Reiki for the Soul
During a recent Reiki training I was asked if I distinguished between spirit and soul, and while my answer may not be held by the majority or Reiki practitioners, lo never even discussed in most Reiki classes, I do believe it has some bearing on the overall spiritual aspect of with Reiki, so, while my answer at the time may not have been as coherent as I would’ve liked it to be, I’d like to take this opportunity to flesh it out a bit.
While I acknowledge that, in many belief systems, spirit and soul are synonymous, I find them to be quite unique. Without getting into any type of religious discussion, the bible supports me in this where (in the book of Hebrews, 4:12) there is a discussion of the splitting of spirit and soul, yet the religions that use that bible seem to have melded them together. I’ve heard it said that “we are a spirit being, we live in a body and we possess a soul” and I think that really sums it up quite nicely.
In my post on Deep Soul Reiki I believe I may have got it backwards. In that post I said:
My own understanding of the soul is derived from an interpretation (or rather a mis-interpretation) of Rene Descartes famous conclusion cognito ergo sum (I think therefore I am). While contemplating this statement I have often wondered why Rene didn’t say I am therefore I think. And what would the implications be of such a statement. Of course professional philosophers have been debating the implications of this for years and I’m sure I am not about to discover something they haven’t but I believe that by the simple fact that these two statements are quite different in understanding there is more to it than a simple observation.
While I stand by the observation, I now think that was actually the spirit I was talking about. So maybe the post should have been called Deep Spirit Reiki. The spirit is the immortal part of us, that ethereal part that is reincarnated, the real being that lives silently (for the most part) inside of us. The soul basically consists of our minds (and hence the thoughts that are produced by them) and our hearts (and, likewise, the emotions that are produced by them). I should note that the mind and heart I’m talking about here have no relationship to the physical organs of the brain and heart, they are just primitive interpretations of it.
So, while, in essence, spirituality is the quest for a greater understanding of and greater connectivity to the spirit, the soul falls more under the domain of psychology. Our personal psychology might be defined as our personal quest for a greater understanding of our minds and hearts… and this is where, I believe, Reiki plays a very important role.
While not exclusively, the second level of Reiki deals with mental and emotional healing. Since Reiki deals with the dissolving of energetic blocks and the restoration of balance in our various energy fields and systems, any mental and/or emotional Reiki can be said to be Reiki for the soul. Rather than looking at thoughts and emotions as separate things, we should look at them as two sides of the same coin, or the two halves of the yin and yang symbol even.
Being a well-balanced person can be said to be having our thoughts and emotions balanced… not only with and within themselves, but also with and to each other. Sending Reiki to our soul does just that… it breaks though the blocks preventing this balance from manifesting. So rather than doing mental healing with Reiki, or emotional healing with Reiki, we should endeavor to do soul healing, at least in part… I believe this will not only heal the mental and/or emotional imbalances, but create an overall balance between the two, i.e., in the soul… which can only be a good thing. 
Does this make any sense? Please ask about any part that doesn’t and I’ll try to clarify it. Otherwise this is certainly an area that warrants further thought… which I will start doing straightaway. 
For further explanation or discussion, your thoughts are most welcome and highly encouraged, please feel free to comment below!!!
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so the soul is what connects us to and interacts more directly with spirit, which is present in everything – an element of nature, so to speak, experienced by the soul as the ego experiences the air or the earth.
am i getting this right?
i may be a bit mixed up now. i've always thought of spirit as a sort of all-permeating essence or ethereal building-block substance or life matrix. our souls being the part of us that can and does act upon spirit. with work, our egos can become aware of the interaction, connect to our souls, and work with the soul upon the spirit to cause changes.