Editor's Note: The following is a write-up Gabby did after undertaking a course of First Degree Reiki at the Kether School of Reiki, which was formed in 2000 by Storm Constantine. For more information on Reiki, check out the links in the box below.

EXPLORE REIKI Kether School of Reiki Recommended Reading on Reiki Reiki Discovery (Storm's Story) The Way of Being Reiki / Reiki-Do Organization Australian Institute for Reiki Training

Preconceptions
Most of them were accurate about how Reiki worked and the history, a few of the things I was thinking about the week before happened. One of the main things I was thinking about was Energy (Chi) Backlash, where a person's Natural Unfocused Chi is powerful enough to cause problems for the Master, or the initiation. Something similar happened in my case but it caused no major problems.

Healing
With the Kether School of Reiki it is preferred to have a healing session before you start, as this enables you to get a feel for it and enter into the right mode of consciousness for the first part of the initiation. During the healing I experienced a warm tingling sensation on my hands, which then led to the feeling that my hands had turned in to balls of energy, as they seamed to have no feeling, form or weight. From here we went on to the first part of the initiation.

Part One
This is the first of four parts of the Reiki ritual of drawing down/in the energy of Reiki to the initiate. As you must have your eyes closed for the initiation, I cannot comment on many external factors, but I can say that during the first part I experienced a hot sensation in the palms of my hands, though the ritual was sort a lot happening in a short space of time.

After this we stopped for refreshments, simply carbonated water, as this puts no strain on the metabolism and can been seen a form of purification for ritual reasons.

Also during this time I realised a sensation of awakening and everything seamed a little crisper, brighter and fresher, with an overwhelming feeling of being spaced out.

Part Two
This consisted of the same ritual as the first from my perspective, but during this session, I have some quite strange a vivid visions.

The first was of the Sphinx walking. This is very strange as there have never been any images of picture that I know of the Sphinx walking, and the concept of such a thing was strange, as it is only ever viewed as being stationary and lying down.

The second flash was of an Egyptian landscape, showing a pyramid in the middle. The pyramid was complete, with the shiny gold cap, the rest was covered in limestone and symbols. As the images were from a distance the markings were not distinguishable.

The third vision was of Anubis walking past me. This was possibly in what is now called Cairo or an Ancient representation of the area, but as I was concentrating on Anubis, I did not see much of the surroundings. The second part of initiation was over and I returned.

Meditation
This was done straight after the second part. We were lead through the first part of the meditation by Storm, and the second half was where we met our Reiki spirit guides.

We entered the valley near where the first person learned Reiki. The valley had a river either side of it and a mountain at the end. Essentially we were trapped by the river. Then we were told to cross the river by our own means. My chosen method was walking across the surface of the water. This seamed to come naturally to me, and as in many of my lucid dreams, I use this method to cross water. I chose to cross the right hand side of the river.

On the other side we headed towards a cave and met a being or energy form. Mine was an energy form. The only way I can describe the energy was that of the whole universe and the infinite. This energy was a cool blue/white colour. Within the energy was a white pentagram with the letters Y, H, Sh, V, H, one was at each point. The pentagram was slowly turning clockwise. The letters are Ancient Hebrew for the five elements -- earth, air, spirit, fire, water. To me through my readings of the Kabbalah, this is the representation of the basic elements that make up the universe, and the energy within. This meeting did not surprise me as it seamed only natural to meet with what I would later bond with.

After this meeting at the cave mouth, I entered the cave. On my left was a small candlelit alcove containing a white medicine Buddha. At this point we were told to await our spirit guide or something that would lead us to our spirit guide. I walked forward and saw a woman, possibly Native American, with shoulder length windswept hair. She stood up and pointed me further into the cave, and even though it was pitch black, I felt safe and that no harm would come to me.

After what seamed like about ten yards, I saw a pair of feline eyes, shining jade green in the darkness. As I came closer I saw a black cat with a very angular face looking at me with a knowing expression. This cat stared at me for a few seconds, then it led me through a small narrow passage to an inner sanctum of the cave. This section had blue glowing crystals all around the edge. These were a similar blue to the energy form I met outside the cave. The cave it was about four to five meters in diameter and about four meters high. I sat cross-legged in the middle and the black cat sat in front of me watching me and guarding me.

At this point the meditation ended and the vision faded back in to the reality of the room.

Intermission
After the first two parts and the meditations, we rested for a while and decided to continue the next day.

We drank more water and discussed our visions. Later that night, under the influence of alcohol and with all out guards and inhibitions in the real world down, we discussed with our Master what she felt and what happened during her initiation. I found that during my initiation, Storm had had to ground herself and Paul, who was helping, also had had to beam energy at me to act as either a control or a grounding energy. This was strange as I had been thinking about his kind of thing all week. I also learned that Storm had had similar visions to me during her initiation.

One thing I remarked on was one that when I had had my palm read, I had been told I had the hands of a healer. As it happened, this coincided with what Storm felt during the initiation. She felt that I had a lot of raw energy flaring out, seemingly out of control. However, from my experience of it and thoughts of my spiritual self, this seamed to fit the idea better than I could have thought. This is possibly why Storm had to ground herself and Paul had to beam at me. I was also told that this energy was projecting out from me in a manner that can be used to heal others very well, and that I would have no problem with Reiki healing.

Healing
The next day we started with a healing again to get us in the feeling and mood again. However, I did a healing on Lydia, as well as Storm. This was a strange experience, as I felt the presence of my spirit guide again, and as I was doing the healing, the guide seamed to be watching what I was doing, and then after a while, curled up by my foot and fell asleep, Well, it could have been worse -- a cat spirit guide could have sat there licking its butt! Anyway afterwards Lydia commented that during the first part of the healing, there seamed to be a powerful blast of energy, a little uncontrolled, but it steeled down after awhile. She had also sensed I was starting to cramp up towards the end.

Part Three
This part was similar to the first two, the drawing in of the Reiki energy, and the meditation during her process. This time I had only one vision, and that was of a desert scene. It seamed barren, with only little pockets of palm trees and grasses dotted around. Even though it should have been arid, it felt full of life. The sun was shining but it was not hot, just nicely warm on the skin. One other thing in part three again I had the experience of heat in the palms of my hands, this time hotter and stronger than before.

Meditation
During this meditation we were told to go to a location and follow our spirit guides.

This was a strange meditation. Again I was back in the valley, and again this time I was closer to the mountain and did not need to cross the river, My guide appeared and led me to the forest ahead. We passed a statue of Bast sitting on her throne. From here wee took a sharp turn to the right. After a short walk through he forest, we came upon a pile of stones. It could have been rubble or a ruin.

At this point we veered to the left and entered a cave a short distance away. This cave was pitch black. I had to trust my guide not to lead me astray. After a short walk in blackness. We came to a large cavern with a lake in it. My guide lead me round the left hand side of the lake and through a small narrow tunnel. This led to a crystal cave, similar to the one in the first meditation, but this cave had no roof and a the ray of Reiki energy was projecting down on me.

I sat and meditated here for a while, with my guide, and then after a few minutes the cave faded and I stood in an area with no shape or form. It was a sandy yellow and the only thing visible other then my guide was a large pendulum about 15 feet high. My guide walked through the centre of the triangle and through the path of the pendulum. It passed straight through the guide like it was not there. Again this was a test of trust; I did the same with similar results. After this I was sat back in the crystal cave. Continued below.

Part 4
This was done during the mediation, It followed the same ritual as before, but my visions continued during the meditation. When I returned there was a mirror on one wall, it was about five-feet high. My guide walked through the mirror and I followed. I appeared in the desert scene again. This time to my left it was twilight and on the right it was Dawn. My guide and I walked for a while. We saw various temples and pyramids in the distance. After a while we stopped and stood in each other's company for a few moments. Then I had to return back to reality and headed back to the mirror, while my guide waited behind. This time the mirror lead back to the real world.

Post
As I was told, my hands don't feel the same as they did before. Every time I use Reiki they get warm. One other strange effects is if I use Reiki on my mobile phone, I completely loose signal! Even if it is at 100% signal it drops in about 3-4 seconds to 0 and stays there until I stop. I have mainly been Reiking my cats, as I have found no willing victims yet.