Reiki and shamanic practices are natural partners, as both are sourced in Spirit, and work in concert with our connection to Spirit and the Universal Life Force energy. When I teach Reiki, I offer students the opportunity to undertake shamanic journeys in order to enhance their learning and attunements by creating relationships with helping Reiki spirits.
Reiki practitioners can gain deeper and wider perspectives on the work when they use shamanic journeying and relationships with helping Spirits to gain wisdom about using Reiki in bigger and more complex ways. So, for example, when a Reiki practitioner establishes a relationship with the spirit of an element, that element instructs the practitioner on ways the element can deepen healing work with a client. It is during the shamanic journey, which almost any human can undertake, that we are able to have the conversations with helping Spirits, and gain the perspectives that add this dimension to our Reiki work. Students have found that a Reiki practice that is guided and expanded by helping Spirits helps them to know themselves better, and to see the power of Reiki to an even larger scale.
I’ve also found that Reiki can be an excellent part of a shamanic practitioner’s “medicine basket.” Reiki practitioners understand that, in becoming a vehicle for Universal Life Force energy to move into the world, we are filled with that healing energy. When we are filled with that energy, it heals us and helps us to ground, as well as affording some level of protection and renewal, all measures that can help restore the body and energy when our shamanic work demands much from us. Reiki also teaches simple methods of meditation, grounding and clearing of intrusive energies in the body, as well as aiding in the practice of remote healing. Reiki can also be a useful adjunct to shamanic techniques like soul retrieval; I send a dose of Reiki with soul parts as I restore them to my client, to aid in the parts’ re-establishment within the client’s life.
Whether you are approaching Reiki as a shamanic practitioner, or approaching shamanism as a Reiki practitioner, you will find greater benefit in integrating both into your work and practice.