Where Reiki came from is a mystery of the spiritual kind. It wasn’t until the 1990’s that Western Reiki practitioners came into contact with some of Usui’s actual students in Japan, and they learned a few things about the history of reiki in the process. The story that was passed down from Hawayo Takata in Western Reiki has been shown to have historical inaccuracies, some of which may have been added to make reiki more acceptable in the mostly christian United States. It’s difficult to understand in this post New Age Boom world, but times were very different and there are still people out there who fear the unknown.
My husband reminded me of that today, though I haven’t personally been challenged by this kind of person in regards to Reiki, I have as a Tarot reader. Now that the history is being unearthed and translated from Japanese, and there is now a Wiki timeline to plot the major details, we can more greatly appreciate the origins of Reiki. Along with this historically accurate information comes a richness in my own understanding of how Reiki came to be, and in what kind of cultural environment it is most likely to flourish.
The top three Reiki Masters in the western lineage (Usui, Hayashi, and Takata) were real people, with their own sets of flaws. It’s just a reminder that Reiki meets us where we are at, and works with us and through us no matter who we are. It gives me a great deal of hope as I continue on this path. I’m just three days away from my Reiki Master training, and I’m honored to play my own small part in the unfolding of the Reiki story.