Initiation — nyumon (入門), literally "entering the gate" — is the act of being brought into the practice of Reiki by a teacher. It marks the point where someone becomes a practitioner.
Crossing the threshold
Every tradition has a way of marking a beginning. In Reiki, initiation is that threshold: the moment a teacher formally opens the practice to a new student, and the student takes their first step onto the path.
Initiation & attunement
In practice, initiation and attunement are closely bound. The attunement is the ceremony itself — the gestures the teacher performs; initiation is the wider meaning of that moment, of being received into the practice and its lineage. Many practitioners use the words almost interchangeably.
"Entering the gate is a beginning — the practice itself is walked afterward, day by day."
A beginning, not an end
It helps to remember that initiation opens a door rather than confers mastery. What follows — daily practice, the principles, time with a teacher — is where Reiki is actually learned. The ceremony is the start of the work, not its completion.
Across traditions
The idea of a threshold — a marked moment of being received into a practice — is far older than Reiki. Many contemplative traditions have some form of it, and Reiki’s initiation sits comfortably in that company: modest, quiet, and concerned with beginning well rather than with spectacle.
Understood this way, initiation is less an achievement than an invitation. It says, in effect, "you may now begin" — and leaves the rest, the years of ordinary practice, to the person who has stepped through.