Eye of Horus and Nazar Boncuk (Nazar Boncugu)

As anyone who has read any of my Harry Potter analysis essays will know, I'm fascinated by the Eye of Horus. I've written a series of editorials on Mugglenet.com (pre-Deathly Hallows) that analyzed Egyptian Myths in the Harry Potter series, including the Eye of Horus.

One thing that's always struck me was how similar the Turkish nazar boncuk (below) looks compared to the Egyptian Eye of Horus (above). The single, staring eye, with black pupil, surrounded by white and shades of blue, warding off evil--to me, it seems obvious that the nazar boncugu is a direct descendant of the Eye of Horus, However, I've found very little online making this a direct link. Perhaps this is because most of the information would be in Turkish, or perhaps it's just so obvious that no one feels a need to analyze it.

But I do. I find it fascinating that we have an amulet, very much alive and in constant use today, that is descended from an amulet worn by ancient Eygptians (and Sumerians and Hitittes) 4,000 - 5,000 years ago! That's one powerful amulet!

So, if you know more details of the history of how the Eye of Horus traveled from Egypt to Turkey to become the nazar boncuk, I'd love to hear it!

Deathly Hallows, and ME, in London

Finally! The day Harry Potter fans have waited for for years! The release of the last book of the quest of the Boy Who Lived in his battle against He Who Must Not Be Named.

I cannot express what it means to me to be able to be here in London, at ground zero, in the middle of this once in a lifetime excitement.

So, since a picture paints a thousand words, I'll share a few (or more likely, enough to make my server crash!).

These are taken earlier in the day on July 20, of the crowds gathering hours in advance in front of the Waterstone's in Picadilly:





The evening of the release:



A luscious Lucius to die for!



Give it up for the Gryffindor Quidditch team:



A mini Harry and Draco start a street duel:



Trying to see over the crowds. Couldn't they just use a levicorpus spell?



And finally, the front of the line: