Simon the sorcerer and reiki

Simon the sorcerer and reiki; a hard lesson about trying to buy God:

What is the difference between what Simon did and what reiki students do when paying for reiki training? What is the difference between what the apostles did and what reiki teachers are doing when charging for reiki classes?

These are excellent questions that have been asked of me by people before. When I first got into reiki many years ago, I asked these same questions. For those who don’t know the bible story, Simon was a man who practiced magical arts. He fooled many people including himself into thinking he was a great being. Phillip however preached to him, and did miracles in his presence. Simon accepted the gospel and was converted. Simon however was still a baby Christian immature in his relationship to God. He saw the miracles of the apostles and was amazed by them, but he did not understand their true and real purpose. He saw the apostles laying hands on people and the people receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit and he offered money to the apostles to give him that power also. The apostles chastised him with sharp tongues and rebuked him saying that he and his money should parish together. He begged for forgiveness and asked that they pray for him that it would not be so.

What crime did Simon really commit? What was the point of the story? His trying to buy God, God’s salvation, God’s authority, God’s power, God’s gifts. The fact that he offered money showed that he knew what the apostles had was valuable. But he didn’t really understand its true value, and what’s more Simon wanted to take credit for himself and not give God the glory.

In reiki you are paying for the teachers time not the reiki. reiki is something you already have, and just need to learn how to tap into it better. A reiki master can attune you to the reiki energy to allow you to have greater access to it, they can teach you how to become good vessels for the energy, they can show you how to direct its flow when necessary. But reiki masters can not save your soul, nor can they give you the power, they can not give you reiki, only God can do that! Again Reiki masters can help open you up to the energy but it is what happens in your inner relationship with God, with the universe, and with reiki in your soul that will determine how effective the reiki is with you, or if it indeed flows freely in you at all! It has been my experience that reiki people who didn’t know God could still help me but their energy was not as fast, as effective, or as intensely overwhelming as the people who have done reiki on me who knew God. You can’t buy or sell reiki. that is not what it is all about. Even when reiki people do sessions on clients, we are not charging them for our prayers or the reiki, that would be breaking a very serious divine prohibition. It would be unethical. We are charging for our time, our overhead, and our materials because our time is valuable. Our time is in fact just as valuable as everyone else’s. And to further the point, when people sacrifice nothing, when they don’t pay for something, it is usual that they devalue it, or undervalue it. Even salvation has a price. While some may think that God’s salvation is a free for all gift for us, it is not. I would urge people to read scripture more closely, and to have a conversation with God. What does God’s salvation cost you may ask? Nothing less then utter submission to the divine will. You have to love God, believe in Christ, ask forgiveness, and then you have to let go and let God. You have to turn your entire life over to him. It is not about giving up your free will and becoming a slave, oh no! it is about becoming a servant who gives their will freely over to God. It has to be their free will choice. This may sound like a steep price, and it scares people away from having a deep and abiding relationship with God. In reality however it is the easiest thing a person could ever do if they can get past their own fear, and their own illusion that they are in control, and just trust God, and let him love them. So it is with reiki. reiki masters sacrifice their time, and so much of their lives that first level students can’t imagine or understand, in order to bring people this wonderful gift. Students are called upon to share a little of their financial harvest, and abundance to help take care of the material needs of their teachers, just as their teachers take care of their energetic, metaphysical, and even some of their spiritual needs. This was also true of Christ and the apostles to some extent. While Christ did come from an affluent family he and the apostles still worked; however people did give food, money, clothing, and lodgings. Even today people give doctors money the way they did to physicians and shamans in ancient times. Simon wanted to share the gift of the holy spirit with people. That desire in and of itself was not bad. It was in fact good. But he went about it the wrong way. He thought there was something that he could do, some way he could buy the worthiness to have that gift. There is nothing we can ever say or do that can make us worthy. We can not buy our way into holiness. We must let go, and let God make us worthy. And even after he makes us worthy it takes time and discipline to live into that worthiness. We must over time, with aging, and experiencing life with God mature in him, and gain wisdom from him. It is not we who make ourselves worthy but it is God who makes us sanctified. Simon wanted to take credit for what the Holy Spirit of God was doing. Why? He like all of us wanted to be loved, to be recognized, to be accepted, appreciated, to be admired! What he failed to grasp in that stage of his spiritual infancy is that it is God’s acceptance we really want, not other peoples. We don’t really need other peoples acceptance. In the end of all things God’s approval is all that will matter. Does it feel great to be loved, accepted, and admired? Yes of course it does! But what is the true profit, the true benefit to it in the end. The only thing that matters is God’s love for us. If Simon would have just trusted in God and gave God the time and opportunity to share his love with him, he would have received the ultimate reward. There is nothing in existence that is better then God’s Love. Perhaps God would have given Simon the power of the Holy Spirit had he simply asked for it, and asked for the right reasons, instead of trying to buy it. Simon tried to buy God, and that is not only impossible but beyond disrespectful. He tried to cheat his way ahead in his relationship with God instead of letting it develop as any relationship has to in its own time, at its own pace. A tree does not simply magically appear in your garden. A seed has to be planted and it has to grow, in its own time, in its own way. Simon tried to purchase the power to do miracles! He didn’t want the power to give glory to God or further the cause of Christ. He wanted glory for himself. God through the apostles chastised him for it and rightly so. Is reiki part of the power of the Holy Spirit? Yes it is. And I have seen God use even atheistic people as vessels to channel and wield that power. Why? Did it bring glory to them, really? No! in the end God had his way and his glory blazed brightly as it always does. Did the atheistic vessels know it? No, probably not! Did the person receiving the healing know it? Perhaps! But I can say for certain that the entire universe witnessed God’s display of power, generosity, mercy, compassion, and love, and all that is good in the universe sees this and praises him for it. All that is good in the universe pays homage to the holiness of God and gives him the glory! Simon it is said learned his lesson and spiritually evolved into a deeper understanding of God and a deeper relationship with God. The real question is, have we? Reiki will not save someone’s soul. Reiki is merely the gift of healing. it can change our earthly lives that is true; but it will never change our eternal lives unless we say to “God be the glory”, and then let God use the reiki as a tool to refine us and make us ever more like Christ with his Love, mercy, generosity, and compassion. This is the only way in which reiki will have anything to do with enhancing our eternal soul. Reiki can not give us salvation, you can’t buy salvation, and you can’t buy reiki. reiki can however be a fruit of our salvation if we really understand it and what it is. Reiki can give us a tool, a way in which to experience the Grace of God’s healing in our lives; the grace of the balance and wholeness that he can grant us. Reiki is not a means to salvation but a product of salvation. Can unsaved people do reiki? yes, but they will never truly receive the ultimate benefits from it. They will never learn its greatest lessons; the higher mystery teachings that it has to impart or bequeath to them. You will know them by their fruits God told us; (speaking of his children that have received his gift of salvation and eternal life; leaving the issue of religion aside, in the case of reiki the salvation I am speaking of here can be seen as enlightenment. Are you enlightened?)! When you see a reiki master, practitioner, or student you will know where their hearts are, how far along they are in their spiritual evolution if you just watch, and listen. They will reveal themselves to you even in the most subtle ways. You will know them by their fruits! Ask yourself when dealing with a reiki person if they are an uneducated Simon before the apostles admonishment to warn him of his foolishness, or are they a mature Simon who has learned their lesson about spiritual morality, and ethics? It is equally important to ask this question of and about yourself. Which Simon are you? Remember to God be the glory! We practitioners of reiki are merely vessels after all.



"But there was a certain man, called Simon, which beforetime in the same city used sorcery, and bewitched the people of Samaria, giving out that himself was some great one: To whom they all gave heed, from the least to the greatest, saying, This man is the great power of God. And to him they had regard, because that of long time he had bewitched them with sorceries. But when they believed Philip preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God, and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. Then Simon himself believed also: and when he was baptized, he continued with Philip, and wondered, beholding the miracles and signs which were done. Now when the apostles which were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent unto them Peter and John: Who, when they were come down, prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Ghost: (For as yet he was fallen upon none of them: only they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.) Then laid they their hands on them, and they received the Holy Ghost. And when Simon saw that through laying on of the apostles’ hands the Holy Ghost was given, he offered them money, Saying, Give me also this power, that on whomsoever I lay hands, he may receive the Holy Ghost. But Peter said unto him, Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money. Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter: for thy heart is not right in the sight of God. Repent therefore of this thy wickedness, and pray God, if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee. For I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity. Then answered Simon, and said, Pray ye to the LORD for me, that none of these things which ye have spoken come upon me." (Acts 8:9-24).