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My two cents on cursing

My two cents on cursing

Last updated on: July 17, 2021 at 3:23 pm by Annwyn Avalon

My two cents on cursing 2021-07-17T15:23:01-08:00 Annwyn Avalon

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Before I begin my post, I want to start with a declaration on how I feel about cursing. To me, cursing is like a fine wine. It is not for children, witchlings, or novices, there is a time and place for fine wine, and it’s not every day, and it’s not all the time. Too much wine, like too much cursing, can be a really bad thing, and depending on what you are working you can get a magical hangover. Drink wine, or curse all the time be prepared for your body to begin to fall apart, but there are benefits to wine and cursing as well. Doctors recommend a glass of wine here and there for health reasons and as such, I believe that cursing can be incredibly healing when used in the right context and I don’t believe that if you do ABC to a person that you will receive ABC back. Cursing can be used for social justice, for the abused, and trampled on. It can bring empowerment and it can bring back power where it was once taken and it can liberate. I personally have cursed a handful of times for very specific and empowering reasons and so the blog that follows comes from this perspective.

When I post on Facebook about “cursing,” many people try to “curse shame” me. I strongly believe that a witch has the right to curse and that when she or he feels it is wise and necessary, they should do so. I don’t personally believe that if I curse or bind someone, it will be reflected right back to me, or that I will get some type of karmic backlash.

Here is the deal: Magic always has a price. Some prices can be paid upfront. Others not so much. When the price is high it may not be a set number. It can change at will. Like that time you had dental work done and they quoted you one price, and then two months later you find out that the insurance company didn’t want to cover it all.

So yes, I support those that want to curse. I have quietly engaged in these types of activities. But I threw shade at the Cursing of Trump.

I spoke out as to why I wouldn’t be participating in this single act and I was shamed for that as much as I had ever been for supporting curses. You can’t make everyone happy, but you can make a change. Many people who spoke out about not participating in this one-act were shamed, and it was largely taken out of context.

There are those that fly the “Harm None” flag, and there are those that were raised on the three-fold law as dogma. They were there too, but this is not who I am talking about. I’m talking about solid, grounded leaders who said “Hey guys! This isn’t a great idea! They have our playbook, they know what we are doing, and they have already made their own plays to counter it.”

So I decided to write this post in response. There have been many blogs about this topic but I want to be a little more constructive and provide solutions, cautions, and encouragement.

Do our work secretly and silently.

I can’t say this enough. We all need to revisit the Powers of the Sphinx. It doesn’t matter what path we follow, it is a good system to follow and there is wisdom in it. For those that don’t know the powers are: “To know, To will, To dare, and To keep silent. Remember; Dion Fortune sent private letters out to gather those that wished to focus on stopping the German invasion. She didn’t put an advertisement in the newspaper. Keeping the silence helps the energy to hold in tight and to be controlled and more focused.

Stop advertising our playbook

This is common sense. I don’t know anything about football, but I did watch enough of the Super Bowl to know that if the team that lost had been given the playbook before the game well then it would have had a different outcome. Same thing with military operations. Sure there are leaks here and there, but the entire operations are not handed over to the enemy before a strike. It is just counterintuitive. In the case of this specific spell, the entire thing was printed for all to read.

JW Waterhouse- public use

Magic is not about seeking 15 minutes of fame.

There is something that I can’t quite place my finger on. It feels wrong, and it has nothing to do with the act of mass cursing, or the act itself, but the celebrity of it. Each mass hexing/binding/cursing that has taken place in the last few years has gotten major media attention. This sky rocketed the organizer to the front of the stage, where the light shines bright and brings attention or celebrity to these people. While this may not have been their intent, I strongly worry that over the next few years we will see hollow group spells and rituals that do nothing but bring the poster to celebrity and further demonize us. How then do we gauge if this was for the limelight or for the actual cause?

Another thing that is problematic, is that until recently cursing and binding have been an underground thing, something that intermediate and advanced witches who have been trained, or are being trained by a grounded teacher are silently engaged in. Private emails and phone calls are sent and witches gather in secret and get the work done. However possibly for the first time ever, cursing is available to baby witches, and it is widely being encouraged. I am just not sure it is in their best interest to fast track them to this type of magic, skipping over essential foundation material just to mess with Trump.

sorceress

JW Waterhouse- public use

The other thing is the whole social media “look what I’m doing” thing. I fear there are many that want to look cool, or like they are being part of the cause so when these things come around, they light a black candle, take a photo and say “OHH LOOK AT ME” but did they really do anything? Why is this the only time we hear from these people and their black candle photos? Why are they not engaging with their deity every single day? Why are they not already in pacts with their spirits to do this work? And by the way, how do those spirits feel about you posting their hard work on social media so you can receive accolades? I also have a hard time with people who post these hollow photos but aren’t doing other work. Just do the work, and stop worrying about who is watching.

No I’m not saying don’t post things on social media, because if you have followed me for a while you see many of my photos on there, most of which have some connection to the work I am doing. However if you look closely, they are usually acts of devotion, and honoring of my deity I post it because it widens the scope of my worship and brings ideas to others who might want to worship. I tend to only post spells on the internet if my intent is to use the image to project it (because that is a thing) but on the other hand often times posting images makes the energy leak out. So sure there are genuine people out there doing this work and posting it, (I’m not talking about you) I’m talking about the half-assed attempts. Just do everyone a favor and examine your heart and its intent before advertising it. If it genuinely is an attempt to spread the energy and broadcast the spell, then awesome. If it’s for back rubs and to make you feel good then EFF OFF.

Stay tuned, next week I continue my rant and focus on what we can do to make change and how we can stop bickering and come together to do work that will make change and not injure us and our community in the process.

More about Annwyn Avalon here

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March 28, 2017

The Girl that found a Well - Interview with Gaia Woolf-Nightingall

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April 3, 2017 My two cents part 2 - Yes we can work together

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