It's Not Polite to Stare

This is an ancient notion traced back to the Sumerians and may have originated with a simple xenophobia coincidentally connected to some bad event in the community. A stranger comes to town; the crops fail that year. A more astute consideration focuses on the role "looking" plays in transferring energy -- the gaze, the look, the spell -- and the psychology of envy and the affects it has on one another.

These curses are considered unintentional, children and livestock are the most vulnerable. Various rituals have developed to counteract the effects of the evil eye, such as defusing the praise, putting spit or dirt on a child who is praised, averting the gaze of strangers, reciting some verses from the Bible or the Koran, etc. The belief is especially prevalent today in the Mediterranean and Aegean, where apotropaic amulets and talismans are commonly sold as protection against the evil eye.

There is also the notion that some people are born with the power of the evil eye -- to cast spells or curses. In Sicily and southern Italy such people are called jettatore, they are malevolent and deliberately cast the evil eye on their victims.

 In all cases the evil eye was the bad energy (a spell) that was transmitted by anyone who looked too long ...the eyes were portals and powerful...maybe some people have more ability than others to cast negative energy around. Some look with unconscious envy masked by praise. All of these observations about people and energy were talked about much more theatrically back then ...now we're left with polite psycho jargon and new age lingo.

The evil eye is known as "ayin horeh" in Hebrew; "ayin harsha" in Arabic, "droch shuil" in Scotland, "mauvais oeil" in France, "böse Blick" in Germany, "mal occhio" in Italy and was known as "oculus malus" among the classical Romans.

Protect yourself from the evil eye... or just decorate!

Don't look at me that way!

 An interesting essay on the Evil eye and Envy, society and the Universe