| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Aesop's Fables by Aesop: "That is a good joke," said the Hare; "I could dance round you
all the way."
"Keep your boasting till you've beaten," answered the
Tortoise. "Shall we race?"
So a course was fixed and a start was made. The Hare darted
almost out of sight at once, but soon stopped and, to show his
contempt for the Tortoise, lay down to have a nap. The Tortoise
plodded on and plodded on, and when the Hare awoke from his nap,
he saw the Tortoise just near the winning-post and could not run
up in time to save the race. Then said the Tortoise:
"Plodding wins the race."
Aesop's Fables |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Fables by Robert Louis Stevenson: it"; and the daughter of the King said, "Nay, but pipe me the song
of the morrow". And he piped it, and it was long like years.
Now when the nine years were gone, the King's daughter of Duntrine
got her to her feet, like one that remembers; and she looked about
her in the masoned house; and all her servants were gone; only the
man that piped sat upon the terrace with the hand upon his face;
and as he piped the leaves ran about the terrace and the sea beat
along the wall. Then she cried to him with a great voice, "This is
the hour, and let me see the power in it". And with that the wind
blew off the hood from the man's face, and, lo! there was no man
there, only the clothes and the hood and the pipes tumbled one upon
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| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from A Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Defoe: were only roused by the spirit of ribaldry and atheism at the clamour
which was made when the gentleman was first brought in there, and
perhaps were agitated by the same devil, when I took upon me to
reprove them; though I did it at first with all the calmness, temper,
and good manners that I could, which for a while they insulted me the
more for thinking it had been in fear of their resentment, though
afterwards they found the contrary.
I went home, indeed, grieved and afflicted in my mind at the
abominable wickedness of those men, not doubting, however, that
they would be made dreadful examples of God's justice; for I looked
upon this dismal time to be a particular season of Divine vengeance,
A Journal of the Plague Year |
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 Captain Stormfield by Mark Twain: "But I only fell off just a bare point, and I went right back on my
course again the minute the race was over."
"No matter - that divergence has made all this trouble. It has
brought you to a gate that is billions of leagues from the right
one. If you had gone to your own gate they would have known all
about your world at once and there would have been no delay. But
we will try to accommodate you." He turned to an under clerk and
says -
"What system is Jupiter in?"
"I don't remember, sir, but I think there is such a planet in one
of the little new systems away out in one of the thinly worlded
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