| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from King James Bible: JER 26:8 Now it came to pass, when Jeremiah had made an end of speaking
all that the LORD had commanded him to speak unto all the people, that
the priests and the prophets and all the people took him, saying, Thou
shalt surely die.
JER 26:9 Why hast thou prophesied in the name of the LORD, saying, This
house shall be like Shiloh, and this city shall be desolate without an
inhabitant? And all the people were gathered against Jeremiah in the
house of the LORD.
JER 26:10 When the princes of Judah heard these things, then they came
up from the king's house unto the house of the LORD, and sat down in the
entry of the new gate of the LORD's house.
King James Bible |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Odyssey by Homer: When the wine had got into his head, he went mad and did ill
deeds about the house of Peirithous; this angered the heroes who
were there assembled, so they rushed at him and cut off his ears
and nostrils; then they dragged him through the doorway out of
the house, so he went away crazed, and bore the burden of his
crime, bereft of understanding. Henceforth, therefore, there was
war between mankind and the centaurs, but he brought it upon
himself through his own drunkenness. In like manner I can tell
you that it will go hardly with you if you string the bow: you
will find no mercy from any one here, for we shall at once ship
you off to king Echetus, who kills every one that comes near
The Odyssey |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The First Men In The Moon by H. G. Wells: on the hill and think of it all, the galleys and legions, the captives and
officials, the women and traders, the speculators like myself, all the
swarm and tumult that came clanking in and out of the harbour. And now
just a few lumps of rubble on a grassy slope, and a sheep or two - and me
And where the port had been were the levels of the marsh, sweeping round
in a broad curve to distant Jungeness, and dotted here and there with tree
clumps and the church towers of old medical towns that are following
Lemanus now towards extinction.
That outlook on the marsh was, indeed, one of the finest views I have ever
seen. I suppose Jungeness was fifteen miles away; it lay like a raft on
the sea, and farther westward were the hills by Hastings under the setting
The First Men In The Moon |
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 A Straight Deal by Owen Wister: long experience of life has hammered out for their own convenience, and
which they like. We're not nearly so closely knit together here, save in
certain spots, especially the old spots. In Boston they understand each
other with very few words said. So they do in Charleston. But these spots
of condensed and hoarded understanding lie far apart, are never
confluent, and also differ in their details; while the whole of England
is confluent, and the details have been slowly worked out through
centuries of getting on together, and are accepted and observed exactly
like the rules of a game.
In America, if the American didn't know, he would have answered, "I don't
know. I think you'll have to ask the conductor," or at any rate, his
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