If You Think You've Been Cursed, Here's How To Break The Spell

Despite your best efforts, it's entirely possible that as you live your life, bad things will happen to you. You or a loved one may get sick, or suffer a devastating financial setback, or endure some other calamity, through no fault of your own. The idea of bad things happening to good people has inspired an entire genre of pop-psychology books.

As it turns out, it may be possible that you're a victim of a conspiracy involving the supernatural. It's possible that someone you know, or have crossed paths with — perhaps you inadvertently wronged them in some way — has taken to using magic or sorcery to channel evil into your life. Or put more simply, you've been cursed (or hexed).

Fortunately, reversing a hex or a curse is a relatively straightforward process and, with a little luck, you can dam the flow of bad mojo into your life — or at the very least, redirect it — in an afternoon.

No one religion holds a monopoly on the invocation of curses. For example, it's possible to curse someone in Islam, according to Faith In Allah, although the curse merely "deprive[s] [the victim] of the mercy of Allah." Similarly, the idea of cursing is big in Hinduism, according to Vedic Feed. If you watch a Bollywood movie it's a safe bet that one character will curse another.

However, when it comes to hexes, curses, and invoking evil into the life of an enemy, folk religions are where it's at. Voodoo, Santeria, and the Big Daddy of folk religions — Wicca — all contain curses and hexes to one degree or another. Depending on how much faith you want to put into the traditions, they've been used to bedevil (no pun intended) victims for centuries. So prevalent is the idea of cursing in Wicca, and so straightforward and clear is the process to reverse it in Wicca, that for the remainder of this article, we'll be discussing the Wiccan method of removing or redirecting a curse.

The first step toward dealing with a curse, according to Learn Religions, is actually two-fold: determine if you're really cursed, and then figure out who is behind it. For the first part, ask yourself three questions: 1) Is there any explanation, besides a curse, that could account for what's happening to you? 2) Have you angered or offended someone? 3) If you answered "Yes" to #2, does that person have the knowledge and skills to curse you? You have to have answered "Yes" to all three to proceed with the curse reversal, according to the Learn Religions writer, else you've not been cursed.

Now you have to identify the person who is cursing you, although if you've gone through the thought experiment laid out above, then it's likely you've already landed on your target. Do take great care, however, to make sure that you've crossed all of your t's and dotted all of your i's, because throwing a reverse curse towards the wrong person, or into the universe in general, is probably bad form.

There's a reason mirrors play a prominent role in superstition and folklore: They reflect. Of course, in daily use, mirrors are used to reflect light, but in some folkloric traditions, Wicca included, they're also used to reflect energy, even if it's negative energy in the form of a curse, according to Learn Religions.

Once you've identified your target and determined to reverse the curse, first you must consecrate your mirror, according to the instructions via Exemplore, and then place it in a bowl of black salt. Next, obtain some sort of talisman that represents the person who is cursing you; one of their belongings, for example, or a doll representing them, or even a scrap of paper onto which you've written their name. Point the mirror towards your target, and reflect their curse back on them.

"I use mirrors a lot. It comes in handy to break curses and hexes, especially if I'm not exactly sure who the source is. It bounces everything back to the person who originally cast it," says practitioner DeAwnah at Learn Religions.

Another object that figures prominently in folkloric religions and traditions is the humanoid, a doll or poppet or other object intended to represent a human, as Hex Old World Witchery explains. In much the same way that someone with evil intent can make a humanoid of you and use it to direct evil in your direction, if you are the victim, you can use such an object to route the curse somewhere else.

As Learn Religions explains, simply construct a poppet to represent yourself, and then designate the object as the decoy recipient of your curse. To seal the deal, say a little invocation: "I have made you, and your name is ______. You shall receive the negative energy sent by ______ in my place."

Once you're convinced that your decoy is absorbing the curse rather than you, great care must be taken to get rid of it properly. Taking it far away from you and burying it is a starting point, but if you really want to be rid of the curse once and for all, light a bonfire on the spot where you buried it and then do a chant that calls for the curse to be consumed along with the flames.

Finally, according to Learn Religions, there are few other, random things that you can try that could reverse a curse. The first is something you'd probably want to do anyway: Take a bath. Specifically, take a purifying bath that includes salt, hyssop, rue, and other "protective herbs."

Another option is known as "binding," which is intended to metaphorically tie the hands of the person giving the curse. Invoke a binding spell against your cursor and the hex could possibly be reversed, although Sweet Witch (posted at Medium) notes that binding is a powerful spell and the one casting should tread lightly when invoking it.

Last but not least, you could always try a cleansing, or uncrossing, spell. One option is to simply recite the 37th Psalm (posted at Bible Gateway), but you could also recite the psalm while burning a bundle of incense. That bundle should contain sage, rue, hyssop, salt and frankincense. Similarly, you could skip the psalm all together and just burn the uncrossing incense bundle.

On the other hand, Christian denominations suggest countering a curse with prayer. Catholic Exchange quotes Father Jose Fortea: "Good is always stronger than evil." And in the Gospel of Luke, Jesus advises, "bless them that curse you" (6:28, via King James Bible Online).