Someone hurt me badly. Can I hex them?

This question deserves an honest answer rather than a lecture, so here is one.

Hexing, cursing, and baneful magick are genuine and documented aspects of folk tradition across nearly every culture in the world. Practitioners have always worked to protect themselves and to redirect harm toward those who caused it. The idea that all magick must be harm-free and light-filled is a relatively modern position, not a universal one, and there is no need to pretend otherwise.

You are asking from a place of real pain. That matters.

What hexing actually involves

A hex is a working directed at a specific person with the intention of bringing harm, difficulty, or consequence to them. In folk tradition, this has included everything from binding spells that restrict someone”s ability to cause further harm, to workings that return their actions to them, to curses that invite misfortune or suffering. These are not the same thing, and the distinctions matter both ethically and practically.

Binding is often considered a protective measure rather than an attack: you are not wishing the person ill, you are working to stop them from causing further harm. Many practitioners who would not cast a traditional curse are comfortable with binding.

Return-to-sender workings direct the harm someone caused back to its source rather than generating new harm. This too is widely practised and considered by many traditions to be just rather than malicious.

A full curse aimed at bringing suffering to someone”s life is a different matter, and it is the one that carries the most ethical and practical weight.

What hexing costs

Every tradition that practises baneful magick also has something to say about its costs. This is not superstitious hand-wringing; it reflects real observation. Holding and directing anger, resentment, and ill-will toward someone is emotionally and energetically taxing. It keeps you attached to the person who hurt you. Many practitioners find that the sustained attention required by curse work prolongs their own suffering rather than relieving it.

There are also traditions, the threefold law being the most widely known modern example, that hold that what you send returns to you. This is not universally accepted across witchcraft traditions, and it is not an absolute magical law. But it is worth considering honestly before you act.

None of this means you should not act. It means you should act with full awareness of what you are choosing.

What else exists

Protection and warding are almost universally considered appropriate and are worth doing regardless of any other decision. Binding someone from causing further harm sits in a different ethical category from wishing them suffering, and it may address your actual concern more directly.

If you are in real danger, please pursue protection through mundane means as well: legal, practical, and social support. Magick works alongside real-world action, not instead of it.

If after honest reflection you decide to hex, that is your choice to make, as it has always been. Go in with clear eyes, a specific intention, and some thought about when and how you will consider the matter closed.