Both "cursing" and "healing" exist along the same continuum of energy work. Any person who has learned enough about the manipulation of energy to heal can also manipulate that same energy to harm. This is why traditional midwives and herbalists were often treated with respectful suspicion.
This matter is handled with a strong set of morals and the ability to resist the urge to justify a curse with “situational ethics”. Just because one can curse, doesn't imply that one should. Once one has mastered the skills of energy use, they have the choice of how to use those skills. Fortunately, It takes a genuine commitment of time and energy to learn the skills necessary to be a healer. By the time one has learned enough about energy work and healing to curse, they have usually also seen for themselves why it would be so foolhardy to do so.
I haven't yet thought of any situation where I feel it would be appropriate to "curse". I believe that finding peaceful solutions to hostile situations is one of the greatest challenges facing the human species. I feel that cursing (like physical violence) is the last resort of the petty and mean-minded, and a spiritually reckless course of action, to boot.
I apologize if that stung any readers out there, but I have a line of personal ethics that I simply won’t cross. I don't believe in violating the free will of another, or violence in any way, and cursing does both. All arguments I've ever heard in favor of the curse has boiled down to revenge and vindictive retaliation for hurt feelings. My response has invariably been to urge the caster of the curse to grow up.
~Flame RavenHawk
August 12, 2002