Discover Your Soul Team: You Are Not Alone
Hi, I’m Doctor Mary Newstrom.
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And I’m Dawn Morningstar, welcome to Soul Fire Sisters, a sacred space where we ignite women’s inner fire, awaken their truth, and share soulful conversations that inspire, heal, and empower.
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Each episode we dive deep into themes of self discovery, intuition, feminine wisdom, and spiritual growth, guided by raw stories, fierce honesty, and a shared desire to live boldly and authentically.
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Whether you’re on a healing journey, seeking deeper connection, or ready to rise in your power, you are not alone.
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Dawn Morningstar, which is her given name, has been a Women’s Self Empowerment Coach for 37 years, is the award-winning author of Venerable Women, Transform Ourself.
Transform the World is a former radio talk show host, a podcast host, Ted X Speaker, the creator of Radiant Face 18 and Co founder of New World Women.
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Doctor Mary Newstrom is an internationally known shamanic teacher, a spiritual minister, and a keynote speaker.
She founded Zenith High LLC and created Spirit Flower, a shamanic study program for women.
She’s committed to helping women and men develop a strong sense of purpose as they examine and understand how to stand clearly in their power.
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Welcome to the sisterhood, Your soul showed up for a reason.
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Welcome back, Soul Fire Sisters.
I’m Dawn Morningstar, and we welcome you to this episode #2 that we are calling spirit guides, ancestors and allies who’s really helping you and how you can tell.
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And I’m Doctor Mary Newstrom.
And sisters, we are so glad you’re here.
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Last episode we talked about the great turning, this enormous collective awakening that’s happening whether we asked for it or not.
Some of us have asked for it, and one of the things that came up almost immediately in our conversations after that episode aired was this Am I doing this alone?
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Absolutely not.
No.
No one’s doing any of this alone, and we’re going to explain what that means.
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Yes, yeah, you are so not doing it alone.
And that’s what today is all about.
Because one of the most profound and honestly relieving truths in both the shamanic world and the visionary world is that we have help.
We have always had help and most of us were just never told that we did.
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And today we’re going to talk about spirit guides, spirit animals, ancestors and allies, who they are, how they show up, and most importantly, how you can tell the difference between real guidance and wishful thinking.
So discernment.
What does that mean?
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Yeah, that last part, that is the conversation.
How can you tell the difference?
So let’s take a breath together first.
Wherever you are right now, just pause, breathe in slowly and release.
Feel yourself held by your chair, by the ground, by something much larger than this moment.
You are already in good company.
Mary’s Journey: Meeting Her Spirit Guide Zenith
So, Mary, I want to start with you because in your shamanic tradition, this isn’t metaphor.
What we’re talking about, these helpers are real and you’ve been working with them forever.
How do you describe what a spirit guide actually is?
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You know, it’s interesting, I’ve never would have thought of using the word metaphor because these are so real.
These are helpers.
They’re your soul team.
And now we could, we could do many podcasts on this, but I’m going to, I’m going to just kind of reduce it down that a spirit guide is someone there that’s there to help you, to guide you in relationship with you, where we look at some of the differences with guardian angels and spirit animals.
And we’re going to talk about that a little bit later.
But a spirit guide is really could be an ancestor, could be an animal, could be the, the spirit of fairies.
It’s this energy that is surrounding you and helping you guide you with the understanding you also have free will as well.
They’re really compassionate and they are in what we call non ordinary reality, which means basically they’re where we can’t see them necessarily, but there’s plenty of things that are around us that we can’t see, such as radio waves, for example.
And so they they’re there to guide us and to give us insight, but but to really help us along our path as well.
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Beautiful.
Now you had Zenith, your own spirit guide, come to you back in 1982, and that’s how you.
Well, you tell the story about the naming of your business.
Yeah.
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Actually, this is an interesting story.
I think probably many listeners have heard this and many haven’t.
But in 82, I was a young kid at going to the University of Minnesota.
And in a dream, Zenith came to me and said that he was my guide and his name was Zenith.
And that the message really was work on your own things before you start helping other people.
And he and I, so I’ve been working with my my spirit guide since 82.
So it’s it, it’s really interesting to me that people aren’t working with their guides.
I’m a little bit surprised cause I’ve been working with mine so long and when I thought of naming my practice, I wanted to really honor him.
And so that’s why it’s named.
I named it Zenith High.
And we have a whole team.
So he’s just one team member, the main one and one that’s been with me a while.
But everybody here, no matter who you are and who’s ever listening, you have you have a team.
Your spiritual team is made of those that look, that look maybe like human or animal or Angel, like everybody has a whole group working for them, fearing them woman.
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Doesn’t that feel good to know that we have a whole team?
So I want to go back to when you were describing what these spirit guides are and you would use the phrase non ordinary reality, because if anybody is new to these concepts in this way of talking, that’s not a dismissal of ordinary reality, it’s an expansion of it.
And from my visionary perspective, I might use different language.
I talk about divine intelligence, inner knowing, the voice that speaks underneath the noise.
But what I’ve come to believe, especially after working with you, is that we’re often pointing at the same thing, just from different angles.
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Oh, absolutely.
Actually, what I what I mentioned to people all the time, I see myself as a translator, translating all these different cosmologies of different spirituality in the in the end, they’re all really the same, we’re just using different semantics.
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So you’d say that it’s different maps, but the same territory, right.
And I think that you know that what matters for our listeners isn’t the the words we use or the theology, it’s the experience.
Have you ever had a knowing that you couldn’t explain?
I’m asking this to our listeners.
A nudge that didn’t make any logical sense, but it turned out to be exactly right.
I bet everybody’s thinking of something like that now.
A dream that felt like a visitation, or a moment where you felt where you just weren’t alone.
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And more than likely that your spirit guide, that’s your spirit ally.
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Yes, your helper.
And that’s what we’re talking about today.
How Spirit Allies Communicate Through Signs and Synchronicity
So let’s talk about the forms that these allies take because I think a lot of women have been having these experiences and not knowing what to call them or whether to trust them.
To me, that’s the biggest thing I hear so many women say.
Well, I just don’t know, like, you know how to trust this.
How do I know it’s real, right?
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In shamanism, there are different categories of helping spirits power animals, which are exactly what they sound like, animals in spirit form who lend us their medicine, their attributes and their protection.
We do have ancestral guides that are healed, so they’re not going to be the ancestors that you might be thinking of.
Just crossed over and you’re like, oh holy no moan, no, I do not want that.
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So no, thank you.
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That’s why it’s like it’s important.
I always add healed ancestors and they care about us.
And so they are all teachers.
We’re so in shamanism, it can be all these different entities that are reaching out, but the number one thing is to give you guidance and give you support as you maneuver through your life.
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Yeah, and it’s also worth saying that you know what we’re talking about here.
It’s not fringe stuff.
It’s not weird.
This is ancient.
These traditions exist in virtually every single indigenous culture on earth.
And the idea that we are in relationship with an unseen world of helpers is arguably the oldest spiritual understanding that humanity has.
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Oh yes, and it’s actually the spirit guides and also the different dimensions.
So we when we’re talking about non ordinary reality, we’re talking about a dimension that is of our middle world.
And there’s different dimensions, but that’s the number one common thing with shamanism around the world is the different dimensions and guides we have.
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Yes.
And these different world views, Right.
So.
And for those of us who were raised in traditions that didn’t include any of this stuff or dare say, actively discouraged it, I just want to say you haven’t missed the boat, the helpers that you’ve been waiting for.
They’re waiting very patiently for you.
Oh yeah.
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Absolutely.
When I introduce people to their guides, they’re like, finally, we’ve been waiting.
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Yes, I remember when you taught the class in New World Women and you introduced us while you were rattling and you introduced us to how to find our spirit guides.
I remembered so many of the women had really beautiful experiences.
And I know that those who are in your Spirit Flow program and other Zenith High courses and things that you teach, they’re not only finding their spirit guides, but they’re trusting them and they are allowing them to help them with their decisions in their lives, to inspire them, and so on.
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Absolutely, absolutely.
And you know, the our ancestors and our spirit guides, it really they are there for us to lean on.
They are there for incited input.
And then you also though they, they recognize their sovereignty and free will.
And so it’s important to understand that that we still have that free choice, free will, but it’s nice to know that you’re not.
No one’s walking through all of this alone.
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Yes, and these spirit guides can show up in a number of different ways.
I’ve had my own experience with this over the years where I felt accompanied by something I couldn’t see, but in one case it was something I could see.
When I was in 3rd and 4th grade, I attended an all girls school that was across town from where I lived and I used to have to take three buses every day to get there and on one particular day.
And by the way, I’ll say that the nuns were very, very strict and they could be easily riled up if you were one minute late to be in your in your seat for the the school day to begin.
Anyway, it was a very icy, snowy day and I’m trying to make my way up the hill to the school.
It was at the top of the hill and I knew I was late.
I didn’t have a watch on, but I just intuitively knew I was late.
And I’m slipping and sliding and I just felt very alone and I was cold and I was afraid of the nun yelling at me.
And I looked over and there is a statue of the Blessed Mother that and it’s like in a little grotto And I looked over and I swear that statue moved and smiled at me and just she put her hand out like just keep going, just keep going.
I made my way up the hill.
I sat down in my classroom was one minute before the class was supposed to start.
So that felt like a spirit guide in an unusual form because I’ve never seen one in a statue before.
So that was really cool.
So, so how do they actually communicate Mary if it’s not like a statue smiling at you, like in my case, how how do they, how do they communicate?
Because most of us aren’t going on formal shamanic journeys every day, Although I do recommend Mary’s to Peru if you’re ever able to do that.
So how does the guidance come through in ordinary?
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Life, it is a training, it is discernment where you’re asking the questions and I would say connecting with your guides, you’re asking the the question of help me today so I’m sure everybody’s experienced maybe a little prayer yes and looking for maybe those subtle messages.
Maybe you feel something in your body or you’re getting a sign or an omen in nature.
It is really learning to connect those dots.
That’s why people also come to my workshops and join my training program to understand and to practice what we’re talking about.
Discernment, really understanding where you’re feeling yeses in your body, noes in your body.
Like should I do this?
If are you getting an intuitive hit, well, that’s probably a guide helping you with that or you getting a no.
Are you, do you think, you know, do you have an affinity that you love a particular type of animal that could be your spirit animal?
So it’s practice, it’s using imagination and being creative, and then just just practicing and then double checking when you’re getting things so that you’re like, hey, this is how I feel it in my body, that determent.
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I love that and I know that’s just the tip of the iceberg, but good answer.
And then there’s also Synchronicity, where Carl Jung named but what I think most women have experienced and probably marveled at in some way.
Like, for example, when you think of someone and then they call you or you open a book exactly to the page you need.
Or I was in a library one time when a book fell off a shelf and it started me on a very cool spiritual journey.
And when you ask a question in your heart and the answer shows up on a billboard or a license plate in front of you or something like that.
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Yeah, and you know, we we on the shamanic terms call those omens.
That’s what I was talking about with messages, connecting the dots.
And I want to really highlight people listening.
Everybody feels this energy and gets some messages in different ways, meaning that you might get a message your healed ancestor is wrong because you’re smelling Cologne or perfume.
Or you might they might think messages might come more for listening instead of seeing.
So keep that in mind with when you’re tapping into your body to get those messages.
It’s not always visual and I think we always we think that way, but it’s not.
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And I want to ask you about that, the ancestors specifically, because that’s something that I find so moving about your tradition, Mary, the idea that love doesn’t have to stop at death.
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Oh, of course not.
And actually it’s, it’s because there’s many thoughts that you’ve had many lifetimes with those individuals that they’re in your soul group, you’re, they’re helping you create soul contracts.
And so of course, you’re just going to be close and they’re going to be assisting you as you’re going through your life.
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I love that.
Telling Real Guidance from Wishful Thinking: True Stories
So this is one of the parts I’ve been waiting for because I think this is where a lot of sincere, spiritually open people get tangled up.
How do you know it’s real guidance?
How do you know that you’re not just hearing what you want to hear or making stuff up in your head?
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Yeah, I think it comes down to, like I said, when you get messages double checking and once you start getting confidence in the messages you’re getting from your guides through different avenues, that will build your confidence.
But I also know that when spirit guides come through, there isn’t an ego involved.
There’s not a we need to do it absolutely this way or there’s gonna be, you know, repercussions.
But it’s, it’s, it’s a way of it’s more subtle.
It’s more calm.
It maybe resonates with a quiet, steady, clear feeling.
So you’re going to be getting messages from your guides will should not be amping you up, but should actually be calming you and putting you of Yep, peace and quiet.
And if it’s if it’s not from your guides, it can be distorted.
It it’ll carry urgency.
Maybe fear is not coming from a place that you want to be following.
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I love that I never thought about it that way.
If it’s a place of calming us down, then that feels more real and true.
And if you’re someone who’s been burned before, who followed a sign that turned out not to be the one I want to say, that doesn’t mean that guidance isn’t real.
It means that discernment is something we develop over time.
You haven’t failed.
You’re learning the language.
And I would add to that, trusting your body.
I hear you say that a lot, Mary.
What do you feel in your body?
What is your body telling you?
Our bodies are wonderful barometers for these kinds of things.
So we are at the point in our podcast where it is story time.
We love a story.
And Mary, I believe you have one that really speaks to what we’ve been talking about.
A moment where guidance was undeniable for you, or where you witnessed something that really, you know, echoes what we’re talking about today.
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One thing I I really like about shamanism too, is that we like to speak in ways of stories or our history and stories.
And this is an this is a story about Great Aunt Edna and I want to say hello, Aunt Edna.
She has passed over and all my friends know that my history I honor ancestors know if you don’t, if a person doesn’t, it’s easy to honor them.
You can put on Memorial Day.
You could put flowers on the grave.
You can put their picture up.
They they want to be remembered and in my family, that’s what we did.
So I grew up with a history of that.
And so my friends know I like to stop at our at cemeteries to honor my ancestors.
And we were aunt, great aunt Edna is buried in Watertown, MN’s cemetery.
And I was doing some volunteer work with a dear friend and we were driving by, we’re going by Watertown.
And I said, hey, I want to step by and say hello to Edna, even though there’s Edna’s everywhere and I can talk to her anywhere.
And my friend, because they know my history was like, oh, OK, we’ll do that.
And as we’re driving there, we, our GPS was actually taking us around the town to get us to where we needed to volunteer for the master naturalist program.
And I just turned to my friend and I said, listen, you know what?
I know we’re going to be back here.
We, we, we can, we can see her another time.
And literally at that point, the GPS started rerouting, rerouting.
We had not touched it.
Aunt Edna rerouted it.
We went right back to Watertown, MN.
We did not touch it.
We each other went, Oh my gosh, went back to the cemetery, got her some flowers, honored her.
It was incredible.
It was incredible.
And the fun thing is other people heard the story and said you should get this on a podcast.
And I’m so glad it’s our podcast.
I’m sharing the story for the first time.
It happened 100% unbelievable.
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And I know on Edna is smiling on our podcast now, so that is so cool.
I love that.
And you know, you cannot make this.
You really can’t.
You really, really can’t.
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I’m so glad I wasn’t.
I mean, I would have still totally believed it had I, I’ve been alone.
But the best thing is I wasn’t alone.
You know what?
We were just like, oh, this is interesting.
OK.
We’re going back to Watertown and we just zipped right back there.
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I love it.
I love it.
Well, my story is a short one.
I just completed a seven week book journey, Book journey, study and circle in New World women focused on Mary Magdalene.
The book is called Mary Magdalene revealed by Megan Watterson.
Great discussions, very deep.
We got very bonded, this group of women.
We just fell in love with one another in this study.
And then that came to an end.
And the women said, oh, let’s keep going with the book study.
What book is going to be next?
And so I spent hours and hours and hours looking for just the right book.
And I everyone I looked at, it’s like, that’s not quite it.
That’s not quite it.
And so somehow with all this studying, this book showed up in front of me.
It had been published one week ago, one week ago and it’s by Doctor Sue Mortar who she’s the woman who wrote the energy codes.
And this new book is called The Anatomy of Awakening and it is like the exact aligned, exactly aligned with the teachings within the Mary Magdalene Gospel.
And so it just felt like, and before I found that book, I just kept asking my spirit guides like, please help me find the right book for this group.
While I announced it on Tuesday evening what book it was going to be, everyone is overjoyed.
Several of the women had just heard about it, and I felt like it was synchronicity after synchronicity.
And so that was a wonderful experience of being able to use that those techniques, those practices in, you know, in a way that was helpful to myself and to other people.
Yes.
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And and acknowledging that this is where I think a lot of people poo poo that.
And then that’s where they come to me and they’re a little confused.
It’s like you’re acknowledging that this was a gift that was given to you where a lot of times people are like it was coincidence.
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Right, right, right.
There are no coincidences is what I’ve heard said, and I kind of think it’s true.
An Invitation to Connect with Your Spiritual Allies
So dear Soul Fire sisters, here is your soul fire spark for the week.
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OK, this is an experiment, not an assignment, so you can do it.
Don’t have to do it, but you know, give it a try.
We want you to try something.
Just for this week, find a quiet moment.
I’m going to say in nature if possible.
It can be 5 minutes.
Ask out loud or in your heart.
Who is helping me?
Who’s my spirit guide?
Make yourself known and then just listen and see what happens.
See what messages do you get something like what dawn happened?
Do you get a GPS rerouting back to somewhere else?
What messages are you getting?
And I would encourage also to journal because sometimes they don’t make sense right away, but in after a while it will.
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I love that.
And if you feel silly doing what Mary recommended, which I don’t think you would, but if you do, let silliness be the edge of your old worldview expanding and stay with it.
And as Mary said, write down what you notice, even if it feels small.
Because here’s what we know, sisters, you were not sent here alone.
The help was part of the deal.
You just may not have been introduced to it yet.
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But now you have.
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I love it, I love it.
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Hey, Fire Soul, Fire sisters, we hope this episode opened something in you today.
Because once you know you have allies in this world, because we’re your ally in this world and other worlds and other dimensions, once you really know it, everything changes.
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We are your allies, and until we meet again, feel the fire in your soul and live from it.
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Our world needs your passion, your gifts and your heart.
Don’t wait, lean in.
Do it now.
Whatever your it is, do it now.
Let’s.
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Create a new world for ourselves and for future generations.
Thank you, dear listeners, for sharing this sacred space with us today.
Soul Fire Sisters is lovingly created and produced by me, Don Morningstar and Doctor Mary Newstrom with editing and publishing by Sean Vujo.
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This podcast is brought to you by Xenothai LLC, Spirit Flow Shamanic Studies Program, New World Women and Radiant Face 18 and is featured on the New World Women Voices of Wisdom podcast.
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You can find all the ways to connect with us in the show notes.
Farewell for now and remember your soul fire knows the way.
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Bye everyone, bye bye.
Hey Soul Fire Sisters, we hope you’ve enjoyed this episode.
Please share Soul Fire Sisters with your friends.
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Until we meet again, reflect on the changes you want to make, feel the fire in your soul, and live from that fire.
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Our world needs your passion, your gifts, your heart.
Don’t wait, do it now.
Whatever your it is, do it now.
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Let’s use our power to create a world we actually want to live in, a loving new world for ourselves and for future generations.
We’ve got this.