Roots That Heal

I have recently been attuned to Usui Reiki First and Second Degree. This is something I have been considering for quite some time - in fact I was considering being attuned to Usui Reiki several years before I was even attuned to Celtic Reiki, but ufortunately finances and time did not allow me to do this.

However since meeting T and especially since attuning him to Celtic Reiki First Degree (and yesterday to Second Degree) I have felt an increased desire to be attuned to this earlier form of Reiki if nothing more than as a comparison to Celtic Reiki. By that I mean it is allowing me to see how Celtic Reiki differs from Usui Reiki, enabling me to answer questions such as “why choose Celtic Reiki?” and “what is the difference between Usui Reiki and Celtic Reiki?”

Indeed, what is the difference? As I have only recently been attuned to Usui Reiki this can by no means be taken as a be-all-and-end-all discussion of the differences between the two. Furthermore, each individual will experience Reiki in a different way so it cannot stand for everybody - just my own individual experience of the two. Having said that I have felt a great difference in the power of the two. Neither one is stronger nor weaker than the other but the power is definately different! Usui Reiki is much stronger in a physical sense - it is hotter, more intense and much more perceptible. Celtic Reiki on the other hand is a much more subtle and gentle power, one that trickles like a stream as opposed to a raging river! Each form takes the water to its destination, only one is much more direct, encasing a wider area and much faster whereas the other one ambles along, taking a few twists and turns to the most beautiful and hard to reach places along its path.

Neither one of these is better than the other and it is entirely up to your own individual preferences as to which one you might choose. Personally I have always felt very attracted to Celtic Reiki and never hesitated to put myself out there to be attuned to it, yet I shied away from the intensity of Usui Reiki for many years. Yet now I have been attuned to the First and Second Degrees I am looking forward to using a combination of the two - utilising the individual values of each one as my intuition guides me.

I always wondered why when I gave Celtic Reiki I often felt very little in forms of hot hands, hot body, energy flow (even though I believed entirely in the process) yet when I received Usui Reiki the hands of my healer were hot, sometimes burning to touch. At the beginning I questioned whether I was doing something wrong, but then I began to trust and my faith grew stronger and I began to know the energy I was healing with. Since my attunements I understand why there was such a difference - whereas Usui Reiki is an overall, universal energy, Celtic Reiki focuses solely on the beautiful energies of nature. It’s as if Celtic Reiki brings forth a specific aspect that is encompassed within Usui Reiki - yet Celtic Reiki comes from exactly the same place that Usui Reiki does. A good analogy would be that Usui Reiki is like white light - it is made from all the colours of the rainbow and Celtic Reiki is like the green ray - soft, gentle and soothing - a part without which white light could not exist but which can exist on its own and work well alongside any other colour of the spectrum.

If you want to know what Celtic Reiki feels like imagine walking through a quiet woodland, with the sunlight filtered through the green canopy, spreading a beautiful glow on everything. The birds are chirping in the distance and you hear the shuffling of squirrels searching for food. There are bluebells along the path and shadows dancing everywhere. What you feel when in this place away from the harsh, mechanical side of modern day life, that is what Celtic Reiki is like.

I hope that this post has helped you to understand more about Celtic Reiki and I hope to post much more about Reiki as a whole alongside our usual posts on Celtic Reiki and nature in the near future. Many changes are occuring in our lives right now and T and I are standing at a crossroads. Fear has held us both back but my recent attunement has made me remember the Reiki precepts and I now know that to live in fear, to go to work and get angry at the injustice I see and having to battle each day to change that is not living in harmony with my beliefs. Changes are afoot and we both want them to bring us closer to our beliefs. Essentially - we want our lives to become our work - not the other way around. By doing this we hope to have much more time to live Reiki rather than just turning to it for instant healing in times of crisis. More and more we are realising that Reiki should be a way of life, not just a way of healing. Bear with us as we make these changes!

With many Blessings
Amanda and T xx

Thanks to all of you who are following this journey with T and myself and special thanks for all the good thoughts sent our way. After several days of feeling rather sorry for myself, my body decided it was well enough to carry out the attunement last Sunday. I have been meaning to post the pictures all week, but work has simply been so busy my evenings have been taken up with sleeping!!

So, only a week late, here is how the attunement went.

Please be aware that the photos are snapshots taken from a video we took on my laptop, so the quality is not brilliant. We chose to film the process as this meant we could forget about the camera and focus on what we were doing. The photos are also taken during our run-through prior to the actual attunement - something we chose to do so that T would know what to expect. The photos and comments in this blog post are shared with you in order to show how an attunement works - there are no instructions on how to do an attunement nor no symbols shared. They are not meant to be used in order to try attuning yourself or others - although Celtic Reiki is available to all, I strongly suggest you follow a proper manual and are attuned by a Reiki Master. This is to help you understand the energies and how to use Reiki most effectively, rather than the desire to hold information back.  I would love to think that these posts may inspire some of you to practise Reiki, but practising Reiki means honouring and respecting the process and this means following a dedicated path. If you have any questions or would like to contact me about how to have an attunement yourself then please do not hesitate to contact me at rootsthatheal@live.co.uk I would be happy to help you find a Celtic Reiki Master in your own area or discuss the possibility of setting up a distance attunement at a time convenient for us both.

In preparation for the attunement I had shown T the first degree manual. We had looked together at the nature of energy healing and then gone through the 6 first degree symbols, the trees that they represented and the ways in which we could use them to help ourselves in our own lives. Using Fred Hageneder’s Tree Angel Oracle we found the cards relating to these symbols and placed them on our coffee table, ready to aid us in the attunement. This was a personal choice and not something that has to be done by any means. The whole beauty of Reiki is that it can be adapted to suit those using it. Next to these cards I placed my own cards, portraying the symbols in gold, a small pencil drawing of the tree or plant itself and notes on what the energy is used for in healing sessions. We completed our table with a candle, some crystals and the manual (open for my own reference during the run-through as it was my first attunement and I wanted to make sure I didn’t miss anything!)

As you can see, we closed our curtains to ensure the room was dark and calm. Although the sun was shining beautifully, we felt the desire to have candles and incense burning as we carried out the attunement. It felt more sacred to us both this way - but again this is a preference that each Reiki master and student can choose for themselves. The attunement begins with a prayer and blessing, followed by the opening of the master’s chakras using a master symbol. The room is infused with the master symbols and then rapport is built between student and master by placing the hands on the student’s shoulders, preparing the student for the first degree symbols to be given to him/her.

The first degree symbols are now given to the student in three stages - first they are drawn above the crown chakra and then directed down through the head.

This involves sending the symbols through the student’s hands into the crown chakra.

The hands are then placed on the heart centre, whilst the master moves to kneel in front of the student. This is an excellent time for the student and master to both take a moment to reflect on what they are both doing!

The symbols are then “tapped” into the Third Eye. This involves drawing the symbols before the chakra and then tapping in, whilst intoning the symbol name.

Finally, the symbols are drawn above the hands and then “blown” through the body - up the spine, round the crown and down again into the hands. After this, the master moves once more behind the student to “seal” the energies into the student using a master symbol. A final blessing and prayer of gratitude is given before the master moves to stand once more in front of the student to release the Reiki energy and complete the attunement.

I hope that this post has helped to ease any fears or concerns of anyone new to Reiki, and perhaps inspired some of you to explore further. It has been a pleasure sharing this moment with you all and we shall be updating the blog further with T’s impressions of the attunement and how he felt post attunement, how Celtic Reiki feels in comparison to his Usui Reiki training and of course I shall be posting more about Celtic Reiki, the trees, nature and life itself.

But for now I leave you with bright wishes for a beautiful Sunday, a peaceful week and many blessings.
Amanda xx

Before my first attunement to Celtic Reiki I spent a lot of time getting to know the trees near my home. I was very priviledged to live near a beautiful university campus where I studied. This meant that each day, on my way home from lectures, I could walk around the lake, find a quiet spot and meditate surrounded by nature. In fact, the photos that create the banner to this blog were taken on one such walk!

So, in preparation for the coming attunement, T and I drove out to a nearby wood to connect to the great outdoors. We are very lucky in that even though we live in a city there are many, many green spaces still within walking distance of our home. In fact I walk across a common and the beautiful Cam river (upon which invariably there is a rowing team practising!!) each day on my journey to and from work. But however beautiful these spaces are, they are always full of people.

Now I love people, don’t get me wrong, but when you want to sit in silence and meditate you cannot do so as easily as when you are in a secluded spot. And in preparation for an attunement we both felt that this is what we needed to do. Our decision was well-founded and we walked in awe of the beauty and silence of the area we were in (once we moved away from the main areas of the woods). The photo in the previous post was taken as T meditated to by the old Oak tree that he felt drawn to. Although I will not be attuning him to the energy of the Oak in the first level of Reiki, I do know how powerful the Oak’s energy is and T obviously felt that too as he walked through the woods straight to this particular tree and felt the need to sit at its base and absorb some of its energy.

We saw many trees and flowers that day which really connected us to nature, reminding us to listen to the breeze and enjoy the moment. In fact, that day I realised how hard I work and how I forget to enjoy my life. I realised how imbalanced I was and how much I needed to take these moments in order to connect fully and live in harmony and balance. I realised just how little I respected the beautiful gift I had been given and I knew right then that I needed to reclaim the sacred and bring it back into my life.

Consequently I went to work the following day and fell ill!! I have been off work the rest of this week, with a blocked chest, blocked sinuses and upset stomach. I have been unable to eat anything but the plainest food and drink. I have been made to stop and listen. I have found the time to really focus on the Reiki symbols, the meaning of Reiki itself and the way in which I want my life to develop. In essence, I am clearing away a lot of old habits and convalescing in a way I wouldn’t have had I been at work. I’d rather not feel this ill, but if I felt better I know I would be running around trying to fit as much into my life as possible - so I know it is meant to be.

This does mean that we may postpone the attunement until a later date, dependent upon how ready we both feel tomorrow evening. However we will let you know and the attunement will definitely occur within the next two weeks. In that time I hope to introduce more to this site (and I hope you are already enjoying some of the new additions I have already made). It is my hope that Roots That Heal will finally grow into the vision I had for it at the beginning - a true resource for all those wishing to know more about the trees, sea, nature and Celtic Reiki as a whole.

With many Blessings,
Amanda xx

My partner T and I have long discussed my attuning him to Celtic Reiki and this weekend, in an attempt to think of ways to boost the energy I put into this blog, decided to set a date. On T’s suggestion we have chosen to attune him to level one next weekend. This is something we are both very excited about.

But even more exciting is the fact we have both agreed it would be a wonderful opportunity for sharing the world of Reiki on this blog. It will be my first attunement (even though I have been a master for quite some time now) and so it will be a new stage in both my journey as well as T’s. In light of this we thought we would document the process in pictures and share them with you.

The thought behind this was two-fold - first it would invite you into our lives and involve you in our Reiki journey and secondly it will give those of you who have no experience with Reiki the chance to see what occurs in an attunement. More and more T is becoming an integral part of my posts on this blog and I am hoping to involve him even further by asking him to post a few thoughts about how he feels during and after the attunement. We both hope that this will add even more insight into the energy of Reiki, perhaps for those of you who may be apprehensive about becoming attuned yourself.

We’d like to ask you to think of us both next Saturday evening (about 8pm GMT) and look forward to posting the photos during the following week. There will also be additions to the blog as I add more pages and meditations to improve the ways in which Roots That Heal may assist and support you on your own journey.

With many Blessings,
Amanda xx