Spirit Guides

What are Spirit Guides?

They are souls who who have chosen after a number of incarnations to remain in spirit in order to assist a person in the physical realm This may be someone who they were devoted to in a previous life
They may stay with you through you entire life time or for a short period
Each guide enters your life for a specific purpose
We usually enter an agreement with at least one main guide before we enter our physical bodies
You may have previously been the guide for you spirit guide when they were in the physical realm

You may have also shared a love link i.e., brother, sister, mother, father
Spirit guides have not always had incarnations on earth they may come from other dimensions or planets
They are souls who are at a similar stage in their spiritual evolution

Does everyone have a Spirit Guide?
Yes and we all have the ability to communicate with them
Everyone will have at least one primary one who may stay for an entire life time
Others may come and go when their specific purpose is complete
You can call on others as you feel you need them
You may have a deceased loved one acting as a guide
They may have their own learning to complete in spirit and therefore may feel removed from you at times. This is just a time when they are out exploring other dimensions. They will still hear you if you call them.

What is the purpose of a Spirit Guide?

Finding your spirit guide can have many benefits as they are here for you and your development. Their purposes include:
Their primary purpose is one of guiding and teaching
A spirit guide can often see a picture bigger than ourselves therefore their guidance is extremely valuable
They are here to assist us with the issues that we have set up for ourselves in this life time
They can help you heal and awaken to your full potential
They can help you find your sense of purpose

How do Spirit Guides connect with you?

Meeting Spirit guides can take many forms
Spirit guides come to us when we are most receptive or willing to receive their help
They are gentle and give only the information we are ready for
Spirit guides connect with us in many ways including:
Dreams
Through thoughts or telepathy also known as clairaudience
During meditation or altered states of consciousness
Synchronicities
Through feelings

You can also ask for your guide to initiate communication with you in a particular way so that you will recognise them for example 'give me a tingling sensation if you are there?'
Contact can also be made through a medium

How do you recognise the appearance of your Spirit Guide?

When meeting spirit guide it can present itself in the following ways:
You may hear sounds that have no physical source
You may see flashes of light or shadows out of the corner of your eyes but when you turn to look nothing is there
You may get the shivers or goose pimples
You may experience synchronicities
You may say something and wonder where it came from as it did not sound like you
You may feel warm, calm, safe and supported
During the meditation to follow you may be given a symbol or certain sensation that will be the key to recognising your guide

There are 4 basic categories or types of guides: 

The Relative Guide.

This is usually a person who knew you in this lifetime. They are the relative who helps you through day to day situations. They are the soul who greets you at the door when your time comes from 'transition' from life to death.

The Spirit Guide.
This is usually a person you knew in a past life. Or it might be a Power Animal. 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 and to learn and grow.

The Angels.
Everyone has a Guardian Angel watching over them, protecting them and providing a connection to the higher Divine Force. Angels are rarely incarnated beings. They are 'of the stars' and are the messengers of the Divine.

The Master Teacher.
Our Master Guide joins with us at birth, and stays by our side right through our lives until we pass on. This Guide gives us direction or emphasis. At different times in our lives, depending on the situation and lesson(s) we have to learn, we have new guides join us to provide guidance and insight into the situation. If there is a change in life direction or emphasis, the Master Guide will step back and these other guides will come forward. These guides can come in unexpected forms. You will also have with you, at the appropriate time, a Master Teacher. This soul is someone who is on a higher spiritual plane than yourself. They help you with the responsibility of 'development', the dissemination, the higher more advanced spiritual evolutionary issues that a person will need to be aware of.

Spirit guides, among many other beings, reside in such dimensions and come to us from this world of spirit to help us in our evolution. Spirit guides generally don't have a physical form; therefore they tend to reside on higher vibrational planes (dimensions) because they are not hindered by the physical lower-vibration body. They work from these planes (the world of spirit) and move into our reality (3rd dimension) occasionally to offer guidance, assistance and insight. We can reach them through the above mentioned methods such as meditation, hypnosis and by "tapping in" to our life-force and raising our vibrations that way.

Spirit Guides will stay with us even if we choose to ignore them, and they will continue to love and honour us throughout our life. These guides are here to help us with our Lesson or Lessons, and it is often true that their own Lessons may run in tandem with ours.They can be teachers or protectors as well as helping to direct our paths and to release old past life karma.

Spirit guides can be many things and have usually lived in a physical body, on a physical plane like Earth, and have usually had some connection to us from a past life of ours. They can be souls of people who we knew in past lives and to whom we have a karmic link. They could also be ancestors of our present life or perhaps souls who have decided to stay in the spiritual realms for a while and not reincarnate to the physical plane and therefore volunteered with our approval to be a guide for us.

They are essentially, like us, energy-vibration which manifests in whatever form they choose...or which is acceptable to us. However, they do retain an identity because they are also souls, and have usually led lives in the physical plane also, just like we are doing now. They have their own personalities, their own goals, their own perspective and their own styles of communication.

Spirit guides will usually approach us in a form that is most comfortable and acceptable to us. For most people this is probably in the human form, though some of us might choose to see an animal, a crystal, colours, shapes or stars etc.

These guides can come in unexpected forms, such as a stranger coming out of nowhere and giving us a helping hand. These guides can stay with us for a long period of time, or a very brief period... depending on what the lesson(s) is, and whether or not we're learning it.
There is always a guide of ours nearby... whether it's our spirit guide, animal guide or angel, someone will always hear what we say/think. So in effect we can talk to them any time we choose.
Just don't always expect an answer straight away.

There are many ways of meeting your guides. Most children know their guides from birth, and can easily open up the channels to talking to them (remember those imaginary play friends? Were they really imaginary?), but as we grow older we get negative messages from our parents and other adults around us, "time to stop playing with imaginary friends Darling" "Don`t be silly" "No they don't really exist." "That's nice dear, but shouldn't you be playing with some REAL friends?" and messages like this, so children learn to break their connection to their guides and forget about these wonderful beings.
For those people that work to connect with their guides or naturally do so - often hear their guides speak, others get distant visual images, and yet others just get a sense of what their guide is trying to communicate, the important thing is to begin to develop trust that will allow us to be aware of the communications that we are being given.

Each person's experience will be different.
Saying that, some people do have difficulty connecting with their Spirit Guides and have trouble visualising them possibly because they are a sentient person and have trouble "seeing" things that are not in the 3rd dimension. However, they can usually "sense".
They may get flashing images, but `sense` more. So, don't be disappointed if you can't see, or sense, or hear perfectly in meditation or through some of the above methods. Not everyone is that gifted.
We must trust that whatever messages we get, however we get them, are right... and what we need to know just at that point in time and learn to trust ourselves. My personal advice is to go with the technique that is the simplest and most comfortable, easy and relaxing for you.

Guides may also approach us in dreams or daydreams, imparting messages and giving guidance from there, where we are in a more open state and less critical in receiving these messages.
A guide can arrive as a feeling, a smell, a light, a sound, or even just a `knowing` that it is present.
Spirit Guides are not the same as Angels. They are of the same "energy", being that of a higher vibrational force, but I don't agree they function in the same manner. Yes, we do have an angel who also stays with us throughout our lives too, but this is not our spirit guide. Angels rarely incarnate on the physical plane, preferring to do their work from the angelic realms (higher energy realms).

Spirit guides, though they can take on any form they choose, usually take a "gender". i.e. they appear as male or female; this is based mainly on the person/being they are presenting to us. Angels on the other hand are without gender. They may appear to us as more masculine or feminine if they appear to us, but they are in essence genderless, androgynous... it's their energy, which supplies them their more masculine or feminine attributes.

An encounter with an angel in it's full glory could very well scare someone more than assist or sustain them. Angels are such beautiful beings with such love that their energy itself can bring too much truth to the person and as humans we are capricious creatures. They are the essence of purity. Too much truth can be scary or even terrifying, that is why angels will usually take on a form of lower stature when we encounter them, someone on our level so we can interact with them without the head-on, possibly overwhelming experience of an angel.

They are excellent conveyors of universal love, they are not always equipped to deal with earthy problems.
Spirit guides on the other hand have a lower energy and aren't nearly as intimidating in their full form.
To put it simply - Angels are of the stars and guides are of the earth.

How to contact your Spirit Guide
Meeting your spirit guide is a form of channelling Are you asking "Who is my spirit guide?"
In truth you already know your spirit guide so this will be more like a reunion or the first conscious connection made here on earth
A common way to contact your spirit guide is though mediation although it can be done through many other ways this will be a good place to start

Contacting your Spirit Guide
It would be and idea to have paper and a pen in case you want to record your experience

Find a quite place to sit where you will not be disturbed

Light a candle with the intention of being protected as you take this journey

Close your eyes and turn inward

Spend a few minutes quietening your mind by focusing on your breathing

Invite your spirit guide to communicate with you by saying mentally or aloud 'through this mediation I wish to connect with you please make your presence known to me'

Notice anything that happens you may receive a warm sensation or tingling.

Visualise a door in your mind as you approach the door and open it a beautiful garden is revealed, you enter the garden walking a long a path towards a pond.
Enjoy the sensations as you are walking you notice a glowing light next to the ponds edge you know that your spirit guide has come to greet you as you asked.

Approaching closer you may notice the appearance of your guide, your guide extends their arm out to give you something a gift a reminder of your encounter the gift will be unique to you, this could be a flower that you love or it could be the smell of the flower you love.

There are no rules to how you experience this every sensation you have is valuable.

Spend sometime getting to know your guide or just being in their presence and when you are ready return through the garden gate.. Feel the ground beneath your feet as you return.

To develop your relationship further as with all relationships you have in life you need to give it constant care and nurturing.
Learning to still your mind through mediation will further aid your ability to communicate
Make the time to ask for guidance this will give them the opportunity to assist you.