First Level Reiki

I was taught that Usui Reiki has 4 levels of attunements and initiations.


First level Reiki is mostly physical. You learn to heal yourself and others physically. You are open to receive energy from the source for the first time and you might feel the energy. Some feel warmth or their hands hot in certain positions, others feel cold, others feel like if there were an energy ball moving beneath their hands, and some other do not feel anything. All and none sensations that you might feel or not feel are fine. We all have our way of experimenting and living Reiki. No one can go wrong with Reiki.

In the first level, I was taught to ask for the energy and start applying my hands on the affected area or doing a healing session. I was taught to just be there and put the energy to good use. Not to give it any intention. The energy knows what it has and needs to do.

It is important that you have permission from the patient for giving that person Reiki. And you might learn to notice, that even if the person has said yes, that they are not receiving the energy. The receiver is the person that decides where he or she needs the energy and for how long.

You can also notice that you might initiate a Reiki session while walking on the street or while you are with a person. Just let it flow and be happy to be channeling energy. The more you channel, the better it is for you. I went to Venice a week after my First Level attunement. I was in St Mark’s Square and decided to go into the Doge’s palace. I started the tour and got to a passage that would go right over “The Bridge of Sighs”. As soon as I started crossing the bridge I felt reiki energy going out of my hands. It was winter and I felt hot. I got a little scared and went back because I sensed too much-condensed energy in that place. I always think that I should have stayed and given as much energy as I was asked for. But I followed my instinct, and it told me to go back and end my tour of that place.

I can also tell you that I had a lot of trouble going up and down stairs. And that is what you have all around Venice; small bridges and stairs. I would give myself a Reiki healing session every night, and I would exchange directed Reiki with my mother on our knees. I was as good as new the next day, ready to go up and down bridges again. Sometimes we had to go to the hotel after lunch, to give ourselves Reiki and continue our discovery of wonderful corners in Venice.