You're smart, you don't believe in curses. So anyway, how'd you go about trying to lift one?

Google the name of your town and the word “botanica.” If you have one in your town, get yourself a curse breaking kit, follow the instructions, and call it a day. Psychologically, you are now free.

If a curse seemed to be in affect, after prayer, and if I didn’t believe I received a direct answer, I would go on a walkabout, a spiritual practice to go on a journey which has an open itinerary. I would assume such a journey which is guided by ultimately God, would lead me through a leaning process as to why the curse is working and what I need to learn from it to have it pass.

I would let Jesus be the one to decide if anything I’ve done deserve it. Or to put it another way, if the curse is working what I need to know to have it become ‘causeless’, as it is only allowed for my good.

If you happen to know someone who is ‘mobbed-up’ who owes you a favor, you can have them help you force the person who put the curse on you to reverse it at gunpoint.

Unfortunately, this will likely result in an unexpected dark twist that makes things even worse.

The human mind can create its own reality. For example, a truly convinced and terrified populace gave voodoo its power. The best approach is to examine individual events and look for logical causes. I can choose to believe that I’ve never won the lottery in my entire life because I am cursed, or I can choose to believe that the true reason is that the odds are astronomically against me.

What did you do to incur the curse from a blood relative?

Twenty five-ish years ago I purchased a blood orange out of curiosity. I’d never had one and was actually shocked by how it looked when sliced open.

So, of course I bought another. I told my daughter (who was 6) that I could do VooDoo. She really got into my spiel. I told her to think about someone who had done her wrong and to concentrate while holding the orange I placed in her hands.

I put my hands over hers and went into a trance. Then I told her I’d transferred all the negativity into the orange and would now release it, blah, blah, setting her free.

I sliced the orange in half. My daughter screamed. Then I told her about blood oranges. Overall I was a good dad, but sometimes I got drunk on the power.

Curse 'em right back. Invoke stronger powers.*

*Amazon.

Put a Chinese curse on her and tell her “May you live in interesting times.”

I realise that this is not easily accessible to the average Doper, but I think my first port of call would be the sangoma market (witch doctor) in central Durban, South Africa.

This is a glorious place where you can purchase anything from a giraffe nose to a whole dried baboon.

I mean, I have some doubts about the effectiveness of the remedy but there is certainly a very wild variety of cures.

Dude, I love you for that. :heart:

My little brother is a pagan. He’s the leader of his group, wears weird outfits, celebrates odd seasonal holidays like Entheofest , etc.

According to him curse removals aren’t something that they do.

I would go talk to the woodlot.

Then I would pick up something that took my fancy, either in the woodlot or on the way back down the hill, and tell the believers that I had obtained a protective amulet and everything was fine now.

The rational portions of my head wouldn’t believe a bit of it. But most of my friends wouldn’t believe in the curse, either. And for anybody, and any piece of my head, who did believe in it, I think it would work.

What if you could build a bridge out of them?

Depends on your definition of the word “witch”.

It’s a religion. I’m not a member, but I don’t think it’s primarily about casting spells, any more than most sects of Christianity are primarily about praying for a specific outcome and expecting to have the prayer fulfilled.

And I don’t go around telling members of a religion that they’re only “pretending” to believe in it. (Maybe an individual member, if I had direct evidence that that specific person was pretending, in order to, say, get married or keep their family happy; but that would probably be more a matter of their having told me. But not a general category of ‘nobody could possibly believe that!’)

Catholic Priests are not really Fathers.

However, I respect anyone’s faith, and if they want to be called “Witches” that is their right.

But if you define a “witch” as someone who can cast real magic, then there is no such thing as a witch.

1. A person, especially a woman, claiming or popularly believed to possess magical powers and practice sorcery.

2. A believer or follower of Wicca; a Wiccan.

3.

a. Offensive An old woman considered to be ugly or frightening.

b. A woman considered to be spiteful or overbearing.

c. Informal A woman or girl considered to be charming or fascinating.

4. One particularly skilled or competent at one’s craft:

If I decided to go for it, I’d just go to the person who predicted/explained the whole matter and follow their recommendation. Why get complicated?

But I would be unlikely to do so. More likely, I’d try to understand what connection there is between the negative events and correct it. If the common connection is me, then I’d try to figure out what I’m doing wrong and change. If it’s something else, I’d try to track it down and solve it. Ultimately, solving the underlying cause is the solution to your problems.

If a lot of bad things are happening specifically to me, then the best odds are that I’m the problem. Sacrificing a rabbit is a solution that lets me feel like I’m solving the problem without having to actually do the hard work of changing myself and doing better. If I’m always in a bad mood then maybe - after I sacrifice the rabbit - I psych myself into believing that the world has changed for the better for a few days, act more positive, meet someone, fall in love, and they push me to become a better person. All of the issues that were caused by my bad mood go away.

But it’s still not the rabbit that fixed it. It’s that I changed how I interact with the world. That was still the answer. If sacrificing a rabbit is what helps to get you to that point then go for it but, more likely, a better diet, more vitamin D, and attending social events are going to be better bets.

Avoiding problems and believing in magic doesn’t always screw you - if it did, people would have given up on magic a long time ago. A lot of problems in life are temporary and solve themselves. But you may as well just wait and do nothing. Why waste the money and effort on the magic? But if there’s an actual problem that needs to be solved, you’re better off by solving the problem and not by sacrificing rabbits.

Have any of the Kennedys tried lifting their supposed curse? Kennedy curse - Wikipedia

I remember reading that it went back to the days of Prohibition and Joe Kennedy’s underworld ties.
This Irish article has a comment saying that it goes back even further in Irish clan history, “stemming from the feud between the related Kennedy and McMahon families in Clare/Thomond. The McMahons allegedly drove the Kennedys out of Clare (KiloKennedy) to Waterford, and arranged a curse on the Kennedys.”
What is the Kennedy family curse? (irishcentral.com)

I too hate those high strung curses. Anywho, I’m with 100% @susan on this one.

They’re Catholic, so I guess only an exorcism would do the trick.

IF (big if there) Curses are real, I’d already be under a bunch. I don’t see how one more would make a difference.