Conjunctivitis: emotional and spiritual meaning
Updated
What conjunctivitis is
Conjunctivitis is inflammation of the transparent membrane that lines the eyelid and covers the eye. Infection, allergy, and a chemical irritant are the usual causes. The eye is red, watery, and gritty. Vision should stay clear. Pain or lost sight is a different illness and needs urgent care. Many cases settle with cleaning and time. Antibiotic drops are for a bacterial infection a clinician has recognised, not for every red eye.
The emotional meaning of conjunctivitis
There is a direct line, in this reading, between the inflamed eye and what you see. The unconscious move is a refusal to look at a situation you disagree with, or that wounds you. A new understanding, or someone else's point of view, will not be taken in. Standing in the other person's place feels impossible, and so does forgiveness. Frustration, irritation, and revolt follow. The sentences are plain: I cannot bear what I see. It burns me to see it.
The watering eye is read as wanting to wash, without stopping, a dirtiness you see in the situation that has made you angry. Sometimes the dirtiness is a family matter, and the wish is to wash the family clean of judgement or scandal. Swelling in the eye is set beside a mental numbness, and beside an emotional overflow close to crying. Joy and enthusiasm feel absent. Memories hurt. A romantic dream-world is safer than the room you are in. Reality feels unbearable, and sadness can go as far as wanting the pain to be over. If that wish includes not wanting to live, it belongs with a person and with help, not with an interpretation of the eye.
Temporary blindness would be a relief, because what you see makes you suffer. You may want to break the link that another person's gaze has on you, or you may want to use your own gaze to bind someone to you. A couple heading towards separation is one scene the spiritual interpretation names.
A gentler way to hold it
- Stop and look at the situation you have been washing away. Ask why it is as it is.
- Give yourself permission to cry, if tears are the truer water.
- The past can be set down in one concrete way today. The eye still gets its own care.
Questions to ask yourself
Take your time with these. There are no right answers; simply notice what comes up.
- What am I looking at that I cannot bear to understand differently?
- Where would tears be more honest than a red, washed eye?
- What in the past am I still refusing to set down?
“I can look at what is in front of me, and I can let the tears come if they need to.”
When to see a doctor
- A red eye with pain, light hurting you, a change in vision, or a contact lens still in needs prompt care.
- Newborns with sticky eyes need a doctor the same day.
- If despair has become thoughts of ending your life, tell someone and seek help now.
- Drops, if prescribed, are finished.
- A viral red eye is also catching.
- Wash your hands.
Sources and inspiration
- Jacques Martel, .
This page is an original interpretation written by Body Hemi-Sync. It is inspired by these sources and does not reproduce them.