The contemporary interest in angels is built largely around Guardian angels, a specific category of angelic beings said to be assigned to watch over each person. However, parallel notions of guardian or tutelary spirits are found worldwide in every culture—even in societies lacking belief in what we would readily call angels.

The function of these tutelary spirits is, in many cases, quite similar  to the function of traditional angels. They watch over and protect individuals, and in some cultures, these spirits are believed to be attached to a person from birth. The manner in which these spirits manifest their guidance varies: often people refer to inexplicable “hunches” or intuitions, sometimes they receive visions or hear voices.

Possibly the most well known means of actually seeking a guardian spirit is the “vision quest” undertaken by certain Native American groups. In these societies, a standard component of the puberty rite (the formal transition from childhood to adulthood) is the ritual quest for a “revelation” (in the form of a dream or a vision) from the spirit world. It is the hope that this revelation will ultimately inspire in a young person a sense of purpose or identity, or it may steer the seeker toward his adult vocation. These rituals sometimes involve treks into the wilderness where the seeker fasts or engages in other activities likely to bring on visionary experiences. As part of the vision, initiates often acquire spirit helpers who take the form of animal spirits, deceased relatives, or personifications of the forces of nature. This link-up (meeting the spirit guardian) can be viewed as a wholly new relationship, or the conscious realization of a relationship that has existed since birth.

Shamans (healers or religious specialists of hunter/gatherer cultures), who may find their vocations during their adolescent vision quest—or, later, during a separate encounter with the otherworld—often have many spirit helpers. These helpers run the gamut from animal spirits to the spirits of departed shamans. With respect to animal helpers (one’s “power animals,” to use contemporary terminology) the relationship may be a totemic one, meaning that the initiate or shaman in some way participates in the nature of the animal. In other words, a person with an eagle spirit helper becomes “eagle-like,” and someone with a bear helper becomes “bear-like.”

There is, in particular, a correlation between the shaman’s guardian spirits and traditional guardian angels. To the extent that such helpers are viewed as communication links between shamans and higher spirits, they function as true angels (whose defining characteristic is the job of message bearers).A phenomenon with certain parallels to shamanism is contemporary Spiritualism. Among Spiritualists, whose religion is built around communication with the so-called dead, one finds similar notions of spirit guides or helpers—helpers who are often, but not always, deceased relatives. Individual mediums (people with exceptional sensitivity to the otherworld) often have many guides, much as the shaman has many spirit helpers. Despite this multiplicity, mediums will usually have one principle spirit—a master guide or “control”—who regulates contact with other spirits, and who thus serves as a kind of guardian spirit for the medium.

~From: Anels A-Z by Evelyn Dorothy Oliver & James R. Lewis

Sources:

Eliade, Mircea, ed. Encyclopedia of Religion.16 vols. New York: Macmillan, 1987.

Hultkrantz, Ake. Conceptions of the Soul Among North American Indians. Stockholm: Ethnographic Museum of Sweden, 1953.

Lewis, James R. The Encyclopedia of Afterlife Beliefs and Phenomena. Detroit, Mich.: Gale Research, 1994.