If you have watched the news recently, you have probably experienced a familiar feeling.
War continues in one part of the world while political division deepens in another. Communities become increasingly polarized, families find themselves separated by ideology, and environmental concerns seem to grow larger each year. The problems are so numerous and so interconnected that they can leave us feeling discouraged. As Reiki practitioners, we naturally want to help, yet many of us quietly wonder what difference one person can possibly make.
Of course, Reiki already gives us a way to respond. We send Reiki to friends who are ill, to loved ones facing difficult decisions, and to situations that call for healing. Many of us also send Reiki to disasters, conflicts, or places experiencing suffering. These practices are deeply valuable and have long been part of Reiki.
Yet there comes a point when the suffering of the world begins to feel too vast to approach one event at a time. Which war should we focus on? Which natural disaster? Which humanitarian crisis? The world has become so complex that it is easy to feel overwhelmed by the sheer number of places that seem to need our attention.
Several years ago, Reiki Master Marta Getty found herself asking that same question. Rather than continuing to direct Reiki toward one crisis after another, she began to wonder whether there might be another way. Instead of focusing on individual events, what if Reiki practitioners simply held the Earth itself? What if there were a practice so simple that thousands of people around the world could participate together, each offering Reiki to the same living planet we all share?
That question became the beginning of The Blue Earth Project.
The practice Marta created is remarkably simple. Holding a small blue marble as a symbol of Planet Earth, practitioners connect with Reiki and quietly repeat one intention:
“I direct this energy of Reiki to heal and reconcile Planet Earth and all its inhabitants.”
Then they simply allow Reiki to flow.
There is no attempt to decide where Reiki should go. There is no need to choose one country over another, one conflict over another, or one environmental concern over another. The marble represents the whole Earth. The practitioner simply holds the planet in their hands and entrusts everything else to Reiki.
When I first encountered the Blue Earth Project, I assumed it was simply another form of distant Reiki. As I have spent the past several weeks studying Marta Getty’s writings and speaking with Chiara Corte and Raymond Brockotter, who now carry the project forward, I have come to see that it offers a different perspective. Rather than asking us to focus on one crisis after another, it invites us to hold the Earth as one living whole.
Chiara shared with me that Marta gradually concluded it was not enough to send Reiki only to individual disasters or wars. The suffering of our planet is woven together through countless relationships. Every conflict affects families, communities, cultures, economies, and future generations. Every environmental crisis ultimately reflects humanity’s relationship with the Earth itself. Rather than treating one symptom after another, Marta began holding the entire living system in Reiki.
That perspective also helps explain one word that distinguishes the Blue Earth Project from many other world healing practices.
Reconciliation.
When Chiara and I began discussing this project, I asked what Marta meant by the word reconcile. Her answer surprised me. She explained that reconciliation has itself become an ongoing area of exploration within the Blue Earth Project. It is not simply another word in the intention. It has become the defining question that she and Raymond continue to live, practice, and explore with their students.
For me, reconciliation does not mean that everyone suddenly agrees. It does not erase differences or ask us to decide who is right and who is wrong. Instead, it begins with the recognition that relationship has been damaged while remaining open to the possibility that relationship can be restored. Whether that relationship exists between nations, communities, families, humanity and nature, or within ourselves, we do not attempt to force the outcome. We simply offer Reiki with that intention and allow Reiki to work in ways that are often beyond our understanding.
As I look back over Marta Getty’s life, I also see the Blue Earth Project as the natural continuation of themes that appeared throughout her teaching. She devoted herself first to helping individuals discover Reiki. Later she developed Healing Your Family Tree with Reiki, exploring how Reiki could restore health within families and ancestral relationships. The Blue Earth Project expands that same movement once again, widening the circle until it embraces the entire human family and the planet we inhabit together.
One sentence from an interview with Marta has remained with me throughout this exploration. She said, “I want this time of communion, and I have a deep need for this sense of connection.” Those words feel especially relevant today. Beneath our fears, frustrations, and disagreements, perhaps what many of us are longing for is exactly that: a deeper sense of connection with one another and with the living Earth that sustains us all.
For me, one of the most beautiful aspects of the Blue Earth Project is that it naturally brings people together. It is not owned by one organization or one lineage. Students from many different Reiki traditions can participate without giving up their own practice or beliefs. We do not have to agree about every aspect of Reiki to sit together, hold the same symbol of the Earth, and offer Reiki with the same intention. In a time when so much seems determined to divide us, perhaps simply practicing together is itself an act of reconciliation.
On Monday, July 20, NYC Reiki Center will host an introductory Zoom gathering with Chiara Corte and Raymond Brockotter, who continue the Blue Earth Project following Marta Getty’s passing.
Together we will explore the origins of the practice, its meaning, and how our student community can begin participating in this simple but profound work.
I hope you will join us.
Perhaps none of us can heal the entire world.
But together, we can choose not to let separation have the final word.
Join Us
If you feel called to bring your Reiki practice into service to the wider world, we invite you to join us.
Monday, July 20
6:00 PM Eastern Time
Live on Zoom
Contribution: $25
