The joke is on me

Eshu or Eleggua is a trickster of Yoruba mythology, and he sits by my front door overseeing the comings and goings of all. He likes to trip me. I have posted an image from the Yoruba as the fertility god. He is also the guardian of crossroads, where paths converge and separate. He is most appropriate a figure for me at this time in life, a time of enormous change and upheaval. I look forward to getting to know him better. His desire is to assist one in spiritual growth by showing one's foolishness, exposing lopsided thinking and limited vision. His humor can be fiendish but is meant to bring about rebirth to a higher level. If you have any insights about tricksters from other mythological realms, please share them with me.

Eshu at the Crossroad

Getting to know Eshu is no easy feat. He is after a a jolly trickster. He loves bold expression: black and red are his colors. He is not shy in the least. Let me relate a little story to help you get to know him too. Eshu will crush us if we are haughty, and lift us when we are humble to a fault. He will never leave you without a lesson. He is the mirror of our soul. In one tale, he is walking between two friends on the road. He is wearing a tall hat, red on one side and white on the other. The two friends take to arguing about what color his hat is, both only seeing the hat from their own side of the street. They come to blows. Their long standing friendship was in tatters. He chuckled to think how they would ruin a friendship over something so trivial, the color of a man's hat. He sees things from all directions and helps us to see our strengths and our weaknesses. When asked kindly, Eshu will help guide our paths, because Eshu is the owner of all paths.