Symbols backwards when drawing them on yourself

I was recently looking through some notes I had done during my Reiki 2 training back in 2008. Comments about things I didnt understand, or questions I had, and it made me interested to know everyone elses thoughts.

Although many seem to use the symbols little or not at all after Reiki 2, I think it is natural for a lot of people to be very eager to use the symbols when they are first attuned. And after our Reiki 2 attunement myself and another student couldn't wait to do some work wth the symbols.

So my friend and I went to our separate homes to do a self treatment, drawing the symbols on ourselves at each hand position. Maybe we had been overthinking, but when we started to draw the power symbol on ourselves we realised that if you are drawing on yourself, with your finger pointing towards yourself, the symbol would be the right way round from your eyesight point of view if you watched it being drawn, but from the point of view of your finger pointing towards you and drawing it on you, the symbol would in fact be back to front.

So if you were watching your own finger pointing at you drawing an anti-clockwise power symbol, if someone were to be standing in front of you and moving their finger over you in the same way, they would in fact be drawing a clockwise symbol on you.

When we met up we found out that we both were having the same thoughts about this. We brought this up at our next class with our Reki Master. We wanted to know if this mattered. She had some trouble grasping what we were saying. Maybe we weren't very good explaining it, but rather than giving us any sort of answer we got a shake of the head and "don't focus too much on the symbols."

Well that was rather disappointing from our point of view in that we didnt get any sort of answer or opinion, and also that we had very much looked forward to working with the symbols after our level 2 attunement.

After several attempts to clear this up over a couple of days and getting the same answer she eventually said to draw the symbol in front of us and imagine it coming back onto us. I protested that it would still be backwards. The only difference would be that the symbol was drawn in front of us instead of on us, and our fingers would be pointing away from us rather than towards us. We got a final "don't focus so much on the symbols."

Looking back maybe she was right and we got ourselves too caught up in doing it 'right' and complicated things for ouselves. I went on to draw symbols on my hands and just to visualise symbols throughout self treatments from then on. When I began drawing the symbols on others during treatments I realised that while doing the first lot of hand positions I was seated behind the persons head as they lay on the massage couch, and was therefore drawing or visualising symbols that would be upside down to them, so came to conclusion that it probably wasn't important as long as my intentions and association with the symbols was correct. But it would have been nice to have some sort of input from the Reiki Master.


I guess what I was wondering from all of this is:

What are your views?
Did anybody else have this question about the symbols when they first started to use them?
And if you were to teach level 2, what would your response have been to a student with this question?

I know my fellow student ended up feeling like she needed to train again as she felt questions we had were being evaded.

Hi Labyrinthia


A symbol should be written so that it is the correct way round from the point of view of a person looking directly at the surface on which the symbol is being written. (or, as you say, the point of view of the finger drawing it)

As to "don't focus too much on the symbols." I would strongly disagree

Labyrinthia wrote:
when we started to draw the power symbol on ourselves we realised that if you are drawing on yourself, with your finger pointing towards yourself, the symbol would be the right way round from your eyesight point of view if you watched it being drawn, but from the point of view of your finger pointing towards you and drawing it on you, the symbol would in fact be back to front.

So if you were watching your own finger pointing at you drawing an anti-clockwise power symbol, if someone were to be standing in front of you and moving their finger over you in the same way, they would in fact be drawing a clockwise symbol on you.

.... Maybe we weren't very good explaining it, but rather than giving us any sort of answer we got a shake of the head and "don't focus too much on the symbols."

hmm.. interesting question. when i learned (some 6 years ago), we practised drawing them on paper. then when it came to using them in our self treatments, we only visualised them going in - so there wasn't any 'right way round'.

more recently, i've been drawing with my right hand, onto the palm of my left hand, and sealing it with a quick "palms together" motion. and then applying my hands to various places on my body - i really like this technique.

i do believe that intention holds a far greater power than we give it credit for. my own teacher taught that someone that was paralysed, and had the use of only their eyes could still 'draw' symbols. and the master that attuned me to level 2 was actually paralysed on one side.

another master (later down the track) taught me to focus on the symbol, but with the role of an observer and watch what happens, rather than force and direct..... could be that all things are possible, even the ones you hadn't thought of yet.

expanding Carina's post where she mentioned somebody drawing symbols with movement of eye, i want to put up the question :

What is the 'significance' of drawing the symbols as against watching them for a while... as James has placed importance on focusing on symbols, can we say that drawing a symbol is almost equivalent to focusing on it, if not, do we have to meditate on symbols in order to focus on them...


feel free to share your views.


take care

salman

Hi Salman,

IMO, "drawing the symbols", and "watching them for a while" are part of one greater process.

There is a Japanese Buddhist concept: sanmitsu. The term translates essentially as "three secrets" - and speaks to the 'secret power' to be found in the harnessing of the combination of "thought and word and deed" (thought and word and actions) to effect outcomes.

In realation to the symbols, the "thought" element equates to 'seeing' or imagining the symbol, the "deed"(action) element equates to writing the symbol. The "word" element, to (internally or externally) intoning the symbol's name.

The more elements we bring into play, in working with the symbol, the more effectively we harness the 'power'

Lambs-Wool wrote:
What is the 'significance' of drawing the symbols as against watching them for a while...

I agree with James, the drawing of the symbol takes me on a journey, a short one, but it has a start and a finish and various things happen in between. the symbol itself is powerful on it's own, combined with the path one must follow in order to create it - kind of like the difference between looking at a peaceful stream, and being IN the peaceful stream - the energy of the moment becomes more ingrained.
the name - adds another dimension entirely

Rlei_ki wrote:
There is a Japanese Buddhist concept: sanmitsu. The term translates essentially as "three secrets" - and speaks to the 'secret power' to be found in the harnessing of the combination of "thought and word and deed" (thought and word and actions) to effect outcomes.

In realation to the symbols, the "thought" element equates to 'seeing' or imagining the symbol, the "deed"(action) element equates to writing the symbol. The "word" element, to (internally or externally) intoning the symbol's name.

hi James, sorry i could not reply earlier although i had seen your reply the very day you had posted.

thought, word and deed - essential mix !

thanks for reminding me its importance

take care

salman

A few years ago, I was offering distance Reiki to a friend...I couldn't quite remember the'correct' way of drawing the symbol..so I just said the words......the result at the other end was very positive.... the more I practice the more I am coming the conclusion that the hows and and whys of symbols aren't that important, it's the connection of the intent that counts...

Pachamama wrote:....... it's the connection of the intent that counts...

as long as intent is do the things as they were taught to us, and we don't intend to change anything, it does not matter even if we draw symbols differently or inaccurately.

but if, saying sake, we intend to draw a symbol differently from one that was passed down to us by our teacher, we are doing something different (or maybe originating something)... i get an impression from various discussions that, for example, if we intentfully change the sequence of steps while performing an attunement, the attunement would work nevertheless but it might be different from one we were attuned to.



take care

salman

it's so fascinating, so many people have been attuned/initiated to Reiki over the years, but there have been quite a few variations of the symbols used...yet we are all still able to connect the source...I've give up trying to work it out.

There are now some schools of thought who believe that some of the symbols within Reiki were never used By usui..........I have no idea, all I know is Reiki works!! ahahah

[quote="Pachamama"]yet we are all still able to connect the source...I've give up trying to work it out. [/quote]

exactly! i think that is the biggest key - reiki gives a reason and a method to connect, no matter the structure to technique...

Carina_NZ wrote:

Pachamama wrote:yet we are all still able to connect the source...I've give up trying to work it out.

exactly! i think that is the biggest key - reiki gives a reason and a method to connect, no matter the structure to technique...

Others think its hokey pokey
if the Reiki teacher does
not know how to explain. I
could not figure out how these
symbols held power. Until I
realized that they help you stay
focused on what they represented.