Curious about distance healing, and want to see some hand-drawn art of a symbol to help? What follows are reflections about the Hon Sha Ze Sho Nen symbol used in Usui Reiki, the relaxing Japanese gentle healing touch practice. This distance Reiki symbol is the third symbol learned in Reiki II training, and roughly translates to: “Across past, present, and future.”
In addition to its distance healing properties, this Reiki symbol is also seen as the connection, unity, or mindfulness symbol, with the meaning: “Humans and spirit are one.” Put together, another wholistic meaning could be: “Mindful connectedness.”
Distance Reiki with Hon Sha Ze Sho Nen
The Reiki symbol, Hon Sha Ze Sho Nen, is known as the distance (or distant) Reiki symbol, because it energizes healing and balance across space, time, and the liminal space between locations. In can be used with other people — even if they’re not in the same place as you — or during “self Reiki,” as with healing of the past, or manifesting the future.
Now, this article is not meant to be a substitute for formal Reiki instruction or sessions; rather, these are thoughts from a trained Reiki professional and artist about drawing, using, and analyzing Hon Sha Ze Sho Nen (sometimes abbreviated as HSZSN), the distance Reiki symbol.
My Distance Reiki Background
My name is Lillie and I’ve been a Reiki practitioner for several years, having completed numerous trainings. I currently run my own Boston Reiki and chakra balancing practice, which important to your trust in reading this article, because I’m an actual Reiki professional — not a robotic article machine who doesn’t work in the field. Now, an honest reflection: throughout all of my Reiki practice so far, the distance Reiki symbol has been the most difficult for me, for two reasons.
First, I am a very hands-on practitioner, (meaning the touch aspect is the key for my specific energy balancing skills), so doing Reiki over distance through the HSZSN symbol has not historically resonated with me, even if the person is in the room, and the intention is to use the symbol for healing across the distance of time. I do believe distance healing works for trained distance Reiki professionals — it’s just not my specialty at this time.
Second, the distance healing symbol is about three times as hard to draw and remember as the other Reiki symbols, due to the large number of brush strokes in its Japanese Kanji characters, and because there are many variations on its lines and angles. That said, during the weeks I spent researching and doing the art for this article, I found myself gaining a growing adoration of HSZSN… and finally memorized how to draw it! Subsequently, I began using it more often during sessions with my Reiki clients, to wonderful effect. Now, let’s explore more about how to write this complex and powerful symbol.
Drawing Hon Sha Ze Sho Nen
The Japanese Kanji (adapted from Chinese characters) to write Hon Sha Ze Sho Nen has five separate parts with distinct meanings that make up the complex whole of this Reiki symbol. When drawing or tracing this distance healing symbol on your palm, in the air, in your mind, or with a Reiki client, all brush strokes move from top to bottom, and left to right. Usually, writing HSZSN is preceded by the first two Reiki symbols, Cho Ku Rei and Sei Hei Ki, and leads into the fourth symbol, Dai Ko Myo.
In my drawing of the distance Reiki symbol above, instead of writing the numbers and arrows as other tutorials do, I’ve used the colors of the rainbow in order as an indication of which lines come when. Remember that all strokes move from top to bottom, and left to right.
Variations on the Distance Reiki Symbol
All Reiki symbols have several variations in how they’re written or drawn, but Hon Sha Ze Sho Nen has a particularly large number of versions — partly because it is comprised of over 20 different lines. Like most people, I embrace the variation that I was taught during my specific training, and that is what I’ve used in my Reiki symbol art for this article.
Distance Healing and Chakras
A fascinating piece I learned recently is that the HSZSN symbol can be seen as a drawing of the human body, and thus correlates to each of the chakras or energy centers. Below, I’ve drawn the Reiki Kanji so you can see how it connects with each chakra aura color: seeing purple, a blue aura, a green aura, yellow, an orange aura, and seeing red.
I’ve added a black aura around the art piece as well to connect to the Earth Star Chakra. Click any of those links for my long explanation of what each of those hues means — seeing chakra colors during Reiki sessions is my specialty. I love that the distance healing symbol brings all the chakras together. Very fitting for the symbol of unity, oneness, and connectedness!
Download Usui Reiki Symbols
Interested in an easy digital download of this full-color, hand-drawn Usui Reiki symbol, as well as the three others? Click the button below to find it! Feel free to reach out if you’d like me to add other versions for printables, pre-printed posters, and electronic options.
Hon Sha Ze Sho Nen in Sum
There is so much more to say about the Hon Sha Ze Sho Nen distance Reiki symbol, but let’s leave it at this for now, because now I’d like to open it up to you. What have been your thoughts about HSZSN? Have you had any distance Reiki healing experiences, yourself? Do share!
Into Reiki? Also check out my other articles, “What to Wear for Reiki,” “Reiki Pronunciation,” “How Many Reiki Sessions are Needed,” and “Crying During Meditation or Reiki,” which have insights for both clients and practitioners.
The author and artist, Lillie Marshall, is a National Board Certified Teacher of English who has been a public school educator since 2003, and an experienced Reiki practitioner since 2018. All art on this site is original and hand-drawn by Lillie. She launched DrawingsOf.com Educational Cartoons in 2020, building upon the success of her other two sites, AroundTheWorldL.com (established 2009) and TeachingTraveling.com (founded 2010). Subscribe to Lillie’s monthly newsletter, and follow @WorldLillie on social media to stay connected!