A Witch's World of Magick (23 page)

If reflection is the route you want to take to cure your curse problem, use your words, intentions, and actions to create a reflective, reversing quality surrounding the person or place to be protected. If you’re aware of any elements of the original curse or spell you are hoping to thwart, incorporate backward, reversed, twisted versions of these same procedures, incantations,
etc.
For example, if you suspect the curse or spell was cast with a candle, you might light a candle and think of it as the magick you are attempting to break. You might extinguish the flame, then proceed to break the candle up in to bits as you chant:

The curses into candle cast, I smash you up, away and fast! Into darkness, magick plunged, the spell extinguished, it’s undone.

If you’re using this technique to undo a spell of your own making, just change the word “curses” in this chant to “magick” or “patterns.”

Whether or not you know much about the original curse, you might incorporate reflective language in your countercharm, pronouncing commandments such as “I send this curse back to where it came from; I reflect it back.” Similarly, you might also employ reflective actions. For example, you might empower a stone to symbolize the curse you want to break, then fling this stone far away as you command the curse to go flying back to its caster. You might also use bizarre movements or words to cast your reflective countermagick—recall how the Pennsylvania Dutch turned their clothes inside out to repel gossip, and let your imagination lead the way.

If you’re having trouble deciding on a method of cursebreaking, or simply feel uncomfortable taking a starring role in the procedure, consider using overpowering as your primary technique. With overpowering, you can leave the cursebreaking up to the gods and goddesses. By relying on the efficacy of prayers and pleas to a more powerful divine to overpower and overcome the infraction on one’s behalf, the witch is effectively taking his or herself out of the equation, passing along the curse and the responsibility for breaking it over to the deities. Of course, many of us witches enjoy having a heavier hand in our own magick, and prefer to do the overpowering on the strength of our own magickal merit. Many witches are able to draw the power necessary to break a curse from within their own person, and prefer not to trouble the gods with requests for intervention unless it’s a challenge we just can’t deal with alone. Other witches find working with the deities more often can deepen one’s sense of spiritual connection, and prefer to ask for guidance and help from the gods as frequently as is feasible. Whether the power is coming from you, the deities, a combination of energy from you and the deities, or another source entirely, if the energy source you are drawing on is stronger, brighter, more aggressive, and more tenacious than the energy of the original curse, it will win out every time as it outshines and overpowers the vibrational pattern of the weaker magick.

Once you’ve performed whatever cursebreaking actions you’re going to do, strive to put the matter out of your mind. Take common sense precautions to keep yourself safe if you suspect you have an enemy out there in the world, but don’t let this knowledge rule your mental or emotional state. Remain aware, alert, and confident. You might also benefit by shifting your focus to spiritual pursuits and peaceful practices such as meditation, chanting, gardening, sacred movement, magickal art, or yoga. These activities can help realign and purify your energies, giving your countermagick a better chance for success.

Magick to Counter Your Own Charms

Cursebreaking magick isn’t only good for breaking curses; many of the same techniques used in cursebreaking formulas can be effectively adapted and applied to undo more positive magick of your own making. Sometimes the spells we’ve cast become undesirable as our needs, wants, and circumstances change. When this happens, it’s nice to have a way to recall that magick before it has a chance to have further unwanted effect.

Undoing your own spellwork should be relatively easy now that you’re familiar with a few methods of cursebreaking. The technique you’ll use depends largely on the original design of the spell you’re aiming to break, though reflection or magickal object destruction will likely prove your best bets.

If you’ve crafted an object in the course of the original spellcasting, simply destroying the object will neutralize the unwanted magick. For this reason, you might find it handy to include such an object in your future spell designs so you’ll have a built-in way to undo the magick should it become undesirable. If there was no physical object involved in the original spellcasting, try using reflection to reverse and confuse the original magick. Consider the original actions, words, and ingredients used in the spell, then refer to these elements to recall the spell back to an earlier, malleable state. Then use reflective or bizarre language and actions to create a reflective energy surrounding the earlier magick. For instance, if in the course of the original spellcasting, you danced in a clockwise spiral and chanted “so mote it be,” you might apply the reflection principle by dancing instead in a counterclockwise direction, envisioning the original magick unraveling as you chant “so won’t it be!”

Remember, magickal energy, once sent, has to go
somewhere
. When undoing your own spells, try directing any lingering energies from the original spell into a brand-new bit of magick.

Points to Ponder

• Is there an ethical difference between offensive cursing magick and defensive cursebreaking magick? What is this difference exactly? Is there a line that shouldn’t be crossed in terms of how far to take an act of countermagick, and if so, where is it?
  
• In what situations might a countercharm or countercurse be called for?
  
• Is a reflection spell made more powerful when its design incorporates precise knowledge about the original magick to be reversed? Can sheer intention and simple words expressing a desire for reflection be just as effective? Why or why not?
  
• Which method of cursebreaking magick would be best to use in a situation when time is of the essence? Which method would be best if a guarantee of success on the first try was of the utmost importance?
  
• Would you be willing to use cursing, countercursing, or cursebreaking magick to help thwart a murderer, rapist, or other serious threat to society? Would you be willing to use such magick to combat a global ill such as violence or hunger? Why or why not?
  
• What are some additional methods of cursebreaking and countermagick not discussed in this chapter?
  
• Can you think of any creative or non-traditional ways that techniques of cursebreaking might be applied in your own magickal practice?
  

[contents]

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Georgia Writer’s Project, Savannah Unit, Mary Granger, District Supervisor,
Drums and Shadows
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100.
The phoenetic dialect spelling used in the original text is preserved here also to provide an accurate transcription of the oral testamonies offered by the interviewees and to bring these stories back to life in the voices with which they were originally told.

101.
Florence Johnson Scott, “Customs and Superstitions among Texas Mexicans on the Rio Grande Border,” in
Coffee in the Gourd,
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102.
Chadwick Hansen, excerpt from
Witchcraft at Salem
(New York: G. Braziller, 1969), in
The Salem Witch Trials Reader,
edited by Francis Hill (Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press, 2000), 245.

103.
This is another example of an archaic method included here for discussion and historical interest; please do not cut or otherwise harm animals in your magick-making.

104.
Georgia Writer’s Project, Savannah Unit, Mary Granger, District Supervisor,
Drums and Shadows
(Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1940), “Sunbury,” 111, accessed May 15, 2012, http://www.sacred-texts.com/afr/das/das15.htm.

105.
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106.
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107.
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108.
Tohunga
is a Maori word meaning expert at an art or trade.
Mana
is an indwelling, impersonal force existing within all beings and in many inanimate objects as well.
Atua
is a word meaning a power, or god.

109.
Eva Pocs, “Curse, Maleficium, Divination: Witchcraft on the Borderline of Religion and Magic,” in
Witchcraft Continued: Popular Magic in Modern Europe,
edited by Willem De Blécourt and Owen Davies (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2004), 182.

110.
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111.
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112.
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The Pyramid Texts
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113.
“Pyramid Texts Online,” accessed January 1, 2013, http://www.pyramidtextsonline.com/.

114.
The Ancient Egypt Site, “The Pyramid Complex of Unas,” accessed January 1, 2013, http://www.ancient-egypt.org/index.html.

115.
Maurice Bloomfield
, Hymns of the Atharva-Veda: Sacred Books of the East, Vol. 42
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1897), V, 14, “Charm to Repel Sorceries or Spells,” accessed March 28, 2012, http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe42/av090.htm.

116.
John George Hohman,
Long Lost Friend
(1820; trans., Camden: Star and Book Novelty Company, 1828), “A Good Remedy Against Calumniation or Slander,” accessed March 23, 2013, http://www.sacred-texts.com/ame/pow/pow009.htm.

117.
Joseph Lin, “The Curse of the Bambino,” October 19, 2011, in “Top 10 Sports Superstitions,” Time.com, accessed January 5, 2013, http://keepingscore.blogs.time.com/2011/10/19/top-10-sports-superstitions/slide/curse-of-the-bambino/.

118.
Brian McGrory, “Taking Teeth Out of Curse? Teen Hit by Ramirez Foul Ball Lives in Babe Ruth’s Former House,” September 2, 2004
, The Boston Globe,
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119.
Dan Shaughnessy
, Reversing the Curse: Inside the 2004 Boston Red Sox
(New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2005), 231.