Bewitching Hour
Creative Non-Fiction by Tianna G. Hansen
After Effy Winter
Today you plant a curse on him.
You find the recipe from a love witch - a black garden curse jar where you place your wounds inside and direct the pain onto the one who caused it. A relief sort of spell, enchantment of the heart capturing sorrows and stabbing them like thick thorns through the veins of the one who caused the hurt. Mix together your wormwood and dried thistle, poppy seeds and calamus root - take thorns from a white rose. The name of your unbeloved lies charred to bits at the bottom of a glass jar. Sprinkle with black salt and bury beneath layers of dirt. You toss caution to the wind and allow your hatred to spill from your mouth like black sludge oozing from your tongue, up from the twistings of your gut. It spews into the jar and coats it like tar.
Collection of iron nails, pointed and sharp, glimmer in flickers of candlelight. These to be pressed into the dirt, facing downward - nails in the coffin of this curse. You complete this curse under light of the moon - midnight. You know he will be sleeping by then. His name shall never rise in joy upon your lips again; you hope he knew that.
The instructions state to seal the lid tightly when you are prepared, after you have envisioned the pains you wish the curse to bring. Never open it again. You may shake the contents of the jar to stir chaos upon the intended.
Cleanse yourself, afterward. Release your inhibitions in body wracking sobs while water burns your skin. Drown out the noise of yourself. Sage.
An ounce of caution, at the end. Curses are not to be done or taken lightly.
This one, it promises, is crafted for victims of sexual assault/rape...for you to take back your power and release your pain upon your abuser through magic. The intention behind this spell is to inflict chaos and misfortune upon the target.
You wish with every ounce of you that he will feel just one scratch of your pain.
*Please read the spell that inspired this creative nonfiction piece published on Effy Winter’s column, The Love Witch’s Musings, on Pussy Magic.
Tianna G. Hansen has been writing since childhood and continues spreading awareness of trauma, particularly sexual assault & abuse. A first anthology, You Are Not Your Rape, is being published in December with plans for many more at her indie press, Rhythm & Bones. Learn more at RhythmNBone.com or check out her work at CreativeTianna.com.
Twitter: @tiannag92/@RhythmBonesLit.