Some Thoughts on Social Components of Curses

On a more complicated note, there is definitely a social/political component as to what spiritual actions get defined as “curses”, and therefore are considered morally/ethically reprehensible.

It’s normal to hear Christians say things like “I’ll pray for you to be saved from your sin” when the sin in question is something like being gay. Logically, it follows that the only way to be “saved” from “sinning” is to die. Or they could be praying that people from other religions find “salvation” in Jesus, basically wishing for them to experience an intense crisis of faith and possible social isolation. And yet we don’t call these people out for generating “bad karma”, or for being “violent” and “sadistic” and “wishing harm on others”. The combination of Christian prayer and a target deemed “acceptable” protects them from being perceived as nasty shit.

But if you pray to your ancestors for protection or ask nearby spirits for help, and they give you instructions for a baneful or binding spell, suddenly it’s all just “violence” and “punishment” and “impinging on other’s agency” with zero space for nuance.

Hell, it doesn’t even need to be an actual “curse”. As long as it has aesthetics that whatever oppressing power finds creepy (which is going to be anything that is unfamiliar), as long as the intention behind it threatens their power over others (even if there’s an ongoing history of calling it “primitive superstition”), it’s going to be branded as evil witchcraft. And that branding will be used to retroactively justify abuse.