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Guardian Genius

Dictionary Definition; 1. To protect from harm by or as if by watching over 2. To prevent from exeding bounds 3. To provide with safeguards; to secure from misunderstanding or abuse by explanations or stipulations 4. To maintain control over, as to prevent indescretion 5. To furnish (a device or object) with a protective piece 7. Archaic. To escort-intr. 1. To take precautions 2. to serve as guard. guard n1. One who protects, keeps watch or acts as a sentinel 2. A group of people serving as an escort. 3. An honor guard.

There are many beliefs in guardian spirits in many parts of the world in various forms. A man may believed to have a protective spirit which accompanies him all his life, and which he acquires at birth or at puberty. Sometimes it is the spirit of an ancestor, sometimes not; it may cease to exist when its human companion dies, or may live on. The guardian is particularly important in the lore of American Indian peoples, where it usually shows itself to a man in a vision and in animal form. Supernatural beings may guard places as well as people, like the spirits which ward off evil from oriental temples or the dragon that guards the treasure-hoard.

In modern English we have turned what was originally a guardian spirit into the characteristic intellectual or artistic endowment of each person. This is the "genious" which was the latin word for each man's spirit protector (the guardian spirit of each woman was called a juno) the word means "the begetter" and the genious seem to have been the procreative force in a man, principally occupied in helping him to satisfy his natural appetites. The genius was honoured in Roman birthday celebrations. The Greek equivalent was the personal daemon, mentioned by some writers as accompanying a man throughout his life, and it may be that growing belief in the existence of this personal guardian was responsible for the increasing attention given to celebrating people’s birthdays in classical times.

The Romans also believed in the "genious loci", which guarded a particular place. It had its Greek counterparts in the nymphs and animistic spirits attached to streams, trees, and a variety of natural features.

In the Old Testament the book of Daniel (chapter 10, 12) mention angels who watch over different kingdoms and peoples.

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