Today's Stichomancy for James Joyce

The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Tanach:

Psalms 91: 6 Of the pestilence that walketh in darkness, nor of the destruction that wasteth at noonday.

Psalms 91: 7 A thousand may fall at Thy side, and ten thousand at Thy right hand; it shall not come nigh thee.

Psalms 91: 8 Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold, and see the recompense of the wicked.

Psalms 91: 9 For thou hast made the LORD who is my refuge, even the Most High, thy habitation.

Psalms 91: 10 There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy tent.

Psalms 91: 11 For He will give His angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.

Psalms 91: 12 They shall bear thee upon their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.

Psalms 91: 13 Thou shalt tread upon the lion and asp; the young lion and the serpent shalt thou trample under feet.

Psalms 91: 14 'Because he hath set his love upon Me, therefore will I deliver him; I will set him on high, because he hath known My name.

Psalms 91: 15 He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will rescue him, and bring him to honour.

Psalms 91: 16 With long life will I satisfy him, and make Him to behold My salvation.'

The Tanach

The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Silverado Squatters by Robert Louis Stevenson:

ago that Silverado was a great place. The mine - a silver mine, of course - had promised great things. There was quite a lively population, with several hotels and boarding-houses; and Kelmar himself had opened a branch store, and done extremely well - "Ain't it?" he said, appealing to his wife. And she said, "Yes; extremely well." Now there was no one living in the town but Rufe the hunter; and once more I heard Rufe's praises by the yard, and this time sung in chorus.

I could not help perceiving at the time that there was something underneath; that no unmixed desire to have us comfortably settled had inspired the Kelmars with this flow

The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Ursula by Honore de Balzac:

was really as keen as a blade. In pursuit of usurious fortune he did business secretly with Massin, to whom he no doubt pointed out such peasants as were hampered in means, and such pieces of land as could be bought for a song. The two men were in a position to choose their opportunities; none that were good escaped them, and they shared the profits of mortgage-usury, which retards, though it does not prevent, the acquirement of the soil by the peasantry. So Dionis took a lively interest in the doctor's inheritance, not so much for the post master and the collector as for his friend the clerk of the court; sooner or later Massin's share in the doctor's money would swell the capital with which these secret associates worked the canton.

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 Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Nietzsche:

From German body, this self-lacerating? Is ours this priestly hand-dilation, This incense-fuming exaltation? Is ours this faltering, falling, shambling, This quite uncertain ding-dong- dangling? This sly nun-ogling, Ave-hour-bell ringing, This wholly false enraptured heaven-o'erspringing?--Is this our mode?--Think well!--ye still wait for admission--For what ye hear is ROME-- ROME'S FAITH BY INTUITION!

CHAPTER IX

WHAT IS NOBLE?

257. EVERY elevation of the type "man," has hitherto been the work of an aristocratic society and so it will always be--a

Beyond Good and Evil