Elegguá
Elegguá is the oricha of the crossroads, the doorway, and the beginning and end of every path. As the Lucumí form of the Yoruba trickster Èṣù, he is the indispensable messenger between humanity and the other orichas: no ritual, divination, or offering proceeds until he has been saluted and fed first, and none concludes without his release. His numbers are three and twenty-one, the last counting the roads or aspects (caminos) under which he manifests, from the childlike Elegguá Laroye to older, more dangerous forms. His color pairing is red and black, and his emblems are the hooked garabato stick and a cement head studded with cowrie shells kept behind the front door. In Cuba he is identified with El Niño de Atocha and the Anima Sola. With Oggún and Ochosi he forms los Guerreros, the Warriors received early in a devotee's religious life.
Domains
- crossroads and openings
- fate and messages
Powers
- opens and closes the roads
- guards doorways and thresholds
- carries messages among the orichas
Epithets
- Laroye — the talkative one who quarrels but does not fightCabrera, El Monte (1954) (secondary)
- Eshu Bara — Eshu of the body/marketplaceBascom, Shango in the New World (1972) (secondary)
Relations
- ally: OggúnOne of los Guerreros, the Warriors received together at initiation.Bolívar Aróstegui, Los Orichas en Cuba (1990) (secondary)
- ally: OchosiMember of the Warrior triad.Bolívar Aróstegui, Los Orichas en Cuba (1990) (secondary)
- companion: OrulaElegguá works beside Orula, animating the movement of the divining instruments.William Bascom, Sixteen Cowries (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1980) (secondary)
Sources
- Elegguá is the oricha of crossroads and openings, saluted first in all ritual, and heads the Warrior group with Oggún and Ochosi.: Lydia Cabrera, El Monte (Havana: Ediciones C.R., 1954) (secondary); George Brandon, Santeria from Africa to the New World (1993), 76-78 (secondary)
- In Cuba Elegguá is syncretized with El Niño de Atocha and the Anima Sola and counted among the orichas of the road.: Joseph M. Murphy, Santeria: African Spirits in America (1988) (secondary)