Types of Reiki: A Directory of Systems and Their Symbols
There is no register of Reiki. No governing body, no agreed list, no authority that decides which systems count. What exists instead is a living family of practices — some transmitted through five generations of teachers, some received in a single night, some assembled thoughtfully by one person in the 1990s — and a great deal of confusion about which is which.
This directory is an attempt to hold all of it in one place, accurately, without ranking anyone.
A note on what this is not. It is not a verdict on which systems work. That is not a question a directory can answer, and I would distrust any list that pretended otherwise. It is also not a purity test. A system does not appear here because I approve of it, and the systems missing are missing because I have not yet documented them — not because they failed a standard.
How to read each entry. Three things are recorded, none of which measures whether a practice is effective:
- Transmission — how the system says its Symbols came to it. Lineage (received from a teacher in an existing line), received (given directly, in vision, meditation or contact), composed (assembled or developed deliberately), or a combination.
- Provenance — what kind of record exists. Founder's account (a first-person statement, dated), teaching body (an organisation that maintains the record), or third-party only (described by others, with no founder source located).
- The set — how many Symbols, whether they are named and published, and whether the collection is closed or open.
Apply this honestly and one thing becomes obvious immediately: the four Usui Symbols score poorly on provenance. There is no contemporaneous document and no dated first-person account of their origin. Several twentieth-century systems below have a far better paper trail than the tradition they descend from. That is worth knowing before anyone starts drawing lines about authenticity.
This page is maintained. If you teach one of these systems and I have described it wrongly, or if your school is missing, write to me and I will correct it — and I will credit the correction. A directory of a hand-transmitted tradition is never finished.
The Japanese lines
Usui Reiki Ryoho Gakkai
Origin Japan, early 20th century · Transmission Lineage · Provenance Organisational, largely closed to outsiders · Symbols Three · Name Unrestricted
The Japanese organisation continuing Usui's teaching. Hiroshi Doi, trained within it, has stated in a published interview that Dento Reiki — orthodox Reiki — has three Symbols, no Master Symbol and no mantra set, and that he confirmed this by asking several Gakkai presidents and senior teachers directly. This is the single most consequential fact in the whole directory, and it sits at odds with almost every Western chart. Source
Jikiden Reiki
Origin Japan, 20th century, from Chujiro Hayashi through the Yamaguchi family · Transmission Lineage · Provenance Active institute · Symbols One shirushi at Shoden; a jumon for distant work at Okuden · Name Unrestricted
Structurally unlike the Western system: the first level carries a Symbol where the Western Level I carries none, and distance work is introduced through a spoken mantra rather than a drawn form. Taught deliberately unmodified. Source
Komyo ReikiDo
Origin Hyakuten Inamoto, Japan, modern · Transmission Lineage (Hayashi line) · Provenance Teaching body · Symbols Four; the first three shared with Jikiden · Name Unrestricted
Notable for candour. A Komyo and Jikiden school states plainly that Usui's original curriculum and Symbols are not fully known, and that no modern Reiki system can claim with certainty to represent his teaching exactly. I have found no more honest sentence anywhere in this field. Source
Gendai Reiki Ho
Origin Hiroshi Doi, Japan, modern · Transmission Lineage plus conscious addition · Provenance Founder's account · Symbols Four · Name Unrestricted
Roughly a third traditional Japanese material and the rest Western-derived, by the founder's own description. Doi added Dai Ko Myo as a fourth Symbol knowing it is not part of Dento Reiki, because he judged the resonance useful. An unusually transparent act of system-building, and a model for how such an addition can be made without misrepresenting it. Source
Reido Reiki
Origin Fuminori Aoki and Noriko Ogawa, Japan · Transmission Lineage · Provenance Third-party recognition · Symbols Not enumerated in sources located · Name Unrestricted
Recognised as a distinct style by the UK Reiki Council. I have not been able to document its Symbol set and would welcome a correction from its teachers. Source
The Takata transmission and its Western branches
Usui Shiki Ryoho
Origin Usui → Hayashi → Takata; Phyllis Lei Furumoto as lineage bearer · Transmission Lineage · Provenance Teaching body (the Reiki Alliance) · Symbols Four — three at Level II, one at Master · Name Unrestricted
The mainstream Western transmission, and the version most practitioners alive today received. After Takata's death in 1980 the majority of her twenty-two masters recognised her granddaughter as lineage bearer.
The Radiance Technique®
Origin Barbara Ray, USA, from 1980 · Transmission Claimed sole succession from Takata · Provenance Founder's account plus active association · Symbols The Usui set, held closed, across seven degrees · Name Heavily trademarked
Ray states she received the entire intact seven degrees directly from Takata. Her association holds not only "The Radiance Technique®" but also "Real Reiki®" and "Authentic Reiki®" — trademarks that make a claim in their wording. The organisation's own pages do not acknowledge the succession dispute that followed Takata's death. Source
Mari-El
Origin Ethel Lombardi, USA, 1980s · Transmission Lineage — one of Takata's twenty-two masters · Provenance Third-party description · Symbols Three · Name Unrestricted
A system built by someone with impeccable lineage credentials who chose to go her own way. Lombardi is reported to have deliberately not trained others to attune new students, which limited how far it spread — a rare example of a founder choosing not to scale.
Raku Kei Reiki
Origin Iris Ishikuro → Arthur Robertson, 1980s · Transmission Lineage plus additions described as Tibetan · Provenance Third-party account · Symbols The Usui set plus a Tibetan Master Symbol, Raku and the Violet Breath · Name Unrestricted
The doorway through which "Tibetan" material entered Western Reiki. The origin account runs through a relative of Ishikuro said to have worked at a Tibetan temple in Hawaii. No named teacher, temple, text or lineage has been identified. The Symbols are widely used and valued; the word "Tibetan" here is a lineage name, not a verified connection. Source
Usui/Tibetan Reiki
Origin William Lee Rand, 1980s–90s · Transmission Composed · Provenance Founder's account · Symbols The Usui four plus a Tibetan Master Symbol and the Fire Serpent · Name Unrestricted
Rand's synthesis of the Usui material with the Raku Kei line. Retired by him in 2014. Source
Holy Fire
Origin William Lee Rand, 2014 · Transmission Received · Provenance Founder's account · Symbols Replaced the earlier Master Symbols · Name Associated with ICRT programmes
A founder retiring Symbols he had himself taught for decades, and replacing them by his own decision. Whatever one makes of it, it is an unusually clear illustration of how living a tradition this is.
Reiki Plus®
Origin David Jarrell (1946–2002), USA, from 1981 · Transmission Claimed Tibetan initiation plus a Takata lineage claim · Provenance Third-party description · Symbols Not enumerated in sources located · Name Trademarked
Four practitioner levels and two master levels, reported at around 310 hours of training — one of the most demanding structures in the field.
Reiki Jin Kei Do
Origin Seiji Takamori (1907–1992) → Ranga Premaratna; named 1997 · Transmission Claimed lineage plus a Himalayan transmission · Provenance Founder's account, revised over time · Symbols Not publicly enumerated · Name Unrestricted
Premaratna has publicly acknowledged having no written verification, no photographs and no documentary record from Takamori, and has corrected his own earlier published account of the lineage. I record that here because he said it himself. A teacher who revises his own claim in public is doing something the field needs more of, not less. Source · Historical review
Rainbow Reiki®
Origin Walter Lübeck, Germany; certified 1987, teaching from 1989 · Transmission Usui base plus the founder's own research · Provenance Founder's account plus extensive publication · Symbols The Usui set plus added "noetic" Symbols and mantras · Name Trademarked
Built through decades of research and study travel rather than revelation, and presented as such. Lübeck has published widely, including a book co-authored with Frank Arjava Petter and William Lee Rand. Source
The Karuna family
These three systems share Symbols — Zonar, Halu and Harth appear in all of them — and give different accounts of where they came from. Read together, the accounts suggest a pool of Symbols circulating among practitioners in the early 1990s, which different teachers gathered, ordered and named differently. What each founder created was a system: a curriculum, a sequence, an initiation structure.
Karuna Reiki®
Origin William Lee Rand / International Center for Reiki Training, 1993–1995 · Transmission Symbols brought by named masters, systematised · Provenance Founder's account · Symbols Eight treatment Symbols plus a Master Symbol · Name Registered trademark
Rand's account describes students bringing him Symbols he did not recognise; an early working name was dropped when the claimed origin did not hold up, and the system was renamed and trademarked. Commonly listed as Zonar, Halu, Harth, Rama, Gnosa, Iava, Shanti and Kriya. Source
Tera Mai™ / Tera-Mai Seichem
Origin Kathleen Milner, USA, from February 1991 · Transmission Received, plus Symbols contributed by named others · Provenance Founder's account, published and dated · Symbols Thirty-six named, with contributors credited individually · Name Trademark on file since 1995; Milner states she shares it freely with initiates
The most openly-credited Symbol set in the field: Milner's own published list names who brought which Symbol. Rand's account of Karuna Reiki names Milner among the contributing masters. The two accounts overlap more than the long-running friction between them suggests. Source
Karuna Ki
Origin Vincent Amador, first published online 1999 · Transmission Composed, explicitly not claimed as channelled · Provenance Founder's manual · Symbols Eleven to twelve, including the Usui Dai Ko Myo and the Tibetan Fire Serpent · Name Deliberately free
Created as a non-proprietary alternative to the trademarked Karuna Reiki®. Amador's manual states the name is public domain and may not legally be trademarked, and that the system is unaffiliated with the ICRT. Anyone may teach and adapt it. Source
The Egyptian stream
Seichim / SKHM
Origin Patrick Zeigler, 1980, following a night in the Great Pyramid of Giza · Transmission Received · Provenance Founder active today; the detailed origin account comes largely from third-party retelling · Symbols No canonical set · Name Unrestricted
The Symbol set was never fixed; teachers have added their own for four decades, which is why no two Seichim lists agree. The name itself splits — Seichim, Seichem, Sekhem, SKHM — because it was transmitted orally with no agreed spelling, and different students rendered by ear what they heard. Zeigler teaches today as Sekhem All-Love. Source
Sekhem-Seichim-Reiki (SSR)
Origin Diane Ruth Shewmaker, USA, 1999 · Transmission Downstream synthesis of the Zeigler line · Provenance Dated publication with a foreword by Zeigler · Symbols Eleven, across seven facets · Name Unrestricted Source
Sekhem (Helen Belôt line)
Status Recorded but not documented here. A separate lineage from Zeigler's Seichim, sharing a name. I have not verified its founder's account, Symbol set or teaching structure and would welcome material from its teachers rather than guess.
The ascension stream
A cluster of systems that describe their origin as a transmission from a named being rather than from a human teacher. What unites them practically is more surprising: most of them use no Symbols at all.
Shamballa Multidimensional Healing / New Paradigm MDT
Origin John Armitage (Hari Das), first workshop 1994, Jersey · Transmission Received, attributed to Saint Germain, with a claimed Atlantean origin · Provenance Founder's teaching body · Symbols Deliberately abandoned · Name US trademark registered 2016
The organisation's own history states that the original symbol-based, grade-based approach "proved restrictive" — which is why the system was renamed and restructured without Symbols or grades.
A correction worth stating plainly: the widely circulated figure of 352 Shamballa Symbols does not come from Armitage. It appears in third-party course marketing sold under the older name. If you were taught it as fact, you were taught something the founder moved away from. Source
Kundalini Reiki®
Origin Ole Gabrielsen, Denmark · Transmission Received, attributed to Master Kuthumi · Provenance Founder's site and manual · Symbols None, by design · Name Used with a registered mark
The manual states the system "does away with lots of complicated instructions, symbols and rituals" and that intent is the key. Three levels, plus a later Ultimate addition and a large catalogue of optional attunements.
Gold Reiki · Ethereal Crystals
Origin Ole Gabrielsen · Transmission Received · Provenance Founder's materials · Symbols None — "the key is all in the intention" · Name Unrestricted
Ethereal Crystals runs to six levels, each with its own defined set of stones. Source
Lightarian Reiki®
Origin Jeannine Marie Jelm and Christopher Jelm, 1997, USA · Transmission Received, attributed to Ascended Master Buddha · Provenance Institute with published programme pages · Symbols None new — works through intention · Name Registered
Requires the Usui Master attunement as a prerequisite, so it builds on the four rather than replacing or extending them. Four course levels drawing on six vibrational bands. Source
Angelic Reiki
Origin Kevin and Christine Core, UK, 2002–03; teaching base moved to Luxor in 2005 · Transmission Synthesis of read philosophy, with Archangel Metatron named in its materials · Provenance Founders' own detailed history page · Symbols Eight — but their shape, sound, drawing and meaning are deliberately not taught · Name Trademarked and copyright-registered
A genuinely distinctive position: the practitioner is not asked to learn the Symbols but to be in their presence. Kevin Core died in 2009; Christine Core continues the work and the organisation states that groups using the name without their validation are not connected to it. Source
Imara Reiki
Origin Barton Wendel, USA · Transmission Received · Provenance Partial — the founder's own account page could not be retrieved · Symbols None; activated by a spoken phrase · Name Unrestricted
A single Master-level attunement, with Usui Master status as a prerequisite.
Violet Flame Reiki
Origin Attributed to Ivy Moore, around 2000 · Transmission Received, attributed to Kwan Yin · Provenance Third-party only — no founder site, publication or teaching body located · Symbols Around forty reported, across four levels · Name Some sellers use a registered mark; no registration confirmed
I include this with its documentation gap stated openly. The gap is a fact about the record, not about the practice or the people who teach it. If someone holds primary material from the founder, I would like to see it.
Purpose-built modern systems
Money Reiki
Origin Stephanie Brail; manual dated January 2005 · Transmission The founder's own insight, stated in the first person, rather than a named being · Provenance Founder's dated manual · Symbols The dollar sign as the core Symbol, with three more at Level II · Name Unrestricted
Brail's manual describes her own years of financial difficulty and chronic illness, and the idea that if people can be attuned to healing energy they might be attuned to the energy of money. Three levels: Practitioner, Master, Grand Master.
This sits at the commercial edge of the field, and I record it for that reason rather than despite it. A directory that lists only the flattering entries is not a directory.
One entry that carries a caution
Medicine Dharma Reiki / Men Chhos Reiki
Origin Richard Blackwell, teaching as "Lama Yeshe", from around 1994 · Transmission Claimed derivation from an ancient Tibetan text and from Usui's own journals · Provenance Failed · Symbols Not documented
Everywhere else in this directory I describe rather than judge. This entry is the exception, and the reason is specific.
The system rested on a text only its founder could produce. Authentication by named translators was promised for 2002, postponed, and never delivered. Paula Horan, who wrote the foreword to the book and taught the system with her partner, published a dated withdrawal saying they were no longer in a position to continue teaching — a decision affecting some seventy students she had personally trained and forcing cancellations across several countries. Independent enquiry found no recognised Buddhist body supporting Blackwell's claims, and the Dalai Lama's office denied knowledge of the ordination he claimed. The community largely dissolved by the end of 2002.
This is not a difference of lineage. It is a documented failure — and the people who came out of it best are the teachers who said so publicly and stopped.
Recorded, not yet documented
These systems have teachers and students, and I have not researched them individually. I am naming them rather than omitting them, because a directory that only lists what its author had time for teaches its readers a false map:
Amanohuna Reiki · Angelic RayKee · Ascension Reiki · Blue Star Celestial Energy · Buddho-EnerSense · Crystal Reiki · Dragon Reiki · Fusion Reiki · Golden Age Reiki · Ichi Sekai Reiki · Jinlap Maitri Reiki · Johrei / Jo Reiki · Saku Reiki · Satya Japanese Reiki · Sun Li Chung Reiki · Usui-Do · Vajra Reiki · Wei Chi Tibetan Reiki
If you teach one of these, or one not listed at all, please write. I will document it properly and credit you.
What the directory shows
Three patterns emerge once everything is in one place, and none of them is what I expected when I started.
The Symbols travel. Zonar, Halu and Harth belong to three systems with three origin stories. The Usui four appear inside systems that describe themselves as entirely separate. What founders create is far more often a curriculum than a Symbol.
Many mature systems put the Symbols down. Kundalini Reiki, Gold Reiki, Lightarian, Imara and Shamballa all work without them, and Angelic Reiki declines to teach what its eight Symbols even look like. Each arrived there independently — and each arrived, by an entirely different road, at what the Japanese tradition says about shirushi: that the Symbol is a door, and a door is for walking through.
The real disagreement is about ownership. Not lineage, not method, not which Symbol is correct. Trademarks — including two that assert authenticity in their own wording — and one system, Karuna Ki, created specifically to refuse them. That is the only genuine fault line in the whole landscape, and it is about names and licences rather than about the Light.
Frequently asked questions
How many types of Reiki are there? There is no register and no agreed count. This directory documents twenty-nine systems in detail and names eighteen more that exist but are not yet documented here. New systems continue to appear, and several established ones have merged or been renamed by their founders.
What is the difference between Usui Reiki and the other systems? Usui Shiki Ryoho is the transmission that reached the West through Chujiro Hayashi and Hawayo Takata, and carries four Symbols. Most other systems either descend from it, add to it, or were received independently. A significant number require Usui Master training as a prerequisite rather than replacing it.
Which type of Reiki is the real one? No system in this directory can demonstrate an unbroken documentary chain to Mikao Usui, including the mainstream Western lineage — the surviving record simply does not exist. Two trademarks in the field assert authenticity in their wording; that is a legal claim, not a historical finding.
Do all Reiki systems use symbols? No. Kundalini Reiki, Gold Reiki, Ethereal Crystals, Lightarian Reiki and Imara Reiki work through attunement and intention with no Symbol set. Shamballa, now taught as New Paradigm MDT, deliberately abandoned Symbols and grades. Angelic Reiki has eight Symbols but does not teach their form or meaning.
Is Reiki trademarked? The word "Reiki" itself is not restricted. Many individual systems are: Karuna Reiki®, Tera Mai™, Rainbow Reiki®, Lightarian®, Kundalini Reiki®, New Paradigm MDT and The Radiance Technique® among them — the last also holding "Real Reiki®" and "Authentic Reiki®".
Changelog
Every change to this directory is recorded here, with the date and the person who supplied it. The log begins on the day the page was published and will only ever contain changes that actually happened — a record that quietly fills itself with imaginary corrections would be worth less than no record at all.
3 September 2026 — Shamballa entry corrected. The figure of 352 Symbols was removed. It does not appear in John Armitage's own materials; his organisation states that the symbol-and-grade approach was set aside, which is why the system was rebuilt as New Paradigm MDT. The figure had been carried into an earlier draft from a secondary source. Supplied by ReikiPedia research.
3 September 2026 — Directory published. Twenty-nine systems documented with founder, transmission, symbol set and source; nineteen further systems named without documentation, pending material from their teachers. Supplied by ReikiPedia research.
Submitting a correction
If your school is described wrongly, or is missing, send four things:
- The system, and what is wrong
- What it should say instead
- A source — your own site, manual or published account is ideal
- How you would like to be credited
Corrections from a system's own teachers take precedence over anything found by research. Being asked to fix this page is not a nuisance; it is the point.
This directory is maintained and corrected. Last reviewed September 2026.
ReikiPedia is for educational and complementary purposes only — not medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Reiki and energy practices support wellbeing alongside, never instead of, professional care.