| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Barlaam and Ioasaph by St. John of Damascus: own salvation, how can they take care of mankind? Nay, even the
poets and philosophers among the Chaldeans, Greeks and Egyptians,
although by their poems and histories they desired to glorify
their people's gods, yet they rather revealed and exposed their
shame before all men. If the body of a man, consisting of many
parts, loseth not any of its proper members, but, having an
unbroken union with all its members, is in harmony with itself,
how in the nature of God shall there be such warfare and discord?
For if the nature of the gods were one, then ought not one god to
persecute, slay or injure another. But if the gods were
persecuted by other gods, and slain and plundered and killed with
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Brother of Daphne by Dornford Yates: himself to be conducted to the sitting-room which I had engaged
on the first floor.
Five minutes later Daphne burst into the room.
"What on earth's the matter with the people here?" she demanded.
"Half the staff are feeling all over the inside of our cab, and
the porter keeps asking me if I'm sure the cat was put in at the
station. Is this some of your doing?"
"Possibly some idle banter-"
"I knew it," said Daphne. If this is how you begin, we shan't
get out of Munich alive."
Why we had chosen Munich is not very easy to tell. Of course,
The Brother of Daphne |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from 1984 by George Orwell: IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH
He took a twenty-five cent piece out of his pocket. There, too, in tiny
clear lettering, the same slogans were inscribed, and on the other face of
the coin the head of Big Brother. Even from the coin the eyes pursued you.
On coins, on stamps, on the covers of books, on banners, on posters, and on
the wrappings of a cigarette packet--everywhere. Always the eyes watching
you and the voice enveloping you. Asleep or awake, working or eating,
indoors or out of doors, in the bath or in bed--no escape. Nothing was your
own except the few cubic centimetres inside your skull.
The sun had shifted round, and the myriad windows of the Ministry of Truth,
with the light no longer shining on them, looked grim as the loopholes of a
1984 |
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 Land of Footprints by Stewart Edward White: get within reasonable distance, I put up the rear sight of the
405, and let drive. I heard every shot hit, and after each hit
was more than a little astonished to see the zebra still on his
feet, and still able to wobble on.* The fifth shot emptied the
rifle. As I had no more cartridges for this arm, I approached to
within sixty yards, and stopped to wait either for him to fall,
or for a very distant Memba Sasa to come up with more cartridges.
Then the zebra waked up. He put his ears back and came straight
in my direction. This rush I took for a blind death flurry, and
so dodged off to one side, thinking that he would of course go by
me. Not at all! He swung around on the circle too, and made after
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