| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from King James Bible: that fear him.
PSA 34:10 The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger: but they that
seek the LORD shall not want any good thing.
PSA 34:11 Come, ye children, hearken unto me: I will teach you the fear
of the LORD.
PSA 34:12 What man is he that desireth life, and loveth many days, that
he may see good?
PSA 34:13 Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile.
PSA 34:14 Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it.
PSA 34:15 The eyes of the LORD are upon the righteous, and his ears are
open unto their cry.
King James Bible |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from At the Mountains of Madness by H. P. Lovecraft: the more reluctant because my warning may be in vain.
Doubt
of the real facts, as I must reveal them, is inevitable; yet,
if I suppressed what will seem extravagant and incredible, there
would be nothing left. The hitherto withheld photographs, both
ordinary and aerial, will count in my favor, for they are damnably
vivid and graphic. Still, they will be doubted because of the
great lengths to which clever fakery can be carried. The ink drawings,
of course, will be jeered at as obvious impostures, notwithstanding
a strangeness of technique which art experts ought to remark and
puzzle over.
At the Mountains of Madness |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from From London to Land's End by Daniel Defoe: This church, and the schools also are accurately described by
several writers, especially by the "Monasticon," where their
antiquity and original is fully set forth. The outside of the
church is as plain and coarse as if the founders had abhorred
ornaments, or that William of Wickham had been a Quaker, or at
least a Quietist. There is neither statue, nor a niche for a
statue, to be seen on all the outside; no carved work, no spires,
towers, pinnacles, balustrades, or anything; but mere walls,
buttresses, windows, and coigns necessary to the support and order
of the building. It has no steeple, but a short tower covered
flat, as if the top of it had fallen down, and it had been covered
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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 Marriage Contract by Honore de Balzac: If you had but listened to me, you would have an English wife,
some Nabob's daughter, who would leave you the freedom of a
bachelor and the independence necessary for playing the whist of
ambition. I would concede my future wife to you if you were not
married already. But that cannot be helped, and I am not the man
to bid you chew the cud of the past.
All this preamble was needful to explain to you that for the
future my position in life will be such as a man needs if he wants
to play the great game of pitch-and-toss. I cannot do without you,
my friend. Now, then, my dear Paul, instead of setting sail for
India you would do a much wiser thing to navigate with me the
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