Chiron Communications

Chiron Communiqué

Author's Occasional Newsletter

from Steven McFadden

Vol. 7 No. 8

© August, 2002

Hand to Hand

It is my pleasure to announce the publication of a new book entitled "Hand to Hand: The Longest Practicing Reiki Master Tells His Story," by John Harvey Gray and Lourdes Gray (with Steven McFadden and Elisabeth Clark).

This book has been in the works for over 20 years. Now that it has emerged it will prove a worthy addition to the literature and instruction available on the Reiki method of hands-on healing.

The book offers a history and a practical guide to Reiki, from Usui to Hayashi to Takata to John Harvey Gray and beyond.

Reiki (pronounced Ray-Key) is a Japanese word meaning universal life energy — the energy that flows through all living things. It is also the name for a simple, effective technique for healing via the laying-on of hands – a technique with ancient roots that everyone can learn and apply effectively.

The new book contains a wealth of photos and illustrations, describes a full Reiki treatment, and offers the combined experience of my teachers – and the teachers of many thousands of Reiki practitioners -- John and Lourdes.

As noted on the schedule page, I will be teaching Reiki classes in Santa Fe this Autumn.

Hand to Hand (2002, Xlibris Corp., ISBN #1-4010-4690-5) is now available from the following web sites:
http://www.xlibris.com/bookstore
http://www.amazon.com
or by calling 1-888-795-4274

Profiles of Venerable Elders Added to Chiron’s Cave

I have added two profiles of distinguished elders to the Chiron’s Cave section of this website (see the navigation bar to the left).

While the profiles are lenthy, they are well worth studying. I wrote both of them in the early 1990s, but they have been moldering in my file cabinet ever since. Because the subjects of the profiles have so much to offer, it seemed important to make their insights available to the public now.

The first profile is entitled "Surges of Moral Certainty: John H. Finley." The estimable Mr. Finley died in 1995, but his words and his influence live on. From 1929, when he became an instructor in the classics, until his retirement in 1976, he was an institution unto himself at Harvard: Eliot Professor of Greek Literature, Honorary Associate, interpreter of the classics, and club man nonpareil.

Finley embodied the professorial archetype over his 47-plus years as at Harvard: ardent, erudite, bemused. At home in the academic village, he earned renown as an authority on the poets, historians, and philosophers of the ancient world. In the newly posted profile Professor Finley waxes eloquent as he discusses the course of human life, and expounds upon the original Sophoclean thesis: you are who you are.

The second profile is entitled "Tools for Becoming a Sage: Rabbi Zalman Schacter-Shalomi." In the profile the Rabbi discusses the process of aging, and the tools human beings can apply for cultivating wisdom as they pass through this inevitable process.

It was a delight to study with and to interview Zalman. Re-reading and editing the profiles induced a flood of warm memories and hearty laughs, for he is a great soul and a master storyteller.

"A lot of the spiritual work people do is just putting whipped cream on top of a bowl of garbage," the Rabbi observes at one point. "You've got to clean up the garbage first before you add the whipped cream."

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