I’m reading a compilation of channeled writings by Alice A. Bailey, called Ponder on This. It’s fascinating stuff. Bailey was part of the Theosophical movement of the early 20th century. 

As the friend who loaned it to me noted, I don’t believe all of the things I’m reading in this book. But there are plenty of gems and lots of food for thought.

One of the sections I just read was about receiving guidance from the non-physical realm. 

The text cautions the reader against accepting guidance from sources which might not have their best interests in mind. It’s important not to give up your free will and follow guidance blindly, just because it comes (or seems to come) from a source beyond one’s conscious mind.

How do you know if the guidance you’re receiving is authentic? The primary method is to evaluate the advice on its own merits. As Bailey notes, no true spirit guide “ever seeks to control any person, nor will he indicate to him in the form of positive command, any action which he should take.”

Your spirit guide will make suggestions, but not try to force you. They know full well the value of your freedom to decide your own course of action.

It’s also key to establish an ongoing relationship with your guides. Get to know them like you would a new friend here on Earth. Like a good friend, your guides are more likely to respond to your own sincere queries, rather than offer advice at random times.

I first met my primary spirit guide, who is my Holy Guardian Angel (HGA), to use a term from Western occultism, in a dream in February of 2007. When I wrote about the dream in my journal, I noted, “I wonder if he is some sort of archangel or oversoul person.”

Recently I was going through some old journals as part of my library project, and discovered that I first received my HGA’s name, Zeke, several years later, in February of 2013. It happened during a polarity session, when the polarity therapist was working on my heart chakra.

Throughout the ensuing decade, I’ve been developing a closer relationship with Zeke. We communicate in many different ways: through channeled writing, divination (Tarot or oracle cards, usually, though sometimes the pendulum), and a sort of tele-empathic conversation that involves feelings as well as words.

There are still times when I wonder if I’m just “making up” a response from Zeke, but as the years pass, I’ve noticed an energy signature that accompanies his replies. It’s easier now to distinguish from my usual train of thought.

But even if I’m creating the whole relationship in my imagination? We know through psychology that it’s healthy to encourage conversation between the different parts of the personality. 

In Ponder on This, we learn that true guidance comes from one’s “own soul, when through meditation, discipline and service, he has established contact, and there is consequently a direct channel of communication from soul to brain, via the mind. This, when clear and direct, is true divine guidance, coming from the inner divinity.”

This is in line with what Zeke told me during the polarity session in 2013, which was one of our first direct, conscious conversations. From my journal: “The concept was complicated, but in some way I’m part of him or he of me (or both).” This is also aligned with Jung’s concept of the animus, or the unconscious masculine side of a woman’s psyche.

I didn’t consciously realize it until I was taking Carolyn Elliott’s WEALTH course in 2020 and 2021, but “attaining Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel” is one of the major milestones on the spiritual path, as described in Western occult traditions. It’s fascinating that my rather eclectic study and practice of magick brought me, inevitably, to a conscious relationship with Zeke.

In my experience, receiving authentic guidance from “beyond the veil” has a subjective ring of truth to it. Often this guidance feels like something I once knew, or have intuited, but phrased in a simple, understandable way.

Zeke gets right to the essence of the topic. He is kind, focused, and succinct.

What’s your experience with spirit guides? Have you received wisdom that you knew to be true, from a source beyond the physical realms?