Encyclopedia > Eshu

  Article Content

Eshu

In Yoruba mythology, Eshu is an Orisha, and one of the most respected deities of the tradition. He is the protector of travelers and a god of roads, particularly crossroads. Every magical ceremony or ritual began with an offering to Eshu; failure to do so guaranteed failure in the intent of the ceremony.

Eshu is a trickster-god, and plays frequently malicious tricks for the purpose of causing maturation. He is a difficult teacher, but a good one. As an example, Eshu was walking down the road one day, wearing a hat that was red on one side and blue on the other. Sometime after he departed, the villagers who had seen him began arguing about whether the stranger's hat was blue or red. The villagers on one side of the road had only been capable of seeing the blue side, and the villagers on the other side had only been capable of seeing the red half. They nearly fought over the argument, until Eshu came back and cleared the mystery, teaching the villagers about how one's perspective can alter one's perception of reality, and can be easily fooled.

Alternative: Exu (Brazilian Vodun), Eleggua (Cuban Vodun), Esu



All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License

 
  Search Encyclopedia

Search over one million articles, find something about almost anything!
 
 
  
  Featured Article
East Farmingdale, New York

... is land and 0.1 km² (0.04 mi²) of it is water. The total area is 0.56% water. Demographics As of the census of 2000, there are 5,400 people, 1,693 households, ...

 
 
 
This page was created in 31.9 ms