Do You Want Reiki With That?
Variations of Usui Reiki

by Vickie Penninger

There are at least 30 different schools or branches of Reiki worldwide, with most having their origins in Usui Reiki. Mrs. Hawayo Takata, a Japanese American, is attributed with bringing Reiki to the West from Japan, where it originated with Mikao Usui.

Usui Shiki Ryoho is also called Traditional Usui Reiki here in the West. This is the school that is said to adhere most closely to what was taught by Mrs. Hawayo Takata, who was trained by Hayashi, one of Usui's students. Most Reiki Alliance Masters and many independents follow this tradition. It is believed that Mrs. Takata taught each of her 22 Master students differently and did not allow them to leave class with the symbols written down, allowing for variations. There are 3 degrees offered, with 4 attunements for 1st degree, 2 attunements for 2nd degree and 1 for the Master degree. First-degree instruction usually teaches the history, the 5 precepts or principles, and hand positions on the self and others. In 2nd degree, 3 symbols and their uses are taught. In Master level, an additional symbol and its use are taught, as well as how to give attunements to initiate others into Reiki. For more information, visit http://reikialliance.org/.

Many of Mrs. Takata's Masters added variations from what they learned from her. For example, Iris Ishikuro founded Raku Kei Reiki, also called "The Way of the Fire Dragon," in which there are 3 degrees, with 1st and 2nd degrees taught together. This branch incorporates Master Frequency plates that contain an ancient healing symbol (the Antahkarana). The plates are used to switch the polarity of the body. Possession of 3 of these plates is required before taking the Master/ Teacher level. Many exercises, 2 additional symbols, a water ceremony, and a breathing technique called "Breath of the Fire Dragon" are part of this school's teachings. The Master/Teacher level requires a contractual agreement with the American Reiki Master Association (http://atlantic.net/~arma/).

Tera-Mai and Tera-Mai Seichem Reiki is a branch developed by Kathleen Milner, with roots in Raku Kei Reiki. She states that she received information from Sai Baba and other teachers, and her method includes activations of energies she calls Sakara, Angelic light and Sophi-el. In her book Reiki and Other Rays of Touch Healing, she says, "Tera-Mai is the name which my angels and spirit guides call the golden elemental earth ray of healing energy," but its vibration becomes higher when these other energies are incorporated into it. Milner changed the attunement process and added several symbols. There are three degrees offered by this school, and Masters who teach must agree to uphold her initiation standards.

Usui/Tibetan Reiki is taught by William Rand and The International Center for Reiki Training. Rand has studied under several of the Masters trained by Mrs. Takata and combines Traditional Reiki, Raku Kei and his own understandings of Reiki. There are 4 degrees: 1st and 2nd degrees taught together as one class, Advanced Reiki Training, and the Master/Teacher Degree. He includes the Violet Breath, the Reiki Grid, the Antahkarana and more.

Rand has also developed what he calls Karuna Reiki, utilizing symbols and a different attunement process that he was guided to implement. There are four master symbols and eight treatment symbols. Rand calls Karuna Reiki the Reiki of Compassion. He states, "While some of the symbols in Karuna Reiki are the same as those used by other schools and systems, because the attunements are different and the intention is different, the energies that are connected to Karuna Reiki are unique to the system." For more information, visit www.reiki.org.

In 1979 Patrick Zeigler slept overnight in the King's Chamber in the Great Pyramid of Giza, where he was visited by a presence that appeared as an electric blue light that descended into his heart. Zeigler later learned from a channeled guide named Marat that the energy that he received from this experience is called Seichim (also called Seichem, Sekhem and SKHM). There are now several variations of this healing modality. This energy is described as a heart energy and flows in a figure-eight pattern through the soles of the feet into the heart and through the crown of the head into the heart. The energy feels much like that of Usui Reiki, very gentle and loving, subtle yet powerful. There are different attunement processes used in the different versions of this branch of healing. Zeigler describes the attunement that he uses as a "flowing meditation," where the high heart chakra is opened and connected with Earth and Universal energies during meditation. For more information, read All Love: A Guidebook for Healing with Sekhem-Seichim-Reiki and SKHM by Diane Ruth Shewmaker.

One of Mrs. Takata's students, Dr. Barbara Webber Ray, claims that she was her only student given the entire, intact Seven Degrees of the Usui System of Natural Healing, and that this is the only way to activate and transmit Reiki. She feels that the word "Reiki" has been polluted and therefore changed the system's name to The Radiance Technique. She and Mrs. Takata founded The American Reiki Association in 1980. Today it is called The Radiance Technique International Association. Ray does not give the sacred names for the symbols she teaches until the student reaches the higher degrees. She teaches more symbols than the traditional four taught in Usui Shiki Ryoho. For more information, visit www.trtia.org/histpers.html.

There are many more schools of Reiki, each with different symbols, methods of initiation or attunement, and proponents. They have in common the fact that Reiki can be used for healing as well as for spiritual advancement and enlightenment. Reiki comes from the Source. There is only one Source. No one can own this energy; it resides within each of us to be awakened by the connection which an attunement can provide. It is, therefore, important to find a Master/Teacher, no matter what the school, who upholds standards, and who has purity of intent, a high level of integrity, spiritual development and enlightenment and an open heart through which to channel the Divine energy called Reiki.

Vickie Penninger is a Usui Reiki Master/Teacher and has been teaching since 1997. Visit her website at www.TheReikiChannel.com or call (919) 828-0876 to learn about classes or private sessions.