Reiki comes with a lot of unfamiliar words, and many of them are Japanese. This glossary explains the terms students meet most often, from attunements and the hara to the symbols, the precepts and the people behind the system.
Every definition is drawn from the course manuals, books and articles of Jeremy O'Carroll (the founder of Om Reiki). Where Traditional Japanese Reiki and Western Reiki use a term differently, both views are given.
An energy ceremony that attunes a student to Reiki energy, so they can heal with it. The Reiki Master's part is often described as opening the crown chakra and the minor chakras in the hands. One attunement is enough to connect a student to Reiki, and it lasts for life: once attuned, always attuned. A student who stops practising may grow rusty, but the channels never close, and strength returns with practice.
The seven main energy centres in the body, running from the root chakra to the crown. Traditional Japanese Reiki never used the chakra system. It worked with three haras instead. Om Reiki still uses the chakras in healing, because they are associated with so many health issues and the language is useful for a modern practitioner, even though this departs somewhat from Usui's original practice.
How Reiki moves through a healer. Clairvoyants describe it entering through the crown chakra, flowing into the heart chakra, then running down the arms and out of the hands. No effort or strain is needed: the healer simply intends Reiki to flow, and that is enough. Because the energy does not come from the healer, giving Reiki never drains them, however many people they treat.
The first of the three Level 2 symbols, known in Western Reiki as the Power Symbol and in Japanese Reiki as focus. Western practitioners draw it to increase the flow of Reiki, clear a room or shield against negative energy. In Japanese Reiki it helps the practitioner get into the zone, and it connects to earth energy.
The Master Symbol, taught at Master Level. Its original characters mean great bright light, and in Japanese Reiki it connects the practitioner to their inner Buddha nature. Western Reiki uses it to strengthen the channel between the physical self and the Higher Self, and it is a key symbol in all the Reiki attunements. Its mantra is practised after the other three mantras, as the culmination of the energetic state they create.
Reiki sent to a person, place or event that is not physically present, taught in Reiki Level 2 with the Hon Sha Ze Sho Nen symbol. In the Western method, the healer gives Reiki to a surrogate object such as a pillow, or imagines being beside the recipient. The Japanese method aims for oneness with the recipient instead. Because the Japanese method is subtler, the Western method is recommended for friends and clients unless the healer has a lot of skill and experience.
Distance Reiki: how it works and what Level 2 students learn
A former naval commander and medical doctor who came to Mikao Usui in 1925 and was taught the Shinpiden level before Usui died. In 1931, most likely because the more traditional members of the Usui Reiki Ryoho Gakkai did not welcome his innovations, he founded his own organisation. He is believed to have formalised the Reiki levels and added the symbols and mantras to the attunements. Mrs Takata trained at his clinic, and it seems he made her his successor.
A short exercise that clears the energy channels in the arms and body. Inhaling into the hara, the practitioner sweeps a hand diagonally across the body from shoulder to opposite hip on each out-breath, then along each outstretched arm past the fingertips. Done mindfully just before a healing session or attunement, it generally improves both.
Two complementary energies in Japanese Reiki. Earth energy, linked to Cho Ku Rei, the hara and the base chakra, generally feels heavy and grounding and can help bring emotional stability even in difficult times. Heavenly energy is lighter and is associated with Sei He Ki, a symbol used to strengthen the middle and upper haras and help intuition. Hon Sha Ze Sho Nen unites the two, so traditionally it was not practised until both had been mastered.
How much Reiki energy a person can absorb and work with. It builds through practice over time, which is why Level 2 and Master Level attunements are usually more powerful: the student has grown energetically. It is also why rushing from one level to the next seldom brings lasting benefit, and why the right timing varies from person to person, depending on practice, innate talent and how energetically evolved they were before learning Reiki.
Feelings of energetic openness (expansion) or blockage (contraction) in the body. The modern precepts meditation uses them as a guide. The student recites a precept, enjoys any expansion, and gently opens any contracted area a little at a time, never further than feels comfortable. Since like attracts like, dwelling in expansion helps draw more of the same into life.
Symbols that are not part of traditional Usui Reiki but are included in the Om Reiki Master Level manual, borrowed from the Shamballa and Karuna Reiki systems. They include the Tibetan Dai Ko Myo, a flowing symbol of light, and Raku, a lightning bolt used to ground someone who is a bit too spaced out. Each has its own flavour, and intuition guides how it is used.
The five components of Usui's system, which every Om Reiki course is built around: attunements, meditations, the precepts, hands-on healing, and symbols and mantras. Practised together, each strengthens the others. Even students who only want hands-on healing benefit from the precepts and meditations, because meditation clears the mind, and the greatest healing happens when the healer's mind is out of the way.
A hand position that opens and closes many Reiki meditations, with the hands together in front of the heart and attention on the energy between the palms. The original Reiki precepts ask students to sit in gassho every morning and evening. In Dry Bathing, spending more time in gassho with the focus on the hara strengthens the connection to ki and deepens the meditative state.
A variation on the hara meditation, done with the hands in gassho. On each in-breath, energy flows in through the hands and arms to the shoulders, then down into the hara. On each out-breath, it returns the same way and flows out of the hands into the world. As well as strengthening the hara, it clears the channels in the hands and arms and balances the two sides of the body.
Being energetically stable and anchored rather than spaced out. Most healers are especially sensitive to the energy of others, so they can easily feel drained by people and places. Traditional Japanese Reiki teaches meditations that ground the healer through the hara and build a strong energetic base, which helps keep them safe even in negative environments.
The set positions beginners learn for giving Reiki. They are not meant to be followed dogmatically, though: for Usui, intuition mattered more than fixed positions, and as a rule Japanese Reiki used none. So students learn the positions first, then let intuition lead as it develops.
Reiki hand positions: when to use them and when to trust intuition
Giving Reiki through the hands, either resting on the body or held just above it. It is one of the five pillars, and students can use it from their first day. In Japanese Reiki it is also a doorway into a deep meditative state, which tends to make sessions more intuitive and less heady.
An energy centre three to five centimetres below the navel, and the lower of the three haras. It works like the foundation of a building: all work on the higher energy centres is built on top of it, and if it is weak, they are unsteady. A strong hara grounds and strengthens all energy work, which is why every course that teaches Traditional Japanese Reiki shows students how to strengthen it.
What the hara is and why it matters for grounding and healing
One of the pillar practices of the Reiki system. The breath is drawn in through the nose and down into the hara, which expands like a balloon. On the out-breath, the energy spreads out through the skin to merge with the universe. Straining never helps, so the imagination does the work. Consistency is the trick: ten minutes a day, six days a week, beats an hour once a week.
Jeremy O'Carroll's term for what is usually called a healing crisis. Blocked energy frees up, repressed emotions surface and the body begins to detox, so things can feel worse before they get better. It is like shaking a glass of water with mud at the bottom: the water turns murky, yet there is no more mud than before. The best response is usually to keep going with Reiki and drink plenty of water.
The third of the Level 2 symbols, known in Western Reiki as the Distance Symbol and in Japanese Reiki as connection. Its original characters mean the origin of all correct thought, and it translates as: I am correct consciousness; the Buddha in me reaches out to the Buddha in you. Western Reiki uses it to send Reiki across distance, heal the past, improve future outcomes and connect with guides.
A Reiki mantra. In Japanese Reiki the mantras are often chanted on their own, with awareness held in the hara, to strengthen particular energy centres. Their sounds differ from the symbol names, so the Cho Ku Rei mantra, for instance, is chanted oh, oo, ay, ee. Students work through the mantras in order, moving to the next only when ready, because each builds on the ones before.
Energy or life force, what the West often calls chi or qi, and the ki in the word Reiki. The precepts cover the main areas of energetic leakage, the everyday ways people throw their ki away. Catching those habits allows a person to build up higher levels of ki, which then helps them connect more deeply to both Reiki and life.
A teacher's Reiki family tree, traced back through each teacher to Mikao Usui. Reiki associations only recognise a lineage that reaches Usui without any dodgy practitioners in between. A student whose teacher's lineage is not recognised may need to retake Reiki Level 1 to join an association and work professionally.
The third and final level of Reiki, traditionally called Shinpiden. Students learn the Master Symbol, Dai Ko Myo, and become Reiki Masters, able to give attunements. The level builds on everything before it, so there is no fixed timetable: honest intuition about readiness is the best guide. In the end, what counts is the quality of the Reiki, not the title.
The founder of Reiki, born near Nagoya, Japan, in 1865. After years of Buddhism, martial arts and spiritual training, he had an epiphany following a 21-day retreat on Mount Kurama, and most sources say he began teaching Reiki in 1922. His system, Usui Reiki Ryoho (the Usui Reiki healing method), was for him a path to Enlightenment. He is believed to have taught Reiki for only four years before his death in 1926.
The woman from Hawaii who brought Reiki from Japan to the West, and the founder of Western Reiki. After receiving Reiki daily at Dr Hayashi's clinic in 1936, she learned all three levels from him by 1938, and from the 1970s she trained 22 Reiki Masters. Much of the Reiki history she told was false. Yet without her, the West would almost certainly never have heard of Reiki.
The Japanese name for the Reiki attunement. In Japanese Reiki it is not a one-off: even though one attunement connects a student for life, reiju is given again and again to help maintain the connection. In Usui's time, it was common to give reiju every time practitioners met as a group.
A Japanese relaxation and meditation method that promotes healing, and a lot more besides. The name joins rei, meaning spirit or spiritual, with ki, meaning energy. Modern practitioners generally treat it as a healing method, yet it is also a spiritual path that goes far beyond simple hands-on healing. The energy is infinite and knows where to go, so the healer never needs to direct it.
The first level of Reiki, traditionally called Shoden. Students are attuned, learn the hand positions for treating themselves and others, and begin the hara meditations and the modern precepts. Many are surprised by how well they channel after the course. That is because healing is an innate skill, rediscovered rather than learned from scratch.
The second level of Reiki, also called Okuden. Students learn the three Level 2 symbols and their mantras, distance healing, and the original version of the precepts. Level 2 builds on Level 1, so students get the most from it once they have practised what they learned at Level 1.
Five guidelines for a full and happy life, and apparently the first thing Usui taught, before meditation and healing. Om Reiki teaches two versions. The original version, worked with in Level 2, clears old hurts and trapped energy. The modern version, adapted by Jeremy O'Carroll and phrased entirely in the positive, is used in Level 1 to attract love, peace and gratitude. Either way, the precepts are meant to be meditated on and felt, not just discussed.
Traditional Usui Reiki has four symbols: three taught in Level 2 and the Master Symbol taught at Master Level. Western Reiki sees them as having a power of their own, over and above the practitioner's intent. Japanese Reiki treats them more like training wheels, drawn to help the practitioner focus and take on each symbol's energy, then let go of once that is achieved. Either way, they work even when not drawn perfectly.
The second Level 2 symbol, known in Western Reiki as the Mental/Emotional Symbol and in Japanese Reiki as harmony. Western practitioners use it for mental and emotional issues, harmonious relationships and breaking bad habits. In Japanese Reiki it connects to heavenly energy. Its mantra is chanted only after months, or even a year or more, of strengthening the hara, so that energy is not torn upwards.
Giving Reiki to oneself. Healing work on the self was of primary importance to Usui, and Reiki is just as easy to channel for the healer as for anyone else. At Om Reiki, students learn self-healing in Reiki Level 1.
A Reiki system outside traditional Usui Reiki, and one of the three systems in which Jeremy O'Carroll holds Master Level. Some of the esoteric symbols in the Om Reiki Master Level manual come from it, including the Silver Violet Flame, which is used to consume negative feelings and emotions.
The three major energy centres of Traditional Japanese Reiki: the lower hara (the regular hara), the middle hara (the heart chakra) and the upper hara (the sixth chakra, or third eye). The Three Haras meditation works through each with the hands held just off the body, boosting energy and balancing ki. It always finishes on the lower hara, which grounds the practitioner.
What the hara is and why it matters for grounding and healing
Reiki as Usui taught it, with all five pillars practised together and Enlightenment as the ultimate aim. Most courses today teach only about half of the original system, and most of their teachers have no idea. Om Reiki combines Traditional Japanese Reiki with the most effective Western techniques, staying faithful to its origins without becoming dogmatic.
The Usui Reiki Healing Method Learning Society, founded by Mikao Usui in Tokyo in April 1922. Reiki did not die out in Japan during the Second World War, as was once claimed, and nor did the society, which has had a series of presidents since Usui's death. Most now consider its president the leader of the Usui Reiki community.
The style of Reiki that Mrs Takata brought to the West, and the one almost everyone there practises. Its emphasis is healing. It uses set hand positions, draws the symbols mainly to intensify the energy sent to a client, and seldom includes systematic meditation. It has helped millions of people, but along the way much of Usui's original system was lost or greatly weakened.
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