Book Curses and Copyright

I was recently asked about copyright curses that are found in many attunement manuals, and I decided to expand on this a bit with a little about book curses first.

Book curses are inscriptions or spells written inside books to protect them from theft or damage. These curses often warn of dire consequences for those who steal or mistreat the book, invoking supernatural forces to ensure the book's safety. Book curses have been found in ancient manuscripts and medieval texts, serving as a form of protection for valuable or sacred works.

Many grimoire make use of these curses, and generally speaking, they are empowered and effective. And yes, that applies to PDF copies as well, as piracy is theft. Copyright curses follow the same basic principle. Essentially, when an empowerment is created, certain rules are built into the energy. This includes the set fee by the founder if they include one, as well as what happens if that fee is ignored or the manual is pirated. Not everyone spells out what happens in their copyright curses, but both my teacher and myself like to, so that would be thieves know what they are dealing with.

Generally speaking, many attunements have a more passive sort of curse, which essentially boils down to, if you do not have the right to the energy (i.e. you did not pay full price or did not pay at all, the attunement was 'prepared' by someone who did not have the right, etc) then it simply will not work for you. I have witnessed this several times in the form of ignoring initiation procedures, downloading manuals, and even (yes, I have personally seen this happen) reprinting a manual as a book. (In this case, there is a certain book, which sells for $25, that contains the full contents of an empowerment with a set fee of $200) However, it is not always so easy.

For instance, here is one of the curses employed by one of my energies, the Venom of the Naga: "This attunement may only be passed after completing all levels of Kali Naga Sorcery. And, it may only be sold for no less than $180. Violate this copyright, and the venom of the Nagas will turn against you. There will be no mercy." Here is one from my teacher, from an empowerment that is only available to initiates of our order: "This process and information is for Kapalika Aghori only. No one is allowed to share this information or ritual process with anyone else unless they have a handwritten note with my signature giving them permission to do so. Violate this and every disease that I have ever helped anyone to heal from will be visited upon you before you are allowed to die, and all of your worse nightmares will be compounded and will play themselves out in your life. And, if I find out about you then I will also go after you in the courts as when you violate a copyright for a document that helps support the author and their work then you are actively robbing them and others, and no evil deed should ever go unpunished. There shall be no mercy!"

So why are we so much more intense with ours? Quite simply, empowerment theft is a major problem. It takes food out of our mouths, and devalues the days, weeks, months, or even years we put into these systems. And though the fees can be high, they are typically a fraction of the cost paid to create them, and they honor the energy exchange required. So when we spend hundreds or thousands of dollars creating these energies, having them stolen and shared hurts us directly. And they are no joke either- I know of a former apprentice who was printing a secret document, with a very severe curse. Someone else grabbed the papers and read through them, ignoring the copyright. Within a few weeks, he had died.

It is for this reason that I don't allow discounts on systems with a set fee, and I only offer BOGO because I am permitted to do so. At best, we both lose our ability to use that energy, and at worst, we end up in a pine box. So when you see a curse set forth by a magician to protect their work, it is best to honor it and do things properly.