I love Reiki healing. I do Reiki every day (Hatsurei ho, in case you’re interested…) and I think it is the best tool a healer can have in their collection. It is also the easiest way to connect to source and to channel healing without getting tired, the easiest way to do self healing, and it both strengthens and softens the work of a healing session. Probably I am better known as a shamanic healer, and I am more likely to refer to myself by that term than as a Reiki healer. I’ve recently asked myself why that is, and I think it’s about my approach to the work. (Also, probably, my penchant for drums and tendency to work in a trance state!) But I think Reiki is an essential skill, and makes us stronger channels for the work.

But I just have a lot more fun teaching Reiki people to do other, weirder things! It’s not that I don’t like teaching Reiki or giving attunements/empowerments – I taught entry level courses for many years and have many a good story from that time in my life. My favourite Reiki work though is to use it in combination with a shamanic worldview of energy and healing, and through that combination making something powerful and new. So, back in 2009, I started some courses that I referred to under the umbrella of A shamanic approach to Reiki.

Is it ok to combine Reiki with shamanism?

Listen, I tend to raise an eyebrow when I see these kind of ‘combo’ courses described. As energy workers go, I’m definitely at the cynical end of the scale – I blame my magical training. And my personality. The truth is we can mix multiple systems together and dilute them all, which can end up with a lack of understanding of all the component parts. Approaches like that do nothing to improve our understanding of our craft as healers, and can even make us less effective.

The main issue is the skipping over of some basics. If your introduction to Reiki is a course that is also about angels, but you’re still only being taught for a day or two, I suspect you’d come away without a strong grounding in either system and will have a lot of studying to do afterwards to elevate your knowledge to a point where you can work safely with other people. When it comes to add on courses though, you’re looking at the continued development of people who are already trained in all the grounding principles of Reiki. My courses are add ons, they are not suitable for beginners. 

Another issue is that many of these courses claim to reveal a secret aspect that actually was part of the original system (like: it’s actually from Egypt! Or Atlantis! No. It is from Japan.) Mikao Usui wasn’t doing any shamanic drumming or considering the interconnected threads between people that have been formed through trauma, for example. He wasn’t working with spirit guides or chakras either, by the way – which of course doesn’t mean that those things don’t work in conjunction with Reiki. They work just fine, they just weren’t part of the original system and if we are using these systems professionally (particularly if we are teaching) then I think it’s important that we know that. And since there is a lot of skill and understanding available within Reiki healing itself, there is a lot to be gained from learning about the elegant system that is Reiki, without cluttering it up with other ideas before you’ve found your footing.

(Side note for anyone I’ve just offended: I am not a purist – far from it, I’m forever going a bit rogue in the work – and I don’t believe there is only one correct way to do things. But I do think it’s important for us to know what we’re doing and note the difference between different types of work, otherwise we can’t hope to blend them effectively. I also am aware that Mikao Usui did not invent the source energy! Clearly he was working with something that existed already and is far bigger than him or any individual. But he did create a specific way to connect with that source energy, and to transmit that connection into the body of another person so that it will work immediately. That, in conjunction with the core teachings on how to use that energy, is what constitutes Reiki. Since that frequency of source energy exists – and is probably being actively used in greater numbers than ever – there are other ways to connect with it and use it. It can even happen spontaneously. I therefore cannot disprove with any certainty that this kind of healing was being used in…Atlantis.)

Here’s what Reiki is: a particular frequency of source energy that we connect into and flow through our bodies to promote healing, used within a system of energy channeling and meditations developed by Mikao Usui in Japan 100 years ago (albeit amended and altered as it moved through the west). More accurately, that particular frequency is a spectrum of energy and, as we move through the Reiki levels, we learn to work more subtly and refine our channeling to use more focused parts of that spectrum – for example through the symbols, kotodama or our intention. My courses use that connection, that source energy, in all our work. It is the way of perceiving the energy body and how we use energy to alter it, still in the pursuit of healing, that differs. I am not seeking to overwrite the system with something I invented, only to elevate the skills and understanding of Reiki practitioners. Well, that and to have some wild journeys into non-ordinary reality, of course.

But…having said all that…I also have a potentially controversial opinion. (Shocking, I know.) I think Reiki happens to be a little bit shamanic. Quite a big bit, actually.

How is Reiki shamanic?

Shamanism is both a path of power and a path of direct revelation. By making a direct connection with source energy – or the divine creator, if you prefer – we are able to use this power, this energy, to facilitate a change in ourselves and in reality. If Reiki is not a direct connection to source, without the need for the constant presence of a priestly intermediary or ‘gate-keeper’ then I don’t know what is. And through that connection we are able to channel that energy and pass it on to others, creating change through our presence as a channel – what Reiki healer among us has not witnessed healing miracles?

Our western introductions to Reiki – no doubt in a one or two day course in nice therapy room with no shamanic ideas discussed and very little ceremony – have led us to think of Reiki as being very different to shamanic work. In my own work, though I began my trainings in core shamanism and Reiki the very same week, I kept the two very separate in the initial years of my healing journey. I believe shamanism to be more grounded in a deeper, earthy practice. More connected to nature, a more technicolour way to view the energy body and understand how trauma and attachment is stored in our bodies, and the effect that has on us. Reiki was, I felt, higher frequency and provided an easier flow but with less control. But what if it is really all just part of the same thing? Yes, a high frequency energy – but could it still be shamanism?

Well, yes. In fact – and this is just one healer’s opinion here – it just makes sense that it is, doesn’t it? Usui was hugely influenced by Shinto, the animistic indigenous religion of Japan. In Shintoism there was a belief in the system of three worlds – upper, middle, and lower – which corresponded closely to those ideas in Mongolian and Siberian shamanism and don’t differ too much from the worldview found in modern day core shamanism. Usui was also a follower of Shugendo, a spiritual set of practices combining folk-beliefs, Shinto ideas (specifically the acknowledgement of mountains as sacred, even as gods) and Tendai Buddhism. It was a polytheistic belief system that also believed that all things in nature contain spirit, and practitioners of Shugendo believed in divination, oracular work, magic, ceremonies, exorcisms, and that there was another reality behind this one – a non-ordinary reality, if you will. Followers of that path used extreme physical challenges like fasting and mountain walking to connect with spirit, and demonstrating spiritual power by impossible acts like fire walking. Hey, my shamanic and magical folks – is any of this sounding familiar?? Given his involvement with these ideas, I just don’t think that Usui would have minded me getting my drum out, do you?

My favourite symbolic connection between Reiki and shamanism comes from an essay written by Walter Lubeck in The Spirit of Reiki (published by Pilgrims Publishing in 2001). The essay is called The meaning of the Reiki character and it looks at translations of the older version of the Reiki kanji than the one usually used today (see above). In this older version, Ki – the bottom half of the kanji – is still usually interpreted as energy or life force, but it can also be the energy that emanates from an individual person’s soul. In considering this idea from the perspective of the ancient Chinese sage, Mencius, he refers to a person’s Ki (or soul) needing to be nourished by communication between the visible and invisible worlds – shamanism! – and to our soul’s communion with source creating a soul level healing. That in itself is pretty much identical wording to Alberto Villodo’s description of Illumination healing, learned on his travels through South America, in his 2001 book, Shaman, Healer, Sage. More shamanism!

And as for the Rei part of the equation, usually considered to mean ‘spiritual’, it can also be given a more archaic translation which Lubeck states ‘…clearly enters the area of shamanism. “Reiki” (Chinese: Ling) can be translated here as “rain-making.” The upper portion of the symbols;e represents “rain”…The middle part…stands for three opened mouths and the lower section…means “sorcerer” or “shaman.”‘

So. Shamanism! (And, fun side note, one of the co-authors of this book, Frank Arjava Petter, once told me that it would be more accurate to say “sorceress” or “female shaman”. Pleasing!)

I’m not saying the two systems of healing are the same. I’m no scholar and there’s clearly a lot of interpretation going on here – but it gives some delicious-feeling goosebumps, does it not? And in terms of my own experience of both ways of working, which is going on 20 years now, I do feel completely confident in saying that shamanic ideas and Reiki energy make excellent bedfellows, and if we skilfully combine the two we can become better healers.

Come and play with me

Curious Reiki healers, I hope you’ll come and try out some of these ideas with me. It’s powerful healing and it is just so much fun. My next Shamanic approach to Reiki course is the Reiki Cord Cutting workshop on 16 September, open to Reiki 2 and above from any lineage. And later in the year I’ll be announcing more dates for my Reiki Sound Healing and my Blockage Removal with Reiki courses.

Not in Glastonbury? If you have a community of Reiki people who are interested in these ideas and you can’t travel to Glastonbury, hit me up. I love an adventure.

I am also, with my fellow Reiki Master Teacher and shamanic practitioner Bhavna Mistry, running a weekend intensive in Glastonbury on 19 and 20 August. It’s called Reiki Soul Reiki Power and it is going to be Reiki, but it will be deep and shamanic and rogue as all hell. There are still spaces if you’re called to join us.

Questions? Comments? Please, let’s talk – post a comment below!