Today's Stichomancy for George Bernard Shaw
| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad: and more blinding than the night. It did not shift or drive;
it was just there, standing all round you like something solid.
At eight or nine, perhaps, it lifted as a shutter lifts.
We had a glimpse of the towering multitude of trees, of the immense
matted jungle, with the blazing little ball of the sun hanging
over it--all perfectly still--and then the white shutter came
down again, smoothly, as if sliding in greased grooves.
I ordered the chain, which we had begun to heave in, to be paid
out again. Before it stopped running with a muffled rattle,
a cry, a very loud cry, as of infinite desolation,
soared slowly in the opaque air. It ceased. A complaining
Heart of Darkness |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from King James Bible: utterly destroyed them all. Then all the children of Israel returned,
every man to his possession, into their own cities.
CH2 31:2 And Hezekiah appointed the courses of the priests and the
Levites after their courses, every man according to his service, the
priests and Levites for burnt offerings and for peace offerings, to
minister, and to give thanks, and to praise in the gates of the tents of
the LORD.
CH2 31:3 He appointed also the king's portion of his substance for the
burnt offerings, to wit, for the morning and evening burnt offerings,
and the burnt offerings for the sabbaths, and for the new moons, and for
the set feasts, as it is written in the law of the LORD.
King James Bible |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Bickerstaff-Partridge Papers by Jonathan Swift: as a common maker of almanacks. I do not lurk in the dark; I am
not wholly unknown in the world; I have set my name at length, to
be a mark of infamy to mankind, if they shall find I deceive
them.
In one thing I must desire to be forgiven, that I talk more
sparingly of home-affairs: As it will be imprudence to discover
secrets of state, so it would be dangerous to my person; but in
smaller matters, and that are not of publick consequence, I shall
be very free; and the truth of my conjectures will as much appear
from those as the other. As for the most signal events abroad in
France, Flanders, Italy and Spain, I shall make no scruple to
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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 Rape of Lucrece by William Shakespeare: Small lights are soon blown out, huge fires abide,
And with the wind in greater fury fret:
The petty streams that pay a daily debt
To their salt sovereign, with their fresh falls' haste,
Add to his flow, but alter not his taste.'
'Thou art,' quoth she, 'a sea, a sovereign king;
And, lo, there falls into thy boundless flood
Black lust, dishonour, shame, misgoverning,
Who seek to stain the ocean of thy blood.
If all these petty ills shall change thy good,
Thy sea within a puddle's womb is hears'd,
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