The easiest way to remember you way around spirit guides is to think of them like camp counselors, only you’re choosing the camp and the counselors of your next life (told you we’d get around to past life theory), not your parents. And the counselors (spirit guides) have to be dead before you’re born, and are typically from your family line or the immediate acquaintance of someone in your family, so they’ll understand your world.
Okay, dipping my toes into past life theory for just a paragraph. Let’s say for the same of argument that after we die, our spirits are still very much active and aware of our past life history, and some of us do in fact return to learn what we haven’t yet or explore something we’ve missed or make a difference only we can make. Except we won’t remember (explicitly) everything we’ve fought so hard to learn in past lives, or our purpose for returning, at least not at first. Enter Spirit Guides: spirits from that realm we stay in, in between lives, who knew us before we came back and advise, support, and guide us on our newest path.
Whether you believe the above or not, many of us would have a hard time arguing that there are times when we know for sure that we’re not alone. That there’s someone with us, someone who seems to know us better than we do ourselves, helping us sort through alternatives and find our way. Almost as if that’s their job.
Not to be confused with guardian angels (we’ll do a Psychic Realm post on angels soon, promise), spirit guides aren’t our protectors as much as their our, well, counselors.They don’t intervene or interfere. The theory goes that we start a new life with predetermined purpose and goals that we don’t explicitly remember. Our spirit guide’s job is to, somehow, communicate our purpose to us when we need most to remember the path we chose to take.
It’s a fun concept to play with, and I use it extensively in my next Legacy novel. Call spirit “knowledge” instinct, hunches, or problem-solving dreams, but don’t you wonder sometimes where these amazing clues come from? Is it really our subconscious working out our problems for us, or is someone, some spiritual influence, nudging us along in the right direction?
The key to walking down the road of believing this theory with more conviction is that we all retain a “spirit mind” that recognizes the core truth or our journey on this earth when we see it. All we need is someone, some guide, beating us over the head with that truth often enough not too stray to far from our life’s original intent ;o)
Children talking to imaginary friends–could these be their spirit guides? Remember, children are closer to their purest spirit selves, past lifer’s believe, because their worldly minds aren’t yet mature enough to ignore their instinctive connection to what they were before becoming earthbound again. That car problem that keeps you from taking a trip to the store and out of the intersection where a horrible accident happens just moments after you break down–could this be a guide blocking a path you’re not meant to travel? The people, whom you’ve never met and never will again, who cross your path with just the right information at the right time–could they be spirit sent?
Spirit guides are said to be able to move objects to get your attention, as well as use each other’s charges to more directly communicate with us when we need them the most.This is the most fun dynamic I’m currently working with–how I’m getting my protagonist’s attention, through a series of seemingly random encounters and mishaps that slowly begin to seem more and more intentional and spookily directly by someone or something she can’t yet see.
Spirit guides are also said to appear as whatever age will most help us understand their message. Remember, this wouldn’t be someone you knew from your life who died, but rather someone who was already dead before you were born (thus you were able to communicate with them before your current life began). There are instances where children have said they’ve spoken with great-grandparents long gone before they were born, remembering key details of their lives and appearances that no one’s been able to find a connection to in old photo books or stories. How else could these living children know what they know, their families were forced to ask, unless they did in fact have some kind of encounter with their long-dead family?
Whether you choose to believe this metaphysical phenomenon or not, it’s nice to think (and many religions insist) that our path here on earth is pre-determined. That we’re not just a series of loosely connected experiences, spiralling in and out of each other until we’re some day gone. It’s also encouraging on a lot of levels (and every religion proclaims this one) to believe that messages and knowledge are flowing to us from a spiritual realm where others are looking out for us and communicating with those who chose to be receptive.
Spirit guides (and past life theory) are another way that man’s attempted to explain that we’re not alone, and that benevolent beings are banding together to help us and one another find our purpose and higher selves here on this earth. That we’re all connected at a spiritual level, for the soul purpose of bringing each other to a higher state of awareness and completeness than we could attain on our own.
Not a bad theory to play with as I create my psychic fantasy. Not a bad theme at all…
Tuesday the 13th (afte we’ve taken a break for Labor Day, and DRAGONCON!!!), let’s talk Children and Angels in The Psychic Realm ;o)
Tags: Anna DeStefano, astral projection, Clairaudience, clairsentience, contemporary fantasy, creativity & inspiration, Dark Legacy, fantasy author, Legacy Series, possession, psychometry, Secert Legacy, spirit guides, spirits
