Evolution of a Reiki Book Cover

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Evolution of a Reiki Book Cover

Evolution of a book cover - Tuesday May Thomas

©tuesdaymaythomas

As mentioned in this month's loveletter blog, it was four years ago that I released my first novel 'Confessions of a Spiritual Apprentice' (original book cover on the upper left). Since then the book has undergone a series of changes as you can see.

The first cover was controversial because no one could figure out the title of the book. I thought this added a mysterious quality to my work. I kinda felt like it created a spiritual gateway of sorts that noted 'only those who can make out the book's title are the ones to read it'! This is all very 'artsy', yet I realized when you want people to buy and read your book, it is nice when they do not have to work so hard to figure out the title! I considered creating a new book cover and a title that speaks more directly to the content in the book. 

My book is an autobiography. I did not know it would be so thrilling and at the same time scary and debilitating to air my most sacred vulnerabilities for the world to view. Cut to three years later. I had fallen apart at the seems and underwent a massive depression only to rise again. As I rose, I created my mini book The Nowosphere.

In my uprising, I felt I had to take myself out of the book and give the leading character (me) a pseudonym. "I just don't identify with that version of myself any longer" I heard myself tell friends when talking about the impending changes to my book. I went so far as to change my name to 'Summer' in the book (my when I go to Starbucks name) and started to think about a new book cover.

During this time my dear best friend and cat of seventeen years passed away. Upon his passing, he planted a seed within me. He said (and those of you who have pets know they can telepathically talk to you and vice versa) "Mom, change the title of the book to 'The Reiki Apprentice' and make the cover look like this"... He showed me a hand with a cho ku rei symbol in the palm. 

I decided to yes, listen to the cat and republish the book with a new title: 'The Reiki Apprentice', and I even reclaimed my past and decided to put myself back in the book as 'Tuesday'. Yet I ignored what the cat had told me in lieu of creating the new cover with the hand & cho ku rei. 

I had begun following a big shot 'indie author' who encouraged a lot of flashy marketing. Despite the cat's guidance for the new book cover, I decided to republish the book with the fancy blue cover (the middle book cover, above). I thought, according to my new author guru that this is the way to go as far as grabbing a reader's attention and making them want to buy the book.

There was much excitement in republishing a book that sprawls my innermost vulnerabilities out for the world to see. I had hidden. I had grown. I had healed and was now ready to really get behind this book and promote it. Yet when I republished it with the new 'blue' cover, something was amiss. It just did not feel right. The book did not feel fully activated in its power and ready for take-off again. I knew right away the cat was right. I had chosen the incorrect cover to republish with. F#*! I had allowed the fancy marketing fluff of my new author mentor to skew the truth I knew in my heart all along. 

I know, I can blame the fancy indie author I was following- but really there is no blame, there is only the course correction to a greater truth. In fact, I knew the truth the whole time. I knew the book's correct and true cover was supposed to be the hand and the cho ku rei.  I just decided to go around learning that lesson the long way. With it, I have gained much insight about integrity and the value of living an authentic, creative life. I could not get behind my book as long as the 'untrue' book cover was circulating. 

Now the whole package of my book is here (book cover on the right, above). Third times a charm :) and the funny thing is the story has been untouched over the years, besides the brief interval of exchanging my name for 'Summer', for a quick minute. The story inside my book has never changed, only the outside.

I am excited to announce the outside of my book finally matches the inside. Hooray! Now the book is in its full power and authority. Now we are ready to rock n roll, so to speak- and share the teachings within its pages with the world... I celebrate my book The Reiki Apprentice in all of its glory! I thank each and every one of you who has supported me and purchased this book through all of its incarnations. 

Moral of the story; you always know the truth by the way it feels.

Check out my book here- The Reiki Apprentice.

Namaste with Love, Tuesday

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Create Ceremony for Reiki Healing- Make Sacred Space

Read my Reiki story 

The Reiki Apprentice  

available in Paperback and on Kindle.

©Tuesday May Thomas

Consciously creating a sacred space in which to practice and perform Reiki Healing, whether it is simply for self-practice, or in service to others is a mindful consideration and an act of ceremony.

 Indeed creating a sacred space for Reiki Healing is a mindful method I have taken on as a formal part of my ongoing 'practice'. 

What does it mean to you- to make sacred space? To me, it means doing what I am guided to 'do' by my higher self and or 'Reiki' in order to acknowledge and affirm the presence of light and love in the midst of the space I will be working in. Sometimes that means burning sage, laying out crystals, creating a bubble of light,  the visualization of Reiki symbols, and more.


Funny thing is, I recall my Reiki teacher not once going out of her way to 'create sacred space' for a Reiki Healing. I spent years apprenticing with her, whereby I shared Reiki Healing with her weekly, received Reiki from her quarterly (she would gift the masters in our small group a Reiki session every four months or so as a tune-up), and I facilitated Reiki Healing with her for others in their homes, and in hospitals. 

She was not one to burn sage, hit the drum, lay out crystals, say 'cho ku rei', play dolphin music, or wave a feather. Not one single feather! Though I do remember one time (and one time only in the space of three years) she brought an amethyst and laid it upon a young boy we were working on. Outside of this 'one-time crystal use during Reiki', she instead used to do this thing called 'put a vhs into the video player' (yes that's how far back we are going). 

Either I or she would lay upon her couch with the crown of our head at the arm-side edge, propped up on pillows. That's right, no healing table here... just a comfy couch and an 80's video playing in the background. All of this occurred in the living room of her Brooklyn apartment, in quite a nonchalant fashion.

While this experience served as a blueprint for holding space while serving Reiki Healing, it was not my style, though I now understand the 'meaning of the vhs work' we were doing and what was happening on a much bigger scale with my teacher. Keep reading to find out!...

As my own Reiki Master-ship evolved I found myself living alone in a two-bedroom apartment. The spare bedroom became the 'healing room'. I had many clients and students coming and going through my home. I loved feeling the freedom and creativity to make sacred space for all of our interactions. 

I wanted to have a special zone in which we did our work together. So I manifested a healing table which was always set up in the middle of the healing room. I painted the walls a clear golden color, placed light chiffon curtains on the windows with maybe one piece of art on the walls. It was simple. There was a small altar with a candle, sage, and a few crystals- and that was it.

I used the kitchen as a space for introductions, tea, and talk/counsel and then I would walk my students and clients through the living room to the special healing room dedicated only to serving Reiki Healing. I liked it that way.

Over the years I have facilitated Reiki in many spaces and there has always been a powerful draw to activate the energy of a space before the actual exchange of Reiki takes place, whether it is with one student or client, or a group of thirty. This said, anytime I am guided to share Reiki and an 'invocation/activation' as such is not consciously created, the Reiki exchange is just as powerful without it. Why? Reiki itself creates scared space where ever it is intended and honored. While I love making sacred space, I see now how my teacher's approach to simply getting down with the practice of Reiki was always enough.

In thinking on this, it seems the act of making sacred space is all about orienting our own energy in way of aligning ourselves with the holy and sacred quality of healing we will be facilitating and exchanging. To make sacred space is to bring us into direct contact with that which we are, and with what we will be participating in; that being submerging into the experience of pure unconditional love.

So before we get into some ideas on how to make sacred space, I want to finish painting the picture of my teachers' 'vhs work'  I mentioned above. You see, when it was my turn to receive Reiki she would invite me into her office where a huge bookshelf of videos was on display. It was up to me to pick out a video for my healing journey.

Though I would often fall asleep while she lay hands on me, what I came to understand was my subconscious was really the part of me that picked the video out. That was a part of me that was getting worked on while I lay down to receive. The storylines in the film were just reflecting ideas I held deep within to be 'worked on' and healed, for the highest good.

MAKE SACRED SPACE

Here are some ideas to make sacred space for your Reiki Healing experience.

1. The cho ku rei (or any other Reiki Symbol) is a perfect way to activate and prime the energy of a space and make it sacred. Whether you are facilitating a workshop or one to one exchange on Meditation, Yoga, Reiki or any other modality you can draw the cho ku rei energetically with your mind's eye, hand, or finger on the walls, ceiling and floor of the space and room you will be sharing in.  I also like to imagine/hang a HUGE cho ku rei in the middle of the space too- like an energy chandelier.

2. Burn sage; a)Walk the parameters of the space and pay special attention to saging the entrance and exits. b) Sage each participant or your client as a part of your exchange. I almost always include saging my clients as a part of the opening and closing of a one to one Reiki Healing. And I always walk the circle and sage each participant in a group I may be sharing Reiki Healing with at the beginning of a Workshop. I do this as a means to create ceremony and as an offering to bring each participant into their spiritual awareness for our day together. Besides being used as an offering, sage 'resets' & primes the energy of a space and acts as a powerful clearing agent for stagnant or funky energy. This said it is nice to burn sage to simply as an offering of the earthly medicine to the space you will be 'working' in.

3. Call in your Reiki Guides, Angels, Loved Ones that have Passed, and Animal Totems. Invite your client/students to do the same. At the beginning of a session, I take a still and concentrated moment to invite in all those light beings who love us unconditionally and I invite participants to do the same silently within. 

In a workshop setting, you can invite participants to speak their 'invites' aloud, as they are guided- there is never a force to do anything someone does not want to. You will feel the room filling up with the presence of those most-high beings who hold love and love for us! At the end of the session or workshop take a conscious moment to speak gratitude aloud for 'their' blessed offering of holding space for the most-high healing for one and all.


4. Use a 'Community Stone or Crystal' in the space of healing. This may be used as a tool that recipients can utilize if they like, or it can simply hold space within the space where healing takes place. I use a community stone of Rose Quartz (click to view my Instagram of cleansing this sacred stone), meaning it is used with clients during reiki healing, and as a talking stone (instead of a talking stick) when I facilitate gatherings. Since it is a community stone I do not program it with 'personal' intentions. Rather it is invited to bring blessings of service, extending maximally charged gifts of its inherent healing qualities to one and all. It likes to be cleansed with sea salt in the sunshine quite often ♥ .

There are so many ways you can make sacred space- allow your higher self and Reiki to show you what to do. And be reminded that whenever and wherever you place love, and intend Reiki, the space of sacredness is created as a beautiful by-product through simply acknowledging Reiki and allowing it to flow. ©Tuesday May Thomas

Thank you for your comments and support!
Namaste with Love,

Tuesday

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Altered States during Reiki with a client recovering from a Stroke

Afternoon sun warms the room while tall ceilings keep it cool. The blinds are open and visions of golf course players cross from time to time. You lay on your back while I maneuver around your body, lifting heavy limbs and folding them just so. 

        One side of your body is currently asleep and you engage in life from your wheelchair most of the time. It is your fourth-year recovering from a stroke. Your exact age I know not, yet it doesn't matter. Silver-hair and kind blue eyes greet me every time. Your wife holds sacred space for your healing. She sets you up reclined in bed, that I may visit for an hour to share Yoga and Reiki with you. 

       Today the 'Spa music' you have chosen as a backdrop to our session is dreamy. Sometimes we listen to piano music, and sometimes soundscapes of nature. But today your iPad churns out music akin to the Bladerunner soundtrack. Muted tones swell without becoming too melancholy or sweet. It sets a tone through which I feel relaxed enough to slip into altered states of consciousness while working with you.

       My gaze falls over your legs which I hold in place for a lengthened stretch to your IT Band. Light blurs in and out. In this heady landscape, I see my hands glow with Reiki. I see flowing rivers of soft velvety red moving through my fingertips and streaming out beyond this space.

       Red. The color associated with the root chakra. This color denotes qualities of acceptance to the fact that you are in a physical body, on the physical plane. It signifies safety, belonging, grounding and a relinquishing of fears on the earthly plane. 

       I watch the red swirls of light shoot from my fingertips as we work together. Inhale, exhale. I guide you through conscious breath and we move carefully to the next positioning, that your body may relax and tight muscles release with ease. This red hue gathers around us enveloping us both in its soft haze. 

      Considering your healing path dear client, and all you have undergone- it makes 'spiritual sense' that red would be our visiting color on this day. 

       Hon Sha Ze Sho Nen draws itself through me. I see the symbol appearing over your bed, and over the two of us like a soft cloud. No Past, No Present, No Future. Hon Sha Ze Sho Nen. My Reiki Guides tell me to draw it over and over again. With each stroke I draw in my mind's eye I can feel your body release deeper. 

       Hon Sha Ze Sho Nen. No past. Releasing memory of what has been accumulated as pain and fear in the body, mind, and emotions. No present. Releasing trauma that could be triggered from the past- and brought into the present where you are now. No future. Relinquishing any neediness or expectations from what could be.

       Hon Sha Ze Sho Nen. We allow completely this moment, this healing session to be perfectly perfect, for what it is today. And so it is. Namaste with Love, Tuesday

The Reiki Apprentice 

By Tuesday May Thomas 

Non Fiction Novel - Women's Personal Spiritual Growth - Metaphysical - Memoir 

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