Folklore: Removing Curses

Subject: Folklore: Removing Curses
From: LadyJean
Date: 28 May 10 - 12:09 AM

I am disinclined to believe in such things, but after a six year run of bad luck, I'm beginning to think my house is cursed. Any thoughts on how to uncurse it?
I did a web search, and found a great many people who would de curse things. They sounded a lot like the people my grandfather, who was a district attorney and then a judge, used to put in jail. (He died before I was born. Any curse would have nothing to do with him.) The fact that my current abode was owned by a man who worked for Frito Lay, until he retired, after which he spent the next 3 decades on the sofa watching television. I can't imagine why he would attract a curse. I sometimes think the house wants another old fart to move in. I only wish I could oblige it.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Removing Curses
From: Bert
Date: 28 May 10 - 12:41 AM

I have heard that burning sage will help, but I'd just tell the curse to bugger off.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Removing Curses
From: Ebbie
Date: 28 May 10 - 12:53 AM

Interesting subject. In Juneau I know of several people/households who have used the services of a local Tlingit shaman (He is also a Roman Catholic and sees no conflict between the two). I don't know for a fact that it works but I have been present at several occasions where he 'performed', including a wedding, and I can vouch that he is a tremendous presence.

So far as I know, all of the 'housecleansings' he has done in Juneau were in connection with people who wanted to make a fresh start in a 'new' environment.

Depending on where you live, there may be practitioners of some sort or another- you might want to ask around.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Removing Curses
From: Amergin
Date: 28 May 10 - 01:52 AM

I always found that sacrificing some one's virginity (legally) was a good way to remove a curse....

Subject: RE: Folklore: Removing Curses
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 28 May 10 - 02:24 AM

Being a virgin is considered a curse then??? mmmmmmm

Subject: RE: Folklore: Removing Curses
From: mousethief
Date: 28 May 10 - 03:05 AM

A virgin a day keeps the ghoulies away.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Removing Curses
From: Bryn Pugh
Date: 28 May 10 - 06:25 AM

Pick some groundsel, let it dry, and then burn the dried groundsel (also called simson)on charcoal, as an 'incense'.

This will rid the entire place of any and all evil influences.

Hope this helps.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Removing Curses
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 28 May 10 - 06:25 AM

take your clothes off and stand on your head!

Subject: RE: Folklore: Removing Curses
From: olddude
Date: 28 May 10 - 08:23 AM

I also think sometimes things just happen we all seem to hit those string of everything going wrong times don't we ... but you know what a house blessing never hurts anything IMO ... If you wish I will send you my Christian prayers from a far for peace and joy in your home ...

In the meantime you have friends here that you can talk to about anything ...

All the best
Dan

Subject: RE: Folklore: Removing Curses
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 28 May 10 - 09:43 AM

"a six year run of bad luck"

What kind of bad luck?

Subject: RE: Folklore: Removing Curses
From: Rapparee
Date: 28 May 10 - 12:29 PM

Get a priest or minister or rabbi or someone similar in to do a house blessing. Keep a "Bridget's Cross" in it. Sprinkle salt across the outside of all the doors and windows, or place horseshoe nails there. "Tell the house" that you are the owners and will do your best for it.

These are all old-time recipes I found looking in some of the books I have. I assume you don't want to do things like burning feces in the stove.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Removing Curses
From: Crow Sister (off with the fairies)
Date: 28 May 10 - 12:48 PM

"I assume you don't want to do things like burning feces in the stove."

Interesting one Rap! Spirits - so I've read in folklore - are generally repulsed by stink! Many different cultures use strong fumigations to exorcise negative boogies. Pretty much all strongly scented herbs are usable for such a purpose. Even essential oils.

Not sure why this genuine folklore question is in BS though! IMO it quite legitimately belongs up there.. Fascinating topic.

Otherwise LadyJean, I'd say the most important thing is for you to find some practical and creative means to shore up your doubts and anxieties about this place, without becoming too paranoid or anything.

Do some research about folk charms and household blessings (the Celts specialised in blessings, I'll try to find you one suitable if I can) and then improvise your own wee 'clearing' ceremony with friends and family. Much folklore about clearing out boogies is pretty 'logical' if you think in a childlike way.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Removing Curses
From: ClaireBear
Date: 28 May 10 - 01:28 PM

Whatever form of cleansing you do, from Christian house blessing to pagan drumming circle -- and there are many good ideas above -- you would do well to follow it up by "sealing" all door and windowsills with a mixture of salt and water (sprinkle it everywhere), to keep whatever's been shooed out from returning. If you've used burning sage or a similar incense as well, you'll have incorporated all four elements (earth and water in the salt water, air and fire in the smoke) into your ritual, which is good.

Then, plant a rosemary plant by each door for an extra layer of protection...that'd be the strongly scented herb Crow Sister refers to above.

Best of luck!
C

Subject: RE: Folklore: Removing Curses
From: Bill D
Date: 28 May 10 - 02:07 PM

**sitting on my hands, lest I comment..**

(yes, I typed the above with my nose)

Subject: RE: Folklore: Removing Curses
From: Crow Sister (off with the fairies)
Date: 28 May 10 - 02:19 PM

Hey Bill D, you might not *believe* in it (I don't think anyone here is asking you too btw), but don't you find folklore at least interesting? I find it fascinating myself!

Subject: RE: Folklore: Removing Curses
From: Bill D
Date: 28 May 10 - 02:27 PM

Oh, sure...all folklore is fascinating. I just have sit on my hands when it seems to be drifting into belief....'nuff said.

carry on...

Subject: RE: Folklore: Removing Curses
From: Crow Sister (off with the fairies)
Date: 28 May 10 - 02:44 PM

"when it seems to be drifting into belief."

Well, you can perhaps allow for a degree of creative indulgence here? You did after all see fit to post.

Especially as most of us have our personal rituals and psychological anchors which help us feel better and 'right', whether they be grounded in any collective 'superstition' or not.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Removing Curses
From: Rapparee
Date: 28 May 10 - 03:36 PM

I collected my suggestions from several books on folklore and folk-beliefs I have. The idea that buildings, rocks, places and other inanimate things collect "the dust of their history" and that this collection affects them is found in many, if not all, cultures -- whether it's believed or not.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Removing Curses
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 28 May 10 - 03:42 PM

There are two opposing forces on this earth.. good and evil.. if you wish to combat evil then you have to turn to the good!! All you have to do is work out for yourself what is the good that you need to turn to! It's actually quite easy when you understand the difference.
If just one person makes sense of what I have just said then good triumphs over evil yet again.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Removing Curses
From: ClaireBear
Date: 28 May 10 - 04:18 PM

Well, I supposeit might as well be true confessions time.

I occupied a dwelling once that after a few months began to feel all kinds of creepy, as if something malign had moved. It kept getting weirder and worse, especially in my bedroom. The last straw was when my very affectionate cat (who'd always slept right next to me through each night) started refusing to so much as set foot in the bedroom. If I picked him up and carried him in, he'd walk right back out again.

It took me about six weeks to figure out what to do, during which time the cat stayed entirely out of that room. But eventually, I invited my friendly neighborhood pagans in and asked them to conduct a cleansing ritual. I assisted. We sang, swept, dusted, and smudged for awhile, sprinkled the salt water sealant around all the sills, and then finally sat down in my bedroom with some little teacakes and a cup of red wine to share. Just as soon as we did that, in sauntered the cat (purring), waited his turn, and when we'd passed the cup around, had a lap of the wine. Then he lay down in the middle of the circle.

I paid my merry band of pagans with a lovely dinner, and once they'd left, I settled in with my cat for the first good night's sleep we'd had in months.

Not many of you know me, but let me assure you that I am not especially credulous, though as I needed help with whatever it was, I worked to remain open to ideas I might ordinarily have dismissed. I doubt the cat was particularly credulous either, as it happens. But what I do not doubt is that all the positive energy we poured into the place worked, because from then on, it was a delightful place to live.

C

Subject: RE: Folklore: Removing Curses
From: Ebbie
Date: 28 May 10 - 05:54 PM

My notion, Bill D,is that even IF rituals and ceremonies have no actual effect (although I'm not convinced of that, simply because there is a great deal of anecdotal 'evidence' given, such as Clairebear's above, and that there have been various times and places that I have felt creeped out), at the very least it can make one feel better about a place or situation. And that is valuable in itself.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Removing Curses
From: Amergin
Date: 28 May 10 - 06:02 PM

I also found sacrificing a few business executives greatly will improve your worth to the gods....they like criminals.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Removing Curses
From: AllisonA(Animaterra)
Date: 28 May 10 - 06:06 PM

Powerful thing, belief.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Removing Curses
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 28 May 10 - 06:18 PM

Amen Animaterra!

Subject: RE: Folklore: Removing Curses
From: Bill D
Date: 28 May 10 - 07:26 PM

Powerful indeed...that is something even *I* stipulate to.

(Yes, I 'saw fit to post'...much more 'lightly' than I would have once,
as 'curses' are kinda subjective. People have been known to BECOME ill just from believing strongly that they were expected to.)
[ and yes... I realize that personal rituals can be comforting *smile*. I don't like to show my craft projects until they are finished, but it's because the expectations of others can affect my own behavior in the finishing process. I don't fret seriously about it if someone does see one though.]

Hmmm, Ebbie... that 'anecdotal evidence' thing is tricky. It may be indicative of something, and it may be just selective attention...*shrug*. We skeptics try to keep both possibilities in mind. It's...ummm...sort of a ritual.. ☺

Subject: RE: Folklore: Removing Curses
From: Rapparee
Date: 28 May 10 - 10:42 PM

Gee, Bill, I'm glad you don't build houses. 8-)

Subject: RE: Folklore: Removing Curses
From: Alice
Date: 28 May 10 - 11:09 PM

I have found this old folkloric saying to be true: shit happens.
Sometimes it happens for years and years. I wish it would quit happening to me. ;-)

Subject: RE: Folklore: Removing Curses
From: LadyJean
Date: 29 May 10 - 12:22 AM

Ok, when I moved in and found the house flippers I bought the place from had forgotten to install any phone jacks, and it took me six weeks to get a landline, I figured stuff happens. Then, the old guy next door backed his minivan into my front bumper. (I was parked perfectly, he just doesn't back up very well.) After that I didn't have a front bumper. I eventually replaced that car with a beautiful little Elantra wagon, that ran like a dream until the second engine fire, when my mechanic told me the waterpump was faulty.
Meanwhile a chunk of the kithen ceiling turned up on the kitchen floor because the shower leaks. I brought in a plumber. The shower still leaks. I tried to bring in another plumber. He got arrested before he could come.
Two of the cats I moved in with died. They were young cats. They shouldn't have. Every plant I moved in with died, including a couple I've had since college.
I clean houses for a living. Before I moved I had more work than I could deal with. Since moving, I thank my lucky stars if I work a 4 day week. The best new client I found since moving here made a pass at me, and she wasn't my type. Anyways, as she's declaring bankruptcy I don't work for her anymore.
I applied for a job with the census, scored 26 out of a possible 28, and never heard from them. I think they lost my paperwork.
Those are just a few of the highlights.
Now I am not the sort of person who believes in curses. Attorneys' children tend to be skeptical. But with all that, I could become a believer.
But damned if I know where I could find a virgin.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Removing Curses
From: Alice
Date: 29 May 10 - 12:25 AM

I would like to switch your bad luck for my bad luck. PM me. LOL

Subject: RE: Folklore: Removing Curses
From: katlaughing
Date: 29 May 10 - 01:06 AM

In my belief system, we work through seven year cycles. Sounds as though you may be coming to the end of a tough one and what comes in the next cycle could be a whole lot better.

If it helps any, here is an affirmation I might use in this kind of situation, addressed to all situations or individually, esp. to the house: "I bless and release you to your highest good. I give thanks for this, or something better, for the highest good of all concerned." I would also follow the above advice about smudging with sage, though I wouldn't just do it inside, I would also walk all the way round the outside doing the same. Even if you didn't have problems with the house, imo, it's always good to have a house blessing when moving or out of a new space. I talked to an old house we rented in New England. It was sad that we were leaving, so I took time to sit in a chair in the attic and just talk to it, giving thanks for the great home it had provided us.

May you find peace and prosperity in all ways,

kat

Subject: RE: Folklore: Removing Curses
From: LadyJean
Date: 29 May 10 - 10:31 PM

I am, in fact, better off than my next door neighbor, whose wife died a couple of years ago from throat cancer and whose grandson was shot by the police.
It makes me rather thankful that my immediate family say meow.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Removing Curses
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 30 May 10 - 05:23 AM

maybe it is a piskie... put a bowl of fresh water by the hearth every night. I had a run of 3 accidents in less than hour of each other in an old cottage in Mevagissey. I got burned on frying pan when my forearm unaccountably moved too near it as I was washing it. Then stabbed by a knife that jumped out of my hand and landed tip down in my thigh, while I was standing at counter cutting apples. Then tripped (something grabbed toe of my shoe) on last step into kitchen and bashed my knee against storage heater. I put out water (and a biscuit) that night after reading about piskies in a shop. No more accidents.

I knew a couple and their teenage daughter, who had their brand new house blessed after run of accidents on the premises. Tumbles down stairs, falls for no apparent reason in different places. Claims to feel they had been tripped, the parents both suffered broken limbs (Dad, leg and Mom, arm) inside the first month. They swear the blessing from a Native American woman worked.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Removing Curses
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 30 May 10 - 01:24 PM

A little off topic;
It is a universal piece of folklore among gypsies that the first Traveller to take to the road was cursed to travel throughout eternity for agreeing to make the nails for the crucificion.
Another myth is that the first Traveller was forced to travel because he used holy water to make tea. He completed three nails, but the forth one remained red-hot and wouldn't cool down, so he abandoned the work and only three nails were used.
Cursing and curing curses is a major part of Traveller lore.
A woman who refused water to a Traveller woman giving birth, gave birth herself to a child with a pig's head.
There is a legend here in Clare that in earlier days the people living around Doolough (The Black Lake) were very hostile to Travellers. One day, before there was a lake in the area, an old Travelling woman was refused water at every house she called at. At the end of the day she went into a field, squatted down and began to pee. Her pee flooded many acres of good farming land and formed what is now Doolough (hope this is only a legend - our water supply comes from the lough).
A farmer who refused to let his neighbour take water from his spring well found that it had run dry on his land and had re-appeared on his neighbour's.
A popular cure for warts is to rub them with pebbles, place the pebbles in a paper bag and leave the bag lying on the road in plain sight. The warts will disappear and will re-appear on the hands of the person who picks up the bag.
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: Folklore: Removing Curses
From: Amos
Date: 30 May 10 - 01:32 PM

I would have the house checked for known toxins, including lead paint, lead pipes, radon, asbestos, and anything else known to cause problems.

As far as hants go, if you got them, the easiest thing in the world is to get them on their way by resolving their upset, fixation, or guilt, or whatever it is that hasn't been duly acknowledged. Ask them what they want. They'll probably tel you all about it. :D




A

Subject: RE: Folklore: Removing Curses
From: Paul Burke
Date: 31 May 10 - 11:21 AM

It's unlucky to be superstitious.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Removing Curses
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 31 May 10 - 11:39 AM

It is unlucky to be superstitious

Really? Oh dear...





touch wood

Subject: RE: Folklore: Removing Curses
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 31 May 10 - 11:42 AM

My Mom's older brother could rub warts away and I can cure hiccups. People think I am a witch.... I just say... one letter off.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Removing Curses
From: Bill D
Date: 31 May 10 - 12:03 PM

That's nothing! I can identify balderdash with my eyes closed! ☺

Subject: RE: Folklore: Removing Curses
From: Amos
Date: 31 May 10 - 12:31 PM

I can even SEE ALIENS with my eyes closed, Bill.



A

Subject: RE: Folklore: Removing Curses
From: Bill D
Date: 31 May 10 - 12:49 PM

The aliens *I* know object to the Braille system..

Subject: RE: Folklore: Removing Curses
From: deepdoc1
Date: 31 May 10 - 02:26 PM

The one about getting naked and standing on yer head would actually attract curses, especially if witnessed, at least in my case. Not a good plan. Come to think of it, I do seem much better at attracting curses than repelling them. Think I'll try taking a poultrygeist out of the freezer and stand her on guard in the bobby-que.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Removing Curses
From: Paul Burke
Date: 31 May 10 - 04:12 PM

Can I have some of that stuff, Amos?

Subject: RE: Folklore: Removing Curses
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 31 May 10 - 06:59 PM

I don't think you lost work because of the unlucky house, LadyJean. You lost work because of the recession and high unemployment. See if you can find some other kind of work.

Then take the money you make and get that shower fixed. Water leaking inside the walls leads to all sorts of problems.

Friends of mine had a shower worked on and discovered that the only thing holding it in place was the one-inch rim, resting on some floorboards. If your shower was put in like that, it would be good luck to find out now, before it goes through the floor with someone in it.

The elderly neighbor who bumped your car cuts both ways. It's unlucky that he hit your car, but it's lucky to have a sweet old guy next door, rather than a hoodlum.

As for the Elantra, sounds like that bad luck is over.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Removing Curses
From: Bill D
Date: 31 May 10 - 08:49 PM

I just watched this episode of a TV show about catching big fish.

It was deep in the Congo, and the chief of the local tribe was helping the guy narrating the program look for big fish....but part of the story was that while they were there, the chief's brother was a day overdue coming back from fishing. In that area, NOTHING happens 'by accident', and some of the locals were beginning to believe that the narrator's arrival was 'bad luck'/'curse', and the sentiment was that if the man wasn't found, they should stone the 'intruder' to death. Luckily, they found him the next morning.

Now THAT is obviously superstition...you know- primitive tribes, fear of what they don't understand....all that.

It kinda interests me to muse about what the difference is when members of an advanced society like most of 'us' have beliefs we weave into our attempts to cope with stuff we can't explain. Is it really so different from witch-burning or rabbit's foot charms?

I understand the impulse to attribute strange happenings to mysterious causes, I just don't understand giving in and taking it seriously.

YMMV