SECRECY, POWER, HYPOCRISY

After my first encounter with the symbols of Reiki’s Second Level I was told – more accurately, I was almost ordered – to keep them hidden in utmost secrecy.

Pronouncing their mantras before people who haven’t attained Second Level or, which is even worse, showing their graphic aspect would have made me lose their extraordinary powers. I believe that many others have had this same experience.

Rationally speaking, I thought such behaviour was justified as far as a correct and responsible use of the symbols was concerned; but my inner feelings kept telling me there was something wrong in perpetuating such an inflexible and dogmatic secrecy.

Maybe some Reiki Masters (or even most of them) wanted to keep the symbols shrouded in such secrecy in order to play on their “mysterious” appeal and somehow “justify” the high costs of this Reiki Level?
Some people actually believe that the symbols, once learned, must be kept safely hidden and can never ever be revealed – or they will lose their wondrous power!

Others, though, believe that the symbols may be freely disclosed – without them being "watered down", contaminated or rendered powerless.

According to the latter interpretation, the only thing that matters is a correct and responsible use of the symbols by those who already know them and can activate them thanks to their harmonization: those who have attained Second Level.

In order to clear up this much-disputed controversy, the first logical step is starting from the foundation of the matter at hand:

 

HOW DOES A REIKI SYMBOL WORK?

Everything is energy, and everything is interconnected.

Every single thing is an individual manifestation of the same Energy, a specific form of it. Every energy has a form and a content. The form holds content, information, awareness. Through the form we can reach the content. We can create new forms and fill them with content.

Starting from these assumptions Andreas Dalberg (Der Weg zum wahren Reiki Meister, KNAUR, 1997, pg 199) proposes a number of explanations: one of such explanations assumes the symbols are man-made, originating from man within the usual space-time frame; another assumes they were originated in other dimensions, that is to say subtext beyond our perceptual parameters. The symbols are assumed to be a means of establishing a connection, a contact with such other worlds, planes or dimensions.

According to the first hypothesis, when many people use a symbol or associate to a symbol a very specific feeling and a particular form of awareness, that symbol is imbued with a very specific content, energy, information or awareness.
The actors involved in such process are the individuals “projecting” their own psychic content on an external object. In our specific case, psychic energies would have been connected to the Reiki symbols we know through multiple, specific, strong and long-lasting “projections”.
Those who use such symbols can use the power imbued into the symbols and at the same time contribute in maintaining – and even increasing – such power by sending their own energy and intention through the circuit.

The other main hypothesis is based on the assumption that Reiki symbols are not from the three-dimensional world we know. According to this hypothesis they are archetypical intermediaries – mediums – between this reality and other dimensions, or planes of being. They connect the Second Level initiate to the energy of these planes and their actual power, and their meaning, is a consequence of this contact, this resonance.

I wanted to illustrate the possible ways of operation of Reiki symbols because almost every argument used by those who preach the need for their secrecy is about the possibility that the symbols themselves may be contaminated or lose their power.

 

WATERED-DOWN OR DIRTY REIKI SYMBOLS?

This absurdity is easily debunked: assuming the symbols are just man-made containers for man-made projections, it would seem much more useful to withdraw our projections from them and work directly with our own strength. Instead of keeping to project on symbols (which would be all equivalent under this hypothesis), we would integrate within our personality the awareness (and the energy that goes with it) of the great potentials we have, without depending on no symbol whatsoever.

Assuming instead that Reiki symbols are conduits for connecting to other planes of existence, there is no point in discussing whether to disclose them, nor in arguing about their graphical representation.
The correct form of symbols, our own degree of awareness, our intention and, most of all, our resonance with them are critical in establishing a correct and responsible connection with Life Energy.

The fact that the symbols may be seen (or their mantras spoken) by people «non-harmonized» with Reiki and who attempt to use them nonetheless, cannot harm them in any way. They are “beyond” any watering-down or contamination, since only through resonating with them we can share their energy characteristics.

 

RESONANCE

The symbols are within each of us (because they are light and we are light), and at the same time far away from us (beyond the barrier of normal perception, beyond our conscious awareness).

It’s resonance, the activation of Reiki that makes us feel them, gives us awareness of contact.

Also, keep in mind that the symbols themselves, along with the whole “Reiki” method, are just a means, a useful way to remind us our connection to Universal Energy, our communion with the Whole and with Everything.

Reiki helps our heart remember what our heart has always known, but has “forgotten”...

Reiki symbols simply guide our first steps into the Energy; they act through love, purpose, direction, power... but... everyone already has all the love, knowledge and strength.

Human beings embody the essence of Love, Intelligence and Energy. It’s worth remembering that on the hallowed Mount Kurama, where Mikao Usui attained the Satori (a specific altered state of conscience), there is a temple where the divinity representing LOVE, LIGHT and POWER is worshipped!

 

In that temple, the sacred symbols of Love, Intelligence and Energy are exposed to the public! Quite curious, isn’t it?

Disclosing the correct traditional symbol also means providing a reference for those people who, for a number of reasons, have received badly drawn or even noticeably altered symbols.

 

NON-ATTACHMENT

Every external tool which can awake the abilities of our spirit and remind us who we are, after having been used, must be recognized as such and abandoned.
In our evolution towards the Light no spiritual force must be anchored to a fixed point, not even a Reiki symbol.
Through resonance, aumented awareness and more developed inner feeling, we will know when we will no longer need to use the Reiki symbols, since we will have interiorized them and will feel their strength directly in our heart.
Our spirit will transcend all symbols when it will be fully aware that our heartbeat resonates with the heartbeat of the whole universe.

The heart knows no distance...