homecoming
Reiki didn’t just come into my life—it returned like an old friend. Familiar, quiet, and life-changing. Working with it truly feels like coming home.
So, what is it that you should know about me?
Every time I try to leave cancer out of my story, I realise I can’t. It doesn’t define me, but it shaped me in ways I never imagined.
My memory often brings me back to a specific moment during my treatment. I will never forget the day I stood by the windows of the chemo suite, looking out into a misty London morning, listening to the wind howling around the building. I dragged myself and “Mr Baxter” (the IV pole) to the toilet. I felt weird in my own skin and so nauseous! I didn’t really need the toilet, I just needed a place for myself. I stared back at the reflection of a thin, grey and exhausted body. I didn’t know whose eyes were looking back at me. And I felt so sorry that I hadn’t ever appreciated my body before.
I had been diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma 8 months earlier, none of the chemos seemed to be working. Why was I not healing? Why was this so painful? Why was this happening to me? Cancer broke me. It slammed me down with a force that I can’t describe and it took almost everything away from me. And when I hit rock-bottom, I finally had no other choice than to surrender, out of exhaustion. Cancer cracked me open, and through those cracks and edges, the light of Reiki flooded its way into my heart.
Learning the teachings of Reiki, walking through life holding its principles close to my being…it has changed my life in a way that I could have only dreamt of. What cancer didn’t take from me was my joy for life, my creativity and my optimism, a deep knowing that all this had to be part of my path, somehow.
It was time for some love! It was time to own up to what I had learnt from Reiki.
I clutched my right hand around the tube hanging from the IV pole. I closed my eyes and slowed my breathing. I summoned all the good stuff I had left in me and set my intention on letting the all-encompassing life force flood through me, around me and into the bag holding the chemo drugs that would help save my life. I knew that if conventional medicine could do its part, I was going to double that effort with my own work. I was going to show up. For every drop that entered my body, I said a little prayer and imagined the liquid flowing through a stream of bright, healing light before it disappeared into my body.
This moment was pivotal for me because I managed, even if only for a short moment, to turn the “why me?” mentality into an empowered and fearless moment of strength. I knew that either way, everything was going to fall into place. I think I left the toilet a little different than when I went to it.
It has been many years now and but I will never forget what that year taught me.
That this life right here, today, is a fragile and profoundly sacred gift. It taught me that we are not invincible, that the way we walk through life, the way we embody our values, our dreams and our love shape our reality. I will continue to walk my path with humility and reverence for this life and the next ones to come.
And should our paths cross, I promise to hold space for you, with care and presence. I’ll remind you that your story matters and that your healing matters. Your present and your future are in your hands and I am deeply honoured to be able to share Reiki with my fellow humans.
LINEAGE
A Reiki lineage is another way of showing where the Reiki teachings came from, going all the way back to Mikao Usui, the founder of Reiki. My lineage starts with the wonderful Brighitta Moser-Clark who taught be from both, the Western and Japanese lineage.
USUI SHIKI RYOHO
(WESTERN REIKI LINEAGE - USUI SYSTEM OF NATURAL HEALING)
1. Mikao Usui
2. Chujiro Hayashi
3. Hawayo Takata
4. Phyllis Lei Furumoto
5. Carrel Ann Farmer
6. Leah Smith
7. William Lee Rand
8. Penelope Quest
9. Torsten Lange
10. Brighitta Moser-Clark
11. Ariane Moser
USUI REIKI RYOHO
(JAPANESE REIKI LINEAGE - USUI SPIRITUAL ENERGY METHOD)
1. Mikao Usui
2. Taketomi Kanichi
3. Kimiko Koyama
4. Hiroshi Doi
5. Frans Stiene
6. Torsten Lange
7. Brighitta Moser-Clark
8. Ariane Moser