Relative, Spirit, Angel & Animal Guides –

You’re Not Alone

Many cultures believe that spirits of relatives walk with us and watch over us from the spirit world. Some put these spirits in Heaven, others place them on the Divine plane or the ethereal realm or a thousand other named places. Where they reside isn’t as important as to what they do and who they are. But one thing is for sure, when you need help and support; they are always there for you to connect and communicate with to get you through and guide your steps.

I’ve been asked about those who don’t believe in spiritual energy and what happens to their guides when they know they don’t listen or accept them. The simple answer is, nothing happens. Spiritual beings don’t hold onto human ego in the way we do. They don’t care if you believe in them or not.

Just because you don’t believe in something doesn’t mean it can’t or doesn’t exist. Our guides don’t interfere with our free will and choices, our life lessons or spiritual mission. Even an atheist has a mission and lessons to learn and many may agree they have gone through situations in their life that have taught them some valuable lessons about themselves and people in general. One doesn’t have to put the label “spirit” or “spiritual” on everything in order for it to have meaning and value in someone’s life. So while an atheist may not believe in spirits, that doesn’t mean their guides aren’t there and don’t communicate with them.

We all have our preferences in life. Things we like or feel drawn too with no real explanation as to why. Spirit guides interact with us based on these interests and use them to show us answers and give guidance that we’ll feel connected to. For instance a person who feels drawn to Celtic shamanism may not see, hear or feel messages from a Tibetan spirit guide. So the spirit who has accepted the task of being your guide will appear to you in some form that will resonate with your energy and perspectives.

Your Spirit Guides
We have several different types of guides depending on the culture you come from. But it’s important to remember that spirit guides are not some lofty spiritual entity that you can’t know or can’t connect with.

Metaphysically speaking there are 5 basic categories or types of guides that the individual person has in their life:

1. The Relative Guide.
This is usually a person who knew you in this lifetime. They are the relative who helps you through the day to day grind and nitty gritty processes of life. They are the soul who greets you at the door when it comes your time to transition from life to death. Your relative guide can change through out your life, based on your choices and direction you walk, along with the passing of family members through out your life.

2. The Spirit Guide.
This is usually a person you knew in a past life. Someone who is on the same spiritual level as yourself. This soul helps you with your higher purpose or mission in this embodiment. The karmic issues, the spiritual lessons, the gifts and talents you brought from the past into this life and so on. Their main purpose is to help you evolve your soul during this incarnation. Typically you have only one spirit guide that stays with you through our your entire lifetime.

3. The Angels.
Whither you call then Angels, Devas, Celestial beings, Valkyries or some other name, these are spirits who have never been in an incarnated physical form. Simply put, everyone has a Guardian Angel watching over them, protecting them and providing a connection to the higher divine force. They act as the messengers of the Divine providing a safe transition of energy from the “all powerful” Divine force to you. If you tried to connect to this force directly, you maybe overwhelmed or “short circuited”. So these Celestial beings help you connect and buffer some of that energy so you can safely tap into the Divine consciousness. Unlike the other spirit guide connections that are one to one, you have one “Guardian Angel”, but that angel will watch over multiple incarnated beings simultaneously. They have a one to many relationship.

4. The Master Teacher.
If you are destined to be a spiritual leader (it doesn’t matter if it’s a Catholic Pope, a Metaphysical Minister or a Spiritual Healer), at the appropriate time of your knowledge and service, a Master Teacher will present them self to you. This soul is someone who is on a higher spiritual plane than yourself and you may or may not have known them in a previous incarnation. They help you with the responsibility of ‘leadership’, the dissemination of knowledge, the implementation of wisdom and the higher more advanced spiritual evolutionary issues that a leader will need to be aware of in order to provide encouragement and support to those who seek you out. Once the Master Teacher comes to your path, they will remain with you as long as you practice your path of service.

5. Animal Spirit Guides
Animal guides come in two forms. Physical messengers and personal spirit guides. Animals in the physical world are here to bring us messages, or show us which direction to take upon our current path. This can be any type of animal and is not specific to your spiritual nature. Learning about the animal that crosses your physical path can help you ascertain the message they bring at that moment in time.

Animal guides in the spiritual world are specific to your spiritual nature. They teach us a little more intimate detail about our personality, character traits, our weaknesses and strength, and even our spirit and spiritual gifts. They help guide us along our spiritual path, and can even protect us on the spiritual as well as the physical.

It’s also important to remember that your personal Animal spirit guide doesn’t have to be an existing animal. It can also be an animal that extinct, as well as one that has not yet been discovered. Typically an individual will have at least one and as many as 3 or 4 animal spirit guides in their life. But only one will be the most prominent at any given time in your life. Your animals will trade positions based on circumstances in your life that you’re going through. The animal that can help the most, will step forward while the others step back. This doesn’t occur daily, but it can change frequently based on events in your life and lessons you face.

Meeting Your Guides
There are many ways to meet your guides. But you’re not going to get accurate results by pulling a card or rune or getting a reading. These are your guides and if you want to meet them, you’re going to have to make the effort and put in a little work to do it.

You can ask your guides to introduce themselves to you in your dreams. The problem with this method is trying to remember the encounter when you wake up. You can find a guided meditation CD or digital download that can walk you through the process of meeting your guide. But the best method is through your own personal meditation.

For those who say they can’t meditate, let me give you some encouragement. There a thousand methods to meditation. You simply haven’t found the method that works for you. Meditation is not a lofty state of mind that is omnipotent or cosmic in a sci-fi sense. Nor is meditation about thinking of “nothing”. If you’re thinking of nothing, you’re thinking about something.

Meditation is the process of quieting the mind, washing away the lists of things to do, the stress of the day and allowing the sand to become smooth and at peace. If you try different methods, you will find the one that fits your perspectives. But it does take effort and time. You might find my student Meditation Guide useful. But if not, don’t get discouraged!

What I suggest for new mediators is that you find the method that works for you and practice that method at least weekly for two months. Twice a week would of course be better, but even once a week will provide benefits. Once you have a good handle on your meditation exercise, the next step is to find your personal spiritual sanctuary.

Your spiritual sanctuary is the place in your higher consciousness that is your most sacred and safest place of existence. It can be in any shape, form or location. Within the sanctuary you’ll find decorations that represent who you are now, who you were in previous lifetimes and all the information about your past lives and experiences. Some people see this as a library of books, others find computers, or CDs and some see scrolls or other ancient writings. The point is, it’s whatever you want it to be.

In this space you have the ability to call upon each of your guides, one at a time and have them come to your sanctuary to meet and communicate with you. The important part of this process is to have no preconceived ideas or notions about your guides. Allow them to present themselves to you in a manner that’s best suited to you and your interests. Don’t assume you know what your animal guide is or who you relative guide might be.

Record Your Experience
The last thing you should do before you get up from your meditative spot is to record this event either on tape or in a journal. It’s important to do it right away while the images, feelings and sounds are still clear in your mind. Record as much detail as you remember. Don’t try to decipher images or figure out significant connections until you’re done. Make note of what you saw, then go back and think about why it was there for you.

When you’ve recorded the detail, you can go back and read over your initial description and think about how the sounds, sights and feelings merged together to deliver a message. Don’t second guess what you see. Just accept it and go with the flow.

Good luck, and don’t worry if you can’t accomplish this the first time. Don’t be hard on yourself. Just keep practicing and putting for the effort. The more you become comfortable with yourself, your inner space and your trust in self, the easier meditation becomes and the more able you are to expand your meditations to finding your sanctuary, meeting your guides and communicating with the Divine.

The archive of the show will be published soon. Stay tuned…
On Monday night (June 4, 2012), Paul Cagle, Sushi and I sat at our round table for The Ænigma Project and held a discussion about Spirit Guides. If you missed the show you can still listen to this episode on The Ænigma Project’s Blog. Or on the show’s broadcast Archives on Tenacity Radio – 2012-06-04-Spirit Guides.