The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Augsburg Confession by Philip Melanchthon: our sins. This faith God imputes for righteousness in His
sight. Rom. 3 and 4.
Article V: Of the Ministry.
That we may obtain this faith, the Ministry of Teaching the
Gospel and administering the Sacraments was instituted. For
through the Word and Sacraments, as through instruments, the
Holy Ghost is given, who works faith; where and when it
pleases God, in them that hear the Gospel, to wit, that God,
not for our own merits, but for Christ's sake, justifies those
who believe that they are received into grace for Christ's
sake.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Lady Chatterley's Lover by D. H. Lawrence: exquisite, exquisite and melting her all molten inside. It was like
bells rippling up and up to a culmination. She lay unconscious of the
wild little cries she uttered at the last. But it was over too soon,
too soon, and she could no longer force her own conclusion with her own
activity. This was different, different. She could do nothing. She
could no longer harden and grip for her own satisfaction upon him. She
could only wait, wait and moan in spirit as she felt him withdrawing,
withdrawing and contracting, coming to the terrible moment when he
would slip out of her and be gone. Whilst all her womb was open and
soft, and softly clamouring, like a sea-anemone under the tide,
clamouring for him to come in again and make a fulfilment for her. She
 Lady Chatterley's Lover |
The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Hunting of the Snark by Lewis Carroll: (Long before the indictment was read),
And they all spoke at once, so that none of them knew
One word that the others had said.
"You must know ---" said the Judge: but the Snark exclaimed "Fudge!"
That statute is obsolete quite!
Let me tell you, my friends, the whole question depends
On an ancient manorial right.
"In the matter of Treason the pig would appear
To have aided, but scarcely abetted:
While the charge of Insolvency fails, it is clear,
If you grant the plea 'never indebted.'
 The Hunting of the Snark |
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 Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Nietzsche: peculiar to youth appears to allow itself no peace, until it has
suitably falsified men and things, to be able to vent its passion
upon them: youth in itself even, is something falsifying and
deceptive. Later on, when the young soul, tortured by continual
disillusions, finally turns suspiciously against itself--still
ardent and savage even in its suspicion and remorse of
conscience: how it upbraids itself, how impatiently it tears
itself, how it revenges itself for its long self-blinding, as
though it had been a voluntary blindness! In this transition one
punishes oneself by distrust of one's sentiments; one tortures
one's enthusiasm with doubt, one feels even the good conscience
 Beyond Good and Evil |