Eye

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EYE

EYE . The eye is one of the most widespread symbols in all religious representation. As the active organ of visual perception, it is closely linked with light. Without light, the eye could neither see nor discern clearly. It is therefore only natural that in most cultures the eye is the symbol of intellectual perception and the discovery of truth. The eye knows because it sees. As early as the fifth century bce, Democrites thought that certain images exist already in the body and that they emerge from the gaze of certain persons. Pliny the Elder explained that the small image inscribed in the pupil is a sort of miniature soul (Natural History 21.12.51). Similarly, the Bambara of West Africa say that the image perceived by the eye is, in fact, the double of the object or being that is seen: "Man's world is his eye." Thus the eye is often considered the mirror of the soul, the body's window, which reveals each person's deep thoughts by means of his gaze. As the mirror of the interior, the eye is the place where the mysterious life of the soul is glimpsed. In seeking to discover the reality behind the physical appearances it perceives, the eye becomes the locus of inner revelation. The expression "His eyes were opened" means that a rational or religious truth has been unveiled.

According to the symbolic conception of man as microcosm, which is found in the most ancient cultures, the eye is likened to the sun. Like the luminous star, it sees all, shines, and sparkles. Its glances are rays that pierce like arrows. Among the Semang, the Boshiman, and the Fuegians, the sun is the eye of the supreme god. This isomorphism of the eye and the sun reveals moral and religious values according to which all vision introduces clairvoyance, justice, and righteousness. Just as the sun illuminates by projecting its light everywhere, the eye seeks to discover and see everything, even faults and crimes. It thus becomes the emblem of a superior being who punishes and takes vengeance. To be all-seeing is to become omnipotent. Such valorization of the eye sometimes leads to its sacrificial oblation, which results in a supernatural second sight that replaces and sublimates simple, corporeal vision. This second sight is like the inner eye, or the "eye of the heart," so common among mystics who perceive the divine light.

The Eye as Divine Attribute

In Egypt, as in the most ancient cultures of the eastern Mediterranean Basin, the presence of a symbolic eye signifies the power of the supreme divinity to see and know everything. Thus "the eye of Horus" appears on the stelae of Memphis, and eyes are engraved on a Cretan ring in the Ashmolean Museum (Oxford University), the symbol of an anonymous divinity who looks at and listens to men. The sacerdotal myths and traditions of ancient Egypt testify that the eye has a solar nature and is the fiery source of light and knowledge. Re, the sun god, is endowed with a burning eye and appears in the form of a rearing cobra with dilated eyes. In the cult of Harmerti, Re and Thoth are the two eyes of Horus, the god of the sky. One Harmerti story relates the struggle between Horus and Seth; Seth pokes out the eye of Horus, who is later cured by Thoth. The healed, healthy eye is the oudjat eye that shines in the dark and vanquishes death. The Book of Going Forth by Day (17.29ff.) recapitulates that mythical episode in a formula that is said to the dead person by the one playing the role of Thoth: "I restore to the eye the fullness it possessed on the day of the fight between the two adversaries." This means that light and darkness, life and death, are reconciled in the beyond. This oudjat eye was painted on the inner sides of the coffin, on each side of the head, and an inscription affirmed that they were hereafter the eyes by which the dead person would see in the afterlife and which would permit him to follow the spectacle of the exterior world while remaining in his tomb. The oudjat eye was provided for the dead person "in order that he be animated by it" (Pyramid Texts 578). This is why Horus's eye made an excellent amulet.

At Tell Brak in eastern Syria, the excavation of a sanctuary going back to 2500 bce has revealed the worship of a divinity with a thousand eyes. In this temple consecrated to Inanna (Ishtar), hundreds of statuettes with multiple eyes have been found, votive offerings or apotropaic images attesting that the eye was the emblem of that all-seeing and omnipresent feminine divinity. Analogous finds have been made at Ur, Lagash, and Mari. Inanna's brother Shamash is the sun god, whose eye sees everything and who knows the most secret thoughts. He can reward or punish deliberately. In Babylon, Shamash was invoked before every divination, for he was the one who wrote the signs in the entrails of sacrificial victims. Without his help, the diviner could not see them.

The Indo-European world attached the same value to the eye as to the sun and to the gods, that is, the quality of being able to see everything. In the Ṛgveda, the god Sūrya, son of Dyaus, is called "the eye of the sky" (10.37.2) and "the eye of Mithra and of Varuna" (1.115.1, 7.61.1, 10.37.1). He sees from afar and everywhere, and spies on the whole world. Varuṇa, the celestial god, is described as sahasrāta, god of a thousand eyes, for he sees everything. According to the hymn of Puruṣa (Ṛgveda 10.90), the sun was born from the eye of the cosmic giant Puruṣa so that at death, when a man's soul and body return to the cosmic primordial man, his eye will go back to the sun. It is understandable why, in the Bhagavadgītā as well as in certain Upaniṣads, eyes are identified with the two celestial lights, the sun and moon, which are the eyes of Viśvakarman, the divine architect with multiple eyes who ordained everything. The Tamil caste of the Kammalans, who claim to descend from him, have as their main task painting the eyes of divine statues according to a ritual as sacred as that of the oudjat eye, the eye of Horus, in Egypt. In Iranian tradition, the sun is also the eye of Ahura Mazdā (Yasna 1.11), whereas in the tenth Yasht of the Avesta, Mithra is called the "master of vast plains who has a thousand ears and ten thousand eyes," thus assimilating him to the sun.

For the Greeks, the gods "with piercing gaze" saw everything belonging to the past, present, and future in a single, unified vision. This panopteia is the very mark of their divinity. Thus there is Kronos, who has four eyes, two in front and two in back; Zeus, whose "vast gaze" pierces through to the most secret things (Hesiod, Works and Days 240, 265); Apollo, the solar god, who sees everything (Iliad 3.277, Odyssey 11.109); and Dionysos, whose Bacchic hymn repeats that he "shines like a star with his eye of fire that darts its rays over the whole earth" (Diodorus of Sicily, 1.11.3). All the Greek gods cast a sovereign and pure gaze on man. The gaze of Athena Glaukopis shines and fascinates; the eye she fixes on her enemies is "a sharp one, an eye of bronze." When Achilles, driven by rage, tries to kill Agamemnon, Athena seizes him by his hair and forces him to look at her. The hero cries out, "It is terrifying to see the light of your eyes" (Iliad 1.200), for the light in her eyes is the light of reason. In Greek poetry, the image of the eye or the pupil is used to mark the quality of a person and the affection one feels for him: "Where is the eye of my beloved Amphiaraos, this hero who was both a seer and a valiant warrior?" (Pindar, Olympian Odes 6.16.7). The Greek religious experience consisted primarily of a vision. Since Homeric times, an indissoluble relationship has existed between knowing and seeing: knowledge is based on sight, on an optical intuition. In his Metaphysics, Aristotle speaks of that joy of seeing, which makes a better basis for knowing than any other perception. The joy of sensitive contemplation is the climax of the initiation into the great mysteries of Eleusis, the epopteia, and the very source of all philosophy, repeats Plato (Timaeus 47a). For the knowledge of truth rests on a vision that moves upward from tangible realities to timeless and eternal things: "Holy is the man who has the gods before his eyes" (scholium on Pindar, Pythian Odes 4.151b).

The Germanic and Celtic worlds also valued the magical power of the eye. Óðinn (Odin), god of war and magic, is a one-eyed god, for he voluntarily gave an eye in payment to the sorcerer-giant Mímir, or Memory. In return, Óðinn was permitted to drink every day at the spring of knowledge and thus to learn the science of the runes. The loss of an eye is therefore the means of acquiring superior vision and the supernatural powers that flow from it. After the Vanir killed Mímir, Óðinn practiced divination by interrogating the head, which he succeeded in preserving (Ynglingasaga 4, 7). This theme of knowledge acquired as a result of blindness—even ocular mutilation—is found elsewhere in other Indo-European traditions. Thus, the Greek diviner Tiresias attains the ability to see the future by becoming blind; Oedipus learns the will of the gods by blinding himself; and the blind king Dhṛtarāṣṭra in the Mahābhārata has special powers. Blindness, or voluntary mutilation of the eyes, becomes the sign of the superior sight possessed by the druids and the diviners. Indeed, this quasi-magical power of the eye is found again in Celtic myths. The god Lugh keeps only one eye open. He makes a tour of the enemies' camp, hopping and singing in an act similar to Óðinn's during the battle between the Æsir and the Vanir. The same attitude is found in the Celtic hero Cú Chulainn, who, when seized by furor, closes one eye and enlarges the other, or sometimes swallows one eye and places the other on his cheek to frighten his adversary. Many Gallic coins show a hero's head with an eye disproportionately enlarged.

Other myths also valorize the magical power of the one-eyed person, as if the reduction of vision to a single eye increased the intensity of the gaze. Thus a glance from Medusa's single eye petrifies anyone who crosses its path, for it is the glance of death that leads to Hades. To overcome it, Perseus must first escape the other two Gorgons and hide the one eye they share between them. He conquers Medusa only by making use of Athena's mirror, which allows him to see the monster without being seen by her.

The Evil Eye and Magic

The belief in the unlucky influence of the evil eye is universal. It rests on a valorization of the gaze reputed to be harmful because the eye is abnormal (eyes of different colors, double pupils, squinting); such a gaze magically reveals the malevolent intention of the soul whose window the eye is. The evil eye, cast for vengeance or out of envy, is an invisible threat against which one must protect oneself with countermagic, as, for example, in this Babylonian incantation: "Take the eye, attach its feet to a bush in the desert, then take the eye and break it like a pottery vase!" In Egypt it was common practice to bear apotropaic names, wear amulets, and recite formulas. In the Roman world, fear of the fascinum was constant. Many mosaics have as a central motif a dangerous eye pierced by an arrow, surrounded by animals, and defended by an owl (the bird of evil omen) perched on its eyelid. Against this danger, people resorted to amulets picturing an eye or a phallus. Eyes were even painted on the prows of boats.

Ever since the time of the apostle Paul (Gal. 3:1), Christian preachers never ceased to raise their voices, in vain, against the belief in the evil eye. Some rituals of the Greek Orthodox church as found in the Mikron Euchologion contain a formula for exorcism against baskania ("witchcraft") similar to that found in certain Babylonian curses. The same belief is found in pre-Islamic Arabia and in the Muslim world. Muḥammad himself recited incantations to preserve his grandson from the evil eye, reviving the formulas that Abraham made use of in order to protect Ishmael and Isaac, the legend says. One Arabic proverb states that "the evil eye empties houses and fills tombs." The eye frequently occurs in the magical preparations of certain African ethnic groups as well as in the Eastern Orthodox world, where the eyes of the figures in icons were poked out and crushed and then made into a magical powder.

Religious and Mystical Values of the Eye

The word eye recurs 675 times in the Hebrew scriptures (Old Testament) and 137 times in the New Testament; this indicates the richness of its symbolic meanings. It designates, first, the organ of vision fashioned by the creator for the good of man (Ps. 94:9, Prv. 20:12), for "it is a joy for the eye to see the sun" (Eccl. 11:7). But the eye is also a privileged organ of knowledge that scripture always associates with the characteristics of the wise and learned: for example, Balaam, the diviner whose eye is closed to the terrestrial realities that surround him but is open to the hidden and the invisible once he meets the All-Powerful (Nm. 23–24). The Targum Yerushalmi makes Balaam a one-eyed seer, thus taking up again the theme of a second sight superior to normal corporeal vision. Symbolically, the eye designates the consciousness of man that Yahveh opens to the knowledge of his law and therefore of good and evil (Dt. 29:3, Is. 6:10). For Yahveh sees all (Ps. 14:2); he is the witnessing God from whom nothing escapes (Ps. 139:7–8). This ability to see all is an essential characteristic of his transcendent sovereignty, and the divine eye is the administrator of justice: before it the just man can find grace (Dt. 31:29, Jb. 11:4). But it is also the paternal eye of Providence, "who turns toward those who fear him" (Ps. 33;18), like Nehemiah praying night and day for the people of Israel (Neh. 1:6, Lv. 16:2, Nm. 4:20).

But however great his desire, man may not see God face to face (Ps. 42:3), for no one can see Yahveh without dying (Ex. 19:21, Lv. 16:2, Nm. 4:20). Even Moses saw only the back of the glory of God (Ex. 33:20–23). If some prophets have had a vision of divine glory, it is in a fugitive and symbolic fashion, through a cloud or in human shape. Thus Zachariah (c. 520 bce) saw Yahveh put before the high priest "a single stone decorated with seven eyes," symbol of God's vigilant presence in his temple. They are the seven planets, or seven divine eyes that sweep over the earth without resting. Likewise Ezekiel, in his vision of the chariot evoking Yahveh's throne, sees wheels whose rims are decorated with open eyes (Ez. 1:18), signs of Yahveh's omniscience.

Although, as the apostle John says, "No one has ever seen God" (1 Jn. 4:12), Jesus promised the pure in heart that they shall see God (Mt. 5:8). This beatitude makes of the eye a symbol of inner purity (Mt. 6:22–23); otherwise the eye, as the opportunity for scandal, ought to be plucked out and thrown far away. Early Christian preaching insists on the opposition between the eyes of flesh and those of the spirit; in Paul's case, physical blinding symbolically preceded the opening of the eyes of the heart (Acts 9:18). Furthermore, the function of the Son is to render visible his Father: "Whoever sees me has seen the Father," says Jesus to Philip (Jn. 14:9). But at the end of time, full vision will be given to everyone and "man's eyes will contemplate the glory of God just as he is" (1 Jn. 3:2). Gnosticism especially retains the Pauline theme of "the eye of the heart," an image already frequent in the writings of the Greek philosophers and the Hebrew rabbis. For the gnostic, "the eye is the inner light to the man of light" (Gospel of Thomas, logion 24), and the prototype of the man of light is "the eye of light" (Sophia of Jesus Christ).

In numerous philosophical and religious traditions, the inner eye allows access to wisdom. Plotinus explains that the eye of the soul dazzled by the light of understanding is fixed on pure transparency; the soul therefore sees the light found at the interior of his own gaze, and the eye of understanding contemplates the light of nous by participating in the very light of this sun-spirit (Enneads 5.3[17].28). Recalling that the wise man is he who sees and that the fool is blind, Philo Judaeus explained that formerly the prophets were called "seers" (1 Sm. 9:8). For him, wisdom is not only what is obtained by the vision of the inner eye, just as light is perceived by the carnal eye; but wisdom also sees itself, and this is the splendor of God, who, in opening the soul's eye to wisdom, shows himself to man (De migratione Abraham 38).

In Hinduism, the god Śiva is endowed with a third eye, the frontal eye that gives him a unifying vision. His look of fire expresses the pureness of the present without any other temporal dimension, as well as the simultaneity of beings and events, which he reduces to ashes in revelation of the all. Likewise Buddha, the "awakened one," received inner enlightenment through the celestial eye, which permitted him to see the life of all beings simultaneously and gave him the knowledge of the chain of the fundamental forces of existence as well as its previous forms. This eye of wisdom, prajñācakṣus, is found at the limit of unity and multiplicity, of emptiness and creation; it permits the wise man to grasp them simultaneously. The organ of inner vision, it is the very sign of Buddhist wisdom.

But the inner eye is the organ of wisdom only because it is capable of actually experiencing the divine. Every revelation presents itself as a veil that has been pulled back before the gaze of religious man, for whom the beatific vision and the contemplation of God are the very essence of eternal life. The eye of the heart is thus a frequent theme in spiritual and mystical literature. Just as the eye can neither see nor discern its object without light, so the soul cannot contemplate God without the light of faith, which alone opens the eyes of the heart. "Man must therefore become entirely eye"; such is the teaching of the Desert Fathers reiterated by Symeon the New Theologian (Hymns of the Divine Loves 45), for the soul's eye, relieved of carnal passions, can perceive the divine light that opens up on the heavens. Following Origen and his theory of spiritual senses, Gregory of Nyssa, Augustine, Bernard of Clairvaux, and all the Fathers state that it is God who, by opening the heart's eye, makes one see. Meister Eckhart again picks up this teaching (Sermons), and Teresa of Ávila specifies that what we know otherwise than by faith, the soul recognizes at sight, although not by eyesight. Leon Bloy writes in his Journal (June 6, 1894) that "we must turn our eyes inward" in order to speak our desire for a vision of truth, for the carnal eye only allows us to see "in enigma and as in a mirror." The eye of the heart is therefore man seeing God and, at the same time, God looking at man; it is the instrument of enlightenment and inner unification: "We shall find the pearl of the kingdom of heaven inside our hearts if we first purify the eye of our spirit" (Philotheus of Sinai, Forty Chapters on Spiritual Sobriety 23).