Veve Pendant: Exu with Stones

• Large: $155 Code:892
  • 36X36mm or 1.4" diameter

Exu (Eshu, Papa Legba) is the messenger of the gods, similar in many ways to the trickster gods of other cultures who are also messengers, but also associated, through the syncretism of the African Diaspora religions, with both Christ and Satan. He usually appears as an old man on a crutch or with a cane, wearing a broad brimmed straw hat and smoking a pipe, or sprinkling water. The dog is sacred to him. Because of his position as 'gate-keeper' between the worlds of the living and the 'mysteries' he is often identified with Saint Peter who holds a comparable position in Catholic tradition. But he is also depicted in Haiti as St. Lazarus, or St. Anthony.

This Macumbe veve has the colors sacred to Exu in the stones: a vernuil ruby, a moonstone, and a black onyx. It is $30 less without the stones. Unlike the piece below, this version is backed with a second silver sheet flush-soldered to the top sheet and the cut out part is oxidized.

Veve Pendant: Cut Out Exu

• Small: $35 Code:875
  • 20X20mm or 0.8" diameter
• Medium: $40 Code:960
  • 27X27mm or 1.1" diameter
• Large: $60 Code:876
  • 36X36mm or 1.4" diameter

Exu or Eshu or Eshu Elegua is the only god (loa or orisha) in the Voodoun pantheon who can talk to the Creator God or any of the other gods. He is also known as Papa Legba or Legba and is always propitiated before any other deity in a Voodoo ritual. This particular veve is from the Brazilian style of voodoo known as Macumbe. Exu is also the trickster god and he loves chocolate, rum and cigars. He'll do what you ask - for a price. This cut out form can be done to some of the other veves with some modifications - ask us.

Veve Pendant: Exu Rei

• Large: $250 Code:293
  • 48X54mm or 1.9"X2.1"

All the loa or orisha have multiple selves, or personae, which are constellations of attributes known in Voudoo as roads. Exu (the Brazilian name for Eshu or Legba) has 28, but the highest and most powerful of these is Exu Rei, or Exu the King. This is the most complex veve we make (so far). Rituals using the loa will be more productive if the correct road or manifestation of the deity is used, not only because of the intrinsic power of that manifestation but also because one may find a specific road more familiar or personally accessible than another. Exu Rei is so powerful as to be associated with the Christian devil form.

Veve Pendant: Exu Rei, Argentium Sterling Silver and 14kt Gold

• Large: $375 Code:293au
  • 48X54mm or 1.9"X2.1"

Exu is the also the manifestation of Mercury - the morning star (Lucifer). He is called Lucero in Palo Mayombe and is both female and male, silver and gold. He is the deity of balance and guidance through paths.

Veve Pendant: Loa Papa Legba

• Large: $150 Code:896
  • 36X36mm or 1.4" diameter

This is a Haitian Voodoo veve. Papa Legba is the Haitian and New Orleans Voodoo god also known as Eshu and Exu. This veve brings the wearer good fortune. He is the god of the crossroads and therefore of journeys. Buy a Mounds bar, eat half while thinking of what you need/want and walking toward a crossroad. Toss the other half of the candy bar into the intersection, still thinking of your desire, and wait until it is crushed by a car - you'll get what you asked for. Ask carefully - remember, he's the trickster god too!

Veve Pendant: Loa Pomba Gira

• Large: $125 Code:1016
  • 36X36mm or 1.4" diameter

The female form or wife of Legba (Eshu) is Pomba Gira. The scarlet woman of voodoo, Pomba Gira wears black and red dresses, loves dancing, rum, and cigars. She is propitiated in much the same way as Eshu. Pomba Gira is worshipped by the practitioners of Umbanda and Quimbanda in Brazil. While Exu manifests and encompasses male sexuality, fertility and strength, Pomba Gira personifies female beauty, sexuality, and desire. Pomba Gira is viewed as a beautiful woman who is insatiable. She is venerated with great respect and care, as her worshipers concede that her wrath can be firm and strong. Pomba Gira is often invoked by those who seek aid in matters of love and sex magick.

Veve Pendant: Loa Ogun

• Large: $200 Code:689
  • 40X40mm or 1.6" diameter

This is a Macumbe veve of the orisha Ogun (Ogum). He is the god of metal and metalworkers and of justice, and he is a protector of all who worship him. This veve is a complex multilayered piece using Haitian veve styling, although the veve itself is Brazilian. In Haitian Vodun and Yoruba mythology, Ogun presides over fire, iron, hunting, politics and war. He is the patron of smiths and is usually displayed with his attributes: machete or sabre, rum and tobacco. He is one of the husbands of Erzulie. Ogun is the traditional warrior and seen as a powerful deity of metal work, similar to the spirit of Ares and Hephaestus in Greek/Roman mythology. Ogun is mighty and triumphal, though he also exhibits the rage and destructiveness of the warrior whose strength and violence can turn against the community he serves. Perhaps linked to this theme is the new face he has taken on in Haiti which is not quite related to his African roots: that of a powerful political leader. He gives strength through prophecy and magick. It is Ogun who is said to have planted the idea for the Haitian Revolution of 1804 in the minds of the slaves whom he then led and empowered. He is called on now to help the people obtain a government more responsive to their needs.

Veve Pendant: Loa Ogun, Haitian Style

• Large: $150 Code:688
  • 36X36mm or 1.4" diameter

This is a Haitian style veve of Ogun.

Veve Pendant: Erzulie Dantor

• Large: $150 Code:990
  • 36X36mm or 1.4" diameter

In her Haitian aspect as Erzulie Dantor, Erzulie is often depicted as a scarred and buxom woman, holding a child protectively in one hand and a knife in the other. She is a warrior and a fierce protector of women and children. She is also the patron of lesbians. It is believed that a common depiction of Erzulie Dantor has its roots in copies of the icon of the Black Madonna of Częstochowa, brought to Haiti by Polish soldiers who fought on both sides of the Haitian revolution from 1802 onwards. She can be a tough lady and a little wild, but before all she is a mother. She is the most perfect mother one could wish to have for she watches and cares for her children and family until the very end. Dantor will also help you for very little sacrifice on your part.

Veve Pendant: Loa Ezili Freda Dahomey

• Large: $150 Code:894
  • 36X36mm or 1.4" diameter

Ezili Freda - She is a mature light-skinned woman who enjoys the finest things: jewelry, expensive perfume, champagne, dancing and flowers. She is said to own all men (or she thinks she does) and she gives romance and luxury. She is so pure she must never touch the bare ground. Her main rival is her sister Ezili Dantor. She wears three wedding rings, one for each husband (Damballa, Agwe and Ogoun) and her colors are pink, blue, and gold. Coquettish, Erzuile Freda is femininity and compassion embodied, though she also has a dark side: she is seen as jealous and spoiled and lazy within some Vodoun circles. She too is associated with gay men and lesbians. When she mounts a serviteur she flirts with all the men, and treats all the women as rivals. She is seen as never able to attain her heart's most fervent desire so she always leaves a service in tears.

Erzulie Dantor and Ezili Freda are both paths or emanations of Erzulie, just as Exu, Eshu Ellegua, Exu Rei, and Papa Legba are all paths or emanations of Eshu.

Veve Pendant: Loa Azaka Mede

• Large: $150 Code:093
  36mmX36mm or 1.4" diameter

Azaka Mede is the beloved country cousin of Haitian Vodou. Papa Zaka is the patron of agriculture and farming and his symbols are the simple woven makout bag with tassels and his denim clothes, which reveal his earthy, peasant ways. The picture of St. Isidore is his image in Vodou.

His bag also belies his importance as a loa of abundance and magick and is an amalgation of both Ki-Kongo and Spanish origins. The Iberians carried a similar bag, featuring two tassels and the Ki-Kongo had a bag called nkutu, whose name means 'small bag on shoulder.' The covering of knots or tassels, as seen in his veve, indicate the magickal nature of the bag. Thus, Azaka's bag is both productive and magickal. The bag, along with his pipe (for pleasure) are the key symbols of this earthy and popular loa.

Veve Pendant: Loa Oshun

• Large: $150 Code:119
  • 36X36mm or 1.4" diameter

Oshun is beneficent and generous, and very kind. She does have a horrific temper, though it is difficult to anger her. She is married to Ṣàngó (Chango, Shango), the god of thunder, and is his favorite wife because of her excellent cooking skills. One of his other wives, Oba, is her rival. They are the goddesses of the Ọṣun and Oba rivers, which meet in a turbulent place with difficult rapids. Oshun is the force of harmony, which we see as beauty, feel as love, and experience as ecstasy. Oshun, according to the ancients, was the only female amongst the 401 sent from the spirit realm to create the world. As such, she is revered as "YeYe" - the sweet mother of us all. When the male Irunmole attempted to subjugate Oshun due to her femaleness, she removed her divine energy from the project of creating the world and all subsequent effort ceased. It was not until the Supreme Being, Olodumare, begged Oshun's pardon that the world could continue to be created. But also not before Oshun had given birth to a son who became Elegba, the great conduit of ase (pronounced AH-SHAY) in the universe - in other words the magickal energy of the creator - and also the eternal and infernal trickster.

Veve Pendant: Loa Chango (Xango)

• Large: $200 Code:705
  • 40X40mm or 1.6' diameter

Shango (Xango, Shango), or Changó in Latin America, is perhaps the most popular orisha; he is a sky father and god of thunder and lightning. He is a royal ancestor of the Yoruba as he was the fourth king of the Oyo Kingdom. In the Lukumí religion of the Caribbean, Shango is considered the center point of the religion as he represents the Oyo people of West Africa. The Oyo Kingdom was sacked and pillaged and its residents brought in chains as slaves to the Caribbean and Brazil. All the major initiation ceremonies (as performed in Cuba, Puerto Rico and Venezuela for the last few hundred years) are based on the traditional Shango ceremony of Ancient Oyo. This ceremony survived the Middle Passage and is considered to be the most complete to have arrived on Western shores. This variation of the Yoruba initiation ceremony became the basis of all orisha initiations in the West. The energy given from this deity of thunder is also a major symbol of African resistance against an enslaving European culture. He rules the color red and white; his sacred number is 6; his symbol is the oshe (double-headed axe), which represents swift and balanced justice. He is owner of the Bata (3 double-headed drums) and of music in general, as well as the art of dance and entertainment.

Veve Pendant: Loa Maman Brigitte

• Large: $200 Code:241
  • 40X40mm or 1.6" square

In Vodou, Maman Brigitte (Grann Brigitte, Manman, Manman Brigit, Manman Brijit) is a death loa, the wife of Baron Samedi. She drinks hot peppers and is symbolized by a black rooster. Like the Baron, she uses obscenities. She protects gravestones in cemeteries if they are properly marked with a cross. A New World loa, Maman Brigitte is probably traceable back to the Irish Saint Brigid.

Veve Pendant: Loa Pierre-Boucassin

• Large: $150 Code:893
  • 36X36mm or 1.4" diameter

This is a Haitian Voodoo veve. It works as a love spell, designed to draw the opposite sex to the wearer. I can find very little about Pierre Boucassin other than that he is a sexually promiscuous loa who enjoys sensual pleasure! if you know more about him please email me.

Veve Pendant: Loa Onzoncaire

• Large: $150 Code:898
  • 36X36mm or 1.4" diameter

This is a Haitian Voodoo veve. Loa Onzoncaire helps the wearer accomplish anything desired. I know very little about this loa also. Know more? Please email me.

Veve Pendant: Loa Marie Laveau

• Large: $125 Code:1022
  • 36X36mm or 1.4" diameter

Marie Laveau, a voodoo priestess from New Orleans who lived in the 19th century, was said to have had a great snake as a familiar by the name of Zombi. After her death her magickal powers were said to have been so great that she transcended the normal round of birth and death and became a loa. Her initials, M and L, with the L forming her snake; and a ruby, her favorite stone, form this veve.