| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Marie by H. Rider Haggard: trotting at my side.
For four full days we journeyed thus, keeping, so far as I could judge,
about twenty or thirty miles to the east of that road by which I had
left Zululand before and re-entered it with Retief and his commission.
Evidently I was an object of great interest to the Zulus of the country
through which we passed, perhaps because they knew me to be the sole
survivor of all the white men who had gone up to visit the king. They
would come down in crowds from the kraals and stare at me almost with
awe, as though I were a spirit and not a man. Only, not one of them
would say anything to me, probably because they had been forbidden to do
so. Indeed, if I spoke to any of them, invariably they turned and
Marie |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Ballads by Robert Louis Stevenson: About the blazing feast-house clustered the eyes of the foe,
Watching, hand upon weapon, lest ever a soul should flee,
Shading the brow from the glare, straining the neck to see
Only, to leeward, the flames in the wind swept far and wide,
And the forest sputtered on fire; and there might no man abide.
Thither Rahero crept, and dropped from the burning eaves,
And crouching low to the ground, in a treble covert of leaves
And fire and volleying smoke, ran for the life of his soul
Unseen; and behind him under a furnace of ardent coal,
Cairned with a wonder of flame, and blotting the night with smoke,
Blazed and were smelted together the bones of all his folk.
Ballads |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from From London to Land's End by Daniel Defoe: was safe, and to give orders, but went both on shore again, leaving
only a man and two boys on board, not apprehending any danger, they
being in safe harbour. However, he ordered them that if it should
blow hard they should carry out the small bower anchor, and so to
moor the ship by two anchors, and then giving what other orders he
thought to be needful, he went ashore, as above.
"About nine o'clock, the wind beginning to blow harder, they
carried out the anchor, according to the master's order; but the
wind increasing about ten, the ship began to drive, so they carried
out their best bower, which, having a good new cable, brought the
ship up. The storm still increasing, they let go the kedge anchor;
|
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 Koran: is against them, and thou art not a guardian for them.
God takes to Himself souls at the time of their death; and those
which do not die (He takes) in their sleep; and He holds back those on
whom He has decreed death, and sends others back till their
appointed time;-verily, in that are signs unto a people who reflect.
Do they take besides God intercessors? Say, 'What! though they
have no control over anything and have no sense.'
Say, 'God's is the intercession, all of it; His is the kingdom of
the heavens and the earth; then unto Him shall ye be sent back.'
And when God alone is mentioned the hearts of those who believe
not in the hereafter quake, and when those beside Him are mentioned,
The Koran |
