quick question about pennies and curses

I know nuttin. But now I am curious. I have to look this up.

The neighbors practicing Pagans of any path? I know that there is a belief that pennies (or anything else copper) will render a witch powerless. Is it possible that they are trying to contain your magick?

Heads or tails? I've heard that heads means good luck. Tails, bad. Good or bad, the luck is taken from the loser (giver?) of the penny.

Unless the dorks made sure they were minted pre-1982 (for american pennies), they're trying to curse you with zinc.

My alter-ego actually sells pressed pennies for jewelry, and I can't say I've ever heard of them being bad luck, except for that bad penny that keeps turning up. With the Chinese curses, it has more to do with the number of coins, as far as I know, rather than the properties of the pennies themselves. I'd love to hear what you come up with.

Foinah said:

. . .And the pennies were tails.

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Just my opinion here, but it looks to me like you are right--it's someone trying some bad juju.

I'll bet that because they know you are a witch, they decided to look something up online or they bought some book. They tried somehow to learn something "Witchy". And the best they came up with is pressing "tails" pennies into the ground.

A simple bad luck thing? Honestly, that's what it sounds like to me. It just smacks of someone trying to play at magic(k) and using their own ideas thrown into the pot as well. Not that it wouldn't work. With enough force of will, any one of us could achieve pretty much any goal with any work as long as we were confident in our ability.

It just sounds like a tea party to me. Playing at being a real witch.

And I do believe that hinkiness is my new, most favoritest word. I plan to use it at least three times tomorrow, and once tonight to get into practice.

Pennies can't take away anyone's power. Power is mental training. If your neighbors think they are affecting any power you may have, they are wrong. Let them put as many pennies as they want on your sidewalk.

If you suspect them, then while they are watching, pick one up and say, "Oh, look! Another lucky penny! Since these have been showing up, I've been having the best luck." If they are doing this to take away your power, it'll ruin their day.

I'm out of the broom closet and once had a group of Christian teens say "Jesus bind you," to me. I replied, "Why thank you. Jesus bless you, too." They didn't look happy.

Personally, a couple of times a week, I'll drop a penny leaving it for someone to find, while saying a parking blessing. They get some luck from it and I get the best parking spots.

StephanieFox said:

I'm out of the broom closet and once had a group of Christian teens say "Jesus bind you," to me.

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Wow--that's a brand new one on me. Jesus bind you?

Carole said:

Wow--that's a brand new one on me. Jesus bind you?

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I never realized he was into the kinky stuff. But hey, if it's good enough for David Carradine....

I want to clarify something. I wasn't mocking the kids. I am totally serious. I have never heard anything like that before.

Carole said:

Wow--that's a brand new one on me. Jesus bind you?

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I've heard of it before. I've had it done to me before. By a Pastor who talked to me like I was a demon.

At the end of his trying to cast whatever demons out of me that he thought were possessing me, he backed away and said, "I can't deliver you right now. It's not your time." I guess he said that because he was on Cable Access Television and didn't want to look bad. But I never had a demon in me in the first place.

But yeah, I've heard of it, and I've had it done to me. It's a bit intimidating to have someone tell me "Jesus Bind You," or "I rebuke you in the name of Jesus."


More on the topic of the OP, I don't know very much about magick, per se, but I do know that there's an old superstition in my family that if you find a penny tails-up, it's bad luck for you. Somebody probably thinks they're going to make you have bad luck by putting pennies tails-up on your walkway because they have been taught that superstition. But what I've learned through what little experience I've had with magick, is that what StephanieFox says is right on the money (no pun intended). Your magick is based on your personal power, not someone else's. I found that out when my former GF, who I've told a lot of you about, took my medallion in her hand and wanted to feel the power in it. I'm usually afraid of people doing that, but I reminded myself of what Stephanie mentioned and basically smudged the medallion, then went on about my merry way. The medallion hasn't acted strangely at all, even before I smudged it. I only smudged it to calm my own senses of what kind of power the former GF might have had.


FWIW, the medallion I speak of is something I picked up recently from a Wiccan shop in the Hawthorne District. It's a five-pointed star with flames coming up off it, and a dragon's head in front of it with a blue jewel in the dragon's forehead. I've worn it religiously since I got it. But maybe that's information for another thread, eventually.

Sean D. Schaffer said:

I've heard of it before. I've had it done to me before. By a Pastor who talked to me like I was a demon.

At the end of his trying to cast whatever demons out of me that he thought were possessing me, he backed away and said, "I can't deliver you right now. It's not your time." I guess he said that because he was on Cable Access Television and didn't want to look bad. But I never had a demon in me in the first place.

But yeah, I've heard of it, and I've had it done to me. It's a bit intimidating to have someone tell me "Jesus Bind You," or "I rebuke you in the name of Jesus."

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Good gravy. He couldn't deliver you to begin with--In the Christian faith, that's God's power--not a human's. Showboating always baffles me.

They aren't trying to bind you. They're trying to bind the demon (or Satan himself) who is supposedly in you.

It's kind of a obscure branch of fundamentalist Christian thinking, that witches or pagans are actually demon possessed. The idea is not even really Biblical. Demon possession in the Bible seems to be mostly a form of mental illness, not something that's associated with magical powers.

I want to clarify something. The 'teens' weren't young teens, they were in college. They were part of a fundy Christian campus organization. I was in grad school and in my late 20s (or maybe 30 by then) so I thought of them as kids. I never took them seriously. People like them are more to pity than fear.

The stuff about found pennies face up or face down – I've read about that, too. I just figure a found penny is good luck either way, but then, I don't read reversals on tarot cards, either. I figure the card says what it says without the reversal complication.

I was taught that if you find a penny (good luck) face down (bad luck), all you had to do is put it in your non-dominant side shoe for a while and that made it better luck.

It really doesn't work when you're wearing flip-flops, though.

ChristineR said:

They aren't trying to bind you. They're trying to bind the demon (or Satan himself) who is supposedly in you.

It's kind of a obscure branch of fundamentalist Christian thinking, that witches or pagans are actually demon possessed. The idea is not even really Biblical. Demon possession in the Bible seems to be mostly a form of mental illness, not something that's associated with magical powers.

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I wasn't a Pagan in those days. Back then I was a Christian. The pastor didn't know the Bible very well, as I could never find his "Bible Quotes," and he himself had trouble telling people where they were located.

Oh, well. I know better now. Live and learn.


Blessed Be.

A conversation you might want them to overhear

"Hey honey did you drop some change on the walk?"

"Oh that's just those churchies doing their weak attempt at magic to curse us."

"I guess it's good for us that they don't know it only works with gold coins."