One of this weekend’s Reiki Drum students brought in a beautiful Rose to the class.  Its scent was alluring.  Roses are blooming in my garden as I write and it is a joy to pass by them every day, not only because of their exquisite beauty, but because of their evocative scent.

Rose is the Queen of the Flowers, symbolic of love both human and Divine, acceptance and purity.  For those of you who have trained with me in the past, you will know how much respect I have for plants and their energetics.  I use both smudge and essential oils in all of my classes to create sacred space and produce a positive healing effect on a person’s energy field.    By doing so, we connect with the Spirit of the plant in the case of using the smudge mixtures and work with the concentrated life force of a plant when we use it’s essence with essential oils.  We can smudge a room or a person with the sacred smoke from a plant, or burn essential oils in a room.  Another way of bringing in the energies of a plant is to place a drop of the relevant essential oil on your hands prior to giving Reiki.  The energies and aromas of the plant work at a subtle level on the energy body, giving way to a branch of aromatherapy known as subtle aromatherapy.  Using essence is one of the most powerful and effective ways of accessing the limbic system of the brain, that part of our brain which houses our subconscious memories and behaviours.

So what energetic value does the beautiful and much revered Rose have?

Rose works on the Heart Chakra, the energy centre where we house our joy, love, forgiveness and compassion.    I often use this oil on someone’s energy field if I feel their Heart Chakra has closed due to perhaps sadness or negative life experiences such as hurt and rejection.  It is a wonderful oil to use if someone has problems in expressing their grief, and cannot cry.  The loving, nurturing energies of Rose allow people to take off their masks, open their hearts and release the tears which give them freedom and allow them to trust in life again.   The Rose also invites in Angelic energies and brings in joy and happiness, it gently assists with feelings of pain, anxiety and depression.

Having been on the Reiki path for a while now I see it very much as a path of compassion.  In class discussion this weekend we discussed the oneness of humanity and everything in the Universe.  A little while ago I caught my very human side passing judgement on another.  My wise and inner guidance asked me the question, how can you judge another, by doing so you judge yourself?  How true.  In our quest for perfection, we often see the mistakes in others.  Having done lots of Karuna Shadow work I’m very aware that those mistakes are echoes from our own past, reflections of things we too have done, and the people we judge are a gift from the Universe, allowing us to see our true nature, and make changes where necessary.   Symbol 3 in Usui Reiki symbolises this Oneness.   Therefore the Reiki path is the path of love, forgiveness and compassion.  Once we become aware of how others are our mirror, we can only but love and forgive, and in doing so we forgive ourselves.

So the Rose today, Queen of the Flowers, inspired me to use essential oil of Rose energetically on myself and has allowed me to write from the heart about our forgiving, accepting and loving role on the Reiki path.

For those of you who would like to step further on your Reiki Path I have scheduled a Reiki Advanced and Master Teacher Class from 19th to 21st November 2010 and am now taking bookings.  For those Reiki Master Teachers who would like to take the next step in their spiritual development and teaching ability, I am running a Karuna Reiki® class 21st to 23rd August 2010 and still have a few places left.  There are also a couple of spaces left on the Reiki II Okuden class being held midweek 7th & 8th July.  All other scheduled classes can be found in the course section of the Reiki Drum site.

It all started with some concentrated treatment.  Over the course of the past few weeks I’ve had a variety of different energy and bodywork treatments.  It wasn’t really planned this way, so I can only presume it was on the cards.  Talking about cards, Death keeps popping up his head in my Rider Waite deck, so I feel I’m in the process of change and transformation and energy work and body work certainly do that.  Synchronicity resulted in me having about nine energy and bodywork treatments in the space of eleven days!  I ran several Reiki classes during that time with odd numbers and when this happens, I willingly step in to partner up with one of the students so that they can get practical experience.  Coupled with some osteopathy, reflexology, Reiki Drumming, massage and acupuncture, the treatments started to mount up.  By about treatment seven I was feeling it!  It can get quite intense doing so much energy work.  I wouldn’t recommend it on the whole, but having been in this field for so long now, I know what to expect and when it comes, although it can be unpleasant on both mental/emotional and physical levels, I tend to ride with the punches as I know I’m going to come out the other side in a much better space.  So the Herxheimer reaction started after receiving Reiki from one of the Shoden students.   I had flu symptoms that night and just had to retire to bed, although I didn’t sleep, just going over and over the old stuff of the past year or so… that’s what a healing crisis will do.  It allows you to evaluate all the old mental/emotional clutter which has been weighing you down, and let it go.

When one has any energy work done, there is obviously a clearing of the energy body, chakra system and meridians.   Normally, I would recommend to my own clients to space out such work, so that they may adjust to the things that come up and physical reactions are less severe.  What has happened to me is that the work has been intensive and really done some major clearance of all the energetic sludge which had accumulated over the last year or so.  On a physical, emotional and mental level I’m feeling clearer than I have done in a long time.  It’s also kick started me to do some body detoxification.

Introducing Reiki Drum to the UK has had many challenges over the last few years.  They’ve been wonderful challenges, but challenges none the less, coupled with long hours and late nights, and as a result I’m definitely not as chipper and physically healthy as I was three years ago.  But as I’m training more and more Reiki Drum Master Teachers, it has allowed me to let go a little from the intensity of it.  So here I am today not in my optimum physical condition and it’s time to practise some of what I preach to my clients on a regular basis and make use of the many detox techniques I think are so effective.

I’ve been a huge proponent of naturopathic techniques for many years.    For those of you who think only energetically you might start to switch off now when I talk about body cleansing, but we have to remember the mind body connection which is a fundamental thing with detoxification.  As a therapist and practitioner of the healing arts, I have seen in the last twelve years of clinical practise how important it is for a client to take responsibility for their healing on all levels.  Energy and body work tends to give them the impetus to make the necessary changes for their own healing processes, but it’s nothing more than fire fighting if someone receives a treatment but repeats all of the old negatives patterns and lifestyle choices on a physical level as well as their stubborn toxic thoughts and emotions.  It has to be a combined effort. I believe given the kick start on an energetic level and with bodywork, a person can then make the necessary changes to other areas of their life.  Right nutrition/diet, supplementation, exercise, drinking enough water, having enough rest, meditation, detoxification techniques, spiritual/mind/body discipline such as yoga/tai chi/chi gung, counselling, and a healthy dose of fun, all of these factors can bring about optimum health  in someone, but there often needs to be a combination of  several of them at the same time.

In the past I have tried many detoxification techniques.  This is often my first stepping stone to wellness when I have any problems myself.  In Japan, the practise of misogi or purification is a very important part of the Shinto religion.  We adopt some of the misogi techniques in our Reiki practise.  The Kenyoku Ho technique (dry bathing) which involves clearing the meridians prior to commencing attunements or any other spiritual work is a misogi technique on an energetic level.

When I started detoxing about twelve years ago, I soon realised that as I cleansed my body on a physical level, so my mind and emotions would change.  Over the years I have come to know that certain body organs hold on to different types of emotions and as such clearing congested organs clears congested thought forms.  I’m currently cleaning up my diet and as such have also embarked on a Bowel Cleanse.  There are lots of different ways of doing this.  I’m presently following the Bentonite Clay and Psyllium Husk Shake cleanse, which involves drinking liquid Bentonite and Psyllium over a period of time which gently, but powerfully clears out the whole of the digestive tract, in particular the small and large intestine.  We hold so much energetic rubbish in our large intestine.  It’s amazing the old thought forms and emotions which come to the surface during such a cleanse.  Normally it is things you haven’t let go of and can often present itself in very old issues from the past.  As you clear the waste on a physical level, you let go of these old resentments, cluttered thinking and concerns and make way for clarity and a new, more positive way of thinking.

Already I have made some big life changes.  To add a free day to my life, I have “let go” of one of my clinic days, which is probably about a year overdue and will allow me to concentrate on things that are important to me on a non work level.  I know that if I pursue the physical detoxification over the next few months more opportunities, new experiences and a more positive way of thinking and feeling will once more be a part of my life.  Over the next few weeks and months I will document the different methods I will be using and how they have an effect on the mind and emotions, not just the physical.  So if you are interested in clearing out the old and making way for new in your life, watch this space!