Spirit guide?

Hi everyone, I had a pretty strange LD last night which I'm confused about.

First of all I'm going to post an excerpt from my dream journal so that I can set the scene:

'I was standing in what I thought was snow when I realised I was dreaming. The sky was a pale blue and whiteness stretched on for miles (a common theme in my lucid dreams, starting off in a natural landscape which seems to go on forever). Two wolves ran past me and disappeared into thin air. I looked around and realised that I was all alone. Since there was not much in my environment to manipulate, the first thing that came to my mind to do was to find my dream guide. I can't remember what exactly I called out but I think it may have been 'spirit guide' or 'dream guide'. I looked around again and this time there was a giant emu looking bird sitting a little distance away from me to my left. It had light tan coloured feathers which were interspersed with multiple colours. I kept on looking around but nothing else had changed. At this point I was starting to think maybe the bird was important here so I walked up to it (rather hesitantly) and asked it if it was my spirit guide to which it replied yes in a very strange voice. I'm pretty certain it was female. I gave it a once over, still pretty disbelieving. How could an emu be my spirit guide? I was expecting something more... human I guess. I think I may also have asked it if it was an emu, but I can't remember what it answered. Once it was confirmed that this was my spirit guide I didn't really know what to do as I was still skeptical about the whole thing. I realised now that I should probably have talked to it a bit more. After that I got on its back and asked it to take me to the next location of my dream which it did. It was then that it became clear that landscape wasn't actually snowy, but that we had been standing on clouds. The emu dove down through the clouds and flew me down back to earth (emus can't fly?). The emu disappeared somewhere mid-flight and I floated down to the ground on my own...' After this I entered the next part of my lucid dream.

Now, I don't really know much about spirit/dream guides so I probably should have done some prior research before I went out looking for it. So, first of all, in terms of dreaming and I guess life in general, what exactly is a spirit or dream guide? Are they the same thing? Also what is the connection between the dreamer and their dream/spirit guide?

Now coming to my dream, was this emu thing really my spirit/dream guide?! How can you tell if you've really met your spirit guide? Like I said, I should probably have asked it more questions in the dream but I was too disbelieving at the time to really take it seriously as my spirit guide. Also, if the emu was my spirit guide, do you think it would be offended at me due to my skeptical reaction to it?

I know my ramblings must sound really stupid, but I really am uneducated on the whole matter of spirit/dream guides. I want to take the spirit/dream guide thing seriously and would love to hear a lucid dreamers experiences and knowledge about the matter.

Hope you can help!

Ever since the beginning of July, my lucid dreams have been taking place in some kind of mountain valley. This is a copypasta of my profile bio:

My lucid dreams take place in a persistent world like this:
There is a circle of mountians, with a clearing in the middle with a radius of about 1 mile.
In the center of the circle is a large Cabin, where my dream self lives.
To the south of the cabin is a clear lake with koi swimming in it and it is surrounded by a beach of white sand.
To the east is a dense deciduous forest with deer, rabbits, and other woodland creatures.
To the west is a sparse coniferous forest with friendly bears roaming in it.
To the north is a large field with a river coming down from the mountain and flowing into the lake to the south. I is lined with various fruit trees, mostly apple.
The east and west forests wrap around the lake and blend together on the far end.
The mountains to the south have muddy river rapids, dusty plateaus, and canyons.
The mountains to the north are snowy and have polar bears occupying it.
The mountains to the east are riddled with numerous caves illuminated by large glowing crystals hanging from the ceiling.
The mountains to the west are rocky and it always rains there.

In my dream there's always a woman named Catherine that hangs out around the cabin. I communicate with her through a hand radio when i'm away from the cabin.
She wears a sun dress and matching sandles, and her long brown hair is braided at the temples and the braids connect at the back of her head. She usually has her head slanted down a little and her fingers are woven together.

In these dreams, i am unable to change things or wake up of my own will, so i request for Catherine to do such things for me. When i request something, i ask her for it, and depending on the size of the item, it either phases in like in a sci-fi movie or it forms out of water that rises from the ground. Items are removed in a similar fashion.

End copypasta

This Catherine woman is probably my spirit guide, even though any questions i ask about her are responded with cryptic, unclear answers. She gives me advice about things, so i guess that makes her my spirit guide.
I asked her "Are you my spirit guide?" once and she said "If that's what you want to think..." Is she? Isn't she? I don't know, but based on people's stories about their spirit guides, she probably is and is just being stubborn.

Spirit guides can can take many different forms, and most people have more than one guide. When your guide comes to you in your dreams, it's usually a very symbolic dream that represents something about your life. I'm not really a dream interpreter, but it sounds like your guide showed up as a flightless bird for a reason. You were standing on a snowy plain only to realize that you were actually above the clouds once your guide came to take you back down to the ground. Maybe it means that you currently think you're a grounded person in reality, but you're actually living with your head up in the clouds in fantasy, and your guide wants you to come back "down to earth" metaphorically speaking. You'd probably get more detailed analyses if you posted it in the dream interpretation forum though :P

I've always seen spirit guides as helpful spirits, like celestials or angels, that help people from the other side. They can come in any form they wish, but they are different from your totem animal, which is what I think you were confusing them with. Your totem animal is a part of yourself represented as a certain animal, and it doesn't really change much over the course of your life. But some people consider totems to be spirit guides and some don't, depends on the belief really.

Spirit guides are incorporeal beings that are assigned to us before we are born that help nudge and guide us through life. They are the ones that influence your intuition. Have you ever been doing something, then suddenly a voice yells in your head to stop, so you do and you find you just avoided a potential disaster? That is your spirit guide doing their job and guiding you.

Your spirit guide takes the shape of the animal that represents you. Everyone has only one spirit guide, but not everyone has the same animal representation. Him/her is a mirror of the shape of your spirit. The Native American's based their totems on spirit guides, that's why totems are always animals. Now, there is a difference between guardian angels and spirit guides. A guardian angel is an angel that was sent to protect you from a certain event, but you're spirit guide is customized to you and is always with you. When you meet you're spirit guide you will instinctively know it, even if it hard to believe that that is your spirit guide, you will know that that is your spirit guide. Upon the first meeting some people are relieved, some are disappointed, some wonder why it is the animal that it is, but like it or not that is your spirit guide and you know it deep down inside to be true.

Opening up your dreams to them and calling out to your spirit guide is one of the most sure fire ways to meet him/her. When you meet them you can ask whatever is on your mind, but most people call out to them when they have a problem that they just can't seem to solve. Your guide will help you sort out the problems of your life. They are there for you through anything, even if you just feel like talking, it doesn't have to be an emergency. Make sure that when you do meet your guide you thank them for showing up and helping you, it is only polite, not to mention they deserve respect for watching out for you :) You should look into what an emu means about you. You can find out a lot about yourself from understanding your spirit guide, after all they are your spiritual representation.

I have been studying things like this for years now, congrats on your first meeting!