Papa Legba Does it Again!!

Now I wanted to speak about my experience with Legba from a Haitian perspective. I've seen so much mixing of the spirits because they vibrate almost on the same frequency. Let me be the one to tell you that that's a NO-NO! Let me give an example. I work with both Papa Legba, St. Anthony, who in some Santeria circles is Elegua because for some St. Anthony is not Elegua, and Elegua. Yes it's confusing but let me break it down. I am not initiated because my family, on my mother's side is from Jeremie, the southern part of Haiti. My Elders believe that you have to be born with that gift. Meaning the spirits choose you from birth and they teach you their ways in dreams or by sending mental messages, or someone just comes up to you and says for example, " I had a dream for you and this is what insert name of spirit, told me to tell you." There are many ways spirit communicates.

Okay back to Legba and Elegua. I can put these two in the same spot but they do not have the same offerings! Legba likes his djakout, which is a straw like bag, with money, his pipe and real tobacco leaves, his cassava bread, grilled corn, bread and his smoked veggies and smoked fish. My Elegua on the other hand loves his money, coconuts, smoked herring, grilled corn, palm oil, honey, and some other things I'll keep to my self because in the Haitian tradition, if someone knows what you feed your spirits exactly they can steal them from you. Yes you read that right, In the Haitian community it happens all the time, but I'll leave that for another post. Even though some of the offerings are the same, I don't present it to Legba and Elegua the same because they showed me their ways exactly how they want it. Right now you might be saying well Dahomey don't you have to be initiated in Santeria? Yes! But I didn't go to Elegua, He came to me and showed me everything I know up to date. This happened to me with Shango also and it scared me so much when he came to me that I spent the rest of the night awake! He wasn't trying to scare me, He was just trying to make himself known that he was here for me and he taught me how to call on him.

So anyway, my cousin came from Haiti and bought me some cassava bread. Me being absent minded sometimes never thought to put some in Legba's djakout. So after a couple of weeks I had a dream about a baby who was crying and my father in law, alongside my brother in law told me to feed the baby cassava bread! Then I woke up. I sat there thinking what the F does this dream mean because you do not feed babies Cassava! So I just wrote it in my dream journal and went back to sleep. So today my thoughts went to the Cassava bread that was sitting in my pantry. Something told me to give it to Legba, not Elegua. I still ignored the thought. As I was getting up to go to the kitchen from my office/altar room, the broom behind the door fell and blocked the door! Now you know what that means. So I stopped in my tracks and told Legba that I'm going to go get the Cassava. I did the proper way I was taught to offer it to him then I put it in his djakout. My spirits do not play. So when I act like I'm slow, they make all hell break loose so that I pay attention.

So my beloveds that is all for now. Next post I want to talk about the saints and vodou spirits and how they are not one in the same thing even though my ancestors used their image to commune with them. Let me know your thoughts and adventures with Papa Legba and Elegua! Ashe