REIKI MAWASHI
(The Reiki Current)
Copyright © 2003/9 James Deacon

Reiki Mawashi is a group-based energy cycling meditation.

It can also be used as a means of giving Reiki Treatment.

In the West, Reiki Mawashi is commonly referred to as the Reiki Circle as it involves a group of Reiki practitioners seated in a circle.

There are actually two different practices known as Reiki Mawashi.

One involves the circle of practitioners seated so that each person is facing the back of the person in front of them.
Placing their hands on the shoulders of the person in front, a slight pressure is applied with the fingertips, and the practitioners seek to lose themselves in the awareness of the energy flowing in from the person behind them and out to the person in front.

In the other Reiki Mawashi, each practitioner is seated facing in towards the centre of the circle holding their left hand palm up and their right hand palm down.

They place their right hand on the upward-facing left palm of the person to their right and their left hand under the downward-facing right palm of the person to their left. In some versions of this Reiki Mawashi, rather than making actual physical contact with the person on either side, the practitioners keep their hands an inch or two apart.

In this way, all the practitioners are connected, forming an unbroken chain or circle.

Perceived as entering the crown of each practitioner, energy flows around the circle, in an anti-clockwise direction, and can frequently build to levels of considerable intensity. 

(Some suggest that when this form of Reiki Mawashi is employed as a means of giving treatment, a Reiki Master should stand at the center of the circle, directing/'beaming' the flow of Reiki to the specific chosen intent.)

[In Jikiden Reiki -  where a version of the technique is taught primarily as a way of helping the student to perceive the flow of energy - it is called Okuri rather than Mawashi.]