6 Simple Ways To Connect With Your Spiritual Team — Even If You’re Skeptical

6 Simple Ways To Connect With Your Spiritual Team.jpg

Angels. Fairies. Guides. Protectors. Energies. Entities. Ghosts. Spirits. Pl-

Sorry, sorry, had to unstick my eyeballs from the top of my eye socket. 

Can I be honest with you? I hate that these make me wanna roll my eyes. But, they do. And I do (roll my eyes, heavily). These terms like “Spirit Guides” get thrown around a lot in spiritual spaces, but they’ve always made me a little itchy. 

On the one hand, I believe in them, in a way. I sincerely feel that there’s an outside intelligence beyond me that’s often guiding me. You can call it whatever you want, and I can’t pretend that it’s just my own “intuition.” Please. I’m not that special. 

But on the other, there’s some part of me that really doesn’t believe there’s some old Merlin guy over my shoulder feeding me tidbits of intuition and leaving me signs from the Universe. Not only do I do not think that, but I also don’t resonate with it at all; in fact, that idea is so repellant to my intellectual mind that it almost outweighs my faithful belief! 

Anyways, have I mentioned I’m an Optimistic Skeptic ™? 

My ever-present eyebrow raise makes it difficult for me to buy into a lot of aspects of New Age spirituality in the form that they’re currently packaged — and I’ve realized after talking to a LOT of you that you feel the same way. Although I have a tiny bit of shame around not wanting to look stupid, I also have a tiny bit of shame around not entirely buying in. 

Here’s the thing though: We can want, and be both things. 

I want to believe in a Spiritual Team, and a part of me certainly does. In fact, I think being in touch with your Spiritual Team is paramount to utilizing your intuition. I just don’t really resonate with the way they’re often portrayed in the world — and that’s OK because there are a million different ways to interpret spirit guides and Spiritual Teams and all the stuff. And hey, you are absolutely 100 percent in choice around what you believe and how you believe it. Pick and choose what works best for you. There’s no one right answer. 

In this article, we’ll talk about what your personal Spiritual Team is — as well as how to connect and work with your Team so you’re more deeply connected to yourself and your life’s mission. 



the appropriation of the term spirit guides 

Native American spirituality is one of the most popular and profitable sectors of New Age commercialism.” 

So let’s clock this first — the term Spirit Animal is appropriated often from indigenous people and isn’t available to use if you’re not an indigenous person. Spirit Guide wades us into similarly murky waters. 

Indigenous peoples have hundreds of spirits in their mythology and history. These spirits are derived from natural elements and are believed to support, inform, and teach in everyday life, and are often called what’s translated in English as Spirit Guides. Sure, New Age spiritualists use the term freely, but it still skeeves me out because it’s mostly appropriated from the indigenous community.  If you want to talk about your group of energetic homies that watch your back, may I instead suggest the non-appropriated, slightly Drake-referential term “Spiritual Team”? 



what’s a spiritual team?

Spiritual Team is a term we can use to describe external energies that give us information and guidance. 

We may, in some cases, be more open to receiving information if we don’t think it comes directly from our own knowledge or intuition. Sometimes it’s easier to process a lesson when we hear it from someone else — the best teachers, mentors, therapists, and nurturers understand that and gently guide us to reveal our own inner knowledge. When we can project our own intelligence onto someone else (even though, hi, the golden nugget was in us all along) it’s easier for us to swallow it. 

But maybe in some cases, there are external influences that help us understand a lesson, truth, or relationship. And maybe we can call these external influences our Spiritual Team. The Akashic Records use the term Masters, Teachers, and Loved Ones (MTLOs) to explain the sort of translators who help curious folx who want to open and read their own records. The MTLOs are unique to each individual — sometimes they show up as a huge group, other times they’re just two or three energies. Most of the time they’re with you for life. 

The school of thought around the Akashic Records breaks a Spiritual Team down into three sort of groups: Ascended Masters, Teachers, and Loved Ones. 

ascended masters 

Ascended Masters are often spirits or entities that lived a human life and have ascended to another level — think deities, religious figures, and saints. It’s said that they work with large groups of souls. So, no, you’re not necessarily special if Krishna is chillin’ in your Spiritual Team, but you are sharing him with a likeminded group of people with a similar purpose. 

teachers 

Teachers are often an archetype that provides information that you need. For example, you might resonate with the idea of a High Priestess, and when you tap in feel the energy of a powerful magical woman in your Spiritual Team but not quite get a name or essential details from her. These archetypes help us see aspects and dimensions of ourselves that maybe we haven’t embodied yet. Also, archetypes can represent a body of knowledge you’re drawing on from a past life that's almost personified. 

loved ones 

These are what you might typically think of as spirits or angels — family members and friends who have passed on and are looking after you. Loved ones can also be members of your ancestral line; it’s possible to resonate with what they’re saying even though you don’t directly know them. Think: great-great-great-great grandparents. 

gdi 

And then there are the energies that just can’t be tamed or labeled — god damn independents. Gotta love ‘em. These are energies that don’t really fit neatly into a bucket. Maybe they’re some sort of extra-terrestrial thing, or future energy, or fairy, whatever. They certainly show up, but you can’t quite put your finger on their material form. Instead, you might to get to know these energies based on how they make you feel when they’re around. 


how can you tell who’s on your team? 

Often people first find out about their Spiritual Team through a Reiki or energy healing session. Even if we’ve had a feeling that we’re surrounded by ~something~ at some point in our lives, I think it’s pretty rare to feel held by energy or spirits or whatever all the time. So you might get an intro to your Spiritual Team at moments where you’re more receptive or when you have someone holding space for you who can hold up a mirror and allow you to “see” who’s chilling on your team. 

You might meet members of your Spiritual Team: 

  • In dreams 

  • While meditating

  • In hypnosis 

  • During an energy healing session 

  • During an intuitive reading 

  • While opening your own Akashic Records 

And of course, they can come through in other ways if you’re open to it. There are also stories of people who’ve seen or felt their Team during times of duress or danger — like when a mysterious energy pushed them out of the way of an oncoming car or told them to wait before turning right which meant they barely missed getting hit by a drunk driver. If it resonates with you, maybe the term “angels” works here, too. 


i want to believe but … this feels weird???

Hello, if you scrolled down to this part of the article I would like to humbly welcome you to my team! I feel you. As an intellectual person, it’s a bit much for me to wrap my head around the idea of a team of spirits. And as an intuitive person, I know that they exist. The push-pull between the two is exhausting. 

Here’s the conclusion I’ve come to — sometimes, the message that’s trying to come down that you need to hear gets packaged in whatever way you can accept it. For some that might be as messages from Pleiadians, for others that might be Grandpa spitting knowledge about your future ex-boyfriend. 

If the idea of having a Spiritual Team feels supportive, cozy, and helpful to you, then lean into it! Get to know them! Open up to them by opening your own Akashic Records and inviting them in! Maybe host a happy hour, you do you! I think that’s a really cool thing you can provide for yourself that supports your own intuition and self-honoring practices. 

And if the idea of talking to a group of energies leaves you a bit freaked, and maybe even pulls you out of your own intuitive abilities … let it go. You don’t need to speak to them directly, or even acknowledge them if you don’t want to. Maybe you’ll change your mind eventually — or maybe not. 

Personally, I don’t feel guides around me all the time. When I open my own Akashic Records, I get information from my MTLOs who almost feel like a nondescript group. I don’t identify with low-key celebs like the Buddha or Cleopatra in my spirit gang. And I’m lucky-ish that I have a lot of friends and family who’ve passed on (obviously the death and grief isn’t the lucky part), who I feel really held by at certain points in my life … but they’re not around constantly, and I’m OK with that. Alone time is cool. 


conclusion

In sum, your Spiritual Team is something that’s def real — but it’s totally your choice whether to lean into it and utilize your team on a day-to-day basis or not. If working directly with your team just doesn’t resonate with you right now, that’s OK too. The most important thing for you to know is that the option is there whenever you’re down for it. You do you, boo.