Soul vs Higher Self vs Spirit Guides: Your Spirit Realm 101 // Ep 010

Have you ever tried to ask for guidance and had no idea who you were actually talking to?

Soul. Higher self. Spirit guide. Angel. Most people use these words like they're interchangeable. They are not, and once you know the difference, tuning in gets a whole lot easier.

In this episode, I'm mapping out the full spirit realm so you know exactly who's who, what they each specialize in, and which one to call on depending on what you need. Think of it as your cheat sheet for intuitive development.

By the end, you'll have a much clearer picture of the support that's already around you, and how to actually use it.


WE COVER:

• The real difference between your Soul and your Higher Self (and why they are not the same thing)
• What your Spirit Guides are actually contracted to help you with
• The one job your Guardian Angels have, and why it is not what you'd think
• When to call on an Ascended Master versus an Archangel
• The one type of "guidance" you want to steer clear of completely

SHOW NOTES:

// Explore more soul-aligned guidance at clairesolomon.com

// New to tuning into your own intuition? You don't need to be born psychic, you just need to learn your own intuitive language. Intuitive Expansion shows you how the spirit realm communicates with you specifically, and gives you the tools to build real trust in what you're picking up [only $22!]

// Curious what your soul record actually holds? The Akashic Records Deep Dive Reading covers your life lessons, soul origins, past life patterns, and full soul purpose picture, all in a beautifully written, in-depth report.

// New to Akashic Records? The Foundations Reading is a gentle starting point, covering your core soul frequency and why you've always felt a little different.

// This episode touches on soul origins too. If you want the full picture on where your soul first came from, that's covered in Soul Origins vs Soul Groups: Why It Matters for Your Purpose // Ep 002

// Noticing patterns, nudges, or themes in your life you can’t quite make sense of? The Soul Threads Living Journal will help you explore them [free resource]

Disclaimer: This podcast shares spiritual insight for personal reflection and entertainment purposes. It is not a substitute for professional medical, psychological, legal, or financial advice. Please use your own discernment when interpreting and applying the information shared.

Transcript

Hey, I'm Clare Solomon, Akashic Records Practitioner, business strategist, and astrology and human design nerd. And this is the Kinda Cosmic Podcast, down-to-earth chats about out-of-this-world stuff. We'll talk Akashic insight, astrology, starseeds, cosmic intel, soul purpose, and all the strange, beautiful ways the universe shows up in everyday life. No fluff, just real talk about being a soul in a human body.

Well, hello there. This episode is hopefully going to be a very helpful one because I know when I was first learning to develop my intuitive senses, I found it really hard to visualize or even like conceptualize what I was tapping into or who or what I was supposed to be asking for guidance from. Who am I asking? Where does this guidance come from? Is it my soul? Is it my higher self? And are these the same? And how does it all fit together? So this episode is here to help with that. 

Now I want you to imagine a kind of mind map situation where you are in the center and there's all these different lines off you to the spirit realm. Each of these lines are basically different channels or different radio stations that you can tune into for guidance. But right there in the middle is you and your unique intuitive senses. Your intuition is what allows you to hear, feel, see, or sense the guidance from one or all of these different sources or radio stations. 

I go through all of this in a fun little course called Intuitive Expansion, which I'll link below. But today I'm going to have a little dive into each of these radio stations or sources and explain the differences because there's actually a lot of confusion about this stuff. 

So let's start here firstly with your soul. Your soul is the eternal part of you, the part that has seen it all, every life, every lesson, every version of you ever since you first broke away from source and experienced yourself in an individual form. Your soul has planned every single one of your hundreds of lifetimes, including this one, and it remembers every single detail of every single lifetime. It remembers which life lessons you were working on and why, which karma or situations or feelings you were working on balancing, which awesome skills and talents you had in each lifetime. And your soul remembers the conclusions you made at the end of each of those lifetimes based on the experiences you experienced within them. Those conclusions can sometimes still cause us blocks today if we left little bits of unresolved energy in past lifetimes. So if you've ever felt like, why do I react to this so strongly? Like this isn't really making any logical sense. Hi, that can be a soul thing, right? 

So your soul also knows exactly where it was born or had its first incarnation. And spoiler alert, for 25% of us, that wasn't Earth. I have done an episode on soul origins, which I will link to as well. But essentially, the soul is the all-seeing, all-knowing part of you that holds the master plan, the big blueprint for your path and the thread between lives. And as we know, our souls are obsessed with growth and evolution, which is exactly why we come to Earth and stuff ourselves into a body, and that is to have experiences, good ones, bad ones, feral ones, because your soul is like, yes, give me the full spectrum, please. It's all about the experience. 

Your soul chooses which gifts and skills are going to be brought forward into this life to jump to that next level of evolution. And the soul is the part of you that I tap into in the Akashic Records. So if you're looking for guidance on your accumulated lifetimes of experience, your deeper lessons, your relationships, your karmic patterns, your innate soul gifts and strengths that might maybe be dormant, you can talk to your soul. 

You might ask things like, Soul, what is the greater soul lesson that I'm meant to be learning by having this experience right now? Or going through this particular situation that I'm going through. That is soul level stuff, right? Macro big picture stuff. 

Now let's talk about your higher self because this is where people often get a bit tangled. There's a pretty big misconception that you can use the word 'soul' and 'higher self' interchangeably, but you cannot. They are completely different facets or parts of you. Your higher self is the highest, most energetically aligned, most authentic, most living fully in your gifts version of you for this lifetime only. So it is you right now, but on a higher dimension. Your higher self lives on the dimension that is totally plugged into cosmic consciousness and wisdom. 

So while your soul is obsessed with the overall growth and development across all of your lifetimes, your higher self is less concerned with that big macro many lifetimes view. Your higher self is more like, how can we help this current version of you become the most aligned, loving, switched-on version of you in this life? Your higher self is basically you as you are right now, but without all of the earthly baggage. Your higher self does not have a body. It does not have a busy human mind or an ego. It does not have messy, reactive emotions, which, let's be honest, pretty much sums up all the things that make being a human. 

So aligning with your higher self is like learning to be spirit, fully aware that you are having a human experience, that you are a soul, a spirit living in a human body for the moment. And aligning with your higher self is learning to be the purest, most non-judgmental, loving, limitless version of you while you are here. Your higher self is an expression of your soul. It's like the soul's plan for the ultimate character for this lifetime, but it's not your overall soul itself. And it's actually through elevating into that higher self state that your soul can actually live out its plan and its mission for this life. 

So if you want guidance on how to navigate this life with more self-love, more compassion, more self-awareness, more clarity in your personal growth, you can ask your higher self. And you can ask things like higher self, what type of energy can I bring into this week to find more joy? Or higher self, what am I not seeing about my role in this situation? So soul is the one who has seen it all across lifetimes, and higher self is you on your highest setting in this life. 

Next on the spirit realm mind map, we have your spirit guides. And these are non-physical beings who are assigned to help you with your soul's growth and evolution. I see most people having between five and ten spirit guides at any one time, sometimes more, sometimes less, and they can swap and change depending on what you're needing most. You will usually have one main guide who has been with you since birth and probably for many lifetimes. So, as an example, when you are a teenager, which is quite a tricky time to be alive, you might have a specific spirit guide that steps in just for that chapter. Their whole thing might be to support you with resilience or self-worth or boundaries or something during that season of your life. And once you've navigated that part of the human experience, they can step back and another guide can come forward. 

And your spirit guides are usually a mix of different types. You might have human guides. So these could be your ancestors or perhaps people who were close to you in past lifetimes. So they may have been somebody like your grandmother in a past lifetime has chosen not to incarnate with you this lifetime, but to be one of your spirit guides. And they know what it is like to be on earth in a body. So they get the really practical human stuff, right? They have been a human and then now they're a spirit guide for you. 

You also can have animal guides. So if you've heard people say, you know, oh, that's my spirit animal, it can be anything, a wolf, dragon, owl, whatever you feel really connected to, there might be a reason for that. And you can tap into the wisdom of that animal archetype. For example, you know, and you can look this up anywhere, or you might have your own understandings of what that is for you. But wolf energy is, you know, like loyalty and leadership, dragon energy for courage and fire. 

Then you may have more cosmic spirit guides. So these can be connected to your soul origins in other planets, other star systems or other realms that you hang out in in between lifetimes. And they bring cosmic knowledge and frequencies that link you back to your soul's DNA. 

And when talking about or understanding spirit guides, I like to use the mountaintop analogy. So if you imagine your higher self is you up on a mountaintop in the stars, somewhere, seeing the big picture of your life and the path ahead. Your spirit guides are also on mountaintops, right up there with your higher self, but they're on different peaks around the same landscape. So they all see you in this life, they all see your path, and they all know your soul plan. But from where they are standing on the different mountain peaks, they see different details than our higher self sees. One might see there's a big boulder in the way that another one can't see from their angle. One might see there's a little shortcut somewhere, or another one might see there's a storm coming. And there is no hierarchy here. There's not one spirit guide is better, more useful, more powerful. It's just that they have different vantage points. 

They're kind of like really wise old family friends who know the whole story about why you came to Earth this time, and they care really deeply about you living out your plan. They will absolutely give tough love if you need it, but they're always, always, always on your team. And often each guide has a kind of specialization and a contract with you. So you might have a guide for health and healing, and another one that's all around purpose and giving you clues on next steps and direction. You might have a guide that's all about giving you courage and confidence. You might have another one that helps you with your creativity and following your creative sparks and joy. And their contract is to be constantly available to you when you call on them. And that part is really, really important. They are contracted to be available 24-7-365. We are the ones who forget to ask them. 

To connect with your spirit guides can take some practice because first you need to learn your own intuitive senses and your own intuitive language. And then you can just simply start the conversation. But when you know who they are and what they help with, it kind of becomes really fun because you know exactly who to direct what question to. 

Next, we have your guardian angels. And like your guides, your guardian angels are assigned to you at birth. But unlike your guides, your guardian angels stay with you for life. They exist in a higher vibration or dimension than your spirit guides, not a better one, just a different part. And most people have between two and four guardian angels. And their purpose is very simple. They are your protectors, like your bodyguards. They protect you physically, emotionally, and spiritually. So let's say you are driving through a city and there's going to be a big car accident up ahead. And it's not actually in your soul plan to be part of that crash at all, but a bunch of different humans, all with their free will choices, have actually created this perfect storm for there to be a car accident, right? Your guardian angels can step in. They might drop a random thought into your mind, like, oh, I'm just going to turn down this side street. Or they can put a feeling, like a really persistent urge in you to stop for fuel or bread or coffee that you feel like I have to stop for coffee. I have to do it right now. Something that delays you just long enough so you are not in the wrong place at the wrong time. 

In very rare, kind of extreme cases, guardian angels can even manifest in physical form. For example, they could appear as a kind person with a twinkly eye who distracts you or asks you for the time or delays you just enough to protect you. And guardian angels can absolutely bring comfort too, but their main job is protection, not like detailed life coaching. 

So if you want specific practical guidance about your path or your work or your relationships or your purpose, that is more of a soul / higher self / spirit guide conversation. Your guardian angels are mostly working quietly in the background, keeping you safe. 

Next, we have the ascended masters. These are divine beings who have ascended beyond the need to incarnate on earth. Goals, right? They have basically completed their curriculum here on earth. And they've integrated all of the big lessons. They've mastered the whole having total awareness of I am a spirit having a human experience thing while they were still alive. And they've nailed the unconditional love, compassion, service thing that the rest of us are still learning and working on. They can choose to come back to earth, but if and when they do, it's not usually for their own growth or evolution, because they've mastered the earthly realm. It's usually for the good of humanity as a whole. You'll know some of these ascended masters' names like Buddha, Mother Mary, Jesus, Krishna, Quan Yin, Kali, Merlin, Lakshmi, Saint Germain, just to name a few. And ascended masters are not usually contracted to work with one person, right? In the way that spirit guides are. They are here for all of humanity. But you can call on any of them at any time and they will respond. They are not exclusive like VIP things. They are available to you at any time simply by saying their name. There is no exclusivity. You are not taking up their time. They have the ultimate capacity to hold the entire planet if needed. So don't feel like what you are wanting to work with them on is too small or trivial or silly. They love helping us. And as I said, they've been on Earth before. So they know exactly how hard it is and what an absolute slog it is to have a body and emotions and all of this human stuff. Spirit guides haven't all necessarily been on Earth, but these guys have. So they have a deep compassion for what we are living through. 

So you might feel really drawn to one or two of them, or you might have like no real connection with any, and all of that is completely fine. Sometimes they just show up because their specific energy matches what you are going through. And I see that quite a bit in my Akashic readings. I'll see certain ascended masters around people that are going through different things and can see that it's like a frequency match thing going on. So most people love finding out that they've got some of these dudes with them. 

Then we have archangels. If guardian angels are more personal to us, archangels are more universal. They are divine level beings like the Ascended Masters, and they hold large-scale energetic frequencies that we can tap into. For example, Archangel Michael holds the frequency of warrior, fearlessness, courage, spiritual protection. Archangel Raphael holds the frequency of love and healing. There are others connected to creativity, communication, abundance, peace, and so on. When you call on an archangel, the guidance will usually feel broad and universal. Still obviously massively helpful and healing. It still applies to you, but it's not like here is guidance on your specific thing. It's more along the lines of you are loved, you are powerful, you are safe, here is an energy that you can lean into that you would benefit from now. They are beautiful to call on for healing work, for big transitions, for global events, or when you want to bathe in or be surrounded by a particular frequency. 

Then on my Spirit Realm 101 map, I also include heart and mind. And that might sound a bit strange, but it's really important because your mind and your heart are part of your physical body, obviously, and part of the human experience. But they're not usually the best sources for final decision making. Your mind is full of programming, fears, stories, conditioning, and your heart is full of emotions, desires, attachments, hurts. And none of that is bad, but because of the nature of them, they're not neutral. So it's not about head versus heart, you know, that you hear a lot. It's actually more about soul and higher self above head and heart. And the more you strengthen your intuitive channel and learn how to access your soul and higher self, guides, angels, ascended masters, the less you actually have to rely on the noise in your head or your emotional storms to make your decisions. They can still inform you. It's pretty hard to switch your head or your heart off, but they are part of your experience. They're just not the CEO boss of your time here, you know? 

Then finally, we have earthbound spirits. And I want to mention them because they are something that you can tune into and they are incredibly unhelpful. Earthbound spirits or ghosts are simply the emotional and mental bodies of people who have died and who have not fully crossed over to the afterlife. So they are kind of stuck in a bit of a limbo. In many cases, they don't always realize that they are stuck. Some even enjoy hanging around because they actually like the lower vibration of Earth. Because obviously, Earth is dense and negative and all of these emotions here that don't exist in the afterlife and beyond. So some souls are very attached to that lower vibration of Earth for various reasons. They might have been a very negative person in life, or they might have been very attached to things like alcohol, drugs, gambling, control, drama. The higher realms are love and light and sparkle dust, so they are like, no, thank you. I will stay here in this realm, very close to Earth, that feels very familiar to me. And they are exactly like regular humans in many ways. They are just dead and stuck and generally quite stubborn. They're not evil. They're not here to possess you. They're just not helpful guides. 

It's kind of like this. Would you walk into a pub or a bar, find the drunkest person at the bar and ask them for advice on your soul path? Probably not. So they're not here to harm anything. They just like the density and aren't ready to cross over yet, right? So just not somebody that you would want to ask these higher vibration questions of. 

And with any intuitive development work, raising your vibration, you know, the whole high vibe thing is literal. Making sure you are at a frequency and vibration yourself that is not negative, cranky, dehydrated, tired, over it. Because guess who's an excellent match for that? Guess who's gonna come through on that radio station, right? They're gonna pick up the phone. And I have a section in my intuitive expansion course on my energetic protection approach. But essentially, it's a really important part of this to ensure that you are tuning into higher guidance rather than this lower kind of random static that's just not going to be helpful in any way. And it's not because you need to be scared. Ironically, that lowers your vibration in itself. It's because you deserve better information than what a stuck human spirit has the ability to give you. They're probably going to give you their negative earthly view. And if we wanted that, we could probably just ask other humans around us. 

So let's quickly recap your spirit realm 101. Your soul, the part of you that has seen it all. It plans your lifetimes, tracks your growth, chooses your lessons and gifts, and cares so deeply about your evolution over time. Your higher self, the highest, most aligned version of you for this lifetime. Less about all of your past lives and more about helping you live your best expression now. Spirit guides, non-physical beings who are contracted to help you align with your soul path and the contracts you agreed to before you were born. Different guides for different themes, wise, loving, specialized support. Guardian angels, your lifelong bodyguards. They protect you physically, emotionally, spiritually, and quietly redirect you when something is not aligned with your soul plan. Ascended masters, beings who have graduated from Earth School, they are available to everyone and offer very high level wisdom and support for humanity as a whole. Archangels, divine beings holding big frequencies like courage, healing, peace, creativity. And you can call them in to surround yourself in those energies. Your heart and mind, beautiful parts of being human, but not meant to be your only sources of guidance. Your soul and higher self sit above those. And earthbound spirits, stuck humans, not evil, just unhelpful. And we don't want to be asking them for life advice. 

So who can you get guidance from? Technically, anyone. But now you have a clearer map of who is who, what they specialize in, and which channel or radio station might be most supportive to call on for what you are needing. And you can really just start simple. You might choose to talk to your soul this week, or introduce yourself and get familiar with your higher self. Or you can simply say, Spirit guides, I am open to hearing from you this week in a way that I can recognize. You don't have to get it perfect, there's no such thing, but you just have to start the conversation. 

But I want to end with the biggest fact of all. We are far more supported than we think. We just forget to ask. So I hope this has been helpful, and until next time. 

And that's it for today's Kinda Cosmic chat. Find more soul-aligned guidance at https://clairesolomon.com/