For the special edition of German Reiki Magazin about Hawayo Takata, published in February 2019, Marta Getty (1945-2020), initiated as a Reiki master by Phyllis Furumoto in 1981, wrote this article about „her week with Takata“. This is the first publication of this article in English language.

Expectations had been rising for weeks. Excitement was in the air! My Reiki teacher, Bethal Phaigh, had organized for Hawayo Takata to visit our Reiki community in Eugene, Oregon. The date was late October of 1980. It was a little scary for me getting to meet someone so important as Mrs. Takata and I didn’t know what to expect. She was the Lineage Bearer of Usui Shiki Ryoho and at that very early moment of having Reiki in my life, she seemed hugely important, and special. Bethal was bringing Mrs. Takata to my home then leaving to do some errands.

It was early afternoon, and a knock came on the door. When it was opened, there was Bethal and Mrs. Takata … and she was totally not what I expected. In my thoughts, Mrs. Takata was very tall, and imposing. Instead, she was tiny, shorter than me. I don’t know if I expected someone in long, flowing robes or something, but she was wearing a pink pantsuit. It was possible to feel her energy fill the space. Her first words to me were: „I’ve fallen down and hurt my shin. It is bleeding. Will you Reiki me?” Not at all what I had expected and of course, after covering the wound, she lay on my sofa and I sat on the coffee table doing Reiki. We talked and talked, and I forgot about how ‘important’ she was to Reiki. Instead she was personable, and fun, and though I didn’t know I was supposed listen to her, and learn, I asked her a tonne of questions.

I didn’t know she usually didn’t answer many questions, that she expected people to experience Reiki and learn from it. I didn’t know any Japanese protocols for sitting with someone older and wiser. We just talked together and enjoyed each other’s company, laughing a lot.

For her last night with us, we had a special family dinner. When she was asked what she would like to eat, she simply said, “fix what you would like because I’ll like it.” She was away during the day and I fussed and worried about what to cook. Finally, it was decided to bake a salmon, cook an Acorn squash (pumpkin) and make a big fresh salad from our garden.

When she arrived back at the house for our meal together, the first thing she said was “I’m sorry I didn’t say what I’d like for dinner because I had a craving all day for Salmon … and a wonderful fresh salad.” She even said she had smelled baking squash. I smiled because I could see she had been communicating with me all day, and she was so happy that she would get her wish of what she wanted to eat.

For me it was a beautiful experience for many reasons, most of all of experiencing her as a normal human being. I am grateful to have had this experience (and that she answered hours of non-stop questions, taught a first and second degree class in which I participated, and that a large group of us came to a Reiki exchange evening with her) because she died about two months later. She was full of energy, bright and wise, and very strong. She has been a role model for me in all these years of teaching Reiki.

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Marta Getty (1945-2020) was initiated into Reiki by Bethal Phaigh, a Takata master. She was initiated as a Master in 1981 after the death of Hawayo Takata by Phyllis Lei Furumoto, and has taught Reiki full time from then on. This includes having developed an ancestor lineage healing process called Healing Your Family Tree with Reiki.