Which relationship has taught you the most about yourself?
Sometimes we step into a relationship that is short, but its effect is enduring.
In 2024, Grand Rune Master Jesse Pryor stepped into my life. He reached out to me as one Grand Rune Master to another. We came from the same lineage, both having studied the runes under Grand Rune Master Karl Hans Welz.
Jesse had started his journey about ten years before me. There was even a period when we were both working closely with Karl, yet somehow our paths never crossed.
Until much later.
Recently, my fellow rune practitioner—and by then, my friend—passed away. I found myself going back through our conversations over the last two years. Reading them again revealed much about Jesse, but unexpectedly, they also revealed much about me.
I learned that two people can hold very different views and still have a constructive conversation. We don’t always need to accept or reject the other person’s viewpoint. Sometimes the value lies simply in allowing the discussion to throw light on something so that both of us can see more clearly.
I learned that we don’t need to judge another person when they falter or fail. There is enormous value in finding a relationship that provides a safe space to simply be human—with our weaknesses, struggles and doubts. These things do not necessarily make us less. They make us real.
And I learned the value of humour.
Jesse had a wonderful ability to use humour to soften the harsh edges of life. There is something elegant about dismantling an overwhelmingly serious issue with a little humour. Suddenly the monster in the room looks more like a cuddly kitten.
Through Jesse, I discovered that I have the capacity to hold another person’s view with respect without becoming attached to it. I learned that I have weaknesses, but they do not have to define me. And although I have never thought of myself as “the funny guy,” I discovered that there is almost always room for humour to smooth the edges of friction.
But perhaps the most important lesson was this:
The runes never leave us.
Jesse once said that the runes can “take a nap.” He also described them as armour that we never really need to put down.
I have come to appreciate the wisdom in that.
There can be cycles of intense rune work and other cycles when the practice seems almost to slow to a halt. But the magic of the runes does not stop. What we have genuinely put into practice continues to carry us. What we have transformed within ourselves continues to serve us.
Perhaps that is true of relationships too.
A person may walk beside us only for a short distance, yet something of that relationship continues travelling with us long after they are gone.
Through knowing Jesse, I discovered that I am more capable than I sometimes think, more resilient than I imagine, and more human than the person I sometimes expect myself to be.
And perhaps that is one of the greatest gifts a relationship can give us:
not merely another person to know, but a clearer view of ourselves.
