Spirit Guides: Who Are They & What Messages Do They Bring?

Learn to communicate with your spirit guides, to become the highest expression of your authentic self—living in alignment with your soul's purpose.

Who are my spirit guides and why is it important for me to know them?

Do I have more than one spirit guide?

Why are they here?

Are my spirit guides always with me?

How can I communicate with them?

My clients, friends, and family regularly ask me these kinds of questions. So, today I've decided to tackle some of the bigger questions, with the hope that you can learn how to communicate with spirit guides and cultivate a personal relationship with them.

What Is a Spirit Guide and Do I Have One?

I have a deep connection with my spirit guides and find comfort in knowing they are always with me. Their guidance has helped navigate difficult relationships, painful losses, and major life changes. They are intimately involved with the work I do with clients. (And yes, your guides come to me with messages during sessions as well).

To begin, your spiritual guides are (just as the name indicates) your guides from the etheric world. Spirit guides are disincarnate beings that act as a guide or protector to a living incarnated human being. They guide, support, and occasionally give you a little added push in the right direction, especially if you find yourself stuck in a self-defeating pattern, toxic relationship, or other unhealthy circumstance.

Can I Have More Than One Spirit Guide?

We all have at least one spirit guide, but you probably have a whole team. In my sessions with clients, I have found that most have a team of between three and six individual guides in their inner-circle, calling in new ones as needed.

Among your guides, one special spirit has stayed with you from the moment you choose to come to this world. This guide is not someone you've met in this physical incarnation but another soul with whom you have a close soul connection, perhaps from a past life or as part of your soul family.

Your main guide is always communicating with you through signs and through your intuition, tuning into your energy and directing you to fulfill your earthly mission and soul purpose. This loving being stands by your crib and soothes your cries, steadies you as you take your first steps, comforts you when you experience your first heartbreak, and remains by your side until the very end, ensuring that you ascend to the light when you leave your body.

In addition to your life-long spirit guide, you will have numerous other guides who come and go throughout your life. Sometimes, the souls of people you love who have passed on will choose to stay nearby, in your energy field, in order to act as a guide.

Like us, guides exist at varying levels of consciousness themselves. Some may be highly ascended masters (such as Jesus or Mother Mary). Others might align with your own level of consciousness, perhaps soulmates from different lifetimes who want to continue their journey with you. But, this time around they serve as your partner from the other side of the veil.

Many guides have had multiple lifetimes here on earth, and they have their own eclectic bundle of gifts, wisdom, and experiences. Spirit guides also form a group consciousness, and communicate with one voice. (There is so much to say about this, that this topic deserves its own dedicated article, which I will save for another day).

Some stay with us for our entire lives. Others guide us for just a period of time to help with a specific issue or develop a special skill (for instance, if you are writing a book a mentor guide may join you to see you through the process and help you overcome any obstacles).These additional guides may stay for long periods, or they may pop in with a short message at a crucial turning point in your life, like when you launch a new life project.

I have worked with painters being mentored by Michelangelo and writers receiving inspiration and counsel from Lord Byron (really!). But often these sorts of guides come into our lives for a short time, to jump start our creative juices or give us the confidence to step into a new role or project - to make sure we see it through.

No matter what type of guides you have, remember, their intention is to support you in becoming the highest and greatest expression of yourself, living in alignment with your soul's purpose, so that you can complete your work here on the earth plane.

If you would like to read more about different types of guides, and to determine which of the 7 types of guides is your 'main' guide or which ones are part of your spirit team, check back with us. Watch this space for our free quiz coming soon!

How to Communicate with Spirit Guides

Each of us is endowed with the intuitive ability to communicate with our spirit guides. Often, all that is needed is to remember this fact and then trust in it. And, just like any skill, you can get better and better with practice and patience.

If you are sure that you have never had a psychic experience, you can still communicate with spirit guides—and the more you attempt to speak with them, the more you will clearly discern their messages. Eventually, you may hear or even see them just as you hear or see a being in physical form...usually though, their messages come through in more subtle ways.

To begin, simply open your mind to the possibility that spirit guides exist and that they have wise counsel to share with you. Be willing to receive their messages in whatever form they arrive.

Your guides will try numerous ways to communicate with you until they get your attention. The messages may seem obtuse at first, but not to worry, your guides will persist until you understand their meaning.

Conversely, their messages may hit you with a 'clang and a bang' that is impossible to miss. (For example, I have experienced books literally flying off a shelf and opening to a specific page, because it contains a message my guides want me to receive! They make it hard to miss that kind of message!)

Either way, you will become more and more sensitive to receiving guidance from your spirit team. Messages may arrive through something someone says in passing (but, for some reason, you just can't seem to stop thinking about it). You might notice a phrase that pops into your mind, seemingly out of nowhere, while washing dishes or taking a shower. (During these kinds of activities, the mind often becomes more open and receptive.)

Messages also come in the form of bodily sensations. I always tell my clients to pay attention to how they feel in their body. I ask, "What is the body telling you right now?” Tightness and pressure may indicate the need to stop pushing for an answer. That, in itself, might be your guide's message for you.

You may also experience a sudden "knowing" or a brilliant lightening bolt of realization—an "a-ha moment" that causes a meaningful shift in perception. These are almost always a message from your guides.

While reading, you may receive messages when certain words seem to pop off the page and stay with you. Or, you may see them again and again in different contexts.

Pay attention to the words you hear repeatedly, perhaps on the radio or television. I can’t tell you how often I have tuned into the radio to hear just the perfect song with the perfect message that helped me in the perfect way in that moment. When this happens, you may feel a physical sensation that goes along with the recognition of receiving a message, a warm tingly feeling that brings a sense of calm and an acute awareness that you are not alone.

Your guides also communicate with you in your dreams. Loved ones who have passed often come to us in dreams—even our departed four legged fur babies will appear to give us a wag of the tail (to my knowledge, there are animal guides (totems) but our deceased pets do not usually act as our spirit guides, but they do visit with us in our dreams to assure us that they are safe and happy, and those dreams will feel especially real.)

When your guides visit in dreams, you may awaken with a feeling that you actually spent time with an actual person. You may have a clear answer to an important question. Just as when your pets or family members visit you in your dreams, when your guides stop by you will notice a unique vivid quality that stands out from other types of dreams. The dream may feel more real than the waking world.

If you have trouble remembering your dreams, tell your guides before going to bed that you want to remember them. Keep a diary of dreams next to the bed. As soon as you wake up, record your dreams. As you record more and more, the messages will become clearer to you.

You can also schedule an "appointment" with your spirit guides in advance and then carry out a meaningful dialogue over a specific topic. This might sound a bit kooky, but I first connected with my spirit guide in this way. I picked a time and visualized where we would meet and then I told myself that at that time, in a dream state, I would go to the place I had envisioned and see who showed up. And it worked! (We'll explore this technique in more detail in our new Mystery School)

Remember that your guides want to help, but you have to allow them to do so. Their guidance may show up in different ways, ways that you might not expect. You must learn how to attune, discern and receive.

That said, you can increase your receptivity and ability to communicate by simply asking your guides to help you hear them. This act in itself will open you to their Divinely guided wisdom—the more you ask, the more you will receive.

How Do I Know If I Am Really Hearing My Spirit Guides?

You might not like the messages from your spirit guides, but they will never shame you. If you feel shame or fear then you can be sure you are not hearing the voice of your guides. It is more likely your ego speaking from a place of unconscious wounding.

Your guides provide you with honest direction, even if it feels painful or unwanted at times. Remember that they want to help you evolve. They might have to give you a little kick in the butt sometimes. But when they do, you can be sure that it is for your highest good.

I've even had arguments with my guides when I didn't like what they had to say, and I didn't want to follow their advice. I'd ask for different solutions or answers, but they would keep giving me the same "unwanted" advice. So how do you know when you actually receive messages from your spirit guides? One way I know is when the answer does not change no matter how many different ways I ask my question.

But in the end, with hindsight, I realize the sage wisdom in it regardless of my resistance or desire for a different outcome. Over time, I've learned to welcome difficult guidance with less resistance. It means I can finally break free from an old pattern and enter a new level of consciousness.

For more helpful information on how to enhance your connection to your guides, I have put together a list of Ten Steps to Communicate with Your Spirit Guides.

You can also listen to my free guided meditation "Connect with your Spirit Guides" which will quiet your mind and help you hear more clearly. You can access it in the Free Meditations section.