What brings you to the decision to hex someone?

[Ophidia]

Re: What brings you to the decision to hex someone?

To bring the opposite side to the coin, I don't believe in hexing. Not in the actual doing of it, which, tbh, you can do to your heart's content, but...I just don't believe it works. I cannot fathom, under any circumstance, where lighting a black candle and swearing a bunch and jumping in a circle (or whatever you people do when you hex) would cause someone to fall of a roof, or suddenly have their business crash, or something.

Not so much in modern middle-class western society, but in many traditional systems, people actually do die from being cursed. There's a lot of socio-religious psychology behind the 'voodoo death' that isn't present for most of us living in today's world. Someone can still scare the living crap out of some people by threatening them with magic, or letting it be known that they are a witch/Pagan. In those cases, I'm not sure if it's actually magic doing the work, or the victim's fear and expectations doing the magician's work for them.

When it came down to my dad's ex-girlfriend, she was a New Ager who had threatened me with exorcism. I had no problem threatening her in return with spellcraft. In the end, my threat was the stronger of the two - I was not particularly terrified of her circle of New Age soccer moms. If nothing else, my 15-year old self was a dirty fighter, and I knew I could take them down. From the time of our verbal showdown to when the woman left for Iowa, I watched her suffer an incredibly long string of bad luck, and I didn't even actually do anything other than threaten. It was if the Universe decided she was free entertainment. She started missing appointments, friends & supporters drifted away, her car broke down, her kid kept getting sick, she kept getting sick, her business failed, a water heater in the garage broke & flooded a bunch of her boxed-up belongings. Instead of calmly and maturely dealing with each setback, she continued to melt down and to make it worse, showed signs that she was afraid to deal with me at all. My father, being a long-distance trucker, was of no help and seemed to be gone for longer & longer stretches of time, leaving her stuck in the house with me.

Of course, this was the wrong thing to witness at 15. I felt I had the power at my fingertips to absolutely ruin any enemy who came my way, and I turned into a stereotypical egomaniacal evil villain. I've mostly grown out of that but it does pop back up from time to time ;D

As for other curses, the outcomes were quite similar only sometimes a little more drastic. I don't know if it's because anger, fear, resentment and disgust are easier emotional states for me to use as energy-sources, or if practice made perfect, but I never had a curse 'fail'. Compared to the number of wealth spells I've done that never materialized, for me the harmful spells are more successful than almost any other types of magic I've ever done.

[Tylluan Penry]

Re: What brings you to the decision to hex someone?

Re cleaning up magical messes.... when I was brought up, it was with the dictum 'Wishes and curses are like old hens, they always come home to roost.' In other words spells for any intention (good or bad) have the potential to rebound or turn out differently from how we expect. And when that happens, it's our duty to clean it all up. If you have ever tried cleaning up a magical mess, you know it's not something you want to do again in a hurry. And that in turn makes for more precise and better spell craft.

[Sarkana night]

Re: What brings you to the decision to hex someone?

I don't. That simple is it.

One of the main reasons why I don't hex or curse someone is probably because I don't know how to do it.

[Corvus]

Re: What brings you to the decision to hex someone?

I've hexed afew times with varying degrees of actual intent. I've only ever felt bad at one of them though and that one was a blessing that went horribly wrong and mainly was my own fault at not being clearer. I'm a vindictive person. I don't really like it but I'm not above cursing someone who is otherwise beyond my power to hurt. More often then not I've actually started planning a curse and gotten everything ready and realized that I just didn't want to do this and put everything back. In my opinion magic is a tool and curses are how that tool is turned into a weapon which should be used only when other options have been considered. Its no different really than attacking someone physically except in most places you wont be arrested for hexing and if it works the only punishment youll likely get is moral,divine (or from the other person returning the hex). That is a plus or a minus to some people.

[Djnn]

Re: What brings you to the decision to hex someone?

Reading all these responses I am curious as to what the difference in a curse and hex is. I always just thought they were the same thing. Now not to sure

[Ophidia]

Re: What brings you to the decision to hex someone?

I know there's probably a definite difference between hex and curse, and Tylluan would probably be the one to ask

To me it's a matter of degree and specificity. A curse is a large malevolent goal. Cursing someone with barrenness, or for every business an entire family touches to fail, for instance. Hexes are less specific and smaller scale or duration. Working a spell to make someone lose a contest or miss a job interview is a hex. Hexes can be just as dangerous as curses, like if you hexed someone with an accident on their morning commute. Random intense negative wishes can be hexes, too - and apparently in some places having a particularly nasty glare means you can hex people - which is why there are so many charms and wards against the 'evil eye'.

[Djnn]

Re: What brings you to the decision to hex someone?

Well if the severity of the outcome determines a hex or curse we really wouldn't know what we are casting until its hone into motion. It's a dangerous notion lol. But I do think curses are far worse. When you hear about a curse it does generally tend to be a grey cloud that lingers... Through generations or the life time of the Target. But I would be very interested to see what tylluan says

[AL!CE]

Re: What brings you to the decision to hex someone?

Reading all these responses I am curious as to what the difference in a curse and hex is. I always just thought they were the same thing. Now not to sure

As far as I'm aware they are just two words for the same thing. They probably come from different languages.

- - - Updated - - -

To bring the opposite side to the coin, I don't believe in hexing. Not in the actual doing of it, which, tbh, you can do to your heart's content, but...I just don't believe it works. I cannot fathom, under any circumstance, where lighting a black candle and swearing a bunch and jumping in a circle (or whatever you people do when you hex) would cause someone to fall of a roof, or suddenly have their business crash, or something.

But I'm not very malicious, either. My line of defense simply involves ignoring the fuck out of people.

(sidenote: I loosely believe spells work, but only through the power of affirmation, and I don't really believe they work on anyone but yourself. I think magic is outside the realm of spellwork. Thought I'd throw that in, cuz I know SOMEONE would bring up that I was working on a job spell last week.)

There are various theories on how Magic (including curses) works. My theory is this: I'm here and you're there so I can't hit/hug you but if someone was sitting next to you they could hit/hug you for me if I could convince them to do so. Now Magic obviously doesn't use the internet, it uses the spirit world. When we cast spells we are convincing spirits to act on our behalf. Now how I attract and affect spirits is obvious (by the ritual of spellcraft) but how those spirits then go on to affect the physical world is a lot less obvious. Anyway it's just a theory. Magic may work in another way or not work at all. I believe it works and I've had positive results with many of my spells.

[Ophidia]

Re: What brings you to the decision to hex someone?

Well if the severity of the outcome determines a hex or curse we really wouldn't know what we are casting until its hone into motion.

Well, I don't know about you, Djnn, but the times I've cast a spell, whether it was for good or bad, I knew exactly what my intentions were.

Of course, how the Universe arrives at the conclusion can be... amusing.

[Djnn]

Re: What brings you to the decision to hex someone?

Yes when I cast intent is very important but sometimes... Yeah the powers that be can do many things with it lol. So its entertaining to just cast and see how it happens. Of course I don't do that with the darker thongs haha. But that element of surprise can be addictive

[MaskedOne]

Re: What brings you to the decision to hex someone?

Of course, how the Universe arrives at the conclusion can be... amusing.

I'm holding to the theory that the universe comes complete with a twisted sense of humor.

[AL!CE]

Re: What brings you to the decision to hex someone?

Continuing my theory of how spells work: I think (most) dark matter and dark energy is in fact the spirit world. We can't see it, we don't understand it but we can measure it and if we can measure it then it is "real" enough to affect the world we know. If I'm right (and we know that Dark Energy is more powerful than Gravity and is throwing the galaxies further and further apart) imagine what can be done with that energy if we can harness it. I think spells are our attempts to harness that energy and sometimes we seem to get it right.

[Tylluan Penry]

Re: What brings you to the decision to hex someone?

Well my own interpretation is slightly different, but here goes (and remember it's only my opinion....)

I think in practice there is very little difference between the two terms. But if you personally feel there should be a difference, then use that. I used to think that hexes were magically propelled whereas curses were always verbally propelled. Not sure these days. I mean erotic curses are very ancient, and they are definitely magically propelled (and if anyone is not sure what an erotic curse is, please just ask!)

I think that with both there is the intention to cause harm... although with self-hexes (and yes, they do exist, but they are quite specific and more than just a run of bad luck) they can be intentional in meaning but accidental in their direction. Misdirected hexes that rebound on the originator are a good example.

Never, ever cast and just see how it turns out. In my opinion badly thought out spells are responsible for many things that turn out to seem like hexes. They aren't, because the intention wasn't there in the first place, but a badly-thought out spell can cause utter mayhem.

If you have ever lived amongst people who hex (in my case it was my family) you will never, ever doubt their power. They can be truly terrifying. And yes, sometimes they kill. They are certainly not something you play around with.

But then again, I always advise against dabbling anyway. I don't dabble with the electricity in my house.... I don't recommend dabbling with magic either. Know what you are about first.

[AL!CE]

Re: What brings you to the decision to hex someone?

Of course this theory makes the term 'the dark arts' incredibly apt.

In reply to myself ^

- - - Updated - - -

Well my own interpretation is slightly different, but here goes (and remember it's only my opinion....)

I think in practice there is very little difference between the two terms. But if you personally feel there should be a difference, then use that. I used to think that hexes were magically propelled whereas curses were always verbally propelled. Not sure these days. I mean erotic curses are very ancient, and they are definitely magically propelled (and if anyone is not sure what an erotic curse is, please just ask!)

I think that with both there is the intention to cause harm... although with self-hexes (and yes, they do exist, but they are quite specific and more than just a run of bad luck) they can be intentional in meaning but accidental in their direction. Misdirected hexes that rebound on the originator are a good example.

Never, ever cast and just see how it turns out. In my opinion badly thought out spells are responsible for many things that turn out to seem like hexes. They aren't, because the intention wasn't there in the first place, but a badly-thought out spell can cause utter mayhem.

If you have ever lived amongst people who hex (in my case it was my family) you will never, ever doubt their power. They can be truly terrifying. And yes, sometimes they kill. They are certainly not something you play around with.

But then again, I always advise against dabbling anyway. I don't dabble with the electricity in my house.... I don't recommend dabbling with magic either. Know what you are about first.

We are all dabblers. It is an art, not a science and whilst some "artists" are better than others (with more knowledge of technique) there is no set formula to Magic and the best of us can "paint a bad picture".

[Tylluan Penry]

Re: What brings you to the decision to hex someone?

We are all dabblers. It is an art, not a science and whilst some "artists" are better than others (with more knowledge of technique) there is no set formula to Magic and the best of us can "paint a bad picture".

Well, I have to disagree with you there, . I don't like dabbling. And there really isn't the need for it. We really do need to know what we're doing, and how best to achieve our aims. Personally I would never trust anyone to cook a four-course dinner if they had never learned to boil an egg. Magically it is very much the same. (and I appreciate there that my definition of dabbling and yours may be completely different - so what I am getting at here is people who will not make the requisite effort to learn what is necessary and actually practise in order to improve.)

Dabbling is not the same thing as learning. Honest attempts to improve, to discover more, provided you remain extremely clear about intention and method, rarely provide any problems. Two of the biggest obstacles to clear-headedness (in my experience) are rage and alcohol (drugs maybe for some people too, but I don't personally have experience of that.)

Spells almost always go wrong when they were not properly thought out, or when someone involved was not being entirely honest. This is one reason why I don't like performing spells for other people - and I certainly would not perform a hex for someone else.

To give an example - a few years back I had a phone call from a friend of a friend wanting me to perform a hex on an ex.... I never had any intention of obliging, but thought it would be interesting to see just how far she was willing to go... as it turned out, it was not very far at all. She wanted no part in the spell, no part in the preparation, and no possible risk of any magical comeback. At the same time she wanted to make this man 'suffer.'

Another problem with spells generally is that the techniques do need to be learned. It's no good reading a book and then, a few months or years later, trying to perform a spell from memory. Anyone trying that is liable to produce a dog's breakfast instead.