In Europe in earlier centuries people wanted protection from the Evil Eye. This was done with an image of a staring eye and a small mirror; the hostile eye would see its own reflection and be defeated by evil rebounding onto itself.
However as a single mirror could only be pointed in one direction, this was not a foolproof solution, as the evil eye could enter from another direction rendering the image and mirror useless.
The solution to this problem was the witches’ ball, a coloured glass sphere that could reflect the eye from any and all directions. (more…)