Summary

The evil eye is the belief, shared across the Mediterranean, the Middle East and far beyond, that a glance of envy can carry real harm, and the Evil Eye charm is the answer to it: a watchful blue eye that stares the envious look back at its sender. Blue glass eye beads have been made for thousands of years and still hang in homes, cars and cradles from Greece to India. Keep one near the door, on a bracelet or in a kit, and let it keep watch.

Keywords

protective talisman, energetic protection, negative energy, positive mindset

What the evil eye symbolizes

Protection

The charm meets the envious glance with an unblinking eye of its own and turns it away before it can land, which is why it hangs at doorways, over cradles and on the rearview mirror.

Watchfulness

The eye never closes. Many of us keep one where we work or sleep as a reminder that we are seen over and looked after.

Reflection

Blue and white glass were chosen because they mirror the sky and the sea, and the charm is said to work the way a mirror does, sending envy back to where it came from.

Good fortune

A gift of an eye charm is a wish for the receiver's safety and luck, and in many families the first gift to a newborn is a tiny blue eye.

Emotional meaning

Provides energetic safety from jealousy, envy, and negative energy.

Fun facts

Charms against the evil eye are among the oldest in the world: incantations against it were written in Mesopotamia more than four thousand years ago, and eye shaped amulets turn up across the ancient Near East and Egypt. The Greeks call the charm the mati and the Turks the nazar boncuğu, and the blue glass eyes sold today are still made by hand in the glass villages near Izmir in Turkey. Tradition says that when a charm cracks or breaks it has done its job and taken the blow for you, and a new one should be hung in its place.

The word nazar comes from the Arabic for sight, and the Romans had their own answer to the envious glance, the fascinum, a charm whose name gave English the word fascinate. Plutarch, writing around the year 100, argued that envy sent harmful rays out through the eyes, which is exactly why the charm stares straight back. The nazar even has its own emoji, added in 2018, so a blue eye can keep watch over a text message too.

Care and cleansing

Glass eye charms chip and crack if dropped, so hang them where they will not swing against a wall, and wipe them with a soft cloth. Many of us never cleanse a nazar at all; when one breaks we thank it and replace it.