Wisdom Rising

Finding Reiki's Mystical Flow on Mount Kurama

• Christine Renee, Isabel Wells, and Shantel Ochoa • Season 3 • Episode 2

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The sacred tree has fallen, but the wellspring flows on. Could this be nature's message about the future of Reiki?

When Christine returned to Mount Kurama in Japan for her second pilgrimage, she wasn't expecting to witness a profound metaphor about energy practices worldwide. Standing at the birthplace of Reiki, Christine observed how a precise typhoon had taken down only the sacred masculine symbol—a centuries-old Kami tree—while leaving the companion feminine symbol—an ever-flowing spring—completely untouched.

Christine's insights illuminate a potential evolution in Reiki practice—what she calls "Reiki Fusion"—honoring the traditional structure while embracing intuitive flow. Her journey challenges us to reconsider whether our spiritual practices have overemphasized masculine energy (structure, hierarchy, perfection) while neglecting the feminine (intuition, inner wisdom, natural flow). 

In today's episode, we cover:

  • The highlights of Christine's Pilgrimage to the birthplace of Reiki
  • How the Buddhist roots of Reiki transformed Christine's perspective
  • Exploring spiritual balance between structure and flow
  • Comparing this trip to Christine's first pilgrimage
  • Contrast between mainland Japan temples and Okinawan forests
  •  The stark contrast between masculine and feminine energies
  • Why we need to embrace our intuition and inner wisdom
  • Personal transformation through nature and travel
  • Fall of the sacred tree on Mount Kurama as a metaphor for energy shifts
  • Call to balance tradition with authentic self-expression

Ready to discover what happens when we honor both the structure and the flow in our Reiki practice? Listen now!

...........

Why Did Usui Go to Mount Kurama on June 5th: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/5X-ujPueQQufyjdCwMeoUQ

Reiki Masters Class: https://moonrisinginstitute.circle.so/c/reiki-master-teacher-training/

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Book a session with Isabel: https://calendly.com/into-the-deep/schedule

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Book a session with Christine: https://calendly.com/christinerenee/90-minutes-intensive

Book a FREE 10 minute connect call with Christine: https://calendly.com/christinerenee/10-minute-connect-call-srpt

Speaker 1:

It's time to remember your divine purpose and limitless potential. Welcome to Wisdom Rising, the official podcast of Moon Rising Shamanic Institute. Join shamanic Reiki practitioners Christine René, isabel Wells and Chantelle Ochoa as we guide you on a journey of radical self-discovery and spiritual guidance. Each week, we'll dance through the realms of shamanism, mysticism, energy, healing and personal development to illuminate your path to true healing and self-sourced wisdom Through weekly inspired conversations and interviews with leading spiritual and shamanic practitioners. We are here to help you acknowledge, reconcile and balance your energy so that you can awaken to the whispers of wisdom rising from within. Hello, hello and welcome back to another amazing episode here on the Wisdom Rising Podcast. I'm your host for today, isabel Wells, and I am thrilled to be joined for a special episode where we turn the tables a little bit and Christine is in the hot seat as our guest. Today. I'm interviewing her as she shares all of her amazing takeaways and wisdom that she's bringing with her back from Japan, back from Mount Kurama, where she recently returned after completing her second Reiki pilgrimage up to the birthplace of Reiki. In today's episode, she shares about the contrast between her first pilgrimage and her most recent one that she completed this May. She talks about her top takeaways and especially how this trip really prompted her to re-examine how she thought of the masculine and feminine energies and how she saw those correlations in the world around her, but also in the practices and the Buddhist roots that uphold the Reiki practice that we know today. This episode is really interesting and a little different from everything that we've brought to the podcast so far, and Christine gets really personal and shares her journey in a very storyteller fashion. So I hope that you enjoy listening to Christine and hearing her top takeaways. If you enjoy today's episode, stay tuned for more.

Speaker 1:

Next week Christine will be diving even deeper into this masculine and feminine energy and how those come together in what she's calling a Reiki fusion. You may remember that term, reiki fusion because it is part of Christine's upcoming Reiki fusion master teacher training. The training has been pushed out a week. Enrollment has been extended for that week to allow people extra time to secure their seat and enroll. So classes now start on June 12th and you'll be diving into every aspect of Reiki, from the traditional Eastern practices to the modern Western practices, and Christine will be bringing all of the wisdom that she's brought back from Japan both times into this training, having taken Christine's master training twice now, I can say that it is not like any other Reiki master teacher training that I have ever taken, and I highly encourage you to take the leap, spend your summer engaging with Reiki in a completely new way and deepening your practice. This course is open both for Reiki level twos and also for current Reiki masters who just want to reset the training and get a new perspective on this energy that we all know and love so well.

Speaker 1:

In addition, our webinar Christine's webinar on why did Usui go to Mount Karama has also been rescheduled. So if you missed it last Thursday, you're in luck, because it is now live this Thursday at 5 pm Mountain Time, 7 pm Eastern Time. So again, that's this Thursday, june 5th, at 5 pm Mountain Time, 7 pm Eastern Time. So again, that's this Thursday, june 5th, at 5 pm Mountain Time, 7 pm Eastern Time. It's completely free for you to register and the link will be in the show notes.

Speaker 1:

Like I said, if you enjoyed today's episode, we would love to hear your top takeaways as well as your excitement for all of this new Reiki wisdom that we're bringing to the show and to our community. So be sure to join us over in our Moon Rising Shamanic Mystics Facebook group. We're a community of over 4,000 amazing individuals who are walking this path together, asking the same questions and supporting each other along the way. We would love to see you there as well. As don't forget to subscribe to the podcast so you get access to new episodes sooner, and if you prefer the video versions of these, be sure to subscribe to us over on YouTube, where we post the video companion to every podcast episode. But until then, I hope you enjoy today's episode. Let's go to the show. Welcome. Welcome back to another amazing conversation. I am so excited to be joined with Christine Rene today, as she is here to share her top takeaways from her recent pilgrimage to the birthplace of Reiki in Japan. Christine, welcome back.

Speaker 2:

Thank you so much for having me back. I'm really excited to be home and really excited for this conversation. A lot of things shifted from my first trip to Japan to my second trip to Japan and I'm blessed and honored to have those experiences and share them with you guys Beautiful.

Speaker 1:

So we're switching roles a little bit here. Today I'm going to play interviewer for Christina. She shares all of her amazing insight and experiences. So, christina, I'd love to just start with, for those who may not know what you were doing in Japan, why you went, can you give us a little bit of background on what this trip was intended to be?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, no, I think that's a great starting question.

Speaker 2:

So basically, this was a Reiki pilgrimage.

Speaker 2:

The intention behind it was to travel to Japan, to Kyoto, for a pilgrimage to the birthplace of Reiki, and on top of that I was bringing along family with me, so that added like a whole other layer, because the first time I went my dad came with me, and now, this two years later, my mom and my aunt, my dad's sister joined us as well, and so I was hanging out with my parents and my aunt on the spiritual pilgrimage, and even in those people like the, the, the background of their Reiki wisdom was diverse, like my mom is has been around Reiki for over 40 years but and but my dad and my aunt are Reiki masters Right, and so it's very it was very interesting to see how well they meshed with the rest of the pilgrimage itself, and because we wanted to land in Japan and really feel settled andinawa, which is a tropical island south of Japan, which is it is Japan Technically it is Japan, but it has a very, very, very different feel there, and so it was this beautiful contrast that came up between mainland Japan and Okinawa that really set that integration into place for me and really understood everything that I experienced in Japan.

Speaker 2:

But the original intention was yes, this is a Reiki pilgrimage, this is a spiritual pilgrimage, and to be able to experience that with my family.

Speaker 1:

Beautiful, so a little family reunion happening in Japan.

Speaker 2:

Right. Well, and I see my like. It feels like I see my parents quite a bit, at least this year, like I saw them at Christmas time. We spent spring break together, so it hasn't been a long time, but it has been a while for me to be with my aunt and it really is my dad and my aunt's line like, like my bloodline, to clairvoyance, to psychic abilities, all of those things it's in my father's line of family. That's why we're so interested in shamanism and spirituality and Reiki. A lot of us on that line of the family are. I'm the one in the family that made it into a business, right, and so I'm still like the go-to in the family. If shit hits the fan, like I'm the first to call and they're also, in their own right, very talented and it's just it's in our blood. It's like I can't explain it to it, it's just it's there.

Speaker 1:

And I know that that was something that you had talked about leading up to especially this pilgrimage is just that, that calling that you had to go and experience the things and learn more and take this lens of the history as we now know it and the roots of Reiki and the shamanic connections, and really experience that further. So how did that go this time around in your pilgrimage?

Speaker 2:

yeah, I love that you, you know I I feel like I think there's a dynamic in this where I have to kind of put a little background in. Like the first trip that I went to Japan, which was two years ago same exact Reiki pilgrimage with this pilgrimage had more spiritual masters that we sat with, more people who were head priests, more people that were Zazen masters, right, like there was more experiences like that versus the first trip felt more like a tour and a sitting with with all these cool places. And the first trip I I was living a life where I was married and I was very much a business boss, mom and was very much in a masculine energy and really already going into that trip having some marriage difficulties. And when I landed in Japan the first time it was like, oh my God, I can relax, I can let my dad lead and figure out the details for me and make sure I'm safe and make sure I'm getting from place one to place two. Like we were really good dynamic duo on that first trip and this trip it was very interesting, it was very different and the fact that I had two additional women with me there Now everyone is my dad is 69. My mom is 70. My aunt was turning 75 on the trip and I kind of became the lead right.

Speaker 2:

So this trip, here I am. I am a single mom. I've been doing this for a long, like the spiritual work for a long time. I've been doing this for a long like the spiritual work for a long time and, on top of that, like I have been able to, in the last two, really settle into my femininity, into my let things flow, allowing, um, to not really have to be so, I don't know, determined and structured and masculine.

Speaker 2:

And so it was interesting, like I feel like a different person going into this trip this year, right, and so this time I had to become the lead, oftentimes, you know, and so for my little mini group, I was helping with directions, I was making sure I felt so much more comfortable landing in the country, which was different in itself, like the first time I felt so much more comfortable landing in the country, which was different in the self, like the first time I hadn't done any international travel in like 20 years.

Speaker 2:

I have done so much international travel in the last two years. I was like I, literally the first day we got to Kyoto, we could not decide on a restaurant because we all have different dietary needs, and so I dropped them off at a restaurant and was like see, I'm out and I left and I went to the fish market, right, like I would have never done that on the first trip. So I felt so much like a different person to begin with, much more confident and comfortable and also becoming kind of this person who was the glue to our group and kind of became the lead on, like helping with directions and where are we going, what are we doing, and so that element was really different, really contrast. Okay, now I feel like I need to have you ask the question again.

Speaker 1:

No, that was beautiful. Let's follow that, because I know that that energy is such a prominent takeaway. We've talked about it a little bit on our own of what you were bringing back, but I'm curious how I know that a lot of our listeners, who have maybe followed your journey for a really long time, will remember that last time you went to Japan, you came back and your entire life just kind of shifted and you had so many aha moments and releasing and calling in new things, and do you feel like this pilgrimage has been as transformative in that way?

Speaker 2:

Not in the same way at all. Right, I literally came back from that first Japan pilgrimage and my eyes were profoundly opened and changed and just being able to feel into my feminine energy on that trip and not having to direct every single piece of it. It was contrast with my home life. Right, I came home and I was divorced within two months. I had bought a home within four months and, like, became a single mom, like needed to rebuild my life from the ground up when I came home last time. And radical, like, radical, radical.

Speaker 2:

And I think the intention this time was that I was hoping to go deeper into the practice and not because I was already there, like I'm already spiritually solid, right, like, that's what I felt like. And I was like, okay, I want to go and go deeper into the meditation, deeper into the practices, while knowing that I have my family with me and if anyone knows what it's like to travel with family, especially your mother, especially your father, right, like you are opening yourself up to being triggered. Right, because family members are the one that's going to be able to do it. Right. So my real goal and intention was, yes, I wanted to go deeper, but I also wanted to. I knew that things could come up from family and I didn't want to waver. I didn't want to waver in my practice, I wanted to and so I mean I, I pretty, I mean I get along well with everyone in my family. But we all know, we all know like if anyone's going to undermine our spiritual alignment it's going to be a family member. So I, that was kind of like an underlying intention and this time, going I, I would I wouldn't necessarily say I went deeper into the practice, like I had some really beautiful moments of wow, I'm in that deep meditative state that I was hoping for and at the same time, going on the same pilgrimage twice, um, we still had a lot of newbies in the group.

Speaker 2:

Like this was a very cultural pilgrimage as well and I already had the background. So a lot of the questions that were being asked in the beginning of the pilgrimage were things I already knew. I knew from the first trip, I knew from reading Justin Stein's book, I already knew a lot of the context, but the context wasn't known by everyone and so a lot of the time, the beginning of the pilgrimage it's asking and answering those basic questions so why don't Buddhists worship Buddha. Like you know, like what felt like to me, like these are really preliminary questions when being asked to the Zazen master that we're supposed to be meditating with, but instead of meditating we're actually doing this basic Q and a right. And so there was that little bit of like I understand what's going on in this moment and I really wish that we were able to meditate longer than five minutes right, like in the beginning of the trip, than five minutes right, like in the beginning of the trip. So there were definitely pieces where I I could have gone, I could have been guided deeper or going deeper, but it wasn't the group collectives readiness to do that until later in the trip, right, and so going up the mountain.

Speaker 2:

So on the on the pilgrimage, we go up to Mount Karama three times, we go to deep Karama once and we go to Mount Hiyai once, and all of these places are important for the context of Reiki and I love going to Mount Hiyai every time. Like that is such a profound place for me to understand, like it is the first, it is the wheel and all of the spokes is everything else. So Mount Hii is a spoke to Mount Kurama. It's, it is the birthplace of Japanese Buddhism, it is the birthplace of Zen meditation, it is the birthplace of really like. It is the heart and soul of spirituality in Japan, right? So, understanding Mount Hii makes sense for everything else.

Speaker 2:

And going into the temples there is always such a transformative experience, can it? I'm like, how do I explain it? Like here I am, like we're we're sitting with one of the head priests on this mountain and he's giving us a tour. Like we start in one location where we're he's lecturing, we're meditating, he's praying, like we're doing the things, and then we move into another temple and I am completely outside of my body, floating around, and so he then is now lecturing in another temple where there's all these tourists around, and I'm just feeling the pillar in this temple and I love this.

Speaker 2:

I and if you look at a picture, I think it can't even show you, because on the outside the temple is encompassed in a, in a like a metal building, because it's under reconstruction, so there's nothing beautiful to look like. It is a tin box on the outside because of the outwardly construction on it and it's taking years and years and years, and on the inside you feel that it is ancient. It is like the oldest temple in Japan. That's the feeling of it. So you feel this pillar and you can feel the energy of hundreds of years. Not only does the, the pillar itself is made of a tree trunk that is hundreds, hundreds of hundreds of years old, maybe six, 700 years old, as this tree trunk, and there's they are the pillars of buildings. You have multiple of these and holding up a spiritual temple.

Speaker 2:

So when I tune into this building and I and I think I talked about this first time like this temple, it's like you, I have the remembrance of everything that came before it. I, this is the temple that lit the candle that they have kept burning for like 800 years, the candle that they have kept burning for like 800 years. You know, like there they've, I can feel the attendance and being there amongst the tourist, amongst this head, monk, teacher, spiritual master, who's like lecturing. I am just, I wonder, like the first word that comes up, like zoned out. But I'm not zoned out, I'm zoned in, you know, like I'm in it so much that I'm not paying attention to the lecture. I am feeling the energy of the building, I'm feeling the energy of this place. I'm having remembrances of what happened in this building in the years past.

Speaker 2:

So like there'll be pieces of his lecture and I'm like, oh, I remember that, like I can see that through the building and I'm letting my clairvoyance show up and going yeah, I can hear the story and it's not landing me, landing on me in a logical, intellectual way, it's landing in me on a spiritual way and I can see it. I can. My clairvoyance is showing up so I can see the pictures in my mind's eye of what happened in the history of this building. Right, I remember going to the same building on the first trip and hugging the pillar and just feeling the same blissed outness, right.

Speaker 2:

So there was pieces like that throughout the trip where it was like it didn't really matter what he was saying.

Speaker 2:

And so, like here's my aunt afterwards go, hey, christine, I couldn't hear them very well, right, like here's these, I kept calling old people.

Speaker 2:

I'm like we got to let the old people start walking, like they're slower, like I was kind of always hurting them around, but it was kind of this that, like I'm she was hoping that I was listening so that I could relay it to her because she couldn't hear it as well, like physically, hear it as well, I'm like and I just looked at him, like I was not energetically like in the conversation, but I'm sure it hit my subconscious, like I know, like I know, like I know everything that he said hit my subconscious so if you would ask me a question I could answer it. That's what it felt like often, where I was there in this energetic spiritual experience and yet I wasn't necessarily taking away notes, like there was definitely times where we would be in lectures and I would be taking notes, like having my journal was is definitely filled with notes, and there was times that it was appropriate to let that go and just feel the energy of the place.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and that mix of receiving the information from a person versus receiving the information from the energy is I mean we teach that to our students right Knowing when to let your intuition lead versus when to let your mind lead? And I'm curious because that relationship between that kind of more giving masculine energy and that more receptive feminine energy is a really big theme for you in this trip.

Speaker 2:

Tell me more energy is a really big theme for you in this trip. Tell me more. Yeah, like I. I feel like it was interesting and because this trip did have a lot of spiritual masters that were teaching us. We had a head priest on um, mount Krama who is a Shugendo master teacher and like who is a Shugendo master teacher and like is the only way I can really place it Like.

Speaker 2:

Oftentimes, if you would ask these spiritual masters like what their title was, they wouldn't necessarily know how to respond to me. I'm like are you a? Are you a? Like a Shinto priest? Are you a Buddhist monk? Like what are you? And they would have difficult times like interpreting what that means. They would be like I'm a monk of this place, right? Like they would have difficult times like interpreting what that means. They would be like I'm a monk of this place, right? Like they didn't have titles. But these were the masters of the masters of the masters, on wherever we were at like as who we were talking to, and oftentimes what I recognized and what I noticed is that they were all men and being in their energy was profound and amazing, like the actual prayers and the actual acts that they were performing, the chance. Everything that they were doing was powerful, it was palpable and you could feel the energy in the room, like things would be lifting off of you and falling away, like you could feel it. And yet at the same time, they were all men. I never saw a woman Right, and so it wasn't even until deep Karama, where we went for a blessing at. Deep Karama is the backside of Mount Karama and it's really pretty difficult to get to.

Speaker 2:

And the first time I went to Japan it was the um. They had rebuilt the temple there and there's suture mounds and there's a gravial site that's like over a thousand years old, like it's a profound location, and they had just rebuilt the temple and we had gone to like bless the temple. And this time we went and we had this beautiful world renowned musician with us, who's also very involved as a Shinto practitioner and a monk. He went to the world's convention of wisdom keepers and you know like he was amazing. And yet the only thing I could think of is was his wife. His wife was the only person on the whole tour I think her name was Julie like who was clearly spiritual teacher and in her nature, but she sat lower than the men Like I just want to be like, can we give her a chair? Like she clearly knows as much as everyone else up here, can we give this woman a chair because her voice is important? And so we had, I had all these beautiful experiences and yet when the question was asked, where are the women?

Speaker 2:

Why aren't the women able to run around Mount Hiyai? As a Yamabushi practitioner, the, the, the answer is is that a woman's job is in the kitchen and the woman's job in the kitchen is to make the food to support the men, and that, um, that answer really kind of uh clicked for me this time, like I was so in my own transformational process, the first pilgrimage I went to Japan that these are the types of things that really started to stand out to me. Where are the women, where are the women's voices in this? Why aren't they here?

Speaker 2:

And while it was very interesting because I've had this book called A Chariot to Freedom on my bookshelf for over a year and it is an intense Buddhist scriptures book Like it's not something you pick up for light reading. That is one of those books that you are invested once you start reading it and it is deep and heavy and very much written by some enlightened monk, like that's what it feels like, right, and the morning I left before my trip, I pulled the book off my shelf and I looked at the title and recognized that there's something that I need to read in this and I need to read it now. And it's huge. It's like 800 pages. It is big, fat, hard covered, heavy book. And here I am ready to leave for my trip going. I think I need to bring this book with me and it's heavy, right Like no one wants to carry a heavy book and their carry on backpack, right Like it's a heavy book. And I was like I'm going to do it, I'm going to bring this book and I'm going to read it. And because when else am I going to have an opportunity as a single mom, as a spiritual entrepreneur? When am I going to have an opportunity as a single mom, as a spiritual entrepreneur? When am I going to have a time to read this book? And so I bring it with me and I'm starting to read it on the airplane over and when I have chances I read it at in the evenings.

Speaker 2:

And this is these are scriptures from you know, one, two, 300 years ago. That makes up a lot of the practices. Like it's the foundation, it's the. This book is a foundation of beliefs and what I'm seeing in practice is is that practice right? Like the book isn't talking about the practices, it's talking about the underlying foundational beliefs, about the underlying foundational beliefs.

Speaker 2:

And when I started reading the book and recognizing that the foundation of Buddhism is very patriarchal and very hierarchical and basically saying, if you are born as a man and you are born with the availability of Buddhist knowledge, like if the teachings are available to you, you are blessed and you should take the opportunity to study the quote unquote, dharma right, the Buddhist scriptures. And so like the first hundred pages is about basically how, if you are born this way, you you should take this opportunity and yet the the underlying like you could have been born an insect, you could have been born an animal and we are so lucky to be have a human body that if you are have the opportunity this is, you should drop everything to study the scriptures, everything to study the scriptures. And the underlying tone is like if you are born as a woman, you're less likely to have available to you to walk the path in the Buddhist scriptures because you are, have innate attachment because you are, you have children and you have a home, and those are attachments. And women and, and you have a home, and those are attachments, and women and men can just walk away from those attachments. And so, right there, I was like whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, hold up. Now men can just walk away from their wife and children because they're a man and they have this availability to study the scriptures. So, like, having that underlying tone about the practices that I was seeing really started to kind of contextualize some of the deeper understandings of what I was going through and why I was starting to get so, um, having this underlying dissonance. Like I couldn't put my finger on it.

Speaker 2:

I remember the first time we went up to Mount Carama, we started the, the, the journey by, with a lecture from Bruce, and Bruce is amazing, like, if you want to learn traditional Japanese Reiki, like I highly recommend him. Um, the, and he knows it so much from a masculine point of view, and he used to be a part of Reiki Cafe University and you could tell even back then, like he held so well in his masculine, I was so in my feminine when we would come together. And so we have this very, this very contrast, and I love that. He is a wealth of knowledge and that he has sat in these practices. He's done the work, if you will, and it's also a lot of things that he was saying was like the goal is Satori, like it shouldn't be a goal, but the idea is, if we do this practice, we will reach this Satori state. And how can we let go of attachments, how can we let go of our senses, et cetera, et cetera, so that we can reach Satori?

Speaker 2:

And I'm, at this point, very comfortable in saying that is not my goal. Like who cares, I've been there. Like who cares, I've been there, done that. That is not why I'm here on earth. I am okay and comfortable with and excited for my cyclical existence in the world. Like I have chosen to come back again and again as a woman, in this human suit, to do work of service to others. This is who I am. I know who I am and I'm comfortable with it. It is not to reach the Tori. I'm not trying to escape anything. I'm comfortable with the ups and downs in life. It is part of being a human and being able to to experience all the highs and lows, gives us that beautiful contrast that makes us human. So I'm not trying to escape that.

Speaker 2:

And so, when it comes to that piece of of, I just didn't, we just didn't have the same idea or the same goal, because it's very clear, like that's really important to Bruce and it's not important to me, and this is, and I'm very comfortable with speaking up and saying this is who I am. And so, while I even and so I did say it like I'm not going to reevaluate my life purpose, like I don't need to, I know, like I know, like I know why I'm here and what I do, and um, and so it was very and that kind of helped me from the very beginning and set the tone of like I'm not compromising who I am on this trip. I'm here to observe, I'm here to deepen my own spiritual practice and really ultimately deepen my own spiritual truth, and that's really what set me up for what was next, and that's really what set me up for what was next.

Speaker 1:

So, as that continued to deepen in you and you were having these awareness of you know, where are the women and the stories that shape the development of Buddhism and therefore Reiki and all of these practices that did have this very masculine structured energy, how did that awareness continue to evolve as you continued on the pilgrimage?

Speaker 2:

how did that awareness continue to evolve as you continued on the pilgrimage. So we leave the lecture that Bruce gave and we go up to Mount Karama and I love going up there, I do. There are so many freaking stairs, you're going to get a stair master workout. I think we clocked in 45 sets of stairs, according to my phone. Right, like it's, there's a, it's, it's, it's a hike, and I, I, really, I really kept coming back to one particular spot on the mountain. And so you have, you get off the train, you walk the mountain, you can take a tram up. That will take you up a little while, and then you get to the main temple square and that main temple square has this beautiful mandala where you can stand in the vortex, you can feel the energy and, yes, that's all amazing. And then you can walk farther up the mountain. And if you go up, farther up the mountain, there at the, basically the peak of the mountain, there is all of those roots that you see, and Reiki pictures, like the trees there are profound. And on the, on the top, there is a space where there is a large tree that has fallen. That was a commie tree. You can see the rope around it and if you see a large, thick rope around trees, you know that there's commie spirit there. Meaning, in the Shinto religion it is believed that this tree is an embodiment of a spirit, and commie can be embodied in buildings, they can be embodied by rivers, they can be embodied by trees, they can be embodied in specific locations, and that identifying factor of that rope around the tree means that this is one of them, right, and so there's numerous of these on the mountain, like I remember three at the base of the mountain and there's this one at the top. Well, here we have this fallen commie tree and next to it is this wellspring. Both are anomalies. We're at the top of the mountain. There should not be a fresh water spring at the top of a mountain, so it literally as this water source that is coming up from the earth and and flowing, and flowing consistently, a constant flow.

Speaker 2:

And then 10 feet from it, is this fallen tree, this folly commie tree, and this is called a Sui Gongan and it was told that this is where a Sui has reached his enlightenment. Like that is the. That is the myth, that is the legend, that is the story. This is where Asui has reached his enlightenment. Like that is the myth, that is the legend. That is the story. This is where it happened. He was sitting at the tree.

Speaker 2:

Well, in 2019, that tree was taken out by a typhoon and the typhoon was beelined straight for this tree. There's nothing else on this mountain that was taken out Like literally one direct line towards this tree, and there's nothing else on this mountain that was taken out Like literally one direct line towards this tree, and that is it. Like 10 feet away from this tree, there's the trees are standing tall and strong. Why this tree? Now, this tree is hundreds of years old and Ricky has been around for a little longer than a hundred years, right, like, and so this spot was a sacred spot for many, many, many, many people, and it was a. It was a sacred, holy site for people to meditate at. It wasn't just a suey. So, having this recognition that didn't land on my first trip, I was having too much of an emotional experience the first time to really understand the history of going One. This tree has been around forever.

Speaker 2:

Isui wasn't the only one here that Isui and Reiki are not known. Like we, on the last trip up to Mount Krama, the head priest of Mount Krama gave us a guided tour and he's like all I know is this is where it happened, but so so has it had been for many, many people have sat here and reached their quote unquote enlightenment right, and that now the tree is down and, from some perspectives, there's this idea of wanting to rebuild the temple there. So here's this big ass tree and this, this temple, and the tree fell on top of the temple and so this was like the spiritual location that's been wiped out by this tough typhoon in 2019. And the and then just across from it, is this spring, and so the idea is that this tree is the divine masculine energy of the mountain and the fountain is the divine feminine on the mountain. And I keep, I and you know there are some voices that are saying we need to rebuild the temple and we need to figure out how we're going to restore this area.

Speaker 2:

And, from a shamanic perspective, I just couldn't get on board with that. I like if there was a spiritual, a supernatural event that took out this tree, this divine masculine energy that is supposed to be symbolizing for this mountain, and it's gone. Now it has fallen. It not only took out the tree, it took out the temple as well, and the cross from it is a wellspring that is supposed to be representing the divine feminine, and it stayed constant, no change. It is ever flowing From a shamanic perspective. I can't get on board with this idea that we need to restore the divine masculine energy. There's a reason that I couldn't get over. There's a reason it is like this and that maybe, just maybe, it's significant for Reiki and maybe it's not. Like there's a part of it's like.

Speaker 2:

Reiki has only been around for a little over 100 years. This tree, this spot, has been here for a very, very long time, hundreds of years, right. So there's this, this emphasis, emphasis that you know, reiki practitioners have projected onto this space. This is the place that Reiki was birthed, and the tree has fallen and the well spring is still available. So, if the well spring is still available and it is the divine feminine and it is constant flow, and what happened right after 2019, right after this typhoon COVID hit, things shut down and the Reiki world changed and, in my perspective, it changed for the better.

Speaker 2:

People woke up to Reiki and were able to take Reiki online, that people were coming to recognize that Reiki needed to change and shift with the times, that it was okay to mix modalities, that it was okay to allow their intuition to open, to trust their inner knowingness, this inner wellspring of wisdom, and maybe, just maybe, that that is what's actually going on on the top of Mount Karama, where we have the divine. Masculine needs its own ego death, and the wellspring needs to be honored. Because, guess what, if he was sitting next to the tree, he was sitting next to the well as well, and no one is talking about that. There's emphasis on this tree. Well, why aren't we talking about well? He was sitting next to the well, he was there in the place with both, and you're right. And so there was just such a strong awareness this time that the water is here. The water's always been here. The water hasn't ever changed. It's never stopped flowing. It's here. It is here. The water's always been here. The water hasn't ever changed. It's never stopped flowing. It's here. It stayed here.

Speaker 2:

And what if Reiki is now available for the shift into the feminine? And that's not saying that we need to deny masculinity, that's not to say that men are bad. It's saying that within each of us, we have both and we need to have this recognition that our internal feminine deserves a voice, that our internal feminine deserves to be seen and heard and flowed with. And what does that look like as we approach Reiki? How does Reiki want to flow from us in a way of ease and flow, if we know about the masculine and we know about the feminine? The masculine is the structure, the masculine is the routine. The masculine is this black and white here are the borders and the feminine is the wildness. It's the flow, it's the organic right. We need more of that, and I think we have been building towards that since 2019, since the tree has fallen right, and so I just really felt like this has wisdom for the Reiki community beyond. We need to rebuild a temple.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and that's such a powerful way of being able to look at it is looking at the energetic patterns, and I think it's a really interesting conversation to have because I know that there are so many people in our community alone who have gotten so much out of whether for the positive or for the negative, that idea of masculine versus feminine. It can be this really empowering concept where it helps us to open up to the fact that we have, like you're saying, both we have the structure and we have the flow, and it can also be this really disempowering concept if it's not seen with that gentleness and that openness and the fluidity of everything that is encapsulated in that. I think, because of our culture today, especially here in the West, the idea of gender and things like that, those words can our mind can kind of latch onto them. You know, and I love that idea of going back to looking at the masculine is the structure. It's not masculine man, it's masculine the structure, the foundation, the solidity, and it's not feminine woman, it's the flow, the trust, the intuition, that wildness to it and bringing that awareness back that both are present, both are there, and we don't see that a lot in our Reiki practice.

Speaker 1:

You know we talk about this with our students all the time. Oftentimes the first thing you learn in your Reiki training, right, is these are the hand positions. This is where your hands go to do X, y, z, and that is a really rigid structure. And Chantel and I spoke last week in our conversation about Reiki about how one of the first kind of ignitions or sparks of awareness that happens as you start to step out of that box is that moment where you let your hands intuitively go where they're called to go, leaning into that feminine energy of trusting that internal wellspring of wisdom and intuition and flow. And so I'm curious, as you're noticing all of these patterns, as you're watching this story unfold, how were you bringing that back down the mountain and back into your own personal practice?

Speaker 2:

Oh, I love that question. Well, I it didn't really solidify until I hit Okinawa, like and I think that's a really crucial part of the story, because in Japan this is a lot of feminine energy, because it's an island, there's a lot of water, there's a lot of fish, there's a lot of innate flow and there's this masculine energy that comes in to try to control it, like this is where I was seeing the very perfectly manicured trees, right, the perfect manicured Zen gardens, the perfectly manicured meals, right, like everything had to be perfect, right. And then you go to Okinawa. Okinawa, I didn't see a single temple, I didn't see a single shrine. It is a place where the tropics are wild and the feminine energy there of it just being a mess and being exalted for it being a mess, was there.

Speaker 2:

So I traveled North to we. We didn't stay near the city, we traveled North. We were very close to the tip of the mountain, was half an hour to the top of the mountain, car drive away, and there there is a space called assuming spiritual hikes and it was glorious. I had the most profound experience in this forest because, in contrast with mainland Japan, this place was a fucking mess and I loved it. It was dark and it was eerie and it was wet and it was so primitive and full of life and everything wanted to grow and there was no manicuring of it, it was twisted and it was ugly and it was beautiful at the same time, right. And so, landing there and going up to to the spiritual hikes, there was places, there was the geo force forest, and you have all these strewn limestone rocks, like it looks like an asteroid hit the earth and it's everywhere, and literally the tectonic plate this is the tip of it, and you have all this limestone everywhere and because it's limestone, it erodes with the water and so everything has all these rocks, have these pockets, these holes, and the holes feel feminine. The holes feel like this let life grow here, and so the plants were growing out of these holes everywhere, and so there's rocks and there's life, and so it almost felt like the rocks are the masculine, but holy shit, it is it. The feminine is like I'm going to grow in anything, anything that you give to me, I will grow out of it, and she just explodes there.

Speaker 2:

Well, the next two hikes in this, in this, you know, container of the forest, this is Sumi spiritual hikes is, there's the shaman's forest and then there's the spiritual forest. Now, this, literally, is the name, so, like if you're getting caught up on the word shaman, that is the translation directly. And so these are the spaces the shaman's forest and the spiritual forest are the place where women shamans not masculine shamans women shamans and priestesses would go over a hundred years ago to this forest to do their rituals, to do their practices Right, and of course they would like. The femininity is dripping from this place, right. And so it was this contrast that really started to get to me. Because I'm reading I'm still reading this chariot to freedom. I'm reading this book and getting more and more mad. I'm getting this is. It has moved from dissonance to anger, right, I'm reading a chapter on the eight levels of hell and I'm like, oh, my fucking God, like I'm so done with this book. I'm flipping through, it just keeps going and going and going and I'm just like I can't read this book anymore because I know my truth and it's not going to be found in this book, it's found in this forest.

Speaker 2:

So I didn't go just once, I went twice. The first time I went, we were caught in a full on downpour, rainstorm and it was glorious, I was ecstatic, I felt like I was being blessed and I felt like I was being washed clean from the the, the anger, the distance of what I felt in Japan and the elements there that I was receiving, and just wanted to revel in the glorious nature of the mess that this forest was being honored for. And then I went a second time, so I went in the downpour and then two days later, just that, like I think, I cried, I was upset, like there was all these things that were starting to move inside of me and I needed to go again. I needed to go back, and so we did. We went back the second time and it was sunny and it was windy and it was different. Nature was showing up differently this day and it was like all of the bugs and critters had come out the snails, the caterpillars, the lizards, the, the beetles, the uh, the birds, the butterflies, like it was all there and so it.

Speaker 2:

And once again it was this glorious feminine energy that stood out, and even more so where they have a little museum and there's this fossilized, huge shell I mean it's like a foot and a half, maybe two feet tall crystallized shell that the label on it is like worship, prayer, like that's the translation of it, and I'm like what the fuck is this? And it's a shell that's been fossilized with a big hole in it that looks like a Yoni, like it looks like. And this came from this mountain here, where the priestesses did their rituals, is the place where the women shaman were known to do their work. And here are these objects of worship and you could tell oftentimes like while you walk through, like this was this. Like the label on some of the things in the forest were like this is the pelvis stone. If you have female health issues, sit on the pelvis stone. You know, like there were elements like that throughout, where it's like yeah, yeah, yeah, there's something really important here going on.

Speaker 2:

And I could feel the history of this space just as much as I could feel the history of the temple on Mount Hi'i, right Like I can.

Speaker 2:

I had a physical remembrance of the place and it was so beautiful and such an alignment for me, like I can speak highly of Mount Hi'i and I can start to talk just as highly as this forest, right, like it wasn't that one was bad and one is good.

Speaker 2:

It just I could feel the resonance of this place, of going. This is what's in alignment for me, and to be to come to myself and say I am okay being a mess. I am okay and all of my emotions and how they're showing up, I'm okay with it being dark and wet and messy and there's nothing innately broken about me. I don't need to fix it, I don't need to curate it, I don't need to trim it away, I don't need to morph myself into something that I am not. So I can match this perfect image of oftentimes what I saw in mainland Japan. I'm okay being the mess. I love it here. I love the mess. I love that it can be masculine and feminine and utilized for growth and it be just this ever living being. And so that really was like the contrast was really what set everything in.

Speaker 1:

And so how is that, now that you've had time to kind of come back into your daily life a little bit more and you've had these really beautiful contrasting experiences of those really curated temples with the masculine energy and the wild nature with a feminine energy and you're coming back into your daily life with the awareness of both, how is that landing?

Speaker 2:

I have to say I have a really amazing boyfriend who got to witness this whole thing while it was happening and knew from the beginning that when I told him about Japan early on he was like I don't think that's a place I ever want to go. He's more of a feminist than I am and so when I got to Okinawa and I was falling apart like I was emotionally falling apart he was able to hold me in that space of there's nothing wrong. There's nothing wrong with you. You are beautiful just the way you are and have that match with my experience. And then come home to to his open arms and having be with him and be able to integrate with him has just been amazing. It's just been amazing because I really have recognized that it does take a bit of dissonance, it takes a bit of anger for me to really fully show up. That bit of anger really helps me move and to show up in the world. You can see how my posts have changed. They went from pretty pictures to I'm upset about this Right Like, and you can feel the energy switch behind it and people resonate with that, because I think women in particular are feeling that too, that they're feeling like I don't want to have to make myself perfect, I want to be okay, that I'm a mess and that life is messy and that's okay and that women's voices are important in the spiritual world. And how do I want to understand my femininity femininity not to squash out the masculine, just to honor that internal side of me and that's resonating for people Like I feel that, and also having his little push of going can love and passion also wake you up to express yourself equally, with that just as much fire, but coming from a place of love. Right, and so we've been able to have some sacred ceremonies since I've been home, like sacred communication ceremonies, Let me emphasize, like there's we're not doing plant medicine or anything like that, but able to come to a place of I want to turn inward. I want to turn inward to my heart space, because it's all within us, in our heart space, and I think that's really what I'm hoping to reveal in the Reiki masters teacher training that's coming up is there's, there's these masculine entities, deities on the mountain, and then there's Kanaan, and Kanaan is the heart space and she can reside within us and can we tap into her voice from within.

Speaker 2:

And I felt very disconnected from my internal voice, Like I felt like I had to find her externally or I needed to go to a practice to find her externally. And yesterday morning I was. I woke up early because of my jet lag and I'm like she's in me, she is inside of me and this is what you teach, Isabel, on soul speak. I'm like I need to turn inward to find that internal voice. She's not external. How do I reach her?

Speaker 2:

And coming to that, I reach her and coming to that, taking off these layers to go there, there she is, that's her voice and be able to really allow her to come forward and to give me this support of how I she wants to teach, how I she wants to move forward, how I she wants to love in a more profound way.

Speaker 2:

Right? So I feel like that's the integration piece, Like it's in, it's in us. It's not this external Satori, it's not this external idea of perfection, it's not this external idea of how do I perfect myself or fix myself. It's all within and that's where I'm at. I want to help everyone turn inward and going. How can this Reiki practice come at it from a feminine flow place? How can we come in at it from trusting ourselves without the rule book. Right, Like that's what feels true and authentic to me and there is a way for me to keep continuing to say yes to Reiki, yes to this lineage, that I love the practice, but it's within us and being able to show up for ourselves in that way, first and foremost, feels like that is the foundation that I want.

Speaker 1:

And that's such a powerful takeaway, like you can hear it in your voice, you can hear it in the energy that you're bringing, that depth that I think so many of us, especially women, but just in general in the spiritual community I think so many of us, especially women, but just in general in the spiritual community I think so many individuals feel like they're missing that depth and they're missing that wildness inside of them, and I love that you're bringing that forward. So tell us a little bit about how you've got your free webinar coming up this Thursday, which is going to be incredible, and the replay will be available. And then in June you've got your Reiki master's class. So tell us how all of this is going to filter into those and how people can get access.

Speaker 2:

Yes, I love that. So basically, we I'm going to be doing a webinar on Thursday and that webinar is really going to go through these deities of Mount Kama, of, really, why did Mount Asui choose Mount Kurama Like, there's a lot of beautiful spaces on in Japan why why there? And what does it mean? What did it mean to him and his culture and his background and what does it mean for us, especially with this new revelation of Suigongen? The Kami tree is downed and yet we still have this feminine flow and really focusing in on the feminine deity of Mount Karama because she is alive and well there. So I really want to go over that on Thursday's webinar and then for the Reiki masters training starting June 5th, we are going to incorporate some of these elements. So it I call it Reiki fusion.

Speaker 2:

I've been calling it Reiki fusion for a few years because there's elements of traditional Reiki, of understanding the cultural context in which Reiki was born and and and that it is. Also, how do we bring it into the modern world, how can we utilize Reiki in a modern way that respects its tradition but also kind of loosens up all of that rigidity? That this is the way and the only way to practice. I also want to bring forward some elements of how do we feel that energy regularly. I really want to teach self-attunements and I really would love to teach in this class how to refine the flow Like and it's both right there, here's the masculine structure.

Speaker 2:

Like, here's some mudras that have structure. And how do we come into a place of trusting our heart space? How can we come into trust where? How do we want to practice? Where do we want to bring our Reiki light forward and bring it into our own personal lives and into the world? And, as teachers, how do we want to practice if we let go of some of that structure, the hand positions, the neediness to have that rigidity around the practice?

Speaker 1:

Beautiful. So the links for those are in the show notes so that you can register both for the upcoming webinar on May 29th at 5 pm Mountain Time, 7 pm Eastern Time. The replay is available as well for that and as well Christine's Reiki Fusion Master Teacher Training, which is coming up starting on June 5th. So feel free to check out the link and enroll. There's payment plans and everything you could possibly desire to save your spot in this, because Christina is bringing, as you can tell, so much sacred wisdom and passion and personal experiences into this and, having taken her master training a couple of times now, I can say that it is unlike any other master training you will take, so I highly recommend checking it out.

Speaker 2:

Oh, thank you so much as well. It's been a pleasure sharing all of this with you. I can't wait to bring more into both the webinar and the Reiki master teacher training class. Reiki fusion is something that's near and dear to my heart, and it continues to evolve Every time I go to Japan, every time I listen inward of how does Reiki want to show up in the world and within me. Beautiful.

Speaker 1:

Thank you, christine. We are so excited to see how this continues to unfold and how you continue to bring it to moon rising, so we would love to hear your top takeaways, if you're listening to this, over in our Moon Rising Shamanic Mystics Facebook group, and be sure to follow along with Christine's journey to learn how all of this continues to unfold and integrate. But until next time, thanks for tuning in to today's show. The Wisdom Rising podcast is sponsored by Moon Rising Shamanic Institute. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe to the show on your favorite podcasting app and be the first to know when we release a new episode. You can find us on Instagram, facebook, youtube and TikTok at Moon Rising Institute, or visit our website, moonrisinginstitutecom to learn more about our mission and find future opportunities to connect with our community of shamanic mystics. Once again, thank you for sharing space with us today, and until next time may you awaken to the whispers of wisdom rising from within.