voodoo

If Looks Could Kill: A Quick History of the Evil Eye

If you follow news on the British royal family, you may have seen photos of a mysterious blue and white pendant worn by Meghan, Duchess of Sussex. This piece of jewelry looks intriguing, but it’s more than just a fashion statement – it has a deeper symbolism that’s thousands of years old. To find out why the Duchess’s pendant is a big deal, we need to take a trip through unexpected mythological territory: the legend of the evil eye.

Ancient Evidence in Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Europe

Ancient Middle Eastern cultures linked the eyes to supernatural power. The most prominent example comes from Egypt – the Eye of Horus. According to ancient Egyptian mythology, Horus was the son of Osiris and Isis. Dictionary.com mentions the legend in which Horus loses an eye battling his uncle Set. Some versions of the tale say that the goddess Hathor restored his eye. Horus then helped resurrect his father, Osiris, by giving him the regenerated eye.

Other ancient cultures associated the eyes with the potential to cause harm. As Elaine Smith explains in a New York Times piece, an envious or hateful look carried evil that could harm living beings and inanimate objects. Even if one’s gaze didn’t reflect obvious envy or hatred, it still held malicious intent. By gazing or glaring, it was possible to curse another person. That’s the evil eye belief in a nutshell.

Journalist Leila Ettachfini mentions that this belief has existed for a few thousand years. Archaeologists discovered 5,000-year-old Sumerian clay tablets containing prayers to keep away evil eye curses. They’ve also found evil eye imagery within 10,000-year-old paintings on the walls of a Spanish cave.

The Dangers of Paying Compliments

The evil eye embodies envy. And while envy and coveting aren’t technically the same thing, they are closely related. Merriam-Webster defines coveting as feeling “inordinate desire for what belongs to another.” The Jewish Torah warns against this in its Tenth Commandment. But other faiths address excessive longing or desire. There’s the Buddhist concept of tanha, which usually translates as “craving” or “thirst.” Tanha is responsible for human suffering, which fuels the death and rebirth cycle.

Envy and coveting produce destructive outcomes if we act on them. But what if you admire something that another person has – say, a gorgeous jacket? If you’re in the Middle East, you’re better off keeping it to yourself. Some believe that even well-intentioned compliments can bring the evil eye curse. Boasting and pride may also bring it on oneself.

Amulets and Other Magical Protection

Ancient Egyptians wore protective amulets bearing the Eye of Horus to ward off sickness, injuries, and death. But they were intended to shield against general misfortunes. Evil eye amulets, charms, and talismans have specific purposes. They’re forms of apotropaic magic, intended to shield their wearers from misfortune. And they exist in many cultures around the world.

Many evil eye amulets come from the Middle East. Jewish blogger Menachem Wecker mentions the hamsa, an ornate metal hand with an eye inside its palm. The hamsa may have Islamic origins, but it made its way into neighboring Jewish cultures. You’ll also see other types of amulets across the region. The most common version is a blue disc with a single eyeball at its center, usually with a blue iris. You may find them hanging from trees, but they also show up as pendants or bracelet charms.

A Human Coping Mechanism?

With a balanced locus of control, we recognize that we cannot dictate others’ actions. Yet their deeds can still harm us. Strangely enough, the evil eye belief can be an adequate coping mechanism. Rather than trying to control others, we can take measures to deal with our own emotions and provide comfort to ourselves. And for millions of people around the world, evil eye amulets accomplish that very purpose.

Trickster Deities in Canadian Religions

Trickster deities bend or outright violate rules or norms of social order and play important parts within several religions observed by Canadian people.

Trickster deities bend or outright violate rules or norms of social order and play important parts within several religions observed by Canadian people.

Just as real life is not without its tricksters, these individuals play important parts within several religions observed by Canadian people in modern times. Broadly speaking, trickster deities either bend or outright violate rules or norms of social order through their clever and cunning ways, often with humorous results. In his writings, psychiatrist Carl Jung spoke of this trope within First Nations mythologies, describing it as an archetype that apparently combines qualities seen as divine along with human tendencies. According to mythology, tricksters are usually deities, human folk heroes, anthropomorphic animal characters or some combination of the three. 

“Let There Be Light,” or Raven Steals the Sun 

As the Canadian Encyclopedia reveals, trickster deities frequently appear in the creation stories of many First Nations cultures. You might be familiar with Raven, a figure present in the tales of multiple groups such as the Inuit, Nisga’a and Haida. One famous account depicts Raven bringing light to a dark world by stealing the sun, a feat he accomplishes by turning into a hemlock or pine needle that’s swallowed by the Sun Chief’s daughter. She gives birth to a child strangely resembling the brazen bird who then begs to see the sun, which has been secreted away in a box. Once the Sun Chief obliges the child, the avian god steals the sun and flies away. Some editions of the story insist that Raven’s feathers were white prior to his theft and that the burning sun turned them black. 

Baron Samedi: Lord of the Dead 

Canada’s National Household Survey doesn’t include Haitian Voodoo as a separate religious category. Nevertheless, a 2010 piece in the Globe and Mail disclosed informal estimates that its practitioners make up between 30 and 80 percent of Haitian nationals in the country, which numbered more than 248,000 according to the 2011 survey. Significant spirits in most versions of Voodoo are called “loa,” and Baron Samedi is a charismatic loa said to dig the graves of the newly departed and escort them to the afterlife.

The Baron fits the “trickster” idea in both his demeanor and behavior. He’s described as having a jovial cheekiness manifesting itself in his liberal use of profanity, indulging in scandalous humor, frequent flirtations with mortal women and love of rum and tobacco. Such irreverence matches the “trickster” profile, but it’s his ability to defy the forces of death that’s most notable. The Baron has been known to refuse to dig some graves, which effectively saves the individuals in question from dying. 

Loki and Mohini: Breaking the Gender Binary

As many trickster tales include some sort of physical transformation, it’s no surprise that some tricksters shift genders. Loki, a well-known charlatan from both ancient Norse legends and modern-day Heathenry, aids Valhalla’s finest in several stories while bringing ruin and death in others. One gender-bending account shows him shifting into the form of a mare and giving birth to Sleipnir, Odin’s eight-legged steed. Some texts from Hinduism speak of Mohini, a goddess and avatar of Vishnu whose ruses include the following:

  • duping a group of demons into handing over an immortality elixir
  • charming another demon into mimicking her dance moves until he turned into a pile of ash
  • causing Shiva to be overcome with lust and temporarily lose his cosmic powers

As long as humanity has existed, people have been fascinated with “trickster” characters. Within many cultures, these personae have often manifested as deities who frustrate plans of humans and gods alike. Although their mischief is sometimes meant in fun, in other cases it breaks the rules or challenges authority to accomplish their own agendas. Whether these actions have altruistic, selfish or more complex motivations, examining the stories of divine beings with a trickster disposition becomes a fascinating study in human nature.