Antonio Pagliarulo, The Evil Eye: the History, Mystery, and Magic of the Quiet Curse. Newburyport, MA: Weiser Books, 2023. ISBN: 9781578637973.
I think I first heard about this book on social media. The book is an exploration of the folk magic known as the Evil Eye. In this book, the author presents its origins and history, and how to detect it, protect from it, and even deploy it (if you need to defend yourself).
The book is arranged as follows:
- A foreword by Judika Illes (her Wikipedia entry).
- Introduction.
- Chapter 1: Defining and Demystifying the Evil Eye.
- Chapter 2: History, Origins, and Traditions.
- Chapter 3: Amulets, Talismans, and How to Ward Away the Evil Eye.
- Chapter 4: How to Diagnose the Evil Eye.
- Chapter 5: How to Cure the Evil Eye: Spells, Prayers, Magic, and Rituals.
- Chapter 6: How to Cast the Evil Eye.
- Epilogue.
- Appendix: the Evil Eye Around the World.
- Bibliography and Online Resources.
As we can see from the chapters, the book covers a lot of ground. The author starts by defining the term and showing how the concept is present in so many places. Odds are your culture either believes in the Evil Eye or in something very similar with a different name. Both religious and non-religious can and do believe in some form of the Evil Eye. I found interesting the parts discussing the Evil Eye in various cultural and ethnic traditions.
For folks who want or need to deal with it, the author looks at how to diagnose it, how to cure it, and even how to cast it. He emphasizes casting Evil Eye as a form of self-defense against someone who may do it to you. Do keep in mind, and I found this detail interesting, that anyone can cast and be victim of the Evil Eye at any time. Also, not all casting of the Evil Eye is intentional and malicious. Sometimes it can happen accidentally, so as the author suggests you want to learn all you can so you can keep it away and even defend from it if necessary. By the way, there is even a way to diagnose the Evil Eye using Tarot cards.
The book overall is well written and accessible. I was a bit worried it might be a bit much like a textbook, but it is interesting and relatively easy to read. Even if you are a non-believer, this book teaches us about a phenomenon that many people around the world take very seriously. I leave it up to readers how seriously or not they take it.
Overall, I do recommend this book for public and academic libraries. For folks interested in forms of folk magic, this is a recommended book and one to add to their collections. I'd order it for our library just for the historical elements. This is a good work of scholarship as well as a folk magic guide.
5 out of 5 stars.
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