Roots That Heal

Having spent several years looking for a book on Celtic Reiki and finding none I have finally decided the time is right to write my own. Whether this book is published in print or simply online is yet to be determined but it has been begun and now is the time for asking for your help.

I am currently in the research part of the whole thing, having set out a basic framework and knowing which areas I still need to work on. And for the purpose of making sure the book is accessible to all I’d like to ask for your assistance in sharing with me what you already know and feel about several areas I shall be covering.

Every person who comments on our Roots That Heal forum under one of the research headings will then be placed into a prize draw which will be drawn on Friday 1st August - that gives you about 4 weeks to get writing to me! By commenting on the forum you agree that your words may be used as part of my research (although no exact words or names will be used without further permission from you).

The prizes you could win are as follows:

First prize - A copy of Diana Cooper’s new book Angel Answers (which I have bought and read and now wish to pass on) along with a free distance healing session from myself and T.

Second Prize - A copy of an inspirational giftbook I received several years ago and wish to pass on plus 3 small crystal gemstones (as chosen by T and myself and imbued with Reiki energy).

Third Prize - 3 small crystal gemstones (as chosen by T and myself and imbued with Reiki energy).

So, happy posting and we look forward to reading some of your comments on topics such as Nature, Animals, Faeries, Celtic Reiki, The Seasons, The Trees, Flowers etc. And oncer you are there, why not have a look around the rest of the forum - perhaps posting something you are interested in to share with our other readers!

With much Love and many Blessings
Amanda and T xx

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

When I first starting using Reiki I found it incredibly difficult, however exciting, to remain calm and focussed for up to an hour. If I were giving healing to someone else it was far easier than giving myself a treatment, but I still found it hard work. I preferred sending short bursts, five minutes long or so, because I knew I could remain in a space of love and connection for that time.

The more I practised, however, the easier it became to remain in that space. In fact a lot of things became easier… it was easier to calm myself, shut out worries and centre my whole being on the thought and spirit of healing and connecting. I began to look forward to offering Reiki to friends and family, and in return I began to open up spiritually and gain insights I might never have seen from my previous 3D state of thinking. I seem to go through these cycles, where I am very intensely aware of and eager to connect followed by periods of time when I let life get on top of me and I close myself down again. Each time it seems harder to reconnect, like now. Although I am eager to pick up my Reiki practise more regularly (as I have let it slip in recent months), I find myself reluctant to put aside what I consider “precious time” to sit and meditate and channel healing energy. I could be reading, or contacting all those people I have neglected to reply to or… or… The list of excuses goes on, but each one, however important, would actually be easier to do from a point of relaxation and serenity.

My work at the moment is incredibly taxing and by the end of a working day all I want to do is sit and do nothing. But I am so wound up with energy that I find this hard work. This week I had a stinking cold and my partner decided what I really needed was a full Reiki treatment. So I lay in peace, my favourite piece of music playing in the background and let go. Next thing I knew I was waking from a sleep with just enough energy to climb into bed and fall into a deep slumber. We repeated the treatment the following day and the same thing happened. Then the next night, in an attempt to return the favour to my partner, I offered him a treatment. I found it incredibly difficult to connect, I honestly wondered for a few moments if I’d have to postpone the treatment for another day. But eventually I felt the energy flowing and we started the treatment. And again, I had the best night’s sleep!

Reiki is like anything, the more you practise the easier it becomes. I remember years back going to yoga classes with my father and really wishing I didn’t have to give up my Thursday evening to go out. Yet each session, as we closed with a meditation, I felt the most relaxed I had ever been and the following day was quite blissful. I loved the result, but getting there in the first place was so hard. It’s the same with Reiki - I love how it feels and I love channelling the energy once I get started, but when I am out of the habit it can be so hard to start.

I wonder if any of you feel this way too? I’m sure I can’t be the only one, so I thought I would share some of the “tips” I have discovered both since being first attuned and then quite recently.

• Have a Reiki partner (this doesn’t have to be someone you live with, just someone who you can see regularly, who will encourage you to practise regularly). Having a Reiki partner means that when you are feeling like you really can’t be bothered, they are more likely to realise/remember that this is perhaps the time when you need to practise the most and they will be able to remind you of this and sit with you in silence (or singing, dancing, whatever works for you) and help you to connect
• Practise regularly, even if just for a few minutes a day. A few minutes per day is far better than half an hour or more once a week. I find connecting is the hardest part as it requires me to truly stop and remove myself from whatever is bothering me long enough to do so.
• Set aside a specific time to practise and turn off all electrical equipment, especially telephones. I find that once I start channelling the energy I don’t want to stop, even if I have decided only to sit for five minutes. If I have set aside half an hour it means I do not have to worry about stopping the flow to go check on the dinner or worrying about whether my mum is going to ring etc.
• Make your space sacred to you. This may mean playing a cd that you reserve purely for Reiki or burning some incense you save just for healing sessions. Lower the lights and make yourself warm and comfortable. Often, when we devote sounds, smells and images to the practise of something, just hearing, smelling, seeing these things can help us enter that space far easier than if we just tried to meditate or heal in a busy, noisy, strange atmosphere.

I am sure there are many more ways in which you can make your Reiki practise easier to keep up, and I would welcome any suggestions you’d like to share in the comments.

Have a wonderful weekend and enjoy your Reiki journey
With Blessings
Amanda xx

My apologies for how long it has taken me to update this blog, and thank you for continuing to pop by. We have spent the past few weeks, my partner and I, finding a new home, furniture to fill it and discovering the joys of sharing our lives with one another. We find that each day we love each other more, and also that each day some new demon comes to the surface for us to face together. Our life is both perfect and flawed - in fact it is perfect because it is flawed. Our flaws allow us to work together, support each other and share in our acceptance of our lives both as individuals and a couple.

A lot of the success can be attributed to the shared desire to live our lives as spiritually as we can. We both practise reiki and have used it for ourselves and the other both as a quick fix for a headache as well as a full treatment after a long day at work. We have reminded each other of the Reiki principles and the need to meditate, centre, appreciate and honour that which has been given to us. Indeed, we are very blessed right now and through trust and acceptance have found a home that is perfect for us in this moment.

It’s not all roses, it never is. And I find that this is the most beautiful part of life itself. We are in balance. For every moment I think to myself how lucky I am to be here, living my dream, I have equal moments when my health seems to fail me and bring me down again. I am reminded to be humble and gracious, to remember my friends, to remember the world, to remember those in need and also to remember the love and support that is given to me. Never before haveI cried so often and so freely as I have done these past few weeks. Never before have I allowed myself to feel things so openly, to share both my joys and sorrows and realise the blessing that is within this space of shared experience.

So although I have been offline for longer than I would have liked, the time seems to have been perfectly set aside for me. I return to Roots That Heal with a new vision, a new way of feeling and a new passion for practising and sharing the beautiful healing of Reiki and lessons that can be found within it.

It’s great to be back and I look forward to a renewed journey with you all.
With many blessings
Amanda xx 

I cannot help but feel somewhat refreshed and optimistic whenever this time of year comes around. I don’t know quite what it is, but those few days after the hype and bustle of Christmas and the celebrations of the New Year leave me thoughtful and reflective. It’s almost like being in limbo - between the end of one year and the beginning of another - stretched across a timeless period.

I have been very lucky in that apart from Christmas 2006 I have always had at least a couple of weeks off over the festive period (being in education does have it’s advantages!) and this has given me more time than most to relax and think about the year that is past and the year that is yet to come. Yet even that year, when the few days I had off were spent travelling to see family, I still found the magic of the turning of the year as special as always.

This year was extra special for me because for the first time in my life I got to spend it with someone I love with all my heart and was able to reflect and dream of a shared future. 2007 was an amazing year for me, one in which I found confidence in myself and began to become a person I wanted to be rather than the person I felt I should be. For years I had been trapped in education, struggling to conform to what was expected and suddenly I had the freedom to choose my way. At first I was terrified and 2006 saw a panicked rush to find my way. 2007 saw me first finding it and then losing it again, and then eventually finding an even better route. It was a year of massive change, a year of experimentation and dreaming. In numerological terms it was a year of completion, readying myself for the new beginnings and new cycle I wished to begin in 2008. I had faced my fears of love and being loved, overcome my fear of the antlers of the Horned God in a temple I visited in Glastonbury, and in doing so had welcomed the influence of male energies into my life. A couple of months later, a new friend became a lover and since then my life, heart and soul has grown wider and stronger…

And so, New Year’s Eve 2007 saw my love and I sat on the kitchen floor of our adopted home (we were house-sitting for his sister and brother-in-law) creating a collage of all the things we wanted to create and manifest in our lives this coming year and years to come. For hours we cut magazines apart, discussed our choice of words and pictures, and played with the layout until we were happy - then we found the glue and got to sticking. As the bells rang out at midnight we put the final pieces on our creation and sighed with relief.

Whether you created a collage or meditated on where your life has been or where it is going, or whether you simply spent time with friends and family or living it up at a party I do hope that you all had a wonderful New Year and that 2008 may bring you all many blessings.

2008 will see the 1st birthday of Roots That Heal and it makes me feel so happy to remember how the beginning of 2007 saw this new part of my life being offered to me after asking the Universe to provide me with more ways to do what I love - write. I am proud to think it has survived for a year and hope that 2008 will bring more success, many more visitors, and a lot more happy memories.

To my shame I have to admit that in recent months I have allowed myself to become so overwhelmed by life’s little intricacies and all that I have tried to fit into my life that I never found time to meditate or heal regularly.

This is a pattern that keep occuring in my life - I find it far easier to shut out the spiritual practises in my life in order to complete the million little (and big) tasks I have set myself. I know I do this because I trust that whatever happens the spiritual aspect of my life will always survive and the finances I need to find, the friends I need to meet up with and the work I need to do might not. But within this equation there is one major flaw - although the spiritual stuff will always be there, I won’t always be able to access and beneift from it if I neglect it.

Too often in my life I get stressed beyond all reason. I make myself ill from excessive worrying and cutting back on the “essentials” I deem to be “less important” such as sleep, time to sit and eat properly (rather than eating on the go) and taking care of my body. As I become more and more stressed my body suffers, my emotions suffer and in an attempt to make everything “better” I fill my life with even more “useless” activities.

Now I’m sure I’m not the only person to do this - but I do know I am worse than most. I am a chronic multi-tasker and achiever… the more I can achieve in the shortest time the better - because it means I can do more and help more people. I am a chronic do-gooder, always wanting to help everybody but never helping myself. In essence, I let my low-self-esteem spur me on and on until I can go no more. And only when I hit rock bottom do I stop and think “this isn’t how it should be”.

This happened to me this weekend. My new boyfriend came to stay and as we moved our relationship from friendship to a deeper level I panicked. My fears, which I had repressed, came rushing to the surface and because I did not allow myself the time and space to heal them I ended up sick in a big way. My body reacted to the fear in a last ditch attempt to get me to pay attention - my hand flared up with eczema (in a way it has never done before) and I threw up.

My body was finally saying “make time” and I finally listened. Last night I set up a meditation and healing schedule to make sure I devote at least half an hour morning and night to just being. I started a diary and wrote within it how hard I found it to just be and I hope to see the development of this practise finding me back in a state where I could enjoy taking the time to stop, meditate and heal. I miss my regular healing sessions - I used to make time every Wednesday evening to join up with a group of friends and send Reiki to friends, family and the world. This stopped when I chose to allow my “human dramas” to overtake my “spiritual peace”.

Had I remembered to stop, connect, heal, and pray I might have found my fears dissolving as I allowed myself to feel, release and invite new and more beneficial energies into my life. Instead I made myself miserable. I do that a lot.

I may be a Reiki master but I am also a very typical human and there are times when I just find my spiritual practises slipping. However, since first being attuned to Reiki and having been on a spiritual journey I see in far greater detail just how much of a difference there is between the times when I stop to connect and those when I don’t. This is why I am now making time… time for me, time for spirit and time for Reiki… and in reality, time is something I have in abundance!

I’m sure you’ve all noticed just how sensitive animals are to things that we as humans don’t tend to notice. Just the other day I went to visit my Nan and her dog was petrified by the sound of fireworks so far away that we couldn’t hear them anymore. In the same way I do believe that they are very sensitive to the energies we cannot see or feel consciously. And that’s why I love giving Reiki to animals because the respond so openly to it.

I was out for a walk the other weekend and came across a couple of horses by the river. My friend and I stopped to say hello and one of the horses came to greet us. At first she was a bit timid and edgy - but once we both quieted our voices, reached out our hands and began to send Reiki and love she calmed down and within a few short minutes was dozing as we stroked her nose. It was beautiful and her openness and trust of us - complete strangers - was so moving.

I cannot help but be so touched by the love and trust animals are so often willing to give us. And I cannot help but feel the same openness and trust pouring out of myself when around animals - far more than when I am meeting new humans for the first time. It is as if our society has taught us to be so wary of others, which I find so sad. But when I meet an animal I always feel there is no hidden agenda to be worried about, no trap that is being set out for me,  just a creature who is showing exactly how it feels to me and asking me to do the same.

I love sending a quick hello and a bit of love to the stray cats and birds and squirrels I pass on my daily wanderings. Even if I do not have time for a proper hello I always send a mental greeting and energetic hug or pat to them. And I feel a sense of happiness in doing so.

So next time you’re feeling down, feeling lost in the world of complex relations, or just wanting somebody to practise sending some Reiki to, why not go out and find an animal friend who will be so happy to see you!

I admit it - I am one of the worst people for making time to meditate, truly I am. I know how amazing the benefits of meditation can be, have experienced that sense of peace, tranquility and immense awareness that comes throught the practise, and yet I still let life take over and fail to meditate regularly.

This weekend the effects this practise has upon me was shown to me in stunning detail. I went to a Natural Living Fair where I had my aura photographed. It was nothing like I expected it to be. I am at a time in my life where I am feeling more at peace with the world and my experiences than I have for a long, long time and my health is the best it has been in years. I expected my aura to be strong with colour. However, when the camera turned on all that could be seen was a deep red all over.

The guy doing the photography explained to me that this was not my true aura colour and through some discussion we realised it was actually the energies I had picked up from others. Although I am extremely happy and healthy right now, those around me are very stressed and ill. And as I am a very sensitive person I have absorbed these energies and carried them as my own.

How do I know this? Well, the guy took me on a guided meditation to breathe deep, fill myself with white light and to clear the energies so we could see the aura colours that were coming from deep within me. And in that moment after the meditation my aura was a strong yellow, with blues and greens in. It was amazing the transformation and no sooner had I come out of this brief meditative state did my aura return to that deep red.

The meanings of these colours and the interpretation the guy gave to my aura described me and my life right now so perfectly I had no doubt that this was a snapshot of my aura as it is underneath the covering of stressful energies I am picking up from all around me. Right now the members of my close family are all very ill and stressed and the students I support at University are also stressed as the year begins and they find out about their latest assignments. I am surrounded by this every day and having my aura photographed has taught me just how important it is to go within, cleanse my aura and allow my own light to shine through.

And this is so relevant to my healing practise as well. When we give Reiki we work in another’s auric field. We can be exposed to very sensitive people having a really hard time and if we are not careful we can carry these energies with us, rather than letting them wash over us and be healed. I shall certainly be making sure I try to meditate much more often in future, especially when I have given someone Reiki.

Recently I took a trip to Glastonbury and whilst there visited many of the area’s amazing places. It was an incredibly rejuvenating trip for me and helped to calm my mind and settle many of the fears I was obsessing over.

Glastonbury has an amazing energy running through it and it is not hard to realise why it has always been considered as a magical and mystical place. On the day of our main meet-up (when those who weren’t staying the whole weekend with us came to spend a few hours in the company of other members from the group) we spent a few hours in Glastonbury Abbey. Whilst there a few of us decided to make the most of the special energy there to boost our healing and I had the priviledge of giving Celtic Reiki to a couple of the group whilst stood within reach of a beautiful tree.

I cannot begin to describe how energising it was to stand with bare feet upon the grass of this sacred ground, to feel the sun so hot it was almost burning my face and feeling the breeze as it blew the leaves of the tree behind me. Giving Reiki indoors has nothing upon giving it outdoors - especially when using Celtic Reiki as you can connect in so many ways to the energy of the trees so much easier when you are in close proximity to an actual tree!

One of the recipients of my healing that day mentioned how amazing the effects were that night and I can only attribute it to the fact that we were outside, experiencing Nature in all her glory, and this added to the healing effect the Reiki energy had.

So, if you get the chance to go outside, in a place which is special to you, I would strongly suggest you try giving some Reiki there once in a while - you never know how much of a difference it might make to you!

With all my love
Amanda xx

A few years back I went through a period in which I could not wear a battery-operated watch - for some reason any watch I wore would slow down by either 5 or 25 minutes exactly or stop completely. Don’t ask me what that means because I still have no idea! But during that time my grandparents all rooted around for old wind-up watches they had previously owned. Most of the ones they found no longer worked and no amount of persuasion was going to get them working again! Thankfully, I can now wear a battery-operated watch, although I rarely do. I prefer to have a timepiece nearby where I can keep an eye on time if needs be, but not need to be constantly reminded of time ticking away!

Yesterday, whilst sorting through boxes full of old stuff in my room I came across a couple of these old watches. Remembering how my Nan had always enjoyed the opposite effect to me - being able to make a watch work which hadn’t worked for years simply by holding it - I decided to have a go at sending reiki to one of them. My Nan is not attuned to any energy healing system, yet she is always using energy intuitively. If she could do it, surely I could too…

Well, you’ll be pleased to hear, I can! I moved the hands to the right positions, wound the watch up and held it between my cupped hands, looking at the trees in my parents’ garden and asking for the watch to work again. And it did - it steadily ticked away for 9 and a half hours - not bad going to say the hands haven’t moved of their own accord for many, many years!

It always amazes me just how much we can use Reiki for and how very often I forget to use it. I’d be interested to hear of the “surprising” ways you have found to use Reiki!