Perthro Demands “Nosce Te Ipsum”
“Nosce te ipsum”, or “know thyself” is a concept that is required to achieve any significant amount of personal growth. We’ve all heard it, we all know we should do it, even if it’s the only amount of growth we achieve in life. If you don’t know or understand yourself, then you don’t know what parts of you are integral for your path and what parts need work. You also can’t see who you want to become.
The other night, my husband and I were discussing this subject a little. He confided that he felt like although the last year came with many trials and stresses for him, all of it opened his eyes to who he really was and what he wanted from his life. The experience illuminated a path for him that he previously had no awareness of simply because he had never been truly challenged with any chaos or hardship to withstand and overcome. Now that he has, he feels like he can accomplish things he had never given a second thought to. Coming from someone who had those experiences fairly early in life and thus has always had some sense of direction (aka, myself), it was nice to have the opportunity to see him reach such a significant milestone in his personal growth and maturity.
As for me, I have a little bit more of a disagreement with the implications of the question “Who am I?”. It’s not that I don’t know, but I usually see that question as a grab for labels or identification with specific beliefs or political groups. To me, it demands categorization, itemization, stereotyping, watered down personality traits, and it all seems too surface-level to really convey any depth. People are so complex and in a constant state of transition that I see it as a disservice to take a listed account of their current personality traits and opinions, smack a label to it, and say “this is who you are”. At least in my experience, that might be who I am today, but I’ll be different tomorrow. Our experiences and interactions with others are constantly changing our answer to the question “Who am I?”, so I don’t like to answer it.
Even so, I do know who I am at the moment, and I’m always observing how my experiences change various opinions and adjust them accordingly. This is why I don’t particularly like speaking on things unprompted, because I know there’s a good chance that I won’t have that opinion for very long. Of course, that doesn’t include core beliefs or my stance on certain issues that are based in fact and a general sense of morality and humanity, but that’s not all that I am, either, so it doesn’t really matter in context anyway. I am the type of person, though, that if someone asks me a question about my opinions or beliefs, I’m more than happy to answer it and have a discussion, which may lead to me changing my opinion and allow me to continue growing as an individual. I’m always open to an opportunity to continue transforming into the person I was designed to be, and love chances to learn from others.
I was thinking about this in regard to Perthro (or Perth) and my experience learning about who I am from its lessons. Perthro is a rune that I typically associate with the concept of “knowing thyself”, because that is the very essence of the message it conveys to those who use it. If you’re familiar with the Web of Wyrd, being the fabric of the universe, then you might also be familiar with the Well of Wyrd. If not, the Well of Wyrd is what contains all knowledge in the universe; everything that there is to be known in all of time and space. Past, present and future, every variation of every timeline, everything that could have been or could possibly be is contained in the well. Perthro is our access point to that knowledge and acts as a window into that space so we can dip our toes in and kick up any information that we may need. If you work in divination, then the well is where you receive the answers you seek.
But Perthro demands that you know yourself before utilizing the Well of Wyrd to gain outside knowledge. If you do not know yourself before attempting access, all Perthro will show you is a reflection so that you may learn more about who you truly are.
I’ve wondered about this, because as I’ve stated above, I’m always changing and evolving into something different. We all are. We are in a constant state of transformation, evolution, and growth and relearning who we are and what is important to us. So how can I still peer through that window into the well and pull out any information I seek? How can I see beyond myself if I’m constantly learning about myself? How could anyone—especially if you believe the theory that we all just exist as facets of the same “source-soul” living an infinite number of lives across eternity for the sole purpose of understanding itself in every form? If the universe is constantly learning about itself, how can it know itself?
I decided the only way to truly and continuously know myself is to accept that very fact. I am a shred of light beaming from the center of the universe that is in a constant state of chaos and change, ever-growing and morphing into something new and worth understanding. That’s all I am at the end of the day. That’s all we all are. It is not meaningless. It is not without depth. And while many facets of us agree with each other and other facets contradict, we all have our perspectives based on our experiences that lead us to those conclusions.
We are fire that changes color depending on what it’s fed. Despite our differences in tones and hues, we are still the same.