Oh Lord, I’ve SWUM in this river. Sometimes it was deep. Sometimes stanky and gross. Sometimes dark, but all times not a good place to Be.
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The woman that has received a reading some time ago, texts me out of the blue. She has the opportunity to begin (yet again) her life over in a new place. We do a new reading. The cards indicate “GO girl!”, and the future looks pretty good. The one cautionary card, Exu, indicates watching out for the one who “runs the streets and does not reveal exactly what IS his agenda”. I like to call this card the “Jekyll and Hyde” card. Like a character in the show “The Sopranos”, you never really know what the business that they are in. Thumping the Bible on Sunday, but dancin’ with the sinners Saturday night. Exu, also known as Eshu or Echu (with accent marks) is a avatar of Ellegua, and is in a group of over 200 paths to Ellegua/Elegua – each one of them considered an Eshu – and considered the one who “points the way” when you are at a crossroads in life, as the crossroads is his favorite place to be.
A trickster, Elegua wants to know which path you’ve chosen, as he is considering throwing a banana peel under your foot just to see if you recover or if you do that pratfall on the stage of Life. He is not necessarily mean-spirited, just a character like the Court Jester in Elizabethan England; he pokes fun at the audacity of dual-meanings, depending on whose perspective it is. In Afro-Caribbean traditions, Elegua is the messenger of the Gods (hmmm methinks Mercury, n’est-ce pas?). He is the beginning of life as well as the end. He is an old man and a young boy, He is stern and playful, and he opens your roads as well as closes them too. This is why in ceremony, he is greeted first and then last before finishing a guiro or bembe.
Eshu and Elegua walk side-by-side, and even though Elegua can keep Eshu under control, they both have an understanding that together they represent the dark and the light, the good and the bad. The difference between Exu and Elegua is that while both are tricksters, Exu’s influence is more unpleasant, threatening, and harmful.
Now Exu/Eshu in this woman’s reading, indicated that she needed to make a choice regarding this tricky individual, and that she needed to be aware of the carousing around and subsequent outcomes of his involvement in her life. Now understand, “Eshus” (or people who are Exu’s “chile”/has Echu as a Guardian Angel) are like the lyric in the Eagles’ song, “Life in the Fast Lane” –
“He was a hard-headed man he was brutally handsome
And she was terminally pretty
She held him up and he held her for ransom
In the heart of the cold, cold city
He had a nasty reputation as a cruel dude
They said he was ruthless said he was crude
They had one thing in common: they were good in bed
She’d say, “Faster, faster “The lights are turning red”
They are handsome, or at least charming, and can romance the HELL out of you. They make you feel ALIVE. The energy of Exu is like that wild child we see in every action adventure movie where one of the pack says, “C’mon, let’s run, let’s GOOOOO!’ as they run down the street. The gleam in their eye is a little scary, but exhilarating, because if when you jump off the cliff, and land right, you actually will dive right into a clear blue pool of water. But on the way down, you might bounce off the boulder jutting out from the side, and well, crash and burn. Double-Triple-OUCH. It is the choices you make that have more than one outcome.
This woman was at her crossroad; she needed to make the choice to bring him with her or start a new life on her own. Each will have challenges along the way; all good adventures have that. Despite the indications of the cards, this woman could not hold a steady gaze for that new beginning without the deadbeat that quit his job once he had emotionally reeled this woman in (to take care of him, of course) and whose own mother wants him off HER sofa.
Have I make some bad choices? Sure. You have too. The acceptance of recognizing that bad choice, and understanding that events are repeating themselves like going on that Merry-Go-Round of Life, will continue to occur, until the insight and action taken makes sure that IT DOES NOT HAPPEN AGAIN.
I am not quite sure what has played out with this woman; only time and a future call from her will tell. Hopefully, she is onto a new chapter of her life without living her life in denial that she will have anything else but normalcy in hers because of him.
Sleeping single in a double bed is not fun, but might save your Life and you live to see another day. Leave the light on and cuddle the pet (your choice cat or dog). Sunrise is just 7 hours away. There is no denying that.
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