by Baba Seidu Abdul Rahman
Àṣẹ (ah-Shay) is a West African philosophical concept through which the Yorùbá of Nigeria conceive the power to make things happen and produce change. ... Existence, according to Yoruba thought, is dependent upon it.
The word carries the capacity to invoke Powers, appropriate fundamental essences, and influence the future by manifesting divine energy in the process of procreation of life.
Àṣẹ is associated with the very force which is life and brings things into being in the universe. It is also associated with the power of speech as can be seen in its meanings of command, ordain, and law.
Eshu shows us that one must "cultivate the art of recognizing significant communications...or else the lessons of the crossroads-the point where doors open or close, where persons have to make decisions that may forever effect their lives-will be lost."
Image by: Falade Adewale
On Èṣù
While Àṣẹ invests in all things, exists everywhere and as the warrant for all creative activity, opposes chaos and the loss of meaning in human experience; Èṣù is the custodian of the primordial à ṣẹ, embodies the principle of perspicacity and pragmatism that is crucial for the exercise of responsibility by sentient and thinking beings.
As such, Èṣù demands the ultimate in consciousness as a basis for just living and for a just measure of reward or sanction.
Èṣù calls for painstaking commitment to rigorously distilled information and keen consciousness as preconditions for action of any sort, especially for the exercise of judgement, a compelling gesture of the human will.
The underlying spirit of this root is the power to cause to happen, the authority to make changes.
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