Celebrating 100 Years of Reiki

APRIL 3rd, 3-5pm. Join me by zoom for a celebration of Reiki! Free. ​Details and tickets https://humbooking.as.me/reiki-100-year-celebration

What started with one man’s incredible spiritual experience in March of 1922, has become a force for healing that is practiced by millions of people around the world. That in the 100 years since the establishment of the Reiki healing method its power has not been corrupted or lost is, I believe, due to the clarity of purpose of its founder, Mikao Usui, and the love and sacredness that was woven into its use right from the beginning.

Who was Mikao Usui?

Mikao Usui was born on the 15th August, 1865, in a small village in Japan. He was one of four children born to a family of some privilege and was provided the opportunity as a boy and young man to study martial arts, Buddhist scriptures, and to immerse himself in what would become a life-long love of learning.

As an adult he held various fairly high-level positions in government administration, and travelled through Europe, America and China. He married and had two children – a son and a daughter.

It isn’t clear what exactly happened that propelled him to shift the balance of his life from an administrative career to a clear spiritual path, but at some point in his mid-life he decided to become a Buddhist monk and began dedicating his time to his devotional practice and training.

It is this decision of his to step onto a different life path that ultimately resulted in the gift of Reiki.

At the end of March of 1922, as he was coming to the end of a 21-day meditation retreat on Mt. Karuma, Mikao Usui received a tremendous spiritual empowerment. He felt a powerful spiritual light entering the crown of his head and would realize soon afterwards that he had been attuned to what we now call the Reiki healing ray. This was an answer to a question he had held for some time. He was a student of a Japanese form of martial arts similar to Qi Gong whereby the practitioner would use breath and movement to prime their own energy bodies with as much life-force healing energy as possible. This energy could then be transferred into another for healing purposes. However, Mikao Usui thought that there must be a different, more easeful way to bring through healing energy. Turns out he was right!

 What is Reiki? 

It is here that the Reiki makes its debut – or more accurately…its rediscovery. This healing ray and healing way likely has roots that are thousands of years old. It has been suggested that Reiki, or a similar healing ray guided by a higher intelligence, is what the man that was Jesus may have used for his hands-on healing work.

Reiki consists of two Japanese words “rei” and “ki”. Rei means universal life, or spiritual power, associated as a higher guiding consciousness. Ki  - also known as “chi” (Chinese) or “prana” (ancient Sanksrit) – is the energy that animates our bodies into aliveness. Reiki then could be translated as the universally sourced energy that animates our aliveness as directed by a higher guiding consciousness.

The Reiki practitioner uses their own channel to allow for Reiki to flow, from the stance of getting out of the way as much as possible! They understand that the Reiki healing energy has its own intelligence, and that if there is any “directing” of this energy it is done by the energy body of the receiver at a level beyond the conscious mind of either the giver or the receiver. That does not mean that there is no place for the presence and intention of the practitioner. To be as fully present to what wants to move through, with as much loving intention as possible, paying attention to the intuitive guidance received in regards to placement of hands and other messages, are all essential parts of the highest possible healing experience.

How did Reiki come to the West?

Very soon after Mikao Usui received this spiritual empowerment he developed a system that would enable him to share this healing and to pass on his knowledge to others. In the four years that followed, prior to his death on March 9, 1926, he would train 16 people up to the teacher level and he and his students would share Reiki healing with thousands of people in the region.

One of those sixteen, Chujiro Hayashi, broke away from the original society to form his own, and it is really through one of these students that Hayashi trained – Hawayo Takata – that Reiki would spread to the west.

Hawayo Takata was a Japanese American born and raised in Hawaii, who discovered Chujiro Hayashi’s clinic on a visit to Japan. She had been previously diagnosed with a lung condition, and after receiving treatments every day in Hayashi’s clinic for 2 months the condition disappeared entirely. She then sought training up to the highest level and returned to Hawaii to teach what she had learned.

Mikao Usui, Chujiro Hayashi, and Hawayo Takata, are the first grandfathers and grandmother of the western lineage of Reiki, and most Reiki practitioners that you come across in North America and Europe will have these Reiki ancestors in common (all will go back to Mikao Usui). From Hawayo Takata’s students, and her student’s students, Reiki has evolved to include new information received by various Masters, so that now there are many branches off of the one formed by Chujiro Hayashi to include many different styles of Reiki.

The style of Reiki that I use and teach is called Tera Mai™, channeled through Kathleen Milner in the 1990’s. This style of Reiki has a strong influence from the earth element and uses more healing symbols that most other styles of Reiki. Kathleen Milner is my Reiki Great Grandmother, and Mikao Usui is my Reiki Great Great Great Great Great Great Great Great Great Grandfather!

How is Reiki taught?

Reiki is now taught typically in three levels. For each level students receive “attunements”. An attunement is a sacred ceremonial process that is given to the Reiki Master/Teacher by their Master/Teacher and allows for the channel of the student to be opened and tuned into the correct energetic frequency for the Reiki healing ray.  

Level one gives the ability to use Reiki on self, friends, and family. Level two is known as the “practitioner level”. At this level students learn how to send distance healing amongst other things, and they could start at reiki business if they wish. Level three/Master is the level at which students can learn how to pass on the attunements.

Why use and study Reiki?

Reiki really is a forgotten part of what at one time in our history was simply a fact of being alive. We all have access to healing energy, and the ability to use it. Studying Reiki will bring you back into a conscious relationship with this innate healing part of yourself.

Whether or not you study Reiki, to receive a Reiki treatment is a beautiful healing experience.

The work is extremely gentle and may or may not involve light touch. The healing is directed through the practitioner’s hands to various parts of the body, and the receiver’s energy system takes in whatever is healing is needed. Most people report feeling deeply relaxed, and many experience sensations of energetic motion like tingling, electrical shooting sensations, hot and cold, physical twitches and shudders, and sometimes emotional releases.
For me Reiki was the foundation of my own healing journey many years ago. I do not believe that I ever would have recovered from the dis-ease that had set into my body without Reiki.

Reiki can also be sent by distance, through time and space. It truly is the healing the world needs right now!

Whether or not you have ever learned Reiki, you are invited to join me on April 3rd, 3-5 pm, by zoom, to connect with Reiki and to send healing to the people you love, and to the places on the planet that so badly need it.

This is a free event. Information and tickets available here https://humbooking.as.me/reiki-100-year-celebration.
 

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