Nearly every spiritual tradition holds that there are entities and spirits out there that seek to help us. These beings take many forms and names depending on the tradition and your beliefs. They may be angels, ancestors, spirit guides, guardians, gods, power animals, or any of the other myriad of names that we give to these benevolent and beneficial helpers. Whether you choose to see them as aspects of your higher self or as external beings that you have contracted to work with you in this lifetime, they are there and they can assist you in nearly every aspect of your life. For the purpose of this segment, I will be referring to this group of beings as our guides.

If we look at it from the perspective of the collective consciousness, these beings are like connectors that help us to access certain parts of the whole that will benefit us in certain ways. As we each process our experiences individually, we also need unique ways to connect with each other and the collective as a whole. Our individual guides can help us to navigate the pathways and provide us with the right connections at the right time. I have come to find that in working with my guides, there are many ways to get the answers that I am seeking. Just like in my daily life, I can navigate my way through the day getting answers from whomever I meet. However, in both situations, there are direct routes to the answer and there are painfully tedious and overly drawn out routes. The more communication that I have with my guides, the more I am understanding how this works.

Imagine for a moment that you are walking down the street looking for a particular business. You come across three people and decide to ask them if they can help you find the place you are seeking. The first person tells you: “Oh, yeah. I saw an ad for that place. What you need to do is go down this street to the first intersection. Take a right, follow that with three more rights, then look for the place on your left.” The second chimes in: “I drive by there every day. It’ll be easier if you go down this street and take a left. Follow that with three more lefts, and you will be right there in front.” Lastly the third takes your hand and tells you: “I work there. Come with me, it is right across the street.”

Now some might look at those first two guides as jerks for taking you the long way around to the destination. But according to their frame of reference, they were giving you the best information they could. Despite which person you listened to, you would have arrived at your destination. Due to the extra steps, there may have even been some additional experience or lessons learned along the way. The point is we have options. It is in the process of regularly communicating with our guides that we learn what those options are. I am generally one to believe that we have a primary guide that acts as a sort of “Jack of all trades” or “Jill of all skills” for us. This guide is a being that we have chosen to help us on a general level with the host of challenges that come up. They are able to provide us guidance that will get us to the destination one way or another. However, when it comes to more specialized requests, this guide may not always have the most direct route.

It is in these times that I advise connecting to and communicating with your specialists. We all have a host of guides around us and available to us at all times. Some are with us to help us through specific events in our lives. Others to help us learn particular skills or lessons. This is often where I see our guides being broken down and classified according to their skills and abilities. Regardless of your traditions, there is likely an angel, animal, deity or spirit that corresponds with each individual trait of human existence. We have probably all heard of the big four archangels, Michael, Raphael, Gabriel and Uriel. These four have been

associated with particular aspects of guidance for centuries in many religious and magical traditions. But as you expand the realm of angels out, you will find that there are hosts and hosts of other angels that are associated with other traits, emotions and actions. Each of them can be called upon to assist you in more specialized endeavors.

Similarly, pantheistic traditions will call upon specific deities to assist them with guidance and strength in their tasks and workings. Each god or goddess has a particular talent and strength that allows them to assist you in achieving your goals in the most efficient manner. Sure, you can call on any of the deities to help you become a better person and in their way they will help you. But if you are looking for guidance in how to become a more loving person, are you going to ask the god of war or the goddess of love? Both may get you to where you want to be in time, but going straight to the expert seems a heck of a lot easier to me.

In many shamanic traditions, these specialties are attributed to specific animals. Since each animal in nature exhibits different personality traits and skills, they can be called upon energetically by us. The need for quick thinking and cunning may call for the spirit of the fox. Clear vision into a complex situation may require the energy of the eagle. The ability to maneuver quickly out of challenging situations can be harnessed through the power of the rabbit. Every animal having its place in nature and having those certain skills that we require under specific circumstances.

It is dictated by personal choice how you choose to connect with these energies. If following a specific path is more comfortable for you, then study that path and learn the entities associated with it. There truly is no wrong way to connect with your guidance. Myself, I choose to work with aspects of different paths as each one hold a different level of resonance with me. I connect with angels for some things and I connect with power animals for others. I also connect with spirits and inter-dimensional beings for specific guidance when I need their help as well. So whether I am calling on archangel Zadkiel for assistance in forgiveness or calling upon John, the tree spirit who assists me in decoding symbolism, the important thing is that I am calling out and communicating with them. They are the specialists that I have around me that can assist me in finding the quickest and most efficient answer to my concerns.

So now you are probably thinking; well that’s great Matt, but how do I connect with these specialists? I barely know how to connect with my main guide and now you’re telling me I have a whole bunch more?!?

Don’t worry, it is not that hard and not something you need to learn all in one shot. The most basic way to access them is simply to ask. When you are facing challenges in your life, ask in quiet thoughtfulness for the specialist you need to come forward in love and honesty. This can be through meditation or just quiet contemplation. Allow the information you receive to flow into you uninhibited and unburdened by your own thoughts. If you are a visual person, you may see your specialist conversing with you. If you are auditory, you may hear it. Regardless, when you open your mind to the possibility of receiving the needed information, you will.

Another way that you can access the guidance you need is through the correspondences that we talked about before. Seek out the particular angel, spirit, deity or animal that governs the area of concern. There are a host of websites and books that can help you with this. Seek out all the information you can and work with what resonates with you. As I have mentioned before, there is a ton of information out there, not all of it will resonate with you but that doesn’t mean it is wrong. It just means that it is not for you. Working with specific documented energies typically involves more of a ritual based connection. These beings have been given these powers and associations by us through Source and honoring that connection through specific ritual and practice serves to enhance that power for you and the being. This doesn’t mean that Michael, Diana, or Great Wolf will not help you if you call on them in haste. But if you find yourself constantly calling them in times of immediate need and not honoring them with prayer and practice, you may find their influence in your life waning.

This part of my spiritual connection has been very amazing and powerful. The connections that I have made and the information that I have accumulated has been not only beneficial, but often life changing as well. I trust that in making your own connections, you too will find that your world is clearer and more understandable. In honoring those connections, may you harness the insight, wisdom and power that all have to offer you. For the constant flow of wisdom and power that allows me to share this information with all of you, I honor and thank my team of specialists: Henry, Judith, Doctor, John, Michael, Raphael, Zadkiel, Gabriel, Fox, Snake, Phoenix and Dragon. May my actions honor you as your wisdom is my guide.