Spirit Guide

[Synnthetika]

So, my fiance is Native American (Klamath tribe for those interested) and one of our friends was talking about spirit animals/spirit guides. (To start, does anyone know the specific disambiguation between the two?) My fiance said that spirit guides are a Native American cultural thing and that unless you are Native American and have gone through the specific rites to obtain one you don't have one.

Is this true? Is it more flexible? Are there other cultures that utilize a spirit animal or guide?

Now, Sylvia Brown (don't shoot me) has talked about spirit guides. I don't really pay much attention to her, but when I googled it for quick info, it came up. Is she talking about something totally different? Then everything else was "about.paganwicca.blah" or "Crystal's Animal Spirit Page" so I decided to come here and ask instead.

X-posted to M&R.  

[Collowrath]

Synnthetika

So, my fiance is Native American (Klamath tribe for those interested) and one of our friends was talking about spirit animals/spirit guides. (To start, does anyone know the specific disambiguation between the two?) My fiance said that spirit guides are a Native American cultural thing and that unless you are Native American and have gone through the specific rites to obtain one you don't have one.

Is this true? Is it more flexible? Are there other cultures that utilize a spirit animal or guide?

It might be true for the Klamath and related peoples. It would strike me as a little silly to insist that there is any unified standard "Native American Culture" that remains constant across the 500+ separate, unique nations in the US alone. Sure, there is a good amount of sharing between different groups of people living in the same place (just like in Europe, Asia, India, Africa), but no, they don't all share the same beliefs and standards.

Also, inb4 Native American culture is closed: see the previous paragraph - there are far too many cultures at play here to make a statement like that. Also, it entirely ignores the massive number of other factors that play a part in this. The Navajo and Hopi, for instance, are pretty closed to outsiders; non-members don't participate or get to stick around, and in the case of the Hopi, we don't even know if "what we know" about their culture and myths is even true because of how closed they are. The Cherokee? Not so much, though among Native communities in general, there is a huge amount of suspicion toward outsiders - centuries of active genocide combined with the Cherokee Princess syndrome among suburban Whites tends to do that.

Not to mention, the question of Native identity can be pretty complicated among different nations. For instance, the Lakota and many Eastern Woodland nations actively adopt outsiders. The racist blood quantum and tribal ID cards are not a good gauge.

I could go on for hours about this, and so could much of my adopted/ive family. =D I'll quit the lecture here for now, though.

That said, the concept itself isn't unique to Native cultures. Norse culture and religion has a similar concept involving female relatives.  

[aoijea23487]

My ex-boyfriend was really into talking to his spirit guides. He is a devout (word choice?) Buddhist and said that his spirit guides were people who had attained enlightenment and were helping him.  

[Cranium Squirrel]

Illiezeulette

My ex-boyfriend was really into talking to his spirit guides. He is a devout (word choice?) Buddhist and said that his spirit guides were people who had attained enlightenment and were helping him.

Which school? Sounds Mahayana of some sort; and he's probably thinking Bodhisattva rather than Spirit Guide - under normal circumstances, those enlightened leave the cycle and there'd be nothing left to guide him that way when they did. But a Bodhisattva would leave him some great wiggle room for that claim. 3nodding  

[TeaDidikai]

I'd argue that some language should only be applied to Native American concepts (such as odoodeman and perhaps totem), but the idea of spirit animals and spirit guides being limited to only Native American tribes is ignorant at best.

The Gael, the Norse, the Slavs all have pre-Christian traditions relating to spiritual influences of animals to the best of my recollection- and those are just the ones I can think of off the top of my head.  

[Recursive Paradox]

I'm not sure if some of the Animal Essences could be considered spirit guides. I'll look into it.  

[patch99329]

I'd agree with Tea.

Whilst your fiances idea of a spirit guide is probably culturally specific and closed to outsiders, the concept of a spirit guide itself is not a specifically native American one.

In my opinion, there are many spirits out there that are not bound to a particular culture. If one feels the inclination for whatever reason to attach to and guide a person or household, then it will regardless of their culture.  

[TeaDidikai]

patch99329

In my opinion, there are many spirits out there that are not bound to a particular culture. If one feels the inclination for whatever reason to attach to and guide a person or household, then it will regardless of their culture.

This has been my experience.  

[Collowrath]

TeaDidikai

patch99329

In my opinion, there are many spirits out there that are not bound to a particular culture. If one feels the inclination for whatever reason to attach to and guide a person or household, then it will regardless of their culture.

This has been my experience.

For what it's worth - mine too.  

[CuAnnan]

Tell your boyfriend that, on behalf of the countless cultures that have relationships with animal spirits, he can come over here and tell me that my culture stole from his, centuries before America was known to the Europeans.  

[Synnthetika]

Well, I think his inclination towards that view is from, as Tea said, the specific language and/or concepts pertaining to them in closed-cultures. I mean, I know about other cultures using the term spirit guide or something similar, but I didn't know if that was just a common U.S. term and the actual concepts for each was different. The Disir, in particular, are spirit guides from what I can tell.

All the same, thank you all. I'll let him know and hopefully he'll understand.