Derivation of name

 

The Japanese word Reiki , meaning "mysterious atmosphere / spiritual power" is a loanword from the Chinese word língqì, which some Chinese-English dictionaries translate as "spiritual influence (of mountains etc) / cleverness / ingeniousness".This Japanese compound joins the words rei, meaning "ghost, spirit, soul / supernatural, miraculous, divine; ethereal body", with ki, meaning "gas, air / breath / energy / force / atmosphere / mood / intention / emotion, attention", here meaning qi, which translates as "spiritual energy / vital energy / life force / energy of life". Some Reiki translation equivalents from Japanese-English dictionaries are: "feeling of mystery", "an atmosphere (feeling) of mystery", and "an ethereal atmosphere (that prevails in the sacred precincts of a shrine); (feel, sense) a spiritual (divine) presence."

 

Through transliteration, a word cannot be translated with precision pertaining to the original language, and some people translate Reiki as meaning "universal life energy", or divine energy.