By JULIE CARLE
BG Independent
GRAND RAPIDS—Anya Light lives modestly in a second-floor apartment that is actually a sanctuary of serenity. It is here where the devoted Reiki Master often provides healing, solace and guidance.
She welcomes individuals with open arms whether they seek a first-time Reiki healing session or a deeper journey into the practice. Light describes Reiki—which comes from “Rei” meaning universal or cosmic and “ki” for energy—as “unconditional love of self, other people and the world. It’s like the vibrations of love.”
With more than 13 years of Reiki training and teaching, Light recently outstretched her Reiki reach by publishing “The Peace of Reiki: Practices for Co-Creating New Earth.” She wrote the book for Reiki practitioners and “the curious.”
“Whether you are just beginning your Reiki journey or are a Master, this book will meet you exactly where you are,” Katy Mercer, founder of The Lavender Hour Community, said about the book.
For people who are curious about everything spiritual or who have been introduced to Reiki, Light wrote the book as “an accessible path, demystifying” the energy healing practice, she said.
Practitioners will gain a deeper understanding of the practice. “I hope when practitioners read the book, some of their questions are answered that they might not have received from their training,” Light said. For example, she broached a topic “that nobody seems to want to talk about” in public or in books.
During a Reiki session, practitioners can experience a scary, dark or violent image “that comes out of nowhere,” Light said. “It feels jarring and confusing.” In the book she explains why it happens and reassures them that it’s normal.
Light started the book 10 years ago, when she was just a few years into teaching Reiki. She had jotted down notes for the book with the idea that the book would happen quickly. “Then I realized I needed to deepen my journey before I was going to publicly share its meaning in a book,” she recalled.
A journey from darkness
For her, Reiki was a salvation from life experiences that had left her physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually deathly ill. The root cause of her illness was “a lot of unaddressed, childhood trauma,” that left her in “a fog of depression” during her teenage years and early adulthood.
Despite Light’s poor health, intense anxiety and depression, she managed to earn a doctoral degree in English. She was on track to become an English professor but realized it was no longer a path she wanted to pursue.
“I was this close to death,” she said, but a Reiki healing session lifted the weight of the world from her body and gave her hope “for the first time in my life.” At that time, the Reiki practitioner, didn’t ask, but told Light she would train her in Reiki.
“She trained me and taught me everything she knew,” Light said about her Reiki teacher. Within a year, Light was providing Reiki healing sessions and training others. She healed her chronic physical problems that doctors said would never heal, and she changed her name from Heather (her birth name) to Anya—a nod to her “inexhaustible” spirit.
“That person no longer exists. I gained an inexhaustible passion for transmitting the blessed teachings of Reiki. I was meant to teach,” Light said. She decided somehow, some way, she would make Reiki her profession.
Co-creating New Earth
Over the years, Reiki has become the foundation of her life; however, she is also involved in other spiritual practices including meditation, yoga and shamanic dancing. She offers Reiki sessions and training at the Cocoon Shelter and is an active member of the Ordinary Pioneer Community in Whitehouse.
Committed to creating New Earth—the concept of humans “bringing heaven to earth by doing the clean-up work on ourselves to protect the planet”—in the book Light presents Reiki as a puzzle piece within the larger picture. Everyone working together can bring about New Earth. “We are at this decision-making point: Are we going to evolve or die? Reiki is one way to achieve an evolutionary path,” she said.
“Portrait of a New Earth” is the final chapter of Light’s book, but she was quick to point out that the book does not need to be read in the order of the chapters. “Insights in this book are not meant to be linear or progressive. … In other words, don’t get stuck in my ideas. Rather, feel what happens inside of you as you read.”
Light’s writing is more poetic than many books about Reiki. “A lot of Reiki books are more straightforward, and the language is more practical,” she said. Sometimes Reiki book authors’ writing style creates a detachment from the reader. “I hope my writing feels like I’m their pal, sitting in their living room.”
Though she knows she can’t control how well the book sells and believes in leaving results up to the universe, she still checks the book’s sales on Amazon regularly.
“I guess I want to know I’m making a difference. Part of my mission is to educate about Reiki, and how it can go well together with any religion. It is not a religion. It is a toolkit, a path to enlightenment.”
Light will speak about her book at the Wood County District Public Library’s Meet the Local Author Series on May 11 at 2 p.m. in Meeting Room C.
