My Ezine article reprinted here.

Every person alive today has a guide. No one walks alone. We might feel we do, but we all have a guide with us.

Guides are usually with us due to family, past life or karmic links.

There are several types of guides and they all have different functions. There are the guides with whom we have family ties. They are there to help us within the context of our family relationships.

Then there are the past life guides. They are called to be our guides because of relationships in a past life and karmic links. They are there to help with personality, emotional and mental issues, such as anger, self faith or any of those countless issues we never resolve life after life.

Then there are the higher spiritual teacher guides. These higher guides still need to come back into body, they are still on the cycle of rebirth, but they are old souls and are drawn to act as teachers because of karmic and past life connections. Higher guides come and go. They rarely stay a life time with one person though it is not impossible. They are there to work with our life lessons and spiritual development.

Guides are still on the cycle of rebirth - Ascended Masters are not, karma no longer draws the Masters back into body. They have ascended. Guides have not ascended.

The Ascended Masters are here for one reason and one reason only - to help humanity in their ascension process.

They have walked the path of Ascension and still do. Their service is to help humanity in their ascension process. Ascension is the raising of our vibration and therefore our consciousness.

Everyone incarnates on one of 7 rays. Prior to incarnation you are assigned a team of angels and Masters. This team will assess when you are ready for the Ascended Master teacher to start to walk beside you. For some this never happens in their present lifetime, and for others the Master walks with them from birth, and for others the Master comes later in life. The Masters are there to teach and guide you in the raising of your consciousness and your vibration - in other words Ascension.

These are the times of Ascension. That is why so many more Ascended Masters are stepping forward to be identified. That is why so many of you have an Ascended Master with you.

Also some of you have heart connections with the Masters from previous lives, and this soul call brings the Masters in closer. A good example of this is Jesus, Mother Mary and Buddha. Many have had lives as devotees -nuns, monks, priests - in which lives have been devoted in worship and adoration to one particular Master. The soul remembers this and once in body again, the soul calls to the Master. This heart connection brings the Master in closer, regardless of the ray the person incarnates on or the team assigned to them. This heart connection from previous lives often causes the person to reject their current teacher, allowing no heart connection in this life to be formed. 

But remember, ascension is about becoming your own Master; it's about the ascension into your own Christ. When you are ready to start the Ascension into your own Christ, that's when the Master will appear before you, having walked the path you are now walking, ready to show you the way. There a thousands upon thousands of Masters who have ascended. Your Master is chosen for you because they are best suited to assist in your Ascension process. Some of you will have a series of Masters come and go, till your true teacher appears.

To recap, the differences between an Ascended Master and a Guide are;

1. Everyone has a guide, but not everyone has a Master with them.

2. Karma, past life and family links are the criteria for the attraction of a guide to you. Whereas an Ascended Master is chosen for a person according to their ascension needs, lessons and their ray of incarnation.

3. Guides are still on the cycle of rebirth, Ascended Masters are not, they have ascended beyond the pull back into body.

4. Ascended Masters are only concerned about helping humanity ascend. Guides are here to help in all other matters.