Editing Crossroads (folklore)

{{Short description|Location where the physical and spiritual worlds are close or merged}}

In [[folklore]], '''crossroads''' may represent a location "between the worlds" and, as such, a site where [[supernatural]] spirits can be contacted and [[paranormal]] events can take place. Symbolically, it can mean a locality where two realms touch and therefore represents [[liminality]], a place literally "neither here nor there", "betwixt and between".

==Ancient religions==
[[File:Relief triplicate Hekate marble, Hadrian clasicism, Prague Kinsky, NM-H10 4742, 140997.jpg|thumb|left|Relief triplicate Hekate marble - The Goddess Hekate resides at crossroads.]]
[[File:HermHerakles 2.jpg|alt=A herma was a statue associated with Hermes. It was used to mark boundaries and crossroads in ancient Greece, and thought to ward off evil. Museum of Ancient Messene, Greece.|thumb|A herma was a statue associated with Hermes. It was used to mark boundaries and crossroads in ancient Greece, and thought to ward off evil. Museum of Ancient Messene, Greece.]] In [[Greek mythology]], crossroads were associated with both [[Hecate]] and [[Hermes]], with shrines and ceremonies for both taking place there. The [[Herma|herm]] pillar associated with Hermes frequently marked these places due to the god's association with travelers and role as a guide. Though less central to Greek mythology than Hermes, Hecate's connection to crossroads was more cemented in ritual. 'Suppers of Hecate' were left for her at crossroads at each new moon, and one of her most common titles was 'goddess of the crossroads.' In her later three-fold depictions, each of the three heads or bodies is often associated with one of three crossing roads.<ref>Hornblower, Spawforth, Eidinow. (2012) [https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Oxford_Classical_Dictionary.html?id=bVWcAQAAQBAJ The Oxford Classical Dictionary fourth edition]. Oxford University Press. p.688, 649-651]</ref>

"According to the fourth-century historian [[Philochorus]],... at [[Athens]], offerings also were sent to the crossroads on the sixteenth of the month - i.e., half a month after the new-moon offering, at the time of the full moon." In [[Greco-Roman world|Graeco-Roman]] society, rituals of protection were done at crossroads and purification ritual remains were left at the crossroads. The Greeks and Romans believed doors, gates, rivers, frontiers and crossroads held spiritual meanings regarding transitioning, leaving one area and going somewhere else, a change in directions physically and spiritually; therefore rituals of protection and rituals regarding change (transition) were done at crossroads.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Johnston |first1=S. I. |title=Crossroads |journal=Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik |date=1991 |volume=88 |pages=217–224, 220 |jstor=20187554 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20187554 |access-date=13 February 2022}}</ref>

An 11th-century homily called ''[[De Falsis Deis]]'' tells us that [[Mercury (mythology)|Mercury]] or [[Odin]] were honored on crossroads.

:53. Sum man eac wæs gehaten Mercurius on life, se wæs swyðe facenfull
:54. And, ðeah full snotorwyrde, swicol on dædum and on leasbregdum. Ðone
:55. macedon þa hæðenan be heora getæle eac heom to mæran gode and æt wega
:56. gelætum him lac offrodon oft and gelome þurh deofles lare and to heagum
:57. beorgum him brohton oft mistlice loflac.<ref>The Old English text is reproduced here from The Cambridge Old English Reader by Richard Marsden, pp. 205–208.</ref>

The modern English text gives:
"There once lived a man named Mercury, who was very deceitful, and, though quite wise in speech, was treacherous in actions and lies. The pagans, in their account, also made him their great god and often and frequently offered him sacrifices at crossroads, through the teachings of the devil, and to high hills they often brought various offerings of praise."

==Medieval folklore==
{{See also|Felo de se}}
In Great Britain, there existed a tradition of [[burial|burying]] criminals and [[suicide]]s at the crossroads. This may have been due to the crossroads marking the boundaries of the settlement coupled with a desire to bury those outside of the law outside the settlement, or that the many roads would confuse the dead.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.britarch.ac.uk/ba/ba25/BA25FEAT.HTML |title=British Archaeology, no 25, June 1997: Features |author=Robert Halliday |work=britarch.ac.uk |year=2008 |access-date=10 September 2011}}</ref> Crossroads were also commonly used as a place of criminal punishment and execution (e.g. by [[gibbet]] or [[dule tree]]), which may have also been a reason for it being a site of suicidal burial as suicide was considered a crime. This ritual of crossroads burial dates back to [[Anglo-Saxon]] times and continued until being abolished in 1823.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.historyextra.com/period/victorian/why-were-suicides-supposed-to-be-buried-at-crossroads/|title = Why were people who died by suicide historically buried at crossroads?}}</ref>

While they became a place of burial for suicides and others unable to be given proper burial in the [[Middle Ages]], the crossroads were once a burial place second only to the consecrated church for Christians.<ref>Jobes, Gertrude. (1961) [https://books.google.com/books?id=3gcLAQAAIAAJ&source=gbs_book_similarbooks ''Dictionary of Mythology Folklore and Symbols'' ''Part 1'']. The Scarecrow Press, Inc. p.388</ref>

In Western folk mythology, a crossroads can be used to summon a demon or devil in order to make a deal.  This legend can be seen in many stories.  For example, the 1587  ''[[Historia von D. Johann Fausten (chapbook)|Historia von D. Johann Fausten]]'', describes the character [[Faust]] inscribing [[magic circles]] at a crossroads in order to summon the devil. The [[Freischütz]] folktales often similarly involve summoning the devil at a crossroads in order to cast magic bullets.<ref name="Warrack 1976">{{cite book | first=John | last=Warrack | author-link=John Warrack | chapter=Der Freischütz | title=Carl Maria von Weber | publication-place=Cambridge | publisher=Cambridge University Press | isbn=0521213541 | chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/carlmariavonwebe0000warr/page/210 | year=1976 | orig-year=1968 | pages=210–211 }}</ref>

In the 1885 historical essay ''Transylvanian Superstitions'', [[Emily Gerard]] describes how crossroads were often avoided as a matter of course, and describes a Romanian belief that a demon could be summoned at a crossroad by drawing a magic circle, offering copper coin as payment, and reciting an [[incantation]].<ref>http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/52165/pg52165.txt {{Bare URL plain text|date=March 2022}}</ref>

==Hoodoo==
[[File:Kongo Cosmogram 3.png|alt=The Yowa, or Dikenga Cross, is a symbol in Bakongo spirituality that depicts the physical world, the spiritual (ancestral) world, the Kalûnga river (line) that runs between the two worlds, and the four moments of the sun. The Yowa cross is the origin of the crossroads in Hoodoo.|thumb|328x328px|'''[[Kongo cosmogram|The Kongo cosmogram]]''']]
In [[Hoodoo (folk magic)|conjure, rootwork, and hoodoo]], a form of African magical spirituality practiced by [[African Americans]] in the United States, the crossroads in Hoodoo originates from the [[Kongo cosmogram]] in [[Central Africa]]. It represents the rising and setting of the sun, and the human life cycle of death and rebirth.<ref>{{cite web |title=NKISI SARABANDA - Signature of the Spirit |url=https://www.nps.gov/afbg/learn/historyculture/nkisi-sarabanda.htm |website=African Burial Ground |publisher=Department of Interior - The National Park Service |access-date=22 January 2021}}</ref> The center of the crossroads is where the communication with spirits take place. During the transatlantic slave trade, the Kongo cosmogram was brought to the United States by African slaves. Archeologists unearthed representations of the Kongo cosmogram on slave plantations in South Carolina on clay pots made by enslaved Africans.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Joseph |first1=J.W. |title="... All of Cross"—African Potters, Marks, and Meanings in the Folk Pottery of the Edgefield District, South Carolina |journal=Historical Archaeology |date=2011 |volume=45 |issue=2 |page=147,148 |doi=10.1007/BF03376836 |jstor=23070092 |s2cid=160445944 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23070092 |access-date=23 January 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Ferguson |title=Magic Bowls |url=https://www.nps.gov/ethnography/aah/aaheritage/lowCountry_furthRdg4.htm |website=Park Ethnography Program - African American Heritage and Ethnography |publisher=Department of Interior - The National Park Service |access-date=22 January 2021}}</ref> The Kongo cosmogram is also called the Bakongo cosmogram and the "Yowa" cross. The Yowa cross (Kongo cosmogram) "Is a fork in the road (or even a forked branch) can allude to this crucially important symbol of passage and communication between worlds. The 'turn' in the path,' i.e., the crossroads, remains an indelible concept in the Kongo-Atlantic world, as the point of intersection between the ancestors and the living."<ref>{{cite web |title=YOWA - Continuity of Human Life |url=https://www.nps.gov/afbg/learn/historyculture/yowa.htm |website=The National Park Service |publisher=African Burial Ground National Monument |access-date=18 March 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Thompson |first1=Robert Farris |title=Flash of the Spirit: African & Afro-American Art & Philosophy |date=1984 |publisher=Vintage Books |location=New York |pages=108–111 |isbn=9780307874337 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DzOIY4iHSjAC&q=kongo+cosmogram+}}</ref> "It is at the crossroads where many Africans believe one will witness the powers of God and emerge from the waters spiritually renewed."<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Stayton |first1=Corey |title=The Kongo cosmogram: A theory in African-American literature |journal=Atlanta University Center DigitalCommons@Robert W. Woodruff Library, Atlanta University Center |date=1997 |page=11 |url=https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5e1014e3f5616362c7fe86a2/t/5ef6d8e5f68194679ebe0760/1593235689257/The+Kongo+cosmogram_.pdf |access-date=9 October 2021}}</ref>

Other African origins of the crossroads in Hoodoo are found in [[West Africa]] among the [[Yoruba people|Yoruba]] people. For example, the Yoruba trickster deity called [[Eshu|Eshu-Elegba]] resides at the crossroads, and the Yoruba people leave offerings for Eshu-Elegba at the crossroads.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Pemberton |first1=John |title=Eshu-Elegba: The Yoruba Trickster God |journal=African Arts |date=1975 |volume=9 |issue=1 |pages=20–92 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3334976 |doi=10.2307/3334976|jstor=3334976 |s2cid=194054440 }}</ref> In Hoodoo, there is a spirit that resides at the crossroads to give offering for; however, the word Eshu-Elegba does not exist in Hoodoo because the names of African deities were lost during slavery. Folklorist Newbell Niles Puckett, recorded a number of crossroads rituals in Hoodoo practiced among African-Americans in the South and explained its meaning. Puckett wrote..."Possibly this custom of sacrificing at the crossroads is due to the idea that spirits, like men, travel the highways and would be more likely to hit upon the offering at the crossroads than elsewhere."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Puckett |first1=Newbell Niles |title=Folk Beliefs of the Southern Negro |date=1926 |publisher=The University of North Carolina Press |location=Chapel Hill |page=320 |url=https://archive.org/details/folkbeliefsofsou00puck/page/320/mode/2up?q=crossroads}}</ref> African crossroads spirits were brought to the United States during the [[Atlantic slave trade|transatlantic slave trade]]. In the [[Haitian Vodou|Vodou]] tradition, [[Papa Legba]] is the [[Loa|lwa]] of crossroads and a messenger to the spirit world.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.learnreligions.com/papa-legba-4771384|title = Who is Papa Legba? History and Legends}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Cooksey |first1=Susan |title=Kongo across the Waters |journal=African Arts |date=2013 |volume=46 |issue=4 |pages=79–82 |doi=10.1162/AFAR_a_00109 |jstor=43306192 |s2cid=57565417 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/43306192 |access-date=22 January 2021}}</ref> 
[[File:Crossroads at Penlan - geograph.org.uk - 241828.jpg|thumb|In Hoodoo crossroads are where two roads meet to form an X. The crossroads in Hoodoo originates from the [[Kongo cosmogram]] in Central Africa.]]
In Hoodoo, there has been a practice that is believed to be hoodoo in origin such as selling your soul to the devil at the crossroads in order to acquire facility at various manual and body skills, such as playing a [[musical instrument]], throwing [[dice]], or [[dancing]]. It is believed that one may attend upon a crossroads a certain number of times, either at [[midnight]] or just before [[dawn]], and one will meet a "black man," whom some call the [[Devil]], who will bestow upon one the desired skills. This practice is believed to have originated from an African American Blues musician by the name of [[Robert Johnson]]. In the oral history of hoodoo it is said that Robert Johnson became a skilled Blues musician after he sold his soul to the devil at the crossroads, and because of this, people began going to a crossroads at midnight to sell their soul to a devil to acquire a skill or to become better at a skill. The family of Robert Johnson have come forward and said this is not true. How Johnson became a skilled Blues musician was through training under [[Ike Zimmerman]] who was a blues guitarist. In an article from the [[National Blues Museum]] it reads... "In the case of Robert Johnson, many family members have come forward to dispel these rumors and have advocated that the truth be told about Robert Johnson. During the time that he was missing, Johnson returned home, where he ran into Ike Zimmerman. Zimmerman took Johnson under his wing, and from years of practicing, Johnson became the legendary Blues musician that we know today." Therefore, the idea one can sell their soul to the devil at the crossroads and acquire a skill may not be traditional in Hoodoo.<ref>{{cite web |title=Stories of the Crossroads: Blues Myths Did Robert Johnson Really Sell His Soul to the Devil? |url=https://nationalbluesmuseum.org/stories-of-the-crossroads-blues-myths-did-robert-johnson-really-sell-his-soul-to-the-devil/ |website=National Blues Museum |date=31 October 2020 |access-date=28 February 2021 |archive-date=7 February 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220207131857/https://nationalbluesmuseum.org/stories-of-the-crossroads-blues-myths-did-robert-johnson-really-sell-his-soul-to-the-devil/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>

==Brazilian mythology==
Crossroads are very important both in [[Brazilian mythology]] (related to the [[Headless Mule|headless mule]], the [[devil]], the [[Bestial beast|Besta Fera]] and the Brazilian version of the [[werewolf]]) and [[Afro-Brazilian religions|religions]] (as the favourite place for the manifestation of "left-hand" entities such as [[Eshu|Exu]]s and where to place offerings to the [[Orisha]]s). Eshu and Legba derive from the same African deity, although they are viewed in markedly different manners among traditions. For example, Papa Legba is considered by Haitian Vodou practitioners to be closest to [[Saint Peter]], although in Brazilian [[Quimbanda]] it is not uncommon to see Exu closely associated with demonic entities such as [[Lucifer]], clad in Mephistophelean attire and bearing a trident.<ref>{{cite book |last=Canizares |first=Baba Raul |title=Santeria and the Orisha of the Crossroads. |publisher=New York: Original Publications |year=2000 |pages=23–24}}</ref>

==In modern fiction==
===Blues songs===
[[File:ClarksdaleMS Crossroads.jpg|thumb|right|The crossroad of [[U.S. Route 61]] and [[U.S. Route 49]] in [[Clarksdale, Mississippi]], one claimant to be where Robert Johnson supposedly sold his soul to the devil]]
Some 20th-century [[blues]] songs may be about making a deal with the devil at the crossroads. Many modern listeners believe that the premier song about soul-selling at a crossroads is "[[Cross Road Blues]]" by [[Robert Johnson]]. According to [[Robert Johnson#Devil legend|a legend]], Johnson himself sold his soul at a crossroads in order to learn to play the guitar. This is chronicled in the Netflix documentary ''[[ReMastered: Devil at the Crossroads]]''. However, the song's lyrics merely describe a man trying to [[Hitchhiking|hitchhike]]; the sense of foreboding has been interpreted as the singer's apprehension of finding himself, a young black man in the 1920s deep south, alone after dark and at the mercy of passing motorists.<ref>{{cite book |last=Litwack |first=Leon F |title=Trouble in Mind: Black Southerners in the Age of Jim Crow |publisher=New York: Vintage Books |year=1998 |pages=410–411}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Crossroads village]]
* [[Liminal deities]]
* [[Hecate]]
* {{section link|Boundary marker|Greece}}
** [[Herma]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

[[Category:Crossroads mythology| ]]