Reddit reviews Essential Reiki: A Complete Guide to an Ancient Healing Art

Not all scam artists; Diane Stein is still alive and well and offering half hour sessions for $125, and workshops for $600.

Pretty steep, but given that she was the first to make Reiki widely accessible via print and her book on Reiki is a modern classic, I don't see her fees as excessive for those who can afford it and want to go that route. But then again, that's Diane Stein, and she's more than established her creds, IMO.

The symbols and such are pretty much available online or in various books; it used to be much more like a secret than it is now. It's easy enough to find them.

For example, this book has pretty much all of what you'd learn from any instructor you'd paid to teach you. In fact when I went through my training for the first and second levels, a lot of what was in our hand books came directly from this book. I had been reading this book before I attended any classes and recognized some of it word for word.

1. Line up some people to practice on while you are awaiting reiki II.
   
2. Do your self reiki and gassho every day
   
3. Start reading about reiki history and theory so you can contextualize what you've learned and what you are going to learn. I recommend "The Reiki Sourcebook" (https://smile.amazon.com/Reiki-Sourcebook-Revised-Expanded/dp/1846941814?sa-no-redirect=1) and "Essential Reiki" (https://smile.amazon.com/Essential-Reiki-Complete-Ancient-Healing/dp/0895947366/ref=sr_1_1?)

One of the best books on the subject is on Amazon:
Essential Reiki: A Complete Guide to an Ancient Healing Art [Paperback]

A few of my friends' grandmothers use reiki on their children and grandchildren primarily, but also their pets. One of the best things about the practice is it doesn't require tools so you'll always be ready to administer it if the need arises. You can read the intro and first chapter which has a lot of background information on the practice. The practice has existed for quite awhile, but detailed records weren't written down until about one hundred years ago so there are some differences between the Japanese and the American systems.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0895947366/ref=oh_details_o02_s00_i00

Although I don't neccessarily say you need to shop here, this ladies work rocked my world, and also gave me excellent visuals to show students.
https://ssl207.chi.us.securedata.net/barbarabrennan.com/merchantmanager/product_info.php?products_id=1
https://ssl207.chi.us.securedata.net/barbarabrennan.com/merchantmanager/product_info.php?products_id=3
Both of those are excellent reads for light workers / healers.
I can also recomend this one - http://www.amazon.com/Essential-Reiki-Complete-Ancient-Healing/dp/0895947366. I have a few other books that may help but those are the ones that most of my friends look at and say "can I borrow this?". I can't condone anything illegal, but you may try searching a few torrent sites with these ISBN's. You never know what people are sharing now days. But eventually you are going to want your own copies. Because, yeah, they're good. :)