| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Droll Stories, V. 1 by Honore de Balzac: by your master."
"Do you not think the Virgin beautiful?" asked she of him, smiling
when he held the illuminated prayer-book in which glowed the silver
and gold.
"It is a painting," replied he, timidly, and casting a little glance
upon his so gracious mistress.
"Read! read!"
Then Rene began to recite the so sweet and so mystic litanies; but you
may imagine that the "Ora pro nobis" of Blanche became still fainter
and fainter, like the sound of the horn in the woodlands, and when the
page went on, "Oh, Rose of mystery," the lady, who certainly heard
Droll Stories, V. 1 |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Breaking Point by Mary Roberts Rinehart: There's no hurry. And I don't want to lose you yet."
But there were other things. Dick himself varied. He was always
gentle and very tender, but there were times when he seemed to
hold himself away from her, would seem aloof and remote, but all
the time watching her almost fiercely. But after that, as though
he had tried an experiment in separation and failed with it, he
would catch her to him savagely and hold her there. She tried,
very meekly, to meet his mood; was submissive to his passion and
acquiescent to those intervals when he withdrew himself and sat or
stood near her, not touching her but watching her intently.
She thought men in love were very queer and quite incomprehensible.
The Breaking Point |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Pagan and Christian Creeds by Edward Carpenter: originally the socket-block from which fire was generated by the
fire-drill." Hence we have, he says, the Magi of Persia, and the
Maghadas of Indian History, also the word 'Magic."
It is not necessary to enlarge on this subject. The
facts of the connection of sexual rites with religious services
nearly everywhere in the early world are, as I say, sufficiently
patent to every inquirer. But it IS necessary to try
to understand the rationale of this connection. To dispatch
all such cases under the mere term "religious prostitution"
is no explanation. The term suggests, of
course, that the plea of religion was used simply as an
Pagan and Christian Creeds |
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 Walking by Henry David Thoreau: woodside. There are square miles in my vicinity which have no
inhabitant. From many a hill I can see civilization and the
abodes of man afar. The farmers and their works are scarcely more
obvious than woodchucks and their burrows. Man and his affairs,
church and state and school, trade and commerce, and manufactures
and agriculture even politics, the most alarming of them all--I
am pleased to see how little space they occupy in the landscape.
Politics is but a narrow field, and that still narrower highway
yonder leads to it. I sometimes direct the traveler thither. If
you would go to the political world, follow the great
road--follow that market-man, keep his dust in your eyes, and it
Walking |
