Spirit Guides

## Types of Guides

### Benevolent Guides:

Many people believe they have spirit guides. Some refer to theirs as angels or guardians. Regardless, if you believe you have one, a spirit guide is there simply to guide, not as an entity that you need to give yourself over to. If a spirit guide has a negative influence on your behavior, then chances are good that it's not a spirit guide at all, but something else entirely. These are some of the more commonly found types of spirit guides:

### Ascended Masters:

These are guides often found by people who do energy work, such as Reiki. A ascended master who appears as a spirit guide is often a being that led a physical life and has moved on to a higher spiritual plane -- for example, Buddha, Krishna, even Jesus. Ascended masters usually work with collective groups of souls -- in other words, if you've got an ascended master hanging around you, you're not the only one he or she is helping. Their primary focus is that of helping all of humanity. It's not uncommon for an ascended master to have access to Akashic records. Also referred to as Master Teacher guides.

### Ancestral Guides:

An ancestral guide is one who can claim some sort of kinship with you, such as your dear Aunt Tillie who died when you were ten. It may also appear in the form of a long-dead ancestor. In some schools of thought, these entities are seen as reincarnated guides, because they are the spirits of someone who loved us during their physical lifetime, or who had some sort of blood connection to our family. Some people, depending on their religious upbringing, may see these types of guides as guardian angels.

### Common Spirit Guide, or Teacher Guide:

A typical spirit guide is archetypical, symbolic or representative of something else. For example, you may find your guide appears in the form of a warrior, a storyteller, or a wise woman, and they have appeared to you for a purpose. Typically, that purpose is to teach you and guide you along a particular path. They may also introduce you to other archetypes along your journey, and help out with problem solving, based upon your needs. They are known to provide insight by way of dreams or meditation, and may only hang around as long as you need them, then move on.

### Animal Guides:

Although many people claim to have animals as spirit guides, often these entities are more companions than anything else. It's not uncommon for a deceased pet to linger around, keeping you company through the grieving process. In some spiritual traditions, such as various Native American or shamanic paths, a person may have an animal totem, which provides teaching and/or protection.

## Seven Spirit Guides

(Remember the practice of spirit guides is a practice that is very open to interpretation, meaning depending on the caster, you could have no spirit guides, 1 spirit guide, 2, 3, as many as you want. Many people stick with 1 or 7, for this reason:)

The first spirit guide represents yourself. This guide may appear to you at other times, he/she may often be your primary guide overall. This is the guide that should be informing you of problems with your life in general and helping you through it.

The second spirit guide represents your emotions. This guide is to warn you away from negative emotions and guide you to happiness.

Your third spirit guide represents your body. This guide is to encourage you to take good care of your physical body; exercise, good hygiene, and healthy diet.

Your fourth spirit guide represents your mind. This guide will encourage you to think and to learn.

Your fifth spirit guide is your earth guide. This guide is to help keep you both grounded and sensible.

Your sixth spirit guide is your guide to the spirit world. This is the guide that may guide you through certain meditations or projections, he/she is also who you will most likely find when it's time to move on after this life is over.

Your seven spirit guide is your protector. This is the guide that will warn you away from danger and try to keep you safe.

(This part of the page was written by Drakkenwitch over on Spells Of Magic so this is their experience)

These seven guides can be met in a meditation. You don't need to be in a deep meditation, just get comfortable and relax. Take five second inhales followed by five second exhales. Visualize a place that makes you calm and relaxed, like a field or forest, it could even be the school gym if that's what you like. Visualize yourself there in front of a wide circle, standing just outside it and looking inward. Continue to meditate, don't forget those five second breaths. Wait for the first guide to appear. When it does, ask him/her for a message. What and listen. When ready, step to the side(left/right, your choice) and wait for the second guide. When he/she appears ask for a message then step to the side again. Continue doing this until you have met all seven of your guides.

I suggest you keep a pen/pencil and a piece of paper as well as a solid object to place the paper on all nearby so that as soon you are done with the meditation you can write down everything that happened. If you can get comfortable near a computer or laptop, you could use a word document instead of writing utensils. This way you won't forget the guides nor the messages, those messages are to help you through this life in some way.

All the information may be considered private or public according to what you want.

To share my experience, here's what I found when I did the meditation.

My first guide was a silver dragon, my brother in a past life. My second guide was a wolf, my grandpa in a past life. My third guide was a panther, my sister in a past life. My fourth guide was a mantis, a close friend in several lives. My fifth guide was a wolf, my father in a past life. My sixth guide was a raven, another close friend of mine in several lives. My seventh guide appeared as a pillar of light with the outline of a draconic humanoid figure, my best friend and the commander of my army in my very first life. They are all both my family and friends in this life. Most of these guides I had met before doing this meditation, the only one that was new to me was the seventh guide.

The only message I received was from my third guide, the panther, and she told me that I need to work out more. I do good by practicing my martial arts and even better by teaching others, but I've set aside the rest of my normal workout routine to focus on that. So we agreed that a daily alternating routine would be good. Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays I'll stick to my normal routine, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays I'll focus on martial arts. My fifth guide, my wolf father, told me to listen to the panther so that workout routine is one I'll be sticking to until I've joined the military at which point the military will be telling me when and where to do what exercises(at least until I'm out of boot camp).

And that's pretty much it. When I did this meditation we had a vanilla scented candle lit to help us relax and we did this meditation as a group with my mother-in-law walking us all through it, she's the one who taught this method to me.

## Invoking your Spirit Guide

Before undertaking any task, especially spell-casting, it is important to know that your Spirit Guides are there to help. Unfortunately, the Spirit Guides will only help you to a certain degree unless you ask for more. Here is how you can do that.

1) Play some soft meditation music that will help you to relax and clear your mind of negativity.

2) Visualize yourself in a safe and secure place where your Spirit Guides can meet you.

3) Clear your mind of all images except that of your Spirit Guides.

4) Request your Spirit Guides for help with the corresponding purposes in the following order:

First Spirit Guide- is for your self image or appearance.(Self-Guide)

Second Spirit Guide- is to help balance your emotions.(Emotion-Guide)

Third Spirit Guide- is to help keep you healthy.(Body-Guide)

Fourth Spirit Guide- is for your mental growth and learning.(Mind-Guide)

Fifth Spirit Guide- is for advising and encouraging.(Element-Guide)

Sixth Spirit Guide- is your Guide through the Spirit World.(Spirit-Guide)

Seventh Spirit Guide- is your protector.(Safety-Guide)

If you know their names then that can help you in requesting their help, if not then refer to them by the name listed to the right of the description. If you'd like you can also refer to them as ''Guide of my \*\*\*'' instead. So, for example, the first one would be the Guide of my Self, second would be Guide of my Emotions, etc.

If you need me to tell you what to say, then say the following, but coming up with your own personal greeting, request method, and show of gratitude may be more effective since then it is all coming straight from you. Here's what you can say if you can't think of anything for yourself at the moment;

''Spirit of my Self, please help me to begin my tasks.

Spirit of my Emotions, please help me to be balanced.

Spirit of my Body, help me to stay fit and healthy.

Spirit of my Mind, help me to learn and grow.

Spirit of my Element, advice and encourage me, help me to do right.

Spirit of my Spirit, guide me in this life as you will guide me out.

Spirit of Safety, help to guide and protect me.

Guide me with your wisdom, guide me with your knowledge, help me to stay safe and learn what I need to learn. Help me to stay balanced, help me to stay strong, help me with all the following tasks at hand.''

You can then follow that last line by listing some things you need/want help with. This is a good way to start your day or to make sure your Spirit Guides will help you with the specific job/spell/whatever that you are about to do. At the end of the day, or at the end of the specific task, say this;

''Spirit Guides of mine, thank you for your help. Thank you for your wisdom, your guidance, your protection, and your aid. Thank you for your knowledge and for allowing me to accomplish the tasks I had this day.''

And you are done. Never forget to thank your Spirit Guides, even if you do forget to request their help. Knowing that you are grateful may encourage them to be even more watchful without your requesting their aid.

Keep in mind that you don't have to do anything as long or fancy as what I listed. You can keep it short and simple, but it is good to list the Spirit Guides as individuals.

## How to Know Your Spirit Guide Really Is *Not* There to Help:

1. You're the only person the spirit has EVER contacted, and you're really super special, which is why they're sharing their message with you and not two hundred other people.
2. Your guide talks about magical doorways, secret portals to other worlds, or gates that you somehow managed to open, and nobody else ever has.
3. The spirit doesn't mind you bragging about it to friends but gets grumpy whenever anyone questions its existence or purpose. Not only that, it encourages you to isolate yourself from friends who think the spirit guide may well be full of poo.
4. The spirit claims to be hanging around in order to protect you from some other spirit that you've never encountered. Weird stuff happens, and your spirit guide is handily there at all the right times to help you out.
5. Your spirit guide claims to be from another planet or world that is as yet undiscovered by scientists.
6. The spirit claims that it needs your help—and only yours—to help it do things like write, talk, etc., and basically wants you to become its instrument of operation. In exchange for this voluntary form of possession, the spirit will impart you with all kinds of nifty new wisdom, that only you will be privy to.
7. The spirit seems to have no real purpose other than to share information with you, but the information you're receiving is of no real use, other than to make you believe you are way more enlightened than everyone else.
8. The spirit informs you that people who love you and care about you are secretly plotting against you and that the only one who truly understands you is the spirit itself.
9. All the information you're being given by the spirit goes against common sense, logic, laws of science and physics, and basic human decency and yet it all makes sense to you now because you're the only one special enough for the spirit to talk to.

## Afterword

Again, this is a very "open for interpretation" part of witchcraft. Many would consider this a part of divination, I personally do, so certain types of witches won't interact with their guides, and some believe they don't have guides. Personally I think everyone, practitioner or not, has guides, whether ancestral or otherwise. Some witches choose to have multiple guides for different reasons, some choose to only work with one or two, usually this is based on level of skill they think they posses, meaning they are more open to help from multiple otherworldly guides. In my case, I have a spirit guide who at the moment I am calling Stallion, and they take the form of a male deer, or kinda a hazy mix of female and male deer. I just opened myself to them a few days ago (From when the page was made) and I have had lots of trouble deciding is signs and messages from them are just my mind playing tricks on me to get the answers I want, or them actually reaching out to me. Having spirit guides are awesome, they will help you with spellwork, emotional problems you are having, they will comfort you, give you something to be distracted with, ect. But there is a lot of hard stuff too, just like when working with a deity or patron(ess). Hope yall have fun! -Kar