Entertainment / Literature / Spirit Guide: A conventional figure in mythology, in the medieval visio and in shamanistic myths that serves as (1) a guide to a lost or wandering soul or to (2) a guide to the dreaming psyche of another character. The Greeks, for instance, referred to Hermes Mercury as a psychopompos, a soul-carrier to direct the deceased through the caverns of Avernus to the edge of the River Styx, where Charon would ferry the souls of the dead across the water into Hades. The figure of Anubis guided Egyptian spirits to the afterlife, and so on. In the medieval tradition of the visio, the spirit guide would serve as a commentator for the confused soul of a sleeping individual. Thus, we have a grandfather figure guiding our narrator in the Somnium Scipionis, or Virgil and Beatrice steering Dante through the Inferno and upwards toward Paradiso, or the ghost of Pearl explaining to her grieving father the nature of heaven. Chaucer gleefully throws this medieval convention on its head in The Book of the Duchess by making the narrator slip out of bed naked to follow his spirit-guide (a puppy) for a short while during a hunt--only to get lost and bumble on without it until he finds the grieving Knight in Black. Non-medieval examples of the spirit guide include the ghost of Marley who chastizes Ebeneezer Scrooge in Dickens' A Christmas Carol, the totemic spirits prominent in the visionquests of Amerindian tribes, or even the ebon bird guiding the rock-n-roll revenant seeking revenge in Brandon Lee's film, The Crow.
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Guide Verb Synonyms: instruct, teach, tutor, train
Guide Noun Synonyms: lead, show or lead the way, conduct, shepherd, direct,her, steer, orient or orientate
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Spirit Noun Synonyms: anima, breath, life, vitality, vital spirit, pneuma, soul, consciousness, psyche, self, heart, essence
Spirit Adjective Synonyms: character, temperament, temper, persona, disposition, mind, will, will-power, attitude, bent, inclination, energy, ardor, desire, impetus, drive, urge, eagerness, zest, zeal, zealousness, fire, passion(s), enthusiasm, motivation, mettle, resolution, resol
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Entertainment / Music / Spiritual: Folklike devotional genre of the United States, sung by African-Americans and whites. MORE
Entertainment / Literature / Spiritual Autobiography: An autobiography (usually Christian) that focuses on an individual's spiritual growth. The plot is typically chronological in structure, and it usually focuses on inner struggles within the narrator, MORE
Entertainment / Literature / Spirit Guide: A conventional figure in mythology, in the medieval visio and in shamanistic myths that serves as (1) a guide to a lost or wandering soul or to (2) a guide to the dreaming psyche of another character. MORE