Let’s Start at the Root: A Different Approach for Reiki Hand Positions

I recently took a Holy Fire III Reiki I&II class after practicing Reiki for the last 18 years. Surprisingly, I discovered that I offer my Reiki sessions for clients differently than most. In class, I learned that offering Reiki at the Crown chakra was the “traditional” hand position to start a session. Mind blown! Along with a hint of agitation, as “my way” has been effective for myself and my nearly 200 students.

Understand, my 2004 Reiki Masters training was inadequate, lasting a mere 4-5 hours. Therefore, I spent many years training with my Reiki guides directly in meditation and studying manuals. I was one of the few Reiki Masters in my area and did hire a Reiki Master in 2009 to offer me a few hours of training before stepping into teaching Reiki to others. Overall, studying directly with my Reiki guides and practicing Reiki daily were always, and in ALL WAYS, my best teachers of Reiki. This is why I strongly encourage my students to do Reiki daily, incorporate Reiki into everyday life, and meditate as often as possible.

My Reiki technique for hand positions during sessions is based on the Chakras. The session starts at the Root chakra and moves up rather than Crown chakra down.

• After the client is comfortably lying on the massage table, I stand at the side of the table and prepare myself and the client for the session. This is a great time to do a brief Gassho and state an intention internally. For example: “I call upon my Reiki guides, our spirit guides, guardian angels, power animals and all those healing and compassionate love and light entities to join with us. May ___(name of client)____ have a perfect healing of the body, mind, and spirit if it’s for their highest good and highest good of all. If either of us have a release, may it go to Mother Earth for her reuse and recycling.”
• I place my Reiki hands at the Hara, the naval point and energy well of the individual. I start the session here with CKR and any other additional symbols I feel called to use. I pause, feel into the Hara and the clients over all energy tank. Is the client low on energy? How low? I usually can feel at what percentage the client’s energy tank is at.
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• Then, unless otherwise directed by my intuition and guides, I move down to the Root chakra. The reason for starting at the Root is because the Root chakra is the foundation of the energy body. It allows the client to fully relax, feel safe, and trust the session. By working on the Root chakra first, you are working on suppressed emotions, wounds buried deep in the past, and the fundamental physical structure of the body. When the Root chakra is blocked, the client may be experiencing anxiety, fear, money issues and more. Healing this first sends a wave of trust for the remainder of the session.
• Following the Root chakra and unless directed otherwise, I move up the chakras one at a time. At Crown chakra I may sit at the head for some time and feel the Reiki flow into the Crown and flow through each of the Chakras that the Reiki just cleared and balanced, noticing where the Reiki still needs to work along the Chakra line.
• I may move to the different areas of the body that I felt called to after this Chakra scan, working Crown down all the way to the feet. I spend additional time at the feet grounding the client before ending the session. Once I’ve connected the feet to Earth’s energy, I move back to the Hara and seal the session, thank my helpers that assisted and tune in once again to the energy tank of the client, noticing any improvements in overall energy levels.

Try this technique for your own self-Reiki and a client and let me know what you notice!

Article by Christine Renee

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Christine Renee is a Shamanic Reiki Practitioner and Spiritual Coach with over 20 years of Reiki experience and 15 years of Shamanic experience. Combining the two modalities came naturally to her as she found power animals, spirit guides, angels, and galactics working alongside her during sessions and ceremonies. Christine believes that trusting your intuition, your guides, and your higher self are all integral pieces to embodying the Shamanic Reiki Practitioner. She challenges healing practices which restrain the practitioner’s innate spiritual abilities and ties them to rules, manuals, and gurus! She believes in her clients tapping into their own wisdom, mixing modalities, and breaking old paradigms of healing. She is founder of ReikiCafe University, cohost of the ReikiCafe Radio podcast, and supports a community of over 4,000 members in the ReikiCafe Community Facebook Group