Often as part of an Akashic Record Reading, someone will ask me about their Spirit Guides. As part of this, we have a look into who the person’s Spirit Guides are, what they look like, what their names are, and what they help the client with.

In this article, I am going to go into some depth around Spirit Guides and the other beings that pop up when we do this type of reading, for those of you who are curious.

All About Spirit Guides

Spirit Guides are helpful beings that hold a spiritual, expanded perspective of our lives. Even before we incarnate, we will choose the right guides to help us on our path for this lifetime.

Our Spirit Guides know our soul’s characteristics, path, and challenges. They know what we are here to learn in this lifetime, and their job is to help us to stay on track with the paths which align with our soul and life lessons. So they give us advice and assistance to that end.

Spirit Guides have a high vantage point on your life. If you are ‘down on the ground’ navigating the maze of your life, your Spirit Guides are looking down on that maze, knowing where it might ultimately lead you.

Spirit Guides help us to stay ‘on track’ by communicating with us through claircognizance (putting ideas or thoughts into our minds), clairsentience (through gut instincts, tingling/crawling sensations, and amplified emotions), clairaudience (our ‘inner voice’) and clairvoyance (symbols, images, and visions). We can also receive messages from our guides through dreams.

What Happens in a Spirit Guide Reading?

When I tune into someone, I usually find between 4 and 8 Spirit Guides.

One of these guides will have been with you from birth – this is the primary guide (the primary guide is one that speaks on behalf of the group and also the guide whose ‘voice’ will be most familiar to you.) The rest of the guides will join your group of spirit helpers at various times throughout your life and all the guides will be in place by the time a person is in their mid- to late-twenties.

The guides will have a variety of names and appearances. The guides I pick up on tend to present in human form, and the way they appear is always a reflection of their energy.

There are all different kinds of energies represented in clients’ Spirit Guide groups: healing, talkative, kind, empowering, nurturing, cheeky, no-nonsense, calm, animated, and funny, to give some examples.

We will always have the guides that we need. Sometimes we can have a guide that is similar to us, or we might have a guide who brings an energy that we are lacking in. Often star traveler clients will have a guide which has the same soul group of origin as them.

Some guides are very high-level guides who appear to me like floaty wisps of energy. Then there are others who are closer to the human plane of existence and are more tuned in with the realities of life here. They may appear as more ‘solid’ looking spirits.

They also give names that are a reflection of who they are (although not every guide will volunteer a name.) I get a lot of Western, ‘normal’ names from guides but sometimes I will get names that I’ve never heard before, and one time a guide even gave an unusual surname that was the client’s password (I think this guide was wanting to provide some kind of proof or confirmation for the client.)

Other Types of Guide

Sometimes I will pick up on temporary guides or animal guides.

Temporary guides are ones who come in to help a person with something in particular. You might have a healing guide come in if you are going through a painful break-up or divorce. Or if you are writing a book, you could find yourself with an extra guide who specializes in this area.

If a person has a great number of guides in their group, it will usually be because they have a few temporary guides who are helping with something specific and who will bow out at some point in the future.

Animal Guides

I sometimes pick up on the presence of an animal guide and I love to come across these types of energy. Animals in spirit bring different energetic qualities to us (just like our pets do) and we often end up with an animal spirit around us when we need that particular energy. Recently I’ve seen a dolphin (playful energy), a dog (loyal) and even a worker ant. The person with the worker ant around them needed to get stuck into a big project that they were putting off and dolphin energy can come up when a person does not make time for fun and recreation.

Other Beings

Once you’re tuned in, it’s not unusual to pick up on the presence of other beings, such as Guardian Angels or even deceased loved ones (although this doesn’t happen all that often for me.)

We usually have at least a couple of Guardian Angels with us and these often present as tall, sometimes intimidating beings of light. These Angels look out for our physical and emotional/spiritual safety. Guardian Angels keep us away from those dangers and things that can harm us physically or emotionally, which are not meant to be a part of our path here. Obviously not every danger will be avoidable, and sometimes our souls choose to get into sticky situations to learn something in particular. Our Guardian Angel might for example, help us to avoid a car accident that will be occurring by giving us the urge to take a different route or stop off on the way.

Some souls who have chosen challenging life paths and life lessons (the kind where they will be getting into sticky situations) have extra Guardian Angels around them. These challenging life paths/lessons could involve abusive relationships, an abusive or neglectful upbringing, a lifelong serious illness or being born into a war zone or a dangerous place.

Do Our Deceased Loved Ones Become Honorary Guides?

Our deceased loved ones and deceased animal companions look like they’re part of our Spirit Guide group when you tune in, but they are more like our non-physical ‘champions’ from the other side. Guides are human (or animal) souls who are on a path of evolution through being there for and guiding other souls. Our deceased loved ones are not usually on that path – instead they tend to be on a path of evolving through multiple incarnations. This does not mean however that they are not looking out for you from the other side. I’ve seen deceased loved ones who are still keeping watch over someone decades after they were separated by death.

Further reading/training in this area:

• To learn to connect with your Spirit Guides/Angels/Higher self: The Intuitive Awakening Course
• Get a reading
• Learn to do readings for others: The Akashic Record Reading Program & The Intuitive Reading Program