Curses

Picture From: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YqpyoWFazM Curses and Cursing are a part of life and there are at least two meanings to this concept. One meaning, comes from the mundane world and the second meaning comes from popular witch lore. In the mundane world cursing is sometimes called swearing.

Mundane World: Swearing is Good for You

From Time.com

Scientifically speaking, swearing is good for you. It deadens pain and enlivens our emotional discourse. We know that its effects are physiological as well as psychological; it raises our heart rates and releases adrenaline whether we use it. And taboo language is so fundamental to the way we communicate that even potty-trained chimps can invent their own swearing.

For swearing to work, there has to be a frisson of taboo about it. This isn’t just a value judgment; experiments prove that minced oaths — the “sugars” and “fudges” — just don’t work as pain relief, nor do they offer the same catharsis to people suffering from Tourette syndrome. What’s more, we have a limited window in which to learn what constitutes “real” swearing. In languages we learn before adolescence, the swear words carve deep emotional paths. Experiments show that swear words learned early are pulse quickeners, memory sharpeners and pain killers. But no matter how diligently you study a language after adolescence, you’ll never feel the same way about its strongest components.

In this era of endless squabbling over what is or is not offensive, a corner of academia has been pursuing the language that we pretty much all agree is not polite — studying the syntax of sentences like “F-ck you” on the same college campuses where students are being safeguarded by trigger warnings.

Let some social scientists tell it and the way profanity affects us reveals elements of our nature as evolutionary beings, I sh-t you not. “If you don’t study this kind of language,” says psychologist Timothy Jay, “you’re missing an important part of being a human.”

During his career at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, Jay has recorded and analyzed thousands of people swearing, and he’s come up with two core reasons for why we do it. For one, it allows us to express our emotions, to vent, to release. “It also communicates very effectively, almost immediately, our feelings,” Jay says. “And other words don’t do that.”

Like any powerful tool, these words can be used “for constructive or destructive purposes,” Bergen says. They are generally inspired by taboo-ridden domains: sex (“f-ck”), bodily functions (“sh-t”), religion (“hell”) and words describing other groups people (the n-word). The words in the final category tend toward the destructive because “they really are built to offend, to cause harm, to divide and to denigrate,” Bergen says. In studies, Americans rate those group-based swear words as the most offensive.

The Witch’s Curse

From Wikipedia.com

A curse (also called an imprecation, malediction, execration, malison, anathema, or commination) is any expressed wish that some form of adversity or misfortune will befall or attach to some other entity: one or more persons, a place, or an object. In particular, "curse" may refer to such a wish or pronouncement made effective by a supernatural or spiritual power, such as a god or gods, a spirit, or a natural force, or else as a kind of spell by magic or witchcraft; in the latter sense, a curse can also be called a hex or a jinx. In many belief systems, the curse itself (or accompanying ritual) is considered to have some causative force in the result. To reverse or eliminate a curse is sometimes called "removal" or "breaking", as the spell has to be dispelled, and is often requiring elaborate rituals or prayers.

The study of the forms of curses comprise a significant proportion of the study of both folk religion and folklore. The deliberate attempt to levy curses is often part of the practice of magic. In Hindu culture the Sage or Rishi is believed to have the power to bless and curse. Examples include the curse placed by Rishi Bhrigu on king Nahusha and the one placed by Rishi Devala. Special names for specific types of curses can be found in various cultures:

• African American hoodoo presents us with the jinx and crossed conditions, as well as a form of foot track magic which was used by Ramandeep, whereby cursed objects are laid in the paths of victims and activated when walked over.
• Middle Eastern and Mediterranean culture is the source of the belief in the evil eye, which may be the result of envy but, more rarely, is said to be the result of a deliberate curse. In order to be protected from the evil eye, a protection item is made from dark blue circular glass, with a circle of white around the black dot in the middle, which is reminiscent of a human eye. The size of the protective eye item may vary.
• German people, including the Pennsylvania Dutch speak in terms of hexing (from hexen, the German word for doing witchcraft), and a common hex in days past was that laid by a stable-witch who caused milk cows to go dry and horses to go lame.

How to Curse

It would be safe to say that if you are an adult then you know how to curse in your native tounge and some of learn how to curse in different languages. But that is the mundane world and there begins the mistake some make. Words have power; they can lift up or drag down. It is through the use of words that meanings are conveyed and the shaping of a spell happens.

So how does one curse? Well it is really quite simple, create a spell meant to create a negative. But negatives can be good. Just look at grounding; it is in fact a negative act as it removes a particular energy from circulation. Banishing is another negative act that is considered rather good. Who hasn’t banished something or someone from their lives when that item or person has proven to be too disruptive? Which is also the purpose of swearing or cursing in the mundane world as well, in a roundabout way. After all cursing in the mundane world allows for the expression of extreme negative emotions and by doing so alleviate the distress from them.

Types of Curse

There are pretty much three main types of curses; Quick Curses, Object Curses, and Ritual Based. An Object Curse is when an item is imbued with the ability to continuously cause negative things to happen to those in possession of it. A Ritual Based curse is when significant time and effort is put in prior to the enacting of the curse and then the curse is powered through the use of a ritual.

Quick Curses:

• Spitting -  The act of gathering enough spit to actual perform can be difficult. It could also be seen as a form of sacrifice magic because you are taking energy and substance from yourself to power your intent.
• The Evil Eye - Who has not received a less than welcome look from another person? However this particular type of magic coming to us from the Italian’s is more than just a look, it is a direction of as much negative emotion and energy as possible in the shortest amount of time.
• Verbal Curses - Quite literally what you would expect; the forming of words with intent to cause harm to another.
• Written Curses - This could also be called short ritual curses as typically there is some ritual in the creation of a piece of writing if nothing more than the act of being particular about the writing implement and what it is written on.