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