Karuna is a Sanskrit word meaning compassion — specifically the compassion that arises when we are moved to act in response to suffering. Not sympathy from a distance, but the kind of love that steps forward.
Karuna Reiki works at a deeper level than Usui Reiki alone — reaching into cellular memory, past life patterns, and the shadow material that standard Reiki may not fully access. It works particularly powerfully with trauma, grief, fear, and the wounds that have been held in the body for a long time.
The Karuna symbols carry specific healing intentions — some work with grounding and present-moment awareness, others with unconscious patterns, others with the nervous system’s deepest layers of held experience. Together they form a compassionate, penetrating system that honours the client’s whole history — not just what is visible on the surface.
If Usui Reiki is the gentle hand, Karuna Reiki is the deep embrace.