Evil Eye Meaning: Here’s What It Means and How To Use It

The evil eye is a common tradition in many cultures worldwide — this is what it is and what the evil eye means in the world today!

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This guide will help you to understand what the evil eye is and help you understand what it means throughout different parts of the world! 

What Is the Evil Eye?

Generally speaking, the evil eye (sometimes referred to as the Mal De Ojo or Ojo Turco) is a glare that causes bad luck, misfortune, and harm to whoever receives it. It is typically recognized as something that will bring negative consequences including injury or even death upon anyone that falls under its gaze. 

The evil eye is typically deterred through the use of evil eye amulets, evil eye bracelets, and evil eye charms that bear the traditional color of cobalt blue. 

Wearing jewelry that bears this design is typically a protective measure against the glare of the evil eye. Many cultures wear this design to help ensure good luck so they can counteract negative energy and replace it with good fortune. 

It is important to recognize that the evil eye is not the same thing as the symbols and decorations that many people use to repel it. However, people still call the protective jewelry “evil eye jewelry” to make it easier to understand. 

The Evil Eye in Historical and Modern Culture

The concept of the evil eye has been around for thousands of years and has been incorporated into countless cultures and religious systems. It has been found throughout history in many different places, including: 

  • Ancient Greece
  • Iran
  • Iraq
  • Afghanistan
  • West Asia
  • Brazil
  • Lebanon
  • Turkey
  • Central America
  • Egypt
  • Various countries in Europe

Needless to say, the evil eye is a fairly ubiquitous concept in many cultures and traditions. Even in modern culture, the light blue evil eye symbol is found in many kinds of evil eye jewelry, including necklaces, eye amulets, bracelets, and charms. 

While there are fewer people today that fear the curse of the evil eye, it is still a symbol that carries a lot of weight. 

While it began as a small superstition based in various tribes through Ancient Greece, it quickly spread across the world. If you take any culture based in Europe or Asia, the odds are good that the evil eye is at least a small part of their lore. 

The Historical Origins of Evil Eye Jewelry

The most commonly recognized source of evil eye jewelry is usually agreed to be the ancient Phoenicians and Assyrians. These cultures were incredibly advanced in their creativity and artistic skills and started working on glass production, which led to some of the first glass evil eye beads. 

Back then, these beads were incredibly valuable and sought after greatly, simply because there were very few cultures in the ancient world that could create these materials. 

Who Gives the Evil Eye?

The modern traditions of the evil eye typically come from Greek and Roman cultures from over 3,000 years ago. Often, the evil eye would be cast by someone who was experiencing envy or negative motivation towards a specific person. They would cast the evil eye on them, and that curse would take away the positive energies around them. 

In Arabic, Mediterranean, Egyptian, and Jewish cultures, the use of evil eye amulets helped to reject the evil eye. Evil eye pendants, evil eye beads, and evil eye bracelets were incredibly common and were used to help protect against the curse. 

In these cultures, the Hamsa, Hand of Miriam, or Hand of Fatima was also used to ward off the evil eye. 

In many other Buddhist communities, Hindu societies, and Muslim cultures, the evil eye was occasionally seen as something that was actually involuntary, which means that people who created the curse didn’t want to cast it. It was usually the result of a lack of good karma or courage. 

In these cultures, many people use a Nazar or glass beads with the evil eye symbol on them to protect against both sending and receiving the evil eye. 

Evil Eye in Celebrity Culture

Throughout history, the evil eye has been cast against people that the user thinks have too much power, wealth, or prestige. This specific use of the evil eye is often referred to as the “fat eye.” 

To protect against the evil eye, many celebrities, including Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan, Brad Pitt, Cameron Diaz, Madonna, and Kim Kardashian, have been seen wearing various kinds of evil eye jewelry. 

Despite their somewhat practical uses for celebrities, their use of evil eye jewelry has attracted a wide array of compliments and copiers in the general public. 

Evil Eye in Philosophy

Many famous historical philosophers and great thinkers, including Plato, Hesiod, and Plutarch, used the evil eye as a popular metaphor and concept in their teaching. They would use it to describe the evil in the world and teach students how to address it. 

Many different thinkers in the ancient Middle East and Rome would also use the evil eye to enhance the relatability and clarity of their teaching to the mass public. 

How to Heal From the Evil Eye

In traditional history, there are many different kinds of ways to recover from receiving the evil eye. One of the most common ways apart from wearing protective charms is consuming healing foods. 

Salt specifically is used to remove the curse of the evil eye, largely due to the fact that salt was such a valuable commodity in the ancient world. Incense is another common way to rid oneself of the curse of the evil eye.

Sources: 

  1. Medical Spanish Culture: Mal de Ojo | Medical Spanish
  2. evil eye | occult | Britannica
  3. The strange power of the ‘evil eye’ | BBC Culture