Reiki and Ancestral Healing?
Can Reiki be used for ancestral/ intergenerational healing?
Yes! The long-distance symbol is particularly helpful for healing wounds from the past, no matter their source.
What makes most sense to me is to begin with healing ourselves. As children, we are exposed to the views of our early caretakers, and are imprinted with ideas about what is safe, who is worthy or trustworthy, and what our role in life is. We seldom question these beliefs until we find them restrictive, engage in spiritual practice or therapy, or someone else points them out to us.
When we release the unhealthy patterns and beliefs that we’ve inherited, we can break the cycle, freeing up life-force that might have been frozen and blocking our flow.
As we have access to more and more of our inherent ki, we can more easily tap into our inner wisdom and compassion and perhaps find it within ourselves to forgive the hurts that have been passed down through the family tree.
If that sounds complicated, it isn’t. It’s pretty simple. We meet whatever comes up in us with kindness, acceptance, and Reiki. Over and over and over again.
You may be catching on that this is the same formula I offer for healing ALL the things! Our minds tend to make it more complicated than it really is. Don’t mistake simplicity for ineffective.
So, where to start?
I heard a spiritual teacher say that we don’t need to go looking for our trauma; we just need to put our phone down for 5 minutes. I concur!
If we stop distracting ourselves (and phones are an easy, socially acceptable way of doing so), we can notice what is arising in this moment. I believe that our souls spoon feed us the assignments that we are capable of handling, in the order that they need to be addressed.
Often that means managing the symptoms that prevent us from being present, calm, and attentive to our own needs. Feeling anxious? Treat that. Find some apathy beneath the anxiety? Then treat that. Keep going, clearing all the symptoms and making way for a deeper awareness of what lies underneath.
This serves several purposes.
It teaches us that we matter, our bodies and feelings matter, and demonstrates that we’re willing to meet and welcome with whatever emerges from the depths. Starting with the smaller stuff helps to build trust.
It’s also helping us to build the capacity to stay in the zone of discomfort. Meeting the wounds of the past practically guarantees some degree of discomfort and learning how to meet it with compassion is a skill most of us need to practice.
And it’s reclaiming energy that had been previously utilized coping, self-medicating and enacting defense mechanisms so we can apply it to the deeper healing.
You may have started reading this article looking for a protocol of how to send healing energy to your ancestors. If that’s what you feel guided to do, you can proceed the same way you would with any distance healing session, using the level 2 symbols and a specific intention.
My belief is that souls return to Source after death. This leads me to think that those who have gone before are released from their earthly troubles. This is why it makes sense to me to work on the inherited baggage. As we dissolve and resolve the results of the wounding, I believe the karma on both ends is also dissolved and resolved.
If you don’t share this belief, then absolutely, you can apply Reiki to specific members of your family tree, knowing that if they are open to receiving, all will be healed over time.
Just a word of caution here: if you find yourself consistently looking around for all the things outside yourself that need healing, you might be avoiding your own wounds.
The more aware and compassionate we are toward on own selves, the more we work on our self-healing, the greater our capacity to help others. It’s never too late to turn the gaze inward, so not to worry if you’re just now noticing a history of distracting yourself. It’s perfectly normal and part of the journey for most of us.
I’ve been working on some of my limiting beliefs that have been passed down through the generations. Things like: life is hard; you have to struggle to just get by. The neural grooves are deeply engrained, but this is not a belief I choose for myself. As I chip away at the pattern, I notice a lightness within myself and greater ease as I go throughout my days.
I hope you find this helpful! You’re welcome to share any questions or observations in the comments below.