Sunday, September 7, 2008

A Brand New Sei...Sei He Ki



When I began my Reiki experiences two years ago, I did as I was told. I did my daily self-treatments every day for the first twenty-one days. Then, not so much. Then again before and after Reiki II and so on. Back in April I was reading Abundance through Reiki and again got in the habit of daily self-treatments. Why do we stop? I guess that's like asking why we aren't "perfect" in the conventionally rigid sense of the word.

(For those readers who haven't read my Reiki stuff, see the favorites and click on the That Cat stories and others in that time period. In short, Reiki is a healing energy most commonly associated with its use in hospitals and spas as an alternative healing therapy. My blog is for a bunch of different audiences, so if you're not into all that alternative stuff, click around to find my usual rants about writing.)

It's kinda like being in the habit of drinking water daily and eating your vegetables and you feel great. But then, there's sweets, fried foods, overeating, a little less water. And after a while, we ask "Why aren't I feeling as optimal as before?"

Well, for me there was another factor, as well. After a bout with some negative energy months back, I saw my own energy healer and she reminded me the importance of cleaning, clearing and sealing after each Reiki session. I get sloppy. I do Reiki here and there on this person and that or for places and situations. It's a very informal practice and so I slack off on the formalaties--like cleaning, clearing and sealing when I'm done.

Basically, my healer suggested I'd left the door open. Evidently, negative energy doesn't wait for an invitation. I wasn't sticking to the routine and it was costing me. Being a wannabe perfectionist, I can easily get the attitude that, "Well, if I'm gonna do it not-so-well, better I don't do it at all." If I was allowing the negative energy I was supposedly clearing to latch on and hang around, then better I just leave it sit around like stale air. Leave it and just move along out of its reach. A bit inconsistent with whole notion of using our healing techniques to be a blessing to ourselves and others.

Sure enough, after a while, I missed that healthy feeling. I've already explored Pranic Healing and TeraMai Seichem Reiki. They have their pluses, that's for sure. But I like the simplicity and effectiveness of basic Reiki. There are at least another 100 flavors of Reiki that purport to increase one's healing powers. Yet, every fiber in my being said that I already had everything I needed with the basic Reiki and their four symbols.

I successfully fought off the urge to dump hundreds or thousands of dollars for a new flavor, when all I really wanted was plain old feels-good, tastes-good and does a perfect job vanilla ice cream.

I returned to doing the self-treatments at night. But then I'd get nice and sleepy and well, back to where we started, I wouldn't particularly feel like doing the elaborate rituals for cleaning-clearing and sealing.

All that to say, I was praying for a simpler way.

Last week I took a moment to relax after walking my dog at one of the huge regional parks. It was a beautiful, clear day, about 80 degrees. It felt like being on a hike in the woods, except for the houses across the street. It was the perfect scene for a little Reiki.

And that's when the symbol, shown above and below, popped into my consciousness. There were some old ideas hanging around in my aura. Just bad habits of thought and expectation. Several small versions of that symbol went to the places in my aura where old energy was caked and lodged. The zig-zag part zapped it out of place and the two semi circles lifted it out, up and into the light.

When I inquired intuitively, I understood the sybmol to be my answer to a quick easy cleanse and clear after doing Reiki. Just use a larger version of same about my entire aura and voila, negative debris taken to the light for transformation. Like the twice sliding hand slap that says "well that's that and it's done".

Being a Leo with a healthy ego, I immediately imagined that I'd received some new symbol from the ethers. Yes, I even contemplated whether I should get a trademark like all the other "inventors" of healing symbols do. Then I decided to actually draw it out, not just see it in my mind. Turned out it was awfully similar to writing Sei He Ki.

Diane Stein's Essential Reiki gives the usual explanation of the uses of Sei He Ki. Additionally, "It can be used for protection and purification, to clear negative energy, to release spirit attachments... I was not taught these uses, and believe they are no longer generally known."

That helped explain it for me.


I'd be curious to know what anyone who uses the Reiki symbols thinks. Have you seen this version anywhere? I'm sure I'm not the first person to become privy to it.