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queenlionesss: THE EYE GODDESS AND THE EVIL EYE The observation...

queenlionesss:

THE EYE GODDESS AND THE EVIL EYE

The observation that "the eye is the window of the soul" is an expression of an extremely widespread belief that the eye is an external reflection of the inner life. The age-old acknowledgement of the eye as a mirror of the soul is given poetic expression in the Sermon on the Mount:


The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy

whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole

body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee

be darkness, how great is that darkness! (1)


While the reluctance on the part of many people to make eye contact with strangers shows a vestigial recognition of the power of the eye to reveal the soul, the implications of the downward movement of the eyes to avoid such direct glances are more far-reaching. In all likelihood, the reflex is a remnant of the primitive fear of the Evil Eye, which may best be described as the powerful glance of envy and jealousy directed at a person or object in an attempt to acquire its beneficial properties or to will its destruction.


The belief in the magical powers of the Evil Eye is among the most ancient and universal of all beliefs. Virtually "every language, both ancient and modern, contains a word or expression which is the equivalent of 'Evil Eye'." (2) The powers of fascination often mentioned in connection with the Evil Eye are the powers that irresistibly attract, bewitch, or enchant by a motionless glance. In ancient times, the ability to fascinate was traditionally attributed to female figures. Thus, throughout history, the possessors of the power of the Evil Eye were women, goddesses, and witches.


In the religious literature of the Western world, "it is clear that sorcery was specially the work of women." (3) The powers attributed to women undoubtedly derived from their early experiences as gatherers of food and herbs, which provided them with a knowledge of medicines, poisons, and intoxicants used for healing or the practice of magic. Those who commanded a knowledge of the magic arts were highly regarded in the ancient world since primitive religion was largely based on a fear of the supernatural, and the expulsion of such evil forces was accomplished by means of purification and apotropaic ritual.


Among the many amulets and charms used for the purpose of neutralizing the negative energy emitted from the deadly glance of envy and jealousy, are those of a vulvar or phallic configuration. The Evil Eye is thus diverted "from the object liable to injury" (4) onto an amulet that possesses the ability to "attract the mischief-working eye upon itself." (5) The bright and shining magical ornaments intended to "ward off fascination derive their efficacy from the strangeness or ridiculousness of their forms." (6) These charms of protection are, more often than not, sacred emblems of the androgynous aspect of the Great Goddess. That they at times assume a phallic form merely illustrates the power she commands over the masculine fertilizing element, for the phallus as object is an integral part of her self-multiplying parthenogenic universe.

The clearest instance of the scope and longevity of her protection is shown in a custom still prevalent today: the wearing of amulets in the shape of animal horns or in the form of the crescent moon. In pagan times these were believed to invoke the divine intercession of the fertile moon goddess to whom these emblems were sacred from the beginning of time. (7) One of the earliest extant goddess figures is the Venus of Laussel who holds the lunar horn in her upraised hand.

The "Venus" of Laussel. Limestone bas-relief.

From a rock shelter cave in Dordogne, France.

Upper Paleolithic Gravettian c. 25,000 B.C.E.

The eye is one of the most widely used amulets against itself, a classic example of sympathetic magic or 'like cures like'. (8) As a talisman of immortality, the Evil Eye contains the same meaning as the diamond-shaped glyph or "lozenge with a central mark," (9) a variant of the eye sign which represents the vulva of the goddess. (10) The frequent appearance in ancient times of a threshold talisman called the "much suffering eye" is not without interest in this respect. It was used as a protection against evil, or more specifically, against the fixed stare believed to produce the malevolent effects known as the Evil Eye. The purposeful placement of the glyphic eye on the threshold or entrance to a house, shows the physical as well as symbolic relationship to an entry into the archetypal womb.


The eye-womb correlation is given further credence by the fact that so many goddesses endowed with the powers of fertility and generation – most notably Venus, Aphrodite, Isis, Ishtar, and Artemis – are regarded as "protectresses of fascination." (11) It is therefore not surprising to find a connection between the eye-cult and these goddesses of death and rebirth. (12) The association is of such ancient origin that it receives mention in the earliest cuneiform clay tablets of the Sumerians, Babylonians, and Assyrians.

The eyes are the most exclusive feature of the hundreds of votive figures found in the excavation of the Syrian "Eye Temple" of Tell Brak, a temple that was exclusively "dedicated to the worship of Ishtar (Inanna)." (13)  The eye-idols, as they are known, are representations of Ishtar.  The variations on their single iconographic form are almost without end.  Some of the figures don headdresses, some wear necklaces, others are decorated with chevrons suggestive of breasts, and there are others whose necks and heads are abstracted phallic or vulvar forms.  Each is unique and yet they are the same.  These fascinating eye-idols, which date from about 3500-3300 B.C.E., are more ancient "than the pyramids of Giza and the whole of [the] Minoan culture of Cnossus." (14) 

It seems reasonable to suggest that the images of Ishtar served a prophylactic function.  In later times, and with much the same intent, the Great Goddess was invoked under a variety of names in prayers against the Evil Eye of jealousy and envy.  This is the purpose of a fourth or fifth Century C.E. Greek Orthodox incantation, which although addressed to the Father-god, calls upon the intercession of the virgin-goddess, Mary, for protection from such evil:

        … Lord our God, have mercy on Thy creature and deliver Thy servant

        from all harm, from all abuse and from all witchery, and keep him and

        us above all evil, through the intercession of our most highly blessed,

        illustrious mistress, the Mother of God and Eternal Virgin Mary … . (15)

In Christianized Scotland, charms against fascination asked the Pagan goddess Bridget's aid as well as that of the Virgin Mary's. (16)  For protection from the Evil Eye, the Greeks and Romans prevailed upon Nemesis (17) ("Divine Vengeance"), the Goddess of Fate whose emblematic Wheel of Life stood for the solar year.  Her power was omnipotent, for "when the wheel had turned half-circle, the sacred king, raised to the summit of his fortune, was fated to die … ." (18) 

Jews throughout the Medieval world were so influenced by the Pagan views of the Evil Eye in Palestine and elsewhere, that it became customary to "append a prophylactic phrase … to every laudatory remark." (19)  The Hebrew phrase, 'kein ayin ho'roh', which means "may the evil be averted," and its Yiddish equivalent, 'unbeschrieen', are still in use today.  The mezuzah ('doorpost'), a parchment concealed in a protective case, which is displayed on the doorposts of Orthodox Jewish homes, is itself a prophylactic against the Evil Eye. (20)  The parchment is inscribed with the texts of Deuteronomy 6:4-9 and 11:13-21 admonishing the children of Israel to keep God's commandments, commandments directed against the sins of envy and jealousy by a jealous and vengeful god.    

The goddess and her earthly manifestations are the more universally acknowledged magical sources for repelling injury from the Evil Eye and, simultaneously, held to be the very embodiments of evil.  This seemingly paradoxical nature describes a numinous being in whom opposite elements co-exist in perfect harmony and wholeness.  Predictably, as patriarchal ideals evolved, only the "negative" aspects of the goddess were promoted.  Thus does Tiamat, the Sumerian Goddess of Creation who holds the Tablets of Fate in her hands, become the personification of evil.  Lilith, the goddess to whom the owl with its glaring eyes is sacred, is regarded as little more than the "night-hag of the Hebrews". (21)  In Hinduism and Buddhism, Maya, the "great weaver of life," (22) and the incarnation of all earthly women, is symbolized as the "Veil of Illusion" which tantalizes all mortals with wickedness and carnal lust. 

Women are the weavers of spells, the workers of magic, from the earliest known myths of Sumer to the fairy tales of modern Europe. (23) Because the Evil Eye is identified with the "ensnaring" aspects of the Feminine, it is equated with the birth-giving womb of the so-called "Terrible Goddess" (24) through whom consciousness is attained.  With similar intent, the woven knot as a universal symbol of the enchantress is equally powerful as a symbol of protection against her fascination, for she is not only the goddess of death but the ever-creating goddess of life and rebirth. 

The Evil Eye emerges in the patriarchal world "as a being with a form and a personality.  Sometimes it takes the form of an animal… . Frequently the form chosen is feminine … ." (25)  The sacred animals of the Great Goddess, the representative emblems and vehicles of her power, were denigrated as objects of terror and evil, as monsters to be slain.  Not surprisingly, the theriomorphic (animal-shaped) amulets employed as a specific protection against the Evil Eye are those of a kind widely associated with fertility and rebirth and of particular sacred significance to the goddess. 

Athene's sacred owl, universally described as a bird of ill-omen, appeared in Classical times as a prophylactic against the Evil Eye. (26)  Hera (Juno), who has come down in the libelous patriarchal myths as "the most envious and ill-natured of the deities," (27) was symbolized by the peacock, a bird that was believed to be the very embodiment of the Evil Eye.  But of all the beasts, the serpent has fared the worst, for it has "always had a reputation for having the power to fascinate." (28)

As the symbol of Hekate, the "goddess of witchcraft and sorcery," (29) and of the hideously beautiful Gorgon Medusa, who turned to stone those who caught her gaze, the serpent, a symbol par excellence of wisdom, is both a terrifying symbol of evil and the mightiest of its antidotes. (30)  The Greek Gorgoneion (from the Greek gorgos, 'terrible', 'fierce') was the earliest of all amulets against the dread of the Evil Eye.  "Of all the possessors of the evil eye," (31) the Gorgon Medusa was the most frequently encountered in Greek art.  Medusa's ability to turn men into stone has the same "anesthetizing effect" that the "witch's spell exerts on … conscious-ness." (32)  The "paralyzing and petrifying effect of the hideous death mask" (33) is revealed in the story of Medusa's eye magic.  About the triple Gorgons, it is said:

        They slay by a malign effluence, and this effluence, tradition said, came

        from their eyes… . The Gorgon was regarded as a sort of incarnate Evil

        Eye. The monster was tricked out with cruel tusks and snakes, but it slew

        by the eye, it fascinated. (34)

It was not until the goddess and her emblematic serpent were drawn together in an unholy alliance by the late patriarchal myth-makers that the serpent of wisdom, who, everywhere, had been bound to the great, ultimately beneficent, underworld realm of the goddess, lost its exalted status.  One has only to mention the serpent of Genesis and its relation with Eve, the great "temptress," to conjure the incalculable prejudices that have been attached to symbols of the feminine as a result of the domination of masculine consciousness.  An unbiased interpretation of that story would show that it is the wise serpent who is the bringer of true consciousness, the knowledge of which is imparted to Eve.

The essential nature of fascination is such that it ultimately has the power to induce true consciousness, for it is by threading one's way through the serpentine maze of the unconscious, often gynomorphized in the figure of the Great Goddess, that wisdom comes.  From this dark and secret inner world she reveals her mysteries, bringing consciousness and the enlightenment of wisdom to those who realize that "… wisdom is better than rubies; and all the things that may be desired are not to be compared to it." (35)  Wisdom herself speaks of this, saying, "That I may cause those that love me to inherit substance; and I will fill their treasures." (36)

The gaze of the Great Mother as Eye Goddess spans the centuries, holding spellbound for a time those who look upon her.  As a symbol of perception and therefore of "seeing," the eye was the natural emblem of the deity through whom consciousness was attained.  Even after her formal worship was suppressed, the remnants of goddess worship, most especially in the practice of eye magic, endured in relatively "primitive" countries, where a noticeable presence of amuletic Evil Eyes remained.  "Superstition," as it is sometimes called, is a rather widespread phenomenon among even "civilized" peoples.  We rather frequently "knock on wood" in a gesture that affords us mysterious protection.  And we cross our fingers, unknowingly binding ourselves to the Goddess of the Knot – the Goddess of Destiny – whom we silently invoke.

Mesopotamian Eye-Idols representing Ishtar. From Her "Eye Temple" at Tell Brak, Syria.

c. 3500-3300 B.C.E.

NOTES:

THE EYE GODDESS AND THE EVIL EYE

1. The Gospel According to St. Matthew 6: 22-23. King James Version. Said to have been preached by Jesus ca. 31 B.C.E.

2. Sir E. A. Wallis Budge, Amulets and Talismans. (New Hyde Park, NY: University Books, 1968), p. 358.

3. Frederick T. Elworthy, "Evil Eye", in Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics. Twelve Volumes + One Volume Index. James Hastings, Editor. (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1925), Vol. 5, p. 609.

4. Ibid., Vol. 5, p. 613.

5. Ibid., quot. Plutarch, Symposium, V,7.

6. Ibid., Vol. 5, p. 613.

7. Edward S. Gifford, Jr., M.D., The Evil Eye: Studies in the Folklore of Vision. (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1958), pp. 72-73.

8. Frederick T. Elworthy, "Evil Eye", in Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, op. cit., Vol. 5, p. 612.  The adage "like cures like" ("similia similibus curantur") is an age-old medical axiom. 

9. O. G. S. Crawford, The Eye Goddess. (London: Phoenix House Ltd., 1957), p. 93.

10. Tracy Boyd, "The Eternal Weaver" at <www.sacredthreads.net>  This article was originally published as: Buffie Johnson and Tracy Boyd, "The Eternal Weaver", in Heresies: A Feminist Publication on Art and Politics, Issue 5, 1978.

11. Frederick Thomas Elworthy, The Evil Eye: The Origins and Practices of Superstition. (New York: The Julian Press, Inc., 1958), p. 132.

12. O. G. S. Crawford, The Eye Goddess, op. cit., p. 98.

13. Ibid., p. 25.

14. Ibid., p. 20.

15. Edward S. Gifford, Jr., M.D., The Evil Eye: Studies in the Folklore of Vision, op. cit., p. 56.

16. Ibid., p. 60.

17. Ibid., p. 55.

18. Robert Graves, The Greek Myths. Two Volumes. (Baltimore: Penguin Books, Inc., 1960), Vol. I, Section 32.1,  p. 126.

19. Joshua Trachtenberg, Jewish Magic and Superstition: A Study in Folk Religion. (New York: Atheneum, 1975), p. 55.

20. Frederick T. Elworthy, "Evil Eye", in Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, op. cit., Vol. 5, p. 613.

21. Sir E. A. Wallis Budge, Amulets and Talismans, op. cit., p. 357.

1. 22. Erich Neumann, The Great Mother: An Analysis of the Archetype. Trans. Ralph Manheim (Princeton: Princeton University Press, Bollingen Series XLVII, 1970), p. 227.

2. 23.Tracy Boyd, "The Eternal Weaver" at >

24. See: Erich Neumann, The Great Mother: An Analysis of the Archetype, op. cit., Chapter 11, "The Negative Elementary Character", pp. 147-208 passim.

25. Sir E. A. Wallis Budge, Amulets and Talismans, op. cit., pp. 356-57.

26. Jane Ellen Harrison, Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion. (New York: Meridian Books, 1955. Reprinted from the Cambridge University Press editions: 1st of 1903, 2nd of 1908, and 3rd of 1922), p. 197.

27. Frederick T. Elworthy, "Evil Eye", in Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, op. cit., Vol. 5, p. 610.

28. Ibid.

29. Martin P. Nilsson, Greek Folk Religion. (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1972), p. 90.

30. Frederick Thomas Elworthy, The Evil Eye: The Origins and Practices of Superstition, op. cit., p. 132.

31. Frederick T. Elworthy, "Evil Eye", in Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, op. cit., Vol. 5, p. 609.

32. Ann Belford Ulanov, "The Witch Archetype", in Quadrant: Journal of the C. G. Jung Foundation for Analytical Psychology, Vol. 10, No. 1, Summer 1977, p. 7.

33. Erich Neumann, The Origins and History of Consciousness. Trans. R. F. C. Hull. Bollingen Series XLII. (New York: Pantheon Books, 1954), p. 215.

34. Jane Ellen Harrison, Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion, op. cit., pp. 195-96.

35. The Proverbs 8:11. King James Version.

36. The Proverbs 8:21. King James Version.

THIS PUBLICATION OF TRACY BOYD'S "THE EYE GODDESS AND THE EVIL EYE"

IS HERE OFFERED

IN MEMORIUM TO BUFFIE JOHNSON (1912-2006).

"The Eye Goddess and The Evil Eye" originally appeared in Lady-Unique-Inclination-of-the-Night. (New Brunswick, NJ: Sowing Circle Press, Cycle 3, Autumn 1978), pp. 22-27, under the co-authorship of Buffie Johnson and Tracy Boyd.  Tracy Boyd was the actual author of that article, which appears here in a slightly revised and more cohesive edition.  All of the images that were reproduced in the original article appear again in this edition.  Some of the images were suggested by Buffie Johnson who had been collecting photographs of the goddess and her animals from museums and archives for some thirty years. 

In 1970 Buffie presented her vast image collection to Tracy and asked her to write the text.  The working title of the collaboration was The Great Goddess and Her Sacred Animals.  After some ten years of research and writing, and many rejections from publishers who didn't get it, the project was set aside.  In 1988 Buffie Johnson published Lady of the Beasts: Ancient Images of the Goddess and Her Sacred Animals with much of the same material in a very different format from that originally envisioned.

 

 

For MORE see this LINK: http://www.sacredthreads.net/www.sacredthreads.net/the_evil_eye.html

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