Issue 37 - Tse Qigong Centre

themselves. For this reason, some Reikipeople who have trained to Mastershiplevel in Reiki prefer to call themselvesReiki Teachers, including Frank ArjavaPetter, author of ”Reiki Fire”.Some people are born with a talentfor healing, others develop the ability bypractising it, or, as is the case with Reiki,it can be acquired by initiation. Initiationis an ancient way of transferring energyor knowledge that can’t be passed toanother orally. The Reiki initiation opensa channel for the universal energy (the“Rei-Ki”) to flow through you. Onceopened, you remain a channel for Reikifor life, even if you never use it. However,like Qigong, the more you use it, the moreyour understanding deepens and thestronger a channel you become. It is nota religion or philosophy, neither does itdepend on intellectual capacity orspecial ability, so anyone can easilylearn. It is simply passed on fromteacher to student.Reiki was brought to the westby a Hawaiian woman named HawayoTakaia in the late 1930’s. She had travelledto Japan seeking healing for a tumour,gallstones and appendicitis. In fourmonths, after daily Reiki treatments in aReiki clinic run by a Dr. Hayashi, she wascompletely healed. Dr. Hayashi was astudent of Mikaomi Usui. She was soimpressed by her healing with Reiki thatshe begged Dr. Hayashi to initiate her.He refused, explaining that Reikiwas Japanese and could not betaught to an outsider. Takata persistedand eventually Hayashi relented. Heinitiated her as a Reiki Master in 1938, butit is now believed he didn’t pass on thefull energy of the Reiki system. After all,she was not only a foreigner, but a womantoo. Takata in turn granted twenty-twoMasterships before her death in 1980.These people too have spread Reiki acrossthe west, so that now there areliterally thousands of ReikiMasters. However it mustfollow that if Takata didn’treceive the full initiation, shecouldn’t pass it on to herstudents. Therefore all thosethat have come after aren’tworking with the full powereither. Fortunately thisrealisation crossed the mind ofa woman who took the Reikiinitiation in 1983. Her name isKathleen Milner, and after aseries of consciousness-raisingjourneys similar to Usui’s onMount Kurama, she retrievedthe full initiation procedure intoReiki. To safeguard it anddistinguish it from the Reikialready being practised, shetrademarked it and called it”Tera-Mai” Reiki.Reiki is learned in threestages, or degrees. The firstdegree attunes you to theenergy and you are shown handposition’s for passing theenergy to yourself and others,animals, plants or anything thatneeds healing. For many peoplethis first degree is enough, foronce you have been attuned tothe energy it is with you for lifeand you can use it anytime. Thesecond degree involves anotherattunement, which increases theamount of energy flowingthrough you, and you aretaught healing symbols whichfurther empower the healingenergy you are channelling. Thethird degree is the Mastershiptraining, which involves themost powerful attunement ofall. You are shown how to passthe initiations to others, enablingyou to teach Reiki aswell as healwith it.Qigong and Reiki workwell together in a therapeuticway, as you can teach simpleQigong exercises to your clientsthus empowering them to takea hand in their recovery.Hopefully, they will notice the benefitsof their regular Qigong practice and wantto learn more! Learning Reiki and Qigongis a wonderful way to help you and othersto live healthier, stronger, happier livesby JohnSpinettoQi Magazine 43