The Day Peter Got Discovered
One of my neighbors at the Carmel Valley farmers market is Peter, 79 year old woodworker who makes black and white photography framed in raw wood.
There is something about his work I really enjoy. The subtlety of black and white. The texture of unfinished wood. Nothing flashy. Nothing trying too hard to impress anyone.
Every Sunday he quietly arrives at the market with his photographs and wooden frames. He could easily stay home at his age, but instead he keeps showing up.
I noticed something about him recently. Peter never rushes. Not physically. Not psychologically.
In a world where everybody is optimizing, accelerating and reacting to constant stimulation, there is something deeply human about an old craftsman simply continuing to show up with pieces of wood, black and white photographs, and his quiet presence.
This photo somehow captures two humans showing up every Sunday with our strange offerings in the middle of the Hay Universe . Peter looks like a man who quietly sanded wood for 60 years and made peace with reality. I look like a festival piñata that escaped containment in a parking lot
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.
People sometimes assume that market sessions are "little sessions" and private consultations are the "real thing" or somehow deeper. I don't see it that way. The difference isn't depth. At the market, sessions are focused mostly on one inquiry. We look at the runes first. Then I ask questions, people answer, and together we interpret the runes and bring clarity to what is happening. There is not much unnecessary wandering. The process itself is very concentrated. Life becomes clearer, and then I move on to the next person. The tent belongs to more than one human being. Private sessions are different, but not because they are deeper. There is simply more space. More room for people to tell their story. More room for tears and connections. Sometimes people need to tell their stories, even if this is not necessary for interpreting the runes. Sometimes people have multiple inquiries. Different parts of their lives need attention. We move from one area of life to another as the conversation unfolds naturally, allowing each part to receive the attention it needs. In the market, the session serves the flow of humanity. In private, the session serves the spaciousness of humanity. Neither one is a lesser version of the other. They are simply different environments. And perhaps this is why I never saw the markets as a way to lead people somewhere else. The purple tent was never meant to be a doorway to a "next level." It is already whole in itself. Private consultations are not an upgrade. They simply provide a different kind of room for what people may need.
There is a Russian saying: “Я прошла огонь, воду и медные трубы. ”Literally:
“I went through fire, water and brass pipes. It sounds strange and dramatic :)
Fire and water I understand. But why brass pipes? Fire is suffering.
Water is instability and life itself.
But brass pipes are glory, praise, self-importance, ego inflation. Sometimes the brass pipes are harder to survive than the fire. Pain can humble people.
Success can intoxicate them. This is why Russian sayings sound like someone survived:
war, heartbreak, revolution, betrayal, spiritual crisis and three symbolic deaths 😄 Meanwhile Americans say:
“I’ve been around the block.” Russians go through fire, water and brass pipes.
Americans just stroll around the block :). But both probably point to the same thing:
life eventually educates everyone.
I have a strange relationship with time. People often say things like: "Good morning." "Good night." "Long time no see." Somewhere inside, those things never carried much weight for me. Even as a child, I remember having a difficult time adapting to formal social greetings. It wasn't rebellion. I wasn't trying to be difficult. I simply didn't understand why so much attention was being given to the doorway when we could already be inside the house. Years later, while studying Runic Diagnostics with rune master in Russia, I noticed the same thing. We worked together every day for months. Each morning he would begin with "Good morning", and it took me a while to adapt to that ritual. I simply did not experience our interaction as something that had stopped. Yesterday we were discussing runes, life, dreams, symbols, and human beings. Today we were discussing the same things. For me it felt like one continuous conversation. The same thing happens when I reconnect with people after years apart. Someone will say: "Wow, it's been ten years." And of course I know it has been ten years, but internally it often feels more like: "Ah, there you are. Anyway, where were we?" The conversation continues. The relationship continues. Life moves on. The calendar feels less important than whatever is actually alive between people. Over the years I have realized that this is also how I work with people. When someone sits down with me for a consultation, I am usually not very interested in introductions, roles, titles, or credentials. Those things have their place, but my attention naturally moves toward the person, toward what is actually happening, toward the living reality beneath the story. Sometimes after only ten minutes of conversation, people begin speaking about things they have not spoken about with anyone for years. Perhaps because I do not experience them as strangers for very long. Suddenly two human beings are talking about something real. This immediacy has become a framework for much of my life. It is probably why I enjoy the farmers markets and coffee shops as places for my work with people. It is probably why I can reconnect with someone after years and feel as though we are continuing a conversation that simply paused for a while. And perhaps that is why "long time no see" has never felt quite accurate to me. The conversation was still there waiting patiently for us to continue.
Real, down to earth, simple changes matters as much as huge transformative experiences. Sometimes people just need a real conversation, a little clarity, a little perspective, and permission to relax out of the compressed version of themselves for a moment. These are actual messages I received in the last two days after sessions: “After our conversation I relaxed more.” “I sleep better.” “Kуча позитивных эмоций. Спасибо вам большое!” ("Tons of positive emotions, thank you so much!") “You inspired my daughter to continue studying!” “Elena, because of our talk, it helped me stay strong and not text him yesterday!” “You see the highest potential of the person and show it to us in the most positive way.” Honestly, these full-on hay testimonials 🙂 make me smile because underneath all the mystical language, runes, symbols, psychology, and strange Purple Tent atmosphere, what people seem to experience most is simple human relief. And I think people are much more tired, emotionally compressed, and overstimulated than we fully realize. Sometimes a real conversation changes the direction of a whole day, or even a life.
I used to think I was a bit anti-social. I loved being alone, solitude was my way of life. But looking back, I think a lot of it was simply sensitivity without enough grounding. I withdrew for many years into inner worlds, spirituality, observation. The deep depression in the past couple of years completely changed me. I gave up all the defenses because I had no choice. And at this point in my life, I feel more human than ever. Not because I became less sensitive. It feels as if I got a center of gravity that contains and directs that sensitivity where it belongs: to feel in the immediacy of the moment and be useful with my sensitivity to another human being. Now I enjoy people. I enjoy real conversations and simple human contact. Just sitting with another while life untangles a little for them is a gift.
Vicissitudes of life made me much more human. Not through spirituality, but through shock, disillusionment, grief, loss of direction, loss of spark, and slowly finding my way back into life again. After going through certain things, it becomes much harder to divide people into categories like conscious/unconscious, awakened/asleep, evolved/not evolved. Life can break anyone. And people can also come back even from very dark places. I think this is part of why I ended up at local markets open to anybody who feels drawn to come and talk. Not because I have everything figured out. Maybe almost the opposite. Something softened after going through enough reality. Now when people sit across from me confused, looping, grieving, ashamed, lost or unable to see clearly, I don’t feel above them. I simply understand what it means to be human. This made life feel more real and more meaningful than many grand ideas ever did.
Years ago I was sitting in retreat circles, spiritual gatherings, speaking to groups, talking for hours about consciousness, awakening, transformation. Now I sit under a purple tent at the Farmers Market with a sign saying “Psychic Life Coach” And honestly… nothing actually changed that much. A person sits down. Life is tangled. Runes hit the table. Something becomes visible. The fog breaks a little. What changed is that the work became immediate. The Runic instrument uncovers what's going on instantly. Not trying to wake up people. No spiritual theater. No pretending we know everything. More direct human contact. Someone comes confused, uncertain, heartbroken, stuck, overwhelmed. We look together. Something in them relaxes. And somehow this strange little purple tent became one of the most human and meaningful spaces I ever created. What I see is that clarity, presence, and honest human connection matter more than anything. And that’s enough.
The oldest runic system dates back to around the 2nd century CE, making it nearly 2,000 years old. These symbols were used by Germanic and Norse peoples not only for writing, but also in magical and symbolic practices. Tarot, by comparison, first appeared in Europe during the 15th century as playing cards and only later became associated with divination and various esoteric traditions. As a divination tool, Tarot has been used for roughly 250 years. Over the years people have often asked me about the difference between Tarot and Runes. I am not a Tarot practitioner, and I have had only a few Tarot readings myself. In my experience, Tarot often provides information and insight into a situation. In the right hands, it can be a valuable tool. My own path, however, has been with Runes. From my experience, Runes reveal the underlying energies present in a situation. I experience them not simply as symbols carrying information, but as living forces that interact with reality itself. For this reason, I approach Runes with respect. I have found that working with them is not simply about receiving information. Intention and interaction matter. In inexperienced hands, attempts to influence a situation can sometimes produce results different from what was intended. When I work with Runes, I am looking at the energies active within a situation so that we can understand what is truly unfolding without illusions. From there, we can explore possibilities, consider available options, and model different scenarios. My role is not to predict a fixed future, but to help people move forward with greater clarity and make the best decisions possible within the circumstances they are facing.
I talked to ChatGPT today for the first time, so I am not a virgin anymore :)). I wanted to see how clear and deep AI will go with me about the subject. I wanted to see what it can and can't do. Here is my simple discovery: ChatGPT can pull out any kind of information available by this time on the internet, analyze and summarize in a very clear way, in a blink of an eye, and I loved that! If the question is precise, it will give you the answer. But where I saw we, real humans, better? I will tell you on my own personal example, on what I do. I am an intuitive, and people come to me with problems they THINK they have. I talk to them and see that their issue is not in what they thought, but something deeper. I was always highly intuitive and worked with people on a very deep level, but now I also use ancient energies of Runes as an instrument. They immediately show me ENERGIES present in a situation: what's in subconscious mind, what in conscious, what's in energy field, emotionally, what energies present in a social circle about this issue, what's going on actually in physical reality, and much more.... I see a comprehensive picture of ENERGIES. This is it: ChatGPT pulls the information, Runes pull the energies. Both are DATA, one is information based, another - energy based. I come into the picture as an Intuitive and can use this data, from both sources, in my work. I am only using data from Runes, I never engaged with ChatGPT until today. But I can see how I can utilize AI's information based data, just for my personal research. I will continue to write my imperfect blog posts myself, with some grammar mistakes that only human can make now, so you know its me, still here :) But, lets see where ChatGPT can't fill in for me, the real human intuitive. For example, someone came to me recently with this inquary: "Elena, can we look up if this profession will work for me?" I did a diagnostic on that question and saw that it doesn't matter what kind of proffession or field of work he is talking about, the issue is deeper, and it will be hard, very hard, if not impossible, to actually get employed in that area without addressing this underlying issue (I will not voice the issue here, because it was very personal). I asked a few questions and I told him: "Lets look into your current relationship (just an example, we could look into anything in his life, but it was just intuitively right in that man's example, as it turned out). "By looking at this important relationship, we can see what energies are present in your life", I said to him, "then we will have more clear picture why you actually hit rock bottom and not sure about anything, and the job too." Runes open the situation, make hidden seen, and my conversation with the person goes into completely different direction, deeper, much deeper, it's not scripted in any way at all, I am not confined by any kind of rules or algorythms, it depends on the situation, this become a very personal coaching, a mentoring, or sometimes a ministry, for a person to start seeing what is, the truth, and recreate themselves, drop all the illusions that are on the way of a better life for them. And in a case of this particular man, it was a matter of survival for him and his family, so I manifested for him myself what it means to be completely open, honest with yourself, willing to change, I filled the space with real energy of inspiration and courage, so he could snap out of whatever was holding him, and actual transformation began. Can ChatGPT serve in this way? No. Definitely interesting and helpful instrument, but if you are a real human, you are magical Being that can impact this Reality with energy, with consciousness, with Love, compassion, empathy, creativity, and real Wisdom that is a culmination of it all. 🙏