Celtic Reiki, the Ogham, and my take on it

I have been working with this system for nearly two years now. I have been a Reiki practitioner for nine years now. After some careful thought, I have come to the conclusion that Celtic Reiki is not Reiki. It is a totally valid system of accessing the Ogham symbols for magical uses that can include healing, but it is not Reiki. I love using it, but I feel that it is a stand-alone system that does not need to be associated with anything else. I’m pretty sure my ancestors didn’t call it Reiki and weren’t studying any Japanese or Tibetan energy healing systems when (and IF) they ever used the Oghams for any sort of folk magic. I also don’t get the requirement that interested parties need to be Reiki practitioners. This system does not use Reiki symbols and instead of drawing on the nameless “universal energy” that Reiki does, the draw is quite specific. It draws on earth energy. When you also use the energy of the plants and symbols that make up the Ogham script, you are also accessing ancestral knowledge from the ancient cultures related to the time, place, and worldview that the Oghams represent. This is powerful magic.

Celtic Reiki channels “Neart”, an old Welsh word for strength and power. It is similar in mind to ki, the Japanese word for life force, so perhaps that makes it easier for people to understand because, sadly, we are quite used to Eastern concepts of energy, but not those of our own blood. As a sideline, it is interesting to note that the Welsh “Neart” and Germanic “Nerthus” (ancient Germanic earth goddess) are similar.

As a Reiki system, Celtic Reiki is incomplete. Not all of the Oghams were channeled by the system’s founder, Martyn Pentecost. I’ve been working with the whole script quite happily, though. In fact, lots of people have been working with the Oghams without any attunement at all. In fact, when I flipped through my papers, my first thought was, “I knew this stuff already……” lol….lesson learned!!! I’m not trying to be picky or start anything, but I find it mighty ODD that he channeled information that has been publicly available at least since the New Age explosion of the 1980s.

Reiki is generally thought of as a healing energy, although over the last few years many books have been published as experimental practitioners explore other uses for it. Celtic Reiki symbols get broken up into three groups:

Level One symbols concern themselves with healing and making oneself open to change and growth.

Level Two symbols deal with manifesting various things.

Level Three symbols are mainly concerned with endings and transitions.

Two of the Level Two symbols, Oak and Ash, are used to begin each session. I find it odd that Thorn would not be mentioned, since anyone who has ever picked up anything to do with Celtica in general knows the importance of oak, ash, and thorn. To my mind, trying to open a channel or gate, or start anything remotely magical with only two out of three is like trying to make an omelette with just egg whites. It’s just not quite the same and it falls a little flat.

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