A Pagan Soul
My Reiki Journey
A Reiki treatment is a very simple and relaxing experience and can often lead to the recipient experiencing a multitude of new sensations.
During a treatment, the recipient will lie or sit on a comfortable surface, most commonly a bed or massage table. They remain fully clothed as Reiki energy will pass easily through clothing and at higher levels of mastery, can even travel vast distances around the world!
When a treatment begins, the practitioner will use their hands to direct energy to the recipient by either touching or holding their hands just above certain points on the recipients body, it will depend on the skill of the practitioner and the comfort of the recipient. The recipient may feel sensations whilst recieving Reiki energy, these may include a sense of floating, a tingling, a warmth, sudden emotion or indeed they may feel nothing at all. It is important to arrive at a treatment calm and with an open mind, as this makes it easier for the prectitioner to administer the energy.
Reiki practitioners are not doctors and as such they don't claim to heal people or diagnose problems, what they do is use pure Source energy to enhance the recipients own healing process.
Reiki energy can be used for may purposes. It can be used to help the body cure itself of illness, it can be used to help heal the mind or it can even be used just to relieve stress and provide a great sense of relaxation.
On this page, I will be documenting my journey into Usui Reiki, from sceptic to hopefully, eventually, Master Teacher level 3.
Reiki 1
So, I went on holiday with my family for a week and decided that I would like to be attuned to level 1 during that week. As it happens my Reiki master is a member of my family so I was free to have it whenever was convenient. Now it's taken me about a year to get up the confidence to agree to be attuned, I had spent that year feeling very sceptical of Reiki and the gifts that it could supposedly provide. I also must admit that I felt a little shy about a member of my family suddenly being very open about their spirituality, especially as I'd spent my entire 'Pagan Life' alone and solitary. However, eventually and with a slight nudge from the Morrigan, I decided to jump in and agree to my first session. As soon as it was over, I knew that I wanted to learn Reiki and be attuned as soon as possible.
We performed the attunement late one evening and to be perfectly honest, I felt very little. I made sure that I went in with an open mind and tried not to think of all the flashing lights, spirit visions and sensations that I'd heard of other experiencing. I just wanted my own experience. After the ritual was over, we sat and talked, myself, my Reiki master and her partner who is also a master and was in the room during my attunement. During the conversation and completely out of nowhere, my mind just started floating and I spaced out completely..... A very odd feeling! I told them what was happening and I was told that the attunment was setting in and I was adapting to the new flow of energy. The spaciness faded but then came back a couple of times during the conversation, all I could do was giggle during these periods as it was so far from what i'd expected to happen (part of me is still sceptical!).
The next morning, I found my Reiki guide, again, completely out of the blue! I'd been expecting to have to meditate and wait for a vision to come but he came to me. I was in the hot tub on my own (the house we were in had a hot tub, it was fantastic!) and all of a sudden a blackbird landed on a large box thing beside me. He stayed there on and off, sunbathing for an hour. He wasn't shy of me at all, despite being only 2ft from me. He'd spread out his lovely wings and tail feathers to take in as much sun as he could. He made a lovely impact on me as he sat, watching me but once again the sceptic in me refused to accept it as a message from the universe, maybe that was just his sunbathing spot! (This is despite the fact that he hadn't been there at all during the first part of the holiday) Once someone else got into the tub with me, he left and I just forgot about him. Later that afternoon (after the sun had moved off that paticular spot) when it was just me in the tub again, he came back! Again, he sat and watched me for an hour on and off. It was the same thing at 7am the next morning when I decided to have an early morning dip, he was sat on that box watching me. He even came back the day after, same thing. I was a big shame that we had to leave the morning after that day so I didn't even get to say goodbye.... I told my Master(s) about this and they agreed that he was a very special blackbird and that he was obviously there for me....
Here ends my journal entry for my Reiki 1 attunement. In reference to any 21 day cleansing experiences, a week after I'd had my attunement, I spent 24 hours vomiting and .... well.... you know..... No one else in my household got sick (and when we get a bug in this house, we ALL get it...) and even though I'd given the 21 day cleansing thing up for a myth, even I started to suspect that might be where it came from!