MariEL, or more fully the MariEL Healing System Reiki, is a healing energy system that is said to draw its powers from the Mother Mary, commonly known as Mary the mother of Christ. The energy system is predicated on the belief that each of the body’s cells possess a memory and that these cells and the memory therein can be released by proper manipulation or channeling, thus effecting a catharsis of the bad memories and traumas that are apt to linger and have harmful physical and psychological effects.
MariEL is the brain-child of the American Reiki Master Ethel Lombardi. In the 1980s, she forewent siding with either of the then two leading practitioners of Reiki, Barbara Ray and Phyllis Furomoto, in order to forge her own innovative energy healing system that took its name from Mary the mother of Christ and El, a godly appellation found in the Old Testament.
A MariEL master has at his disposal the MariEL Reiki toolkit of energy manipulation and three important symbols. These symbols are called distance, power and higher self connection. The energy in the body is manipulated or channeled by non-tactile massage that the MariEL Reiki Master summons by positioning his hands near the subject’s body. This channeling of the body’s energy is brought about by the Reiki master positioning his hands in special positions along what are called energy lines.
A typical MariEL session takes longer than an hour, during which time the body is said to reveal to a practiced Reiki master its "narrative." The body is first prepared for this energy release and then the Reiki Master will channel energy in a regular Reiki manner, which is often performed by touching the subject but can also be non-tactile. The amount of cellular memory that is channeled is in accordance with the subject’s volition. The Reiki Master is said to facilitate the release of as much energy as the subject is prepared to release.
At each subsequent MariEl session, the energy probing is deeper and more pervasive; with each cellular release, the energy build-up of a deeper and more latent facet of the subject’s energy narrative is revealed. The Reiki Master will often employ different methods in the sessions, with typical means of energy manipulation including vibrational sound therapy, chelation techniques and CarnioSacral therapy. A subject who has undergone a series of productive sessions will have excavated their energy narrative and have arrived at a better sense of "self-hood" and energy equilibrium.