The meaning of the word curse is to pronounce and or inflict to invoke or wish evil upon; to call upon divine or supernatural power to send injury and to vex or torment upon someone and or something. It is the opposite of a blessing which means to favor and or to protect.

It is through the use of magic and spells with the belief that it is possible through the act of cursing to enlist the assistance of the superhuman beings to persuade them to carry out the person’s wishes of ill will and mal-intent.

The conception of blessing and cursing more often than not belongs to the priest, which man himself possessing through his religion the connection with deity and the spiritual ability to exercise power and control over another the power originally possessed only by deity (cf. Gen. xii, 3; Num. vi, 24, 27).

Priests and shamans connected to ancestral deities on their native soils are the most effective to command either the blessing or curse of deity, which they could exercise at a given point for the host of evil spirits to cause damage at the desired place and time.

To form the curse, the pair of individuals in a dyad are normally linked via religion, family, and or blood/DNA or items with the intended victim’s blood/DNA. This is why a blood sacrifice is often required.

One of the goals of the curse is to form an asymmetrical or hierarchical relationship such as in master–servant or master-dog. The master-dog reference has special significance in the history of humankind in this 6th Age which begins in the Bible with Cain killing his brother Able.

In this proposition or sentence, dog is the subject, and man is the object. If you will study the proposition yon will see that dog is the doer or actor, and man is that which is acted upon.

In Judaism, the ancient belief that thoughts, words, and speech have spiritual power to bring a curse was widespread. Some believe that the “power” of the speaker underpins the efficacy of the curse (Numbers 22:3), and others believe that curses uttered unintentionally by ordinary people also have the potential to be detrimental (Megillah 15a-b, 28a).

The curse-like penalty of karet in Judaism is when an individual is completely cut off from the people for willfully breaking laws. The proper way to atone for karet violations is with sacrifice or a scapegoat (Lev 4, Lev 16).

The story of the curse of Cain (Genesis 4:11-16) was the said to be the result of Cain murdering his brother, Abel which resulted in the earth becoming cursed as soon as the blood hit the ground.

MEANING AND ETYMOLOGY OF CURSE

The word curse if derived from cur, curre, corre, or kür which means “a dog or watchdog” – from the Middle English and North Germanic kur, or curre and the Middle Dutch corre (“house dog; watch-dog”), dia and Swedish kurre (“a dog”).

Compare also Old Norse kurra (“to growl; grumble”), Middle Low German korren (“to growl”). From the Anglo-Saxon, cursian, curse, a curse, from the root of cross. (Chambebs) and Anglo-Saxon, corsian, to execrate by the sign of the cross. (Wedowood)

Interestingly, the English Cain is derived from the Latin Canis we get the name for the ancient country known as Canaan for whom the Canaanites were named and also the Canaan dog.

In Ancient Rome, under the Law of the Caesars, only the Roman Curia had the legal authority to pronounce curses. The Curia (kū’ré-á) was a legal division of the Roman tribes in which Romulus originally divided the Roman people into three tribes, and each tribe into ten Curia to execute the Law of the Caesars.

The curia had the power of The Great Roman Curse – Excommunication and the life and death over the people with the sign of the cross.

The word cross is derived from curse which was said to mean something like “to swear by the cross” or “to ban, drive away, excommunicate by the sign of the cross.”

Moe

Moe is the founder of GnosticWarrior.com. He is a father, husband, author, martial arts black belt, and an expert in Gnosticism, the occult, and esotericism.