| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from New Poems by Robert Louis Stevenson: Remembrance wakened in my heart
And I knew I loved her dearly.
The fallows and the leafless trees
And all my spirit tingled.
My earliest thought of love, and Spring's
First puff of perfume mingled.
In my still heart the thoughts awoke,
Came lone by lone together -
Say, birds and Sun and Spring, is Love
A mere affair of weather?
THE SUMMER SUN SHONE ROUND ME
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A Second Home by Honore de Balzac: pretty cot and went out on to the balcony, whence she presently saw
the carriage which her friend, as he grew to riper years, now used
instead of the smart tilbury of his youth. After submitting to the
first fire of Caroline's embraces and the kisses of the little rogue
who addressed him as papa, Roger went to the cradle, looked at his
little sleeping daughter, kissed her forehead, and then took out of
his pocket a document covered with black writing.
"Caroline," said he, "here is the marriage portion of Mademoiselle
Eugenie de Bellefeuille."
The mother gratefully took the paper, a deed of gift of securities in
the State funds.
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| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy: I came."
"Dear faithful Sue!" murmured Jude.
With the elusiveness of her curious double nature, however, Sue did not stand
still for any further greeting, though it wanted some time to the burial.
A pathos so unusually compounded as that which attached to this hour was
unlikely to repeat itself for years, if ever, and Jude would have paused,
and meditated, and conversed. But Sue either saw it not at all, or, seeing it
more than he, would not allow herself to feel it.
The sad and simple ceremony was soon over, their progress
to the church being almost at a trot, the bustling undertaker
having a more important funeral an hour later, three miles off.
Jude the Obscure |
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 Tanach: Genesis 24: 18 And she said: 'Drink, my lord'; and she hastened, and let down her pitcher upon her hand, and gave him drink.
Genesis 24: 19 And when she had done giving him drink, she said: 'I will draw for thy camels also, until they have done drinking.'
Genesis 24: 20 And she hastened, and emptied her pitcher into the trough, and ran again unto the well to draw, and drew for all his camels.
Genesis 24: 21 And the man looked stedfastly on her; holding his peace, to know whether the LORD had made his journey prosperous or not.
Genesis 24: 22 And it came to pass, as the camels had done drinking, that the man took a golden ring of half a shekel weight, and two bracelets for her hands of ten shekels weight of gold;
Genesis 24: 23 and said: 'Whose daughter art thou? tell me, I pray thee. Is there room in thy father's house for us to lodge in?'
Genesis 24: 24 And she said unto him: 'I am the daughter of Bethuel the son of Milcah, whom she bore unto Nahor.'
Genesis 24: 25 She said moreover unto him: 'We have both straw and provender enough, and room to lodge in.'
Genesis 24: 26 And the man bowed his head, and prostrated himself before the LORD.
Genesis 24: 27 And he said: 'Blessed be the LORD, the God of my master Abraham, who hath not forsaken His mercy and His truth toward my master; as for me, the LORD hath led me in the way to the house of my master's brethren.'
The Tanach |
