Who Should and Shouldn't Open Up a Reiki Business

I recently came across a social media post that set my teeth on edge. It was a request for donations on a crowd funding site to help outfit a brand new Level I Reiki student with all the accouterments needed to open her own Reiki business (perform Reiki sessions on the public and charge for it). 

Here is what I was taught, what I teach, and what I feel in my heart to be true. A Level I student is in no way trained and experienced enough to open a Reiki business.  Only those who are Reiki Masters,  have the experience and qualifications to open a professional practice and offer Reiki sessions to the public and charge for it   In my lineage (how we trace our connection back to the originator of the system of Traditional Usui Reiki - Dr Mikao Usui), we separate the Master Level into two different levels - Reiki Master Practitioner (RMP), and Reiki Master Teacher, (RMT).  I was also taught and teach even a new RMP should not charge what an RMP who has been practicing for years charges.

#1: Each level of attunement (the energy transmission process Reiki Master Teachers perform on their students to connect them to the Reiki energy in every Reiki class) opens you up to channel a greater, and greater flow of energy.  So in theory, a Level I student is channeling only one third of the amount of energy a human body is capable of channeling.  However, a Reiki Master Practitioner (RMP) or Teacher (RMT) is channeling the full flow of Reiki energy that we are capable of channeling in our dense human bodies. Therefore, if you have a Reiki session from a Level I student and they are charging you as much as an RMP or RMT, then you're getting short changed - big time!

#2 The Symbols: At the second level of Reiki training (Level II), you receive the Reiki Symbols. Depending on who your Reiki Teacher is, and who they trained under, you may only receive the three traditional Reiki symbols (ones we can trace back to Dr. Usui), or five as in my lineage (we also add in two non- traditional symbols because of who our teachers, teachers were).  The symbols do many things: amp up the energy in the area we are working on during a session, or focus it more intently, or are good for matters of the heart like grief, sorrow, betrayal, abandonment, etc., or for mental/mention issues, or for Karmic and past lives issues and issues of sexual or physical abuse as children, and one is expressly for "opening the door" so to speak to make it possible to send Distant Reiki Healing to anyone, anywhere, for whatever reason, and more.  A Level I does not have these tools, which are essential to any good Reiki session or practice.

We also use them to bless our food, drink, and anything else you can imagine, and clear our healing space, living space, office space and more.

#3 Experience:  Every Reiki teacher should offer their students a monthly or even bi-monthly Reiki Share.  They offer the students opportunities to work on others, people who are not family and friends, so they can get familiar with how working on someone they hardly even know feels.  It is also gives them the opportunity to practice their skills, and get corrected if they need it, and meet other like minded individuals.  Who knows, you might end up striking up a friendship with someone in a share, and decide to get together outside of the share and practice on each other - more opportunities to practice your skills, and get lots of experience and feedback.

Anyone who wants to open a Reiki business and perform Reiki sessions on the public, needs to have worked on a lot of different types of people - family, friends, people at Reiki shares, etc., maybe even done some volunteer work, before they set out to open a business of working on the public and charging for it.

Your teacher may also offer some guidance about how to go about open up a business - I do.

The last thing I was taught and teach is that those just starting out their business should not charge what an experienced and seasoned RMP charges.  So if the market in your area says $70 is the going rate for a one hour Reiki session, then someone just starting out should only charge about $40 or so for their sessions, until they do have the experience and expertise that would justify them charging the full rate.

To sum up, it is unethical and just plan wrong for someone who has just barely begun their Reiki studies to open a Reiki business and charge the public for Reiki.  Just common sense!

WORDS AND THOUGHTS HAVE MORE POWER THAN YOU THINK!

I and several of my students had some very eye opening experiences this week. Basically your words and thoughts are a lot more powerful than you think. And also be very discerning about who and what you are connecting with when you use your pendulum, do card readings, or any other form of connecting to Spirit energies to get information.

For me, it started with my expressing my objections to something someone was saying on the Facebook. I ended up getting psychically attacked BIG TIME (for days) and also had some curses sent my way.  Seriously!  I'm not kidding.

Fortunately for me, I now have the tools to remove all of that stuff, but it did take days and was not pleasant.  

Coincidentally (and no, I don't believe in coincidence) there is a wonderful article in the latest addition of Reiki Magazine by Patricia Williams that offers a lot of insight into this issue.

Additionally, one of my students connected with a very nasty energy while innocently using her pendulum to receive guidance.

I am now going to avidly explore more ways of keeping this sort of thing from happening again, and then pass on this knowledge to my clients and students, and whomever else crosses my path that needs it.   

It is obviously much more prevalent than most of the population is aware of, and I feel it is something we all really need to start working on.  How can we bring about peace to the planet when we are harming each other on a daily basis with our negative thoughts and emotions?  I began to wonder how President Obama copes with this sort of thing.  The massive amount of negativity spewed daily (or even hourly) at him just overwhelms me.  I hope someone is clearing him on a regular basis!!!

Also, just because you think you have a pure connection to a being, guide or Angel, don't assume that you do.  When you open yourself up psychically, you become a beacon (like turning a flashlight on in the dark), and there are energies that are just waiting to pounce on those who are innocently or uninformedly inviting them in.   Find yourself someone who really knows their stuff, and can teach you all the ways you can protect yourself, your home and family, and who will teach you the ins and outs of calling in only the purest energies of the light!

A BIG LIFE LESSON

After a few conversations with some of my students I had recently, it became clear to me that they and possibly others, are laboring under a very big misconception.

One of them involved the use of a pendulum, and the other was around doing Reiki sessions on the public and charging for it.

I preface what I am about to say by making it clear that I am stating a fact, and this is not coming from ego.

FACT: ANYTHING you do in life is only perfected by practice - ANYTHING!  From playing a musical instrument, to driving a car, to cooking, or using a pendulum (ad infinitum).

So to assume that after a few months or even a year of training, barely having done any Reiki on others or yourself, and sporadically attending a few Reiki shares, you could be as powerful a Reiki (channel) Practitioner as your teacher, says to me that you really don't have a clue about all that is involved in getting to where your teacher is at.  And that I need to make this a lot clearer in my Reiki classes from now on.

In my lineage, we teach that you don't have our blessing to go out and perform Reiki sessions on the public and charge for it until you have completed the third of level of training, which in our case is Level IIIa (Master Practitioner), for a good reason.  You need the experiences and practice of daily self-treating, coming to every Reiki share your teacher holds, getting together with your fellow classmates and doing trades, and working on lots of others (relatives,friends, pets, etc.) before you are really even ready to go out and start your business.  Even then, you are still  just "in training" for many years.

You can be an incredible Reiki channel some day, or you can connect so deeply with your pendulum that the things you do with it are almost beyond comprehension, but it takes years of dedication and practice, practice, practice to be channeling Reiki at the level of your teacher.  

The problem is that most people don't have the discipline or the drive to get to that point.
 

This Way Or That Way

When I was first learned Reiki, I was taught that drawing the power symbol (CKR) one way did one thing, and drawing it another way did something else. Then I read that Mrs. Takata, whom I like to refer to as "The Mother of Reiki", taught the opposite of what I was taught.  I am very big on experimentation, so I started playing with the symbols and discovered that Mrs. Takata had it right.

I am talking about the difference between drawing the power symbol either CW (clockwise) or CCW (counter clockwise) and getting different results.  One way (CCW per Mrs.T) powers up the energy or focuses it more intently sort of like a laser would, while the CW power symbol draws out negative energy from the area you are using it in.

I have instructed my students and members of my Reiki Facebook Group (REIKI FOR YOU AND ME) to start experimenting also and see what they found.

Yesterday at a Reiki Share, I had my students play around with  the CCW CKR and they also found that it indeed got things really hopping!

If you are Usui Reiki Level II and above, I suggest you do your own experimenting and see what you get. Some people believe that it's all about intention anyway, but I personally feel there is always a right way and wrong way to everything.  

WRITER'S BLOCK?

Let me tell you, it's not easy coming up with something new every week, or every other week to write about here. I've been wracking my brain trying to come up with something snappy and innovative, and nothing is coming - ack!  So I decided to just write and see what comes out. Here goes - I taught an Usui Reiki Level II class this weekend and realized that this weird thing keeps happening whenever I teach a class where it's brought to my attention that a lot of the techniques that I teach my students, I'm not doing myself anymore. This forces me to go back and start adding things back in, like using a Reiki Box, or doing Distant Reiki Healing using the Candle Flame Technique, or putting symbols into my hands while doing Reiki on my clients or myself, or Reiki'ing my food, or Reiki blessing all the water I drink, etc. Or an idea will come to me as I am teaching them how to use Reiki symbols to clear, program and charge a crystal, like should I be doing this with every crystal I use or wear?  Do all the crystals I use in a crystal grid, for example, need to be programmed before I put them in a grid? So the old saying "While we teach, we learn" by the Roman Philosopher Seneca is very true!  When you teach something, you are always learning something new yourself. I find myself saying "Wow, how did I forget that?" many times in classes. (I write all the manuals I use for teaching Usui Reiki and update them constantly).

ARE CHAKRAS TO "WOO WOO"?

I recently read a blog post from a very well known Reiki Master Teacher who pretty much asked all of us Reiki Practitioners to not be bandying about the "C" word to our clients or students, or any body else in the public domain.

I am referring to the CHAKRAS. As I read these words, I sort of heard that noise you hear when someone takes the needle off the record in the middle of song hastily - eeerrrrrrrrrrccccccccccczzzzz".

Not talk about the chakras?  WTH?  In my world, talking about the chakras is a big part of what I do. I teach pendulum classes that how my students how to tell what direction they are spinning in (for learning chakra balancing techniques). I talk about them all the time to my clients and students, they are an integral part of the attunement process in all Western Reiki attunements I perform, I write about them in blog posts and articles, and I advertise techniques that I do to open, clear and balance them on my website.

Apparently this person feels they are a little too "woo woo"  and if we Reiki Practitioners want to be taken more seriously by the Western Medical profession,then we should tone down the "woo woo."

Sorry - NO CAN DO! Chakras do exist, that has been proven (read Hands of Light by Barbara Brennan), and of course let us not forget the Vedic texts that go back to 1,500-50 BC, or the Upanishads. Chakras play a huge role in whether the whole being is humming along, or just clunking along. 

Personally, I am not trying to get the Western Medical Profession to either accept what I do, or to impress them. I am just trying to bring balance and healing to anyone who asks for it, in the ways that I can, that get results time and time again.

THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY

Another person just came to me to be retrained in Reiki because their last teacher did such a piss poor job at it and they felt cheated. This happens all the time! But thank God, they want to give it another go.

I kid you not - probably once I month this happens. It really burns me up and makes me sad all at the same time. Somebody who is just out to make a fast buck xeroxes a couple of pages from some Reiki book (if that even), does some kind of attunement, charges a hefty fee and doesn't even provide a decent amount of hands on training, or worse yet, doesn't even provide them with self-treatment diagrams, or diagrams on how to treat others.

Why do I get so worked up about it?  Because it gives the rest of us really sincere and devoted Reiki practitioners and teachers and Reiki a bad rep.  If you go to one of these half ass classes and plunk down your hard earned cash and walk out of there thinking, well that was sure a joke or a big waste of time, it's going to leave a bad taste in your mouth and you are not going to be too inclined to do your daily self-treating, work on others and really get the healing benefits of this miraculous and astounding healing system and bad mouth it to everyone you meet.

And that rubs me VERY WRONG!!!!!!!!!!!  And reinforces my feeling that Reiki needs to be regulated so this kind of fiasco doesn't happen to anyone else ever again, and Reiki is really given the respect it deserves!

PLEASE do your research!!!!!!!!!!!!   Reallllllllllly check out the person you are considering working with to become Reiki. How long have they been in business> This will give you a gauge as to whether or not they are well established because they are doing things right! Read their testimonials. MEET WITH THEM!!!! It's important to "feel their energy", what kind of vibe do you get from them?  Do they feel like they are in their integrity and "know their stuff" or they just bluster and no substance?  Have a Reiki session with them - you'll really get to know if they know their stuff then!  Maybe even ask to see their manual!!!!  Possible you could even ask if you can contact some of their students to see what they think of their teacher.  Do your homework! Don't just go to anybody!