Explanation of the main terms used in Reiki.

Here is a brief narrative containing the main terms used in the world of Reiki. These words are in bold type below when they are used for the first time.

Reiki was developed by Mikao Usui who lived in Japan from 1865 to 1926. Mikao Usui taught Reiki to many people in the latter years of his life by demonstrating and instructing them in how to give Reiki to themselves and others. He developed a ritual which we call initiation, or attunement, as a vital part of the learning of Reiki. In most Reiki systems, initiations are repeated as a rite of passage into further stages of Reiki, usually known as degrees. Some Masters call them levels.

A person trained and initiated to teach and initiate others is known in the West as a Reiki Master, whatever his or her gender. At least two thirds of Reiki Masters are women. In Japan they may be called Sensei, Shinpiden or Shihan.

Giving Reiki to oneself is known as a Self-Treatment and to others simply a Reiki Treatment. Reiki given by several people at once is known as a Group Treatment. Reiki given to someone in another location is called a Distant or Absent Reiki Treatment.

Reiki was first taught outside Japan when Chujiro Hayashi, one of Mikao Usui’s masters, trained and initiated Mrs Hawayo Takata, as a Master in Hawaii in 1938. In Hawaiian Japanese etiquette, it is considered quite proper to call her just “Takata” and that is what most Reiki people usually do.

Hawayo Takata initiated 22 masters in the USA and Canada before she died in 1980. From these 22 masters Reiki has spread all over the world.

An initiating sequence of masters is known as a Lineage. Lineages in Reiki are like family trees. Just as we can trace our family lineages, Masters and students can trace their Reiki Lineage back to Hawayo Takata and to Mikao Usui by knowing who initiated whom. Reiki Masters usually provide their lineage information to their students.

Almost all Reiki Masters and students, even in Japan itself have lineages that go back to Mrs Takata, but in recent years, Lineages derived from Usui and Hayashi’s other Masters have appeared in the West.

The way in which Reiki is taught is known as the System, the Style or the Form. There are many forms and systems of Reiki which have evolved from different lineages of Usui, Hayashi Takata and others to give us the huge variety of Reiki Systems which we see today.

Mrs Takata called the Reiki system that she brought from Japan “Usui Shiki Ryoho”. Masters and students often have this Japanese phrase on their certificates. Shiki means system or style, and Ryoho means healing. It is translated by different masters as “The Usui System of Reiki Healing”, or, “The Usui System of Natural Healing” or sometimes just “The Usui System”.

Mrs Takata’s Usui Shiki Ryoho has three degrees, known as First Degree, Second Degree and Master Degree.

In a First Degree class, beginners are initiated into Reiki and taught how to give Reiki Treatments to self and others

A Second Degree class takes the student deeper into Reiki practice.

For Takata the Master Degree was purely and solely for those students who were training to teach Reiki and initiate others.

Today, however, a Master degree can mean just a deeper level of Reiki like Second Degree.

Following Mrs Takata’s death in 1980, Mrs Takata’s 22 Masters went in several different directions. One of Takata’s Masters called Barbara Weber who later changed her name to Barbara Ray claimed to be the successor to Takata and first used the title of Grandmaster to distinguish her from Takata’s other Masters.

But most of Takata’s Masters, when they first met in Hawaii in 1982, formally recognised Mrs Takata’s granddaughter, Phyllis Lei Furumoto as Takata’s successor and a Grandmaster in their Reiki Lineage and System. The following year, in 1983 most of Takata’s Masters met again in Canada and formed The Reiki Alliance.

The term Grandmaster is used today by many Reiki Masters and equally detested by just as many others. For some it means a Master who initiates another Master. For others it means an originator or head of a Reiki System.

Many others experience a huge kneejerk reaction to the term Grandmaster and consider it to be a highly undesirable expression of overweaning authority and rebel against it.

Other terms which may sound more user friendly but mean exactly the same thing as grandmaster; someone who founded or is given authority within a particular system or school of Reiki are Lineage Bearer, Lineage Carrier, and Head of a System.

The Reiki Lineage from Mikao Usui to the head of a Reiki system is sometimes known as a Spiritual Lineage to distinguish it from a regular Master Lineage.

In 1992 Phyllis Lei Furumoto recognised Paul Mitchell, another of Mrs.Takata’s masters, as Head of the Discipline in Usui Shiki Ryoho, and referred to herself as the Lineage Bearer. Together, Phyllis Lei Furumoto and Paul Mitchell constitute what they call the “Office of Grandmaster”, or OGM for short.

In 1993, Phyllis and Paul spelled out in much more detail the features of Takata’s form of Usui Shiki Ryoho that they felt were implicit in Takata’s teachings.. This is known by the somewhat unwieldy name of “Usui Shiki Ryoho as expressed by the OGM.”

In almost all respects, this system is exactly what Mrs Takata herself taught, but it is expressed in more explicit and specific terms than she did. This reflects a difference between Takata’s very intuitive and implicit Hawaiian culture and our western culture which demands that everything be spelled out in detail and explicitly, rather than a difference of substance..

The OGM expression and description of Takata’s Usui Shiki Ryoho has four aspects to the system and nine elements which can be identified as key building blocks..

In the last eight years, other Systems which derive from Usui and Hayashi’s other Masters have reached the west and the UK. Some of their terms and definitions are different to those used in Takata Lineages. They often use a lot more Japanese terms. These have been introduced when discussing the particular Systems which use them.