King's Touch Reiki

Here we are, at the end of the year! As we prepare for the first session of our Reiki class this Sunday, January 5, I'd like to share links to the 'History of Reiki' posts I've done over the last couple of months. When Takata brought Reiki to the West in the late 30s, & began telling the story of Reiki to people outside of Japan, she 'edited' her tell for her Western audience. In recent years, as communication between Reiki practitioners in Japan has opened up, a more accurate picture has emerged. I've enjoyed revisiting the Reiki stories, & look forward to sharing more of them with you! Here are links to my posts on the history of Reiki: Mikeo Usui: Mountaintop Experience                     Reiki - The word                     Reiki Principles , as Usui taught them Chujiro Hayas...

I've been participating in Catherine Basu's '12 Days of Fitness Challenge, & today, Tonya Lynette shared an article on Mind Body Green list 10 tips for a Healthier Life I've adapted the tips a bit, with suggestions for integrating Reiki into these practices. 1. Move more.  Regardless of your age, your brain and body expect and require movement for health. Movement exerts its effects on the brain through several mechanisms, including neurogenesis (the creation of new neurons), mood enhancement, and endorphin release. Do some form of exercise that significantly raises your heart rate for 30 minutes at least four times a week. Incorporate Qi/Chi building movement several times weekly as well - 3 Palms Rising is a simple beginning! Remember also to break up your sitting and move frequently during the day. 2. Get more sleep.  Sleep  is often the single most undervalued behavior in our lives, and one with immediate power to improve our experience i...

This beautiful December day, with sun shining bright, I wish to honor teacher Hawayo Takata, who was born on Dec 24! Hawayo Takata "It all began as dawn was just breaking over the Garden Isle of Kauai. The day would be Christmas Eve, 1900. In the home of a young Japanese couple, a mid-wife was helping the young mother deliver her third child. Many young people had come from Japan to this island of flowers to work in the flourishing cane industry, and this family was living in the village of Hanamaulu, near Lihue. ... when the mother looked at that tiny, squirming, wailing bit of humanity, she thought to herself, 'if she is ever to amount to very much, she must have a very big name.' Then the idea came to her to name her after the Big Island, Hawaii, changing the last letter to 'O' because girls names ended in O.' ... 'Give her a bath and wrap her in a new blanket. Then face her to the sun, put your hand on her head and say three times, 'I NAME Y...

After Mrs Takata recovered her health, she was ready for the next step:  Learning how to do this wonderful Reiki!  She asked Mr Hayashi, but he was reluctant to teach a Western person Reiki, feeling that Japan had already 'lost' enough of its teachings to the US. “It is a closely guarded treasure. It is for Japanese people only.”   She WAS an American woman! When she wanted to see something, she stopped and looked. When she wanted to know something, she asked. She respected his answer, and said no more; but she wasn't about to give up! One day, her surgeon, Dr Maeda, asked how she was doing. She told him that she had a reaction after the forth treatment. Then, for 14 days & nights, 'bathroom, bathroom, bathroom! So much I had to crawl back to my room. I was able to walk for the first time December 24, my birthday; and the next day I was a new person. I gained 14 pounds, and lost 10 years! I am getting well, & I want to learn Reiki. Please, doctor...

Plumeria In the Flower Essence Repertory , Patricia Kaminsky & Richard Katz write: " In selecting appropriate essences, one can start with the positive goal, and then uncover the emotional or mental pattern which blocks the purpose. Likewise, identify the client's pattern of imbalance or suffering, and then determine the positive quality which needs to be developed."  This applies when choosing an individual essence, or when formulating a combination, a  'bouquet.' I began making essences just before becoming a Reiki Master in 1991, and have used individual essences and 'bouquets' in my classes since the beginning. I find them helpful for the integration process and add a way to  reset  our fields.  I find essences often 'present' themselves to be included in bouquets, as soon as I set the intention of what I wish to address, both positive goals, & shifting blocks to achieving that goal . Here are the flowers I included in  'Hea...

Mrs Takata often told her students 'Hands on, Reiki on!' emphasising the simplicity of engaging the Reiki energy. I liken it to charging a battery, if a battery is low, when you attach it to a charger, it 'draws' the energy it needs through the cord or jumper cables. When you take it off the charger, it no longer draws energy. Denise Linn - 'Flow' When we place our 'Reiki Charged' hands on someone needing energy, they draw the energy through us - 'Hands on, Reiki on!' When we take our hands off, they no longer 'draw' energy. (In second degree, we learn to consciously 'send' Reiki across distance of space & time, but the focus in First Degree is hands on work.) Mrs Takata also suggested eating simple food, full of vitality, in the hospital, she likely received simple Japanese fare - rice, steamed vegetables, Miso soup, fresh water & green tea. When preparing to receive Initiation into Reiki, students are encourage...

I love finding *new* (to me!) information & sites about Reiki. & revisiting *old* favorites. Here are a few: My dear friend Margo Vance-Borland is a healer & Reiki Master in Corvallis, Oregon. Margo also studied Reiki with Takata in 1973, and became a Reiki Master in 1994. She offers sessions & classes in Corvallis & at her beautiful Seichim Center, West of the town. John Harvey Grey was the third of 22 Reiki Masters initiated by Hawayo Takata (in 1976), & taught well into his 90s! The John Harvey Grey Center For Reiki Healing has some lovely articles, a Facebook page, & online newsletter. Though John passed in 2011, the Center he founded still offers training on the East Coast. Several months ago my friends met Portland Reiki Master Michelle Garnier Winkler at the Body/ Mind/ Spirit Expo, & were impressed with her warmth & joy. She offers sessions & classes at her center in Portland, Oregon. I studied Reiki in 1989, & became a R...

When the sudent - or teacher, is ready, things happen! For several years I taught Reiki intensively - small classes & workshop offerings at Breitenbush Hot Springs, a 'sabatical' (from massage) year at the coast with weekly Reiki circles, then classes here in McMinnville, including initiating my daughter & daughter-in law .... then those girls began having babies, & my GRANDMAMA years began! That coincided with my move to a co-op office with several treatment rooms, but no large classroom space. I adapted by teaching a few classes elsewhere, & offering individual training in my own Therapy room. Recently, a friend expressed interest in a class, & I approached a couple of friends about using their spaces for classes. So in January, I'll begin offering classes again on a regular basis! I'm excited. Your Reiki class, teacher & community: You'll be attuned to Reiki - a lifelong tool!  Learn to treat yourself and loved ones (including p...

When Takata was teaching Reiki, she encouraged her students to think of 'Reiki for the Self First!' As we serve as a conduit for the healing & spiritual energy of Reiki, it flows into us before blessing the person or object we're 'Reiking.' With the gift of Reiki, we are assured that we will also benefit. I've noticed this in many instances over the years - if I stubbed my toe on the way to offer a session, I'd often feel 'zings' in that toe while I worked, & often couldn't recall WHICH toe was hurt after the appointment. Magic! About 10 years ago, I was taking a series of weekly Soaring Crane Qigong classes , shortly after I smashed my left index finger in my sliding glass door. OUCH! An injury that a Reiki & Massage Therapist dreads. Hypericum perferatum I'd been doing poultices, Self-Reiki, taking Homeopathic Hypericum , (which is especially helpful for healing when nerves are involved), using Hypericum tincture, and...

On this day of Thanksgiving in the USA, I am Grateful. In an article on using gratitude as a prayer, Norma Gentile writes: "Gratitude is a state of consciousness that includes opening ones’ heart.  You cannot feel gratitude towards something or someone without experiencing your own heart opening."28 The German Philosopher Meister Eckhart (1260 - 1328) wrote: "If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is Thank You, it will be enough." “The greatest honor we can give Almighty God is to live gladly because of the knowledge of his love.”  ― Julian of Norwich (anchoress, she & Chaucer were the first to write in the 'common language' - Old English, rather than Latin) &  “... so our customary practice of prayer was brought to mind: how through our ignorance and inexperience in the ways of love we spend so much time on petition. I saw that it is indeed more worthy of God and more truly pleasing to him that through his goodne...

Around the same time that Takata sought answers for her own health, and Hayashi had opened his Tokyo clinic & was teaching hands on & spiritual healing, Englishman, Edward Bach, had similar questions, a similar quest. " Health is our heritage & right. It is the complete and full union between soul, mind & body.'   (Edward Bach, Collected Writings, P 91) Bach was born in Mosley, England Sept 24, 1886. He studied medicine, graduating in 1912, & commented ' It will take me 5 years to forget all I've been taught.' He had already begun to notice that different emotional states, worry, anxiety, anger, could affect the patient's health. He dreamed of a different kind of hospital, where patients could learn about themselves, & doctors would look more at the person than the symptoms. As an MD, he worked both as a general practitioner, bacteriologist & pathologist, developing vaccines made using a patient's own intestinal bacteria. ...

This past summer, my friend & SiStar Reiki Master Sheila King offered a class on 'Lightweaving' to a group of Reiki Practitioners. Sheila was my small group leader at the Breitenbush Reiki Gathering in the early 90s, & I've appreciated her wise, warm presence and teachings ever since. Sheila writes : " Light Weaving is a method of healing that works primarily with the energetic body. Light Weaving restores missing connections in the energetic body, and also restores connections between the energetic body and the physical body. When missing connections in the energetic body are restored, the related dysfunctional area in the physical body receives more complete information and energy and so can restructure itself properly.  This restructuring not only happens in the physical body, it also happens in the related emotional and mental structures. And with this restoration, every pattern related to the dysfunction will heal. Usually with this treatment, people ...

While writing about Reiki yesterday, I looked on u-tube to see if there was anything with our beloved USA Lineage keeper, Phyllis Furomoto , who is Takata's granddaughter. I've had the honor/blessing of meeting Phyllis during Reiki Gatherings at Breitenbush, & played the harp for a meditation she led. I found a delightful interview done in 1912, with another Reiki Master of Japanese descent, Barbara Matsuura . As I listened to the 6 segments (1 hour total) I found that though she has travelled more than I, there are many places Matsuura's & my paths overlap! She studied ballet, & then learned Tai Chi & Qigong. I began with ballet in 1978, & studied Tai Chi concurrent with my massage training, beginning in 1983.  I began teaching both Reiki and Tai Chi in  the early 90s, & have been working more deeply with Qigong the last decade. Barbara Matsuura - photo from her website Matsuura travelled with her husband, in Japan, she learned Kabuki dance, ...

When Takata had received Reiki for 6 months, she was ready to learn! But... Though she was of Japanese descent, they considered her 'American,' & Dr Hayashi was reluctant to accept her as a student. Again, she spoke with Dr Maeda, & pleaded her case. "If I don't have my health, I have nothing!" She was determined to learn! So Dr Maeda took traditional writing materials, a brush, Sumi ink, & wrote Hayashi a letter, stating her sincerity, and she was accepted as a student.                                 **************************************** Frank Arjava Pettier & Tadeo Yamaguchi's book 'The Hayashi Reiki Manual'  includes information from the handbook Hayashi gave his students. The authors also recount Tadeo's mother, Chiyoko's memories of studying Reiki with Dr Hayashi. The full story of her experiences ...

 In her blog ' for Dragonflies & Me ,' Jean shares a tip that helps her keep her home both 'cozy and welcoming,' but also a place children can be children - a several times a day 'Walk Through.'  Jean writes: "The walk through is a very basic concept that I believe most of us do everyday, but never really had a name for.  It’s easy to apply to our daily schedules and routines and it’s one that children can completely understand. The walk through is simply going through a room and picking up everything that is out-of-place AND putting it away where it belongs.  Simply eh?" This morning I invited my 2 1/2 & almost 3 year old Granddarlings to help me do a 'Walk Through' on the Living room, before Mama & Daddy came home for lunch ... we put away Duplos ("Pick up time! Pick up time!") then went back to the entrance & looked for anything out of place 'oh, oh! Where do these shoes go? ... ooo, lets put these bloc...

When Takata went to Japan & entered the hospital, it was the Dietician who began introducing her to Reiki, through the blessed food & water that she was served. As she gained stength for the proposed surgery, they told her to Consider the Hospital as "a Fancy Resort Hotel or spa." Over the last 30 years, I've taken & offered many classes on healing. A common thread is the recommendation to drink more clear fluids, which accelerate the electrical process & aide healing. A healing crisis or catharsis may ocur after a healing session or initiation, like a battery, we need the fluid to hold the 'charge.' Reiki, Etheric, & Lightwork teachers all suggest BLESSING the fluids we drink and food we eat. An African teacher suggests beaming 'rainbows into your water.' Here is a fun post on making your own 'spa water' by marinating fruits, flowers & herbs in your water! My dear harper & healer friend Jewel often gathers F...

As a child, I always LOVED it when my mama told stories of 'the Olden Days,' when she was growing up. Many of the stories of Reiki that have come down to us were told by the the Dynamic woman who brought Reiki to the West in 1938, Hawayo Takata. I've always loved the stories she told of her own experiences. Born Christmas Day, 1900 in Hanamaula, Kaui, Hawaii; Hawayo Kawamura's mother had big dreams for her tiny daughter, so named her after the Big Island of Hawaii. As a young girl, Hawayo quickly moved from field work to working in a Store, & March 10, 1917, she married Saichi Takata. They had two daughter, and remained in Hawaii, while the Kawamuras returned to Japan. By 1930, she had been widowed, & in 1935, her sister died. Her own health had deteriorated, both from continuing to work hard, & from grief. She decided to take the news of her sister's death to her parents directly, & visited them in Japan to do so. After the services were fin...

Chujiro Hayashi was born in 1879 or '80 in Tokyo. Like Usui, he was married, with two children. He served in the Japanese Navy, & in 1918, became commander of the defence station of Port Owinato. Hayashi trained in Western and Chinese medicine, and his traditional Japanese spiritual practices included Soto Zen & Shinto. His student Mrs Yamaguchi relayed he was also Christian (Methodist). This would not be uncommon in Japan, even now. Hayashi retired from the Navy, & in 1925, became a student of Mikeo Usui, 10 months before Usui's death. Several other Naval officers joined the school not long afterward, & continued his healing/spiritual work under the title 'Usui Reiki Ryoho Gakkai.  In 1931, Hayashi began developing his own clinic & school for healing, which became known as Hayashi Reiki Kenkyu Kai - Hayashi Spiritual Energy Research Society. His clinic had a treatment room where eight clients could be treated, with two practitioners at each futon...

When Takata brought Reiki to Japan in the mid-late 1930s, she told many stories about the beginnings of Reiki as we know it. Over the years, others have visited Japan & brought forward more information.  Our modern practice of Reiki has been handed down from Mikeo Usui, who was born Aug 15, 1865, into a Samurai family in Teniai (now called Miyama cho) in the Gifu Prefecture in Japan. Little is known of his early life, but as a child of the privileged class, he likely began his studies with the Chinese & Japanese classics, learned martial arts, music, read & wrote poetry. Born into a Buddhist family, Mikeo Usui became a lay Tendai priest , who married (Saduko Suzuki) and had two children. It seems he introduced his teachings, Usui do, as a means toward enlightenment, with the healing that took place for students 'a wonderful side effect.' His inclusion of attunement or reiju , which facilitated spiritual alignment. ' It seems that all students of Mikao Usui r...