Spirit Guides – What They Are and How to Contact Them

Your spirit guides have your best intentions at heart, and their purpose is to protect and guide you. They do this using gentle means – by leading you towards your inner truth and wisdom. For example, they can help you tap into your intuition more or help you read ‘the signs of life’ or make sense of certain synchronicities.

They are not there to control you or to exert influence over you. They will not interfere with your free will. They are therefore beings of light – spirits that have a negative influence over you are not your spirit guides at all and you should cut all ties with them! It’s also worth remembering that some guides stay with you for your entire life, while others come and go as you change and grow as a person.

Types of Spirit Guides

Following are the four most common types of spirit guides:

1. Angels, Ascended Masters and Light Beings

When you heard the term ‘Spirit Guides’, you probably thought of angels or your Guardian angel. You can call upon Archangel Michael whenever you’re in need of protection. These are beings with an incredibly evolved vibratory rate. They are often people who walked the planes of Earth once, and achieved a higher state of consciousness that allowed them to transcend death and now help humanity ascend to a higher spiritual plane. They usually help an entire group of souls, rather than just staying with one person, as they have achieved such a high spiritual vibration. There is a great number of Ascended Masters, as ancient as humanity itself. The most well-known today are Jesus, Buddha and Krishna, among others. The spiritual catalyst Teal Swan covers this topic in greater depth on her Youtube channel.

2. Archetypal Guides

These are guides who try to reactive an identity from a previous life, so they would appear in a symbolic form. In fact, you may have met them in a past life, so they are likely to take a symbolic shape that would remind you of them from before (for example, an archetypal image of a warrior). They tend to stay with you, until your intentions change and another archetypal guide enters your experience.

3. Ancestral Guide

As the name suggests, an ancestral guide is someone who comes from the same physical lineage of your family. They are related to you in some way. This is likely to be someone like your grandmother or great-grandfather who are now helping and guiding you through life.

4. Animal Guides

This may be your deceased pet who is trying to comfort you through your grieving process. Ever heard of ‘totems’ in the Native American lingo? In some traditions, such as this one, it is believed that each person has their own ‘totem’ or animal spirit guide. In Wicca, we call them animal familiars.

5. Your Higher Self

Yes, your Higher Self is your most trusted companion and your spirit guide! In fact, you are a physical expression of your Higher Self.

Techniques for Contacting your Spirit Guide

Because spirit guides do not interfere with your free will, they cannot help you, unless you invite them into your life and make the intention clear that you wish to connect with them. So first of all, you need to set an intention that you wish to communicate with them. Then you can try meditation or automatic writing as a means to contact them.

Spirit Guide Meditation

When you’re meditating, don’t set an intention to clear your mind. Rather, just focus on your breath and watch the thoughts as they rise and fall, without judging or acting upon them. Every time your mind wanders, gently and kindly escort it back to your breath. As you grow more and more still, imagine yourself surrounded by a bubble of light. Then ask your spirit guides to show themselves to you – in order of importance in your life, if you wish. You may feel a sensation, hear a name or see an image. Contacting your guides may not happen on the first go, so keep trying!

Automatic Writing

This is a fun and insightful technique to contact your spirit guides. Simply put your pen to paper and start writing down questions that you want to ask your spirit guides. Try to remove any judgement or pre-thought as you write down the answers. Simply write them. If you want to experiment more with this, or if you feel like the rational part of your mind is interfering too much, you can switch hands and write with the hand that you don’t normally use for writing.

Contacting your spirit guides, as well as developing any of your psychic abilities, is a process that takes practice. But it’s a rewarding one because inviting spirit guides into your life can help you develop your intuition, make big decisions easier, and help bring positive changes into your life!

Spirit Guide Kit

Although it’s perfectly possible to contact your spirit guide on your own, some people may feel more comfortable being guided in the process. Karina Ladet’s Spirit Guide Kit is a program that takes you through all the different steps you need to take to contact your spirit guide – from learning how to open yourself up to channelling, to learning how to receive clear messages from your guides. The program has two options, with the premium one offering a one-hour reading with Karina, who is a channel and intuitive coach. For those that feel they need extra help contacting their guides, this program is highly recommended!