by William Lee Rand
I received my Usui Reiki training in 1981 and 1982 while living in Hawaii. I became an Usui Reiki master in 1989 after moving to Michigan. After becoming a master, I decided to study with other Reiki masters so as to deepen my understanding of Reiki. I went on to take the Usui master training from three other Usui masters as well. As I travel around the country and to other countries teaching and practicing Reiki, I have also made it a point to exchange treatments, information, attunements and techniques with other Reiki masters and practitioners. I feel that healing is a never ending study and that ever greater benefits can come from God if we seek them. Through the process of having studied with many Reiki masters I developed a deeper understanding of how the attunement processes, symbols and healing energies work.
I did not originally intend to create a new system of Reiki, but starting about 1989, I began being given non-Usui Reiki symbols and attunement techniques which were claimed to have benefit. I filed these symbols away along with the attunement processes that were included with some of them and also begin experimenting with some of them. After a number of years, I had quite a collection and many of my students began asking me about these "additional symbols" and wanting to know if they should use them. In the winter of 1993, I gathered together a number of my best students many of whom were spiritually sensitive, to experiment with the additional symbols, try them out and decide which were the most useful. We asked for guidance and through this process came up with a set of symbols that seemed to have the best energy. We also experimented with an attunement process to go with them. Later I was guided in the further development of the attunement process and this eventually evolved into a new system of Reiki. Throughout the process, I prayed for help from the Higher Power and asked that I be connected to a healing energy that would be of greater benefit. I did not channel any of these symbols myself. They came from other Reiki masters. In 1995, I was guided to more clearly define the system and to name it Karuna Reiki® which can be defined as the Reiki of Compassion. While some of the symbols in Karuna Reiki® are the same as those used by other schools and systems, because the attunements are different and the intention is different, the energies that are connected to Karuna Reiki® are unique to the system.
