student-teacher interaction & divination

[Nita]

Hello Ari
  Everyone has free will and the ability to find the path that suits them. A true teacher will not be controling or force you to follow a path. They will teach you the subject that they or the organization are about and specialize in doing.
  A teacher helps to clear up points when you are beginning that may be misunderstood and sabotage some of your efforts in the future. An organization or a group also allows you to speak with others and learn from what they are interested in and what they do.
  You first have to decide what you want to learn. You should read up on the subject and actually do some of the methods. It will show you if it is something suited to you and your interests.
  You should then continue studying and see if there are any teachers in your area or on the internet. A lot of magical schools now have internet access and teach solitary students.
  Magic is a lot of hard work and I suggest finding a method of meditation that suits you and helps you to concentrate. I also suggest reading books upon how to visualize because it is essential to any sort of magic. You have to have control of your mind to make magic work properly. The only way this is accomplished is by working upon yourself. You will then find that the teacher just pops up or becomes accessible to you at a point where they will be able to benefit you and your learning.
  Nita

[Lilith]

If one pre-supposes that we are here to experience and learn, and that we chose the Path of this lifetime before our present birth, then it follows that these Teachers that enter our lives are here to help us experience what we need in order to grow, and that they arrive as we aquire the capabilities to understand what they have to teach.

[Ari]

It's been said- When the student is ready the teacher will appear.

What allows a person to be "ready" for a teacher?

No one can walk the path for you, really. You have to take it yourself. No one can love yourself for you, you have to do that for yourself before anything else.

Is it correct in saying that a teacher is there to provide some amount of clarity? There's only so much someone can help you if you don't help yourself first.

In this sense, don't they act much like a guide does- in terms of that guide being similar to something like tarot, or I-ching.

If our paths are already chosen for us, and our purpose in life is already set...

what, exactly is the point of these tools? of a teacher, or even someone who acts as an oracle?

How much choice do we really have in anything? How much free will?