When I was first taught the Reiki symbols, I was instructed that the symbols are SACRED and therefore should not be made public.  But in time, I have come to realize two truths about the Reiki symbols:  Those who are not attuned to the Reiki energy cannot use them and Reiki can only be used for the Good, no matter what.  Therefore I offer them to you so that you may use them when you receive your attunements.

The first of the symbols is the Cho-Ku-Rei, the use of which is to increase power.  In Reiki it is known as “the light switch.”  I referred to Reiki earlier as being like electricity.  The light is switched on when you put your hands down to heal.  When you add the Cho-Ku-Rei, the light is boosted from a fifty watt bulb to five hundred watts.  Reiki II as a whole boosts your healing ability from a 110 current to a 220 power line, and Reiki III takes it from alternating current to direct.

By visualizing the Cho-Ku-Rei symbol, your ability to access Reiki energy is increased many times.  You will probably use it for every healing.  The Cho-Ku-Rei concentrates Reiki in one focused spot by calling all the energy of the Goddess Universe into the healing.  The spiral and pathway shape of this symbol is the design of the Labyrinth, an initiation space at the ancient Goddess temple of the Palace of Knossos on Crete.  In the archeology of this planet, spirals always represent Goddess energy.

The arrows and lighter lines on the symbol sketches describe how the figures are to be drawn.  The symbols MUST be memorized and you must be able to draw them exactly.  I was first taught to draw the Cho-Ku-Rei clockwise, moving from left to right, while the traditional Cho-Ku-Rei is drawn counter-clockwise.  I have tried it both ways, and many of my students have also, and they agree with me that the clockwise direction increases energy as the symbol is intended to do.  Counterclockwise does not.  It is used instead to REMOVE energy (such as cancers or tumors).  In any metaphysical or energy work, clockwise motion in the Northern Hemisphere is the direction of invoking and increase, and counterclockwise motion is the direction of decrease and dispersion.  In the Southern Hemisphere, it is the opposite.  Intent is paramount here.  Doubled Cho-Ku-Reis, one drawn in each direction, are used for manifestation.

The next symbol is the Sei-He-Ki, and this symbol is traditionally designated for emotional healing.  I was taught to use it specifically when someone in a healing session is upset, distraught, or emotionally disturbed.   The Sei-He-Ki literally creates new pathways in the brain, and helps people to remove old emotional blocks and make room for new experiences.  It was defined for me as “God and Man coming together.”  Another definition was “As above, So below, so Within.”  The symbol brings divinity into human energy patterns and aligns the upper chakras.

The symbol is traditionally described for mental level healing as well as emotional healing, but it should be noted that virtually all physical level dis-ease has an emotional coordinate.  Whether the emotionaly state or past emotional trauma causes the disease or the dis-ease itself brings about the emotion and mind-set is irrelevant.  The point is that dis-ease and painful emotions go together,  and healing the dis-ease also means healing the emotions that go with it.  Human life is filled with emotional pain and with traumas large and small, and most people are taught that expressing their feelings is inappropriate.  Instead of allowing oneself to feel the pain and then release it, the emotions get stuck inside.  Where pain remains within and has no other release, it manifests as physical illness.

Reiki energy goes to where healing is needed,  to every level of the physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual bodies.  By using the Sei-He-Ki, the emotional aspect is specifically addressed and this is often the key to the healing.  A painful emotion or trauma that has been held within is brought to the surface.  The receiver of the healing reconnects with the pain long enough to finish it and let it go.  Anger, frustration, fear, grief, and loneliness are more often the source of human dis-ease than any bacteria, virus, or organic malfunction.

The Sei-He-Ki has additional uses beyond those of healing.   It can be invoked for protection and purification, to clear negative energy, to release spirit attachments, and to guard a room against negative emotions, dis-ease, or entities.

Use the Sei-He-Ki by visualizing it, saying the name in your mind, drawing the symbol on the roof of your mouth with your tongue, or drawing the symbol with your hand in the air or over the receiver’s body.  It can be drawn on the receiver’s crown chakra.  Invoking the Sei-He-Ki focuses Reiki energy on the emotional body and intensifies its effects.  It helps the receiver to target the emotions specific to his or her needs for that healing and to release them as quickly and as easily as possible.  Use the symbol once at the beginning of the healing and/or at the time it appears to be needed.

The Sei-He-Ki activates “the Source Within”.  It also helps in awakening and purifying of the kundalini, repatterning the brain, and healing the mind-body connection through the subconscious.  Using a pair of upside down Sei-He-Ki symbols integrates the right and left halves of the brain.

This symbol has the most variations and versions, probably because of its complexity.  It is, like the other symbols, written in Japanese, and is meant to transmit a picture.  The Hon-Sha-Ze-Sho-Nen appears as in the shape of a tall pyramid, and resembles the human body.  It is also known in English as the “pagoda” but the older “Stupa” -- a Tantric Buddhist representation of the chakras or five elements in statue or building form – is probably more correct.  The symbol spells a sentence that translates to mean: “ No past, no present, no future.”

This symbol is for distance healing, but it is also the symbol that transmit Reiki healing across distance, space and time and is also used in hands on treatments.  This symbol is an entrance into the Akashic Records, the life records of each soul, and therefore its most important use is in healing karma.  The Akashic Records describe the karmic goals, debts, contracts, and life purpose of each soul’s many incarnations, including the present lifetime.  By use of the symbol in healing, present life traumas can be reprogrammed so that they literally change the future.  Past life patterns can be uncovered and released, and karmic debts resolved.  All of this happens in direct hands-on healing sessions, usually in a series of healings.  The method can be used for self-healing as well.

The Hon-Sha-Ze-Sho-Nen works with the conscious mind, the mental body, rather than the subconscious that is the focus of the Sei-He-Ki, and is therefore the next step in the process.  After feeling the emotions, the Hon-Sha-Ze-Sho-Nen  offers people new choices and actions.  When doing healing with someone who does not understand the full picture, who may not have gone through the emotions yet, continue Reiki healings with the Sei-He-Ki until he or she has reached this point.

By changing the past and bringing those changes into the present, you also change the future.  Each present moment was the future until it reached the now, and then it becomes the past.  By changing a past event, the present and future also respond.  This creates a domino effect that can be used for great good.  When visualizing change in this life or a past life trauma, make very sure that the changes are ones you want to become part of your present and future.  Create new solutions only in positive ways, and visualize only positive alternatives.  Those who work with mental healing directly or in distance healing soon learn that “all time is now.”

The Cho-Ku-Rei focuses on the physical body in healing.
The Sei-He-Ki focuses on the emotional body or subconscious.
The Hon-Sha-Ze-Sho-Nen directs the Reiki energy to the mental body or conscious mind.