InnerSelf.com

Everybody on this planet has a spiritual support team. This group is our backup in the game of life. Entering the material world is like taking on a deadly mission for the CIA or MI-6. Pretend you are the next James Bond. You come in with certain assets and talents from previous missions, but are placed in situations out of your element. But you are not alone in your mission. You have backup. Someone will brief you on your mission, outline your goals, and warn you of the pitfalls. Another person, Q in the James Bond movies, gives you your equipment. He explains all the special things you can do. You will meet up with other agents in the field who will pass new information and orders to you. Some agents are seen and others remain in the shadows, secretly sending you codes.

As you continue your career, you make your own contacts with other agents and agencies. You can communicate to headquarters through special equipment, focusing on frequencies only you and your team know. You have special codes and signals worked out. They are there for you. Without them, your mission is much harder.

In the real world, our team is made up of our spirit allies. We come into the world with this team, and build on it through our spiritual practices and experiences. We build our team and it changes as we change our beliefs. Those deeper on the spiritual path, with active, daily pursuit, will attract more allies, just as Native Americans believe that although everyone has a spirit ally of some type, shamans have more. If you pursue spirit allies and wish to complete your life goals, more allies will come because you are helping them complete their goals. The relationship works both ways.

A lot of the Native American spirits are making themselves known to seekers living in the Americas, regardless of genetic background. Spirits who lived as shamans and medicine men are teaching their wisdom by becoming spirit guides.

The spiritual support team contains many roles. You might find one ally performing many roles at once or have a very large and highly specialized team, where each ally has a single function and never works beyond that realm. Allies also change roles as we progress in our development.

The Guide is the Most Popular Spirit Ally

The first and most popular spirit is the guide. This ally comes to help us through life's tough transitions. The guide is really our first spirit friend, one who talks to us on an equal level. Once we open the lines of communication with our spirit guide, we can talk about our issues and their solutions. Guides offer powerful, life-changing advice. Be prepared to hear the answers to the questions you ask.

Guides are an opportunity for you to simply talk out your day and share with someone if you have difficulty talking to those around you. Like a good friend they will not offer solutions if not asked, preferring you to figure it out on your own. Guides do offer encouragement, though. They are there to help you find the way. Guides are not a replacement for human contact and will encourage you to make new friends and meet new people. They want you to explore your life fully.

Not only are guides for spiritual and emotional support, but they are available for professional support and simple conversation. Many guides appear when I am doing a tarot reading for someone, giving me new information or pointing out things my conscious mind missed when explaining the cards. Other guides aid me in healing work. I see and feel them working next to me during a Reiki session. Guides help me in the classes I teach, urging me to cover a topic I normally would not cover because it fits the immediate needs of someone in the class.

These guiding spirits are readily available for simple discourse, giving direct information on somewhat spiritual topics, like explaining the human chakra system, herbalism, or hermetic philosophy. For those who think they are simply talking to themselves, these conversations will open your eyes. You will be amazed at how much information you can get from a guide on a topic you never studied. Then find a book on it and things will all fall into place. The information from your guide is correct, but they usually expand on the subject. If you are simply having an internal dialogue, how would you know such specific facts and concepts?

Guardians are Invoked for Protection

Doing security detail in our spiritual support team is the guardian. A guardian is any ally invoked for protection. The main criteria are that they have power and province over the physical to protect your body. Guardians protect our entire being, the physical along with the emotion, astral, mental, and spiritual bodies. Icelandic mages call these beings v?rdhr, or wardens. If the guardian has no power in the physical, then your flesh and blood can still get hurt.

Pagan gods and goddesses, ruling aspects of nature, appear as guardians, among other things. Many gods are called on for protection. They do not have to be from pagan mythology. Jesus Christ or Buddha can be called on for protection. Jesus is particularly powerful for banishing harmful spirits. Also, because Hebrew is a sacred, power language, speaking it can move energy. Any of the Hebrew names for God, like Yahweh, Jehovah, Shekena, or Adoni, can be called out for protection.

Guides and power animals serve as guardians. More traditional guardian allies are our guardian angels. Everyone has one. Angels need to be asked for help to maximize their protective skills, since they, like other allies, do not interfere with free will. Allies do not stop the games we play. You do not need to know their name; simply ask your guardian angel or spirit to protect you in times of danger. Recently my group was doing a ritual involving angels, everyone in the group commented that they felt or saw the presence of everyone else's guardian angels circling us.

The Higher Self

As everyone has a guardian or guardian angel, everyone has a higher self. The teaching of all religions, at the core, is that we are all divine beings. The path is to remember our divinity. We are all being challenged to live with our higher self more fully in the world and not be dragged down by harmful thoughts and emotions. That doesn't mean we suppress them. We acknowledge them, work through them, and move on. Anger, hate, jealousy, and resentment should never be held or ignored, but honored.

The higher self is the prime director of your spiritual support team. From this chief spirit ally, all others take their cue. No one but you knows what is best for you. If you invoke your higher self and ask your intentions to be correct and for your highest good, you are asking that things be worked into your own grand design. As co-creators, our soul, our higher self, chose all the variables -- our bodies, parents, family, friends, situations. They are all perfect for our mission here; they are not random circumstances. Your higher self is in partnership with the Great Spirit. It makes no mistakes for you. Other spiritual beings on your team can have a different opinion. They guide you, but ideally your higher self has the final approval on everything. Allies are in constant communion with your higher aspect.

The more in alignment with your higher self you are, the easier things become. The world flows with you. Agonizing choices between extremes are a thing of the past. The right doors open. You still have challenges and face difficult circumstances, but you know it's your path and have a great conscious power to change your path to your liking. You are doing your dharma, your life's work.