Curses & Maledictions 101

cosmic-witch:

A curse or malediction is a spell that is performed with malintent. These kinds of spells are generally performed to cause misery, pain, strife, and/or destruction upon a target. 

Basic Terminology:

• Baneful – causing destruction or serious damage
• Curse – a spell performed with malintent
• Hex – used interchangeably with “curse” or “jinx”
• Jinx – said to be a lesser form of baneful magick; also used interchangeably with “curse” and “hex”
• Malintent – “bad” or negative intent 
• Target – the person on which you are performing the spell
• Taglock – a personal item belonging to or describing the target (description of the target, a piece of DNA, their signature, their name written on paper, a poppet designed to represent them, etc.)

Steps to Casting a Curse:

1. Exhaust all mundane methods of resolving an issue before resorting to cursing. 
2. Educate yourself on various methods of protection before even thinking about casting a curse. 
3. Know what you’re doing. Research, plan ahead, and set your intentions straight in your mind to prevent any kind of backlash from the curse. This means, be specific. Be sure that your curse is aimed at your target/s, and no one else, including yourself. 
4. When gathering ingredients, be sure that the correspondences match your intent. 
5. Be aware of any health risks that are associated with the ingredients you choose to use in your curse – for example, certain baneful herbs can be harmful when burned, ingested, or even touched. 
6. Formulate a curse that fits the crime in question. 
7. Set conditions for your curse, including some kind of “failsafe.” If you don’t want your curse to last indefinitely, be sure to acknowledge that. Set some kind of time limit, such as “when the target learns their lesson, this curse will be lifted.” 
8. Methods of cursing can include the construction of poppets, jar spells, sachets, effigies, sigils, or pretty much any other type of spell you can come up with. 
9. When you have constructed a taglock for your target, gathered your ingredients, and ultimately decided how you want to carry out your curse, you’re ready to cast it. 
10. Before actually casting the curse, set up some kind of method of protection, whether it be a ward, a shield, a circle, or calling upon external forces to protect you. 
11. Meditate on your intent and clear your mind. Be sure you are free from distractions before performing the curse.
12. After you’ve performed your curse, clean up your space, and do some deep cleansing – cleanse the area in which you performed the curse, cleanse yourself, and cleanse your entire home. 
13. Perform some self-care – eat something, take a bath/shower, drink water, and get a good night’s sleep.

Curse Correspondences