Advocates of Celtic Reiki are not merelyceltic-reiki.com/resources/cr_foundation_guide.pdf · Advocates of Celtic Reiki are not merely ʻdoing a therapyʼ, or even ʻbeing a Reiki

Advocates of Celtic Reiki are not merely ʻdoing a therapyʼ, or even ʻbeing a Reiki Masterʼ; they are pioneering a legacy for themselves and others. At this point in time, so early in Celtic Reiki history, each person that contributes to the ongoing traditions of our art is forging wisdom that many generations to come will experience and become transformed by those experiences.

How many times in life does an individual encounter an opportunity to change the world through their own legacy? Yet, even if a person does recognise the potential in what exists right in front of them, they very rarely seize the chance to be more than they can ever imagine… an advocate of transformation and herald of a new era.

The Key to creating a legacy through Celtic Reiki Mastery is coherence and continuity amongst all Celtic Reiki Masters, an inherent grasp of the core principles, and a deep, profound knowing of what is and what is not Celtic Reiki Mastery.

This Celtic Reiki Home Experience is a learning environment for all Masters, Realm Masters, and Seers, so that we may all share our experiences and grow together as a community. With this comes the understanding that we are the first and at no other point in the history of Reiki therapies has there been an opportunity like this - to create a methodology that can truly change the way people experience their Earth. If your vision is like mine - a true and instinctual need to express a message of compassion and proactive change to those who want to listen… then let us walk together, this path; this path of wisdom, of evolution, and of history in the making. Let us join in harmony, community, and one clear voice…

We are the Earth… and the Earth is changing….

You hold within your grasp something awe-inspiring. It is so powerful that it can not only change your life, but the lives of almost everybody you meet. It does not require specific skills or spiritual beliefs, simply an understanding of the core principles and an advocacy of the processes involved in its wielding. It can (and does) support people across the globe in creating happier, healthier, and more enriching lives for themselves - and an engagement with the daily practice of this amazing methodology, can offer you experiences you never thought possible.

This is the wonderful journey presented to us, through the experiences of Celtic Reiki. At the very heart of this therapy is a truth that has been very real for people for millennia. A truth that can be viewed as a lost language, one spoken by our ancestors and the Earth we live as part of. Yet, the very Essence of our modern culture means that this lost language can be a greater force in your life than ever experienced by those who came before us... It is also the very same thing that prevents us from knowing about this language.

The foundations of Celtic Reiki were created in 1998, consisting of a selection of tools and practices that helped people connect to a vital, life-giving force. Using a very modern perspective of the Celtic culture, strands of psychology and other therapeutic styles, as well as an integral homage to ancient Eastern spirituality. This mixture of East and West became one of the first Reiki therapy styles to embrace archaic philosophies with a modern perspective. Embracing online technology and science, whilst maintaining a very old heart.

Celtic Reiki is not energy in itself; it is a form of therapy that is driven by the forces of Ki and Nearth. The purpose of this is to create personal growth, wellbeing, and a life that is thoroughly more rewarding, enriching, and joyous. The way we work with these subtle, universal forces differs, according to the individual practitioner or Master, as do the experiences attained. Nonetheless, there is an innate, internal structure that guides us to a greater, more intimate relationship with energy and our own divine nature.

Through these pages, we shall investigate the challenges and wonders of harnessing the lost language, in addition to exploring the historical contexts and the path ahead. Along the way, we shall see how our modern perspective can help us harness the full force of human potential through Celtic Reiki Mastery, and yet can hinder our progress as the same time... And how we overcome this challenge to our development.

This is your own path...

Many people, especially in Western culture, view therapy as 'being fixed' by somebody else. The truth is nobody can do it for you... Whether your personal challenge is relationship issues, a lack of financial security, dis-ease or a lack of wellbeing, depression, obesity, legal, social, or even spiritual, expecting another person to wave a magic wand is not only a futile position to place yourself in, it also completely disavows your own ability to be effectual in your own life!

Others can guide you, or ease your pain with compassion and kindness. Some can lighten the load or share responsibility with you, however, expecting somebody to wave a magic wand and make it all go away leads to a life where you simply do not learn to create change. It you are in the habit of looking to others to create change on your behalf, it can be one of the most challenging habits to recognise and to break. Nevertheless, break this habit, you must, because as soon as you take responsibly for your own life, you step into your own power to transform your life.

When you are accepting responsibility for the life you have and current circumstances, no matter how painful an experience, or 'unfair' it seems, it empowers Celtic Reiki to support you in the process. Firstly through synaesthesia and then though experience. Synaesthesia, which is the internal, sensory experience you will have when connected to Ki or Nearth, guides us in recognising the abilities we have to change our situation, to heal, to be successful and joyful. The results of connection are the effects that we experience in life... Celtic Reiki literally presents us with situations, people, and awareness of our own actions, so that we can discover how to actually, physically, and emotionally make lasting changes.

This can only happen when you open yourself to the fact that change comes from you, first and foremost. It is this recognition that allows the effects of Celtic Reiki to be expressed. In your life... And it is the first step on our road to Mastery. This is a real contrast to many energy therapy methods, which immediately disempower you by expressing that Reiki will make change, heal, or wave a magic wand, without you first accepting your own potential for transformation. This is what a connection to Reiki works with, not some vague concept of miraculous and instantaneous fixing.

According to the Shinto philosophy of Ki, Shinki, the divine force, transforms into the physical world to experience life from the illusion of separateness. What would be the point of this experience if it was all made better when times get tough? Shinki wants to go through the pain to appreciate and truly understand the happiness that comes from healing the pain. That healing only comes when you, a physical manifestation of Shinki, experience that all creation comes from within you... Your deep and ultimately divine core-self.

An Introduction to Reiki and Other Facets of Ki

Reiki is one of many facets of Ki. Imagine these as facets of a diamond, all is the diamond, but each facet, or face, has a different perspective. Reiki is simply a particular perspective of Ki. To truly appreciate the nature of Reiki, it is rather important to explore this wonderful force in relation to the other facets of Ki that it has an effect upon, and is affected by.

Reiki, like all facets of Ki, is created from Shinki, the divine. Shinki is utterly non-physical in form... Or what we might call 'potential'. Just as anything in the physical world exists in potential before it becomes real, Shinki has the power to be anything and it knows all things... Except one. Shinki does not know what it is is not to be Shinki.

So, the divine transforms itself into other facets of Ki and forms the physical world. To express itself as what we known as 'reality', Shinki needs to forget that it is all one interconnected force and develops the illusory notion of separateness. In the separateness of physicality, Shinki becomes Kekki, the force of blood. This force is the potential for physical matter, without shape or form, it is pure mass. When combined with Shioke, the force of salt, the building blocks of all things solid comes into being. Mitzuke, the force of water binds these building blocks together to form growth and expansion. Kiki, the force of air then develops the space between this growth and that - it is literally the air that gives us form that means we recognise ourselves from the world around us.

With autonomous and independent form, Denki, the force of thunder, produces relationship between us. How we relate to each other and to all things is a manifestation of Denki. In a world with all these complex relationships, meaning is given to all things by Jiki, the force of magnetism. Jiki compels us onwards, attracting us and repelling us in the context of the Universe and in conjunction with the grand design of the divine. Our conscious experience of these complex and diverse dynamics of life are created by Tsuki, the force of the moon, which powers thought and conscious understanding of all we know. With so much potential for each element of the Universe to slip out of balance and into disharmony, a balancing force is required... And this this Reiki, the force of the soul. Reiki realigns all other facets of Ki in line with the potential perfection of Shinki. It does this through the force of consciousness... Ishiki, whose intent is to communicate the non-physical potential of Shinki into the physical world.

In Celtic Reiki practice and Mastery we can connect to the conscious experience of Reiki and all other facets of Ki through Tsuki. We can also connect to a different perspective of energy in the form of Nearth, which the Celts understood as the divine force that created and powered the Earth.

Reiki is believed to be a benevolent and intelligent force that exists at every point of the Universe, physically and potentially. This leads us to one of the major misconceptions about Reiki. Most Masters experience Reiki as a 'flow' of energy. This flow is actually the experience of Synaesthesia, not of Reiki. It is our brain's way of expressing that we are connected to a greater force, by producing experiential effects of sensation. The unders tand ing that Re ik i i s l i te ra l ly everywhere, in and of all things, means that is cannot 'flow' into any place it is not already at. Therefore, to talk in terms of flow when referring to Reiki, denotes a limitation of Reiki's infinite nature and, thus, the potency of the results achieved.

Hence, to know that Reiki (and all other facets of Ki) are 'there' already translates to the knowledge that it is conscious experience of Reiki that affects change. Any practice that is powered by Reiki is not initiating change, it creates a recognit ion of change and communicates a path to a new state of being. Th i s recogn i t i on i s expe r ienced as synaesthesia and can be interpreted using the unique and individual types of synaesthesia we have during and after the practice.

Celtic Reiki, as with all therapeutic practices that are powered by the force of Reiki, is a treatment methodology. Other forms of practice include Karmic Reiki, Karuna Reiki, and the most well-known Usui Reiki. This distinction between Reiki as energy and Reiki as a method is very important in Celtic Reiki Mastery, especially when we consider how much dogma and confusion is created when Masters of other Reiki modalities confuse the two!

The History Of Celtic Reiki

Our adventure begins in a cemetery in Wales where I first encountered the Lost Language. I had been wandering the cemetery, looking at the headstones and just enjoying the peace of this restful place, when I came across a fir tree that had been cloven in half. One half of this poor creature had fallen, whilst the other was still upright and rooted. It may have been the palpable feeling of distress that permeated the area or maybe my own shock at the devastation, but that experience was to lead to the creation of Celtic Reiki.

You can discover more about that encounter and how it inspired the creation of Celtic Reiki in the book “Stories from the Sacred Grove”.

After teaching Celtic Reiki Masters in several regions of the world, with the request that they continue to evolve and grow the practices, essences, and philosophies of Celtic Reiki, I felt my part in this legacy was complete and moved on to the origination of other forms of therapy. Then in 2004 I felt, once again, compelled to develop the system further. At this time, there had been very little adaptation, in fact many Masters were still using my own, original manuals!

With the addition of new essences, various new treatment styles, attunement processes, and an updated philosophy, the ways of Celtic Reiki were now very different to the basic structure of the original. From that time to this, I have added further elements to the Mastery of Celtic Reiki, which is now once of the most comprehensive modalities of Reiki practice in the world.

In 2009, the vast Home Experience launched as a way of addressing the 'quick study' approach toward Reiki Therapy Mastery. The original teachings in Usui Reiki were conducted over many years and as a life practice. Yet when this modality came to the West it was transformed into a ʻlearn, qualify, and that's itʼ methodology, where Masters were not encouraged to discover and develop further and an engrained dogma became very apparent in the modality, which is such a shame, because it is a wonderful form of therapy in its own right.

With the Home Experience, students are trained in an ever-evolving practice and qualify with a living qualification that also changes over time. The magical thing about this is that each, individual Master becomes part of the development process, adding their own, unique perspective to the overall practice. This, along with other aspects of practice (such as community, advocacy, and dialogue) now create something unlike any other therapy.

The latest development of Celtic Reiki practice was the re-inclusion of many original aspects with the Foundation Master Degree. This now means that Celtic Reiki Mastery is taught in six levels, from Foundation Master to Seer. Whilst each level is a progression of Mastery, the different levels take contrasting regions of practice, from the basics at level one (this level) through the methods of exploration in the Realms and with the Mystics of levels 2 to 6, to teaching and originating new streams of practice.

With this major step in History of Celtic Reiki, we see the beginning of a new era in our Mastery, as for the first time ever, Foundation Mastery is available to everybody across the world as an open experience. It is with in mind that we take another joyous step forward... Into the future!

The Orientations and Calibration of Celtic Reiki Mastery

Celtic Reiki is both experiential and synaesthetic in nature. This means that it not only needs to be experienced to be understood, it also means that these experiences are based upon, what can be an initially subtle, phenomena. This can make training a tad challenging, because how do you teaching something that cannot be put into words, or described, apart from the psychological effects it has on a person... Effects that are never the same for two people!

The answer is in a process known as Orientation and Calibration. The basis for this process was originally known as an attunement, where a Master of some form of practice would attune the student to that therapy. For me, this terminology and the concept surrounding it created some major issues. Firstly, it disempowers the student's ability to proactively partake in the experience, because the Master conducts the attunement, and secondly it means that if a student does not pay attention to their own synaesthesia or is not clear as to what they need to be doing, this can reflect on their practice. Basically, the attunement process relies on the student relaxing enough to naturally experience their own synaesthesia! A darker element to this is when some people use the synaesthesia as a way of manipulating their students. I prefer to be upfront about the very natural effects of synaesthesia, which are not actually mystical, but psychological. The reason being that if you accept and understand what synaesthesia is and its potential, you can harness your synaesthete abilities and gain even greater mystical experiences (which exist at the root of our sensory feedback and synaesthesia interpretations of these).

Orientations are very close to an attunement, inasmuch as they are conducted by the Celtic Reiki Master, with the intent of heightening the experiences of the student and orienting their awareness towards a connection with Nearth, Reiki and other forms of therapy. This could be equated with the Master 'pointing a finger' towards these forces!

For the most profound results, the responsibility is the student's when it comes to them actually looking in the direction the Master is pointing! This is the Calibration part of the process, where a student hones in on their synaesthesia and then uses it to heighten their experience. When approached as a form of spiritual dance, with Master and student adjusting their experiences in a series of synchronised and proactive steps, the results are mind-blowing and create lasting transformation and joy for both!

Another beneficial element of this expression of learning Celtic Reiki is that Calibration to an Orientation can be conducted and experienced many times over, with each experience being different, more refined, detailed, and profound. What is more, Calibration is not only a specific routine, any form of honing one's skills is Calibration, from practice, to treatment, to reading notes and exploring the Realms; each of these and more are ways in which you Calibrate further to the Orientations your Master has conducted.

To help guide you through the steps of Calibration, each Orientation in the Home Experience is accompanied by an Audio Companion for you to listen to and use as many times as you wish. These will not only help you perfect your Calibration skills, but with narration, music, and other sound effects, they are purposefully created to help you achieve wonderful experiences of synaesthesia.

So, now let us examine what kind of experiences you are likely to have with your own synaesthetic responses to Reiki, Nearth, etc. Initially, it is important to note two things: synaesthesia differs in type depending on each individual and also, it can also present itself in various strengths of experience from "did I imagine that?" to "that's as real as the chair I am sitting on!". Whatever type or strength of synaesthesia you attain, remember to focus on what you do get, rather than what you don'. Concentrating upon and affirming any synaesthesia effects will make them much stronger and definite over time.

Visual Synaesthesia effects include: flashes of colour, patterns, shapes, symbols, complex images, lifelike images, such as eyes, faces, people, etc., movement, words, strobes and floating objects. Whilst these can sometimes appear to be visual in nature, they are internal visions rather than physical.

Audio synaesthesia effects can involve: voices, music, buzzing, tones, hissing, white noise, bangs, the sound of flapping moth wings in the ears, specific words, and so on.

Kinaesthetic sensations that are often reported are: heat, icy cold, tingling, buzzing on the skin, trembling, the feeling of being touched or grasped, tickling, breath, the feeling of people moving around the room, sensations of levitation or falling, pressure, numbness. On occasion, physical effects can be actual as well as synaesthetic, particularly, gurgling stomachs, nausea, and twitching, etc.

In Foundation Mastery there are three Orientations, with a further eight to reach Realm Master level and four more when working through your Seer training. If you decide to work with the vReiki elements of the Home Experience, there are a further fifteen orientations. With the Orientation and Calibration experience such a profound one, especially as you become accustomed to them, you will find the more there are, the better!

To continue with this guide, please ensure you have Calibrated to the first Orientation.

Realm Master Tip

This is a piece of wonderful advice that comes from a Realm Master named Barb.

Barb keeps journals of her Celtic Reiki journey through the Realms and of her interactions with the Mystics. These are not simply textual notes, but works of art! Barb even copies out pieces of text from the virtual and book resources so that she remembers them more clearly and can remind herself of the different experiences she has had. Then she decorates the text with colours, drawings, collages, and all manner of wonderful flourishes that help her personalise and remember her adventures.

We are all different and we approach life with different strategies, so if you are creative in nature and want to get more from your Home Experience, I would highly recommend Barbʼs means of journalling her Celtic Reiki voyage. For me, it truly sums up the core principle of the Home Experience - it is not the destination, but the journey that is important!

Treatment Styles

In essence, all Celtic Reiki treatments are Self-Treatments! Even when treating a client, the practice acts as a ʻcelebration of perspectiveʼ where both Practitioner and Client shift to a Celtic Reiki perspective and heal as a result. We cannot ʻmakeʼ somebody ʻbetterʼ, we can only guide them to a perspective where they can heal themselves through the environment weʼve created. Nonetheless, both Self-Treatment and treatments for clients are detailed here with the distinction being of technique and action, rather than who is treating who!

Celtic Reiki Foundation Masterʼs Self treatment

1. Take several deep breaths, inhaling right into the lower abdomen and back, whilst expanding to the sides. When you exhale, keep the breath regular, continuous, and almost as if you are not breathing. This could be described as a slight muscle action and heat, without the sensation of ʻbreezeʼ or air-movement from your nose and mouth.

2. Internally, state that this is “a Celtic Reiki Self-Treatment”.3. Focus on your lower abdomen, just below the navel and keep your attention here for 30 seconds to a minute. Then slowly, regularly, and

in a controlled manner, expand your awareness down your legs, up your back, shoulders, arms, feet, and head, then beyond, out into your environment.

4. If you feel anything that hinders or distracts from this expansion, simply breathe into this area using an essence of your choice. To do this, trigger the essence (using the Ogham symbol and/or mantra, spoken internally, three times) and shift that point of your awareness towards the resulting perspective. For heightened effect, use your Calibration technique to match the perspective of the resistance to that of the essence.

5. When the expansion happens without resistance, focus on the expansion for as long as you can. Even if you move beyond the physical walls, or boundaries of the place you are situated, maintain the expansion. Eventually your awareness will ʻsnapʼ you back into your usual conscious state. When this happens, the routine is complete.

6. At this point you can state, internally, that “this process is complete” and continue with your day.

vReiki Formal Self Treatment

In the practices of vReiki, there is a more ʻformalʼ treatment method that can be useful when initially learning to treat yourself. The principles of this routine are based upon a series of ʻhand positionsʼ, each of which is held for 2-3 minutes, before moving to the next.

This treatment structure can be a wonderful ʻfallbackʼ if you are finding the other treatment styles challenging and can be combined with essences to create variety and adaptability to the session.

Begin by shifting to the perspective of Celtic Reiki, by stating this will be “a Celtic Reiki Self-Treatment” and then move through some or all of the steps below.

An alternative to this, is simply to work with steps 6-11, as this can be a very relaxing treatment, which is conducted whilst in bed, or whilst conducting some other activity, such as watching a movie, or whilst travelling on a bus!

vReiki Basic Formal Treatment

I rarely recommend formal hand positions for treatment, however, as a novice to energy therapies, these ʻformalʼ positions can be a great way of building rhythm and structure into your treatment session.

1. Ask you client to sit in a chair, with their feet firmly on the ground and hands on their laps, or lay them on a treatment table, if you have one.

2. Once you have made your client comfortable, ask them to close their eyes and lead them through several deep, slow breaths.

3. Stand behind your client (if seated) or at the head of the table and ʻmake a connectionʼ. This is where you place your hands on the shoulders, or around their temple area. When working with your clientʼs head area, I would recommend ʻhands offʼ as if you are holding a large, invisible box between your hands, as in step 1.

4. When you feel connected to your client, work through the hand positions shown here, remaining at each position as long as you feel guided to do so, which is usually between 2-3 minutes, although sometimes can be 15-20 minutes, or even the whole treatment session!

Elven Hands

Elven Hands is basic form of treatment methods which enhances intuitive abilities. These can evolve your ability to experience synaesthesia that is associated with dis-ease or the core challenges that people are facing. The routine for this particular treatment is intentionally simple, because it is a great way to build your confidence at this Foundation level, without the need to think about ʻwhat comes nextʼ.

To conduct the Elven Hands treatment, simply lay your client on your treatment table and create a ʻHead Connectionʼ as you have practised in the more formal treatment styles. State this is going to be “an Elven Hands Treatment”.

Once you feel a connection, shift your perspective to that of Celtic Reiki and trigger a connection to any essences you would like to work from during the treatment. (You can also work with different essences throughout the treatment, either as a ʻTreatment Forestʼ or in ʻParallel Projectionʼ.)

When you have done this, move around the table to stand at your clientʼs abdominal area - usually around their diaphragm area. Place your hands out in front of you, palms down and over your clientʼs chest and lower abdomen. This should feel as if your hands are resting on a cushion of ʻthick airʼ or ʻvibrancyʼ. Hold your hands here, keeping your shoulders relaxed and back straight. Ensure also that your knees are slightly bent, as this will help you keep your balance.

You will now experience a magnetic-like pulling or pushing of your hands, almost as if they are being guided by unseen hands. This is such an amazingly ʻrealʼ experience that Practitioners often feel unseen fingers grasping their own wrists!

Allow the hands to guide you around your clientʼs body, into their surrounding, vibrational field, and even into the room. (The physical bioenergetic field of a person can extent over 12 feet away from their body!)

At the end of the treatment, which usually lasts between 45 minutes to an hour, thank those who have guided you, disconnect from your client and ask them back into the room. Ensure they are fully back before they get up from the table.

The Treatment Forest & Parallel Projection

Whenever you conduct a treatment, you are often limited by the number of essences you work with at any one time, as using too many different perspectives can make a treatment ʻbittyʼ and without a solid focus. To avoid this happening, the treatment forest can be used to plant essences into a treatment and create a forest perspective (like that of Koad), which can be used as a single essence, thus replacing many.

The concept of a treatment forest is very useful, especially when treating people who require many different Woodland Essences to help ease their various situations and dis-eases. Yet the forest is always different in that each individual tree gives itself to a whole and the complete forest has many dynamics and changes. Next time you walk through a wood, try to experience the perspective of the woodland and then communicate with the individual trees and see the difference – although each tree is part of the whole, the forest is very different and is much more than just a combination of single trees.

Therefore, how do you shift to the perspective of different essences in a treatment, while keeping a strong intent and focus, yet maintaining the integrity of each individual tree essence? The answer is a treatment method known as Parallel Projection.

Parallel Projection is the technique by which the perspective of many essences can be positioned into a single treatment essence, yet maintain all of the original qualities. This works on the basis that each single essence is in the same place, at the same time, yet in different realities. The facet of energy that creates Parallel Projection is part of the second Orientation in this Realm and enables you to create a multidimensional state whereby, in energetic terms, you split the treatment session throughout several realities, treat them with a single essence in each reality and them ʻput them back togetherʼ in this reality.

This process is based upon a parallel philosophy to that of ʻPhoton Dualityʼ a concept of quantum philosophy whereby a particle of light (Photon) will travel through two different places at the same time if it is a possibility for it to do so. If you add more possible paths for the photon to travel along, it will do this also – all at the same time! It truly is possible to be in two places at once!

Of course the process is much more simple in practice than it may sound here – you simply state internally that you are using “Parallel Projection” and then shift to each essence you wish to add to the treatment. Once you have done this, simply continue with the treatment style you have chosen as you would normally. The thing to remember is that you can place several (all, if you wish) treatment essences into a single Parallel Projection and treat your subject for a whole hour – every time you add an essence, they will be technically receiving their hour treatment, multiplied by the number of essences! So if you use 5 essences in a Parallel Projection treatment, you are giving your subject 5 hours of treatment in just 1 hour of time!

© 2012 mPowr Publishing

This guide is part of the Celtic Reiki Mastery Home Experience and must not

be distributed or copied without written permission of the author.

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