On 1st
November 1991 Alec and I were initiated as Reiki masters by Martha
Sylvester. I'd like to tell you Martha's Reiki story.
Martha came
across Reiki while she was at a Siddha yoga ashram in India. She was considering
going home because the
climate did not agree with her. Then she
found a leaflet about Reiki in the Ashram clinic. One sentence jumped out at her: "The
Healer will be healed by using this energy". This appealed to Martha because she had found
she became drained when giving massage.
So she began looking for the person who had put the leaflet there.
Martha Sylvester |
The next day
a friend of hers, who was also interested in learning Reiki, came up to her and
said: "You'll never guess what: there's a Reiki master in my
dormitory!". This Reiki master
turned out to be Wanja Twan, a master initiated by Hawayo Takata. So Martha went up to her and asked to learn
Reiki.
Unfortunately
Wanja was coming to the end of her stay, so she told Martha that there was not
enough time for her to teach her Reiki.
Looking at Martha she could tell that she was unwell, so asked her to
wait in her room and she would come and give her some treatment. She said she might not be able to come, but
that Martha should wait for her anyway.
So at the
time they had agreed Martha waited.
Wanja didn't come, but at the appointed time Martha felt a wave of
energy go through her. She slept very
well that night and the next day felt much better. When she saw Wanja that morning Martha asked if she had sent her Reiki, which
Wanja confirmed she had.
Martha was
even more keen to learn, so it was agreed that if Martha had enough people for
a class when Wanja was next travelling via London to visit her relatives in
Sweden, she would stop over for a few days and teach 1st degree Reiki. In fact Martha felt so much better she ended
up staying even longer in India than she had first planned! When she eventually returned to London she
persuaded as many friends as possible to join the 1st degree class and later
that year was initiated into 1st degree Reiki.
She
subsequently took 2nd degree and then became a master in 1985. She began teaching Reiki alongside her Monday
to Friday job, but soon found she needed to give up her conventional work to
devote her time to teaching Reiki. She
travelled a lot to teach in those years, including to Birmingham which is where
I met her in 1989. That same year she
was told by Wanja to begin making her own masters, which may explain why Alec
and I were invited to begin our master preparation in 1990.
Martha is a
founder member of The Reiki Association, established in 1991 and continued to
be an active member of the community for many years. However I think she felt that I could carry
this on on her behalf and has always been very supportive of my community
activities.
She still
gives the occasional treatment and teaches a few people, but these days is
happy exploring other creative pursuits such as painting and singing.
Martha has
always been an inspiration to me with her grounded spirituality and I am deeply
grateful to her for enabling me to be a Reiki master. Thank you Martha: I am honoured to be your
student!
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