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2020: The year of Eshu
A good reason to pay attention to the ancient African religion of Yoruba.
In Yoruba, a variation of which is known as “La Regla de Ocha”, or “Santeria” in Cuba, one of the lesser known characters, is Eshu.
He / She remains lesser known for a reason.
Yoruba is based on a collective of deities, “The Orishas”.
By Yoruba:
The head of the collective is the deity Oludumare, also known as Obatala.
Between Oludumare and humans, are all of the other deities.
Each deity has a character and a purpose enacted by the character manifesting in human behaviour, and vice versa.
All humans at different times are characterised by the behaviours of the Orishas, acting singly or in some combinations or another.
The spirits can be summoned by various ceremonies and rituals, especially including rhumba music and dance.
When we look up Eshu (also translated to Esu), to find out more about his character, and his purpose, we find conflicting information.
By some accounts, Eshu / Elegua is the messenger, and the spirit of the crossroads, opening all doors, that we might not even have known existed.
By others he / she is the trickster.
By all, he / she is the master of all languages.
{Edit 03/01/2024 — This rings some bells now, ChatGPT comes to mind}
Eshu partially serves as an alternate name for Eleggua, the messenger for all Orishas, and that there are 256 paths to Eleggua — each one of which is an Eshu. It is believed that Eshu is an Orisha similar to Eleggua, but there are only 101 paths to Eshu according to ocha, rather than the 256 paths to Eleggua according to Ifá.[2] Eshu is known as the “Father who gave birth to Ogboni”, and is also thought to be agile and always willing to rise to a challenge.[3]
Both ocha and Ifá share some paths, however. Eshu Ayé is said to work closely with Orisha Olokun and is thought to…
