Takata System of Reiki

• The Takata system of Reiki refers to itself as Traditional Usui Reiki.
• Actual evidence indicates that the Takata System of Reiki departs in various ways from the system developed and taught by Mikao Usui.
• The Takata system remains a viable and powerful element of modern Reiki practice, containing tools such as attunements and symbols that are unique to Western Reiki practice and can enrich the overall practice of Reiki.
• Most of western Reiki practice is descended from the Takata system of Reiki, and refers to the Takata system as Usui Reiki, Levels 1 through 3a.

The Traditional Reiki Story

Evidence indicates this story is a myth used primarily to justify a profit-motive in Western (Takata) Reiki.

• Mikao Usui was principle of the Doshisha University, Kyoto, Japan in the mid 1800’s.
• He was also a christian minister.
• His students wanted to be shown the method by which Jesus healed.
• Unable to answer them, Usui began a ten year quest to find and learn the skill.
• Christian authorities in Japan told him this healing was not talked about, and definately not known.
• Buddhist monks told him that the techniques had been lost, and that the only way to approach them was by entering the Buddhist teachings, the Path to Enlightenment.
• Usui then travelled to the United States, where he lived for seven years.
• Recieving no further answers from christians here, he entered the University of Chicago Divinity School, and recieved a Doctor of Theology degree studying comparative religions and philosophies. He also learned to read sanskrit.
• Still finding no answers, he returned to Japan and lived in a Zen Buddhist monastery.
• Here he found texts describing the healing formula, written in Sanskrit.
• The material did not include information on how to activate the energy and make it work.
• He then went to Mount Koriyama in Japan to meditate, fast, and pray.
• On the 21st day he was struck by a projectile of light, and was shown the Reiki symbols and attuned to the energy.
• Walking down the mountain, he experienced what is traditionally known as the four miracles. He stubbed his toe and healed it, ate a full meal after a 21 day fast and suffered no ill effects, healed a woman’s toothache, and healed a severe arthritis attack that the director of his monastary had.
• He named the healing energy Reiki, which means Universal Life Force Energy.
• Usui then took the method to the slums of Kyoto and lived there for several years, doing healing in the beggars quarters and asking the healed only to start a new life for themselves.
• Finding the same faces returning again and again, he grew angry and left the slums, vowing never again to teach Reiki for free, as healing is often unappreciated by those who are not willing to pay for it.

The Reiki Principles

• Just for today, do not anger. Just for today, do not worry. We shall count our blessings and honor our fathers and mothers, our teachers and neighbors and honor our food. Make an honest living. Be kind to everything that has life. -Hawayo Takata-
• Just for today I will give thanks for my many blessings. Just for today I will not worry. Just for today I will not be angry. Just for today I will do my work honestly. Just for today I will be kind to my neighbor and every living thing. -The Reiki Handbook by Larry Arnold and Sandy Nevius-
• Just for today do not worry, Just for today do not anger. Honor your parents, teachers, and elders. Earn your living honestly. Show gratitude to everything. Respect the Oneness of All Life. -Diane Stein-

Takata Reiki Levels

• Reiki I healing sessions are primarily for self healing. The Reiki I healer can also do healing directly on someone physically present. Symbols are present in the healer, and are used, but only subconsciously. Reiki I is primarily for physical healing.
• Reiki II adds power to direct healing sessions and gives the tools and methods for distance healing. At this level one traditionally beings working directly and consciously with some of the symbols and their energies. Cho-ku-rei, Sei-he-ki, and Hon-Sha-Ze-Sho-Nen are traditionally the symbols associated with this level. Reiki II is for emotional, mental, and karmic healing.
• Reiki III is the Master/Teacher degree. It further increases the ability to channel Reiki and enhances your healing ability. It adds two more symbols to your conscious repetoir: Dai-Ko-Myo and Raku. It also gives more information on all of the symbols, and the method for passing on attunements. Reiki III is for spiritual healing.
• Some people divide Reiki III into two levels, making the attunement to be a Reiki teacher and pass on attunements to others separate from the attunement merely to use the full symbol set.

Takata Reiki Hand Positions

1. Position One is with the hands cupped gently over the patients eyes. This position covers the brow chakra (third eye). This is the chakra of visualization, auric sight, sensing chakras, adn clairvoyance. The associated colors are indigo and bluish purple. The brain, eyes, ears, nose, pineal, and pituitary glands are nourished by this energy center. This area can be focused on to help problems with sinus, stress, hormonal balance, compulsive behavior, and addictions. Assists in learning, intellectual development, and reasoning skills. This chakra is associated with the celestial body.
2. Position Two is with the hands over the cheeks and the healer’s little finger resting lightly against the patient’s ears. This position reaches both the crown and third eye chakras. The crown chakra is located in the top of your head. It is associated with the colors Purple, White, and Gold. It corresponds to the pineal gland, which may have something to do with growth. It is a receptor for spiritual energies. It is responsible for pure intuition, surpassing clarivoyance. The pain receptors are also located in this area. This chakra is associated with the divine or katheric body.
3. Position Three is with the hands gently cupping the back of the head. Like position one, it is associated with the third eye chakra. From this angle, working with reiki can aid in putting one to sleep.
4. Position Four is with the hands resting lightly on the collar bone, slightly below the throat. This position is associated with the throat chakra. Blue is the color of this chakra, and it is the chakra of communication, individuality, and creativity. The thyroid, trachea, esophagus, neck vertebrae, throat, mouth, teeth, gums, and jaws are affected by this chakra, which also helps regulate the body’s blood pressure and temperature. It is said to be where your spirit communicates with your mind as your “Inner Voice”. This chakra is associated with the etheric template.
5. Position Five is with the hands in the center of the chest, at heart height. It is associated with the heart chakra. Green is the color connected with this chakra, and it is connected with loving, compassion, unconditional love and acceptance, rather than romance or sexual passion. It is the chakra of “Oneness.” Heart, lungs, ribs, breasts, circulatory and respiratory systems, the thymus gland, and the immune system’s T-cells are connected to this chakra. It is associated with the astral body.
6. Position Six is with the hands on or just above the stomach. It is associated with the solar plexus chakra. This chakra is associated with the color yellow. It is the power center, the distribution point for psychic energies. Through it we feel connected to the physical and energetic world. It is the chakra of emotions, empathy, the liver, gall bladder, stomach, pancreas, spleen, adrenal glands, toxicity, hypoglycemia, and problems with regularion of insulin and adrenaline. This chakra is associated with the mental body.
7. Position Seven is with the hands just below the waist. It is associated with the sacral chakra, orange/yellow, sexual and creative energy, the lower vertebrae, pelvis, sexual organs, appendix, bladdar, the metabolism, blood-filtering, courage, self-love, and the emotional body.
8. Position Eight is with both hands across the lower abdomen, above the pubic bone. It is associated with the root chakra, red/orange, the will to survive, grounding, realizing dreams, self mastery, legs, physical strength, and the etheric body.

Takata Distance Healing Method

• You may add the Reiki symbols to any distance healing technique you may already use in order to make it a Reiki healing.
• Distance healing is a visualization in the meditative state meant to heal an absent recipient.
• Imagine being physically present and do a hands-on session.
• Alternatively imagine the person shrunk between your hands and do a healing.
• Alternatively use a proxy like a teddy bear or your leg and knee and do a hands on healing.
• Alternatively send colors to fill the person’s aura, followed by the reiki symbols.
• It is recommended to send three of each symbol to the recipient.
• Note that healing done on this level resonates more with the mental-emotional bodies than the physical. It may take up to several hours for the energy to filter down to physical level problems.

Takata Reiki Symbols

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• The Cho-Ku-Rei is used in every healing.
• Drawn clockwise it is used to increase and focus power.
• Drawn counterclockwise it is used to break up and dissipate problems.
• Clockwise it means/has been interpreted as “Put the power here.”
• Counterclockwise it means/has been interpreted as “God is here.”
• A parallel could be drawn with the pentacle being used for both invoking and banishing.
• Can be used to charge and help program crystals.
• Can be used to manifest desires.
• Can be used for blessing.
• Magnifies and focuses energy.
• Referred to as the light switch or power symbol.
• I recommended you draw this symbol after other symbols, to energize and activate them. Similar to the command to execute a computer program.
• Some, however, believe this should be the first symbol you draw, in order to “prime the pump” so to speak.

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• Emotional and mental healing.
• Protection, purification, clearing/cleansing, releasing spirit links.
• Interpreted as “God and Man become one” or “Key to the Universe” or “As above, so below.”
• Some believe that mental healing is attributed to this symbol in error, and that emotional healing is its only function. Those who believe this attribute mental healing to the Hon-Sha-Ze-Sho-Nen symbol.
• This symbol is especially useful during an emotional release where the person being healed can’t seem to speak or cry.
• Clears blockages, changes negative habits, clears and cleanses crystals.

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• May be a form of Stupa, a depiction of the five elements in building form.
• Used for distance healing, past-life healing, karmic healing, future healing, situational healing, healing of behavioral patterns, grants alternate timelines/heals past mistakes.
• Interpreted as “All time is now” or “No time, no space” or “Open the Book of Life and Now Read” or “The Buddha in me Salutes the Buddha in You” or “The Buddha in Me Reaches Out to the Buddha in You” or “Namaste”.
• Accesses the Akashic Records.
• Strong connections to Oneness. “We are one, no seperation.”
• Similar to sacred space/magic circle concepts where you are in a place not a place, at a time not a time.
• Used to activate crystals and helps with programming and perminancy.
• Some attribute mental healing to this symbol rather than Sei-Hi-Ki.

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• To be used in all healings once it is learned.
• Focuses on healing the soul/spiritual template.
• Makes all other symbols have a more potent effect.
• Can catalyze ongoing healing/permanent healing from within as needed.
• Can be used to make crystals self-clearing.
• Interpreted as “Temple of the Great Beaming Light” or “The One with the Mahayana Heart of Giving” or “Enlightenment Achieved” or “I am Buddha” or “Oneness/Source”.
• The spiral form of the Dai-Koo-Myo brings energy from the divine/source within. Reversing the spiral causes internal Ki/energy to expand and connect with the All/the Source before returning within carrying more energy.
• I recommend using this symbol to “prime the pump”, rather than the Cho-Ku-Rei.
• The spiral form of this symbol is a modified version of the Tibetan Master Symbol (Dai-Ko-Myo) from Karuna Reiki. It is believed to be a more modern, and more powerful, version of the Dai-Koo-Myo symbol with widespread popular support in Western Reiki.
• The spiral form has also been seen as the “seed of reiki.”

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• There are two versions of this symbol, the lightning bolt and the fire serpent.
• The lightning bolt is “banking of fire”. It grounds, activates the Hara Line, seperates the auras of Teacher and Student after an attunement, releases karma, and increases the original ki. “Sky to Earth.”
• The fire serpent is the energy of the serpent Kundalini. It helps to grow and advance, aligns chakras, enhances the flow of energy through the pathways of the body, and can be used to clear a place of negative energies. “Earth to Sky.”
• Drawn reversed, the Raku can take one out of body (lightning bolt.)
• Rarely, if someone has had an injury release excessive amounts of Kundalini Energy, the reversed fire serpent symbol will be needed to calm it down.
• The serpent version is also referred to as the Tibetan Fire Serpent from Karuna Reiki.
• The Tibetan Fire Serpent joins the chakras.
• When used with Karuna energy, the Tibetan Fire Serpent aligns all the chakras and the energy bodies simultaneously. This prepares the recipient for the depth of Karuna Reiki energy.
• Activates the Hara Line and brings Reiki energy in through the Ki Channels, grounding it in the Hara.
• Many traditions see this solely as an initiatory symbol, rather than a healing symbol or for use in other workings. I do not agree with this interpretation.