The Four Reiki Symbols Explained: Cho-Ku-Rei, Sei-Hei-Ki, Hon-Sha-Ze-Sho-Nen, and Dai-Ko-Myo

I'm Bronwyn Ayla, L.Ac. — a licensed acupuncturist and Reiki Master Teacher who has trained over 1,000 practitioners since 1998.

The four Reiki symbols are Cho-Ku-Rei, Sei-Hei-Ki, Hon-Sha-Ze-Sho-Nen, and Dai-Ko-Myo. Three of them — Cho-Ku-Rei, Sei-Hei-Ki, and Hon-Sha-Ze-Sho-Nen — are introduced at Reiki Level II. The fourth, Dai-Ko-Myo, is the Master symbol, taught at Reiki Level III. Each symbol has a visual form (yantra), a spoken name (mantra), and activates a specific quality of Reiki energy. Together they form the formal language of Reiki practice.

What are Reiki symbols, and why do they matter?

Within the language of Reiki are specific sounds (mantras), symbols, and traditional hand positions that are used to enable healing on a specific frequency. The symbols function as technologies that enhance connection and transmission of Reiki.

Each symbol has three dimensions:

• Yantra — the visual form. Drawing the yantra invokes the Reiki. A yantra is a map of how to get back from being lost, if you know how to read it.

• Mantra — the sound form. A mantra is a sacred phrase, the sound form of the energy that can be used to invoke the Reiki.

• Qi/Energy — the pure energy that is activated by the symbols. Where a mantra is a sound that can invoke the Reiki, and a yantra is a visual representation of it, pure energy is it.

Symbols are activated through drawing, seeing, speaking, projecting, and embodying. Intention is the main ingredient in activation — it is the key to focusing energy, enabling that energy to be directed to where it needs to go.

The symbols can be used to improve health, increase awareness, aid in meditation, send prayers, promote healing, encourage evolution, increase consciousness, and enhance tantric practices.

How to draw and embody the symbols

As you learn about the symbols, draw them on paper with paint. Drawing them with a tiny pen has a very different feeling than holding the brush and drawing them with large strokes. When teaching live, huge sheets of paper are rolled out on the floor and the whole body is used to draw the symbols. As they are drawn with the whole body, they create a kind of ricochet of feeling, seeing how the rest of the body responds to the shape of these symbols when drawn distally with the hand.

Rather than drawing little symbols with your third finger, draw them really big in space and feel the dance of these symbols as you bring them deeper into your life. The scale at which you draw a symbol changes how it lives in your body.

Each symbol is drawn once and spoken three times as standard activation practice.

Cho-Ku-Rei — the first symbol

Cho-Ku-Rei is introduced at Reiki Level II and is used for amplification and energetic strengthening. In manifestation and distance healing work, it functions as the activating symbol — the one that establishes and amplifies the energetic field.

In a "symbol sandwich" — the structured sequence used to open, direct, and seal energetic work — Cho-Ku-Rei is used for power and activation. It can be applied to physical pain, emotional patterns, and perceived karmic imprints, and it can also be used to cleanse and purify spaces and objects, or for protection around a house, car, or bicycle.

Cho-Ku-Rei can be combined with other symbols for yin-yang balancing of the system.

Sei-Hei-Ki — the second symbol

Sei-Hei-Ki is the symbol of emotional and mental harmony. It is used for harmony, emotional balance, and calming heat or fire states.

At a deeper level, the Sei-Hei-Ki balances the yin and yang, the left and right, ida and pingala, Shakti and Shiva, the performer and the witnesser. These energies are what allow creation and are usually experienced as dual, even though they are actually one. The adept seeks to reverse the process of creation by unifying opposites. When Shiva the watcher and Shakti the performer come together, the juice that is developed brings ananda, or bliss. The Sei-Hei-Ki helps to enhance the process of unifying opposites, which leads to spiritual liberation.

Balance is in a constant state of flux. If we freeze when standing on one leg, we will fall over. Finding balance is not the same as finding an answer; it is learning to balance gracefully in the dance of life.

Hon-Sha-Ze-Sho-Nen — the third symbol

Hon-Sha-Ze-Sho-Nen (often abbreviated HSZSN) is the distance and time symbol. A Reiki II attunement connects one to three Reiki symbols and sounds that make possible the channeling of Reiki across time and space and to that which is not physically present.

Through this symbol, Reiki can be sent to someone not in the same location, or in a different time — to a mother or oneself at birth, back in time to a traumatic event, or to the future for an expected situation. It can also treat destinations where physical touch is not possible, such as relationships, ideas, groups, large geographical areas, or concepts.

Hon-Sha-Ze-Sho-Nen is also used in gassho meditation to set intention. It could be as simple as "here and now." In distance healing, it is used to establish the connection before other symbols are layered in. The symbol sandwich structure runs: connection → intention → transmission → sealing.

Reiki can be sent across time and space, including to the past, future, and conditional trigger events. Energy can be directed not only to people but to abstract layers such as emotions, karmic roots, patterns, and environments.

Dai-Ko-Myo — the Master symbol

Dai-Ko-Myo is the fourth symbol, introduced at Reiki Master level (Shinpiden — the Mystery Teaching). It is the symbol associated with the psychic and spiritual level of practice, corresponding to the heart and kidney organs in the level chart.

The Master level is described as a return to simplicity — to not knowing, to a heart-connected presence, and to a deepening into flow, into Dao, into resonance with life, and into service of consciousness awakening itself. Reiki three develops mastery-level practice, including working with complex karmic imprints and root causes.

Through the Reiki attunement, symbols are imprinted on the chakra and energy system — similar to activating a tuning fork on one side of the room and noticing the guitar strings on the other side begin to hum. The Master attunement includes memorization of the symbols and how to perform an attunement, and a written symbol test is part of the certification requirements.

How the symbols work together: symbol sandwiches

Reiki symbols are used in structured combinations called "symbol sandwiches" to connect, direct, amplify, and seal energy. The first symbol establishes connection; the second directs and amplifies energy; the final seals intention.

For distance healing, the protocol is: draw each symbol once, speak it three times, state clearly who, where, why, when, and for what. Optimal results for distance healing or sending Reiki for manifestations often happen when it is repeated three days, weeks, months, or years in a row, depending on how acute or chronic the situation is.

Consent is essential when sending distant Reiki. If you cannot ask in person, ask the higher self. If consent is unclear, add the clause: if they do not wish to receive this Reiki, may it be sent to the Earth. The Reiki prayer is: May this Reiki be for the highest good, for the harm of none, and for the benefit of all. May the healing that takes place be complete and permanent on all levels of being.

Do you need an attunement to use the symbols?

Using hands to heal has been part of our innate ability for as long as humans have existed, and anyone can tap into universal life force energy to create positive change and healing in their lives. What a Reiki training adds is a specific context, tools, and language to tap deeply into this innate ability.

Reiki with a capital "R" is a specific method that uses specific sounds (mantras), symbols, and traditional hand positions to enable healing on a specific frequency. The ability to use these symbols in the formal Reiki sense comes from an attunement. The attunement amplifies your strength and teaches the formal language — it is not a gate.

Once you are attuned to Reiki, you will stay attuned for the rest of your life. Even if one doesn't practice for many years, it will remain there as a resource to tap into when needed.

Frequently asked questions

What are the four Reiki symbols and what does each one do?

The four Reiki symbols are Cho-Ku-Rei, Sei-Hei-Ki, Hon-Sha-Ze-Sho-Nen, and Dai-Ko-Myo. Cho-Ku-Rei is used for power and activation. Sei-Hei-Ki is used for emotional and mental harmony and balancing yin and yang. Hon-Sha-Ze-Sho-Nen enables distance healing across time and space and into the abstract. Dai-Ko-Myo is the Master symbol, associated with the psychic and spiritual level of practice.

At what Reiki level do you learn the symbols?

Three symbols — Cho-Ku-Rei, Sei-Hei-Ki, and Hon-Sha-Ze-Sho-Nen — are introduced at Reiki Level II (Okuden, the Inner Teaching). The fourth symbol, Dai-Ko-Myo, is the Master symbol and is taught at Reiki Level III (Shinpiden, the Mystery Teaching). Reiki Level I does not include symbols.

Can Reiki symbols be used to send healing across time?

Yes. Through Hon-Sha-Ze-Sho-Nen, Reiki can be sent to a different time plane — back in time to an accident you had as a child, or to the future for it to unfold with the highest potential and the best possible outcome. Reiki can be sent across time and space, including to the past, future, and conditional trigger events.

Do you need a teacher to learn the Reiki symbols?

Anyone can use their innate healing abilities and tap into universal life force energy. A Reiki training gives one a specific context, tools, and language to tap deeply into this innate ability. The attunement is not a gate — it amplifies your strength and teaches the formal language of Reiki, including the symbols.

I teach Reiki as something anyone can practice — you don't need to be chosen, gifted, or already "spiritual" to begin. If you'd like to learn it with me, my online Reiki class is open here: Learn Reiki online.