ancestral guidance
Honor Your Pagan Heritage This Halloween
Samhain holds special significance for those who practiced paganism in a past life, especially those who were involved in magical practices as seers, soothsayers, druids, and witches.
For us, this time of year evokes a deep sense of nostalgia, spiritual reorientation, and a return to ancient wisdom as the veil between worlds thins and we reconnect with our ancestors and the spirit realms.
Samhain is an ancient Celtic festival marking the end of the harvest season and the beginning of winter, traditionally celebrated from October 31 to November 1. It is one of the four great Gaelic seasonal festivals, along with Imbolc (February 1), Beltane (May 1), and Lughnasadh (August 1).
In Celtic tradition, Samhain (pronounced “sow-in”) is a liminal time when the boundary between the physical and spiritual worlds is thinner, allowing the spirits of our deceased loved ones, ancestors, and other spirits to cross over more easily.
In ancient times people would light fires and wear costumes to ward off harmful spirits, while also honoring their ancestors with offerings of food and drink.
Samhain is considered the origin of modern Halloween traditions, although Halloween has evolved and incorporated elements from other cultures to become a mostly secular and commercial holiday. For Neopagans and Wiccans, Samhain remains an important festival for honoring the dead, celebrating the cycle of life, death, and rebirth, and connecting more deeply with the spirit realm.
The Divine Spirit Beings Who Guide Our Life Journey
We are all here for two important spiritual reasons – to serve and to learn. Each of us has a unique calling to fulfill and lessons to learn for karmic growth and soul evolution.
The contributions we are meant to make and the lessons we are meant to learn are unique to each of us, and it’s up to us to uncover these aspects of our soul plan as we move through life.
Our guides and angels are a powerful resource in this process, yet they often go unnoticed or even unrecognized. These spirit beings work quietly behind the scenes to provide guidance, support, and protection as we navigate our life journey.
Their primary role is to guide us in fulfilling our mission to be of service, learn our karmic lessons, and to grow. If we don’t fulfill our purpose or learn our lessons, it will keep reappearing in our lives in different ways until we recognize, resolve, accept or own it.
Our guides and angels are always behind the scenes – patiently waiting for us to seek their wisdom and allow them to assist us in fulfilling our soul plan. By connecting with our spirit team, we open ourselves to personal growth and spiritual evolution.
Our spirit and angel guides are benevolent, non-physical beings who serve as intermediaries between the physical and spiritual worlds. Each of us has guides who are assigned to help us, whether we acknowledge their presence or not.
Always Stay True To Your Soul Path And Purpose
Visiting a nursing home or retirement community and interacting with the residents can be a life-changing experience!
I recently had the opportunity to interact with a group of seniors and one of the things I asked them was, “If you could go back in time and start over, what would you do differently?”
To my surprise, the biggest regret most of them have is that they wish they had been more true to themselves and lived their lives their own way instead of pleasing others. One lady says she realizes she should have followed the original path her soul intended for her, instead of trying to live up to the expectations of others.
Another lady recalls how her life was shattered when a man she loved dearly and had devoted her life to unexpectedly left her to be with someone else. She said that was the day she realized she had wasted so much time putting her own dreams and goals on hold to make someone else the focus of her life. If she could go back in time, she would have handled this relationship very differently. In fact, she would probably never have gotten involved with him in the first place! “Never live for someone else, that is what I have learned,” she said.
Some of the regrets seemed heavy and intense. Some realize that too much time has passed and they cannot undo the choices they have made. There are potential joys and opportunities for personal and spiritual fulfillment that are now forever out of reach. One gentleman added that while there is much wisdom and truth in the saying “it’s never too late,” there are also the practical realities of aging and “missed deadlines” for some things in life.
The Fairies Will Find My Pets’ Final Resting Place
Over the years, as I have expanded my spiritual understanding and esoteric knowledge, I have come to rely on a number of spiritual entities and metaphysical beings for guidance and support on a daily basis. This assistance from the higher realms is vital not only in my professional work as a psychic reader and healer, but also in my personal life.
I have learned that calling upon different spiritual beings for different things provides me with more holistic and powerful guidance, protection and support in different areas of my work and life. Different types of spiritual beings serve a unique purpose according to their inherent qualities and roles.
For example, I turn to my ancestors and guardian angel for personal safety and comfort, feeling their presence as a calming and protective force, especially during very difficult times. My ancestors also provide me with personal insight and a sense of continuity, helping me to navigate everyday challenges and connect with my cultural and family roots.
My spirit guides counsel and support me in my professional psychic and healing practice, as well as in my spiritual growth and life journey. They provide me with insight and wisdom to make informed life choices and decisions. At times, I call upon one of the archangels, such as Michael or Raphael, for more specific needs, such as protection from physical harm or for physical healing, to draw upon their specialized energies.
The ascended masters and the divine I call upon for deeper spiritual enlightenment, higher consciousness, and to cultivate specific spiritual virtues such as compassion, humility, gratitude, forgiveness, patience, generosity, integrity, and courage.
The Role Of Angels And Guides In Your Life
The various roles of angels and spirit guides in our life journey is a subject that is not discussed as often as it deserves to be.
While many people are familiar with the idea of spirit guides, the role and importance of angels in our lives is often overlooked. These celestial beings have a long history of interacting with humanity, and understanding their presence can provide profound comfort and guidance in our lives.
Angels are spiritual beings who play an important role in our lives, but they function differently than guides. Unlike guides, angels have never walked the earth as humans. They are divine beings of unconditional love, compassion and wisdom. Angels are associated with protection and guidance, and many people feel their presence in times of need or crisis.
Spirit guides are spiritual beings who help and support us throughout our lives. Unlike angels, guides have lived on earth as humans before transitioning to the spirit realm. They have experienced the complexity of human emotions, life challenges, and physical experiences, which makes them uniquely equipped to help us navigate our own lives with compassion, love, and non-judgment.
Guides can be your deceased loved ones and ancestors, or they can simply be previously incarnated souls that you have never met. Guides choose to help us because of the spiritual connection they feel with us, and they can offer wisdom from their own experiences.
It is important to understand that these beings are no longer ego-focused; they exist purely as soul energy, unencumbered by the limitations and biases that may have influenced them during their earthly lives. This means that their guidance is often pure, rooted in unconditional love and a deep understanding of your soul’s journey.
Consciously Connecting With Your Spirit Guide
Have you ever felt a gentle nudge, an intuitive whisper, an inner knowing guiding you? It is your spirit guide supporting and protecting you. Sometimes our guides succeed in getting our attention, but sometimes the messaging fails, with potentially disastrous consequences for our safety, success, or well-being.
This is why it is wise to be more directly familiar and connected with your guide. It is like having the spirit realm ‘on speed dial,’ which can come in very handy in difficult times, and especially in emergency situations! Consciously connecting with your guide is a spiritually rewarding, uplifting and highly beneficial practice.
A spirit guide is a higher non-physical entity or spirit being who is dedicated to supporting our life journey and spiritual mission in our current lifetime by offering us ongoing guidance, support, wisdom and protection. Think of them as our celestial cheerleaders and bodyguards, always rooting for our highest good!
Depending on our chosen belief system and personal background, our guide may be one of our ancestors, a totem or spirit animal, spirit guardian, angelic guide, saint, bodhisattvasa, enlightened being, ascended master, deva, djinn, deity, or other divine being.
Regardless of who we personally understand our spirit guides to be, they are with us from the day we are born to provide support and insight to help us navigate life’s challenges, make wise choices and decisions, and pursue our spiritual growth and soul purpose. Our guides communicate with us through intuition, signs, symbols, synchronicities, physical sensations, dreams, and even other people, conversations and various forms of media. They are always guiding us toward our highest good and spiritual development.
Learning To Interpret Your Dreams
While the exact nature and purpose of dreaming remains shrouded in mystery, science at least tells us that it is a universal experience. We all dream, most likely every night. Many people don’t remember their dreams and therefore incorrectly assume that they rarely or never dream.
Research on dreams and dreaming has shown that an estimated 95 to 99% of people experience dreams. Dreaming is most common during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, when brain activity is heightened and our eyes move about every 90 minutes throughout the night.
On average, a person may have several dreams per night, although they may not always remember them when they wake up. The frequency of dreaming can be influenced by several factors, including age, stress levels, and sleep quality.
There are many theories as to why we dream. Most believe that dreams help us consolidate memories, process emotions, solve problems, or even prepare us for tasks. However, the most important reason we dream is often downplayed or even ignored, which is that our dreams are inherently spiritual and serve a higher purpose.
The fact that our dreams are messages from the spirit realm and a higher power is unfortunately one of the most forgotten truths of ancient wisdom deeply rooted in many religious and spiritual traditions. Dreams have piqued human curiosity for thousands of years. Ancient civilizations, from the Egyptians to the Greeks, revered dreams as portals to the divine, messages from the gods, or glimpses of the future.