Yes, They Can Guide You
Part Seven
You’re Never Alone — Meeting Your Spirit Guides
Receiving Wisdom from Beyond through Spiritual Guidance
In our age of individualism, we are the master and commander of our vessel. We hold the galver, the wheel of the ship that steers the rudder. The wind may blow as it likes and the stars may chart our course, but damn if I won’t be in control of where I’m going with my life. We may not say this out loud or even consciously to ourselves, but isn’t this ultimately how we live? In the end, my choices are all up to me.
On the other side, the cry of “Jesus take the wheel!” has become something of a joke for the overwhelmed and exhausted. In the more traditional religious stage, the emphasis on devotion is prominent and many sermons focus on the necessary act of surrender and submission of our will to God (which, in turn, often implies dedication to that particular church).
Evolving Christians have usually rightly deconstructed the manipulative dynamics often present in this particular flavor of harmful institutional religion. They’ve also perhaps released an unhealthy over-dependence on God/Jesus/spirit that would subjugate them as mere lackeys passively serving a ruler-king God. Divorced from their own inner power and spirit, they do the bidding of the commands from on high like a faithful servant, seeking approval from the distant father-figure version of God that needs obedience in order to give love.
That is certainly not the way forward. But in throwing off the energy of religious subjugation, have we sometimes gone too far? In demystifying or denaturing our spiritual practices toward more impersonal, cosmic or apophatic forms, have we actually subtly and perhaps unconsciously left ourselves in charge? Have we let our ego hide out underneath the cosmic grandiosity of our Christ consciousness and unified oneness?
This tendency has been noted lately by several prominent spiritual teachers, including Ken Wilber and Father Thomas Keating. As the latter put it shortly before his death, “But you have to live in this world – you have to come back down. What are you going to do?
That’s where a spirit guide can come in and knock us off our spiritual throne. Or at least, that’s what happened to me.
Being Taken on a Journey
I had been asking to know more of the divine feminine. I was feeling her call. An invitation to an integration of which I couldn’t quite conceptualize or grasp—for that would be the masculine way. My daughter was newly born. And I wasn’t ready. For any of it.
She rushed upon me in a moment outside time. Her fierceness caught me off guard. She announced her presence with strength and immediacy. This was no meek and mild woman. She is a goddess.
I know as a Christian I’m not supposed to worship other gods (or goddesses). I’m maybe not supposed to believe in them even. But don’t worry, there is no bowing down or exalting praises upon her—that’s not how she operates. And in truth, that’s not how Christianity has operated either. As Sophie Strand recently put it:
What we tend to forget, post-Enlightenment, is that early European Christianity was hardly monotheistic. It was a polytheistic romp of theriomorphic animal saints, magical grove and spring madonnas, and specific land spirits that saw the opportunity to survive by fusing into symbionts with Christian symbolism. Christianity was a cult of saints: unruly, folkloric, and inextricably entangled with the oral mythology of the people it tried desperately to convert.
As an integrative and integral Christianity, we would do well perhaps to reincorporate more of our enchanted roots. To bring our bodies into more of the earth and her magical holy places and nature-ial postulants. To rewelcome our participation in the symbiotic co-inhabitation of our entangled organism. But back to the story.
Her name is Danu, and she is the Celtic earth-mother Goddess. The Goddess of fertility, creativity, wisdom, and the rivers. Her name means “to flow.” She has successfully eluded any surviving ancient texts, refusing to be bound to the written word. She is the divine feminine, the Mother who has taken many forms. And she has been my guide these last few years.
She has truly been a guide, taking me places that I didn’t want to go and that I didn’t even know were possible. It would not have been the course I may have charted for my spiritual journey, but then, isn’t that exactly the point? When I briefly wrote about her two years ago, she said, “There are entire worlds to discover. Come, let yourself see. We are simply waiting for you.”
I see now even more how those words were not just for me, but also very much about my own unseen path ahead. I feel full of gratitude now for all that has come about that I never could have come to myself, that I never could have planned or foreseen, that I couldn’t have chosen because my mind never would have known it possible. It wasn’t up to me. It wasn’t in my control. And how much better off I am for it is honestly still a little beguiling to me. More on that next week.
Presence and Guidance
“Inner teachers can also arise spontaneously and have life-changing effects. Some major historical figures have been directed by such inner teachers [including] the philosopher Socrates, the political leader Gandhi, and the psychologist Carl Jung.” – Roger Walsh
Having a spirit companion in the non-physical realm can be a wonderfully comforting and enriching experience. If you’ve been reading this series, you probably have some interest in that, if not your own prior and ongoing experiences. We may be more familiar with God’s presence, in its various forms, as more of a sort of “alongside support.” Awakening to this regular presence with us in any form, new or familiar, whenever we need it, is a liberating and joyful experience in and of itself.
Sometimes we use the term “spirit guide” as just a simple moniker, without giving much credence to the actual function of guidance. We are happy to accept the reality of a comforting presence of love and support—if we’ve been able to jump the modern hurdles of skepticism and materialism. But actual guidance? Maybe that’s a bridge too far for some of us.
If so, perhaps just come a little closer here to the edge of the ravine. You don’t have to step on the bridge just quite yet, but let’s maybe give some consideration to why and how we might begin to open to receiving more guidance from a spirit guide.
In shamanic traditions, where spirit guides abound and play a vital role, they very much are guides. In journeying experiences, these presences—often in the form of animals, ancestors, or other deities—are very often leading the way for us. They may be companions as well, certainly. They journey with us. But often they know where we’re supposed to go. They have something to show us that is beyond what we can see at the time.
In many of these experiences, the people engaging in them have allowed themselves to be brought into another state of consciousness that not only opens them up to being able to see and experience more, but also allows their minds to let go of the grip of control to a degree. Depending on the practice, there can be varying depths to this release. It takes surrender and release—and trust.
Trust is usually built up gradually, and that’s where getting to know your guides over time can really help. Just like any relationship, the deeper the connection the more that is possible. And if the relationship is rooted in love, it won’t demand or coerce. We always still have the choice to say “yes.” We can, as well, bring our own intention into any journeys or experiences we may have, as George wrote about last week.
But why even submit ourselves to this? Isn’t it better to remain in control? To have a clear sense of what the journey is and where we’re going? Isn’t that why we have maps of spiritual growth and development? Haven’t we moved beyond these forms of “magical” spiritism?
Can you feel the mind, maybe even the ego, grasping in these questions?
Guides as Pathways for Evolving Spirituality
While many pathways of spiritual evolution seem to eschew the 2nd person presence of spirit, shying away from the personal God as juvenile or fanciful projecting, this exclusion is more than likely usually an expression of the deficient mental structure of consciousness. A shadow of our spiritual ego, our “development” conveniently ends up leaving behind external sources that aren’t mind-centered—spiritual practices such as devotion, surrender, commitment, and yes, spirit guides.
This is the atomizing individualism hard at work in elegant spiritual garb. It is the perspectival prison that keeps our own individual mind as the ultimate reference point for all understanding of truth, nearly all personal choices and decisions, and tragically, quite a few of the “spiritual growth” forms and offerings these days.
But what is the alternative? What else is even possible other than our own individual seat of will? We can’t go back to external religious authorities like an institutional church or written text—nor should we. Time and time again human gurus seem to disappoint, to have hidden shadows or normal human deficiencies—or will simply be limited in what they can be and do (our estimation of them often turn out to be “golden shadow” projections as well). We do perhaps find some alternative in WeSpace, in the ongoing experience of deep spiritual community of trust and mutual care—especially as we come more into this as a real expression of interbeing and interrelationality, not just a collective functioning as a spiritual resource to my own individual wellbeing and solo journey.
Spirit guides provide us with a personal reference point that is not centered in our own mind. We can still use the mind to discern of course—as we should. But the liberation that can be experienced here is a source of direction that is coming from wisdom and a multi-perspective that is higher, wider, deeper, and maybe even just plain better than our own.
Rather than feeling dejected by this humbling recognition of the limitations of our own mind, often there is actually a feeling of relief. Not the temporary reprieve from our exhaustion by temporarily or mindlessly handing over the wheel, but the joyful companionship of coming into the lived reality and experience of truly not being alone in the journey. Of not being the one that has to figure everything out and make all of the decisions. When we’re able to accept our limitations, the mental grip relaxes and is able to embrace a healthier integration that can further bring about a new freedom. A spiritual freedom far greater than individual choice.
What is Necessary
You don’t have to go anywhere. You don’t have to be anything more than you already are.
Guides are not shadows of demanding parents, hyperactive superegos, or projections of unfulfilled longings. Your truest guides will love and accept you unconditionally. They will validate your experiences and your sincere efforts to do the best you can.
And they might also call you to something more. Something further. Not as a demand on your value or worth, but as an invitation to something richer, more joyous, more fulfilling. They want to help bring you into greater consciousness and love.
Some might appear for a particular season for a particular invitation. They can bring a particular energy or wisdom needed for the moment. You can always decide to follow. Or not. They may not stick around though if you aren’t ready. Because that’s why they came in the first place. But that’s ok. They can always return when we’re more ready. Or they may not—if it’s no longer the right time or fit.
It is a leap to begin to let go of our grip of control in our spiritual lives, even if just a little bit. Maybe we’re not even totally sure how much we actually fully believe in these presences, let alone feel ready to follow their guiding. We can imagine worst-case scenarios and deluded “missions from god,” or any other hesitancy that fear might bring up.
To accept guidance is not a total ceding of our agency. But it can be a healthy rebalancing and integration of sources of wisdom and loving offerings of unseen and unknown opportunities. It can be a liberating, empowering companionship that opens possibilities beyond our own narrow vision—no matter how adventurous or imaginative we may naturally be.
Yes, they can guide you. If you let them.
Where they may take you, you cannot now know. That’s the fun of it.