The Essence of Healing: Understanding Karuna Reiki Symbols

Karuna Reiki is an ancient practice known for its healing power. In Karuna Reiki, symbols act as powerful tools. Each symbol has its own energy and meaning, helping people find emotional and spiritual balance. These symbols are more than just designs; they unlock deeper understanding and transformation.

Let’s explore some popular Karuna Reiki symbols and discover the deep meanings behind these important symbols of healing.

Origin and History of Karuna Reiki

karuna reiki practice

Karuna Reiki is a type of Reiki healing that focuses on compassion and spiritual growth. The word “Karuna” means “compassionate action” in Sanskrit. This Reiki form not only heals others but also the practitioner, using unique symbols and mantras.

William Lee Rand developed Karuna Reiki in the 1990s, expanding on the traditional Usui Reiki. Rand, a Reiki Master, created new symbols and techniques inspired during his channeling and meditation sessions.

Karuna Reiki is an advanced practice, usually taught to those at the Master level in Usui Reiki. It includes special symbols with different vibrations to help heal deep emotional, mental, and spiritual issues. This method aims to improve healing, leading to deep transformation and compassionate energy.

Introduced in the 1990s, Karuna Reiki brought something new to energy healing. It became popular quickly and is now used by Reiki practitioners around the world. Although Karuna Reiki’s history is shorter than traditional Reiki’s, it has significantly influenced the healing community. It provides a powerful method for those looking to connect deeply with compassionate healing.

1. Om

om symbol

Om, a sacred symbol in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism, holds great importance and is often chanted during meditation and religious events. It symbolizes life’s essence, capturing the past, present, and future, and represents the universal life energy in all living things.

In Karuna Reiki, healers use Om to create a deep spiritual bond with the person receiving healing. This bond goes beyond time and space, making the healer and receiver feel united. They can then heal the receiver’s issues as if they were their own.

Chanting Om in Karuna Reiki sessions cleanses and purifies the mind, soul, and spirit. This practice highlights Om’s role not only as a religious icon but also as a powerful tool for spiritual healing and balance in Karuna Reiki.

2. Zonar

zonar symbol

Zonar is the first symbol Karuna Reiki healers learn. They use it to heal painful memories, trauma, and emotional scars from the past and present. Zonar is seen as one of the strongest Karuna symbols because it deeply penetrates the mind and body, removing negative energy. It reaches the core of the problem, supporting profound emotional healing.

This symbol can even change mental scars imprinted in DNA and cells. Zonar is particularly effective in healing relationships, overcoming drug addiction, addressing insecurities, and healing trauma.

 3. Halu

Halu symbol

Halu is a Karuna Reiki symbol that is used in combination with Zonar to strengthen the Karuna healing process. Halu is used as a safeguard for preventing harmful energy from entering the mind and body.

This symbol has a pyramidical structure which provides all round protection from psychic and emotional manipulation and reacts to even the smallest strands of negative energy by forming a protective shield around the healer or receiver.  The symbol is particularly useful for throwing off the evil eye and thwarting undesired hypnosis.

4. Harth

Harth symbol

In Karuna Reiki, the Harth symbol stands for love, compassion, and empathy. It connects to higher spiritual entities like Mary, Lakshmi, and Kwan Yin, tapping into the feminine energy in everyone. Harth brings out feelings of care, protection, and empathy for others, awakening the soul’s purest emotions for positive change. Karuna practitioners also use Harth to nurture self-love and confidence.

5. Rama

Rama symbol reiki

The Rama symbol in Karuna Reiki symbolizes balance and equilibrium. It reflects Lord Rama, an avatar of Vishnu in Hindu mythology, known for rebalancing good and evil on earth. In Karuna Reiki, practitioners use the Rama symbol to restore balance in the body.

This symbol heals mental trauma by removing negative energy. It refreshes the mind, improving one’s relationship with themselves and others. The Rama symbol also balances the six main chakras and harmonizes masculine and feminine energies in the body.

6. Gnosa

Gnosa symbol

The Gnosa Reiki symbol helps the practitioner to reach his/her higher spiritual self. The symbol clears the mind of unwanted thoughts and paves the way for intellectual and spiritual enlightenment, enabling a deep understanding of oneself and instigating awareness and intuition.

By activating the Gnosa symbol, the healing practitioner is aware of their duty and purpose to humanity. The Gnosa merges the conscious and unconscious mind to awaken a heightened sense of clarity and mindfulness within the practitioner.

This is one of the most important symbols in Karuna Reiki because it strengthens self- realization of the practitioner and supports the healing process.

7. Kriya

Kriya reiki symbol

The Kriya symbol features two Usui Cho Ku Rei symbols facing each other. In Karuna Reiki, it’s evoked to materialize wishes and desires into realistic actions. It creatively works to transform ideas into the material world.

The Kriya serves as a connection between the mental and the physical realm. For those who have trouble fulfilling their goals, the Kriya symbol can be drawn on the crown chakras. The Kriya can also be meditated upon for deeper concentration and focus.

The symbol is considered to be feminine energy which provides encouragement and confidence to achieve one’s purpose.

8. Iava

Iava reiki symbol

The Iava symbol is used in Karuna Reiki to achieve a better perception of reality. It removes falsities and misconceptions to foster a greater clarity of thought and intuition.

The Iava is an important symbol to free the mind of confusion and emotional manipulation. The shape of the Iava symbol reflects the harmony between the five elements: earth, water, fire, air, and spirit.

Meditating upon the Iava symbol calms the mind and brings greater clarity to ideas and perspectives, as it shatters false spiritualities, superstitions, and illusions, to prevent manipulation of the mind.

9. Shanthi

Shanthi symbol

Shanthi is the symbol of peace, calm, and tranquility. It is the last symbol to be learnt in the Karuna Reiki healing process. Shanthi is considered to be the most powerful Reiki symbol with its high level of vibration. It is used in Reiki healing to open up emotional traumas and heal them with peaceful thoughts.

The Shanthi symbol is very often used in meditation to rid the mind of fears and stress. Also, it’s believed that chanting the symbol in a rhythmic manner makes the atmosphere peaceful and harmonious. Shanthi can heal even the deepest of wounds and fill it with a bright, soothing light.

Wrapping Up

Karuna Reiki can be used along with traditional Reiki for a more intense and powerful healing process. Those who’ve gone through the Karuna Reiki healing process consider it highly effective, as it teaches how to accept, forgive and understand.

Karuna reiki symbols meaning
Affiliate Disclosures

Dani Rhys
Dani Rhys

Dani Rhys has worked as a writer and editor for over 15 years. She holds a Masters degree in Linguistics and Education, and has also studied Political Science, Ancient History and Literature. She has a wide range of interests ranging from ancient cultures and mythology to Harry Potter and gardening. She works as the chief editor of Symbol Sage but also takes the time to write on topics that interest her.