How To Use Reiki Symbols

[Carla Cheung]

It seems that every year more and more Reiki symbols are being
discovered and used.
This can be exciting - especially for the person who 'channels' them -
but care must be taken. It is easy to miss the substance for the form.
Symbols help you focus and maybe even tap into a certain energetic
vibration; but they are not the energy itself. They are a passageway
to the energy - nothing more, nothing less.
It would therefore be a mistake to grow obsessed by them, because when
we examine things closely, universal energy (rei - ki) is always the
same. And it is this universal energy that does the healing, not the
symbol.
One potential pitfall for those obsessed by symbols is that they end
up working very hard during their Reiki treatments. They keep focusing
on the symbols, they keep trying to force more and more energy through
them, and in the process they forget to empty themselves and become a
clear channel.
Think of it like a garden hose: when it is untangled with nothing
inside (stones and junk etc.), then the water flows thick and fast.
This is akin to opening yourself up and letting whatever may be, be.
When we try to force the issue, however, when we put a lot of
ourselves into the healing, then it's as if there are rocks and
pebbles and other such things stuck in the hose. All of these things
impede the flow of water (or, in our case, energy).
So let's not get carried away by our symbols. If we need to use them,
focus on them for a few moments and then let them go. That way you can
derive benefit from them while still remaining an open channel.
Otherwise you will be straining hard, but getting meager results.