Posted on May 31, 2021
More and more people are awakening and seeing the system or matrix we are living in more clearly. If you are paying attention, you can see that this is happening at an increased speed. Many people are awakening and realizing that there is so much more to our human experience than meets the (physical) eye. We are awakening to a greater purpose, to spirit, and our own energetic gifts that have previously been stifled by our lifestyles or conditioning.
Talking about spirituality and our energetic gifts is becoming more mainstream and people are starting to understand that the Universe and Spirit are always supporting and guiding us. Each of us even have our own Spirit Guides that we can call on to navigate our human experience and spiritual growth. I am often asked “who are my spirit guides” and “how can I connect with them” and that is exactly what I cover in this article.
What Are Spirit Guides
Before we reincarnate into our current physical life, we decide with our spirit team, what it is that we would like to experience and learn from this lifetime to advance our soul’s growth. Based on the experience that we sign up for, we choose spirit guides that can assist us on this path and who can also benefit from this energetic expansion. What this means is that we have a mutually agreed upon relationship with our guides. Spirit guides are a match to our energetic vibration and they agree to be our guides because the energetic expansion that we are signing up for is also what they can benefit from in their own spiritual expansion. Therefore, the relationship is mutually agreed upon and also mutually beneficial for our respective energetic expansion.
Since spirit guides are spiritual beings, they are not bound by space and time the way we are. Some guides are with us throughout our entire life or even lifetimes and others join our path at particular junctions. Each guide can have a different purpose but the main goal of all our guides is to guide us on our path to spiritual growth, which ultimately is the path back to love.
Types of Guides
- Light Beings, Master Guides, and Angels– These guides are referred to as light beings because they are usually perceived as pure light. They often help those whose life purpose is about working on higher planes or at higher frequencies such as healers, spiritual teachers etc. Master Guides and Angels aren’t bound by space and time and therefore can help or guide many beings at the same time.
- Archetypal Guides – These are guides that present in ways that have a symbolic meaning to us based on previous experiences or lives. These guides are often a Native Medicine (wo)man or Shaman, a Monk / Nun, a Priestess, a Warrior, a Healer - you get the point. These archetypal guides reactivate soul memory of identities and characteristics from previous lives that can be of guidance and help in this lifetime.
- Ancestral Guides – These are guides that knew us through our physical lineage in this lifetime, for example a grandparent. These are not usually referred to as guides so much but rather helpers or spirit loved ones. They show up to support us and provide us healing and comfort.
- Animal Guides – Animal guides, spirit animals or totem animals are common in Shamanism and are animals whose vibration relates to yours. Spirit animals, similar to archetypal guides, represent characteristics and energetics that have a symbolic meaning to us, our lives, and / or our current situation.
- Your Higher-Self – Your higher self is undoubtedly the most important guide of all. Our higher self contains our eternal soul energy and all of our soul’s knowledge and wisdom. This is the self-energy that we project through our physical body. When we understand that our eternal soul energy and wisdom contains everything learned from our countless prior lives, then we begin to realize how much wisdom is available to us, always.
How They Help
What you need to understand is that spirit guides can and will help in many different ways, but they will never interfere with free will as this is the one power that we were given as human beings. They might try to steer and influence, but they will never intervene unless you invite them to. This means that in order to connect with your guides, you have to ask for their help and be willing to surrender your fears or problems to them.
Another important aspect to understand about the guidance and help available to us from the Universe, Spirit or our Guides, is that we are only ever given what we can handle or what we need to know. Imagine asking your guides for help and they would tell you exactly how your entire life will unfold, with all the ups and downs. This wouldn’t be helpful in the least. We reincarnated to Earth School to experience all of life, the good and bad, and to be in the process of its unfolding. We learn by being in the trenches of our experiences and our feelings. Guides will support us in finding the path of least resistance and the most joy, but we have to be willing to give up our control, to surrender, to trust and receive.
Connecting with Your Spirit Guides
Spirit Guides communicate with us in a variety of different ways. They can arrange synchronicities or signs, enhance our intuition, intensify encounters with others, expose opportunities, offer healing and help us move toward joy.
As I mentioned before, Guides won’t intervene until we ask for their support. But how do we experience them or become aware of their guidance? We get quiet, pay attention, and listen. This sounds simple and it can be just that. However, since we are communicating with spiritual beings, it becomes easier when we have learned to raise our own vibration and increase our intuitive awareness.
Set an Intention
As with almost all spiritual work, your intention is so important. Thought creates energy which can be felt and understood by consciousness and it is therefore extremely important to have pure intentions and to only connect with guides of the highest truth and to receive guidance for the highest good of all.
Build a Relationship
The more you practice connecting with your guides, the easier it will become and the more familiar you will become with the sensations you feel when they are present and the ways in which they communicate with you. You can practice meeting your guides using guided meditations (simply search Meditation to meet my spirit guides). This might not work the first few times but keep practicing. You can also ask your guides to identify themselves to you during meditation. Ask them to identify themselves to you in order of importance and then listen – you might get a name (although this isn’t common in the beginning) or a sensation in your body. Don’t overthink it and go with the first name or sensation that you perceive. Then memorize this sensation, ask them to take it away, and then bring it back. This can help reassure you that you are not simply imagining this sensation in your body. You can then ask the guides to switch and see if you get another sensation or name for another guide.
Ask for Guidance & Be Willing to Surrender
When we fall into fear or frustration, we forget that we have help available to us and that we don’t have to rely on our own strength. Ask for help and be willing to surrender your fears and your control so you may be open to receive guidance. You also don’t have to wait to connect until you have a problem but rather get into the habit of asking and receiving often. Below are a few examples of what this can sound like but make it your own.
- “Dear Spirit / Guides / Angels, I am surrendering my fear / frustration around _______ to you. I know that I am being guided and that I do not have to solve this on my own. I ask for your support and guidance in a way that I can clearly perceive it. I am open to being guided to creative solutions and opportunities that are beyond my own physical perception. Thank you.”
- “Thank you, guides of the highest good, for guiding me to solutions to my issue / problem / struggle with _________”
- “Thank you, guides of the highest good, for showing me that which I need to know to move in the direction of love and joy.”
- Simply ask for a sign and then pay attention.
Listen & Witness
Guides communicate their messages or signs to us in ways that we can understand and in ways that we can perceive. They respond to us energetically in the way in which we send out our energy. This is why communicating with your guides becomes easier when we can tune into those higher frequencies, otherwise we won’t really become aware of their communications. Below are some examples of how you might receive messages from your guides.
- We receive communications or intuitive pings through our psychic clairs (read my article on developing and working with your clairs). You might have an inner knowing, feel or sense guidance, hear a voice, or have a strong intuition or realization
- Spirit and our guides also like to communicate through electrical interference which could be sparks of light, glitches on your phone screen, flickering lamps etc. – pay attention to your thoughts and feelings in those moments as they will likely bring you some clarity
- Sometimes books can fall off shelves or open to a specific page, a specific oracle card can fall out of the deck, someone sends you a social media post that resonates, you attention is drawn to a billboard, or you receive a message through someone - you will know it’s a sign by the way your attention was drawn to it and how the message makes you feel (e.g., chills, gut feeling, clarity, a-ha moment, relief)
Practice Writing
If you are looking for answers to specific questions and receiving answers through your clairs or during meditations isn’t working then try automatic writing. You can do this after your meditation and you want to start out by setting an intention. You might even write down an invitation to your guides to help you answer your questions.
Then ask your guides to introduce themselves to you – through a sensation or a name. Write down your question and take a moment to visualize energy flowing from source through your crown down into your hand and into the pen. Then, without judgement or expectation, start writing what you feel, hear or perceive. If you feel like you are overanalyzing or trying to rationalize, then try switching hands and writing with your non-dominant hand. Practicing this process can lead to channeled messaged where yout guides write through you. This will become apparent when the answers are written in a different tone or different handwriting than your own. The answers will also be written in second person and start with “Dear One,…”
Practice Gratitude & Raise Your Vibration
Practicing gratitude helps us get out of the vibration of neediness and demanding, which will actually close you off from receiving. When you are needy or demanding, it shows distrust and that you are reluctant to give up control and to surrender. Raising your vibration through gratitude and joy helps you stay open and appreciative and it also attracts your guides and keeps them close. Vibrating at one of the highest frequencies, such as joy, makes it easier to connect with your guides, receive guidance, and manifest solutions and opportunities beyond your wildest imagination.
Release The Outcome
This is probably one of the hardest parts of spiritual surrender. Our guides have a perspective that isn’t blinded by our earthly perception. They can see solutions and outcomes that we aren’t aware of or that might not make any logical sense to us. When we want to control or want reassurance of the process, path, timing or outcome then we get into the way of the guidance and any magical solutions. When we practice spiritual surrender then we trust that there is a plan far greater than our own at play. We can start to allow our path to unfold itself at the right time, place, sequence and with the right people.
Practice, Practice, Practice
A spiritual practice is exactly that – a practice. Practice strengthening your vibration, practice connecting with your guides and start to build a relationship and trust, and practice asking and receiving. The more you ask, the more you receive.
Isn’t it nice to know that we are not alone? That we don’t have to rely on our own strength to make it through Earth School? Knowing that we are always supported and guided is what allows us to have faith, courage, and the strength to persevere.