What is Raven Reiki?

One of the core values of Reiki is the notion that the healing does not come from the healer but moves through the healer from a universal energy source. In other words I am a conduit, a hollow bone.  In Reiki there is no ego. I have known healers who become impressed with themselves, thinking they are healing their clients. Shortly their energy becomes depleted. The universe doesn't condone that notion and reacts accordingly.

The other tougher concept is the necessity to forgive all those who have acted unkindly to you and ask for only the best for them. Hard to get up in the morning and ask for blessings even on those who have wronged you. I try to stay centered and keep these ideas in mind. Not an easy thing to do.

When I do a reading I always hold the clients hands at the conclusion to receive an impression of that person so I may tailor the healing accordingly, but also provide any guidance they may need. Sometimes I feel the person has gifts of their own or that they have an illness that must be addressed. When I ask for the healing to occur, the request is personalized for the client. For instance, when I have done an energy healing for someone who is experiencing difficulty at work, I call in energy, the angels and my guides to protect and shield them but also to bestow upon them the gift of discernment concerning peoples motives - a gift of clairsentience so to speak.

Whatever the issue I try to give guidance based on my impressions and the things my guides are telling me. Sometimes there are spirits that accompany the client for whom I provide a voice. I am no medium but this has occurred several times. Often I have encouraged clients to pursue their own healing path or develop what I perceive as a psychic ability in them. I have clients that see my on a regular basis for readings and healings. I tell each person that if situations change you may want another reading and healing. You never hear anyone say they feel “too good”. One can never receive enough positive energy.


There are many different types of Reiki like Angel Reiki, Shamanic Reiki, Crystal Reiki.  I call what I do Raven Reiki.  It blends everything I’ve learned, like H3 Energy Healing, but I still meditate each day and send all the people in the world, even those who bear me ill will, positive energy.  That’s what Reiki has taught me.

What is Reiki?

I don’t purport to speak for every Reiki healer, but learning Reiki changed my life.  The International Center for Reiki Training says that “Reiki energy comes from the Higher Power, which exists on a higher dimension than the physical world we are familiar with. When viewed clairvoyantly, Reiki energy appears to come down from above and to enter the top of the practitioners head after which if flows through the body and out the hands. It appears to flow this way because of our perspective.

However, the true source of Reiki energy is within ourselves. This does not mean that we use our personal energy when we do Reiki, but that the energy is coming from a transcendental part of ourselves that is connected to an infinite supply of healing energy.”  http://www.reiki.org/FAQ/Questions&Answers.html 

There’s a lack of ego there that serves a person well in this day and age.

I kind of look at becoming a Reiki Master as going to college. Even if you learn nothing else, you have great basis for life.  It’s what you put into it that effects what you get out.  I have learned to heal myself physically, mentally and spiritually and the fact that I can bring that to others, animal and human, is a bonus.

You can go forward and learn other healing modalities but Reiki provides the core values and the tenets by which we live as healers. 

 You can read all about the history of Reiki on my website: http://www.raven-reiki.com/reiki-history.html.  

Trinity Summer Fest 2015: North Jersey's Premier Metaphysical & Paranormal Festival

Hosted by the Trinity Metaphysical Center of Hamburg, NJ, North Jersey’s Premier Metaphysical and Paranormal Festival will feature live bands, entertainment, food, as well as practitioners and vendors.  Those who are on a journey to personal growth and seek inner strength and insight through the metaphysical will be enlightened by the many presentations and services.  Coming together from throughout the country, practitioners will provide services in psychic readings, energy healing, reflexology, massage therapy, yoga, henna art and so much more! 

Danielle Rose, an elemental healer and life-long medium of the faerie realm, shares, “I am excited to be offering readings and mini-healings at Summer Fest I’m also offering discounts on all future readings and healings booked this weekend!”  Additionally, she will sell hand made wings and other beautiful items at the Mind Key booth.  Danielle’s work is featured in The Mind Key Project: An Anthology, which will be available to take home this weekend. 

Joining her at the Mind Key Booth is Tara Lesko.  As an avid writer and artist, Tara says, “ I am excited to introduce my new art party business called Muses with Scissors.  Since this service is in-home and includes mixed media, collage, and poetry, Muses is a different take on the art party phenomena that has taken the country by storm.” Tara will provide free material for guests to use at the booth table.  Guests will have a chance to get crafty and even receive a free gift if they book their own party.  

Also at the Mind Key Booth are Carol Douglas, Kely Luzio-Cardona and Kathleen Santora.   Carol is an artist who teaches workshops in polymer and metal clay.  Kely is an artist and photographer with a whimsical touch.  Her creations include chocolate lollipops, party favors, and photographs.  Kathleen is a spiritual healer, trance healer and medium.  She’s also the author of Thoughts To Awaken The Spirit, a book of prayers to help open our mind and spirit.

Fantasy artist Dana Bree will offer power animal themed jewelry with loving and healing intentions.  Made from hand carved buffalo bone, quarts, beads, moldavite and other stones. Find large dragon and owl kites at her table, as well as Essentially Coconut, a body cream made from organic 100% virgin coconut oil and grapefruit essential oil designed to soften skin and aid in the elimination of cellulite.

Those seeking wisdom can visit the Raven Reiki Booth.  There, Vera Ann Remes, a Shamanic practitioner, Reiki and H3 Energy Healer will be utilizing new skills from her recent trip to the Michael Harner Shamanic Counseling Workshop.  Her card reading sessions incorporate essential oils, crystals and psychic intuition.  Also using Usui Reiki as a foundation, Reiki Ruth will assist those seeking energy healing by incorporating crystals, essential oils, angels, earth energy and Shamanic drumming.

Last but not least, Jane Doherty, world-renowned psychic medium, paranormal investigator and TV celebrity, will be available for readings. For more information visit her website http://www.janedoherty.com/. 

The creativity and positive energy surrounding this festival will enhance the lives of those guests looking for inner strength and healing. 

Why I am a part of Mind Key?

I’m part of several clubs or groups, each with interests that are pretty narrow – ghost hunters, equestrians, genealogists, therapeutic riding instructors.  Mind Key isn’t like that, Mind Key is unique.  Just look at the members, could you find a more diverse group?  Writers, bloggers, artists, nutritionists, poets, healers, jewelry makers, cupcake bakers, collage makers.  Here is a group whose most unifying aspect is their uniqueness. 

Am I making myself clear, ‘cause I feel I just ran in a circle?  I innately know that we all have a singular goal, to better ourselves and the world, but we are moving there on different paths. 

There’s camaraderie when we meet, comfortableness when we exchange ideas.  I haven’t personally met everyone but I am eager to, after reading the blurbs about each.

Community is not every member being the same. For Mind Key, community is every member respecting the others, no matter what our own personal views are. Some of the artists and musicians may not be acquainted with healing modalities or psychic readers, and vice versa, but there is respect and a desire to experience about something new and an appreciation for the differences.  A person can belong to many different communities at once.   Mind Key allows you experience many different views in one community.

I guess I’m part of the Mind Key community for just that, community.

Mindfulness

Mindfulness.

Merriam Webster’s dictionary defines mindfulness as:

1:  the quality or state of being mindful

2:  the practice of maintaining a nonjudgmental state of heightened or complete awareness of one's thoughts, emotions, or experiences on a moment-to-moment basis; also:  such a state of awareness

When I think of mindfulness now, I think of yoga, meditation, hot tea and incense.  And calm.

Calm is a difficult concept for me.  With all of the roles I play in my life and the hecticness of my calendar, I don’t make enough time for myself.  

As an aside:  Notice I said make instead of find time.  There’s enough time.  As much as I joke that I could use more hours in the day (couldn’t we all?) if it’s important to you, you’ll find the time.  We tell our kids that if the end result were important to them, they’d get their chores done in a more timely fashion.  If that TV show is important, we’ll make time to watch it preferably uninterrupted.  If you make yourself a priority, you can find the time.

Back to calm.  <Deep breath with the whole slow arm flapping movement>

Believe it or not, there was a time that I didn’t even know the word mindfulness, let alone the definition.  There was a time when I ran from place to place like a chicken with my head cut off, smoking frantically on the fringes of the activity, always music or TV on for “background noise”.  Now I do all the same things without the smoking AND I know the word and definition of mindfulness.  Impressive, right?

Actually, I’ve always tried to practice the non-judgmental part of the mindfulness concept.  I’m very good at seeing other points of view and can play a mean devil’s advocate.  I am usually defending someone telling those around me, “Be kind!  You don’t know what they’re going through!”  You don’t know if that pushy jackass on the highway is in the middle of a medical emergency for his child or if that rude woman in line at the grocery store just lost her mother and is having a really hard day or if that politician got bad information from someone he trusted and was doing what he thought was right, however misguided.”  I’m really good at making excuses for and being kind to other people.  There’s very little I can’t forgive.  Not so much for myself.

I’ve got a lot going on in my life and I’ve been a bit stressed recently.  But, like the feeling while most people are watching that jackass on the highway, I have been having trouble being kind to myself.  I have very high expectations for myself.  I expect to be calm, patient, pleasant, efficient, logical, active, helpful, committed, loyal, attentive, passionate, accommodating, organized and giving to name just a few.

I’m taking steps toward better mental health for myself.  Over the last few months I’ve resumed my acupuncture appointments for internal physical balance, started taking Chinese herbs for increased relaxation and mood stability and am working on a daily meditation streak on my calm.com app.  I need to make frequent blogging part of my mental health as well.

Be kind to one another.  But even more importantly, be kind to yourself.  You’re the only you you get.  

 What act of kindness have you done for yourself recently?

An Excerpt from The Golden Skillet

I don't wear skirts. I don't wear heels. If I haven't made that obvious yet, then my apologies for losing you this late in the game.
But for some reason I felt compelled to wear a black skirt with black heels for Daisy's viewing day, which comprised of one afternoon and one evening show. I say "show" because when I think about it now, for some reason we should have had some balloon races or a magician. Instead, we had photo montages and pregnancy banter since a handful of attendees were sporting baby bumps - children who would never experience her pancakes or Duck Pond triumphs. I was fine with the standard socializing and grieving that is part of the process of a loved one's departure from...whatever the heck we can call this plain of existence nowadays.

The morning of the wake, I was not okay with the black pantyhose throttling my gapless inner thighs. I was not okay with the dye from my shoes rubbing off on my legs as I sat pretzel-legged on the floor, deciding what pictures to carry with me for the day. I was not okay with the fact that she would not meet the puppy I got two weeks later. I didn't leave myself time to eat anything besides a granola bar, and I was surprisingly okay with that because I saw it as karma. I was getting ready to teach dangling modifiers the morning she passed, and I never once thought, "No, not today."
When my great-grandmother died in 1993, I was too young to recognize how different wakes and funerals are. Don't get me wrong by saying this, and keep in mind I have limited experience with death, but wakes seem to be a bit enjoyable, almost fun. Wakes are one of the few times where you can laugh raucously, cry slovenly, and look fantastic all at the same time. The reason you look fantastic is because you don't have to give a shit. You could grow mushrooms in your pits and smell like a ferret. Who cares? You have come nose to nose with this thing called mortality. Something you never think about until someone dies. Someone you made yourself believe was Zeus or Hera.

Why Mind Key Is My Second Home - Tamara Rokicki

When you’re a writer, it’s very difficult to find that homey, comfortable feeling.  The world, as we see it, is this monotonous and rule-enforced place in which we spend a timeline called life.  It’s beautiful and enjoyable, don’t get me wrong, but when you have a story to tell, the real world just doesn’t cut it.  There are words to be found, immortalized, and written to craft stories that have yet to be told.  It’s both a heavy and exhilarating burden because the struggle to produce such stories, and then share them with the world, requires a huge leap into the unknown—and it requires faith. 

The Leap of Faith

Among the vulnerability, chaos and uncertainty of putting yourself out there, as a writer you need to first find a place where you can truly connect.  When I say Mind Key is my second home, I refer to what I seek during my writing journey.  Sure, writers who are serious about their work want to be published, but there’s so much more.  There’s an intrinsic desire to fulfill through the written word. To do that means to fulfill others.   

When I was a little girl, I overheard my mother talking to a friend and something she said has stuck with me through the years.   There’s a pot for every lid, she said.  It implied that there’s a soul mate for everyone out there, the ‘right one’ that will come along when fate so decides.  I don’t think it’s that much different for writers.  For every piece of work, every written creation and every path we choose to take, there are readers who can be touched by our work.  They are the lids to our pot, the one we stir madly, adding the mismatched ingredients of fictional madness, long sleepless nights, outlines, rough drafts and characters so vividly living in our minds that we feel them coursing through our veins.  

Connection

It’s about connection.  If you fail to connect, to truly reach out and expect someone reaching back, then are our words really inspiring, immortalized, and meaningful?

It is here, at Mind Key, that I find that connection.  As a contributing writer, I’ve realized how essential creative connectedness has become.  Mind Key focuses on emotional, physical and spiritual awareness, understanding how creativity—whether it is found in a photo, a painting, blogging or a novel—can enrich us on so many levels.   Healing, spiritual awareness, and inner strength are part of a world with which we can connect and in which we can thrive.  At Mind Key we’re all given a key to this world, along with the encouragement to find out more about ourselves and the world around us.   

Have you connected yet and are you ready to unlock your potential?

Check out an excerpt from my current work-in-progress, Aiken’s Wings