We asked one of our Reiki students if he'd mind writing up an account of his first degree training, to give people an idea of what it can be like - bearing in mind that no two initiations are ever completely the same. Gabriel took his First Degree along with his partner, Lydia. Both of them already had some experience of working with natural energy, as they have been studying magical practice for some time. You will see how their interests became part of their attunement experience. Gabriel and Lydia also expressed an interest in doing a Reiki guide meditation as part of the initiation. This is not something we would automatically include for everyone - it is a personal choice, the reasons for which are given elsewhere on this site.
We hope to include other articles of students' experiences in the future, just to illustrate how different they can be. Gabriel experienced a lot of visualised images during the attunements, while other students might have more 'physical' experiences. All in all, it is interesting to compare all the different accounts. Reiki attunements happen exactly in the way that is right for the student, and here is but one example.
Preconceptions
Most of my preconceptions proved accurate about how Reiki worked and the history, and a few of the things I'd thought about the week before actually 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 but it caused no major problems.
Healing
With the Kether School of Reiki it is preferred to have a Healing session before you start. This enables you to get a feel and in to the right mode of consciousness for the first part of the Initiation.
During the healing, I experienced a warm tingling sensation on my hands. This led on to the feeling that my hands had turned into balls of energy, as they seemed to have no feeling, form or weight. From here we went to the first part of the initiation.
First Attunement
This is the first of four parts of the Reiki ritual of drawing down/in the energy of Reiki to the initiate. As you have to have your eyes closed for the initiation I cannot comment on many external factors. However, during the first part I experienced a hot sensation in the palms of my hands. Although the ritual was short, a lot happened in the short space of time.
After the attunement, we stopped for refreshments, which consisted of 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 seemed a little crisper, brighter and fresher, with an overwhelming feeling of being spaced out.
Second Attunement
From my perspective, this consisted of the same ritual as the first. However, during this session, I had some quite strange and vivid visions. The first was of the Sphinx walking; this seemed very strange, because, as far as I know, there has never been any images or picture of the Sphinx walking, as it is only ever depicted as being stationary, or lying down. The second flash was of an Egyptian landscape, showing a pyramid in the middle. The pyramid was intact and had a shiny gold cap; the rest of it was covered in limestone and symbols. As I viewed the image from a distance, I could not distinguish the markings in detail. 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. As I was concentrating on Anubis, I did not see much of the surroundings. The 2nd part of Initiation was over and I returned to normal consciousness.
Meditation
This was done straight after the second attunement. We were led through the first part of the meditation by Storm. The second half was where we met our Reiki guides. We visualised entering a valley near to where Mikao Usui first learned Reiki. The valley had a river either side of it and a mountain at the end. Essentially we were trapped by the river, and were told to visualise crossing the river by our own means. My chosen method was to walk across the surface of the water. This seemed to come naturally to me, as in many of my lucid dreams I use this method to cross water. Also I chose to cross the right hand side of the river. On the other side we headed to wards a cave, where we 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 5 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 seemed only natural to meet with what I would later bond with.
After this meeting at the cave mouth, I entered the cave itself. On my left was a small candlelit alcove containing a white medicine Buddha. At this point 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 directed me further into the cave. Even though it was pitch black I felt safe and that no harm would come to me. After what seemed 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 led me through a small narrow passage to an inner sanctum of the cave. This section had blue glowing crystals all around the edge, which were a similar blue to the energy form I met outside the cave. The cave was about 4-5 meters in diameter and about 4 High and was cylindrical. 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 my visualisation faded back into the reality of the room.
Intermission
After the first two parts and the meditation we rested for a while and decided to continue the next day. We drank more water and discussed our visions. Later that evening, we discussed with our Master what she felt and what happened during her initiation. I found that during my initiation, Storm had wanted to ground herself and Phil, another Master who was helping, also felt compelled to beam energy at me to act as either a control or a grounding energy. This was strange as I was thinking about this kind of thing all week. Also Storm told me she had had similar visions to me during her own first degree initiation. One thing I remarked on was once when I had my palm read I was told I had the hands of a healer. This coincided with what Storm felt during the initiation. She said she had felt I had a lot of raw energy flaring out of me, seemingly out of control. However, from my experience, it and thoughts of my spiritual self, this seemed to fit the idea better than I could have thought. And this is possibly why Storm had to ground herself, and Phil 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 appropriate feel and mood. Storm and I gave a Reiki treatment to Lydia. This was a strange experience, as I felt the presence of my spirit guide again, as I was doing the healing. The guide seemed 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 seemed to be a powerful blast of energy, a little uncontrolled, but it steeled down after awhile. Also she sensed I was starting to cramp up towards the end.
Third Attunement
This part was similar to the first two, the drawing in of the Reiki Energy, and the meditation during the attunement. This time I had only one vision, and that was of a desert scene. It seemed barren. However, there were 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: the experience of heat in the palms of my hands came again this time hotter and stronger than before.
Meditation
During this meditation, we were told to go to a location and follow our guides. This was a strange meditation again: I was back in the valley, this time closer to the mountain and I did not need to cross the river. My guide appeared and led me to the forest ahead. We passed a statue of (the Egyptian cat goddess) Bast sitting on a throne. From here, we took a sharp turn to the right, and after a short walk through he forest we came upon a pile of stones that 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 led me round the left side of the lake, and through a small narrow tunnel. This led to a crystal cave, similar to the one in the first meditation. However this cave had no roof, and a ray of Reiki energy was projecting down onto me. I sat and meditated here for a while, with my guide, then after a few minutes the cave faded and I was stood in an area with no shape or form. It was a sandy yellow, the only thing visible other then my guide was a large pendulum about fifteen 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. Storm asked me to go and sit on the stool where I would undergo the last attunement. She suggested I might like to continue the meditation I was involved in and visualise receiving this last attunement in that place.
Fourth Attunement
I visualised myself still in the meditation. The final attunement followed the same short ritual as before, but my visions continued. In my visualisation, I saw a mirror on one wall that was about five feet high. My guide walked through the mirror and I followed. I entered the Desert scene again, this time to my left it was twilight, and to the right 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. I headed back to the mirror, while my guide waited behind. This time the mirror led back to the real world.
Post-Attunement
As I was advised could happen, my hands don't feel the same as they did before, and every time I use Reiki they get warm. One other strange effect is if I use Reiki on my mobile phone, I completely lose the 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 giving Reiki to my cats, as I have found no other willing victims yet!
