Master Symbol
And so we come to the Master symbol, or in the Ministry usage, symbols. We shall use DKM as shorthand for either one, and R for the symbol within the symbol that some use only for attunements. As a bit of trivia, Mrs. Takata didn't use R.
Dar’ Shem doesn’t have a Master Symbol as such. Possibly the most important one is the totally feminine symbol #10 which the students experience as a crown and a grounding device during their introduction to it. It joins the student to the inner divinity on first use. Or maybe it’s number 12 that covers the Fool’s journey from card 10 to 21 in one leap.
DKM works on the spiritual body, as the other three work on the physical, emotional, and mental bodies, in the order learned. The Master symbol can always be used in conjunction with the others. When doing distance work it is very effective in making the first connection along which you then send the Distance symbol.
Dar’ Shem people can also use DKM with Zoave and join two separate locations, material or non-material, past, present or future with it. I would use this method to send Reiki energy to where I’m going to be in x days. It will be there, perceptibly waiting for the initiator of the process when I arrive at the spot. If I don’t arrive at the spot because of mundane considerations like train strikes or grounded planes then it automatically becomes a Reiki bubble in three days and goes wherever there is a conscious need for it.
The Dar’ Shem symbols address the subtle, physical, emotional and mental bodies depending on what is required to harmonize the system. They are self directing in this regard and simply by visualizing the appropriate witness of your degree of initiation you will know what to do. Visualizing the witness of the 4th degree for example gives you immediate access to the optimum symbols to use from the entire 12. The witness of the 3rd degree would give you immediate access to the first 9 and so on. And you would be shown the optimum choice to use by the innate intelligence of the body of the client.
For palm chakra energizing prior to performing Reiki DKM is very effective, and I use one or the other forms when preparing a room for a Reiki support group, or a client. You may like to try this method. Visualize on the center of a wall of the room whichever version of DKM comes to mind.
Stand in the middle of the room. Use your dominant hand with palm facing your visualized symbol. Say mentally, "Lock on." and visualize a beam of light joining your palm chakra to the symbol on the wall. Then turn in a clockwise circle and drag the symbol round the room, wall by wall, as if the beam is a rod with the symbol on the end.
It's fascinating to see how the symbol, which I usually do in violet light, follows the contours of whatever is in the room, as a moving shadow flows over things in the street on a sunny day.
When you are back to the starting wall move the symbol up the wall and across the ceiling with your palm chakra beam. When it gets to the center of the opposite wall turn round 180 degrees, like a bullfighter, and guide the symbol across the floor and up the wall to the starting place. The effect of this piece of ritual is to elevate the vibratory rate of the room and give any Reiki that takes place in it a kick-start.
A Dar’ Shem energizing would entail using symbol 6 first to eliminate any negativity and then #1 to ensure harmony. Good visualizers could use 6 locked onto the right hand and 1 locked onto the left hand and spin clockwise.
What we call the Goddess spiral in the Ministry is the 'non traditional' symbol that is as feminine in form as the straight lined Tibetan form is masculine. The Goddess form has a modified R in its pattern that seems to integrate the masculine energies with the feminine and makes the symbol more easily available to the practitioner, as well as being easy to memorize. In very ancient magick it is the crooked dagger resting inside the chalice. The traditional Power Symbol energizes, and its reversed form grounds.
Similarly, the Goddess version of DKM pours energy into the spiritual body, and the reversed form pulls negative energy out of the body and releases it. The R acts as a valve and prevents the negative energy from re-entering once it is withdrawn. Dar’ Shem people can check their alchemy work with the valves of the heart to see the analogy. Meditators can see the same pattern in the position of the arms of Lakshmi as related to the anatomy of the heart.
The Tibetan straight line Usui DKM in any of its five layered forms can be used to concentrate healing energy in combination with any other symbol.
The spiral DKM can be used to access energies outside the usual experience of the practitioner. By self tapping the chakras as the spiral form is visualized the chakras are energized.
If I am giving a session and see that a chakra is stagnant then I trace a spiral DKM clockwise over it and the chakra begins to spin. To a mundane observer it looks like I am drawing a circle on the body. The effect of doing this on yourself is the same. It is rather like putting a whirlpool in place so that it can act like a funnel and direct energy inwards into the depths.
The Tibetan form acts along the same lines but simply increases energy without seeming to initiate increased movement.
But the Goddess form can be used by the practitioner for self enhancement of the ability to contact higher levels of the life force, the Ki or Chi. After getting your chakras energized by using a clockwise motion, as seen by an observer, then reverse the spin and the effect on the chakra is that it has access to a wider and wider field of energies as the spiral connects the smaller end to the cosmic larger end.
Either Tibetan or spiral forms are very good for cleansing crystals, and the spiral form can be used to make a self-cleaning crystal, for those who do that kind of thing. If used to give attunements to your Crystal Grid you will find that the Reiki Grid doesn't need re-energising for many months up to a couple of years. The Dar’ Shem grid made in a similar pattern is permanent and never needs re-energizing.
If you are into tinctures and herbal mixtures, either form of DKM may be used to charge the item and make its energy signature very sturdy.
Those readers who are into Qi Gong and T'ai Chi will recognize the spiral form in some of the animal movements. As an historical pastime look up the old coats of arms of the mediaeval monarchies and see which ones have animals with curly tails, particularly dragons. These are nearly always associated with healing and magick, sometimes both.
Knowing about the spirals in Nature that have their basis in the Fibonacci series and its Chinese boxes of Golden Mean rectangles really helps get inside the process.
Dar’ Shem symbols 9 and 11 have arcs and spirals that may now mean even more than they did before.
The R lightning flash form is usually used only during attunements, and the jagged dagger symbol in the spiral DKM reappears in some traditions, with edges smoothed over, as the Fire Serpent, or River of Flame, that is used by some traditions to prepare the student for initiations. These symbols, like runes, may be joined to one another by the Master student. Exploring this is a personal matter. Results vary from person to person.
Other Symbols that have been used with Usui symbols
In the late 80’s and 90’s lots of people were busy channeling new Reiki symbols. Several famous teachers experimented with what they called non-traditional Usui symbols and some of them have become embedded in one or more systems that are currently being used.
Diane Stein and Karyn Mitchell have both published several of the common non-traditional symbols so I thought that a short summary of some of them might be useful, particularly as in one instance at least the symbol can be used negatively in a magickal way, unlike the standard Usui symbols and the extra couple used by the William Rand folks.
See http://www.kathleenmilner.com/tera_mai_symbols.html for Karyn Mitchell’s explanation of the ones she introduced into Tera Mai Reiki. The ones mentioned below are included in her 35+ channeled sigils.
Since the design of this blog site makes it very difficult for me to include diagrams you will have to Google them until I get another, tamer site or (gasp!) acquire more skill in going through the HTML labyrinth required. I shall capitalize the names of the signs to indicate that you would do well to look them up on the Web and draw them out because I can’t.
The two best known are HARTH and ZONAR so we’ll start with them. First is HARTH, which is described by one author as a ‘retrieved ‘ symbol, giving the idea that it was one of the Reiki symbols that wasn’t revealed to or by Usui. Look it up on the Web.
HARTH
The circular arcs are there because those who insist on drawing the symbol lines in a specific order have to be aware that the pyramid is not a plane figure, and at the points 7, 8, and 9 the practitioner is supposed to say the name of the symbol.
It is said to represent Love, Truth, Beauty, Harmony and Balance.
Usually allied with HARTH is ZONAR
This was said to be the first of the retrieved symbols and was used by its retrievers for work with karmic, and what are described as inter dimensional issues. Its basic meaning is said to be Timeless, Infinity, Eternity. The infinity sign gives a clue there of course and is drawn three times when making the symbol.
A method to use it to release from relationships that are problematical was discovered by Mitchell and other people have found other uses for it. Usually, when connecting or disconnecting with the symbol the infinity sign is visualized as a moving stream of golden light. Then the things or people to be connected to or from are visualized in the two loops.
It won’t hurt to check the three infinity signs on the B.O.T.A. Tarot trumps again if those are the ones you are using.
To disconnect from the other person you visualize a cord connecting the appropriate chakras of the two of you. Cut it with a convenient pair of golden scissors. Rune students can do the same with their flint knife used in the Net of Eir ritual. Dar’ Shem Zoave users can just retract one end of the symbol from the target or the source, and note the spark as they disconnect.
Surround yourself in the usual circle of blue light and shine blue light on the other person until they gradually disappear. Affirm that you are free from the relationship.
To connect with person, place or thing use the same symbols with the opposite intentions. Forget the scissors. Be careful not to be manipulative about the matter. Disconnecting from an obviously negative influence is a valid use. Connecting with someone who possibly doesn’t want to be connected is quite another karmic issue. You will get what you want, including ALL the probably unknown luggage packed with it. Take care.
Dar’ Shem folks remember the warning you had about connecting things containing negativity using Zoave. The warnings are the same. Teen age girls with past life experience in using love spells can sometimes do them properly this time and get creamed by the ALL the stuff that they didn’t know was in the pretty box.
These two and another pair were used a lot with traditional Reiki symbols in the experimental state, California.
The one that caused Diane Stein much grief was HARTH.
I’ve learned several ways of numbering the lines on this so I don’t label them at all when I draw them for students. The most sensible one seems to be the one in Diane Stein’s book, though she misses out the ‘ do the infinity sign three times’ instructions that other people use.
If you examine it you will see that it is ZONAR with a mental triangle on top surmounted by a circle round the vertex. More than one book describes it as a pyramid, but a pyramid is 3D and ZONAR isn’t unless you make it so, so that doesn’t make sense.
It would have to be made into a pyramid mentally with ZONAR tagged on underneath, and the effect is different as Diane Stein found out.
Diane’s problem came when a woman she showed the symbol to began using this symbol to enclose specific locations, which she put mentally inside the triangle turned pyramid. The effect was to enclose it in such a way that nothing could get out, including negative energies.
This is the magickal equivalent of using six THORNS in the rune protection ritual. Nothing negative whatever can get through that psychic protection, but nothing can get out either while it operates.
Since it was Diane’s house that had been enclosed she wasn’t happy about it. When she tried to break up the triangles which had now become pyramids, they broke up into other pyramids and couldn’t be destroyed. Rather like the broom of Mickey Mouse as the Sorcerer’s Apprentice. She used desperately ingenious ways to try to destroy the pyramids, such as Rakus from the Third Eye chakra, that demolished the pyramids, which then re-assembled using the energy that destroyed them. Good alchemy from the bad magician who hexed her. Solve et Coagula.
It took about seven months using the Reiki then at her disposal to clear the negativity from her house, which had been enclosed by the symbol,
So, take it easy when giving these to other people. If you use them with Usui Reiki symbols they will either help or do nothing, like a homeopathic remedy. If you use them in a system such as Karuna Reiki they will be totally beneficial. If you have had an attunement with them properly installed you are bullet proof against misuse.
Diane was probably dabbling since her Usui attunement was from people at the Second Degree level. The other person in the story seemed to know very well what she was doing and very likely intended mischief. I would suspect that she knew what happens magickally when tetrahedrons interpenetrate. Just a theory. Check Merkaba for details.
There are two others which are used in current systems with special methods of attunement.
They have the names IAVA and GNOSA in a standard system, though some people use the older name of PHE instead of GNOSA. PHE is simply an acronym for Planetary Healing and Enlightenment.
Both of these symbols are used for healing the planet and are NOT to be used for healing individuals. Maybe Angel fanatics could use them on Metatron and Sandalphon, but that’s just a whimsy magician’s thought skimming the Douglas brain. I don’t do Angels. Reikis that employ these usually insist on a Master’s in Usui before teaching the Reiki that uses them.
Dar’Shem students have no need of the extra symbol since they can combine what they have in so many ways, though they can use it for planetary work with no problems if it’s in their aura.
IAVA is pronounced ee-ah-vah.
When drawing the three large wave curves at the bottom you say ‘Iava’ with each crest. As you come round the curve to the four loops you say ‘earth, water, wind and fire,’ one word per loop. Look at card 10 and 21 in an orthodox Tarot deck to see why the four elements are used.
With GNOSA or PHE you start with the 2 infinity symbols. Then draw the triangle starting from the far left vertex and moving clockwise. Then the circle in the triangle, also clockwise. The Phe people say ‘Planetary Healing and Enlightenment’ 3 times as they draw the symbol once.
The next symbol has two names. You use it twice when you use it, since it reverses polarities, like a toggle switch. It has to be energized with the double Cho Ku Rei that is used by various Reikis. This is a clockwise Cho Ku Rei on the left with a counter clockwise Cho Ku Rei next to it on the right, visualized simultaneously..
These power symbols working in the masculine and feminine polarities from left to right, energize this surgical symbol for reaching and withdrawing. It has two names then, MOTOR as it enters the body, and ZANON as it withdraws from the body.
The uses of the symbol as given by the retrievers is a no-no for Americans as far as I’m concerned because they state specifically that it is for the removal of viruses. Now there are known, non-allopathic therapies that affect viruses adversely, to be cautious in my speech. But to say so in America is to court instant prosecution, and an unwise practice.
I have heard a lecturer refuse to answer questions about specific medical matters concerning viruses because of needless trouble with the American medical authorities, though in other countries there would be no problem, and the methods he was advocating are used to remove, destroy, or render harmless viruses that cannot be treated here without legal repercussions.
So, I’m NOT advocating this use of the symbol. I am reporting on what was said on a publically available printed page concerning non-traditional Reiki symbols.
It called MOTOR when inserted in the body MOTOR is energized three times with the double Cho Ku Rei, and the symbol inserted into the body.
Then you call it ZANON and energize it three times with the same pair of power symbols. The report is that the little sawtoothed part catches the virus energetically as MOTOR and brings it out of the body as the polarity reverses with ZANON.
Those folks into Rand Reiki psychic surgery could probably do the same with their extended fingers.
And there is another symbol, called SHANTI.
SHANTI comes from Shantih, which means Peace in Sanskrit. This symbol is used with the standard Usui symbols to produce the best possible end result. Its effect apparently, to read the way one balanced spiral is led into the other as if through a funnel, is to harmonize the past and future with the present. Using symbols 1 and 2 in that order in Dar’Shem has a similar result. Every Zelator knows where the present, past and future are on symbol 2 and how symbol 1 can be used to establish harmony. A similar action occurs in the aura if you walk a Chartres Dromenon mindfully. The Chaos and Harmony Points balance as you go in one way and come out with right and left reversed.
And this last one will be familiar to many of you. It is called the Fire Dragon or Fire Serpent.
This is used in some Reikis, including those used in the Ministry to prepare the chakras for attunement. Usually it is used from the top down and swiped along the subtle spine.
When colored red or orange the symbol is drawn from top to bottom.
When colored golden it is drawn from bottom to top. One of its names is Nagaina which comes from the Hindi for snake.
You do not have to collect Reikis to do good work. You just need to know your own one or two very deeply and thoroughly. And don’t fret if one or two symbols are bears to learn. There are Chinese Reikis in which the first degree has 500 symbols and they go up from there. Count your blessings and Happy Trails.
