term curse comes from the Anglo-Saxon word cursein, the etymology of which is not known but which means “to invoke harm or evil upon.”

How Curses Are Made

Curses are made or “thrown” by a variety of methods, some of them by magic and some by spontaneous act. In the broadest sense, wishing anyone ill is a form of cursing, for it projects a Thoughtform made of WILL and IMAGINATION upon a victim. Most ill wishing is transitory and has little or no effect (see WISH). The more concentrated the emotions and projection, the more powerful the curse. Most powerful of all is a deathbed curse, for the dying are believed to project the most intensity. Cursing survivors, successive generations, or even places may last for centuries, just as the curse made by a witch named Old Chattox (see below).

Curses are both spoken and written; an example of a formal written curse is an anathema proclaimed by the pope, which excommunicates a person from the church. The Evil Eye is a curse both involuntary and deliberate, causing a victim to suffer misfortune and perhaps even death. point ing with a fi nger or a bone, especially while uttering a malediction, is a universal method in witchcraft and sorcery. Magical objects such as dolls or poppet s—a substitution for the victim—can be ritually cursed, burned, stabbed, or otherwise marked. A photograph of the victim works equally well, as do nail clippings, bits of hair, and personal belongings. Ordinary objects can become cursed through tragedy and misfortune and can affect the persons who own them.

The Egyptians wrote curses on magical papyri, a practice adopted by Greeks and Romans. From about the fifth century b.c.e. to the fifth century c.e., curse tablets (tabellae defixonium) were especially popular in the Hellenistic world. Tabellae defixonium refers to tablets that fix or pin down, especially in the sense of delivering someone over to the powers of the underworld. The curse tablets were thin pieces of lead (and sometimes other materials) on which were inscribed the victim’s name, the curse, magical symbol s and names of various deities, or the more generic DaimonES invoked to carry out the curse. The tablets were buried near a fresh tomb, a battlefield, or a place of execution, all of which were believed to be populated by spirits of the dead en route to the underworld. The curses gave the spirits the power to assault the victim. Curse tablets also were fi xed with nails and were thrown into wel l s, springs, or rivers that were also said to be inhabited by spirits. Curses were made for all manner of purposes, including preventing rival athletes from winning competitions, as in this late Roman Empire curse for a chariot race found in Africa:

I conjure you, daemon, whoever you may be, to torture and kill, from this hour, this day, this moment, the horses of the Green and the White teams; kill and smash the charioteers Clarus, Felix, Primulus, Romanus; do not leave breath in them. I conjure you by him who has delivered you, at the time, the god of the sea and the air: Iao, Iasdo . . . aeia. Iao and Iasdo are variants of Yahweh, a Jewish name for God.

Curses in Witchcraft

During the witchcraft trials in Europe and Britain, witches were often accused of cursing victims and of causing blight, misfortune, illness, and even death. In 1612–13, about 20 persons were suspected of witchcraft in the Pendle Forest area in Lancashire, England; 11 were tried. Sixty-year-old Anne Whittle, known as “Old Chattox,” confessed to having a Pact with the devil and to practicing malefi c magic. When a farmer ordered her off his land, she urinated on it (see Urine) and said that the land was now cursed and that cattle would never be able to graze there. For centuries cattle died and could not thrive there. In the 1950s, a poisonous weed was found that was believed to be the cause. Though the weed seemed a natural reason for the problem, local residents noted that it was unusual that the weed grew in that particular field only and not in the surrounding area.

In numerous other witch trials, witches were accused of cursing people by sticking pins into poppets, by blasting, and by casting various spells. Curses often are written or publicly proclaimed to maximize their effectiveness upon the victim. Many curses, however, are done in secret magical rituals. A widespread method of cursing is to pray against a victim, even to death. (See death prayer; hex.)

Curses among Magicians

In the Western magical tradition, cursing is done frequently among occultists and is not considered to be immoral. Arguments and disputes can result in cursing warfare. Famous cursing battles took place among members of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, involving the sending of vampiric entities. Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers, and Aleister Crowley engaged in such mutual attacks. The magician WILLIAM G. GRAY was known to send powerful curses against most of his students.

Cursing is still done in magical lodges and circles in modern times, though practitioners often are secretive about it due to beliefs by younger generations that cursing is immoral and will backfire on the sender. In Wicca, Paganism, and many modern magical traditions, there is a belief that magic of any sort will return to the sender, sometimes threefold; hence a curse will be revisited on the sender with three times the effect. More acceptable to many practitioners is the “binding spell,” which is intended to prevent another person from interfering or doing harm.

This moralistic view against cursing is not found in most magical and sorcery practices outside the modern West.

Cursed Objects 

Any object can be ritually cursed to affect whoever owns it with bad luck, misfortune, and even death. Sometimes objects are cursed by circumstances. For example, the “screaming skulls” of England are said to be haunted by restless ghosts of the dead. Some skulls belong to victims of religious persecution during the 16th-century Reformation initiated by King Henry VIII. Others are from Oliver Cromwell’s Roundheads during the English Civil War in the mid-17th century. Still other skulls are from people who lost their heads in various violent episodes, such as murders.

The victims often gave the same deathbed curse: If their remains were not buried within the walls of their house, their spirits would not rest in peace. The skulls reportedly act up whenever someone tries to remove them from their houses. The skulls are said to reappear mysteriously and then take revenge by causing bad luck or death. Violent storms or fires may destroy the property, or crops may fail and cattle dry up or die.

Protection against Curses

Numerous remedies against cursing exist universally. Amulets protect against or defl ect curses, whether a person has specific knowledge about them or not. Semiprecious stones and jewels have been used since ancient times as amulets against curses and other forms of dark magic, illness, and misfortune. For example, the ancient Egyptians inscribed spells on lapis lazuli. The early Greeks and Romans wore certain carved semiprecious and precious gems as RINGS and necklaces to ward off curses.

It is assumed in many cultures that one will be cursed by one’s enemies for any reason. Spells, charms, and petitions invoke the protection and intervention of benevolent spirits. An individual who has been cursed sometimes visits another witch or sorcerer to break the curse, and to curse the curser back.

The “Curse” of Tutankamen

Ancient Egyptians sought to protect their tombs by cursing anyone who broke into them. Such curses were written on the walls and sarcophagi in the tombs. The Egyptians believed that tomb desecration would render the spirit of the dead homeless.

The most famous story of an Egyptian tomb curse was that of the lavish burial place of the pharaoh Tutankamen, discovered in 1922 by Lord Carnavon and Howard Carter. According to lore, the Englishmen found a clay tablet inside the tomb with a curse written upon it: “Death will slay with his wings whoever disturbs the pharaoh’s peace.”

However, the existence of this tablet has never been proved. It was not photographed and supposedly disappeared from the collection of artifacts. According to Egyptologist Bob Brier, it is doubtful that the tablet existed. There are no reliable references to such a curse. Furthermore, it was not typical Egyptian custom to write on clay tablets or to describe death as coming on wings.

Nonetheless, mysterious deaths affected some of the people involved in the tomb’s opening and excavation. Carnavon, 56, died two months later. He cut his face shaving, and the cut became infected. He fell into a severe fever and delirium and repeated, “A bird is scratching my face.” When he died, all the lights were said to go out in Cairo.

Others associated with the tomb also died. George JayGould, American entrepreneur, visited the tomb and died soon thereafter. British industrialist Joel Woolf visited the tomb and on the way home to England via boat fell into a fever and died.

By 1929, 22 people associated with tomb had died, seemingly prematurely. Thirteen of them had been present at the opening of the tomb. In 1966 and 1972, two Egyptian directors of antiquities who were involved in exhibitions of the Tutankamen treasures died: One was killed when he was hit by a car, and the other fell dead when the Tutankamen gold mummy mask left Cairo for exhibition in England.

Howard Carter died of natural causes in 1939. He had maintained a strong skepticism of the power of curses throughout his life, thus lending support to the idea that belief in curses initiates self-fulfillment of them.

FURTHER READING:

• Brier, Bob. Ancient Egyptian Magic. New York: William Morrow, 1980.
• Butler, E. M. Ritual Magic. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1949.
• Cavendish, Richard. The Black Arts. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1967.
• Gordon, Stuart. The Book of Curses: True Tales of Voodoo, Hoodoo and Hex. London: Brockhampton Press, 1994.
• Guiley, Rosemary Ellen. The Encyclopedia of Witches and Witchcraft. 2d ed. New York: Facts On File Inc., 1999.
• Luck, Georg. Arcana Mundi: Magic and the Occult in the Greek and Roman Worlds. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1985.
• Robins, Joyce. The World’s Greatest Mysteries. London: Hamlyn Publishing Group Ltd., 1989.

SOURCE:

The Encyclopedia of Magic and Alchemy Written byRosemary Ellen Guiley Copyright © 2006 by Visionary Living, Inc.

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