Symbols

Ther is one symbol people can't do with out, at least easily......$

I am a reiki master and I agree with what you say, is like the radioestesista, initially using tools, pendulum, rods, etc..., but once it acquires experience and does not need to rely on those crutches to capture the signals coming from inside.

Why do they get the designation "crutches" exactly?

I could say you needing your body to receive the signals is a crutch then, or that Reiki is needed at all.

I mean, why not just heal all the sick, cure world hunger, etc.

Crutches can provide mobility for someone who previously had none.

Much like a walker can help an older person.

Is this a limitation? Something to criticize?

Well see how you feel about it when your older

One day, a support system, such as a crutch or a walker, will be what frees you.

I suppose thats symbolic....or ironic....huh.

You use what you need when you need to use it and when you don't need it you don't use it. Energy work is feeling and visualizing. Sometimes you need a some help to focus. As you become more sensitive, relaxed and focused the better you can feel. It takes time and practice.

Okay I'm going to do this the easy way. I'm on my phone again so there's no way I'm using the browser to type this all up so I'm not quoting...

Akkarin... Yes, I've had that happen before where people have mistaken what I've said. People often hear what they want to hear. And often people will twist your words to try and use against you...but yes, people have a tendency to become too attached to words and symbols.

Kamizu... I think symbols are a wonderful thing too. I'm a very visual person as well. I wasn't suggesting that there was anything wrong with symbols or their use. Just that some people get so hung up on the need for them that they end up relying on them too much or becoming so attached to their use that they don't believe they can work without them.

In the case of reiki I knew someone who was told she could not do reiki without the symbols at all. She hadn't performed reiki in so long she had forgotten the symbols. So I told her she no longer needed them. I asked her to think of the power symbol and how it felt when she drew it. So she did and suddenly it was there. She didn't need the symbol after all. Once you're familiar with the energy they become obsolete. The symbols are just a tool to help you become familiar with the energy. And yet she believed she needed them or she could not do reiki at all. That's a hindrance to growth.

Luthien... Lol yes, we actually did that as an exercise when I was learning shamanism. He was trying to show us how words and symbols lose their meaning from overuse and how our minds can become "numb" from their overuse as well.

Khaos... I never said the symbols were not useful, just that they were no longer useful to me. As in, I no longer need them to perform reiki. However, if I was teaching reiki to someone, of course I would teach them the symbols. I would not, however, give them the impression that they would always need to use them. I would tell them that the symbols are a learning tool and that one day they too would no longer need them as they do when they're learning.

As far as a screwdriver being thrown away if not being used. Well just because it's not being used doesn't render it obsolete. So why would you throw it away? You might need it again. However if you got an electric screwdriver with all kinds of nifty attachments, suddenly that other little screwdriver isn't as useful as it once was.

Symbols are just tools. Good and useful tools for when they are needed, but sometime people become overly reliant on their use. When that happens, it becomes a hindrance to one's growth, as I explained earlier with the woman who thought she couldn't do reiki at all without the symbols. Her belief in the need for those symbols created an obstacle for her that didn't need to be there.

Again, I never said those symbols were not a useful teaching tool. I've just seen too many people become so hung up on their use that they literally believe reiki can not be performed without them, which is not true. And it's not just with reiki. People get hung up on symbols everywhere. To the point where they will kill or hurt someone over a symbol. Or become offended because of a symbol. That kind of attachment and dependence on symbols can be harmful and dangerous.

To refer to something as a crutch means that someone has become so dependent on something that they can no longer function without it. Or at least they believe they can't. It began as an expression, I believe, due to people who are on crutches for an extended period of time who are then afraid to come off of them because they have come to rely on them so much. They develop an unhealthy dependency.

In the case of using the symbols as a crutch in reiki, it's just suggesting that people become so reliant on them that they believe they can't do reiki without them. That's all that means. It has nothing to do with someone actually needing crutches.

And I suppose I should also point out that reiki does not work in that way. It helps to reinforce someone's natural immune system, but unless that person is taking care of themselves in other ways as well, it would be pretty useless for that person to bother with a reiki treatment at all. I've seen reiki do some pretty amazing things, but it's not a miracle cure for everything. If life were that simple people wouldn't learn anything.

I don't know about symbols in Reiki, but I do know a fair bit about semiotics, which is the study of signs and sign systems. I can post about semiotics and symbology if you guys would find that relevant to Reiki, since there's actually a lot to say cognitively about how symbols are developed.

I've been having fun lately going through the Chinese (Mandarin) language, associating them as pictograms to concepts of Taoism and the Force. I usually do not like pictogram's so much and prefer to see symbols more as relevant geometric constructs, which speak to some order in a relationship of values. For something like energy healing I'd love them to represent energetic tools in that way, designed to focus energy in a particular fashion to engineer an energetic response. If that was the case then not needing them anymore could indicate less not using of them, but more using them so dynamically that they no longer rest in any one form long enough - instead changing dynamically as they work.

Archaic Smile wrote: I don't know about symbols in Reiki, but I do know a fair bit about semiotics, which is the study of signs and sign systems. I can post about semiotics and symbology if you guys would find that relevant to Reiki, since there's actually a lot to say cognitively about how symbols are developed.

Absolutely!

Adder wrote: I've been having fun lately going through the Chinese (Mandarin) language, associating them as pictograms to concepts of Taoism and the Force. I usually do not like pictogram's so much and prefer to see symbols more as relevant geometric constructs, which speak to some order in a relationship of values. For something like energy healing I'd love them to represent energetic tools in that way, designed to focus energy in a particular fashion to engineer an energetic response. If that was the case then not needing them anymore could indicate less not using of them, but more using them so dynamically that they no longer rest in any one form long enough - instead changing dynamically as they work.

I guess it might be more politically correct to say that the symbol becomes more a part of me rather than saying I no longer use it. The way it works in reiki is generally you draw the symbol on your hand and it starts the flow of the energy. Once you reach a point where you recognize how to start the flow without drawing the symbol, you just stop drawing the symbol.

Naya wrote:

Archaic Smile wrote: I don't know about symbols in Reiki, but I do know a fair bit about semiotics, which is the study of signs and sign systems. I can post about semiotics and symbology if you guys would find that relevant to Reiki, since there's actually a lot to say cognitively about how symbols are developed.

Absolutely!

Okay. This weekend I'll type some stuff up for you. I hope that you all will find it useful. I personally find semiotics to be fascinating.