I'm wondering the mechanism of curses.
Do they just release pre-existing negative energy already present in the person's own psyche? Do they take on malefic energy from the environment. I mean, energy can't be created or destroyed, it has to come somewhere.
I think this (the section I've quoted anyway) would have made an interesting separate thread.
In essence, yes, a curse is the violent release of negative energy without concern for the consequences. All of these elements are necessary and here's each one in turn:
1. The negative energy (usually in a very emotional form) has to be present in the sorcerer's psyche and it
must be connected with the target. This is why it's difficult to curse people (say politicians) with whom one has not got a two-way energy link. There's no pathway for energy exchange there. It's also why, aside from being unvirtuous, taking the negative energy that one person has infected us with and trying to direct that onto someone else generally doesn't work either. So the target must be the person who has given us the negative energy in the first place and this given energy must be very strong. If a sorcerer is effectively cursing people for trivial reasons, it's an indication that there's something deeply damaged within their psyche. They'd be better off understanding where that came from and directing all of the negativity back to that source.
2. It must be violently released. This means the decision has been made to return this energy in the most potently destructive form possible. We have chosen to amplify and streamline this energy and send it back to where it came from with a hundred times the force with which it was directed at us. When this is done properly it utterly uproots from the self
all of the energy we've received from that person. The thought of them no longer induces rage but apathy. For all of the "darkness" that goes on in a curse ritual, there is a very cathartic aspect to it.
3. This must be done without concern for what happens next. It contradicts the negative energies being worked with to try and inhibit them or tell them to "not go too far" (if you feel this way, you've not been damaged enough to justify a curse). The sorcerer really must not care what happens. If the cathartic dimension has been done correctly, this part is easy. Also at play here is the good advice to consciously "forget" about a magical Working after doing it.
Could you work with the energy of curses at all for a faster spiritual development.
Not only possible but necessary. A curse really should be the last resort. Before then there's all kinds of transmutation of energy work that can be carried out, from learning not to be reactive to transforming the energy into a different kind of energy. People who have been traumatised and who use that to push them on their field of expertise are (usually unconsciously) doing this kind of energy alchemy. Think of Mike Tyson learning to box because someone killed his pigeons or an Italian dancer becoming Madonna because of the trauma of losing her mother.
Does it ever make magickal sense to curse the dead? After all, "the evil men do lives on after them." Likewise, the dead agent might be assumed to remanifest itself given that death is transition not terminus. So, is it ever a good use of time and rite to not let the dead rest in peace, as it were?
This reminds me a bit of Agrippa's account of witches stealing body parts from the dead in order to have spiritual control over them. In my view, the metaphysical implications are a separate thing. If a dead person has done damage and justice wasn't served in life, then there would be catharsis in a ritual which heaps horror upon horror upon their tormented soul as long as it
is catharsis and not an obsession. Desecrating their memory could also be useful. If anyone is going to do it, do it once and do it well. That can range from the criminal (smashing/graffitiing a gravestone or abusing their ashes) to writing about what they did and the kind of person they were. If it meets the same caveats as would apply to a living person, then curse them and move on. As with all curses, it's about you letting go of a hindrance to your evolution.
The sole case I know of someone doing this was against a deceased individual known for pronouncedly strong opinions in this life, though not for magick practices in the same span. The curse-thrower shortly thereafter suffered some serious health problems, though these could very well have been natural.
...
Thou hast no right but to do thy will. Do that and no other shall say nay. ~ 666
Virtue, Truth and Honour are a perfect means of aligning with True Will. If we're practicing them, nothing will divert us.
