Evil Eye Protection: Symptoms, Causes, and Cures

Discover what the Evil Eye is, common signs you’re affected, and simple ways to protect yourself and get that negative energy out.

“The malocchio (evil eye) is the belief that a gaze filled with envy, anger, or ill intent can bring misfortune to the person being looked at. It is one of the clearest examples of thought forms combined with strong emotions affecting people and their environment.”

~ Mary-Grace Fahrun in Living Folk Magic: Crafting Your Own Magical Life

I’m wary of magical teachings that spread panic and fear. That’s probably why — even though I’ve come across teachings about the Evil Eye multiple times in my magical studies, and I’ve even heard about my Italian great-grandma’s belief in it since I was a child — I’ve studiously avoided thinking too hard about the Evil Eye until now.

What changed? I received an advance copy of Mary Grace Fahrun’s excellent new book, Living Folk Magic: Crafting Your Own Magical Life. And then I began to perceive, firsthand, what the Evil Eye actually is.

(There are Amazon affiliate links in this post.)

What Is The Evil Eye?

In The Element Encyclopedia of 5000 Spells, Judika Illes writes, “[T]he Evil Eye is a destructive force that emanates from certain or potentially all people. Every one of us, according to some theories, is able to cast the Eye. It is the human ability to scorch with a glance. The Evil Eye is the force of envy, jealousy, and resentment that shoots out of the human soul like a heat-seeking missile.”

Symptoms of the Evil Eye include headaches, tiredness, fogginess, spaciness, insomnia, persistent everyday challenges and annoyances, and general malaise. It’s sort of like the common cold of curses.

Think of times when your immune system became exhausted from a sleepless night, so then you caught a cold, and then even though you weren’t exactly sick anymore, it was hard to get your energy back, because you already had an energy deficit and then little things kept adding up to deplete your sense of vitality. The Evil Eye is sort of like that, but with your magical immune system rather than your biological one.

Not too long after I read the evil eye section in Living Folk Magic, I attended an event where I suspected some of those present did not wish me well, no matter how much their words and actions said otherwise.

The next day, as I reflected on the experience while feeling headachy and generally off, I decided to try the olive oil method for diagnosing the Evil Eye (details below). And sure enough! I had it.

Now that I knew what it felt like to receive and have the evil eye, I looked back over my life and identified other moments when I had contracted the evil eye. I carefully considered the ways I felt and the things I experienced as a result.

For example, I’m thinking about a time when I got very close to someone who, out of envy, would oh-so-subtly insult me or embarrass me in ways I didn’t notice until later. All the while, my sense self-worth slowly but surely diminished, leading to all number of uncomfortable feelings and less-than-stellar decisions. Aha! — I realized — my friend was giving me a slow drip of the Evil Eye.

I’m also thinking about the time I was posting on social media about all kinds of fun stuff I was doing and creating, without noticing that as I did so, my natural expansiveness was fading away as I began to feel more and more guarded, desperate, and ashamed. Yup! My highly curated photos were receiving the Evil Eye on my behalf.

How to Know If You Have the Evil Eye

To test for the Evil Eye, try the method I learned from Living Folk Magic.

Fill a bowl with water. Put a little olive oil in a tiny bowl. Dunk a finger in the olive oil (Mary-Grace says to use three fingers–index, middle, and ring–but one seems to work better for me) to disperse three drops of oil into the bowl of water. If the drops hang together, you don’t have the Evil Eye. If they disperse into an oil slick or break apart into smaller droplets, you do have the Evil Eye.

What to Do if You Have the Evil Eye

There are many rituals for curing and banishing the Evil Eye. I suggest trying several until you find one you like that works for you. You can check to see if it worked by returning to the diagnostic ritual from above, or you can use a pendulum if you have one and you’re comfortable using it. You can also simply notice how you feel and see if you have the intuitive sense that the Evil Eye has been removed.

Here are some simple ways to remove the Evil Eye:

• Clip a sprig of rosemary. Pour water in a bowl and hold the bowl in sunlight for a minute or two. Ask the Divine to bless the water with light and love. Then, use the rosemary to fling drops of the blessed water all over yourself, front and back. You can also ask a friend to do this on your behalf.
• If you can do so safely, dunk yourself completely in the ocean. Exit, dry off in the sun for a moment, then repeat. Do this at least three times total.
• In The Element Encyclopedia of 5000 Spells, Judika Illes recommends asking someone to “1. Prepare a fire. 2. Pass handful of salt around [your] head three times. 3. Toss the salt into the fire.”
• If you like praying the Rosary, or you have another devotional prayer you like to pray, do so with the intention to remove the Evil Eye.
• Add one cup Epsom salt and one quarter cup sea salt to a warm bath and soak for at least 40 minutes.

(Mary-Grace Fahrun also has a fun “Ritual to Dispel the Evil Eye” in her new book Living Folk Magic.)

How to Protect Yourself from The Evil Eye

First of all, don’t be a showboat! Set the intention to be so cool with yourself, you are not desperately seeking to impress.

Still, there’s no way to absolutely prevent others from envying you, resenting you, or wanting you to fail.

So, to protect yourself from the Evil Eye when you are out in the world, obtain an Evil Eye charm. Empower it by holding it in sunlight. As you do so, ask Archangel Michael (or another protective being of your choice) to fill the charm with protective light. Set the intention that the charm will send any Evil Eye energy straight back to its source. Wear it or carry it.

To protect yourself from the Evil Eye when you are at home, and to protect your home itself from the Evil Eye (folks can be envious of entire homes) obtain an evil eye charm for every door to the outside. Empower them as described above. Hang one on each door.

When You Flash the Evil Eye

As I look back with my new understanding of the evil eye, I recognize times when I was the instigator: when I carelessly let envy or jealousy motivate me to wish ill upon someone else. While I have long been cultivating the belief that there are plenty of blessings to go around, I didn’t realize how often I would still have spiteful thoughts — like about a famous person I didn’t think was worthy of their fame or a wildly successful former friend I believed had done me wrong.

Now that I know that a thought that rejoices in, or wishes for, another’s misfortune is not just a thought, but also a subtle-but-real sort of curse, I don’t want to entertain thoughts like that anymore. Such thoughts are toxic and petty anyway, and every time I think them, it’s as if I’m cursing myself a little, too.

Well, what do you think? Did this post resonate with you? Do you understand what the Evil Eye is, and how to diagnose it, cure it, and protect yourself from it? Do you have your own realizations or practices to share about the Evil Eye? I want to hear all of it! Please chime in below.