The Raise of Esu

Part 1, Chapter 1- The Beginning

Once upon a time, in a land not above or below Earth but beside it, lived the Orishas. An ancient and powerful pantheon belonging to the Yoruba people, the gods co-existed with man peacefully. The Yorubas served the Orisha with zeal, and the Orisha blessed, guided and punished them, all further their worshipper's spiritual journey.

The Orisha, like the Yorubas, were populated with diverse personalities; Shango, the boisterous god of the storm, is known for his rage and arrogance. Donned in royal red and white and accompanied with a mighty axe, he is highly feared by both the Orishas and the Yorubas. Shango was never far from his companions: Ogun the rum-loving god of war and iron, and Oshosi the quiet and solitary god of the hunt and the forest. I say companions, not friends, due to complex reasons; Oshosi, forever the shy god, rarely ventured away from his forest, and both Shango and Ogun regularly got into petty quarrels; who is the strongest god; who can drink the most; who has the most followers and who has the prettiest wife. In the contest of the prettiest wife, Shango won; his wife was Osun, the beautiful goddess of diplomacy, beauty, wealth and the river. Her beautiful coffee skin embraced with yellow and gold silk dress weaved with corals. Ogun tried to seduce her, with no avail. Even the quiet Oshosi was tempted out of his forest for a word or two.

Oshun's attention angered her sister-in-law, Oya, who had dominance over the winds. Ever since her brother's marriage to Oshun, she felt ignored by Shango who shifted his attention from his favourite little sister to his new lover. Shrewd observers and gossipers would tell you that is only a half-truth; Oya's heart desired Ogun. As she was not as beautiful as Oshun, so she attracted Ogun's attention the only way she knew; wrestling. Sometimes she won, sometimes she let him win. But to her heart, all that mattered was Ogun's attention, even if it meant she had to throw powerful punches to get it.

Watching the wrestling match, Orunmila - the god of divination and wisdom – sat alone in his green and yellow hut. Bored by the obvious predictability of the outcome of the match, he focused his attention on his divination board. A thought suddenly struck him; where was Esu? Looking towards the wrestling match, he couldn't find the distinctive red and black attire of the deity. So far so good, Orunmila thought. But his gut told him otherwise; where is Esu? In his vast experience, he learnt that if you couldn't find Esu, it meant trouble was coming to you.

Orunmila turns to his divination board, summoning the image of the court of Obatala, the King of the Orishas and the White Cloth. "Esu might be in the middle of a scolding by him" he thought cynically. He looks but does not find Esu. "He might be running an errand for Obatala". If that were the case, Orunmila would know; the brothers we as tight as thieves. But sometimes Esu can be a wicked brother. Orunmila looks around his hut, checking bags, boxes, any crevices above and below where Esu might be hiding. Nothing. He scrolls through the images of the courts of Shango, Ogun, Oya and the forest of Oshosi. Nothing.

Paranoia mounts on his mind. Shango might be the most powerful Orisha, but Esu is by far the most dangerous. The messenger god of chance, chaos and the gatekeeper of ashe, the energy of transformation, action and change which is the life-force of all living things, Esu has the unique ability to cross any border, speak any language and control the dark arts. Some say he taught Orunmila the secrets of divination. That is a lie. Using only palm wine and Orunmila's exhaustion from his travels, Esu extracted the secrets of divination, using it for his perverse entertainment.

One event Orunmila struggles to forget was the reason he decided never to enter the Earth realm; on a consulting trip to a village, he referred to his divination to foresee any accidents that might occur. He foresaw a path leading to the land of bandits and made plans to avoid it. Double-checking, triple-checking, he was satisfied with his plans and the future, and went to sleep. Esu, a short figure hiding in one of his brother's bags, hopped out and foresaw Orunmila's future. The next day, Orunmila sets out, and after a long day of walking, sleeps by an orchard tree. Seeing this, Esu steals his brother's divination board and creates footprints leading to the land of the bandits. Awakened, Orunmila searches for his board to no avail, only to see the footprints leading to the land of the bandits. Scared, he ran back to the Spirit realm, vowing to never interact with the Yorubas again.