Reiki Energy is indeed one of the more formidable powers in the universe, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound and all that, but there is one force in the universe that is even more powerful, and before you start trying to guess what it is… no, it is not the stuff Master Yoda packs into his light saber, it is the power of Love… and although it may sound like a cliche, when the Beatles sang “All You Need is Love” they were not far from one of life’s universal truths.
Like Reiki, Love is one of those invisible forces, the existence of which can be debated and denied, yet once one feels its power a while new understanding and appreciation for certain subtleties arises. Like Reiki, Love has a built in healing power that mothers have been taking advantage of since time immemorial to heal their young’un’s woes and cure all familial ills. Like Reiki, Love has been known to break through the strongest of physical, mental, emotional and spiritual blocks to bring it’s users to a state of happiness (or enlightenment, if you will) that has no explanation and most of those who actually try to explain it fail miserably, but its effects can’t be denied.
What I’m getting at here, in case my words have been minced, is that, like Reiki, Love is an unfathomable yet extremely powerful force, and like Reiki and Aromatherapy, Reiki and Yoga, Reiki and Massage, Reiki and EFT, and a host of other combinations I’ve yet to write about, when used together, Reiki and Love create such a powerful team, that there is virtually nothing in the universe that is more awesome… including Master Yoda’s nifty little light saber. 
I must admit that I was rather surprised to learn that in ancient Chinese lore, where all energies are divided into Yin (feminine) and and Yang (masculine) energies, Love is considered to be Yang energy. Care to guess what the female side of the equation is? Oooh… I heard someone shout out the correct answer… good job! For those of you who don’t have superhuman hearing that answer was tenderness. I had never put Love and Tenderness on the two sides of the same coin, but I guess it does make a lot of sense. By the same 3000+ Year Old Chinese reckoning Wisdom is the Yang to Yin’s Compassion. I also found this an interesting dichotomy. You can check out my recent post on Reiki and Feng Shui for some more insight into this stuff <technical term>. 
I must also admit that this compassion element is one area where, in my experience, Western Reiki far surpasses Traditional Japanese Reiki. The cultural differences in the subtleties involved in the concept of love and compassion make the Japanese interpretation quite unique (and quite evolved in the minds of the Japanese… yet largely undetectable by Western standards) although, admittedly, I am, perhaps, not fully qualified to comment on such things. Yet, that’s never stopped me before. 
In Western Reiki classes, compassion is a big part of many styles of Reiki, yet noticeably absent from any mention in Japanese Reiki classes. Taking my recent rant on The Usui Reiki Ryoho Gakkai as an example, the Gakkai shows no compassion whatsoever in its Reiki practices… except for the compassion they extend to themselves… which in my book doesn’t really qualify as compassion at all (in the West we call it selfishness and/or egoism).
So for those of you who exercised their right to skip to the end of the post, the bottom line is that by adding Love to your Reiki, you will amplify the results a billion times… maybe even a million! 
And, as in all things of an ethereal nature, your mileage may vary. 
For further explanation or discussion, your thoughts are most welcome and highly encouraged, please feel free to comment below!!!
One response to “Reiki Love”
love being a male principle makes perfect sense to me. of course my brain likes to look at it through a more western, hermetic lens and map it out using the tree of life
love is a raw force, like will, and on the tree of life would emanate from chockma. this is like the “what” and is typical of a creative/father deity (like thoth, for example. usually a solar thing)
tenderness, or understanding – the “how”, typified by a nurturing/mother deity (like isis, to continue with the egyptian paradigm)
that is, chockma provides the material and binah decides how it is applied. chockma doesn’t worry about the results so much, it’s just getting the resources out there. it’s binah who decides where that material goes and how it is applied. if chockma provides light, then binah shows us color
it may be of interest to note that japan is home to very solar-oriented (or male-oriented) tradition (the emperor is the child of the sun, for example) but this is typical of most empires (even king louis XIV – i think it was him, don’t quote me on it – of france was called the sun king) ever since man learned how to make weapons from iron and started conquering each other (usually in the name of a solar deity – even christians worship “the son” who is “the light of the world”)
selfishness/compassion is a tricky subject indeed.
but, i’ve gotta say that some degree of selfishness is necessary. one must take care of one’s own needs in order to extend love to others. it’s more difficult to love others if one does not love oneself. also, by taking care of oneself, a person makes it possible to be around for other people.
in regards to the path of enlightenment, one may say “all i can do for you is work on myself”
that is, one can not enlighten another person. one may provide insight and do one’s best to show the way as one sees it, but ultimately enlightenment is something one must achieve on one’s own. to work on one’s own enlightenment will make it easier for other people to do the same, like catching a wave at the beach will get you to shore faster than if you were swimming to the far end of a wave-less swimming pool
sorry if this is a bit long, i haven’t posted in a while so i guess i’m making up for it 😀