| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Reason Discourse by Rene Descartes: which is a mode of thinking limited to material objects, that all that is
not imaginable seems to them not intelligible. The truth of this is
sufficiently manifest from the single circumstance, that the philosophers
of the schools accept as a maxim that there is nothing in the
understanding which was not previously in the senses, in which however it
is certain that the ideas of God and of the soul have never been; and it
appears to me that they who make use of their imagination to comprehend
these ideas do exactly the some thing as if, in order to hear sounds or
smell odors, they strove to avail themselves of their eyes; unless indeed
that there is this difference, that the sense of sight does not afford us
an inferior assurance to those of smell or hearing; in place of which,
Reason Discourse |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Grimm's Fairy Tales by Brothers Grimm: fingers,' said he, 'and my fancy for card-playing has gone,' and he
struck them dead and threw them out into the water. But when he had
made away with these two, and was about to sit down again by his fire,
out from every hole and corner came black cats and black dogs with
red-hot chains, and more and more of them came until he could no
longer move, and they yelled horribly, and got on his fire, pulled it
to pieces, and tried to put it out. He watched them for a while
quietly, but at last when they were going too far, he seized his
cutting-knife, and cried: 'Away with you, vermin,' and began to cut
them down. Some of them ran away, the others he killed, and threw out
into the fish-pond. When he came back he fanned the embers of his fire
Grimm's Fairy Tales |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Travels of Sir John Mandeville by Sir John Mandeville: medicine to lay thereto, but if men knew the nature of the malady;
and also no man may give convenable medicine, but if he know the
quality of the deed. For one sin may be greater in one man than in
another, and in one place and in one time than in another; and
therefore it behoveth him that he know the kind of the deed, and
thereupon to give him penance.
There be other, that be clept Syrians; and they hold the belief
amongst us, and of them of Greece. And they use all beards, as men
of Greece do. And they make the sacrament of therf bread. And in
their language they use letters of Saracens. But after the mystery
of Holy Church they use letters of Greece. And they make their
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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 Frances Waldeaux by Rebecca Davis: at the sombre picture.
"In this very court," he said, "Constance stood when she
summoned the States of Brittany to save her boy Arthur
from King John."
"Oh, yes, you have read of it to me in your Shakespeare.
It is one of his unpleasant stories. Come, Bebe. It
grows damp."
As she climbed the stone stairway with the child, Colette
lingered to gossip with the portier. "Poor lady! You
will adore her! She is one of us. But she makes of that
bete Anglais and the ugly child, saints and gods!"
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