I'm trying to create an L5R (4th ed.) Shugenja, and want to understand what spells she will be able to cast.

Sometimes, the rules talk about “learning a spell”. Does that mean “gaining a scroll you can read of a spell you can cast” or “mastering a spell, so you can cast it without need for scrolls”? For example, my Shugenja starts with 6 spells, plus Sense, Commune and Summon. What spells can those be, and how well does she know them?

In particular, I am confused by the following apparent contradiction: On page 163, I find

> 
> EXAMPLE: Lucas’s character Isawa Butaro is casting Fires from Within,
>  a Mastery Level 2 spell. Butaro is a Rank 1 Isawa Shugenja, and has
>  Fire 3. He rolls 4k3 (4 = Fire 3 + Rank 1, keeping Fire) against TN 15
>  (5 + ML 2 x 5). He rolls a 2, 4, 7, and 8, keeping the 4, 7, and 8 for
>  a total of 19. The spell has been cast successfully.
> 
> 
> 

So Isawa-san, having a school rank of 1, casts a Mastery Level 2 spell.

However, one page later, the rules state

> 
> • Ring/Mastery: This indicates the Ring and the Mastery Level of the
>  spell. […] A shugenja cannot casts spells with a Mastery level higher
>  than his School Rank. […]
> 
> 
> 

Is that example in contradiction to the rule, or did I miss or misunderstand a part of of the rules that allows Isawa-san to cast “Fires from Within” even though his School Rank is lower than its Mastery Level?

If my character has an affinity to Air, does that mean she can in theory cast Air spells of mastery level 2, even though as a starting character, she is only School Rank 1?