Reiki Shamanism

Reiki (ray-kee) translates to mean universal life force energy. It is the subtle spiritual energy permeating all aspects of creation. It is the elixir of life bringing all things into unity, harmony, and wholeness. Reiki healing is as ancient as humanity and as universal as the quest for understanding. It is the original shaman’s fire. It is also as simple and natural as a mother coddling her child and as a sprout-ling being coaxed toward the Sun. Reiki predates religion but can be found in the workings of all the great healers and teachers. In fact Reiki supplants the need and exposes the weakness of organized religion by awakening the divine connection within the individual and accentuating the unity and interdependence of all life.

Reiki is shamanic in origin. Shamanism, which means “seeing that which was unseen”, is the most ancient science of healing and understanding. The shaman employs whatever techniques she knows, trance, sacred plants, fasting, drumming, and chanting, rattling. etc., in order to connect with sublime energy in creation for the healing of the community. The shaman seeks knowledge and healing by moving energy, through herself and the afflicted. She first is drawn to the energy, the energy teaches and transforms her, and then she works with the energy to transform and heal others. The path of the modern Reiki practitioner is the same.

The traditional system of Usui Reiki is named after its founder Mikao Usui of Japan (8/15/1862 – 3/9/1926). Like the shamans of all ages have done, Mikao Usui developed a system of passing on his connection with energy to his students. He developed his own connection to Reiki in the shamanic way of the vision quest. He went to a high and sacred place where he fasted for 21 days, having brought along 21 stones to count the days. He returned from his quest attuned to the healing power of Reiki. From that time on he continued to heal and work with the energy establishing his Reiki system. With the process of attunement Reiki then began to be passed on. The Reiki system spread to Hawaii from Japan and then on to the continental United States in the late 20th century. At the beginning of the 21st century Reiki is now a world wide phenomenon.

Reiki is a relationship and initiation into higher consciousness that can begin long before our first attunement. I became aware of higher energies that were working with me and healing me on a personal level at least fifteen years before I received my first Reiki attunement. This healing occurred at different times and in different ways on several levels of my being: dense material/physical, emotional, mental and spiritual/soul levels. My relationship with healing energy prior to my attunement and subsequent Reiki practice included visions and experiences that transferred light and energy, healing dreams, the tangible movement of energy through my body (especially my hands), intense feeling of well being and “oneness”, and the healing of gastritis, stress, anxiety, and depression.

Having a previous connection to healing energy and other energetic modalities in no way devalues the system of Reiki as it has come to be taught or the process of attunement. I only wish to share that Reiki is not the sole domain of Reiki practitioners; by definition Reiki means universal life force energy. My purpose is to not only teach and pass on the system of Reiki. I also seek to explain my understanding of Reiki in the broader perspective of human evolution at this critical time in history. I understand this as the path of the Reiki Shaman.

I have found that Reiki Shamanism is the beginning of a extremely rewarding journey at this crucial period in our collective experience. What does this mean? For some, just a broadening of their own enlightening journey, for others an opportunity of transformation to begin a new relationship with themselves, humanity, and the Earth, as well as with subtler energies, higher dimensions and the guides that inhabit them.