Being cool

Enter Eshu, the Yoruban orisha, into our ongoing exploration of the Trickster. Eshu has a lot in common with Coyote, he's a canny traveler and guardian of the crossroads, and he introduces a creative (and often challenging) kind of chaos. The Yorubans are from Nigeria and Benin in West Africa, but their cosmology and pantheon of gods and goddesses, the orisha, are central to Santeria, Voodoo, and other religions practiced today that meld Christianity with the native beliefs of African slaves dispersed throughout the Americas in those dark centuries. The vitality of the orishas and the strength they lend (then and now) to displaced and dispossessed peoples is one reason that Eshu (also known as Papa Legba) needs to join our conversation. This Trickster knows how to survive and assist humans in their struggle to do the same.

A bit of context, to help you think about the stories that will follow in the coming weeks. The Yorubans have been primarily urban people for a long time. When Europeans visited them in the 10-12th centuries, they were amazed at the clean efficiency of the cities, the highly developed aesthetic values, and the complex philosophy. Nothing comparable was happening in Europe at the time. The cosmology and worship of the orisha is very complex---there are over 400 primary deities---and bears some resemblance to the Greeks. The orisha Olorun for example, is a sky god and father figure much like Zeus. Eshu is an indispensable and unreliable messenger of the gods and a master of language much like Hermes. Oshun is the goddess is love and pleasure, beauty and diplomacy---think Aphrodite--- and she has the fiery temper of her Greek counterpart as well. There are many differences of course, these are systems developed by different races in different landscapes. But both pantheons can be understood as a key to archetypal forces, natural and psychic, that people experienced and engaged with in the course of life, forces that demanded recognition and relationship.

A couple more things. The heart of the Yoruban belief system is ashe, the morally neutral power to make things happen. Ashe is power, something we all need. The goal of spiritual life is to have ashe in conjunction with good character. Good character is "cool," and if you think of the popular use of that term, beginning with jazz and blues and other musical forms infused with black, African energy, you're on the right track. The coolness of good character is composed, self-possessed, gentle, and above all, generous.

The Yorubans believe that coolness, like ashe, originates with God but infuses the human as well. Heaven on earth is possible when the ancient ideal attitudes are manifest in us.