| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Odyssey by Homer: over you and protects you will send you a fair wind. As soon as
you get to Ithaca send your ship and men on to the town, but
yourself go straight to the swineherd who has charge of your
pigs; he is well disposed towards you, stay with him, therefore,
for the night, and then send him to Penelope to tell her that
you have got back safe from Pylos."
Then she went back to Olympus; but Telemachus stirred
Pisistratus with his heel to rouse him, and said, "Wake up
Pisistratus, and yoke the horses to the chariot, for we must set
off home." {129}
But Pisistratus said, "No matter what hurry we are in we cannot
The Odyssey |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Scaramouche by Rafael Sabatini: At last the young gentleman took his departure, mopping himself with
a fine kerchief that left a trail of perfume on the air. M. des
Amis closed the door, and turned to the applicant, who rose at once.
"Where have you studied?" quoth the fencing-master abruptly.
"Studied?" Andre-Louis was taken aback by the question. "Oh, at
Louis Le Grand."
M. des Amis frowned, looking up sharply as if to see whether his
applicant was taking the liberty of amusing himself.
"In Heaven's name! I am not asking you where you did your
humanities, but in what academy you studied fencing."
"Oh - fencing!" It had hardly ever occurred to Andre-Louis that
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| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from From the Earth to the Moon by Jules Verne: the sun, the earth, and the moon, are all in one and the same
straight line. Then the _nodes_ coincide with the _phases_ of
the moon, and there is an eclipse. If we had started when there
was an eclipse of the moon, all our passage would have been in
the shadow, which would have been a pity."
"Why?"
"Because, though we are floating in space, our projectile,
bathed in the solar rays, will receive light and heat.
It economizes the gas, which is in every respect a good economy."
Indeed, under these rays which no atmosphere can temper, either
in temperature or brilliancy, the projectile grew warm and
From the Earth to the Moon |
The fourth excerpt represents the element of Earth. It speaks of physical influences and the impact of the unseen on the visible world, and is drawn from Extracts From Adam's Diary by Mark Twain: begin; but it was not to be. About an hour after sunup, as I was
riding through a flowery plain where thousands of animals were
grazing, slumbering, or playing with each other, according to their
wont, all of a sudden they broke into a tempest of frightful noises,
and in one moment the plain was in a frantic commotion and every
beast was destroying its neighbor. I knew what it meant--Eve had
eaten that fruit, and death was come into the world. ... The
tigers ate my horse, paying no attention when I ordered them to
desist, and they would even have eaten me if I had stayed--which
I didn't, but went away in much haste. ... I found this place,
outside the Park, and was fairly comfortable for a few days, but
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