Tending to your guides is a beautiful way to show respect and foster an ongoing, mutually beneficial relationship.
Just like a person, a guide is happy to help, but it’s always nice when a relationship goes both ways. Honor your guides with these tips:
Many traditions believe that holding your spirit guides’ identities and details close to your heart is a sacred practice in and of itself. That means not posting haphazardly about them on social media or telling everyone you meet about them.
Learn more about your guides by asking them questions about what they enjoy and how they would like to be honored.
Call on your guides often. Communicate with them by writing them letters or speaking with them. They want to help, so don’t be shy about going to them for counsel.
You wouldn’t ask something of someone without first paying them, bringing a gift, or otherwise showing your respect. The same goes for guides. Have a dinner in their honor, set up an altar with their favorite things, or make frequent offerings to show them your gratitude.
Your guides want to have a relationship with you. So, even if you’re having trouble connecting or getting clear messages, be patient. Use the tips in this article and you won’t just find a deeper relationship with your spiritual team, but also with yourself and your own intuitive powers.
Take your time and don’t rush things. You can’t force a connection with your guides. And since everyone experiences these kinds of connections differently, it’s essential to be patient, take note of even the most minor signs and signals, and wait for your relationships with your guides to strengthen.
Spirit guides are beings that have transitioned into the afterlife. But rather than reincarnating on earth again, they have chosen to dedicate their existence to being spirit guides as a way of continuing their soul’s evolution. This is a high honor—not all of us have the option of becoming a spirit guide. To have this option suggests a high level of mastery and ascension.
We’re paired with the spirit guides that can best serve us. This often looks like complementary strengths or similar strengths. If you’re known for running late, you may have a spirit guide that was always prompt when living and so they’re able to guide you in being prompt. Alternatively, you may have a spirit guide that was also constantly late and so you’ve been paired to overcome this challenge together. Spirit guides often know us better than we know ourselves. They’re wonderful at helping us out and guiding us in healing and growth.
Yup! We tend to have multiple spirit guides at a time because there is really no limit to how many we receive. Most of us are walking around with an entourage of spirit guides and don’t even know it. If you have the gift of clairvoyance, you might see them with you.
Some guides are with us for specific moments in life. They may come in during a particularly challenging moment and then leave once you’re in the clear. Let’s say you’re in the hospital: A trauma guide may stay with you and hold space for you until you leave the hospital. Some guides are assigned to specific relationships, so if that relationship ends, the guide is no longer needed and will leave. Same goes for work agreements, events, and experiences. There may be a guide that helps everyone involved with that one experience and is around only for that experience. There are guides that we might work with only once in our lifetime. Others are like subject-matter experts and will come and go as needed. For example, you may have a heartbreak guide that shows up to help you mend and then leaves when you’re feeling complete.
Most of us have at least one guide that is with us our entire lives. This spirit guide will see you through it all, emphasize your gifts and talents, help point you in the direction of your path and purpose, and offer guiding light during moments of darkness. A small minority of us will outgrow our original guide and gain a new guide over time. It’s like outgrowing a mentor and then getting a new one.
While the guide may offer insight, guidance, clarity, and direction, it’s ultimately up to the human to decide whether they want to follow the guidance or not. Spirit guides know this. There are rules that can help us maximize the potential of this relationship. If a person were to want a new guide, they could call one in. Whether you wish to continue or complete a contract with one of your guides, you have all the power in this.
Many of us refer to our deceased beloveds as our spirit guides. They are in spirit form, and they are absolutely guiding us. However, they’re not technically classified as spirit guides.
Teaching is mastery. Beings become spirit guides as a way of mastering all they’ve been learning and even teaching. Let’s pretend all humans are undergraduate students at the university of life. Think of your deceased loved ones as graduate students or teaching assistants and think of spirit guides as tenured professors. Your TA will surely help you along your path, and you may even have more contact with them than you do with your professor.
For some, interaction can be as simple as acknowledging their presence and starting a dialogue. Others will find more confidence and clarity with a bit more structure. You may light a candle, set an intention to connect with them, and invoke them. You may explore connecting with them through automatic writing and requesting they write through you. You may simply visualize a figure standing in front of you and start the conversation that way.
In nu it school, we head up to the astral plane, where they live, to meet them on their turf and then invite them down to Earth. I teach you how to plug them in so that you may channel their energy. Most feel a decrease in temperature when plugging their guides in. A few feel an increase in temperature. Some people experience a buzzing sensation, and others feel nothing at all. The way spirit guides help can be really subtle, yet so profound and impactful.
Spirit guides exist in the realm of infinite possibilities and are not confined by time or space. There is no limit to what they can do for us. In fact, the more they help us, the more they ascend. I encourage my students to assign at least three tasks to their guides before parting ways. Spirit guides can help with anything big—divorce, health concerns. Or small—like parking spaces, or motivation to do the dishes or go to work.
SpiritualThe deal with spirit guides is that they don’t really have shape or form, and they don’t actually have names. However, our human minds work well with shape and form in helping us identify spirit guides and focus our energies so we may better connect with them. It’s incredible how they’ll present themselves or how we may perceive them when we start connecting with them. Some students see their spirit guides very vividly and in full detail, while others see shadow figures. As long as the connection is strong, you’re good!
A name can do the same thing. It can facilitate our connection with them. It helps us focus and tune in to their energy. While the guides don’t actually have names, I have my students ask for their names, and the majority of the time they hear a name. A few students won’t hear anything, so I’ll ask them to assign names to their guides. It’s the difference between getting somewhere with a map versus getting there without a map. Sure, you can connect to them without a name, but you may get a little lost or take the long way or feel uncertain the entire time. If a map is available to you, why not use it and get there more quickly and easily? Using their names will help invoke them with greater precision and efficiency. All you have to do is ask—they’ll tell you. If they don’t, simply ask, “May I call you ______?” and assign them a name.
Spirit guides are nonhuman or human entities that reside in the spiritual realm and make their wisdom available to the living. They take a variety of forms, including guardian angels, animal or nature spirits, elves and fairies, saints or ascended masters, and ancestors or descendants who have crossed over to the spiritual realm. Spirit guides assist humans in their daily lives even though they are not aware of the guides' presence, according to believers. Those who are interested are encouraged to seek out their guides to gain practical and mystical information, healing abilities, and protection from harm.
The contemporary concept of spirit guides is derived from the nineteenth-century spiritualist movement, which emerged from Swedenborgianism, mesmerism, and theosophy. Suffice it to say that the leading figures in these groups—Emanuel Swedenborg, Andrew Jackson Davis, and Helena Petrovna Blavatsky—were very deeply involved in mediumistic activities. These leaders all believed they made contact with spirits of the dead (either angels or highly evolved beings that imparted great wisdom), and in so doing, they acquired information that was useful to the world of the living. Their experiences and the religious movements they awakened contributed to a growing belief that spirits could speak to and assist humans. Spiritualism spread quickly in America during the mid-1800s, with mediums popping up everywhere, offering a variety of séances. Even with the discovery of fraudulent communication by some famous mediums, spiritualism retained its hold. But it kept a fairly low profile on the American scene until the 1970s, when spiritualism clearly resonated with the New Age movement. This movement contained a wide variety of groups that encouraged spiritual development, held a holistic view of the cosmos, and had a therapeutic orientation. In the early 1970s Jane Roberts began channeling a spirit entity called Seth and published several volumes of his teachings. In the 1980s J. Z. Knight further popularized channeling through her public dialogues with Ramtha, a thirty-five-thousand-year-old warrior deity. These figures—and others that followed in the 1990s—stimulated interest in spirit communication. New Agers were drawn to holistic health conferences, divination workshops, and classes on spiritual development, and the concept of spirit guide became part of the common parlance.
In the early 1980s Michael Harner introduced modern methods of shamanic journeying, based on his prior experience with the Brazilian Jivaro Indians. With the aid of a steady drumbeat and guided visualization, seekers are taught to travel to the spirit world to discover their "power animal" guardians. It must be noted that Harner has been criticized by academics for offering pop shamanism to the masses. Even so, his method has enjoyed a great deal of success, offering those who can afford a tape or a workshop the opportunity to seek a guardian spirit without hallucinogenic substances.
Spirit guides have always been a part of Native American spirituality. The Tenino Indians, for instance, sent their children into the wilderness at night to find their helper guardian spirits. Among the Oglala Sioux, lifelong personal spirit guides are sought through strenuous vision quests requiring lengthy periods of fasting and movement deprivation designed to put them in touch with the spirit world. Nature spirits, animal spirits, and revered ancestors, all endowed with powerful qualities, are called upon for assistance in daily life as well as in the sacred sweat lodge. The medicine people, or shamans, are thought to be especially powerful, as they attract many spirit guides that help them fulfill their charge of healing in their communities.
Modern-day pagan groups, such as druids and witches, also use shamanic techniques to reach ecstasy and inner wisdom and to become closer to goddesses or gods. And though some may talk to elves in the forest or comment on grandmother spirit while walking by a stream, they do not generally speak of spirit guides. A great many people are currently captivated with a particular spirit guide, the guardian angel. This spirit frequently appears in jewelry, figurines, cards, books, and the popular television show Touched by an Angel. Unlike nature spirits, fairies, or dead ancestors, guardian angels do not seem to pose a problem for those who adhere to certain mainstream religions, such as Christianity. Clearly, angel fascination does not imply a wholesale acceptance of spirit guides. However, as more people become involved in Native American and other nature spiritualities, there may be a corresponding attraction to spirit guides. Regardless, judging by the plethora of Internet web sites and the volumes of trade books on this subject, interest in spirit guides may be expected to increase in the third millennium.
Modern-day pagan groups, such as druids and witches, also use shamanic techniques to reach ecstasy and inner wisdom and to become closer to goddesses or gods. And though some may talk to elves in the forest or comment on grandmother spirit while walking by a stream, they do not generally speak of spirit guides. A great many people are currently captivated with a particular spirit guide, the guardian angel. This spirit frequently appears in jewelry, figurines, cards, books, and the popular television show Touched by an Angel. Unlike nature spirits, fairies, or dead ancestors, guardian angels do not seem to pose a problem for those who adhere to certain mainstream religions, such as Christianity. Clearly, angel fascination does not imply a wholesale acceptance of spirit guides. However, as more people become involved in Native American and other nature spiritualities, there may be a corresponding attraction to spirit guides. Regardless, judging by the plethora of Internet web sites and the volumes of trade books on this subject, interest in spirit guides may be expected to increase in the third millennium.
Are you feeling alone, facing difficult times, and in need of guidance? Discover how to contact your spirit guide through meditation.
Anytime you wish, you have the option to contact your spirit guide—a powerful energy that is dedicated to watching over you, supporting you, and being an ever-present force of loving-kindness in your life.
While many who have crossed over from this physical existence may care for and watch over us, a spirit guide is one with whom we share a particularly close connection. It’s not even necessarily someone you knew in life. So how do you meet your spirit guide?
This spirit guide meditation is designed to help you connect with your personal spirit guide. As you work with your guide, you will become more and more attuned to their energy, and they will walk ever more closely beside you on your life path.
Before you begin, I suggest having a notepad or journal next to you, and a pen for writing down your experience at the end of your meditation. Set aside 10–15 minutes to prepare for the meditation.
Go to your quiet space. It is important that you find a place where you will not be distracted by your phone, your family members, or any outside disturbances. It is important that in this space you feel comfortable, safe, and calm. Your inner world needs to be calm and still, not just your outer world.
Shift your focus away from your thoughts and inner dialogue. In this place of quiet, it is important to begin settling your thoughts. This means stopping not only your to-do lists and worries, but also the ideas and sparks of inspiration that may come forward in the quiet of your mind. To get to a place absent of thought, I suggest you watch the light show behind your eyelids. Become a spectator.
Turn your attention to your breath. When thoughts begin to pop up—and they will—it is helpful to focus on your breath. Your breathing should be steady. In through your nose, take a deep and generous inhale. Out through your nose, send a deep and relaxing exhale. Imagine the in-breath nourishing all the cells of your body and imagine your body becoming relaxed and worry-free with the out-breath.
Imagine golden energy beams in and around you; really feel their warmth. Imagine golden beams of light coming from above, through the crown of your head and filling you up with new, healing energy. Feel the warmth and the healing surge through you. Welcome the light and this revitalizing love energy.