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 In modern times, spirit guides, like many other elements of spirituality, have been heavily monetized and commercialized both on the internet and in real life (I’m sure you’ve seen the wide variety of courses, meditations, decks, etc. out there helping you to “manifest your spirit guide”).

 But despite the apparent new-age-ifying of spirit guides, they are nevertheless a shared human experience that still retains value and needs to be honored.

 In fact, coming in contact with one of your spirit guides can mark a significant point of change, transformation, and rebirth in your life.

 Our spirit guides are universal forces that are here to help us. A spirit guide can appear as an angel, animal, mythical creature, ancestor, ancient god or goddess, otherworldly entity, or interdimensional being.

 At the most basic level, a spirit guide is a type of energy that is embodied in an array of different forms. In other words, spirit guides are archetypal forces or aspects of life which teach, warn, support, comfort, remind and reveal things that we need to learn about ourselves in order to grow.

 Whether spirit guides are projections of the mind, reflections of the soul, or dwell in different realms altogether is one of the great mysteries of life. Only you can decide that for yourself!

 In my experience, I believe we have multiple spirit guides. Some we are born with, others visit us sporadically during the course of life.

 Major guides typically accompany us throughout our lives and help us to learn major life lessons. Minor guides are temporary and help with daily concerns or issues that we struggle with.

 Of what relevance do spirit guides have on our spiritual awakening paths? Well, as implied by the name, spirit guides help our spirit, our innermost essence, to evolve in certain directions.

 For example, if one of your spirit guides is Kuan Yin, the Bodhisattva of compassion, you’ll be directed to open your heart and show more mercy to others (including yourself).

 If Freyja the Norse goddess calls to you, you’ll learn how to embrace your sexuality and the cycles of life and death – and so on.

 Depending on what inherited traumas, wounds, and contractions we individually possess, our spirit guides can help us work through those areas, releasing old blockages that keep us in small and constricted states of being.

 Until about 2015, spirit guides were just “spiritual mumbo jumbo” to me. I ignorantly assigned them to the woman-reading-a-crystal-ball-and-telling-your-future category.

 But things changed on one of the first-ever shamanic trips I took with a plant teacher (psilocybin mushrooms).

 My intention was clear: I wanted to get in contact with my spirit guide – if there even was such a thing.

 Going into the experience with a mind half open and half closed, I journeyed inwards through dancing patterns, kaleidoscopic images, and other wild scenes.

 But holding the intention to meet my spirit guide strongly in mind, I was eventually humbled. I traveled down what felt like a tunnel deep, dark into the earth. Chattering vampiric mouths, ghosts, skeletons, and other ghoulish images appeared around me. And then, finally, I reached the bottom.

 A face – half-man, half-goat – appeared on a black luminous background. He smiled at me, frowned, laughed, mused, glared, and about a thousand other facial expressions that all changed every few seconds.

 I had finally met him – Pan, the god of the wild places – my spirit guide. For what felt like ages I observed this trickster figure staring at me with endless different faces. I didn’t quite know what to do, say, or think!

Spirit Companions

 Later, in the integration phase of my shamanic journey, I realized that Pan had led me down into my inner Underworld and had initiated me onto my Shadow Work journey. One of his messages was this: we are all composed of many, many different parts and everything is not what it seems.

 Immerse yourself in a world of illuminating insight, soul-centered wisdom, and crystal-clear guidance inside our Spiritual Awakening Bundle.

 Through the next coming years, I continued to see Pan every so often in daily life and in my dreams. Not only that, but I continued to meet more spirit guides. The floodgates had been opened!

 If you’re dubious about the existence of spirit guides like I was, I encourage you to approach them with an open mind. Acknowledge the possibility that you might be wrong, that they might just exist. Allow a margin of error.

 On the other hand, if you believe in the existence of spirit guides – if you have had direct experience with them, but seek a stronger connection – you’ll find some continued helpful advice below.

 Right now, it seems to be a common trend to believe that spirit guides are primarily animals or angelic beings – but this is only one small dimension of the many possibilities that exist out there.

 A spirit guide could just as easily be a soft gust of air that makes the hairs on your arm stand up, as it could be a full-blown godly being that you meet during a shamanic journey.

 A spirit guide could just as easily be a soft gust of air that makes the hairs on your arm stand up, as it could be a full-blown godly being that you meet during a shamanic journey.

 There are so many possibilities out there, and below I will break down the main “types,” “species” or forms of spirit guides which you might encounter on your path.

 Many spirit guides manifest themselves as half-man/woman and half animal. Examples include centaurs, fauns, harpies, mermaids, sphinxes, fairies, and minotaurs.

 Many deities also appear as spirit guides, for instance, Anubis (jackal-headed Egyptian god), Ganesha (elephant-headed Indian god), Ra (falcon head, human body), etc.

 As I mentioned above, the first ever spirit guide that I personally made contact with was Pan, a half-man half-goat entity, who “revealed” to me my own personal shadow self and the need for me to embark on a journey of healing my core wounds.

 Animals are well-known spirit guides and have gained a lot of popularity over the past few years, perhaps thanks to their accessibility in our everyday lives.

 Some ancient cultures, such as the indigenous Americans and Chinese, held animals as sacred representations of their tribes or lineages.

 These days, spirit animals come to represent and reflect a person’s own inner yearnings, passions, instincts, and needs, moving from group use to more personal and individual use in this day and age.

 Light beings are said to help people move through traumatic areas of life such as death, loss, and grief. Light beings are called such because of their tendency to appear bright, glowing, or full of light.

 Ancestral guides are entities that have some kind of blood connection to us and our lineage. An ancestral guide could be a recently deceased member of your family (mother, father, aunt, grandfather), or a long-dead relative that you have perhaps never met in your lifetime.