Our conversation of Thursday morning having been so pleasant, I wished to extend an offer to continue it. (As well -- I would like to commend you on your tact and diplomacy when discussing the curriculum your own study of the Arts involved. Having finally had the chance to examine what was being taught -- well. I apologize for intimating the blame for your unfamiliarity with certain seminal works may have rested on your own shoulders; further, deponent sayeth not.)
My elf Berry will be calling upon you at some point this afternoon to deliver a parcel of books too awkward for owl post. Should you find them at all useful, do consider them a gift; I am drowning in the things and you will no doubt obtain more use from them than I will. (Should you find them dreadfully dull, pass them along to someone who will not -- you will know better than I which of your contemporaries would appreciate them the way books deserve.)
Tucked into the front of the Cavernae Medullitae is a suggested reading order (with a few key passages noted), and I've also copied out the booklist I will be using for NEWT-level classes for your future reference. Do not purchase them now: I've spent the last two days in pointed battle with Flourish & Blotts over their ability to provide copies in sufficient number for my students, and, I am sad to say, students will likely be sharing many of their books this year, during first term at least. But once F&B are able to correct their incompetence, I suspect you will find Clements-Chichester's Grimories of the Worthy Families to be a useful reference for the circles around which you find yourself moving.
The slender volume atop the stack is a fair copy of my own translation of Aleksey Vladimirovich Korovin's Mastery over Self -- that's the book I mentioned as being the most helpful guide I've ever found to mapping one's inner landscape. You will gain the most utility from it by following its exercises exactly, spending as little or as much time on each meditation as you feel necessary to fully appreciate its nuances. Ten minutes a day should suffice, stretching to twenty once you've completed the first sequence. Do not expect immediate results -- for instance, I am not likely to make it much past the fifth sequence with my classes this year -- but also do not hesitate to reach out to me if you feel you are "stuck" too long on any one exercise: the whole of the third sequence, for instance, is notoriously difficult for a solo practitioner to summit and my translator's notes alone may not suffice.
Mind you, unlike the rest of my soon-to-be flock, I certainly have no authority to assign you homework! And I imagine my old friend keeps you quite busy. (Having seen the way your eyes kept being drawn to my shelves throughout our conversation, though, I suspect wild centaurs couldn't drag you away.) Should you have time and inclination to discuss your study, though, I would be pleased to assign some of what little time I shall have free in the coming year or so to hearing your thoughts.
Should you happen to be at home when the delivery arrives, meanwhile, the elf has been instructed to lend you the afternoon if you should have any suitable tasks. I hardly mean to be rude or to make you self-conscious, but at several points during our visit I believe I sensed a hint of the exhaustion that inevitably arises from too many responsibilities hanging unaddressed over one's head. Do make free of an afternoon of Berry's service if you could benefit from it.
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Private Message to Percival Weasley
Date: 2012-08-26 11:25 am (UTC)Our conversation of Thursday morning having been so pleasant, I wished to extend an offer to continue it. (As well -- I would like to commend you on your tact and diplomacy when discussing the curriculum your own study of the Arts involved. Having finally had the chance to examine what was being taught -- well. I apologize for intimating the blame for your unfamiliarity with certain seminal works may have rested on your own shoulders; further, deponent sayeth not.)
My elf Berry will be calling upon you at some point this afternoon to deliver a parcel of books too awkward for owl post. Should you find them at all useful, do consider them a gift; I am drowning in the things and you will no doubt obtain more use from them than I will. (Should you find them dreadfully dull, pass them along to someone who will not -- you will know better than I which of your contemporaries would appreciate them the way books deserve.)
Tucked into the front of the Cavernae Medullitae is a suggested reading order (with a few key passages noted), and I've also copied out the booklist I will be using for NEWT-level classes for your future reference. Do not purchase them now: I've spent the last two days in pointed battle with Flourish & Blotts over their ability to provide copies in sufficient number for my students, and, I am sad to say, students will likely be sharing many of their books this year, during first term at least. But once F&B are able to correct their incompetence, I suspect you will find Clements-Chichester's Grimories of the Worthy Families to be a useful reference for the circles around which you find yourself moving.
The slender volume atop the stack is a fair copy of my own translation of Aleksey Vladimirovich Korovin's Mastery over Self -- that's the book I mentioned as being the most helpful guide I've ever found to mapping one's inner landscape. You will gain the most utility from it by following its exercises exactly, spending as little or as much time on each meditation as you feel necessary to fully appreciate its nuances. Ten minutes a day should suffice, stretching to twenty once you've completed the first sequence. Do not expect immediate results -- for instance, I am not likely to make it much past the fifth sequence with my classes this year -- but also do not hesitate to reach out to me if you feel you are "stuck" too long on any one exercise: the whole of the third sequence, for instance, is notoriously difficult for a solo practitioner to summit and my translator's notes alone may not suffice.
Mind you, unlike the rest of my soon-to-be flock, I certainly have no authority to assign you homework! And I imagine my old friend keeps you quite busy. (Having seen the way your eyes kept being drawn to my shelves throughout our conversation, though, I suspect wild centaurs couldn't drag you away.) Should you have time and inclination to discuss your study, though, I would be pleased to assign some of what little time I shall have free in the coming year or so to hearing your thoughts.
Should you happen to be at home when the delivery arrives, meanwhile, the elf has been instructed to lend you the afternoon if you should have any suitable tasks. I hardly mean to be rude or to make you self-conscious, but at several points during our visit I believe I sensed a hint of the exhaustion that inevitably arises from too many responsibilities hanging unaddressed over one's head. Do make free of an afternoon of Berry's service if you could benefit from it.
With my regards,
Antonin Dolohov