The Spiritual Meaning of Eye Issues

Vision changes are common enough, especially as we age or during major hormonal changes, like with pregnancy. We can also get styes, dry eyes, cysts, and all kinds of other issues in and around our eyes. Of course, it’s a good idea to talk to your doctor, ophthalmologist, or other healthcare practitioner to address any eye issues directly, but let’s also think about the spiritual meaning of issues surrounding the eyes.

Clear Seeing

The eyes are the organs through which we see and perceive the world. When issues come up with the eyes, we may want to consider how we are “seeing” things.

• Is something happening in your life or in the world that has confused the sense you make of the world around you, the way you “see” things?

• Has your perception changed or been changing about yourself, the people around you, or the world?

• Is there something you are not seeing that you want to see?

• Is there something you’ve seen that you wish you hadn’t?

• What do you spend most of your time looking at?

• What is your relationship like with whatever it is you spend most of your time looking at?

The Sixth Chakra

In the Hindu chakra system, the eyes are connected to the sixth chakra, ajna, which is located between and just above the eyes, in the location of the metaphorical third eye. This is the energy center related to seeing, both inwardly and outwardly. It represents our intuition—our ability to know and understand the world literally as well as intuitively. One of the best ways to support the sixth chakra is to sit in meditation, allowing your mind to quiet enough that you can see, hear, and feel inwardly.

• Do you feel connected to your intuition, your inner knowing that comes from a non-rational place?

• Have you been ignoring your intuition about something?

• Does your intuition feel confused by fear, trauma, or unhelpful inner narratives?

• Did something happen that completely confused your intuition?

• Do you ever get quiet enough to be able to listen to your intuition, or are you too busy to pay attention?

Overvaluing Logic

Seeing is related to a very masculine, rational, logical way of knowing. We trust what we see with our own eyes, sometimes to the detriment of other forms of knowing. Knowing with touch, smell, taste, and other subtler forms of perception are often more related to the feminine—the unseen powers of the universe. When we over-focus on seeing at the cost of knowing, we may be privileging logic over intuition and, by extension, masculine energy over feminine energy.

• What happens when you close your eyes?

• How connected are you to what you are feeling—both to emotion and your other senses?

• If you were to close your eyes to the world for a little while, what might you feel, sense, or know differently?

• Do you tend to overthink problems without pausing to feel into them?

• Do you move ahead with something because it “makes sense” even if it doesn’t feel right to you?

• Do you honor your other forms of knowing beyond thinking, logic, and analysis?

• Do you have internalized gender bias, especially around things like rationality, logic, and intuition?

Seeing Out Versus Seeing In

We see out of the eyes, but the eyes are also a prominent part of our faces, which is what others see. Especially if there is a stye, cyst, lump, or some other visual change to your eye, you may want to think about how you are perceived as well as how you are perceiving.

• How do you feel about yourself at this moment?

• Do you feel that you are worthy of love, care, and attention, just as you are?

• Do you fear that there is something about your inner or outer self that makes you less worthy of attention?

• Do you feel your outer appearance matches who you are and how you feel on the inside?

• Is there something you would like to communicate to the outside world about yourself? Something you feel others don’t see or understand about you?

The Eyes as a Method of Connection

One of the simplest, quickest ways we make connections with other people is through eye contact. So much information can be expressed through the micro-expressions of the eyes. When we look into each other’s eyes and take the time to listen and hear, we can feel “seen” and connected with each other in important ways.

• Do you feel seen, understood, and connected with?

• Is there someone you’d like to feel more connected with?

• Are you lonely?

• Do you look others in the eye, willing and able to see their truth as you reveal your own? Or do you shy away from seeing and being seen completely?

• Does intimacy instigate fear or anxiety?

The Need for Tears

Especially if your eyes are dry or if you have blockages like styes or cysts, your eyes might have a buildup of tears.

• Is there something you haven’t been grieving completely?

• Is there an unresolved sadness in your life, even if it’s from a long time ago?

• Is there something happening in your life that is hard to accept or understand?

• Have you been crying enough? Or too much?

Notice how these questions resonate for you and use them to ask your body what wisdom it is holding through the symptoms it is showing. Remember that your body is always on your side, always trying to bring you back to balance (even if it doesn’t feel that way!). Consider helping your body rebalance by attending to spiritual and emotional concerns. Along with any medical advice you might need to follow, your eyes might just start to feel better.

Learn more about the practice of soul gazing.