The Japanese art of energy healing

Reiki Healing – What does it mean? 

“Reiki” is simply a Japanese name for the universal life force energy that exists all around us in the universe, and animates everything. Whatever you consider the source of that energy to be – God, the Earth, or anything else – it exists. The lives of our ancient ancestors were governed by this energy as it flowed from within the earth as well as all around them, as it was the source of all they needed. Where the energy flowed strongly, they built their settlements and temples of dedication to that energy, in order to connect with it for healing, fertility, to bless their crops and help them to live harmoniously. Such temples exist throughout the world – Stonehenge, Avebury, Knowth, the Serpent mound of Ohio, the monuments of Peru, the Nazca lines.

What our ancestors knew has been lost with the changes in our culture and lifestyle. The senses that we once used to connect to the Source have largely been forgotten. Now, thankfully, we are trying to reconnect and find our way forward/back to a better way of living among each other. The healing energy has been symbolised in different ways by many different cultures – the Chinese dragon, the Aboriginal spiral, the native American Indian serpent – but such slight variations of form are all expressions of the same force. What we now call “Reiki” is a healing tradition derived from the practices of one ancient culture, the Buddhists. However, healing knows no cultural boundaries and, like the shapes, which symbolize its energy, in practice it varies little between one people and the next. “Reiki” has no religion, but it is a spiritual path. The process of learning about the energy is one that humbles, enlightens, and offers profound spiritual joy. If you choose to work with the energy, you are simply offering yourself as a tool to the Source, for the benefit of those around you. Attunements to “Reiki” are simply a way of connecting you back to the Source. The attunement process is simply a way to remind you how to connect. Even the modern Church of England ceremony of christening a baby is a descendant of the attunement process. Attunements are also a powerful healing process and lift some of the individual’s negative life issues. The more people who receive Reiki treatments and are attuned to Reiki – reconnected – the better for all of us.

The word Reiki comes from two Japanese words - Rei and Ki. Rei is the upper character Ki is the lower.

Rei-:  Spiritual Wisdom

Hawayo Takata said that a general interpretation of the word "Rei" is "Universal" or "Present everywhere". A more esoteric interpretation is that it means Universal Spiritual Consciousness or knowledge; the wisdom that comes from the source.

Ki-:  Life force

Ki is Chi in Chinese, Prana in Sanskrit and Ti or Ki in Hawaiian. This energy is given many names by all who are aware of it. Ki means life force. This is the energy that animates all things. Many cultures place great importance on this life force Ki is present all around us and can be accumulated and guided by the mind.

Reiki-: Spiritual guided life force energy

It is the consciousness called Rei that guides the life force called Ki in the practice we call Reiki. Reiki guides itself with its own wisdom. All healers use Ki, the life force energy, but Reiki is only used by someone who has been attuned to it. People, who already do healing work, report a 50% increase in the strength of their healing after taking the Reiki training.