What we call practices of psychic self-defense (care and support) have been part of the West Zone Solidarity Network’s platform of action since its inception in 2020, with the offering of remote Reiki treatments to all those who requested to be included on the mailing lists. In 2021, the Reiki School was founded by Denise Ferreira da Silva, Elô Nunes, Camilla Rocha Campos, and Joana Seabra. The school organizes and offers training courses at three levels (Reiki I, II, and III), which cover initiation, specialization, and professional training in the practice.

From the very beginning, the Reiki School has offered free initiation into the practice of Reiki, which has enabled more than 20 women to spread this practice of care and self-defense. The methodology included online meetings and courses, and, following the pandemic, in-person meetings and events. The course covered the history of Reiki, the practice of self-application of Reiki, and principles related to poetic practice. Throughout the courses, participants present and discuss their priority themes derived from daily life, intertwining care and organization through events.

In 2023, with the creation of the Luz Negra Program for Subcommons Study—designed by Denise Ferreira da Silva and Silvia Nunes Baptista—the practices of tarot and astrology were integrated. The enrollment process for the Luz Negra Program of Subcommons Study attracted 61 women, of whom 30 were selected, with a quota reserved for young people. There was a balanced distribution among the neighborhoods that make up Rio’s West Zone, namely: Campo Grande, Guaratiba, Sepetiba, Santa Cruz, and Vargem Grande, fostering territorial coordination. The program consisted of 70 hours of virtual sessions and in-person meetings held between May 2023 and December 2024.

In 2024, we opened two rooms dedicated to Reiki—now known as Luz Negra Spaces: the first at Quilombo Dona Bilina and the second in Vargem Grande.

In 2025, the second phase of the Luz Negra Program, “Poetic Gatherings,” consists of monthly meetings in which readings of the New Moon Chart guide conversations on political, territorial, and personal issues raised by the participants; from these, we formulate a question to guide the tarot reading. Since we began the Poetic Encounters, the conversations and tarot readings have played a fundamental role in our collective reflections, discussions, and deliberations regarding territorial organization and mobilization around the most pressing issues and situations. So far, we have held only one in-person Poetic Encounter, on December 7, 2025, at the Eva Klabin House Museum in Rio de Janeiro.

Among the in-person gatherings held over the past six years, highlights include the inaugural event of the Luz Negra Program, held in Recreio dos Bandeirantes with 60 attendees, the Spring Gathering in Magé, a city in the Rio de Janeiro metropolitan area; and an in-person session on Reiki training and anti-racist education on September 14, 2024, at the Quilombo Dona Bilina Community Garden in Campo Grande, another neighborhood in Rio’s Zona Oeste (West Zone).

These in-person and online programs and spaces require additional funding and logistical support to be able to offer further support to women who are victims of patriarchal violence, including organizing discussion circles, as well as Reiki and Tarot sessions and training, reflexology, and other integrative practices.