Spirit Guides: What They Are and How to Connect with Them

Spirit Guides provide a higher perspective, guidance, protection, and healing. In this article, I introduce you to your personal Spirit Guides as I have with countless recipients of my shamanic healing journeys. Read on to learn how to take charge of your soul’s journey and experience the magic and love that is all around you.

And be sure to scroll to the bottom for an exclusive spirit guide meditation only for my loyal readers.

Spirit Guides, What Are They?

Spirit guides are non-physical beings that vibrate at a higher frequency than physical human beings. That does not always mean they are higher up in a hierarchy, it simply means they exist in a higher vibrational dimension. Spirit Guides vibrate at a higher frequency than humans. They can be viewed as internal or external energies to what psychology calls the Self.

Very often there is an agreement between a physical human being and a non-physical spirit guide for the purpose of mutual expansion. Before we come into this physical existence, we human beings are deciding what it is that we would like to experience in this lifetime.

A spirit guide, that vibrates on a similar frequency, wanting to have the same experience, without incarnating into a physical body, will join the human in an energetic way. The spirit guide, which exists in a higher dimension has a different, higher perspective on the human’s life that he has been joined for the sake of mutual expansion.

You could say, this is a a mutually beneficial symbiotic relationship. That means, the spirit guide and you are co-creators. You are in charge of your life experience and you have the privilege to be able to work together with your spirit guide(s).

We all have a spirit guide. More often than not we have more than one. Some are with us not only this entire lifetime but many, many lifetimes. We are actually surrounded by a spirit team, that if you call upon them, will guide you through your life’s challenges.

You never walk alone.

The Five Basic Types of Spirit Guides

There are 5 basic types of spirit guides:

1. Light Body – in other words, Angels and Ascended Masters, these beings are incredibly high vibrational Light Beings. They usually serve more than one individual and they will join you if you are following a very spiritual path, or if your lifework is one of a healer or a teacher.
2. Archetypal Guides – these are the ones you are probably most familiar with. The Native American Guide, a Warrior, a Shaman, etc. They are symbolic representations, re-activated identities from previous lives, that appear to you in a way that you knew them from other lives. They are here to teach you and to guide you. They are a vibrational match to your intention for your current lifetime. As you grow in your spirituality and as your intentions change, a whole new set of spirit guides will show up for you to help you fulfill your life’s purpose.
3. Ancestral Guides – are the ones who knew us through our physical lineage, our Grandfathers and Grandmothers, brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers who passed on. They are watching over you and cheering you on if you have taken on the task of healing ancestral and generational patterns. They love you and they guide you, protect you, and infuse you with power when you need it.
4. Animal Guides – might be a pet you once had who passed away and is now part of your spiritual guidance team. Spirit animals can also be any animal that has something to teach you. Often they are your beloved pets that you’ve shared this lifetime with. The bond can never be broken, they keep on serving you and loving you unconditionally. Then there are spirit animals that are of the same vibration as you are. In Native American tradition it’s been told, if you knew how to shapeshift, this is the animal you would be shapeshifting into. If you know your spirit animal, you can learn much about yourself as you learn about the character traits of your particular spirit animal.Trust the powerful animal spirit within to learn more about yourself and your talents.The Animal Guides represent the angels of the animal kingdom. Animals are angels of nature who have incredible lessons to offer and medicine that can support you on your spiritual journey and help you survive some of your greatest challenges. When you connect with the energies of animals, you can learn a lot about yourself and the Earth. You also have instinctive animal energy within that can direct you towards everything you need (and more). The Animal Guides demonstrate how incredibly connected nature is with the spiritual realms.You can have a powerful animal within that can be wild, protective, instinctive, and even calm. Animals don’t second-guess how they feel, they just express it, and you can learn from that. Animal Guides remind you of how important it is to connect with how you really feel, how you want to feel, and what you really need. Take the time to connect with your animal energy and express it naturally. Let even the fiercest energy move through you before returning to your natural state. It will teach you a lot about your gifts and how you can grow.
5. Your Higher Self – the most important spirit guide is your own higher self, the eternal part of your soul, that projects a part of itself into physicality as you. You are the physical expression of this non-physical part of yourself. Your connection to your higher self is the connection to your true self and it teaches you invaluable lessons.

While we describe different types of spirit guides, it needs to be said, that we as human beings are multidimensional, metaphysical beings of lights. That means, on some level, we are all a part of these beings and can serve in other dimensional realities as spirit guides ourselves.

Why Connect with Your Spirit Guides

They assist with various life challenges by communicating through subtle signs.  They can offer us guidance, protection, wisdom and support. Why not take advantage of a higher perspective, for learning and knowledge, being able to return to love, finding the most beneficial solution to every challenge you encounter in life, or simply for healing?

So many people wish to experience unconditional love. The higher energies that spirit guides truly are, can enter your life and energy field exactly like the experience of being unconditionally loved.

How We Experience Our Spirit Guides

We can have a direct experience through dream visitations or by sensing their presence within our energy field.

Your spirit guides are always by your side, literally just a thought away. In fact, a thought for them is communication and they “hear” your thoughts, they know your innermost desires. But not until you consciously and intentionally reach out to them, will they assist you in your soul’s journey.

The most important thing is your awareness of them. Once you become aware of their existence, you start hearing about them, wondering who they are, what they are, and how to connect and communicate with them, you start the process of your own experience with them.

Your spirit guides always know how to best reach you. There are many ways how to get your attention, but it is easier for them to connect with you when you are present and open for communication.

Shamanic journeying, prayer, mindfulness practices as well as oracle cards foster spiritual communication.

It is best to prepare yourself and create a sacred space within, where the two worlds can meet. One way of achieving this is through meditation when your mind is still and your awareness is expanded. Your energy field is vibrating on a higher level and that makes it possible for your spirit guides to come into your energy field and communicate with you.

Inner Knowing

There is such a thing as inner knowing. You just know things. You don’t know how you know what you know, you don’t know why, you just know. That is guidance from your spirit guides. Trust that. Some say it’s a gut feeling, a hunch. Trust that feeling. It is guidance coming through.

Sparks of Light

Some spirit guides vibrate in such high frequency that when you perceive them, all you can see is Light. They are pure Light Beings that can show themselves in the most beautiful hues of light, like a rainbow. Other times you can perceive one color that saturates your energy field, like in the picture of me below, during a healing session, working as a medium.

my picture with the Blue Light

Other times, you see orbs in different colors or simply a ball of light that fills your field of awareness and envelops you in calm and peace. Orbs are often encountered in nature as nature has more light, than any place on Earth. Sometimes sacred sites, and churches are filled with these types of higher dimensional energies, that some call Angels or God even.

Books Falling Off the Shelf

If you are not very well developed in your psychic senses, the guides are still able to physically arrange things to get your attention, like books literally falling off the shelf.

Other times, they are responsible for what Jung called meaningful coincidences, in other words, synchronicities. To notice these occurrences, you need to pay attention and be more aware, than just to notice a book falling off the shelf.

Numbers are another great way the spirit guides can get your attention. Many people will notice the time when it’s 11:11, 2:22, 3:33, 4:44, and so forth…  Same with dates, like 11/11 or 8/8, etc.

People also notice license plates that can literally be a combination of numbers and words, that to you have a special meaning. A private language if you will.

Spirit guides could talk to you by sending musical messages, like a song that has a special meaning for you and you hear it playing on the radio, entering a restaurant or a store, or simply just playing in your head on repeat. Pay attention to the lyrics of the song! There is a message in there.

Spirit guides might send you a dream that gives you an idea about how to handle a situation, or a guide could even appear to you in a dream. In the dreamtime, you can play out different scenarios, or even bring a solution to a problem with the help of your spirit guides.

Free-Writing After Meditation

A good way to experience your spirit guides is through automatic writing. You sit down, invite them into your space, and simply start writing. No judgment, no thinking, just let the words flow out of your pen or fingers.

If you have difficulty letting go of control, if you find that you are thinking about what you are writing or want to say, switch hands and start writing with your non-dominant hand. That will override the neuronal pathways that your brain and nervous system usually use to control your thoughts, in this case, your written words.

Once you feel that the flow has stopped, you can re-read what you wrote. You will definitely notice, that your writing has come from a much wiser place than your usual thinking mind. You will find clarity and guidance in those words, coming directly from your spirit guides.

My Experience with Spirit Guides

Recommended article: How I learned about spirit guides from renowned expert Gordon Smith.

Just now as I write these words, the song Where No One Sands Alone is given to me by Spirit. It is a beautiful song recorded by Lisa Marie Presley singing with the voice-over of her father, Elvis Presley. She said in an interview, when they did the recording, the whole crew was crying. Everyone felt Elvis’s spirit singing along with Lisa Marie. This recording is very special to me, as Lisa Marie Presley has also passed since then and I’ve received this message after her passing many times.

Here are the lines from the song that was the message from my Spirit Guides:

Hold my hand all the way, every hour, every day
Come here to the great unknown
Take my hand, let me stand
Where no-one stands alone

Another example is from this morning’s meditation. I heard the song This Is to Mother You by Sinead O’Connor, who recently passed. I love this song and it has been given to me many times before. This time, accompanied by a mother deer and her three yearlings frolicking, chasing each other in the field. I was sitting under a tree and at first they did not notice me as I was not moving. They came closer and closer, being curious. I knew Deer Medicine in the Native American tradition is about Gentleness, the Gentleness of a Deer and Unconditional Love. So here I was, given the same, strong message twice as to not to be missed: first by the song, then through the Deer Mother and her three yearlings.

I’m passing this beautiful message on to you in the angelic voice of Sinead O’Connor:

This is to mother you
To comfort you and get you through’
Through when your nights are lonely
Through when your dreams are only blue

This is to mother you
This is to be with you
To hold you and to kiss you, too
For when you need me I will do
What your own mother didn’t do
Which is to mother you

And it is now exactly 11:11am.

Just to finish up the string of synchronicities, after my meditation I was reading from Being and Vibration Joseph Rael, mystic and shaman from the nearby Pictures pueblo, saying that when we sing words, their true meaning is revealed directly to the soul through bodily vibration.

No one in my opinion knew this better than Sinead O’Connor, who viewed her singing as a union between herself and the Sacred.

So, we come full circle.

How to Connect to Your Spirit Guides

1. You can call on your spirit guides anytime. They exist in a timeless realm and they are ever-present.  Get into the habit of asking, because without you asking for their assistance, they won’t interfere.  You can make a list of what you need your spirit guides’ help with and ask away. The more specific you are, the easier it is for them to respond.
2. Listen. Your spirit guides may speak directly to you. However, listening can take many forms.
   If you are naturally clairaudient, that means you can actually hear spirit internally, in your head, or externally, outside of you as a clear voice, that is clairaudience, clear hearing. If you have not developed this sense yet, you can “hear” your spirit guides as you hear your own thoughts. An easy way to discern, which is which, can be done through writing with your spirit guides, as I mentioned before.
3. You can ask for a signA sign can be anything that you will recognize as such by the feeling that you get. It can be a penny, a butterfly, a feather, or anything that you connect with your specific question. An example of that just happened recently. As I was heading out to prepare for a healing session, and right at the spot, where I’d designated the area for our session, there was a feather, sticking out of the ground right in front of my pillow I was sitting on.You can also ask for a specific sign. That way, when you receive it, there is going to be no doubt in your mind, that you have indeed connected with your spirit guides and the communication is two-way.
4. Pay attention to the guidance you receive
5. Stay in an energy of gratitude and thank your guides
   Some say, it is even better to start with a Thank you note, even before you ask. It’s up to you, the guides will feel your gratitude no matter what words you use. Your gratitude will keep your relationship with your spirit guides strong.
6. Finally, release the outcome and trust in a plan better than your own. After all, we cannot see around corners, but your spirit guides see the big picture and can guide you safely to a better outcome than you could have imagined. Practicing connecting with your spirit guides will result in trusting in your own psychic ability, and ultimately in trusting yourself!

Five Signs Your Spirit Guides Are Trying to Communicate with You

1. You feel a sense of inner peace and calm. When you receive messages from your guides, you’ll often experience a deep sense of peace and calm. This can feel like a warm, comforting presence that surrounds you like a coat or a blanket and helps remove any fear or doubt.
2. You see repeat signs or symbols. Your guides may communicate with you through signs and symbols that have special meaning to you. If you keep seeing the same symbols or signs, this could be a message from your guides. It’s like a language that you develop together in time and it is very specific to you.
3. You get sudden insights or inspiration. Your guides may also communicate with you through unexpected insights or inspiration. If you suddenly have an idea or a solution to a problem, it’s possible your guides are directing you.
4. You feel guided to take specific actions. If you have a strong urge to take a specific action, even if it doesn’t make logical sense, this could be a message from your guides. Trust your intuition and follow the guidance you receive.
5. You experience physical sensations. Some people report feeling physical sensations when they receive messages from their guides. This can include tingling in the body, a sense of warmth, or pressure in certain areas. These can become like a calling card from your spirit guides so that you will recognize them when they enter your energy field.

Connect with Your Spirit Guides Regularly

The more you talk to your spirit guides, the more you’ll rely on this ever-present guidance system. As you ask for and surrender to the spirit’s guidance, you will notice more and more synchronicities and miracles will occur more and more often. In the process, you will become more childlike as you look for signs and receive guidance in so many creative ways, that only you and your guides can decipher, like a secret language.

Meditate to Connect

Want an easy way to connect with your spirit guides right now? Here is a short meditation to help quiet your mind and connect with the loving guidance and healing presence of your spirit guides.

guided meditation video to connect with your spirit guides