Today's Stichomancy for Rebecca Gayheart

The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Oscar Wilde Miscellaneous by Oscar Wilde:

As is the wont of women.

GUIDO. Your gracious lady, Whose beauty is a lamp that pales the stars And robs Diana's quiver of her beams Has welcomed me with such sweet courtesies That if it be her pleasure, and your own, I will come often to your simple house. And when your business bids you walk abroad I will sit here and charm her loneliness Lest she might sorrow for you overmuch. What say you, good Simone?

The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from New Arabian Nights by Robert Louis Stevenson:

of the last cream tarts be my example."

So saying, the Prince drew out his purse and took from it a small bundle of bank-notes.

"You see, I was a week or so behind you, but I mean to catch you up and come neck and neck into the winning-post," he continued. "This," laying one of the notes upon the table, "will suffice for the bill. As for the rest - "

He tossed them into the fire, and they went up the chimney in a single blaze.

The young man tried to catch his arm, but as the table was between them his interference came too late.

The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Tanach:

2_Kings 13: 23 But the LORD was gracious unto them, and had compassion on them, and had respect unto them, because of His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and would not destroy them, neither hath He cast them from His presence until now.

2_Kings 13: 24 And Hazael king of Aram died; and Ben-hadad his son reigned in his stead.

2_Kings 13: 25 And Jehoash the son of Jehoahaz took again out of the hand of Ben-hadad the son of Hazael the cities which he had taken out of the hand of Jehoahaz his father by war. Three times did Joash smite him, and recovered the cities of Israel.

2_Kings 14: 1 In the second year of Joash son of Joahaz king of Israel began Amaziah the son of Joash king of Judah to reign.

2_Kings 14: 2 He was twenty and five years old when he began to reign; and he reigned twenty and nine years in Jerusalem; and his mother's name was Jehoaddan of Jerusalem.

2_Kings 14: 3 And he did that which was right in the eyes of the LORD, yet not like David his father; he did according to all that Joash his father had done.

2_Kings 14: 4 Howbeit the high places were not taken away; the people still sacrificed and offered in the high places.

2_Kings 14: 5 And it came to pass, as soon as the kingdom was established in his hand, that he slew his servants who had slain the king his father;

2_Kings 14: 6 but the children of the murderers he put not to death; according to that which is written in the book of the law of Moses, as the LORD commanded saying: 'The fathers shall not be put t

The Tanach

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 Lamentable Tragedy of Locrine and Mucedorus by William Shakespeare:

Lo, here the gift of fell ambition, Of usurpation and of treachery! Lo, here the harms that wait upon all those That do intrude themselves in other's lands, Which are not under their dominion.

[Exit.]

ACT IV. SCENE III. A chamber in the Royal Palace.

[Enter Locrine alone.]

LOCRINE. Seven years hath aged Corineius lived, To Locrine's grief, and fair Estrild's woe,