The Reiki Symbols

What Is Reiki ?

Reiki is a self development process which allows a knowledgeable practitioner to consciously entrain the life force that resides within self as well as in all beings in such a way that it sees its most natural, positive, creative, and whole state and comes into alignment with the Source of all life. It is this Connection and resulting alignment process that is able to generate as a secondary benefit stress reduction, relaxation, and healing of all kinds. And it is this same Connection that provides a correctly trained and balanced practitioner the primary benefit of access to the Manifestation Process itself and the fulfillment of personal desires.

The Origin of the 4 Reiki Symbols

It has been recently discovered that the 4 Reiki Symbols which have become an integral part of Western Reiki were not used by Reiki's founder other than as a means to describe to one of his students the path that Reiki represents. Even though Mikao Usui (Reiki's founder) became a proficient subtle energy healer, Reiki for him (or what he called Ryoho, which means spiritual method) was not just about healing illness. Rather it was about healing consciousness at all levels and Reiki's (Ryoho) ultimate goal was that of Self Realization. Consequently, Reiki was a spiritual path or self development system and master Usui admitted that even he had not accomplished the ultimate goal of Reiki - that of Self Realization.

The still existant Usui Reiki Society meets in Japan today and does not use these four western symbols. The 4 symbols came into use through Hawayo Takata who introduced Reiki here in the West in the 1930s. For decades, Western Reiki practitioners have been incorrectly believing that the symbols hold the power for Reiki where instead they really describe the path. As a result, I am sharing the basic description of all four symbols as well as the actual symbols on this web page to help all aspiring Reiki students to properly understand and to gain an appreciation for the simplicity and elegance this path provides us as we work toward the ultimate goal of self realization.

There no longer is a need to hide these symbols and to charge thousands of dollars for the privilege of knowing what they are. Instead, contemplate the path that they describe and learn what Reiki really is. It is so much more than just a hands on healing method. It is a process by which we can heal all four energy bodies that together form our life - the spiritual, the mental, the emotional as well as the physical.

Western Reiki Does Not Hold the Keys to the Symbols

Do these symbols have the ability to aid in the connection process? Yes, to a certain extent. Do they actually provide the mystical healing power attributed to Reiki itself? Absolutely not. Consider them visual diagrams used to explain a larger esoteric process that involves more than just the drawing and invoking of symbols. Many western practitioners have endowed these symbols with meaning that simply does not exist. Even so, they now do hold some inherent qualities that have been gained through even their incorrect use, and we must give respect for the devotion that many practitioners have given these symbols while thinking that they were the actual source of Reiki powers.

Because these symbols are not originally part of Mikao Usui's Original Reiki, I do not feel they should be kept secret. Instead, they should be shared freely with any one who has an interest in the path Reiki describes. As this path is contemplated, intuition should be used to unveil the correlation that master Usui was trying to make when he originally used these symbols to describe his process and his path with one of his students. Lets honor these symbols for the path they describe - a path of simplicity, elegance and full of meaning - one which leads to the greatest accomplishment in life - that of self realization.

Mikao Usui
The Founder of Reiki

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The 4 Reiki Symbols

There are four Reiki symbols used in the practice of reiki. The first symbol, Cho Ku Rei, has been called the Connection symbol, and describes the process that a reiki practitioner uses to make an initial Connection with the source of all life which is the Godhead itself.

( Reiki Connection Symbol #1 - Cho Ku Rei )

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The second symbol, Sei Hei Ki, which has been called the mental emotional symbol, illustrates that once a solid Connection has been made, the next task is to heal our mental and emotional bodies so that we can become balanced and powerful in our ability to both perceive into the universe and see it as it truly is and to have the emotional stamina free of fear to become powerful channels and co-creators with the original Source.

The fourth symbol, Dai Ko Myo , which has been called the master symbol , is another Japanese phrase. It points to the path of Enlightenment whose fulfillment is the awareness and perception of the truth of life which states that the Purposiveness of the Universe expressed by Divine Consciousness exists so that a fuller experience or expression of the Absolute can manifest. Material creation is the Body of the Divine Life Force, the Divine Mother Herself, deploying Herself for the purpose of the Absolute's self-knowing and self-enjoying.

We cannot divorce ourselves from this truth and cosmic function. We are integral parts of the cosmic manifestation, even as small as we might be in comparison to the vastness of the universe. However, this minuteness does reflect the very process of passage from the Unmanifest to the Manifest. We are those very Seeds of Creation. We are those infinitesimal "eyes that see", through which the Absolute knows, and thus knowing enjoys Itself. And this is the magic and the mystery of human birth. This is the power with which we are endowed, the power containing all of the properties of the Transcendent and we are Its instruments for this supreme Act of creative deployment of Itself.

This fourth symbol of Reiki points to the path of Enlightenment whose fulfillment is the awareness and perception of the truth of the above statements. Dai Ko Myo in Japanese means Dai (big or great) Ko (shining light ray) Myo (dawns upon or divulges itself through the sun and moon coming together). Here we find reference to the concept of Enlightenment being the divulgence or perception of the combination of the Divine Male and Female becoming combined as one. The light of the essence of the Seed of the Father combined with that of the Cosmic Womb of the Mother gives birth to creation, and the human being is the pinnacle of Evolution whose purpose is to perform the very function of being "the eyes of God" and being able to perceive Evolution as it truly is. Hence the term Enlightenment – the act of Divine seeing.

Thus we must evolve as a race and reach the point in our development where we can know and sustain all aspects of this great Act of Creation without trying to escape to the Beyond, the heaven referred to by our religions which can only be attained after death.The cosmic Manifestation is the truth of that immanence of the Divine, which results in the perception that the Divine is contained in all things.

There is nothing outside of God, and the key for the method to sustain this highest of visions is Love. Love is the force that has held the entire human race in rapt captivity from the time of its inception. Love is the truth encountered together with the emergence of Time at the Origin of the Universe. Because of Love, a supreme equilibrium is secured in the material creation, which results in the fact that dissolution into That is rendered impossible. This harmony, this rhythm secures that a certain distance is maintained, a certain distinction and differentiation, whereby there comes into being a Knower and the Known, an Enjoyer and the Enjoyed – the Divine Musician and the Instrument upon which and through which it can express Itself and enjoy that sublime Expression.

If it were not for Love all would dissolve and never experience the bliss of Union, and material creation would then indeed be purposeless. It is Love that stands as the high priestess in the innermost temple in whose secret chamber we find the Divine Child, the very Purposivenss of the Godhead incarnate, that divine Will manifesting in the world of form. Love holds all things in perfect harmony and equilibrium so that the Eye of Awareness can experience Oneness, can enjoy the bliss of that Divine Unity in creation. It is this that stands as the highest truth of our existence and being. In the Bagadvad Gita, the Lord reveals to his greatest devotee Arjuna, that only such a form of Bhakti or Love, a seeing, adoring, loving of "Me alone in all things" can be granted the vision of Reality As It Truly Is, for indeed, Love and Time are the Being and Becoming of material creation.

This is Enlightenment as referred to in the fourth Reiki Symbol, Dai Ko Myo. And it is this goal that we all are to attain to be successful in life. "In the beginning darkness was hidden by darkness, all this was an ocean of inconscience. When universal being was concealed by fragmentation, then by the greatness of its energy That One was born. That moved at first as Desire within, which was the primal seed of mind." Rig Veda, X 129

Thus Desire, Love, the Ancients tell us was the first attribute or circumstance to arise in the being of That, and this was the link between the Unmanifest and Manifest, between the uncreated and the created. The desire for the pursuit of Enlightenment is the greatest legacy left to human civilization from the sages and seekers of Ancient times.