Occult Reiki

I can already hear some of the same grunts and groans I heard when my The Dark Side of Reiki post went live, so let me start off with a quick, but gentle, admonition that things may not be what they seem.

Which, I think, is exactly the point… the word occult, does not mean what most people believe it to mean. As Robert Langdon, so eloquently put it:

The word occult, despite conjuring images of devil worship, actually means ‘hidden’ or ‘obscured.’ In times of religious oppression, knowledge that was counterdoctrinal had to be kept hidden or ‘occult,’ and because the church felt threatened bu this, they redefined anything ‘occult’ as evil, and the prejudice survived. – Dan Brown, The Lost Symbol

So, looking at Reiki as something hidden, or obscured, while still not totally factual… adds a bit of a twist to it that explains a lot.

First, I think the only real obscuring or hiding of Reiki comes from the Usui Reiki Ryoho Gakkai, the organization started by Dr. Usui to proliferate Reiki which instead took it underground and, well, obscured it. Mrs. Takata’s exorbitant fees for learning the deep dark secrets held at the Master level also helped to keep it out of reach of the masses… again, I’m sure this is not what Dr. Usui intended. I’m not sure Dr. Usui charged anything at all for this knowledge, those who sought it were welcomed with open arms… their turning around and selling it was perhaps a bit less cricket, although details of the day are sketchy at best.

Langdon’s synopsis explains people’s negativity towards things like Reiki, which they equate with Occultism out of sheer ignorance as to exactly what Reiki is (and isn’t). This isn’t their fault… it is ours, as Reiki Practitioners, who fail to adequately explain things. In our defense though, Reiki is not the easiest thing in the world to explain, and the harder we try the deeper into “Yup, its occult” Territory we seem to drive it. Perhaps it’s not in the explanation, but in the way we deliver the explanation that is responsible for this. Getting all mysterious when we talk about it will drive it into “Yup, its occult” Territory, just as surely as getting all holy when we talk about it will drive it deep into “Yup, its religion” Territory. The same holds true with scientific explanations, artsy-fartsy (as my grandfather put it) explanations, new age mumbo jumbo laced explanations, etc.

Diane Stein, in her Essential Reiki guide was perhaps the first to take the coveted Reiki symbols and put them into print. I remember the outcry at the time as well as similar cries of “foul” when various Websites started putting them right out there for all the world to see. Shouts of “they’re supposed to be secret” or “if you see them before you are attuned to them they will lose their power” or “mass producing them dilutes their energy” or “if non-Reiki people see them they will go blind” (okay, I made that one up) and other such nonsense were being tossed about on all the Reiki forums of the time, and lo and behold… they are still just as powerful as ever.

So where does that leave us? Occult isn’t a bad thing, but Reiki isn’t really occult, although quite a few people perceive it as such and those same people (as well as most of the planet) tend to perceive occultism as being something demonic and/or evil. Perhaps beginning with an explanation of what ‘occult’ actually means, followed by examples of how mainstream Reiki doesn’t even come close to fitting that description would go a long way towards gaining a receptive open mind to receive your explanation… unless, of course, you prefer the mystique. :-)