Crossed Conditions
Note: this article was originally “Uncrossing, Protection and Blessing”. It was becoming a bit of a monster in terms of length and I chose to cleave the beast into multiple articles. Read this one first and then move on to Uncrossing.
What’s This All About?
Sometimes people encounter strange, surreal situations, circumstances in which they are completely out of their range of experience. When these odd happenings seem to meet the criteria for what we call the paranormal or the occult, most people simply do not know what to do or to whom they should turn.
Sometimes I work with people who have unusually bad luck or supernatural disturbances in their homes. I do my best to help them sort it out and it’s always fixable, provided they’re willing to follow directions, to the letter.
When a person is experiencing paranormal problems, nasty bad luck that they suspect is caused by something supernatural, we call it Crossed Conditions (or CC, for short).
The person suffering from Crossed Conditions seems to have the reverse Midas touch; everything they touch turns to shit.
Not The Usual Crap… EXTRA Crap
Of course, everyone has bad luck from time to time, we need no magickal explanations to account for that.
I don’t think I have ever met anyone who didn’t have a bizarre string of unfortunate coincidences at some point. These things just happen… there’s not too much you can do to prevent the occasional bad luck.
That being said, when your luck is persistently crappy or when you’re regularly experiencing fearful things, events that defy logical explanation, it might be time to start looking at the occult possibilities.
Sometimes, we’re having a rough go of it because of our personal astrology. We can look at your birth chart and your current transits first, to rule that in or out. See the Services page, to set up an astrology reading.
When people tell me of bad luck that starts suddenly but doesn’t seem to end, I start to wonder. If they they talk of things moving on their own, disembodied voices, chilling presences, etc, there’s a checklist I run through, to decide what’s going on.
Ballroom Blitz
First, I try to determine if there’s any evidence for any sort of serious mental illness and if so, I tell them to consult a psychiatrist.
I won’t work with anyone who is schizophrenic or has a similar, debilitating illness. Depression and anxiety are common and those are not cause for much concern. However, hallucinations and the like are usually related to a schizophrenic break or drug intoxication, etc.
Mental illness is sometimes related to spiritual issues but any hallucinations or anxiety caused by magick will cease, once the spell is broken and the offending Spirits have been sent away. Symptoms caused by mental illness will remain, unchecked by any magickal work that may have taken place.
Out Yo Dam Mind
If a person is crossed up, they may indeed experience temporary symptoms that are akin to mental illness.
But any problems that result from magick will go away, once we deal with the problem. We deal with it through proper magickal methods and the person continues to diligently keep up their psychic hygiene, thereafter.
Any symptoms that result from a true mental illness, will not simply go away because of any spell work that anyone does.
Whether due to chemical imbalances or neurological damage (from drugs or injuries) brain chemistry is a thing.
If the problem is mental illness, rather than magick, then no amount of magick will fix the situation.
“That’s gospel, right there, ya’ll”
Magick may provide some placebo effects but it will not suffice on its own, in cases of mental illness. When the problem is termites, then rearranging the living room isn’t going to help.
If the person seems to be a healthy, rational individual, then I try to ferret out any other, potential causes. These are things like hoaxes for attention, practical jokes and an overactive imagination. They’re the usual stuff that any Self-respecting skeptic would look at first.
If none of those red flags are present, I read the cards and ask my Spirits if the person may be crossed up.
Butterfly Net
The term crossed conditions is a very wide net that covers many possible causes for the myriad of possible symptoms the person might be experiencing.
Step one is diagnosis; we need to know which category your little occult problem fits into. Sometimes, it will be more than one. The following four categories are a nice, little filing system that I picked up from Jason Miller’s book, Protection & Reversal Magick.
Self-Imposed Jinx
This is probably the most common reason that people suffer from abnormal, bad luck. A person sometimes gets into a bad habit of thinking negatively and that habit becomes a dark version of the Law of Attraction, which is one of the more well-known (and more misinterpreted) occult principles.
The popular book and movie, The Secret, discusses the Law of Attraction, if not a bit simplistically. In the scenario of a self-imposed jinx, it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy; you expect the worst and so that’s precisely what you get.
Yet, such mental creations can actually spiral out of control, to the point that it becomes quite ridiculous. People are capable of jinxing themselves so strongly that they do seem to be cursed. In fact, they are cursed… they’ve cursed themselves!
It can go way beyond things like locking the keys in the car, which can be easily chalked up to simple, self-sabotage. A severely jinxed person can have awful luck of biblical proportion. The cycle takes on a life of its own, becoming totally independent of the conscious thoughts or actions of its creator.
Set It & Forget It
A person no longer needs to think negatively, in order for bad things to happen. They’ve set up the cosmic dominos in such a way that the pattern continues to snake forward on its own, leaving a wake of chaos, with no more intentional help from the individual.
They might have even learned their lesson, consequently changing the way they think, speak and act. Now aiming their brains more intelligently and consciously, the bad stuff continues to occur.
They get a flat tire when they did not drive anyplace unusual. Then, in the same day, the car gets egged by kids who are total strangers. Next, the mobile phone dies, despite being only 4 months old and has never been dropped. Then, they get mugged, while walking to work in an area usually deemed safe, in broad daylight.
Drone Tone
This sorry state of affairs becomes the new normal; it just goes on and on, with no end in sight. The heater breaks, the toilet breaks, the stove breaks, the TV breaks.
Fights with loved ones, coworkers and even strangers are common occurrences, despite the fact that the person is kind and considers other people’s viewpoints, has a good grip on their anger and has a solid understanding of the art of communication.
Any of these, taken by itself, is perfectly explainable. However, it makes no sense that so many things would happen all at the same time, to the same person.
A single week of such luck is dismissible. Shit happens, right? That’s obviously true but when this goes on indefinitely, an intelligent person doesn’t just leave it at “There must be a logical explanation”.
“Maaaaaaybe”
There may well be a rational, mundane explanation… yet the burdensome truth remains that something must be done to fix it. Even if it was a simple case of psyching yourself out, it stands to reason that you can psych yourself back in. Ritual is a great way to do that.
The solution for the self-imposed jinx is an uncrossing ritual and some blessing work. The uncrossing procedure cuts the thread of bad luck, while the blessing work turns the energy back in a more positive direction.
Occult Practice
Sometimes, begin practicing the occult and simply do not realize the dangers. Don’t get me wrong, I am an occultist and I heartily endorse a great many of the arcane arts. However, I also drive a car and I would venture to tell you that there are serious dangers to the piloting of motor vehicles on American roads.
The occult can be safely practiced, just as driving a car can be safe. But driving education is usually mandatory, while many so-called occultists have only read a few things on the internet or read a couple of mediocre books on the subject.
A little knowledge can truly be a dangerous thing. Even a simple candle spell can an array cause unforeseen backfires for the novice who does not have a skilled teacher but instead relies upon badly researched books and internet articles. Another example is the foolhardy soul who jumps straight into serious Spirit evocation without establishing a proper education in the rudiments of magick, first.
Into The Cornfield
If you have (accidentally or intentionally) summoned up a Spirit that you don’t know how to get rid of, it may choose to attack you, for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is self-defense.
It might not want to be bound to someone who has no idea what to do with it. If someone grabbed you and threw you into their home, you’d fight to be set free, too.
If a Spirit is causing you problems, you’ll need the same set of operations… an uncrossing and some blessing work. But you’ll need to add something else… a house cleansing.
Of course, if you did actually summon the Spirit, there should be a license to depart given, before anything else. If you’re not sure what that is, it’s a formal declaration that sets the Spirit free to leave. Should it still linger, you move on to banishing it, forcefully.
Not Today, Satan
You’ll probably want to learn a solid banishing rite, in case you should ever face such a situation again. A tried and true ritual of protection is the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram (referred to as the LBRP, for short). When magick is practiced correctly, the mage is given a banishing ritual very early on, well before being taught to summon anything.
If you are already practicing a protection rite but it’s not working, then it could be that you are executing it incorrectly or perhaps you are dealing with a Spirit or a curse energy that requires a stronger approach. This is rare, because the LBRP is quite strong; it will effectively rid you of almost anything unwanted.
Big Guns
However, in certain rare instances, you may need more than that, if the Spirit in question is particularly strong and foul. If that was the case, you could still use the LBRP but it would need to be accompanied by other rituals and practices, as well.
I teach several a number of methods that can accompany rituals like the LBRP, in my conjure course, The Nascent Magician.
Curses
Some people leap straight to declaring “I’m cursed!”, when actually, they don’t know a single person who practices any type of magick and they can’t name anyone who truly hates them enough (and has the money) to hire a black magician to do the job. They’ve never cast a spell in their life and they’ve never even visited a place that was known to be haunted.
Still, crossed conditions happen and it more and more frequently, these days. That’s because there are more practitioners of sorcery and resources for learning black magick are readily available.
The supplies for practicing the dark arts are plentiful and easy to find and “Curse your enemies!” websites are everywhere.
Once in a while, an enemy of the person tells them directly “I put a curse on you”. Some enemies want you to know, to make you afraid. Others believe their curse will only be effective if you realize the curse has been cast.
Sometimes it is a matter of deductive reasoning. The client is suffering from a curse but they never had such a problem before.
They may have recently went through a very painful breakup with someone who was rather open about their practice of some of the more nebulous forms of sorcery. It doesn’t take an Einstein to figure it out. The estranged lover was angry and put some bad juju on them.
Black Magick Woman
The occult shops that sell supplies for curses will tell you that lots of people are buying this stuff. Every year, many thousands of people all over the world purchase cursing services from black magicians for hire and many thousands more buy the supplies to do it themselves.
So it stands to reason that if at least a small percentage of people out there are actually being attacked with real curses. If even a portion of those spells are effective, then people are suffering as a result of them.
Wheat and Chaff
Certainly, some of those hired-gun practitioners are legitimate magicians, not just con artists. Probably most of the internet magicians you can find are matchstick men, scammers. Still, a small slice of the pie almost statistically has to be made up of people who do real black magick.
The other population is composed of people who don’t generally work on the dark side but they have an enemy and they have gathered enough steam and hatred that they now will act on it.
Weapons of Black Mass Destruction
A few of these would-be black magicians are working up the nerve to actually use those black candles, Goofer Dust, Voodoo dolls, Destruction Oil and other curse kit supplies they bought.
Some of those who use such things will happen on to success, even if they didn’t expect it to actually work and it surprises the hell out of them! Even a blind hog fonds an acorn, once in a while.
Many times, people view magick, most likely due to our current social view of psychology and science, as a sort of therapy. In other words, they believe that nothing will really happen, but it will be good for them to get their anger out by cursing the person they are embittered toward. It’s a kind of spiritual vomiting up of the anger they have been dealing with.
Other times, the person knows exactly what will happen. They know how to do it and they are bitter enough to actually carry it out, knowing full well that it may cause very serious harm to the target.
Cauldron Stirrers
These are the truly dangerous people and they DO exist. Some people out there will rape you, steal from you, murder you, cut you off in traffic or key your car… just because they can.
So, if there are hundreds of thousands of totally sociopathic people out there in the world (and there are), then I assume that at least a few of them dabble in the occult.
The ones that do will gladly curse you if they take a notion to do so. We all know that some people will start fights over nothing at all, just to vamp off the energy they stir up. Some people will curse you, just because they know how to.
Back Atcha
In cases of actual malefica, it’s sometimes necessary to do reversal spell. This can take several forms. It might be a mild spell or a harsh one. Either way, it serves to send the energy right back to its source, giving them a taste of their own medicine. Unless they are very used to this and have heavy defenses in place, it will most likely knock them on their ass.
Then, you can go so far as to cast a reversal that is designed to actually kill your enemy. This is not recommended, generally. It’s a very dark place to go and it’s to be avoided, if at all possible. That’s a last resort, to be sure.
After a reversal has been performed, the other methods we’ve already mentioned should be done. These are the house cleansing, the uncrossing ritual and blessing work. All these should occur, to best set things right in your world.
Spirit attachments
You may have visited a place that is haunted or where there is an unruly spiritual presence and something just sort of latched on to you and began following you and pester you mercilessly, perhaps even violently.
It happens… not very often, but it does happen and crossed conditions are much like a virus. You might visit a friend, relative or acquaintance with a crossed conditions and that funk gets on you.
In visiting their house, the Spirit may decide it would rather hang out with you; you have better taste in music.
It’s a simple case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Maybe you didn’t even go to their home. Maybe a Spirit followed them to yours.
Occultists know that curses are easy to anchor in physical objects and the unscrupulous types will use that information. If you get a gift from someone who is icky, note the date you receive it and refer to the timeline of trouble.
Gross Factor
Have you ever met someone for the first time, with no prior information about them and for some strange reason, their energy just made you feel sick to your stomach? They don’t have body odor or weird mannerisms but you get an overwhelming sense something is off.
That person just might have a spirit attachment and be slow to judge… it may not be their fault. It’s possible to pick up a straggler Spirit from a total stranger at your favorite coffee shop.
It could be something that unpredictable but then it could be much simpler to explain. Going to a funeral is a way to pick up a hitchhiking ghost who was lingering there.
Tombstone Shadow
Hoodoo practitioners learn that when you go to the graveyard, you take a different route home, so the spirits can’t easily follow you. Once home, you take a cleansing bath, to shake off anything you pick up by accident. This avoids many types of crossed conditions and it keeps up your psychic hygiene.
“Just like me, they long to be…”
There are a multitude of reasons for Spirit attachments and it doesn’t matter how you picked up crossed conditions. Maybe they’re attracted to your magnetic personality. Probably not; more likely, they just want you for your body.
What matters is that you either make peace with them, or make them leave. The choice is and should always be… YOURS… not theirs.
Ghost Riders In The… Graveyard
To rid yourself of a spirit attachment, you go through the same steps as the other methods but you will not need a reversal. That is, unless the Spirit was intentionally sent to attack you.
Divination and basic detective work will reveal whether that’s the case or not. You will need to do an uncrossing, a house cleansing and some protection spells, to seal your aura from future issues.
Obviously, you’ll want to follow it all up with some general blessing spells.