Italian evil eye Malocchio. Water, Oil, how to check it !

The evil eye is a deeply rooted popular tradition with very ancient origins. Cornelio Agrippa talked about it in detail in his work The Occult Philosophy.

The meaning of the term evil eye is “eye that casts evil”. According to science, this belief is a form of superstition rooted more in specific cultural areas.

The evil eye in Naples is a serious thing and, especially among the elderly, is considered a real disease, which as such must be “treated”. The main symptom of the evil eye, “l’uocchie ncuolle” (eyes on him, as it is commonly called in dialect) is headache. The person “taken by eye” begins to feel bad, to fidget, sleep badly, have nausea, in some cases vomit. The main cause of the evil eye are feelings such as envy, jealousy or slander so it can also be involuntary. Sometimes a simple compliment or a glance of admiration coming from untrustworthy people is enough to make us believe that we have caught the evil eye. Any headache that occurs is its material manifestation.

At this point all that remains is to go to someone capable of removing the evil eye, using particular rites. Generally these are rather elderly women who then pass on their “power” to people they trust, usually family members willing to accept the legacy and keep the secret. There are various rites, more or less similar, to diagnose and eliminate the evil eye, the most common using water and oil.

The rite of oil: – The person with a suspicious headache sits, the healer fills a deep dish with water, and with this same dish traces the sign of the cross three times towards the forehead of the “patient”, pronouncing mentally or in a low voice the secret words that only he knows. Then he traces the sign of the cross on himself three times, and again, touching the edges of the plate (top, bottom, left, right) with his fingers, repeatedly, performs the cross while, still mentally, repeats the other words that make up the Secret “formula”, repeated three times.

Now you are ready for the “diagnosis”: a few drops of olive oil are poured into the dish with water, taken with your finger from a cup or other container previously prepared and the drops are observed as they are poured into the water: if they spread, if the oil spreads, it means that the person actually has the evil eye. Sometimes it happens that the oil even disappears when in contact with water: in this case it means that the person has “slept on it”, several days have passed since he caught the evil eye, so it is more difficult to eliminate. If, on the other hand, the oil spreads little, it means that it is a recent thing and generally goes away soon. If the outcome is negative, if the oil floats normally, the ritual ends there and medicines are used. Otherwise, however, the water is thrown in a place where no one passes, otherwise there could be the transmission of the evil eye to those who step on it.

From the shape that the oil takes when falling into the water, it is also possible to know who is the author of the evil eye: if the drops of oil have small small circles next to them (similar to earrings), then they will be women; if the drops are normal they are men. If both types of circles are present, generally the prevalence of the people they have envied is communicated to the “patient”, whether more men or more women.

Therefore, if the outcome is positive, after having thrown the water away in a distant place, the entire rite is repeated twice more (the recurrence of the number three probably refers to the Catholic concept of the Trinity). Generally the second time the “eyes” are already smaller, until they disappear completely at the third “test”. Indeed, almost always on the third test the oil does not open at all. But in the case of very strong “eyes”, that is due to a very bad or powerful person, or if the patient had slept on them, it may happen that the “eyes” are so stubborn that they do not go away even the third time. In this case the “eyes” are literally “cut” with scissors. It almost always happens that a few minutes after the execution of the rite, the person is immediately well and the headache disappears, freeing the patient from the circle to the head.

Obviously this article should be read with a smile on your face. That of the evil eye is a rite that has relevance from an anthropological point of view, taking into account that in most cases they are elderly people linked to very ancient traditions.