Reiki healing is an ancient Japanese practice that has been used for spiritual healing to enhance your overall quality of life. This sacred practice uses the power of universal energy, channeled from the healer's hands to you, to inspire healing, both emotionally and physically. Imagine a river of life force energy, robust and flowing freely, acting as a shield against illness while fostering happiness and inner balance. Yet, when this river dwindles or meets an obstruction, it may give way to sickness or stress. At the heart of Reiki healing lies a beautiful truth - the principle of interconnectedness. It gently reminds us that we are not solitary entities, but rather, luminous threads woven into the vast cosmic tapestry.
The spirit of Reiki is encapsulated in its principles, or precepts. These principles are more than just signposts on the path to healing; they are daily affirmations that weave a tapestry of peace and fulfillment.
Spiritual Healing: Ancient Origins
Spiritual healing draws on life-force energy, that comes from God, the most powerful energy. Also defined as energy medicine, energy healing, and vibrational medicine, spiritual healing is an effective method of using Divine energy for healing and balance in a person. The holiest energy benefits everyone through the subtle transference of spiritual energy by touch, the “laying on of hands.” In this way, the practitioner channels Reiki energy to clear blockages (Byoki) caused by lower vibrational energies. By placing their hands lightly on, or hovering just above the body, the practitioner helps to transfer the powerful energy to begin the healing process. Spiritual healing through touch has profound, lasting effects. Practitioners of Reiki spiritual healing do not have the power of Jesus, but through prayer and supplication, we call on Him for help with spiritual healing.
Isaiah 40:29: “He gives power to the faint, and to them that have no might he increases strength.” Reiki energy healing also can amplify the benefits of healing others of their physical or emotional ailments through prayer or meditation. Believers in spiritual healing can attest to the grace of such compassionate acts and the benefit derived when we access our spiritual gifts and talents to heal one another.
The Power of Reiki Symbols
Reiki Symbols are a visual focus connecting us to the universal energy of Creator. Spiritual healing corrects these imbalances, promoting healing and rejuvenation. Our innate healing energies will expand as we connect with the Reiki energy and it begins to flow through the body, soul, and spirit. Whenever Reiki symbols are used, a person’s higher consciousness responds by altering and directing the way life force energy flows. With this method of Reiki, I can direct the flow of energy to a person for spiritual, mental, emotional, and physical health.
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The Role of Prayer in Reiki Healing
While not all Reiki practitioners believe in the power of prayer and prayer is not necessary to use Reiki, it's important that we consider possible ways to improve the help and healing provided by our work with Reiki. While Reiki is not religious, many who practice Reiki are and being inspired by their religious beliefs, add prayer to their treatments and feel this is beneficial. A recent study found that 45 percent of adults pray for health reasons.
The studies done by the Spin Drift group in which prayer was studied for its effects on plants (which are not affected by the placebo affect) indicate that praying for a non-specific beneficial result is the most powerful. So with this in mind, what kind of prayers might be useful to include with Reiki treatments.
As a Reiki Practitioner I immediately recognized the Universal Life Force Energy at work in Affirmative Prayer when I was introduced to it at Center for Spiritual Living. Connecting to the Universal Mind for a Spiritual Mind Treatment is no different than connecting to Universal Energy for a Reiki session.
Affirmative Prayer: A Powerful Tool
Affirmative Prayer is a practice in New Thought philosophy, focusing on affirming the truth of divine presence and power in every situation. Rather than asking or pleading for help, we use Affirmative Prayer to recognize the divine perfection already at work and align our thoughts with the highest truth. This practice, when combined with Reiki, can raise the vibration of the session, enabling you to tap in even deeper to universal healing energy.
Both Reiki and Affirmative Prayer work with the flow of universal energy. Reiki is a completely foreign concept to so many of you beautiful people so I wanted to answer some of your big questions and share with you a bit of my heart, spirit and approach.
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What is Reiki. Basic Concepts. 1st Edition of the Free Course
Let’s start with what it isn’t. The big ‘isn’t’ is that it is not a religion. It is indeed spiritual in nature. But it is not a religion because it has no dogma and because there is no conflict between reiki and any belief system. This that like prayer, it is a spiritual practice but it is not specific to a religion, nor is it its own religion.
Reiki is a combination of two Japanese Kanji (ideograms used in their written language), Rei and Ki. Rei is spiritual wisdom and Ki is life energy. The kanji of Rei actually depicts the heavens (you know, where Jesus is currently preparing a home for us) and the earth (our current home) and between the two there are three stones, meant to symbolize the three parts of a person: body, mind, and spirit (as we were made in the image of the triune God). “This goes by many names such as spiritual consciousness, the universal mind, God, the Supreme Being, the third heaven and so forth.”
Often, they will first do what is called a Byosen scan. For me, this is my first prayer. I am asking God to highlight any places within you that need special prayer and attention. Then, starting at the top of the head and working my way to your feet, I hold each piece of you in prayer. I send God’s healing light into your body with each breathe and ask Him to heal anything within you that needs healing. I rely on the language, visualization, and clarity of chakras as a map, in order to ensure all aspects of the client are getting proper attention and care.
Benefits of Reiki Healing
Lastly, I’d love to share some of the benefits of reiki healing:
- First and foremost, a reiki session offers an incredibly relaxing experience that aids in a positive state of consciousness and spiritual experience.
- It is a great addition to most forms of therapy. This is why I do offer a spiritual direction and reiki combo session.
- The reiki and spiritual direction work with one another for an enhanced experience and further healing.
- Historically reiki has been used to aide in the healing of every illness and injury imaginable. We use it in our home for allergies, common colds, teething babes, headaches, bruises, sunburns, and sore muscle.
- We also use it to help reduce anxiety and depression which has been highly effective.
- A reiki session can provide clarity, a sense of grounding when you are feeling like you have no control, and balance to your mind, body or spirit.
Prayer: A Message from the Heart
Prayer is a message to God sent from our hearts. Prayer holds the belief that there is a Higher Power who listens, cares and intervenes on our behalf. It invites enlightened beings into our lives to guide and assist us and tells them of our needs, intentions and gratitude. Using prayer with Reiki is a personal choice. Not all Reiki practitioners enjoy prayer or find it necessary for their practice. Many Reiki practitioners work with Reiki strictly as energy. Either way is appropriate; Reiki heals regardless. Including prayer with Reiki practice empowers our relationship with the Divine.
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Without the power of God Consciousness, prayers are simply words. The light within them is dim. Words can carry low vibrations, attachments, beliefs and bargains, and their manifestation can sometimes have unexpected results. When we empower our words and prayers unconsciously and use our personal agenda, we may experience the unintended consequence of our efforts, leading to the old saying, “Be careful what you pray for, you may just get it.”
Reiki connects our mind and our heart with God Consciousness and aligns our intentions with truth. The Reiki guides say that prayer is seen in the spirit realms as light emanating from the Earth. Reiki strengthens the light of our prayer and makes it more visible. The Power symbol connects us to the enlightened realms. It also helps us release any unwanted attachments in our prayer. The Mental/Emotional symbol can cleanse and clarify our prayers and intentions. The Distant Healing symbol sees the Divine heart in ourselves and the Divine heart of our prayer, and it can carry our prayer on the Bridge of Light to the enlightened ones who can help us. Reiki is a vehicle for our prayers to manifest.
When we are healing with Reiki, our prayers and spiritual helpers have access to our physical body, mind, emotions and spirit. We have asked for help and made ourselves available to receive healing. When the outcome of prayer is not what we had hoped, Reiki can heal us, imparting a sense of peace and trust in the most difficult times. Reiki helps us let go and allow the highest good of all to be served, even when we do not understand. Reiki blesses us and fills us with light and heals our hearts. I use prayer in all of my Reiki practices-treatments, workshops, ceremonies, my Reiki craft projects, meditations, and in my daily life.
Before a client arrives for a Reiki treatment, I activate the Reiki symbols in me and in the room; I place my hands in Gassho and begin to listen. When my client arrives and we talk about their healing needs, the symbols begin their work to help the person clarify their intention. The invocation invites the enlightened ones best suited for the Reiki work and communicates the intentions of the client to them. Often, the truth of the intention is clarified through my invocation. The process of praying aloud while connected to Reiki and my client aligns the words with Spirit and my client’s heart, and their true purpose is revealed. Hearing the meaning of their prayer has a very healing effect.
Often clients remember their true vision and goals when they hear the words. The prayer then directs the Reiki treatment and gives me the place to focus my attention in the treatment. I can completely let go because I know my Reiki guides and spirit helpers are present; they know what is needed, and they are the ones who do the healing work. Arjava Petter says in his book, Reiki Fire, “Personally, I find it very helpful to remember that we are touching the Divine every time we give a session or an initiation to a fellow being.” He also says in The Original Reiki Handbook of Dr.
Prayer is also important in my workshops. Prayer invites Spirit to the class. I use my invocation to align the mind and hearts of all attending with God Consciousness and communicate to the spirit guides what we are going to do that day. In my prayer, I ask to “close the circle” and ask to create an enhanced learning environment so those present can feel the energy of Reiki. It also allows me to step out of my head and teach from my heart, which makes it easier for my students to listen and absorb the information presented.
I use prayer throughout the day in guided meditations and before the Reiki attunements. Prayer helps the students and me center into the ceremony and tells the Reiki guides which attunement I am giving. At the end of the day, I use prayer to “open the circle” and release the energy, participants, and Reiki guides from the circle. I use prayer and invocation in my meditations. Both in my personal meditations and when I am doing guided meditations for others. Distant Reiki is also a form of prayer. And, I use prayer in my Reiki craft projects to imbue them with intention. Currently, I knit scarves and donate them to children in hospitals.
Prayer for me is more a style of communication than a form of worship. Prayer creates a particular experience of Reiki. It is the experience of the Divine that many of us find so fulfilling. I love my connection and relationships with my Reiki guides and my spirit helpers. They enrich my life every day.
Overcoming Challenges in Prayer
Praying did not come easily to me. Praying aloud in front of others gave me terrible anxiety. I literally suffered at the thought. However, not being able to pray or pray aloud was a huge limitation for the style of Reiki that I wanted to practice. In addition to my healing practice and Reiki workshops, I write and perform many ceremonies. Ceremonies require a lot of prayers and thoughtful preparation.
To begin, I went to the bookstores and found prayer books. My favorite is Illuminata, by Marianne Williamson. It is filled with prayers for just about everything. Her prayer style is still noticeable in all of my work. Marianne advises: “Read my prayers or someone else’s. By all means, create your own. It can be very powerful to write down prayers. Some people find value in keeping a prayer journal.”
So, I started a prayer journal and began to write. For several years, I wrote my prayers down and read them from my prayer journal. I was too intimidated to try to pray off the cuff, so I gave myself the freedom to adopt others’ styles and to read my prayers from a book, until I became comfortable letting the prayers come through me as they do now. I used the Mental/Emotional symbol to help remove my inhibitions about praying out loud, to clear my mind and feel less anxious. With a clear mind, I could hear what I wanted to say and allow the words to come through.
Invocation: Inviting Spirit
An invocation is a specific style of prayer offered at the beginning of an activity to direct and guide the process. It invokes or invites Spirit to us and states an intention. I learned my invocation style from my shamanic teacher Jan Engels-Smith. Like Marianne Williamson, she encouraged me to adopt parts of her invocation until I developed my own. I still include some of what I learned in my current invocation. Mine has a format that I use every time, but the words change according to the intention. I activate Reiji Ho with my invocation for all my Reiki activities.
Here are the steps for creating your own invocation:
- Begin with a term of endearment toward the being you are praying to. Examples are: Dear Jesus, Dearest Lord, Great Spirit, Mother Father God, Infinite Spirit, and many others. I use Dear Ones most often, and when I am in a group, I use what is comfortable to them. In my Reiki circles and classes, I invite the blessed ones, the sacred ones of all of the people in the room.
- Establish a place to meet your Reiki guides, or whomever you’re praying to: I go to the place of purity. “At this moment in time, I lift my vibration above the density of the earth, and I stand in that place of purity. The place of pure light, love, pure joy, truth and beauty.
- Welcome your Divine self and align with God Consciousness.
- Welcome the Reiki guides and the beings of light and love who are to be there. If you do not know them by name, ask for enlightened spiritual helpers, compassionate teachers, or beings of light and love. Or, ask for them by category, such as angels, power animals, spiritual teachers and guides, compassionate ancestors and descendants. I also include them by name, Jesus and Mother Mary, the Archangel Michael, etc.
- State your intention and tell your spirit guides what you need. Here is the invocation I prayed for this article.
- Ask to be clear and open for Reiki to flow without interference.
- Say thank you. “Thank you, Dear Ones, for the blessings, teaching and gifts you give me and all of us. Thank you for your help and guidance. I thank all of the people who help with these words and teachings, and I include myself.
When I asked my Reiki guides what they wanted to say, they said, “There are as many styles of prayer as there are people, beliefs and cultures. Who you pray to is who will answer you. Perhaps your intention will call a particular enlightened being who specializes in your healing needs. We see your prayers as beams of light. Reiki adds radiance and power to the light of prayer and makes them more visible to us. All prayers are answered, whether or not you understand. Perhaps they are not answered in this world, but they are answered in another portion of your soul. We love your prayers; they give us permission to help you because you have asked. When you use Reiki with your prayers, you make yourself available to receive from the Divine. Reiki empowers us to help because it is a very high vibration like ours and gives us better access to you. Please pray often. It does not matter your style or your words.
| Benefit | Description |
|---|---|
| Relaxation | Reiki sessions offer a deeply relaxing experience. |
| Spiritual Connection | Enhances connection to divine energy and spiritual awareness. |
| Emotional Healing | Helps reduce anxiety and depression. |
| Clarity and Balance | Provides clarity, grounding, and balance to mind, body, and spirit. |
| Enhanced Prayer | Reiki strengthens the light of prayer and makes it more visible. |