By Martyn Baguley
Gardens should now be thriving – and I’m worried. I’ve only myself to blame; I should have remembered in the spring to leave a small corner of my garden uncultivated as a douceur to malignant forces.
The belief in the ‘Evil Eye’ – that some people can inflict misfortune on others with a glance or intense stare – goes back at least to 3000 BC.
In ancient Egypt, women painted their eyes and lips as a protection against evil eye and, according to Pliny, it was so seriously regarded in ancient Rome that laws were enacted for causing injury to crops through incantation, excantation or fascination.
The eye is said to strike when an individual is at the height of his or her happiness and success. So anyone who believes in the evil eye must constantly be on guard as a malevolent stare could come from anyone.
