| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Pagan and Christian Creeds by Edward Carpenter: and the return of the Cosmic life. Man has never been so
completely submerged in the bitter sea of self-centredness but
what he has occasionally been able to dash the spray from
his eyes and glimpse the sun and the glorious light of
heaven. From how far back we cannot say, but from an
immense antiquity come the beautiful myths which indicate
this.
Cinderella, the cinder-maiden, sits unbeknown in her earthly.
hutch;
Gibed and jeered at she bewails her lonely fate;
Nevertheless youngest-born she surpasses her sisters and endues
Pagan and Christian Creeds |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Tales of the Klondyke by Jack London: "You know I was prospecting over on the head-reaches of the
Tanana," Harrington protested, "and knew nothing of the Eldorado
or Bonanza until it was too late."
"That is deeferent; only you are--what you call way off."
"What?"
"Way off. In the--yes--in the dark. It is nevaire too late. One
vaire rich mine is there, on the creek which is Eldorado. The
mans drive the stake and him go 'way. No odddr mans know what of
him become. The mans, him which drive the stake, is nevaire no
more. Sixty days no mans on that claim file the papaire. Then
odder mans, plentee odder mans--what you call--jump that claim.
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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 Bunner Sisters by Edith Wharton: had departed the old lady, who was evidently as intolerant of
interruption as a professional story-teller, insisted on returning
to the beginning of her complicated order, and weighing anew, with
an anxious appeal to the butcher's arbitration, the relative
advantages of pork and liver. But even her hesitations, and the
intrusion on them of two or three other customers, were of no
avail, for Mr. Ramy was not among those who entered the shop; and
at last Ann Eliza, ashamed of staying longer, reluctantly claimed
her steak, and walked home through the thickening snow.
Even to her simple judgment the vanity of her hopes was plain,
and in the clear light that disappointment turns upon our actions
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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 Dream Life and Real Life by Olive Schreiner: room.
"Oh, this is my little home!" she said.
At the top and all round it was closed, only in the front it was open.
There was a beautiful shelf in the wall for the kippersol, and she
scrambled down again. She brought a great bunch of prickly pear, and stuck
it in a crevice before the door, and hung wild asparagus over it, till it
looked as though it grew there. No one could see that there was a room
there, for she left only a tiny opening, and hung a branch of feathery
asparagus over it. Then she crept in to see how it looked. There was a
glorious soft green light. Then she went out and picked some of those
purple little ground flowers--you know them--those that keep their faces
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