Reiki Masters: We Need to Talk
Decolonizing Reiki with Siobhan and Marta TODAY on Soft Power TV
“I just got an ad for fairy reiki training…”
That was the message from
that sparked today’s spontaneous but long overdue conversation on Decolonizing Reiki at 4pm PT / 7pm ET on Soft Power TV.
Maybe you don’t understand what’s so ridiculous about “fairy reiki” training. Maybe you’ve always had a funky feeling about Reiki. Maybe, like us, Reiki has changed your life really positively but you’ve been quietly rethinking your relationship as you decolonize your life.
If you know nothing about Reiki at all, it is a Japanese healing tradition that typically involves a practitioner hovering hands over a body to intuitively move, clear, and direct energy in the subtle body. Similar to yoga, its been disconnected from its cultural roots to the point where many people’s mental picture of a Reiki healer is a New Age, thin white woman decked with crystals and other culturally and ethically questionable accessories.
Marta & I have been in a process of interrogating our practices, both of us having taken Marika Clymer’s Decolonize Reiki course. About 4 months ago we went deeper into conversation in the Soft Power Care Immersion, including a trance journey seeking consent from the Reiki ancestors and asking to be connected with personal ancestors that could support us in this re-aligning process.
We’ll talk more about that experience as well as how this work of re-rooting into culturally authentic spiritualities can support our understanding of the genocide in Occupied Palestine.
All spiritual practices must be interrogated. All movements not rooted in ancestral healing leave us prone to repeating cycles of harm.
Today’s conversation on Soft Power TV is for people who value spiritual practices of integrity, authenticity, and accountability to our lineage, Earth, and the collective. We’re not here to tell other Reiki practitioners if they should or shouldn’t continue. That’s not for us to decide (and we both still offer Reiki sessions).
Instead of answers, we’ll be sharing the questions and insights we’ve had through our own journeys in hopes it may help others on theirs. I’m interested in digging deeper than the “you’re not Japanese, so its cultural appropriation no matter what” and “its universal so let’s not divide” binaries I’ve encountered in this conversation before.
Reiki is a beautiful, accessible modality that can profoundly support our ancestral healing. It is also an exploited and commodified tradition that all practitioners should be intentionally reflecting on their relationship with. Not only because its the moral thing to do, but also because our medicine hits way harder when coming from places of authenticity and spiritual collaboration.
We look forward to continuing this conversation in community.
Join the chat live to ask questions or catch it anytime following on YouTube.
With Soft Power,