| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Road to Oz by L. Frank Baum: the hide. She kept the rug on the floor of her front parlor."
"I've seen rugs like that," said the shaggy man, nodding, "but never
one made from a blue bear."
"Well," continued the Tin Woodman, "the old woman had an idea that the
Powder in the bottle must be moth-powder, because it smelled something
like moth-powder; so one day she sprinkled it on her bear rug to keep
the moths out of it. She said, looking lovingly at the skin: 'I wish
my dear bear were alive again!' To her horror, the bear rug at once
came to life, having been sprinkled with the Magic Powder; and now this
live bear rug is a great trial to her, and makes her a lot of trouble."
"Why?" asked the shaggy man.
The Road to Oz |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling: will go to the rubbish heap with Nag. Fight, widow! The big man
has gone for his gun! Fight!"
Rikki-tikki was bounding all round Nagaina, keeping just out
of reach of her stroke, his little eyes like hot coals. Nagaina
gathered herself together and flung out at him. Rikki-tikki
jumped up and backward. Again and again and again she struck, and
each time her head came with a whack on the matting of the veranda
and she gathered herself together like a watch spring. Then
Rikki-tikki danced in a circle to get behind her, and Nagaina spun
round to keep her head to his head, so that the rustle of her tail
on the matting sounded like dry leaves blown along by the wind.
The Jungle Book |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Alexandria and her Schools by Charles Kingsley: were, and believing themselves to be, beings of a lower order, and
living by a lower standard, sank down more and more generation after
generation. They were of the world, and the ways of the world they must
follow. Political life had no inherent sanctity or nobleness; why act
holily and nobly in it? Family life had no inherent sanctity or
nobleness; why act holily and nobly in it either, if there were no holy,
noble, and divine principle or ground for it? And thus grew up, both in
Egypt, Syria, and Byzantium, a chaos of profligacy and chicanery, in
rulers and people, in the home and the market, in the theatre and the
senate, such as the world has rarely seen before or since; a chaos which
reached its culmination in the seventh century, the age of Justinian and
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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 Faith of Men by Jack London: understanding the ceremony. And between us we interpreted to the
people the new theory of the divine right of kings. There was
hooch galore, and meat and feastings, and they took kindly to the
new order.
"So you see, O man, I have sat in the high places, and worn the
purple, and ruled populations. And I might yet be a king had the
tobacco held out, or had Moosu been more fool and less knave. For
he cast eyes upon Esanetuk, eldest daughter to Tummasook, and I
objected.
"'O brother,' he explained, 'thou hast seen fit to speak of
introducing new institutions amongst this people, and I have
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