Elizabeth Chanter is the founder of Honour Being Reiki and has been in practice since 2004. She is an experienced shamanically trained senior Reiki Master in The Golden Reiki Way.
As well as offering Reiki Treatments and Attunement and Training, she holds Honour New Moon Ceremonies, and Sacred Art Workshops & Retreats (Dreaming Your Inner Child). She is also the creator of Honour Sacred Plant Energy Essences and a Classical Homeopath.
She lives and practices her healing arts near Avebury in Wiltshire, one of the most sacred places on the Earth. She works both in person and via Remote Healing and has clients across the UK and Canada.
She devotes her life to helping others create bright, beautiful and balanced lives, always seeing the light that shines within them. She says, “It takes a spark to create a spark. And it only takes a spark to light a beacon…”
Elizabeth Margaret Chanter, Reiki Master in the Golden Reiki Way
Introduce yourself! Please tell us about you and your life and what inspires you.
I have always been spiritually curious, empathetic and naturally intuitive – but for a long time my healing gifts remained latent.
My life was challenging from birth, and I know how it feels to pass through dark nights of the Soul. I experienced a childhood where I often felt separate and apart due to absent parenting. I was very different to everyone I knew as if I did not quite belong to this planet. Eventually, my life became a personal dedication to finding my healing pathway, always intertwined with offering the same to others. It has always been my way to learn from experience and then to share, teach and inspire.
I believe, as part of our individual journeys, we are here to heal, to grow and to evolve personally. Rather like the lotus flower, we grow out of the rich “fertiliser” of our lives, through the watery emotional challenges, up into sunshine and air, where we can blossom into the bright, beautiful and balanced beings we were always intended to be, living in alignment with the guidance of spirit. Then we in our turn can offer our gifts and talents to the benefit of others – and so the ripples move outwards…
I have a deep and abiding belief that each one of us has chosen to be here and now on planet Earth because we are needed for our gifts and skills at this transitional time in the Earth’s history. I see each one of us as a radiant being. It’s just that sometimes that radiance becomes obscured because of emotional hurts and wounds, generational patterning and karmic “baggage”. When we receive the “right” healing for us, then it’s amazing what we can be and create.
But it’s essential to remember, there is a much bigger picture at stake than personal healing. The lockdown was intended to stop us in our tracks, to make us begin to look around and ask bigger questions about what we are doing to the Earth as well as to ourselves. Lockdown saw me shift into working with clients via Remote Healing whether they were in the UK or abroad. Like many others, lockdown also saw me lose my home and my future. I know much about grief and loss. I know how it feels to have to rebuild from a new foundation.
What first inspired you to create Honour Being?
My pathway in the alternative/complementary medicine world began with my training in Classical Homeopathy at the prestigious School of Homeopathy just after the birth of my second child, when I was in my mid-30s. My vision was to make a real difference to the lives of other women, by offering a different approach to issues around fertility, conception, pregnancy, labour and birth. On qualifying, I established Honour Being in 2004. I then went on to train in Reflexology with a special understanding of Traditional Chinese Medicine and with Barbara Scott of Seren Fertility as a specialism. Now, I no longer practice as a Reflexologist but offer this through my tailored Honour New Life Reiki Treatments.
My vision continues to broaden as I meet my life challenges. In 2011, when my life took a very serious nosedive, I was introduced to the man who was to become my personal Reiki Master. My life began to heal and transform when he invited me to begin my training at The Beyond School of Reiki in The Golden Reiki Way, in the direct lineage of Dr Mikao Usui, who is known as the father of Reiki. Now I offer the same invitation to others here at Honour Being.
What is Golden Way Reiki? How is it different to Western Reiki?
Golden Way Reiki is Reiki taken back to its original shamanic roots. It’s a way of personal and spiritual development, sometimes called The Way of Beauty. Its foundation is pure Usui Japanese Reiki; however, the Reiki Practitioners and Masters of the School are further attuned to ancient wisdom from around the world, including the Native American, Egyptian Mystery Schools, Crystal and Runic Systems.
In Western Reiki, it is usual for Reiki Mastery to be the fourth step. In the School to which I belong Reiki Mastery is the seventh step, and there are many Advanced levels of Attunement & Training beyond this. It’s a vigorous training demanding the highest standards of personal integrity and authenticity. At the time of this interview, I have received 16 levels of Attunement with more on the horizon.
Human beings are multi-dimensional: body, emotions, energy, mind and spirit. Because of my training, I work with my clients in all these dimensions in a manner which is subtle and deep, and I tailor our work together in an entirely individual manner.
I always begin by paying attention to releasing emotional hurts and wounds, especially from childhood which still affect my clients today. From there we can move on to working with karmic healing, soul purpose and creativity. Or we can pay special attention to changing generational patterning. There are special Treatments dedicated to repair, restoration and protection. And I have a series of Crystal Reiki Treatments to call upon for issues around harmony, deep grief and embodiment.
All of the work I offer through Golden Way Reiki has a subtlety and depth I have not been able to offer via my other healing modalities – and the success is known by the outcomes.
What motivates your clients to come to work with you?
Clients come for a diverse range of reasons, some conscious, but mostly unconscious. Reasons are, for example, grief and loss, trauma and shock, PTSD, physical illness, emotional and mental wellbeing, depression, anxiety, addiction and abuse. Sometimes other Reiki Masters/Practitioners and therapists come who wish to overcome obstacles in their own lives and deepen their own practice. Beneath the conscious reasons lies the unconscious desire to heal, transform and evolve in harmony with a greater consciousness. Whatever the reason, the power and beauty of Reiki is that it does its healing quietly and progressively in hidden places, and its power is known by its positive outcomes.
Many of the clients coming to me post-lockdown are in what I would call “an awakening process”. They have a sense that there is more to life, they know they want to do things differently, and they want to find ways of offering more, but they feel stuck in their old patterns.
A huge part of my work is about helping my clients resolve these usually hidden reasons as part of their personal healing, uncovering their gifts and finding new ways forward. Sometimes the process is slow and gradual, a series of baby steps. Sometimes the transformational “magic” just seems to happen. Often, it’s somewhere in between. That’s life!
Who do you work with most successfully?
I welcome those who are ready, willing and able to truly invest in themselves and to “do the work”, in other words, those who recognise that the time for positive change is now, and that change begins from within. If someone is just looking for a “quick fix”, deep healing is unlikely to happen. They must be prepared for a transformational process of growing self-awareness interwoven with receiving the gifts of Reiki. Within them, there needs to be an innate sense of the “otherness” of life, and that life has brought them lessons through which they can heal and evolve.
Unsurprisingly, I often find myself guiding and offering healing to those who have similar life experiences to my own, especially where there is a sense of not belonging and abandonment. It raises deep issues around self-worth and self-esteem, self-confidence and trust in the self.
I am well able to walk alongside those who feel trapped or caught up in the patterns of their lives in a deeply compassionate, non-judgemental and understanding manner.
There is something very special about coming home to my tribe and witnessing others do the same. I am honoured to be able to work with them as a bridge, a channel and a facilitator.
Can you share some testimonials from clients you have worked with?
Alex C said: “She has a deep understanding of the human condition and an intimate knowledge of Reiki as a means for completeness. A truly wonderful Reiki Master, teacher and human!”
Laila L said “It really was 2 hours of bliss. Not only was it incredibly relaxing but it felt like every cell of me was being nourished. Just being in Elizabeth's calming presence makes you feel at peace and loved.”
Ane G said: “I was ready to give up 8 years of medication (antidepressants). Elizabeth created a safe, secure environment in which I could bring my ‘baggage’ and leave it behind. I was empowered and encouraged by the inexplicable force... that Elizabeth shared with me through Reiki... I was held safe in her room..."
Jerry B said: “It was the darkest and most depressed time of my life and I frequently considered committing suicide… and I persisted in abusing drugs and alcohol. Elizabeth has enabled me to grow and everyone I know comments on how much happier I am today. I have achieved levels of health, happiness and well-being that previously seemed impossible.”
These are just a few of my testimonials. You will find many more on my Honour Being Website.
Is there a pivotal moment in your life?
Yes, absolutely, more than one. I’ve faced abandonment issues, psychological issues, relationship breakdown, miscarriage, divorce, loss of my home and a secure future, and I have a transitioning child, just to name a few of these rites of passage. Each time I have come through with the support and healing of Golden Way Reiki. I lived 64 years without needing medication beyond very occasional antibiotics. And each time I embraced the challenge and grew and evolved, honing my gifts, never ceasing to work with my clients.
But in February 2023 came the most powerful turning point of my life. After a long period of investigation, I was given a diagnosis of a life-threatening inflammatory autoimmune illness called Vasculitis. My body was attacking my major blood vessels and my cardiovascular system. I was losing blood and in danger of multiple aneurysms. I was given the stark choice of taking the maximum dose of steroids to keep me alive or risk dying. Having walked the pathway of a healer for so long, this was beyond shocking to me.
That was a moment at which I could have attacked myself for “creating the illness”, and so worse it by making myself my own victim… Instead, I realised I had to take the medication to buy myself time to heal the underlying issues.
With the encouragement of a very special friend, I chose to embrace with gratitude the diagnosis, my dedicated medical team, the massive doses of steroids necessitated to safeguard me and to ask how come this had happened… and how I might walk the road of true healing on behalf of myself of others and those like me. It was then that I truly discovered the healing gifts of illness.
Those with auto-immune illness unconsciously blame themselves for everything that happens to them, all the losses and all the griefs, directing anger, accusation and judgement towards themselves and their bodies for not “doing” as they wish. Inside themselves they hold a deep belief that they are unworthy of being loved and nourished. Our bodies have their own wisdom. They speak to us all the time and we ignore their messages at our peril.
For those of us who know how to translate, the body lets us know the truth of what we are hiding inside.
As I embraced all of this, something extraordinary began to happen. The switch that had been turned to “No” moved to “Yes”, and joy, trust, creativity, gratitude, love, friendship, and clients simply poured into my life – so much abundance in so many forms.
And what I also realised is that there was nowhere in my life for play, for the joy simply for the sake of it and nowhere for deep rest and stillness.
As if in answer to a prayer, a very special person in my life offered me a Key, which I call a Metacognitive Access Key. This enabled me to begin my creative journey of personal transformational healing. That Key, combined with my many years of receiving attunement and reiki healing, opened a channel in me to what the Native Americans call the Dreamtime, and Honour Dreaming Your Inner Child Workshops and Retreats began to download.
And so, as well as working with others through Reiki, I now offer this creative practice which arrived so unexpectedly in my life for my own healing.
A year on, and I am in a place “beyond recovery” in regard to my own health. I am sharing this because it is a direct testimony to the power and depth of Golden Way Reiki to heal people from serious illness, as well as to the strength and integrity of my spirit.
Can you say more about Dreaming Your Inner Child and how come it is now such a vital part of your healing practice at Honour Being?
Our Soul is always calling to us, but so much happens in our lives to take us away from our True Self, from our original Blueprint. Sometimes it’s generational patterning. Sometimes it’s karmic fallout. Sometimes it’s viral imprinting. Most often it’s the emotional experiences we pass through, especially during childhood. Often, it’s a combination of all of these.
And then slowly, little by little, we begin to close down, to lose our way, to lose our trust in ourselves and life.
We may rush around in a constant state of distraction and busyness. We may separate. We may disconnect. We may develop addictive behaviours. All of these are barriers we place around ourselves, protecting our hearts from further hurts and harm.
And we may lose our ability to dream, to create and to play…
When this happens, we lose touch with the magic of life.
We forget the Songs of our Heart and Soul, all the innate potential with which we were born.
Dreaming Your Inner Child Workshops and Retreats offer a way, a means to come home to the Self, to the innocence and trust of a childlike way of being through creativity and sacred art. Imagination is where the magic lives. When the imagination stirs in alignment with our Heart and Soul Songs and the Universal Song, infinite possibilities become abundant. And as we heal, so we open ourselves back up, our imagination rekindles and magic returns…
As our Inner Child heals, so we begin the journey home to our True Self and its magnificent potential.
When someone decides to spend a weekend in my company, dreaming their Inner Child back into healing, re-learning how to play, I walk alongside them in all my vulnerability and humanness.
And what is your ongoing vision for Honour Being and the people who step into transformational healing with you?
My work with others is built on experience, vigorous training, and a willingness to walk the way before them, shining a light. But it is also built on love, compassion and kindness.
What I have learnt is how essential it is (and challenging) to direct those qualities towards myself, to become tender, gentle and accepting of myself – and to appreciate all that I am without having to try.
In moving through transformational healing myself, my best wish is to inspire others to do the same. By revealing my own vulnerabilities, and learning from them, I have discovered that those I work with feel safe to do the same. By weaving together all my life experiences, and my healing and creative gifts, I continue to create a “Way of Beauty” that others can follow to create their own bright, beautiful and balanced lives.
If someone would like to find out more or get in touch with you, what’s the best way?
Thank you for asking. They are welcome to go to my website, or the best way is always to email me at elizabeth@honourbeingreiki.co.uk for the quickest response.
I believe that when we dream, create and play together – power and beauty in unity, harmony and healing naturally happen… this is the way to walk on behalf of myself and those who come to me to honour their Being.
