From the unexplained to the mundane, join us
on our journey to the fringe. Hello and welcome
to Journey to the Fringe. Now, don't worry about
the Halloween episodes at least. We got tons
of ideas, so many ideas. You don't need to give
us anything. Now, those Christmas episodes, why
do we need your help with those? We're open to
suggestions. But tonight, we descend into the
shadowy realm of language, and we're going to
explore the uncanny, mysterious, and sometimes
dangerous history of what we call curse words.
I love curse words. I use them all the time,
and I'm frankly kind of odd why we call them
that. Are they about to get better? Are they
simply forbidden utterances, or do they truly
carry the power to summon misfortune or even
protect evil? Let's begin our dive into this
with a simple, but unsettling question. Chelsea,
why do we call swear words curse words? I don't
know, because they're fun. You would think, but
it's just kind of funny that it's one of the
few places where curses still come up in modern
society. The phrase carries more weight than
its everyday use might suggest. When you stub
your toe, or when traffic cuts you off, and an
expletive bursts forth, you're likely not thinking
about summoning ancient spirits. Yet the language
we use for these verboten utterances is a relic
of more superstitious times, when words themselves
spoken aloud were believed to possess a real,
perhaps dangerous power. The word curse emerges
from Late Old English curse, meaning a prayer
cursed without an E. I should say, because it
sounds the same. But you know what? Now that
you're saying that, there are things where I
do say, like, I will say, curse this. Curse this
whatever I'm working on. Like, I have said it.
Like, is that weird of me? This damn thing or
whatever. Yeah. Damn you straight to hell. Something
like that. Curse you, you son of a bitch. Okay,
you get my drift, got it. We actually do that
to Craig quite a bit. Yes, we're constantly cursing
Craig. Maybe that's why he doesn't work. The
word in Old English, curse, meaning a prayer
that evil or harm befalls someone. The act of
cursing someone then was a literal invocation,
a spoken desire for another's misfortune, sometimes
believed to bring down divine or superhuman glass.
Later, by the 13th century, to curse had morphed
into the use of profane or blasphemous language,
words thought too potent or dangerous for polite
society. And in American English, cuss is just
a dialectical variation of the word. So cussing
is the exact same thing, which blew my mind.
This is all blowing my mind. But what connects
blasphemy magic in the four -letter words we
know today? To explore this is to journey into
older primal layers of culture. where language
was an act of magic, binding, casting, a summoning.
The spoken word and the magical spell, the curse
and the cusk were once the same ritual. Now long
before, wizards and witches haunted the imagination.
the human fear of languages, power, was shaping
our vocabularies. One of the most striking examples
of this lies hidden in the seemingly innocuous
name of bears. Which sounds weird, but picture
yourself walking in the wild forests of ancient
Europe. To the early Indo -Europeans who hunted,
worshipped, and feared this formidable animal,
the bear was more than a beast. was a living
threat, and it was believed to utter its real
name was to summit, risking attack or misfortune.
So as a result of this, in Germanic languages,
which includes English, the word bear doesn't
mean the animal bear. What does it mean? It means
brown. It literally translates to the brown one.
What? A way to reference the animal without calling
its name directly. What's his real name? We don't
know. Well, it had to have had a name at some
point. Yeah, but it was before written language
and they stopped using the name. Oh my god. It's
not just Germanic languages either. Similarly,
Slavic medved, which means honey eater, and Baltic
languages call them loki, meaning the hairy ones.
And even the real Proto -Indo -European term
for bear survives somewhat in Greek with arktos.
but that means arctic and it's latin which means
arctic now i am so impressed that they're so
scary we literally still do not call them by
their name this is like where the term curse
comes from is words could summon they had this
power back in the day so it would actually shape
language through it The Taboo Superstition is
more than a linguistic game, it's a window into
the world where speaking the truth, the secret
name of a thing, a bear, a demon, even a deity,
was fraught with peril. If a name can summon,
in danger. I will say, I still believe that words
have power. Cause even at work, like you can't
say out loud on a slow day that it's a slow day.
You can't say it. Yeah. You jinxed us or something
like that. Don't jinx it. Yeah. Like you don't,
you don't say it. Somebody said it the other
day and I was like, you can't just say that.
And then they jinxed us and then it got busy.
Yeah. I find that so crazy that like throughout
most of Europe, we have no idea for bear because
it just stopped being used. That's crazy. My
mind is totally blown by that one. We'll get
busy if you say it's quiet. So you can't say
bear. Exactly. Exactly. That's crazy. My mind
is blown. Don't say bear. No, but we're saying
bear. You can't say the name that we don't even
know anymore. It's gotten so out of hand. Successful
campaign that we don't know it. That's so crazy.
Okay, okay. So I guess we've never said bear.
We still don't. I have to assume bear attacks
are way down from that time. You gotta imagine
they would be. Wow, that's crazy. Is this the
end of the episode? Yeah. Bye. But this isn't
just a northern European superstition. Across
ancient societies, the prohibition on using real
names or speaking without careful indirection
was a survival tactic. Such superstitions have
left their mark in toponyms, folklore, and even
in the way we refer to certain animals, like
the example we gave there. Now what happens when
a word is believed not just to reference an object,
but to actively shape, bind, or destroy reality?
Here we step into the world of curses as magic.
We're going to talk about defixio. I really like
this thing, Chelsea. I feel like people who work
in customer -facing jobs should bring back this
idea. Okay, I'll bring it back. Basically, they're
little pieces of bronze that you Curse isn't
due for people. So these curses would be shockingly
specific or entirely formulaic, invoking infernal
deities or liminal gods, Hecate, Pluto, Persephone,
or simply naming the victim, binding them with
a string of gibberish or a list of the body parts
to be afflicted. A few examples. This was found
at a Roman bath. Dosemedes has lost two gloves
and asks that the thief responsible should lose
their minds and eyes in the goddess's temple.
A curse from Germany. The human who stole Berio's
cloak made the worms, cancer, and maggots penetrate
his hands, head, feet, as well as his limbs and
marrows. What do you think he did? Wow, that's
pretty harsh. He stole Berio's cloak. Wow, that's
quite the curse for stealing a cloak. I mean,
cloaks were pretty valuable back in the day,
and it could have been a really nice cloak. It
might have been his life savings on that cloak.
And a spell that found in Egypt, wrapped in a
lock of hair and lead. I bind you, Athanodoros,
daughter of Theodora, so that you cannot sleep
or eat or find peace until you come to me." So
very weird. That one seemed like a love spell.
Gotta get your feelings out there. It was a love
spell, but also it's a curse still, nonetheless.
Yeah, love spells are curses. I feel like that
should make a comeback, just as like something
that you do to get your stress out from a hard
day of talking to customers. I hope nobody looks
in my desk at work. Chelsea, why do you have
all of these binded? Just a desk full of them.
Why is there so much bronze in your desk? Don't
ask, okay? Just glare at them and start chiseling.
There's another one in. Now sometimes the words
themselves inscribed on these were nonsensical,
mystic voices basically, or palindromes like
the Satyr Square. These were thought to be understood
only by spirits or demons lending supernatural
efficacy to even the most -interesting of vengeance,
which is actually where we derive some of our
magic words like abracadabra. Really? We'll get
into that later. These spells and curses were
not only for enemies, some were inscriptions
for love, courtroom victories, sports competitions,
or to right perceived injustices. Often the act
of writing itself for the proper recitation by
a ritual professional was thought to guarantee
the outcome. Oh so it's like um uh like you need
to get your feelings out it's not just getting
your feelings out you can do that oh god i can't
remember though of course it is you put me on
the spot for trying to remember something i was
just watching a paulie shore and he was talking
about his journaling where he writes about what
he wants to happen like uh i can't remember what
is called a promise Is that what it's called?
No, it's not a promise. I can't remember what
the fuck it's called But you talk about what
you want to happen as if it's already happened
so that it happened. That's still a thing. Oh,
positive information, yeah. Yeah, I mean essentially,
yeah. But you know with make it's burrowing into
people's eyes Yeah, but they were using it for
positive like court outcomes and stuff like that.
You said yeah They could but it was kind of like
making sure the words would bring it out. Yeah,
like manifesting. That's the word manifesting
and that's the whole idea of the curse is words
have power both good and bad like when it first
comes out yeah we of curse is like bringing about
a bear but it's anything it can bring about anything
not just the negative that makes sense if they
have power like to manifest something good in
your life it would mean the same thing to manifest
something bad so I guess it makes sense it's
all very logical it's still belief Now? Yeah,
we've said it several times now with examples.
Yeah, we still do these things. We still don't
say bear. We say bear, not the other one. We
dare not speak its name. Hey, neither of us have
been attacked by bears. As we're going through
the history, you can see that there's a deep
theme here that the words have power, and particularly
names have power too. In folklore, you see this
a lot of place to invoke a name, especially of
a super supernatural being, say, a Rumpelstiltskin
from Germanic legend. Oh shit. So we banish it
or banish it, but knowing and speaking a name
could also bring doom. Cultures the world over
are filled with name taboo. Such as Ashkenazi
Jews, apotropaic names were given to sick children
to confuse the angel of death. Altar, meaning
old, or necros, meaning not handsome, were given
to these people to avoid the angel. Dear God.
And across many societies, saying the name of
a demon or the dead was forbidden lest it draw
their presence. Huh. Even today superstitions
persist around unlucky name with entire family
lines burdened by cursed roots in the very act
of naming like the Kennedy curse or the avoidance
of the name like Adolf throughout Europe. Do
you think that's cursed or just bad stigma around
the name? Is there really a difference? Yeah,
that's true. This is all very philosophical.
There was an entire era in feudal Japan where
they gave people names that were terrible. like
smells of rotting shit or something along those
lines. Just because they thought that the gods
wouldn't be as interested in them if they had
terrible names. Interesting. By the Middle Ages
and Renaissance, the belief in magical potency
of words had been systematized in grimoires,
texts devoted to the practices of magic spells.
These books, from the Key of Solomon to the Lesser
Key of Solomon and the notorious Grimorium Verum,
often contained long lists of invocations, arcane
spells, and rituals intended to summon a supernatural
entity. Some grimoires wandered between prayers,
oaths, and outright maledictions. The ritual
cursings in the name of angels, demons, The lines
blur between the sacred and the profane. Christianity
itself, in the Old Testament, cursing was a forbidden
but recognized act. and in other traditions,
the right spell could both protect and destroy.
As we keep going forward, we get to reference
from last week, Chelsea, if there's a cursed
word lurking in Western culture, it's surely
the name of Shakespeare's play Macbeth. Oh, yeah.
For centuries, actors and theater practitioners
have refused to utter the play's name indoor,
except within the script, opting instead for
euphemisms like the Scottish play. Why do they
do this? According to theatrical superstition,
speaking Macbeth in a theater is believed to
bring catastrophe. Accidents, ghostly mishaps,
injuries, even death. Legends tell of a coven
of witches placing a curse upon the script because
it used real incantation. Lines like double,
double toil and trouble forever doomed those
who invoked it carelessly. Historical records
fuel the legend. The original actor playing Lady
Macbeth is said to have died suddenly before
opening night. Shakespeare himself allegedly
had to step in. Throughout the centuries, productions
of Macbeth have seen falls from the stage, flying
props, fires, and even riots, most infamously
the Dead Aster Place riot in 1849. How deep does
this belief run? Even today, if an actor accidentally
lets slip Macbeth in a theatre, a ritual must
be performed to dispel the curse. These rituals
are almost magical indentations themselves. You
have to step outside the theatre. turn around
three times, spit over your left shoulder, swear
or recite a cleansing line from another Shakespeare
play, knock and wait for readmitting. This tradition
embodies the persistence of magic thinking, the
legacy of cursed words and the theater's enduring
enchantment with the power of language itself.
Spoken curses are not the only province of Shakespearean
actors. The magical force of malevolent blessings,
their positive counterpart, runs like a dark
thread through global folklore. Some of the most
notorious curses include the curse of - Pharaoh
the ancient Egyptian inscribed warning on tombs
anyone who disturbed the eternal rest of king
would be beset by misfortune illness or death
legend reached fear pitch after the discovery
of king toton commons tomb when mysterious deaths
among archaeologists fueled media hysteria i
believe we did an i think we did too yeah actually
it might be a halloween episode i think it was
a halloween episode actually again we're good
on halloween episodes don't worry the bell witch
the 19th century tennessee bell family was ties
by a supernatural singing, cursing, even alleged
poisoning the patriarch, the bellwitch's threats,
and curses became a regional legend speaking
to American anxieties about evil gender. own,
the Hope Diamond. This stunning blue gem is said
to doom its owners to death and disaster, another
echo of the ancient belief that objects too can
chant powers of word, a curse, a wish, and familial
curses. Many cultures hold stories of lineages
blighted by ancient words of wrath cursed for
seven generations by the indiscretion's real
or imagined ancestor. In these tales, the act
of uttering, inscribing, or merely believing
in a curse can reshape reality, misfortune explained,
tragedy given meaning, and chaos rendered understandable
through the conduit of language. Of course, where
there are words believed to wound, there are
also words used to heal, to defend, to protect.
Enter the realm of apotropaic magic, from the
Greek meaning to turn away, the tradition of
using words, charms, or rituals to ward off evil
or supernatural attacks. Some of the most enduring
apotropaic words and symbols include the term
abracadabra. Known today as the magician's stage
word, its origins are far older. In ancient Rome,
it was prescribed as an amulet against fever
and harm. Written in diminishing triangle, the
word itself was thought to funnel the illness
away and And satyr square. This five -word palindrome
was inscribed on walls, amulets, and tablets
across Europe as a guardian charm to reverse
curses or repel evil spirits. Charms, gestures,
and folklore rituals. Spitting over your shoulder,
knocking on wood, sweeping negative energy with
a broom, wearing a hamsa or evil eye bead. Buildings,
too, are often inscribed with a symbolic witch
mark or daisy wheel. Written prayer and protective
sigils. Testimonies of the faith. place in the
written or spoken words ability to shape destiny.
Now can you break or neutralize a curse with
ancient and modern rituals? Curses and curse
words are ancient, so too are practices of neutralizing.
Diverse cultures developed entire systems, rituals,
spells, and psychological strategies to defang
the melodictions woven by word will or envy.
I got one. Knock on wood. I think that's an incredibly
common one in European background. I do it all
the time. Common ones are cleansing rituals.
A couple are bathing in salt water using sacred
herbs and smudging with smoke features in many
traditions to purify a space a person believed
to be cursed. Breaking the cursed object. If
a curse is tied to an object, destroying it,
often with fire, water, or burial, is thought
to end its power. Protective amulets and talismans.
Wearing a cross, very Christian way, the nazar
or evil eye. That's to break curses? Oh yeah,
the evil eye. Wearing a cross. Yeah, well, the
cross protects you. Oh, I wear, I wear, I have
an evil eye that I wear. And I always love the
evil eyes to protect it. These are believed to
create a shield against malevolent energies.
Rituals to reflect or return the curse. Mirror
boxes or return to center spells are common in
both folk magic and modern witchcraft. Positive
affirmations and support. Psychology tells us
that belief in curses can cause anxiety, stress,
and self -affirmation. Prophecies, so rituals
of self -empowerment, support circles, and education
can help break the hold of such curses. Repentance
and forgiveness. Religious traditions often describe
confessions to a null self -spoken curse as words
of hate or ancestral maledictions. Or community
rituals, incantations, prayers, or cleansing
ceremonies done by groups are thought to generate
stronger protection. An echo of how curses themselves
once operated as social From breaking eggs to
breaking chains from ritual baths to modern therapy
the quest to neutralize the power of the curse
word continues And I just love, like, you can
see in those, like, seven different categories
of Breaking Curses, multiple different parts
of Christianity. Which is interesting. Yeah,
there's a lot of heavily Christian stuff that
is Breaking Curses. Like, it's so... But... You
don't think of it as a superstitious religion,
but it's, like, it's building on what came before
it, which everything does. And here's the thing,
and maybe it does tie a little bit back to our
previous episode, because King James I, you said...
King James Bible, yeah. Like, and he was heavily
into the, like, witchcraft stuff, so maybe that
might get - had a crossover episode or something,
you know what I mean? It is weird how close these
two episodes actually are. Yeah, yeah, and like
you look at the crosses and stuff and this is
very like religion heavy, a lot of breaking,
like confession and stuff like that. Oh yeah,
confession, rosary beads, repenting, and they
do have, I forget what they call it, but basically
smudge going in the church. That's true too.
Yeah, that's like, it's all about keeping the
curses away. really is what it is all about comes
down to. We can't leave the world of curse words
behind without acknowledging their everyday magic,
the psychological, social, and emotional power.
Why do people swear? Today's science suggests
reasons both primal and profound. Pain relief.
Swearing does actually activate response, releasing
endorphins, and temporarily raising pain tolerance.
In experiments, volunteers who cursed endured
cold water pain longer than those who remained
polite. For emotional catharsis and defiance,
curse words function as a pressure valve, letting
out frustration, anger, or fear in a burst of
ritualized transgression. Mark Twain. No stranger
to colorful language. No Quote, when angry, count
to four. When very angry, swear. End quote. Group
bonding and identity. Among friends or within
social group. Shared bad language can signal
camaraderie and group membership and honest self
-expression. And power control and humor. Swearing
can assert dominance or flip social hierarchies,
converting potential violence into manageable
controlled aggression. Profanity, well -timed,
can also be a source of humor or satire. But
science also supports centuries -old wisdom.
There's a double edge to the curse word sword.
Swearing too often may blunt its power, emotionally
and socially, and in every society, certain words
retain their ability to shock, offend, provoke,
rooted in specific historical taboos. So we've
seen that not all curse words are created equal
and not all cultures banish the same taboos.
Across the globe, what is profane or powerful
in one language may be trivial in another. In
Spanish and Italian, profanity often draws sexual
terminology or blasphemies. In Japanese, words
associated with death or misfortune are taboo
and certain numbers or syllables are avoided.
In some African and indigenous societies, curses
focus on social and familial order and slurs
may be used as healing or balancing tools under
controlled circumstances. Religion, politics,
and historical trauma shaped the landscape of
bad words. From the French Revolution, where
profanity was used as rebellion, to strict censorship
of blasphemy in the Islamic world. The functions
are nonetheless universal, expressing emotion,
forging group identity, policing boundaries,
and sometimes channeling the uncanny sense that
words themselves can summon bless. Now tonight,
I'm just gonna go to, I decided, despite it not
really matching up with everything in the theme
here, we're just gonna read some cursed stories
from Reddit that I found. I like that. Cuz I
just feel like when we have an opportunity to
go to reddit you go. Oh, yeah, it's the best
now This was posted seven years ago by the leaded
on the witchcraft subreddit Then the specific
question was were you cursed and this person
broke I believe I was when I was a much younger
witch with more curiosity than practice under
my magical belt I was fooling around with this
super hot guy who was a practitioner of voodoo
and who referred to himself as Bokor I didn't
want anything serious, but he did eventually
I called things off I left as I felt he was getting
too pushy and I didn't want to lead him on if
things weren't going anywhere. Shortly after
that my life started going seriously haywire.
My work situation took a nosedive, my bathroom
flooded, my refrigerator broke, my dog got in
a terrible fight where I ended up pretty torn
up myself. It felt like every aspect of my life
was suffering. It took me a while to get suspicious
because bad things happen, right? But this all
just seemed ridiculous. My fling did have access
to plenty of my personal effects, after all,
and I knew enough about that world to know how
things worked. I started to entertain the idea
that he'd thrown a love me or die my way, but
I still wasn't taking it entirely seriously.
That changed when I was driving home from work
behind a dump truck. When a rock flew out of
the back of the truck and slammed into my windshield,
right in front of my face. Fortunately it didn't
shatter the window completely, but it was bad
enough I had to pull over and have Toad to a
repair shop. Oh yeah she's pissed. No joke, three
days after it was repaired a freaking turkey
flew directly into my windshield and shattered
the window right in front of my face again. Oh
my god. After that I was like okay I think I
get it. A reading from a friend seemed to confirm
what I thought. I will credit this experience
with igniting my interest in practice and magic
however I managed to personal effect of my flings,
did a mirror spell, engaged in a serious 13 day
cleansing bath, swept out and washed down my
house from attic to basement, the works. Happily,
everything noticeably calmed down a hell of a
lot after I completely blocked said fling from
my life. That was a lot going wrong. Yeah, it
was. It doesn't seem like a coincidence at that
point. And then Zelda Alleri right below this
said, that's intense. My friend and I suspected
something similar happened with him. He was dating
a guy. who was also in Davudu and really just
conjuring some dark -ish that neither my friend
or I interested in experimenting with. I remember
when my friend called it off with the guy, he
did not take it well. all. We actually came home
one night a couple of days after they broke up
and had this really eerie feeling someone was
watching us in our home but thought not much
of it. We actually cast a little protection spell
on our home and ourselves hoping it would ease
the tension felt in the air. I don't know if
tension is even the right word it was just heavy
like I remember it actually stopped us both in
the doorway and had us wondering if someone had
been in. A couple of days later we gone out for
the evening and when we returned we noticed things
in our house were off like someone had been there.
Things didn't appear to be moved, but like there
had been touched. It felt like someone was recently
there and they left quickly. Our doors were locked
and our security system was still set but we
also noticed the heavy watching feeling wasn't
there anymore. We chalked it up to our spell
working and maybe we were just paranoid. Well
not even 24 hours later my friend life literally
started falling apart. Everything from work to
his health was affected and we were just at the
loss. He got into a fight with his boss which
came out of nowhere. He broke his wrist and then
sprained his ankle. It was a disaster. We called
it reinforcements and went to someone we knew
through other witches who is far more experienced
in their craft than either of us. She agreed
he was cursed or that some sort of hex was placed
on him. I mean that's easy enough to do. Yeah,
you're cursed. Just looking at you, you're cursed.
And agreed to assist him. She removed the hex
and told us to get in touch should anything further
happen. Everything seemed to clear up and things
went back to normal. But about two, maybe three
weeks later, that woman called my friend and
asked that neither of us get in touch with her
again. This next post written by a girl has no
name 17 written and edited seven years ago My
story is that I got a highly graphic death vision
a few months prior to the events the vision didn't
make any sense So I filed this under some random
weird shit then I started being ill a lot the
symptoms were vague enough to be Undiagnosable
but nasty enough to keep me nearly bedridden
for weeks. I was lethargic week My mom actually
said that I seemed to lose my spark that I used
to be a fairly vivid A couple months later, I
was at my partner's place, I drank some whiskey,
took a big ass knife and cut off my arm. I don't
understand that. Then I just sat there calmly
and watched the blood drip until my partner saw
what was happening. I have no explanation for
that. There was no real trigger. I don't have
any major psychiatric conditions and it's as
if I was in a trance. I still have three scars
on my arm. The next day I sustained a major bodily
injury out of the blue. The next day I was found
unconscious. This was pretty much the exact same
thing I saw in my vision. My hands started shaking,
realized which took a while. Another week later,
I developed a new set of genuine LAR symptoms.
Screaming in my sleep, laughing, hallucinating.
My mom rushed me to the ER again. Believe it
or not, I was still in denial. I am not suggestible.
I am very strong -willed. I am tough and very
resilient. I trust my instincts. I am very self
-aware. I have wards in my apartment. I didn't
think I'd truly wronged anyone. Another week,
I came down with severe abdominal pain in 24
-7, not the kind of pain I ever experienced before.
At the point, I was seeking mystical help. An
experienced shaman did a depossession ritual
and said that my stomach was stuffed with snakes.
The pain disappeared. literally within an hour.
I had a few decent days, but not so fast. Another
few days later, I developed constant pain in
my back which spread like wildfire. Suffice to
say, I spent the next two months wanting to climb
up the wall from pain despite already being on
opioids. The heavy duty painkillers were not
working. The ultrasound I insisted on showed
nothing. I actually asked my best friend to look
after my mom because I was pretty certain I was
going to die very soon. As what I was feeling
was very much it came to gradual. I gave her
instructions as to what to do with my few possessions
of sentimental value. I was exhausted from pain,
barely able to sit up, unable to find a pain
-free position even in bed. But that time I felt
like my life turned into an actual horror movie,
since as soon as one problem got cleared, something
new and medically inexplicable popped up another
friend whose powerful energy worker got involved.
The first time she did some work on me, she said
my natural light energy. She kept working on
it over the span of several weeks and things
gradually stabilized. I'm finally feeling like
myself again. Who did this? I'll never know.
Sure, but my main suspect is an egomaniacal occult
practitioner who pursued me last year since he
tried to break up me and my partner. I did not
take kindly to that. I rejected him. Then I kind
of forgot about him, but I guess he did not.
That would probably be the person who did it,
I would suspect. I found this one really interesting
posted by Lord Voldy -O six years ago. Sorry,
it's not me, but curses are a cultural thing
in the poorest part. Serbia. So I have tons of
family stories. So let's go back to the 80s.
My grandma, who helps Serbian immigrants get
settled in France, is helping this young woman.
Her name is Anna. She's in her 20s, polyglot.
I don't know what that means. Amazingly smart
and goddamn gorgeous. She came to France to study
languages but didn't know anyone so people sent
her to my grandma. My grand does her job. She
found her a nice job as an au pair for rich kids
in the richest part of Paris where she'll get
free food and accommodations with a pay every
month. So So for years, everything's perfect.
She gets her diploma in languages, gets a great
job as a translator in the government, has friends,
a boyfriend, all the stuff successful people
have. Here's another detail I have to add. There
was a little community of Serb immigrants in
Paris. People started to talk and some of these
people got really jealous and suddenly Anna went
from a healthy, successful woman to the shadow
of a human being in less than three months. Three
months of hell, where she couldn't sleep. She
was disgusted by food, couldn't think properly,
and became antisocial. Of course, at first, nobody
thought of witchcraft. They all told her to go
to a psychiatrist and see what was wrong, so
she went, and nothing. She had no mental issue.
Once everyone learned of the news, maybe it was
not her mind but her body, so she went, and still
nothing. She was fine. After months and months,
her health in mind and body deteriorate. She
wouldn't get out of her flat even to go to work.
She would only speak Serb even though she used
to only speak it when she really had to. She
got thinner and thinner even if my gran monitored
every meal and made sure she ate enough. Anyway...
Things were not improving in the slightest and
people started to link witchcraft to poor Anna.
Those were just rumors, but my grandma was sure
it was witchcraft. She saw it before and she
knew the results of a curse. So she started searching
Anna's flat. She inspected every inch of the
place, nothing. But the only place she had not
inspected was the bedroom. So she searched the
bedroom and guess what? She found a little pouch
with chicken bones in it. That was the proof.
Chicken bones are used for rituals and curses.
Anna was cursed and the worst thing about it
is that nobody could stop it, only the caster
can stop hers. Of course my gran tried to find
who was the sick fuck who enjoyed destroying
the life of a young woman. But she never found
who did it. Very often, my gran went to Anna's
flat to inspect it, and more than once found
chicken bones. Under the carpet, under the mattress,
Anna moved, but it just followed her no matter
what. She tried everything to get rid of the
curse, but nothing worked, so she gave up and
kicked herself from the world completely. After
years and years, Anna's health got worse and
worse, and she finally died at 32. In a tiny
flat in the poorest part of Paris, I know so
much more stories about lives being destroyed
by petty revenge curses that I can only recommend
some more bathed in wishcraft. Now tonight, as
we near Halloween and the boundaries of the world's
blur, remember in every curse word, in every
whispered taboo, in every name spoken with fear
or awe, we glimpse the ancient magic. Words can
hurt, heal, curse, charm, or conjure, and sometimes
just release the pressure of a stubbed toe. But
beneath the veneer of modern profanity and comedy,
beneath the theatre rituals and inscribed tablets,
we still carry old primal beliefs that speech
is an act of power, that names and words have
consequences, and that to break a taboo is to
enter the realm of risk, change, and transformation.
The ancient Cast your words wisely, whether a
shout, a whisper, a curse, or a blessing, for
on this night, perhaps more than any other, who
knows what might be listening. Chelsea, that
is the episode. I learned a lot, and now I will
curse with pride as it is not only releasing
the emotional baggage that comes with life, but
it'll keep me clean from curses. and it most
importantly links us to our ancestors. Exactly.
There's all kinds of good and cursing I found
out in this episode. I have nothing to add because,
wow, my mind is blown from most of that, but
that was a great episode. I quite enjoyed that.
I learned a lot of new things that I didn't know.
And it's always the fun things that you do in
everyday life. that is like you never think of
why you do it it's just as it is and it's just
another it has shaped so much of society that
like yeah you can't even begin to characterize
every little aspect of it. All we can really
look at is ritual, but that's not where it's
going to be limited to. My mind is constantly
blown in which the most mundane things in our
life that you do without thinking is tied back
to something that happened like hundreds of years
ago. And we just like even the fact that we don't
say bear, like that's insane. And it's from so
fucking long ago. You can't even imagine that
just blows my mind yet. Here we are doing it
every single day because that was a belief that
was held so long ago. So those are my thoughts.
I quite like that. That was a very nice Halloween
episode. Glad you liked it. And with that, I
have been Taylor, here with Chelsea. We are Journey
to the Fringe. Thank you all for listening. We'll
see you next week. Fuck. That's a good way to
end it.