| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Aeneid by Virgil: The chaste Sibylla shall your steps convey,
And blood of offer'd victims free the way.
There shall you know what realms the gods assign,
And learn the fates and fortunes of your line.
But now, farewell! I vanish with the night,
And feel the blast of heav'n's approaching light."
He said, and mix'd with shades, and took his airy flight.
"Whither so fast?" the filial duty cried;
"And why, ah why, the wish'd embrace denied?"
He said, and rose; as holy zeal inspires,
He rakes hot embers, and renews the fires;
Aeneid |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Jungle Tales of Tarzan by Edgar Rice Burroughs: Down went the black, his skull crushed by another blow.
And then the lion was in the midst of the warriors,
clawing and tearing to right and left. Not for long did
they stand their ground; but a dozen men were mauled before
the others made good their escape from those frightful
talons and gleaming fangs.
In terror the villagers fled hither and thither.
No hut seemed a sufficiently secure asylum with Numa
ranging within the palisade. From one to another fled
the frightened blacks, while in the center of the village
Numa stood glaring and growling above his kills.
The Jungle Tales of Tarzan |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Street of Seven Stars by Mary Roberts Rinehart: gleamed warm with fire. On the table by the lamp were the
combined medical books of Peter and Anna Gates, and an ash-tray
which also they used in common.
Shabby still, of course, bare, almost denuded, the salon of Maria
Theresa. But at night, with the lamp lighted and the little door
of the stove open, and perhaps, when the dishes from supper had
been washed, with Harmony playing softly, it took resolution on
Peter's part to put on his overcoat and face a lecture on the
resection of a rib or a discussion of the function of the
pituitary body.
The new arrangement had proved itself in more ways than one not
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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 Dreams by Olive Schreiner: covered her wound. And she bent and stroked his wings. And I saw the hair
on her forehead turned white as snow, and she had changed from youth to
age.
And she stood far off on the bank of the river. And she said, "For what do
I go to this far land which no one has ever reached? Oh, I am alone! I am
utterly alone!"
And Reason, that old man, said to her, "Silence! What do you hear?"
And she listened intently, and she said, "I hear a sound of feet, a
thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands, and they beat this
way!"
He said, "They are the feet of those that shall follow you. Lead on! make
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