Eshu is spiritual with an individual mission and with his own work (see Eshu law chart).

We all follow God's commands and we always try to do good. The bad guy is not Eshu, but each one of us with our attitudes and behaviour, grudges, hatreds and resentments gathered in our hearts that make us act in one way or another.

No Orisha will listen to you unless you have entrusted your request to an Eshu first.

Eshu does neither good nor evil: he fulfils the orders we give him. He is seen as a playful and irresponsible child who enjoys creating confusion between us and the Orishas. What he does is our own responsibility because he does not distinguish between good and evil.

There are no religions or negative entities, but people with bad intentions who will do evil and people with good intentions who try to solve evil. The existence of both is necessary to balance the functioning of the universe.

Eshu is the universal magical agent, the envoy, the Orishas’ messenger: hence, he is the first to receive all offerings.

Before giving an offering to an Orisha you must first pay tribute and sacrifice to Eshu. If Eshu is relaxed and eating, he will be happy and then, he will allow you to perform the ceremony for the Orisha peacefully.

Eshu is the lord of the roads, the owner of the land production and everything related to fertilisation and productivity. Eshu spoke to the Orishas and told them that he would continue being their messenger but that he would treat humans differently: he would make them live with their fears and would scare them. He would become the devil for white people so that his own people would stop suffering slavery. He would strive with their emotions, suspicions, apprehensions, mistrust, turbulence and doubts so that his people could have a better existence. The Orishas reflected on those words and sent their Eshus to the Earth. According to the legend, Eshus became the devil for white people’s dark souls from then on.

Eshu is identified as the devil for Christians because the missionary priests found many difficulties, conflicts and problems when trying to impose their religion by force on slaves: too many gods and divinities for a people they were trying to subjugate.

Missionaries were forced to adapt to the whole Menina Pantheon. However, we must not forget that at the time Christians lacked a demon and thus, who better than Eshu to become their devil? Christians did not know Eshu and their own ignorance made them fear him; they did not even bother to find out that Eshu was the one who had more similarities with people and that all the requests made by slaves were related to their own life issues.

Humans fear what they do not know, and the dominant white feared the submissive black who worshiped the devil, since he protected them from injustice, infamy, and the absolutism of white people.

Fear along with ignorance works miracles: panic took over the whites at crossroads, near their houses, etc. Offerings made by ebos to Eshu for whatever request, where just seen as the demon thrown against them.

Another asset of identifying Eshu with a demon was his representation in red and black, the symbolism of masculinity that he represented and his physical appearance with a large phallus in his hand. Such image could only represent a demon.

Offerings must always be given to Eshu first: this is the basis that everybody knows, but what is the origin of this tradition?

There are several legends:

–Eshu was the owner of divination which was given to him by Orunmila. However, Eshu was tired because humans used to bother him day and night, so he made a pact with If'a. Eshu wanted prominence and primacy in every ceremony and If'a promised this to him if he gave him the gift of divination that he had. Eshu agreed and so he became the first to receive offerings.

– Eshu found out that Obbatal'a was sick and that no one could solve his problem. He went to see him with some herbs and he cured him. As a reward for this, Obbatal'a said that Eshu would have to be served first in every ceremony.

–The king of Congo had three children: Shango, Ogun and Eshu, who was a troubled and problem child. One day, the king died and thereafter every time they made a sacrifice to the spirits or made a religious party nothing went right, the prayers to the gods were not heard, flocks died of epidemics, crops were lost, men, women and children became ill. People then asked a babalawo who talked to the obis. The obis said that Eshu was jealous and wanted part of the sacrifices. No one remembered Eshu, the small black boy who was always annoying everyone. Therefore, from then on, nothing could be done without Eshu being served in the first place so as not to upset him.

If'a is Eshu’s companion and messenger. If'a carries the destiny of the universe dictated by the Orishas: he is their spokesman and messenger.

Eshu opens and closes the roads, he has the key to all the doors, he is the son of Oya, the messenger of Obbatal'a, the brother of Ogun and the comrade of Shango.

He only pays homage to the greater Orisha. One of its symbols is a snake because he is always sleeping on the roads and Eshu is the owner of roads.

Eshu is a Menina word that means sphere, the cosmic energy in movement, the enterprising agent, the ferment and the manufacturer of reactions.