I spent a wonderful day teaching Reiki Block Removal on Saturday, and we talked a lot about why Reiki is the perfect energy source to be connected with when we are doing such deep healing work. Part of it is the essence of the Reiki source itself – it is naturally protective for the practitioner, and for the client it brings an ease of releasing what is ready to go, as well as powerfully repairing and rebalancing the energy body.

But it’s more than that – it’s also that compassion itself is inherent in the Reiki practice. Remember the Reiki precepts:

Just for today
Do not anger
Do not worry
Be humble
Be honest (in your work/in your dealings with others)
Be compassionate towards yourself and others.

That compassion is so important to remember when we move away from the type of healing work that involves simply scanning the body and allowing the energy to flow through us (which is also, of course, a powerful and effective way to work). There are many things to consider when we move into a more deliberate (and by its nature, more intrusive) way of working with energy. One of those things is compassion. Working from there creates a loving container for all our energy work – especially when using shamanic techniques.

What’s the story?

It is powerful when doing shamanic release work to know the healing intention behind the work. Perhaps someone is struggling to move on after an illness, or a relationship, or in their work. This is especially true of cord cutting – we do need to know and name what we are letting go of in that work, whether it is a relationship (or dynamic within one), a belief or a situation. The downside of this is the potential to re-engage with an old story.

We don’t need to tell the old story again in order to heal from it. In fact the point of cord cutting (and any other release work) is to effectively reweave our energy so that the old story no longer has power over us. The most powerful tool we have for that is not fancy energy work (though you know I love that!). It is compassion.

Compassion sets us free

Many years ago I had an experience while using my Reiki Cord Cutting method, with a practitioner who wanted to remove the compassion aspect because the person on the other end of the cord didn’t deserve it. It was a really tough moment for me – how to approach this without judgement and without taking the person out of a healing space, which they so clearly needed?

To be clear, I don’t judge that position. If you have never felt that someone doesn’t deserve kindness, forgiveness or understanding in the wake of hurt they have caused you – well then you are a more enlightened person than me. I expect we have all been there. But I can tell you that the method as I understand it, and as I teach it, simply doesn’t work when done from a place of anger and resentment.

To misquote probably a whole bunch of spiritual leaders, we don’t offer compassion (in the form of Reiki or otherwise) because they deserve or need it. We work from that place because we need it. We we hold our clients to working from that space, however hard it may be, it is because we know that they need it.

Compassion moves us forward

Cord Cutting, like the other forms of shamanic healing I practice, are energetic interventions. Compassion is one of the ways we remain in service to rather than dominion over the work. While it is tender and vulnerable work for us all, it is ultimately a more powerful healing, a more powerful story.

In my experience of the practitioner who refused it, I simply sat with us choosing a different healing subject where it wasn’t troubling for them to be in compassion. My hope was that in experiencing that, it could prepare for deeper work later. Honestly I am not sure if it worked the way I wanted it, and I might be able to weave a more skilful new story around it today than I was able to then. Still, if there is a release you are working on in your healing path and you can’t yet step away from resentment and into compassion, it would still be my practical advice to you. Find angle where that is available to you, and start from there. It will move you forward into a new story.

Most importantly, at all times remember to be compassionate to yourself. Wherever you are on your healing path.

Ready to be a Reiki Cord Cutting practitioner?

My Reiki Cord Cutting workshop is suitable for Reiki 2 and above, and teaches these shamanic principles (and the philosophy behind them) for client work and for our own self healing.

The next course is on 22 March at White Rabbit in Glastonbury – you can find the full details here.

Can’t get to Glastonbury? I run the full weekend of Reiki Block Removal and Reiki Cord Cutting as a visiting teacher to your healing centre with your Reiki community! Get in touch to make arrangements with me!