There are different kinds of curses- those which are on-going with no intended end, those which are contingent upon meeting certain conditions, and curses intended to end in death. The kind which are on-going with no intended end are cruel. A person might actually learn their lesson later, but still continue to suffer from the curse. Even if the person placing the curse upon another decides to break it later, the intent when working the curse to make it permanent was still present. Death Curses rob a person of the possibility for redemption- which may take a life time to achieve. It is one thing to defend against an attack and the assailant’s death be the end result, completely different when you premeditate it. The threat is in real time, but to do so when there is only a only the potential (no matter how probable it is) of a threat, is vigilantism. And as it states in the Jedi Compass under Defense “Jedi are not vigilantes”.
But what about a curse with built-in rules for its termination? Again, I return to “Jedi are not vigilantes”. Therefore, the answer is “No, a Jedi cannot perform any kind of curse work, because it is a form of vigilante justice”. The defining difference is oversight. That is, law enforcement and the judicial branch of our governments are meant to have oversight by various agencies and the public- even if it’s not perfect, because man is imperfect, it’s something. While the oversight of Kahuna ‘Anā’anā in Old Hawaii may have been the chief of a town, today there is no sanctioned system of the people to enforce rules on such matters.
Incidentally, if a Jedi Order ever rose to the status that they could issue punishments for such things you would run into the problem of it becoming a cult, or facing the same issues we see happening in Jesus’ story- where the Jewish people were able to decide matters of justice because the Romans allowed it. Today, there is a very good reason that “Separation of Church and State” exist. Since Metaphysics alone cannot be proven in a court of law, and even if you could- evidence of who did what would be elusive because there is no science to show a “Metaphysical Fingerprint/DNA Match”. Because it has no oversight, and there can be no legitimate human authority appointed for oversight, it falls into Vigilantism.
Now, one could argue that the overseeing authority is a divine force, or collective of divine forces. However, I’ll point out that if you look at the Jedi Philosophy in it’s entirety, we Jedi are more strict with our ethics than many divine beings. Thus, a divine source isn’t really the right one to go to in order to hold us accountable to the Jedi Philosophy and Code. That’s something we have to do on our own, and hope that our peers will assist us with.
So circling back, there is one final question that should be addressed: Is it right for a Jedi to move forward and ask a supernatural force to judge and execute punishment if the being finds them guilty of the charge?
I’ve mentioned that a divine being can make any decision he/she/it/they want. This may go in the favor of the curse worker, or it may not. We have no way of knowing how an answer to a request will manifest. It could go in a way that leads to redemption or it could just tear the person apart.
To be fair, we do this same thing when we leave things to the courts to decide upon a person’s guilt or innocence, and the subsequent actions. But divine beings haven’t given us a legal book that outlines what happens when a someone is found guilty of a myriad of different crimes. Western Courts have. You get X amount of time, you have X dollar fine, you may get probation, or community service; we even know things that will result in Capital Punishment. We have a set of expectations. The Divine doesn’t give us that- the range of punishment that divine being can inflict is an unknown factor.
But if we strip this away, we are presented with the challenge of motivation. If you’re asking a divine being for a curse, it’s because you’ve made a judgement that the person isn’t worthy of redemption. In contrast, by asking the divine to give the help a person needs to get their life on track, you are giving into hope that they are worthy of respect as human beings. If the divine source you are asking decides that the only way to do that is to curse the person- that’s not your problem. Your intention wasn’t to harm, but to allow compassion to lead the way.
Conclusion Summary
No, a Jedi cannot engage in Curse Work. They can’t ask for it, and they cannot perform it themselves. If you have all the information to prove that a curse is warranted, then there is enough information to put them behind bars. And if it’s not an offense that can be charged, you’re saying that you are the one who gets to decide what is right and wrong- meaning that you haven’t conquered your sense of self-importance (mentioned under the Jedi Behaviors tenet “Conquer Arrogance”).
Furthermore, consider this- by engaging in curse work, you are not encouraging the person requesting the curse work (yourself or someone else) to let go of their attachments (a common teaching amongst the fictional Jedi and real life Jedi). Confrontation is one way to address this, but that should be done in court and not through the cowardice of using metaphysical answers. Letting go through the compassion of forgiveness or hope for redemption is another way. But as the saying goes:
Hate leads to suffering.
That is, if you allow your hate to fester, you and/or the person you hate will suffer the consequences, and this is the path to The Dark Side. Our (the Jedi) actions must never be led by “the ends justify the means”, but rather by the virtues, values and ethics set forth by our philosophy and codes.
As Guardians of Peace, who believe that the way to forge peace can be found within our Philosophy, we alone have to maintain our integrity to the Jedi Path…even when no one else is looking. Let me leave you with this question to contemplate-
How can peace be forged, if one’s will wants nothing more than to see the suffering of others…even if it is on the off-chance they might turn a new leaf?