Your Guide to Spirit Guides

Your Guide to Spirit Guides

Published in Pathways Magazine, Spring 2025, beginning on page 11

BY ANNIE LARSON

Spirit guides are non-physical entities that assist you in your life’s journey. They are unique to each person and are a part of one’s spiritual team. These benevolent presences deeply attune themselves to your life’s purpose, challenges, and growth. They offer wisdom, ignite inspiration, and provide support, all while subtly guiding you through life’s various challenges. Your guides can be angels, ancestors, nature spirits, star beings, animal spirits, ascended masters, deities, or other beings who have a sincere desire to help you.

Until you decide to communicate with them, they are there, gently offering guidance. They come and go throughout your life. Some stay for specific events in your life; others are lifelong companions assigned at birth, such as guardian angels. However, you attract many more throughout your lifetime based on your needs.

Lifelong Guides

Lifelong guides are personal guides you don’t have to connect with every time you need to work with them. You have at least three personal guides: a master guide, a guardian angel, and a gatekeeper guide.

Your master guide is interested in your soul’s development or evolution in this incarnation. On your road to enlightenment, they help you reach the next level of incarnation or help you escape the cycle of birth and death.

Your guardian angel, as the name implies, is there to protect you. Think back to a time when you avoided something that saved your life or kept you from injury. Maybe you heard a voice in your head warning you, or maybe you had a strong feeling. Such is the work of your guardian angel — to keep you from harm.

Your gatekeeper guide is like a big burly bouncer. This guide decides who has access to you and your energy. Your gatekeeper doesn’t offer guidance but rather offers protection. My gatekeeper guide keeps unwanted spirits away from me, so I’m not randomly reading people in the grocery store. They can feel quite heavy in your energy. If you haven’t met your guide, you will if you develop your psychic or mediumship skills, as this guide is essential to offering professional readings.

Helper Guides

Unlike lifelong guides, helper guides are transient and designed for specific tasks, practices, and development. They may be called upon for help with psychic and mediumship work; trance and channeling; alternative healing; advanced learning; shamanic journeying; and land cleansing. They require you to connect with them for support and guidance, as the situations warrant. You need to set an intention to communicate with them and allow time to form a relationship.

Helper guides can manifest in diverse forms, each with unique characteristics and specialties, such as elementals, Reiki guides, elders, Akashic record guides, ascended masters, master teachers, light beings, gods and goddesses, spirit animals, otherworldly beings, and Earth angels.

Elementals are nature spirits connected to the elements (earth, water, air, fire). Earth elementals connect to the land. They are called elves, sprites, fairies, gnomes, etc. When engaging with the land for cleansing or making changes, it is wise to connect with these spirit guides.

Take, for instance, the special dispensation of elves in Iceland. People hire elf arbitrators for construction projects to determine whether construction or road plans will disturb the huldufólk (elves or “hidden people”). You can find elf arbitrators at Magnús Skarphéðinsson, the Icelandic Elfschool established over 30 years ago in Reykjavik. New roads are typically built to go around known elf dwellings instead of destroying them by bulldozing. In Kópavogur, the street takes a peculiar turn around rocks identified as an elf dwelling. Before mediation between the huldufólk and elf arbitrators, many bulldozers broke down during the road’s construction.

Reiki Guides are spirits that assist in energy healing practices. One usually encounters them upon becoming a Reiki Master; then they remain with you in your healing practices.

Elders are wise entities offering profound insights. Elders may be deceased family members that had experienced lives. They offer wisdom, support, and guidance from beyond the physical realm. Hannah, my paternal great, great aunt, led me to the ship’s passenger log on the vessel that brought my family to Ellis Island. She guided me to information about Scandinavian naming conventions when I was researching my family tree. From that, I could find my family by their Scandinavian names. She was instrumental in my research.

Akashic Record Guides are guardians of collective memory and knowledge of the universe. They act like librarians, giving you access to knowledge and information in the Akash (meaning ‘ether’ in Sanskrit). My Akashic guide is a queen ant. In connecting with this guide, I fully expected to meet a guide in human form. Much to my surprise, she was an ant, adorned with a cape and crown. In doing some research about my experience, I read about the oral history of the Hopi Indians and the Ant People. The Hopi Indians claimed the wise Ant People took them underground twice to save them from two massive global cataclysms. The first by fire and the second by flood.

Ascended Masters are enlightened beings who once lived on Earth and now offer spiritual guidance. They include such figures as Jesus, Confucius, Mother Mary, Buddha, and many others.

Master teacher guides offer deep wisdom and learning. They direct you towards the information, teachers, books, classes and even other people needed for your spiritual evolution. My master teachers throw books on the floor in front of me to read while I’m in bookstores.

Light Beings are entities of pure energy and love. Light beings or angel guides clairvoyantly show me babies who never made it to this earthly plane or babies who are ready to be born. Guides symbolically wrap babies in blue blankets for boys or pink for girls.

Gods and goddesses are deities from various mythologies. They include Athena, Kuan Yin, Apollo, Lakshmi, Kali, Horus, Shiva, and so on. Kali appeared to me while I was on a spiritual retreat. She led me back to my yogic path to a deeper understanding of Yoga for my soul’s growth.

Spirit Animals embody particular qualities and teachings of the animals they represent. Spirit animals or power animal totems have specific functions. They embody the ideal characteristics of their form and come into our lives at various times. For example, in my Scandinavian culture, the bear, Otso, is king of the forest, sensitive to seasonal changes. Otso embodies strength. These characteristics can be comforting in our hour of need. During shamanic journeying, a white wolf who is adept and agile guides me through the three worlds.

Speaking of journeying, Ayahuasca acts as a plant guide medicine. Referred to as “the vine of the souls,” it is common for all those taking it to feel guided by the plant into realms of other planes of reality. Other plant medicines such as psilocybin mushrooms, peyote, and mescaline offer benefits much like Ayahuasca.

Otherworldly beings are entities from other dimensions or realities. They may take an alien or non-human form. My Ant People Akashic record guide might be an otherworldly being rather than an actual ant.

Earth Angels are benevolent spirits that nurture and protect humanity. Earth angels are usually living people whose spirit guides either knowingly or unknowingly offer guidance, healing, or support to others. Their energy acts like a beacon for the wayward. They counsel others towards compassion and kindness to align with universal truths.

Spirit Guide Speak

By recognizing your guides’ distinctive energy and respecting their areas of expertise, you can enhance your spiritual journey and personal development to fully embrace the wisdom and support they offer. They present themselves in various ways, depending on the guide and the connection you share with them.

For instance, guides may speak to you or just transmit a feeling. The hairs on the back of your neck or arms may stand on end, or a flood of warmth might fill your chest. They can offer solace in times of emotional healing or motivation as you pursue your aspirations. Certain guides might feel protective to shield you from negative influences. Others exude vibrant energy to motivate you to step out of your comfort zone and seize fresh possibilities. And there are even instances where a guide’s intervention can save your life, just as one did for me years ago.

While I was traveling on Route 28, my intention was to exit right onto Old Ox Road. However, I had to be cautious of the other vehicles merging onto 28 as well. At that moment, a large white truck emerged from the merge ramp, ready to enter the highway. My guides, who are familiar with my tendencies, pointed out the truck and advised me not to outrun it. They know me so well! Instead, they instructed me to slow down and let the truck pass me first. I heeded their advice and exited the highway behind the truck. While doing so, I witnessed the truck losing control and it ended up veering onto the grass and halting next to the highway. If I hadn’t listened to my guides, that out-of-control truck might have collided with me, potentially resulting in a fatal accident. By tuning into guides, in this case listening to them, one can become familiar with them to feel more connected and supported.

Is Connecting to Spirit Guides Part of a Traditional Mediumship Session?

Mediums communicate with the spirit world. Their key role is to act as a bridge between the living and the deceased, offering valuable insights, conveying messages, and providing comfort to their clients. This process often involves interpreting signs, symbols, and emotions that are conveyed by the spirits. Clients typically seek mediums to find closure, receive guidance, or simply to maintain a sense of connection with someone they have lost. While the work of mediums can be mysterious and deeply spiritual, it is important to understand the intricacies of what they do.

The mediumship community does not universally accept the practice of mediums communicating on behalf of your spirit guides during sessions. While a medium can perceive your guides, it is important to note a medium’s primary role involves connecting you with deceased loved ones, which is a separate task entirely from contacting your guides. The problem is authenticity. How can you authenticate your spirit guides if you’re not familiar with them? From my many years of experience, most clients lack this ability.

It is generally understood that mediums focus on providing evidentiary proof of the continuation of a departed loved one’s consciousness after bodily death. Evidentiary proof of spirit is required as part of a reading session, so the client recognizes who they are communicating with to be open to receiving the messages. During a mediumship session, it’s almost impossible for clients to confirm whether a spirit guide coming through the veil is for them. For example, telling a client their spirit guide’s name is Balthazar may or may not resonate with them and it would not be mediumship. Clients would have to be aware of all the nuances of their guides to give proper validation. The lack of client awareness of their own spirit guides prevents the establishment of this crucial aspect of mediumship—evidentiary proof. Since it is unverifiable, professional mediums don’t provide information on spirit guides without evidence.

A more common practice for a medium is to rely on their own personal spirit guides to assist them during sessions. In my experience, my dad was a helpful guide for me on my mediumship journey. Interestingly, he had served in the military during his time on Earth. As my guide, he would show me details about the military service of my clients departed loved ones, such as their uniforms, colors, ranks, branches, injuries, wars, and locations served. It is important to note that each person’s spirit guides are unique to them, so a medium’s guide may not directly communicate with your own guides. Think about it. Why would your spirit guides talk to my spirit guides? If you hear this while you’re in a mediumship reading, it is worth pondering why your guides would not communicate with you directly. 

Calling On Your Guides

This begs the question: Do they pick us, or do we pick them? Spirit guide communication is subtle and personal, often experienced through one’s intuition or inner knowing. Encountering one of your guides can mark a point of transformation. You can build a relationship with your guides to foster a sense of empowerment and self-awareness.

How we witness and channel guides depends on our stage of intuitive development and our understanding of inter-dimensional realms.  Fortunately, you can connect to your guides without a medium’s help. Through attention and practice, you can learn to hone your sensitivity skills in communicating with guides. Spend time in quiet reflection (meditation) to open communication channels to receive messages. Trust your instincts and inner voice to allow guides to communicate.

Here are some exercises to help you begin:

●        Write any messages or feelings you receive during meditation. Pay attention to signs, symbols, dreams, and synchronicities that might be guidance from your spirit guides.

●        Pay attention to repetitive numbers like 111, 222, etc. Through repetitive numbers, your guides are signaling to pay attention. These often carry important messages.

●        Finally, ask for help from your guides. They are waiting for you.

The role of spirit guides is distinct from the guidance of a mediumship session. Mediums focus on connecting with the souls of the deceased, while spirit guides remain unique, personal entities that individuals engage with throughout their life’s journey. You can cultivate a deeper relationship with your guides and benefit from their wisdom. Understanding these roles can enhance one’s spiritual experience and provide clarity on what to expect when seeking spiritual insights.

Annie Larson, a psychic medium, is a sought-after speaker, reader, teacher, and healer who has been featured in TV, radio, podcasts, magazines, and newspapers, including the Washington Post. She meets clients in-person in her office in Sterling, Virginia, via phone, and online. To book the upcoming workshop "Sprit Guides, Angels, and Helper Guides," go to www.MediumAnnieLarson.com.