A Little light on Animal Magic Reiki

The Japanese, like many ancient cultures, used word of mouth to pass their history and practices down from generation to generation and unfortunately this led to a great deal of knowledge and wisdom being watered down and lost.

Many people involved with Reiki believe that the techniques we use today for healing were first used in India by Buddha and then later by Jesus. Personally, I believe that we are all born with Reiki. It is coded within our cells and establishes itself when our body goes into crisis. Self-healing is then quite often the only option available to us, so our Reiki reserves are catapulted into action.

At the age of twenty five whilst studying at university, on the date of my first wedding anniversary I suffered a stroke. This event was even more scary as I was away from home on holiday, preparing to go out for a celebratory lunch. Instead of being whisked away for a meal I was being driven at high speed to the hospital 30 miles away from where we were staying.

Once I arrived home and visited my local hospital, the neurologist concluded stress was the contributory factor to triggering the stroke. I did not wish to spend my life on heavy medication which would possibly cause other health issues, so against the advice of my G.P I looked towards natural medicine that was side effect free.

To aid my recovery back to full health I took various short naps during the day whenever I became tired. One afternoon, I awoke to see my dog and cat sat beside a pile of books I had stacked against the fireplace. At that time, I collected unwanted books for a stall to raise money for a local cat rescue charity. As I sat upright I saw my dog had her nose resting on a book near the bottom of the pile. As my eyes began to focus my cat was pawing at the book obviously trying to remove it.

I walked towards the pile of books and bent down. The book was rather tatty on its spine, so I pulled it from the stack and read the front cover ‘Reiki, The Healing Touch’ by William Lee Rand. I made myself a drink as I thumbed through its pages. I was shocked, amazed and empowered. This was just what I was looking for – and my animals had thankfully led me towards it.

I sought out a Reiki master which was no easy feat. We did not have access to the internet back then and in my Yorkshire village Reiki wasn’t known about. To cut a long story short, I located a lovely Reiki master in the Derbyshire Peak District who, over 3 years attuned me from level 1 to Reiki master teacher. The rest is history as they say and despite not heeding the warning from the medical professionals about further strokes because I did not wish to rely on medication, I’m pleased to say that it’s been 23 years without further strokes or medical issues.

My personal discovery of life-changing Reiki led me to discover many things about its origins through the hundreds of books I’ve read on the subject. Some books take us back to the civilisations of Mu and Atlantis for the birth and development of Reiki. Of course, without written proof we can only speculate how humanity learnt to harness and develop this universal life force.

What we can be certain of is that it was rediscovered at the end of the nineteenth century by Dr Mikao Usui. Most written accounts on the history of Reiki declare that Dr Usui was a Christian monk who lectured at Doshisha University in Kyoto.

After many years of study, Usui found references to an ancient form of healing. Further study revealed methods, formulas and symbols that detailed exactly how to practice and master this art of hands on healing. However, although he had the technical knowledge to practise healing, he lacked the wisdom to turn the teachings into reality. He needed the key to turn on and activate the healing potential/power. Usui decided to seek the final piece of the jigsaw through deep, inner meditation.

Usui left the monastery and set off for the holy mountain of Kurama. When he reached the top he picked up twenty one pebbles and placed them in front of himself. He sat down and began his meditation. Each day he threw away one pebble. For twenty-one days he prayed, meditated, sang and read.

On the 21st day, as he prayed he asked the great-spirit to show him the light, to bring about the key to Reiki. Suddenly, a bright light appeared in the sky and came rapidly towards him, hitting him on his forehead, at the 3rd eye chakra. Usui was knocked unconscious, and whilst in this altered state he saw a vision of the same symbols he had earlier found in the Sutras (ancient holy texts). These symbols are what sets Reiki aside from other hands-on healing modalities.

I took me more than 21 days to recover after my own personal health issue, but I decided this form of healing needed to be taken out into the wider community. Animal Magic Reiki© was the first animal reiki course to be approved to teach professionally within the UK and took a total of 5 years to gain approval status.

So, although it is not a substitute for orthodox medicine, we still need to share this positive energy, our experiences and healing skills, so that Reiki can be accepted universally as a go-to therapy for the mind, body and spirit.

Companion animals benefit greatly from animal reiki and giving reiki to horses is just one of the most humbling experiences, especially during equine rehabilitation.

Together we can bring this gift of healing to the world and make a difference to human and animal-kind.

Learn Animal Magic Reiki with Animal Magic Training. The only diploma level animal reiki training available in the UK.