How to Curse Someone

     It has been stated that one must know how to hex in order to know how to heal and while many pagans and wiccans may shy away at the thought of working with the darker energies and arts, the aphorism stated above about hexing and healing makes total sense when considered in a wider scope and broader sense. 

     Just as a physician cannot repair or mend a wound or affected area until he knows what baneful thing was the creator and cause neither can one who works with spiritual energies, and with the related fieldwork with the soul, know how to correct imbalances and misalignments in that sort of setting without being aware of the potential causes and consequences. 

     Being well versed in the education and knowledge of the mechanics and actions that would have easily been construed as maleficent or baleful in previous eras does not necessarily mean that you must act on such knowledge and use it today. Indeed, not without a very good reason.

     Forewarned is most certainly forearmed in regards to your own personal safety whether you are protecting from a physical snakebite for example or a more malignant attack of an etheric nature. This essay will not be a diatribe on the ethics of cursing and hexing. Nor will it take on the specific task of condoning such activity and behaviour. 

     With these words I will share various concepts and ideas, perhaps even recipes, formulas and spells in regard to both ends of this thorny spectrum. What you choose to do with this information is purely a speculative gesture on my end. Your own conscience, personal ethics and moral compass shall guide you in regards to your own state of actions. 

     Please note that I am additionally of the opinion that if you are of the nature and temperament to use any of the bits posted here for those maleficent purposes that one could just as easily use nursery rhymes or passages from whatever book you may call bible. While I fully recognize that words do have an inherent power and those whose names you call do come, it is your intent with the material that is truly important, and not what words you intone.

     The brief mention that I will make in regards to the possible toll and the lasting after affects that cursing or hexing may take on you if you choose to incorporate any of the workings or rites listed here is to summarize what the late authors Doreen Valiente and Evan John Jones wrote about in Witchcraft: A Tradition Renewed from their own personal experiences.

"...Like many things of the Craft, the powers of healing are balanced by the powers of cursing. In effect, the power invoked in both cases is one and the same thing. It is only the end results that differ. Instead of transmitting the power of good through healing, the power of evil through hate is transmitted. The technique used is exactly the same; and should the Goddess grant the placing of a curse, there is still that sudden feeling of a barrier giving way and the cold, dark waves of hatred pulsing through the gathering and outwards. Once again there is a time to do this sort of working; and once again this time should be governed by the lunar phase. As stated above, the time of cursing is during the dark of the moon. This phase signifies the dark side of the Goddess, in the shape of the old Hag or Angel of Death. In this guise she is the one who lines her nest with the bones of poets, the Sheela-na-Gig figure with the all devouring sex organ. From her womb came all life - and with life came death. In this aspect she is the Goddess of Revenge.

     To call on this aspect of the Goddess, any group or coven must be certain in their own minds that there is good enough cause for this working and appeal for justice. Once this side of the Goddess is invoked and put into motion,  a price will be extracted from the group. For months afterwards, the group generally feels flat and empty. The rapport and harmony that should be part of the coven or group psyche are broken and in some cases a whole year's workings can be lost. Time alone can and does heal this; but if the working has been of a particularly heavy nature, a full ritual of purification should be used to leave behind all the negative influences generated by the cursing rite..."

     Obviously, if I were willing to exact such a toll from myself and my working partners I would make damn sure that it was well worth it, at the risk of such debilitating effects to the group as a whole and the associated interpersonal dynamics, and there would surely have to be a greater reason than some petty and minor personal idea of vengeance or revenge. 

     The direct results of the person's actions that I was considering hexing or cursing would have to include a serious endangering of others (by physical or magical means). And any such acts by them would have to be done with a callous disregard as well as a grave disrespect for all life. Additionally the possibility of this manifestation being readily observable that myself or someone that I knew and loved would be caused undue harm by exposure to this person or groups of persons presence or influence and such that I would find these acts by that person's hand unacceptable on any measurable scale.

     The chippie sales girl who is rude and arrogant behind the counter at Dillard's doesn't warrant much of my physical attention, let alone any serious magical efforts or energies exerted on my behalf. Nor would the driver who cut me off in traffic get much more than a dirty scowl and the occasional middle digit salute. I wouldn't deign to feed the banks of these activities with any of my spiritual coinage for actions that would be deemed less negligent or less threatening according to the requirements described in the preceding paragraph.

     Woe be to the one who does meet those aforesaid requirements though as I and those of my house shall do everything possible by all means to thwart and divert that intended danger. 

     Let us begin with some simple yet fundamental background information on the two items mentioned in the title of this essay, the lore and the mythologies associated with both the hawthorn and the blackthorn.

Hawthorn (Crataegus Oxyacantha) -- is known by many other names, Hedgethorn (haw being an older word for hedge), Quickthorn, Whitethorn, Hagthorn, Huath, Bread and Cheese Tree, May Flower, May Bush and takes the Latin name from Kratrus, meaning hardness of the wood, Oxus, meaning sharp, and Akantha, meaning thorn.

Medicinal: Hawthorn's healing abilities are great and all parts are used of the plant to bring about certain medicinal functions. Being ruled by Mars and considered masculine this makes working with the Hawthorn's fiery essences a boon in such primal uses as in fertility magic and related spellwork and bids of petition. On the medicinal level, Hawthorn is a very beneficent plant and aids in all various forms used both as a diuretic and as well as an astringent. Hawthorn also is an aid in cardiac situations when used a as a tonic for both both organic and functional problems of the heart. Hawthorn is also helpful in treating angina and arteriosclerosis and can be used to lower blood pressure.

Mythical: Thomas the Rhymer (True Thomas, Thomas of Erceldoune) is said to have received his initiation at the hands of the Queen of Elphame (who came riding amid the sound of nine and fifty small silver bells) underneath the Hawthorn. A prophecy spoken by Thomas in regards to his lands was in reference to this very Thorn tree; "As long as the Thorn Tree stands,  Erceldoune shall keep its lands.". In 1814 a terrible gale took down the aged Thorn and a series of financial disasters swept through the community and all the common land was sold to make payment on an outstanding debt thus fulfilling the words spoken by Thomas 600 years earlier.

• Wood from the Hawthorn provides one of the hottest fires thus showing its fiery Martial nature. 

• Hawthorn is one of the Nine Sacred Woods of the British Isles and traditionally used in Roodmas balefires.

• Hawthorn trees guard Sacred Wells in Ireland and folks are known to leave objects called clouties which are pieces of cloth that are hung about the thorns and are left as a physical representation of the wishes and desires of the heart.

• Witches are said to be able to transform into the delightfully musky scented Hawthorn at will.

• An old legend states that the first Hawthorn bush grew from the staff of St. Joseph.

• Hawthorn branches hidden in the rafters of the barn will keep the cattle safe and protect against unwanted wights, lightning and storms.

• Hawthorn leaves placed in cradles will protect the child within from baneful influences.

Blackthorn (Crataegus Tomentosa or Calpodendron) -- is known by many other names, Sloe (from whence Sloe Gin is derived), Pear Hawthorn, and Urn Tree. As in the earlier description of Hawthorn, the identical meaning for the word Crategus remains and Tomentosa is added, meaning that the leaf of this plant is covered with densely matted filimental hairs. Additionally, the reference to the urn shaped fruits is where the term Calpodendrun arises in the secondary Latin name given.

Medicinal: Blackthorn is also ruled by Mars and has similar associations. This plant can be seen as rather the inverse or obverse of the meanings attributed to Hawthorn when used in way that seeks catabolic rather than anabolic effects. When used for the idea and intent of healing the properties of Blackthorn can be quite benevolent when used as an astringent, diaphoretic, as well as a diuretic. As with the Hawthorn, all parts of this small tree or shrub are used from the flowers to the fruit and even the bark is utilized at times into teas and infusions for stimulating the appetite.

Mythical: Major Thomas Weir, who was burned as a Witch in 1670 in Edinburgh, went to his death along with the tool that he (and many others) considered his most powerful -- a staff of Blackthorn that had been carved with a Satyr's head that Weir claimed to have received from the Devil himself. This staff enabled him to fly among other feats according to the tales told in regards to the Major. Weir had previously been considered the Saint of West Bow due to his pious sermons until one day he confessed to his many years of unholy and devilish activities with his sister Jean. They were both tried and both condemned to death as a result of his confessions.

• It was once thought that the Devil pricked the finger of those who had given themselves over to him in deed or pact with a Blackthorn as a secret sign of initiation.

• In Scottish lore Winter is said to begin when the Callieach strikes the ground with her Blackthorn staff.

• The sharp thorns of the Blackthorn were called pins of slumber when used by Witches of the British Isles to pierce their poppets in their acts of cursing.

• English Witches will also use an entire stang made from Blackthorn for the express purpose of cursing and cursing alone.

• The Irish Walking/Fighting Stick, the Shillelagh, is often made from the sturdy and plentiful wood of the Blackthorn.

• British Witches of a Northern Persuasion would often carve the rune Thorn on a Blackthorn stave for protection.

• Rudyard Kipling has immortalized the Thorn in his tales of Puck of Pook's Hill with the memorable verse that contains these lines; 

"Of all the trees that grow so fair, 
Old England to adorn, 
Greater are none beneath the Sun 
Than Oak and Ash and Thorn."

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