Your Guides

I was in my twenties when I met Melissa. It was clear to me that she was my guide, there to teach me, help me through challenges and look out for me. I can still see her image. It appealed to me on many levels and gave me a feeling of complete trust. I was certain I was in the best hands.

What it is like to have one

I knew all of my flaws were visible to her, along with my strengths. I also knew I needed to be completely open with her, because she knew it all anyway. I was fine with that, because I felt protected and nurtured.

We had regular chats. I faced some of my biggest challenges with her at my side, and a lot of those challenges were me. She helped me look in the mirror, see the truth of myself and grow beyond who I was at the time.

That is what a guide does. They become your best friend, because they are. They become your protector, and your guidance in life when you ask for it.

The surgery that changed how I saw them

In 2005 I had a health issue that meant surgery, with a very real possibility that I would not survive it.

Afterwards, someone I had been working with told me she had felt I was not going to make it, and that after my passing I would become her guide.

That got me thinking about guides in a whole new way. So I did what I always do when a new possibility lands in front of me. I challenged my own belief system.

What I found blew my mind and reassured me at the same time. It made sense on many levels, and I was able to verify it, which pleased the fact checker in me.

We are our own guides.

You are your own guide

Your higher self is not limited by the earthly life you are living inside right now. It sees and knows what you came here to learn, and what governs your fragile ego. That is part of the agreement you made before you incarnated, which the Why You Are Here page sets out.

When you meet a guide, you are meeting a being your higher self has created as the perfect balance for who you are in this life. There can be more than one. I only ever had Melissa, but I know people who have several, and some find new guides arriving as old ones fade away.

I still chat with Melissa to this day. I also understand now that she is my higher self.

So why meet a guide at all, if it is you? Timing. When Melissa came, connecting directly with my higher self would have made for far slower development, because I would have filtered everything through my understanding of life at that time. Because I saw her as a separate being, I had to accept that the guidance was for my highest good, even when it was at times very confronting.

The guide is a helper. The authority sits with you. That is why I say you will be your own teacher, you will be your own guide, and all I will do is help you remember what you already know.

Meeting yours

The simplest way is to ask. Ask the universe to connect you to your guide. They WILL come to you, whether it is one or many, and it happens relatively quickly. Ask with a real desire for it to happen and it will.

If you want something more structured, this method works for most people.

1. Find a quiet place to meditate.
2. Do your usual cleansing and protection. The Protection page covers that side of things.
3. Settle your breathing the way you would for any meditation.
4. Ask your higher self to clear Monkey Mind from your thoughts. The Monkey Mind page explains what that is and how to tell it from the real thing.
5. Ask your guide or guides to introduce themselves. Ask them to make themselves known to you.
6. Allow whatever comes to flow. You should get some kind of indication, or a knowing.

It may not be much at the first sitting, but it will be something. You may get a name. You may get something about their last life on earth. You may get a gender, or even an age, although gender and age are more for your human understanding than for theirs. You may get an image in your mind's eye of what they look like.

Not all guides are human. Some are animals.

Asking them for help

Once you know they are there, use them.

When you are stuck, ask. All of us get stuck from time to time, confused about which path is right, or sure of the path and too frightened to take the step. If you ask for guidance with a real desire for it, it will come. One of the most fun ways is to ask for a sign to come to you three times, and that has its own page, the Three Source Rule page.

When you need to avoid someone, ask. Everybody wants to steer clear of a person at some point in a lifetime. You can close your eyes, connect with your higher self and make the request, something like this: "Can you please make sure that my path never crosses the path of this person, and that their path never crosses mine." You could live in the same suburb and never come across them again. It is very simple and very powerful.

When you want words, ask them to help you write. Automatic writing is one of the many methods of divination, and the book Conversations With God by Neale Donald Walsch was written this way. Sit somewhere quiet with a pen that works and a notepad with plenty of pages. Do your cleansing and protection. Connect with your guides and ask them to help you receive messages, then ask your higher self to clear your mind so you are in the moment. Either write a question down and hold the pen steady where the answer should go, or simply ask for guidance and inspiration. The answer will come to you internally and you will write it, or your higher self will take over the pen. Keep your mind clear so Monkey Mind does not interfere, and you will find some astounding stuff comes through.

Then comes the listening

Asking is the easy part. All of us, me included, have been given guidance we knew we should follow and then talked ourselves out of it.

Picture yourself driving through the city. You can see the road ahead and behind, but you cannot see through the buildings to the roads crossing yours. You get a sudden urge to slow down, with no rational reason for it. You listen, and twenty seconds later a truck with no brakes barrels through the red light and collects the car in front of you instead of yours.

Your higher self was sitting on top of the building. It could see the truck coming and sent you the message in the hope you would listen.

Not every message is a warning. Sometimes it is about amazing stuff too.

Have you met your guide yet? If not, ask tonight, and then notice who turns up and what you think they are.

If you would like this read against your own chart, my readings are here.

Related pages
Signs and Signposts