| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll: At this moment she heard a hoarse laugh at her side, and turned
to see what was the matter with the White Queen; but, instead of
the Queen, there was the leg of mutton sitting in the chair.
`Here I am!' cried a voice from the soup tureen, and Alice turned
again, just in time to see the Queen's broad good-natured face
grinning at her for a moment over the edge of the tureen, before
she disappeared into the soup.
There was not a moment to be lost. Already several of the
guests were lying down in the dishes, and the soup ladle was
walking up the table towards Alice's chair, and beckoning to her
impatiently to get out of its way.
Through the Looking-Glass |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Egmont by Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe: mean these vague and insolent glances? Why this fearful procession? With
what dream of horror come ye to delude my half awakened soul?
Silva. The duke sends us to announce your sentence.
Egmont. Do ye also bring the headsman who is to execute it?
Silva. Listen, and you will know the doom that awaits you.
Egmont. It is in keeping with the rest of your infamous proceedings.
Hatched in night and in night achieved, so would this audacious act of
injustice shroud itself from observation!--Step boldly forth, thou who dost
bear the sword concealed beneath thy mantle; here is my head, the freest
ever severed by tyranny from the trunk.
Silva. You err! The righteous judges who have condemned you will not
Egmont |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne: full height of his voice, and tell the people what he was. "I,
whom you behold in these black garments of the priesthood -- I,
who ascend the sacred desk, and turn my pale face heavenward,
taking upon myself to hold communion in your behalf with the Most
High Omniscience -- I, in whose daily life you discern the
sanctity of Enoch -- I, whose footsteps, as you suppose, leave a
gleam along my earthly track, whereby the Pilgrims that shall
come after me may be guided to the regions of the blest -- I, who
have laid the hand of baptism upon your children -- I, who have
breathed the parting prayer over your dying friends, to whom the
Amen sounded faintly from a world which they had quitted -- I,
The Scarlet Letter |
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 A Legend of Montrose by Walter Scott: changed. He had hitherto been his mother's constant companion,
listening to her dreams, and repeating his own, and feeding his
imagination, which, probably from the circumstances preceding his
birth, was constitutionally deranged, with all the wild and
terrible superstitions so common to the mountaineers, to which
his unfortunate mother had become much addicted since her
brother's death. By living in this manner, the boy had gotten a
timid, wild, startled look, loved to seek out solitary places in
the woods, and was never so much terrified, as by the approach of
children of the same age. I remember, although some years
younger, being brought up here by my father upon a visit, nor can
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