Guides come in many forms, and are extremely important for our spiritual growth, as well as physical protection. Each of us has many different spirit guides, there are seven main classifications of spirits: African, Christian/Catholic, Arabic, Jewish, Gypsies, Indians, and water spirits! Within each classification there can be a whole realm of possibilities! Some of our main guides our of course, our own ancestors! So it is very important to try and find out as much about your lineage as possible! Working with ancestral spirits is complicated, especially if you have a very mixed lineage like many of us now a days do. A lot of us a currently incarnated in order to heal our lineages with the guidance of the elders of this lineage, and this is not easy work! You will be put through a lot of tests, and it will be a process like the peeling of an onion! But i assure you, the deeper into your ancestry you get, the more you are able to know your purpose, and your qualities! A lot of times we are given the tough qualities of the lineage in order to break them, and release them!
Spirits, just like humans, have their needs and especially WANTS! They like to be payed attention to, and spoken to! If you are trying to contact a guide, it won't happen abruptly, it is a long process. Through that process, you will find out the best way in which your spirits like to be reached. Some of us can actually build the ability to see spirits, hear them, or receive the in our bodies which is called mediumship. For example, I have a spirit guide that i can connect to by smoking tobacco, when i smoke i can hear her clearer and clearer with practice. I also have one that likes aguardiente (RUM), but i only call him in extreme cases! The more you pay attention to the things you like, you can see the connections with the spirits that walk with you!
Spirit guides aren't limited to human souls, animals also walk with us. Not like a totem animal, which appears during a shift in our lives to guide us, but an actual animal spirit that is always with you, and sometimes they decide to incarnate with you in the form of pets. It is very important to know your animal guides, for you will also have some of their qualities!