The Story Behind Legba's Candy Hair & Body Oil
Featured in the Mythologies Collection, Legba's Candy Hair & Body Oil celebrates African voodoo, spirituality and myth, honoring Papa Legba, Guardian of the Crossroads, Tree of Justice (also known as Eshu Elegbara and Elegba). Legba opens and closes every crossroad, and is invoked to open doors for you, remove obstacles from your path, and obstruct your enemies and misfortune.
Key ingredient symbolization in the Legba's Candy Hair & Body Oil formulation:
- Baobab/Mapou-expansive root system and branches into the earth offer a connection to the ancestral realm and channels used by Legba to communicate from the spiritual realm; offerings are placed at these ancient trees along with gifts of spiced rum, tobacco, and candy; the baobab is the ideal gathering place for rituals and spiritual guidance and communication
- Cacao-often used to make cakes and other sweet treats brought at offerings; chocolate as the most luxurious form of candy is highly favored for Legba's altars, (particularly rich, dark chocolate)
- Coconut- appeals to Legba's preference for coconut milk and raw coconut, and coconut sweet treats
- Tamanu- incorporated in ritual healing salves in Haitian Vodou and Hoodoo due to its green color, restorative, and purification properties, to acknowledge Legba's healing powers
Papa Legba's Role in African and Haitian Spirituality, Voodoo, Vodou, and Hoodoo
Papa Legba, also called Eshu Elegbara, is the Guardian of the Crossroads and the Gatekeeper of the spirit worlds (similar to Hekate). Legba traveled to the Western Hemisphere with enslaved practitioners and these enslaved Africans brought Legba to the Americas as one of the most protective, trickster spirits, capable of opening and closing doors to realms and providing a means to channel and communicate with ancestors and spirits on the other side.
Papa Legba is a prominent lwa spirit in Haitian Vodou, West African Vodun, and Louisiana Voodoo, and is one of the widely venerated spirits of African-Diaspora religions, especially of West Africa, the Caribbean and New Orleans.
His name originates from Lebe ("the old man at the gate"). Legba can communicate in all human languages and is the greatest facilitator and gate opener between worlds. He might possibly grant any wish one desires-provided you bring him the vices he enjoys.
He can bless you with manual dexterity and musical talents. Hence, the folklore that surrounds his name, sometimes with a darker twist, making Papa Legba seem a demanding deity that cannot be trusted.
Common legends, such as the mediocre bluesman, Robert Johnson, in the Mississippi Delta, who played his guitar at a crossroads supposedly met the deity, and sold his soul in exchange for masterful musical talents-a phenomenon that frightened his peers when he returned and demonstrated his skills after having disappeared for months. Johnson's encounter (according to legend) occurred at midnight at the intersection of Highway 61 and 49 in Clarksdale, Mississippi (now celebrated by the Delta Blues Museum).
However, Legba is not demonic or malicious, nor does he need or want your soul, rather he is a fun deity with very human vices such as spicy rum, sweet candies, dark coffee, blues and other music played with guitars, and practical jokes. He knows all and sees all, so he demands respect and sincerity when approached for favors and that is the key to working with him. Papa Legba himself is a master trickster, do not try to cheat, shortchange, or deceive him!
Papa Lega favors musicians, especially those who play or sing the blues, gamblers, dog lovers, practical jokers, drinkers, smokers, bartenders, and storytellers. Papa Legba may be petitioned for justice, talent or skill, good luck, wealth and prosperity, guidance when you are uncertain about which path to take in life and on the road while traveling, to communicate with ancestors and other spirits on your behalf or a loved one's, to heal or help reduce ailments. There is nothing Legba cannot do.
Historically, Catholic figures such as Saint Lazarus and Saint Peter have been syncretized with Legba to hide worship of him. Legba is also syncretized to The Holy Child of Atocha and the Anima Sola.
Papa Legba is Still Venerated Today
No lwa can enter the human realm without Papa Legba's permission, therefore he must be the first invoked in rituals and ceremonies.
Catholic Saints such as Saint Lazarus and Saint Peter have been syncretized with Legba to hide worship.
Statues of the Holy Child of Atocha are also used to represent Legba.
A geometric symbol sacred to Papa Legba (called a veve) is drawn by priests in flour or cornmeal and sometimes in gunpowder or wood ash to summon Legba's spirit.
All Vodou ceremonies start with a song requesting that Papa Legba "Papa Legba, open the gate for me" and his symbols are present: a ritual walking stick, cane, or crutch, representing his earthly trickster disguise as a crippled old man. (Legba is originally a dapperly dressed, handsome, virile man, though this image did outlast the Middle Passage.) Eshu Elegbara may be depicted as tricky or mischievous little boy.
Cigars and tobacco leaves are smoked at rituals and ceremonies honoring Legba. The smoke is blown over Legba's altar.
Small altars and shrines for Legba live in homes, placed behind front doors to discourage bad spirits.
November 1st, All Saints Day: Leba is honored and syncretized with Saint Peter
Mondays and Saturdays: traditional days set aside for altars and offerings
Mondays and Tuesdays: days choses by many for invoking, feasts, and offerings
June 13th, Feast of Saint Anthony: Papa Legba is syncretized with Saint Anthony (finder of pathways)
City and public celebrations occur on St. John's Eve on June 23rd and New Orleans National Vodou Day in late spring (also with Voodoo Queen Marie Laveau connected to summer solstice)
Voodoo ceremonies in the Congo Square in New Orleans
Papa Legba Depictions, Offerings, and Symbols
Papa Legba has numerous manifestations and depictions, with the most famous being a kind, road-weary old man, walking with a crutch or bent cane, wearing a straw hat, and smoking a pipe.
Legba also manifests as a young, handsome, virile, trickster god, a mischievous, happy boy, a man dressed in a Masonic fashion, a phallus with a concrete head and cowrie shell ears and eyes, and even sometimes as a woman.
Animal: Dogs, which are sacred to Legba
Offerings: Rum, particularly rum spiced with hot sauce and hot peppers, peanuts, candy (dark chocolate and coconut candy or raw coconut, candy cigarettes), cigarettes, pipe tobacco and tobacco products, especially cigars, rich, black coffee, blues music, guitars, jokes, toys
Plants: Wormwood (Artemisia absinthium) Calabash, High John the Conqueror (Ipomoea jalapa), lemongrass, citrus, yams, roots, Abre Camino (Eupatorium villosum), known as "open road" essential for clarity and for removing obstacles and blockages from pathways in crossroads
Number: 3 for two legs and a phallus. Prayers and knocks at crossroads are often performed three times
Symbols/ Attributes: Keys, coins, walking stick, cane, crutches, cross, veve (geometric drawing usually drawn on the ground), a physical representation of crossroads (primary symbol), iron trident, pitchfork
Colors: Red and black
Other Names:
Though Papa Legba is his most common name, many others exist:
Eshu Elegbara, Atibon-Legba, Vye Legba, Legba Soley, Legba Avadra, Legba Katawoulo, Elegba, Elegua, Exu.