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Curses, Prayers, and Counter-Spells: Discernment in Usage A strange and anxious time has befallen the world in this uncertain post September 11th time. The American economy is shaky. The war being carried on in Afghanistan is uncertain in its effect. Terrorists, both foreign and domestic, keep the public continually anxious with diseases and threats of worse. Our government and media are in a continuous spin cycle, and laws have been passed that have severely curtailed our civil liberties. The painfully jingoistic phrase "God Bless America" is plastered on signage and stickers and t-shirts everywhere. Exhortations to ‘pray for America’ pepper the preaching and writings of religious leaders from coast to coast. It is an unspoken assumption that the prayer wanted is Christian prayer, and despite the insistent attempts to deny it, this is a religious war. The President’s usage of the word ‘crusade’ and ‘evil ones’ does not help to dissolve this image. In churches and synagogues across the country, people are being urged to pray for America and to pray for the defeat of the enemy. On the other side, and in many places across the globe, the insinuation that this is a religious war has not been denied at all. In fact, it has been used to exhort people uninvolved in the conflict to enter into it- all people of the Muslim faith must battle as one. Many earnest young men are finding training camps to join. And many people are also praying for victory- against us. Unlike our culture, they do not sugarcoat their intent- they want Allah to curse and punish us, their enemy. Writes Asra Q. Nomani in Salon Magazine: There is another dua, "Qunoot-e-Nazala," recited recently in a durs, the women holding their open palms before them. It's repeated in other homes and during private prayers said as women prostrate themselves before Allah on the janamaz, prayer rug, they lay out in a corner of their bedroom. It has a more ominous message. It can alienate someone from the West. It frightens me. "Dua for invoking a curse," reads the translation of this prayer. Prophet Mohammed is said to have recited this prayer after he sent 70 learned men to teach Islam to a tribe of non-Muslims. The non-Muslims, it's said, slaughtered 69 of the learned men, with only one escaping to relate the story. It begins, as do many a dua in times of calamity, seeking forgiveness for Muslims' transgressions, and it asks for Muslims to clear their hearts and join together. "O Allah! Forgive us and all believing men and women and all Muslim men and women and put off actions between their hearts and reconcile between them and help them against your enemies and their enemies." Then, "O Allah! Curse the disbelievers, those who stop from your way and belie your messengers and fight your friends. O Allah! Put differences between them and make them falter in their footsteps and send upon them your punishment, one that you would not turn away from a transgressing and criminal people." That’s a pretty hairy curse, if you ask me. And this nastiness is being aimed at US- and being asked of by the very same BibleGod that the Christians and the Jews also worship. Which brings me to an interesting question: Does BibleGod take sides? Can BibleGod take sides? Or does BibleGod throw up hands in horrified exasperation and say, "Go ahead and kill yourselves, people- I’ll sort you out when you get here." As a Pagan and mage and neutral party, I’d say the same thing, except there isn’t a safe, neutral, BibleGod-free place for me to bide my time until this all blows over. And it is showing distinct signs of hanging around for a good long while. It isn’t safe in this atmosphere. With all these pious curses being hurled back and forth across the Void, the astral world is as lit up with prayers and counter-prayers as any poor Afghan village in a bombsight. What, then to do? Most Pagans’ first impulse would be to create a counter prayer/spell invoking Karma and the Law of Three, and send it right back at them for a taste of their own nastiness. And were this a one-off retaliation and lesson for an ego-poisoned curse-hurling neophyte, I would quickly recommend this course of action. But such a response is best used only for a one-off situation. One-off being the curse sent by the error-addled magickal amateur, quickly followed by a powerful karmic return salvo of his or her own medicine. This operation is different, since the curse is being hurled almost continuously. To invoke a return salvo amplified by the Law of Three would actually worsen it, and build a negative feedback loop that could be devastating in its execution. No, a magickal counterspell would not work. The proper action would be to speed the neutralizing effect that the prayers and counter- curses are already creating. Amplifying the nullspace of the opposing counter- prayers will also serve to neutralize any stray negative energy created. Who, then to invoke? Not BibleGod, since he is pretty tangled up by this whole thing. Nor any of the avatars, prophets, or saviors- they are also too immersed in the whole thing to be of any use to us. Instead, the advanced magickal operator has to acknowledge and tap into the Kingdom Within to invoke the proper currents that will serve in correcting this problem. The meditative formula:
By God Within and Will of All I bid thy curses not befall By Kingdom’s Will And Power of Three Thy words go to Neutrality. With Magick Mirror now on high Thy words will fall on empty sky. Thy empty words shall comfort thee By God Within, So Mote It Be.
This permits the Unknowable to act through us, amplified by the laws of the Spirit realm to capture and neutralize all energies being exchanged in anger and malice. This does not take away the tiny comfort the invokers get from uttering such horrors, but it takes the venomous fuse right out of them, and they indeed fall upon empty sky, as well they should. BibleGod is out of the loop, and balance is maintained in the Astral. There are many modifications and variations to this basic formula, but they all have profound effect. By taking curses out of the loop, this clears the ground for those who seek to get at the root of the problem and act upon it. For the incense altar, a combination of 1:1:1 Frankincense, Myrrh and camphor (or cedar) may be burned to clear the air. Moon phase is not vital to the success of this operation, but Full to Waning has the best effect, as the goal is to reduce and neutralize negative energies. Sunfell, Samhain 2001
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