Twenty five years ago this weekend I received my level one Reiki Attunement and initiation into the world of Energy Healing. When I look back today I realize what a miracle it was and continues to be to this day. I didn’t know it then, but I received multiple blessings which brought me safely along the waves of shifting energies that I continue to experience to this day. You see I was an innocent traveler. I didn’t know what I was actually doing to myself by accepting the symbols and energeticsnof Reiki into my body, my brain, my heart, my hands and my energy field. It changed my life permanently and ultimately for the better. I awakened.

I was in my mid-thirties, married with one year old boy. Our lives were in transition in 1994. Husband was minimally working partly due to a DUI. I wanted to be at home to care for my baby and was living off a substantial commission I earned selling real estate in Boston. We were homeless having been asked to leave our sea side rental home in Brant Rock because we had a child and the landlord was concerned about lead paint. This was totally illegal but I could not bear a court fight. The plan was to move into my in-laws home in New Hampshire, but they rented it before we committed. So I moved with my husband and child into my mother’s rented condo with my brother living in the basement. All of our furnishings fit in the garage. This was the beginning of September. I did not know what lay ahead.

My mother had turned me onto this psychic reader in nearby Leicester. Her name was Grace and she had a metaphysical book and gift shop called The Crystal Journey. They made Reiki candles. She offered readings and classes along with the books, crystals and candles. I had a tarot reading with a man during a weekend event and he told me I was the high priestess with a fixed look on his face, as though he had never had that happen before. This stuck with me, because I instantly knew it was true. I was listening attentively to signs from the universe since I had recently read the Celestine Prophecy. That book opened my psychic awareness as I was receiving many psychic messages, and confirmation about the messages. Because of these intuitions I stayed interested in these new ideas about energy and healing. A path had opened before me and I kept following the marked trail. That was the first event at the Crystal Journey.

The next thing that happened at The Crystal Journey was I purchased an oracle card deck called The Mayan Oracle and that same day I signed up for an evening class about the Mayan calendar. It was being taught by a man who later became my Reiki 2 teacher. After I left and went home excited for my purchase I went to my bedroom and opened the cards. Surprisingly, I had 2 of the same card in the deck. Yeah doubles… What? A beautiful deep green glyph called Cimi. It is a card about surrender, letting go, releasing and forgiving. This was unusual and it was my very first oracle deck I ever purchased. I did not know what to make of it. However, I did come to discover that Cimi has been my most important teacher these 25 years. Letting go of so many ideas that are not mine has allowed me to emerge unto my true self.

When I went to the class I got my answer I got my answer about the double cards. The teacher talked about the Mayan Calendar and gave us our birthday signature glyph (like astrology). Mine was Cimi. Needless to say my eyes bugged out when I was told I was Cimi. I had two of these cards in my cellophane sealed deck that I opened only a few days before. Coincidence? No it is another clue and confirmation that I am in my right place.

My teacher also told me I was the same as him; a White Electric Wizard. Although I had no idea what that meant, I was honored to have been the same as the teacher. Am I a teacher also? Inside I always wanted to be one. My heart knows I am a teacher. I felt elated with this information because I recognized that I was in a flow of synchronicity described in The Celestine Prophecy. I wasn’t sure where I was going I only knew I had to keep taking another step in this direction.

Lastly, I took another step along this Crystal Journey path to get Reiki Certified. Years before my mother had attended a Barbara Brennan workshop and I was fascinated with the drawings of energy fields, chakras, and healers in her book “Hands of Light”. I never read it as it was a dense textbook and I was unable to understand it. I only observed the pictures and was fascinated by them. Two years later I enrolled as a student at The Barbara Brennan School of Healing where I was taught the next level of energy healing.

Grace told me Reiki was healing energy and even though I wasn’t fully aware of what Reiki was, I only knew that I had to have it. I wanted to heal. I wanted my life to feel better than it did. I wanted to be happy. So I went to learn about it. It started in the morning so I left early excited for a new path for myself. I had found it increasingly challenging to go back to the competitive, high pressure sales in my real estate job. I was exploring a new road that interested me. What is this healing energy all about?

This was a gloomy Saturday morning at the first of December. The days are short and lack of sun has its effects on a person. The town of Leicester is a small community outside of Worcester. The landscape is pastoral as many of the old colonial homes were once farms. The Crystal Journey was such in such a house off the main road. The front building was a grand colonial structure from the 1700’s; broad and boxy. There were outbuildings one of which was the two story updated shop and classroom areas. It was attached to the main house.

As I pulled up to the driveway that morning, I instantly went into shock and a state of disbelief, because there was no large old colonial structure from the 1700’s. Gone it was! Only smoldering coals remained on the scorched earth where the house had stood the day before. It had burned to the ground. What was left standing were outbuildings. The sign Crystal Journey perfect. The old farmstead home leveled, gone, destroyed. There was nothing, no remains of furniture, appliances, or personal effects. Nothing.

Feeling like I was in a dream, I went toward the shop to inquire if class was canceled. As I opened the door, I was astonished to see Grace there looking shocked, but she spoke to me. She told me class was still going to happen. OK? I said are you sure? She replied that she had called in the troops and that some friends were coming to teach on her behalf. I agreed and waited for the class to begin. The candle making process accidentally caused the fire the night before.

The next thing I noticed was that the shop interior and exterior was completely free of any smoke or water damage. I once had a fire in my home and the smoke damage goes everywhere. Here there was not a trace of any horrendous destruction, not a scent of smoke, not a carpet saturated, nothing at all. The interior of the shop was pristine and you smelled the sweet scent of fragrant incense. Remember I said the shop was attached to the large main house. How could this be? It was only 15 feet away. How could this be?

Even though I didn’t understand how it was possible I allowed myself to stay with the intended energy for Reiki and stay for the class. There were five students and four teachers. The class went on. Another miracle, but the magic of this is that those of us that were there that day received Reiki attunements from 4 teachers. Each teacher attuned every student. This means I got a quadruple blast of energy through the symbols and the initiation. It was extremely potent. The proof came during the 21 day purification and detox period where much was processed. Remember the dates beginning on 12-4-94 21 days and ending on 12-25-94. The time bomb was ticking. I was living with my family after being on my own for a long time and it is almost Christmas.

The proof was in the symptoms that occurred to me during the 21 days. I was waking up. I blew out light bulbs when turning on light switches and lamps. My hands turned a translucent blue. I was purging my bowels regularly too. Additionally, I found my guide Crow who was outside my bedroom window cawing at me to wake up and meditate every morning. And come Christmas day there was a huge blow out with my mother and my brother I could not tell you what it was about. I moved to New Hampshire a week later. I remained there to heal for 24 years. The forests and lakes of New Hampshire restored me to who I truly am. I am Cimi. I am an Energy Healer. I am a Teacher. I am an Artist. I am Love.

Reiki is a powerful life force for opening you up to receive energy flowing into a shut-down system. I was shut down from early childhood. Between adults telling me who I am to teachers telling me what to do and society telling what I should want, I had little room left for self exploration or self-expression. Reiki helped me discover what I am all about and I will forever be thankful.