Review: Reiki Fire

Reiki Fire was a stunning revelation when it came out. It was the first book to present documentation of the true history of Usui and Reiki, as well as a few methods from Usui's teaching.

The book, however, is mostly intended to instruct one in using Reiki. The bulk of the book goes over learning Reiki and the various degrees of students, how to give healings, some stories, and discussion of being heart centered and engaging in ones own spiritual growth. All of this will serve you well whether you choose to use Reiki for your own growth, or in opening a healing practice to work with others.

The Reiki History is explained very different from the books which adhere to the story Takata passed to us. But first the author explains how he came to know the true story of Reiki.

Frank Arjava Petter, the author of Reiki Fire is a German man living in Japan and married to a Japanese woman. He learned Reiki in Germany from a teacher of Takata's lineage (as most of us are) and hence learned Reiki originally in the style which Takata taught us. He went back home, to Japan, and began to offer Reiki Teacher training, in Japan, and was the first to do so.

Eventually he found people who had been trained in Reiki by Usui's lineage, and their lineage had nothing to do with Hayashi nor Takata. It is from them which he began to learn the true history of Usui and Reiki. He also found Usui's memorial stone and burial place (at Saihoji Temple, a Buddhist temple in the suburbs of Tokyo), and provides a complete translation of the long story written on his memorial stone.

First, we learn his name is really Mikaomi Usui and are told the full lineage of his family. He had a wife, a son, and his family members seem to be embarrassed over what he did in his life.

Usui taught Reiki to about 2000 people before his death, and there were Reiki centers and workshops being taught all over Japan.

This is a very nice, and thin, book about Reiki in all of its facets. If it did not include this new information about Usui, it would still be a nice and useful book. However, this new information about Usui is earthshaking in terms of what it means to the history and practice of Reiki.

This book is highly recommended on all levels, especially if you want to learn about the true history of Reiki.