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What is reiki?
"Healing is a thought by which two minds perceive their
oneness and become glad." -
A Course in Miracles
Reiki is a very simple, gentle and effective
system of transmitting universal life-energy through
hands-on-healing or distance sending. It is used for healing in
a broader sense: the healing of the body, emotions, mind and
spiritual healing and growth.
The word reiki is composed of two Japanese
characters: rei and ki.
Rei can be translated with
'universal'.
Ki means life-energy or light in the sense of
information.
The two characters together express the coming
together of divine force and the human being, or the unification
of body and soul.
Universal life-energy, also known under names
as Chi, Prana, orgon, animal magnetism, spirit, Archaeus, Ruach,
vital force or simple substance, is the mysterious energy which
enlivens all and everything. It is the activating energy of the
universe. In biblical terms we could call it the breath of God.
Universal life-force facilitates life, growth, healing,
transformation, manifestation, balance, inner peace, oneness and
the light in which we recognize the truth. And when your time
has come it will make the transition peaceful.
In itself reiki is nothing special; everyone
disposes to a certain degree of reiki. You will instinctively
put your hands on an injured body-part; mothers kiss or caress
the place where their child is hurt; animals will lick their
wounds, and if you have a close bond with your pet it could even
lick your wounds. The amount of innate life-force however is
often weak and unfocused. Now this is where the healing system
reiki comes in: through a system of attunements, symbols, simple
techniques and some principles you can make this spiritual power
of the universe so much more useful. Anybody can learn how to do
this and after having taken a course you can immediately
practice healing.
Benefits and applications of reiki:
-
physical, emotional, mental and spiritual
healing
-
strongly connects you to the source of
spiritual energy
-
heals the causes, not only the symptoms
-
develops compassion and respect for life
-
healing of acute and chronic diseases
-
speeding up of all healing processes
(operations, etc)
-
pain relief
-
greater joy and inner peace and balance
-
healing of bad habits and addictions
-
greater energy
-
stress management
-
diminishing or canceling side effects of
medicines
-
reducing or canceling the amount of needed
medicines
-
compliments all other medical or paramedical
practices
-
increases spiritual awareness and progress
-
strengthens the immune system
-
detoxification of the body and cleaning of
the chakras
-
enhances clear thinking and creativity
-
clears energy blockages
-
helps to make a calm, peaceful and smooth
transition
-
healing of animals, plants and planets
-
aiding in peace processes
-
cleaning of crystals and energetically
cleaning of spaces
-
improvement of situations
-
achievement of goals
-
manifestation of your desires
-
charging of sigils, amulets, talismans,
(magickal) tools, etc.
-
protection against harm
-
anything else you wish to send positive
energy to. It has been used to make broken engines work in
emergency situations.
What does it not do:
-
It will not bring you instant enlightenment. You will
get disposal of a significant amount of spiritual and healing energy to
help you walk your path, but the choice and hard work of surrendering
your ego is still something only you can do yourself.
-
It will not bring you a new religion or belief system.
It is a spiritual practice that can and has been used by members of all
kinds of religions and a-religious people.
-
It does NOT relieve someone of the responsibility of
seeing a doctor or other medical specialist, and it does NOT make any
reiki practitioner a medical specialist either.
-
It does not make you a special human being, although
having reiki can be used to blow up your ego if that is your wish.
-
Reiki will never violate one's free will. If a receiver
does not want the reiki energy and refuses healing for some reason, the
energy will simply be bounced back to the sender.
-
It can not be used for negative ends like curses or
destructive spells; this energy is too highly vibrational to be used for
negative workings.
Discovery and development of reiki
"The more we care for the happiness of others, the greater our
own sense of well-being becomes."
The Dalai Lama
The traditional story of the discovery of reiki is as
historically correct as the biblical report of the life of Jesus - it is
molded and adapted to suit the needs of a lot of people.
What really matters is this:
A Japanese Buddhist,
Dr. Mikao Usui, went fasting and meditating for 21 days on the holy mount
Kurama in 1914. During this period he experienced a satori, a realization of
enlightenment. He describes his discovery as follows: "While I fasted I
touched an intense energy and in a mysterious manner I was inspired (I
received the reiki energy). As in a coincidence it became clear to me that I
had been given the spiritual art of healing. Although I am the founder of
this method, I find it hard to explain all of this more precisely."
About reiki Dr. Usui writes in his manual: "My Usui Reiki
Ryoho (ryoho means 'healing method, therapy') is an original, it's nothing
like this in the world. So I would like to release this method to the public
for everyone's benefit and hope for everyone's happiness. My Reiki Ryoho is
an original method based on intuitive power in the universe. By this power,
body gets healthy and enhances happiness of life and a peaceful mind."
Usui uses the word 'intuitive' to describe this energy, because this energy
seems to have its own intelligence which guides it to where it is needed: to
body parts or life issues which need healing. He worked several years on the
development of a system to teach and pass on his reiki to others. The Reiki
Ryoho he taught consisted of:
-
meditation techniques
-
breathing exercises
-
spiritual cleansing
-
the reciting of spiritual poetry
-
the reiki principles
-
regular empowerments which gradually opened
up the student for reiki, later on the attunements were
introduced
-
hands-on healing with several techniques
-
distance healing
-
also the breath and the eyes were used to
heal with
-
later on symbols and mantras were introduced
The techniques he used were all very simple to apply. He taught in
regular group meetings. For those who had difficulty with developing an
intuitive style of working he later on introduced symbols and mantras to
help them focus, and a manual with hand positions to be used with
several symptoms. Usui himself usually used his intuition to sense which
body parts needed healing after having treated the head of the patient
first.
Dr. Usui spent the rest of his life teaching and giving reiki.
He strongly desired to help improve people's lives by freeing them from
illness, emotional and mental suffering. He founded a reiki training
school in Tokyo and a reiki society named the Usui Reiki Ryoho Gakkai,
of which he was the first president.
Mikao Usui
One of his students was Dr. Chujiro Hayashi, a
retired Japanese navy officer, who became reiki master in 1925.
Where Dr. Usui mainly used intuition to decide which body parts
needed healing, Dr. Hayashi as a military man preferred a more
organized way of treating. He developed a set of standard hand
positions to make sure that all important areas of the body were
covered. Hayashi opened a clinic in which groups of students treated
patients with reiki. One of Hayashi's students was a Japanese
American woman, living in Hawaii, Mrs. Hawayo Takata. In 1938 she
became a very dedicated reiki master and brought reiki to the
western world.
From that time on you get two main streams of
reiki: one in Japan of course with much more emphasis on the
meditative and spiritual side of the system, and a more western
orientated form with emphasis on the symbols and attunements. In
Japan it is common to spend several years of meditative practices to
enhance spiritual growth, and to regularly study in groups of
likeminded people under guidance of a master/teacher. This is a
great way to gradually raise your frequency/vibration, develop your
intuition and open up more fully for universal life-force. Doing so
you will gradually become a reiki channel. In the west however we
want all things fast, easy and more individual. So here symbols and
attunements became much more important and several meditative and
spiritual practices were left out. You can see attunements as a
shortcut to the raise of your vibration and symbols as a focus on a
certain aspect of the energy; so with symbols and attunements you
can immediately go to work with the system.
The reiki system as traditionally taught in the
west consists of attunements, symbols and mantras, learning the
standard hand positions, learning hands-on and distant healing
techniques for self and others. Several schools include information
on (balancing) the chakras and the spiritual background of diseases,
but those are not-reiki.
The last years information on the Japanese
way of learning reiki has become available, and several western
masters have decided to include the original meditation and
breathing techniques, as well as the spiritual cleansing and blood
cleansing techniques in their courses
Pages from Usui's handbook (Click to view large version)
The last twenty years reiki has become very
popular. For many people it is difficult to accept that great
spiritual truths are and work amazingly simple.
This is also the case with reiki and it has lead to a confusing
amount of 'new' reiki branches. All these reiki's are based on the
original Usui Reiki Ryoho, but masters have added new symbols, new
or altered attunement techniques, more levels, new ways to work with
the reiki or included techniques from other modalities. They may
state that they have received channeled information about their
workings from archangels, ascended masters or other high spiritual
beings. They may claim to have discovered other healing rays as
well, to also attune you to several stars and planets, and/or that
their reiki is higher vibrational, faster healing and closer to
source. Several founders of reiki branches have trademarked their
system.
There definitely are very interesting add-ons in
reiki-land, but the good old simple Usui Reiki works very good. All
attunement techniques work. New symbols focus on a specific part of
the all-encompassing energy, may therefore 'feel' different, and
they are worth working with if you like, but they do not supply a
higher vibration than the Usui symbols. After all it is the energy
itself which does the work, not the symbols.
If you wish to work with a simple yet complete system which requires
a minimum of knowledge you may be very happy with traditional Usui
Reiki Ryoho. If you wish to give more conscious direction to your
healings, your life, your magick, then one of the reiki branches
with more symbols and additional techniques may very well suit your
needs.
Healing with Reiki
"Happiness is a sort of action"
Aristotle
A reiki healing is a great example of letting
everything be as it is, of doing by not doing but just simply being
there, of going with the flow. One of the truths of reiki namely is,
that the healee - not the healer - decides the amount of needed
energy and for what aim this energy will be used. The healer is a
channel, a facilitator who passes on positive energy, but the healer
is never the one who actually does the healing; that is an interplay
between the healee and universal life-energy. The free will of the
person who receives healing decides to which level healing will take
place and the reiki energy will do the work. The task of the healer
is to have the intent to let healing or improvement take place and
to passively allow the energy to flow through the healer's hands to
the healee. In short: the one who needs healing somehow decides "I
want to receive", the reiki practitioner somehow decides "I want to
give" and this connection in openness and love is enough to let the
reiki flow. Most of the time reiki will be experienced as warmth or
heat, as if a blanket of loving attention is put over you. But other
sensations like coldness, tingling, prickling, throbbing, shivering,
emotional release, memories popping up or no sensation at all are
possible too. Giving reiki often fills the healer with happiness,
gratitude and humbleness. Receiving reiki often fills the healee
with happiness, peace and relaxation. And in the restoration of
inner balance and calmness healing automatically takes place.
There are two main ways of giving reiki:
Hands-on
healing with a physical present person-animal-plant, or
Hands-off
healing (distance healing) where the person receiving healing does not
need to be present in the same room.
Both methods will be described
below.
Hands-on healing
Here reiki is practiced in the form of simple
touch-healing.
The most convenient way is with the client lying
down on a massage-table, bed or mattress on the ground. If not
possible a sitting position or any other position of course is
possible too.
It is important to know that reiki will be given
clothed; you only need to take your shoes off so that your feet can
be treated too. If ever you meet a practitioner who states that you
need to take off your clothes for a reiki session: immediately leave
the room without paying!
The practitioner will put his/her hands on you
without exercising pressure and without making massage movements. An
intuitive healer will first move his hands through your energy field
to sense which areas need healing and place his hands there
afterwards; a less intuitive or more organized working person will
use the standard hand positions which cover all important areas of
the body. Both methods work equally well; remember that the reiki
energy travels anyway to the places where it is needed. Each hand
position will be held between 3-5 minutes average, or longer when
needed. An indication is given by the sensations the practitioner
feels in his hands, or by his intuition and/or inner voice. Usually
a full body treatment takes about an hour.
The so-called
'personal areas' meaning sexual areas: breasts, buttocks and
genitals usually are not treated hands-on. On these body-parts most
healers work in the aura several centimeters above these places. The
reason behind this is the fact that many persons live in a sexual
distorted world, have experiences with sexual abuse, or are brought
up so touch starved that they immediately connect touch here with
sexuality, which often is not promoting feelings of trust and
safety. And of course you wish to feel safe during a healing. A good
guideline is this: if you have physical complaints concerning the
breasts or genital area it needs to be discussed before the
treatment if you will be touched there; if not you will be treated
in the surroundings of these places or in the aura above them. If
the practitioner is someone you know well (a friend or partner) then
it is often easier to be touched on these places; still I advice to
ask on beforehand to not disturb people's feelings of security.
Reiki is no massage; the healer will hold his
hands still on one place before moving on to another area.
Reiki touch-healing can be practiced on humans,
animals, plants, minerals and even inanimate things. The last thing
may seem unbelievable, but it has been reported that cars with empty
tanks drove on when reiki was applied. This does not always work; to
me it especially seems to work in emergency cases. Usually it takes
less than an hour to treat children, animals, minerals or plants.
You can charge sigils, amulets, talismans and gemstones this way. Or
improve your food, drinks, medicines, etc. just by holding your
hands around or just above it for a while. In hands-on healing you
can make use of the reiki symbols to consciously focus on a certain
beam of the energy, but you can as well heal without the symbols.
Distance healing
If you're not acquainted with this it is a weird
thing that you can treat someone or something not being actually
present. And it is really great to experience that it is possible. Time
and place belong to the third dimension, but reiki goes so much further.
If you would want you could heal someone on Venus for instance. Why
should we want to use distance healing?
First of all for beings who
cannot be physically with you, like a far away living family member.
Second for beings who cannot sit or lie still for a treatment, like
children and animals. Third for body-parts which hurt too much to be
touched, like burns. Fourth it is a convenient way to treat yourself
(putting your hands on your back for instance is not really
comfortable).
And a very interesting option: you can send energy to a
situation. You can explain the universe a certain situation in the
present or the future (for instance an appliance or a test you have to
make) you wish to influence in a positive way, and after having declared
your intention send reiki to it. You can also declare your (detailed)
wish to make something appear in our physical reality and send reiki to
it. These are forms of magick.
In distance healing we make use of something to
represent the one the healing is meant for (a proxy), like a photograph,
address, doll or teddy-bear we declare represents that person in that
moment. Another well known method is projecting someone or something on
your upper leg; in this case the knee represents the head of the person,
the upper thigh the legs and feet of the person and everything in
between represent the body-parts in between of the person or situation
you treat. I know it sounds weird and unbelievable, but thousands of
people work this way with great results. It has for instance helped me
make further kidney dialyses unnecessary for a person I only know by
email.
In distance healing we must make use of the symbols; the
number of symbols is variable but at least you need the power symbol and
distance symbol which travels through time and space.
Another
possibility of distance working is adding reiki symbols to your
visualizations or to the positive, loving thoughts you send out to heal
someone; the reiki symbols will make your work more powerful
Of course you can write down affirmations or your
wish on a piece of paper accompanied by the reiki symbols and hold it
between your hands. Or you can use your hands to beam reiki-energy to
both present or non-present persons by visualizing the symbols, placing
your hands palms out towards the person or visualized person and intent
healing.
Other forms of using reiki
Usui taught that reiki radiates all over the body of
the healer, but especially through the hands, eyes and breath.
Healing with the eyes is not commonly done, but I'm
sure you know how much love radiates from the eyes of a truly open and
loving person. So if you are initiated in reiki you can consciously use
your eyes to beam loving energy with.
Dr. Usui also used blowing the breath on a body-part
which needs healing. Remember that the bible states that human forms
were made of clay and that God blew them to life with his breath?
Usually you don't learn this in a reiki course and I suppose that has to
do with our intimacy starved society. Reiki masters however do use the
breath while doing attunements, and in Reiki Tera Mai (the reiki branch
of Kathleen Milner) blowing healing energy into a person is used again.
And please don't forget that the chakras in the soles of the feet get
activated too with an initiation; not very applicable to treat a person
but really useful to treat a pet that lies before you, just gently put
your feet on them, they will love it.
How does Reiki work
"Where are you searching for me, friend? Look! Here am I right
within you. Not in temple, nor in mosque, not in Kaaba nor Kailas, but here
right within you am I"
Kabir
How does reiki work? The best answer is: we don't
know.
This may be highly dissatisfying, but the great advantage
is that if we don't understand this energy there's no way we can
abuse it. Since we're dealing here with strong energy you may
consider yourself lucky that mankind does not understand it. Sorry
to say so.
Reiki works with intent, which is focused energy
expressing a desire to bring more positive energy into your life,
somebody else's life or the world. Once you have stated this intent
the reiki will flow and you don't need to remain concentrated on
channeling this healing energy. (Which makes giving (distance) reiki
when you are traveling by bus or train a meaningful spending of your
time.)
The universal life-energy first enters the energy system
of the healer who passes it on, usually with the hands, to the
healee. In the physical body this energy travels through the brains
and nervous system. In our energetical bodies it travels through the
chakras, meridians and the central channel along the spine.
Important to know is that reiki does not deplete the
giver since the healer does not give from his own energy. One taps into
the universal force and after a treatment both the healer and healee
will feel better.
Another important fact is that reiki heals causes,
not just the results (symptoms). This makes reiki a deep acting healing
method with from time to time unpredictable effects; you don't always
consciously know which part of your life needs healing mostly, but the
reiki does and will first heal that area. Usui names reiki 'intuitive'
for it knows where it is needed; reiki seems to have its own
intelligence and it respects one's free will.
It is unknown what the origins, total quantity and
ways of working of life-energy are. It can not be defined more clearly
than stating that it comes from Source, God/Goddess, Spirit or The
Force. It is an important connection with divinity.
And it can be
characterized as highly vibrational, completely positive, gentle,
loving, encompassing, harmonizing and therefore healing. I'm not in for
negative workings, but when I (by means of test) try to think of
something negative in relation to using reiki, my mind simply goes
blank, nothing happens. As far as I know and have heard in twenty years
of experience reiki can only be used in positive ways
Reiki attunements
"You never enjoy the world aright, till the sea itself floweth
in your veins, till you are clothed with the heavens and crowned with the
stars."
Thomas Traherne
An attunement is a procedure by which your
personal frequency is lifted up and gets attuned to the receiving
and passing on of a much greater amount of life-energy, reiki. You
will not be re-connected with the universal Source as sometimes is
stated, since you always were (otherwise you would be dead), but a
much better connection will be made which serves as a spiritual
awakening. During an attunement the reiki symbols are planted in
your aura and several chakras.
Often the comparison with a radio is made: As an
energetical being you are sender/transmitter of waves like a radio;
if you wish to listen to good music (positive, healing vibes) you
have to make sure that your radio is well attuned to the right
station (the life-energy you're interested in), otherwise you'll get
a lot of unwanted noise and poor quality of music (energetical
blocks preventing the reiki from properly working).
The cause for the distorted transmission of
universal energy in most human beings is the illusion of separation.
It is the idea that we are separate, unworthy beings, not deserving
love, having fallen out of divine grace, being attacked by others
and therefore defending ourselves against other separate human
beings. The result is that we energetically 'close the door' which
means that we close our chakras and put our auric shields as a tight
coat around us.
But this is a most inappropriate defense, since
we not only keep the unwanted out of our energy system, but are also
unable to let the good things in. A second problem is that a closed
down energy system is unable to properly transfer energy, which
leads to the forming of blockages. Blocks or blockages are stored
amounts of energy, mostly of low vibration, developed as result from
negative thoughts - beliefs - emotions - experiences, and often
leading to pain and disease.
If you are energetically spoken 'open' you can
let go of painful emotions and work through negative life
experiences without getting damaged psychologically. If you are
energetically closed you tend to get stuck in negative experiences
and stubborn beliefs. Since life is change and requires
transformation, you harm yourself with mental, emotional and
spiritual immobility.
The way back to health in a broader sense is
clearing up your energy channels and reconfirming your connection
with the divine source in and around you. And this is exactly what a
reiki attunement does.
Japanese draught-screen 16th century
The above makes also clear why meditation, yoga,
other spiritual practices including spiritual sexuality are helpful in
raising your frequency and becoming enlightened:
Through all these modalities you can experience
limitlessness, oneness, union with the All, nothingness, total
acceptance of life, total love, happiness, ecstasy. In the high
vibrations which accompany these experiences of wholeness, blocks and
karmic patterns are simply burned or released, because there is nothing
in your being they can hold on to anymore. You have changed.
A reiki attunement works exactly the same and is
therefore a powerful healing in itself. Reiki attunements work must
faster than other spiritual practices however (unless kundalini breaks
through): your frequency immediately lifts up with an attunement and you
can start channeling healing energy. Next working with reiki, by
preference daily, will only help you to get even better attuned by
allowing positive energy to run through you. Remember: with reiki always
both the healer and healee get healed!
Attunements can only be given by fully initiated
reiki-masters, and of course by highly spiritual human beings who are
probably enlightened. After all dr. Usui received the gift of reiki in a
satori and he was a very spiritual person. But to be sure of a well
performed attunement I suggest you approach a reiki master/teacher;
there are many of them nowadays. Often a bond of confidentiality grows
between master and student and therefore it is best to find someone you
feel safe and comfortable with. Why would you need a reiki master for
attunements? Well, they have received the energy, studied the system and
the ethics, they are supposed to work on their own further spiritual
growth, and therefore they should be able to assist you on your path to
wholeness. They have allowed themselves to open up for the gift of
universal love and healing and they can pass it on to you. What you do
not have, you cannot give. But once you know real love and goodness, the
only thing you want to do is spread it further. So if you send out
thoughts of finding a good reiki master I'm sure the universe will
answer you. Traditionally attunements are given in person, and still
many reiki masters and students prefer this way of working. The last
years however the system of distance attunements has been developed as a
logical extension of distance healings and the distance symbol.
Attunements in person and distant attunements are equally valid and
powerful.
Degrees in reiki
"We are all cells in the same body of humanity."
Peace Pilgrim
The reiki system as Mikao Usui developed knows three degrees
or levels through which you gradually open up for a great amount of high
vibrational energy. All other reiki systems are based on the original Usui
Reiki Ryoho.
Reiki I
Usui called the first degree in reiki Shoden, or First
Teaching. This is the practitioners level in which you learn to heal
yourself and physically present persons. After having received the
initiation(s) (traditionally 4, non-traditionally 1) all you have to do is
to lay your hands on someone or something with the intent to heal and the
energy will flow through you. The reiki symbols are placed in your aura and
chakras but they are not revealed to you.
Reiki II
This second level is called Okuden, or Inner Teaching, in
Japanese. The most important thing in Okuden is learning to do absent or
distance healings. You are taught how to heal people or animals not present,
and how to send energy to a goal or situation. You will receive another
attunement which allows you to further open up your energy system, and it is
believed that the amount of energy channeled with reiki II is twice as much
as the energy of reiki I. Three symbols and their mantras are now given, so
you can consciously learn to make use of them.
Japanese draught-screen 16th century
Reiki III
Shinpiden, or Mystery Teaching, is the third and highest
level in reiki. It is the full empowerment. You will receive a final
attunement and learn to work with the fourth symbol, the master symbol. The
amount of energy you channel with reiki III becomes much stronger. You'll
become able to teach and initiate others in reiki, and that's why third
degree reiki is usually called master/teacher level.
Other reiki branches may add more levels to their system,
but these extra levels do not supply extra energy, it simply means that
there are more sub-levels.
Originally it took two or more years to become a fully
empowered reiki channel, but in these times of greatly accelerated energy we
need less time in between the several degrees. Nowadays there are even
singular attunements which raise your vibration and energetic openness
immediately to the level of master/teacher.
About reiki symbols
"Instead of seeking many other medicines to cure their
illness, I wish people would always honor their own body's healing ability and
take good care of themselves."
Meiji Emperor
A symbol is a communication element intended to
simply represent or stand for a complex of person, object, group, or
idea. It often are graphics or little drawings, which are in fact a
comprised or simplified reproduction of an idea, meant to trigger your
consciousness or unconsciousness towards that special meaning. So
symbols help us focus and help calling forth a special type of energy.
Do symbols have power? Yes and no.
When
symbols are often seen by many people, all these persons at a conscious
or subconscious level put their energy in it, connect with it's meaning,
and the more often this happens the more powerful a symbol becomes. Thus
symbols like the pentagram and the Aum symbol have become really
powerful; they have become charged.
On the other hand symbols are just that: a symbolic
representation of something. They represent a certain energy, but are
not that energy in itself. Reiki symbols are not the reiki itself, but
they help us address a certain aspect of the reiki energy. Therewith
they greatly help us consciously connect to the energy, which highly
promotes single mindedness and intent. And if your intent is very clear
it gives the universe a clear message of what you want to do or help
coming about.
Journey to the red mountain (Tomioka Tessai)
The reiki energy and the reiki symbols nurture each
other:
During an attunement they are given to you, what means placed
in your energetic bodies, as a divine sign which says: "you are now
empowered by your Inner Flame, to tap into this energy and use it." They
are the words of divinity which accompany the divine gift: reiki. Thus
the symbols help one to open up for the gift of reiki. (So here the
symbols 'support' the reiki.) At the same time the master first opens up
to channel the energy through his/her own body and next places the
symbols in the aura and chakras of the student. This means that before
receiving any symbol by the student it is first charged with the full
reiki stream channeled by the master. (So here the reiki 'supports' the
symbols.) This process explains why a symbol works better/stronger when
you are first attuned to it, be it one of the original Usui symbols or
any other 'new' reiki symbol. This explains also why it is very hard to
claim that a newly found or channeled reiki symbol should be 'higher
vibrational' than the original ones; they are still charged by that same
energy: reiki, life-force, Source.
Usui gave four symbols for his Reiki Ryoho: one for
the physical level, the emotional level, the mental and the spiritual
level. Herewith this simple system is complete. With the growing
interest in metaphysics, occult knowledge and the channeling of other
realms during the last decades, a number of symbols (and additional
practices) has been added by reiki masters. Many of these new symbols
are well worth working with, representing a positive energy which can be
very subtle. Therefore some of the new symbols are believed to be higher
vibrational than the good old Usui symbols, but what you really do is
focusing your attention to a very subtle part of the energy spectrum.
Still what you channel with these symbols is reiki, and the base for
every new reiki branch is still Usui Reiki Ryoho. If reiki speaks to you
as a simple, yet powerful and effective system you don't need much to
learn for, I would advise you Usui's Reiki. If you enjoy consciously
working with various energies, wish to experiment with subtle energies
and connect reiki with other modalities (crystals, chakras, etc.), I
advise you to take courses in one of the newer reiki branches. But you
may need to check, because for several new reiki systems Usui Reiki is a
pre-requisite.
The 4 symbols of Usui Reiki Ryoho
" It is not God's will merely that we should be happy, but
that we should make ourselves happy."
Immanuel Kant
According to many traditional teachers the reiki
symbols are sacred and therefore secret and should only be seen by
insiders, meaning reiki practitioners second degree and reiki masters.
As described above, the visibility of these symbols can only add to
their power; this is knowledge from magick. Besides, in Japan these
symbols show up on daily articles of use. (I once meditated on these
symbols and got a vision of an ordinary Japanese street-scene, as if I
should know that healing yourself and your life should be a very common
activity and an integrated part of everyone's life.) In the spirit of
this Age of Aquarius many secrets, occult and societal, are revealed now
to give as many persons as possible entrance to their birthright:
self-empowerment, self-mastery, inner balance, peace and happiness. The
idea of someone being of more importance, higher standard or 'special'
because of having more, secret knowledge, is an outdated ego thing. To
get a taste of what you can do with it I herewith present you the four
symbols with their meaning:
Cho Ku Rei - The Power Symbol
| Cho |
= Connect the |
 |
| Ku |
= Power, Energy with |
| Rei |
= The Soul, The Universe,
The Unity |
|
Put in other words: 'Let all the power of the
Universe be here' or 'God is here'.
This is the symbol used
to connect with the energy at the beginning of a session, and to
increase power/energy where needed during a session.
Further
it is used to empower anything you want, like your medicines,
crystals, food and drinks, machines and tools you work with,
etc. Cho Ku Rei increases the power of all other symbols you
use.
Another important use of this symbol is cleaning a space
or clearing up negative energies, for instance in a bad
situation.
It can be used for protection of yourself or your
properties, because the great amount of light you call in with
Cho Ku Rei dispels or keeps away negativity.
And it seals in
light energy when drawn at the end of a healing.
Sometimes the Cho Ku Rei is drawn opposite with the spiral
clockwise; this is a matter of preference. The symbol works with
either way of drawing.
Sei He Ki - The Emotional Symbol
| Sei |
= I point |
 |
| He |
= the Bow, Arrow to |
| Ki |
= Life-force, Light, Awareness |
This strange symbol looks like a human head with two bumps on
the places of the eighth chakra (the cosmic chakra where
divinity connects with our physical existence and place of the
soul akasha) and the tenth chakra (place of mystical talents and
inner sight).
Therefore alternative meanings of the Sei He Ki
are 'Remember Your Self' and 'God and humanity becoming one'.
Pointing your arrow to awareness means bringing your attention
to your feelings, emotions, patterns and psychology in order to
understand and heal them.
Sei He Ki restores emotional
balance and harmony. Please understand that many diseases and
problems have their roots in negative emotions and false
beliefs. This symbol is used for the healing of bad habits,
addictions, emotional trauma and heavy feelings like anger,
frustration or jealousy. That makes this symbol another good one
against bad vibrations and negative entities.
A good symbol
for inner calmness and the release of blockages
Hon Sha Ze Sho Nen - The Distance and Mental Symbol
|
|
| Hon |
= Spirit, Source,
Origin, Universe |
 |
| Sha |
= Mind, Surviving |
| Ze |
= Space, Be, Being |
| Sho |
= Feeling, Emotions |
| Nen |
= Consciousness,
Body, Attention |
|
|
