Eshu Elegua; Santeria and the Orisha of the Crossroads

by Raul Canizares

Eleggua as a Cosmic Force

Elegua is the opener of the doors; the messenger of the gods; he is a great diviner who does not need an oracle to see the future. He owns the keys to doors, and to evil as well as to good; he seems to take pleasure in creating compromising situations and trouble between human beings; he can be equally cruel and generous; he is the unexpected, treacherous and dangerous and capricious like fate itself; he is the great justice wielder and though he may seem at times a master of deceit and the bringer of misfortune, his actions are always justified because he alone knows
 the true meaning of justice and sees things which are hidden from 
humanity, as well as from the other orishas. In other words,
 Elegua can be equally identified with both fate and justice. It is
 said of this orisha that he's the lowest and the highest, a prince
 and a pauper who is equally at ease in a palace and a garbage
 dump, where he often feasts. With Oya, he rules over the four
winds. He is a great healer and a master magician. His spells and
 amulets are all powerful and impossible to destroy.

ESHU | ELEGGUA | ELEGUA | ORISHA ELEGUA | ESHU ELEGUA | ELEGBA