﻿Malocchio, or the Evil Eye, a kind of curse that can potentially harm or destroy any aspect
of one’s life or future prospects using the deleterious powers of envy projected
by a – sometimes – unsuspicious gaze. Learn more about what the Evil Eye is,
and how it’s diagnosed and dispelled by watching this episode.
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Hello everyone, I’m Dr Angela Puca and welcome to my Symposium.
I’m a PhD and a Religious Studies scholar and this is your online resource for the
academic study of Magick, Esotericism, Paganism, Shamanism and all things occult.
This episode has a special companion video, as it is part of a collaboration with my friend
and colleague, Dr Andrew Henry, host of the channel Religion for Breakfast.
He’s going to address the historical origins and background of the Evil Eye and its meaning,
while I will cover the contemporary beliefs and practices around it.
As a Southern Italian, the Evil Eye – or Malocchio, in Italian – is an integral part of
my culture and of the folk beliefs of my homeland. I also happen to have studied Folk Italian
Witchcraft for my PhD! So, I’ll gladly share what I’ve learned on the field on the matter.
This concept of the Evil Eye likely originated in Mesopotamia and then spread to the Greco-Roman
world, taking roots in the Mediterranean cultures to later spread even beyond.
The Evil Eye is the belief that someone looking at you with envy or jealousy
can bring you misfortune or lead to you losing the thing, object of the envy.
The idea of looking at you can be more widely understood as someone focusing their
attention on you with malicious intent, envy, or jealousy. That can also happen unintentionally.
It is sometimes even believed that it could even be the person afflicted to
have brought the Evil Eye on themselves!
Now let’s address an example of the Evil Eye. Let’s say, for instance,
that your colleague gets a promotion and you’re happy for them, but internally or subconsciously,
you bear some envy towards them in your heart. There’s a woman in my family who lost her husband
about a decade ago and she believes that the Evil Eye contributed to that tragedy.
What she keeps saying is that the other women in the town kept telling her how lucky she was to
have a handsome husband who was younger than her. In a cultural context where people believe in
Malocchio, repeating how lucky someone is for any of their life’s achievements or events attracts
misfortune and loss because of the jealousy or envy carried within those statements.
The belief here is that the feeling of someone else having something that you perceive
as desirable and you lack in your life almost always underlies envy and concealed resentment.
As Dillion and Mallett explain, anthropologists have identified a few
recurring features with regards to the Evil Eye: The first is its power comes primarily through
or from the eye, with touch or speech, in particular oral praise, as additional powers.
The second is that the person, animal or object stricken is desirable or of value.
The third is that its action is typically immediate, though the
effects may manifest over time or after some time. Also the person cursed by the Evil Eye may not be
aware of it or of what caused their affliction. Lastly it’s not always preventable. But its
effects can be sometimes deflected, or at least one can try, or warded off with the aid of the
appropriate charms, gestures, amulets, or other apotropaic objects and symbols.
Now, I will tackle the contemporary beliefs concerning protecting yourself
from the Evil Eye, diagnose whether you have it and dispel its influence.
I’ll first address the cultural-specific beliefs and practices in the Italian folk
witchcraft tradition that I systematised in my doctoral
research under the label of the Tradition of Segnature.
Then I will move on to address the more cross-cultural perspective offered by
contemporary Pagans and magic practitioners.
So, in Italian folk magic, what the average person can do is to
protect themselves from the Evil Eye or try to preventatively deflect it,
as the practice of diagnosing and removing the Evil Eye is usually the prerogative of
magic practitioners or witches who have inherited that power through initiation.
In Southern Italy, and Especially in the Neapolitan area, the most common folk practice
to protect against the Evil Eye is the horn – whether it be the amulet or the horns gesture.
The horn amulet is called Italian Corno (‘horn’) or Cornetto (‘little horn’).
In Neapolitan and similar dialects, it’s also called Cornicello or corniciell.
In its amulet form, it’s a red coral object shaped like a twisted, hot red
pepper. It’s made in a fragile material, such as terracotta (clay) or ceramica (ceramic, pottery).
The belief is that carrying it with you will protect you from the Evil Eye,
and if it breaks, then it means your amulet worked at deflecting the danger, and you need a new one.
In Naples, you will find these horns sold at every corner, but to be an effective amulet,
it needs to be gifted by someone instead of you buying it for yourself.
The second very common apotropaic practice against the Evil Eye is the horns’ gesture. This is often
misunderstood as if the sheer gesture would ward off the Evil Eye, but in the Neapolitan and other
Southern Italian traditions, the horns need to be specifically pointed downwards - some say,
towards Hell or the Devil - to deflect and channel away whatever it’s been directed
at you. Often this is accompanied by the sound “Tie’’ which doesn’t mean anything in Italian and,
in Neapolitan, it kind of resembles the sound ‘To you’, which might suggest the
intention of returning the Evil Eye back to the sender or to the source of evil itself!
I actually do this gesture all the time. Tie.
Where as this type of horn, another gesture that I do quite often, but that’s a metal one.
The horn amulet and the horns gesture are the main
folk traditions associated with protecting against the Evil Eye.
There are additionally other protective folk practices that are perhaps more
generically aimed at absorbing, warding off or protecting against any harmful
occurrence of any nature. These involve using salt in various ways,
including being thrown behind one’s back and garlic left hanging to dry out.
Let’s not talk about how the Evil Eye is diagnosed and removed. I will now
illustrate a typical Malocchio ritual as explained by one of my informants,
during an interview that was part of my doctoral research. This example has
revealed to be representative, albeit variations may be found, of this kind of ritual performed
in other areas of the Campania region and often in other Southern regions.
My informant’s family comes from a town in the province of Benevento and lived in Napoli, Naples,
at the time of our interview. She was initiated by her grandmother, who taught her how to diagnose
and remove the Evil Eye , the Malocchio. Concerns such as a series of unfortunate
events or a persistent headache are believed to be signs of someone having cast the Evil Eye on you.
As my informant explained, it is not necessary to perform a ritual to cast the Malocchio on someone,
as it is believed in folklore that envy or other detrimental emotions towards a
person are sufficient to exert its damaging power.
The first part of the Malocchio removal ritual
consists of a divination to verify whether the Evil Eye is affecting the person.
The Segnatore or Segnatrice will, in the person’s presence, drip a few drops of extra virgin olive
oil into water that had been poured into a plate. If the oil dissolves in water, the
person is cursed, whereas if oil and water remain separate, no Evil Eye has been cast on the person.
As my informant pointed out, it makes sense because the magical act that causes and reveals
the existence of Malocchio is something out of the ordinary, and it’s not physically or chemically
ordinary that oil dissolves into water, whereas it is natural to have oil and water separated!
In cases where the Malocchio is confirmed, the Segnature will be performed, in the
form of crosses and secret prayers over the plate containing the dissolved oil.
The combined use of symbolic gestures and secret prayers, called Segnature in Italian folk magic,
is believed to be effective in removing the Evil Eye from the afflicted person.
There are, of course, regional variations as to how the Evil Eye is detected and removed.
For instance, other informants reported that if the oil collects in the shape of an eye,
that would also indicate the presence of an Evil Eye.
These practices, as mentioned, involve secret gestures and prayers passed down - usually
within the bloodline - that cannot be revealed lest they lose their power.
Most contemporary Pagans and magic practitioners don’t endorse the view
that someone can practice witchcraft only if they had been initiated and,
rather, adopt a more eclectic and cross-cultural perspective.
This means that when it comes to the Evil Eye, their beliefs and
practices will incorporate elements of disparate traditions and add elements
from recent developments that emerged from witchcraft and magic-practising communities.
For instance, contemporary practitioners incorporate the use of charms and amulets such
as the Hamsa or the blue-eyed Nazar amulets from the Arabic and Middle Eastern world.
Another practice found across different cultures that get incorporated by
contemporary practitioners is deflecting envy through touch, prompting compassion or
making the other person take part in your fortune or benefit from it in some way.
The luck received is often attributed to God or the divine in order to deflect envy – for
the receiver of the compliment - or avoid bringing bad luck to someone
you love by unintentional feelings of envy – for the giver of the compliment.
Contemporary practitioners would also use different types of magic to ward off the Evil Eye,
also using rituals that were not necessarily designed for that purpose specifically.
Examples are using the van van oil from the Hoodoo tradition to turn bad luck into a good one,
as well as using purification baths or protection rituals of different types.
More generally, purification, protection, return to the sender, banishing rituals,
uncrossing and unblocking spells and rituals to attract good luck are employed
and repurposed to the aim of dispelling the negative effects of what various folk magic
beliefs around the world would have called – or indeed still call – the Evil Eye.
Don’t forget to check out the companion video to this one, on the Evil Eye,
over on Religion for Breakfast, where Dr Andrew Henry will discuss the origins,
etymology, geographical diffusion and potential socio-psychological explanations for the belief
in the Evil Eye around the world. Make sure to subscribe to his fantastic channel as well!
Dr Henry makes superb academic content to improve everyone’s literacy on religious matters and
is absolutely brilliant at making complex scholarly notions accessible to the public.
So, go check it out now and say hi in the comments on my behalf!
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