Tutelary spirits are indwelling spirits that provide guidance and influence. Tutelary spirits can be compared to intuition or wisdom from the Higher Self.
Plotinus, an Egyptian who taught neoplatonic philosophy in Rome in the third century C.E., rejected the idea of astral INTELLIGENCES influencing people but believed people to be guided by increasingly powerful higher forcesā tutelary spiritsāas they ascended to Divine Mind. Tutelary spirits keep the soul focused on God. In his treatise On Our Tutelary Spirit, Plotinus said:
Our tutelary spirit is not entirely outside of ourselves, is not bound up with our nature, is not the agent in our action; it belongs to us as belonging to our soul, as āthe power which consummates the chosen lifeā; for while its presidency saves us from falling deeper into evil, the direct agent within us is something neither above nor equal to it, but under it; man cannot cease to be characteristically man.
Tutelary spirits are mentioned in the Arbatel of Magic, a GRIMOIRE of magical instruction.
SOURCE:
The Encyclopedia of Magic and Alchemy Written byRosemary Ellen Guiley Copyright Ā© 2006 by Visionary Living, Inc.