A spiritual friend is one to whom we can entrust all the secrets of our heart and before whom we can place all our plans. In other words, a spiritual friend offers a safe place to try things out, to stretch and to grow: we need not fear shaming or ridicule, no matter what we might say. . . . The tradition of the anamchara — the soul friend — was well established when Christianity arrived in Ireland and Scotland, and so was easily incorporated into Celtic spirituality. The anamchara was a person of wisdom and integrity; in the early days a soul friend might be a woman or a man, lay or ordained, before the work of spiritual guidance became the prerogative of the clergy. Anyone might have a soul friend — St. Brigit among others is reported to have said that a person without a soul friend was like a body without a head.
— Margaret Guenther, Toward Holy Ground