Our story begins with the Egyptian Sun God named Ra. Each morning in ancient Egypt Ra would sail his boat across the sea of the sky, and during the evening he would return to the underworld.
Ra was the patron god of the pharaoh and was considered to be the god of all the other gods of the Egyptian pantheon. He was considered the creator of everything. The Eye of Ra is symbolic of an all seeing eye, much like the god himself.
The Egyptians honored him with temples allowing for light to stream in instead of statues of Ra, as he was considered to be the sun himself.
At sundown, it was believed that Nut, the goddess of mystery and night, swallowed Ra, and that he was reborn in the morning. Meaning that Nut was both his mother and granddaughter.
The symbol of The Eye of Ra comes to us from a few different myths from Egypt.
One of them goes like this…
In the beginning, it was thought that Ra was the pharaoh of Egypt. However, he had become old and weak in his older age. The people of Egypt began to act cruelly. They disregarded Ra, his rules, and the law. They made fun of him behind his back, but he knew that he was falling out of power with the people.
In anger, Ra sent his daughter, the Eye of Ra, to Egypt to teach a lesson to mankind. Many goddesses are thought to be this aspect of Ra, Hathor, Sekhmet, Tefnut, Bast, Nut, Nekhbet. The Eye of Ra is sometimes represented through the imagery of a cat or as a lion.
While with mankind, the Eye of Ra sought revenge for her father. She killed anyone who came across her path. With a change of heart, Ra begged her to stop, but she did not listen. Ra came up with a plan. He poured thousands of gallons of blood and pomegranate juice across the fields surrounding the eye.
The Eye of Ra feasted upon what she thought was blood, only to become intoxicated. The Eye of Ra slept for three days. With this, Ra both devastated and saved humanity.
In other more benevolent stories, The Eye of Ra seeks out information from enemies, and looks for two of his lost children.
The Eye of Ra became a powerful amulet worn my pharaohs to repel negative forces, and as a symbol of protection. The Eye of Ra is a symbol of protection for those who wear it. Ancient Egyptians saw the Eye of Ra as both powerful and protective but also with an acknowledgement of destruction, much like the sun. The Eye of Ra is a sacred and powerful symbol, and should always be treated as such.
The Eye of Horus is similar to The Eye of Ra, however, the Eye of Ra represents the right eye and the Eye of Horus is the left eye. Read more about The Eye of Horus and the myth surrounding it here.
