| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Master Key by L. Frank Baum: frankly replied:
"I am no skilled electrician, as you very well know. My calling you
here was an accident. So I don't know how to command you, nor what to
ask you to do."
"But I must not take advantage of your ignorance," answered the Demon.
"Also, I am quite anxious to utilize this opportunity to show the
world what a powerful element electricity really is. So permit me to
inform you that, having struck the Master Key, you are at liberty to
demand from me three gifts each week for three successive weeks.
These gifts, provided they are within the scope of electricity,
I will grant."
The Master Key |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Kreutzer Sonata by Leo Tolstoy: to-day? Where shall we go? What is there in the newspaper? The
doctor must be sent for, Lise has a sore throat.'
"Unless we kept within the extremely narrow limits of such
conversation, irritation was sure to ensue. The presence of a
third person relieved us, for through an intermediary we could
still communicate. She probably believed that she was always
right. As for me, in my own eyes, I was a saint beside her.
"The periods of what we call love arrived as often as formerly.
They were more brutal, without refinement, without ornament; but
they were short, and generally followed by periods of irritation
without cause, irritation fed by the most trivial pretexts. We
The Kreutzer Sonata |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Othello by William Shakespeare: Giue me my nightly wearing, and adieu.
We must not now displease him.
Aemil. I, would you had neuer seene him
Des. So would not I: my loue doth so approue him,
That euen his stubbornesse, his checks, his frownes,
(Prythee vn-pin me) haue grace and fauour
Aemi. I haue laid those Sheetes you bad me on the bed
Des. All's one: good Father, how foolish are our minds?
If I do die before, prythee shrow'd me
In one of these same Sheetes.
Aemil. Come, come: you talke
Othello |
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 Country Doctor by Honore de Balzac: "Gentlemen," said Jacquotte, who came into the middle of the room, and
there took her stand, with her hands on her hips, "the soup is on the
table."
Invited by Benassis, who summoned each in turn so as to avoid
questions of precedence, the doctor's five guests went into the
dining-room; and after the cure, in low and quiet tones, had repeated
a Benedicite, they took their places at table. The cloth that covered
the table was of that peculiar kind of damask linen invented in the
time of Henry IV. by the brothers Graindorge, the skilful weavers, who
gave their name to the heavy fabric so well known to housekeepers. The
linen was of dazzling whiteness, and fragrant with the scent of the
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