| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Scenes from a Courtesan's Life by Honore de Balzac: building, like an enormous pillar, and in this tower is a little door.
This door opens on a spiral staircase down to the Conciergerie, to
which the public prosecutor, the governor of the prison, the presiding
judges, King's council, and the chief of the Safety department have
access by this back way.
It was up a side staircase from this, now walled up, that Marie
Antoinette, the Queen of France, was led before the Revolutionary
tribunal which sat, as we all know, in the great hall where appeals
are now heard before the Supreme Court. The heart sinks within us at
the sight of these dreadful steps, when we think that Marie Therese's
daughter, whose suite, and head-dress, and hoops filled the great
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Memorabilia by Xenophon: out of the pockets of her enemies!
Yes, to be sure, considerably (answered Socrates), in the event of
getting the better of them; but in the event of being worsted, it is
also possible to lose what we have got.
A true observation (he replied).
And therefore (proceeded Socrates), before he makes up his mind with
what enemy to go to war, a statesman should know the relative powers
of his own city and the adversary's, so that, in case the superiority
be on his own side, he may throw the weight of his advice into the
scale of undertaking war; but if the opposite he may plead in favour
of exercising caution.
The Memorabilia |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Parmenides by Plato: Certainly not.
But if not by virtue of being one, not by virtue of itself; and if not by
virtue of itself, not itself, and itself not being other at all, will not
be other than anything?
Right.
Neither will one be the same with itself.
How not?
Surely the nature of the one is not the nature of the same.
Why not?
It is not when anything becomes the same with anything that it becomes one.
What of that?
|
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 The Call of the Canyon by Zane Grey: loneliness and solitude vastly different from that of Oak Creek Canyon, yet
it held the same intangible power to soothe. The swish of the surf, the
moan of the wind in the evergreens, were voices that called to her. How
many more miles of lonely land than peopled cities! Then the sea-how vast!
And over that the illimitable and infinite sky, and beyond, the endless
realms of space. It helped her somehow to see and hear and feel the eternal
presence of nature. In communion with nature the significance of life might
be realized. She remembered Glenn quoting: "The world is too much with us.
. . . Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers." What were our powers?
What did God intend men to do with hands and bodies and gifts and souls?
She gazed back over the bleak land and then out across the broad sea. Only
The Call of the Canyon |
