The Omen of Curses and Jinxes

The Omen of Curses and Jinxes is a frightful past filled with tales of voodoo, witches and old gypsy women. But are they real and are they still used today? Most of us were raised knowing that it’s not polite to point or stare at someone. This goes way back to ancient times as a warning. It’s a known method for issuing a curse or a jinx upon someone.
 
There are many different views on how to put curses on people, but among the most popular is the fixed stare. A fixed stare is often associated with the evil eye. I’ve actually mentioned this technique before as I like to refer to it as the stink eye. They say that an “evil eye” can be deflected by a mirror, polished shield or even an image of a single eye. But finding protection from curses and jinxes is not as easy as you would think.
 
Of course the world is full of superstitions and I really dig learning about the many different ones. There’s several posts I’ve done on Superstitions that may interest you. But today we’re going to focus on curses and jinxes. So let’s go over a few of the ones I’ve researched.
 

The Curses of Tutankhamen’s Tomb

We’ve all heard of the famous Egyptian King Tutankhamen, also known as King Tut. He was alive in Egypt between the years c. 1341-1323 B.C. but his tomb remained undiscovered  all the way up until 1922. An English archaeologist by the name of Howard Carter was responsible for it’s discovery and were very excited to reveal it’s contents and riches to the world.

There had been many rumors of the curses that would follow disturbing the King’s tomb, but they thought it was all mumbo jumbo. They were blinded by the excitement and went through with opening the tomb anyway. They made some amazing discoveries during the expedition.

But soon after opening the tomb one of the men that was helping to head up the expedition, the Fifth Earl of Carnarvon, died from a mosquito bite. As the days went by, more and more people that were involved with the tombs excavation were dying off. Most of the deaths occurred with mysterious circumstances. Although Howard Carter didn’t really believe in all the stories about curses and jinxes associated with his discovery, it’s hard to discount all the bad luck that followed.

Curses of the Pointing Bone

Many folks believe that certain objects can be loaded with dangerous power and can be used to cause great damage to an individual. In Australia, the Aborigines have a curse known as bone pointing. It’s said to be a form of ritualistic murder that is carried out by pointing a magical bone at your enemy.

The bone can be made of either human or kangaroo bone, or even wood and stone. The way it works is they will point the bone at their victim all the while chanting. If this curse isn’t lifted off the individual, then death is said to follow. Sometimes a victims own fear is their known cause of death. They say the person will abandon all hope and refuse to eat or drink until they finally die.

Now I’m not sure that I would be able to force myself not to eat or drink, but none the less, this is how these curses are said to work.

The Cursed Play

Curses and jinxes are something quite familiar to most all stage actors, and superstitions run amuck. There are many actors that will carry good luck charms or will even avoid whistling in their dressing rooms.

In Japan, the tradition is to scatter salt on the stage before a play. This is said to ward off evil spirits and bring good luck. But one of the most infamous plays of all is Macbeth by William Shakespear.

Macbeth has a long history of curses and jinxes that are said to be associated with the ones involved in the production. They say if the title is spoken or lines are quoted offstage, this could cause great disaster and mayhem to occur. Even though this is a widely known curse, we can not forget all the times the play was produced when nothing bad happened at all.

The three witches in the Macbeth play have a part where they are pointing and chanting curses that are said to be very much real. Many believe that this part in the play is responsible for calling up dark forces upon the ones involved.

James Dean’s Cursed Car

The great actor James Dean (1931-1955) was involved in a car crash while driving his silver Porsche Spyder in 1955 and was killed instantly. Even though this accident was the result of speeding, it’s said that the car remained cursed from that day forward.

It started while on the breakdown truck, it slipped off and injured the mechanic. Once the car was dismantled, the parts were salvaged and used on other project cars.

The car that inherited the engine from Dean’s Porsche crashed and killed it’s driver. Then the cars that were using the crankshaft and tires injured their drivers. Then while the mangled remains of the cars body was being transported, it fell off the trailer and injured one person and killed another.

Was this car really cursed, or was Dean using his car to seek revenge on motorists everywhere? Of course there’s no way to conclude this for certain. But it most definitely would appear there was a curse involved.

Curses and jinxes have been present in our lives since the beginning of time and some believe whole heartedly in these superstitions while others call it a simple case of bad luck and coincidence. What do you believe, I’d like to hear from you…
 

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