Reiki systems and styles

There is no single “Original Usui System”. Like many pioneers and visionaries, Mikao Usui’s teachings evolved as he developed Reiki.
Earlier on in his life, Usui mostly taught spiritual self development, often to Buddhists who would integrate Usui’s techniques with their Buddhist practices. However, Usui’s students went their separate ways and developed different systems. Eguchi left the Gakkai fairly soon after Usui’s death. Hayashi followed in the early 1930s and both of them set up their own Reiki Societies with different names. So the diversity in Reiki Systems dates right back to this time.
Chujiro Hayashi was very unusual in making Reiki available to all who wished to learn, and even being willing, after some persuasion by Takata to allow Reiki to leave Japan. Anyone who is aware of the cultural and historical context surrounding Hayashi’s amazing decision (only a few years before Pearl Harbour) will appreciate that this is one of the greatest ever Reiki miracles.
The Gakkai, on the other hand, followed the culture of their time and kept their Reiki to a very small and tightly knit circle, and even today, they are not interested in spreading Reiki outside of their existing members and students. For this reason, we have only relatively recently become aware of the Gakkai’s existence and of the very different Reiki system that has evolved within the Gakkai since Usui’s time.
Sometimes western teachers of Reiki forms containing Gakkai elements use the Gakkai name of Usui Reiki Ryoho, but their forms of teaching are in fact very different to the Gakkai’s.
Reiki classes which contain Gakkai techniques or other non Takata forms are often called “Japanese Reiki” as distinct from western (Takata) Reiki but this particular terminology is misleading since both Takata and Gakkai Reiki have been radically modified and adapted for western students and teaching conditions.
What is very clear is that the main branches in modern day Reiki originate from Takata’s Masters themselves very soon after her death in 1980. This means that a knowledge of what Takata’s Masters and their students did in the 1980s are the key to understanding our current variety of Reiki forms.   
THE THREE MAIN BRANCHES OF REIKI IN THE 1980s
Before and specialy after Takata’s death, three main branches had emerged which still define the main features of most systems found in the UK and Globally.
BARBARA RAY’S RADIANCE TECHNIQUE
The first Reiki organisation, which was formed while Takata was still alive, was created by Barbara Weber, now known as Barbara Ray. Her organisation is known as the Radiance Technique International Association, or TRTIA. This is now a small Reiki Organisation but for most of the 1980s, it was the biggest group and many of the founders of Reiki Associationcame from this Lineage, and its influence is reflected in many systems of Reiki. During this decade, she introduced a series of changes, dividing the master degree into 3A and 3B, adding four more degrees to make 7 in total, and westernising the teaching language.
USUI SHIKI RYOHO AS EXPRESSED BY THE OGM.
In 1982, most of Takata’s masters met in Hawaii, and recognised Phyllis Lei Furumoto as their chosen Grandmaster. The following year, 1983, they met again in Canada and formed the Reiki Alliance. The Reiki Alliance does have a common Reiki System which all members undertake to practise as a condition of membership. This today is called Usui Shiki Ryoho as expressed by the Office of Grandmaster.
The OGM system of Usui Shiki Ryoho has four Aspects: healing practice, personal development, spiritual discipline and mystic order. For the gifts of the whole to be realised they need to be held in a balanced way, not allowing any to overshadow the others. These Aspects spring from a central core of practice and philosophy called the Form, comprised of nine Elements, each bringing unique lessons. The combination of all the Elements and Aspects and their inter-relationships creates the system, which has a proven, predictable capacity to take people along a profound path of healing, growth and spiritual deepening. If any part is changed or left out, the whole balance, dynamic and structure will change and it is no longer the OGM system of Usui Shiki Ryoho.
IRIS ISHIKURO AND ARTHUR ROBERTSON: RAKU KEI
The third main branch of Reiki originates with one of Takata’s Hawaiian Japanese Masters called Iris Ishikuro. Iris developed a system called Raku Kei with one of her American Master students called Arthur Robertson. Iris and Arthur both believed in combining Reiki with other modalities and in changing the Reiki System that Takata had taught to Iris. These patterns have continued as a “Spiritual Genetic” down this Lineage, with two very important results. Firstly, almost all the variety of more recent Takata Lineage Styles and Systems originated with Masters in this Lineage. Secondly, most Reiki Masters in this Lineage teach much more fluid Reiki Styles rather than Reiki systems as we have defined them.Examples of commonly taught additions of this kind are Chakras , Auras, and 21 day Cleansing periods. Also,Ishikuro and Robertson taught first and second degree combined. Most Masters in their lineage teach them separately, but the intervals of time between degrees, before Mastery, the length of Master training, and of successive Reiki generations all tend to be much shorter than in OGM or Barbara Ray lineages. Some Masters trained by Arthur Robertson went through a period of apprenticeship. Others received a few days training. These same variations continue down this lineage, and arereflected in our Directory..Prices charged for first and second degrees also tend to be lower than Takata’s, and classes tend to be shorter. The price charged for Mastery by Takata, $10,000, was thought to be much too high and was reduced substantially, to $1,000 or less. The length of Master training was also reduced by comparison with Takata’s other Masters.
REIKI COMES TO THE UK

Several Masters from both Radiance Technique, including Barbara Ray herself and several of Takata’s Masters in the Reiki Alliance taught their respective forms of Reiki in the UK and Europe in the middle and late 1980s. Masters from the Ishikuro Robertson Lineage did not arrive in the UK until late 1994.In 1991, when the Association of European Reiki Practitioners, the AERP, (which became The Reiki Association in 1994), was founded, the UK members of the Reiki Alliance sought out and invited all known masters of whatever lineage to join.In August 1994 two American masters in the Ishikuro / Robertson Lineage, William Lee Rand and Judith Tripp Chasin, started training large numbers of masters in the UK.

OTHER REIKI STYLES AND SYSTEMS
There are dozens, if not hundreds of Reiki styles and systems. To give you some idea of just how many styles presently exist in the world today, here but a few:

1. Adama Starfire Reiki
2. Alef Reiki
3. Amanohuna Reiki
4. Angelic Raykey
5. Angel Touch Reiki
6. Anugraha Reiki
7. Ascension Reiki
8. Authentic Reiki
9. Blue Star Reiki
10. Brahma Satya Reiki
11. Buddho Ennersense Reiki
12. Dragon Reiki
13. Dorje Reiki
14. Fusion Reiki
15. Gakkai Reiki
16. Gendai Reiki
17. Golden Age Reiki
18. Ichi Sekai Reiki
19. Imara Reiki
20. Innersun Reiki
21. Japanese Reiki
22. Jikiden Reiki
23. Jinlap Maitre Reiki
24. Johrei Reiki
25. Kava Reiki
26. Karuna Ki
27. Karuna Reiki
28. Ken Reiki-do
29. Kundalini Reiki
30. Lightarian Reiki
31. Magnussa Phoenix Reiki
32. Mari El
33. Medicine Buddha Reiki
34. Medicine Dharma Reiki (Men Chhos Reiki)
35. Medicine Reiki
36. Monastic Seven Degree Reiki
37. New Life Reiki
38. Ni Kawa Reiki
39. Osho Neo Reiki
40. Radiance Technique
41. Rainbow Reiki
42. Raku Reiki
43. Reiki Jin Kei Do
44. Reiki Plus
45. Rei Ki Tummo
46. Sacred Path Reiki
47. Sai baba Reiki
48. Saku Reiki
49. Satya Japanese Reiki
50. Shakyamuni Reiki
51. Siddhearta Reiki
52. Silverwolf Reiki
53. Seichim or Seichem
54. Sun Li Chung Reiki
55. Tanaki Reiki
56. Tera-Mai and Tera-Mai Seichim
57. Tibetan Soul Star Reiki
58. Tibetan Reiki
59. Universal Reiki Dharma
60. Usui-Do
61. Usui Reiki Ryoho
62. Usui Shiki Ryoho
63. Usui Teate Reiki
64. Usui/Tibetan Reiki
65. Usui Universal Healing Reiki
66. Vajra Reiki
67. Violet Flame Reiki
68. Wei Chi Tibetan Reiki


These are but a few and no doubt, in time, many new styles will either emerge, be discovered or invented. Whether this is for legitimate reasons of lineage, methodology, or simply as a means of marketing Reiki in a new way, one thing is evident, that Reiki will continue to evolve in the future.
However Phyllis also says that almost everyone does their very best with Reiki, and that provided that we all carry on faithfully practising Reiki for a long time, we will all tend to learn similar lessons and so the differences in styles will either lessen or be less a source of misunderstanding.
Orginal written by James Deacon (  www.aetw.org/ ) and edited and added by Anastasio.