| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum: ground, called a cyclone cellar, where the family could go in case
one of those great whirlwinds arose, mighty enough to crush any
building in its path. It was reached by a trap door in the middle
of the floor, from which a ladder led down into the small, dark hole.
When Dorothy stood in the doorway and looked around, she could
see nothing but the great gray prairie on every side. Not a tree
nor a house broke the broad sweep of flat country that reached to
the edge of the sky in all directions. The sun had baked the
plowed land into a gray mass, with little cracks running through it.
Even the grass was not green, for the sun had burned the tops of
the long blades until they were the same gray color to be seen
 The Wizard of Oz |
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 Herodias by Gustave Flaubert: "It is said," remarked one of the guests, "that Simon of Gitta washed
away his sins in fire. And a certain man called Jesus--"
"He is the worst of them all!" interrupted Eleazar. "A miserable
imposter!"
At this a man sprang up from a table near the tetrarch's pavilion, and
made his way towards the place where Eleazar sat. His face was almost
as pale as his linen robe, but he addressed the Pharisees boldly,
saying: "That is a lie! Jesus has performed miracles!"
Antipas expressed a long-cherished desire to see the man Jesus perform
some of his so-called miracles. "You should have brought him with
you," he said to the last speaker, who was still standing. "Tell us
 Herodias |