I kind of think of him as a computer software designer who sells his software but has created hidden passwords so that he can still get into the system even after he has sold it. He wasn’t the one who enacted the curse but because he created it, he had created ways he could still manipulate his way through it in order to remember. I have no idea how he did it. Maybe that’s what he needed the wand for. But I do think he did it because he knew he would need to help Emma break the curse. But all magic comes at a price. For Rumple it has been having to continue to live with the pain of the loss of Bae and Belle. At least for the rest of the characters in Storybrooke they don’t know they have been separated from their loved ones – they are kind of blissfully unaware. Rumple chose to continue to live with his pain.