--- title: "How are Upper-World Guides different from Lower-World Guides?" description: "Lower-World Guides belong to the realm of Mother Earth**Mother Earth.** The sacred Feminine pole: pure potential, from whom all the Peoples arise. The Lower-World is her realm, and she is all the realms: \"The Earth is indeed our Mother.\" [More…" url: "https://www.therapeutic-shamanism.co.uk/wiki/how-are-upper-world-guides-different-from-lower-world-guides/" updated: "2026-11-10" category: The Guides tags: - culture - discernment - Guides - "Human Lower-World Guide" - "lower-world" - oneness - power animal - soul - Spirit - "upper-world" --- # How are Upper-World Guides different from Lower-World Guides? Lower-World Guides belong to the realm of Mother Earth**Mother Earth.** The sacred Feminine pole: pure potential, from whom all the Peoples arise. The Lower-World is her realm, and she is all the realms: "The Earth is indeed our Mother." [More about this](/wiki/who-is-mother-earth/) and Soul: wild nature, hunter-gatherer people, interconnection and individuality held within the whole. Upper-World Guides belong to the realm of Father Sky**Father Sky.** The sacred Masculine pole: pure consciousness, from which the Upper-World arises. Paired with Mother Earth. 'Father Sun' is the older name for the same pole, found in the first three books. [More about this](/wiki/who-is-father-sky/) and Spirit: wisdom, compassion, perspective and oneness, perceived through the images our culture gives us. Both are wise and loving, neither is higher than the other, and a balanced practice works with both, starting rooted in the Lower-World. ## How are the two kinds of Guide different? They belong to different realms, which speak to different parts of us. Our Upper-World Spirit is "a fragment of Father Sky (or God, if you like), in the same way that a water drop is part of the ocean, or that a spark is part of a fire", and our Lower-World Soul is "our true Self-identity", part of Mother Earth and yet "the unique individual that Mother Earth intended (and still intends) us to be."^[1](#note-1) "The Upper-World speaks to oneness in an abstract way, while the Lower-World shows us oneness is ecological and based on reciprocity and healthy inter-dependence". So the Guides of each realm help with different things. The Upper-World "is a place where we can go to get a bigger perspective on things; to 'rise above' petty concerns and problems", and to ask "What would be for the greater good in this situation?"^[2](#note-2) Lower-World Guides teach us how to be human as part of nature; see [What do Human Guides teach and help with?](/wiki/what-do-human-guides-teach-and-help-with/) 1. Paul Francis, [*Finding Your Deep Soul*](https://www.therapeutic-shamanism.co.uk/book/finding-your-deep-soul/), Chapter Four, "The Main Parts of Self". 2. Paul Francis, [*The Shamanic Journey*](https://www.therapeutic-shamanism.co.uk/book/the-shamanic-journey/), Chapter Three, "The Upper-World". ## What do Upper-World Guides look like? That depends a great deal on the person. Because shamanic reality cannot be perceived as it really is, "we have to 'clothe' what we see in some kind of an image that we can make sense of." In [Michael Harner](/wiki/who-was-michael-harner-and-what-is-core-shamanism/)'s research for *Cave and Cosmos*, people "experienced the same themes in the Upper-World" but "clothed their experience in different images": monks, nuns and saints for some, Hindu or Buddhist figures for others, philosophers and poets for secular people. "The particular imagery that we use is not that important. The point is that the Upper-World is a place of wisdom, love, healing and compassion."^[3](#note-3) The settings differ too. The Upper-World has no modern technology, but it "does have metal-work, silk clothing, writing etc.", whereas the Lower-World is a Stone Age world of hunter-gatherers.^[4](#note-4) See [What is the Upper-World?](/wiki/what-is-the-upper-world/) 1. Paul Francis, [*The Shamanic Journey*](https://www.therapeutic-shamanism.co.uk/book/the-shamanic-journey/), Chapter Three, "The Upper-World". 2. Paul Francis, [*The Shamanic Journey*](https://www.therapeutic-shamanism.co.uk/book/the-shamanic-journey/), Chapter Eleven, "So, in the Lower-World...". ## Is one kind of Guide higher or better than the other? No. "A balanced spiritual practice, one that is not top-heavy and ungrounded, one that is not hierarchical and Fallen, is one that understands and works with both of the spiritual realms equally."^[5](#note-5) Each realm offers something the other does not. Neither can replace the other. An Upper-World focus on its own risks "a top-heavy, disembodied and ungrounded spirituality", and so "shamanism shows us that we need to rise, but rise rooted."^[6](#note-6) That is why Therapeutic Shamanism begins in the Lower-World; see [Why does Therapeutic Shamanism begin with the Lower-World?](/wiki/why-does-therapeutic-shamanism-begin-with-the-lower-world/) 1. Paul Francis, [*Rewilding Yourself*](https://www.therapeutic-shamanism.co.uk/book/rewilding-yourself/), Chapter Two, "A Balanced Spiritual Practice". 2. Paul Francis, [*Finding Your Deep Soul*](https://www.therapeutic-shamanism.co.uk/book/finding-your-deep-soul/), Chapter Four, "The Middle-World Is Real!". ## Does my Power Animal come with me to meet Upper-World Guides? Yes. "Your Power Animal**Power Animal.** The Oversoul of a wild species, met as a single Lower-World being and bonded with in a deep, committed, usually lifelong soul-bond of unconditional love. The practitioner's first and foremost Guide: Panther, not "my panther". [Read the full answer](/wiki/what-is-a-power-animal/) both can and should come with you to both the Upper-World and the middle-world**Middle-world.** Ordinary physical reality together with its energetic layers: the realm of individuality, separation and mixed intentions, and the only realm where harm is possible. "If there is a hell, then it is the middle-world." [Read the full answer](/wiki/what-is-the-middle-world/) too."^[7](#note-7) You never set off without it. Whichever realm you are in, Power Animal remains your first Guide and leads the journey. See [What is the role of Power Animal in shamanic journeying?](/wiki/what-is-the-role-of-power-animal-in-shamanic-journeying/) 1. Paul Francis, [*The Shamanic Journey*](https://www.therapeutic-shamanism.co.uk/book/the-shamanic-journey/), Chapter Five, "A Power Animal Is Not Just for the Lower-World". ## Is a saint or holy figure a Lower-World Guide? No. Some people already have a guide in the form of a saint or holy person. This is not a Lower-World Guide: they are an Upper-World being, although they can also be a middle-world being masquerading as an Upper-World one.^[8](#note-8) Lower-World Guides are hunter-gatherer people of the Stone Age, not religious figures. 1. Paul Francis, [*Rewilding Yourself*](https://www.therapeutic-shamanism.co.uk/book/rewilding-yourself/), Chapter Three, "Greater Than an Individual". ## Why is it hard to meet Human Guides clearly? Partly because of what we bring. "The way we relate to humans in our everyday life can affect how we relate to our shamanic Guides", so someone frightened of being hurt, for example, may find it hard to commit to a Guide.^[9](#note-9) Faces add another difficulty. Because we are so wired to recognise faces, "it is impossible for us to visualise a generic human being", so a Human Lower-World Guide**Human Lower-World Guide.** A face put on the human Oversoul: the Ancestors met through an individual form, genuinely other than us, chosen from pre-Fall hunter-gatherer humanity. Related to as a teacher, never a master. [Read the full answer](/wiki/what-are-human-guides/) always appears to us in a particular human form.^[10](#note-10) 1. Paul Francis, [*Rewilding Yourself*](https://www.therapeutic-shamanism.co.uk/book/rewilding-yourself/), Chapter Two, "The Relationship Patterns We Bring with Us". 2. Paul Francis, [*Rewilding Yourself*](https://www.therapeutic-shamanism.co.uk/book/rewilding-yourself/), Chapter Three, "Choosing Hunter-Gatherer Ancestors as Your Primary Human Guides". ## What does it mean for a Human Guide to be authentically Lower-World? That it is a face of the Human [Oversoul](/wiki/what-is-an-oversoul/), met in the real Lower-World. Paul Francis's own Guide is, in effect, the Human Oversoul**Oversoul.** A branch of Mother Earth representing the whole of a species: the single being all the individuals arise from. Lower-World work is always with the Oversoul, never an individual; environments are composite Oversouls, wheels within wheels. [More about this](/wiki/what-is-an-oversoul/), but with a human face he can relate to.^[11](#note-11) A true Lower-World Guide also belongs to the Stone Age world: "a true Lower-World Guide will not be wearing any metal jewellery or carrying a metal knife. They will not be wearing jeans or silk".^[12](#note-12) See [What are Human Guides?](/wiki/what-are-human-guides/) 1. Paul Francis, [*Rewilding Yourself*](https://www.therapeutic-shamanism.co.uk/book/rewilding-yourself/), Chapter Three, "Branches on a Tree". 2. Paul Francis, [*Rewilding Yourself*](https://www.therapeutic-shamanism.co.uk/book/rewilding-yourself/), Chapter Three, "Finding a Lower-World Human Guide and Teacher". ## Why does race or culture not work the same way in the Lower-World? Because races and cultures are middle-world divisions. "The divisions between human races and cultures are a middle-world thing... They do not exist in the Lower-World. Remember, your Human Lower-World Guide is simply a face that you put on Human."^[13](#note-13) So "there is no such thing as a 'Tuvan Lower-World Guide'", and a Guide who appears to belong to a culture is not actually of it. In both realms, the forms we see are the images we need in order to relate. 1. Paul Francis, [*Rewilding Yourself*](https://www.therapeutic-shamanism.co.uk/book/rewilding-yourself/), Chapter Three, "Cultural Appropriation?". ## What if I am unsure whether a Human Guide is real? Check with your Power Animal, and check where you met them. When meeting a Human in the Lower-World, "If your Power Animal shows any ambiguity or unease whatsoever, then do not work with that person. Trust your Power Animal!"^[14](#note-14) And "be absolutely certain that the first time you meet your Lower-World Guide, you meet them in the Lower-World", since someone first met in the middle-world or at the [axis mundi](/wiki/what-is-an-axis-mundi-and-why-does-place-matter/) could be from anywhere.^[15](#note-15) In the end, discernment rests on being truly in the realm: "the only way to be sure is to practice hollowing-out**Hollowing-out.** The core, lifelong discipline of setting aside the middle-world self, its stories, agendas and preconceptions, so the Guides can work through us. The image: the shaman as hollow bone. [Read the full answer](/wiki/what-is-hollowing-out/); to really be in the Upper or Lower Worlds, free of middle-world distortions."^[16](#note-16) 1. Paul Francis, [*Rewilding Yourself*](https://www.therapeutic-shamanism.co.uk/book/rewilding-yourself/), Chapter Three, "Exercise 6: Meeting Your Lower-World Human Guide". 2. Paul Francis, [*Rewilding Yourself*](https://www.therapeutic-shamanism.co.uk/book/rewilding-yourself/), Chapter Three, "Finding a Lower-World Human Guide and Teacher". 3. Paul Francis, [*The Shamanic Journey*](https://www.therapeutic-shamanism.co.uk/book/the-shamanic-journey/), Chapter Three, "Choosing Our Guides Wisely and Carefully". - [What are Human Guides?](/wiki/what-are-human-guides/) - [What is the Upper-World?](/wiki/what-is-the-upper-world/) - [What is the Lower-World?](/wiki/what-is-the-lower-world/) - [What are the three shamanic realms?](/wiki/what-are-the-three-shamanic-realms/) - [How are the realms related to Soul, Spirit and the middle-world self?](/wiki/how-are-the-realms-related-to-soul-spirit-and-the-middle-world-self/) - [*The Shamanic Journey*](https://www.therapeutic-shamanism.co.uk/book/the-shamanic-journey/) (Chapter Three, the three realms) - [*Rewilding Yourself*](https://www.therapeutic-shamanism.co.uk/book/rewilding-yourself/) (Chapters Two and Three, a balanced practice and Human Lower-World Guides) - [all courses](https://www.therapeutic-shamanism.co.uk/shamanic-courses/)