The evil eye enjoys a wide variety of cultural meanings around the world, but a commonly held idea is that it’s meant to bounce away other people’s malicious envy against you, karmically turning it back on them as bad luck.  Like with a lot of interesting symbols, my Arab-American upbringing flirted with this Old World concept but didn’t entirely embrace it.  There are gorgeous evil eyes hanging in many of the rooms of my home, some as stylized art pieces, some embedded within Hands of Fatima.

I don’t have any particular desire to turn other people’s insecurities into bad luck against them, though I do love the visual motif.  Maybe that’s just because blue is my favorite color?  I’ve always sort of thought of the evil eye as a simple decoration to ward off bad attitudes and misfortune, but really it’s a sweetly mysterious talisman that offers, in practical terms, more a soothing reminder of my heritage than true protection.

Blessings be upon you.

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