How to Hex

Lately I’ve had several people come to me expressing a desire to curse...particular people.  Traditionally, curses come into favor when people feel that more direct/public/legal means of seeking justice fail them and they feel disempowered.  It is no surprise that they are coming back into fashion in times like these.  I’ll teach you a few methods for slinging a hex, but what you do with them is up to you.

What

Hexing/cursing is the final recourse for the marginalized, disenfranchised, and dispossessed.  It is what you do when the last straw has finally broken the camel’s back, or at least it should be.  Before casting a curse you should, if you are safe to do so, follow every legitimate path for finding a solution to your problem.  Attempting to curse someone/something before trying more traditional problem solving methods, when they’re available to you, rarely ends well for anyone.  Cursing is not what most people would call a “good” thing to do.  Cursing/hexing causes harm and there are consequences for sending harm out into the world.  You need to be prepared to deal with those consequences when they come - and they will come.  As Dorothy Morrison says, you need to be “wicked pissed” before casting a curse.  You have to mean it with every fiber of your being, consequences be damned.

Why

Once you’ve determined that you are “wicked pissed” and willing to accept the consequences, you need to determine just what you want to accomplish.  There are generally two reasons to cast a curse: 1) to stop bad things from happening/continuing, and 2) to punish someone for causing harm. 

I generally discourage people from cursing for the second reason because it rarely helps.  Most people do bad things when they’re in pain.  Hurting someone who is in pain does not tend to encourage them to behave better; it mostly makes things worse.  Further, miserable people rarely need help from me to destroy their lives; they do a fine job of it on their own.  Someone needs to have done something really bad (e.g. hurt a child, incited terrorism, massively subverted justice, etc.) for me to encourage hexing them for punitive reasons.  There are, of course, many ethical/moral reasons not to do this.  I leave you to make your own decisions there.

Cursing in order to stop “bad things” from happening is a much less morally ambiguous thing to do.  When things get bad enough and you really care about the situation then you need to get proactive.  In its best incarnation, a curse should be the magickal equivalent of punching a nazi in the face.  Of course, you must keep in mind what I said earlier - making miserable people more miserable rarely stops them from behaving badly.  Be very mindful of the potential consequences of your magick and only do things that will actually help the overall situation - not just feel cathartic.  For example, you might want to stop a serial rapist by making him impotent.  This might just make him angry and more prone to violence, thus making the situation worse rather than better.  A more effective curse might be one aiming to get the perpetrator caught and convicted.  If your goal is to stop a bad situation then you MUST calm your anger and really think things through in order to get the best results.  Take the long view of things.  Take the time to do some divination to determine the best course of action; consult your elders and ancestors; get advice from people you trust.  Make sure you feel that you truly need to do what you plan. 

How

There are nearly infinite ways to cast a curse.  Here are just a few ranging from “morally dubious” to “you’re going to do what?!”  You can google any of these types of spells and find dozens of examples of various execution methods, so I won’t belabor the details here.  Further, you can add extra power to these spells by calling on various deities, ancestors, allies, etc. according to your own personal practice. 

Passive-Aggressive Hex
Rather than doing something directly to the target or your ire, you bless their opposition.  For example, instead of cursing the person who robbed you, you bless the police and prosecutors to get the person caught and convicted.  This is positive magick to send blessings to the people doing good work rather than sending negative energy to the people causing harm.  This type of working is great when you have one specific bad situation you want to remedy, though it won’t stop the perpetrators from doing something different later.

Binding
The classic way to stop someone from doing bad things is to bind them.  (See my previous post on binding)  You make a representation of the person or organization/corporation causing the problem, then you literally bind it with cord to energetically immobilize it.  I like to make a poppet representing the person/thing to be bound and then bind it with marine cord (it has no stretch/give whatsoever).  You can also use toys, action figures, etc., to represent your target.  Once you’ve tied your representation I recommend wrapping the whole thing in aluminum foil (shiny side in) and then putting it in the back of the freezer until the situation is resolved.

Mirror Spell
Your traditional mirror spell is one in which you use a mirror to literally reflect someone’s negative actions back on themselves.  This is a straightforward retribution spell - your target gets harmed precisely as much as they harm others, no more no less.  This spell tends to escalate the situation.  Remember, when people who tend to take out their anger on others are harmed they will probably take it out on others.  If the house is already on fire then throwing gas on it won’t really make much of a difference, but if it’s not on fire yet it certainly will be afterwards.  Choose your actions accordingly. 

Destruction Spell
This is the “as seen on tv” curse.  This is where you do you damndest to rain hellfire down on your enemies.  There is no moral ambiguity here.  If you’re going to do it, own it.  Your intent is everything in this spell and you’d better be freaking livid.  If you are even the tiniest bit unsure of what you want to happen then this is not the spell for you.  Make a poppet/doll out of black fabric (the little craft squares of felt you get at the craft store for a dollar are great for this).   Fill the poppet with straw/grass/something itchy put a picture of the target inside the doll and sew it up.  Write on the doll with a sharpie all the terrible things the person has done (the silver ones are great for writing on black).  Alternatively, you can write everything out on paper and sew it inside the doll or even embroider it on the fabric.  Then destroy the doll as violently as possible, allowing all your rage and pain to flow into it and then burn the pieces.  Yes, there is often energetic backlash for doing this sort of thing depending on the exact nature of your intent and what energies you normally work with.  The further this type of energy is from your normal practice the more difficult it will likely be for you.  Moreover, this type of working can create an energetic link between you and your target - be sure you really, really want to do this.

These are just a few examples of common curses.  If you’re really, really angry and committed to doing this type of work I encourage you to get creative and execute them in a way that feels right to you.  Magick is an art, so do something beautiful - even when it’s hideous. 

If you have any questions about specific things you want to do feel free to email me emily @ e-carlin.com or send me a message via Tumblr (where you can be anonymous).  Keep in mind that I will not advise people to do things that are illegal and all discussions are purely theoretical.


Here are a few resources:
Poppet resource
How to tie a monkey’s fist/rope ball
Cursebook

Shadow Work: Expectations

In shadow work psychology and magick mix in fascinating ways.  One of the most interesting phenomena I've observed in shadow work, and in a lot of other types of magick really, is the power of expectations.  This can be our own expectations of people or events or the expectations of others that are projected on to us.

Expectations really are magickal when you think about it.  Magick is a deliberate attempt to use our energies to shape reality.  We focus on a particular goal, visualize the changes to reality we want to make in order to achieve it, and then project that energy out into the world to manifest itself.  In essence, we're creating an expectation of what the results of our magick will be and letting ourselves embrace and believe in that expectation. The more sure we are that reality will me our expectations, the more energy those expectations contain, the more magickal those expectations become giving them an ability to actually make it more likely for reality to conform to them.

This is all well and good when our expectations are positive; less good when they're negative.  Oh yes, negative expectations can be a self-fulfilling prophecy on soooo many levels.  Our own negative expectations, when believed in strongly enough, are essentially self-hexing.  When you've trained yourself to focus your thoughts and will enough to perform magick it does tend to trickle down into unconscious thought.  As we all know, like attracts like, and our negative expectation of reality will shape that reality - self-hexing.  Of course, from a purely psychological point of view, negative expectations make us interpret our situations in a way that conforms to how we expect it to be.  Thus even if you haven't managed to hex yourself, you'll still see things as being worse than they probably are.  This is our shadow at work.

Shadow work is all about embracing our darker thoughts and feelings, but that does not mean we need to roll around in them all day; an hour or so a day sure, but not all day every day.  When you find yourself having negative expectations about yourself or a situation it's important to take a step back and really assess things.  Realistic expectations when a situation truly is overwhelmingly negative is healthy; overwhelmingly negative expectations when things really aren't so bad is harmful.  Take some time out to meditate and clear your head.  Take some time to do some divination if you need to (this is the kind of situation where getting someone else to do divination for you can be extremely helpful, that way your negative feelings won't affect the divination as badly).  If you need to, consider doing some spellwork to help clear your head of prejudices and let you see things as they really are.  I would never, ever, ask someone to put on a happy face and think positive - because it makes me want to vomit - but I do ask for realism rather than moping. 

This brings us to the expectations most difficult to deal with: the expectations others have of us.  As much as some of us might like to, we do not live in a vacuum.  We live in a world populated by other people and, unless you're a hermit, we have to deal with other people and their expectations of us on a daily basis.  People that truly know and understand us tend to expect us to be who and what we really are, unfortunately people that truly know and understand who we really are tend to be pretty thin on the ground.  Instead, we are surrounded by people that know only bits and pieces of us. 

This limited knowledge means that people generally expect us to be something different than our authentic selves.  As you might imagine this can create all manner of problems for us.  On a mundane level, having to wear masks and live up (or down) to other people's expectations can be emotionally exhausting.  It can be equally exhausting on a magickal level.  Our shields do a lot of work keeping outside energies from unduly influencing us - that's their job - this includes the energy of other people's expectations.  If you spend the majority of your day surrounded by people who expect you to be something you're not it's going to take a toll on your shields. 

For most people it isn't too bad - who they portray themselves to be to the outside world isn't usually too far off from who they really are.  Of course we shadow workers tend to be...well...what other people consider to be "weirdos."  This can cause trouble even if you're letting your freak flag fly.  If you're spending most of your time pretending to be someone you're not, the combination of cognitive dissonance and energetic drain is eventually going to bite you in the ass.  If you're open about your weirdness a lot of shortsighted people probably have really negative expectations of you based on their own fears and hangups - causing pretty much the same toll on your shields as hiding would have, but hey less cognitive dissonance is good.  In the long term the best situation is to be yourself and educate others so that they understand what that means.  However, that takes time, energy, and won't fix everybody.  In the mean time creating an anchored shield specifically for dealing with other people's projected expectations can help a lot.  This is pretty much the only shield that I would actually recommend anchoring in rose quartz as it is naturally good at soothing emotions and aiding healing. 

Expectations are powerful things and as magickal practitioners we need to be aware of how they affect us whether they be from within or without.  The next time you approach a negative situation or feel the need to follow someone else's expectations of you take a step back and examine the reality of things and what you really want to see happen.  Just being aware of the influence of expectations can help you take control of the situation make it better.

Bindings

Sometimes life is a grand panoply of joy and all the world is your friend.  Sometimes life kicks you in the face.  Ah well.  Into every life a little rain must fall and into the lives of witches so must the need to bind. 

Binding, of course, is the magickal act of restraining someone or something against a particular kind of behavior.  It can be used to good effect to bind oneself against bad habits.  However, most of the time binding is used to restrain someone (an enemy) or something (usually a harmful spirit) from messing with you or your loved ones. 

Binding is one of those ethical grey areas that people often fight about.  Some say it's unethical to bind anything against exercising its own free will in any way.  Others blithely cast bindings any time someone annoys them.  I take the middle course.  My guideline is to never bind someone or something in a way in which I would not be willing to be bound.  For example, I have no problem binding someone against maliciously telling lies because I wouldn't mind having that ability taken from me.  Once I've cast a binding I always try to act as if I am also bound, because it gives me a good idea what I've done to the other person.  If it's awful I can remove the binding and my own pain/discomfort would be the price I paid for my error in judgment.  It's not a perfect system, but it's worked for me so far.

When I do a binding I like to physically bind a poppet that represents whatever I'm binding.  If it's a person I like to put a picture of that person in the poppet if I have one, or just load it with representations of that person if I don't have a picture.  Then I'll put in herbs appropriate to the sentiment of the spell.  I typically make the poppet out of felt squares (they're easy to come by in any craft store and are inexpensive). 

I'll usually bind the poppet with yarn, but recently I've discovered marine rope.  Yarn is relatively weak and has a fair amount of give in it, making for a rather flexible binding.  It's great for restraining yourself from bad habits or for when you want the binding to sit lightly.  However, sometimes the situation you're dealing with is particularly heinous and you need a stronger, less flexible binding.  Enter marine rope.  Marine rope (available in any boating/fishing supply store) is incredibly strong and has varying amounts of stretch to it.  I recently found Dyneema STS 12 Single Braid Line. 
This is now my super-binding cord of choice.  It's stronger than steel, thin as para-cord, and has absolutely no give whatsoever.  When you need to binding something and give it no chance of wriggling out of that binding, this is the way to go.  Overkill? For most things yes, but sometimes you just need to go whole hog. 

Spell for Courage and Protection

Things have been a little funtastic in my life of late - and by funtastic I mean fucking stressful.  There comes a time for everyone when you just can't accept any more crap and you finally stand up for what you know is right.  Sometimes it's saying what other people can't or pointing out painful flaws in a plan someone is really attached to.  Other times it's calling out a bully or manipulator for what they're doing and making them look in a mirror.  Whatever the situation is, it's damned uncomfortable.  It's necessary, there can be no growth without discomfort, but it's not much fun.  It's been one of those weeks.

One of the big problems with really, deeply pissing someone off is that, whether they realize it or not, they will start throwing negative energy at you.  Most of the time this isn't a conscious thing, but it's happens anyway.  It can act a lot like a hex if you don't do something about it.  Some people might mirror it back to the sender, but in my experience that just makes things worse. 

Sometimes that negative energy can hit so strong you start to doubt the courage of your convictions.  You might know that everything you've said is true and needed to be brought out into the open, but it might get so hard that you start to wuss out.  Of course it's hard, doing the right thing is never easy.  Fighting for what you believe is hard, but it's necessary and worth it. However, when you're neck deep in psychic bullshit it's hard to remember that.

Here's a little spell to help you keep the courage of your convictions and to help you persevere in the face of adversity.

Spell for Courage and Protection

 Ingredients:
Firey Wall of Protection Oil
red candle
purple candle
small carnelian bead
rue
devil's shoestring
cinnamon chips
mandrake
tonka bean
high john the conqueror root
King Solomon incense powder
cotton bag

 Assemble all the components of the spell on your altar.  Call in any dieties you normally work with, or any protective forces you're friendly with. Explain your situation and why you need courage and protection.  Don't blame the other people, it just sours the spell.  Keep your intent positive and focus on what you need to accomplish that requires courage.  Explain this goal fully.  Focus on that goal and channel that energy into your spell components.

Put the herbs, carnelian, and incense powder into the cotton bag.  Tie the bag shut using a triple knot and then tie the strings around the bag to create a little package.

Then anoint the candles with the firey wall oil.  Put the red candle in its holder.  Light the purple candle from a tea light and then light the red candle with the purple candle.  Then set the purple candle in its holder.

Let the candles burn all the way down until they burn out (I set them in an iron cauldron filled with salt so they can do so safely).  Thank any deities or spirits you called on earlier and bid them farewell.  Now carry the bag with you until the situation resolves.

Book Review: The Little Book of Curses and Maledictions

I was browsing through amazon.com a few days ago and came across   The Little Book of Curses and Maledictions for Everyday Use by Dawn Rae Downton.  The kindle version was only a dollar so I figured I'd check it out. 

Although I rarely work curses, I do find them fascinating.  It's always interesting to see what actions other people think are curse worthy and how they try to go about laying them.  The tricky thing with curses, particularly those you haven't written yourself, is that they have a tendency to rebound back on the caster.  They usually end up just creating a really strong link between the caster and the target, often making both parties truly miserable.

I would never cast a curse because someone was gossiping about me, cut in line for the bus, or generally annoyed me.  I just don't think that sort of behavior rises to the level of curse-worthy.  If I'm going to forge a semi-permanent link between me and someone I detest they would need to have done something really, really bad.  I'm talking physically harming someone I care about, emotionally eviscerating a friend, that sort of thing.  But that's just me.  There are lots of practitioners out there that have no problem hexing someone for whatever reason.  It's up to you to determine your own curse ethics.

In this book there are three kinds of curses: the revenge curse, the warning curse, and the binding curse.

The revenge curses are probably what we all think of when we think of hexes, and curses.  This is the "make my ex miserable," "get my boss fired," "punish that thief," kind of curses that get popular media all hot and bothered.  Most of these are variations on traditional hexes and curses with a few twists to make them appropriate for contemporary casters.  They're all pretty easy to cast and if you know how to focus your energy and put it into a spell they they should work.  Of course, if you don't actually know what you're doing these spells probably won't do more than give you a small sense of satisfaction.

The warning curses are spells designed to prevent or end bad situations.  I wouldn't actually call these curses, since they don't actually visit harm on another.  I think these spells are only called curses in this book because they use the same types of techniques and ingredients as the more traditional revenge curses.  However, this section does have my favorite spell from the book, "The Eastwood."  It's basically a ward against douchbaggery.  You create a special pouch that you can wear when you want to prevent rudeness.  I would think that this sort of spell would loose it's potency rather quickly, so it would have to be done repeatedly.

The binding curses, unsurprisingly, bind the target to do, or refrain from doing, a particular thing.  Honestly, these are the kinds of curses I am least comfortable with.  The idea of infringing on someone else's free will does not sit well with me, but desperate times sometimes call for desperate measures.

Overall, this book is decent for what it is.  It gives the curious an interesting overview of what kinds of things curses and maledictions can do and gives inspiration to those actually wanting to cast a curse.  Would I do any of the spells in here as written? No, because a spell is always best when personalized and for something that requires as much commitment as a true curse you should be willing to make it your own.  That being said, if you did the spells as written in the proper frame of mind they'd probably work.  I just wouldn't recommend anyone trying it if they're not already accustomed to magick.

Overall I'd give this a 3 1/2 out of five for content, but for $1 that's just fine.