Walking Between the Worlds ─ Book II: The Interconnection of Reiki, the Elements, and the Human Energy System

By Judith M Campbell

Through a series of interactive home-based retreats, Judith Campbell guides her reader into the essential relationship between physical and mental/emotional health and spiritual liberation.

In this book set, you will uncover many surprises about yourself through a variety of activities and discussions. You will also confirm many suspicions

• Language: English
• Publisher: Burnstown Publishing House
• Release date: Mar 1, 2017
• ISBN: 9781772570953

Book preview

In Gratitude

TO ALL MY Celtic Canadian pioneering grandmothers—Jane, Agnes, Elizabeth, Mary Anne, and Lila on my mother’s side; and Jean, Margaret, Mary Anne, and Janet on my father’s side—whose strength and endurance allowed them to walk confidently between the unseen world of their faith in something more, and the physical and hard-reality challenges of their visible new world of Canada in the 1800s and early 1900s: raising families without any of today’s conveniences, helplessly watching their children die of diseases we can now prevent with immunization, communing with their fellow pioneers to support one another through tragedy and through celebration … and all the while holding a spirit of hope and gratitude for being guided through each day. Their unyielding strength and the strength of all our pioneer grandmothers and ancestors runs through the bones and the souls of their descendants, who oftentimes feel their presence as we walk between the worlds of ancient whispers and modern society. In gratitude and in love across the centuries to each one, I dedicate this book set on healing.

Thank you!

Judith.

A Celtic Morning Prayer of Affirmation and Gratitude

I open to the Divine, life-affirming energy of nature’s power, beauty, harmony, and light so I can absorb and reveal her abundance in everything I do, with love and gratitude in my heart.

THESE WERE THE ways of our ancestors … who took the time to notice, look up, listen, and embrace the ways of nature and respect her power, beauty, and bounty available for all. It is to their example of the appreciation of nature’s potential that we return in these writings.

Welcome back to our retreats as we continue to walk between the worlds. I assume you have completed retreats one to three in my first book before moving to this book and that you will, therefore, have completed the study required to give you the background to continue at retreat four of this series.

It is my pleasure to continue with you on this journey with your spirit. Our format remains the same as we move up the chakra system, to consider the spectrum of nature that reflects wisdom to us when we are aware, and guides us in our healing practice of Reiki.

May you be blessed with the ability to find your inner healing voice as you connect with the gift of the Universe, the light and love that is available for all … light and love that offers peace as we practise loving kindness and heals those things that hold us back from enjoying a lifestyle of Anshin Ritsumei … as we continue in our walk between the worlds.

Quick Review of Retreats One, Two, and Three

We could say that the first three chakras and their elements of earth, water, and fire resemble a flower garden. We know that for the garden to grow well, it needs rich soil, water, and sunlight. Some gardens are filled with unwanted weeds, which would suggest that the garden’s caretaker has some work to do in her garden. Weeding will aerate the soil, the element necessary to free up the space between the flowers so they can display their beauty.

THE GARDEN AS metaphor for the human body suggests that the weeds equate to some form of imbalance in the chakras. To restore balance, the weeds need to be pulled out, and quite possibly the well-established plantings need to be thinned out as well.

We might begin this process by trying to pull out the weeds using our hands. If the garden has not been watered, however, it will be difficult to pull out the weeds. So before we do anything else, it will help if we water the soil—the weeds will then release more easily—and perhaps nourish it afterwards with some fertilizer. The soil will be richer for the growth we wish to establish and more accepting of a hoe or shovel to help us separate overgrown roots or eliminate them.

Now to the human body, as metaphor for the garden. If our first three chakras have not received the benefit of an open channel of energy flow running between them, none of these chakras will function at their optimum, creating some dysfunction within the overall system; the body will be vulnerable to an overgrowth of undesirable characteristics subsequent to its roots being ignored, choked out, or unattended.

With regular and loving care given to the human garden by weeding (releasing) and watering (self-nourishing) and the right amount of sunlight (self-nourishing), we can grow as we were intended; we will display our own beauty without even trying, because we have been cared for—i.e., we will have learned to care for ourselves.

A well-tended flower garden needs continued attention to all of these details for the garden to bring pleasure. So, too, does our human garden. This attention will prepare our human garden to receive the ingredient of love that will make our garden thrive … so much so, that when stray seeds land in our garden, they will not be able to take root and grow. And the roots of unwanted perennials we thought we had previously eliminated will be removed more easily—hopefully, permanently.

Retreat 4

The Air Element as Universal Life Force

AN OPEN HEART chakra on your Reiki path and lifestyle supports free-flowing, heart-centred energy to stimulate your water element; it fans the flame of your fire element and aerates the soil of your earth element!

In turn, each of these elemental changes in your being allow Reiki energy to flow more easily throughout your energy system, creating an abundant and beautiful yield within your inner healing peace garden and ensconced within your life’s journey …

… and now we move into the air element, centred in our fourth chakra.

WELCOME TO OUR fourth retreat. As we move up the human energy system to the fourth chakra, we move into the air element as universal life force. Think about this concept for a moment: Without this element, the gift of life as we know it would be absent. Contained within the air element is an essential component of all of life: oxygen. In this sense, we are constantly in touch with and, in fact, breathing the energy of the air element as universal life force at all times!

The air element has an essential and vital impact, therefore, on the inner workings of the body. The tiny alveoli, or air sacs in the lungs, receive the oxygen directly from the air we breathe and efficiently transfuse this life-sustaining quality of the air element to our bloodstream. From there, it will reach every living cell in our body! (This efficiency is impaired when we inhale cigarette smoke or other toxic substances into our lungs.)

When we sit and stand up straight, we open our chest for our optimum lung capacity and air exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide (the by-product of cellular activity within the body). The act of breathing is actually an activity of cleansing and restoring. When we are relaxed, we take slower and deeper breaths without even thinking about it. And conversely, when we are stressed, our breathing tends to be shallow or more rapid.

When you can relax into a place of stillness and take the time to consider the physiology of breathing, as we are doing now, you can understand how stress might deny your body its vital oxygen potential and full air exchange. If this were to continue over the long term, it could have an effect on your vital energy and well-being. Good posture, therefore, the elimination of toxic substances, and the reduction of harmful stress in your life are three basics to good health. They are keys to open your ability to receive the full benefit of vital life energy that can come from the air element operating efficiently in your life!

The air element in nature mirrors for us what the air element can do in our bodies and for our bodies. On a clear day, when the air is clean, our breathing outdoors is easy; taking deep and full breaths feels quite wonderful. A sunny and clear day can be emotionally uplifting for those who suffer the effects of sun deprivation. Conversely, on a day when the air contains smog, our breathing is noticeably altered. Smog alerts prevail in our weather apps and in the news. People with breathing problems are advised to remain indoors. It is not too difficult to join the dots of these obvious teachings from the Universe! Air quality is all-important for our health and well-being.

Nature’s winds can be quite ferocious, loud, whining, and long-lasting. Her breezes can be gentle and refreshing, carrying fragrances of blossoms and the gentle sound of tinkling wind chimes from our gardens. In the human body, the air element carries our emotions. We might compare anger to nature’s ferocious winds; sadness to the whining and mournful-sounding winds, and happiness to the beautiful fragrances and soothing sounds that are carried by gentle breezes of the air element. Emotion is experienced in every cell of our being and is noticeable within the breath. As expected, sadness breathing suppresses us energetically, while happiness breathing energizes us. Angry breathing or fear of anger can almost choke our ability to breathe.

Our outer demeanour reflects our disposition. As in nature, the air element further affects our fire element, either infusing it with energy to burn brightly or to scarcely burn at all.

Could this be the source of an irregular burn in one’s solar plexus furnace that we discussed on our last retreat?

Could it be over-fuelled or under-fuelled by the air element in one’s solar plexus furnace? … with emotions … with fear?

I welcome you to go beyond these ideas and consider now how you might be wearing your air element within you. And as part of your retreat preparation and reflection, ask yourself how love and honour of yourself is being reflected in your air element. Here are some quick questions to help you with this.

•Are you carrying self-love in your posture?

… in your demeanour?

… in your way of speaking?

… in your behaviour?

… in your attitudes?

… in your thoughts of past, present, and future?

•Are you carrying love of others in these ways?

•Does your air element stir up emotion within you like a windstorm?

•Does your air element sift your emotions together such that you cannot separate one from another?

•Does your air element rise and settle evenly again with the appropriate amount of heat generated by your fire element?

•Is your hot air balloon ride comforting for you as you float around, or are you filled with fear?

These questions are reminders of how we might open ourselves to receive Divine loving energy via our fourth chakra, through the air element as universal life force.

WE WILL BEGIN our retreat using a heart-centred focus on the use of our Reiki practice in healing those things we have referenced since our first retreat, and might still be holding us back. In air element terminology, please keep in mind what may be blowing too ferociously within you, or not moving at all because it is locked within your fears.

YOU MAY HAVE heard the interpretation of the heart chakra as being a bridge between the lower chakras and the higher chakras—a bridge connecting us to the loving energy of the Divine Source. I also visualize the heart chakra as the space between the upper and lower kanji of the Reiki symbol! Inherent in this space or bridge is our capacity to love, as simply as breathing the air element into our bodies.

When we open to breathe heart-centred loving energy into the problems of our life, we invite Divine loving energy to help us find a Divine solution for the highest good of all. Love changes everything, as we adopt a Reiki lifestyle.

With this brief introduction to the air element, I remind you to have your journal nearby to record any thoughts and ideas that come to you as you read. You will remember also that the Reiki symbol has and will appear in areas where I am suggesting you may wish to pause and reflect, and possibly journal inspiration or questions that come to you. As with our previous retreats, please take the time you need to process each of the sections within this retreat. Relax and enjoy,

Judith

AS I BREATHE

I relax into this new space of green,

Of moist and moving air,

Of palm branches sending gentle waves

Of unique stillness

Behind and in front of me

Blessing my time of solitude

Filling me with peace …

The kind of peace, I imagine, is

Represented by the statue of the Buddha

Sitting ever-faithfully

In front of me

Symbolically reminding me

Of this special space

Inside of me

Restoring me

To the pleasures of the presence

Of timeless,

Unquestioning,

Undemanding

Peace.

EXERCISE

Perhaps the foregoing are things you can think about now as you go outside, if you can, and lie down on the grass and look up into the sky. Imagine yourself connected to the Universe through the air element as you look up into any cloud formations that are present today floating high above you. Try to follow a specific cloud and track its movement across the sky …

TAKE A DEEP breath in … and as you breathe out, try to visualize your unwanted energies dissipating from your stressful situations, just as easily as the clouds dissipate above you … as you connect with the Divine Source of the Universe and open to Divine loving solutions that give possibility to new ideas … just like the clouds changing their shape as they float across the sky … open yourself to whatever message might be delivered to you as you focus on this spectacle of nature.

Come back inside when you are ready … and we will continue with a contemplative heart-centred exercise.

In the meantime, enjoy this time outdoors; if you cannot go outside, try sitting as closely to a window as you can and look up into the sky to observe the happenings there. Or simply imagine what the sky might look like with its clouds altering their shape and dissipating as they float by above you … and disappear …

The Master word-symbol as seen through the lens of the heart chakra

CONTEMPLATIVE EXERCISE

Imagine the light of your solar plexus moving up to mix with your heart centre. Now superimpose upon this imagery the meaning of the Master word-symbol:

the extraordinary light of transcendence.

Breathe this imagery into your being and just sit with it, eyes closed for a few minutes, continuing to breathe the visual flow of energy moving in you, within the concept of transcendence … transforming the energy of your solar plexus into the ideal inner flame of harmony, balance, and peace within you … relaxing you … allowing you to get in touch with the best part of you … feeling cared-for and loved …

DO YOU KNOW whether your heart centre is completely open?

DO YOU KNOW the times it is not open?

DO YOU KNOW everything that keeps it from opening fully?

If you answered yes to even one of the above questions, please know that you can use your Reiki practice to help you achieve a more healthily functioning heart chakra. In time, that which has reduced its function will have been healed and no longer have the