The second degree of Usui Reiki introduces three symbols. Cho Ku Rei is used for focus and strengthening — to concentrate the work at a place or a moment. Sei He Ki is for the emotional and mental layer — used when what's being held is a feeling or a pattern rather than a physical tension. Hon Sha Ze Sho Nen is the distance symbol — it makes sessions across space and time possible, and it's why I can give a full session from Cannes to someone in London.

That's what they're for. I'm going to explain each properly, because "reiki symbols" is a much-searched phrase and most of what you'll find is either secretive or mystical, and neither is useful to someone deciding whether to book.

A word on secrecy

Traditionally the symbols were shown only at the second-degree attunement and not drawn in public. Some lineages still hold that. Others — including many Western teachers since the 1990s — teach that the symbols are tools, not secrets, and that the attunement is what activates them for a practitioner, not the drawing. I'm in the second camp. You can see the shapes anywhere; what you can't get from a picture is the training and the transmission behind them. So I'll describe them without drama.

Cho Ku Rei — the focus symbol

A spiral with a vertical stroke and a small flag at the top. In practice, it's the one I use most. Drawn or held in mind at the start of a session, or at a specific point on the body, it concentrates the work there — the way you'd lean in to listen more carefully. When someone's shoulders are the thing, or the jaw, Cho Ku Rei is how I stay with it.

The name is often translated as "place the power here." That's about right. It's a marker: here, now, this.

Sei He Ki — the emotional symbol

A wave-like curve with small loops. This is the one for what isn't physical — the grief in the chest, the anxiety that has no object, the pattern someone's been running for years. In a session for someone who's braced against a feeling rather than a strain, Sei He Ki is what I bring to the chest and the head.

I don't ask people what they're feeling. The symbol is a way of working with the emotional layer without making anyone talk about it.

Hon Sha Ze Sho Nen — the distance symbol

The most complex of the three, drawn as a column of characters — it's built from Japanese kanji and reads roughly as "no past, no present, no future" or "the origin of all is pure consciousness," depending on who's translating. What it does in practice is straightforward: it's the symbol that makes a session possible when the person isn't in the room.

This is why distance Reiki is not an internet-era invention. Second-degree practitioners have worked at a distance since the 1920s, using this symbol. When I give a session to someone in London, Hon Sha Ze Sho Nen is the first thing I use.

What the symbols aren't

Magic. Passwords. Things that work without the training. A practitioner who's been attuned at second degree and has practised for years uses them as a musician uses scales — as structure the hands know. Someone who's found them on the internet has a drawing.

What this means for you

If you're booking a session, the symbols mean I'm working in a defined tradition with defined tools, and that I trained for them — Level II, within a documented lineage back to Usui. If you're booking a distance session, the third symbol is the reason it exists at all. Beyond that, you don't need to think about them. They're my work, not yours. And whatever the symbols do, Reiki stays complementary — alongside medical care, never instead.

FAQ

What are the three Reiki symbols? Cho Ku Rei, for focus; Sei He Ki, for the emotional and mental layer; and Hon Sha Ze Sho Nen, the distance symbol that makes sessions across space possible. All three are taught at second degree.

Are Reiki symbols secret? Traditionally yes; many Western teachers now treat them as tools rather than secrets. The shapes can be seen anywhere. What can't be copied is the attunement and training behind them.

Which Reiki symbol is used for distance healing? Hon Sha Ze Sho Nen. It's why second-degree practitioners have worked at a distance since the 1920s, long before anyone did it online.

If you'd like a session — here or at a distance

Message me on WhatsApp. In person on the Riviera or at a distance from Cannes, €180 either way. The symbols are my side of it; yours is lying down.