When I first learned reading runes, I was guided in my dream to a teacher in Russia, a Mage. I am deeply grateful for that period, he gave me the initial insight and understanding in rune interpretations I needed.
My relationship with the runes never became static. It wasn't a matter of memorizing meanings and applying them forever. It continues to evolve. I notice patterns. The runes notice how I see those patterns. Meaning emerges through the relationship itself. This is not something anyone taught me. There is a living participation taking place.
At some point, my teacher and I naturally went our separate ways, because I could no longer allow someone else's insights to override my own direct experience.
Many traditions speak about this moment in different ways. In Buddhism there is a famous saying: "If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him." , because eventually one must stop following someone else's realization and walk one's own path.
Mastery, to me, is not the perfect repetition of what we have learned from others.
That may produce skill. But art begins when something more immediate appears.
When there is direct communication with Reality itself.
Then the art becomes alive.
And perhaps the learning never really ends. It simply becomes a conversation.
