June 30, 2022

What is the Evil Eye?

 

To understand the origins of the evil eye, we must go down the alleys of history and first differentiate between the evil eye amulet and the evil eye which is the curse.

 

The amulet which we frequently see not only in the bazaars of the Mediterranean lands but everywhere from comic books to airplane brandings is the charm that is meant to ward off the malevolent forces, the true evil eye. This is the protection against the curse which is transmitted by someone with a vicious glare, out of envy or jealousy. The evil eye amulet has been around for thousands of years, but the curse which it intends to repel has origins far difficult to trace.

 

The other evil eye we frequently hear about is the mystic evil force that we mentioned earlier, one that is sent out as a curse. Someone who achieves success or prosperity attracts the ill feelings of others around them. Their envy in turn transforms into a curse that undoes their good fortune. It was the ancient Greeks who gave this concept that when anyone looks at something which is at par with excellence, their envious eye fills the surrounding atmosphere with their venom. This belief in the evil eye has spanned across generations as well as cultures. The evil eye symbol is not only deeply entrenched in cultures but also across religious texts of the Quran and Bible.

 

With such staunch beliefs around the evil glare and its power to cast catastrophic misfortunes, it comes as no surprise that people belonging to ancient civilizations looked for reliable means to cast away its evil effects. This led to the discovery of the evil eye amulet we are familiar with today. But how far in history does, this go? The amulets excavated in Mesopotamia, which is in modern-day Syria, dated back to 3300 BC. They were alabaster idols with incised eyes and the blue eye amulets which we see today are a far cry from the excavated ones.

 

We see that coming that if the evil eye falls into the mediums of the modern we are living in, its meaning and history will fall behind and eventually be sidelined. The current interpretations of the evil eye have already sparked debate on fears of cultural appropriation, especially how this amulet is being used by the fashion industry in Hamsa, which holds a special place in both Islam and Judaism.

 

The last decade has witnessed the imagery of the evil eye amulet in the world of high street fashion. Kim Kardashian has been photographed on countless occasions wearing the amulet as bracelets and headpieces. Similarly, fashion model Gigi Hadid, whose father, Anwar Hadid is a Jordanian-American of Palestinian descent, also jumped on the trend in 2017, announcing the launch of her shoe line, EyeLove with Stuart Weitzman.

 

This recent interest shown from A-list models and influencers in the world of fashion has resulted in countless tutorials on making your evil eye bracelets, keychains, necklaces, and headbands.