Before you mess up your karma by cursing or hexing someone, try one of these safer, more elegant options instead.
If you just searched “How to curse someone,” or “How to hex someone,” read this first.
I mean, I get it. Someone hurt you. Someone did you wrong, and it is so, so, so infuriating and unfair.
It seems your options for doing something about it in the physical world are so painfully limited, you feel almost irresistibly compelled to direct your considerable personal power toward causing them harm.
Believe me, I’ve been there. And I’ve even done that. And I don’t recommend it.
In my regrettable experience, karmic backlash in response to curses and hexes is a real thing. And it’s just not worth it.
But, hey listen: you have options. Whether you want to hex your ex, a neighborhood bully, your boss, or anyone else, the five alternatives below will provide valuable magical recourse without endangering your own energy, sanity, and general wellbeing.
Each and every one of them is spiritually and karmically safe.
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Hex/Curse Alternative #1: Reflect All Energy Back to Its Source
A traditional feng shui cure for dealing with challenging neighbors involves nothing but a mirror. It can be any mirror, of any size. Even a postage stamp-sized mirrored tile will do.
The idea is to place the mirror so that the reflective side is facing the neighbor’s house, and then simply set the (completely neutral) intention that the mirror reflect all energy – good, bad, or in between – directly back to its source.
Sending negative energy right back to its source is quite a bit tidier and more efficient than a hex or a curse. And karmically, it couldn’t be safer.
Usually the mirror is placed outside of the house, but apartment dwellers can place the reflective side against the wall, and hide it behind a picture or a sofa. If your issue is with your downstairs neighbors, you can place it reflective-side down on the floor, perhaps under a piece of furniture. If the upstairs folks are bothering you (and you want to employ this tactic), you would need to figure out a way to attach it to the ceiling, reflective-side up.
This same practice can be adapted for the workplace, or you can even wear a mirror pendant and set the intention that it reflect all energy back to a specific source.
The important thing is the intention. It doesn’t matter what size or shape the mirror is. It can be as big as an entire wall or – like I said – as tiny as a mirrored tile.
Hex/Curse Alternative #2: Cast a Protection Spell
When it comes right down to it, you are the one you most want to take care of in this situation.
And a hex or curse can have the unfortunate side effect of tying your energy to the person or people you most want to protect yourself from.
Luckily, there are plenty of spells that work wonderfully for protecting your physical and energetic wellbeing, without spiritually yoking you to someone you’d rather be rid of. (Although, as a common sense warming, let me remind you that it’s still important to take safety precautions in the physical world, such as locking your door and not getting in the car with strangers.)
Here’s a simple and effective spell for protecting your energy without taking on any energy from the person or group you’d like to protect yourself from:
Ingredients:
An Archangel Michael candle
Dragonsblood incense and incense holder
A lighter or matches
Essential oil of frankincense
Sunflower oil
A small bowl, shot glass, or saucer
Light the candle and incense. Say:
Archangel Michael, I call on you and invoke your protection. Please keep me completely safe in all ways, at all times. Please surround me in your fiery divine light through which no negativity may enter. Thank you.
Feel gratitude for Archangel Michael’s sure and steadfast protection as you place a tablespoon or so of sunflower oil in the small dish. Add one drop of frankincense essential oil and combine. Then lightly anoint your forehead, throat, heart, belly, and wrists with the oil.
Envision blindingly bright, fiery light completely surrounding your energy field and keeping all negativity at bay.
Finish by picking up the incense and holder and safely wafting the smoke around your body (and home if applicable).
Place the incense back near the candle and allow it to burn all the way out. Extinguish and re-light the candle when you can attend to it properly (as needed for fire safety purposes) until it’s burned all the way down.
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Hex/Curse Alternative #3: Neutralize Someone’s Power Over You
In truth, no one has the power to cause you harm: legal, physical, financial, or otherwise. If it seems like they do, I want you to remember that it’s only an illusion.
Even if they’re your landlord, your boss, your ex, or your mother-in-law, once you remember how powerful you actually are, the other person’s seeming power over you will fall away.
Think of it like waking from a nightmare. This spell will act as your alarm clock.
Ingredients:
Sea salt or Himalayan pink salt
The other person’s business card, photo, or full name written on paper
A jar with a tightly-fitting lid
Fill the jar part way with sea salt. Hold the identifying paper in both hands and say,
[Name of person], you have no power over me.
What once seemed like power is now erased.
It’s erased yesterday, it’s erased today, it’s erased tomorrow.
It is null and void. It was never even there in the first place.
It now completely dissolves, dissipates, disappears, and returns to its native nothingness, now and forever, in all directions of time.
Place the card, photo, or name in the jar and completely surround it with sea salt by pouring it over the top and filling the remainder of the jar. Seal the lid. Feel your own power returning and remember how magical you actually are.
Keep the jar on a shelf or in a cupboard until you feel you no longer need the magical reminder.
Hex/Curse Alternative # 4: Bind Someone from Causing Harm
In addition to being spiritually and karmically safer, a binding spell is often much more appropriate than a hex or a curse anyway.
This is especially true if someone is behaving like a bully (in any sense of the word), and you simply want to stop them from causing harm. Here’s a blog post I wrote featuring three ways to bind a bully without harming your karma in the least.
Hex/Curse Alternative #5: Activate Swift Justice
Perhaps the person you wish you could hex or curse is actually doing something illegal, or has done something illegal. Lucky for us, there are divine helpers who just love enforcing swift and appropriate justice. The Norse god Forseti is a personal favorite to call on for the purpose.
Here’s a spell from my book, Holistic Energy Magic, to be used when you’re in a legal situation and you’re entirely in the right:
Call on Forseti. When you feel his powerful presence, send him gratitude in the form of visualized light. With or without words, show him the situation. You might picture the whole thing as if you’re picturing the storyline and emotions of a movie. Be sure to feel your feelings and project them to him as well. Imagine that you are illuminating the dark spaces and shining light on the true situation. Then ask Forseti to intervene on your behalf and bring you the justice that you deserve by saying:
Forseti, the presiding one,
Please stay with me till this thing’s done
Bring justice from your golden hall
Swiftly and once and for all.
I honor you with love and light
And thank you for your wisdom bright!
Feel even more gratitude, and be sure to heartily thank Forseti once justice has been served.
Don’t compound the problem by hexing or cursing someone! Take care of yourself safely and elegantly with one of these more karma-conscious options instead.
And for lasting protection against negativity of all varieties, check out my book, Little Guide to Protection Magic: Everything You Need to Know, Including Protection Spells.
You may also like The Good Witch’s Guide to Binding a Bully.
Do you plan to do one of these karma-friendly spells instead of a hex or a curse? Please share in the comments below.
Someone wronged my father, and it really really infuriates me. On a fit of rage while chatting with my mom and dad, I cursed the person who wronged my dad. I sent my curse in the groupchat and cursed that person and his family, that they may suffer and won’t ever get successful in life. I know I shouldn’t have done that, but it just infuriates me what they did to my dad, it’s just so unfair. He didn’t deserve what that person did to him
Would I get negative karma for doing this? How can I cleanse myself and detach my energies from what I have said? Please any advise is appreciated.
Hi Tanya! I would light a white candle and some white sage during the waning moon and ask the divine to remove the curse and to heal it in all directions of time. Then send everyone healing light.
I have to say I am impressed. So often articles pitching alternatives to combative magic are just weak-willed junk steeped in delusional thinking. Here you start by relating to the reader’s desire for revenge, which I applaud as it seems nobody wants to admit ever being an angry magician or witch these days (lol). Further, your recommendations come from a place of strength, which I think is far more likely to result in successful guidance than all the fuzzy bunny never-kill-a-weed sentiment*.
Before I came to accept my magical calling I studied esoteric warrior philosophy. Turns out I’m more of a nerd than a warrior – hey it’s cool I own it and the world needs nerds just like it needs bad-asses. Anyway I said that to say this: I believe if the wise, powerful men and women I encountered during my time on the warrior path were to read this post, assuming they were able to accept the notion of magic, they would fully endorse your wisdom in this.
Not that you need any endorsements or outside approval, you wonderful badass weaver of tree magic. (I love your book, The Magic of Trees) Just sayin’.
Thanks for this article.
* My deliberate jab does not apply to Jainists and those who identify with them. Those guys/gals are legit IMO.
Ash, this is such a nice comment to receive – thank you! I’m glad you see it this way, and I so appreciate you taking the time.
My daughter befriended a new student and invited her to our home. The friend stole all my daughter’s jewelry and managed to steal many of my own personal items. Her parents helped us recover the items. A short time later she stole from my other daughter at school. The principal intervened and we recovered these items as well. She has now stolen directly out of my daughter’s school locker and her family and the school are no longer intervening. This girl has a serious problem and she’s specifically targeting my family. It’s so frustrating because we’ve been patient and forgiving towards her. This girl is not impoverished or in need at all. Her parents are divorced but they each live in multimillion dollar estates and have way more money than we do. I’ve already performed protection spells for my family and property. Should I now do a binding spell to stop the stealing?
Kel, I’m wondering if you’ve considered calling the police or pressing charges. Not that a binding spell wouldn’t possibly help, but it’s good to start with practical precautions and deterrents whenever possible.
There is a young man on the property who uses witchcraft. I am gifted and can see the other side but I am seeing black entities everywhere all the time in our house. I hear people talking, things moving and just odd noises. I asked him once if he was doing spells because of my seeing and he said yes and his dad was upset about it. His dad’s mom was a witch and did witchcraft and her witchcraft was evil. She is deceased by two years now. We recently had another guy in his 60’s move in and this guy was fit and healthy and did a lot of work on the property helping us out, but lately just got unfit and sick immediately. The man doing the spells HATES this guy and the reason why…..because the man doing the spells is lazy and does not want to work on his dads property as he has had EVERYTHING handed to him in life and was his grandmas favorite. He is only 24 years old and WILL NOT WORK but is able to work. Kind of weird to me actually. BUT, the whole family under her witchcraft GOT SICK and ended up on assistance and now cannot work themselves. YOUNG FIT PEOPLE. I know she did spells on me because she didn’t like me as I am the “other” gramma, even though I have stated that I cannot bond with them. I have one grandchild and that is the only one I want that I am bonded with. There are no more for me and never will be. The one grandchild is a gift as I see it. I usually saged and pushed the spells back from me. I never did karma spells, just asked that they bounce off of me and never affect me. I NEED to stop his spells completely on this property and get some health back here as well as stopping everything we own from breaking down consistently. I am going to try one of these spells and see what happens. How long does it take? I am worried about the older gentleman on the property who was in great health when he came here. If he dies, is that not murder through spells? I don’t like to see people sick and in hardship and I truly cannot understand the mindset of the man doing the spells. I usually avoid him. I literally am thinking of moving off the property and can’t because I worry about my own grandson and I don’t want him getting spells on him either. I do know this man moved here because we live no where near busses or a city and he doesn’t want to work. He didn’t live with his dad beforehand, only his grandparents. He grandad told him that he had to get up early every morning and go find a job, so that is when he decided he was going to move onto this property. LIFE was GREAT before he came here, so I KNOW it is him causing the upset on this property and all I want to do is to stop him from ever doing spells again and have those spells go right back to him. It’s got to end as enough is enough now. I am hoping beyond hope something works in a positive manner. The other day I was walking upstairs from the basement and I heard someone running up the stairs behind me and it freaked me out, but I spoke up and told it not to do that and walk up the stairs normally thank you. It went silent after that so I know it heard me and for some reason I feel respects me in some way. I have had the gift my whole life and I do talk to the other side when I see them, in a pleasant manner. Well, thank you for hearing me out about this. I just want some peace around here.