Needed to read PDF's

Reiki

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

Japanese draught-screen 16th century

"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.

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

It is not difficult to discover the various levels of existence in the meanings of this symbol. Hon Sha Ze Sho Nen makes the connection between Spirit and Body, heaven and earth, and is therefore known as 'The Bridge'.

It travels through time and space to fulfill its function and is commonly known as the Distance symbol. You can heal absent persons with it or send energy to a situation or relationship.

You can treat a cause rooted in the past with it, and it can change thought patterns (mental healing), what makes it a perfect symbol for karmic healing.

Hon Sha Ze Sho Nen connects your higher self with the higher self of the one you send energy; 'The Divine in me greets and honors the Divine in you' and this really is the best approach we can take towards our fellowmen.

Dai Ko Myo - The Master Symbol

To the left you see the traditional Dai Ko Myo and to the right the complete different, modern version of it. The traditional Japanese form is given by Mikao Usui. I don't know what the origins of the modern spiral are; it has been channeled that this 'new' Dai Ko Myo fits better into the vibrations of the training of this time. Both very powerful, it seems a matter of preference which one you choose to work with. Dai Ko Myo means Great Shining Light. As Aleister Crowley in another place states: "Every man and every woman is a star". Through the master initiation you'll reach a strong connection with Spirit, Source, Higher Self, the divine light which nurtures itself and wishes to spread to nurture others.

The Dai Ko Myo is the strongest reiki symbol and it can replace the others. An exception forms distance work where you, next to the Dai Ko Myo, also have to work with the distance symbol Hon Sha Ze Sho Nen. Once you have been attuned to this symbol it is strongly advised to use it with all your reiki works. Your energy work will receive an extra boost and you constantly draw this strong energy through your energetic system. The Dai Ko Myo is the symbol which transmits the reiki initiations.

Hand Positions For Self Healing