The following text and photos are abridged from Animal Reiki: Using Energy to Heal the Animals in Your Life:“Over the past five years I’ve sent Reiki to the deer and other wild animals in my neighborhood to help them with the many challenges they face in a suburban environment. The deer face a lot of hardships: in finding food, avoiding cars and dogs, and dealing with hostility from people. They have felt the healing energy I sent, and gradually we have moved into a close relationship. They have come to trust me and to regard me as their healer. Whenever they are sick or injured, they come to my entry courtyard and wait until I come home or until I look out and see them there. Sometimes they even go from window to window looking in to try to catch my attention if I am home.
Over time they have brought all manner of injuries and illnesses to me for help. When a deer comes for help, I sit quietly in the courtyard with my hands in my lap and let the Reiki energy flow to him. Each deer decides how he wants to receive the treatment, moving around the courtyard as he sees fit and leaving when he has had enough Reiki.
When I scheduled the photo shoot for the chapter on wild animals in Animal Reiki, I was unsure how the deer would respond to the presence of a photographer. On the day before the shoot I sent Reiki to the situation and asked the deer to come the following day to be a part of the book, if it was comfortable for them.
The next day, just before the photographer arrived, I went outside and found that there were a dozen deer waiting for me. During the shoot the deer were calm and focused. Over the next hour and a half they took turns seeking treatments. They accommodated each other beautifully, with the majority waiting patiently off to the side out of the way of the photos or on the ledge until each deer was finished with Reiki and it was time for the next deer to step in.” The following photos are from the shoot that day:
Click the first image to launch the slideshow.
The deer’s desire to help me gave me enormous joy, and, as we worked together and Reiki filled the courtyard, I could feel the excitement and delight rising for all of us, the deer, the photographer and me.
After we had completed the photos with the deer, we moved inside, expecting that we had completed all the photos of wild animals that we would get that day. However, the squirrel, Reepicheep, had a surprise for me and was waiting on the deck to offer his participation as well. Reep was uncertain about the photographer, but he stayed long enough to contribute some lovely photos of a treatment of a squirrel.
At the end of the shoot I felt that Reep and the deer had really extended themselves to help Reiki reach other animals and to give something back to me and to Reiki for what they have received in the past.”
When I first learned Level 1 Reiki, I didn’t have much success in treating my dog, Zoe. She was then about twelve and had begun to develop symptoms of kidney disease. When I placed my hands directly on her, or even six to twelve inches away form her, she moved away after only a minute or so, as though Reiki felt too intense for her. Eventually, I concluded that she just did not like it and stopped offering her Reiki. Meanwhile, her kidney symptoms increased.
One day near the beginning of my experiences with the deer, I noticed that one of the young stags was limping. When I got a closer look at his right hind leg, I could see a large swollen infected area above the hock and extending down below it. There were several long, open, festering wounds there, similar to the kind of lacerations animals sometimes get from being tangled in barbed wire. It looked as though it had been there for some time.
Years ago I worked with a feral cat named Smokey at the local animal shelter. Smokey hadn’t done well in the shelter and had tried to escape several times. Soon after he arrived he became very sick and would have died if one of the staff had not force-fed him and nursed him back to life. As he grew stronger, however, he continued to be very wary of people, often biting volunteers who tried to interact with him. When I met him they were very concerned because after three months in the shelter he sat hunched in one corner, never moving from that spot, severely depressed. He started at every noise and movement, and, although he could be taken out of his cage by a few of the most experienced volunteers, he would try to bite people¹s faces as soon as he saw them.
Some years ago I had been thinking about getting some photos of my horses for my website when I saw a sign-up sheet at their barn for a photographer who was coming to do portraits of people and their horses. I jumped at the chance to get some professional shots of my two beauties. The day before the appointment I sent Reiki to the shoot the next day; I asked Senedad and Annie to help me by being at their best for the photos the next day so that their photos could be a part of my work.