| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Iliad by Homer: stream shall serve you in no stead, for all the bulls you offered
him and all the horses that you flung living into his waters.
None the less miserably shall you perish till there is not a man
of you but has paid in full for the death of Patroclus and the
havoc you wrought among the Achaeans whom you have slain while I
held aloof from battle."
So spoke Achilles, but the river grew more and more angry, and
pondered within himself how he should stay the hand of Achilles
and save the Trojans from disaster. Meanwhile the son of Peleus,
spear in hand, sprang upon Asteropaeus son of Pelegon to kill
him. He was son to the broad river Axius and Periboea eldest
The Iliad |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs: When Kulonga awoke he found that his bow and arrows
had disappeared. The black warrior was furious and
frightened, but more frightened than furious. He searched
the ground below the tree, and he searched the tree above the
ground; but there was no sign of either bow or arrows or of
the nocturnal marauder.
Kulonga was panic-stricken. His spear he had hurled at
Kala and had not recovered; and, now that his bow and arrows
were gone, he was defenseless except for a single knife.
His only hope lay in reaching the village of Mbonga as
quickly as his legs would carry him.
Tarzan of the Apes |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from A Simple Soul by Gustave Flaubert: same prayers, sprinkle holy water over the sheets, get up, come back
to the bed and contemplate the body. At the end of the first vigil,
she noticed that the face had taken on a yellow tinge, the lips grew
blue, the nose grew pinched, the eyes were sunken. She kissed them
several times and would not have been greatly astonished had Virginia
opened them; to souls like this the supernatural is always quite
simple. She washed her, wrapped her in a shroud, put her into the
casket, laid a wreath of flowers on her head and arranged her curls.
They were blond and of an extraordinary length for her age. Felicite
cut off a big lock and put half of it into her bosom, resolving never
to part with it.
A Simple Soul |
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 First Inaugural Address by Abraham Lincoln: have wisely given their public servants but little power for mischief;
and have, with equal wisdom, provided for the return of that little
to their own hands at very short intervals. While the people retain
their virtue and vigilance, no administration, by any extreme of
wickedness or folly, can very seriously injure the government
in the short space of four years.
My countrymen, one and all, think calmly and WELL upon this
whole subject. Nothing valuable can be lost by taking time.
If there be an object to HURRY any of you in hot haste to a step
which you would never take DELIBERATELY, that object will be
frustrated by taking time; but no good object can be frustrated
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