I’ve been seeing more and more justifications lately of how cursing is supposedly no big deal. Here’s a short list of why yes, it’s actually a big deal.
Please note as you read, how the idea of spiritual karma is conspicuously absent from my points.
If you happen to believe in karma, then that just adds even more layers of why you shouldn’t do this, to what I’m saying here.
Of course, not all situations are alike. If you’re dealing with a pure antisocial personality, there is no amount of logic or compromise that will suffice. You can’t reason with crazy. If it comes to cursing, so be it.
People who are violent, stalking and ignore things like restraining orders have to be dealt with sternly, severely. That’s why we have jails and mental health institutions.
But last time I checked, those places are pretty well overcrowded and they don’t offer much in the way of deterrence to the ones who get released.
If you’ve already exhausted all the standard roads of diplomacy and appealing to police did nothing, if informing neighbors and friends isn’t helping, if it’s all already failed… that’s one thing.
If you have to protect yourself or your family from some sociopath who won’t just go the fuck away… then do whatever you need to do. No judgment from me. Te absolvo.
What I am referring to here is something else, entirely.
It’s people casually batting curses around as a means of “This is just how we get shit done”. There’s a whole false logic of:
All magick is manipulative in some way, therefore curses are just another way to be in control.
The fuck they are.
“Trickledown economics” didn’t work out the way Reagan thought it would in the eighties. Turns out, the rich don’t spend more when you tax them less, they just hold on to it.
However, “trickledown cursing” works just fine.
You curse your enemy and then he/she begins to suffer. But do you really think that’s all there is to it?
You think your spells are so sharp that they’re like smart bombs… that they *only* affect the target? Nobody else? Right. Sure.
Curses are usually akin to dirty bombs and there’s almost always collateral damage.
The person you curse takes their angry misery out on their significant other, their kids, their pets, the neighbors and probably everyone they come in contact with.
Every see that commercial where someone opens a can of soda, it puts them in a good mood, so they go out of their way to help someone carry something, who then opens the door for someone else.
This is the opposite. Your target gets hit by a car, breaking his leg… and… damaging the other person’s car.
That person’s rates go up, the stress causes the driver to argue with his wife, which upsets the kids and so on.
The target is in pain, so he yells at and smacks his girlfriend, in front of her kids. They give him pain meds that only lower his asshole inhibitions. So he really lets everybody have it. Because he’s high and feels fine.
Curses spread misery. You don’t get to shit in the tub and then claim that the water is disgusting.
If you curse someone, you are by extension, causing suffering in the lives of people near to them who didn’t do a single thing to you.
Unless you think it’s acceptable to carpet bomb whole cities in the name of claiming victory over a piece of real estate, you should not be going straight to things like D.U.M.E. (Death Unto My Enemies).
Resorting to curses without first trying to resolve things by adult conversation and diplomacy is basically the third grade way of doing business.
Bragging about how you drop curses left and right doesn’t make you appear savvy or slick. It merely lays out the message “I get butthurt a lot and have really inappropriate levels of reaction”.
A policy of “Nuke ‘em first, ask questions later” is about as sophisticated as… well, nothing. I actually can’t think of a single thing that is more stupid and childish and well, psychotic.
It’s on par with picking fights with strangers and abusing children and animals. It’s disgusting behavior. Everything we complain about terrible people doing to others, it’s right there, wrapped up in that type of behavior.
It’s not even a moral issue. Never mind “Jesus wouldn’t like it” or “Buddha frowns on that”. Who cares? It’s self-preservation. It’s what kind of world do I want to leave for my kids?
If you say that you sell heroin to provide for your family, then you forfeit the right to complain when your kids get strung out on heroin or shot by someone who was robbing them for money to buy heroin. It’s what should be common sense.
There are a lot of things that you can try first. Even if you have to go with controlling spells, as in “I need this guy who won’t quit starting arguments with me over nothing at all, to just go away”. You control their actions and lead them away from you.
There are binding spells, to keep people from acting out in harmful ways. There are influence spells and sweetener spells and ways to “bless someone out of your life”, as in make them happy… somewhere the hell away from here.
There are always basic protection spells. They should be *first*!
Positive “manipulation” is what we call influence. It’s a mark of a well-adjusted, actualized adult, one who can get what they need by creating win/win scenarios.
The curse first mentality is why “We just can’t have nice things”. The morons ruin it for everyone. It’s “She didn’t do what I wanted. She must die”.
Your boyfriend cheating on you is not cause for cursing him. It’s cause for getting a better boyfriend.
Your co-worker beating you out on the promotion isn’t cause to curse them. It’s cause for you to do a better fucking job.
Work hard at your profession and you won’t have to work so hard at defeating all these straw man enemies that you think you have.
When a woman puts on makeup, that’s a type of glamour (a mundane one). It’s “manipulative” in the positive sense of the word, as in being intelligent and doing what works. It’s charm, it’s seduction.
But it’s NOT on the same level of manipulation as blasting a shotgun at someone for stealing your parking spot.
When a guy dresses nicely or tries to impress a woman with his stories, it’s “manipulative” in a sense. But it’s NOT the same as putting a drug into her drink. One behavior is sly, while the other is deranged.
Curses are the shotguns and the drugged drinks of the magickal world. Sure, they work. They make pretty much everybody unhappy. Even the ones throwing them.
Unless they’re truly psychotic, in which case they have no souls, anyway. The psycho only wants to punish others for… pick a reason; any reason will do.
There’s nothing that makes the psychotic actually happy. They are temporarily satisfied when they see their enemies destroyed. It lasts for a few days and then they need that high again.
So if you’re going around cursing left and right, congratulations… you’re officially the crackhead of the magickal community.
Most situations can be solved by a modicum of humility, respect for others and a willingness to compromise. That process is usually uncomfortable but adults get through it. Some situations take years to resolve. But adults get through it.
If, five or ten minutes into the process, you’re resorting to dirty bombs that are going to get all over your enemy’s family, pets, neighbors, employees, employers, co-workers, etc, then you need anger management therapy.
If you don’t learn to temper your emotions, then you deserve it when someone drops a big, nasty curse in your lap, one that’s done so professionally that you just can’t deal with it, with your level of skill.
The couple of times that I was a little trigger happy and heavy handed with spells, I later calmed down and then felt like an idiot. Quite frankly, I don’t care to feel like that again… ever.
The last thing that I want to hand over to someone who intensely dislikes me is my own sense of poise and calm.
If I let someone rattle me that easily, does it say more about them or me? Now apply the same question to your own interactions with people.
Stupid affects everyone. There’s a general dumbing down of people going on that’s rather disturbing. Everything is about appearance and an illusion of strength.
Real strength is being able to put on your big boy or big girl pants and either learn to get along with people or just walk away and leave it at that.
Grow the fuck up. The only thing worse than losing a stupid argument is losing your dignity over a stupid argument.
When you resort to tossing a hand grenade at someone who stole your lollipop, you hand over anything and everything that said you deserved a lollipop.
You really don’t even understand how some people are not even lashing out at you. It’s not all about you.
They’re so damaged, they’re in so much emotional pain that they don’t even see you. You’re just some vague reflection of something painful that happened in their past.
Walk away from people like that. If they follow you, warn them to go away. If they don’t listen, then resort to one or more of the alternatives I mentioned. If they are still a threat, *then* deal with it.
I’m not talking about the ones who are clearly psycho, from word one. I’m not an advocate of complete non-violence, at all costs. I’ve done several years of martial arts and I own firearms.
I’ll definitely shoot someone or snap their neck if they’re trying to harm someone I love. But that’s night and day different from “I don’t like this person, I want them to suffer”.
Most people are just normal people and not the super villains we make them out to be when we’re pissed off. If we have the emotional capacity of a three year old, we don’t get cut any slack. We have to be bigger than that, if we’re to be worthy of respect.
We all get angry at times. Unless we learn to walk away, we end up like one of those scenes in the movies where nobody will drop their gun and everyone winds up dead.
Stupid is as stupid does.