Evil Eye; Hungry Eye

What is the evil eye?

The Evil Eye is a common everyday curse, a vampiric force able to be laid by most people through a fixed gaze fueled by a strong desire to have what you have, through jealousy, envy, anger, and covetousness, though some are more able in their sending and directioning of such a malefic force. The Eye is commonly laid through people who constantly keep eyes on you, who watch your social media and judge what you do and the moves that you make, and by those who want what you have, whether it be an opportunity, a job, that new piece of clothing, a new watch, or your successes. Most afflictions of the Eye are sent unintentionally in daily life, though it can be intentionally sent out to do what it does best: suck the life out of your fortune, your opportunities, your mental and physical health, finances, and your love life. The presence of the eye casts a shade of grey across the tapestry of your life, it makes you tired, anxious, ache-y, and melancholic, sucking the desire to live life from the very marrow of your bones. 

 To give an idea of how common the Evil Eye is, a houseless man on a street corner might lay the Eye upon you by staring at you while filled with envy of your food, your car, your house, or your clothes; a friend might lay the eye upon us through complimenting a new article of clothing or jewelry; even a random person in a bar who envies our bravado in a haze of desire might be the Eyes source.

Symptoms of the Evil Eye

The most common physical signs of the presence of the Evil Eye include headaches that come from nowhere and won’t go away, puffy red eyes, or eyes that are always filled with tears, or even injuries or irritations to the eye such as a stye. Those suffering from the Eye often feel constant exhaustion and sleepiness, which coalesces into the perfect storm and the hungry curse works to sour your self-esteem, confidence, and general joy, leaving you in an exhausted state of melancholia.

Not only does it attack the physical and non-physical self, but the Evil Eye seeks also to sap away our opportunities, successes, and triumphs, causing difficulties in our professional careers, love life, finances, and social life, all the while digging its claws deeper within us. 

 Keep in mind that the Evil Eye is a vampiric force that seeks to feed upon the virility of your life. Indications of a stronger presence of the Eye, whereby the eye was left on the afflicted and allowed to snowball and grow, include shifts towards baser personality traits where one might focus more on simple pleasures such as substances or physical pleasure. The Eye erodes your mental well-being and impairs your capacity to make sound judgments until suddenly, maintaining focus at work and nurturing relationships becomes challenging. Its effects are subtle, creeping into your life unnoticed.

 Evil Eye diagnosis and removal 

I believe that we come into contact with the Evil Eye every day, though I do not think that it always sticks to us and that we should always have a way in which we can diagnose whether the eye is upon us and if so, properly handle the removal of it. History and tradition from the world over have shown us several methods for diagnosing the eye be it through the use of olive oil, eggs, shells, beans, hagstones, or wax. 

 In the Mediterranean, olive oil is most frequently used to diagnose the eye by having someone within the family, usually a matriarch, drip three drops of olive oil into a bowl or dish of water. The woman would then divine in the oil by examining whether the drops sank to the bottom of the dish or stayed atop the surface, or if each drop merged with other drops to form a larger eye. Exact methods of interpretation vary from region to region, and the process is generally accompanied by a prayer known only to the matriarchs of the family from which it originates, passed orally only, and always in the winter. Those well skilled in their craft could even determine the source through divining in the oil and water, whether the source was a man or woman, alive or dead, and other details about their identity. Once the Eye was identified in the water, a nail, knife, scissors, or other sharp objects would be used to ritually pierce the eye, destroying it entirely. This was then followed by an anointing of olive oil to the head.

 Many use an egg to diagnose the Evil Eye by rubbing the afflicted body with an egg, usually combined with prayers, and then the egg is broken into a glass of water. While in the water, the shapes formed by the yolk and egg whites are divined upon and interpreted to both diagnose and determine whether the cleaning of the afflicted was successful or if further remedial measures need to be taken. 

 Apotropaic charms against the evil eye

 An apotropaic charm is an object capable of warding against malefic influences, such as a Nazars, Hamsas, Eye beads, Horn or phallic-like red coral charms, etc. that are said to ward against the Evil Eye.

The most common Evil Eye wards that we see in the United States consist of Nazars, Hamsas, and Evil Eye beads. A Nazar is an amulet formed usually of glass that contains iron, copper, and salt, three components to ward against the eye, and which resembles an ever-watchful and open eye. The technology behind the open eye that is always on watch is the belief that the Eye cannot be laid while the intended is looking at the sender of the Eye. These are hung on the outside of the home, around doorways, in trees, and over windows to protect the home. Beads featuring this open-eye motif are common to see on bracelets and other charms both as adoration for the body and the home, though these originate from Eye-Agates from Europe, a type of agate that when cut and polished looks like an eye due to its colored banding.                 

A Cornicello, or little horn, common is Southern Italy, is a piece of Red Coral in the shape of a horn or phallus that is used to ward against the Evil Eye while also promoting virility and fertility, mostly worn by men. 

Other charms to protect against the evil eye include making the sign of horns with the pointer and little fingers of the right or left hand, depending on tradition, and pointing back at the sender with the “horn tips’ or by using the horns to subdue the eye; garlic is hung around doorways and carried in the pockets in the Mediterranean to ward against both the Eye and vampires; and by placing scissors beneath the mattress or over doorways. Many other charms to protect against the eye exist in every culture around the world, alongside ways to diagnose and dispel the malefic influence. 

Evil Eye Wares

In knowing how deceptively dangerous the Evil Eye is, I wanted to set out to create a set of wares that can be utilized as a potent weapon against the maliciousness of the Eye. Firstly, I created Evil Eye Oil, an oil that seeks to diagnose, dispel, and defend against the Eye in its myriad forms, pulling from my personal pacts with Wormwood, and its plant material that I hand-gathered, as the heart of the menstruum. Wormwood is a known guard and dispeller of noxious spirits, being used in various cultures in the form of bunches hung above doorways, as an ingredient in baths, in unguents, and in fumigations to protect against malefic forces. While Wormwood is the main ally of the oil, it was further empowered through the addition of other materia such as Agrimony, Alum, Basil, Black Locust thorns, Blessed Salt, Chamomile, Datura, Freshly harvested and dried Rue, Lavender, Lapis Lazuli, Lemongrass, Life-Everlasting, Red Coral, and Rosemary, alongside Oils of Frankincense, Lemongrass, and Rosemary among several others. The Rosemary, Basil, and Lavender used in these wares have been ritually collected during auspicious times from my own garden.

 While the oil was brewing over a period of nine days with candles regularly burnt atop the bottle, I set out to create something even more practical than the oil that can be incorporated into both physically and spiritually cleaning your home. A fixed-vinegar cleaning spray filled with fresh Basil, Lavender, Rosemary, Rue, and Wormwood alongside a similar powder contained in the Evil Eye Oil. A large amount of fresh lemon peel was allowed to soak in the vinegar alongside the other materia, both as a strong cleaning agent and to impart its beautifully fresh fragrance to the vinegar - which now smells heavily of lemon and honey-perfumed flowers. The presence of lemon not only offers cleansing capabilities, but it also works through the cleanser to promote joy, love, and community within the home or space. Physically, vinegar holds such a high PH level that it makes a wonderful cleaning agent capable of removing dirt, grease, and general grime while also killing bacteria. Spiritually, vinegar has been utilized in American Hoodoo traditions to both remove and protect against noxious spirits. After macerating for several weeks and going through multiple ritual processes, the fixed vinegar was strained, mixed with distilled water, and then bottled. This is ideal to use as a daily cleaner, to keep your home or space fresh, clean, and flowing without stagnation. The first batch of this is fairly limited, having only 15 bottles on hand, and is not yet set to be remade until at least August 2024. 

 Lastly in this line-up of Evil Eye wares, I created four charms to be kept in the home to defend it against the Evil Eye. Each of these are built in 100% cotton cloth and contain the same base powder as the Evil Eye Oil which has been worked differently to be geared solely towards defending against the Evil Eye (compared to diagnosing), along with further additions of Snake bone and skin, powdered black locust thorns that were ritually prayed over and reduced to ash, powdered double yolk eggshell and yolk, among other allies all bound in red and crowned in several sprigs of Rue. The charms were then each given a candle and prayed over to be effective guards against malefic potencies, jealousy, envy, and covetousness. These charms are meant to be hung above or near the doorway, placed on an entryway table, or placed in a room where envy is high. 

 Each of these wares is a potent ally capable of handling all of your Evil Eye needs, whether they be to diagnose, dispel, or to defend against. More thorough insights into each of them are available on their respective pages which can be viewed here.