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Spirit
Guides and guardian angels seem to fulfil similar
roles and may indeed be one and the same. The
spirit guide is often viewed as an actual entity.
For example, it may be a deceased wise grandmother
who continues to watch over and advise a particular
grandchild throughout adulthood.
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Solstice
by Unknown Artist |
More
often the person is an archetype of wisdom from a Native
American tribe, China or Ancient Egypt, a Romany gypsy, a
nun, monk or doctor from past ages.
Some
people believe that their guide has never taken human form
but is an evolved spirit on the astral plane who takes an
interest in human affairs and seeks to guide them to a
greater understanding of spiritual matters. It may be
that during our lifetime we have several spirit guides as
external projections of our own inner, more highly evolved
selves or as actual angelic beings, their function is
entirely positive and can lead us to greater spiritual
insights.
There
are those who never had an invisible friend as a child and
who feel that the concept of a spirit guide is alien to
their way of life and philosophy. this is no bar to
psychic development. It is quite possible to practise
mediumship on the basis that you are contacting the
permanent core of a deceased person, using the trigger of a
living relation to recreate what he or she would have said
and done and done about a present dilemma or a future
situation.
Even
if you do not accept the existence of angels/spirit guides,
you may still find it helpful to visualise an evolved form
as a focus for your spiritual, psychic and healing energies.
Children's
imaginary friends may be spirit guides who help them cope
with the world and then move on to other children.
However, such friends do not necessarily disappear at school
age. Many children are afraid to talk about these
companions for fear of ridicule and some parents are afraid
that invisible friends are a sign of psychological
disturbance, although more than a fifth of children,
especially intelligent ones, are reported as having such
friends.
Adult
spirit guides often first appear during adolescence, in
dreams or daytime visions. For clairvoyant and
mediumistic work, this archetypal source of wisdom and
goodness acts as a focus for psychic and healing energies.
During
adulthood, we may have a series of spirit guides who draw
near at different stages, however you interpret their
source. By far the majority of people sense them
around before falling asleep, as shadowy forms or as inner
voices and visions. There may be one predominant
image, for example a monk, and you may find yourself drawn
to cloisters or old abbeys or be fascinated by illuminated
manuscripts.
If
you do not sense such a figure but would like to communicate
with a more evolved self or being, you can build up a
picture of your 'idealised persona'.
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Identifying
Your Spirit Guide
In
Native North American tribes, identifying one's totem or
idealised power creature was one of the first initiation
rights for both men and women on reaching adolescence.
It is interesting that in the developed Western world we
often adopt Native North American chiefs themselves as
spirit guides, although they tend to look to nature for
their inspiration.
At
the age of thirteen, Native North American boys would be
taken to the forest and left alone to fast for several days.
The first animal, bird or reptile they met or which acted in
a significant or unusual way - perhaps a deer coming very
close or an eagle circling above several times - would be
taken as a personal totem. Sometimes the creature
would appear to speak to the boy, who was in a semi-hypnotic
state induced by hunger and perhaps lack of sleep (for the
boys would often be woken regularly by adult males camping
some way off or made to perform arduous tasks). Thus,
names such as Lame Deer or Running Bear would replace their
childhood names. Girls too would be taken to a safe
place where such 'fasting totem visions' might occur.
Children
and adolescents in the West frequently have animal invisible
friends but, because of cultural conditioning, these young
people tend to focus on a human form for their 'power
person'. To identify your spirit guide (see also Meditation
Exercises):
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Visualise
who is for you the wisest, most noble person, past or
present, who could serve as a focus.
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Find
out as much as you can about your guide's culture.
Read any literature, visit museums, or even theme
parks where your 'totem figure' is featured.
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Gradually
isolate your unique persona, concentrating in your
mind's eye on each feature and the details of your
guide's dress. 'Hear' a voice, with its special
accent, emphasis on certain words , and idiosyncrasies
of speech. How, it is often asked, can a Chinese
sage speak French or Boston American? One answer
would be that any experience is interpreted through
your own framework of experience, just as a small
child will see an essence in the form of an angel
complete with golden wings.
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When
you go to sleep, hold the image of your spirit guide
in your mind's eye as you drift into dreams. As
you wake, draw the image close in your semi-conscious
awareness. Gradually the figure will begin to
speak and to act as a guide through your dreams, and
eventually start to appear occasionally in your waking
world. Whether this is your own inner voice
speaking or some benign force, you will gradually
discover, through dialogue, wise counsel and knowledge
you could not access on a conscious level. If
you begin developing mediumship skills, you may be
aware of this figure standing beside you, whether in
your mind's eye or externally, and the appearance may
herald clairvoyant or clairaudient knowledge.
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Should
any negative forces or words appear, enclose the
vision in a cloud of soft pink mist and se it rising
away towards a soft blue lake of healing sleep.
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