Chapter 4

Reiki for Nature: A Healing Exchange

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When I mention that I work with reiki and plants, the first thought that comes into most people’s minds is that I mean giving reiki to plants to restore their health and help them grow. Hands-on reiki with a plant is the most obvious way to apply reiki to the green world, but it is certainly not the only way that I work with reiki and plant medicine.

In this chapter I aim to provide you with many different ways in which you can give reiki healing to plants and places in nature, whether simply to send them your love and appreciation or to help the deep healing that is needed in our wild endangered habitats, war-torn countries and our green spaces closer to home.

Plants and all the many microorganisms in the soil create our environment, in which we live, breathe and hope to thrive. They may not have the appeal of feather and fur, like birds and our animal companions, but they are our source of life; not only in the sense of the air that we breathe but also in the clothes that we wear and the food that we eat.

We know that climate change is a real risk to our planet as a whole and the continuous use of natural resources and pollution of our environment is not an idle threat to our existence. The Earth, our home, urgently needs our care if we are to continue enjoying clean air, fresh water and nourishing food. It’s not just exotic rainforests and wild habitat that need our love and attention.

Budget cuts, town planning policy and pressure from developers threaten our urban parks and ancient woodland. The Woodland Trust states that in the last 70 years alone, more than half of the ancient woodland of England and Wales has been lost or damaged. As well as being the habitat of many indigenous flora and fauna, green spaces like these are our life force and the energy that they radiate helps to increase the vibration of the surrounding area. This is why it’s imperative that we focus our individual efforts on lowering our impact on the environment as a whole and do what we can to care for local green spaces as stewards of the land. If we send reiki and healing to our gardens and local green spaces, we can raise the vibration of our local area to benefit all the inhabitants—trees, birds, bees, wildlife and humans alike.

Reiki and the Spirits of Nature Where You Live

There are many nature beings on earth, each one with a specific role, overseeing and care-taking a place or element of nature. Just as we have spirit guides and guardian angels, Mother Earth has elementals and nature spirits helping her.

Nature spirits include: fairies, elves, gnomes, pixies, sprites and mermaids. Each one is associated with a specific element: earth, fire, water or air; or place in the landscape—there will be a nature spirit of your garden, local park, river or woodland for example. They work with the spiritual and energetic side of nature. You will find nature spirits present in every place in nature, but we are often unaware that they are there. The nature spirits keep well hidden, and for good reason; they may have been traumatized by the damage that humans have inflicted on certain areas of land.

One of the first steps that we can take when we begin the plant path is to make our intentions clear to the nature spirits. We want to tell them that we would like to connect with them and show them our good intentions.

Being Yamabushi—Connecting to the Magic of Nature

While I was writing this book I came across the term yamabushi and the Japanese spiritual practice of Shugendo, which echoes my feelings about the power of connecting with the vital force of the natural world. Yamabushi is translated from Japanese as “one who lays down in the mountains”; the yamabushi are ascetics who roam the mountains seeking spiritual fulfilment. They follow a spiritual practice called Shugendo, which is a blend of Buddhism, Taoism, shamanism and Shinto and is one of the major influences on new Japanese religions. The system of reiki also shares its evolution and influences with these religions, so is likely to have been influenced by Shugendo practices too.

It’s possible that Mikao usui, the founder of reiki, was himself a yamabushi because he did indeed go into the mountains to seek spiritual fulfilment. We know this from the 21-day practice that is mentioned on his memorial stone; this is likely to be a Shugendo practice. This involved being in nature or being at one with nature, connecting to the magic of the mountain at Mount Kurama, and this is how he came to experience the gift of reiki.

Not surprisingly, Mount Kurama, the birthplace of the system of reiki, also has links to the yamabushi. Sojogatani is a valley at Mount Kurama in which many yamabushi have practised. Mount Kurama is believed to be home to many mythical tengu (supernatural beings or gods that are guardians of the mountain). Sojobo is the lord or king of these tengu and he is also considered by some to be an ancient yamabushi. If you visit Mount Kurama you will see many depictions of tengu as statues and souvenirs, characterized by a large nose and red face. They represent the ancient power of the mountains.

This practice and open honouring of the tengu highlights for me the importance of us each finding our own way to be yamabushi, to connect with the magic of nature and the spirits of the places that carry ancient power and wisdom. By honouring the beauty and magnificence of nature we are able to see that power within ourselves. This is the essence of reiki.

EXERCISE

Connecting to the Spirits of Nature

Next time you are heading out for a walk, try the following exercise to introduce yourself to the spirits of nature where you live and make known your intention to get to know them.

Out in nature, ground yourself fully by imagining roots holding you deep down, anchoring you to the Earth. You may also like to use the reiki power symbol to help you ground. open up to the support and nurture that is available to you from the Earth.

Tune in to reiki by connecting to the energy in the way you have been taught, asking that it flow through you to guide you for your highest good to connect with the spirits of the land. If you are Level 2 trained or above then activate the symbols. In particular I would suggest using the distance symbol to help bridge the human world and the world of the unseen nature beings. Take a walk out in nature and speak out to the spirits of the land; speak from the heart with words like “Hello, I’m here, I’d like to connect with you, show me how, dear nature spirits.”

Allow your intuition and reiki to guide you to where the nature spirits are and allow a childlike joy to enter you—this is the resonance of the nature spirits. Allow this joy to permeate your being and take your walk filled with childlike wonder at the beauty and magic of the world.

Don’t hesitate to express your joy at the beauty that envelops your senses. Pay close attention to the flickers or glimmers or sudden movements that you might see out of the corner of your eye.

Release your expectations of what you think nature beings might be and how you think they should appear or act. The moment we give these experiences a label or a specific form we limit their power. Your experience will be unique to you. The nature beings exist in a different plane of reality, so allow a magical process to enfold.

Find a spot to sit comfortably in for about 20 minutes. Take a seat and allow yourself to relax into the space. Keep your connection to reiki flowing, asking that it flow to the nature beings around you as if it were beaming out of your being. As you settle here, allow your inquisitive nature to explore, without moving, by opening all your senses to the sights, smells, sounds, shapes and textures that surround you.

Simply sit and breathe, relaxing in this natural space. Allow your thoughts to settle and follow the flow of your breath as it flows in and out of your body.

Now that you are settled, without moving use your extra senses to scan the space that surrounds you. Look with your inner eyes to see, sense and feel the following:

What or who is observing you? What are you sharing this space with? Creatures, plants, elements or other unseen spirits? Look with your inner eye and use your imagination.

Sense into how this feels. What is the feeling that you have now? What is the feeling of the place?

Can you identify one of the plants/creatures/beings that is observing you? does it have a colour, a feeling, a shape, sound or vibration?

If you are not sensing anything other than the physical plants and creatures that you can see, don’t lose hope. Keep asking each time you are in nature, and be persistent. “What can you show me, dear nature beings?”

When you feel the exercise is complete disconnect from the flow of reiki and say thank you.

You are most likely to feel their presence or to be shown a sign that they are there, rather than physically see a spirit appear in front of you. You might suddenly, for example, find a feather, a beautiful rock or flower on the path beside you. I often get hit on the head by falling seeds or twigs—I like to think this is the fairies having a little laugh at my expense. It always helps to have a good sense of humour. Keep following the nudges that you receive. This is not a one-off exercise but a new way of being when you are out in nature to ensure that you make those connections with the elemental world. Be persistent, keep asking, keep offering your help with your kind heart and your reiki hands and the nature spirits where you live will reveal their presence to you. Look for the subtle!

You can also experiment with some of the following to send messages with your words and actions to your local nature spirits that you wish to get to know better:

Magical Woodland Encounter

During one of my autumnal dog walks I had the strangest encounter in a woodland that I know well. I entered the woods as usual and not long after taking my usual path I began to feel really agitated and disorientated. I ended up taking a different path (for no logical reason whatsoever and to my dog’s utter befuddlement), a way that I don’t think I had even noticed before. While taking this path I noticed my heart begin to race frantically, as if I had been running uphill and taking on the world rather than walking at a leisurely pace. I started to feel as if I might need to sit down and rest because I felt so out of sorts. I felt ragged, like I needed to go back home to bed (This amused me because it was 8.15 in the morning and I had just had a shower and was wide awake!). That’s when I got lost. In a woodland that I have been walking in off and on for over ten years, I lost my way. I just simply had no idea where I was and couldn’t find a way out. It took goodness knows how long to find my way back to a familiar path and continue my usual route. once I had reached the top of the hill, I took a seat on a fallen tree that I often like to pause at and took stock of the series of events that had just occurred. I felt bemused and quite exhausted. I needed to ground myself and my heart was still pounding in my chest.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. It was at this moment that I felt a huge presence, a shift in the atmosphere of the woodland, a heaviness and a change in pressure. I took another breath to calm myself; yes, there was most definitely something unusual afoot in the woods today. As I opened my eyes I was aware of an enormous figure in the trees ahead of me standing and watching me. This figure felt like it had a feminine presence, it felt huge and powerful. I closed my eyes again and opened them—yes, it was still there. I closed my eyes again as I didn’t find having them open very helpful; I find using my inner vision and perceiving sensations easier with my eyes closed. I had the sense that this was a feminine guardian figure of this woodland. I didn’t try to communicate; I was just trying to be fully present to the vibration of the experience. This was the first experience like this that I have had, so it was thrilling and disconcerting all at the same time. I stayed still where I was for a while and then tilted my head to look up at the canopy, taking in the white sky and the green leaves, soaking up the atmosphere.

When it felt like the right time to move, I got up slowly and walked with the dog back home. As I was about to leave the woodland I was aware out of the corners of my eyes of shapes in the undergrowth, small figures present and watching. It was an incredibly elemental experience! As I left the woods I picked up a couple of shiny new horse chestnuts and acorns that were lying on the path, as if they had been laid out for me. As I scooped up my gift I said a prayer of thanks to the guardian spirit and the elementals, who I really felt were coming forward and showing themselves to me. one of those acorns is still in the pocket of the jacket I was wearing that day and each time I feel it there it connects me to the depth of that connection that I felt in the woods.

It took a few hours for my being to get back to feeling normal. I let this experience settle. Each day I visited the woods and sat on that log again, pondering my experience and whispering to the spirits there. one day after about a week, as if a light bulb had switched on in my head a name came to me: “Elen of the Ways”. Elen, an ancient British goddess, an antlered green lady. I had met Elen in the woods that day. What a deep blessing that was!

Energy Exchange: Offering Our Gratitude

Reiki practitioners are familiar with the concept of energy exchange. Most of us like to receive something in exchange for our reiki healing hands, whether it’s a monetary payment or a small token of thanks. This exchange helps us feel appreciated and shows us that the person receiving the reiki understands the value of the healing and that they are not taking it for granted. In my experience plants and the natural world also appreciate our gratitude and respect. This is a practice that is honoured by many indigenous cultures, who may leave offerings for the spirits of the land, plant spirits or elementals. Conversely, due to our perceived disconnection in the Western world we don’t often show our gratitude and appreciation to the natural world and, indeed, it has become a resource that we often abuse.

When we started our flower farm I left offerings for the spirits of the land and to the specific plants that I was harvesting. I would also sing my heart out, expressing my deep love for their beauty and I know the resonance of this was felt. The spirit world, the unseen realms and other beings and creatures don’t read our minds when we are reaching out to them; they read our hearts and feel our intentions.

With this in mind, you can see how the gift of reiki is the perfect exchange to show the natural world appreciation of its beauty and benefit to us. You can express your gratitude by leaving physical offerings such as seeds, flowers, holy water or sacred tobacco, but when you have the gift of reiki at your fingertips, it’s so much less complicated! Get into the habit of beaming reiki to specific plants or places in nature that are close to you, whispering your appreciation and gratitude to them. Leaving offerings or sending reiki before you begin to interact with the green kingdom is a signal to the spirit world of your respect and intent. You can also view it like a prepayment, since you are hoping to interact with them and are offering your thanks in advance for their willingness and wisdom.

EXERCISE

Reiki Balls in Nature

This is a lovely exercise to do if you wish to give back or show your appreciation to a place in nature that you often visit and know well. I like to do this exercise every so often in the woods where I walk my dog, or even in my garden, just to make sure the place knows that I love it so. I often use this exercise at workshops where myself and participants have been working with plants at the venue, as a way of saying thank you for all the blessings we have received. You could even do this exercise at the end of a holiday, at a beach or other place that has been integral to your enjoyment of your trip.

Take yourself to a place in nature close to where you live, maybe your garden or favourite place to walk. Allow yourself five minutes to fully arrive and be present to the beauty and the energy of where you are. open your physical senses to fully absorb your surroundings and invite your intuitive senses to open. You may wish to visualize your third eye (in between your eyebrows) opening, or feel your ears tuning in to the subtler sounds and whispers of the land. With your eyes closed, get a sense of the energy of the place and notice how it makes you feel.

When you feel ready to begin, connect with reiki and ask reiki to flow in the way that you have been taught. State your intention to create balls of reiki energy as gratitude to the landscape and nature beings where you are.

Hold your hands out in front of you and visualize a ball of energy collecting in your hands. As you breathe out, feel reiki flowing through your hands and creating the ball of energy. Shift your hands to incorporate the growing size of reiki ball that you are holding. Your reiki ball may be the size of a grapefruit, a basketball or even larger.

Now begin to walk through the place that you have chosen, and place the reiki ball of energy wherever you feel drawn to—at the base of a tree or bush or wherever looks like it needs energy. I say a great big thank you as I leave the reiki ball. Then repeat the process, charging up your hands with reiki once again with another reiki energy ball, and then move on to the next place that you feel could benefit from a ball of healing energy.

As part of my intention, I always include a phrase like “If this reiki energy ball is not needed, may the energy be held here until the place is ready to receive it or may it be used by something else that needs it more.”

When you feel that your work is done, give your final thanks to the place and to the reiki that has been flowing through you. Pause, place your hands in gassho and sit quietly for another five minutes, allowing yourself to rest before leaving. Tune in to how you feel and what sense you get from the place now that you have given it the reiki balls of energy.

Repeat this every week for a month and see if you notice a difference in the feel of the place. Note down your observations, sensations and feelings about the place each time so you can monitor the progress and shifts that occur in the frequency.

Starting with Local Green Spaces

There are many ways that you can subtly integrate reiki into the green spaces that surround your home to help raise the vibration of your neighbourhood, or that of a neighbouring town that is troubled and would benefit from the healing flow of reiki energy. The more we are able to charge up our neighbourhoods with reiki and raise their vibration, the easier it is for change to happen and the consciousness of the community to expand and become lighter, more accepting and open to change.

The reiki balls exercise above, which places high vibrational healing energy into a place, is an easy one to implement and it just looks to others like you are going for a walk. You can also sit outside in nature and send it reiki, as in the exercises below.

You may also like to experiment with the following:

EXERCISE

Charging Stones or Crystals

This is similar to the reiki balls exercise but, instead of creating an invisible ball of energy, here you charge natural objects or crystals with reiki and place these in nature.

You can use any natural objects that you are drawn to. I prefer to work with stones, pebbles, pine cones, seeds or shells that I have collected from nature rather than use crystals, which don’t feel as personal or significant to me as their origin is uncertain. Hold each object in your hands and ask that reiki flow through you to charge up the objects with reiki. Charge for as long as you feel the object needs. I find that I sense the objects glowing as I charge them. Gather all of your objects and when you visit the place in nature for which they are intended, walk with intention and place down the objects mindfully at places in nature that you feel would benefit from the increased energy of reiki.

EXERCISE

Elemental Reiki Grid

To do this exercise, start at the place in nature that you wish to send healing energy to. Hold the intention in your heart to find natural objects in this place that you can take home with you to use with the purpose of creating a reiki energy grid to send healing.

As you walk mindfully through the place in nature, look out for natural objects like leaves, seeds, pebbles, stones or shells. As you see them, gather these objects. Each time you pick up an object, tune in for a moment to check whether it feels oK to remove the object from the area and if it feels like there is no resistance, gather the object. Gather as many as you require—it could be as few as one—and take them home. I often like to work with six objects as then I can make a five-pointed star with one object at the centre.

At home create your reiki grid, the size of which will depend on how many objects from the land you have collected. For each object, cleanse it with reiki by holding it in your hand, or charge it in the moonlight. Hold it in your hand and send reiki to charge the object with healing reiki energy. If you have reiki Level 2 and have knowledge of the symbols, then use the appropriate symbols to charge the objects.

I often like to draw a picture of the place that I am sending reiki to and give it a name, and place this within a circle. I will use the picture as the base of my grid and place the objects on top of it. This creates a strong energetic container, which holds all the elements involved in the healing. Select one object to be the centre of your reiki grid and surround the centre element with the other objects, knowing that each of these is charged with reiki.

Activate the elemental reiki grid by connecting with reiki and drawing the symbols over the grid and asking that reiki flow through you as you hover your hands above the grid. I also visualize that reiki is flowing to the land that requires the healing and ask that if the energy is not wanted, it may be used at another time when it is needed.

Leave the grid set up somewhere you won’t disturb it and come back to it once a week to recharge the objects with the flow of reiki.

After a week return to the place that you are sending the reiki to and tune in to the feel of the place. Make sure you take notes in your journal so you can monitor the changes. Keep up the practice for as long as you feel is necessary; you could try working with it for the duration of a moon cycle.

Further Ideas for Reiki for Green Spaces Close to Home

The opportunities for sending healing to the landscape where you live are endless. Not only might you be able to physically see a transformation but you might also be able to feel the difference in vibration. Experiment with some of the following that could benefit from your reiki green thumbs:

Reiki in the Garden

If you are fortunate enough to have a garden or a vegetable plot for growing herbs, flowers, fruits and vegetables, or if you have a low-maintenance or wild garden attached to your home that you can visit regularly, there is so much benefit to switching on your reiki hands when you get outside.

If you don’t have any outside space of your own, perhaps you could ask a neighbour?

Your green fingers can become reiki green fingers with your intention. I like to involve reiki right from the start, so even when I head into the garden centre to choose a plant or buy some seeds, I am asking that reiki flow through me to help me connect to the plants and to help me feel my way to choosing which plants to grow.

When starting out seeds, turn on your reiki hands and, holding the seed packet in your hands, invite reiki to flow for the highest good of your seeds. Hold the seed packet in your hands for 5 to 10 minutes depending on how it feels.

If preparing a seed bed in the greenhouse, invite reiki to flow as you pat down the potting compost with your hands.

When watering in the greenhouse with a small watering can, hold the watering can in your hands and ask that reiki flow to the water inside. You can also do this on a much larger scale if you have water butts for rainwater collection. As you water the plants and seedlings, know that reiki will be flowing as the water reaches the plants and seeds.

If you are repotting plants or transplanting potted plants into the garden, ask that reiki flows and hold the base of the plant gently between your hands. The stem of the young seedling will be extremely delicate, so be careful. Feel reiki flowing through you to the root ball that you hold in your hands. Hold it there for as long as you feel is necessary. You may also like to visualize the plant settling into the pot or flower bed and growing healthy and strong.

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Holding the Seedling Gently

Caring for Plants in the Garden

Throughout the growing year there are many different ways to give reiki to the plants in your garden. In the winter months you may prefer to beam distance reiki to your garden from the warmth of your house. As you prepare flower beds, dig, weed, divide plants and plant new plants into your flower beds in the spring months, take time to connect to reiki before you get started in the garden. That way reiki will flow through you for the highest good of your garden and you may find yourself drawn to different areas of the garden or become aware of plants that need your attention as a result.

I find that when I head out into my garden with one intention, by the time I get myself under the magical green spell with reiki flowing, I usually spend twice as long as I had intended, doing many more jobs than I had thought were necessary!

Over the summer months you will experience so much activity in your garden that it might be very hard to keep up with the amount of growth. Sometimes all you can do is marvel at the force of nature and be grateful.

What about Those Weeds?

As a herbalist I have a very different view of weeds than the average gardener who can’t abide common garden weeds such as nettle, dandelion and plantain. These plants and many more of our garden weeds are nutritious and full of minerals and beneficial medicinal properties. When you view plants in this way it can make weeding extremely challenging and full of guilt. As much as I love my garden weeds for their medicinal uses, though, I do pull them up sometimes as I also enjoy looking at a flower bed that is nettle-free! I always talk to the plants as I am weeding, asking them to politely grow elsewhere. I often explain why I am pulling them up. It’s usually to give another plant space or light to grow.

To make the process a little easier I like to work in my garden using reiki as well as Ho’oponopono, the Hawaiian practice for forgiveness that translates as “moving from darkness to light”. The practice of Ho’oponopono is based on the understanding that we are all connected and that by taking responsibility for the suffering of others we can bring about transformation and healing. It is a cleansing practice that requires an ability to be humble and to love unconditionally. This simple prayer of Ho’oponopono comes in very handy when you are weeding, pruning, thinning, transplanting and harvesting plants. I also find it useful when I am harvesting food or flowers from the garden. The prayer helps me ask for forgiveness and also removes any guilt I may feel about harvesting from the plant, as I take responsibility for my actions.

The prayer goes like this:

I am sorry

Please forgive me

I love you

Thank you

To understand this prayer you could think of it like this:

I am sorry for anything that I or my fellow human beings are doing to cause you (or your family/home) suffering.

Please forgive all of us.

I see the divine in you and I love you.

Thank you for all that you are teaching me.

Guidelines When Meeting a Plant

Whenever you are interacting with plants, planting, weeding, harvesting or just admiring as you take a walk outside in nature, treat a plant as you would a person. Introduce yourself, make conversation, explain what you are doing and be respectful. The following may act as helpful pointers. Most importantly, feel into your heart space for what is appropriate.

1 Introduce yourself, e.g., “Hello, my name is Fay.”

2 Show appreciation to the plant, e.g., “It’s great to meet you, you look radiant.”

3 Present an offering or offer reiki.

4 State your intention. “I would like to get to know you better”, or “I would like to harvest some of your leaves to make an infused oil at home to help heal my skin.” Or if gardening, “I am going to trim some of your branches to give the other plants more light.”

5 Spend as much time with the plant as you need to feel into the space between you. You might simply breathe with the plant, observe how it grows, sense its energy field, open up all your senses and feel your way.

6 Connect to the plant with reiki and really let the plant into your heart, visualize it there and love it. You might like to sit in gassho and tune in to reiki, asking it to flow to help you connect with the plant (for reiki Level 2 practitioners, the distance symbol will help here). Open your intuition and let it guide you to show you the energy of the plant.

7 Always ask permission to touch, taste and smell the plant—if it doesn’t feel right then don’t do it! Use your common sense where taste is concerned. Don’t nibble on plants that you cannot identify as being non-poisonous. If you do feel called to taste the plant then place a small amount on your tongue and chew—if it feels prickly or odd then SPIT IT OUT!

8 Always give thanks and leave the plant and the area as untouched as it was when you first arrived.

9 Consider ways that you could interact with the plant further. What does the plant inspire in you? Would the plant benefit from more reiki or something else that you can do?

Giving Reiki to a Plant in the Garden

Plants with diseases may need individual care and attention, so it’s worth tuning in to each of these plants as necessary. If this seems a little daunting, why not approach the plant as if it were a client? The following exercises will give you some pointers.

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Sensing a Plant’s Energy

EXERCISE

Reiki Healing for Plants Part 1: Tuning In to the Energy of a Plant

If you notice that a particular plant does not seem to be doing very well, it may benefit from reiki. depending on the size or accessibility of the plant, you can choose to give hands-on reiki by physically touching the trunk, branch, stem or leaves, or send reiki at a distance.

Sit yourself next to the plant in question, get comfortable and introduce yourself (though it probably knows exactly who you are anyway!). Explain to the plant that it doesn’t look as happy or as vibrant as you have often seen it. Explain that you would like to offer it some unconditional love in the form of reiki and feel for a response. What you are looking for is a good feeling, a peaceful feeling that feels like your heart is opening. If your heart feels uncomfortable or contracted then I would leave this plant alone for today and go and find another. You can always come back to a plant at another time. Know that the plant is not going to greet you as a client would and explain what ails them, so you will need to spend some time tuning in to the plant’s frequency and observing the plant as it grows.

Once you have a feeling that the plant is happy to work with you, prepare yourself and connect with reiki in the way that you would if you were working with a physical client. Tune in to the plant, breathe with it. Know that as you breathe, you are breathing in oxygen that is produced by the plant and as you exhale, you are breathing out carbon dioxide that is needed by the plant to perform all its vital growth functions. Breathe together for about five minutes and attune your physical senses to the state of the plant. observe how this plant looks: does it look healthy, is it struggling, stunted, dry, waterlogged, diseased or bug-eaten? Tune in; think—if it was a client what would their appearance tell you about the state of its health?

Trust your first response and ask yourself, “What does this plant need right now, how can I help?”

Just as you would if giving reiki to a person, feel the energy field of the plant by moving your hands slowly through the space around the plant. This might be very near or several feet away depending on the size of the plant and its specific vibration.

Invite reiki to flow through you and sense the plant’s energy field with your hands. This will be easier with certain plants than with others. Start a distance away with your hands held out, just as you would start to sense energy with a person or animal, and keep moving yourself and your hands closer until you sense the energy of the plant. You may find that plants like large trees have a huge energy field that you can sense way before you get close enough to touch them. Smaller herbs and pot plants will have a smaller energy field and your hands may come much closer to the plant, even as little as a few centimetres away. You will be able to feel how strong it feels.

Notice what sensations you are feeling in your hands and your body or what emotions are being triggered. You might find it similar to working with a human or animal, or it might feel quite different.

Feel for the way that you work with energy and the way that you receive and intuit information.

Open your intuitive senses. Ask yourself the question: how healthy is the plant? To give yourself something to compare later, give this on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being maximum health and vitality.

EXERCISE

Part 2: Giving Reiki to a Plant

After you have completed the exercise above and got a feel for the plant by sensing its energy field, tell the plant that you would like to offer it some unconditional love in the form of reiki healing to help it feel better for the highest good.

Pause and tune in, noticing if this feels right to go ahead with. If it feels right or you do not receive any information telling you otherwise, allow reiki to flow through you to the plant. Place your hands on the plant if that is easy and feels right, or beam reiki from your hands.

You may find that just like when you are working with a human client, your hands feel drawn to certain areas of the plant. Follow your instinct and allow reiki and the plant to guide you. don’t overthink the process; just follow where your hands wish to take you and notice if certain parts of the plant seem to be calling to you.

Just like when you are giving reiki treatments to yourself and to others, you may also find that when giving reiki to plants you pick up certain messages and guidance. I usually receive this as colourful images and feelings or sensations in my body. Be aware of how you feel physically and emotionally as you connect in this way to the plant.

Giving reiki, whether it is to a person, animal, situation, place or a plant, is a very intimate experience. So breathe and relax into this intimate reiki space between you and the plant and enjoy the connection and the wonder of it all. once reiki starts to flow then it will take over and hold you both in the space of reiki. Remember this is a new experience; if you have not met this plant before or offered it reiki previously, you are meeting a new friend!

I personally find that I feel more sensitive to the flow of energy and reiki when I do not make physical contact with a client. It is easier for me to feel for what is needed when I am hovering my hands over someone’s body in their energy field. However, in my experience with plants I sense that they often respond positively to very light and gentle physical touch. I actually love to touch plants and feel excited by their different textures, so when I am working with plants I sometimes prefer to touch them lightly.

However, unless the plant is a sturdy tree, my clumsy hands may do more harm than good if I lay them on the plant, and I don’t like to risk damaging other plants that may be close by. So if I am with a delicate plant I may prefer to sit down as near as I can to the plant that needs care, tune in to reiki, set my intention to heal the plant and beam reiki through my hands to the plant.

If you wish to treat the roots of the plant you may find yourself placing your hands over the soil around the plant or holding a watering can in your hands and sending reiki to the water before watering the plant.

Another difference that I experience when working with plants as opposed to working with people is that when I give reiki to clients I will normally close my eyes. However, most of the time when I am giving reiki to plants I will keep my eyes open as the reiki flows. This is not only because I find plants so very fascinating and hypnotic but because in some cases the plant may be very delicate and I do not want to cause damage.

You may receive guidance from the plant about your garden or other plants. Stay alert for this; messages from nature come in many different forms and can be very subtle. Learn to trust your first response.

Continue with your reiki treatment for as long as you feel is necessary. The duration of the treatment will depend on the size and the condition of the plant. A large oak or maple, for example, will require much more reiki than a small pot plant, so use your common sense. As a rule of thumb I recommend 10 to 20 minutes for a small shrub like a lavender bush and 30 to 40 minutes for a large tree. Be guided and always make sure that you are comfortable and relaxed. Look after yourself. don’t hurt your back or lean over in an awkward position to make contact with certain parts of the plant. Remember reiki will flow to where it is needed and you can always hover your hands rather than touch.

Notice what information you intuitively pick up on. You may feel afterwards that the plant needs water, or intuitively sense that there is something further you can do to help it. Be open to what you might be being shown. Plants always need something from us!

Finish your reiki treatment in the way that you have been taught. You may like to sweep your hands over the plant’s energy field. You may also like to visualize the plant in a golden or white ball of reiki energy. Place your hands on the earth to ground yourself and disconnect from the plant. Give thanks to reiki, your guides and the plant. While the energy settles, you might like to have some water (and give some to the plant)—use water that you have also sent reiki to! It is often during this period of integration that I receive guidance from spirit. This guidance will often come to me as colourful images or as a short message that I have to write down before I forget it.

You may also like to make notes in your journal before you leave the area. Here are some questions for you to reflect on:

Questions for Self-Reflection

1 In what way was that experience different to giving reiki to a person or animal?

2 How do you feel the plant was communicating with you?

3 What did the energy of the plant feel like?

4 Do you feel that the plant had a preference for touch or no touch?

5 Did you sense certain areas that needed more reiki and attention than others?

6 How did you feel afterwards—do you feel a shift in yourself from how you felt at the start of the treatment?

7 Did anything else come to your attention while you were connecting with the plant? Trust your first response and write freely: if the plant needed healing for one particular thing today, what was that? What was it that you felt called to help with?

8 Trust your first response again and write freely: if the plant had a message for you today, what was that message?

Reiki Breath

Another way to send reiki to a plant is through your breath. Since you are already breathing with the plant anyway, it can be very easy to turn on reiki and send reiki through your breath, so you don’t need to worry about touching the plant at all. You may already be familiar with an Usui reiki technique known as Koki Ho, which is a method of healing using the breath. I have never officially been taught this technique; I found that as my reiki practice developed it came naturally. Full details of this technique can be found in the appendix. As you breathe ask reiki to flow through you, through your breath. Breathe in through your nose as normal and breathe out reiki with your breath through your mouth. I also like to visualize reiki as a beam of light flowing from my breath to the plant, bathing the plant in light. As it flows, so too does compassion from my heart towards the plant. I also like to combine the breathwork and visualization with a mantra such as “I breathe you” (on breathing in) and “You breathe me” (on breathing out).

Sensing Plant Energy and Health with a Pendulum

Though using a pendulum is not part of traditional reiki practice, many reiki practitioners do work with one to sense energy flow and seek information. You may have been taught how to use a pendulum for this reason as part of your reiki training. Using a pendulum takes practice and if it is a tool that appeals to you or one that you already work with, then don’t hesitate to use your pendulum when working with plants that you feel are open to working with you. Always make sure you introduce yourself to the plant and explain what you are doing (remember, treat the plant as you would a client).

Remember to ask specific questions that will give you a yes or no answer. For example, rather than ask, “How healthy is this plant?”, you would ask, “Is this plant at maximum health? (10).” If your response is “no” then you can go down the scale step by step until you arrive at a number that gives you a “yes” response on the pendulum and reflects the health of the plant.

You could ask further yes/no questions using the pendulum to find out what will help the plant, such as:

You can also measure the energy of a plant by using a pendulum or dowsing rods and asking to be shown the energy field. Experiment with the pendulum at a distance from the plant and move forward until the pendulum changes. This will indicate that you are in the plant’s energy field. You may wish to measure the plant’s energy field before your reiki and then again after giving the plant reiki, to measure any difference and monitor improvement as you continue to give reiki to the plants in your garden.

Harvesting Nature’s Bounty

At the time of harvest in the garden, there is so much for which to be grateful. I like to use the reiki balls exercise that was featured earlier as a way of saying thank you, often in advance of the harvest. Or try the exercise below to beam reiki to your garden.

EXERCISE

Beaming Reiki to Your Garden

This is a lovely heart-warming exercise to do in the autumn, just as the weather turns cooler and the activity in the garden has slowed after a busy harvest of fruits, flowers and vegetables.

Sit yourself in your favourite place in your garden or, if you can’t decide where to sit, let reiki decide for you; enter your garden and ask reiki to flow through you as you walk through it. Place your hands on your heart as you walk, or down by your sides with palms facing forward. Walk slowly around your garden until you feel you have found a suitable place to sit for a while.

From your chosen place, sit quietly and open up your physical senses to the garden around you. Notice the sounds, the scents, the colour and the form of the garden. Notice the temperature, the sensation on your skin of the air, dampness or warmth. Breathe in this beautiful spot as a creature of the garden, with the other creatures of your garden.

Once you feel settled, tune in to reiki. Place your hands in gassho and ask that reiki flow through you to all the beings and creatures in your garden. You can create your own invocation, or use the following:

“May reiki flow through me for the highest good to all the green beings, fairy folk, nature spirits and elementals and all the creatures of Mother Earth who live in this garden space.”

Send reiki to the garden for 20 to 30 minutes. I open my palms to the sky so that reiki flows out and upwards to where it is needed. Stay alert for guidance and messages, thoughts and feelings that will be sent to you from the beings in the garden.

When you feel ready to end the reiki session, place your hands back in your lap or in gassho and sit for five minutes to allow the energy to settle once again. Notice how you are feeling after this experience and what the garden feels like.

Every so often a nature spirit shows up boldly while I am working in the garden, or sometimes even in my treatment space. The most exuberant and bold of them all, who I can’t fail to notice and drop everything for, is the hedgerow fairy. Her presence rides through me like a wave of electric static coupled with intense emotion. She seems shy and hesitant at first, like a child, and appears to talk nonsense, and often in rhyme.

However, when I am truly present with her to fully absorb her words she comes out with pearls of wisdom that are so simple and pure, it makes me feel that humans are sometimes trying too hard. I was giving a reading for a client and as soon as I had opened up my sacred space I felt her presence. This was her message for me, which I took as a call to action:

No more sleep

Fay must go outside now

Exciting!

Foundation is Mother Earth

Magic places you create

Loving hearts to come

Sharing our fruits with potions and healing

Healing hands and hearts

Talking

Lying on the Earth

Together.

Reiki for Your Indoor Companion Plants

As with plants in the garden, the plants in your home or at your place of work also benefit from reiki for that extra boost of love, care and attention, and their health also ensures your well-being. Connecting with them through reiki can be a beautiful exchange.

As before, hold your watering can in your hands to give it a boost of reiki before you water the plants. Visualize reiki showering the plants as you water them.

Before you dust their leaves, connect with reiki and ask it to flow through you so that as you touch the plant and physically clean the leaves, you will be energetically sending reiki to the plant to give it a boost where it needs it.

House plants are often much easier to directly touch and connect with physically than the plants in your garden, which can be bigger, pricklier or much less accessible. Physically connecting with a house plant, being able to touch it for a hands-on reiki treatment, can be so much fun and highly rewarding.

For small plants I recommend either beaming reiki to the plant, visualizing the reiki flowing to the plant through your hands or physically holding the pot that contains the plant.

For larger plants, if they are sturdy and there is no risk of damage then you may like to physically place your hands onto the leaves, stem or, in the case of trees, trunk. Otherwise you can beam reiki, send reiki with your breath as outlined previously or simply hover your hands.

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Sending Reiki to the Roots

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Sending Reiki around a Plant

Additional Techniques for Sending Healing to Pot Plants

There are numerous ways to provide healing for the companion plants that decorate your home indoors or external terraces and balconies. Experiment with the following that appeal to you:

Plants are so beautiful, providing us with such diversity and abundance of form, shape, size, texture, scent, pattern and colour. While the act of sending reiki to a plant is an act of love in itself, I also like to verbally talk to plants and tell them how beautiful they are and how much I love them. Try it and see how that makes you feel.

Plant Language and Conversations

Plants won’t offer their feedback to you in response to a treatment in the same way that a person might discuss their feelings. Therefore it may take a little practice to tune in to their subtle language and become used to their way of communicating. Interacting with plants requires patience. It requires that we slow down to match their steady and silent pace.

Thanks to your reiki practice you will already have experience of sensing energy and developing your intuitive senses. The more time you spend giving reiki to a plant or a place in nature, the more accustomed you will become to reading their energy and sensing any shifts in frequency that occur.

It may be that while you are giving reiki to the plant you experience similar reactions in your body and emotions as you would when treating a human or animal. While you get acquainted with the energy flow around plants it may be useful for you to make notes of the feelings and shifts that occur in the energy before, during and after the treatment so you can track the changes. Be open to exploring a whole different way of receiving the subtle language of nature.

Connecting with plants, getting to know them and opening to receive their complex information and all that we sense they are trying to communicate to us, is a lifelong journey—a process. It’s a dance as you journey towards a deeper knowing of yourself and who you are as this amazing being. Where do you end and where does the green world around you begin?

If you find it difficult and challenging to feel your way with plants and intuit their guidance and information, I would like to reassure you that this is completely normal. And if you feel like you are not quite “getting it” or are missing something—maybe you struggle with visualization or find it difficult to sense feelings in your body—then know that this too is normal. Keep practising and opening. There is no need to try too hard. This is an innate and natural process that you are relearning and refining. Try to relax and enjoy how the journey develops. Just as, when you first started learning reiki, you may have taken time to tune into the flow of the energy, it takes time to re-attune yourself to the subtle whispers of nature that we have all been conditioned to ignore, and it’s common to have high expectations; so let all that go. Notice if you are telling yourself that you can’t do it. Yes you can—it’s your nature. You are sensitive enough and you are doing it right and what’s more, you do deserve to feel a deep connection with the natural world. So take a deep breath and ask reiki to flow to help heal those self-doubts.

Now that, in your heart, the intention and desire to connect with the green world is rooted and radiating outwards, this vibration and desire is being transmitted to the world. Together with your attitude of gratitude, your deep thanks, appreciation and honouring of the plants, the natural world and the qualities that they bring to you, you are sending out a vibration that will attract connection with the green kingdom. Simply by being in a plant’s energy field and giving reiki you are picking up on much more information than you think or may even be aware of. This very act will ripple out across the green world.

When you first meet a plant, flower essence, tea or essential oil, spend time with it. We don’t expect to know people very well after a brief first encounter—at a yoga class or a coffee shop, maybe—and so we shouldn’t expect too much from our first meeting with a plant either. When it comes to people, we have an impression. We might take in their visual appearance and a few of their characteristics and this impression usually makes us either want to find out more or not feel that bothered. We form these judgements and the other person in turn will choose to act in a certain way around us. It is the same with plants, but your perception and judgements will shift over time, so keep going back to a plant to view it, for example over the course of a growing season. Don’t just send reiki to a plant once, send reiki whenever you can to maintain your connection. Perhaps you could add the plant to your list of those who you send distance healing to, if you have one.

Unlike a human client, a plant won’t necessarily sit down with you and agree a treatment plan. Each time you feel called to send reiki to a plant or a place in nature, tune in to feel what’s right for the situation. You may feel that sending reiki for twenty minutes a day daily for three days feels right, or you may feel that a weekly treatment plan over the duration of a moon cycle seems more appropriate. In all cases, continue to send reiki and connect with the plant until you feel a shift in the energy.

Your relationship will develop over time as you get used to connecting with the plant or working its medicine—with a tea or flower essence, for example—and allowing its spirit to infuse and flow through your being. Keep exploring your new relationship with the plant and keep in mind how you get to know a person: you invest time and energy. You spend time together, you ask questions and, most importantly, you listen and remember. So spend time with the plants that call to you in the ways that I have suggested, and open your physical and intuitive senses to all that the plant has to communicate.

You may even wish to journal daily and write to the plant, asking, “Hello, how are you today?” and feeling for a response.

Everyday Ways to Connect with Reiki and the Natural World

When we ask reiki to flow through us and step into the space where we are “being reiki”, then our actions, words, thoughts and feelings are supported by the light and love of divine energy and this can bring a new and compassionate perspective to even the most mundane and simple tasks. Connecting to reiki while we undertake activities like those listed below helps us to bridge the gap between the natural world and the busyness of the way that we live our lives. Ask reiki to flow through you as and when you have the opportunity to experience these kinds of activities and see if you notice any difference in how they make you feel:

Sakura

I was fortunate that my visit to Japan coincided with the cherry blossom season. In Japan, cherry blossoms are called sakura and this delicate blossom has become a special symbolic flower for the people and the country. Each spring as the cherry blossom emerges, people gather together underneath the trees for cherry blossom parties with colleagues, friends and family. This custom is called hanami, which literally means “watching blossoms”, and can be traced back at least a thousand years, originating in China in the Heian period (794–1185).

The life of a cherry blossom is very short (around two weeks) and thus represents the beautiful yet fleeting nature of life. The custom of hanami encourages introspection and reminds us that life is short and that we must make the most of it. It was indeed the flower of contemplation for the samurai (who as warriors knew that life was brief) and it is also the flower of the geisha.

The season of cherry blossoms comes at the end of one fiscal or school year and the beginning of the next, so is also an invitation to welcome a new start and consider future plans and projects. Buddhist and Shinto temples often have cherry trees growing outside and host viewings. Prayers to the spirits (kami) are often hung on the tree branches.

EXERCISE

Distance Healing

We are all moved by the beautiful natural landscapes that are being destroyed in the quest for more resources, whether it is the forests of the Amazon, the retreating glaciers or melting icecaps of Antarctica or the pollution of our rivers and oceans. Fortunately, one of the amazing qualities of reiki is that we can send healing energy, love and light over even long distances to places, people and creatures that we have never even visited. So when we hear about this destruction on the news and it touches our hearts, we can have our hands at the ready!

Where the previous part of this chapter has focused on healing and connecting with the green spaces close to home such as your local park, woodland or back garden, this part focuses on those landscapes further afield that are threatened by the way that we live our lives and whose delicate balance actually also affects our survival. For the following exercises choose an environmental issue that touches your heart, one that you would like to send reiki healing to.

If you are trained to reiki Level 2 you will have received training on how to apply the symbols in order to do this. There are many different techniques, such as using a surrogate, like a teddy bear or pillow, writing down the name of the person or place or using a photograph.

For plants and places in nature, I think the easiest method is to use a photograph. You don’t even need to use the symbols for this, so you can use this method to send reiki to far-flung natural environments if you are only trained in reiki Level 1.

Take a photograph of the place to which you wish to send the reiki healing; an image from the internet will work well. Sit quietly and tune in to reiki, asking it to flow through you for the highest good, in the way that you were taught. You may like to sit quietly with your hands in gassho while you do this, or breathe with the Joshin Kokyu Ho technique.

When you feel ready to begin, pick up the photograph and hold it in your hands. I like to place my dominant hand over the photograph with my non-dominant hand underneath. If the image is too big for you to pick up then simply use both hands over the image—as if you were treating a client.

Ask that reiki flows to this location, to where it is needed, for the highest good of all beings. I also like to visualize reiki as a golden light beaming across the Earth to the location of my intention. I will also sometimes visualize the location lighting up as reiki energy touches the land and all that grows there.

If you are not used to sending reiki to objects that are not in front of you, it can be hard to maintain your focus. This is why I like to visualize. I will also sometimes use a mantra, which might go something like this:

(Location name) is receiving reiki energy.

Reiki healing energy is flowing to (location) right now.

Right now all the creatures, plants and nature beings in the area are receiving the healing benefits of reiki that they all need for their highest good.

(Location) is alive with reiki energy.

(Location) is pulsing with reiki energy.

Reiki energy is flowing exactly where it is most needed.

The situation at (location) is divinely illuminated.

(Location) is filled with love.

When you sense it is time to stop, end the treatment as you would normally.

If you regularly send distance reiki to a list of clients and situations, add this place in nature to your list or, if the situation feels acute, you may choose to send healing daily or weekly for the duration of a moon cycle.

EXERCISE

Earth Healing Visualization

Sit in gassho and prepare yourself to send reiki in the way that you have been taught. If you are attuned to reiki Level 2 and above then scribe the symbols and say the mantras as you have been taught.

Visualize the planet as a globe in front of you and see the flow of reiki wrapping around the planet. You may like to visualize this as a golden colour, or another colour that you feel represents reiki.

As before, ask reiki to flow for the highest good.

Beam the reiki through your hands, either holding your hands up with palms outwards or cupping your hands around an invisible ball as if you were holding the Earth in your hands.

Hold the visualization and repeat the healing prayer from the first method as and when you need to in order to maintain your focus.

After 20 minutes finish the reiki distance session and give your thanks to reiki. Repeat as often as you feel is required.

Questions for Self-Reflection

1 Which parts of nature call you to action?

2 How are you being called to act?

3 What does it feel like to send reiki to a plant or a place in nature?

4 In what way does it differ from or feel the same as giving a person a reiki treatment?

5 Write for 15 minutes to the spirit of the land that you have sent healing to.

6 Ask it what is needed.

7 What can it tell you about its purpose?

8 What can it tell you about the Earth and healing?

9 What message does it carry for you?

10 How can you take further action?

Learnings and Blessings

This chapter was intended to introduce you to nature beings and plant spirits and give you a new and inspired approach to the regular hands-on reiki treatment for a plant or place in nature. As you allow reiki to guide you to connect deeper with all that is green and growing, you will also feel yourself guided by the plants themselves. What we give, we also receive, so as you offer your reiki hands to the green world, you are opening yourself up to receiving healing energy and guidance from the plants themselves. When the plants take the lead is when the magic truly starts to happen.