Chapter I
What it means
The wedjat is a human eye with the markings of a falcon’s face beneath it: a teardrop line and a curled line. Its name means “the sound one” or “the whole one”. It stands for protection, for healing and for the restoring of order after harm.
An amulet in the shape of the eye was believed to guard the person who wore it from illness and evil. Painted on the side of a coffin, a pair of eyes let the dead person look out at the world of the living.
Chapter II
Where it comes from
In Egyptian myth the god Horus fought his uncle Seth, who had killed Horus’s father Osiris. In the struggle Seth tore out Horus’s eye. It was healed, in some versions by the god Thoth, and Horus offered it to his dead father, bringing him back to life in the next world. The healed eye therefore came to stand for every kind of restoration.
Eye amulets are found from the Old Kingdom (about 2600 BCE) onwards and became among the most common of all Egyptian amulets, made of faience, stone, gold and glass.
Chapter III
Where you see it today
The eye is popular in jewellery and tattoos as a sign of protection. It appears constantly in popular culture about ancient Egypt, and modern Kemetic groups use it in worship.