The Eshu Altar
Reminder: If you have the option, please consult a trusted practitioner or initiate before attempting these practices.
All crossroads belong to Eshu, so if you can, designate one in particular that feels right to be your away-from-home altar. You can also choose a large rock. In this, especially if you’re a very feminine woman, you want to enlist the help of a very Eshu oriented man. Men are generally intuitively better at the practical Eshu things than women.
If you have the space for an Eshu altar in your yard, make a crossroads out of stones, or arrange stones in a corner, and put a large stone and an iron pot, or an Eshu head with a built in bowl at the corner or in the center where the makeshift road crosses.
If you can, plant some red flowering or seeding plants around it. He really loves abrus precatorius and the coral tree. If you can’t plant flowers around it, then bring him some fresh red flowers on Mondays. Try not to kill a plant to take them. Take them from what is about to fall or needs to be trimmed.
Your indoor altar should have items for Eshu in the corner. You should also, if you can, put an Eshu head behind your doors, or hang one on the indoor side doorknobs.
Elegua Oil Recipe
Many of the oils used in Vodun and diaspora systems are very complicated to make, but Eshu’s oil isn’t. It’s basically an infusion of dried ingredients in palm or nut oil.
On a Monday, gather the ingredients together before you do your offerings, and put them on a plate. You will need:
- a clean jar
- up to about half a liter of liquid palm oil or a nut based carrier oil such as hazelnut oil or almond oil
- a handfull of coffee beans
- a handfull of cinnamon bark chips
- a heaping teaspoon of cloves
- (optional) three “doses” of chewing or hookah tobacco
While your altar incense is burning, and after you have opened the ceremony, ask Elegua to bless your oil. Then put the dry ingredients in the jar, and fill it with the oil. Cover it tightly, and give it a good shake.
Keep it in a cool, dark place for at least three months.
Once it is done, you can use this oil to anoint your Elegua dress candles, or burn in an oil burner.
Recipes vary, depending on the mystic and the path or camino of Eshu they’re making it for, but this is the general purpose recipe.
Elegua Incense Recipe
Elegua incense is also fairly easy to make, but you may need to work a bit to acquire some of the ingredients. You will need a mortar and pestle or heavy duty food grinder for this. Some ingredients, you may not be able to find powdered, and this is okay. The resins should be powdered though, and any oils or extracts you add, thoroughly blended throughout the powdered ingredients. You want whatever’s powdered, liquid, or viscous, to coat any larger chunks. This recipe is for a big batch because most of us who are Eshu aware, burn incense for him every Monday.
Ingredients:
- 1/4 cup myrrh, benzoin, or almond resin tears or 1/8 cup powder
- 1/2 cup sandalwood or aloeswood/agarwood/oudh chips or 1/4 cup powder
- 1/4 cup chewing or hookah tobacco, preferably honey flavored
- 1/2 cup roasted coffee beans or 1/4 cup coffee powder
- 1 teaspoon cardamom unless the coffee already has it (it may be called “hel”)
- 1/4 cup star anise or 1/8 cup powder
- 1/4 cup cinnamon bark chips or 1/8 cup cinnamon powder
- 1 heaping teaspoon clove powder
- 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes or powder
- 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
- enough Elegua oil, added a few drops at a time, to make everything just a little “damp”
- (optional) ground rooster leg bones if you can find them, and if not, large chicken bones
Instructions:
On a Monday, gather all of your ingredients and arrange them on a plate, and when you do your normal offerings and open the ceremony, pass them through the smoke of incense, and ask Eshu to bless them.
Grind the resins thoroughly, and even if everything is already powdered, mash them together in the mortar and pestle. Then add the rest of the dry ingredients, and try to pulverize them as well as you can.
Add the tobacco, and keep pounding. Then add the oil a few drops at a time, until you have a slightly damp, crumbly, sort of sticky mixture.
Transfer this to a glass jar, and let it age in a cool, dark place for three weeks. Then it’s ready to use.
Burn this incense on a piece of charcoal or in a bakhoor burner.
Again, with this recipes vary, but this is the general purpose one.
Eshu Prayer
A friend of the ile and authentic Vodun artist, Sunday Gbenga, posted this prayer. He says if you want to praise Eshu, do it like this:
Esu,
Divine Messenger,
Esu Odara,
Divine Messenger of Transformation,
Esu lanlu ogirioko.
Divine Messenger speak with power.
Okunrin ori ita,
Man of the crossroads
A jo langa langa lalu.
Dance to the drum.
A rin lanja lanja lalu.
Tickle the toe of the drum.
Ode ibi ija de mole.
Move beyond strife.
Ija ni otaru ba d’ele ife.
Strife is contrary to the spirit of Heaven.
To fi de omo won.
Unite the unsteady feet of weaning children.
Oro Esu to to to akoni.
The word of the Divine Messenger is always respected.
Ao fi ida re lale.
We shall use your sword to touch the Earth.
Esu ma se mi o.
Divine Messenger do not confuse me.
Esu ma se mi o.
Divine Messenger do not confuse me.
Esu ma se mi o.
Divine Messenger do not confuse me.
Omo elomiran ni ko lo se.
Let someone else be confused.
Pa ado asubi da.
Turn my suffering around.
No ado asure si wa.
Give me the blessing of the calabash.
Ase.
So be it.
Ase!
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I was given an Elegua candle to help my business. I burned it I gave Elegua candy and money. I put the candy and the money on the crossroad. Now I have mice running all over my place. I caught 2 of them. A friend told me Elegua wants 3 mice then he’ll stop. So can I get a dead one at the petstore and call it a day?
Many mice running around after an offering to Elegua definitely means he wants sacrifices. Whether or not it will stop after you give only three is a big question. You may want to seek divination about that. I don’t think it wise to buy one from a pet store. You may have to borrow a friend’s cat (an inside *and* outside cat) or dog of a breed who are instinctive mousers like Pekingese or Terriers. If you’re not sure if the ones you’ve caught so far will spoil or not, gut them and put them in a bucket of salt or natron until you’ve caught the third.
alifia, i am late it seems, but as an initiate to ifa, and as an ancestral priest i would like to point out that in the many offerings i have witnessed by my first hand the animal offerings were alive prior to the sacrifice.
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I always put three candles one for el nino de atocha(elegua) the seven african powers and santa barbara (chango) and only chango is the one that burns completely, the others dont even last a hour.
is there a reason? have i done something bad?
?àngó is viewed as the most powerful and feared of the orisha pantheon. He casts a “thunderstone” to earth, which creates thunder and lightning, to anyone who offends him
my understanding is that any alter or sacrifice be separate and kept apart from one another , place candles for each orisha in a separate place dedicated for them.
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I would like to consecrate my own elegua. I have had his head for over a year now. What ingredients would I need?
Thank you so much.
@Moor-ena, it depends where you got it from. Different groups have different ways of consecrating Elegguas. In fact, in some groups, they are more specific about which Eleggua or Eshu it is, and what it is for. Follow the prescribed way of the group you got it from. If you find this impossible or impractical for you (as some groups require certain initiations that you may or may not like to be a part of) then gift the item to a member of that group. They would be happy to receive it.
If you are not affiliated or initiated, it may be better for you to make your own fetish for Eleggua, or to house him in a found Eshu stone. You can find instructions here: Zindoki.com – Found Eshu Stones
Blessings and Ase!
Eye love PAPA LEGBA!!! I’ve known Him all my life, and I’m so thankful that He chose me to be one of His children. He loves and protects me like no other!!! Although His tests may be tumultuous at times, when it’s all said and done, He has the last word, because He knows what’s best for me. ALWAYS REMEMBER TO HONOR AND RESPECT HIM!!!
ASE! ASHE!
I’ve had my warriors for years now . I was very close to them . When I spoke to them I felt their presence and knew what to do next . Life was great . But For quite some time now I’ve been in a fog so to speak and I feel like they need to tell me something but for some reason I’m blocked . And since then life has not been so great . I won’t go back to my padrino because honestly the last time I went I had this overwhelming feeling of fear and distrust . Any thoughts on this?
Though I believe that it is good for people to be a part of a community, it’s not a good idea to rely too much on the community or one’s parents for one’s spiritual path. It is likely that your warriors are trying to get you to do some things for yourself.
ASE I love your website that is elleguas web site and enjoy the recipes.Please keep doing what you are doing?
Once a vodoo priest asked me to bring a Coconut to her, so I did.
What does it mean?
A friend told me my eshu needs to be outside the door and I read this also . So I put him outside . And my eleggua are inside the front door . She said eshu loves to be outside the door to protect me that he likes to roam and
I have bought a coconut and I have been listening to the music to elegua I just put some candy ? and some toys in front of the coconut but I want and need more information and steps to make an altar for him and his offerings .
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