Curses

A curse (also called a jinx, hex or execration) 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; it is the opposite of a blessing or charm. In particular, curse may refer to a wish that harm or hurt will be inflicted by any supernatural powers, such as a spell, a prayer, an imprecation, an execration, magic, witchcraft, God, a natural force, or a spirit.  In many belief systems, the curse itself (or accompanying ritual) is considered to have some causative force in the result.

Here, I have hidden the secret of powerful runes, strong runes. The one who breaks this memorial will be eternally tormented by anger. Treacherous death will hit him. I foresee perdition. ~ The Björketorp Runestone

This article is for the supernatural wish.  For other uses, see cursing.

Quotes

• 'Cursed is the man who makes an engraved or molten image, an abomination to Yahweh, the work of the hands of the craftsman, and sets it up in secret.' All the people shall answer and say, 'Amen.'
  'Cursed is he who sets light by his father or his mother.' All the people shall say, 'Amen.'
  'Cursed is he who removes his neighbor's landmark.' All the people shall say, 'Amen.'
  'Cursed is he who makes the blind to wander out of the way.' All the people shall say, 'Amen.'
  'Cursed is he who wrests the justice due to the foreigner, fatherless, and widow.' All the people shall say, 'Amen.'
  'Cursed is he who lies with his father's wife, because he has uncovered his father's skirt.' All the people shall say, 'Amen.'
  'Cursed is he who lies with any manner of animal.' All the people shall say, 'Amen.'
  'Cursed is he who lies with his sister, the daughter of his father, or the daughter of his mother.' All the people shall say, 'Amen.'
  'Cursed is he who lies with his mother-in-law.' All the people shall say, 'Amen.'
  'Cursed is he who strikes his neighbor in secret.' All the people shall say, 'Amen.'
  'Cursed is he who takes a bribe to kill an innocent person.' All the people shall say, 'Amen.'
  'Cursed is he who doesn't confirm the words of this law to do them.' All the people shall say, 'Amen.'"
  • Bible, Book of Deuteronomy 27: 15-26 (World English Bible version)

• "Now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand. "When you cultivate the ground, it will no longer yield its strength to you; you will be a vagrant and a wanderer on the earth. Cain said to the LORD, "My punishment is too great to bear! "Behold, You have driven me this day from the face of the ground; and from Your face I will be hidden, and I will be a vagrant and a wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me."
  • Bible, Genesis 4: 11-14, New American Standard Bible.

• It's interesting, isn't it? There are many stories about trees giving curses (Tatari) in the Western part of Japan. Such folklore, or something that goes back to our distant memories, remains strongly in Japanese culture. People on Yakushima Island didn't cut the trees. They thought that cutting trees would bring about a curse. Trees are beings that make us feel that way. I learned it when I went to Yakushima. When they decided to cut and sell trees because they were too poor to eat, there was a monk who recommended cutting the trees. It was not the case that they started cutting tress because a certain person happened to be on the island and said so, but rather to do with the changes in the society itself.

• Hayao Miyazaki Miyazaki on Mononoke-hime Nausica.net (July 1997)

• Our Lord! Give them double Penalty and curse them with a very great Curse!
  • Qur'an, Surah 33, verse 68

• Here, I have hidden the secret of powerful runes, strong runes. The one who breaks this memorial will be eternally tormented by anger. Treacherous death will hit him. I foresee perdition.
  • The Björketorp Runestone

• Some sources report that he (Solomon) encountered the Karina one night. He found her dusky of countenance, and her eyes were deep blue in color. He asked her: 'Whether do you go?' She replied: 'I go to the on who lies in his mother's womb and eat his flesh, drink his blood and crush his bones.' Then he said: 'The curse of Allah be upon you, o accursed one.' And she said: 'Do not curse me, for I have twelvenames. Whosoever knows them and hangs them round himself, him will I not go near. Whosoever writes them down has nothing to fear, by the will of Allah, the Almighty.

• Text published by H.A. Winkler, Salomo und die Karina. Eine orientalische Legende von der Bezwingung einer Kindbettdamonin durch einen heiligen Helder. Stuttgart, 1931, p. 110; as quoted by Siegmund Hurwitz, Lilith the First Eve: Historical and Psychological Aspects of the Dark Feminine, p.137

Curses in fiction

• May Christmas bring to you its traditional combination of good food and violent stomach cramps.
  • Edmund Blackadder

• May the Yuletide log slip from your fire and burn your house down.
  • Lord Melchett from Blackadder

• Double portion of my shame be on you, Terence Mulvaney, that think yourself so strong! By Mary and the saints, by blood and water an' by ivry sorrow that came into the world since the beginnin', the black blight fall on you and yours, so that you may niver be free from pain for another when ut's not your own! May your heart bleed in your breast drop by drop wid all your friends laughin' at the bleedin'! Strong you think yourself? May your strength be a curse to you to dhrive you into the divil's hands against your own will! Clear-eyed you are? May your eyes see clear ivry step av the dark path you take till the hot cindhers av hell put thim out! May the ragin' dry thirst in my own ould bones go to you that you shall niver pass bottle full nor glass empty. God preserve the light av your onderstandin' to you, my jewel av a bhoy, that ye may niver forget what you mint to be an' do, whin you're wallowin' in the muck! May ye see the betther and follow the worse as long as there's breath in your body; an' may ye die quick in a strange land, watchin' your death before ut takes you, an' onable to stir hand or foot!
  • Rudyard Kipling, "The Courting of Dinah Shadd"

• You are a tactful swordsman, so I will not renege on our wager. I grant you the kiss of eternal life, but, for your arrogance and pride I will temper my gift with this curse. You will be a mere shell of yourself as I strip you of most of your powers. Each nightfall, evils will be shown to you, and the pain of their victims will be your pain. You will never know rest as you wander this world searching to slay the horrors that haunt your sleeping world. You will suffer grievous wounds, but you will not die, and as eternity rolls on, you will crave my touch. Your face will bear my visage, and your eyes will burn with hellfire. But...let it not be said that I am without mercy. There shall be an end to your curse. If all the beasts of the dark are slain, then you may find rest.
  • Robert A. Kraus Chakan: The Forever Man

• Mercutio: Help me into some house, Benvolio,
  Or I shall faint. A plague o' both your houses!
  They have made worms' meat of me: I have it,
  And soundly too. Your houses!
  
  • Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet Act 3, scene 1, 105-108