Except, of course, when you're learning a common magic spell. Though I gather in that case, you're still interacting with an essence-- it's just an essence that lives in the mundane world, like the Creek (or is it the Stream? I can never keep that straight).
And so, isn't it possible that you could learn *that* spell through the kind of "practice quest" Mike describes? You're following the steps of a saint, but doing it in the mundane world. So you get an echo of the spell the saint had, but you get it from a mundane-world essence (which is somehow an echo of the true essence in the Essential World), and as a result, it's weaker magic--just a CM spell. Is that a reasonable possibility?
And also along those lines: You can learn a spell by interacting with an essence in the Essence Plane. You can learn a spell without leaving home, by interacting with an essence in the Mundane World. Can you split the difference, and learn a spell by interacting with an essence you find in the God's War? (As distinct from Mike's speculation, in which you go to the God's War and follow the steps of a saint or hero who himself contacted the Essence Plane.)
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