| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Rig Veda: Visnu
strode
Through the seven regions of the earth!
17 Through all this world strode Visnu; thrice his foot he
planted,
and the whole
Was gathered in his footstep's dust.
18 Visnu, the Guardian, he whom none deceiveth, made three
steps;
thenceforth
Establishing his high decrees.
The Rig Veda |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Travels with a Donkey in the Cevenne by Robert Louis Stevenson: changed hands with much vivacity; perhaps it would be more
descriptive to say that we threw it at each other's heads; and, at
any rate, we were very warm and unfriendly, and spoke with a deal
of freedom.
I had a common donkey pack-saddle - a BARDE, as they call it -
fitted upon Modestine; and once more loaded her with my effects.
The doubled sack, my pilot-coat (for it was warm, and I was to walk
in my waistcoat), a great bar of black bread, and an open basket
containing the white bread, the mutton, and the bottles, were all
corded together in a very elaborate system of knots, and I looked
on the result with fatuous content. In such a monstrous deck-
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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 Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia by Samuel Johnson: now to think my danger less, for I knew that no sum would be
thought too great for the release of Pekuah. I told him that he
should have no reason to charge me with ingratitude if I was used
with kindness, and that any ransom which could be expected for a
maid of common rank would be paid, but that he must not persist to
rate me as a princess. He said he would consider what he should
demand, and then, smiling, bowed and retired.
"Soon after the women came about me, each contending to be more
officious than the other, and my maids themselves were served with
reverence. We travelled onward by short journeys. On the fourth
day the chief told me that my ransom must be two hundred ounces of
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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 To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf: the room, and James screamed if she touched it.
Then Cam must go to sleep (it had great horns said Cam)--must go to
sleep and dream of lovely bed by her side. She could see the horns,
Cam said, all over the room. It was true. Wherever they put the light
(and James could not sleep without a light) there was always a shadow
somewhere.
"But think, Cam, it's only an old pig," said Mrs Ramsay, "a nice black
pig like the pigs at the farm." But Cam thought it was a horrid thing,
branching at her all over the room.
"Well then," said Mrs Ramsay, "we will cover it up," and they all
watched her go to the chest of drawers, and open the little drawers
To the Lighthouse |
