| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Critias by Plato: transgressed in anything, and passed judgment, and before they passed
judgment they gave their pledges to one another on this wise:--There were
bulls who had the range of the temple of Poseidon; and the ten kings, being
left alone in the temple, after they had offered prayers to the god that
they might capture the victim which was acceptable to him, hunted the
bulls, without weapons, but with staves and nooses; and the bull which they
caught they led up to the pillar and cut its throat over the top of it so
that the blood fell upon the sacred inscription. Now on the pillar,
besides the laws, there was inscribed an oath invoking mighty curses on the
disobedient. When therefore, after slaying the bull in the accustomed
manner, they had burnt its limbs, they filled a bowl of wine and cast in a
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle: "for I tell thee there lives not in all the world three archers to match
Tepus and Gilbert and Clifton of Buckinghamshire."
"Now," said the Queen, "I know of three yeomen, and in truth I
have seen them not long since, that I would not fear to match
against any three that thou canst choose from among all thy
fortyscore archers; and, moreover, I will match them here this very day.
But I will only match them with thy archers providing that thou
wilt grant a free pardon to all that may come in my behalf."
At this, the King laughed loud and long. "Truly," said he,
"thou art taking up with strange matters for a queen.
If thou wilt bring those three fellows that thou speakest of,
The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Idylls of the King by Alfred Tennyson: Beneath them; and descending they were ware
That all the decks were dense with stately forms,
Black-stoled, black-hooded, like a dream--by these
Three Queens with crowns of gold: and from them rose
A cry that shivered to the tingling stars,
And, as it were one voice, an agony
Of lamentation, like a wind that shrills
All night in a waste land, where no one comes,
Or hath come, since the making of the world.
Then murmured Arthur, 'Place me in the barge.'
So to the barge they came. There those three Queens
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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 Voyage Out by Virginia Woolf: "Alfred Perrott says I've promised to marry him, and I say I never did.
Sinclair says he'll shoot himself if I don't marry him, and I say,
'Well, shoot yourself!' But of course he doesn't--they never do.
And Sinclair got hold of me this afternoon and began bothering me
to give an answer, and accusing me of flirting with Alfred Perrott,
and told me I'd no heart, and was merely a Siren, oh, and quantities
of pleasant things like that. So at last I said to him,
'Well, Sinclair, you've said enough now. You can just let me go.'
And then he caught me and kissed me--the disgusting brute--I can
still feel his nasty hairy face just there--as if he'd any right to,
after what he'd said!"
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