| 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: their rods.
NUM 17:7 And Moses laid up the rods before the LORD in the tabernacle
of witness.
NUM 17:8 And it came to pass, that on the morrow Moses went into the
tabernacle of witness; and, behold, the rod of Aaron for the house of
Levi was budded, and brought forth buds, and bloomed blossoms, and
yielded almonds.
NUM 17:9 And Moses brought out all the rods from before the LORD unto
all the children of Israel: and they looked, and took every man his rod.
NUM 17:10 And the LORD said unto Moses, Bring Aaron's rod again before
the testimony, to be kept for a token against the rebels; and thou shalt
King James Bible |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Historical Lecturers and Essays by Charles Kingsley: the whole civilised world, would be long centuries of anarchy such
as the world has not seen for ages--a true Ragnarok, a twilight of
the very gods, an age such as the wise woman foretold in the old
Voluspe.
When brethren shall be
Each other's bane,
And sisters' sons rend
The ties of kin.
Hard will be that age,
An age of bad women,
An axe-age, a sword-age,
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| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Silverado Squatters by Robert Louis Stevenson: more or less broken, the powder was spread widely on the
floor. Had any of us ever seen giant powder? No, nobody
had; and instantly there grew up in my mind a shadowy belief,
verging with every moment nearer to certitude, that I had
somewhere heard somebody describe it as just such a powder as
the one around us. I have learnt since that it is a
substance not unlike tallow, and is made up in rolls for all
the world like tallow candles.
Fanny, to add to our happiness, told us a story of a
gentleman who had camped one night, like ourselves, by a
deserted mine. He was a handy, thrifty fellow, and looked
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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 The Elixir of Life by Honore de Balzac: having put him in mind of the risk he was running of being taken
for an ordinary man, a saint, a Boniface, a Pantaleone, he
interrupted the melody of love by a yell, the thousand voices of
hell joined in it. Earth blessed, Heaven banned. The church was
shaken to its ancient foundations.
Te Deum laudamus! cried the many voices.
"Go to the devil, brute beasts that you are! Dios! Dios! Garajos
demonios! Idiots! What fools you are with your dotard God!" and a
torrent of imprecations poured forth like a stream of red-hot
lava from the mouth of Vesuvius.
"Deus Sabaoth! . . . Sabaoth!" cried the believers.
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