Evil Eye- Myths and Superstitions

Hey there! Welcome back to ‘The Confessions Of A Random Blogger!’

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a post about superstitions revolving around diamonds. In that post, I spoke about the superstition of the evil eye.

The Evil Eye is one of the few myths or superstitions that I actually wholeheartedly believe in.

Therefore, today I’m going to be discussing the significance, history of the evil eye and how you can protect yourself against it.

Let’s get started!

The Significance of the Evil Eye

It is said that there are 3 types of evil eye.

The first type is the unconscious evil eye. This evil eye harms beings without a specific intention or premeditated motive. This could be a quick glance at a person walking by, the rolling of one’s eyes at someone or even an unconscious, unspoken thought. This type of evil projects negativity or misfortune onto the receiver without the projector even realising it.

The second type of evil eye is termed as the eye with intent to harm. ‘With intention’ so to speak. You know that idiot you scream at that waits at the traffic light a little too long? That drunk gossip session about literally everybody you know?

The third, and perhaps the most dangerous, is unseen, hidden and lurking evil. This results from unspoken envy, jealousy and even hatred which can result in the most harmful consequences and misfortune.

The History of the Evil Eye

The superstition of the evil eye dates back centuries and can be traced back to several different cultures; including Islamic, Hindu, Buddhist and Jewish religious traditions, as well as ancient Greek and Roman mythology.

The evil eye superstition has varying definitions depending on each individual cultural belief. However, the most widely accepted and inclusive definition of the ‘evil eye’ is a curse inflicted on a person due to an envious or hateful stare from another person.

This curse can be inflicted in a number of ways, namely in the form of elaborate compliments, extreme praise, excessive bragging about oneself and inordinate conceit.

You know that one friend that’s always just a little too nice? Like just crossing the border of being sweet to being a weird crazy psycho stalker?

Once a person has been cursed by the evil eye, they can fall prey to bad luck, illness, injury, misfortune or even death. However, there are some ways to avoid these terrible things from happening to you by protecting yourself from the evil eye or even curing yourself from it!

Well…I guess most of them. I don’t really know how you would cure death with an amulet.

Moving on!

Protection Against The Evil Eye

The Ocular Amulet

The Nazar Boncuk Ocular amulet is usually worn as a pendant, hung on doors and embedded in walls and street art.

I think we’ve all seen a representation of the infamous ocular amulet somewhere or another. Either hanging from the rear-view mirror of a car to prevent a potential accident or hanging from the neck of a ditzy blonde girl that doesn’t understand the significance of the charm that she purchased while on a trip to India to “find herself.”

When she finds herself I hope she lets us know.

The evil eye ocular talisman (Turkish- boncuk; göz boncuğu) is an apotropaic (having the power to deflect misfortune or bad influences) symbol which is supposed to absorb the envy, jealousy or hatred (nazar- which translates to surveillance and sight) that is directed towards you, hence protecting the wearer against the evil eye.

Basically, it absorbs all the malice directed towards you so that it cannot make its way towards your soul. When the talisman breaks, it is said that it has absorbed an evil eye and has performed its duty. However, it is said that for the nazar boncuk amulet to be effective against the evil eye, one cannot buy the charm for themselves; it must be gifted to you by a person with pure intention.

It is said that the amulet is blue because the Byzantines believed it represented sanctity, peace and the divine.

Belief in the amulet is believed to date back to the 16th century in the Mediterranean, and eventually made its way through Turkey, Egypt, Tunisia, Lebanon and Persia. Today, the belief in the nazar boncuk talisman has spread all over the world.

In fact, Irish farmers have been known to hang a nazar boncuk charm near their livestock to prevent evil eye from rival neighbours.

Fascinus

The fascinus is a physical phallic embodiment from ancient Roman magic and religion that is said to ward off the effect of the evil eye.

The ideology behind it is sort of disgusting, but also kind of super cool considering how old the tradition is.

When I say that the fasciunus is a phallic object; I basically mean that it represents a penis.

A fascinus is typically hung from the neck of a young child pointing outwards, with the motif being that the charm is in a sense ejaculating into the evil eye; which would consequently mitigate its power.

Once again, sort of weird since children usually wear the fascinus charm…but still super interesting!

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Thank you for reading! What is your opinion about the evil eye? Do you…see eye to eye with the traditional superstition? Should I be a comedian instead of a writer? Comment below!

Let me know which superstition you think I should cover next.

You can check out my last few posts here:

• The Scariest Things That Actually Exist
• borrowed poems from an anonymous- ‘Expressions of Love’ and ‘Experience’
• The Horror of Surveillance
• Pet Peeves
• Happy Panda- Random Blogger Interviews

Connect with me on Instagram!

Until Next Time.