How do we separate the identities of individual spirit guides from the group of entities that surround us?
Here's a quote from the Comments section of Erin Pavlina's article
"Do guides have names?" I've already apologized to Erin for hogging her blog... Yours truly is that Hermione-esque individual with his hand up in class, and you know I'm long-winded...
One of Erin's readers, Jenn, writes:
"Erin, you make it sound like the cast of Friends sitting around in a coffee shop...and whenever you need them, there they are."
Allow me to elaborate on my part of the discussion:
The Cast of Friends
This is a perfect, very useful description for what the group of Spirit Guides and Guardian Angels that surrounds you feels like. Jenn's comment draws a beautiful analogy for us to work with; but don't stop at the TV sitcom reference -- examine the literal word-choice she uses, stripped of all popular culture associations:
"...You make it sound like the cast of friends..."
Bingo.
- YOU MAKE IT- the association is your creative choice
- SOUND LIKE - note the non-physical use of sound
- THE CAST - the cast - a singular entity composed of...
- OF FRIENDS - multiple supporting players - plural - Friends the show, or friends, generally
Another reader might have thought what Erin described reminded him of his boyscout troop... And yet another reader might have thought it all sounds like Dorothy's traveling companions in The Wizard of Oz...
I've personally described this feeling of being surrounded and supported on your Life's Mission by a group of benevolent entities as your God Posse; and I've made analogous comparisons to:
- a group of cheerleaders
- a racecar driver's pit crew
- an administrative support staff
- a celebrity entourage
- nannies and bodyguards
- a backup choir
- an orchestra
Your life is a story. Your story.
There are really very few stories and a relatively limited amount of character roles with which to populate these tales.
I recently conversed with a traveling mystic who introduced me to the term meta-story - I can't tell you for sure if he is the originator of this term, but then who cares? We share words and names with one another all the time. Some of these remain private in-jokes and personal vocabulary; others get picked up and spread around in the manner of viral-ideas.
This is where the idea of Archetypes and the Major Arcana of the Tarot come into play. The Major Arcana of the Tarot are the life themes, the character types, the roles that are found in all stories, traumas, dramas...
Think about the older generation of soap opera fans who refer to their favorite daytime television shows as "my stories." Each one of those soaps has a corresponding role in all the others: matriarchs, patriarchs, sexy femme fatales, innocent virgins, chivalrous knights... etc.
The names of these characters and their physical appearances vary greatly from show to show, and fans of General Hospital are not watching Guiding Light because they are aired in competing timeslots on different channels...
Why aren't these shows interchangeable? To the non-fan, they are.
For die-hard fans, they are personally invested in the lives of these characters. They have come to know them over linear time. Their associations are steeped in the histories of accumulated character background stories, that emotionally charge present and future scenes...
Are you the Star, Writer, and Director of your Life Story? Honey, if you're not... Who did you have in mind to play the Star of your life?
Have you cast yourself in a secondary role? Have you made your boyfriend, husband, girlfriend, wife, partner - the Star?
You decide who's in your cast and crew. Listen, the point is: there is no one in a better position to Name the entities that surround you than you.
Could anyone possibly care about who they are more than you do? Is there anyone with the potential to communicate with your spirit guides more than you will?
You are Madonna -- who are the rest of the people on stage with you? Madonna -- the Queen of Media, not Our Lady, the Queen of Heaven -- is not alone on that stage.
We watch her perform and our focus is on her, with the dozen men and women dancing behind her viewed as a kind of Group Energy -- her Backup Troupe of Dancers.
Then there are the two lovely backup singers, who flank Madonna on either side and lend their singing voices in support of hers.
What about the band back there in the shadows? The keyboardist, the lead guitarist...
Can you name all these individuals on-stage with Madonna? I can't. But I could sure as hell walk right up to them and ask them who they are, given the chance.
Do you think Madonna herself could tell me who these entities are, if I asked her? I'm sure she could. But, after rattling off the names of ten or fifteen members of her troupe, she might confide in me with mock-mortification "...and that one over there - I couldn't tell you who he is to save my life - he's new..."
To us, the Audience, this cast of players may be visible and perform within their supporting roles - we may even remark : "Wow, Madonna's back-up dancers kick ass..." "Yeah, the muscly one with the dreads is way hot..."
We experience them and refer to them as a kind of group entity in this context; does that mean they are not also individuals? Of course they are individuals, and we could choose to get to know them in another context. If you've ever seen Truth or Dare, Madonna's backstage documentary, then you've had a glimpse into the lives of these individual players.
If you investigate, the individual entities begin to emerge and differentiate themselves from the Group.
This is not unlike what I experience as a relay medium -- a spiritualist interpreter -- who goes into your back-up posse, introduces myself to them, and sees who I can get to come forward and speak to me.
Confessions of An Audient
Read a detailed description of my Reading Process.