“This long-awaited book by one of the original Reiki masters is a skillful blend of Reiki theory and method, as well as history… a valuable contribution to the study of Reiki in the west and belongs in the library of every student of the healing arts.” – Sacred Pathways
John Harvey Gray became a Reiki Master Instructor in 1976. Since then for over 35 years he actively taught and practiced Reiki – longer than any other living teacher in the West. John, who passed away January 12, 2011 at age 93, took his entire Reiki training in 1976 with Mrs. Hawayo Takata, who brought Reiki to the West from Japan. In his career,he conducted well over 600 Reiki classes, and earned a reputation as an outstanding teacher, and as a practitioner of the highest integrity.
John’s wife, Lourdes Gray, is also a Reiki Master Instructor certified by John from Hawayo Takata. In their book, Hand to Hand, John and Lourdes tell their stories, and write of how Reiki came into and remained a part of their life and practice. They also tell the background and development of Reiki in the West, and offer up practical, time-tested guidelines for anyone who chooses to study Reiki.
For more information on the Usui-Gray Integrated Reiki System, or to order an autographed copy of Hand to Hand, contact the John Harvey Gray Center for Reiki Healing, P.O. Box 696, Rindge, NH 03461-0696.
Reiki Training offers a disciplined foundation in hands-on, human-energy therapy. Everyone can learn. For parents, friends, health-care professionals, massage therapists, homemakers and others can complement their knowledge with understanding and practical skill in the realm of human-energy medicine.
Snyder revealed himself as one the many elders we had set out to find on 
The fire that was ignited 57 years ago on August 6, 1945 when the Enola Gay dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, was ceremonially extinguished by a band of pilgrims May 27, 2002 at Big Mountain on Black Mesa in Arizona, in a high desert range sweet with the smell of sagebrush.
The assault on the material resources of Black Mesa continues. Peabody Coal Co. is planning on expanding operations by opening a new mine, which will ultimately infringe upon Big Mountain itself.
The Hiroshima Flame Interfaith Pilgrimage had its origins in the year 2000 under the inspiration of Tom Dostou while he was in Japan. At that time he was entrusted with a spark of the Hiroshima Flame (the source flame remains burning in Japan). Tom conceived the vision of returning the flame to where it had come from — not as a protest, but as a necessary deed of spiritual redemption, because not only the people of Hiroshima had died, but also many native peoples were poisoned by the uranium dug up, without spiritual permission, on their lands.
The flame, flickering in a lantern borne by pilgrims on foot, was largely unrecognized and unacknowledged in Los Alamos. Still, the pilgrims completed the work of spiritual redemption they had come to accomplish, and then they walked on toward the East, planning to arrive in New York City on May 12, 2002. Their visit to this place of fire is of marked spiritual significance.
In the beginning, it is said, the four nations lived together as one and shared their gifts. Then came a time when it was necessary for spiritual growth that the Four Nations disperse to the Four Directions and live apart. Over time they could develop as human beings and master the mysteries of their element for good or ill, according to their free will. Earth, air, fire and water — the peoples went apart.
The flame the pilgrims carry was ignited 57 years ago and has been tended with prayer ever since. In1945, after the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, a man named Tatsuo Yamamoto walked into the ruins of the city to look for friends and family. In shock and anger, he collected some of the embers still smoldering from the bomb and carried them home.
The nuclear bomb is an ultimate expression of materialism. When the atomic scientists of Los Alamos took the secret of the atom — the fundamental particle of matter — and developed it into a weapon of mass destruction, they unleashed a scathing, wrathful demon of fire rather than a higher angel of warmth and illumination.
The glyph was carved into the rock face of the outcropping thousands of years ago by the indigenous Pueblo peoples, whose descendents still live nearby. There are such petroglyphs all over North America, serving as signs and signals of importance to native peoples.
From the place of Avanyu, the walkers proceeded — drumming and chanting each step — about seven miles to Tsankawi, a prehistoric site that is now part of Bandelier National Monument. Tsankawi is a spectacular place high on a mesa overlooking the Jemez Mountains to the West and the Sangre de Christo Mountains to the East.
The wind people, the messengers, brought the flame home to its point of origin, having purified it with their chants, prayers and incense. They offered it to the people of the city without rancor, recrimination, or challenge. They offered the flame with understanding and hope. And then they walked on.
Also on that day, to sound an alarm about the rapidly growing danger of a nuclear conflagration, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists moved their famous Doomsday Clock forward two minutes closer to midnight. The scientists wanted to highlight the dramatically mounting dangers of political instability, the wide availability of nuclear materials, terrorism, and the aggressive unilateral stance of the US government.
An elder of the Yaqui Indian Nation, and a Nahual (man of power), Cachora has remained a mystery figure for decades. But now he is coming forward from his homeland in the Sonoran Desert of Mexico into the public realm. It is time for this, he says. Chachora says says he is the real man who is portrayed as the enigmatic shaman don Juan in the series of books by Carlos Castaneda: Journey to Ixtlan; The Teachings of Don Juan; and so forth.
While dwelling amid the high mountains along the North American Continental Divide, Bennie LeBeau of the Eastern Shoshone tribe experienced a torrent of dreams and visions, especially in 1999. The visions directed him to set in motion the plans for a massive Medicine Wheel Ceremony.
A Medicine Wheel is an ancient spiritual tool with a history of widespread use all over Turtle Island (North America). Stones are set to mark the Four Directions of North, South, East and West, and also of other major points. In this manner, if done with knowledge and respect, a sacred space is defined. Within that space, the people can direct thoughts, feelings and actions toward a unified idea.
In the Medicine Wheel teachings of Turtle Island the South is a direction sometimes represented by Mouse. Mouse is so small and defenseless against the rest of the world that he must rely on trust and instinct to live. Much larger forces of Spirit are at work in the world, and Mouse understands how humble a creature he is in relation to all this. But good and surprising things can happen when trust leads Mouse to make a bold move for survival, guided by Spirit.
In the context of Grandfather’s words, the ravaged land all around Turquoise Mountain bespeaks an ugly story. Over many years 
The call for people of all nations, races, and traditions to participate in this massive Medicine Wheel ceremony comes at a time of widespread military conflict, and of profound environmental damage to the earth, the wind, the fire and the water. It is also a time of intense culture war.
Of note, Yellowstone Park is also the site of a legal, on-going Buffalo slaughter. The Buffalo are killed to prevent them from becoming “too numerous.” In native understandings, Buffalo are widely considered to be healers of the earth. The places where their hooves touch the soil are especially fertile.
